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Worldwake Preview: Quest for the Nihil Stone
by Bill Stark | posted at 2010-01-14 14:27:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Worldwake, Prerelease, Spoiler, Preview, Quest for the Nihil Stone
Is The Rack back?
For long time fans of the discard deck (my first home brew featured Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Specter, and Mindstab Thrull), Quest for the Nihil Stone may be the card you've been looking for. The Quest is The Rack on crack. While it's unlikely to see any play in Limited, let's examine what it can do for you in Constructed.
Under best case scenarious, Quest for the Nihil Stone hits the battlefield on the first turn. That will turn the Quest on very quickly, but your work is still cut out for you. You'll start Shrapnel Blasting your opponent as soon as you get them all the way down to zero cards. Is there a deck for this in Standard? It seems entirely possible. Mind Rot and Blightning are already staples. Some Jund lists splash blue for Sedraxis Specter, and Mind Shatter and Duress are both waiting in the wings.
What about Extended, or even Legacy? Cards like Smallpox and the original Pox have conspired to make The Rack very powerful in the past. Quest for the Nihil Stone gives players of that disposition the ability to shorten their clock provided they can keep the opponent reduced all the way to zero cards in hand.
So is Quest for the Nihil Stone the real deal? It's certainly something to be excited about in the world of Worldwake.
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Bill Stark is the founder and editor-in-chief of TheStarkingtonPost.com. He began playing Magic in 1995 after being introduced to the game by his brother. Since then he has competed at all levels of play including the JSS, Grand Prix, Nationals, and Pro Tour. In addition to his career as a pro, Bill began writing about the game early on for TheDojo.com, the first website dedicated to Magic. Since then he has written and edited for nearly every major Magic website on the web. In 2007 he began work as an official coverage reporter for Wizards of the Coast, flying to Grand Prixs, Nationals, and World Championships to record the events happening at each. He was also hired for six months as an R&D intern at Wizards where he worked on the redesign for DailyMTG.com as well as helping to develop multiple Magic sets. After leaving Wizards, he started TheStarkingtonPost.com to utilize his many contacts in the industry to provide a better information solution for fans of TCGs, gaming, and Magic: The Gathering.