Cards like Evacuation have always found use as
"blue Wraths". Against a quick aggro deck, a
controlling build may find a simple Voyage's End
just isn't enough to stop the cavalcade of quick
beats coming at you. Something like this can
clear the board and make the aggro player start
fresh, especially when you've just topdecked
that blocker you needed three turns ago. But of
course, that's not the interesting part. This
isn't just Evac, it's Evac PLUS you get to keep
a threat on the board. A BIG one, most likely.
In Theros block, there are currently six cards
that will stay in play once you've cast this.
Floodtide Serpent is filler and not worth
playing. Sealock Monster is decent enough in
Limited for its spot on the curve. It's the
three Krakens that make this card interesting,
all three of them costly but fearsome threats
once they hit the board. The sixth card is Kiora,
the Crashing Wave, who isn't a creature but
whose Ultimate can make Kraken tokens. Expanding
the list to Standard doesn't add much-- only
Nimbus Swimmer, who might actually benefit from
being bounced and re-cast later. Unfortunately,
all of Thassa's most fearsome beasts tend to
suffer from "Island Fish Jasconius syndrome"--
bouncing everything but them would be a beating,
but a deck that runs that many overcosted
creatures isn't on the fast track to victory
anyway.
Luckily, Whelming Wave isn't too hindered by the
foibles of its tribes. Like I said before, it's
still Evacuation, and that gets played. Plus
somewhere out there is a guy who's shuffling up
one of these into his casual Changeling Zoo
deck, and that sounds like fun.
In FNM and higher settings, this card basically
reads "Return all creatures your opponents
control to their hand." But while powerful and
worth playing, that is, frankly, boring. This
card was clearly intended for the people who
recreated Kiora Atua's deck from Duels of the
Planeswalkers in real life. It's for the people
whose Changeling Zoo deck has trouble punching
through herds of Saproling tokens. It's for the
people who play Quest for Ula's Temple in a deck
whose nickname includes the word "R'lyeh". And
since it works on Gods - remember that's a
creature type that isn't Kraken, Octopus,
Serpent, or Leviathan - it should be for Kiora
to use to conquer Theros (or would be if we
didn't already know that the story is about
Elspeth).
Today's card of the day is Whelming Wave which
is a four mana Blue sorcery that returns all
creatures to the hands of their owners with the
exception of krakens, leviathans, octopuses, and
serpents. There are enough creatures in those
types or that count as those types to build a
deck around, though it is a fairly small pool
overall to work with. A deck with a few members
of that group using this to mostly clear the
field is a viable strategy and one that may see
competitive play alongside Kiora, Nimbus
Swimmer, Quest for Ula's Temple, Kraken
Hatchling, or changelings. Even without
creatures immune to the bounce it is a variant
on Wrath of God that works well with enters play
abilities and Haste, offering many deck
possibilities in Standard, Modern, and
Multiplayer.
In Limited this resets the field for a turn
in most situations and is an annoyance at worst
that leaves you at a four mana disadvantage in
recovering for being the one to cast it, though
it is balanced by having the first creature
plays and usually first attack afterwards.
Definitely playable and a reasonable first pick
in Booster and otherwise lower priority cards
like Kraken of the Straits gains extra value as
a second or third pick. In Sealed the pool
benefits from cards immune to the effect, but
even without them it is well worth including in
a Blue deck if the pool is playable.
Whelming Wave made all of the Serpents,
Leviathans and Krakens swim from the bottom of
card boxes with the hopes of being put into a
deck! Tromokratis is leading the charge while
sitting perfectly still. Whelming Wave might be
taking the place of Supreme Verdict as the prime
removal spell in standard control. Four mana is
really cheap for a card that returns almost all
creatures to their owner’s hands. I could see
Whelming Wave becoming more and more popular as
time goes by. Removal spells that can give you a
clear advantage are hard to come by. I have my
fingers crossed with hopes that we will be
seeing a Mythic Octopus printed soon!
