I love single mindedness. Missions. Goals. I love having the tools to meet those goals. Wanna make sure your opponent doesn't have any creatures? Wraths. Routs. Catastrophes. These are the nuclear arsenal of Magic.

So… How many four-color decks have you made in Sealed events this season? Five-colors? That's what I thought. I just spent the past three hours scrapping it out against outright bombs like Rumbling Slum and Niv-Mizzet to get a marginal win at the local card shop in a Two-Headed Sealed tourney. I didn't have a single one of my favorite weapons.

My MVP?

Agent of Masks.

Everybody there said one of two things.

“You're playing that? *squishy face*”

or…

“Should be a short game.”

And really, nine times out of ten, they're right. But this isn't Mirrodin block. You're not making affinity Every. Stinking. Draft. (If you don't believe me, go run a Mirrodin/Darksteel/Fifth Dawn draft and let me know who wins. I'll wait.) I'll get back to my underrated MVP in a second, but let's chat about explosives, shall we?

The fact is that Ravnica is one of the most skill-testing sets to arrive in quite some time. Dragons and Angels are still huge threats, but there are so many answers waiting in the weeds that a friend of mine (He's even worse than I am) at one point said that he “wasn't going to bother playing creatures anymore.” My guess is that he was tired of losing them to Putrefy and her sexier and much more useful (you know it) younger sister Mortify.

But fear not, my good friend.

That's the beauty of this format. Lots of nasty beaters and lots of nasty one-on-one removal. And there's plenty of mass removal. Shouldn't control be the dominant deck these days? With so much creature hate, why are aggro decks turning tournaments into their stomping ground? When was the last time you can remember that playing a nuclear weapon was so tricky? Let's take a look at the weapons in Ravnica's arsenal.

Plague Boiler – While I love engines that make disease, I'm underwhelmed by this card, especially in constructed. Oblivion Stone offered some immediacy. Eight colorless mana and I can make the table go boom. Plague Boiler = a twelve mana investment in immediate destruction and it can be destroyed before it ever goes off! No. Thanks.

Hour of Reckoning - Solid stuff. This token-loving Wrath has swung many a game for me in draft and two-headed sealed. There's just one problem. Ever been killed by a Saproling with a Moldervine Cloak on it? I thought so. Not to mention this card works best in a deck with lots of creatures. Most of which are going to eat it. While the potential to completely turn the game is there, against certain decks, he's just going to get you killed faster. That said, I think that this particular bomb is one of the best on the list, if not the best. We'll see about that.

Culling Sun – Looking over the Grand Prix – Madison top 8, I don't see a Culling Sun among them. Nobody wants to destroy their hyper-efficient beatsticks (Watchwolf, I'm looking in your direction) and pain-in-the-ass evasion creatures (Mourning Thrull and Shrieking Grotesque, you two get back here!) while leaving an opponent's unwieldy fatties on the board. Especially in draft. I'm not sure I can even see it working out in some sort of constructed environment where there aren't tons of good reasons to play aggro (Owling Mine) and plenty of reasons not to play control (Owling Mine). That said, I've tried. Trust me here; Culling Sun? Fun, but not good.

Side Note: Let me interrupt this done-to-death card review stuff to let you all know that Shadow Lance is a serious contender for most painful casual card to play against ever. I'll let you imagine the details.

Savage Twister – BOOM! The best. I just wish it were in other colors. Let's face it, what do the Gruul do best kids? “Attack with creatures?” That's right chil'ren. Look, it's a fabulous card. It kills all kinds of things, but… I've just never found myself wanting to use it. Except as a splash in Red/Blue which, believe it or not, has trouble with large numbers of large creatures. Best card of the group, but the one I use the least. It was in the winning team's deck at Madison though, so I'm pretty sure you should be using at least one. Or more. It's pretty good, eh?

Blockbuster – I know what you're thinking. Blockbuster? Seriously? Have you ever played Magic, Joe? Look, I'm just including everything, all right? Cut me some slack already. Blockbuster… What can I say about you that hasn't already been said? Well, I can say that I've used you successfully twice. How many times have I tried to get you to work? Too many. You're so wishy washy, Blockbuster. You never just deal three damage to everyone. I hate you. I'm leaving.

Brightflame – I wanted so badly for this card to be good. I had sugar plum dreams of gaining a pantload (a pantload is something like…14-16) life off this guy. I saw three creatures in play. I saw five damage for each of them. Then I saw that it would cost me nine mana to do it. In a color not known for accelerating itself. Then I saw that my dream was crushed. And I cried.

Razia's Purification – Sexy. It's really fun to use in multiplayer. That is all.

I'm leaving a few out though. Rain of Embers is too narrow and Cleansing Beam is just not good enough to include. I'm sure there are some more I'm forgetting, but these are the ones that are either funny enough to laugh about or good enough to mention.

The point of all this is to explain something.

It is tough to have all of your creatures whacked at once in this block. It is also much tougher to gain the card advantage and tempo gain that explosives give you fast enough to keep yourself from dying. (Barring an ol' fashioned Wrath of God)

I love playing control; But no longer will I be able to absorb your withering assault for four turns, drop the hammer, and watch you squirm, confident that nothing can harm me. Rumbling Slums and Loxodon Heirarchs and Grave-Shell Scarabs, oh my.

This is a good thing. Long has the threat of one sided nuclear war kept really good creatures on the sidelines because they just don't offer enough to beat the dominant removal of a given set.

Like my Agent of Masks.

We had plenty of threats, my partner and I. Streetbreaker Wurms, a lone Ghost Council of Orzhova (which we let die so that our Agent of Masks could live on TWO occasions), Tolsimir Wolfblood. They all died to various one-for-one removal spells. They had to really. Who's going to let Streetbreaker Wurm stay on board? I mean, he has a Magemark on him!

And so Agent of Masks got to stick around for five or six turns. Swinging four life as she went. Winning us game after game. And our opponents never figured out that she was the one to kill first. Skill testing for sure.

I'm not saying that the mass removal that's out there couldn't kill my Agent, I'm just saying that nobody's running it.

So use those awful creatures you never got a chance to. Your good cards will cover for them this time around.

Bonus Section? Sure.

Fitting with my theme today, I've concocted a no-man's land deck. Don't cross the killing fields boys.

Scorched Earth Featured by Joe Johnson on 2006-04-30 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11779.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Solemn Simulacrum Creatures 4 Firemane Angel 4 Temple Acolyte 3 Windborn Muse	Enchantments 4 Faith's Fetters 4 Ghostly Prison 4 Manabarbs 4 Powerstone Minefield 3 Searing Meditation Instants 4 Lightning Helix Basic Lands 7 Mountain 7 Plains Lands 4 Battlefield Forge 4 Sacred Foundry	Stats: Average mana: 2.28 Average creature mana cost: 4.00 Average creature power: 2.27 Average creature toughness: 2.73 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 23.33% Enchantments: 31.67% Lands: 13.33% Creatures: 18.33% Artifact Creatures: 6.67% Instants: 6.67%
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Ever wanted to lock someone down with Propaganda effects but been unsure of how to kill them? Manabarbs, baby. Just win.

It's a pretty straightforward deck; play stuff that keeps you from dying, set up the creature lock down and watch them writhe as they simply can't get through to you.

Meanwhile, you ping them to death with the Searing Meditation on the back of the Firemane Angel that I've handily included in the decklist.

Quickly though, Powerstone Minefield needs to get some love. If you're looking to lock down early attackers, a static, on the field Shock for everyone who wants some is pretty sweet. You can even attack with your own Solemn to pick up that card, should you need one.

Try this guy out, he's won me many a multiplayer game. The aggro guy will HATE you. Especially when his army tries to leave the trench and enters the killing fields.

May you never lose a game to a Sakura Tribe Elder armed with a Jitte.

Joe Johnson, jjohnson at donzimail dot net