Recently, a combo deck has been popping up around the internet, focusing on two powerful enchantments when played together: Words of Wisdom and Zur's Weirding. With both of these in play, a lock can be created, denying an opponent their draw every turn while gaining life in increments of three. Eventually, a creature is played to win the game or the opponent is decked, which end the game.

In order to survive long enough to do this, the deck attempts to play a control game until each card can be found and played. Fortunately, blue and white are two of the best defensive colors in Magic. Combining counterspells with creature removal in Wrath of God or outright stalling techniques like Story Circle, such a deck is quite capable of staying alive for a good number of turns.

For reference, an average version of the deck:

Words of Weirding
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Mana Leak
4 Words of Worship
4 Story Circle
4 Wing Shards
4 Deep Analysis
4 Zur's Weirding
4 Discombobulate
4 Wrath of God
4 Coastal Tower
4 Flooded Strand
10 Plains
6 Island

Sideboard
3 Circular Logic
4 Defense Grid
4 Sphere of Law
4 Wipe Clean

In a way, Words of Weirding is comparable to Wake, as both decks attempt to play control until a combo can be set up to win the game. However, the similarities end there. Ignoring the quasi-strong combo of the Words and Weirding for the moment, this deck is the greatest example of bad design in the history of Magic. When not accompanied by Zur's Weirding, Words of Worship is completely useless. Sure, a single activation can gain five life, but that puts its controller in no better shape than before. Like every most every other life gain card, it simply prolongs the inevitable. Magic is about winning efficiently, not losing slowly.

As with Words of Worship, Zur's Weirding is junk without its combo partner. Being a control deck, Words of Weirding finds itself at the short end of the life spectrum often - meanwhile, its opponent will constantly be at a high total, as the deck does not put any early or mid-game pressure on its opponents. Since the opponent is always at a higher life total, they are free to take full advantage of the Weirding, while the enchantment's controller will never draw an important card for the rest of the game. This makes the combo pieces completely worthless when not together.

Wake, on the other hand, can make use of its combo pieces even when they are not together. Being an extremely mana-hungry deck, Wake never minds being able to play a Mirari's Wake. Likewise, since the deck is comprised almost exclusively by instants and sorceries, playing a Mirari never hurts. Drawing neither is not even the end of the world; there are more ways to accelerate the deck than Mirari's Wake, while Mirari is so completely unnecessary that many builds drop it from the deck entirely.

However, dropping either Words of Worship or Zur's Weirding from the deck entirely (or simply not drawing them) would be the end of everything. While that does not make the deck unviable in itself - Illusions of Grandeur did almost nothing without Donate (but even then, it reset your life totals against aggressive decks) - Words of Worshiping lacks the broken card-drawing engine that was Necropotence, or even a straightforward tutor to find either card. Instead, the deck is left with Concentrate, which hardly ever does anything remotely powerful.

Such a weakness comes out in force during playtesting. Sometimes the deck will just accidentally run into wins by playing Words of Worship and Zur's Weirding when the opponent has no answers; in the real world, though, many other things happen much more often. While the deck occasionally draws into the combo pieces, that does little to stop opponents from easily dealing with them using enchantment removal or counterspells.

Then there is the problem of just surviving for long enough to find and play both spells. With all seven released sets legal in Standard, the aggressive decks are as quick as they possibly can be, which makes keeping alive long enough a difficult task - even when you're playing Story Circle, Wrath of God, and Wing Shards.

Plus, even if that stage is reached and the combo is played, it does little to affect the board position. Gaining three life a turn does not help when a 4/4 is attacking every combat phase. This forces the proper answers to be in play or hand before the Zur's Weirding is played. That makes Words of Weirding a three-card combo in reality, and turns the entire deck into a three-card combo deck without any tutors.

Even under all the correct circumstances, actually winning with Words of Weirding is a feat in itself. Without an Eternal Dragon, the deck is at the mercy of decking the opponent. Going through more than fifty turns is an obviously time-consuming process, and any half-brained player will take full advantage of this. Even if they have no way of answering the combo, there is no rule that prevents them from waiting to concede the game until less than twenty minutes are left in the round. Doing so prevents Words of Weirding from getting a second win in the match, thereby putting the opponent in excellent shape to either draw or win the match.

Of course, if the Worship player loses the first game, then the complexity of the match changes entirely. The Worship player is then forced to win the second game quickly, which is no doubt time-consuming, in order to force a third. Unfortunately, outside of the no-time-limit Invitational tournament, there is no way the third game can finish with the Worship player winning the match.

To put it simply, Words of Weirding cannot possibly win two games in a match, simply because of how long it takes for the deck to win. This forces it to win the first game of every match every time. If not, then two things can happen going into the second game: First, they can lock it up with the combo and have enough time to play a third, but that third game cannot possibly be won because of time. That would mean the match ends either 1-1-1 or 1-2, neither of which is too preferable for the deck, not to mention the fact that no one wants to go into every game one in a must-win situation.

As stated before, all this can be avoided with a win in the first game. But even then, Words of Weirding has problems; since smart players will wait until there are about twenty minutes left, there is no time for the Weirding deck to win again. Instead, they can only lock up the second and win the match 1-0-1, lose the second, and then lock up the third to draw the match 1-1-1, or lose the next two in a row and the match 1-2.

Because of this logistical nightmare, the deck needs an Eternal Dragon to win. Incidentally, the deck also needs Words of Worship, Zur's Weirding, and Wrath of God or Story Circle in order to win. That is four cards and no tutors. Even when the miracle of drawing into all four occurs, the deck only has weak countermagic to protect them.

While card- and time-logistics are enough to keep most from playing the deck, the deck also has to beat the opponent - quite a concept in Magic! Standard does not make it any easier, either. In fact, the deck has an extremely difficult matchup against the five most popular decks in the format.

Against Wake, there is a battle between two decks that claim to be combo-control. Of course, one is an actual good deck that loaded the top eight of the World Championships and won it, while the other is simply too embarrassed to be called a straight-out combo deck because of its lack of tutors. Wake easily demolishes Words of Weirding, if for no other reason than preventing Weirding from winning. Thanks to Cunning Wish, Wake has access to Ray of Revelation, which makes the combo completely worthless. That leaves Eternal Dragon. While you're waiting for your Dragon, have fun while end-of-turn cycled Decrees of Justice attack for ridiculous amounts of damage.

Goblin Bidding gives Words of Weirding problems as well. While Weirding has many great defensive cards against Goblins like Wing Shards, Wrath of God, and Story Circle, it still finds ways to lose games. Being a combo deck without tutors, Words of Weirding is an inconsistent deck to say the least. Hyper-aggressive Goblins makes decks pay for their inconsistency like no other.

Then there are a couple problems with individual cards. In the first game, if Patriarch's Bidding goes uncountered, then the game is usually lost - even with Story Circle and Wing Shards, if the goblins have haste, then there is not much Words of Weirding can do. After sideboarding, Weirding not only has to deal with Bidding, but Sulfuric Vortex, which quickly ends the game and turns Words of Worship into a vegetable. Once again, a well-placed Mana Leak solves the problem, as does a sideboarded Wipe Clean a couple turns later - but playing so extremely reactively puts Weirding into a horribly unfavorable position. (To be fair, the Spheres do a solid sideboarding job, but that does nothing in Game 1 - The Ferrett)

While U/G Madness does not punish bad draws as well as Goblin Bidding does, it has an even worse weapon: Disruption. In order to win, Words of Weirding needs to draw (as it cannot tutor) into Words of Worship, Zur's Weirding, Eternal Dragon, and Wrath of God while somehow managing to avoid Quiet Speculation, Ray of Revelation, and Circular Logic. Things get even worse after the sideboards come in, when U/G can add more Rays and four more counters in the form of Mana Leak. How Madness wins the game is only a side note.

That leaves Words of Weirding with a bad matchup against the three biggest decks in Standard. Weirding always has a chance to win the games - but that is only a result of drawing and playing the two enchantments and conveniently not having the opponent able to do anything about it. This case is rare though, and the odds of doing it two games out of three are astronomically low.

All this makes for a miserable time for Words of Weirding in Standard. That leaves two Weirding to possibly serve two purposes. While Words of Weirding could be used casually or in Friday Night Magic tournaments, the draw-dependent nature of the deck does not make it an overly fun one to play. In addition, non-competitive opponents would not enjoy the tedious process of winning with the deck.

Of course, the other option is to look to the future. Indeed, playing with a card pool made up of just the Onslaught Block and Eighth Edition, there are not too many decks that are better than it. However, even if it is one of the strongest decks in the hypothetical future Standard format, it still runs into all the logistical problems that plague it in today's Standard. The result: A non-existent past, a dim present, and a bad future for the wannabe combo deck.

There is one other option, though: By skipping over Words of Worship and going for Convalescent Care instead, the deck uses one less dependent spell, as the Care is functional even in the absence of Zur's Weirding. By doing so, the combo appears to be better.

However, this change is only cosmetic; while Convalescent Care looks like the better card for the combo, the popular decks in Standard make it a terrible option. Versus Goblins, in order for Convalescent Care to work, its controller must be at a low enough life total to where they can easily be burned away. U/G Madness rarely ever notices the difference between five and eight life thanks to its large creatures, often attacking for more than the difference. Finally, Wake does not deal any damage until it can do a whole lot with Decree of Justice, which makes the whole usage of Convalescent Care look a little silly.

Or maybe it's just the entire deck that looks a little silly. In any case, do not waste your time in Atlanta with any form of Words of Weirding.

William Spaniel
williamjspaniel@yahoo.com