Like a cross between Fog and Evacuate, this can
turn alpha strikes into game losses
and completely up-end overcommittment. You have
to leave four mana up for it, which would
broadcast a trick in white or green but in blue
most opponents might read that as counterspells.
If that's the case, they'd probably attack first
and wait to see what happens, which would play
right into your hands!
The only place I don't like this card is in
multiplayer. There, you usually have to save it
for when someone's going for lethal at you--
there isn't much room to play with it
tactically. Further, you can only disrupt one of
your opponents.
This costs just one mana less than Evacuation,
for much the same effect. Granted, the creatures
have to be attacking you at the time, but if
you're looking for an effect of this type,
chances are you're playing a deck that is likely
to be attacked early, and which is probably good
at looking vulnerable. Nothing says "Please rush
me" more than playing lands for your first four
turns and nothing else, and people often do take
the bait. Of course, you'd better have a plan
for what happens after you bounce a bunch of
attackers. This card will never be as widely
useful as things like Day of Judgment, but it
has its role to play.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is a
powerful limited combat trick with some serious
multiplayer applications. In standard this card
is relatively expensive and highly reactive I
could see this card maybe slipping into some
sort of fog style deck and as creatures become
more and more aggressive this card could be used
by control to buy time but I don’t see it
getting the nod over traditional cards such as
Terminus or Supreme Verdict. In modern and
legacy and vintage this card just isn’t up to
the competition. In casual and multiplayer this
a powerful card similar to Evacuation but only
nailing attacking creatures, it is a powerful
defensive tool for protecting yourself or others
and is a powerful compliment or replacement for
single target bounce spells. In limited it’s a
powerful bomb of a card and is hard for
opponents to play around and provides a powerful
effect for a reasonable cost. Overall a card
with some limited and kitchen table applications
and I would not be surprised to see decks
needing to buy time playing this against the
current creature filled version of magic.
Today's card of the day is Aetherize which is a
four mana Blue that returns all attacking
creatures to their owners hands. Primarily
this is a weapon against token and other swarm
decks where it can cripple any offensive that
gets past the usual counter and bounce mechanics
Blue provides. That application puts it as
more of a sidedeck card and it excels in that
role, despite the slightly higher mana cost.
While it can be used in response to a similar
effect from an opponent to protect your own
creatures, scenarios where that comes up will be
unlikely and a simple countermagic would cost
less mana and have other applications.
In Limited this can easily win a game depending
on the battlefield and at least stalls things
long enough to acquire a defense or go on the
offensive. An automatic inclusion for
Sealed and early pick in Booster it has
particular value as a psychological weapon later
in a match by making any opponent view a card in
hand as potentially this after being hit by it.
Sideboard gold against fast, aggressive decks,
slowing them down significantly and/or making
them have to play more cautiously. Either
way, very good for you. It's an auto-play
in limited, and I would even splash it in if I
could color support it. Casual players I
think will be more meh about this card, and it's
way more suited to one-on-one activity, making
it near useless in a multiplayer environment.
Expect to see a lot of this card in either block
or standard sideboards if the metagame involves
a lot of speed decks.
