When I first saw this card, I was reminded of Coastline Chimera from Theros, which was a decidedly mediocre card. So although I have a propensity for cards like this, I didn't have super high hopes for Silent Observer. But after playing it a number of times so far, I've been quite impressed; it seems to match up really well against the threats in the format. Not only are the creatures generally not five power, the fliers tend to be X/1s like spirit tokens, Nibilis of Dusk, or Crow of Dark Tidings; additionally, having just 1 power is actually key against one of the format's abilities (skulk). So I've been jamming these in all my non-aggro decks (i.e. all of them; let's not kid ourselves here), and been very happy with it.
Thoughts on the card? How high does it rank among the blue commons?
I think it's ok but I prefer my purely defensive cards to cost 3 or 2, since this does not stone wall most threats it only blocks them ... meaning if they have two 2/2s then it does not stop them from profitably attacking. At a cost of 4 mana the thing it will likely block has often already hit once. The 5 toughness is very good and in a defensive deck relying on big impact spells this could be a good addition, but in a random deck I would get ready to sideboard this out against a deck without flyers or 4 power attackers. Another strong consideration is if I had almost no other 4 drops that would increase my desire to include this.
When my friends and I drafted a couple times over this past weekend I had 2 of these in my 3-0 deck and none of them in my 1-2 deck. Clearly no further testing is needed.
Seriously though, I think it's a very strong common although I don't know where exactly it falls in the ranking. I tend to struggle with that kind of granular evaluation.
This innocuous little thing is a real bummer when you're trying to break through before getting milled. I'd absolutely pick it if I was drafting in that direction.
I've drafted a bunch of these already, and have liked them.
As far as blue commons go, Drownyard Explorers, Just the Wind, Sleep Paralysis, Stitched Mangler, Stormrider Spirit, and Silent Observer are all cards I like playing. Of those, I'd always take JtW for random blowout potential, and Paralysis after that, but the rest it'd depend on what my deck was looking like. Mangler is the best tempo card and Explorers gives the most reliable value, but Observer is definitely up there just for its ability to buy an incredible amount of time.
Yeah, it's good. Wears auras and equipment like a champ, too.
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My Decks: EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn Modern: Polytokes IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
Voltrons and Combat Tricks: The Set aka. Theros was perhaps the worst set possible for Coastline Chimeras. SOI is way more accommodating; creatures are generally below 5 power even in late game, there are way fewer blowout combat tricks, the fliers are significantly smaller (in particular, there's a bunch of 1/1 spirits to keep in check), and there's a blue strategy that wants to stall out.
A 1-mana instant bounce spell that replaces itself is pretty insane. I'll grant it's not the best thing in the world if you're not doing much with madness, but so far I've found blue madness stuff to be pretty easy to get hold of, and JtW absolutely makes that deck. So yeah, for now, that's what I'm doing. If that deck gets harder to build as the format evolves, I'd probably take Paralysis first, but the Wind has a higher ceiling.
Madness is a very interesting ability because it turns a cost into a benefit, and that is by itself inherently strong. If you're discarding for value, casting a card for madness essentially tacks "Draw a card" onto the effects, and the other effect really doesn't need to be that good for the result to be playable.
Boy, I really get cross eyed when people claim that avoiding a drawback is card advantage. JtW does not "replace itself". Madness is really good with looters and tormenting voice, but that's a different story. Bounce is card disadvantage from the start, playing for madness does net you a card, you just avoid losing a card. Discard is card disadvantage from the start. Avoiding it by turning it into a way to cast a spell is not CA.
Now the effect that made you discard can be good and you *need* madness cards to make it not-painful, but it's not a positive. Remove he discard cost ... would you claim "OMG I just drew a card?!?!"
Boy, I really get cross eyed when people claim that avoiding a drawback is card advantage. JtW does not "replace itself". Madness is really good with looters and tormenting voice, but that's a different story. Bounce is card disadvantage from the start, playing for madness does net you a card, you just avoid losing a card. Discard is card disadvantage from the start. Avoiding it by turning it into a way to cast a spell is not CA.
Now the effect that made you discard can be good and you *need* madness cards to make it not-painful, but it's not a positive. Remove he discard cost ... would you claim "OMG I just drew a card?!?!"
Puddle Jumper is referring to the use of jtw in conjunction with looters / draw spells such as catalog and tormenting voice when he says "replace itself", which the examples given in his post clearly imply. I get what youre trying to say since casting just the wind off of a ravenous bloodseeker is clearly not replacing itself, but in this context I think its appropriate as a generalization. I will say though that I dont necessarily agree with just the wind being strictly card disadvantage, since casting it on an auraed up guy or in response to a combat trick makes it a 1 for 1, and combat tricks are least are pretty common in this format.
Just for the record, I am also in the camp of taking sleep paralysis over just the wind. I would take the first 2 before the first just the wind: even though its a 4 drop, this card does a pretty good impression of oblivion strike, and is very important to blue decks as their only real source of permanent removal. 4 mana doesnt matter as much when its on a removal spell, so I would gladly play 4 4 drop blue creatures and 3 of these.
For me it's Sleep Paralysis way over Just the Wind, and I would run as many as 4 of the former if I could. In my view JtW is mediocre at best in a deck without important madness enablers (looters, for example) and becomes good only if it'd often be a free card, but that type of synergy is difficult to obtain reliably in my view.
Boy, I really get cross eyed when people claim that avoiding a drawback is card advantage. JtW does not "replace itself". Madness is really good with looters and tormenting voice, but that's a different story. Bounce is card disadvantage from the start, playing for madness does net you a card, you just avoid losing a card. Discard is card disadvantage from the start. Avoiding it by turning it into a way to cast a spell is not CA.
Now the effect that made you discard can be good and you *need* madness cards to make it not-painful, but it's not a positive. Remove he discard cost ... would you claim "OMG I just drew a card?!?!"
I probably didn't come across very clearly if you interpreted my post to mean "not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card". I meant "drawing a card and not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card", which it is, pretty literally. This happens when you get your Recless Scholars and Catalogs running off of JtWs, and it is pretty awesome. I recommend trying it. The interaction is strong enough and easy enough to assemble that you can base a really good deck on it.
Boy, I really get cross eyed when people claim that avoiding a drawback is card advantage. JtW does not "replace itself". Madness is really good with looters and tormenting voice, but that's a different story. Bounce is card disadvantage from the start, playing for madness does net you a card, you just avoid losing a card. Discard is card disadvantage from the start. Avoiding it by turning it into a way to cast a spell is not CA.
Now the effect that made you discard can be good and you *need* madness cards to make it not-painful, but it's not a positive. Remove he discard cost ... would you claim "OMG I just drew a card?!?!"
I probably didn't come across very clearly if you interpreted my post to mean "not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card". I meant "drawing a card and not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card", which it is, pretty literally. This happens when you get your Recless Scholars and Catalogs running off of JtWs, and it is pretty awesome. I recommend trying it. The interaction is strong enough and easy enough to assemble that you can base a really good deck on it.
To be fair, if you are just madnessing Just the Wind at a time when bounce is card disadvantage, you're still ultimately ending up with card disadvantage. Loot+Just the Wind isn't any different than Loot+discard from a strictly card advantage point of view, but it is a huge tempo play. Since Reckless Scholar/Catalog are both instant speed though, it's possible to mitigate that entirely and get a card out of your opponent with JtW.
When I first saw this card, I was reminded of Coastline Chimera from Theros, which was a decidedly mediocre card. So although I have a propensity for cards like this, I didn't have super high hopes for Silent Observer. But after playing it a number of times so far, I've been quite impressed; it seems to match up really well against the threats in the format. Not only are the creatures generally not five power, the fliers tend to be X/1s like spirit tokens, Nibilis of Dusk, or Crow of Dark Tidings; additionally, having just 1 power is actually key against one of the format's abilities (skulk). So I've been jamming these in all my non-aggro decks (i.e. all of them; let's not kid ourselves here), and been very happy with it.
Thoughts on the card? How high does it rank among the blue commons?
Seriously though, I think it's a very strong common although I don't know where exactly it falls in the ranking. I tend to struggle with that kind of granular evaluation.
As far as blue commons go, Drownyard Explorers, Just the Wind, Sleep Paralysis, Stitched Mangler, Stormrider Spirit, and Silent Observer are all cards I like playing. Of those, I'd always take JtW for random blowout potential, and Paralysis after that, but the rest it'd depend on what my deck was looking like. Mangler is the best tempo card and Explorers gives the most reliable value, but Observer is definitely up there just for its ability to buy an incredible amount of time.
My Decks:
EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn
Modern: Polytokes
IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
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Madness is a very interesting ability because it turns a cost into a benefit, and that is by itself inherently strong. If you're discarding for value, casting a card for madness essentially tacks "Draw a card" onto the effects, and the other effect really doesn't need to be that good for the result to be playable.
Now the effect that made you discard can be good and you *need* madness cards to make it not-painful, but it's not a positive. Remove he discard cost ... would you claim "OMG I just drew a card?!?!"
Puddle Jumper is referring to the use of jtw in conjunction with looters / draw spells such as catalog and tormenting voice when he says "replace itself", which the examples given in his post clearly imply. I get what youre trying to say since casting just the wind off of a ravenous bloodseeker is clearly not replacing itself, but in this context I think its appropriate as a generalization. I will say though that I dont necessarily agree with just the wind being strictly card disadvantage, since casting it on an auraed up guy or in response to a combat trick makes it a 1 for 1, and combat tricks are least are pretty common in this format.
Just for the record, I am also in the camp of taking sleep paralysis over just the wind. I would take the first 2 before the first just the wind: even though its a 4 drop, this card does a pretty good impression of oblivion strike, and is very important to blue decks as their only real source of permanent removal. 4 mana doesnt matter as much when its on a removal spell, so I would gladly play 4 4 drop blue creatures and 3 of these.
I probably didn't come across very clearly if you interpreted my post to mean "not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card". I meant "drawing a card and not discarding a card is the same as drawing a card", which it is, pretty literally. This happens when you get your Recless Scholars and Catalogs running off of JtWs, and it is pretty awesome. I recommend trying it. The interaction is strong enough and easy enough to assemble that you can base a really good deck on it.
To be fair, if you are just madnessing Just the Wind at a time when bounce is card disadvantage, you're still ultimately ending up with card disadvantage. Loot+Just the Wind isn't any different than Loot+discard from a strictly card advantage point of view, but it is a huge tempo play. Since Reckless Scholar/Catalog are both instant speed though, it's possible to mitigate that entirely and get a card out of your opponent with JtW.