Welcome back to the annual Selecting Xth Edition article, by yours truly and Ted Knutson. You might remember a couple of years ago when Ted was wrong about everything and I trounced him with my superior logic. Well, we have even better treats in store for you, the reader, this year!
This week’s debate centers around Hurricane and Earthquake. But don’t take my word for it! Those thieving bastards Our friends at MagicTheGathering.com have started their own Selecting 10th Edition debate! From their Selecting 10th page:
Often the most hotly debated part of these promotions, in each of these votes you’ll get to choose which card makes it into Tenth Edition. This time around we’re stealing someone else’s gig throwing in a new twist: MTG.com Editor Ted Knutson R&D members Aaron Forsythe and MTG.com writer Ben Bleiweiss Matt Place will weigh in on each of these votes, letting you know why they think their particular card is best for the set. Once you’re done reading their recommendations, it’s you that gets the development call to say which card sees print next year. So, even if you screw up and pick Ted’s choice personally don’t expect to use the card or cards in question, you get to put on your R&D hat and stuff the voting box, so to speak decide whether others should get the chance, and what’s best for the Core Set in your own opinion. These votes have sent the message boards into a frenzy in the past as players argued their cases and cheered or railed at the results, and we don’t expect this one to be any different. No matter what kind of player you are, this summer is going to have some votes we’re sure will raise eyebrows such as Viashino Sandstalker versus Viashino Cutthroat.”
And this is what I, Ben Bleiweiss Matt Place had to say about Hurricane in his article:
Wow. This is a daunting task. I have to argue against Ted Knutson Aaron Forsythe why Hurricane is better for 10th Edition than Earthquake. I won’t lie, I am a little intimidated by Ben Bleiweiss‘s bat of intellectual-theft vengeance. I have been getting Ted Aaron his booze and hookers coffee and handy wipes for nearly three years now, so this is quite the “step up” for me. Well, here it goes!
Red has had many different X spells that deal damage and while some are powerful and used in Standard, Red certainly isn’t in need of another one. Green on the other hand has very few ways of dealing direct damage to the opponent, especially since White, Blue, Red and Black get better creatures. Combo and control decks hardly fear tapping out against Green because we’ve made sure that Green has no good cards in Standard they don’t expect anything like Fireball, Ball Lightning, or Persecute coming from a Green deck. But if we printed a Hurricane variant that was uncounterable Hurricane is around they would always have to worry that Green’s Blue-enhancing mana acceleration could at any time power a large direct damage spell and finish them off.
As a level-three developer with ten feat points in Timmy I have to answer the question “Is this something Green should have?” Direct damage is not in Green’s color pie because of me and my fellow R&D members, so how is Hurricane justified? I personally designed love to see cards that stretch the boundaries of fair play the color pie and are Skullclamp and Umezawa’s Jitte top down. By “top down” I mean that they have such good color flavor that they justify their mechanic like the Blue Meloku making flying token creatures. Form of the Dragon is a great example of an enchantment a top down card.
To sum up, I will sabotage my own argument Earthquake does fit the color pie better than Hurricane, but Hurricane is too good for Green a great top down card. Hurricane does not overlap with many other cards in its color like Earthquake, and Hurricane adds one good card power to Green that could be very X-alicious interesting in Standard.”
Thanks Ben Bleiweiss! Matt Place! Here’s what Ted Knutson Aaron Forsythe had to say about Earthquake:
So, they’ve decided to pit this poor Matt Place fellow against me in a series of card-versus-card arguments. Once I had Randy Buehler point out exactly which guy Matt Place was, I decided to play along. Easy pickin’s.
I’m supposed to defend Earthquake against Hurricane. Come on. When I think of Earthquake in Standard, I think of Chris Benafel’s Ponza deck that took him to within a hair’s breadth from winning US Nationals 2000, the dominance of Fires at PT Chicago 2000, and World Champion decks from Kai Budde and Jakub Slemr. When I think of Hurricane in Standard, I think of a deck Nate Heiss took to Regionals one year.
Let’s put it this way: When Richard Garfield designed Alpha, he made Earthquake a rare and Hurricane an uncommon. Perhaps he was on to something? “Have all the Hurricanes you want,” his decision implies, “but Earthquake is the Holy Grail of X spells.” Later, Hurricane was reprinted in Ice Age, again as an uncommon, and Earthquake was nowhere to be seen—guilty of being too awesome.
Hurricane is a desperate answer to an infrequent problem. Earthquake is a devastating sweeper that single-handedly crushes several decks. Sure, Hurricane lets Green do something it normally can’t, but Earthquake is the pinnacle of doing what Red does best—killing little creatures and killing little opponents.
What else is there to know? Go forth and vote I like pie. Vote for Hurricane!
Here’s a portrait of the great 10th Edition debaters in the flesh:
And, one last summation of the great Hurricane/Earthquake debate of ought-six:
It’s early morning
The sun comes out
Last night was shaking
And pretty loud
My cat is purring
And scratches my skin
So what is wrong
With another sin
The b*tch is hungry
She needs to tell
So give her inches
And feed her well
More days to come
New places to go
I’ve got to leave
It’s time for a show
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
My body is burning
It starts to shout
Desire is coming
It breaks out loud
Lust is in cages
Till storm breaks loose
Just have to make it
With someone I choose
The night is calling
I have to go
The wolf is hungry
He runs to show
He’s licking his lips
He’s ready to win
On the hunt tonight
For love at first sting
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane