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Editor: Yaro Starak. Saturday 14 September 2002.
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 Card Review: Judgment Wishes
Cunning Wish (Rare)
Death Wish (Rare)
Golden Wish (Rare)
Living Wish (Rare)
Expansion: Judgment
I remember having some discussion with another Sydney gamer when the
spoiler with the Wishes in it came out about whether it is better to have a
real sideboard or to devote it to wishes. Now, because I'm a god awful
player and even worse at sideboarding the idea of wishes was very appealing
to me. The Burning Wish should, I guess, be the best simply because
sorceries are generally the most game changing.
Limited:
I deem it very odd to use wishes in limited. The only time I can see you
might want to is actually in team sealed (when you have a wide range of
cards), where we managed to use a Cunning Wish once. We just sort of gave
him a few random situational instants and put them in his sideboard (things
like Moments Peace, Fervent Denial, Aura Graft) because they're not really
worth main decking when you have no idea what your opponent will be
playing. I saw him using it to good effect a few times which was good but
other than that the only time I've seen a Wish being relevant was as a top
notch rare draft.
Constructed:
Do you weaken your sideboard by playing wishes or keep it strong with no
wishes. Firstly if you're as bad at me at sideboarding (which includes you
people who don't do any match-up testing...this is necessary to work out
what is good in which match-ups) then I'd say go for the wishes strategy
for sure. Even if you're the best sideboarder ever it seems to still be
worth it to play wishes - just look at some of the most winningest decks
lately.
Burning Wish: As I've said, I think this one should be the best wish. The
most powerful spells are just sorceries, plain and simple really. You have
your Wrath of Gods, Jokulhaups, Diabolic Tutors, Wildfires, Upheaval etc etc
- usually things you either REALLY need or REALLY HATE to have clogging up
your hand. Being able to Wish for cards like Wrath of God is very good. I
see that it has been put to good (and original) use by the very nuts
WIlliam Jensen who always uses some strange deck (and generally goes quite
well with it) at Grand Prix Cleveland. I'm of the opinion that this can
make a few mostly manless decks tick, including some sort of NetherHaups in
the post-Onslaught extended environment. One of the Wishes you can go
infinite with using Mirari (rock on).
Cunning Wish: Instants are generally less good than sorceries, but
obviously this is rather good in a draw-go style deck. The only problem
with this is that it can be quite slow. In a slow environment things like
this and Spelljack is just ludicrous. The little publicised OBC Tog deck
tended to wreck most mono-black builds (and lose pretty horribly to fast
decks) by eventually just Spelljacking whatever good thing they cast
(usually Haunting Echoes) and winning with it. And it was good because when
you did it you could say Jack lives here. Much like you can say Ray lives
here when you get Ray of Distortion/Revelation. But all fine jokes
aside...Cunning Wish will surely have some decent targets, things like Aura
Graft really hurt Squirrel Nest based decks but it loses a fair bit with
Invasion rotating out. I think it is worth the effort in Wish decks in
general to play some card that lets you remove things from the game (eg
Psychatog) just so that you can re-Wish for them when needs be. Come
Onslaught extended, watch out for something with this and Sapphire Medallions.
Living Wish: Obviously at its best with Comes Into Play creatures
(Cloudchaser Eagle, Flametongue Kavu) and a way to recur them (Genesis),
I'm sure most people have seen Living Wish working reasonably well with
Hunting Grounds. But the choice to get various utility lands such as
Nantuko Monastery or Dust Bowl will also be very important in some match
ups. Creatures are generally a bit less game changing than sorceries
especially because most decks have to have a way to deal with them. Of
course, Sligh cannot deal with Phantom Nishoba so there are always exceptions.
General Comments: I try to make sure that for every match up I can
reasonably expect to face I have at least as many wish targets as I have
wishes in the deck. Also I feel that if you're going to play two different
types of wishes (assuming one of them is not Death Wish) then you can
probably only play something like 2 and 1 or 2 and 2 or you'll totally
destroy the sideboard. Usually my Wish sideboard looks something like 7 one
ofs (for the Wishes) and then 2 lots of four ofs for the bad match ups when
I know for sure that I'll have 8 dead cards (or whatever the case may be;
usually it is creature removal getting taken out).
Values:
Thats it for now kids,
Danesh
Jason Street
There's really only one thing I need to ask: How will the wishes impact
Type 1?
One of the things that makes Type 1 interesting is the way people often
stick just a couple of a card in their deck and then try to grab it in the
course of the game, recycling the needed cards with things like Recall and
Regrowth. Obviously if you were worried about a certain startegy you would
have extras in your sideboard. The gameplay can be quite reactionary, and
so being able to grab things from your sideboard is more important here.
I think we can assume the wishes will be restricted - at least the Burning
and Cunning ones. If I put my Wheel of Fortune in my sideboard and run
four
Burning Wishes main deck then I might as well have four Demonic Tutors.
The
same goes for any sorcery you always want to cast, like Windfall or Time
Spiral. Cunning Wish would let you do tricks with cards like Force of
Will,
though here's an interesting thought: If you use Cunning Wish for blue
cards
it's really just a Merchant Scroll!
Merchant Scroll - 1U
So really if you want to get some use out of the Cunning Wish you will
need
some instants in your sideboard that are not blue, otherwise why bother?
Good reaction cards would be best, like Swords to Plowshares or Snuff Out.
You won't need many in your sideboard of course - you can just recycle
them with all the usual tricks.
Both of these cards also let you fetch various hosers quickly, say a
Meltdown, Shattering Pulse or Pyroclasm.
Living Wish is also a good card for responding to threats. How? Well, you
have things like Uktabi Orangutan, Gorilla Shaman, Monk Realist, Bone
Shredder, Ravenous Baboons, Avalanche Riders.... Pretty good huh? Not to
mention that running more than one Wasteland along with your Strip Mine is
a pain, so why not put another in your sideboard? You probably get the idea.
Golden Wish is the worst of the lot. I guess Wizards finally clicked that
most of the good combos have enchantments in them, and they made it cost a
lot. The other thing is, it's Type 1 - all the really useful artifacts are
in your deck anyway and any Enchantment you need should be in there too.
What are you going to grab? Nevinyrral's Disk springs to mind, but you
might as well put it main deck and Tinker for it. I can't think of any
enchantment I'd want that I wouldn't put main deck anyway.
Prices? Hmmmm.... Living for $10, $8 for the Cunning and Burning, $5 for
the Death Wish, and maybe $4 for the Golden Wish.
They are all very interesting cards. Personally I don't care - I have a
Ring of Ma'Ruf.
Jason
I'm sure the other reviewers will comment on the
impact of wishes on type 1, extended, etc but because
I am lazy I have gone with a general overview instead.
When I first saw these cards I didn't realise the
potential impact they would have on the game and in
particular deck/sideboard construction.
Now everyman and his dog is wishing for silver bullet
instants/sorceries and exploiting them for all their
worth. (Obliterate no problem - I'll just go get it!)
Out of all the wishes the Cunning, Burning and Living
are the most interesting. Death Wish is very risky
(burn anyone?) and Golden Wish is too expensive (and
boring). Cunning and Burning Wish in particular force
players to play with cards they would normally
maindeck in their sideboard to increase the chances
of drawing that card (eg playing 1 copy of Deep
Analysis in the board so one can always draw cards).
From a competitive point of view both Cunning and
Burning Wish have seen play in Tog decks (just when
you thought they couldn't get any better!) at Worlds,
even forcing the Tog player to splash red to have
access to all those nasty sorceries in addition to
Flametongue Kavu.
Overall I think that the Cunning Wish is the most
versatile of the wishes but expect Burning and Living
Wish to be in high demand over the next season of
constructed magic.
Cunning Wish - $10
Until next time,
Dan
I wish I may I wish I might, only three good wishes I
see in sight.
These cards are insane. Any card of a certain type
you need that you don't want to main deck but still
want access to AND all the good ones are cheap.
Now when I say the good ones I of course am talking
about Burning Wish (red), Cunning Wish (blue) and
Living Wish(green).
Burning Wish: A great tutor card which goes into all
sorts of decks. G/R is enhanced by being able to get
back calls, roars, grizzly fates, firebolts, while
still being able to 'wish' for game enders like
lighting surge, earthquake, and hurricane (see wonder
=) This is the best wish.... for limited. Most times
in red you'll have a swirling sandstorm or earth rift
sideboard which you can tutor for or some of the off
colour sorceries that you wouldn't normally play main
deck like unhinge (cantrip), churning eddy (local
enchantment removal), cleansing meditation (wrath all
enchantments), or far wanderings (colour fixer).
This card has been seen lately in the 'burning tog'
decks, which are splashing red for flametongue kavu,
fire/ice and burning wish. It gets great sorceries
like chainers' edict (after flashback too),
obliterate, upheaval, and earthquake.
Cunning Wish: This is probably the best wish out of
the five for constructed. It pretty much 'answers'
every card in the format at instant speed. Squirrel
nest giving you troubles why not aura graft, recoil
it. Opposition locking you down, teferi's response
will put a stop to that, big fat roar/arrogant wurms
beating you down... well never fear, if its just one
you can cantrip your way off a slay of mass them out
of there with hibernation. Need more cards well
opportunity/fact or fiction is great eot (end of turn).
In limited its ok except most playable instants should
be in your main deck. Perhaps to get stuff like lead
astray, spirit flare, and fervent denials??
Usually you'd only draft it to have a good rare as you
life total.
In limited its an ok card to go searching for that
third colour your splashing in your unlimited
sideboard (hope it's not a forest but it can help with
those two green casting cost spells). While going for
those horrible Centaur Chieftains or tunneler wurms
late game. Living wish is my favourite of the wishes
as I am a creature man at heart =)
That just leaves us with the 'other' 2 wishes. Short
and sweet.
Death wish: any card you get with death wish can be
gotten with the other three wishes and is not worth
half your life.
Golden Wish: While there are many good enchantments
out there 5 mana is just too high. And 4 would
probably make it broken.
Overall the wishes are a great new mechanic that
wizards have developed even though white got shafted
again.
PRICE
Cunning Wish $12
Pimpin Aint Easy |
Burning Wish (Rare)
Danesh Jogia
The Other Two: Death Wish....well I don't know. Half of ones life seems
rather bad. And Golden Wish....why on earth they claim to be improving
white and then print this pile is a bit beyond me. Sure there are some
powerful Enchantments that absolutely shut down some decks. Monoblack often
cannot deal with enchantments...but as far as I am concerned that could be
a) the risk of playing monoblack and b) the reward for actually using
white. I do wish they'd made Golden Wish a bit more reasonably costed if
just to get a bit more interest in white happening.
Death wish. Hmmmm. Half my life? It really doesn't seem worth it. Maybe if
I just needed that one card to win, but with all the other options in Type 1
you really shouldn't be looking at paying half your life for a card. I
guess it might be okay to use in a control matchup when you're not getting
pounded, but half your life against a red deck seems like running towards
the lion to avoid getting eaten.
Dan Turner
Living Wish is a different one altogether as it has a
dual function of being able to fetch a creature or a
land. Back in the old days this card would have been a
staple with Wastelands, Stripmines and Mishra's
Factories running around but the best thing you can
hope for now is a Nantuko Monastary or a Cephalid
Coliseum. I played a Living Wish deck in OBC recently
that utilised the power of a creature heavy sideboard
-U/G wishful beatdown with one Wonder, Aboshan,
Genesis, Looter, Nantuko Tracer and Spellbane Centaur
to be wished for in specific situations. The deck
fared quite well and was actually fun to play (unlike
most of the OBC decks at the moment).
Scott Smith
Living Wish: I believe the most versitle wish of the
5 getting you out of a mana screw early or getting a
fatty late game (usually a phantom nishoba) can wish
you games, while still allowing you to go for the
utility creatures when you need it. Your all creature
deck getting tapped down by opposition? well why not
put a spellbane centaur into play and cut that right
out, or why not go straight to the source and have
nullmage advocate (it kills artifacts too (see
ensnaring bridge)) or druid lyrist. How about your
G/W obc deck that CANNOT function without glory in the
grave yard. Well go from four to SEVEN by dropping
one to the sideboard and adding 4 living wishes to
your deck.