Ben Goodman: On Crucible of Worlds

You may have noticed that there is a different Ben for each card this week, and I will tell you that this is not a coincidence. You see, we decided that this week's dilemma was so important that we needed twice the effort. Of course, Ted decided that this week's dilemma was so important that he wasn't even going to bother writing it - you can see where the dedication really lies.

While you'll undoubtedly be swayed to vote for Spelljack later in the article, as Ben's sharp yet gentle prose easily overwhelms Pugg Fuggly's blunt and dull words, thrown onto the page in a manner that an ape might hurl feces at his opposition, leaving a foul and distasteful trail in his wake, defeating his enemies not with calculation but with chunks of pungent waste.

May I remind you, readers, that the only ape that has been in dilemmas before has walked away defeated. Do you really want to side with another? I didn't think so.

Anyway, this next vote is in fact the dilemma between cards crafted by the community. It's only fitting that the public chooses which cards make the cut here, and it's only fitting that the public will make the intelligent decision and pick Crucible.

What, you need more reasoning? Well, there's one big one - only Crucible has seen regular play. In Legacy and in Vintage, Crucible continues to be a wrecking ball, demolishing all sorts of decks with the recurring manlands and Wastelands. Of course, you might say, “But Ben, we don't have those cards in Standard!” And to that, I have two words for you.

Ghost Quarter.

Anyone remember this card? It's going to be a very powerful maindeck and sideboard card at the upcoming Nationals tournaments, considering many decks are not running basics, and it is a very potent reason to not run three-color decks. At the moment, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and the Ravnica duals will continue to be used en masse, but can you imagine how much more tension would be placed on the lands if every deck got to sideboard four of each of these bad boys? People would actually be punished for stretching their bases too far! There's no Price of Progress, Back to Basics, or Dwarven Miner around right now - and no, Blood Moon doesn't really count, as Signets still work and it doesn't actually cost them land drops. Ghost Quarter is the closest relevant hoser we've got, and while it's a good card, it needs a little boost and Crucible will provide it.

But wait! There's more!

For those of you who like your lands to do more than just provide mana, there are two options in the upcoming standard to do so - Quicksand and Mouth of Ronom. Quicksand is not guaranteed to be around, but if it is, this is an ideal card to have early on against aggro decks, especially those that are otherwise hard to handle with removal - Paladin En-Vec, for example, which we know will be around. A Quicksand every turn will be difficult for small aggro decks to deal with, and while Kird Ape may not die to it, well, Kird Ape is not going to be a problem when this sucker's around.

Even more important is Mouth of Ronom. This card is actually awesome, for those of you who haven't played with it yet, and for those of you who have, can you imagine recurring this every turn? Once you hit five mana, you start hitting anything you want for four with a buyback cost of… zero. Zero! Nothing! You just get it back every single turn for free.

I should also point out that there is a very good chance of Ancient dying to a Mouth of Ronom. And everything else ever. Just thought I'd throw that out there - no spells are being played here, just a Mouth into play and a Babycakes to the bin. Hell, what sort of four-mana Green creature is going to give you card advantage when compared to this behemoth? Any useful land that hits the bin comes back, it only costs three mana, any deck can play it, and it won't die unless your opponent is specifically looking to kill artifacts. That's the bargain of the century.

What other angle can I go for here? Well, let's look at the art. Forgotten Ancient? He's a funny-looking tree-man, walking around and touching plants and stuff, generally being a big clump of vegetation that happens to move and make stuff grow. Kinda interesting, I guess. But if we look at Crucible of Worlds, we see this huge %#@!ing thing that's sun-sized and doing some crazy thing that makes an entire planet grow. An entire planet! Forgotten Ancient works on one tree at a time, and then Crucible comes along and is like “Aww, that's cute. Now I'm gonna do what you do to the entire planet.” And then KA-PLANT and it's done. Just like that.

So there are your options. Girly-man plant thing or huge world-growing construct. I trust that you'll make the right choice. If it makes you feel any better, I have a 100% success rate when writing about rare artifacts, so I won't steer you wrong. Worry not, my friends, for the hour of our victory is at hand.

And in the meantime, I'm out.

Ben Goodman
RidiculousHat just about everywhere

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Ben Bleiweiss: On Spelljack

Spelljack?

Jay-Ay-See-Kay.

Ben.