[Single Card Discussion] Hurkyl's Recall

[mtg_player_2004]

[card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card]
1U
Instant
All artifacts in play owned by target player are returned to target player's hand. Any enchantments on those artifacts are discarded. Cannot be played during the damage-dealing phase of an attack.

(Current Rules Text: Return all artifacts target player owns to his or her hand. [Oracle 2000/02/01] )

This post is for the discussion of this card and other cards that may replace it or be replaced by it.

Since Welder Prison has been so big, more and more artifacts have seen play.  Artifacts that limit play, provide mana, and just in general are annoying.  With the exclusion of [card]Null Rod[/card] in Gay Fish, there is not near enough artifact hate maindecked.  The biggest excuse for this is [card]Cunning Wish[/card], but [card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card] cooperates with this quite well too.

Let's take a look at a few scenarios..

You [card]Cunning Wish[/card] for, or draw into a [card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card], by 3rd turn and are able to play it on your 4th turn.

The mandatory [card]Mana Vault[/card]s, [card]Mana Crypt[/card]s, [card]Grim Monolith[/card]s, [card]Black Lotus[/card]s, and, of course, Moxen every combo deck runs, and most any deck with the exception of [card]Mana Crypt[/card] and [card]Grim Monolith[/card], a 5th turn [card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card] will almost always return at least 2-3 artifacts.  But why is this better than, say, [card]Rack and Ruin[/card] aside from the obvious mana cost?  Returning Moxen doesn't matter much aside from stopping a random [card]Mana Drain[/card] via [card]Mox Sapphire[/card], but there are even advantegous exceptions for this.  Say your opponent has out 3 mox and 1 other mana artifacts and 6 cards in their hand.  Not uncommon at all for a tog deck or draw7 or even charbelcher.  If you return 4 cards right before their discard phase ends, they'll end up losing 3 cards due to discard, meaning cheaper 2 artifact deaths (or 2 card deaths none the less) than [card]Rack and Ruin[/card].

With combo, if a [card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card] is played against a trinisphere, you can go off that turn and not worry about a chalice (if say a sphere, trini, and chalice are all out).  Also, [card]Hurkyl's Recall[/card] can more easily avoid [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] in tog.

Comments, questions, death threats?

[Smash]

The reason people played recall for a while was its great "synergy" with grafted skullcap

Right now the only reason to play it, is for

a) combo to do some trick with it or
b) combo to EOT return all the lock components of a stax player so he can go off next turn

both sides of the coin work quite nicely for combo.

[Fëanor]

I would go for the death threat if you don't edit your post and take the apostrophe out of the card name

Hurkyl's recall is most useful for two reasons.

1) Your opponent is in full swing and has a lock or something similar on you, and you need that one card that will make him have to start all over again (and most players can't empty their hand again on one turn, not to mention doing it just before EOT, they might have to discard).

2) Your opponent has the necessary ingredients to mash you, and you're ready to win, if not for a few restricting permanents

3)(I did say two didnt I) You're getting pummeled by a bunch of Karned fatties and it's your last ditch effort.

Peace

[Methuselahn]

I've always liked Hurkyl's Recall on the defensive in aggro decks.  You take full advantage of all that bounce (spheres, wires, fat) by swinging with your own dudes.

Is the card breakable as a mana producer?  Possibly, but not yet.

[Akuma]

The problem with Hurkyl's Recall is that it does not actually solve anything, it's just a stall tactic. I agree with Smash, Hurkyl's Recall is probably most useful in the situations he listed.

Against Prison, even the versions that use Skullcap, it usually fails in it's role. You usually end up using a spell to break out of a lock during your upkeep, at which point you use up mana just to reset all of their crap while something like Rack & Ruin actually makes them lose resources.

[SpencerForHire]

I always liked [card]Hurkyls Recall[/card] for combo.  Play moxes, play sol ring, play mana vault.. etc.. Then Hurkyls and play em all again, you have lots of mana, and/or a high storm count.  Now obviously there are much better ways to get storm count, and its a particularly 'involved' way to produce large amounts of mana..  But that is a use for it.
I don't see WS players in my area running skullcaps because of the amount of recalls resurging.. So the anti-stax use is not a factor here, and it's combo use has been replaced by or can be used alongside [card]Retract[/card].

[KoboldLeader]

Fëanor u like Opeth?? hehe thats cool...

[KoboldLeader]

[card]Restless Dreams[/card]

[firebird365]

Restless Dreams

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, but your 2 word post does nothing for me (and I'm assuming nothing for the discussion).

IRT Topic

As you said, Hurkyl's Recall is most useful in a combo-esque deck, in which certain artifacts are being troublesome, or to gain mana (or boost storm count, I suppose) in Tendrils based decks. However, I think that it has outlasted its usefulness; only the ballsiest players play combo (outside of Dragon) and control decks have better chances of stopping the lock, or breaking free.