Subject: 2nd Chance Utility Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 12:52:39 -0400 From: Bennie Smith To: Magic Dojo Second Chance Utility in Exodus Several people lately have been lamenting the coming rotation of the Mirage block out of Type 2 tournament decks. The thing that I will probably miss the most are the quality tournament cards I call Second Chance Utility. Cards like Firestorm, Maro, Empyrial Armor, Gerrard’s Wisdom. These cards follow in the footsteps of a few rarities in the past like the pitch spells from Alliances, or the awesome Ivory Tower. Namely, they let you use cards in hand for something other than what the cards actually do. For instance, you have Disenchants in your hand, but your opponant doesn’t seem to be playing any enchantments or artifacts. Dead card? Wasted draw? Not if your playing Empyrial Armor; each of those Disenchants becomes a +1/+1 bonus on the enchanted creature; same with Maro. With Firestorm, those unusable Disenchants equal greater capacity to wreak havoc on an opponant’s over-extended creature swarm. What I always really liked about second chance utility cards is that they allowed you to stock your deck with situationally useful cards that aren’t necessarily dead draws when those situations don’t arise. These make your decks flexible, strong, and able to handle different threats. The Rath Cycle seemed to be piteously devoid of these kinds of cards. Emessi Tome could possibly be a contender in an Uktabi Orangutan-less environment, but being expensive and vulnerable means it hardly measures up to the excellent Mirage Second Chance Utility. Then came Exodus, and a burst of Second Chance Utility hit the scene at the last moment. Black got the interesting Volrath’s Dungeon, a versatile card that I predict will see more use as time goes on. It allows black to pitch cards that may not be of use at the time to force your opponant into redrawing cards, netting some Time Advantage (pioneered with Forgotten Orb decks). White got the mildly useful Peace of Mind. Make no mistake, life gaining in this environment is very important, and this coupled with a card drawing engine could prove potent. But Life Advantage is one of the weaker aspects of the game. Red and Artifacts got a few substandard Second Chancers that aren’t worth mentioning. By and large Blue got the lion’s share of the excellent Second Chance Utility cards in Exodus (and by default, the entire Rath Cycle). As if blue needed any more goodies. I truly believe that Forbid is an amazingly powerful card when viewed in this light. Lots of people have been dismissing this card, due to the supposed card-disadvantage of pitching 2 cards in hand to buy it back. But let’s look at it—you use one card to counter another card, but since it replaces itself with itself, there’s no cards used. You lose two cards to buy it back, you counter your opponant’s spell, so effectively you are one card behind for the advantage of guarenteeing another counterspell in your hand. A counterspell, one of the ultimate utility spells in the game, capable of stopping just about anything being played except lands and Scragnoths. What does this mean? Well, armed with 3-4 Forbids, blue can now afford to throw in “situationally useful” spells and not have to worry about them being useless draws. Why not have 4 Force Spikes to slow down quick weenie rushes? Draw ‘em later, pitch ‘em to Forbids. Load up with 4 Man o’ Wars, and if you’re playing against creatureless, just pitch ‘em to win the counter wars. And that’s just Forbid; blue has also gotten Ephemeron, Thalokos Scout, and Mind Over Matter. None of them are as powerful as Forbid, but all of them make for great flexibility for blue; blue can now afford to complement their greatest weapon, the ultimate utility - countering - with a wide range of situationally useful cards that will almost *never* be useless draws. Even late-drawn land cards can be put to use for something other just laying another land into play. The only drawback is the little problem of keeping your hand full with cards, but has that been much of a problem for blue? There’s the obscenely powerful Whispers of the Muse, and the perennial favorite Ouphidian. Exodus brings even more card drawing options. The lack of decent Second Chance Utility cards in Rath, except for blue, will have some subtle but important effects on the metagame when Mirage leaves. I feel there will be the further erosion of “middle-path” decks, those that are neither hyper-speed aggro nor super-slow reactive decks. These two decks types have been given all the toys from the Rath Cycle, and I think it will have a chilling effect on innovative deck ideas. Everything will either have to be super-fast kill decks, featuring Hatreds or fire, or super-slow control decks featuring seemingly an answer to any spell played (Forbids, Force Spikes, Ouphidians, life-gaining, card drawing engines). Slower-developing, flexible decks that emphasize good deck construction and good play won’t have a chance, and that’s a shame. Of course, we can hope that Urza’s Saga will bring some powerful Second Chance Utility spells and keep the middle ground open. I sure hope so; the more options my deck gives me, the better I enjoy playing it. Bennie Smith President of the Second Chance Utility Fan Club “If you put good cards in your deck, you’re going to draw good cards.” --Bill Buckingham