Honestly I don't think this will see any play. The only reason Ionize sees play is because 1UR is easier to cast in some mana bases than Sinister Sabotage's 1UU. Absorb not only is harder to cast than Sabotage, the extra effect is generally speaking weaker. You're only playing Absorb after you've already put in a full playset of Sabatoges and frankly not even hard core control decks need that many Cancels. Might as well run some cheaper or alternatively useful counters at that point (Disdainful Stroke, Syncopate, Spell Pierce, ect...).
In Standard it is much better than Sinister Sabotage as the life gain on turn 3 will get you to your 4th and 5th turns to sweep the board against any agro deck. Then the Teferi train kicks in and "all aboard".
We also get Hallowed Fountains, making casting this much easier as well. Blue White decks got the card it needed to fend off all the agro and burn that is going on.
Yeah, no. Even in Standard, Sabotage is better. Yes it gains life which can matter (but also can just as easily not matter at all and even then 3 mana counters isn't what you want to be doing vs Aggro) and yes we're getting Hallowed Fountain but that doesn't change the fact that WUU is still a pain. Again, Ionize was run solely because 1UR is easier to cast in some mana bases than 1UU despite having a much worse extra effect. Sabotage is easier to cast than Absorb and has arguably a better extra effect.
I do wonder if this was being designed as an outright new card if it would have been 1WU to match Ionize (maybe with 2 life gain rather than 3 to be a more obvious mirror), and it was only out of a preference to reprint a similar old card rather than design a slightly different new one that they wound up making it more color heavy than a new design of the same would have been.
This spell is to counterspell what lightning helix is to lightning bolt. For 1 extra white mana, you get to gain 3 life. Now, bolt is better than helix, and counterspell is better than this spell, but there is no counterspell in modern, and lightning helix sees play. I think this card will see play as a 1 of or 2 of in the 75 of Azorius control.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
As it stands, it looks like we're already getting a cycle of Ascendancies (I seriously doubt Simic Ascendancy is the only one)
Simic Ascendancy is an individual card that shares a name with a past cycle, which is anything but the confirmation of being a cycle that you think it is.
It's certainly not confirmed, but it would be pretty weird for it to be an individual card. They could have called it "Experimental Progression" or "Biomancer's Will" or anything in the world. Instead they kept the naming convention [faction] ascendancy. Not to mention how much Undercity Uprising looks like repurposed ascendancy art. My guess is a cycle of five ascendancies, but they may do something plot based, and only ascend a two or three guilds. An individual card seems rather unlikely.
Why?
If they were going to do this as a true cycle this time around, it would've started in Guilds. This is more than likely a one-off.
It’s not unheard of them to put a 5-cycle in one half of a rav twin-set and not the other. RTR had both the ‘uncommon one drop hybrid creature’ and ‘rare gold uncounterable’ cycles that were not matched in gatecrash. Gatecrash had the Primordial cycle and the Denizen cycle tht weren’t in RTR.
The only way Absorb will be played in Standard is if :
1. Control decks want a 5 or 6th cancel after Sinister Sabotage
2. Sunforger is printed before Absorb rotates out. Even then Ionize seems more likely to be played.
3. Ajani's Pridemate gets enough support and redundancy to become a deck. Dawn of Hope would also be in this.
As it stands, it looks like we're already getting a cycle of Ascendancies (I seriously doubt Simic Ascendancy is the only one)
Simic Ascendancy is an individual card that shares a name with a past cycle, which is anything but the confirmation of being a cycle that you think it is.
It's certainly not confirmed, but it would be pretty weird for it to be an individual card. They could have called it "Experimental Progression" or "Biomancer's Will" or anything in the world. Instead they kept the naming convention [faction] ascendancy. Not to mention how much Undercity Uprising looks like repurposed ascendancy art. My guess is a cycle of five ascendancies, but they may do something plot based, and only ascend a two or three guilds. An individual card seems rather unlikely.
Why?
If they were going to do this as a true cycle this time around, it would've started in Guilds. This is more than likely a one-off.
It’s not unheard of them to put a 5-cycle in one half of a rav twin-set and not the other. RTR had both the ‘uncommon one drop hybrid creature’ and ‘rare gold uncounterable’ cycles that were not matched in gatecrash. Gatecrash had the Primordial cycle and the Denizen cycle tht weren’t in RTR.
Also, as you pointed out, Mergatroid, the cards in Guilds had Ascendancy-like art; Simic's does not.
For such a deck to support BBB and WUU in the same deck, its mana base will have to support that.
In order to see any amount of play, it has to that consistently enough to be worth it. Not saying that's impossible, but it won't be very easy to do.
just play some lanterns. pretty easy.
at any rate, we'll have incredibly good mana bases come january. this won't be hard to play.
Then you are not allowed to cast a counterspell until you have a Lantern on the board. Seems unlikely to happen if you ask me.
I've been playing quite a bit of 5C Lich's Mastery on Arena, and you'd be surprised at how well the mana actually works out. I know I was. I threw together the list thinking, 'There's no way this jank is going to pan out.' Oddly, it does.
I think this card is really overrated from players, that don't like playing against Teferi and Control.
As said above: Sinister Sabotage is much better - if you have played with Dissolve or Sabatoge, you will know. And with this Casting Cost (which is really hard on Turn 3 sometimes), I can't see it beeing played over Sabatoge and which decks wants more than 4 Cancels? And the life may be relevant in some minore situations, but 3 life is not that much, if you see all the creatures nowadays. When Renewed Faith was reprinted, many thought it would be as good as it was in the past, but 2 life are not that good against the decks from today. And the same is true for Absorb, which was for sure good when it was first printed, but now we have better Cancels and mostly 3 life will not safe you one more turn.
And when I see, that it might be good against Aggro - I mostly board out all my expensive countermagic, as you need much cheaper interaction and what will you counter with this on Turn 3? I can't see this really seeing any major play in Standard - and in older formats, no one will play 3 mana Counterspells, even the 2 mana ones are mostly bad.
So on turn 3 it is too difficult to have 1 white mana, but on turns 4 and 5 you expect to have 2 for either Settle the Wreckage or Cleansing Nova in a control deck? I play almost exclusively blue white control and Absorb is going to be a 4 of with Sabotage being dropped to 2 or pulled completely.
Countering someones lightning strike and making it a 6 point life swing to my favor is pretty sweet.
As always a utility card's viability depends on a good deck that can support it, but you guys realize that Absorb was heavily played as a 4-of in a standard environment when Thwart and Counterspell itself were legal, right?
For such a deck to support BBB and WUU in the same deck, its mana base will have to support that.
In order to see any amount of play, it has to that consistently enough to be worth it. Not saying that's impossible, but it won't be very easy to do.
It's possible: That is 3BBB, and shocks and checks are an option. But that just leaves the question of how you accel to six mana (and no, "just add green" just brings us back to Square One). Remember, Absorb comes out much earlier.
The real difficulty with Lich's Mastery decks is, you need to build a deck around a card that costs six mana. That's EDH-doable, but EDH just runs a boardwipe to kill all your enchantments, or a Stax strategy to eat away at your permanents and/or cards in hand.
I'd say WU will probably use it, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to. It is incidental lifegain, so it falls in that "half a card" class of card advantage. (Against burn decks, it's a whole card.)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Lich's Mastery is already a deck, its not great but it does its thing.
And the deck does not really need the new duals anyway.
Absorb is still pretty terrible in that deck, as you have to dig deep each turn or do something productive rather than sit and wait just to "hope" they play something you can counter.
Thats especially bad with all the cant be countered stuff in standard, so there are plenty of way better options to choose from.
Emergency Powers would have been an amazing card for the deck, but it shuffles the graveyard back in, which is completely counter productive.
Massive design fail, but oh well ...
Yeah, people's memory is very flimsy. Lich's Mastery was already a deck in the past and with pretty crazy mana requirements (BBB and WW with worse mana base and UU and GG from sb). It's not T1 by any means (hey it won a SCG). Absorb would not break the bank in this deck anyway (better dual options but adding UU in the main as compensation). However, I dunno if the deck would want a counterspell per se even with some synergy. If you wanna draw cards with life gain, you probably don't wanna wait to counter to get that life + cards even thou it's a strong play. You probably wanna do it right away.
I think this card is really overrated from players, that don't like playing against Teferi and Control.
As said above: Sinister Sabotage is much better - if you have played with Dissolve or Sabatoge, you will know. And with this Casting Cost (which is really hard on Turn 3 sometimes), I can't see it beeing played over Sabatoge and which decks wants more than 4 Cancels? And the life may be relevant in some minore situations, but 3 life is not that much, if you see all the creatures nowadays. When Renewed Faith was reprinted, many thought it would be as good as it was in the past, but 2 life are not that good against the decks from today. And the same is true for Absorb, which was for sure good when it was first printed, but now we have better Cancels and mostly 3 life will not safe you one more turn.
And when I see, that it might be good against Aggro - I mostly board out all my expensive countermagic, as you need much cheaper interaction and what will you counter with this on Turn 3? I can't see this really seeing any major play in Standard - and in older formats, no one will play 3 mana Counterspells, even the 2 mana ones are mostly bad.
So on turn 3 it is too difficult to have 1 white mana, but on turns 4 and 5 you expect to have 2 for either Settle the Wreckage or Cleansing Nova in a control deck? I play almost exclusively blue white control and Absorb is going to be a 4 of with Sabotage being dropped to 2 or pulled completely.
Countering someones lightning strike and making it a 6 point life swing to my favor is pretty sweet.
Cards that gives resources for free while being 1 for 1 tend to be great. Kitchen Finks, lightning helix, Thragtusk, energy cards, huntmaster, Sphinx revelation, Vraska’s Contempt, timely Reinforcements etc etc.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Yeah, I keep seeing folks say this won't see play, but I think with Riot coming in, U/W/x control decks are going to be forced to value Settle a LOT less, and Absorb allows incidental lifegain while countering a spell, something a U/x/x control deck usually wants to do anyway. I can see U/W/x decks picking these up with Revitalize to help make it to Cleansing Nova against fast aggro decks. I also think the four mana addendum spell to draw 2, gain 2 will slot in as a 2-of to help "turn the corner" into Teferi/Nova on 5.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Why?
If they were going to do this as a true cycle this time around, it would've started in Guilds. This is more than likely a one-off.
For such a deck to support BBB and WUU in the same deck, its mana base will have to support that.
In order to see any amount of play, it has to that consistently enough to be worth it. Not saying that's impossible, but it won't be very easy to do.
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just play some lanterns. pretty easy.
at any rate, we'll have incredibly good mana bases come january. this won't be hard to play.
1. Control decks want a 5 or 6th cancel after Sinister Sabotage
2. Sunforger is printed before Absorb rotates out. Even then Ionize seems more likely to be played.
3. Ajani's Pridemate gets enough support and redundancy to become a deck. Dawn of Hope would also be in this.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Also, as you pointed out, Mergatroid, the cards in Guilds had Ascendancy-like art; Simic's does not.
I've been playing quite a bit of 5C Lich's Mastery on Arena, and you'd be surprised at how well the mana actually works out. I know I was. I threw together the list thinking, 'There's no way this jank is going to pan out.' Oddly, it does.
So on turn 3 it is too difficult to have 1 white mana, but on turns 4 and 5 you expect to have 2 for either Settle the Wreckage or Cleansing Nova in a control deck? I play almost exclusively blue white control and Absorb is going to be a 4 of with Sabotage being dropped to 2 or pulled completely.
Countering someones lightning strike and making it a 6 point life swing to my favor is pretty sweet.
20$? Here at Europe we have tons of Absorbs for less than 2,50€ each lol
This card won't be Modern playable, I think. But if UW or Jeskai plays it, it will be a 1 of.
UR Murktide
Pauper
RW Monarch
UW Caw-Gate
UBR Affinity
It's possible: That is 3BBB, and shocks and checks are an option. But that just leaves the question of how you accel to six mana (and no, "just add green" just brings us back to Square One). Remember, Absorb comes out much earlier.
The real difficulty with Lich's Mastery decks is, you need to build a deck around a card that costs six mana. That's EDH-doable, but EDH just runs a boardwipe to kill all your enchantments, or a Stax strategy to eat away at your permanents and/or cards in hand.
I'd say WU will probably use it, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to. It is incidental lifegain, so it falls in that "half a card" class of card advantage. (Against burn decks, it's a whole card.)
On phasing:
And the deck does not really need the new duals anyway.
Absorb is still pretty terrible in that deck, as you have to dig deep each turn or do something productive rather than sit and wait just to "hope" they play something you can counter.
Thats especially bad with all the cant be countered stuff in standard, so there are plenty of way better options to choose from.
Emergency Powers would have been an amazing card for the deck, but it shuffles the graveyard back in, which is completely counter productive.
Massive design fail, but oh well ...
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Still it's an option for this crazy deck.
Blood Moon is a card.
That is all.
There are also a fair share of Jeskai control decks running Revitalize
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Kitchen Finks, Thragtusk, Huntmaster of the Fells, Sphinx's Revelation, and Timely Reinforcements are definitely not 1-for-1s.