I think I've previously mentioned in this
space that there was once a tournament player
named Melissa Bush, who coined the phrase "End
of turn, Fact or Fiction, you lose". That phrase
sounds like hyperbole or gamesmanship, but it's
not. There is almost no good way to play against
this card and so many advantages that can be
gained from it: you can split things that you
feel might work together, but you can almost
never know what the opponent is already holding.
And regardless of how the split goes, the caster
can always just take the larger pile if they
need more cards in hand or to get deeper into
their deck. Add in the stuff that actually wants
to be in the graveyard, and the things that use
the graveyard as though it was another hand, and
this is one of the most dangerous cards in all
of Magic.
Today's card of the day is Fact or Fiction
which is a four mana Blue
instant that has you reveal the top five cards
of your library, have an
opponent separate them into two piles, then you
choose one pile which is
placed into your hand and the other is sent to
your graveyard. The
arrangement of cards being up to the opponent
with the final choice
belonging to you makes this very powerful as you
can get the card you
want most even if it is singled out, while the
process often has a
psychological impact on the opponent.
In Limited the card advantage, though
potentially small, gives this
value and it is a solid play during an
opponent's turn if untapped mana
for removal or a counterspell was otherwise
unnecessary or a bluff.
There's no real drawback to including this in
Sealed when running or
splashing Blue as it is going to improve your
options and it is a solid
second or third pick in Booster.
Like yesterday's card, Fact or Fiction is a card
that is decent at worst, and completely unfair
at it's best.
At worst, you get to cycle through 5 cards of
your library and pick your favorite card (or
cards, depending on how your opponent stacks
them) to put in your hand. That alone is worth
the 4 mana at instant speed.
I must confess that I haven't played with or
against this card an awful lot, so I've only
seen a handful of the ways that it can be fully
utilized, but one in particular is in a deck
that doesn't mind things going to the graveyard.
I saw it in a reanimator deck with Unburial
Rites, where Fact or Fiction was basically 4
mana to draw 5 cards. Put my big creature in the
graveyard? Fine by me - I'll bring it back. Put
Unburial Rites in the graveyard? I'll flash it
back. The idea is to create a no win situation
for your opponent when they are trying to set up
your piles. It can play a mean psychological
game with your opponent as they try to figure
out what you're doing to know how to stack the
cards.
It's not quite as universal for every blue deck,
because it can sometimes put things in the
graveyard you might not want there, but it's
banned for a reason. In formats where it's
legal, it's worth a high consideration.
