Entries Tagged 'Magic' ↓

Unsurprisingly, michaelj loves a Bant Sojourners.

Aesthetics:
The crew and I sometimes joke that there was a point about four or five years ago when my brain broke. For a long time I was all about the most efficient paths to attack. I ran Suicide Black every tournament for three tournaments straight, winning a PTQ, scoring Top 4 at my Regionals, and then winning the eventual heartbreaker for 9th place at Nationals. I built TDC Heat which we talked about recently, a metagame-killing G/R beatdown deck. Then Napster, which for all its mid-range surgical power was a first turn Phyrexian Negator deck as well. And the summer I spent every week in the Top 8 of a PTQ I was attacking with Fresh Volunteers.

But right before the birth of my daughter my noggin broke and ever since I have been in love with Eternal Dragon and anything related to Eternal Dragon, viz. Decree of Justice.

As a person who has many times gladly cycled for one 1/1 for four mana, it should come as no surprise that I can easily see myself playing a Bant Sojourners. While it doesn’t have the mid-range trumping power of a Decree of Justice, it’s like you get a one mana discount on your Soldier token!

The interesting thing now is that I think I would feel cheated with such a discount; after all I could pay one more mana and get a full 2/4 chump out of it. Decisions, decisions!

Where can I see this fitting in?
In all seriousness the answer is probably 40-card decks.

Once you get over the initial “cool” rush it isn’t as easy to justify the space in a 60 card deck. The best fit would be some kind of high end Counterspell control deck, to keep the velocity going especially in games where you didn’t draw a Mulldrifter but that is a stretch. These decks are really into killing people with their Broodmate Dragons nowadays, so fake threats that can generate a little bit of card velocity (not even really card advantage) might just lack the power to matter. It is kind of like the theory of more-sies.

Back when the format was Jushi Blue, Heartbeat of Spring, et al more-sies was an issue (ditto on basically any format with a viable Battle of Wits deck); basically at the States where I came in second, I beat a Heartbeat deck in the Swiss. It was actually one of those classic Stage Two v. Stage Three fights were I completely owned him in Stage Two. I was stifling any and all comers with Remand and Mana Leak and Jushi Apprentice kept my cards coming. But I realized that I was eventually going to run out and die. How could I run out? I was out-drawing him two-to-one. The problem was that my cards were swiftly declining in relevance. Remand is worthless when he can just re-play the spell due to having enough mana; Mana Leak is quite leaky when they can pay. Even though I ostensibly had more cards in hand he had more-sies because of ultimately having access to more cards that mattered given sufficient time.

You already know the answer to this: Deny him that time!

Once I realized what was going to happen eventually I went tap-out mode and raced.

Anyway, more-sies for you.

One other cool idea I had was Reveillark. This creature sets itself up, and it is the right power to fit!

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player (low)
Not unplayable per se… But I don’t see a lot of doors being banged down for Bant Sojourners in Constructed.

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

How is Alara Reborn Mythic Rare Lord of Extinction an Elemental and not a Lhurgoyf? Plus: The story of the amazing disappearing Mortivore.

Aesthetics:
I think you’re supposed to be reminded of a Lhurgoyf on this one. It’s one more mana than the classic Lhurgoyf but Pow! … How many times more powerful than the original Lhurgoyf (which back in the day I loved by the way) is Lord of Extinction?

The main deck I played Lhurgoyf in was one of the few that actually played Lhurgoyf in the main deck. I had rarely been so confident in a deck as this one, which I had used to win two tournaments immediately prior to Regionals 1998:

TDC Heat

4 Giant Growth
4 Granger Guildmage
4 Jolrael’s Centaur
3 Lhurgoyf
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Quirion Ranger
4 River Boa
3 Uktabi Orangutan

2 Fireball
4 Incinerate

9 Forest
2 Karplusan Forest
3 Mountain
4 Mountain Valley
2 Undiscovered Paradise

sb:

2 Simoon
4 Tranquil Domain
1 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Boil
3 Dwarven Miner
3 Pyroblast

I don’t know if that was my Regionals list (I actually think I played four Uktabi Orangutans main and cut a Centaur), but it was the more recent of the two tournament report deck lists that I found. Yeah, now that I think of it I played Hall of Gemstones which was like a City of Solitude against Blue and also foiled the main combo deck of the day (Cadaverous Bloom).

This deck was exceptional against the Red Decks and the Blue Draw-Go / Rainbow / Big Blue decks of the era, plus it always seemed to pull it out against Tradewind decks; weaker against Living Death and combo. So of course at Regionals I lost in the first round to Sligh, drawing two lands in two games (though to be fair my opponent correctly just killed all my Elves). Speaking of Lhurgoyf, I just remember drawing that alleged monster against Tradewind and doing nothing as there were no creatures in the graveyard. Lhurgoyf just sat there against — if you can believe it — Trained Armodon as I was eliminated from Top 8 contention with a deck that I had tested more than probably anything else in my life at that point.

The Lhurgoyf strategy resurfaced about five years later for Regionals 2003. Our weapon of choice was Mono-Black Control. The main deck was superb, being the favorite against basically every deck in the metagame (we had not tested against Wake for Regionals); the issue was Compost in sideboarded games. Osyp suggested we side in Mortivore, which would be very big in attrition games (like Lhurgoyf was against the Sligh decks back in 1998), hoping to circumvent the Compost card advantage.

I ran with Osyp’s idea and ultimately produced I think the best sideboard strategy of my career.

Mono-Black Control

1 Chainer’s Edict
4 Corrupt
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Haunting Echoes
3 Innocent Blood
1 Mind Sludge
4 Mutilate
2 Skeletal Scrying
4 Smother
4 Undead Gladiator
2 Visara the Dreadful

2 Cabal Coffers
24 Swamp

sb:
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Chainer’s Edict
1 Engineered Plague
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Laquatus’s Champion
1 Mind Sludge
4 Nantuko Shade
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Visara the Dreadful

Osyp figured that having a large regenerating monster like Mortivore could simultaneously hold down the fort and make up for Compost card advantage; I realized that we could upgrade our regenerating creature with a little more mana and actually change how the game was played.

By changing our mindset and looking at our Black one-for-one removal as “Blue” “removal” (basically Unsummon et al) once a Compost was in play, we just used our one-for-ones to buy time while we set up a Black burn plan. Laquatus’s Champion was not just a regenerating creature set to hold down the fort but an efficient Fireball. With his 187 effect and one swing, we could easily “two-card-combo” the opposing G/R deck out with just one Corrupt, Compost or no.

I ultimately lost to Astral Slide playing for Top 8 (a nearly un-losable matchup, sadly), but to this day am very proud of the sideboard plan (especially given the Tutor nature of the deck), and consider this build, which put Paul, Josh, and myself all in prize position, even if none of us qualified, a triumph of deck design and metagaming.

Oh, but this blog post was supposed to be about Lord of Extinction, or Lhurgoyf 2K9.

Lord of Extinction is just plain awesome I don’t know what else to say. Yes he is a little bit more expensive than Lhurgoyf, but the upgrade to all cards in all graveyards rather than just creatures is huge, especially in Black. For instance you just keep killing guys with one-for-ones, you get +2/+2 with every Terror effect.

All that said, “aesthetically” I don’t get not just the not-Lhurgoyf thing, but given the name and power level, a not-Lord (or even not-Legend) byline.

Where can I see this card fitting in?
While I find Lord of Extinction to be a stronger card than Lhurgoyf, I also feel like it might be a little less applicable. A four mana spell can fit into a twenty land deck as we saw with TDC Heat, when that deck is poised either to win attrition wars with Red Decks or to “recover” when an opposing U/W deck taps out for Wrath of God; in both cases the G/R deck is supposing it will draw into sufficient lands to play its powerful four drop. This doesn’t really work for Lord of Extinction; the kinds of decks that can play it don’t really want to play Lhurgoyf as it was played in TDC Heat.

Instead, the card is just simply good. It should easily be 5/5 or greater on turn five, just from everyday actions. Therefore in addition to being a cleanup card, a Wrath of God recovery card, or the nail in the coffin of an attrition fight, it can just be played, as in Reflecting Pool Control. Can you play Lord of Extinction? That is, can you produce one Black and one Green mana? If so, it is probably pretty good.

The only question is if it is good enough, that is, will it take the place of a Broodmate Dragon, Chameleon Colossus, or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf?

The answer is, Sometimes Lord of Extinction will be, but not always.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player (high)

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

P.S. Both of the TDC Heat tournament reports and my Mono-Black Regionals report which includes the arduous development of the Laquatus’s Champion sideboarding strategy are detailed in Deckade. These are tough reports to find (and in the Mono-Black report’s case, basically impossible unless you still have Brainburst Premium). But they and close to 700 more pages of great Magic strategy await you over at Top 8 Magic!

We bring you a look at a much improved Woebringer Demon, Alara Reborn Mythic Rare Defiler of Souls!

Aesthetics:
As I mentioned in the excerpt, the card that this makes me think of is Woebringer Demon.

When I originally wrote about Woebringer Demon, it was I believe my first attempt at a set review. I went back and looked it up… I had Woebringer Demon on Flagship originally.

Interesting.

No, that one never made Flagship.

However that 4/4 flying Abyss for five mana was actually pretty good. I will refresh your memory if you didn’t recall: I personally played Woebringer Demon in a deck; arguably one of my best performances ever, my Charleston Batman deck:

8 Plains
9 Swamp
2 Belfry Spirit
4 Blind Hunter
4 Ghost Council of Orzhova
3 Godless Shrine
4 Mortify
4 Orzhov Basilica
2 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Orzhov Signet
4 Skeletal Vampire
3 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
2 Gleancrawler
3 Hour of Reckoning
4 Last Gasp

Sideboard
2 Muse Vessel
4 Castigate
3 Culling Sun
2 Debtors’ Knell
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Woebringer Demon

If I recall correctly, I won every single time I sided Woebringer Demon in. I usually brought it in when I was playing against Simic Sky Swallower; it was a 4/4 Diabolic Edict that generally struck their mighty 7/7 and locked the opponent out of ever being able to have a board presence before I did them in.

… And Woebringer Demon was not half the card that Defiler of Souls will be.

Defiler of Souls costs exactly one Red mana more than Woebringer Demon. In return you get two key differences between the cards:

1. +1/+1 (not bad)
2. A slightly different take at The Abyss

While the size difference looks to be a perfect upgrade, the sacrifice line is different on these cards, neither one being strictly better than the other. Defiler of Souls is the more flexible card: If you simply don’t play any monocolored creatures, Defiler of Souls has zero downside. You can play him whenever you want and he will generally just be annoying for the other guy.

On balance — and this is kind of obvious and silly and at the same time irrelevant — you could never side in Defiler of Souls in the spots where Woebringer Demon was useful for me in Charleston; basically Defiler of Souls don’t eat no Simic Sky Swallowers. Not that that matters of course; for Charleston we would be talking about a very specific metagame, and it is unlikely Simic Sky Swallower and Defiler of Souls will ever be facing off anyway… But it was still something I wanted to mention.

Basically on Defiler of Souls you get decent Dragon stats and a body that can chomp on some — even “most” — decks on the bonus.

Where can I see this fitting in: Defiler of Souls would be a fine killer in a Reflecting Pool Control style of deck; he has no interaction with Plumeveil but chews on the creatures in most of the obvious decks. If some kind of progressive creature deck like I played in Charleston were viable, he could top up there as well (usually you just want a body to step up, this is a pretty good one). Or you could build around the Defiler of Souls as a Flagship; that won’t be popular but some players will try it. I would expect one of the first two options as the most likely paths for serious play.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

302 words on hot Alara Reborn common Qasali Pridemage.

Aesthetics:
The first thing you notice is that there is no “u” in “Qasali”. Does that make Qasali Pridemage Arabic? Just putting it out there.

Qasali Pridemage is a quality two-drop.

Interesting that our boy Billy Moreno just won a PTQ for Pro Tour Honolulu. Because at the last Pro Tour Honolulu he struck a virtual Top 8 with a Zoo deck that played two different two-drops that are at least superficially comparable to Qasali Pridemage:

• Watchwolf, and
• Kami of Ancient Law

Why a Watchwolf?
The price is right — GW — for similar functionality. Watchwolf was something special when it first came out; less so today with Wild Nacatl and a string of other great creatures; on offense, Qasali Pridemage can be pretty 3/3 himself.

Why a Kami of Ancient Law?
It’s pretty obvious, right? In fact Qasali Pridemage is even more versatile although the additional mana cost is a little steep.

Where can I see this fitting in?
Really only one or two kinds of decks… small creature beatdown decks or Zoo decks, possibly with Exalted sub-themes, main deck or in the sideboard. Qasali Pridemage is harder to play and less forgiving under pressure than Kami of Ancient Law (or Ronom Unicorn); those cards were played in a fairly narrow band of decks (Boros and Zoo), with Kami of Ancient Law seeing some Orzhov play largely due to Tallowisp sub-themes only. Despite its [Watch]wolfish leanings, I don’t see Qasali Pridemage being a lot more popular across a lot more different kinds of decks.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role player; probably typically a two-of sideboard card.

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

The guy who did the preview on the mother ship is a righteous master, but we will nevertheless try our best with Alara Reborn rare Maelstrom Pulse.

Aesthetics:
Like the man said, looks like a slow Putrefy, acts more like a Vindicate cross-bred with an Echoing Ruin.

Where can I see this fitting in?
This is the interesting question… “Classically” speaking it would be a card for The Rock; Maelstrom Pulse is after all in the traditional colors of The Rock. People love their Green creatures, Siege Towers, and whatnot; so for Standard especially we can see this in The Rock and that kind of a deck.

However we live in a world of cheap mana; that is, mana that is easy to come by if you have the resources, not financially cheap. Today’s mana bases even in Standard are anything but… Therefore Maelstrom Pulse is the kind of card that can find a home outside the traditional confines. I think that it can be played as a surgical non-four-of in Reflecting Pool Control if for no other reason that Reflecting Pool Control can cast it (I mean just look at the name).

Those kinds of control decks are always in the market for removal of some sort and this is the rare card that can kill Ajani Vengeant, Swans of Bryn Argoll, Seismic Assault, Bitterblossom or all the damn Bitterblossom tokens! In a sense Maelstrom Pulse can be considered a space saver because in playing it Reflecting Pool Control can avoid having to play so many different kinds of cards for different situations.

Snap Judgment Rating: Clear and present Staple, if not automatic four-of.

Overall, this Mike Flores did a fine job with the Two Great Traditions article on the mother ship. You should read it if you haven’t already.

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

A review of Alara Reborn rare, Blitz Hellion.

Aesthetics:
This is the part where I make superficial comparisons to other card(s)… This time I will randomly pick three-odd characteristics of Blitz Hellion for cross reference:

1. Mana Cost: I choose 3RG
2. Size: I choose 7/7
3. Abilities: I choose Trample

What do you get?

That’s right!

A Shivan Wurm!

Shivan Wurm was lauded as one of the best creatures ever when it first hit print, and was a decent sideboard card in Fires of Yavimaya decks.

It is kind of difficult to compare these two cards — Blitz Hellion and Shivan Wurm — head-to-head; they are just so different. Shivan Wurm was a slow warrior built to win brawls. Blitz Hellion is a much different kind of card, almost like a burn spell.

As far as burn spells go… The “blitz” in Blitz Hellion makes it fairly similar to a Beacon of Destruction. Instead of five direct damage you can do up to seven… But you don’t get to pick. If you are just going to the face (and the opponent doesn’t have anything) you can win; otherwise the opponent can move to absorb much of your attack (even if it doesn’t score a victory… You are “losing” the Hellion anyway); plus, you can’t really aim a Hellion at your opponent’s Dragon.

On the other hand, Blitz Hellion gets in like a Blistering Firecat; and we know from the old Red Deck Wins testing that you usually win whenever you can stick a Blistering Firecat [in a deck with sufficient burn to exploit basically three-and-a-half cards worth of damage].

Where can I see this fitting in?

A high end burn deck is the most logical place to try Blitz Hellion; that, or a deck with a heavily aggressive burn and haste theme… Maybe he will be friends with Jund Hackblade?

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

Our snap judgment of Alara Reborn Mythic Rare Jenara, Asura of War.

Aesthetics:
To be honest I have been trying to find reasons not to like this card.

The reason is that I always like cards like this one (note the Green mana), and that usually costs me.

However I just keep coming back to the fact that I busted a format open by adding some Trained Armodons*, and have literally made the finals of a Constructed PTQ with four Silt Crawlers in my stack.

Given those parameters, the whole “not liking” loses essentially all of its footing. 3/3 flying for three? Awfully solid, if below the high water mark for a format with Incinerate, Agony Warp, and Nameless Inversion (still, I always hate making the investment — I think this is where it comes from).

The White mana is central to the Green and Blue, making it the natural color for Jenara’s rather formidable ability. I don’t think it will be uncommon to see a 5/5 Asura of War crashing on turn four if not turn three.

Where can I see this fitting in?
While it’s possible for control to play Jenara in much the same way that we forced Serra Avengers into control, I think that the most attractive option begins with a first turn Noble Hierarch. Hi-yah!

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player (high); arguably Staple in decks like Bant Aggro Control, though fists will fly with Kitchen Finks and Rhox War Monk for space.

LOVE
MIKE

* Ignore The Fine Line Between Tech and Jank

All Alara Reborn

At the risk of stating the obvious, Alara Reborn mythic rare Sphinx of the Steel Wind is the Esper answer to Akroma, Angel of Wrath.

Aesthetics:

• Same converted mana cost.
• Same size.
• Slightly changed — but appropriately flavorful — double “protection from” at the end (Red and Green being the enemies of Esper, natch).

The big differences are lifelink over haste and trample (kind of a big one), and the fact that this is a colored artifact rather than a triple white Legendary Angel.

As for the cost in total… There is basically no difference beyond flavor; when Akroma was new, White was the dominating color of its Block, and had Eternal Dragon and so on to incentivize and ultimately find the necessary WWW. Present day in-set Magic is about the Shards; Sphinx of the Steel Wind commensurately an Esper billboard.

6/6 for eight mana served Akroma well enough size-wize, to the point that she was the preferred kill card for reanimation strategies for some time (and still holds a reasonable amount of one-of and sideboard space). Akroma uses Sphinx of the Steel Wind as a toilet heads up, of course (one having protection from the other and all).

Protection from Black is generally more useful than protection from Green but you can at least make a Cloudthresher argument in 2009.

The big difference between this card and its thematic acestor is the lack of haste and trample (racing being one of the main reasons Akroma was so popular in tournament decks), replaced with lifelink.

Now for a U/W-ish deck lifelink is probably more exciting, but Akroma was (out of Block Constructed anyway) not generally played by control decks but combo decks. Even if Sphinx of the Steel Wind is pretty good (and it looks to be pretty god), she is not going to hold up in that pure racing department.

Where can I see this fitting in?
I mean tossing Sphinx of the Steel Wind to Spellbound Dragon and immediately popping her back into play with Makeshift Mannequin is the dream… But that will probably never happen outside the kitchen table.

To be honest, I don’t really know. For the mana I would sooner explore Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, and I’m not exactly getting in line on that one.

But what do I know? Sphinx of the Steel Wind may be the great liberator or something.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player

LOVE
MIKE

All Alara Reborn

Will Alara Reborn rare Sages of the Anima spice up many decks?

Aesthetics:
Aesthetically, the card was drawn by Kev Walker. This should clue us in that it is going to be better than it looks. Need a little backup on that? How about…

• Arashi, the Sky Asunder
• Chandra Nalaar
• Damnation
• Hand of Cruelty
• Hand of Honor
• Jace Beleren
• Kitchen Finks
• Llanowar Elves
• Roar of the Wurm
• Wrath of God

So basically if it’s simply flavorful and awesome, like Llanowar Elves or Hand of Cruelty, they give it to Kev; and if it’s one of the absolute best cards like Kitchen Finks, Wrath of God and other equivalently awesome Wrath of God… they give it to Kev.

Now he has also illustrated less than the best cards, such as Void, Visara the Dreadful, and Watchwolf (as well as others that are not in the last twenty or so cards alphabetically that I can see out of the corner of my eye while I type in real time)… But I still tip the hat to Walker for awesome points ahead of time.

So how about that ability?

It is kind of reminiscent of a Countryside Crusher… You will not be pulling a lot of lands once Sages of the Anima is in play. The upshot is very high (provided you have a greater than 33% count of creatures), but only over time; that is, it takes a while to enjoy the additional flavor afforded by your Sages. Will Price suggested I make a deck based on Congregation at Dawn, but I don’t really see myself doing that (but for that discussion, see Twitter and/or Sages of the Anima at Top8Magic).

So where do I see this fitting in?
The ability is powerful, but tacked on kind of an expensive card. Five is not the most expensive of all cards you would be willing to play by any stretch, but it is still pricier than most cards that are supposed to be able to win the game all by themselves. That means that you have to be playing Sages of the Anima in a deck that can get to five… and also wants to play a long enough game to enjoy the rewards well after the five.

The tricky part is that when you are picking up lots of extra cards (as this card might help you to do), you actually want lands to play! Minor drawback as well as a cool special ability.

So when?

I think there are two cases where you might want to play Sages of the Anima, both out of the sideboard in all likelihood. The better is in a heads up creature fight. You plan for fighting and an eventual attrition victory… a 3/4 isn’t the worst size in these kinds of fights; an endless army is basically the opposive of the worst thing. A similar principle can be applied to fighting decks with some of those other Kev Walker cards; Wrath of God doesn’t stink so bad when you can afford to spread the table and have gas in reserve post-Damnation.

I don’t know a deck at present that would want to play this main deck.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player

LOVE
MIKE

What do you guys think of the Amazon widget I put in? You can listen to some good tunes while reading Five With Flores now… I wanted to try something different out on the advertising front. Check it out over to the right!

Speaking of the advertising, YouTube seems to know what Mike Flores loves better than ever 🙂

All Alara Reborn

Is this card for real? Here comes Alara Reborn rare, Thought Hemorrhage!

Aesthetics:
I had to read this one about twenty times.

Then I went back and looked up Cranial Extraction to make sure I was reading it right. In fact for a Resident Genius I can be a little slow on the uptake; that is, this is what my computer screen looked like at one point:

So yes, this is basically a Cranial Extraction that can potentially ka-blammo the opponent, a kind of a not-great Blood Oath grafted onto essentially the classic Cranial Extraction.

Longtime readers know that when Cranial Extraction was legal in Standard I played it very heavily; to be fair, I played it so commonly in both Standard and Extended that Two-Headed Giant teammate Steve Sadin used to express concern whenever I didn’t have three Cranial Extractions in a presented deck list. Some of my best decks including Kuroda-style Red and Jushi Blue packed three Cranial Extractions in the sideboard each.

Thought Hemorrhage, when it hits, is at least potentially more powerful than Cranial Extraction. It is essentially Cranial Extraction plus. So why will Thought Hemorrhage have such a less dramatic effect on the Standard metagame when it hits?

Let’s go back to those two decks we mentioned a moment ago…

Kuroda-style Red, played by Josh Ravitz; Top 8 2005 US National Championship

4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble

4 Arc-Slogger
3 Beacon of Destruction
4 Magma Jet
4 Molten Rain
4 Pulse of the Forge
4 Shrapnel Blast
1 Sowing Salt

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
15 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Tendo Ice Bridge

sideboard:
4 Culling Scales
3 Cranial Extraction
4 Fireball
1 Sowing Salt
3 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Jushi Blue, played by Julian Levin; 2005 New York State Champion

4 Boomerang
3 Disrupting Shoal
4 Hinder
4 Jushi Apprentice
3 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Mana Leak
3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Remand
2 Rewind
4 Threads of Disloyalty

2 Dimir Aqueduct
10 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4 Quicksand
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
4 Watery Grave

sideboard:
3 Cranial Extraction
2 Dimir Aqueduct
4 Drift of Phantasms
4 Execute
2 Rewind

In both cases Cranial Extraction was a Black splash in an otherwise monochromatic deck. Cranial Extraction — especially when it first hit the scene — had a very dramatic effect on the metagame, prompting Psychatog players to touch Morphling for instance, due to not just its ability to wipe out all of a control deck’s win conditions, but the ease of splashing the card.

Forget about Extended for a moment (where we have essentially a Negate / Countersquall situation); where in the modern Standard do we have a deck like a Kuroda-style Red or a Jushi Blue that can slide the Extraction into place? Surely Reflecting Pool Control can make use of this as one of many different available “powerful spells” in a deck that can play all the powerful spells in every color… But that is not the same thing as Cranial Extraction version one point oh, where the addition of a Swamp and some Tendo Ice Bridges could lopside a deck’s iffy (and most popular) pairing, or where some Watery Graves could justify tapping out one turn earlier in the mirror.

Still a card that prompted several double-takes and one trip to Gatherer… Just not the kind of card that will give every deck designer in the room pause, as did the original.

Where can I see this fitting in?
The most obvious home for Thought Hemorrhage is a multicolored control deck such as Standard Quick’N’Toast / Reflecting Pool Control, or what we typically see in Alara Block one-on-ones. Consider…

Scepter of Fugue / Resounding Wave that; untap, Thought Hemorrahage your Scepters. You might be down a card or two, but you’ve changed the tenor of a game where Scepter of Fugue is probably one of the defining threats (or pre-emptive counter-threats to be somewhat more accurate and / or chatty).

Snap Judgment Rating: Role-player (high)

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. For everyone who wants to step back in time to read about the development of great decks with three Cranial Extractions such as Playing Fair, Kuroda-style Red, Jushi Blue and others… Those and numerous other triumphs of the pre-Clark Flores Apprentice Program can be found in Deckade, triumphantly back in print over at Top8Magic!

All Alara Reborn