Sunday, December 11, 2005
Preview Card #1
An Early Christmas
Tidings is a great card. Definitely card advantage, it replaces itself and adds 3 more cards to your arsenal. Five mana isn’t bad, but that could sometimes cause problems. Midgame, when such mana is available, you can use Tidings, and then you won’t have enough mana to use the 4 cards you draw with it; may-perhaps you have to discard down to 7 also.
Also, Darkblast had its own tiny paragraph article, because it was the only instant with Dredge, which means you can use it twice in one turn; during your upkeep, and after you draw again, and again if you can draw more cards. Speaking of articles, there was another article a while back which said that “the draw step is the most exciting part in magic.” It is, because it’s like “opening a Christmas present; you never know whatcha gonna get.” So cards are presents now, eh?
So I thought of Darkblast, and thought of Tidings… but if you wanted to use Darkblast three times, you could also just use Sift through Sands. So in this case, Tidings isn’t really an optimal solution over Sift Through Sands… is there a better solution? Is there a solution that solves both these problems?
This card is definitely comparable to Tidings. With Tidings, you pay 5 mana and you get your 4 cards right away. With this, you don’t get the cards right away – you get them the turn after, when you have mana to pay for them. Note that on that turn, you will draw 5 cards, including the draw step. It still has card advantage like Tidings though.
With Tidings, you get your 4 cards right away, so you can decide what to do with them and when you want to do it. That’s another advantage that Tidings has, which is why Presents over Time costs less.
Then there are the advantages. It costs less, so you can play it on turn 4, and have the effect on turn 5, the same turn you would have for Tidings. That one mana could make all the difference. Another advantage is, if it is drawn late game, you can use it with its speedup ability.
Instead of tying up your mana for the turn, you can keep your mana available, in case you need to counterspell or respond to something from your opponent. But if they don’t do anything, you can feel free to instantly speedup Presents over Time.
Then comes the Darkblast advantage. With this card, you can use Darkblast 6 times this turn. And because all your mana is free’d up, that is actually possible. The Speedup cost can be paid with 1G or 1B because of its relation with dredge, the Golgari mechanic.
Overall, this card is very good. On its own, you get massive card advantage, and a lot of options with speedup, and then you have the mana to use it. But combined with Dredge and cards like Darkblast, this could really change the tide of war. Or change the size of your library.
Comments:
Post a Comment
Tidings is a great card. Definitely card advantage, it replaces itself and adds 3 more cards to your arsenal. Five mana isn’t bad, but that could sometimes cause problems. Midgame, when such mana is available, you can use Tidings, and then you won’t have enough mana to use the 4 cards you draw with it; may-perhaps you have to discard down to 7 also.
Also, Darkblast had its own tiny paragraph article, because it was the only instant with Dredge, which means you can use it twice in one turn; during your upkeep, and after you draw again, and again if you can draw more cards. Speaking of articles, there was another article a while back which said that “the draw step is the most exciting part in magic.” It is, because it’s like “opening a Christmas present; you never know whatcha gonna get.” So cards are presents now, eh?
So I thought of Darkblast, and thought of Tidings… but if you wanted to use Darkblast three times, you could also just use Sift through Sands. So in this case, Tidings isn’t really an optimal solution over Sift Through Sands… is there a better solution? Is there a solution that solves both these problems?
This card is definitely comparable to Tidings. With Tidings, you pay 5 mana and you get your 4 cards right away. With this, you don’t get the cards right away – you get them the turn after, when you have mana to pay for them. Note that on that turn, you will draw 5 cards, including the draw step. It still has card advantage like Tidings though.
With Tidings, you get your 4 cards right away, so you can decide what to do with them and when you want to do it. That’s another advantage that Tidings has, which is why Presents over Time costs less.
Then there are the advantages. It costs less, so you can play it on turn 4, and have the effect on turn 5, the same turn you would have for Tidings. That one mana could make all the difference. Another advantage is, if it is drawn late game, you can use it with its speedup ability.
Instead of tying up your mana for the turn, you can keep your mana available, in case you need to counterspell or respond to something from your opponent. But if they don’t do anything, you can feel free to instantly speedup Presents over Time.
Then comes the Darkblast advantage. With this card, you can use Darkblast 6 times this turn. And because all your mana is free’d up, that is actually possible. The Speedup cost can be paid with 1G or 1B because of its relation with dredge, the Golgari mechanic.
Overall, this card is very good. On its own, you get massive card advantage, and a lot of options with speedup, and then you have the mana to use it. But combined with Dredge and cards like Darkblast, this could really change the tide of war. Or change the size of your library.