So I've been toying with a few ideas as my true love of MTG is the deckbuilding. Recently, I've had quite a few brews that seemed so close to awesome, but just not quite there, and while trying to think of ways to push them into at least the FNM scene, a common card has stuck out in multiple situations as a helpful card, Brain in a Jar. I know there is the Mono-U deck that is taking advantage of it, but it seems like there are quite a few other scenarios that are pretty epic with it. Here are just a quick few with brief explanations.
Thought 1:
Mono-BBrain in a Jar - A 1cmc Instant Speed Languish Almost speaks for itself, but what about chaining that into a 1cmc Dark Petition the next turn, finding another Languish and casting it for 1+ the BBB you got from the tutor? Mono-B has quite a few higher CMC cards that I think would be pretty neat with this, as well as the Instant speed discard. It also allows a TON of flexibility. T4 pump Brain to 2, cast a Transgress, oh crap, you see 2x Archangel Avacyn in hand, and an Ob Nixilis Reignited... Luckily you only paid 1 for the Transgress and still have 1BB for InfinitEOBlitERation on Archangel Avacyn.
Thought 2: Brain in a Jar Land Destruction - LD in current form is pretty lack luster, starting on T4 and having to tap out for it, while G can offer some ramp for it, its not really enough, and its overall just too slow. But... what if you turn them all to Instant Speed, and make them only 1cmc? Sure its still slow, but given the right deck, with enough draw (hello, Sin Prodder), this could turn into things like double land destruction turns as early as T6, as well as being able use it for Ramp spells which can mitigate Sin Prodders downside. This deck is still probably pretty far from being amazing, but I think Brain in a Jar + Land Destruction could wreck some serious havoc. Could also be used in a WR shell with Archangel of Tithes.
Thought 3: Brain in a Jar + Board Wipes - White obviously is in a REALLY strong place right now with cards like Declaration in Stone, and all their board wipes. Just imagine having to play around Instant Speed Declaration in Stone, and Instant Speed 1cmc Planar Outburst, and Descend upon the Sinful. If you could add in Delirium too, which you're already running artifacts, that'd be a pretty wicked combo.
I'm sure some of these things will still be a bit slow, and some will just be a bit too silly for some, however Mono-U Brain does some serious work, and IMO is a competitive deck, maybe not T1 or T1.5, but definitely an FNM worthy T2 deck, and I believe the namesake card could be explored a bit more. Personally I think the Mono Black deck has some HUGE potential and would love to see it in action, but what are your thoughts? Does Brain in a Jar have some value that hasnt been considered yet, am I living a pipe-dream, are there any other awesome scenarios for this?
You have to think about what Brain in a Jar functionally does for your deck.
So what does it do?
It ramps you. It gives you mana advantage but gives you a bunch of conditions to be met before it does so. It's excellent in Brain in the Shore because you need a bunch of mana to get it to work. You also need to cast a bunch of spells.
Think less about the interactions and more about the framework necessary to make a card like this to work.
yeah, i'm not completely sold on it either. It's kinda slow. Are there a lot of situations where you have to cast an instant speed Languish and then on your following turn, Dark Petition and Languish again? If that first Languish doesn't get them, then next one on your turn probably won't get them either
I do believe its underrated. When I saw it spoiled my first thought was "Wow, a fair vial". And that's the problem with it, it's a fair card. Think about it, just removing the tap from the first part would make an absolute insane card.
I think it has the potential to be almost as good as other exteremely good cards that were considered OK, but not that great at their launch dates. This is my prime example, at launch everyone called me stupid for buying them as they were mostly used in ramp decks back then. Couple o' prereleases latercame this card, another "not bad" card. Now they're format defining. I'm not saying it will be as good as those 2, but I do believe in its potential. Especially if you can Twiddle it a couple of times.
Probably won't see much play during ORI-EMN standard other than the cheesy EoT's zombie hordes or extra turns, however Kaladesh with its steampunk theme might kick it into overdrive, But who knows.
Bought a foil playset cause its my fav card from the expansion and I have a blast playing it.
I have to disagree. To me, it's not the tap that makes the card not all that good, it's the mana. It throws off your whole curve. You have to give up your 2nd turn, and then you have to be behind a mana on all of your subsequent turns to put charges on it. The best case scenario is if you've built your deck to curve with it, in which case you could possibly have a deck with 2 curves, but you'd have to have the cards to feed that... It's getting dizzying.
If I could do something other than play combo or control with it, I'd probably have fun with it. Maybe that should be something I should try to do. See if I can shoehorn it into a weenie aggro deck or something.
I get what you mean, technically you're only "behind" on mana for the first 3 activations, sure, for that statement to be true you'd have to use it with a 1, 2 and 3 CMC spell which will not happen that often, at least in standard, and again, turn 2 tapping out on 2 and having 2 mana open on 3 is kinda bad in standard, especially with no 1 CMC spells to use in the more common shells. That's why I mentioned Twiddle, in standard as it is, it doesn't have much potential, but with a lager card pool it might just get bonkers in the future.
The main brain deck I've seen has Day's Undoing in it. I'm not sure Blue would be the best color. It might be better in a RW Nahiri build. Play some instant speed sorceries. If you keep it down at 3 cmc, you could even use Goblin Dark-Dwellers to get extra free casts. I don't know if it would work. I'm not gonna bother with it. lol
But unlike Æther Vial, you can't build your deck around a specific mana cost to ensure that it's actually saving you mana. So off the bat, it hurts your deck's consistency.
And unlike Æther Vial, Brain sucks mana every turn, whether you're casting anything with it or not. It's as likely to make your spells cost extra mana as it is to save on costs.
And Brain is unreasonably slow. If you put it in your deck, you're basically not expecting to do anything to interact with the board until turn 3 at earliest.
And on top of all those other things, unlike Æther Vial's creatures, low-CMC instants and sorceries in Standard don't just win the game, even if you do manage to churn extra spells out at lower cost.
But it shares Æther Vial's flaws of being card disadvantage, being a dead lategame topdeck and sacrificing explosive starts in favor of grindier slower gameplay.
If you want to brew with it, go for it. But the card is bad and oversold by people who want it to work.
If I'm playing WR Humans or GW Tokens and my opponent resolves this on turn 2 they might as well just concede. The longer the game goes the better this thing is, but it takes way too long to setup properly, isn't reliable predictable as you HAVE to ticket it up each time, and the payoff isn't good enough.
Probably could work in a deck that top's out at something like Season's Past to re-buy the entire curve back, use the scry to reset the Jar back to relevance and that allows you to reach multiple spells in a turn a little faster possibly. Blue Green and the color with the best sweeper + removal (Black [languish, grasp of darkness], Red [Radiant Flames, Kozilek's Return, Nahiri's Wrath, burn] or White [Declaration in Stone, 5 drop sweepers]) would probably work. Use Pieces of the Puzzle (since the deck is Instants and Sorceries + Brain in a Jar) and Take Inventory to create a card advantage engine. Then at 4 you have Splendid Reclamation which likely has an Evolving Wilds in the graveyard plus a handful of lands from Pieces of the Puzzle that sort of card draw engine (digging toward's Season's Past to rebuild) probably would be a good shell for Brain in a Jar. If using Red as a splash potentially Geistblast would be a good consideration given it has utility even if dumped by Pieces of the Puzzle, and the graveyard ability can copy spells cast by the Jar using the mana you saved (double pieces = dig 10 pick 4, double red wraths = enough damage to take down large creatures, double Take inventory = draw 2 to 8 cards, double individual burn spells is often good enough in place of a wrath [as the are playing around your wrath's by not over extending, double pulse of Murasa = gain 12 life + regrow 2 lands to hand). Red also has decent X spells which are kinda cheat the Season's Past curve to make it scale better.
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Brain in a Jar
So I've been toying with a few ideas as my true love of MTG is the deckbuilding. Recently, I've had quite a few brews that seemed so close to awesome, but just not quite there, and while trying to think of ways to push them into at least the FNM scene, a common card has stuck out in multiple situations as a helpful card, Brain in a Jar. I know there is the Mono-U deck that is taking advantage of it, but it seems like there are quite a few other scenarios that are pretty epic with it. Here are just a quick few with brief explanations.
Thought 1:
Mono-B Brain in a Jar - A 1cmc Instant Speed Languish Almost speaks for itself, but what about chaining that into a 1cmc Dark Petition the next turn, finding another Languish and casting it for 1+ the BBB you got from the tutor? Mono-B has quite a few higher CMC cards that I think would be pretty neat with this, as well as the Instant speed discard. It also allows a TON of flexibility. T4 pump Brain to 2, cast a Transgress, oh crap, you see 2x Archangel Avacyn in hand, and an Ob Nixilis Reignited... Luckily you only paid 1 for the Transgress and still have 1BB for InfinitEOBlitERation on Archangel Avacyn.
Thought 2:
Brain in a Jar Land Destruction - LD in current form is pretty lack luster, starting on T4 and having to tap out for it, while G can offer some ramp for it, its not really enough, and its overall just too slow. But... what if you turn them all to Instant Speed, and make them only 1cmc? Sure its still slow, but given the right deck, with enough draw (hello, Sin Prodder), this could turn into things like double land destruction turns as early as T6, as well as being able use it for Ramp spells which can mitigate Sin Prodders downside. This deck is still probably pretty far from being amazing, but I think Brain in a Jar + Land Destruction could wreck some serious havoc. Could also be used in a WR shell with Archangel of Tithes.
Thought 3:
Brain in a Jar + Board Wipes - White obviously is in a REALLY strong place right now with cards like Declaration in Stone, and all their board wipes. Just imagine having to play around Instant Speed Declaration in Stone, and Instant Speed 1cmc Planar Outburst, and Descend upon the Sinful. If you could add in Delirium too, which you're already running artifacts, that'd be a pretty wicked combo.
I'm sure some of these things will still be a bit slow, and some will just be a bit too silly for some, however Mono-U Brain does some serious work, and IMO is a competitive deck, maybe not T1 or T1.5, but definitely an FNM worthy T2 deck, and I believe the namesake card could be explored a bit more. Personally I think the Mono Black deck has some HUGE potential and would love to see it in action, but what are your thoughts? Does Brain in a Jar have some value that hasnt been considered yet, am I living a pipe-dream, are there any other awesome scenarios for this?
So what does it do?
It ramps you. It gives you mana advantage but gives you a bunch of conditions to be met before it does so. It's excellent in Brain in the Shore because you need a bunch of mana to get it to work. You also need to cast a bunch of spells.
Think less about the interactions and more about the framework necessary to make a card like this to work.
I think it has the potential to be almost as good as other exteremely good cards that were considered OK, but not that great at their launch dates. This is my prime example, at launch everyone called me stupid for buying them as they were mostly used in ramp decks back then. Couple o' prereleases latercame this card, another "not bad" card. Now they're format defining. I'm not saying it will be as good as those 2, but I do believe in its potential. Especially if you can Twiddle it a couple of times.
Probably won't see much play during ORI-EMN standard other than the cheesy EoT's zombie hordes or extra turns, however Kaladesh with its steampunk theme might kick it into overdrive, But who knows.
Bought a foil playset cause its my fav card from the expansion and I have a blast playing it.
If I could do something other than play combo or control with it, I'd probably have fun with it. Maybe that should be something I should try to do. See if I can shoehorn it into a weenie aggro deck or something.
It looks like Æther Vial, so people keep thinking about it like an Æther Vial.
But unlike Æther Vial, you can't build your deck around a specific mana cost to ensure that it's actually saving you mana. So off the bat, it hurts your deck's consistency.
And unlike Æther Vial, Brain sucks mana every turn, whether you're casting anything with it or not. It's as likely to make your spells cost extra mana as it is to save on costs.
And Brain is unreasonably slow. If you put it in your deck, you're basically not expecting to do anything to interact with the board until turn 3 at earliest.
And on top of all those other things, unlike Æther Vial's creatures, low-CMC instants and sorceries in Standard don't just win the game, even if you do manage to churn extra spells out at lower cost.
But it shares Æther Vial's flaws of being card disadvantage, being a dead lategame topdeck and sacrificing explosive starts in favor of grindier slower gameplay.
If you want to brew with it, go for it. But the card is bad and oversold by people who want it to work.