Is it... a Goblin?

No?

Is it... a Dragon?

No?

Then can it kill a Goblin? And a Dragon? And your opponent too?

Oh, yes...

In Ninth Edition, just like in Eighth and Seventh Editions before it, players used to open up a card called Lava Axe. In their own turn, for five mana, Lava Axe would deal five damage to their opponent. This was a nice way of introducing them to the joy of casting a Red spell at your opponent's face and finishing them off just when they thought they had seen off all your creatures.

Lava Axe is a dumb burn spell. No matter what stage of the game, it always does the same thing. There's nothing wrong with dumb burn spells, I hasten to add.

But Beacon of Destruction... now that's a clever burn spell.

Want proof? In Tenth Edition, you can still do five damage to your opponent in your turn, for five mana. Or, if you prefer, you can do five damage to them in their turn. Or, should you prefer, five damage to one of their creatures, like an Elf, or even something bigger (if not quite as squishy). Clever, see?

So Beacon of Destruction can do everything that Lava Axe does, and then more. Which is good for new players, as it introduces them to the power of the Red spell, and gives them the chance to learn about waiting until the opponent's turn to cast burn spells, and how to decide between burning the opponent and burning their creatures.

Us Old Timers should also be happy to see the return of Beacon of Destruction - it's not just for the new kids.

Beacon of Destruction is clearly a top-notch card for Tenth Edition Limited, be it Sealed Deck or Draft. Lava Axe was a card that nearly always made its way into draft decks, even without Beacon's flexibility. In longer games, there is even the chance of casting Beacon of Destruction more than once. If you are drafting and you open a pack with the Beacon, make sure you take it, because you certainly won't find that it gets passed to you very often.

In Constructed, Johnnies will enjoy trying to work out how to make use of the Beacon's ability to find its way back into your library to cast it over and over again - if you can get rid of the rest of your library, then you can cast the Beacon every turn (and it doesn't take many turns of that to leave your opponent nice and crispy). If you have lots of cards which let you shuffle and scry, then you can boost your chances of drawing the Beacon time and again. Apparently there are Blue cards that can help with this, as part of a "counter-burn" strategy. During your opponent's turn you can keep lands untapped to counter their spells, and if they do nothing, you can hit 'em with the Beacon. Beacon also works well on Split Second creatures or ones that cannot be countered - Scragnoth on Toast, anyone?

Beacon of Destruction featured in top-level Red decks when it was first around. I can't remember the name of the designer, but the deck was called "Flores Red." The deck assembled all of the best burn spells, and was able to outlast the different creature decks around at the time, and even the Blue (boo!) counterspell decks. After holding off a creature rush, the Beacons and friends created an overwhelming barrage of direct damage. You can read about the Beacon of Destruction deck here. Wanted more proof about how clever Beacon of Destruction is? It even got a whole Philosophy named after the deck in which it appeared!

It is easy to imagine a similar sort of burn deck emerging this summer. Beacon of Destruction returns at a time when the quality and quantity of burn spells available to Red mages is at its highest since the days of Fireblast. Beacon of Destruction won't fit in to the decks that rely on small creatures and inexpensive burn spells. The deck that it fits into perfectly, though, is the deck that burns all those small creatures to a crisp and then turns the heat on the opponent. If the opponent doesn't have small creatures, and instead gets stuck with a hand full of creature kill spells while you burn their face, then all the better.

Soon, Ravnica block will be leaving Standard, taking the blazing fast combo decks like Dredge and Dragonstorm (hopefully) with it. When that happens, the Blue control decks which we know and love from Time Spiral Block Constructed will certainly make a grab for power, backed by whatever goodies Blue receives from Tenth Edition.

When that time comes, we shall be awfully glad that we can include a spell which does a hefty amount of damage, can be cast at instant speed, and which can be called upon over and over again in one of those tough, long, drawn-out fights that we face against the Island lovers. They can counter it once, they can counter it twice, but eventually, the Beacon's going to get 'em.

When that happens, those Blue mages will end up like the little critters running around in the picture of the Beacon. If that's not something to look forward to, what is?

Take care,

Dan Paskins