The Clepsydra
Vothias sits upon Chancellor's Rock, in the center of the vast water tank of the Tolarian Clepsydra. Above him, a dome of night stretches from horizon to horizon. Fifteen beleaguered students lounge in dinghies beneath him, yawning at the stars projected upon the dome. The glassy-eyed signs of milkshade intoxication weigh heavy on this lot. Vothias strokes at his whiskers, as he watches a young apprentice rest his head in the lap of another, both of them half-awake. Vothias raises his gnarled staff and brings it down upon the Rock three times, clack, clack, clack! The students sit up in alarm, scratching their heads. One young apprentice jumps for a textbook and begins to flip through its pages aimlessly, as though Vothias hadn't seen her nod off only seconds earlier.
"To your oars, urchins and cockles," says Vothias, "When our jenny gets thirsty, best start rowing."
The Clepsydra lurches and clangs to life. Across the channel from Chancellor's Rock, the copper trumpet of the beast floats half-submerged in its enormous tank. The water does not so much flow into the trumpet as it is inhaled by it, and soon both an ear-splitting roar and a vicious current drives the students madly to their paddles, rowing against the inexorable pull of the device. Above the water, the dome changes. The stars wane, and in their place, the liquescent ebb of the æther appears. Vothias raises his staff and points to an emerald whorl on the distant horizon. Slowly, the whorl expands and appears to approach the class. The haze parts, revealing a lush and verdant scene.
"Where is this?" asks Vothias, "Anybody, now. Be quick."
"Shandalar?" says one of the more corpulent students, gasping at the oars.
"Is that an answer or a question?" asks Vothias, "No, not Shandalar. Do you see any Onakke flowers? You shouldn't be making Planar Biology 101 mistakes at this point in your academic career, Jendu."
"Belenon," says another apprentice, "In the Gut of Thurcai."
"Yes. I believe that's your first mark for participation this term, Saryll, well done," says Vothias, "Now, who can tell me the significance of Belenon, in regards to where you are desperately rowing in place, right now?"
"Belenon is the furthest charted plane from the Nexus of the Multiverse," says Saryll, "And, Dominaria is the Nexus."
"No!" shouts Vothias, "Dominaria occupies the Nexus. I promise to fail anyone on the midterm who forgets that important distinction."
Vothias raises his staff up towards the dome, and the grumevines of Thurcai recede into the æther projection. Vothias swings his staff counter-clockwise, and another whorl appears on the opposite horizon. The Clepsydra coughs and wheezes, but a stern look from the gilled teacher seems to frighten the machine back into action. The apprentices sweat beneath their robes, as the trumpet takes in an astonishing amount of water. As the second whorl approaches, a new light begins to shine from the Clepsydra. It projects a gray and rocky image over the place of the oncoming whorl.
"Somebody tell me what this is," says Vothias.
"It looks like a projected image of the Flats of Teru-Teru," says Saryll.
"Yes, it does look like an image of the Flats of Teru-Teru," says Vothias, "But why is it not that?"
"Because nobody has ever been to Teru-Teru," says another apprentice, "And we can only infer its properties indirectly, based on the properties of nearby planes."
"Correct, Alseth," says Vothias, "Nobody has ever been to Teru-Teru. Would somebody besides Alseth or Saryll please tell me the location of Teru-Teru?"
"Teru-Teru is within the Shard of the Twelve Worlds," says a new student, "So, it is one of the twelve planes closest to the Nexus of the Multiverse."
"Correct, Miltao," says Vothias, "And now, to find out who completed their homework and who did not, please raise your hand if you can explain to the class why I just now could show you a crystal-clear window to the most distant known plane in all the Multiverse, but when it came time to show you an image of one of our closest neighbors, I could do nothing more than show you a creative facsimile drawn up by one of your sister students in the College of Planar Cartography."
About half of the students raise their hands. Vothias points at Alseth.
"Because, Belenon has working mana lines and Teru-Teru does not," says Alseth, "And because, without active mana lines, planeswalkers cannot travel to the plane without moving physically through the Blind Eternities for decades, or even centuries. It would be a death sentence for any planeswalker to attempt such a journey. The distance between planes does not serve as a limiting factor for planar travel, but rather the strength of the mana lines connecting any two planes. Because all mana lines eventually pass through the Nexus, planeswalkers can harness sympathetic lines to travel to Belenon from Dominaria just as fast as they could travel from Dominaria to Mercadia, or to Wildfire. But, because Teru-Teru has no mana lines, it might as well be a thousand lifetimes away."
"Alseth," says the wizened merfolk, "Half a point of extra credit for your well-considered answer."
2
Also, the only other Modern-legal (conceivably) universal hard counters I could find requiring only two mana and a single blue:
- Corrupted Resolve
- Second Guess
- Spellstutter Sprite
- Unified Will
And it kills creatures. And is uncommon. This is amazing.
2
2