This card sort of reminds me of Putrefy,
Mortify, Wreak Havoc, and Wrecking Ball from the
first Ravnica set-- it was a sort of subtheme of
spells that could destroy one of two permanent
types. Abrupt Decay can destroy any permanent
type-- except lands. Since the game of Magic has
gained a permanent type since the last time we
were on Ravnica, that makes Abrupt Decay a
pretty sweet card... except for its drawback. It
only hits cards with CMC 3 or less. So it won't
be taking out any Dragons any time soon, and it
can take out Jace 1.0, but not Jace 2.0 or 3.0.
That's still a pretty wide selection of
potential targets. Every deck needs cards it can
play on turn one, but not every deck needs an
eight-drop. Three or less is likely to include
about half of most people's decks. Possibly more
against aggro decks. I can't really imagine
anyone running a deck that doesn't have at least
one target for this.
I'd say Abrupt Decay's biggest drawback isn't
the fact that it can't hit cards that cost four
or more. It's the fact that it costs black and
green mana, which pretty much locks you into
Golgari. See, Ravnica's environment may be
multicolor, but it's still designed to encourage
two-color decks, not so much a lot of splashing.
Maybe if you're mostly black or mostly green,
you could splash this, but three or more colors
is harder. Especially when green alone already
has Disenchant, and that kills a lot of what
this card kills plus more expensive cards.
If there's a solid Planeswalker that only costs
three or less out there (Tibalt?) then this
would be amazing. It kind of already is-- I dont'
see many Golgari decks passing up the
opportunity to run it. But its ubiquity in the
coming format will be dependent on the ubiquity
of the Golgari-- it's only as good as the decks
that can cast it, and I don't see it being all
that worth a splash.
I'm not sure which is more disturbing: the fact
that they're releasing so many things that are
clearly engineered to be weapons against
Snapcaster Mage, or the fact that it's been
confirmed that Gatecrash won't have a Gruul
member of the cycle despite the fact that that
guild has both of the colors that are supposed
to be the best at hosing Snapcaster Mage. (Yes,
really. Look it up.) Actually, I think it's the
fact that three of the members of that cycle are
instants or sorceries, and that you can
basically no longer beat Delver decks on the
stack, and that Smother and Putrefy used to be
ridiculous but now look kind of clunky, at least
in competitive play.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Abrupt Decay a chase rare and powerful removal
option from the new set. In standard this
removes all sorts of permanents and provides a
way to deal with threats and can resolve against
control decks it provides an immediate answear
to various permanent types and provides and easy
and efficient answer. In modern the amount of
targets this card hits is increased and any card
that can kill a Tarmogoyf and a Pyromancers
Ascension is indeed powerful and versatility is
the name of the game here. In legacy expect this
card to see large amounts of play as the
versatility is amazing and flashback with
Snapcaster Mage is pretty solid. In casual and
multiplayer it provides a versatile removal
spell that falters late game as the threats
increase making me wary of recommending this but
the ability to kill anything in the early game
is powerful enough this could see some play. In
limited it’s a removal spell making it a high
pick. Overall a powerful card that will see play
in almost every format its legal in and is
versatile and powerful.
Today's card of the day is Abrupt Decay which
is a Black/Green instant that can't be countered
by spells or abilities and destroys target
nonland permanent with converted mana cost of
three or less. This is a very nice source of
removal in high speed formats and many decks
with both colors will be running multiple
copies. Not being countered is very
painful for Blue and overall a two mana removal
that works on low cost planeswalkers, artifacts,
enchantments, and creatures is a bargain.
In Limited there may not be as many viable
targets with the slower format and higher mana
curve, but the flexibility to work against
nearly
any cheap threat makes it a must play for
Golgari in Sealed. As a rare
and removal this is an easy first choice in
Booster that leads into a Black/Green build, but
splashing for it if other packs offer different
options is easily managed.
Welcome to an exciting new
week of card of the day reviews here at
Pojo.com! This week we begin by looking at
Abrupt Decay from Return to Ravnica. Abrupt
Decay is a rare green and black instant that
costs one green and one black mana. Abrupt Decay
can't be countered by spells or abilities.
Abrupt Decay destroys target nonland permanent
with converted mana cost 4 or less.
Abrupt Decay is definitely one of those spells that you look
twice at, shake your head for a moment before
diving onto it and never letting go. So many
good cards fall into the 3 mana or less category
that to overlook being able to destroy them
without fear of a dreaded counterspell is just
ridiculous. Several of the decks making waves
rely on those three mana or less cards. A Delver
of Secrets for instance is a one mana, that when
it is transformed is a zero mana. Two mana,
dead. Fencing Ace, only two mana. And the list
can go on to fill this whole article. Point is,
it blows most of your troubles up.
Just such an amazing card that I could go on for three pages
bragging about, but that wouldn't do Abrupt
Decay justice. Here is Abrupt Decay's justice,
abruptly. It is an awesome card, period.
