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When I was first getting into competitive Magic, Tooth and Nail was the bogeyman in Standard. At that point in time, the deck was built in a way that you could breath a deep sigh of relief if you were able to hit the deck with a Cranial Extraction, as the deck was pretty terrible at doing anything other than casting its namesake card.
A lot has changed since then, and every time another Cranial Extraction variant is printed it is immediately met by the point that these cards are card disadvantage unless you hit a card in their hand, and the fact that decks tend to have a lot of ways to win the game. Of course, if an effect like this is pushed enough it's conceivable that it could be great. I wonder if Infinite Obliteration might fit that bill.
Only hitting creatures sucks in a world of planeswalkers, but being ahead of the curve of the dominant Standard forces of Dragonlord Ojutai and Siege Rhino is great. It's also possible that this will be used as a tool for control decks to beat up on Deathmist Raptor and Den Protector- the role that I imagine this card was designed to fill.
Infinite Obliteration is likely to be a sideboard card in the same vein as its predecessors, but even still it's a card worth keeping in mind. In particular, it plays very well with Thoughtseize for the period of time that they'll both be Standard legal.
This is not an article, it’s a forum post at best.
What is missing that you’d like to see? Be constructive.
Like you mentioned, this card seems at its best after turn 1 or turn 2 thoughtseize. I think it has potential. For standard, I can see it finding 1-2 copies in a more controlling deck like UB control. It has a lot of the qualities of cabal therapy in that it will likely be a bit better than it seems on the surface because you can often deduce what is in your opponent’s hand based on their first few plays, or at the very least stop a worse case scenario.
Love the art on this card. It’s like a matryoshka doll of destruction 🙂
Isn’t surgical extraction and extirpate strictly better in every way than this? Wouldn’t you consider Cranial Extraction < Infinite Obliterations < Extirpate = Surgical Extraction because the split second vs phyrexian mana is a toss up?
Surgical and extirpate are for targeted graveyard hate, this is for a completely different purpose. In situations where all I really care about is one card and it resolving once for me is bad I would want an effect that can hit it regardless of the contents of my opponent’s graveyard.
this is for hand destruction rather than graveyard or board hate. it very well may turn out to be solid in BW or UB control.
I think that most people are overlooking the fact that the Origins planeswalkers are creatures.
I am playing U/B Control deck against Esper Dragons last week. I used Infinite Obliteration on turn 3, naming Dragonlord Ojutai and I saw 2 of them in his hands. On turn 4, I cast it again naming Dragonlord Silumgar as I saw him holding one the last turn. Turn 5 Sphinx Tutelage, Turn 6 and 7, cast Talent of the Telepath. I literally milled him out.