Evacuation has been terrorizing tables as an
instant-speed board "wipe" for years now. The
Tide is a sorcery, which makes it a little less
scary (it's not a combat trick, for example) but
it's also a Miracle, which means that it could
be cast for a mere 1U at the beginning of the
Blue mage's turn. Getting this for three mana
fewer means that the caster has an additional
three mana to spend re-casting all of his
bounced permanents (and if he has a Spellbook,
he doesn't need to worry about discarding
anything) as long as he can get good board
position back. And of course, he saw the Tide
coming so he was prepared for it, right? Still,
your opponent will get just as much chance to
recast everything, so unless you plan to follow
up your Devastation Tide with a battery of
counterspells you're not accomplishing much.
Then again, Evacuation can't get an opponent out
from under the Delaying Shield/Phyrexian Unlife
combo. A player relying on artifact mana will
find his ability to replay spells severely
hamstrung by the Tide. And planeswalkers
building up to their Ultimates can be set back
several turns.
Guys, do me a favor? Don't build a deck
specifically designed to cast all its miracle
cards for their reduced cost. The high-level
competitive crowd does enough variance reduction
for all of us, and the fact is that most miracle
cards' full prices are not exactly exorbitant.
Five mana for a mass-bounce spell is quite good,
and if you just happen to be playing green
and/or have artifact mana and can recast more
things than your opponent, all the better. Try
it with Ebony Owl Netsuke.
Today's card of the day is Devastation Tide
which is a five mana Blue or two mana with
Miracle that returns all nonland permanents to
their owners' hands. This is a powerful
effect even at five mana, but the Miracle cost
is amazing when triggered. Two mana should
leave quite a bit available for casting
additional spells, either to refill the field or
counter what the opponent tries to cast.
While the Miracle isn't a sure thing, even with
library manipulation, the full cost is
manageable in a control deck and it shouldn't be
a surprise to see this in various builds for a
while.
In Limited this is an interesting first pick
option when counted as removal and is easily
playable even without the Miracle cost.
Aside from drawing it in your opening hand the
format should make the trigger fairly reliable
and an amazing topdeck in many situations.
That potential justifies the first pick in
Booster and can be supported with Haste or
enters the battlefield effects. A Sealed
build should also play this whenever running
Blue and should be able to take advantage of the
effect more often than not. The only real
concern is the potential to be a dead draw when
your opponent can recover faster than you from
the effect through a large supply of lands, low
cost permanents, or a combination of the two.
For Multiplayer there is always the benefit of
clearing the board for everyone, but having a
deck built with that in mind gives you a decided
advantage in recovering.
Welcome to another great card of the day
review here at Pojo.com! Today’s card of the day
is Devastation Tide from Avacyn Restored.
Devastation Tide is a rare blue sorcery that
costs three generic and two blue mana.
Devastation Tide returns all nonland permanents
to their owner’s hands. Devastation Tide also
has Miracle cost of one generic and one blue
mana.
The new Miracle ability is simply
amazing! And Devastation Tide is an amazing card
even without it. While not the most over powered
card from the set with Miracle, it is certainly
a game changer. With any luck, you would be
casting it for it’s Miracle cost, and then have
a bunch of hasty critters in your hand to then
swing away with. This is though also nice in a
mono-blue deck, where you may not have answers
for things like Planeswalkers, or big creatures,
and bouncing the whole board is your means of a
deterrent.
