This thing found its way into the sideboard of my G/W Tokens deck, and I'm finding it surprising as super secret tech against attacking with big creatures, which a lot of decks in my meta (and I'm guessing many people's) like doing.
During the latest FNM, this guy killed 6 Titans in 6 rounds, and got 4 "You play Ambush Viper!?"s. He pulled his weight in all the matchups I sided him in on.
So, is my Viper coping purely due to his super secret tech-ness, or is he a half-decent sideboard card?
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Letting your opponents attack is a big deal in this triggered ability meta. If you can avoid it, do it. I would rather play Beast Within if I were limited to green cards.
I played a set of Ambush Vipers in a BUG Sword-based deck to some good results. Most people didn't expect to see the flashy guy jumping in to block a 5/5 Dungrove Elder or me flashing it in end of turn 4 and equipping a Sword of Feast and Famine turn 5.
Overall it was a good card, perhaps a bit situational though in its uses.
he seems more like a green splash card rather than a card mono green would run.
he'd be useful in a birthing pod deck or something that is light on the green to begin with.
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It's mainly only good against things that are hard to kill with targeted removal, like Thrun, Dungrove, maybe Geist of Saint Traft too. It's just an anti Dungrove card for now, if I had a lot of Dungrove Elders in my meta I'd definitely play him in my sideboard if I was running green.
nothing is funnier then sneaking in a 2/1 on their endstep, equipping it with something and then swinging
that being said if you see alot of trees or geist it worth considering I would think but otherwise ehhhhh it just doesnt fit with what green wants to be doing right now. I think it would need a whole new shell/archetype
he also provides a creature in the GY which dooooom blade doesnt... not super relevant yet but you could see it mattering at some point later in the block
During the latest FNM, this guy killed 6 Titans in 6 rounds
So what youre saying is that your opponents resolved x6+ Titans and then attacked with x6+ titans and then u flashed in the viper to block them???
If that many Titans are hitting the board AND attacking you. im guessing you lost alot ya?
This is reading alot like viper is your instant speed removal solution for g/w...
O-ring is a much better way to deal with a titan. Even Fiend Hunter would be better. You do not want to have to wait until a Titan attacks you(and triggers again) to deal with it. You want to deal with it before they attack with it. Ambush Viper simply does not solve that problem. If your meta is titan heavy. O-ring and fiend hunter are better solutions imo.
But if you have that Beast Within and Ambush Viper, then you don't tap out with 5-Land, they will think you have nothing, and then you will wreck their side. You went all Blue in a Green deck, and they played out their hand.
Green has a lot of surprising tricks, and Ambush Viper is just one of them.
But yeah, it's pretty jank Vs Titans. They get 4 2/2 Zombies, swarm you with a bajillion Sun Titans and lands, get out multiple Wolf Run/Inkmoth things, or do some pretty janky stuff you're probably not too bothered about. It doesn't stop fliers either.
Ummm, competent players will expect instant speed interactions if you have cards in hand and don't tap out in green. Also, viper doesnt do much against titans because by the time they attacked, they would have triggered twice, which basically means game over. Plus, they can just kill the viper before blocks. I'd rather play real removal spells than this jank.
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Standard: UW UW Pike
Mtgo Pauper: U Tempo
Mtgo Block: RW Aggro
I'm 14, shout-outs to all other young magic players out there!
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Fiend Hunter is not a good answer to a Titan.... red will Shock it.
Fiend Hunter is not a good answer to a Titan. Blue will bounce it, Black will kill it, White has multiple different ways of answering it (Fiend Hunter...) Green has ways of making it die, and red will Shock it. If they have a Titan in Red, I'd be amazed, but whatever, Fiend Hunter gives them another Titan use.
Go ahead, shock a fiend hunter, tell me how that goes for you.
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I play Magic and fighting games competitively.
Standard: UW UW Pike
Mtgo Pauper: U Tempo
Mtgo Block: RW Aggro
I'm 14, shout-outs to all other young magic players out there!
Quotes:
Fiend Hunter is not a good answer to a Titan.... red will Shock it.
Fine then, Brimstone Volley. Red has damage at any given level from 1-5 at the drop of a hat, and the fact that it's at Instant means I can do it in your turn, get my Titan back, then swing with it. If I have a second Volley, I can do even more damage to stuff you're carrying (Seeing as we are now at L6+) with a second Volley.
What do you expect from a mono-green deck at Instant speed exactly? They have combat tricks, Beast Within, and Ambush Viper. No-one plays Ambush Viper, which is where it's strength comes in. If people start playing it, it puts Green in a similar position to Blue. You don't play important spells T2 Vs Blue because of Mana Leak. Viper stops you making important attacks with things that aren't Titan. You really want Champion of the Parish to die with one counter on it? Or do you want to get a little more mileage out of it? Grand Abolisher is a great answer to it, admittedly, but that answers all tricks.
Ok, most red decks don't play inferno and volley in the same deck. Secondly, beast within is pretty obvious from mono green, and considering mono green doesn't have many instants, it's kinda obvious that they're holding one because otherwise they would be playing spells on their turn. Also, ambush viper is a lot worse than mana leak because viper is removal that can be stopped by doom blade, nana leak is "removal" that has to be countered for it to be stopped. If I'm going to run removal, I don't want it to be cold to doom blade.
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I play Magic and fighting games competitively.
Standard: UW UW Pike
Mtgo Pauper: U Tempo
Mtgo Block: RW Aggro
I'm 14, shout-outs to all other young magic players out there!
Quotes:
Fiend Hunter is not a good answer to a Titan.... red will Shock it.
Fine then, Brimstone Volley. Red has damage at any given level from 1-5 at the drop of a hat, and the fact that it's at Instant means I can do it in your turn, get my Titan back, then swing with it. If I have a second Volley, I can do even more damage to stuff you're carrying (Seeing as we are now at L6+) with a second Volley.
What do you expect from a mono-green deck at Instant speed exactly? They have combat tricks, Beast Within, and Ambush Viper. No-one plays Ambush Viper, which is where it's strength comes in. If people start playing it, it puts Green in a similar position to Blue. You don't play important spells T2 Vs Blue because of Mana Leak. Viper stops you making important attacks with things that aren't Titan. You really want Champion of the Parish to die with one counter on it? Or do you want to get a little more mileage out of it? Grand Abolisher is a great answer to it, admittedly, but that answers all tricks.
you know rampant growth isnt an instant right? leaving two mana open is just timewalking yourself, becos unlike blue you never get to use that mana.
i would happily not attack as uw if it means you're not casting any spells. good luck with that strat.
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Back on topic: I like this guy. i mean i dont see him in a top 8 worlds deck, but for casual play he is amazing. i play a few decks with green as a secondary color and this little guy is fun especially to set off morbid and to just hit those annoying attackers your opponent swings with.
He's pretty cool for KWR as super-secret-tech because deathtouch interacts favorably with trample and he lets you kill stuff you'd otherwise have a hard time dealing with (admittedly mostly in the mirror). He's also cool as surprise attacker guy and he'll let you go from nothing on the table to swinging in with all your mana dumped into KWR.
I agree in that he is a mono green out. He could eventually be fun with some other things, but the good news is that green finally does have something that they can sneak in besides Giant Growth and friends.
I've always wished that he was Deadly Recluse w/ Flash, but nonetheless it seems like a fine combat trick in mono green. I've always been a big fan totally blowing people out with questionable cards like Ambush Viper, because it drives people completely nuts. It's not a card worth making a necessary part of your strategy, but the element of creative surprise is something that I think people largely underestimate.
I really wish you would all understand that leaving up 2 mana means you are TIME WALKING YOURSELF if the guy doesn't attack you. Which he won't as soon as he sees the stupid snake once.
Hell, even if he does attack you're basically time walking yourself. You should be developing your board, not hoping to Rebuke something.
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I really wish you would all understand that leaving up 2 mana means you are TIME WALKING YOURSELF if the guy doesn't attack you. Which he won't as soon as he sees the stupid snake once.
So if you play a blue deck with mana leaks, any time you leave 2 man open, regardless of how much mana you have, you are time-walking yourself.
Good to know there is yet another exaggerated situation that can be crammed into "completely skipping your turn".
As somebody who is playing a grixis control/burning vengeance deck, I have SB'd 2 of this for WRR Green (Thrun, Dungrove) as well as Giest, as the deck has no responses to any of those once they are resolved except for BSZ which I dont run. Also I thought about using Typhoid rats, but the lack of the surprise element really made them useless.
So if you play a blue deck with mana leaks, any time you leave 2 man open, regardless of how much mana you have, you are time-walking yourself.
Good to know there is yet another exaggerated situation that can be crammed into "completely skipping your turn".
Actually, if you don't have other instant speed cards to play in case you dont get to counter anything, yes, you are taking a huge tempo hit holding mana open for Mana Leak. This is the basic reason why control decks split so decisively between draw-go and tap-out decks; mixing and matching the two creates inefficiencies in your deck and causes major tempo hits.
Time Walk is extreme mostly because you still draw a card; you're still significantly behind as a result.
Seeing as people keep bumping this, I'm gunna pop in again and say; "How many of you would HONESTLY expect Ambush Viper?"
He's cheap, he throws a body in the yard, he activates Morbid, etc., all in addition to the fact that he just killed a dude and trolled you to high heaven.
All I wish was that he had Reach...
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This card is a tremendous skill tester. If you think you got the better of someone when they attacked with Primeval Titan or Grave Titan and you blocked with Ambush Viper, you need to Think Twice.
This thing found its way into the sideboard of my G/W Tokens deck, and I'm finding it surprising as super secret tech against attacking with big creatures, which a lot of decks in my meta (and I'm guessing many people's) like doing.
During the latest FNM, this guy killed 6 Titans in 6 rounds, and got 4 "You play Ambush Viper!?"s. He pulled his weight in all the matchups I sided him in on.
So, is my Viper coping purely due to his super secret tech-ness, or is he a half-decent sideboard card?
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MTGS egos at their finest.
Thoughts on proxies:
Overall it was a good card, perhaps a bit situational though in its uses.
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He isn't bad, especially for green. But often times, green wants to tap out on their turns, so it makes it a tad more difficult.
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Thoughts on proxies:
he'd be useful in a birthing pod deck or something that is light on the green to begin with.
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that being said if you see alot of trees or geist it worth considering I would think but otherwise ehhhhh it just doesnt fit with what green wants to be doing right now. I think it would need a whole new shell/archetype
he also provides a creature in the GY which dooooom blade doesnt... not super relevant yet but you could see it mattering at some point later in the block
So what youre saying is that your opponents resolved x6+ Titans and then attacked with x6+ titans and then u flashed in the viper to block them???
If that many Titans are hitting the board AND attacking you. im guessing you lost alot ya?
This is reading alot like viper is your instant speed removal solution for g/w...
O-ring is a much better way to deal with a titan. Even Fiend Hunter would be better. You do not want to have to wait until a Titan attacks you(and triggers again) to deal with it. You want to deal with it before they attack with it. Ambush Viper simply does not solve that problem. If your meta is titan heavy. O-ring and fiend hunter are better solutions imo.
Ummm, competent players will expect instant speed interactions if you have cards in hand and don't tap out in green. Also, viper doesnt do much against titans because by the time they attacked, they would have triggered twice, which basically means game over. Plus, they can just kill the viper before blocks. I'd rather play real removal spells than this jank.
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Go ahead, shock a fiend hunter, tell me how that goes for you.
Standard:
UW UW Pike
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I'm 14, shout-outs to all other young magic players out there!
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Ok, most red decks don't play inferno and volley in the same deck. Secondly, beast within is pretty obvious from mono green, and considering mono green doesn't have many instants, it's kinda obvious that they're holding one because otherwise they would be playing spells on their turn. Also, ambush viper is a lot worse than mana leak because viper is removal that can be stopped by doom blade, nana leak is "removal" that has to be countered for it to be stopped. If I'm going to run removal, I don't want it to be cold to doom blade.
Standard:
UW UW Pike
Mtgo Pauper:
U Tempo
Mtgo Block:
RW Aggro
I'm 14, shout-outs to all other young magic players out there!
Quotes:
you know rampant growth isnt an instant right? leaving two mana open is just timewalking yourself, becos unlike blue you never get to use that mana.
i would happily not attack as uw if it means you're not casting any spells. good luck with that strat.
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I did make one deck that used it to great effect, but it was a Prey Upon deck so Deathtouch was highly relevant
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Hell, even if he does attack you're basically time walking yourself. You should be developing your board, not hoping to Rebuke something.
So if you play a blue deck with mana leaks, any time you leave 2 man open, regardless of how much mana you have, you are time-walking yourself.
Good to know there is yet another exaggerated situation that can be crammed into "completely skipping your turn".
Actually, if you don't have other instant speed cards to play in case you dont get to counter anything, yes, you are taking a huge tempo hit holding mana open for Mana Leak. This is the basic reason why control decks split so decisively between draw-go and tap-out decks; mixing and matching the two creates inefficiencies in your deck and causes major tempo hits.
Time Walk is extreme mostly because you still draw a card; you're still significantly behind as a result.
He's cheap, he throws a body in the yard, he activates Morbid, etc., all in addition to the fact that he just killed a dude and trolled you to high heaven.
All I wish was that he had Reach...
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