The Stack #44- Ground Control to... More Control

Much was to be discussed about the content behind this week's Stack, which was named "Ground Control to... More Control" so we could talk about... well, I think you'll get the picture, so let's get to it.

Control. Removal. Disruption.

THIS IS THE STACK!

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Like Pongify or its Gatecrash counterpart, Rapid Hybridization, B-Dubz requires a little more desperation than your average Doom Blade, but when the Beast hits, you know.

Personally, I think this is the best card Wizards printed from our second trip to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia. "Destroy target permanent" is rules text R&D has given to a select few cards, and I dig the trade-off. Trading this for creatures always feels even, and getting a pesky enchantment or artifact off the table is usually good if you're desperate.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Would you look at the art on that one...I have never seen this printing before and I'm just glad I hadn't eaten recently. I am all for keepin' it real, but this interpretation is just a bit too literal for me. In the original iteration Phyrexia's creeping corrosion ate away at something and a new creature was born out of the re-purposed material. The amount of pain this poor dude is probably in is suitable for mature audiences only.

Also, play this card. It is awesome.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I've stated before, i'm all for cards that, "taketh away" and "giveth something back." The more you think about Beast Within in green you see that it's far more one sided than it seems. It's awesome indeed, and I agree with GG- Play this card.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
My favorite aspect of this card is its versatility. It is not just a creature remover, but it destroys any target permanent. I realize you can read the card, but I cannot stress how amazing that is. Planeswalkers? Hah! how about a nice beastie instead? Or you could be cruel and take out someone's duel land.

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Hooray for one-drop spells. With the exception of Hexproof creatures, this card has proven to be one of the most useful, reliable removal spells in my MTG history. It's one thing to destroy a creature, but then there's the chance of it coming back or coming back stronger even, but exiling is the more permanent solution. If one of your creatures is in danger of someone's Control Magic, pop this out and ramp up your mana!

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Surely one of the better spells, but it does come with a trade-off most people overlook. Because we're a society focused on big scores, giving a player an extra land instead of a threat can be a huge mistake. On the flip side, I've also used this card as a way to ramp, or get value out of an irrelevant creature on my side.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
The cheaper the better. This, Swords to Plowshares, Condemn, and Terminus, with that awesome Miracle cost, are what makes White amazing. Also as VJ has said, I too have used this to remove a creature I control to ramp up when i'm behind.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
I find comedy in the strangest of places with Magic. This card is awesome and sees more play in Commander than any other format. Strange then, that the drawback is at its most significant here. Every deck has basics, every deck wants to accelerate on mana. Path is a go-to answer in Modern even though every deck packs basics simply because Bolt can't hit Scavenging Ooze or Goyf, which are both key targets even though they see play in very mana hungry decks who would love to have an extra land in play.  People don't play Path in Legacy even though a minority of decks even have basics because "Swords is better." The life from Swords matters more in Legacy because almost every game is a foot race to see who can kill the fastest. The only decks that try to kill slowly are like...Lands and Countertop, who have no creatures anyway.

So what is my point? Path sees play in Modern, but would be better in Legacy. Swords sees play Legacy, but would be better in Modern...thanks Obama.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
The OG of "oh jeez I don't want that to happen." Counterspell has been there since the beginning. It has been declared too weak, too strong, and finally outdated. We live in strange times. The brave new world of 2013 saw a return of mono Blue, but without its trademark answer. We have seen updated versions of Terror, Wrath, and even modern printings of Lightning Bolt, but nothing that puts the crush on opposing dreams quite like Counterspell. Pour one out for my dead homie.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Honestly, how can you not like this card? It's the poster boy of why most people hate Blue players and if used properly it's also the best political card on the table. Need evidence, you say? Even if Blue isn't in one of your general's colors, players will still look for a counter-effect spell they can play, albeit they can never get as strong as "Counter target spell" for only UU, but my point remains.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
Last I checked I only have one deck with actual Double-Bluesy here in it. These days I'd just rather set myself up with Island and another color so I can coax an opponent into playing something I can counter with a Negate or Memory Lapse or possibly Foil. Not that it isn't good, but everyone can and should be able to see Island-Island, and know better.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
It took me a year to realize that I needed multiple copies of Counterspell to put in all of my Blue decks. The classic response is certainly the best in my opinion, (next to Path, of course), and I don't mind the Island-Island so much. With enough dual lands and mana rocks, you can do anything.

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
Everyone hates to love a good tuck spell and Unexpectedly Absent is the newcomer to this scene. Interestingly enough, this is one of the cheapest cards to cast in order to stop those pesky aggressive deck that come out swinging early.

The other great utilization that is unique to this card is the ability to stack it into the deck. I like the feeling of putting someones general 4-5 from the top and watch them ponder over whether to tutor or shuffle the deck is worth it.

Personally, UL told me to try this out in my Daxos deck as a control card, but also for an opportunity to set up a solid steal on contact. First time I used it, I stole an opponents Ashiok, so I'm completly on board with this card.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I believe there were very few low expectations about this card when it came out. Because I practice what I preach, I too play this in my Daxos deck. In one of the early iterations, I got it on an Isochron Scepter, and it was everything most other people hate about Commander.

Still, I don't think this card is too horrible. Not like Exsanguinate or D to the D-less. This is a good card that has to be played even better. Timing, in addition to your target, is still everything. It's single "removal" with a scaleable effect, and most times you're probably just paying WW if you're doing it right.

Generally, a Commander like Daxos really helps make this better. Getting their threat and turning it into your own is a lot better than having to play the "Lantern of Insight" game most Daxos players do, which has been a somewhat of a wasted card every time I tired to play it.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
Dear. Sweet. Lord. This is my new case study. Whenever someone talks about the "potential" of a card I swiftly direct them to this. AT WORST, this trades one card for one card as a very average two mana Instant. Most answers that we think about being good, look just like that. That is potential. Being, at worst, as good as the next card and occasionally going SUPER DEEP and just shutting the whole block down.

People shuffle their libraries way more often than is safe in Commander. This card is tough to play around. Case in point: I was recently playing with a friend's 5-color deck. It was very janky and has some suspicious card choices, but a situation came up in-game where the opponent went for a Natural Order, binning his Noble Hierarch. My board was basically empty except for a Vedalken Orrery, which I used to Flash in a Grafdigger's Cage. An Unexpectedly Absent on his general (Rubinia) in response ended the game on the spot. In about four seconds his emotional state went from: "I'm about to win!" To: "I don't want to live on this planet anymore." This is the equivalent of killing a zombie that is chasing you by dropping a piano onto it. Thanks Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
This type of card, I feel, is the perfect removal card against Graveborn type decks. Putting something in someone's graveyard has proven fatal to me in the past, and with indestructible creatures, the only other options are exile or gain control. I've been a fan of the idea of cards that put things into their owner's libraries, but I haven't used them extensively and now I feel I should start experimenting with this, Proteus Staff, Condemn, Bant Charm, and Ether Well.

Feel free to tell us what you think about our favorites in the comments below.

Next time, we'll have plenty of great Born of the Gods things to talk about, so stay tuned, and have a Legendary Weekend.

-UL/VJ/JC/GG

Theros Set Review: Answers

Welcome back! I am Grandpa Growth and this is part two of the General Zone's set review of Theros. If you missed the first part, make sure you scroll all the way down and check it out. Today we are going to be discussing the answer cards in the set.

Answers cards are things you use to stop threats and thus stop your opponent from winning the game. They can also be answer to answers. Sometimes they can be preemptive disruption. Things like counterspells, creature removal, land destruction, discard effects, and hate cards all fall into the this category. Let's just jump right in and you can see for yourself.

We will kick things off with a flavorful top down design that is drawn directly from the myth of the titan Prometheus who, in punishment for stealing the secret of fire from the gods, was chained to a mountain for eternity and was constantly eaten by vultures, but never died.

As far as this removal spell goes, I am not a big fan. It is limited to being played only in the various combinations of Red and White, none of which are very appealing and there is NO competitive level deck that contains both colors. Depending on who you ask it is a legal maneuver to place any type of basic land card in your deck even if it doesn't match the color identity of your commander.

If this is an axiom that you support then you could just include a fetchable mountain in any brew containing White so that you would be able to then play this, but...well let's just say that might be going too deep. One drop removal is good, but it is good because it is cheap, convenient, and efficient. This card gets countered by Strip Mine. You don't have to make it this easy on your opponent.

I have a problem with the templating updates they had made in recent sets. Previously, removal like this or Oblivion Ring had two separate abilities that told you exactly what to do and when to do it. Maybe it was a bit wordy, maybe it had the unintended consequence of working a bit strange if the triggers got clogged up on the stack and the creature was gone forever, but it worked just fine. Now we have the current wording of "until blah blah leaves the battlefield." How is this in anyway better if we now need additional reminder text anyway?

Watch the video, that's all I can think about when I see this card. I just imagine it is Achilles and he is pointing at the beaches of Troy and the Myrmidon are just out of view to the left.

This card is really kind of a joke, it looks alright on the surface, but it's really pretty horrible. Bouncing the creature kills the aura. You have a big window to kill the creature a second time before the aura becomes reattached and it doesn't do anything if the creature is exiled from the battlefield or at instant speed while it is in the graveyard. It is probably just worse than making your creature Indestructible or giving it some sort of Shroud effect.

Huge flavor fail: The Gods are immortal. Which is modeled within the mechanics as having the Indestructible keyword. This, for some reason, works differently. Also, it literally says dies on the card. Immortal things don't die; that is was im-mortal means. This should be called gift of resurrection or revival or reconstitution or something. Just saying.

BAAAAAAACCCCCOOOOOONNNN!!!!!! This card is everything you wanted an a ham sandwich. It is a Sorcery, which sucks, but it is a Pongify that you can point at multiple creatures and the exile effect is always significant upgrade to every removal spell. The next time your opponent starts to breathe down your neck with a squad of giant brutes, tell them to stick a pork in it. I think you guys know I could do this all day, so we better just move on before things slip out of hand....because they are lubed up with bacon grease.

This is a potentially very powerful effect. Anyone who has ever played Condescend can attest to how sick it is to stop a threat and then top a great card on the Scry. If you aren't playing Condescend I really don't know that is wrong with you. Maybe this just isn't your game. Try Go Fish instead.

Only getting to Scry 1 is pretty lame; it gets exponentially more powerful the higher that number gets, but having a hard counter is a nice consolation. I will be giving this a try, but there are already plenty of better counterspells in print. It will have to take something better than this to make me trade in my Cryptic Commands for something new.

Remember everything I just said? Good, think about it while looking at this card, but now we will compare to Daze. This card is not as good as Daze. Free is way better than cheap...and for what you are getting, this card isn't exactly a bargain.

The only reason I bother mentioning it is to make a point about soft counters in Commander. People tend to think that they are bad because games always go long and you will have a bunch of extra lands, thus allowing you to pay huge sums of extra mana to defeat Mana Leaks, and Power Sinks, and so on.

Want to hear a secret? People never stop tapping out in Commander. Mana utilization is at its absolute peak in this format. Spells are ridiculously expensive and even Force Spike type effects will easily find targets. They tend to hit at the best possible times as well: People will leave up exactly enough mana for their counter spell or will wait to play a threat with counter backup, but will rarely consider the need to pay extra mana for said counter spell. Seasoned Legacy veterans will play around Daze LITERALLY every chance they get. Lucky for us, most people in a game of Commander are casual players and have zero discipline when it comes to this type of thing.

Usually counter spells say, "No." This one says a different word...and it is bird. Bird is the word. One mana counters are fantastic. Pretty much universally playable in every format. This one has much more flexibility than most, but it has a potentially serious drawback.

This will most likely stop it from seeing play in Legacy or Modern, which should keep the price down. In Commander a 2/2 isn't as relevant, but Flying is a huge bonus and the prevalence of equipment means you could just be trading one threat for another. I don't believe this is as strong as Spell Pierce, particularly because it can't stop Planeswalkers, but it shouldn't be too far behind.

YES!!! We got there! Instant speed planeswalker destruction with no drawbacks! I feel so fulfilled. This is flexible, powerful, efficient, and sure to cost a million dollars because it is going to be seeing a ton of play in virtually every format except Legacy where better options, albeit very few, are available. Not much else to say here. Get copies, play them. You won't be disappointed.



I don't always play Red, but when I do I play control. I play Volcanic Fallout. I play Pyroclasm. I play Slagstorm. I will play this as well.

Exiling is a nice bit of added value, but isn't really necessary since this will mostly be killing tokens and low-value utility creatures. It just doesn't do enough damage to kill the types of things that you would want to reanimate anyway. The format doesn't really need another Red token hoser, but options are always nice and this has much better flavor than the alternatives which does appeal to some (silly) people.


Well this is it. Short list from this set, but there were definitely some good cards and don't forget that there were plenty of reprints that would normally be discussed if they just had different names.

I am a huge fan of Hull Breach. This card is pretty far behind in terms of power, but there is always going to be a need for Artifact and Enchantment removal. Damage to the face isn't all that relevant, but this gives you a way to power up any Bloodthirst creatures you have or get a Rakdos, Lord of Riots into play.

I will be back soon with the final installment of the review: Utility and mana cards. I hope you are enjoying your week long celebration of all things Grandpa, see you soon!