Sometime in 2003, I entered my first real Magic: The Gathering tournament. And by real, I mean it wasn’t your local FNM. It was the New England Regional. This was back when Regional events still existed and when these events were actually limited to a certain area. This wasn’t States where you could go to any state and play. People from all over the region came to play, and it was a serious event.

This format for the event was Standard, and this was the season that decks like Astral Slide, Roar of the Wurm, and Mirari’s Wake ruled the scene. The format was pretty healthy, actually as other decks like Elves, Clerics, and Mono Black Control also did well, but not as well as the previously mentioned.

As for the Wake decks, the most popular choice was to play the three-colored, Cunning Wake version of the deck. However, I had chosen to play the more obscure four-colored Burning Wake version of the deck. For those of you who don’t know. Cunning Wake relied on Cunning Wish which was part of a cycle of cards that could get a single card from “outside” the game and put it in your hand. By outside, they meant Side Board, but casual players would take it to extremes and literally drive home for a card and bring it back to the store or wherever they were playing at the time. More specifically, Cunning Wish could only get you an Instant. Burning Wish was a card that got you a Sorcery.

Cunning Wake was the better of the two decks since timing was everything. You could use Cunning Wish during your opponents turn or yours. Where as with Burning Wish you were limited to your turn. However, Burning Wish was able to grab a fun little card called Firecat Blitz, and this card was a monster. Combined with the mana producing power and pumping ability of Mirari’s Wake, this spell would kill hundreds of opponents.

That’s why it’s today’s card of the day.