Today's card isn't just a single card; we're talking about an entire card type, the type that is able to be fetched by Cunning Wish. People always seem to forget some of the great powers that Instants afford them. Instants are currently the second "fastest" spells in the game (due to Split Second), and yet I've seen people forget and have to be constantly reminded of the power of Instants.

Let's take a little more time to discuss each of the above points:

Everyone can agree that Giant Growth is usually better than Monstrous Growth in your classic mono-green aggro deck.  While Monstrous growth gives you +4/+4 at sorcery speed for two mana, Giant Growth can be used with versatility with almost as much of a punch.  You can use the instant as an offensive boost or as a defensive trick and you still get +3/+3 for only one green mana.

Let's use Brain Freeze and Glimpse the Unthinkable as examples. Both are powerful mill cards, and really nasty if they hit at the right time. But, the real difference is instant versus sorcery. Granted, the sorcery is multicolored and the instant has storm so I'm considering it equal footing.

Brain Freeze is for the friend who knows that they'll encounter counter wars or has a deck built to create a storm count quickly and quietly. Glimpse is a little more straight forward. It does its effect unless countered; period. In multiplayer; Brain Freeze is better, but in duels I'd want Glimpse in my deck over Brain Freeze.

Counter Magic:

When you cover Instants, you have to mention the ungodly power of counter magic in the form of Rewind, Force of Will, Rune Snag, Perplex, and Induce Paranoia. Counter magic is the designer's way of giving you options to deal with the opponent's powered-up Fireball. Offensively, you can scare the opponent into not playing spells, allowing you to develop more.

Induce Paranoia does a good job of countering a spell and taking a bit off the top of your opponent's deck.

Defensively, counter magic buys you time when you need it most. Normally, if you're heading straight into the defensive realm of powerful counter magic, you're probably going to lose.

Creature Abilities:

Creatures are increasingly becoming "French vanilla" (Creatures with only keyword abilities like flying) or more, but I want to hit on the particularly flavorful ones that have activated or triggered abilities.

Most of these abilities happen at instant speed - people, read your cards and think the same way about it. “What is the best way to use this card on my/their turn?” Spellshapers like Urborg Syphon-Mage have great abilities that you can do on the opposition's turn.

Now keep in mind this thought: “What is the best way to use this card on my/their turn?”

Click on one of the above thumbnails to see the full-size card image. It will open up in a new window.

Most of these cards are combat orientated, so it's easier for me to talk about them in the context of combat.

Take Berserk - as an offensive move, you can toss this onto one of your unblocked creatures, but you lose the guy at the end of turn. Defensively, you can use it to make sure you kill that really painful creature that's been pounding you all day, or, if you have the life and are willing to take a hit, slap it on your opponent's favorite attacker and take the blow to watch it walk to the grave.

Blazing Salvo has a nice offensive ability, targeting one of the opponent's best creatures with toughness of three or less unless they take a hit for five damage. Offensively, this is a great way to kill a creature, and defensively, you can mix this with Fatal Blow, or just target a creature in conjunction with blocking it.

Transmutation is another fun one. Offensively, you can turn an un-Defender-ed “wall” into a fatty for a turn, nice for situations where you need some extra damage. Defensively, you can make it work the other way around, lightening a load of damage coming your way.  This spell can be particularly mean if your opponent has any 0/X creatures...

Gigadrowse is similar; offensively, you can lock up some good blockers and swing for the win (working well with Berserk), or defensively, you can tap down possible attackers, giving you another turn.

Equal Treatment's capabilities are harder to talk about, but it's still a good card. Defensively, as written on the card, Equal Treatment reduces damage to 2, regardless of how much damage would be dealt. Offensively, it only slightly amplifies damage from single damage sources (Tim and his kin come to mind).

And to showcase the power of instants, I give you Jello...

This is your classic Sligh/Burn deck type with a black addition, plus the Top. The whole strategy is to clear the opponent's side of the board of creatures and then strike him head on.

Now, Magus of the Abyss is a neat creature, and a bit of an odd-ball in this deck. He likes when you have a ton of creatures to sacrifice and the opponent has few. Well, tokens count as creatures, right? Rakdos Guildmage can make 2/1 Haste Goblin tokens for 4 mana; activate it at the very end of the opponent's turn, which allows you to keep the Goblin until your upkeep when Abyss triggers. Or so I'm told by others that you can use the ability to make Goblins ASAP when needed so that Magus can take it. Sparkspitter does the same, but with a lot less gusto.

Ember Shot is good for a few things. It has a high CMC for Riddle of Lightning, and can be discarded to the Spellshapers or Lightning Axe. In this deck, you could replace Blazing Salvo for Fiery Temper or Incinerate for kicks.

Now that's all well and good, but what if we want the effects to plague the opponent all game? We'd need help from a couple of artifacts with a keyword from Mirrodin: no, it's not Affinity...it's Imprint!

This isn't a serious deck, and I hope this deck inspires more people to try these Imprint cards ranging from balanced to broken. The idea is to stall combat with Dawnstrider, Exhumer, and Sparkspitter while fixing your colors with Blood Celebrant, and gaining life with Sophic Centaur. Mourning Thrull is also a way to gain life, though its small body could only chump block. Pit Dragon and Cromat are the fatties of the deck, as funny as that is. Use them well...

I specifically selected the Split cards to show the brokenness of Isochron Scepter. Each of them have at least have one side that has a converted mana cost of 2, remember instants only, that was something my play group forget now for the second time, last time they allowed me to Glimpse on a stick.

Research // Development is my personal favorite with the Scepter; each turn you tap two and the Scepter and get a free copy of Development, which gets you creatures or cards. Panoptic Mirror is to be played with Time Warp, so you can say, “If you don't destroy [Panoptic Mirror] by my next upkeep, I win.” Brute Force is a powerful card when mixed up with the Stick and Sylvan Scrying and the Mirror would get you all the mana you'll ever need in a game.

I enjoyed this deck even when I lost.

Now I'm going to move onto a deck that I go crazy about. I've been playing my fair share of Magic, and I have played under the pre-classic (that's 6th Edition when they rebuilt the game) rules, and I've seen plenty of crazy combinations, but this beats everything. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the fastest combination in the game of Magic: the Gathering, a Turn 0 win:

From Filipino’s version at the MTG.com forums to the ton of variants that have been made since, I am constantly astounded by the power and prowess of MTG players and the continual discoveries of more broken combos.

Flash was recently un-errata'd since people didn't play Phyrexian Dreadnought anymore, but they forgot all about Protean Hulk and his graveyard trigger. A similar deck has been called ESP (Epic Summoner's Pact, from Complete_Jank over at the MTGSalvation forums). Yes, this deck does win on Turn 0 if you have Gemstone Caverns and the requisite cards in hand, and yes, that is very broken. This combo is rampant on MWS. in order to beat this deck you have to find a way to stop it on your upkeep. Johnny, you've created a monster, now can you defeat it?

How this deck works: if you didn't already know...

Beginning of the game, opponent's turn, Gemstone Caverns (aka. Unluckyman's Paradise) is in play with the luck counter on it. Play Summoner's Pact and put the Protean Hulk into your hand. Throw the Guide of your choice and play Flash, flipping Protean Hulk onto the field. Don't play the cost (since you can't), so the Hulk dies and his grave trigger goes off. Get Disciple of the Vault, Shifting Walls, and Phyrexian Marauders. Shifting Walls and Phyrexian Marauders die as state-based effects are checked, and the Disciples trigger for each of them that goes to graveyard (8 artifact creatures times 4 Disciple of the Vaults = 32 Life loss = Win game)

Here's a update I've seen since I've written this article and submitted it: Flash is now banned in Legacy, so that really does solve the problem, also from discussions on the MDV forums that good quick discard does the trick just as well to disable this beast. Personally, I'll still be seeing this around and about from people just needing an ego boost, but that's fine as long as they don't play it for five straight games in a row.

In the end of this article I've only touched on the power of instants. Go out and explore your collection of cards and look at all of your instants, and ask yourself, "Is there another way to play this to my advantage?"

Magic is a diverse game, it might take a lifetime to explore all the elements of it, but I have time, and I'm still young...

MZ is off to the Aether, time to go play some Hulk/Flash!
(Kidding, kidding)

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.