[Reference] Cunning Wish Targets

[Illissius]

Brainstorm is ... also one of the most useful general purpose cards out there for any number of applications.

This is exactly the problem. Cunning Wish targets are there to provide utility, and Brainstorm is about as generically useful and far away from "utility" as you can possibly get. I'm having trouble thinking of any specific situation where I'd really, really wish I had a Brainstorm in the side.

[FoolofaTook]

This is exactly the problem. Cunning Wish targets are there to provide utility, and Brainstorm is about as generically useful and far away from "utility" as you can possibly get. I'm having trouble thinking of any specific situation where I'd really, really wish I had a Brainstorm in the side.

Cunning Wish and any card you'd rather not play at the moment but that's going to be a bombshell in a turn or two from mid-game on when the opponent topdecks a Thoughtseize, Duress, Cabal Therapy or Hymn.

Topdecking Cunning Wish with a fistfull of land and a reshuffle device after the initial flurries have settled down.

You'd have to already be playing Cunning Wish as a major feature of the deck to be thinking about removing one of your most powerful cards to the sideboard, however having 6 or 7 potential ways to get a Brainstorm into your hand is nothing to be sneezed at.

[Phantom]

Brainstorms power comes from being one casting cost, not four. I can't really imagine wanting to Wish for brainstorm unless I just needed to abuse the draw mechanic (by dredging three times or putting three counters on a Hoofprints).

Anyway, it's all for naught here as Brainstorm is WAY too powerful and useful to be put in a board. You want 4, and you want them maindeck to help fix your draws.

[BreathWeapon]

Why would you Cunning Wish for Brainstorm when you could Cunning Wish for any other draw spell? Even Cunning Wish for Thirst for Knowledge would be better than that crap.

[Omega]

End of turn cunning wish for Fact or Fiction is by far better than cunning wishing a brainstorm.

[Roman Candle]

Or for Opportunity, for that matter.

I think you should put Return to Dust on the list. It's so amazing against Counterbalance (nobody runs 4cc). Once I used it in the main phase to hit Dreadnought AND Counterbalance.

I actually use Opportunity in my wishboard, but its probably subpar. Its more for sentimental value than anything else.

[Illissius]

I think you should put Return to Dust on the list. It's so amazing against Counterbalance (nobody runs 4cc). Once I used it in the main phase to hit Dreadnought AND Counterbalance.

Look closer, it's on there.

I actually use Opportunity in my wishboard, but its probably subpar. Its more for sentimental value than anything else.

Likewise, actually.

[Team-Hero]

Boil
Retaliate
Tsabo's Decree - Super expensive to cast

[MattH]

Under miscellaneous, "Argivian Restoration" (blue sorcery) should be Argivian Find (white instant).

Annul
Boomerang (bounces lands)
Fire Covenant (whoosh)
Rend Flesh (kills almost everything)
Darkblast (dredge)
Ebony Charm (cheapest instant to RFG multiple cards)
Piracy Charm (blue removal, if you have black mana you'd have something better than Funeral Charm to get)
Emerald Charm (cheapest enchantment removal in green, does other relevant things)
Wax/Wane
Krosan Reclamation
Hail Storm
Rack and Ruin (omg how has this not been mentioned)
Trickbind (ditto)
Snap (better than Snapback)
Hibernation (old school)
Putrefy/Mortify
Rock Slide (expensive though)
Congregate (lifegian too useless?)
Reins of Power, fuck yeah
Dissipate (RFG that loam!)
Thwart
Foil
Peer Through Depths/Impulse

[Nihil Credo]

Pongify for random utility.

[Illissius]

Added some of those. Some of them (Tsabo's Decree, Rack and Ruin, Darkblast) were already on there.

[Shawon]

Other cards brainstormed:

- Hideous Laughter
- Lightning Storm (I could see Swan decks using Cunning Wish hence running a Storm in the sb)
- Sunder
- Wrecking Ball
- Natural Affinity
- Mogg Salvage
- Tranquil Domain

That's it for now...

[Illissius]

So does no one want to sticky this? It's the only point of a reference list.

I might get around to doing the other three at some point.

[TheRock]

This is very useful. I can just use Ctrl-F here without having to go through pages of other online searches just to do the same thing. Thank you .

As a possible suggestion though (and if this is inappropriate or should be sent as a PM, please feel free to delete it), would it be feasible to either provide a link on the main forum page or a separate forum similar to the main rules that would have lists of cards like this? There are plenty of useful possibilities - other Wishes, general SB cards, a list of cheap must-have cards (which was already discussed a while back)?

The only other card I could think of adding to the list is Cunning Wish itself. I've won quite a few games by building up storm this way.

[Phantom]

I suggested that here:

http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showt...hlight=threads

...but dropped it after the resounding silence from the mod staff (even after PM prodding). I still think the idea has some real merit, but am not actively pursuing it anymore...

[Iron Buddha]

1 Path to Exile (Merfolk, Tempo Thresh)
1 Wing Shards (Nimble Mongoose)
1 Echoing Truth (Iona)
1 Surgical Extraction (Dredge, Reanimator)
1 Ravenous Trap (Dredge)
1 Pulse of the Fields (Burn)
1 Fracturing Gust (Tezzeret)
1 Dismantling Blow (CoW, equipments)
1 Fact or Fiction (Jace TMS)
1 White Sun's Zenith (Surgical Extraction, PW)
1 Enlightened Tutor (Goblins, Storm)
1 Ethersworn Canonist (Storm)
1 Mindbreak Trap (Storm)
1 Forbid (Storm)
1 Misdirection (Discard, Storm)

This is the best wish-board I've ever built for U/W control. It's made for 4x Cunning Wishes main (but 3 Cunning Wishes is ok, too). I wrote in the brackets what each target is supposed to deal with. Forbid and Misdirection could just as well be Negates/other Storm hate, but I think they have some nice advantages over Negate.

[Meekrab]

I once Extirpated a Brainstorm in my graveyard (failing to find the other 3, obv) just so I could Cunning Wish for it. But I would never dream of permanently moving one from the MD, neither in the process of deckbuilding nor while sideboarding.

Since this thread got bumped, someone might as well point out for new people that you can't do this anymore (The Exile zone isn't "outside the game.") but could when Nihil made his post 4 years ago.

[TsumiBand]

Beast Attack? Even if this is a necro, wtf?

[nedleeds]

Huge Shrouded Monsters

Curfew

Protogenesis and other hordes of green stuff

Hibernation

Artifact destruction for no mana that doesn't get spell snared


Mogg Salvage
Abolish
Crash

[Zalren]

Besides Spiral Tide decks, do any other decks run Cunning Wish anymore?

Cunning Wish sounds like it would work great, is it too slow?