Five With Flores

A review of hot new Worldwake uncommon, Tectonic Edge. Also free deck list!

This card is masterful. U/W with Crucible of Worlds is currently my second favorite Extended deck. Tectonic Edge fits right in (at least sideboard) and will be some kind of wonderful in any attrition-type match against other decks vying for the control role.

Superficial comparisons can be made to two iconic cards:

Wasteland
“It’s worse than Wasteland!” Well… Yeah, it’s probably worse than Wasteland. That said, so what? Ancestral Vision is worse than Ancestral Recall, but managed to be a fine card. On that note, Tectonic Edge can give you a measure of redundancy over your Wastelands if you’re playing, say, a deck with 30+ lands that can play multiple lands, over and over. Its fundamental limitations on both the opponent’s minimum mana situation and the additional mana activation cost do in fact make this card less perfect than the fearsome Wasteland, but, again… So what?

Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl is another card you could have said was worse than Wasteland; in fact, in head’s up comparison, Dust Bowl is slower than Tectonic Edge, though it does not have the same [opponent's] minimum mana requirement. On balance, Dust Bowl allowed you to sacrifice other lands, allowing for a long-term, methodical, assault on nonbasic lands that Tectonic Edge does not.

Ultimately - Tectonic Edge is probably strictly worse than a card that was strictly worse than another popular card (Strip Mine)… But should still be very good in a good many places. This is a card that I can see playing in my sideboard in Standard, going up to 28 or even 30 lands to fight decks like Jund or other Grixis or Esper control decks (you heard it here first). The non-destruction / cycling attack from Spreading Seas will leave a land in play, “allowing” the opponent to ramp up to four, giving you an open to ‘Edge. It’s all coming together, no? A great companion to Treasure Hunt and Jace, the Mind Sculptor provided you are not under threat of lethal force.

Snap Judgment Rating - Staple / sideboard - high

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. Free Deck List

U/W Two Combos

1 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry

3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Repeal
4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Kitchen Finks

2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
1 Martyr of Sands
3 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God
1 Yosei, the Morning Star

2 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Den
3 Arid Mesa
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Marsh Flats
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Plains
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Snow-covered Island
3 Snow-covered Plains
1 Tolaria West

sb:
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Repeal
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
1 Path to Exile
1 Wrath of God

I really wish I had played this U/W deck instead of the other one in the Connecticut PTQ a few weeks back. Or at least some of the cards I missed, like Vedalken Shackles or the Thopter combo.

There are some sideboarding holes, especially now that GerryT’s hybrid Dark Depths / Thopter Foundry combo deck has become popular, but this version of U/W has still performed well for me. Since the third most common kill is Crucible of Worlds + Gargoyle Castle, you can probably see why Tectonic Edge would be good in this deck (at least in the sideboard).

The most common kill is something involving Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek; though my deck lacks either a Time Sieve or Ironworks combo to go infinite.

The second most common kill is Emeria + Miren + Yosei (you can set everything in this deck up with a Gifts Ungiven, Academy Ruins, and a little time).

Then of course there is something to do with the Martyr combo. I started with Conley Woods’s deck, swapped out Black for Blue, and steadily cut back on Martyrs as they were the weakest part of this deck [presumably without Phyrexian Arena]. Still good, and still cute given that you can turbo charge a post-Thirst for Knowledge Sword of the Meek with one

My favorite Extended deck right now is G/R Scapeshift. I am about 20-0 with it… It seems to have a fair number of structural and sideboarding holes, but I have somehow managed to win [and dodge for the most part GerryT's deck].