B · Engine & Sequencing · §13
Six cards that are routinely misplayed by default, and the specific default that is wrong in each case.
The default is not to cast it at the first legal opportunity. Ask whether you can wait until the end step, whether you can make them tap mana first, whether you can surveil at end step instead, whether you can retain priority after a Frog discard, whether you can protect the target, and whether they are representing Surgical, Endurance or an artifact activation.
Its real targets are , , , , , a threatened despite having no entry trigger, and any Goryo creature that simply needs to become permanent.
It needs their turn for the alternative cost, another blue card, a noncreature spell, and a pitch whose loss does not collapse the hand. The deck wants it specifically for graveyard hate, cascade spells, combo engines, Blood Moon, Vexing Bauble before it resolves, and a counter-war over an end-step Goryo. Against creature-heavy decks it is often a liability unless their sideboard justifies it.
It prevents activated abilities of artifacts, creatures and planeswalkers, and it does not exempt yours.◆src
It shuts your own activations, your activations, and ’s loyalty abilities. It does not stop ’s entry trigger, Frog’s combat-damage trigger, Riddler’s entry, ’s entry, Goryo, , or ordinary nonartifact land abilities.
Wrath gives you X energy and then lets you pay any amount of it, destroying artifacts, creatures and enchantments with mana value no greater than what you paid.◆src
Do not automatically pay everything. Pay zero against Urza’s Saga, artifact lands and tokens. Pay one for cheap artifacts and one-drops. Pay two for , Basking Broodscale, Goblin Bombardment, Rest in Peace or High Noon. Preserve Clarion at three, and Riddler and well above that.
It makes the deck feel smooth, and it costs a card. Keep it when speed matters, when you need graveyard density, when the matchup does not reward raw resources, and when the flashback will realistically happen. Cut it when they are attacking your graveyard, when the games will grind, when you are bringing Riddlers, when every card in hand matters, and when they trade one-for-one efficiently.