Surge, Ionize a possible upgrade to jeskai control? I haven't tried building that yet, but it looks like it does everything the deck would want.
If I'm playing a 3cmc counter, it's going to be Counterflux or Disallow before anything else. But I'm also not playing those either. It's either 1-2cmc or Cryptic Command. 3cmc needs to do more than Shock.
UWR Control plays for such a long game that I think they'd rather have the body and possible win con of Vendilion Clique than the player Shock of Ionize. I think Ionize's only home is URx tempo and midrange decks, preferably with Snapcaster.
In the meantime, I think I found another home for "Secrets of the Mausoleum": Death's Shadow decks. Those older Traverse the Ulvenwald builds can easily bin a Street Wraith and make that tutor for 1-cmc targeted discard, removal, threats, and sideboard material (e.g. Surgical Extraction). If all else fails, there's always Slaughter Pact.
Last visit to Rav almost every guild got a modern staple. Hopefully AT means that’s happening again.
UG and UB says Hello there. Let's just say I'm not optimistic. These color pairings are god awful when it comes to multi-color cards compared to everyone else.
I wish the new dev team manages to "evolve" the Simic's mechanic philosophy to another level. It's been the worst 2-color combination for too many years. Even a buff of their underwhelming effects would be appreciated, but this will be for the next set.
The black tutor is a scary card. If reanimating Griselbrand becomes trivial, oooh lord, players will tremble. If a Living End deck takes advantage of it too, same story. I like the fact you can tutor for Thoughtseize post-SB and get rid of your opponent's graveyard hate. I'm sure there are other utilities for post-SB games.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
expansion looks like a playable card, one half helps you win counter wars, the other half is the reverse Sphinx's Revelation that helps you close games.
As foretoldLiving End is going to love that tutor I think. Gives a bit more consistency
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
Nullhide Ferox seems like a great beater for Mono-Green Stompy. The fact that you get to cheat if out against K-command and Lil improves the Jund matchup and the only non-creature spell the deck runs even semi-consistently is Aspect of Hydra. So if they try to turn off the hexproof to kill it mid-combat they could just straight up die
Molderhulk - 7GB
Creature - Fungus Zombie
Undergrowth - costs 1 less for each creature card in your graveyard
When it enters the battlefield, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/6
Am I the only one staring at this with wide-eyes? Kinda like Bedlam Reveler in that it is getting its cost reduced without having to exile those cards. Jund Vengvine may have a new tool.
Hadn't thought of Foretold End when thinking about Mausoleum Secrets. Possibly the strongest it will be. I also think Shadow decks will try it out, but if a 1 mana any creature tutor isn't enough to make Jund Shadow the defacto best type, I'm not sure this will do it.
Vraska, Golgari Queen looks like a cool toy for BGx Midrange. Her -3 is nigh-Abrupt Decay and is probably the reason you're playing her, especially since she costs only a cool 2BG. Her +2 is kinda lame since it requires you to sacrifice something if you want to draw a card (and gain 1 life). I guess there's saccing lands and Tireless Tracker's Clue tokens, and there's also saccing Bob if you're really on the ropes. Her ult, a -9, only works if you have creatures, but hey, your opponent will now be blocking and booting them at all costs! And starting off with 4 loyalty is rather fat. She'll help me compress slots in my current Jund build for sure (I'll now switch to 5 walkers, 10 removal, and 6 targeted discard--she'll displace both the slightly lacking Karn, Scion of Urza and the 11th removal spell, and I'll be able to bump up my targeted discard back to 6 again).
Molderhulk - 7GB
Creature - Fungus Zombie
Undergrowth - costs 1 less for each creature card in your graveyard
When it enters the battlefield, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/6
Am I the only one staring at this with wide-eyes? Kinda like Bedlam Reveler in that it is getting its cost reduced without having to exile those cards. Jund Vengvine may have a new tool.
Can we come up with a way to break Invert // Invent? Surely an instant that can tutor another instant and a sorcery can come up with something game-winning...for 4UR.
Unfortunately, I can't come up with the most stirring pairs right now:
Scapeshift Blue getting Bring to Light or Scapeshift + counter back-up or hate bear removal? Actually, that sounds like the best idea so far...
UWR Control getting one of their power instants + a Wrath or Serum Visions?
UR Breach Moon getting Through the Breach + Serum Visions or a post-board board wipe?
Copycat/Kiki-Resto getting Chord of Calling or removal + Eldritch Evolution?
UR Storm gets to tutor more for only 4 mana with Gifts Ungiven.
scapeshift seems like a decent home for invent. ramping to 6 is trivial, and plenty of sorceries and instants to choose from. probably a little overboard on redundancy in the BTL versions though.
6 mana is probably too much for anything else though.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Through the Breach+Time of Need in a Temur Breach shell? You could run less copies of Emrakul then.
You could also splash blue in a Titanshift deck to get Scapeshift+Breach/Pact. Doesn’t exactly work together but you can increase your threat density quite a bit which the deck has no way to do.
lets see...i can hold up counter magic, endstep tutor for scapeshift and something else, untap and kill my opponent right away. or i could tap out and kill my opponent in 2 turns.
tough choice indeed.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
In the meantime, I'm hitting Ionize rarely enough in testing that the jury is still out on it, although I do sometimes miss the proactivity of V. Clique (the 3-mana nigh-targeted discard on legs all 3-mana counterspells compete with). At least it helps flip Delver.
Mausoleum Secrets has been powerful but flaky so far in Street Wraith decks. It can sometimes find me dang near any black card I want, and I've even made it find Kolaghan's Command in Grixis Death's Shadow once. On the other hand, it was stuck tutoring for only 0-cmc cards for 2 games in Foretold End against UWR, you almost need to put Slaughter Pact in your deck to exploit it to its fullest (incidentally, I ended up being strapped for mana enough that Slaughter Pact was the 2nd most common card I ended up tutoring for all night), it ends up turning into a Slaughter Pact tutor against Scavenging Ooze (and other yard hate), and the jury is still out on how much the Curator of Mysteries I stuck in Grixis Death's Shadow is actually enabling it.
I think Mausoleum Secrets is overrated. It seems pretty hard for most decks to get a large number of creatures in the graveyard for it to hit high CMC spells. When you can't tutor high CMC spells with it, you're stuck with wonderful options like spending 3 mana to Thoughtseize someone, or Fatal Push their 2-mana creature.
When I played Glittering Wish decks, one common line you had was to Wish on turn 2 for a board wipe (Firespout, Supreme Verdict) to slow down your opponent. That's not going to happen with Mausoleum Secrets unless you can somehow get 3-4 creatures in the graveyard by turn 2.
Dredge can fill up their graveyard quickly, but doesn't have good tutor targets for it.
As ForetoldLiving End probably has the easiest time enabling it, but their main target is ironically a 0 CMC spell.
Mission Briefing vs Snapcaster Mage:
- Briefing is not a creature, can't be Commanded (Kolaghan's/Cryptic) back to hand
- Briefing costs UU, Snapcaster costs 1U
- Briefing is an instant, triggers Pyromancer Ascension, Thing in the Ice, etc
- Briefing surveils 2 and bins itself
- Briefing doesn't target
Overall Snapcaster is probably better due to its less color-intensive mana cost, and that it's a 2-for-1 whereas Briefing is a 1-for-1 with selection.
Does Briefing allow cards to be casted for alternate costs? edit: yes it does. Holy *****, instant mill staple
Mission Briefing vs Snapcaster Mage:
- Briefing is not a creature, can't be Commanded (Kolaghan's/Cryptic) back to hand
- Briefing costs UU, Snapcaster costs 1U
- Briefing is an instant, triggers Pyromancer Ascension, Thing in the Ice, etc
- Briefing surveils 2 and bins itself
- Briefing doesn't target
Overall Snapcaster is probably better due to its less color-intensive mana cost, and that it's a 2-for-1 whereas Briefing is a 1-for-1 with selection.
Does Briefing allow cards to be casted for alternate costs? edit: yes it does. Holy *****, instant mill staple
You are an absolute treasure with your card analysis. Also, I plan on playing 2 and 2 for the simple fact that I was waiting for a good deck manipulation card d^_^b
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
If I'm playing a 3cmc counter, it's going to be Counterflux or Disallow before anything else. But I'm also not playing those either. It's either 1-2cmc or Cryptic Command. 3cmc needs to do more than Shock.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
In the meantime, I think I found another home for "Secrets of the Mausoleum": Death's Shadow decks. Those older Traverse the Ulvenwald builds can easily bin a Street Wraith and make that tutor for 1-cmc targeted discard, removal, threats, and sideboard material (e.g. Surgical Extraction). If all else fails, there's always Slaughter Pact.
If only it could hit a creature with the shock...
Spirits
UG and UB says Hello there. Let's just say I'm not optimistic. These color pairings are god awful when it comes to multi-color cards compared to everyone else.
The black tutor is a scary card. If reanimating Griselbrand becomes trivial, oooh lord, players will tremble. If a Living End deck takes advantage of it too, same story. I like the fact you can tutor for Thoughtseize post-SB and get rid of your opponent's graveyard hate. I'm sure there are other utilities for post-SB games.
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Creature - Fungus Zombie
Undergrowth - costs 1 less for each creature card in your graveyard
When it enters the battlefield, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/6
Am I the only one staring at this with wide-eyes? Kinda like Bedlam Reveler in that it is getting its cost reduced without having to exile those cards. Jund Vengvine may have a new tool.
Nah, it resembles Ghoultree and Nemesis of Mortals a bit too much. I don't think any of them will see play.
Unfortunately, I can't come up with the most stirring pairs right now:
Scapeshift Blue getting Bring to Light or Scapeshift + counter back-up or hate bear removal? Actually, that sounds like the best idea so far...
UWR Control getting one of their power instants + a Wrath or Serum Visions?
UR Breach Moon getting Through the Breach + Serum Visions or a post-board board wipe?
Copycat/Kiki-Resto getting Chord of Calling or removal + Eldritch Evolution?
UR Storm gets to tutor more for only 4 mana with Gifts Ungiven.
6 mana is probably too much for anything else though.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)You could also splash blue in a Titanshift deck to get Scapeshift+Breach/Pact. Doesn’t exactly work together but you can increase your threat density quite a bit which the deck has no way to do.
tough choice indeed.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Hey, at least Invert (of Invert // Invent) can take down that pesky Spellskite.
In the meantime, I'm hitting Ionize rarely enough in testing that the jury is still out on it, although I do sometimes miss the proactivity of V. Clique (the 3-mana nigh-targeted discard on legs all 3-mana counterspells compete with). At least it helps flip Delver.
Mausoleum Secrets has been powerful but flaky so far in Street Wraith decks. It can sometimes find me dang near any black card I want, and I've even made it find Kolaghan's Command in Grixis Death's Shadow once. On the other hand, it was stuck tutoring for only 0-cmc cards for 2 games in Foretold End against UWR, you almost need to put Slaughter Pact in your deck to exploit it to its fullest (incidentally, I ended up being strapped for mana enough that Slaughter Pact was the 2nd most common card I ended up tutoring for all night), it ends up turning into a Slaughter Pact tutor against Scavenging Ooze (and other yard hate), and the jury is still out on how much the Curator of Mysteries I stuck in Grixis Death's Shadow is actually enabling it.
When I played Glittering Wish decks, one common line you had was to Wish on turn 2 for a board wipe (Firespout, Supreme Verdict) to slow down your opponent. That's not going to happen with Mausoleum Secrets unless you can somehow get 3-4 creatures in the graveyard by turn 2.
Dredge can fill up their graveyard quickly, but doesn't have good tutor targets for it.
As Foretold Living End probably has the easiest time enabling it, but their main target is ironically a 0 CMC spell.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
- Briefing is not a creature, can't be Commanded (Kolaghan's/Cryptic) back to hand
- Briefing costs UU, Snapcaster costs 1U
- Briefing is an instant, triggers Pyromancer Ascension, Thing in the Ice, etc
- Briefing surveils 2 and bins itself
- Briefing doesn't target
Overall Snapcaster is probably better due to its less color-intensive mana cost, and that it's a 2-for-1 whereas Briefing is a 1-for-1 with selection.
Does Briefing allow cards to be casted for alternate costs? edit: yes it does. Holy *****, instant mill staple
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
You are an absolute treasure with your card analysis. Also, I plan on playing 2 and 2 for the simple fact that I was waiting for a good deck manipulation card d^_^b
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control