Pattern Recognition #91 - Mana Denial

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

22 November 2018

1627 views

Good day to you all! My name is berryjon, and this is Pattern Recognition! TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Each week, I endeavor to come to you all with something new and interesting to talk about, be it the history of the game, mechanics, the backgrounds of individual cards, or something a bit more esoteric. I always try to be educational, and am quite willing to listen to your feedback. After all, I can't know everything at all ever!

Well, I can try though. So do share your thoughts on my subject matter at the end of the article!

Today's subject is a matter of some contention. I would say this among players and among the designers of the game. It actually came to me when I was reviewing and critiquing one of the cards sent to me some weeks ago, and it is a subject that has been percolating in the back of my mind for quite some time now because it's not an easy subject to cover.

So let's talk about Land Destruction and Mana Denial.

Now, some of you are wondering why this is a big deal. Sure, Lands get blown up, but that's a rare thing. Mana is supposed to be quite sacrosanct, and taking them out is a big deal. I mean, when Unmoored Ego was revealed, the fact that not only could it target lands, but also Basic Lands was, and is a huge thing.

You just don't have the same scale and perspective that I do. So it's up to me to share!

So let me first ask and answer for you all, one simple question. What is Land Destruction? Well, in the larger sense, it is the ability to target and destroy a player's lands in order to deny them the mana they can use from it. Cards such as Stone Rain through Ajani Vengeant and beyond all do this.

Now, Land Destruction and Mana denial, as I will demonstrate, is a predominately Red part of the color pie. Black gets into the swing of things as well, as does Green on occasion. Blue would rather manipulate or bounce lands back into a player's hand with cards like Boomerang while White is less willing to destroy a land, and instead jsut blow everything up, a la Armageddon or take the opportunity to get more lands, such as with Knight of the White Orchid if they're behind.

And it is because of this that I tend to view Land destruction as a vital, but hard to implement, section of Red's segment of the color pie, one that can't be taken away without taking out one of the few reliable pillars of that color with nothing to replace it.

But what of the cards themselves?

Well, let me work with the non- cards first, as they will be far quicker to cover.

gets one of the most under appreciated, but completely amazing cards in the game - Creeping Mold and its functional reprint of Reclaiming Vines. Not only can this card target lands, but it can also hit artifacts and enchantments - which basically prices the chance to take out a land at over Naturalize.

Now, Green's Land destruction is almost an afterthought. After all, is the color of growth, and that doesn't lend itself to blowing up lands often. Indeed, when it does, it's either an option to other choices, or part of a multi-colored card that also blows things up, so Green brings something to the table, like Drain the Well, or Frenzied Tilling.

Well, that last one might not be the best example, as it's doing the destroying, and getting a land for yourself.

Anyway, Black! Here, we get cards like Choking Sands, a fun little thing that is color-hate, and non-Basic land hate all rolled into one. The supremely cheap Sinkhole, and the slightly more expensive Rancid Earth.

Black, to put it in the parlance of Wizards, has Land Destruction as a Tertiary mechanic or ability. Meaning that for Black, it can get dedicated Land destruction spells, but they won't be commonly printed (but can be printed at Common, such as with Polluted Dead). Rather, it's something that's available to fill a gap in the color in any given set, or more likely, to cooperate with another colour in blowing up a land.

Now for the star of our show, the real God-King of Land Destruction, .

And for that, I want to pick out the one card that I think sets the standard in terms of Land Destruction in Red. And that is Stone Rain. For those of you too horrified by the card's name to check that hyperlink for the card image, it is a Sorcery that says "Destroy Target Land" for .

That's it. It's Murder for Lands!

But that's just the card that I view as the baseline for Land destruction. For you see, outside of gimmick cards like Crack the Earth or Stoneshaker Shaman, Wizards now views destroying a land at a cost of or greater.

For in the place of Stone Rain, it is now Demolish that is the go-to standard for destroying a land. Which is kind of hilarious as both of those cards were printed in 8th and 9th Editions! Meaning that for two full rotations of Standard, Red had access to multiple Core Set cards that blew up lands in the Common and Uncommon slots!

And this doesn't get into cards that can blow up multiple Lands! Such as Wake of Destruction, or Thoughts of Ruin, or Flashfires or Boil or the Bust side of Boom / Bust, or Ruination if you like playing Commander and want to punish them for all the non-Basics they control.

Let me reiterate this. If Red wants your lands gone, then they are gone. No two ways about it.

So please, allow me to ruminate on something about all this.

You see, Land Destruction in Red has slowly gone up in price over time, and that's because it's too good. I've made no secret of the fact that I view Magic as a game of resources, and that your primary resource is your mana base - your lands. And attacking that resource base directly is something that can break the game if it gets out of hand.

And unlike, say, Graveyard recursion, Wizards has kept a far better eye on this mechanic and its repercussions over the years. They keep a tight lid on the genie that is mass Land removal. But they will never get rid of it either.

That's partly because of something I've talked about earlier. The cost of blowing up a single land in Modern has moved from a cost of to a cost of . This is partly because Wizards is keen on the idea of letting players build up their resources first before depriving them of their lands, and years upon years of experimentation, game statistics and calculations have shown that, at least in the Modern format, Magic is a 4 Turn game, in which the game is made or broken on that turn. By moving Land destruction from Turn three - where you can hit a person on their turn 2 - to turn 4 - where the hit is on their third turn - you slow down the arrival of the crippling blow that can turn the game in ones favor.

On the other side, hitting a player that's on their turn 4 with your turn 3 can help equalize, but that's a harder distinction to make.

Regardless, this is the decision that Wizards has made, and I am in agreement with it. Land Destruction is not something that should come quickly or cheaply, not without some drawback to help balance it out, like, say, taking out one of your own lands in the process.

Another thing to consider when we talk about Land Destruction is not that someone is losing a single card on the board, but rather, what is the innate value of that card? And no, I'm not talking about $$$ here. Rather, I want to raise the point that not all Lands are created equal. Even discounting Basics, what is the comparison between, say, a Battlefield Forge and Sacred Foundry? Or Temple of Triumph?

What happens when one of those gets blown up? If a player paid life to the Sacred Foundry, only to have it taken out by a Volcanic Upheaval? Well, what's the answer to that? What's the reason?

Well, some lands are simply more valuable than others to destroy. These include those that produce multiple colors, or, like the Ravnican Bounce Lands, can produce multiple mana at once. Targetting key components to a Mana base, including limited sources of a single colour in a multi-color deck, hitting one of the three UrzaTron Lands, or perhaps a utility land, like pre-banning Ramunap Ruins is far more useful than taking out a more typical, dare I say, basic Land?

Land destruction harms these more advanced targets and the decks that support them disproportionately, and that is certainly something that Wizards has problems keeping straight. But thankfully it's not a large problem. Just one kept in the back of their heads whenever they (re)print a card that can blow up lands.

However, this is not the end of the discussion. Recall that I am talking about Mana Denial here, and while Destruction is a large and vital component of this, it's not the be-all, end all of what's going on.

As a way to limit mana growth, Wizards has started to experiment with allowing Red the ability to tap down mana, and keep it locked down for a turn. I say "started" and "experiment" as Stensia Innkeeper is a card that, while Common, has an ability that hasn't been seen since. There's been no followup on it to see if it's something that really adversely affects Standard or even Modern. It was just a flash-in-the-pan that if I hadn't been told was a case of Wizards making the attempt, I would have aggressively pegged it as a Color Break out of !

In fact, I did, and had it pointed out to me already by players more versed than I. Or with fresher memories than I for newer cards.

Rather, when I think about mana denial, I have a couple of examples that I like to keep in mind. The first doesn't look like denial, but in reality, it's one of the most vicious pieces of punishment for playing the game ever devised.

Manabarbs.

Guess what?

You start the game with 20 life. And what makes you think that a Red deck is going to wait for this card to drop before reducing it even further? This card punishes the player for playing the game, although non-land sources, like artifacts and creatures are protected, it's not like mono-Red has options for those. Lightning Bolt Shatter.

Here is Mana denial taken to its most extreme. By tying the amount of mana you can use in total to your life total, unless you have a reliable way to regain your life, you are massively hamstrung in what you can do. After all, what's the use in casting your super-amazing winning card, or Storming out when simply tapping the mana to cast those spells will kill you?

The other one is a bit more subtle, and isn't Red at all. In fact, when it was printed, it seemed like a quaint little thing that was a second-rate card in its own set, but as part of larger formats? Well, Damping Sphere is actually pretty neat. While the anti-Storm measure is neat, it's not the focus. Rather, it's the ability to punish a player when they tap a land for more than one mana that's the real gem here.

In larger formats, most notably Commander, the Ravnican Bounce Lands are a prime target for this artifact. That they naturally tap for multiple mana is something that players want, so this card targets them for being greedy. Or you know, the UrzaTron.

Wait, that's the second time I've mentioned that this article. Well, for those not in the know, it's the glorious combination of Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Mine. You're welcome!

But if you really want to punish the greedy and deny them their mana, it's real effect is aimed straight at and their ability to use Auras as mana multipliers. I mean, Dawn's Reflection, or Fertile Ground or Overgrowth or Wild Growth all exist, right? This card, while printed in a Standard set, was aimed squarely at Modern and Commander, and there, it does its job with aplomb - slowing down those that are going too fast!

In summation, Mana Denial and Land Destruction is something that is comfortably in 's slice of the color pie, but for good reason, Wizards can't really make it a primary aspect of that color. It's not a solution to the problems inherent in , but it is a key piece of the puzzle in the long and short term.

I would like to see more of it, but not as a constant thing. It needs to be present in the back of player's minds when facing Red, but not so in your face that cards like Crucible of Worlds become mainstays of a sideboard.

And, as a celebration, here's a Deck I cooked up that helps make light and fun of people actually trying to play the game! In fact, by playing this deck, I can all but guarantee you that someone will hate you forver and ever if you used it against them!

Land Denial

Modern berryjon

SCORE: 7 | 2 COMMENTS | 826 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS

Join me next week when I take a look at another batch of Custom Cards and Critique them for your pleasure and my pain!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!