A Rodent's Rambling's: Fetches... Yea... and Stuff (#4)

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OutspokenFerret

18 September 2014

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There I was, checking up on my spoilers to see what was at Pax, saw a few cool cards, read a few comments, and was scanning through the comments on the new walker and I saw a comment that made my heart skip. Never before had it taken me 30 or so repetitions of a sentence before I understood what it said. "ONSLAUGHT FETCHES ARE IN!"

Now ya, it's exciting, and ya, so many implications, but I am going to intentionally leave the more popular things to the end, and talk about the changes that aren't as immediate. The first card I want to discuss is Blood Moon:

Blood Moon - Most decks are going to be running more fetches now, and that means something is going to get cut, and my thought, is that a lot of people are going to be cutting a few basics to make room for their new toys, although the ability to craft your fixing will make for more accurate fetching. But still, in a few tournaments, I think we may see another Blood Moon uprising like in the last Pro Tour. Be wary as this card may just tank because of the easier fixing of what you want, that would be when you buy in and wait for people to forget about it again.

Squelch - Squelch has already been on the rise, and more fetches only solidify it's power. Being able to keep them off their turn 2 is really going to make it tough for them to keep up with any tempo deck that can abuse a behind opponent (All of them).

I could spend hours going on about cards interacting with the graveyard that get stronger with more fetches, or I can just explain that this is a new format. There are so many options that were previously suppressed by poor fixing, that will now have just what what they needed. Also, old decks also get perfect fixing as well. So I am going to go over a few archetypes to look out for in the coming modern events.

Jund - Now that it has perfect mana, it will have more consistent turns and open it up for a lot more green/red cards that were too hard to cast. We may see Courser come back for Jund, and a few Eidolons from the board.

Junk - Has a lot of options... They can run Knight of the Reliquary to cycle into more fetches, manlands, and tectonic edge/ghost quarters. Bloodghast can offer a consistent aggressor, and they too can run Courser of Kruphix.

Brief things on other decks: Jeskai gets more consistent, as does Scapeshift. Delver may see play in a U/R/x build to prey upon the life being lost, slung with Vapor Snag, Burn, and Eidolon to punish you, as well as Squelch to really screw their game up. Domain Zoo gets some consistency, so I've got my eye on that.

Now, I specifically targeted Modern because that is where specs are most efficient right now, and where fetches change the most things. All in all, demand on Modern will rise, raising prices on other cards, but all the other fetches will take a hit because of this, including the ones in legacy. Long term specs on Foil Fetches, and unopened boxes of this set, it has so many goodies it is silly.

That's it from me on fetches, I want to hear your thoughts though. What do you think of, what cards get better, worse? And do you think that Fate Reforged may provide similar eternal relevance including Zendikar fetches?

Keep an eye out for my next Tails article where I scream like a little grill with excitement as I go over changes to the Skulker deck. And as we start the contest next Saturday!

Happy Building!