Source: http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38686

This card is insane. For multiple formats including Vintage (obviously, we'll stick to Vintage).

The ability to function as a Crucible in a format with Dack, Fetchlands, Wasteland, Strip Mine, JVP, Bazaar, etc is obviously absurd.

The -1 ability is secondary but provides versatility and removal of Young Pyromancer, Revoker, Snapcaster, Narset at 1 Loyalty (or 3 in conjunction with a 2 power creature), while still keeping Wrenn in play. It's a bonus on an otherwise strong card.

The ultimate is game-ending in a format that has instants and sorceries that include Time Walk (Retrace and the +1...), Ancestral (draw more lands, keep retracing), etc... You can't pay alternate costs with retrace I believe (since you can only use one alternate cost).

This is all in a 2 mana planeswalker that goes up to 4 Loyalty.

Coming to post this, too. Two mana wasteland/strip mine lock seems pretty brutal. Even the ping is relevant as a way to wipe utility creatures away or grind out the opponent. The ultimate is also pretty insane in Vintage.

The one down side is that this walker doesn't protect itself. But, at 2 mana, does it really need to?

Better than Crucible seems good.

@maximumcdawg said in [MH1] Wrenn and Six:

The one down side is that this walker doesn't protect itself. But, at 2 mana, does it really need to?

It protects itself more than it looks like at first glance. 1) it is immediately out of Lightning Bolt range when you use its +1 for the first time, 2) its -1 can kill Thalia, Snap, Confidant etc, so it can defend itself a little bit at least from not-too-heavy creature strategies, and 3) not being blue means it can't be Pyroblasted. Not the most protected but not the most fragile either, and I would say it's going to be worth its mana cost even if it does get removed.

This card is really, really good.

I was thinking about how the ping protects this creature, and I actually decided it doesn't really because Vintage has so many decks with big-butt creatures like Eldrazi and Shops. I feel like this girl (girls?) protects herself (themselves?) about as well as Dack Fayden, maybe a little better. It's conditional.

Ironically, I think the protection is better in Legacy where small creatures tend to more consistently rule the roost in the first few turns of the game.

But, since this card only costs 2 mana and probably at worst gives you a rampant growth if it dies immediately, it may be that being somewhat fragile is irrelevant. It's such a small investment that the removal probably was more expensive (in mana or time) than this card was.

And it pitches to force of vigor. . .

@khahan Don't forget Force of Rage!

... and Bounty of the Hunt!

(I'll get my coat)

@khahan said in [MH1] Wrenn and Six:

And it pitches to force of vigor. . .

And Pyrokinesis (the real red force)
I really like this set so far.

Sweet card, but why does the ultimate has to do with instants and sorceries? I just don't really get the design.

Retrace is an effect that allows you to discard a land to cast an instant or sorcery with retrace from your graveyard.
I think the design is to allow you to acquire lands to then cast sorceries and instants as though they had Retrace.

Well, it can protect itself with a Mishra's Factory

@john-cox

Ah, of course! It makes much more sense now, thanks! For some reason I was thinking that retrace was another ability. You don't hear a lot of "retraces" these days.

@griselbrother Same, my mind went to Rebound at first.

I am shocked by how much stuff this set has that I'll have to get 4 of. This seems really well positioned in the game right now, so much so that I wonder if stock in Exploration won't go up.

Being able to turn 1 explore (or fastbond obviously) and stripmine into turn 2 dropping this +1ing and stripping again seems back breaking in some matches, and this guy has enough other utility that you can realistically expect to pull off the -1 pretty often.

The -1 being able to kill Narset seems pretty relevant.

This seems fantastic with the usual utility lands: not just Strip Mine/Wasteland but also Factory (which blocks for days), the threshold lands, etc.

If you don't remember Retrace, it does not exile the spell after you cast it from your graveyard. So the ultimate is game-winning with Life from the Loam and pretty much any business spell in the graveyard.

Or Time Walk plus another Wrenn is just Vault Key. And Ancestral plus Retrace is just...wrong. Only thing you can’t do is alternate cost Force or Gush. Still pretty insane.

@chubbyrain another wrenn, or getting to 8 before you emblem.

@chubbyrain said in [MH1] Wrenn and Six:

Or Time Walk plus another Wrenn is just Vault Key. And Ancestral plus Retrace is just...wrong. Only thing you can’t do is alternate cost Force or Gush. Still pretty insane.

Time Walk? Laaame. Let's retrace Smallpox instead hehehe. Seriously though, what a wonderfully broken little card, pushed to the limits but (seemingly) not past.

Obviously the shell has a lot to do with it, but a question to anyone who was playing Lavinia Survival; did you find that Mox Diamond was a huge liability or not? If there are potentially 8 extra forces that kill it does that affect your answer?