MTG Salvation

This seems pretty cool. It's like a mini mono-blue Rev.

Pull from Tomorrow XUU
Instant (R)
Draw X cards, then discard a card.

This seems interesting. It doesn't get particularly spicy until you're casting this for at least 3UU (where you'll get a less narrow Thirst for Knowledge effect), but this is an absurd 6-7 mana spell. Draw 4-5 pitch one?

For 6-7 it's a strictly worse Opportunity.

I don't really care much about it at 8+ mana, but it has solid enough utility when cast for 4-5 mana that I like the card. Probably the best "draw X" effect in mono-blue, but it's not like the other options currently see much play in Cube.

at seven mana isn`t it strictly better than opportunity (closes eyes as he unleashes the should I loot debate again...)

At 7 mana, it's draw 5 pitch 1. I prefer that to draw 4. This looks better than Stroke of Genius to me.

Quote from _i0 »

For 6-7 it's a strictly worse Opportunity.

I don't really care much about it at 8+ mana, but it has solid enough utility when cast for 4-5 mana that I like the card. Probably the best "draw X" effect in mono-blue, but it's not like the other options currently see much play in Cube.

Well for 7 mana it's better because if you can cast it at 7 mana you're using your mana more efficiently in most cases for that turn. That extra card is worth more than the potential to draw a 1 mana spell for when you play opportunity at 7 mana available.

Sure, it's going to be worse than each of the static-costed cards at various points, because you're paying for the flexibility. It's maybe still not strong enough, but it's interesting to me enough to warrant consideration.

There is some merit to being a discard outlet as well which can't be ignored. Like there will be scenarios where even at 6 mana opportunity won't be strictly better, if one of those cards you want in your GY.

Or the scenario where you need to cast this for UU so that you can Reanimate the Griselbrand rotting in your hand on turn 3 for UUB!

EDIT: Somewhat nathed by Salmo.

Blue already has a lot of discard outlets. The most of any color in my cube anyway. It needs to be more than that to justify a slot and 4 mana to essentially cycle is not good enough. If I was looking for this type of effect I think sphinxs revelation would still be the way to go.

If I do run this, I am not sure what I will cut from blue but will probably remove Sphinx's Revelation. Even though I like Sphinx's Rev, I def don't need two draw spells and there are a lot of azorius cards I could be running which I'm not which would give my cube a little more variety.

I was just thinking about such a card a few weeks ago. Not sure I'll be able to find room. One thought was cutting Deep Analysis, but splashable cost and flashback are too good. Maybe Serum Visions? Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain are probably enough redundancy at 450. I cut Ancestral Vision a while back, mostly because someone offered me a sweet trade for a card that's borderline, and maybe this replaces that effect somewhat.

Isn't the life gain really key in Sphinx's Rev though? I'm not sure a slightly better Stroke of Genius is getting there honestly. Does blue need more draw or discard outlets??

Quote from ahadabans »

Isn't the life gain really key in Sphinx's Rev though? I'm not sure a slightly better Stroke of Genius is getting there honestly. Does blue need more draw or discard outlets??

That's definitely why I run Sphinx's Rev over Stroke, but costing 1 less is a big difference and the discard outlet will be wanted in a lot of decks. It could test poorly, but still worth testing. (I think?)

The discard makes it appealing for a greater range of decks, but Revelation is better for the deck that wants it the most.

I once again show that I can't math (thought 6 mana was draw 3 for this), but stand by my general comparison to Opportunity

But yeah, if you've still got a Stroke of Genius in your list this is a very easy upgrade, unless you want High Tide style decks getting kills by decking your opponent. Otherwise, this is so much better at 3-4-5 mana.

Quote from _i0 »

I once again show that I can't math (thought 6 mana was draw 3 for this), but stand by my general comparison to Opportunity

But yeah, if you've still got a Stroke of Genius in your list this is a very easy upgrade, unless you want High Tide style decks getting kills by decking your opponent. Otherwise, this is so much better at 3-4-5 mana.

The only thing that's really comparable is the 6 mana option, and even then there will still be some percentage of games (albeit probably a small percentage) where you can use the discard to your advantage. Otherwise it's a card that will either be castable where Opportunity isn't, or you'll be able to use your mana more consistently efficiently at EOT when you have more than 6 mana. This is comparable to opportunity like Walking Ballista is comparable to Triskelion, which is to say it is but it really isn't.

This is basically inefficient for the effect at every cost, so the flexibility has to be there for it to be good. Looking at my list, I don't see anything I would want to cut for this (maybe frantic search, but that's there for combo reasons), and for instant speed draw I like sphinx's rev a lot more. If I wanted another X draw spell, this is certainly better than stroke or zenith, so if you're running either of those this seems like an easy replacement.

I like this. Serum Visions or Dig Through Time are currently my possible cuts.

I don't know about cutting Dig Through Time. That card is insane. It's kinda like the card this card wants to be lol

Cutting Dig Through Time is crazy speak! One of the best blue draw spells there is.

Dig Through Time is a completely absurd Magic card.

The more time we have with Dig the more I like it. I've drafted it ahead of Fact or Fiction many times so I'd definitely look for another cut.

Quote from NightwingX »

I like this. Serum Visions or Dig Through Time are currently my possible cuts.

No. NONONONONONONO. Dig through time may be the best non-recall draw spell in cube. I wouldn't cut it from a 180-card cube.

Visions is a very replaceable card, though, and I wouldn't hate that cut to test this even though the cards fill very different roles. I assume you already have brainstorm, ponder, and preordain at least in the 1 cmc filtering card slots.

Serum Visions is a weird card for cube. It's definitely a lower power level, but not massively noticeable. Like, it never feels awful or way out of place and most blue decks want a cantrip. But it also feels distinctly worse than ponder/preordain/brainstorm (at times with the latter), so it feels like a card that can easily be switched out. I'm never going to first pick a Serum Visions, but I would have to have the sickest deck for it to not make my 23.