For Challenge # 038

Similar to Magical Blowout, a sort of ultimate proactive and reactive counterspell.

I think it'd be better to say "any number of" rather than "all", to save moments in multiplayer or EDH when you're forced to look through everyone's library...

Amusing take on it though :)

But you can always just fail to find any in libraries you don't care about, and that makes the card look ugly :) I guess even if you don't touch it, they still have to shuffle -- doh, I forgot to say shuffle. sigh

Mark Rosewater suggested adding "if you search or look through a library, its owner has to shuffle it afterwards" to the comprehensive rules, rather than writing it on every card.

In fact, maybe it should just be "target player's library and graveyard -- you're most likely only caring about one player, but it seems nice that if you really want to clear out all copies of something that really hoses your deck, you can.

Or maybe I should just say "search any number of non-command zones". I nearly did that originally, but (a) most people don't know what's a zone and (b) I don't want to suggest that one day a card may reference the command zone.

OK, rephrasing needed :)

Needs "nonland", otherwise Ouch.

Well, when you pay that casting cost, maybe it doesn't?

I think Wizards prefer to avoid making any single card that can so completely hose a deck whose manabase is all Plains, or whose manabase is all Swamps. Sowing Salt had that "nonbasic" rider. You could do it with land animation plus Eradicate or land artifactisation plus Splinter, but they try to avoid making a single card do that.

Plus, this card would just feel more epic if it were exiling a creature plus all copies of it, or some big scary equipment or something, than if it were just taking away a bunch of land.

I think when I originally wrote it, it didn't include the battlefield, so exiling basic lands didn't seem as big a deal on turn 7. (It might hose some decks, but only ones that really needed their 8th plains). Now I look at it, I agree that even at seven mana locking someone out of the game isn't a fun way to win, so it should be nonland (or at least non-basic-land) after all.

I think my comment was stuck on the pre-Onslaught block thinking of "Who needs more than 5 lands anyways?". That's not true nowadays, bless The Maker. I suppose one should always be aware that, even if I can't think of an easy way to cheat this card out early, someone else is bound to.

But, ultimately, I much prefer your second answer, Alex. Cards like this should be hitting bombs and not mana-bases. Even if it would be fair to hit lands, it wouldn't be fun, so why do it?