Worldwake Spoiler: Chain Reaction

by Bill Stark | posted at 2010-01-14 23:02:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Worldwake, Prerelease, Spoiler, Preview, Chain Reaction

Welcome to TheStarkingtonPost.com's exclusive spoiler! And it is a hot one (no pun intended). Check it out:

Is this the red wrath? Red has always had "sweepers" in the form of Pyroclasm, Firespout, etc. but it has often lacked the ability to blow up fatties. Chain Reaction gives red the opportunity to do that. It's the type of card that may take careful planning in order to orchestrate that situation, but you're talking about a color that's quite capable of generating superfluous tokens for fodder to take out larger, more problematic threats.

Consider Chain Reaction against something like Monowhite Tokens in Standard, a matchup where it clearly shines. All those tokens can be a problem with Honor the Pure, but Chain Reaction has you covered! You get a potential downside in the fact it doesn't go to anyone's head, but that's a tradeoff for being able to hit fliers. Not dealing damage to players allows the card to be utilized in control strategies, meaning something like Miss America Control can replace its Earthquakes with the flashy new rare.

Chain Reaction is the type of card that can fundamentally change how formats are played. Aggressive decks in Standard can't afford to simply run out their entire team; they now must consider the implication of setting off a chain reaction (Chain Reaction) by playing those additional threats. Should they hold back one creature to prevent their entire board from being wiped out? And what if the opponent has one creature to cast on their turn before popping Chain Reaction? This is the type of Wrath that forces decisions rather than just putting everyone on auto pilot, the best type of Wrath.

Every once in a while, Chain Reaction will be a dead draw (late game after most of the battlefield's creatures have been toasted save for the one 4/4?), but that's true of every card. More often, it will be an utter blowout in Limited, and clearly has strong implications for Constructed. This is definitely a card you want to keep an eye on at the Prerelease.

So what do you think? Is Chain Reaction as good as Bill claims? Share your thoughts with TheStarkingtonPost.com community. Discuss this article in our forums.

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