Summary
Magic: The Gatheringis a game with tens of thousands of cards, and some of them are as complicated as understanding banding or layers. If you claim to know what Questing Beast or Wheel of Misfortune do without checking the card, you’re a filthy liar.
With Modern Horizons 3, Wizards has given me flashbacks to all these rules confusions with just one card. Shadow of the Second Sun is inspired by a card that has caused me so many headaches since its first printing, and this time I’m cutting the arguments off before they happen.
What Does Shadow Of The Second Sun Do?
Shadow of the Second Sun is an Aura enchantment that has a pretty simple effect: it gives you a second beginning phase. This means you get to untap, upkeep, and draw twice in a turn. This isn’t a new effect – in fact, it’s a direct callback to a card that first debuted inCommander Legendsthat I played quite frequently, Sphinx of the Second Sun.
Sphinx of the Second Sun is an excellent card, and Shadow makes it even easier to draw extra cards and trigger additional upkeeps by being a harder-to-remove enchantment. You get to go into your opponents’ turns with all your permanents untapped and an extra card in your hand, and in myold Kwain, Itinerant Meddler deck, Sphinx was an absolute fiend for keeping control over the board.
Controlling both Shadow and Sphinx of the Second Sun will give you two additional beginning phases, one after the other.
Unfortunately, for an effect that’s simple on paper, the amount of misplays I’ve seen with the Sphinx only makes me dread the chaos having the same effect on an Aura enchantment is going to cause.
How Do People Misplay Sphinx Of The Second Sun?
I remember the moment where it was finally explained to me how badly I was misplaying the Sphinx. I’d used it to run away with the game, drawing enough control pieces to keep everyone down while I stormed ahead. And then the dreaded “I don’t think that’s what that card does” came.
Suddenly we all realised that my mistake had made the entire game unfixable. I’d drawn too many cards, countered too much, put too many permanents into play, and, even if I’d backed out now, the effect it had had up to then was massive.
The problem with both Sphinx and Shadow of the Second Sun is it’s easy to miss the important info ofwhenthe second beginning phase happens.
A lot of people will see “At the beginning of your second main phase” and “additional beginning phase” and think that means you go into your second main phase with everything untapped and a card drawn. They get so excited about the raw power of the effect that they miss three crucial words: “after this phase”.
The ability triggers at the start of your second main phase, but you don’t suddenly back up to an earlier point in the turn to jam the second beginning phase in. It tacks it on afterwards – after your second main phase, but before your end phase.
Second Beginning Phase
Ending Phase
This dramatically reduces the power of Second Sun-esque effects. You’re not getting a whole second main phase with everything untapped, and you can’t play anything that isn’t an instant, a permanent with flash, or an activated ability. You’re still going into your opponents’ turns with a hand full of cards and all the mana you need, but it isn’t the total reset people mistakenly think it is.
Shadow Tries Its Best To Make The Effect Readable
Shadow of the Second Sun does something that Sphinx didn’t: it explains exactly when the additional starting phase is in the italic reminder text.
“The end step happens after the added untap, upkeep, and draw steps” is a good way of explaining both what an additional beginning phase entails, and when it happens, but I’m not convinced it’s going to be enough.
People already don’t read cards. Both Shadows and Sphinx explain what the card does already, but people choose what they want to see, and when you dangle as powerful an effect as an untap before your second main phase in front of them, they’re going to leap on the idea.
This isn’t something Wizards can design around, as any solution involves more text people won’t read or changes the card too much to be a worthwhile callback. The only solution to this is being aware of what Sphinx and Shadow do, and being ready to bring it up in games where they hit the board.
We’re likely going to see this card a lot in Commander, especially with the popularity of Outlaws of Thunder Junction’sObeka, Splitter of Seconds. So slow down, read your cards, and you’ll be gobbling up those beginning phases like it’s nobody’s business.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
