Card Spotlight: Pyrrhic Knowledge

Pyrrhic Knowledge card breakdown:

Text reads: Soulless. Pull a spell with mana cost 7 or less from your void to your hand, and obliterate cards from the top of your deck equal to its mana cost. Set the spell’s cost to 0. Obliterate it at the end of your turn.

What the card does: Pyrrhic Knowledge lets you play a spell from your void that costs 7 mana or less. The drawback of obliterating cards from the top of your deck is something to consider in control vs control matchups however the vast majority of matchups this has little impact. The card that you retrieve from your void will get obliterated at the end of your turn so you can't just play Pyrrhic Knowledge and sit on a zero cost spell. If you have two Pyrrhic Knowledge you can retrieve a spell play that spell then retrieve the same spell again on the same turn. Which makes it possible to play a single copy of a spell three times in a game.

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Lights Verdict intro: The recent Lights Verdict “mini-set” to Gods Unchained has been one of the most impactful sets to hit Gods Unchained in my two years of playing. Despite only having twelve cards, Lights Verdict has five cards that are what I consider to be top-meta plays. This Article will highlight what I believe to be the strongest of them all, Pyrrhic Knowledge.

Using Pyrrhic Knowledge in Archetypes:

Aggro:

As of the writing of this article the dominant aggro deck in the domain of Magic is Card Draw Magic (abbreviated CDM). CDM is a very flexible deck in the meta. Against control decks CDM morphs into an aggro deck pushing as much early face damage as possible with minions then finishing with extra spells to the face at the end (Wyrmbreath, Unbound Flames, Form of Power, Ancient Texts are the primary finishers). Coupled with spellboost from Street Conjurer or Academy Apprentice this can give CDM lots of reach even after board control is lost.

Even before Lights Verdict CDM was a top tier meta deck, however Pyrrhic Knowledge is the extra addition that adds another tier of versatility to CDM. Not only does CDM get the extra burst from additional face damage (by copying Wyrmbreath or Unbound Flames primarily). Against Aggro Decks CDM often acts more reactive as a control value-based feel. This is where Pyrrhic Knowledge adds flexibility to CDM as the interaction with Unbound Flames allows CDM to get a potentially game saving board-wipe at five mana instead of having to wait until seven mana. Standard line for aggro here is to play unbound flames on five then with Unbound in the void Pyrrhic Knowledge can bring it back, for an additional two mana you can get the board wipe desired which can save you. Pyrrhic Knowledge also has some nice utility with Demetrios, Playright vs aggro as the Final Draft often is a high-value card. The ability to copy the Final Draft can lead to incredible card advantage for CDM.

Control:

Unbound Flames and Demetrios Playright synergies remain true for control. The ability to copy board wipes early with Pyrrhic Knowledge can be a game changer for control vs aggro decks. Another example of how strong Pyrrhic Knowledge can be is as a finisher for control. Arcane Burst can do (up to) 10 damage per cast. The ability to copy a spell which normally cost 7 mana for only 3 can give Control Magic incredible late game value. In other situations Pyrrhic Knowledge can be used to fetch extra card draw or even hyper-situational cards such as Safeguard Incantation to survive longer. Gods Unchained has a strict 2 card maximum on all non-legendaries, however Pyrrhic Knowledge gets to cheat this rule allowing you to play key cards up to 4 times in a game.

Combo:

Helpful Aetherfox ironically was named and designed to reduce Aethersnap which it can no longer reduce due to a balance patch. However Helpful Aetherfox has found new life in combo decks in large part due to Pyrrhic Knowledge. Helpful Aetherfox can reduce Pyrrhic Knowledge to 0 cost which can be used in potential one turn kill scenarios. My favorite deck that utilizes this is a combo deck nicknamed “Storm Surge” which uses Stormfield, Form of Unity, and tiny token minions such as Expectant Chicken to deliver one turn kills. The ability to copy key combo pieces makes these once meme-like combo decks a lot more consistent as the ability to duplicate combo pieces is extraordinarily valuable.

Delving into the future:

With Pyrrhic Knowledge locked this is destined to be a balance nightmare for the balance team for the next few upcoming expansions. Every Magic domain spell you have to ask is the synergy with Pyrrhic Knowledge busted (and many ideas will). There is danger for Gods Unchained to implement similar ideas to Demetrios, Playwright any card mechanic that involves “upgrading” effectively gets multiplied by Pyrrhic Knowledge. With all of this in mind it’s hard to imagine a meta where top tier Magic lists don't start their deck with 2x Pyrrhic Knowledge then fill the lists with 28 other cards. I fully expect Pyrrhic Knowledge to be a top-tier meta staple in all Magic domain lists for years to come.