They're fun to play with, but extremely annoying when facing against them. As a creature-based player, it would be fun to see your army build up, making my opponent cower in fear from attacking my mass army! I'd grin widely when they try to tilt the cards sideways and later decided not to. Then, they tilt 4 lands, declaring 4 mana into their mana pool, and they dropped this:
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| Surprise! |
If anyone is in my shoe when this happen, regardless how experienced you are, that grin on your face will definitely turn 180 degrees. In a single swoop, the army I have painstakingly build up is gone. Smashed. Bitten the dust. Whatever, the game goes on.
Wrath spells like Wrath of God is a classic in MTG. The appeal factor comes in both the flavour of the card and also the power of it. Mass removals have also become a staple for many formats and it's often still game-turning whenever a spell like this is played.
When Wizards first announced FTV: Annihilation, I think it's really awesome! Just get that set, open them up and slot all them into whatever EDH or eternal decks and start playing! Well, that's still the thought I have. It'll be fun to nuke the field every few turns, but I think that's pretty much your life-span after the game for the level of trolling...
Now, a full list have been spoilt, I still find them awesome. This "First Look" will be a bit different; Since they all are nukes, No point talking about power level. I'm going to focus more about the art, and flavour instead.
The foremost classic. Destroy all lands for 4 mana, it can really break games! Okay, I'm not talking about the power level here! Alright, back to focus. The new art seems plain at first, but look at the flavour text! Now back to the art! Now back to the text! Did you see what they did! A plain art, but well described by the flavour text that it's because the world is destroyed, it's precisely why it's plain. Thanks to the art designer for not having to see a nuke on every artwork.
Apart from Vintage Masters, we last see this card in Portal: 3 Kingdoms. An expansion that is based on the historical plot of the Romance of the 3 Kingdom. This card is inspired by an actual story plot. As rough summary, Xinye is a small town that was under the governing of Liu Biao (劉表). The main character, Liu Bei (劉备) (they are not related!) sought refuge from him after an attack by a warlord named Cao Cao (曹操). Initially welcoming the refugee, Liu Biao put Liu Bei in charge of Xinye. But, later grew suspicious. He eventually sent Liu Bei to defend against an invasion by Cao Cao in Bowang. As an attempt to ambush his invaders, Liu Bei set fire to his own base and feigned a retreat. He eventually lost the base to Cao Cao and the plot continues later on to the more famous battle: The Battle of the Red Cliffs.
The point is, do you see how much flavour is there is this card? From the art depicting a traditional general in the ancient chinese military escaping the fiery base, to the effect of the card. Burning the ground is bound to damage the ground and as well as anyone unfortunate enough to be trapped in the fire. In short, I love the flavour of this card and as well as the old art being printed for this FTV.
Extremely powerful in the flavour text. In the event of any disaster, the text is true; take whatever you really need. The rest can be found, built or taken back. The art also sticks very well to the definition; "A large-scale and violent event in the natural world."
I actually cannot comprehend the art and flavour text. I just started MTG back then and I honestly have no clue as to what is the storyline. But that alone, I know that based on the art, effect and flavour text, I can guess that if the Child avatar dies, everything perishes with it. Hmm... pretty cool uh if I'm right uh.
This is a nuke at best. Really just exile everything. Nothing else, just destroy lands and laugh at your opponents. It's something that I feel that Red has the advantage in land destruction over the other colours in EDH. Other colours do remove the creatures, artifacts or enchantments well, but they remove by a specific type. Red cards doesn't care. They just remove everything.
Potentially I'm casting a Lightning Bolt on every creature. It's seeing more play in Modern rather than in EDH formats. For the latter, though there are better mass removals in the format, this still does a fine job in removing quite a number of staples and minimizing board presence. Honestly if you ask me, I like the new art more than the old art; for the fact that it better reflects on what the ability does.
Sideboard card for some modern decks. A powerful hate against any decks running heavy artifact or enchantments. Well, the flavour text does give some sort of flavour to the name and effect, but... the art.. Are they really relics? Looks like scarecrows to me...
Kinda reminds me of Living End huh. But, looking at art-wise it is spot-on in the raise from the grave theme. Though I have to say it's really being an oxymoron to say the living death. Any case, this card hits hard; Indestructibility won't help due to its phrasing plus side, a removal with mass reanimating, it's awesome in EDH!
Yea... a coup. We just need 5 soldiers to stage a coup that will render enemies useless (destroy them)... Wait is it really a coup? It looks like a behemoth in the picture! Actually, now that I think about it, remember the show 300? (THIS IS SPARTA!) Hey, when did I last see this card.. Conflux right? Wow... Time sure have past quickly.
Another card from the Portal 3 Kingdoms. Neat art and all, but I thought earthquake will just deal damage to anything? How does horsemanship help? Oh... wait... Another plot device. It's rather fictional in this part, but technically speaking, you can avoid the earthquake damage if you ride off fast enough from the collateral damage zones..
See!! Pollution will cause destruction to our homes! The more polluted the world is, the more we suffer! But, really, cumulative strength of this card is not to be trifled with. Note it states permanents!
All else fails, I want everything back underneath! I love this card. Really. The miracle effect gives a huge bonus to the flavour and the feel to the artwork altogether.
Not really annihilation in the direct sense, but think about it. I cast this, return EVERYTHING back to you. Thanos wanted to destroy everything for death so in relative perspective, I'm still kind enough to return to you... Don't hate me for it.
Oh... so now we are playing with colours... you colourist.... Well, white mana is a symbol directly representing virtue, so there we go! The art and text doesn't seem to correlate well actually in my opinion. The destruction seen is only an empty armour, the town seems.. fine... The art seems to have something in the black stuff... But what is ruined? I don't get the art actually. The text is a meaningful text but it doesn't relate well to the art or effect overall. Yes, as I mentioned earlier that virtue is represented by the white mana... but i think it's a little bit too literal isn't it?
I don't know about for this art... It is awesome to actually see an actual God in the art, representing his wrath, but... Heliod looks kind of an angry shepherd here.. or actually an angry noble Satyr... The destruction art is cool with people flying and knock-backed from the impact of the spear. But... Heliod... why?! You look so cool in your original art....
Wait... No Damnation? Damn it! Well, obviously there are some better or preferred annihilation spells that we would want. I'm personally rooting for Damnation, Supreme Verdict or Merciless Eviction to see print in this over some of the cards here. Nevertheless, I personally feel that if your decklist do need some of these cards, they are pretty decent cards in EDH and specifically one or two for Modern formats. Actually, most are really good mass removals in such multiplayer format. The ones that see Modern play is because of their effectiveness against the deck types available in the meta.
In summary, it's a good FTV if you look at it from the point that it's usable and foiled. But getting it any more than the MSRP is a warning sign to watch out. I personally won't get them if it's anything more than $40.00. Meantime, once you get them, crack them up and slot into your EDH decks! Your opponents will feel the wrath of you!
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