Conventional wisdom is that burn spells are
less than impressive in Commander and other
multiplayer settings. Conventional wisdom has
clearly forgotten that Hammer of Bogardan
exists. Back in Mirage, there was very little
else like it, and it almost caught the world
unprepared. Nothing feels worse than having a
game-changing damage spell countered or
otherwise neutralized; but few things feel worse
for an opponent than countering or neutralizing
a spell and then being asked to do the same
thing again next turn. Still, I say it only
"almost" caught the world unprepared because it
first appeared in the same set as Dissipate.
Thanks a lot, Wizards.
Still, in Commander or some similar setting
(and why not - singleton style makes everything
better!), you only have to worry about at most
one copy of Dissipate per opponent. I like those
odds.
Today's card of the day is Hammer of Bogardan
which is a three mana Red sorcery that deals
three damage to target creature or player and
during your upkeep for five mana can be returned
to hand from graveyard. This is a card that
offers a bit of help for Red's tendency to run
out of steam in the later game, but three mana
for three damage or eleven for six is usually
not worth it currently. The main benefit is
being able to spread the mana cost out over
turns as three or five and repeatedly cycle it
every turn if eight mana total is available.
That is a bit slow for Constructed, but is
technically efficient in long games with lots of
mana available and still sees some play in
Multiplayer and Commander as a result.
In Limited this is a very useful card to have
when running Red as your primary color as even
with a bad draw, such as a late game land, this
can still be used to run down the clock. The
primarily Red casting costs keep this from being
easily splashed, so usage in Sealed depends
entirely on the pool available. For Booster this
can be a first pick, though running mono-Red to
support it is recommended.
We could look at Hammer of Bogardan in two
different ways. We could consider how good or
bad it was back when it was first released
during Mirage, which was in 1996. Or we could
see how good or bad it is now, in modern times.
Ah, who am I kidding. Let's do both!
Unfortunately, the answers aren't going to be
all that different. Hammer of Bogarden just
isn't all that good. The only real difference is
that back then, it was less bad. Not "good,"
just "less bad." Because Magic was just starting
to develop and balance itself, having realized
some of its early mistakes. Lightning Bolt was
on its way out, not to be seen reprinted for
another 14 years. And the format as a whole was
much slower. Cards were less efficient, costs
were high. 3 damage for 3 mana at sorcery speeds
wasn't outlandish, considering that 3 damage
killed quite a large amount of creatures.
Nowadays you likely wouldn't be caught dead
spending 3 mana for that amount of damage.
Assuming you're not just playing Lightning Bolt
itself, there are countless options for 2 mana
that deal 3 damage and tend to do something else
good as well. Lightning Helix, Incinerate, the
list goes on. Even Volcanic Hammer is
technically better, and not many people played
Volcanic Hammer.
We are, of course, ignoring the elephant in
the room. This isn't just direct damage, this is
REUSABLE direct damage. That changes things
considerably! Being able to reuse a card - any
card, in any context - adds quite a bit of
value. Or at least it would if it didn't cost 5
extra mana. The mana cost, both then and now,
was considered a bit high. It is concievable
that you might have 5 mana lying around late
game that you have nothing better to do with. Or
there might be some dangerous threat on your
opponent's side of the field that you need to
get rid of RIGHT NOW or lose the game, in which
case it's worth it to lose your 5 drop (or 8
drop) in order to deal with it. The extra
versatility in the card is welcome, and back
then the idea of a card returning from your
graveyard to your hand on its own so it could be
cast again was a new and exciting concept. But
the numbers just never really added up.
We're looking at 3 mana for 3 damage. 11 mana
total (+8, spread over some turns if you like)
for 6 damage. 19 mana for 9 damage. If you're
sinking this much mana into this card, you'd
have to wonder if your lack of other plays might
just cause you to lose the game. You could find
some tricks to generate more mana or something,
but if you're going to go to all that trouble
there are better cards to spend it on.
That is a pretty sweet looking hammer,
though.
Overall it's slow, and it's clunky, and it's
expensive. But it's from a time when Magic as a
whole was slow and clunky and expensive.
Magic just can't make its mind up about how much
a 3-damage spell should cost. Is it fair at
instant speed for one mana? For two? Should you
get an additional rider on the end if you pay
two, like Incinerate? Should there be a drawback
if it's one mana, like Sonic Seizure or Shard
Volley? More importantly, how much of a drawback
does sorcery speed count as? For a burn spell,
it's relevant, as you can't play it in combat or
combine it with a first strike creature (one of
red's tricks).
Today's card is a 3-damage sorcery for three
mana, which should be under the curve and
therefore deserving of a second ability by any
metric. And sure enough, it is. And what a
second ability! For years, Hammer of Bogardan
was the main reason Red Decks Won. Spend your
first few turns burning down everything in
sight, and once you get to five mana you can
start bringing your used Hammers back to be
re-cast. This let Red effectively never run out
of burn, and forced the enemy to either draw a
LOT of cards just to keep up the card advantage
race, or run out of resources and succumb.
The goal of red burn decks is to throw burn
spells at the opponent as fast as they can to
take them down to zero life. Sometimes creatures
get in the way that the red mage has to spend
its cards on. Sometimes life gain makes it take
longer to finish off an opponent. That's when
the real weakness of burn decks starts to show
up: running out of cards.
Red has never been very good at drawing cards,
so that's why something like today's card became
very popular. Sure, 3 damage for 3 mana isn't
the most effective burn spell, but being able to
"draw" this card again and again in a game that
has gone on a while is just the kind of help
burn decks need.
By the time you've emptied your hand, hopefully
you have or are getting close to the 5 mana
needed to bring the hammer back, so you're never
left with an empty hand, lots of mana, and
nothing to do.
The cards we are reviewing this week were chosen
for their iconic art. Hammer of Bogardan's art
depicts well the raw power that it can unleash
and has become a symbol of Magic. However, I am
aparently in the minority in that I never found
this particular piece of art to stand out above
the rest. It seems to lack the realism that most
of the other greats have.
