Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Yawgmoth's Agenda - YMTC: Enlightened Tutor
As most of you are well aware, Magic R&D decided to bring back the segment where You Make the Card. The first vote was incredibly close between Land and Enchantment (only 24 votes separated the two) with Land winning.
Wizards decide to have a runoff.
My first vote would have been Instant, but between Land and Enchantment land wins by a landslide #teamland #enchantmentssuck #YMTC #YMTC2Lands have a place in every deck. Over the last few years, R&D has been pushing lands (as well as creatures) to be more playable than other spells. Zendikar and Innistrad block have had lands that produce spell-like abilities for players. In the current format, with all of the non-basic lands (shocklands, 'buddy' lands), most of the 'spell' lands from Innistrad block have been moved out of decks. The biggest land that needs to be in standard (and modern for that matter) currently is a land that punishes players for playing greedy mana bases. I don't see R&D reprinting Wasteland ever, Standard has Ghost Quarter, and Modern already has Tectonic Edge.
— Paulo Vitor (@PVDDR) March 18, 2013
I voted Land in the first vote and voted Land in the second vote but then changed my mind and switched my vote to Enchantment. Why would I go and change my vote? I think that players have forgotten just how powerful Enchantments can be. I also believe that it would be difficult to design a land that hits all three catagories of players (Timmy, Johnny, Spike).
@cardboardwitch @pvddr except moat and solitary confinement and necro and yawg bargYou missed a list a MILE wide. Those might be the ones that immediately come to mind but there are many more non-Aura enchantments that have been apart of Magic's history. As a matter of fact, there have been many decks in the game's history that centered around an enchantment. Let's take a stroll down memory lane and see why #TeamEnchantment is the right team to choose.
— Corey Vangel (@Zielle47) March 18, 2013
Stasis was the first original prison card. This card was among the most annoying cards in Magic history. You were pretty well stuck drawing cards and not being able to do anything with them. With a card like Time Elemental, it allowed you to reset Stasis.
Recurring Nightmare and Survival of the Fittest paired up to best the likes of Jon Finkel, Ben Rubin, Raphael Levy, Chris Pikula, Brian Hacker, and Alan Comer to win the 1998 World Championship. Survival of the Fittest allowed the deck to find the key creatures to lock the opponent out of the game before putting a Spirit of the Night into play by using Recurring Nightmare to put it into play from the graveyard.
The deck known as Squirrel Opposition took Sim Han How to the Top 4 of the 2002 World Championship. The deck had many powerful creatures but used the combination of Squirrel Nest and Opposition to lock down their opponent for the finishing blow.
Bob Maher Jr struck gold with a deck based around Oath of Druids, some great control cards, Enlightened Tutor and one of the era's toughest creature, Morphling.
This unassuming enchantment powered the control deck to a World Championship victory. The deck didn't have a main deck creature in it but it instead had 2 copies of Decree of Justice that could be powered out using the massive mana advantage from this enchantment.
By using cycling cards and value creatures like Eternal Witness and Viridian Shaman ultimately culminating in a Eternal Dragon beatdown for the win, Astral Slide was a deceptively powerful deck.
Similar to the role that Opposition played back in 2002, Glare of Subdual was the powerful endgame. The
The linchpin in the terror of 2008 format was Bitterblossom. Without this tribal enchantment, Faeries would certain not be as dominate.
Shall I continue?
You might put land in every deck but you can build a special deck around an enchantment. Go now and vote for #TeamEnchantment
Bradley Reeves
@YawgmothsWill
Infecting Magic One Grinder At A Time
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Aside from Glare of Subdual and maybe Mirai's Wake, no card made from the YMTC will approach the power level of the cards you've mentioned. I'm not sure that really helps your case. Thanks for taking the time to chime in on the debate though :)
ReplyDeleteThough everyone voting land think about making a new Maze of Ith, Wasteland or Mishra's Workshop. It's hard to make a splashy land everyone feel good about and like. An enchantment has the potential to be as splashy or even splashier than the splahiest land and is likely to be of use to more players
ReplyDeleteI voted for enchantment! Largely, because your article was the first I had heard of the "make a card vote" being re-implemented, and I hadn't thought about it at all and just went with your subtle guidance in making a choice. What other cards have come out of this program?
ReplyDeleteYou Make The Card #1 designed the creature Forgotten Ancient (Scourge).
DeleteYou Make The Card #2 designed the artifact Crucible of Worlds (Fifth Dawn).
Those 2 had there successes on the tournament front.
You Make The Card #3 designed the instant Vanish Into Memory (Coldsnap).
Two out of 3 so far isn't bad at all.