Gifts Ungiven

Although the new Extended rotation policy means that Onslaught gets to stick around for one more year, the extensive drop-off as October, 2008 rolls around means that two key players in the Extended disruption suite will be departing.

These key disruption spells offered a chance to put someone off their game plan on turn one, and, in the case of Therapy, to completely obliterate their game plan either via Flashback or via Duress into Therapy. Ugly.

Although Shards may well bring some good disruption options, it's fun to think about what's already available to us in the world of Onslaught Extended.

Full thoughts in the extended.

This week's latest developments has rolled around, and as I suspected, it was banned in Extended for being slooooow.

The constant activating of Divining Top bogs games down, which ultimately leads to an increase in the number of matches that go to time and beyond, which in turn leads to tournaments running much longer than they have historically.

I don't think I get any points for guessing the reason.

Earlier this week, we had this preview card and, coincidentally, a video by LSV discussing strong choices for the new Extended. LSV's picks match my intuitive picks -- Affinity, Tron.

Unsurprisingly, there's been some hubbub about the Esper shard in Shards (that's the blue-centric one), with all its permanents being colored artifacts. After all, that plugs more or less directly into the linear mechanic that is Affinity.

The Master could -- maybe -- be an utter house in Affinity. Coming in at three mana, the Master is minimally a 4/4 the turn it comes down, in addition to being an effective Crusade for artifacts -- that is, all your creatures, since you've probably taken the Hoverguards out for this build. With a more explosive start, the Master might just be a frighteningly large finisher, especially without Pernicious Deed sitting across the red zone in the new Extended. Consider:

Turn 1: Darksteel Citadel, Ornithopter, Ornithopter, Springleaf Drum, Arcbound Worker, Frogmite
Turn 2: Vault of Whispers, Master of Etherium

Congratulations. Your untapped Thopter, Worker, and Frogmite are swinging for 6 damage on turn two, and your 8/8 Master can join in on turn three for a total of 20+ damage and the kill.

Not bad.*

I look forward to seeing what turns up at Pro Tour Berlin 2008, and possibly to hating out a bunch of Affinity decks when the qualifier season for Pro Tour Austin 2009 rolls around.

*Yes, that's sort of a dream draw. That said, one of the top finishers at GP Vienna 2008 talks in the audio coverage about an opponent with the turn one play of "land, thopter, thopter, Springleaf Drum, Frogmite, Frogmite, Myr Enforcer, go."

Gatherer, the official Magic database, has just been updated. The updates bring the "Standard" and "Extended" menu options in line with the cards and sets that are legal in each format (and, indeed, the Top is not in the Extended search). There is now also a Shards of Alara Block option. They've also rearranged Gatherer -- before, it was all the block options in one place, with the individual sets below. Now, the sets in each block are grouped with their block option.

Click here for Gatherer

Click here for Standard on Gatherer

Click here for Extended on Gatherer

Fun facts from these two searches:

There are 1,486 cards currently legal in Standard
There are 5,036 cards currently legal in Extended