Pointed Discussion

They could have put the Sorin Markov quote from the Zendikar version of this card back in M12 since he's actually in the core set now. Its a great quote, and fits the card perfectly.

Isn't this stricly worse, like MUCH worse than Wrath of God. Can't anything that regenerates survive this? I mean, what if you're playing a green Troll deck, this will do nothing...

Though I guess one could use that same idea to their advantage...

But anyway, I don't see the great usefulness of this card anymore, what with the ridiculous amount of spot removal (like EXILE removal) that white has, at least in extended if not in standard.

Sweet artwork though.

Wrath of God isn't standard playable though, but yes, that is strictly better. Regeneration isn't always something that is on the field though, neither is the mana to activate it.

Anyhow, I liked the Sorin Markov quote as well. They never seem to get flavor text right do they? Field wipes will always be my favorite form of removal. Nothing like saying "No" to shroud.

@ AngelPhoenix

Wizards wants to promote Regeneration as viable, hence the change. And mass removal is always handy to have...the card advantage gain just can't be beat. Sure, spot removal is useful (Hi Swords To Plowshares!) but control often wants to remove multiple threats at once. Would you waste spot removal on a token gen deck?

Coming to a city near you Dec 2012 ;-P

~"Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! "

Its usefulness is insane! the ability to reset the board is so incredibly useful against essentially every deck. Especially aggro decks that use their early game to fill up the board and deal damage to you, day of judgment on turn four into a turn five Baneslayer Angel or Batterskull is so incredibly powerful, even if you don't have the good five drop to power it up you still get to take away their first three or four turns of work, which is very good. Sure, if you are playing vampires you probably shouldn't wrath when they have Kalastria Highborn, and you should probably side them out against any sort of control deck, and that is where the spot removal comes in.

I love the lack of a quote, flavor text, even special abilitys.

Everything Dies

Thats all it needs to say, now that "dies" is in the M12 dictionary, and applies only to creatures. Love it.

or you could render a couple of knights indestructible with knight exemplar before casting this.

NOT strictly worse than Wrath. After all, what if it's you, not your opponent who has regenerators. In the right deck this can be a Plague Wind for half the cost.

I'm curious... If you have a card that prevents ALL damage done to creatures you control, does it prevent destruction as well? Never really understood that part...

I received a foil full-art textless version of this in the last (and my first and only) Player Rewards mailing.

It's probably one of the most awesome cards I own.

Well, there's not much for me to say about the power level of the card itself. Wrath of God has proven itself to be a powerful card with applications in many formats. It's been a staple in white decks since the game began, and I don't expect that to change any time soon.

Personally, however, I am not a huge fan of Day of Judgment's spot in the color pie. I think "Destroy all creatures" should be a black ability more than a white ability. From where I'm standing, the Hallowed Burial/Final Judgment version has a much whiter feel to it--all of white's other removal is "nonlethal", exiling, tucking, or otherwise disabling the creature rather than outright killing it. White mana can be destructive, of course, but it seems to me like a true white board sweeper should be more like Planar Cleansing for a clean sweep, as opposed to a living-creatures-only Wrath of God affair. Also, it's a little awkward that the weenie swarm color is also the color that's best at wiping the board. Look at Elspeth Tirel's first two abilities, then look at her third ability. A little anti-synergy there. That's not to say that the effect isn't flavorful. The years have shown us that this is a good tool for white to have in its arsenal, and it's helped establish white as a strong defensive color, which is perfectly acceptable. I just don't think it's the most flavorful execution of the mechanic in white--I prefer Hallowed Burial's take on it.

On the other hand, black is the color of death, so killing indiscriminately makes a lot of sense--that’s what should be expected from a significant burst of black mana. Black is also the color most willing to sacrifice its own creatures, which it considers expendable, and its ability to reanimate dead creatures makes it the color best-positioned to abuse a full graveyard. Plus, it synergizes very well with black's discard, which can empty the opponent's hand to stunt their recovery on the post-Damnation battlefield. So, a home run for both flavor and mechanics, basically. Damnation was well-loved back when it was printed (its rating as of this post is nearly a perfect 5) and saw lots of play; I think it would be well-loved again if it returned, even if it were only for a year or two.

I believe that Day of Judgment is still around for legacy reasons. For one thing, it's been in white forever. Players are used to having Wrath of God. How can it be abnormal flavor-wise if it singlehandedly is the norm? Green still has Birds of Paradise after all these years even though flying is an unusual ability on green creatures; inertia and nostalgia are powerful forces.

For another thing, I think the developers like it to exist--having a four-mana Wrath effect in the format is a good safety valve, and white is a color that can make good use of that safety valve. As I said before, Wrath has helped establish white as a strong defensive color, and it's been consistently relevant against creature decks throughout the game's history. And you know what? That's just fine.

If I had my way though, I'd like to give the basic four-mana "Destroy all creatures" effect primarily to black, with white getting the deluxe five- and six-mana versions like Planar Cleansing and Hallowed Burial.

@sniperjolly

"dies" means is put into graveyard from the battlefield which means it would also affect creatures with regeneration and indestructibility - it still has to say destroy all creatures because it is not the same as everything dies

@mutantman

I really liked your statement, it is well formulated and has good arguments.
But you focus too much on the creature destruction, which is very ironically not the main aspect of this card in terms of flavor.
(yes it may sound stupid but read on)

Look, creature destruction is black but white gets Wrath of God
land destruction is red but white gets Armageddon
permanent destruction is green but still white gets Planar Cleansing

All these effects in a vacuum, arent white but still these cards are printed in white. The main focus of these cards arent the individual mechanics but the board effect.

Board effects are mainly in white as it has some religious/holy/god/higher power from above - theme going on which is represented in these kind of cards.

So when you look at day of judgment you shouldnt look at it as a creature destruction spell (which is no doubt black) but as part of a board effect cycle.

I hope that makes sense to you :)

That being said, i think when the time is right and color pie balancing allows it, black will get its non-color-shifted wrath of gods, sooner or later.

No flavour text always makes me sad with magic cards.

To say this is "Worse than Wrath of God" is just being closed minded. Sometimes there's more to Magic than just wiping the entire board clean. Imagine the upper hand you could get with this card if you stacked your deck to have regenerators, and your opponent didn't.

When your game's going down the drain, what's to lose? This works great with low cost cards that could be played right after this is cast, like Elite Vanguard.

I combined this with Stave Off for an epic finisher.

It was EPIC

@ Iwachiten

Stave Off doesn't interact with Day of Judgment

I can't believe how many people make that mistake, it even says right below Stave Off that is doesn't work that way.

Does Day of Judgment deal Damage?
No
Does Day of Judgment Enchant or Equip?
No
Does Day of Judgment Block?
No
Does Day of Judgment Target?
No

It destroys the creature, not the same as dealing damage, and it doesn't target it, it doesn't work with Stave Off at all.

Damage, when you deal damage, as indicated by the phrase "deal 'X' damage" you place damage counters on a creature, if these counters would be greater than the toughness of the creature, the creature is destroyed, damage actually doesn't modify toughness (otherwise you could kill a Spearbreaker Behemoth with 2 Lightning Bolts). Creatures with protection negate those damage counters being placed on it.

Only cards that say "Enchant" or "Equip" since all of those cards require targeting before they enchant or equip, this part of protection is only for a creature that is enchanted/equipped and gains protection, or in the rare cases the aura or equipment changes colors.

Blocking can only be done by a creature, there are a few spells that make creatures become 'blocked', if the spell doesn't target, and doesn't make a token to block it (it just says its "blocked") then its still blocked, even if the creature had protection from the color of the spell, this is because protection from white only stops a white creature being declared as a blocker.

Targeting is very easy to find, does it say "Target"? No? THEN ITS NOT TARGETING!

Well lookie lookie lookie, My favorite hate card is back. this is one thing i hated about playing against defensive or rather "If i can't get into your swarm, lets blow everything away" card. Im not saying I don't love it, cuz its amazing, just this is the card you worry more in facing, and anyone who hates it clearly are more controllers or combo players. Aggros dread facing a white deck that runs these, and with white whinnies, usually if you can't touch your opponent with your army, its the card that allows you to. Shoot call me crazy but the fact you have this and the Empire trio, you may be one of the most aggressive players out there, see think of it like this, W/B empire deck, run 4 tutors, 2 rune-scarred demons and possibly 2 quicksilvers with this as your card of choice, if anything happens where you can't keep a good defense or aggressiveness to your deck, and you are seeing your opponent gain the creature advantage, as you finish assembling your pieces of ruling, you can whipe the board clean and produce tokens, I mean with all three out wiping the board clean from creatures isn't anything since you will be producing 5 TOKENS for only 1 mana, but even then, the fact that for 5 mana on turn 5 means you have a 1/1 and no opposition against you. just saying guys. This card is the ultimate "if i can't touch you i will make it to where you can't touch me." kind of card.

Why don't WoTC reprint Wrath of God instead?

@ICEFANG13
I think I know why many people make that mistake: they believe that for a sorcery to do something to a permanent it must target the permanent. The criterion in full should be: a spell/ability targets only if it does say "TARGET", or it has a keyword ability that targets.
To be precise, there is yet another case in which the "Enchant/Equip" clause might be useful, that is, when an aura comes back to the field due to the effect of, say, Oblivion Ring. It doesn't target anything; that is the rule.

BW lifegain deck with Falkenrath Noble x N out on field? Hello life.

Strictly worse than Wrath of God.

Fenizrael is right, and actually stole the point I wanted to make. >:(

Generally, however, WoG will be better, since you'll have no regenerators in your deck and your opponent might - MIGHT - have some on rare occasions. Back when Wrath was still around, Troll Ascetic was too, so that's a point in its favor. However, due to allowing regeneration, Day is a more interesting card, and I think the game would be slightly better if it had been the standard of Wrath effects since Day 1, and enabling those regeneration-abuse decks for the entire history of Magic (Especially back in the beginning, when they may have actually been strong).

I love cards without flavor text. However, the Sorin quote is so amazing that I would make an exception for this card.

NOT strictly worse than wrath of god. Combo it with asceticism to save some of your own creatures.

A lot of players, especially new ones, aren't as used to the mangled logic that goes into M: TG rules. When we see something that says "Destroy all" we think "well, ALL is a target. It's targeting ALL of that category." That's the way most people's brains work. Same with an idea like "Protection" - they'd think "Protection" would really mean "this thing I'm protected from can't bother me in any way, shape, or form."

A lot of card games won't make their players memorize a bunch of definitions for how their rules work. They won't assume the players think like computer programmers. I'm not going to dog on Magic too much but they can't too be too surprised that people get confused, espeically when they change things around big time every couple of years.

So if someone was new and wanted to use Stave Off vs. a card like this, I'd probably let it slide the first time and tell them I'd need to talk to them after the game to go over some of the finer points in the rules.

This is so sexy without the flavor text. Just, "destroy all creatures". Bam. No frills. Even though the card itself is poop on a shoe, I like Cancel for the same reason.

Board sweepers have been keeping Timmy in check since Alpha.

The lack of anti-regeneration in this card just saved me recently.

I was playing G/W and had a Birds of Paradise, a Strangleroot Geist (with a +1/+1 counter on it), and most importantly, a Thrun, The Last Troll. The other guy had 7 more life than me and like 8 creatures out including a couple fatties.

I had DOJ in my hand just waiting for the perfect moment, and it came up. I killed all his creatures and regenerated my troll. He drew nothing relevant in the next turn and I drew an Angelic Destiny. It was over two turns later.

I hate seeing this from across the table. Lately, I have seen the scenario where they will first call Batterskull back to their hand, then use this, then put Batterskull back on the field.

This is the card that gives White decks late-game staying power if most of their weenies have been dispatched. 5/5 for usability, but damn, do I hate seeing my opponent play it =/

Combo with Avacyn, Angel of Hope. You get to keep your creatures, and then attack. Awesome, utterly evil, and effective. Not to mention a little nugget of flavor.

Spoiler alert! EVERYBODY DIES.

Well, if you have six mana open you could Wrap in Vigor all your creatures. Seems like a good enough finisher to me - keep all your creatures, but everything else dies? Pretty one-sided judgement, there.

I'm pretty sure than since this card can destroy a card with "Protection from Everything" that means Avacyn, Angel of Hope's ability never triggers, for indestructible prevents targeted destruction (ie Doom blade), not non-targeted removal (ie this card, Black sun's zenith, Damnation. etc)

@Xineombine

"An indestructible permanent can't be destroyed, but it can still be sacrificed, exiled, put into a graveyard, and so on."

It's a static ability, destroy effects just don't do anything.

"Protection from everything" means the following: -- Progenitus can't be blocked. -- Progenitus can't be enchanted or equipped. -- Progenitus can't be the target of spells or abilities. -- All damage that would be dealt to Progenitus is prevented.
Progenitus can still be affected by effects that don't target it or deal damage to it (such as Wrath of God).

Both cards totally explain how they work.

Black Sun's Zenith would work though, if you did it for enough. Any creature with zero toughness is put into it's owners graveyard as a state based effect.

This card's artist is Vincent Proce, 1 letter off from Vincent Price. And it makes sense on this card.

Now a bit outclassed by Supreme Verdict, the reason being that I've never cast a DoJ without spending {U} to cast it, which makes these two cards the same in my decks, and this one strictly better.

Anyone saying this is strictly worse than Wrath of God has clearly never played it with Wrap in Vigor

This card seems most appropriately played next to Zombie Apocalypse

The white version of damnation

This is actually not better or worse than Wrath of God. If you build a deck with lots of regeneration, it's actually better.

I'm constantly torn between this and Planar Cleansing in my black/white life gain deck. Having a couple Blood Artists and Falkenrath Nobles is what makes it so good, but sometimes I don't want to get rid of that Exquisite Blood too...
Then again, my opponent may have an enchantment or two out as well, which is where this would help. Damn Wizards, sometimes I hate that you make me pick and choose...

This card needs some kind of support, unless you don't mind all your creatures dying.