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Welcome Ladies and gentlemen; to the first of the Lorehold clan articles! We will be hosts, Luthervamplord.... ..and casual_violence. Time Spiral has reintroduced some old cards that have impacted the game since their first printing. That's right people; we're talking about the P9! The original "shock and awe" tools of war. The name alone brings a shiver of dread and a promise of power to most. Indeed they do, but that may be because they were powerhouse cards! In their original forms, they were overpowerered, but only because no one realized how incredible they were. Until it was too late. Fortunatily, or unfortunatily dependant upon your view; Wizards of the Coast(WotC) promised they would never reprint the P9 *Sniff* And there was much rejoicing (especially from those of us who have seen them used against us). But then, WotC gave some hope to us who wanted a P9 of our own; Time Spiral! I, for one, didn't believe it until I saw the cards. Would it be possible, I wondered, to make them fair and playable (without underpowering them)? Well I personally was so amazed by these cards that I forgot to take into account that they where what they were; a 'Fixed Power 9' While the cards, without that history, are playable and will likely impact the modern game, I would argue that some of the "fixes" took away the teeth that the first P9 had. Indeed, when I went to the Time Spiral prerelease I realized that they had lost much of the flavour of the originals. But some of you might be wondering what are the fixed P9. In order to get a better feel for the way the cards have changed, we will look at the old P9 cards individually beside their updated versions for Time Spiral. Yes, Casual as the old(er) guy takes the original P9 and I, as the young(er) will take the new F9. The Power Nine. No words are as humbling to Magic players as these. They represent, arguably, the nine most powerful cards in the game. The P9 were created at a time when the actual power level of a card was not easily determined, since there were few cards to compare them to. Since the first days of Magic, when Alpha and Beta was the only thing around, these cards have continued to be incredibly powerful even as the game progressed beyond its roots. But as we all know, the P9 are those cards that most of us
will never see in our life; and those of us that did are kicking ourselves for
not trying to get a hold of them. Then a miracle occurred; WotC released Time
Spiral! Yes, it’s obviously a ploy in order to attract those players back that
quit the hobby around Seventh edition (Might be why I couldn’t find many people
to play against then!); but they have given us some very nice cards so we can
forgive them a little. Among those new cards is what I have heard people refer to as the F9 or ‘Fixed 9’. These cards are essentially the power nine for the future; balanced and controlled cards that still give us some nice abilities. The most famous (or infamous) of the Power Nine is the Black Lotus.
Zvi Mowshowitz, former Pro player and columnist for the official Magic site, has said that the Black Lotus makes any deck better. This is not said of any other card. The Black Lotus comes into play for 0 mana, and accelerates its owner by 3 turns (mana-wise) as soon as it hits the board. It can be dropped and sacrificed to add 3 mana of any one color in the same turn. Four mana on the first turn, which can set up any number of kills in the next two or three turns. It could be one of the biggest kill cards ever printed, even though it’s only acceleration.
Lotus Bloom is our new version of the lotus, and not R&D’s first attempt at fixing the original either. So what makes this card so balanced? Suspend with no cost; you can have your free mana source, but only after three turns. It seems a little bit of a let-down at first, but consider the following scenario: First turn you play a forest, suspend a lotus and suspend a Search for Tomorrow. Next turn you play an island out and drop a nice two drop like Looter il-Kor, turn three you drop another island and hold, seeing as you are holding a Cancel in hand. The next turn, your lotus comes into play and you get to search out a basic land card, then you play another from your hand. End result is you have eight mana on turn four, and that is only if you only had one in your opening hand.
Ancestral Recall is the reason that Instant-speed card draw is an extremely limited aspect of the game. It also paved the way for higher costs (or bigger drawbacks) for drawing cards. Three cards for one mana at the end of another player’s turn makes for huge card advantage. At one Blue mana, it is possible to draw the cards, and use any Instants as soon as they hit your hand in almost any stage of the game. Most tournament players regard Ancestral recall as the most powerful card ever printed, simply because it accelerates card advantage. There is no denying that this card changed the game, and the way that card advantage is viewed.
In Time Spiral, we are given Ancestral Vision; another suspend card. Now I remember reading on the forum someone making the quote ‘If I play a spell to draw cards, I want them now; not in four turns time!’ What you need to consider with suspend is that you play your game several turns in advance, and the benefit of Ancestral Vision is that it can be used on any player that can be targeted. Consider the benefits in 2HG; your partner can play out his hand without impunity on turn four, as he will receive a large number of cards back next turn. Or say you have a full hand of nice cards and your opponent is suffering from a mana screw, let him pick up those three cards. Yes, he may pick up that land he needs to get rolling, but he may also draw into more cards he cannot play and be forced to discard something valuable.
One of the most vicious reset buttons in Magic is Timetwister. For three mana, it is possible to cast out your hand (particularly if you have a Black Lotus in play) and set up to force each player to draw seven cards. The drawback looks significant, since your opponent also gets a fresh hand full of cards that may have already been played. This isn’t as big a drawback as it might seem. The Timetwister player knows that it’s about to hit. The other player has no idea what’s about to happen. They might have been holding key spells for the right moment, or holding back pieces of the kill mechanism. This is major disruption, plus it allows the Timetwister player to return restricted cards from the graveyard to the library.
Well, it would appear that we weren’t given a Timetwister card in Time Spiral; but there is a card that produces a similar effect, outside of TS. The card I am talking about is Sway of the Stars from the Kamigawa block. Compared to its parent card, this card is a double edged sword; as it benefits both parties equally. You both reset, putting everything still in the game into your library and then draw a new hand. The only down side is the new life total of seven; but if you are in real straights, this card will get you out of it and give you a second chance. And remember, it does nothing to cards removed from the game; suddenly Ghostway gets a new and evil way to make or break the game!
What card is incredibly broken at a casting cost of one colorless and one Blue? I’ll give you a moment. If you said “Time Walk,” give yourself a cookie. It seems so harmless, until you understand what the card does (especially with any kind of recursion or acceleration). For two mana, you get an extra turn. Two more on the new turn and that’s another turn. More mana, more possibilities to draw into the kill mechanism, more card advantage, more chances to hurt your opponent. It makes the game one-sided. For just two little mana.
The line of cards that have followed Time Walk is quite extensive and R&D have given us a new one to play around with in TS; Walk the Aeons has an interesting twist to it though because they have included buyback on an ‘extra turn’ card. As some of you may know, I have posted an extended deck that could make use of this card for an infinite combo in the forum, but for those of you who haven’t seen the deck it revolves around three cards: Walk the Aeons, Exploration and Crucible of Worlds. Personally I like the new edition, it’s balanced but usable; not a bad thing for a card.
The Moxes. The last five of the Power Nine, these are innocent-looking little accelerators. Sapphire, Jet, Pearl, Ruby, Emerald, each adding one mana of the corresponding color (Blue, Black, White, Red, and Green, respectively). That’s not so bad. Hardly powerful at all. Acceleration by one whole mana. Nothing, right? Think about this: Turn one, one Island and one Mox Sapphire. Nothing is tapped, since the Moxes have a casting cost of zero. Drop a Time Walk. Turn two, draw an Island, play it. Drop a Time Walk. Turn three, another Island and another Mox. Five mana and your opponent hasn’t drawn one card. Drop a Black Lotus, and a Time Walk. Turn four, another Island. You have six mana open and three more possible from the Lotus. Cast Ancestral Recall, draw three. Cast whatever is in your hand. Use the Lotus to drop Timetwister. The hand that your opponent so carefully mulliganed to open the game with is gone. You have fresh cards. Maybe another Time Walk to reset yourself to drop the kill mechanism. Or the possibility of dropping five (or more) mana on the first turn with the right hand. The Moxes make mana seem redundant.
What we have in TS as a ‘fixed’ Mox is Gemstone Caverns, a land with a similar ability to the Leylines in Ravnica. Basically, if you have the card in your opening hand, and your opponent is going first then you can remove a card in hand and put Gemstone Caverns in with a luck counter on it; as long as that luck counter is on the card it can tap for any color mana. As a collector of lands, I have seen a few good lands but this possibly takes the crown. Sure you remove a card from your hand and yes; your opponent must go first but consider what happens when you use this card. Turn one you drop a forest, then play rampant growth; next turn you drop another land, say an island; and on turn two you have four mana, enough for Rewind or any good green beat stick. Then consider the new suspend land search card and you’ll see that letting your opponent go first and losing a card is no big thing. Oddly enough, the "fixed" version of the Moxes did not come from Wizards themselves, but from one of the recent Pro Tour winners -- originally, "Unluckyman's Paradise"-- by Tsuyoshi Fujita. Good bless that person! I need that card for my collection (HINT, HINT!) It shows how much the P9 have influenced the game. Players and designers look to those cards for inspiration as to what to do, and what to avoid. Yes; pay through the nose for the originals and trade resonably for the new stuff! I can't argue that. ;) But players will find ways to break the new cards, as they always do. I'm working on it right now! Wait, no I'm not; else I would be here. But if i'm here and working on the abuse of the F9...... The P9 and the F9 will likely continue to change the way the game is played. With the F9 in all formats now, we will find out just how well the new versions play in tournaments. In casual play, these cards could offer a new challenge to those who haven't seen the originals, as well as the chance to get a taste of what it was like way back when. .....and if I could be in two places at one time...... Will the new versions stand up to their predecessors? Only time will tell... ......so if you carry the 'Y' and hold the 'S'...... I suggest we all leave Luther to his important conversation; it's going to take him awhile! You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Articles
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