Crossing the Threshold

Omeed Dariani

When a new set is introduced, players quickly look over the new cards and speculate as to their value in the upcoming tournament environment. New mechanics are often the focal point of this discussion, as they affect how the game will be played. For the next two years, the impact of new mechanics will be strongly felt.

New mechanics are the lifeblood of Magic. The constantly changing way we play the game is what makes it so exciting. Since Ice Age, the first set in a block has introduced two new major mechanics. These often catch on with players, who try to find the best ways to use them. From buyback in Tempest, which made it possible to play powerful effects, like the Boomerang effect on Capsize and "draw a card" of Whispers of the Muse, over and over, to the super-popular kicker mechanic, which makes cards ultra-flexible, mechanics are often the most memorable part of a set. Odyssey doesn't disappoint, adding flashback and threshold to the roster of Magic mechanics.

The ability to reuse a spell has long been recognized to be a powerful one. Early cards like Regrowth and Recall allowed a player to exchange cards in his or her hand for cards in the discard pile. The ability to exchange a card for a powerful spell like Ancestral Recall or even Counterspell proved so powerful that Regrowth and Recall were restricted, to prevent them from being abused. In time, more recursion effects showed up, most notably Hammer of Bogardan, which put the "Regrowth" right on the spell. For the reasonable cost of , a player could bring the Hammer back to his or her hand. When an opponent could not deal with this powerful effect, it was often called "Hammer lock."

Flashback spells are very reminiscent of the Hammer. With the ability to play them out of the discard pile, players get two uses out of a card. In the right circumstances, this translates directly into card advantage. If a card was worth playing once, it's probably worth playing again, right? Well, flashback follows that logic perfectly. Compare Call of the Herd to Trained Armodon. Call of the Herd puts a 3/3 token into play for with a flashback of , while Trained Armodon is a 3/3 for . While the Armodon is a solid and undercosted creature, it certainly doesn't see much play. The main reasons are that it is susceptible to Flametongue Kavu and it doesn't fit as well as Chimeric Idol. The cool thing about the Call is that it produces two 3/3 creatures on consecutive turns. So it can trade with an Idol and still make a 3/3 on the next turn. It could trade evenly for a Flametongue Kavu - something few cards can do. The ability to have one card that acts in both the three and four slots for a mana curve is also attractive. Call of the Herd is the quintessential flashback card: powerful, simple and elegant. The Herd's pachyderm cousin, Elephant Ambush, is not quite as strong in Constructed, but will find its niche in Limited. While Call of the Herd is a rare, Ambush is common, meaning that it will show up far more frequently in draft and sealed deck play. The prospect of getting a "Hill Giant" and trading with an unsuspecting opponent's 2/2 attacker is very real, and very dangerous. At eight mana, the elephant comes back, making it a powerful card early in the game, as well as a moderately useful 3/3 thug in the late game. For brute strength, nothing beats Beast Attack. While getting a 4/4 for five mana seems like a fair deal at best, Beast Attack has two other advantages. Getting a second beast is, obviously, a great deal. The instant speed makes Beast Attack capable of functioning much like Flametongue Kavu, picking off a key creature. These creatures are more vulnerable to bounce spells than regular creatures, but make up for this weakness, in part, through flashback.

In addition to the token producers, there are several powerful flashback spells. Firebolt springs to the front of the group. A sorcery Shock isn't appealing on its own, but when coupled with the ability to be played twice, it's suddenly a much better deal. The first Firebolt is routinely used to pick off a mana creature like Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves, while the flashback can be used either to pick off another such creature or to create parity with a midgame Flametongue Kavu or Thornscape Battlemage. In last-ditch finisher situations, it can even function as a hard-cast Fireblast, dealing four damage for . The raw power of getting a flexible 2-1 card advantage generator that can double as a way to win the match makes Firebolt an amazing card in both Limited and Constructed.

One of the strongest things about the flashback mechanic is the same thing that made Hammer of Bogardan such a force: A player has to deal with the same spell twice. For blue decks, which rely heavily on permission spells, this means that each flashback spell must be countered twice. It's easy to see how stopping multiple flashback spells could prove to be a huge problem for blue decks. To help combat this, blue gets Fervent Denial, its own flashback counterspell. While it's a little pricey, at and to flashback, the card advantage inherent can make it a worthwhile play. There's no worse feeling than staring down an opponent with six cards in hand, seven islands and a Fervent Denial in the discard pile. The Denial rules out any big spells in this situation. If a player taps out for a big spell like Skizzik or Desolation Angel, he or she walks it right into the Denial. If a player tries to play multiple spells, then the blue player just uses cards from his or her hand and saves Fervent Denial for a pinch. The eventual outcome is that the blue deck reduces the other deck living off the draw and, with a Fervent Denial in the hole, the game is all locked up.

A few other flashback cards are worth mentioning. Ancestral Tribute is a strong life gain spell in blue-white decks, which burn through cards quickly. Acting as a Gerrard's Wisdom for the discard pile, Ancestral Tribute can gain a ton more life than Wisdom. With just a couple of Fact or Fictions and some counterspells, a discard pile can be pretty robust. Later in the game, it is not uncommon to see a fifty-point Tribute, followed only a turn or two later by a second one.

Reckless Charge is a very beatdown-oriented spell. Allowing small creatures to become relatively threatening and giving fresh-played creatures haste throws off the math in a race, causing an opponent to miscalculate. Reckless Charge is six points of damage, by itself, making it a significant threat, either early or late.

The last flashback spell worth noting is Recoup. Recoup is a strong variant on Regrowth, allowing a player to flashback sorceries for their original casting cost. This creates all sorts of powerful plays. Imagine turn one Duress, followed by turn three Duress. Turn four Wrath of God followed by turn six Wrath. Late in the game, Recoup can get any number of spells. It isn't unreasonable to pay the flashback cost of and win with a huge Ghitu Fire from the discard pile.

Threshold is closest in theory to cards like Ashen Ghoul and Accumulated Knowledge. At a certain point later in the game, the cards become more powerful. Threshold activates at seven cards in the discard pile, making spells and creatures even stronger. The key to this mechanic is playing a lot of instants and sorceries - fast decks can't expect to reach threshold before they want the game to end. For aggressive decks, threshold is more of a fallback position, useful when things aren't following the plan. For control decks, threshold can be a powerful weapon, allowing the control player to get more power for less mana and take control of the game with fewer cards.

The most eye-catching threshold card is Kirtar's Wrath. At , it functions just like Wrath of God. With active threshold, this Wrath can turn into a powerful weapon. Against aggressive decks, a Wrath effect is devastating enough, but coupled with the addition of two 1/1 flying creatures, it can seal the game. Aggressive decks tend to play out a lot of cards, leaving them with fewer reserves, so a Wrath hurts. Add to that two blockers capable of taking out small attackers, and beatdown has a whole new defense to overcome. Dealing with two flying attackers creates another resource drain, especially when a deck has to turn its burn spells on them. While this spell is not a replacement for Wrath of God, it will certainly show up in any Odyssey Block control decks, and possibly as a fifth or sixth Wrath in Standard.

Aggressive decks have always had a problem: if control decks deal with their early threats, they're out of luck. This happens because aggressive decks tend to pack small, fast threats, which are effective in multiples, before an opponent has set up, but become less effective with each passing turn, as an opponent finds more ways to remove or neutralize them. A few kicker cards, like Kavu Titan, helped aggressive decks. Threshold is even better. White decks probably benefit from this more than any other color. Take Divine Sacrament, for example. Divine Sacrament functions as a Crusade for , which isn't that bad. For a monowhite deck, this is almost as good as Glorious Anthem (just as good against nonwhite decks). If the game gets into a ground stall, Divine Sacrament grants all white creatures an additional +1/+1. Several white creatures, like Mystic Pathfinder, have this threshold ability built-in, making them potent on their own.

Several threshold creatures have special abilities which either activate or become increasingly effective with seven cards in the discard pile. One of the most notable is Nomad Decoy. Acting as a slightly overcosted tapper, the Decoy is just fine, even without threshold. At threshold, it doubles its effect, able to tap two creatures instead of one. In Invasion Block Limited, creatures with this ability, like Stormscape and Thunderscape Apprentice, proved to be very valuable, especially in multiples. Nomad Decoy can be just as good as two of these guys. Look for it to slow down aggressive decks in Limited.

Threshold and flashback have one thing in common: they're both mechanics designed to get the most out of a single card, flashback capable of being played twice and threshold enhancing a spell. Both mechanics come into play later in the game, but in the well-paced Invasion Block/Odyssey environment, getting to the midgame is a given. Using these powerful new spells is only a matter of time.