Invasion Card Spotlight: Meteor Storm

Gary Wise

Meteor Storm Enchantment Rare , Discard two cards at random from your hand: Meteor Storm deals 4 damage to target creature or player. Illus. John Avon 256/350

I get to be the first one to call Meteor Storm the new Stormbind. Often, when people start calling a card 'the new whatever,' I roll my eyes with the understanding that the slightest variance in the card's power, speed or casting cost makes it so the two cards aren't really comparable. Shock is not Lightning Bolt, Mind Warp is not Mind Twist, and Time Warp is definitely not Time Walk.

That said, Meteor Storm comes pretty close to being the new Stormbind. Doubling each of the older card's attributes except for casting cost, Meteor Storm is a less versatile version of the original that, five years after being printed, is still being played in Extended. Stormbind is obviously an extremely powerful card, so let's remove it now from this equation.

While four mana and two cards to deal four damage to one target is a hefty price, for the next year Standard Constructed will include a popular little fella' named Squee, Goblin Nabob, and when you get Meteor Storm going with two of them, chaos ensues.

Due to the format surrounding those cards, it is more likely than not that that combination will have to be used more as a finisher then as creature control. With Green, White and Red decks being capable of coming out of the gates at an extraordinarily fast pace, one has to think that six mana (2cc, 4 activation) and two cards to kill your first creature is just going to be too slow. Once you've established some kind of board control however, the Meteor Storm will help maintain it.

Another problem is that we have to assume that with the exodus of three sets in Standard, Blastoderm will become more popular, with the Meteor Storm player's only option being to try and race. Of course, once you get to 8 mana and four Nabobs, Blastoderm is a little too slow.

While definitely playable in Limited, the Meteor Storm's power level is deceptive. While Stormbind was capable of killing a 2/2 creature for one card and two mana, the Storm must use twice that to kill the same creature, a price that is seldom worth paying. Instead, the Storm will generally be more of a support card here than a table dominating force, much like Murderous Betrayal, a card that is also capable of mass kill at major expense, killing only those creature one desperately needs to rid themselves of.

Interestingly, the most comparable card from Masques block to Meteor Storm is a creature, not an enchantment. Latulla, Keldon Overseer, does very similar things to the Storm, with the Legend costing three more mana, allowing it to attack or block as a 3/3 creature. Like the Overseer, it seems like more often than not, the strength of Meteor Storm in Limited play will be the threat of its being used more than its actual usage.

One area where the Storm is better than Latulla is in that it can be used on multiple targets each turn. While this requires massive resource expenditure, the ability to remove two pivotal creatures at once can be a key one, even though your opponent can plan for this eventuality accordingly.

As with the other multi-colored cards in the set, drafting the Storm will provide color co-ordination difficulties. Fortunately, Red/Green has, is and will be one of the most popular archetypical draft styles out there, so being able to draft a deck to suit Meteor Storm shouldn't be overly difficult.

If nothing else, Meteor Storm will put your opponent on the clock. All of a sudden, even if they have established board control, they find themselves racing against time. Every action they take will now have to account for the four cards in your hand being equivalent to 8 points of damage. No matter how you look at it, that's a tough game to win.

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Tomorrow: Dave Price gets medieval with Obliterate.