Happy New Year! This year’s Christmas is done, gone, seeya, later, adios, vamoose. Hopefully, dear readers, you found complete sets of playable dual lands in your baske…er, stockings. As 2005 dwindles, people are starting to look to the future, make resolutions, and try and plot a course for the next twelve months of their life. In Magic, we’re navigating towards the sweet shores of Guildpact, and it’s oh-so-tempting to focus only on what’s coming up in the near future rather than the far.
When I was writing my Christmas story, I mentioned that I had unsuccessfully tried to create a Red/Green deck for the holiday. I did a lot of testing and searching, and kept muttering “I wish…” and “Why can’t…” and “Where is…” every time I scanned the card database. Rather than split the article’s focus between the light holiday fiction and my Magic musings, I simply wrote two articles. A lot of people like to make predictions around this time of year, so adding another one to the pile isn’t going to contribute much. However, I definitely have some hopes and dreams for the upcoming expansion that might prompt some thought–or some chuckles. We’ll see.
I wanted to think about both short-term and long-term desires. Izzet, Gruul, and Orzhov previews will blossom soon, and I can’t wait to see them. They’re poised to enter our lexicon and shift the environment drastically. Soon, we’ll have more than W/R, G/B, U/B, and W/G. We’ll get W/B, U/R, and R/G. I’ve commented on the existing skew previously. Not only will Guildpact’s arrival hopefully de-stratify Standard a bit, but also it provides some potentially strong tri-color builds. Right now, we have two tri-color combinations (W/R/G and G/B/U) that have two complete guilds.
Once Guildpact comes out, that changes drastically. The floodgates will open. The strongest two combinations, possessing three complete guilds, are arguably W/R/G and W/G/B. The weakest, possessing only one complete guild (with two of its components appearing in Dissension), is W/G/U. There are 7 two-guild triads in between, meaning that 9 of the possible 10 tri-colors have at least two Ravnica block guilds accessible to them.
From two to nine with one expansion? That’s pretty nice. There’s only one concern, which I’ll visit later. For now, suffice it to say that if the cards in Guildpact are equitable to the cards in Ravnica, we’re going to have a lot of deckbuilding leeway when February rolls around. Beyond that, Azorius, Rakdos, and Simic are just up ahead in May. Afterwards? At this point, I have no idea what Snap, Crackle, and Pop consist of, but I know what I can hope for. That’s what this article is about. Wishes and hopes, and yes, fears and concerns. Some may seem peculiar, or even outlandish, though I try to remain sensible. If I’m lucky, half of them will be granted. Welcome to my 2006 Wish List. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Wish #1: A new hard counterspell.
Countermagic, where are you?
I miss Counterspell. I said that a few weeks ago, and maybe I didn’t bludgeon you with subtlety enough. I miss Counterspell. That’s not all, though. I miss Absorb, and Undermine. I even miss Dromar’s Charm. Sure. I miss anything that doesn’t have a caveat attached to it. Hinder is excellent for the environment; there’s definitely a place for that sort of intricate spell. Prohibit? Exclude? You had your places, too. But, you know, sometimes, you just need something hard. You don’t want a turn 25 Mana Leak, do you? Okay, maybe you do, but only because it’s some sort of counter. Inside, you kinda groan. Wouldn’t you feel better if it was a Counterspell, a hand-to-the-face, lead-pipe-to-the-knee kind of late-game insurance?
I would.
These days, permission is still permission, but it plays differently. I find I have to think a bit more with contemporary counters, which isn’t a bad thing. When your counters are less than optimal, you have to make more judgment calls. Each is more precious a resource because it can’t apply across the board. I welcome that challenge, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t earned a nice hard counter that doesn’t cost 4+ mana, right?
I can’t help but compare Ravnica Block to Invasion Block, since post-Invasion is roughly when I stopped playing. In Invasion Block, White and Black blended with Blue to give us my two favorite counters of all time: Absorb, and Undermine. Mystic Snake and Suffocating Blast were intriguing and useless, respectively, and I remember releasing a woe-is-me sigh when I realized the Red counterspell was going to be so horribly situational. Mystic Snake had good surprise value, but typically just bought you a turn of blocking, since four-mana 2/2’s are rarely a strong deterrent or attacker.
I’m tired of my counterspells having drawbacks to them instead of benefits. All of you aggro peeps out there, I hope you appreciate your creatures. Imagine if every one of them had something situational attached to them. Summon your Watchwolf only if your opponent is playing Blue! No thanks. I’m not hateful towards creatures, not at all. I’m just looking for some love in return.
We’ve had the Dimir guild revealed to us, and Perplex wasn’t anything special. I won’t say Perplex is useless, as it isn’t, really. On some turn 3’s, it’s very effective. However, it’s about as situationally useful as Suffocating Blast, which is to say that while I might try and find a use for either of them, they’re not going to make the cut in anything competitive because they have blind spots, and blind spots are bad in counterspell decks.
By “blind spots”, I mean decks against which your countermagic is subpar or useless. For example, take the spell Gainsay. It was a great sideboard card against other counter decks, but not maindeck worthy. Its blind spot is anything that isn’t Blue, which is the vast majority of aggro decks. That’s bad. Suffocating Blast has a blind spot against control decks and low creature decks; it’s great in theory as backup removal, but its success is predicated on the thought that something is going to get through against you and that the person isn’t going to be able to ride it to victory without casting another creature spell. Ok, that’s great, but why not just use a burn, bounce, or other counter instead? You control when to cast those, but you don’t control when you can cast Suffocating Blast. It’s reliant upon board conditions rather than your will. I’m sorry, but if someone casts a spell, I want to say yes or no, not “Well, I’d love to, if only there were a creature in play.”
Perplex is horrible against popular mechanics like Dredge or Threshold or Flashback. Both of the latter two look like card advantage, and indeed, they are. Let something through, Blast, and you’ve taken out two for the price of one. Perplex is automatically one for one, and sometimes one for two to seven. Isn’t card advantage good? Isn’t it powerful? Isn’t it something writers write about with stars in their eyes when new sets come out?
Yes, it’s good, but Hex is card advantage, too. You don’t play it, either.
Right now, the counters I use are Mana Leak, Hinder, Remand, Rewind, and Disrupting Shoal. They get the job done, but just one simple three-mana or less hard counter isn’t too much to ask for. Give me my lead pipe, dammit.
Since Perplex wasn’t anything great, I have a suspicion that the White/Blue counterspell isn’t going to be lights-out either. I’m thinking that perhaps this time they’re going to make the Red/Blue and Green/Blue counters the ones to beat. I’d like to see that. Would a counterspell attached to a Shock be anything overpowered? I don’t think so.
Payback
UUR
Counter target spell. Payback deals two damage to target creature or player.
See, Wizards, all you need to do is give us the option, rather than the condition. [Actually, that spell would be insane. – Knut, pretty sure on this one]
Mixing a counter with Green is more difficult. Mystic Snake had the right idea; I just think it was too expensive. Let’s stick with creature generation, since it’s hard to tie any other Green effect. Lifegain? A Naturalize effect? Nah. A counterspell that created 1/1 Saprolings equal to the converted mana cost of the spell it countered would probably be too much. But what if the creatures created were defensive?
Wood Chips
UUG
Counter target spell. Put X 0/1 Dryad tokens into play, where X is equal to the converted mana cost of the spell.
Just a thought. To be honest, they could leave off the special bits and extra colors and just be “Counter target spell” and I’d be happy, but hey, I’m trying to innovate.
With me so far? Great. Honestly, I’d rather have Counterspell in the environment than Gifts Ungiven. With me still? Ah, well. At least I had you up to that point.
Wish #2: A Red/Green aggro deck that doesn’t obsolete Red/White.
Dear Gruul,
I’m looking forward to meeting you. Please don’t overrun us. Thanks.
Dear Boros,
Please keep Gruul in line. I fear for you, but I’m hoping you can handle it. Much obliged.
I’ve always been enamored of Red/White. However, Red/White has typically been overshadowed by the faster, bigger, and beefier Red/Green decks. You can’t blame them, of course, because if two creatures run into each other at a speed of X, not only do we know that the resulting collision makes the Geico lizard cry, but that the fatter beast normally wins. I remember reading on the Wizards site that Red/White came in last during a poll on favorite color pairings pre-Ravnica. Last? Out of all ten? Man. It’s not a good sign when your favorite combination is everyone else’s least. I felt sorry for Boros.
They showed us, didn’t they? Red/White catapulted into the fray and showed it’s pretty damn good. However, we know what’s coming: Red/Green, aggro’s older brother. I’m looking forward to it. I like aggro well enough; it’s fun to smash, just not as fun to me as stopping smashers cold.
We can surmise that Red/Green will have:
- Fat, cost-effective creatures larger than Blue, White, and Black ones
- Trample
- Most likely some haste in one form or another
- Some new multicolored burn spell (though we’re not guaranteed a good one, here, based on prior experience. So, fine, let’s skip this one. Simoon was a nice little card, but I wouldn’t call it defining.)
Sounds good, right? Well, yes and no. See, what I’m afraid of is Red/Green being Boros, plus trample, haste, and fatter creatures.
But, Mr. Mason, can’t you just use Red/Green/White?
Sure you can. However, when that happens, a lot of Red/White cards are going to be sidelined indefinitely, and Red/White will become “splash for Lightning Helix.” That’s what I don’t want to see. I don’t want the Boros archetype to be reduced to splashing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the multicolored environment. However, the best pure aggro pairings – Black/Red and Green/Red – have yet to hit the table, and I just have the feeling that Boros is going to take a hit.
When they apparently decided around the time of Onslaught block that Green was going to be the new Disenchant color, there was a bit of a paradigm shift. Now, instead of only White offering the versatile spot removal for artifacts and enchantments, Green does as well. If Boros lacks acceleration and fat, and Selesnya lacks removal, then Red/Green defines the aggro environment because it has all of the above. The virtue of Boros is that White removal and protection from Red are hugely advantageous when the two decks meet up. Empty-Shrine Kannushi and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails and Paladin en-Vec might become pretty valuable. In some ways, you expect Green/White to skew itself towards Glare decks in the midgame, and Red/White to skew towards Wildfire. We’ll see. It really depends on what creatures we’re given, and how effective the Bloodthirst mechanic is in Guildpact. More on Bloodthirst below.
I don’t think my fear is unfounded, though. Boros plus trample, haste, and fat makes me nervous. I don’t want Boros’ star to fall so quickly. It’s more than just Lightning Helix.
Wish #3: Targeted White creature removal
Speaking of White removal, this one’s short and sweet.
Reciprocate and Devouring Light are useful, but remember what I was saying about blind spots? There’s one. Pop quiz: Meloku sits on the board. You have either of the two spells I listed in your hand. How do you get rid of Meloku?
Simple answer? You don’t, unless you’re holding a Wrath of God or similar sweeper. Maybe I’m just yearning for the days of Swords to Plowshares, which we’ll never see again, but I’d like White to get something that can just target a critter and kill it. I’m not looking for anything outrageous. I’m not looking for anything overpowered and cheap. Is there a way to simply balance StP? Can’t we have a nice three-mana, targeted remove-from-game effect? Make it two-colored if you have to. Maybe the Senate or the Syndicate will make me happy.
Shrivel
1BW
Remove target creature from the game. Owner loses life equal to the creature’s toughness.
Ignore
1UW
Remove target creature from the game. Draw a card.
Just gimme something besides Reciprocate and Devouring Light. See, I’ve always considered White a removal color. Some may disagree, but I consider pure creature removal to be a White/Black aspect. I want that to continue, but they’re running out of odd conditions to be met. The Red/Blue axis is something different; it’s creature destruction as a side effect of burn, and creature destruction as a side effect of countering, bounce, and control. For every Dark Banishing, there’s a Reprisal, Chastise, Retaliate, Terashi’s Verdict, Vanquish, what have you. With White and Black, removing creatures is part of the job description.
I like Faith’s Fetters, and those types of effects, but seriously, when the Gruul hits the fan, I’m afraid a four-mana enchantment isn’t going to pass muster. I could be wrong. I just anticipate the need for less conditional spot removal in White. Power is in an instant-speed response.
Out of Ideas
1WW
Destroy target non-flying attacking black creature if it has power 2 or less and is enchanted.
None of that, please. Give me real removal. Give me wipe-the-smirk-off-my-aggro-opponent’s-face removal.
My vision isn’t The Vision, but it includes balance between opposites. Red and black need white to balance them, as much as Green and White need Black’s steadying influence. Keep a level playing field, folks. When things start becoming tipped too much in one direction, we get problems.
Wish #4: Haunt not to be stupid, and Replicate not to be broken.
Speaking of White and Black, please let Haunt be useful. From what I’ve gathered, it’s an effect that sticks around on another permanent, like an enchantment. So, if you remove the permanent, the effect occurs again. Obviously, this has some application with any creature involving the word “sacrifice”, and with the right cards it could make a powerful W/G/B deck. We’ve already established it’s one of the two complete tri-color combinations.
What does white-black have? Let’s see. Lifegain. Discard. Creature removal. Protection. Resurrection. All have some possibilities. The problem is that Haunt is a form of recursion, and recursion can be powerful – sometimes too powerful. My fear is that they’ll nerf it into oblivion before it even reaches our hands, making the cards underpowered and useless. If it’s a creature, it’ll be expensive and non-durable. If it’s a sorcery, it’ll be overcosted and have little effect on the game when it needs to. If it’s an enchantment, well, then it’d be some weird double-enchantment type effect, and that’s just too weird for my mind to wrap itself around at the moment.
You get what I’m saying, though.
This goes twofold for Replicate. Seriously, folks, a built in duplication effect spells potential brokenness. Tapping things is awesome, says Mind Over Matter. Drawing cards is some good, says Skullclamp. I wasn’t around for the Storm effect, but I know Mind’s Desire and Brain Freeze are pretty nasty. What if Scattershot could target players? What if Wing Shards wasn’t just attackers?
Now, I realize that every card can’t and shouldn’t be immediately a perfect fit for a competitive Standard deck. However, I like abilities to be well represented, because I think that a myriad of effects and abilities are healthy for the game. I’m a firm believer in balance, and I hate seeing clever ideas go to waste. For every Dredge, there’s a Radiance and Convoke sitting in the corner thinking they should have showed up earlier to the Developer’s Luncheon when the good effects were given out.
Recursion and duplication create engines. I’ve talked about engines before. Think we’ll see a Radiance engine anytime soon? A Convoke engine? Even a Transmute engine? Nah. But Dredge? Yup, and that really only took one card. Haunt and Replicate could be just as powerful, or they could be just as useless. The odds are that Haunt will be the useless one, but I hope not.
So, please, make reasonable cards that we want to play with, and extend this through Dissension. I have no idea what the potential abilities are for U/W, B/R, or G/U. For some reason, I foresee one being a morph-like mechanic, and another something sacrificial. Right now, I just care that they’re balanced. No more Radiance, please.
Now’s about the time when someone will pop up with their qualifying Radiance deck just to make me look bad. Please do. The mechanic’s usefulness has completely stumped me. Right now, that doesn’t hurt the aggressive Boros archetype. I briefly mentioned Bloodthirst earlier when I mentioned Red/Green hopefully not making red-white obsolete. Suffice it to say that at the worst, it’ll be Convoke. Creatures coming into play larger because I happened to damage my opponent? Heck, that’s what we do! Lavamancers around the world rejoice! At its best, when Bloodthirst comes around Radiance is going to be an anchor rather than a sail. Yay for Bloodthirst, boo for Boros.
Wish #5: Synergetic land destruction and board control
Not everyone likes land destruction. I’ve always been a fan of it, simply because resource denial is a powerful tool. Armageddon was (still is, really) one of my favorite cards. I loved the old Urza’s Block Wildfire/Artifact decks. Thran Dynamo, whoo-hoo! Pillage? Winter’s Grasp? Thermokarst? Argothian Wurm? Smokestack and Braids? Yep, I’ve used ’em all. I figure, if they can make milling a viable win condition, why not land destruction? Life from the Loam is already well situated to combat most land denial strategies. Mourn Plow Under.
My Christmas Red/Green deck wanted to be land destruction; that’s why Zo-Zu was so prominently lodged in my thoughts. Thoughts of Ruin looked potentially good. Could I find a way to utilize him and Zo-Zu in the same deck?
Nope. Thoughts of Ruin by itself isn’t a horrible card, but it needs to sit at the top of your mana curve. When I used to run Armageddon, it was the most expensive card in the deck, or tied with another 4-spot such as Wrath of God or Blastoderm. Additionally, Thoughts of Ruin has two conditions it needs fulfilled to ideally work.
One, you need to be able to ‘geddon away four lands on turn 4 or 5. Thoughts of Ruin for one is worthless. For two, and it’s a double Stone Rain which is moderately helpful. However, without follow-up to land destruction, Stone Rain is fairly inconsequential. Yes, even if there’s two of them. Land destruction needs to consistently deny resources. Denying a couple, then relinquishing the pressure, accomplishes very little.
Two, you need to find a way to not only have cards in your hand to meet condition one, but also to generate some sort of early threat that makes casting Ruin advantageous.
Unfortunately, those two exigencies contradict. If you’re going the aggressive route and attempting to drop early threats, clear the board, and kill your opponent before he can regroup, then typically you’re going to be proactively lessening the effect of Ruin. You generally have seen ten cards by turn 4 if you play instead of draw. Assuming four have been played land and one is Thoughts of Ruin, you have five cards in the “other” category to do something with.
What’s your threat in those five cards? Chances are you can drop one creature, such as, oh, Adamaro, First to Desire. That leaves you four cards for the resolution of Ruin. Well, if your opponent is playing Green, which many decks are, you need to be able to kill their mana critters, or you’ll be screwing yourself by casting Ruin due to their superior recovery point. Not only can they replenish their threats faster, but also they can throw cheap creatures in front of Adamaro. Therefore, you need burn, which you will cast to eliminate those creatures. Whether it’s Shock or Pyroclasm, it means you’ll have fewer cards in hand. Everything you cast to make sure you possess or maintain an advantage eliminates some of that advantage.
That’s the Thoughts of Ruin dilemma. If you utilize spells to help you recover post-Ruin, such as a Signet, you’re casting stuff that isn’t a threat and reduces the Ruin. If you utilize early creatures, likewise. If you try and use something like Pyroclasm, then you can’t use your own mana accelerants in a green/red build, and you certainly can’t use Zo-Zu.
Ankh if you miss Mishra.
Pun intended.
Zo-Zu’s such an odd fellow. He wants to work with land destruction, yet he competes with the three-slot for Stone Rain and necessary follow-up spells. Also, Pyroclasm kills him. Methinks Wizards did that on purpose. At 3/3, though, he’d be a lot more useful. Honest. He’d almost be dangerous, then.
Armageddon wasn’t like that. It could be used in an aggressive build with lots of cheap creatures, and it could be used in a control build with lots of board sweepers. Three turns of dropping white weenies, then boom, ‘geddon. Drop another land, another one-mana weenie, and you’re a happy player. Even if they have their mana creatures out, you’re swinging into them with multiples of your own. It’s a much more advantageous position. See the difference between it and Ruin? It’s generation of pressure, then elimination of their ability to respond. It’s not merely land destruction for the sake of land destruction.
Thoughts of Ruin needs a deck, and I can’t find it yet. It may be one of those cards destined to be banished to the Isle of Mighthavebeen. The most curious thing I came up with was a Red/White build with Thoughts, Glorious Anthem, Gift of Estates, and a lot of creatures. Maybe Ruin will fit in some R/W/U deck utilizing cantrips and backup bounce. We’ll see. Regardless, right now, Wildfire is strictly a superior option to build a deck around. Nowadays a lot of decks seem to require a lot of pieces to do what they want, and Wildfire knocks ’em out. It’s land destruction with a built in sweeper, and with Signets and two-mana lands, it’s very much doable. I’ve been playing red-white, but once Gruul shows up, a Red/Green Wildfire deck is in the mix. The only problem is that when we have 14 sets of dual lands after Guildpact comes out, it’s going to be harder to pin down a person’s mana supply.
Know what worked great with Armageddon? Earthquake and Hurricane. Remember them? I do. Right now, our options for board control seem very limited. Wrath of God, Wildfire, Pyroclasm, Final Judgment, Flame Wave, Razia’s Purification, and the like. These all have their uses, but many are awkward to use. Ryusei, the Falling Star is the perfect example. He seems useful at first glance. Despite that, I’ve yet to fit him in a deck. I’ll have to revisit him when Izzet becomes viable.
We have Gale Force and Needle Storm for flyers, but while ground-based creatures find their way into almost every aggressive deck, we know that flyers do not. Now, I can grasp that they thought Hurricane was out of flavor for green as a finisher, perhaps. Still, I miss the custom-built board control that used to be an auto-include in my decks.
I’ll admit that it’s good to shake things up and remove these cards from our decklists, but that doesn’t make me desire them less. Removing basic staples fosters an innovative environment, but it also means a lot of dead cards. It likewise reduces the amount of control a person has over their deck. It’s a bit of randomness that I dislike. No Earthquake, but we have Ryusei! Bleh. When you can control the effect of your creatures, or it produces a desired result, your life is good. When it has the potential to bite you in the rear, most people simply opt to not use it. Most people build decks attempting to eliminate randomness, not generate it.
Wish #6: A secondary color of mana development
Last on my list! Remember when I said, “That’s pretty nice. There’s only one concern, which I’ll revisit below”?
The one problem with our glorious multicolored environment is that as you add more colors, you become more dependent on mana fixing. The ability to stabilize your manabase early and accelerate into your win condition is a hallmark of green decks. Unfortunately, this provides an even greater advantage to tri-color builds involving green. Tired of Sakura-Tribe Elder yet? Thought so, but at least perhaps you’ll start seeing Farseek a bit more in the near future instead.
Hence my concerns about GRW, GBW, GBU, GBR, GWU, and GRU compared to BUR, WRU, WRB, and BUW. We already see a lot of Green. Is mana fixing going to become as important as land itself? That’s probably overstating things a bit, but it raises a valid point, which I’ve harped on in the past: Why is there only one color of mana development?
At one point in time, Black positioned itself to be the secondary color of mana development. Dark Ritual wound up in the Land of Misfit Cards because the cards it powered out were hampering the environment. What I wanted then – and what I still want now – is Black to regain some of that capability, and to balance out Green’s advantage. Gift of Estates doesn’t qualify as “off color mana fixing”, either, though it’s a nice card. I’m looking for something that will make the four non-Green categories above combat the growing Green dependency.
Sighing Imp
B
Pay 1 life: Add B to your mana pool. Use this ability only once a turn.
That’s easy enough. Elves of Deep Shadow is an insult. C’mon, Wizards, divorce yourself from the Green for a bit. It’s not like we want Dark Ritual back. Though, really, that might be fun.
Forced Bounty
1B
Sacrifice a land: Search your library for a Swamp card and put that card into play. Then shuffle your library.
This is somewhat related to Wish #2. I don’t want 3-colored decks not involving Green to be obsolete because they can’t establish their mana base before being trampled. This isn’t me smoking crack. The power level in these cards is different than Invasion block. There’s a plan here, and a much more coherent structure to the set. I just hope it includes a secondary color of development. When they decided to make the new lands searchable by giving them the card types like “Plains Mountain” and “Swamp Forest”, Green laughed.
There are few abilities that I can think of, off the top of my head, that are so severely color-restricted, where other colors have only a very minor ability to generate the same result. Bounce for Blue, remove-from-game effects for White, mana establishment for Green, haste for Red, and trading life (for effects) for Black. Think of any more offhand that I’m missing? Arguably, Green gets some bounce (Plow Under and friends), Black gets some RFG effects (from the graveyard), and Black also has a few haste creatures scampering around. So, we can share the colors of damage, lifegain, resurrection, targeted removal, damage prevention, card drawing, tutoring, land destruction, unblockability, creature strengthening and weakening, but not mana development. C’mon, throw me a bone, Wizards. Remember, I don’t even like Black.
Voila. That’s it, we’re done! Those are my six wishes for ’06. As you can see, a lot of them tie together. Magic is a game of interwoven design and potential, which is one of the qualities I love about it. Time to eagerly await Guildpact previews. I’m hoping the expansion – and the game – will be good to us all. Best wishes on a prosperous year, and thanks for your continued support.
-Mason
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