I think he holds up well today; with every single combat trick that has been printed since his release, such as tainted strike, titan's strength, temur battle rage, and other stuff, he can get a turn 5 kill very easily.
It goes for broke and sometimes he assembles the rifle correctly and other times it explodes in his hands, it is fun to watch happen however.
Yep, that looks pretty dumb (in a "well just got one shotted out of nowhere" way). Lower creature count than I'd expect though. Thought you'd need about 30 counting token generators to land him consistently.
Well, Torpor Orb lets you play him into an empty field. That list has a fair amount of digging and can tutor with Demonic Consultation or Lim Dul's Vault.
It goes for broke and sometimes he assembles the rifle correctly and other times it explodes in his hands, it is fun to watch happen however.
Yep, that looks pretty dumb (in a "well just got one shotted out of nowhere" way). Lower creature count than I'd expect though. Thought you'd need about 30 counting token generators to land him consistently.
Well, Torpor Orb lets you play him into an empty field. That list has a fair amount of digging and can tutor with Demonic Consultation or Lim Dul's Vault.
True, that makes sense, I can see it playing out exactly like he describes, sometimes going nowhere sometimes icing people. Interesting from a meta perspective. You know that it can potentially take over from nowhere, and quickly, but you also know it might end up durdleing and falling apart. Do you risk letting him be and having it be one of his good games, or do you risk spending resources taking him out when he's not going anywhere while a bigger threat builds. Voltron that works consistently can draw a ton of hate, so being inconsistent might actually be a plus outside of cutthroat metas
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
It's not super bad. It could see play in a bad voltron deck. You can use it any number of times so pumping a commander to do lethal seems doable.
Discarding a card is part of the cost after errata (and in the Fifth Edition reprint), so at most you can't activate more times than you have cards in your hand. Sure, it can go huge if you have tons of mana and a way to draw a large portion of your deck, but, at that point, you shouldn't need a terrible artifact in order to win. Also, the discard is random, so you can't use it as a Madness enabler.
It's not super bad. It could see play in a bad voltron deck. You can use it any number of times so pumping a commander to do lethal seems doable.
Discarding a card is part of the cost after errata (and in the Fifth Edition reprint), so at most you can't activate more times than you have cards in your hand. Sure, it can go huge if you have tons of mana and a way to draw a large portion of your deck, but, at that point, you shouldn't need a terrible artifact in order to win. Also, the discard is random, so you can't use it as a Madness enabler.
It'd indeed be madness to try and do so.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
It's difficult to come up with a reason to justify this. Spirit Cairn? Wharf Infiltrator? There are very few effects I would pay for with a card at random. Gamble, yes. Wild Research, yes. A pump effect? I'd rather play Amok.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Just another dumb body for a kind of deck archetype that puts a bunch of dumb bodies into your eggbasket, and you lose because you run out of cards after a boardwipe. Still more interesting than a good number of unplayable cards, I guess.
I suppose with Cathars' Crusade this becomes a 6/6 with flying. Of course, with Cathars' Crusade, I can get five vanilla 6/6s with a better ETB trigger for 3WW, and I have that flashback option.
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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!
Red just got a comparable card to this in EMN in Shreds of Sanity, which requires a discard and is one mana cheaper. I can see both in lower-tier Izzet spellslinger decks, neither are really poor cards.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Can't deny that this is a strong card and a reasonable CMC. However, folks I play with tend to prefer the creatures that have this effect (Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch) since they are easier to abuse and recur.
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EDH playing competitive Magic cast away
Current Decks GTitania midrange RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
Can't deny that this is a strong card and a reasonable CMC. However, folks I play with tend to prefer the creatures that have this effect (Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch) since they are easier to abuse and recur.
Cards are game pieces, and should be treated as such, easily replaceable.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 19 years later.
Happy is the man who has broken the chains that hurt the mind and given up worrying once and for all. Be patient and tough. One day this pain will be useful to you.
What makes it specious for me is the exile clause. (And yes I know why recursion spells that grab two or more cards have exile clauses, and this is no different than Restock in that regard.) I mean, yeah, in red, you take what you can get, but in blue? I should have better. (I tend to think of blue as recurring better than red.) On the plus side, the recursion does grab two cards.
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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!
I don't mind it in Mizzix since it only costs UU there. Essentially, it is an insurance card, bringing back an important piece or two that might have been milled or wheeled away. That Reiterate/Reset, for example are powerful enough to want to be able to emulate having multiple copies in the deck via cards like Mystic Retrieval, this, and Recoup for sorceries when not ready for a Past in Flames blowout.
Also that blue energy surrounding the stone looks neat in foil and I was lucky enough to pull one out of a pack.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
True, that makes sense, I can see it playing out exactly like he describes, sometimes going nowhere sometimes icing people. Interesting from a meta perspective. You know that it can potentially take over from nowhere, and quickly, but you also know it might end up durdleing and falling apart. Do you risk letting him be and having it be one of his good games, or do you risk spending resources taking him out when he's not going anywhere while a bigger threat builds. Voltron that works consistently can draw a ton of hate, so being inconsistent might actually be a plus outside of cutthroat metas
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Ah, equipment before they made equipment...
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Current Decks
GTitania midrange
RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal
GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron
U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher
RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
| Omnath | Zada | Alesha | Scion |
| Mazirek | Animar |
Modern
UR Storm RU
UBRG Dredge GRBU
Standard
UR Thermo-Thing RU
Discarding a card is part of the cost after errata (and in the Fifth Edition reprint), so at most you can't activate more times than you have cards in your hand. Sure, it can go huge if you have tons of mana and a way to draw a large portion of your deck, but, at that point, you shouldn't need a terrible artifact in order to win. Also, the discard is random, so you can't use it as a Madness enabler.
It'd indeed be madness to try and do so.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I suppose with Cathars' Crusade this becomes a 6/6 with flying. Of course, with Cathars' Crusade, I can get five vanilla 6/6s with a better ETB trigger for 3WW, and I have that flashback option.
On phasing:
Red just got a comparable card to this in EMN in Shreds of Sanity, which requires a discard and is one mana cheaper. I can see both in lower-tier Izzet spellslinger decks, neither are really poor cards.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
EDH Decks:
WUBOloro, Combo ControlWUB
UBOona Reanimator ComboUB
BRGProssh, Eater of the Blue MageBRG
UBRGrixis StormUBR
Rebuilding Jenara (stealyourstuff.dec)
Pauper Deck:
UBInspired SirenUB
Current Decks
GTitania midrange
RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal
GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron
U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher
RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
Riptide Laboratory is a deceptively strong card got this reason.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 19 years later.
Happy is the man who has broken the chains that hurt the mind and given up worrying once and for all. Be patient and tough. One day this pain will be useful to you.
On phasing:
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Also that blue energy surrounding the stone looks neat in foil and I was lucky enough to pull one out of a pack.
Beating Face with Bane
Beatrice, the Golden Witch
With enough mana open this is oftenly brutal combo recursion. How about Twincasting Bribery or Acquire?
Need dumb protection? Recur your Cyclonic Rift AND Call To Mind/Relearn to have your enemies cringe.
Looking for permanent solutions? Curse of the Swine + Counterspell