Magic Memories: Underworld Dreams

[Oversoul]

In 2017, I started writing these reminiscent "Magic Memories" forum posts because it was more convenient than trying to write full-length articles for the front page, but still got me that good old Magic-writing fix. I wrote about a bunch of cards I'd used over the years and my memories of those cards. About a year later, the "Magic Memories" posts inspired a series of front page articles with the concept "I Have No Memory." In those articles, I combed through every set in Magic's history to introduce new cards. For each set, I identified a card that I'd never used in any of my own decks, but one that I was interested in and wanted to use some day. As I stated in the introduction to the first article in that series, this was done because I was fascinated with the card Underworld Dreams and had been examining uses for it, but had technically never played with it up to that point.

In Magic Memories, I’ve stuck with cards that I actually played at some point. And there are a lot more. While looking for historical information on Fastbond, I came across an article by Stephen Menendian on the “Vintage Magic” website. For stuff like "The Comboist Manifesto" that thing is a treasure trove. The web has a great deal of information to offer about contemporary combo decks, and with a little digging it’s not too hard to learn about some combo decks from the old days, going all the way back to ProsBloom in 1997. But information on combo decks from before that is sparse. I was particularly intrigued by the descriptions of Underworld Dreams combo decks. I’ve been looking at Underworld Dreams for a future Commander deck, and I’ve been aware of the card for a long time because I had it played against me back when I was new to the game. By coincidence, the card has been cropping up in both things I’ve read and in old memories I’d pondered. But it’s not really an appropriate subject for my traditional “Magic Memories” treatment: I’ve never owned or played with the card at any time!

Often, when I post a Magic Memories thread, other CPA members chime in about their own experience with the card. There were also some mentions of not ever having used the card or of not remembering it. So I decided to write this, an article about cards that I have not used. Giving the matter only a slight amount of thought, the formula that I settled on for doing this was to go chronologically through every Magic set that introduced new cards and selecting the new card that most piqued my interest. For some sets, there were several candidates. For others, I struggled to find a card that I had no memory of using and still thought was a cool card. Perhaps you’ll be surprised at how I’ve never played with your favorite card. Or perhaps you’ll say, “I’ve never even heard of that card.” I do not know. Read on and find out.

This set is huge, introducing more new cards than any other set in the game. While there are several that I’ve never played with, most of them are mediocre cards anyway. Considering how much I like Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister, it’s a wonder that I’ve never put Underworld Dreams into a deck. Although it was reprinted in some core sets, I’ve never owned a copy. The original Legends version looks extremely cool and I’ll be on the lookout for it now. Considering that Underworld Dreams is a Dark Ritual payload and a strong synergy with Wheel of Fortune, it’s kind of surreal that I’ve never, ever used it.

So now we come full-circle. Underworld Dreams gets a Magic Memories thread! I forget when I picked up my first copy, but I now own a full playset and the prize of my collection is my now-complete Old School Underworld Dreams deck (sideboard still needs work). Now, I can't pretend to have the depth of experience with this card that I have with some of my better established Magic Memories. Two years or so of Memories won't make up for the previous twenty-something years of me not playing the card. Still, there's a bit to talk about here.

 

[Ferret]

Don't forget Peer Into the Abyss. It seems to be all the rage on Arena these days...

 

[Oversoul]

Don't forget Peer Into the Abyss. It seems to be all the rage on Arena these days...

Well, now I won't! But seriously, I did forget that Underworld Dreams is Standard-legal again. Haven't been paying attention to those newer formats. And I haven't logged onto Arena in almost a year.

This does afford me the opportunity to awkwardly segue into the reprint history of Underworld Dreams. The card was first printed in Legends in 1994, with this distinctive watercolor-style art by Julie Baroh.


That's how I first saw the card, probably in 1999. We had an after-school game club at my Junior High school, and one of my friends at the time had a collection that consisted mostly of what were, back then, the "old" cards. I guess they weren't that old yet. I just realized that there were probably a lot of cards I first encountered while playing with that one guy. Underworld Dreams, Giant Slug, Icy Manipulator with its original art, Raging River, Killer Bees, and probably a bunch more.

I didn't own the card myself. I found it interesting, but ultimately favored a different black enchantment that I compared it to at the time: Megrim. Even back then, I had enough experience to know that letting opponents draw extra cards was dangerous. Making them discard cards though? That was good for me anyway. Also Megrim did twice as much damage per card. So what kind of sucker would use Underworld Dreams anyway. It wasn't until later that I realized how deadly Underworld Dreams could be.

A few years later, starting in 2003, Underworld Dreams was reprinted in four core sets in a row: Eighth Edition, Ninth Edition, Tenth Edition, and Magic 2010.


Same card. Same flavor text. Very different art, though. And of course it came with the new frame. I definitely saw the new version and I think it even turned up in some of my opponents' decks, but I didn't particularly care at the time. Actually, I have a vague recollection that I believed (mistakenly) that Eighth Edition wasn't even the first reprint, but that Underworld Dreams had already made another white-bordered appearance in Sixth Edition or Battle Royale or something (it hadn't).

At some point in the years that the card was being reprinted in core sets, I mentally had it filed away as something to potentially try out in the right deck, but the right deck never quite turned out to be one I was building. By this point, I was conscious of the fact that the card had once been restricted (in 1994), but it had already been unrestricted before I'd even given the matter any thought (in 1999).

The old restriction did make me curious. I think that at some point I'd asked around and had heard the suggestion that it was because of Wheel of Fortune and Winds of Change. The 2003 reprint would have happened around the time that I was proxying and testing a "Draw7" Type 1 deck with Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, and Diminishing Returns. I can't remember which circumstance would have piqued my interest in Underworld Dreams at the time, but the notion did crystallize: chain symmetrical card-drawing spells together and let Underworld Dreams kill my opponent. And if my casual Magic playgroups I'd been active in had stuck together longer, I believe that I would eventually have done just that. But the timing was off.

Another factor for most of the time period while Underworld Dreams was appearing in core sets (2003–2009) was my interest in and focus on the Legacy format during those years. And Underworld Dreams wasn't viable in Legacy. Or so I thought. I'll forgive myself for that one. It's true that Underworld Dreams made some Legacy appearances in rogue decks, mostly in monoblack control decks. But it was certainly never a format staple.

Perhaps I should note, Underworld Dreams did see some play in our forum games here at the CPA, and I've already begun reviewing some of those old threads looking for interesting tidbits, but none of the Underworld Dreams gameplay was from me, so it doesn't count. I do see that Spiderman had it against DarthFerret and against BigBlue, which means that Spiderman probably has the most CPA forum game experience with this card out of anyone.

 

[Oversoul]

My interest in Underworld Dreams was rekindled about five years ago when I started testing decks for Old School '94 gameplay. I knew that I wanted to play a combo deck. At first, I was waffling between a Time Vault extra turns deck and a Power Artifact infinite mana deck. Eventually I went with Power Artifact. I should see if I ever saved a final decklist anywhere, as I don't remember ever posting about it here. But I'd always loved Timetwister and if I had a chance to play a deck that made the most of Timetwister, I wanted to try. Also, an Underworld Dreams combo deck would necessitate a playset of Dark Ritual, so I was pretty tempted by it.

There are three main build paths for an Underworld Dreams combo deck in Old School '94. The core of the deck consists of Underworld Dreams, Dark Ritual, and Winds of Change.


From that starting point, I've seen the following approaches.

1. A black/red deck that saves immensely on budget compared to powered-up Old School decks. It's slower than a multicolored build, but can supplement combo-driven damage with more Lightning Bolts and such.
2. A blue/black/red deck. You get access to Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Time Walk, etc. More expensive and you need dual lands (also expensive) to really make it work.
3. A five-color deck. Mostly the same as the three-color version, but you now have access to Balance, Regrowth, and Sylvan Library. In addition to dual lands, City of Brass is needed to reliably get access to your splashed colors.

Balance and Sylvan Library are cool, but it was that the allure of Timetwister + Regrowth loops that really drew me to the five-color option.

In 2017 I read this article on Eternal Central and it became a goal of mine to build an Underworld Dreams deck like that one. I tested other variations, but it wasn't until earlier this year that I finally put a real deck together with all of the cards: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/old-school-underworld-dreams-deck.17607/

One month ago, I swapped out that last Revised copy of Howling Mine for a glorious Unlimited version. Go, go beveled edges. But yeah, the deck is still functionally identical to what I posted in that thread. It has been this deck that has served as the primary inspiration for this thread. But I'll still go over some other topics, including Ferret's point about Peer Into the Abyss.

 

[Ferret]

I saw you were using Winds of Change, which is a nice cheap card - unless, they have an empty hand - perhaps Wheel of Fortune would be better?

 

[Oversoul]

I saw you were using Winds of Change, which is a nice cheap card - unless, they have an empty hand - perhaps Wheel of Fortune would be better?

If my opponent has an empty hand, I might Winds of Change anyway to try to draw into Wheel of Fortune or Timetwister. Ideally, I want Winds of Change to be hitting for 7+, but it doesn't always happen. Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister are very much key cards for my deck and it's ideal to try to get one of them early on during a big spell-chaining turn, especially with Underworld Dreams already on the board. Regrowth is often also pointed Wheel of Fortune or Timetwister, for the same reason. But once I can load up an opponent's hand, Winds of Change is deadly.

A much rarer line is to Ancestral Recall the opponent, then cast Winds of Change. I'd usually only go for that if I had multiple copies of Underworld Dreams, as sometimes happens. Throw in Howling Mine and the damage really adds up.

 

[TomB]

Throw in a Winter Orb so your opponent can't cast much, and a few Black Vice for even more fun...

 

[Oversoul]

I think Winter Orb is a good card for Old School '94, but I don't think I could make it work in this deck because I want my own full mana open as much as possible. Waiting to untap my lands means passing more turns without doing as much, which is bad for me because most of my opponents can attack with creatures and I have no blockers. Meanwhile, having more mana available goes beyond being good, because I can make more use of it than my opponent by chaining multiple copies of Winds of Change in a single turn, along with hopefully Timetwister and/or Wheel of Fortune. I see lots of cards in a single turn, and having more mana open means casting more spells.

Black Vise is great in his deck, though! I've had games in which early Black Vise alongside Howling Mine did most of my work for me, without even needing Underworld Dreams. I'm running three copies of Black Vise. It's very good to see it early because of the way the math works out with damage from Underworld Dreams. Casting Wheel/Twister followed by Winds of Change with a single Underworld Dreams is 14 damage. If I also have a Black Vise, that's probably 3 more damage during my opponent's upkeep and another 1 damage during my opponent's draw step. If I got just 2 damage from simply dropping Black Vise early while my opponent still had a mostly full hand, that's a win right there. I've even had lines where I couldn't resolve Wheel/Twister, but was able to bleed my opponent out with Underworld Dreams, Black Vise, and Howling Mine.

 

[TomB]

Use Icy Manipulator, or Relic Barrier to tap the Orb at the end of your opponents turn so you can untap fully each turn, or if you haven't successfully kept an Underwear Dreams in play yet use them to tap the Mines before your opponents can draw enough to punish you for giving them all those extra cards. Artifact mana messes the plan up a bit though, which is why this is more of a 1.5 setup.

This is all sounding a bit like my old Freezer Burn deck circa 1996/97. And yes, Old School is the only school I've ever attended...

 

[Oversoul]

I do love me some Winter Orb + Icy Manipulator. At some point, I want to look into this concept. It'd be a different sort of deck, because slotting in Winter Orb and Icy Manipulator and Relic Barrier would mean removing other cards and slowing the deck down. The version I've been running can score some very quick kills, especially when it goes with Dark Ritual into Underworld Dreams and then Black Lotus into Wheel/Twister for 7 damage and a fresh hand on the first turn. I've gotten two lucky first-turn kills since I put it together and it's usually swinging for a turn 4 or 5 kill if not interrupted. I can go into a bit of a longer game too, with Balance and The Abyss to help clear the board, but that's a contingency.

I'm just wondering if Underworld Dreams is right for the Winter Orb concept. Black Vise is definitely good in both cases! Underworld Dreams, though? It's quite strong when you're spamming Dark Ritual, reloading your hand with Wheel of Fortune, following it up with Winds of Change, finding Black Lotus and then using Demonic Tutor for Timetwister, hitting a second Underworld Dreams, casting Winds of Change again, and killing the opponent in a single big turn. For a slower, more controlling deck, I think the triple-black would be unreliable compared to the payoff. I'd probably aim to tighten the prison with stuff like Stasis. But I might just be assuming that based on decks I've seen in the past. Haven't seen Underworld Dreams in the application you're describing. Maybe it could work...

Would you happen to remember an approximate decklist for "Freezer Burn" or have a list saved somewhere?

 

[TomB]

I'll try to remember something if/when you do a thread for the Vice or the Orb, but to tell the truth I never did acquire more than 1 Underworld Dreams so the deck including UD never did come together as more than a concept in my mind. I did think at the time it would be an awesome addition, but to be honest it was mostly a R/W deck with a splash of U and/or B. It was mostly artifacts and Lightning Bolts though, so converting it to be heavier black to support the BBB for UD wouldn't have been too hard, at least, that's what I thought at the time.

Then they restricted Black Vise and made it kind of a moot point, so I stopped worrying about it. Never did know they reprinted Underworld Dreams though...shows how out of touch I became...lol

 

[Oversoul]

I'll try to remember something if/when you do a thread for the Vice or the Orb, but to tell the truth I never did acquire more than 1 Underworld Dreams so the deck including UD never did come together as more than a concept in my mind. I did think at the time it would be an awesome addition, but to be honest it was mostly a R/W deck with a splash of U and/or B. It was mostly artifacts and Lightning Bolts though, so converting it to be heavier black to support the BBB for UD wouldn't have been too hard, at least, that's what I thought at the time.

Yeah, BBB is tough. The design of Legends is all over the place when it comes to power level and considerations like mana costs. I don't know if the triple-black cost was deliberately built in to constrain Underworld Dreams or if the cost was chosen for some other reason and things just worked out that way.

By the way, Black Vise and Winter Orb are both extremely memorable cards and I'm a bit surprised that I never started a Magic Memories thread on either of them. Well, not yet.

Then they restricted Black Vise and made it kind of a moot point, so I stopped worrying about it. Never did know they reprinted Underworld Dreams though...shows how out of touch I became...lol

Not only did they reprint Underworld Dreams. As Ferret alluded to, they reprinted it this year and it's currently part of the Standard environment. Underworld Dreams appeared as an uncommon in Theros Beyond Death, back in January. With the whole "escape from the Underworld" theme going on, the heavy emphasis on enchantments, and Ashiok shenanigans, the card is a strong thematic fit for the set. By today's standards, Underworld Dreams isn't an especially potent tournament card, and in an environment without Dark Ritual, trying to use Underworld Dreams as a tool to accumulate damage on opponents is likely to be too slow and clumsy. So the reprint, although nice, didn't really have the gravitas that one might associate with Underworld Dreams back in the 90's.

And then the new core set came out in July, and introduced a new card...


This works pretty well with Underworld Dreams because, even though it costs seven mana, you cast it and then your opponent dies. This combo is nowhere near the power level it would need to be for the Legacy format, and I haven't been following the formats where it might be relevant, but it seems that Ferret has run into it on MTG Arena. I'm guessing that this was the "Historic" format, although I don't know the details. Anyone else run into this combo somewhere?

 

[Ferret]

Actually, I've seen the combination in decks that use a lot of removal to keep the board clean while they set up the combo for the kill. Sometimes, it'll find its way into mill decks, but those are usually blue/black and the three black in the casting cost makes it kind of difficult to get out...

 

[Oversoul]

In discussions of the history of tournament Magic, I've often seen the "Prosperous Bloom" deck from around the time I started playing described as a kind of genesis of true combo decks in tournament play, completing the trinity of Aggro/Control/Combo. It's obvious that aggro decks and control decks had already existed, already being well-established before tournament Magic existed. Now, it's also generally acknowledged that combo decks had been played in the early days, back when Magic was less structured. But sanctioned tournament gameplay had little documented combo presence before ProsBloom. While that's true, I wouldn't read too much into it. From what I've been able to discern, looking back at old records...

• There was a lot of diversity in very early Magic, and the formalized DCI tournament system bottlenecked almost all of that. This wasn't necessarily due to systemic flaws. It's just how competitive environments develop. You start out with this diverse mess, then a few archetypes prove themselves and rise to the top. More work goes into emulating and refining the proven archetypes. So even without any interference from the tournament system, there's some streamlining. Eventually, new innovation emerges in the context of a stable environment, and new archetypes challenge the old ones. But that takes time! First comes the streamlining. And combo decks weren't the only decks to take an initial hit in this period from 1994 to 1997. Lots of deck concepts that had the tools to function in the early years, and were known to have existed to some minor extent back then, didn't see major tournament success at first.
• I said that it takes time. Time is one factor, but in a sense, it has to be considered relative to activity. Organized tournaments were special occasions in the mid-90's. Don't get me wrong: I know people would have played a lot of Magic back then. I can personally attest that there were times in the past when I got to play Magic a lot more than I get to now. But living in a world where you mostly play locally and where tournaments are sparse and poorly reported is very different from a world with FNM, MTGO Dailies, Dedicated coverage, sponsorships, strategy podcasts, etc. The evolution of a competitive metagame happens a lot faster when there's so much activity. It shouldn't be surprising that combo decks took some time adapt to the tournament scene. Maybe it should be surprising that they didn't need even more time.
• Early tournament Magic featured bans, restrictions, and power-level errata on the cards used by ever major combo deck in the early years. The contrast between actual historical tournament results and the combo options in Old School formats really highlights how hard WotC was on early combo decks. Time Vault was banned and then it and Basalt Monolith were taken down by errata, Channel was restricted and then banned, Recall and Regrowth were both restricted, Mirror Universe was restricted, Fork was restricted, Copy Artifact was restricted, even Zuran Orb and Land Tax were restricted. And, of course, Underworld Dreams was restricted. As much as I might complain about WotC hating combo decks these days, they were even more strict in their anti-combo attitudes back then. ProsBloom didn't mark the first time anyone concocted a tournament-ready combo deck. It marked the first time that a tournament-ready combo deck wasn't instantly banned out of existence.
• Even despite all factors working against combo decks, players still found ways to make them kinda-sorta work. Generally, these isolated successes were with awkward control-combo decks that slow-rolled into a combo finish. Even Underworld Dreams saw this kind of usage.

I touched on it in The Comboist Manifesto, but I was impressed to see this gem from Mark Justice, which used Chains of Mephistopheles to compensate for the restriction of Underworld Dreams.

4 The Rack
3 Disrupting Scepter
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Dark Banishing
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Braingeyser
1 Timetwister
3 Power Surge
3 Shatter
3 Winds of Change
1 Blood Moon
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Badlands
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Mishra’s Factory
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
4 Volcanic Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard:
4 The Abyss
2 Blood Moon
4 Earthquake
4 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast

I initially suspected a data entry error, as Dark Banishing was from Ice Age and it would seem that Dark Ritual would make sense here. But the presence of Pyroblast in the sideboard does indicate that this deck probably was from 1995, so maybe Dark Banishing was correct after all. Either way, it is fascinating to see that even restricted Underworld Dreams was still a threat.