Single Card: Aura Fracture

[PucktheCat]

This is a card with a bit of history in Keeper.  Is there any chance that it will reemerge in the upcoming metagame?  Check these two or three matchups out:

TnT:  This is a great card against just about any TnT that runs enchantments other than the 4 SoF.  That includes Blood Moon, obviously, but also Sylvan Library and anything else that they can think of (Pyrostatic Pillar?).  If TnT comes back it will probably be because of Blood Moon.  This was always a strong card against TnT and it would only be better now.

Dragon:  Here's the kicker.  Can Dragon win with this on the board (short of using up all of your lands)?  Its only usual way to remove it is a Pernicious Deed which, even if they have sided it in, costs 6 mana to cast and activate in the same turn.  The downside is it doesn't interfere with Dragon's draw engine.

U/r Bloodmoon Control:  This is basically the matchup the card was originally drafted for.  Ironically it seems to be weakest in this matchup of the ones listed.

I know most multicolor control runs Cunning Wish for BEB and an Island and considers Blood Moon taken care of.  They may be right in most instances.  But if Blood Moon comes back and Aura Fracture helps both against it and against Dragon doesn't it warrant consideration?

The downsides of Aura Fracture are that it costs 3 and is card disadvantage.  The upside is that every time your opponent draws an enchantment for the rest of the game they have to choose between losing card advantage and losing tempo.  The other reason it deserves consideration is the fact that most decks are equipped for artifact rushes (Rack and Ruin) and creature rushes (Fire/Ice, StP etc.) but aren't prepared for decks with many enchantments.  This means Aura Fracture fills a gap in coverage that will help against all manner of randomness (Mychoda.dec anyone?).

Although I have framed this discussion in terms of Keeper/polychromatic control I am also curious what people think about Aura Fracture in other multicolor decks with white mana available.

Leo

[Dr. Sylvan]

No one plays with white anymore, didn't you hear about the Balance errata circa 1996? "This card actually costs 1U to cast, but you must control a Tundra to put it on the stack." =)

On a more serious note, I think this card is a metagame decision 100%. Any control deck with more than two Wishes probably has such a tight board that it wouldn't fit in. However, I could see Aura Fracture really succeeding in the face of Dragon's Xantid Swarm. I'm more skeptical about prospects for TnT, where another artifact kill spell can be just as good and more flexible to the metagame. My experience playing against a Blood Moon-heavy deck isn't that high, but Aura Fracture has two disadvantages that I can see: (1) it has to come into play before the Blood Moon to work, otherwise you're reliant on your Pearl and Lotus to let you cast it; and (2) it's not accessible game one. Both are troubling, and the BEB plan seems better on both counts.

[PucktheCat]

Quote No one plays with white anymore, didn't you hear about the Balance errata circa 1996? "This card actually costs 1U to cast, but you must control a Tundra to put it on the stack." =)

I’ll grant you that.

Quote On a more serious note, I think this card is a metagame decision 100%. Any control deck with more than two Wishes probably has such a tight board that it wouldn't fit in. However, I could see Aura Fracture really succeeding in the face of Dragon's Xantid Swarm. I'm more skeptical about prospects for TnT, where another artifact kill spell can be just as good and more flexible to the metagame. My experience playing against a Blood Moon-heavy deck isn't that high, but Aura Fracture has two disadvantages that I can see: (1) it has to come into play before the Blood Moon to work, otherwise you're reliant on your Pearl and Lotus to let you cast it; and (2) it's not accessible game one. Both are troubling, and the BEB plan seems better on both counts.

I think you underrate Aura Fracture against TnT.  TnT extremely reliant on its engine cards, Welder and SoF, against control.  One card that eliminates all the SoF is bound to be strong.  If the deck plays more key enchantments as well it can be game breaking.  More artifact removal won’t help if one of the key enchantments is what you are losing to.

In general I can see that there are better options vs. any one of these specific decks than Aura Fracture (although not many against Dragon, are there?) but the Fracture seems to attack two rising metagame trends (BM and Dragon) at the same time, saving sideboard.

I concede that it may simply be a card without a slot in modern Wish sideboards though.  I am evaluating it for a U/w/r Fish deck (where the anti BM function could be really important) so I don’t want this discussion to focus only on how tight sb space is in modern control.

Leo

[Dr. Sylvan]

Part of my speculation with TnT was that killing Survival is less effective when they can respond to your kill by using its ability. Even one or two pitches can set you up for some wicked pwnage by fetching Welders that recycle the artifact creatures they just tossed. I'm of the opinion that you either stop SotF on the stack or resign yourself to the opponent getting most of the benefit anyway. Obviously it's good to kill it before they start going nuts with Squee, but Aura Fracture isn't the best answer by far. Pretend the opponent is casting Fact or Fiction and you can sacrifice a land to downgrade it to Concentrate. That's what this sounds similar to for me.

-Phil

Post 300.

[PucktheCat]

Well, the bulk of my testing with Aura Fracture against TnT is from back before GAT but I have to say that I disagree almost entirely.

In most situations the only advantage Survival offers immediately is haste from Anger (and that generally costs GGG1, none of which can be gotten from Workshops).  The card advantage from Squee is negated by Aura Fracture.  Since the Survival will certainly take a whole turn's mana to cast and activate, and TnT needs a creature in hand to use it, one could say the Anger in the grave roughly counteracts the tempo lost in a turns deck manipulation (if TnT had cast the creature instead of the survival they could have attacked the same turn).  The only thing survival can do other than put Anger in the grave with Aura Fracture on the table is swap threat creatures for other threat creatures in the deck (ie Jugg for Welder or vice versa).  This effect, while not negligible, is simply a card quality enhancing tool.  In a fully optimized tournament deck such effects are useful but not broken.  See Brainstorm for an example.

In fact, that suggests a counter-analogy for me to finish with.  You say Aura Fracturing a Survival is about like turning a Fact or Fiction into a Concentrate.  I would suggest it is more like turning an Ancestral into a Brainstorm.

Nonetheless I don't advocate playing Aura Fracture against TnT that doesn't have any enchantments except Survival.  The Survival - Fracture battle is a hard fought draw, but even two other threatening enchantments tips the balance in my mind.

Leo

Edit: Grammer, Clarity\n\n

[Fastbond]

Aura Fracture is not a good anti-bloodmoon spell.  It costs the same as bloodmoon.  If bloodmoon comes into play first you lose.  If aura fracture comes into play first it's just a minor annoyance and just helps them with their wasteland backup plan.

There are no good anti-blood moon cards.  A deck needs an anti-blood moon strategy using cards like carpet of flowers, blue elemental blast, chill, fetchlands with basic land, and red spells.

A good anti-blood moon strategy for example would be two basic islands main, two blue elemental blasts sideboarded, and one carpet of flowers sideboarded.

Graveyard hate and hand hate is also stronger against Tnt than aura fracture(deals with both welders and survival).  Graveyard hate is also strong against Dragon.  

Three mana is too expensive for a sideboard card that doesn't win you the game.

[PucktheCat]

Quote Aura Fracture is not a good anti-bloodmoon spell.  It costs the same as bloodmoon.  If bloodmoon comes into play first you lose.  If aura fracture comes into play first it's just a minor annoyance and just helps them with their wasteland backup plan.

This is why I said it was weak against U/r in the original post.  What Blood Moon deck has a substantial Wasteland count?

Quote There are no good anti-blood moon cards.  A deck needs an anti-blood moon strategy using cards like carpet of flowers, blue elemental blast, chill, fetchlands with basic land, and red spells.

A good anti-blood moon strategy for example would be two basic islands main, two blue elemental blasts sideboarded, and one carpet of flowers sideboarded.

The Carpet of Flowers requires green mana and that your opponent be playing blue.  Not every deck has access to green mana and I would say most Blood Moon decks don’t have blue.  Aura Fracture is approximately as effective as the Carpet (it costs you mana but keeps your counterspells active), and is useful against other decks in the field (Dragon).

Quote Graveyard hate and hand hate is also stronger against Tnt than aura fracture(deals with both welders and survival).  Graveyard hate is also strong against Dragon.

That depends on what the TnT is playing with.  If he has Blood Moon and Survival the Fracture starts to look pretty good.  If he runs a Sylvan Library too it starts to look even better.  A card that single-handedly eliminates an opponents draw engine and most effective sideboard card is stronger than one that just targets the draw engine.

Against Dragon graveyard hate is one of the sideboard strategies they are most prepared to deal with.  Stifle or Xantid Swarm stops all of it.

Quote Three mana is too expensive for a sideboard card that doesn't win you the game.

First of all, this isn’t true.  Rack and Ruin doesn’t win you the game, it gives you a substantial advantage that should win you the game.  Even Energy Flux doesn’t win you the game.  Second, Aura Fracture does win you the game against Dragon unless they are using a non-standard sideboarding strategy.  Even if they do it is at least as strong vs. Dragon as Energy Flux is vs. MUD.

Leo

[Kerzkid11]

I dono.. TNT, U/r control, MUD... any  competitve deck that plays moon?