The Loss of TFK

Heya,



Starting this month, Thirst for Knowledge is restricted in Vintage. Throw it on the pile of "see three cards" that have been restricted like Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, and Ponder. It makes me wonder if Impulse, Intuition, and Strategic Planning are next. In fact, I think there is a little bit of hypocracy here. Is Ponder that much better than Impulse? Is Gifts Ungiven that much better than Intuition? Is TFK that much better than Strategic Planning? In certain ways, yeah, they are. But in a lot of ways, these three cards match fairly closely to cards already resticted. I wouldn't be surprised if they are on the chopping block next. But that's a worry for another time.

The best replacesments for TFK, IMHO, are:

Mystic Remora + Meditate

Mystic Remora + Dark Confidant

Intuition + Accumulated Knowledge

Intuition + Deep Analysis

Strategic Planning

Impulse

Standstill

Night's Whisper

Telling Time

Careful Consideration

Thoughtcast

I don't know how many of these will really pan out. Honestly, it's probably just better to run the entire blue restricted list of draw cards. But here's an assortment of cards to test. We'll see which cream rises to the top.

I'm not sure restricting TFK will give the DCI what it wants: a more balanced Drain deck. There are so many useful options to replace it. Honestly, even off the wall cards like Standstill would be just fine when you think about it. So in the end, they will just keep chasing the next most effecient blue draw spell. Until they suck it up and unrestrict a Drain hunter card like Gush or Flash, then we're likely going to be stuck in this same metagame for a while.

Peace,


-Troy