So, if Karn made his first appearance in
Tempest, and I started playing with Ice Age,
does that mean that I'd be older than Karn if I
were a planeswalker? That's a little scary. My
own distant memories of that era involve, among
other things, card-drawing spells that were more
blatantly powerful than this card, but my
instincts tell me that we should keep an eye on
this one. I like that you get something good no
matter which way the spell turns out - try
grabbing Jace's Ingenuity and getting three
cards no matter what happens.
Today's card of the day is Distant Memories
which is a four mana Blue spell that is sort of
a hybrid between Concentrate and Diabolic Tutor,
but with the lack of control making it almost
Red in nature. This aspect drastically
reduces the value to the typical Blue mage and
it isn't likely to see much play in Constructed
formats. The main drawback is that the
exiled card is face up and can remain exiled
instead of returning to the library.
Overall Blue has other options for acceleration
and searching that are more reliable and aren't
up to your opponent to decide.
In Limited this is an option to draw cards, but
it a fairly weak one as your opponent has too
much control over the outcome. The mana
cost including two Blue can be problematic as
well and the rarity is unfortunate as you are
not going to want this in your packs in either
format. For Sealed this should probably be
left out of the deck unless it is both
predominantly Blue and you have a hole in the
mana curve that can't be filled by an artifact.
For Booster it can safely be passed for some
kind of removal or offensive creature as in many
situations this just won't be enough of a
benefit especially as a first pick.
Welcome to another week of card of
the day reviews here at Pojo.com. Let’s kick
this week off with Distant Memories from
Mirrodin Besieged. Distant Memories is a two
generic and two blue mana sorcery. Distant
Memories lets you search your library for one
card, and exile it. Then your opponent chooses
whether to let you have the exiled card, or draw
three cards.
Cards such as this are bluff cards. Did you grab what you
really needed at this exact moment? That is the
chance your opponent has to take. If it is a
trump card, there is likely multiples of it in
your deck any ways, meaning that you in all
actuality could grab what you need, and even if
it stays exiled you have a chance to gain it off
of the draw. Not really some crazy overpowered
card that is going to be broken and made into
some uber-combo, but still a very effective card
in terms of advantage and strategy.
There aren’t really that many ways to overexploit this card.
Simply put, it is what it is. Making extra
copies could only increase the likely hood that
your opponent would rather you keep what you’ve
exiled instead of getting a fresh hand.
Especially if used in conjunction with Jace’s
Erasure, making multiple copies of Distant
Memories with either Pyromancer’s Ascension or
Twincast or even Echo Mage would almost
guarantee you get what you exiled rather than
the entire card draw. In these ways you could
aide yourself in ensuring you get what you want
either way.
The main drawback to me about this card is once used in
multiplayer. All opponents would have to agree
on it remaining exiled, or else it goes to your
hand. So if the card has the potential to end
the game for one opponent, it is possible that
it would go to your hand, simply because you
played off of the weakness of one player. Which
this really is only a weakness if this is being
played against you, not if you are playing it
yourself.
Cards are exiled face-up unless specifically
stated otherwise, so your opponent knows what
you searched for when he or she decides whether
or not to give it to you. So basically this card
is either Diabolic Tutor or Concentrate, except
your opponent chooses which it is, and gets to
see the card you Tutored for even if he or she
doesn't let you have it.
Since neither Diabolic Tutor nor Concentrate
have seen serious play in several years, I'm
guessing this won't either. The only way I can
see this getting real use is if you can somehow
bluff your opponents-- either search for a card
you don't want but your opponents think you do,
thus thinning your deck by one card you didn't
want before drawing three, or search for a card
you want but your opponents think you don't
want, so they let you have it. If you can manage
it, more power to you. Just be careful-- if your
opponents decide they'd rather you draw three
cards, the card you searched for stays exiled--
beware if it was your only copy!
