You Lika The Juice? - Reasons to Love Planar Chaos

Every time a set comes out, I get excited. I once answered an interview question asking what my all-time favorite set was, and the only honest answer I could give was “the most recent one.” I love thinking about the new cards and how they interact with what has come before. It’s probably why I’ve been playing this game thirteen years straight, and loving every minute.

When the prerelease hits and everyone gets to see the full spoilers, I eagerly check around and see what cards people are chattering about, compare ideas, and stumble across new ones; all that fun happy new set chaos as millions of Magic fans around the world weigh in with their thoughts.

Then I run across the Eeyores – “This new set sucks.” “It’s bad for Magic.” “I hate these new cards.” My mind reads these digital words and translates the voice into Winnie the Pooh’s sadsack friend, and the glass is always half empty. "After all, what are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow."

It flips me out.

Come on, give the set a chance!

The Eeyore that sticks in my craw the most recently is StarCityGames.com own Jeroen Remie. “Do I think Planar Chaos is a good set? No, I do not.” Does the man ever love a new set? I have a theory that many pros dislike new sets because new sets by design upend the status quo and sets things in turmoil. Pros like consistency, they like knowing what to expect, they like experience, so it makes sense that a new set hitting the card pool can be a huge annoyance to some. For those who spend a lot of time and energy being competitive at Magic, I imagine having to go back and redo much of that effort must be wearisome. No wonder so many of them bolt for poker—aces, kings, queens, jacks, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, it’s always the same “card pool.”

I don’t mean this to be hatin’ Mr. Remie, he obviously still has a lot of love for the game, and I suspect the set will grow on him. In the meantime, though, don’t let the naysayers get you down on the set – after all, Planar Chaos is my very most favorite set of all time! So in my humble opinion, here are the reasons you should love Planar Chaos as much as I do:

Green Card-Drawing
Okay, when I cracked open my very first Magic pack, the rare inside was Force of Nature, so I’ve been a Green mage from the beginning. I suffered alongside Jamie Wakefield when Green was the sad underdog of tournament Magic. Green has come a long ways since those dog days, but never in a million years would I have ever thought I’d see Harmonize, Magus of the Library, and Keen Sense. Harmonize in particular is just mind-boggling—four mana, draw three cards. Clean, no condition, not tied to a creature. I haven’t even started including it into any post-Planar Chaos builds yet – it’s almost too alien to figure out a place for it… and that’s what makes this set cool.

Untethering Wrath of God from White
I keep hearing the argument that giving Black Wrath of God pretty well removes a huge reason people even play White. The theory goes that, outside of aggro weenie strategies, there’s now no reason to play White since the support cards after Wrath pale in comparison to what Black has at its disposal. Maybe that’s true… but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. What if this opens up some design space for White to stretch its legs beyond being the “weenie” color or the “Wrath” color? Giving Black-based decks the option of being strong control decks could also help combat combo decks where traditional Blue/White control might stumble. Psychatog fans are already drooling about the possibilities in Extended. It’s hard to really understand the impact of making Wrath of God less unique… and that also makes Planar Chaos really cool.

Slivers!
I’ve always been a sucker for creatures with really neat special abilities, and no creatures have had more cool special abilities than Slivers. The original Slivers from the Tempest era were efficient little buggers, but the new batch that cropped up in Legions were pricey and much less exciting. Time Spiral brought us Slivers closer in cost and abilities to the originals, but Planar Chaos really pushes them big time. Sinew, Cautery, Darkheart, Frenetic, and Necrotic all show aggressive costing that could easily see play in tournament decks. Giving Slivers back their mojo makes Planar Chaos really cool.

Discovering New Cards
The most exciting thing about new Magic sets is discovering new cards. Since Planar Chaos has so many functional reprints, doesn’t that by definition make it much less exciting than a normal set? Not necessarily – the new coats of paint on old cards bring new possibilities. While Force Spike and Funeral Charm might not necessarily be all that exciting, when they shift into Mana Tithe and Piracy Charm you suddenly have some exciting things going on, colors getting effects they’ve never had before. Sindbad had nice interaction with Dredge and yet it’s not nearly as exciting as Fa’adiyah Seer simply because the Seer is in the right colors.

There are also the totally new cards, like Reality Acid – I’ve seen people mention combining it with Dream Stalker, and you can also work it with Auratog, Drake Familiar, and Cloudstone Curio. Volcano Hellion is another card people are excited to try – is it a fixed Flametongue Kavu that’s still really good, or is it just fair to middling unless you’ve got a Stuffy Doll in play? Just how good is Torchling going to be, especially teaming up with Radha, Heir to Keld? Will somebody break Null Profusion or Wild Pair wide open? Solving these mysteries by actually playing some of these cards is going to be eye-opening, and that’s why Planar Chaos is so cool.

Re-evaluating Old Cards
What’s really fun is to look at the new set with an eye toward older cards that may have been waiting dormant, just sitting quietly, and quivering with unrealized possibility. For instance, with the new red Arrogant Wurm in the mix, suddenly Rix Maadi looks interesting after the crop of Madness spells in Time Spiral. I remember my opponent’s Cytoplast Manipulator in his sideboard crushed my dreams and my Graft deck at Regionals last year; does Fungal Behemoth suddenly make Graft – with maindeck Manipulators – something worth revisiting? Not that I need another reason to love Saffi Eriksdotter, but she sure pairs up nicely with Teneb, the Harvester, doesn’t she? Will Summer Bloom get some love from Magus of the Library and Scryb Ranger shenanigans? I have an excellent book on screenwriting that talks about getting to a particular place in the plot that suddenly forces you to mentally go back and look at all of what’s gone on before and look at it in a totally different light (the classic example being the big reveal towards the end of The Sixth Sense); Planar Chaos, as with any new set, brings that same feeling, and that’s why it’s cool.

So why do you love Planar Chaos? Let me know in the forums!

Two-Headed Giant, Part 2
Last week I tossed out a sample 2HG card pool to take a look at, and in the forums we touched a little bit on “the Sliver gambit.” I had pretty well decided that Slivers was probably not worth running, since the risk of one of your opponent’s randomly running a Sliver that happens to be bigger than yours is high, and all of a sudden you’ve given them a monster. Of course, if that’s conventional wisdom, then running Slivers might be a strong move given the right card pool. Lo and behold, when I generated a new sample card pool to kick back and forth with my other giant head Jay, check out the Slivers! We can run thirteen Slivers across four colors; it seems to me that building up the cross-head Sliver synergy – especially the quality Slivers we have here—could lead to the sort of inevitability that you need to break through in 2HG.

2HG Limited Champs Test Cardpool 2

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 02-18-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (55)

Lands (1)

1 Molten Slagheap

I was incredibly sad on a personal level to leave Green in the dust – especially since Weatherseed Totem has got to be an amazing stall-breaker – but going the Sliver route demanded Green get left in the dust. Here are the two decks I cooked up from this card pool:

Black/White
2 Necrotic Sliver
Sinew Sliver
Poultice Sliver
Watcher Sliver
Sidewinder Sliver
Venser’s Sliver
Valor
Cradle to the Grave
Gaze of Justice
Corpulent Corpse
Strangling Soot
Mana Skimmer
Gorgon Recluse
Urborg Syphon-Mage
Magus of the Tabernacle
Duskrider Peregrine
Gustcloak Cavalier
Curse of the Cabal
Sunlance
Clockwork Hydra
Grinning Totem
Midnight Charm
Molten Slagheap
16 Plains and Swamps

Grinning Totem seems like it would be rather nuts in 2HG, with two opponents to choose from, you should always be able to pick a head playing colors you can play. They may happen to be playing a Sliver or two themselves! Curse of the Cabal strikes me as a pretty potent spell to have pecking away at the opposing team. I’m a bit hesitant at running Magus of the Tabernacle – since you and your teammate are running creatures too, it could really gum up the works. However, it seemed to me that if the opposing team jumped out to a creature advantage early, the Magus could gum up their mana and buy your team some time. Is it worth playing it in your deck to have that option? Is there another card in Black or White that you’d run instead?

Here’s the other deck:

Red/Blue
Frenetic Sliver
Two-Headed Sliver
Bonesplitter Sliver
Synchronous Sliver
Battering Sliver
Cautery Sliver
Dreamscape Artist
Stingscourger
Fledgling Mawcor
Needlepeak Spider
Brute Force
Serendib Sorcerer
Bogardan Hellkite
Think Twice
Eternity Snare
Flowstone Channeler
Cancel
Spiketail Drakeling
Orcish Cannonade
Sulfurous Blast
Reality Acid
Fool’s Demise
Momentary Blink
2 Plains
15 Mountains and Islands

Serendib Sorcerer? Bogardan Hellkite?! Yikes! Plus mini-Wrath with Sulfurous Blast, you could set up some fat Slivers, sweep away all the small stuff, and rush in for the kill.

Fool’s Demise combos nicely with the other head’s Necrotic Sliver, by either Desert Twister-ing a permanent for eight mana with buyback each turn, or stealing something huge from your opponents.

With only Dreamscape Artist to fix mana, I’m a little hesitant about splashing White into this deck for Momentary Blink and Cautery Sliver. Momentary Blink has a few better targets in this deck with the Hellkite and Stingscourger, and Cautery Sliver seems too good to sit on the sidelines. What do you think? Worth the risk?

Here’s what my other giant head Jay had to say about the card pool and decks:

Jay: I like moving the Blink over to the other deck and adding a Plains. That way you can use your Grinning Totem to fetch an opposing Mountain to flashback Soot and not have to worry about fetching an Island. I don’t like Blink unless you can flash it back. Magus of the Tabernacle? Seems risky, but might be worth it. Since we’re running the Slivers we can do more with fewer creatures. Plus he’s a gigantical blocker.

I’m loving the Sulfurous Blast plus Watcher Sliver thing we’ve got going on here. It feels kinda like Plague Wind.

What do you think of this pool? Is the Sliver gambit worth running in this case? Would you have forgone the heavy Sliver theme and built the decks different, perhaps including Green?

See you next week!

Bennie

You Lika The Juice? – Reasons to Love Planar Chaos

Creatures (55)

Lands (1)

Spells (34)