Finding Comfort in Troubled Times

"There's comfort to be found in troubled times, in the rediscovery of a forgotten friend who longs to deliver you from personal demons. In Old School Magic, the answer you seek is always at your disposal, if only you know where to look."

—Tattered musings of a white mage

Of late, I'm been living and breathing all things City in a Bottle. Here are a couple solid articles from noteworthy sources:

De Laval

Desjardin

I enjoy playing decks focused around "small creature" plans, and Erhnam Djinn has been a particular thorn in my side for awhile now. I'm not sure if I'm simply facing the card a high percentage of the time or if the results are just always catastrophic. I never seem to have the StP (or equivalent) in hand when I need it, and when I do, I never seem to have the second copy for the second Djinn. In a recent set of online games with an awesome community member (is there any other kind?), I blanked on an opportunity to double Aeolipile my opponent's Erhnam after chump-blocking with Elves of Deep Shadow. I guess I should feel dismayed that I punted a chance to 3-for-1 myself?

According to Numerology.com, "The number 7 is the seeker, the thinker, the searcher of Truth... The 7 knows that nothing is exactly as it seems and that reality is often hidden behind illusions." Coincidence?

City in a Bottle feels like the right solution for at least one of my unpowered (though not necessarily budget) casual decks, maybe more. I've owned a copy since Eternal Weekend last year, but relegated it as a sideboard piece for actual tournaments (as we don't use sideboards in our local games). Obviously City hits other meaningful targets like Serendib Efreet and Juzam Djinn (neither of which I own or play), and takes out opposing Cities of Brass as collateral damage. For awhile I eschewed it in White Weenie Bazaar due to its "nonbo" effect with the deck's namesake card, but eventually realized that if Bazaar of Baghdad is on the table and active, I'm most likely either digging for the Bottle anyway, or otherwise churning it away as discard fodder. In any case, I feel like it's the removal spell the deck needs where I can't always rely on a playset of Swords to Plowshares and a pair of volatile Preachers.

It also doesn't help that our playgroup has a house rule that tapped blockers don't deal combat damage, making Kird Apes and Erhnam Djinns even more of a force to be reckoned with among a spattering of White Knights and Savannah Lions, where one could otherwise lean on a four-seasons set of Mishra's Factory.

It's funny that sometimes an arbitrary revelation causes you to see a card that you've known practically forever in a new light. Of course, CiaB isn't remotely secret tech to anyone in the Old School community: it's unquestionably a pillar, and you typically can't make it through an episode of All Tings Considered without Mano begrudging that card X would be magnitudes better if it wasn't for the scimitar above its text box. :)

Even still, the glass City has been tugging at my heartstrings ever since it replaced my singleton Army of Allah, a card that too often was feeling like a win-more when what I clearly wanted was to lose less. In the wake of this subtle change, I've increasingly found myself enamored with the slightly-less-ambiguous-than-usual Drew Tucker art, enraptured by the flavor, and awed by the pure destructive power of a simple, two-mana artifact boasting an intoxicatingly elegant mechanic. So much so, that I took it upon myself to work on acquiring a second copy, which undoubtedly will find its way into aiding a pile boasting some combination of lions, trolls, and saprolings in ridding Dominia's landscape of unwanted spirits from strange and exotic lands.

There's comfort to be found in troubled times, in the rediscovery of a forgotten friend who longs to deliver you from personal demons. In Old School Magic, the answer you seek is always at your disposal, if only you know where to look.