It was the eve of my 19th birthday, and I couldn’t have been more apathetic. What are birthdays, after all, but markers of time we no longer have? More practically, no presents waited on the horizon, and worse still, April 10th was in the middle of the week with schoolwork piling up and scant promise of a fun birthday. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t sad, not by any means. I mean, how can a person be sad when he’s in college, having fun, and playing the best Magic of his life?
It’s just that, well, repeated efforts to secure those last three pro points had all resulted in failure, and after a 3-2 drop from the last local PTQ with Melira Pod, I was having a hard time mentally putting Magic on the backburner for those last five weeks of the semester. Sure, I was going to get to play in Standard PTQs once school let out, and sure, I thought that with Delver in my hands, I stood a fine shot of winning a flight to Seattle, but man! Barcelona, locking up Gold Level, hanging with my friends, making memories: that’s what life is really all about.
So as I settled in Monday night for a healthy portion of physics homework, I instinctively jumped over to Facebook (tell me you haven’t done this far too much whenever an important assignment looms) just to, you know, see if I had any new notifications before diving into the homework in earnest. Lo and behold, I had a new friend request! (So popular, etc.)
But wait. This wasn’t some cute girl I had met in class. What madness was this?! It was Scott Larabee, the man who I had actually called several weeks earlier on Pascal Maynard’s urging to argue my case for some sort of recognition for our multiple high GP finishes. My highest hope, to be honest, was an invitation for me, Pascal, and Caleb without a plane ticket, but sadly, Mr. Larabee had never returned my call. As I moved to accept his friend request, a single thought suddenly shot through my head, a single "what if.." accompanied by the arrival of a monstrous flock of butterflies right in the pit of my stomach. I immediately snapped back to reality, because they would never just hand out a last minute invitation just because I asked, right?
I don’t remember how many seconds it took for Scott to message me: "Check your e-mail, Ben…" but I do remember the fifteen or so seconds it took for me to log on to my account, a smile slowly creeping across my face as it finally dawned on me what was happening.
"OH MY GOD," was all I could reply, before telling him, "Let’s see how many Facebook likes this status gets :)" and copy + pasting the whole email for the world to see.
The next two hours were a blur of congratulatory texts and Facebook messages from friends, as well as a call to my Dad where I immediately blurted out, "They gave me a last minute invite to Barcelona," before he even said "Hello." Best birthday present ever? Well, it sure exceeded my expectations for the week!
Once I had come back down to earth, I put some thought into what this decision means for everyone, coming from Wizards during a time when Organized Play is seeing its biggest upheaval in some time. I have a hard time seeing this as anything but a net positive, even with my personal biases, because it shows Wizards’ commitment to immediately correct what some would call a hole in the recent qualification system. This has been discussed ad nauseam before, but the fact that there is no longer a way to qualify oneself through consistent high-level play is a significant flaw in an otherwise improved PT qualification system.
This quick fix solved the problem for a select five players, but I agree with others that a more explicit set of rules for how much a player must achieve without Top 4ing a GP or winning a PTQ or making Top 25 of the previous PT in order to qualify. Perhaps a GP Top 8 qualifies a player without awarding airfare? However, if Wizards wants to award airfare along with these Sponsor’s Exemptions, perhaps the discretion of Wizards is a good enough metric since there are so many different ways to come close to qualifying.
Regardless, I think that the fact that Wizards took quick action to correct a flaw in their system really shows that the people making the decisions do care about the Pro Tour and do want it to be a realistic dream for a lot of people to pursue. Kudos to you!
Now onto the other miracle of recent memory. These new-fangled cascade-wannabes sure are exciting, but are they any good? First inspection would probably lead most people to say yes, they’re pretty awesome, especially that faux-Time Walk. Time Walk is awesome, so this one must be awesome too, right? A bit more thought about what makes Time Walk good would lead one to realize that in fact, no, this card is not quite Time Walk.
Just for show, here’s a quick list of the reasons Time Walk is good:
- You get to set up your hand and your sequence of plays to maximize it.
- See #1.
If you just need an Explore on turn 2, Time Walk has you covered. The problem is that Temporal Mastery doesn’t have this functionality at all! If you draw it on turn 2 or anytime earlier you’ve just drawn a blank, and that’s when the Explore functionality of Time Walk is sometimes needed. So we don’t have that option.
Let’s say you’ve got a nice looking Time Walk in your hand, and it’s turn 6. You’ve been playing the game aggressively, racing where you might otherwise trade creatures, knowing that the Time Walk will give you the extra attack step you need to win the game on the spot. Well, that’s just awesome! But what if that card is Temporal Mastery? You have no guarantee that you’re setting yourself up for a miracle or for a huge disappointment. It’s that sort of unpredictability that hurts Temporal Mastery the most.
With a deck like Delver (the likely first-choice place for an enterprising player to stuff his or her Temporal Masteries) you rely on your ability to plot out the course of a game several turns in advance, because you’ve got the tricks and the information (thanks Gitaxian Probe!) and your opponent, in all likelihood, doesn’t know what to play around. With miracle, you can’t take advantage of that ability to sculpt the turns of the game exactly how you want them. Who wants that? Not you, I hope, and certainly not me!
Of course, all of that goes out the window when Legacy is the format of choice, and I’m not even going to name the card we’ve all come to love (or hate, if you’re a hater) that turns rookie Temporal Mastery into a real winner. Still, I think that people overestimate Time Walk because we usually only see it in Vintage where it gets broken comrades to help it win games. Ari Lax had a much more realistic view of the card in his article, and I’d certainly start my brewing in Legacy off with a long look at his Bant Time Walk deck. But hold tight, because I’ve got another thing or two to say about Legacy, and a sweet Stoneblade list that I’ve cooked up especially for you, dear reader!
Back to more miracles! Now, of course a card like Thunderous Wrath is perfect for those players that like living life on the edge (hint: most red players), because it gives them just that many more opportunities to get their opponent with an uber-tilting top-deck for those damned last five points. I wouldn’t be surprised to lose to a few Thunderous Wraths in its time in Standard, and I don’t expect to be too happy when my opponent miracles it out on me. But damn, some kid’s going to feel awesome killing someone with that at his FNM.
And you know what? As much as I hate high variance, I’ve come to terms with the fact that the game needs it to stay fresh and exciting. Face it, the first time you got really excited about Magic was probably after you won a close game, and you probably only won it because variance worked out in your favor (not to insult new-player-you, but everyone was bad at first). Let the kids have their exciting games because Magic always needs new players, and new players need variance so they can have some motivational wins!
As for the card itself, Thunderous Wrath seems like a fine card for Standard, because it has a reasonable late-game cost for a red deck that drew one before it could Miracle it. That’s the key, as many others before me have stated. The card has to be playable even if you don’t see a Miracle.
One more recent development for red mages everywhere is Vexing Devil. Now I don’t know about you, but I used to love the card Browbeat. It was awesome! Drawing three for three mana is awesome, and a three-mana Lava Axe is awesome, so putting them together is double awesome! 4/3 for one is awesome, and one-mana for a one-sided Flame Rift is awesome, so putting them together is double awesome! Well, it doesn’t work that way, folks.
Though a Standard red deck might play a four-damage Lava Spike, this card is much, much worse than that. The problem is that it’s never what you want it to be. Usually, the red deck wants to put a couple of dudes on the table in the early game and get in for eight-to-twelve damage before finishing off the opponent with some burn spells. This card works exactly the other way! You cast it early as a Lava Spike that your opponent gladly accepts as he or she develops his or her board without worrying about an early creature getting in for more damage. But what if you cast it late? Your opponent, sitting at four-to-six life, looks at your 4/3 and plays a blocker or a removal spell.
Why oh why couldn’t it have been a burn spell late in the game and a creature early in the game? Because your opponent doesn’t want you to win, silly! I know the card seems awesome, and I love the skill-testing nature of the card; I’m willing to admit that I could be wrong on this, but I honestly think that the only one Vexing Devil will end up vexing is you.
Okay, one more card to talk about from Avacyn Restored and then I’ll part with my sweet Legacy list. This Cavern of Souls business sure does seem like the real deal too, doesn’t it? With this one, actually, I have to admit that I’m much more on board. It does work for Zombies and Wolf Run, both of which need the leg up against Delver.
For Wolf Run, just making your Titan uncounterable is super important, because you actually can just jam your Primeval Titan on turn 4! I’ve been a firm believer in the idea that if Wolf Run players just jammed their boom-booms and dared their Delver opponents to have the Mana Leak, they’d end up better in the long run than if they carefully played around the card. Sure, sometimes your opponent would have Leak-Snap-Leak, but when they don’t you gain an overwhelming advantage. By allowing them time to sculpt their hand, you often put yourself in a position where Vapor Snag + Snapcaster Mage (or Invisible Stalker + equipment) will be enough to beat you. This new land makes that all moot, and I really think that it gives Wolf Run the tool it needs to be really good once more.
The card is less awesome in Zombies, for sure, because Delver’s game plan against Zombies is more in the Celestial Purge line than the Mana Leak line, but it still is nice to toss out a Geralf’s Messenger on turn 3 with impunity. It also functions as a dual land for Diregraf Captain, so there’s that too. I’m never gonna give you up, Delver, but you’ve got another wrench in the works to deal with now that more decks can ignore your Mana Leaks.
Alright, here’s the list I’ve been itching to post for you guys since I started writing this article:
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (21)
Spells (29)
Hey, Force of Will! Watch this!
Seriously bro, you and I had some great times together, but you’re just not able to get the job done against Maverick, RUG Tempo, or the mirror match.
Instead, we get this sweet package of Cabal Therapy, Lingering Souls, and Intuition, which is just so much value! For more about Cabal Therapy and all of its awesomeness, read Mike Flores‘ recent article about the card. I did, and it got me excited to cast it competitively for the first time. You give up some game against combo decks with this brew, sure, but you gain so much against Maverick and RUG Tempo.
Engineered Explosives is a beautiful answer to Nimble Mongoose and Mother of Runes, and you get Academy Ruins to recur Jitte for the mirror match. I’ve also taken the liberty of adding a 24th land, which I think is great because, well, lands are great! You get to play Wasteland + Crucible now, which adds another layer of attack against those pokey Punishing Maverick decks. Try it; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
(One last note: if you can’t quit Force of Will, try playing it in sideboard slots over some number of Spell Pierce and/or Thoughtseize. It might still be necessary, but I just wanted to show off this list to make a point. Force sucks!)
With that, I bid you all an awesome week and best of luck in flipping those miracles in the near future!