A lot of Magic players seem to have an… interesting idea of what typically happens in the late game. They’ve gotten it into their heads that the late game is where Genesis comes online, and recurs things for, like forever! Where Treasure Trove draws infinity cards! And where you recur Cranial Extraction with Hana Kami to remove from game all your opponent’s win conditions!
I keep hearing suggestions dropped in conversations that somewhere after the midgame, there is this black hole of time in which nothing happens. Everyone has plenty of time to recur things, to execute infinite combos, to really do anything at all that’s incredibly mana-intensive and non-board affecting, because… well, nobody’s doing anything! It’s the late game! No threats are on the table, nobody’s topdecking anything…somehow, a rift in Magic has opened up and stopped the game from being finished until, I guess, one player starts recursing something for the win.
It’s true, folks – we’re obsessed with inevitability.
Treasure Trove in Limited? “It’s good in the late game.”
Genesis? “Real good in the late game, man. Lets you recur [Ravenous Baloth/Eternal Witness/Nezumi Bone-Reader/Whatever] over and over.”
I remember back in Kamigawa Block Constructed, people were talking about “recurring Cranial Extraction” being the key to some matchup or other involving the Gifts Ungiven deck.
Thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone, um… actually do that. (Recur Cranial Extraction several times for the win, that is.) I’ve seen them cast Gifts for the combo, then bring it back once just to remove a problem card, but then they always had to immediately deal with some large on-table threat that had been cast while they were recurring that fairly expensive (and non-board affecting) Sorcery, so they had to stop looping and start dealing with threats again. In fact, in the majority of late-game scenarios I can come up with that involve a game state degenerating to the point where someone would have time to recur Extraction over and over, all involve the opponent being either heavily manascrewed or heavily manaflooded.
I mean, think about it – if you can afford to leave your board position exactly the same for several consecutive turns while you tap nine mana for each recurred Extraction (Extraction splicing Soulless Revival on Hana Kami is 6 mana; playing and sacrificing Hana Kami to get back Extraction is another 3)… couldn’t you have just played a threat and attacked for the win in that same time period? Why bother looping Extraction and getting all cute with your win condition, when you could just use that Soulless Revival to get back Meloku or a Dragon, then swing in a couple times for the win? If your opponent’s going to leave you completely alone for, like, three full turns… mise well use that opportunity to kill him, amiright?
As for Treasure Trove, there needs to be a pretty epic lull in the action for that thing to amount to anything productive. Assuming you only get the chance to activate it once, it’ll charge you eight mana and draw you one card; in such a case, it’s kinda similar to a blank card with Cycling 8. Alternately, for twelve mana, you can have a nice Counsel of the Soratami. For sixteen, you get a Concentrate. Now sixteen mana, once it’s the “late game” and we can assume you’re up to eight lands in play, only involves tapping out for non-board affecting plays for a mere two entire turns. But those three extra cards you drew might just win you the game. So, yeah if playing nothing at all for two entire turns doesn’t get you killed, than Treasure Trove might very well win you the game. God help you if you draw this thing at any time other than a period utterly devoid of conflict, though; in many games, you’ll be lucky if you can afford the price tag of Cycling 8 without caving to on-table pressure.
But my point here isn’t that you ought to be doing something other than recurring Cranial or activating Treasure Trove when given ample time to do so… it’s that, in real games of Magic, you almost never actually have the time to do things like this. It just doesn’t happen very often that you get several turns in a row where your opponent isn’t doing anything at all. Will Treasure Trove win you games in Limited Magic? Sure it will, sometimes. Will it also sit in your hand while you die to what’s on the board because you can’t afford its astronomical card advantage fees? Yes indeed. And probably more often than the alternative.
Going back to Constructed, if your opponent is playing a control deck, and you start trying to get some recursion going that doesn’t affect the board, he’s going to drop a fatty onto the table and dare you to keep doing it. You’ll have to stop (probably after the first iteration, really) and deal with his threat.
If he’s playing an aggro deck (and even if it’s the aggro mirror), you’re probably low on life now that it’s the late game, so any topdecked creature he plays must be immediately dealt with; failing to do so will likely drop you into burn range. Again, you’ll have to stop doing your recursion tricks (…which, if it’s the aggro mirror, must be bizarre indeed) and deal with the on-table threat.
And against combo, I guess except in the specific case where you’re recurring Cranial Extraction itself, you’ll most likely finish the game more quickly by throwing down a finisher before the opponent topdecks his way into his combo, than by trying to gain some sort of longer-term advantage with recursion.
Now, all this might sound a bit strange from a guy who just got down off his soap box about the dangers of trusting generalities, but keep in mind what I’m advocating here. I’m not saying there’s no such thing as a late-game lull, or that you’re foolish to include any mana-intensive, non-board affecting strategies as part of your late game… just that you should reconsider your faith in how consistently you’ll be able to execute these strategies.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t give your deck the capability to loop Cranial Extraction. I’m not saying Genesis recursion is worthless. I’m just saying you shouldn’t plan on using these as common routes to victory without making sure the late game is actually going to play out like you think it will.
Next time you get the chance, take a closer look at where the board typically ends up in the late-game stages of a game that takes place in your target environment. You might be surprised at how much action you see.
Until tomorrow.
Richard Feldman
Team Check Minus
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