Yawgmoth's Destiny: Blue
Part 2 brought to you by the Temporal Adepts; When Yawgmoth's Bargain absolutely, 100% has to be banned a few days ago
Yawgmoth's Destiny: White (Part 1) Yawgmoth's Destiny: Blue (Part 2) Yawgmoth's Destiny: Black (Part 3)
June 8, 1999
Aura Thief 3U
2/2, flying. When it is put into a graveyard from play, gain control of all enchantments. All: Useless
If Aura Thief had its effect when it came into play, it would be a curiosity. As it is, it's hopelessly underpowered. To see why, think about how many enchantments don't care who controls them. You can take their Rancor, their Hermetic Study, their Humility (not going to happen, but you get the point), their Opalescence (the others might hurt here, though), and he's still laughing at you for playing a 2/2 flyer that costs 4 for no apparent reason. Of course, when you take the right enchantments it's a really nice effect, and it includes some of the better creature enchantments like Spirit Link and Treachery, along with globals like Propaganda. But chances are heavily in favor of this effect doing either nothing or the same as a single Steal Enchantment. Either way, it's not good enough. Good hustle, though. (Gain control of all artifacts would have been cool).
5/5, flying. 2U: Untap Blizzard Elemental All: Useless
You could have cast Palinchron. For the same price, on a color whose flyers are supposed to be weaker, you can get Archangel. Seven mana for this thing? You've got to be kidding.
Brine Seer 3U
1/1. 2UT, reveal X blue cards: Counter target spell unless its controller pays X. EX,T2: Useless US: Weak
Compare Brine Seer to Ertai. Since you can cast Ertai for one less mana, you can get it out faster and can protect it better before you can use it. I think I'd rather cast it for 3 and use it for 4 then the other way around. Obviously Counterspell beats the lousy Scent of Brine easily. And Ertai was still not that good. So it follows Brine Seer isn't that good. Also, an effect like Archivist is probably better if you're going to cast a vulnerable creature.
3/3. As long as defending player controls an enchantment, Bubbling Beebles is unblockable. All: Useless (but cute)
You wouldn't pay 4U for a 3/3 unblockable, so one with only conditional unblockability is even worse. Again I invoke those who came before: Morphling, Silver Wyvern. For those who say that the Beebles only cost one colored mana, I'll repeat that that's pretty minor since by the time a deck has five mana two colored mana shouldn't be much of an issue. For those who say they're cute, well, that's why WotC created Rodchester Draft (well, that and getting gobs and gobs of money from the purchase of booster packs. Can't win them all).
Disappear 2UU
U: Return enchanted creature and to their owners hands. All: Missing
Think of it as basically a 2UUU spell that says 'Return target creature to owner's hand' with Buyback 0. Sort of. It's a little better than that, because you can pay the last mana later on, but you're normally going to use the ability before your next untap phase. If you're using this to protect your creatures in the long term, that works too, but you have WAY too much mana on your hands. Where did it go?
Donate 2U
Sorcery. Target player gains control of target permanent you control. T1: Useless EX, T2, US: Fun
Take my Thoughtlash. Please. I'm having Delusions of Mediocrity here. (The deck for part 2, which uses Donate, has been moved to part 3 because I felt it belonged with a black card, so there will be no decks in part 2 and two decks in part 3). Or Sorrow's Path for your Ring of Gix ( Political Trickery is better for this one, unless your deck is just on a roll). The obvious problem is that you're forced to play with bad cards. If they were any good, would you be giving them to your opponent? Still, these cards do have their advantages. Other candidates could include Evil Eye of Orms-By Gore (under 6th, give them two and neither can attack), Steel Golem, Celestial Dawn (it's getting Gloomy in here), Cinder Giant, Jackal Pup (fire in the hole!), Mishra's War Machine, Black Lotus (that one's just to see his face. That and to see if you can get it back), Emberwhile Djinn and, of course, Enduring Renewal. Every Fruity Pebbles deck needs a plan B.
Fatigue 1U
Sorcery. Target player skips his or her next draw step. All: Useless
This card looks like it should be good. He skips his draw step! If you keep doing that, he gets no new cards. But think about the card some more. All it does is prevent your opponent from drawing a card. Sure, it gives you a 'lock'. But if you don't lock them down, them not drawing a card and you drawing an extra one are not that different. If you can cast this every turn, it's probably easier to recurse Time Warp so you don't have to worry about your opponent's cards at all, or some way out of the lock, which seems to me to be a much bigger issue than the mana you save. You could use this with Howling Mine, but the whole point of the Mine strategy is to give your deck the fuel it needs while giving your opponent more fuel than he can use. If he's drawing 2 cards most turns, not drawing any one turn isn't going to matter that much.
1/1, if it is enchanted it gains flying. All: Useless
Clearly, it has to be enchanted to be good. No deck I know enchants even half its creatures, and those that would come close would be white. Since the flying version is good but not broken, this isn't going to work.
Enchanted Creature gains flying. 2, sac: Draw a card. All: Useless
You know, it's cards like this that make most reviewers just make some picks instead of painfully explaining why all the cards that are useless are useless. Launch is utterly useless, costs the same amount, and is recurring. The recurring effect is better than the cycling from play effect in Destiny.
Flying. When it comes into play, return target enchant creature card from a graveyard to play enchanting it. EX,T2: Useless US: Weak
If you get the best-case scenario, you get an enchantment like Gaea's Embrace and this creature is the bomb. Get something pedestrian like Zephid's Embrace, and it's pretty good. You can't count on your opponent to play enchant creature spells, which means you need a worthy one in your graveyard. If you cast it and the creature got killed (or the enchantment did) you can afford a real creature. If you put the enchantment into the graveyard some other way, you're probably doing too much work for the effect you're getting. And to insure you even have one available, you'll have to play more than a normal constructed deck should.
Kingfisher 3U
2/2 Flying. If it is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card. All: Useless
This costs one more than Wind Drake, which seems about right for a card on its death. But Wind Drake was pretty bad. In general, once you spend four mana or more on something, you don't want gradual card economy gain. You want something that wins games, or at least stops you from losing them. 2/2 flyers for four mana with interesting abilities just end up putting you far behind on time unless you're using them as finishers. And there's no real reason to do that.
Enchantment 1U, discard a card: Draw a card EX,T2: Weak US: Good
It's a question of time. It takes seven mana to get the effect you get from Frantic Search for free in inslightly better form. If this is going to be good, you'll need to spend massive amounts of mana on it. Decks that generate that kind of mana generally don't want to be discarding their mana for the rest of the game, although some do peak at between six and eight mana. A Medallion reduces the CC of most of your spells by one. This gives them all Cycling 1U, which is worth less than that (reduce the cost of most cycling spells by 1 and take away cycling, and they get pretty good; the rest were lousy anyway). This costs more. Still, if you're interested in stacking your graveyard and have this kind of time this isn't a bad way to do it.
Metathran Elite 1UU
2/3. If enchanted, it's unblockable EX: Weak T2: Good US: Excellent
Blue doesn't have that many good creatures. The Elite is a good creature, relative to what blue has available, when played in a deck with enchantments. In particular, it combines very well with Sigil of Sleep and Curiosity. If you put an Unstable Mutation on him, before he dies he'll do 15 damage. This is good Magic card design: A solid card, which has an ability it gets when it most needs it, without being a problem. It should have been a Merfolk, but you can't win them all. Phantom Warrior wasn't that good, because he was a bad defensive creature. This one gives you both options.
1/1. Unblockable. All: Weak
I'd rather pay full price and bring in the Elite. This one really needs to be a Merfolk. In general, cards that only do one damage a turn are not that good. Sure, you can enchant it and all, but you really need to. It's too hard for blue to take advantage of this creature. In green, he'd be better. In fact, it's probably in U/G that he's strongest.
Opposition 2UU
Enchantment. Tap an untapped creature you control: Tap target artifact, creature or land. EX: Weak T2,US: Good
It turns all your creatures into cheaper Icy Manipulators. It's harder to use well than it seems to be, because to get a really good effect you probably are going to end up overcommiting, and playing more creatures than you would like to in control. You can use it better in an aggressive deck, by tapping your opponent's blockers to get through every other turn or every turn if you have enough creatures. You can also use it as an engine, bringing out Deranged Hermit or Sengire Autocrat or something similar to lock down your opponent's entire side. Or you can use it with Morphling or Horseshoe Crab or other untapping creatures.
Growing. When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, draw X cards. All: Useless
These spells are like putting a giant 'kill me' sign on a creature, which turns into a big 'neutralize me, but don't kill me' sign soon thereafter. The chance that they won't be able to kill the creature early on and will have to later on isn't that high. You could also put it on your opponent's creature, but that requires you to keep it alive for a while and then kill it. In any case, it's going to be a decent wait for those cards, and you'll end up making sacrifices of some sort to get them, if you ever do.
Quash 2UU
Counter and lobotomy target instant or sorcery. T1,EX,T2: Weak US: Good
Quash is overcosted by a mana. You can't wait around with four mana with a situational counterspell. And the reactionary nature of the spell will often force you to use it on spells that are pointless to get rid of. Only against Hammer of Bogarden does playing Quash make that much sense. I understand why it can only get rid of instants and sorceries, but it should be able to counter any type of spell. Dismiss was decent because you could basically counter anything and it was fine because you got a card. Quash not only is hard to be able to cast, it requires you to be selective. In US, of course, counters are so bad that even Quash isn't bad.
1/1, Legend, Whenever one of your opponents targets one of your permanents, draw a card (2 if Rayne is enchanted). All: Weak
If you get one card out of Rayne when they kill it, and that's going to be pretty common, it's a Pyknite. That's not too exciting. If they can't kill it, you could have an Ertai or a Temporal Adept or Barrin instead, which are both much more exciting. An Archivist only costs one more mana. It's even harder trying to figure out which decks would want Rayne over those other creatures.
Rescue U
Instant. Return target permanent you control to owner's hand. EX,T2,US: Good
Because of the way combat works now, Rescue is almost always going to be at least even card economy. Combine that with CIP creatures and your opponent's removal (now including his CIPs), and you get a very flexible card. That doesn't mean that this will prove better than Snap or other recently strengthened bounce cards. It also has obvious connections to Stasis.
Counter target spell unless opponent pays X, where X is the number of blue cards in hand you reveal. EX,T2: Useless US: Weak
In the first few turns, Mana Leak will counter almost anything for the same price without any risk of showing your hand or not having the cards to show. Later on, you'll probably spend most of your time without five blue cards in hand, which is what is required for Scent of Brine to be better. Miscalculation is also better.
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage to a player, return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand. EX,T2: Useless US: Weak
It's a really good limited card, and I built my prerelease deck around two of them. But playing this over Curiosity doesn't make much sense. The Sigil is going to do nothing against too many decks, and doesn't help the creature protect itself. The Sigil will may a place in US block, though, together with Hermetic Study tricks and/or flyers in the blue decks. In addition to the card's other problems, too many decks will have creatures you don't want to return to their hand.
2/2. When it comes into play, look at target opponent's hand. All: Useless
Absolute Gray Ogre. They're starting to incorporate one CC cantrips into them, which as you all know is very exciting. But my psychic powers indicate that no one will play it. If this is going onto a creature, why doesn't it go on a 1/1? Then it would at least make some sense, since you get to see their hand on the first turn. It would probably still need another advantage, though. Maybe put that together with the 'if enchanted it gains flying' ability.
Temporal Adept 1UU
1/1. UUUT: Return target permanent to its owner's hand. EX: Weak T2, US: Good
Time Elemental ended up being nothing more than a trap card, where it got SBed in against decks that wouldn't be able to deal with it. Can Temporal Adept do better? It's clearly a better card, with its ability to engage in combat without blowing up or even apply the beatdown, and the sixth edition rules help it out tremendously. Another detail I think is important is that the activation cost is different. At triple blue, it's basically requiring your deck to be mostly blue, but making it much better if your deck plays all islands. With Time Elemental, activating multiples cost eight mana, which was a ton. Now you need six, which is reasonable. That allows a deck to play four Temporal Adepts. They can also combine with Tradewind Rider, since you can use surplus ones to activate the Tradewinds. Putting that kind of bounce together with Propaganda will make it very hard to get through. Throw in Opposition, and you make every stupid 1/1 into a wrecking ball. Opposition also combines with Morphling, which is a natural card for this deck, to totally dominate the board. The key problem then becomes that half the deck (the Adepts and Morphlings) wants to be mono-blue badly, while the other half ( Tradewind Rider and Opposition) wants to play green. If Stasis was still around, that would be an easy use, since the lock would require only five mana. Storage Matrix isn't really a good replacement.
Thieving Magpie 2UU
1/3, flying, when it damages an opponent you draw a card. EX, T2: Good US: Excellent
It's the new Ophidian, and while the fourth mana in its casting cost really hurts, the flying ability and the fact that it does its damage while you draw cards really help. A deck like Sligh that could ignore an Ophidian (because it could block it) can no longer do that, and may often have to use 2 cards to kill it. Still, it's pretty hard to have enough mana to protect it.
Treachery 3UU
Enchant Creature. Gain Control of enchanted creature. When Treachery is successfully played from your hand, you may untap up to 5 lands. T1: Weak EX: Good T2,US: Excellent
Treachery is probably better than Control Magic. Blue has plenty of stuff to do with four mana, like Magpie and Tradewind Rider (and counters), and a traditional control deck can really use the untap effect, which will finally be used as it was intended to be used rather than as a mana engine, although some decks may use or SB it partly for that purpose as well. Certainly it's a big help to the enchantress engine. I don't think it would be unreasonable to throw four of these into any blue non-combo deck that expects to get to five mana. It's really strong.
Summary of Blue: Blue got some solid additions, particularly Treachery and Thieving Magpie, along with the funky Donate, the solid Temporal Adept and the interesting Opposition. What was really disappointing was that blue didn't get to fill the huge hole in Urza's Saga Block, which is the total lack of good counter magic. Scent of Brine was very weak, and Quash is really a hoser and SB card rather than a normal counterspell. What it did get was a lot of ways to abuse Hermetic Study in that Cycle, in fact more ways than will fit in a single US block deck. Except for the failure to have a decent counter in it (say, by reprinting Dissipate, which I recommend for the next stand alone), I'm happy with blue.
Next up: Black, and the most needlessly complex infinite combo we could find on #mtg.