Back in Ravnica/Time Spiral Standard, when Blink
Riders was a legitimate land destruction deck, I
knew a guy who rain Cryoclasm maindeck. A risky
proposition, given that it only works on Islands
or Plains, but his reasoning was solid. The
Ravnica duals made splashing easy, and most
popular decks at the time ran white or blue.
Failing to find a target was rare, in which case
he could sideboard the Cryoclasm out.
I don't know if Peak Eruption will find that
same utility. For one thing, it only targets one
land type instead of two. For another, there's
no Blink Riders or other land destruction deck
in the format right now. And what's more, red
isn't as dominant a color in Standard right now
as White and Blue were in Ravnica/Time Spiral.
That said, the Ravnica duals are back, and red
makes a good splash color. I suspect Peak
Eruption might settle into a few sideboards to
be used against RWB midrange or Naya aggro. In
limited, somebody might try comboing it with
Nylea's Presence, but that just looks terrible
on paper. Its only advantage in Limited is the
fact that your sideboard in Limited consists of
everything in your card pool that you didn't
maindeck. If you end up with one late and find
yourself facing a red deck, it could be awesome
IF you remember you have it and sideboard it in.
I'm curious what the flavor justification for
"sideboard" cards that attack their own color
is. It may just be as simple as the old
proverbial expression about "if you can't beat
them, join them." Peak Eruption calls back to
Coldsnap's Cryoclasm, and will probably flourish
similarly in an environment full of Ravnica dual
lands. Even in other settings, it's far from
useless - unless your group's tastes are
severely biased, Mountains are on average about
one-fifth of the basic lands around!
Today's card of the day is Peak Eruption which
is a three mana Red that destroys a target
Mountain and deals three damage to that land's
controller. This is an efficient source of
land destruction and damage that is extremely
limited in application without a support theme
to guarantee an opponent has Mountains.
Barring certain dual lands or actual Mountains
to target this is a card that should only be
played alongside effects that change the text to
whatever land an opponent has or cards like
Blood Moon. The lack of versatility outstrips
the efficiency and it is very unlikely that this
will see much play outside of a gimmicky Casual
build.
In Limited this is not a high draft priority and
should be passed over for cards that will be
useful against most opponents instead of only a
few. It is a fair late pack in color pick
to use as a sideboard choice against other Red
players and excels against opponents that are
only splashing Red. In Sealed it can be
put in the sideboard and played against other
Red players as in the typically multicolor
builds this can potentially prevent multiple
cards from being played depending on available
mana sources. By itself it isn't incentive
to run Red, but shouldn't be forgotten when
running the color anyway.
Peak Eruption is a new sideboard card for all
of you players out there that would rather
destroy a mountain than climb one. The 3 damage
to the controller of the mountain is just a
bonus. Cards like this are a reminder that after
20 years, Magic the Gathering still has plenty
of card building options. I’m still not sure if
Peak Eruption is worth a slot in any of my
sideboards. I guess if you have a lot of friends
that play mountains in Casual, then Peak
Eruption could be a fun surprise for them. Maybe
you are a Standard player that hates cards like
Chain to the Rocks. Whatever your need for this
card may be, it still only targets mountains.
Hopefully you have a few Blood Moons lying
around.
