Unfortunately Polymorphing instants and sorceries doesn't play quite as smoothly as it does with creatures, because there isn't really a way to build your deck to take advantage of it that works very well.
That said, I think it's quite a fun spell to sling in a casual multiplayer or casual Commander environment. You can wheel a friend into some pretty absurd stuff.
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Why does the card exist? Could a future card actually be designed to do Spellshift in a fair and right way, or is that impossible?
The only thing that seems good is Eye of the Storm for this card and I guess one could use a free card like Gitaxian Probe to use it the "easiest".
Don't know why I care so much, but this card intrigues me in its almost complete uselessness.
It's a counterspell, that might net a less effective card for your opponent
Say you're at 3 life, your opponent bolts you, you counter it, and they peel a crush off the top. You're better off than you were.
It's way overcposted to ever be used, but as far as limited draft fodder, it's a decent gamble card when you're facing an impending loss if a spell resolves
You also use brainstorm or top to set up your library to put a 1 mana spell on top, then something like a Cruel Ultimatum under it, and basically get a Cruel Ultimatum for 3uu by countering your own spell.
I could see it being a good way to muck up a strategy. Like if they were trying to "go off" in combo and they've tapped out... you change their crazy big 9 mana spell into a Explore instead.
I could see it being a good way to muck up a strategy. Like if they were trying to "go off" in combo and they've tapped out... you change their crazy big 9 mana spell into a Explore instead.
I run it in Commander, and I want to find one for my real deck for that exact reason. You use it on some big, game-changing thing. Sure, a regular counterspell is probably a better option, but when someone drops a Genesis Wave for X=holy crap, and you trollface it into a Rampant Growth, you came out on top.
Heck, I've Spellshifted an Overrun into a Wrath of God before. THAT was hilarious.
Of all the colors, blue has the best capacity for doing silly things and indiscriminate trolling. This is one of those cards that's extraordinarily fun to play, as it serves the purpose of countering someone's spell that is potentially damaging to you but it also keeps you strong politically with that person, as they still get a spell out of it. It's sure to bring out some laughs in a group game and everybody wins. So much fun in Commander!
The point is to counter your own spell to Mind's Desire once. Yes, it's useless, but who cares? It fits the set it is in very perfectly. And the most useless card ever is definitely Pale Moon (so far, though
a even more useless one will be printed in New Phyrexia.
).
nahh pale moon isnt that bad. against greedy multicolor decks its basically a blue orim's chant
if your talking about the new 0 mana darksteel thing, that cards not the most useless either. at least its free, contributes to affinity/metalcraft, and the fact its an artifact will come in handy. at least it has some (though subpar) uses, eg. ad nauseum + glaze fiend combo deck
as opposed to something like great wall, which requires you to spend mana to get something only removes unblockability from ~6 (?) cards in the game, all of which are unplayable
nahh pale moon isnt that bad. against greedy multicolor decks its basically a blue orim's chant
if your talking about the new 0 mana darksteel thing, that cards not the most useless either. at least its free, contributes to affinity/metalcraft, and the fact its an artifact will come in handy. at least it has some (though subpar) uses, eg. ad nauseum + glaze fiend combo deck
as opposed to something like great wall, which requires you to spend mana to get something only removes unblockability from ~6 (?) cards in the game, all of which are unplayable
The problem with the Moon is that they can just tap their lands in response to the spell, floating the colored mana. Sure, they'll have to use it during that step, but it doesn't exactly shut them down. Like you said, it's like Orim's Chant, or Silence, except narrower, and worse.
The problem with the Moon is that they can just tap their lands in response to the spell, floating the colored mana. Sure, they'll have to use it during that step, but it doesn't exactly shut them down. Like you said, it's like Orim's Chant, or Silence, except narrower, and worse.
Play it on their upkeep. Yeah, it still sucks, but they'd likely have played any intants they wanted to on *your* previous turn.
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"I can't draft objectively unless I am able to guarantee that I receive at least 3 rares. I am also better than most average/new players so I want to make sure that I get the best rares and they end up with worse ones. I care more about the monetary value of cards than actually playing the game for decent prizes."
I think it's just a card they printed for fun and to create symmetry in a "meta-cycle" of sorts. Polymorph for creatures, Reshape for artifacts, I'm sure they'll print an enchantment or land one someday (maybe not in blue).
I think it's just a card they printed for fun and to create symmetry in a "meta-cycle" of sorts. Polymorph for creatures, Reshape for artifacts, I'm sure they'll print an enchantment or land one someday (maybe not in blue).
I think Shape Anew is more fitting for the 'cycle' of "Target X goes away, controller reveals until they find another X" for 3U.
Hey.. I'm playing spellshift in my group hug EDH deck... it "lessen" the hurt when I counter someone's sorcery or instant (that's the idea of group hug anyway), and of course the random effect always hilarious...
anyway, beside spellshift, the only counter I run in my group hug is arcane denial another counterspell that gives something in return
Ok gang, 11 years later and here we are... Just stumbled onto this thread by chance as I was curious, but man I wish I had known these threads existed 2 years ago when I built this deck. But if anyone somehow still gets notifications for this thread 10 years later, you might be interested to know I made a thing..... https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/4-color-adventureshift/
The key to the puzzle was "Adventure" spells, we really just needed the reverse of the polymorph decks... The same way polymorph decks use instants and sorceries that make creatures, we needed things that are only spells on the stack.
We also got MDFCs in Strixhaven that technically fit the bill as well but they are just so underpowered and unsynergistic that it won't really work to run them, in anything but commander (which does sound fun!)
The last keys to the puzzle were Primal Surge, which has the exact same deckbuilding restriction as spellshift for maximum payoff using minimal slots, and Thassa's Oracle for the instant-kill-at-instant-speed potential.
I've never quite clenched the 5-0 with this list, and it's been tough to know if I could since Spellshift and Primal Surge are bugged together on mtgo. But I have 4-1'd leagues with the deck in MTGO competitive leagues, back when I played the deck more about a year ago. It needs some new tools to make it competitive, but there's a lot of time for them to do so, so for now I'm waiting to see. The deck has been a bit power creeped out and I don't think I'd run it anymore at anything other than FNM or kitchen table Modern. The deck is very successfully a blast though, and very capable of beating any deck in Modern with some finesse and some luck.
Why does the card exist? Could a future card actually be designed to do Spellshift in a fair and right way, or is that impossible?
The only thing that seems good is Eye of the Storm for this card and I guess one could use a free card like Gitaxian Probe to use it the "easiest".
Don't know why I care so much, but this card intrigues me in its almost complete uselessness.
That said, I think it's quite a fun spell to sling in a casual multiplayer or casual Commander environment. You can wheel a friend into some pretty absurd stuff.
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It's a counterspell, that might net a less effective card for your opponent
Say you're at 3 life, your opponent bolts you, you counter it, and they peel a crush off the top. You're better off than you were.
It's way overcposted to ever be used, but as far as limited draft fodder, it's a decent gamble card when you're facing an impending loss if a spell resolves
You also use brainstorm or top to set up your library to put a 1 mana spell on top, then something like a Cruel Ultimatum under it, and basically get a Cruel Ultimatum for 3uu by countering your own spell.
I run it in Commander, and I want to find one for my real deck for that exact reason. You use it on some big, game-changing thing. Sure, a regular counterspell is probably a better option, but when someone drops a Genesis Wave for X=holy crap, and you trollface it into a Rampant Growth, you came out on top.
Heck, I've Spellshifted an Overrun into a Wrath of God before. THAT was hilarious.
The latest Comprehensive Rules are also good, and can be found here.
Of all the colors, blue has the best capacity for doing silly things and indiscriminate trolling. This is one of those cards that's extraordinarily fun to play, as it serves the purpose of countering someone's spell that is potentially damaging to you but it also keeps you strong politically with that person, as they still get a spell out of it. It's sure to bring out some laughs in a group game and everybody wins. So much fun in Commander!
nahh pale moon isnt that bad. against greedy multicolor decks its basically a blue orim's chant
if your talking about the new 0 mana darksteel thing, that cards not the most useless either. at least its free, contributes to affinity/metalcraft, and the fact its an artifact will come in handy. at least it has some (though subpar) uses, eg. ad nauseum + glaze fiend combo deck
as opposed to something like great wall, which requires you to spend mana to get something only removes unblockability from ~6 (?) cards in the game, all of which are unplayable
The problem with the Moon is that they can just tap their lands in response to the spell, floating the colored mana. Sure, they'll have to use it during that step, but it doesn't exactly shut them down. Like you said, it's like Orim's Chant, or Silence, except narrower, and worse.
The latest Comprehensive Rules are also good, and can be found here.
Play it on their upkeep. Yeah, it still sucks, but they'd likely have played any intants they wanted to on *your* previous turn.
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Yes. Arcane Lab + Spellshift = Cancel for 5UU and 2 cards.
I think it's just a card they printed for fun and to create symmetry in a "meta-cycle" of sorts. Polymorph for creatures, Reshape for artifacts, I'm sure they'll print an enchantment or land one someday (maybe not in blue).
I think Shape Anew is more fitting for the 'cycle' of "Target X goes away, controller reveals until they find another X" for 3U.
The latest Comprehensive Rules are also good, and can be found here.
It has some fun applications, like countering a crappy spell of yours and morphing it to something more epic.
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anyway, beside spellshift, the only counter I run in my group hug is arcane denial another counterspell that gives something in return
The key to the puzzle was "Adventure" spells, we really just needed the reverse of the polymorph decks... The same way polymorph decks use instants and sorceries that make creatures, we needed things that are only spells on the stack.
We also got MDFCs in Strixhaven that technically fit the bill as well but they are just so underpowered and unsynergistic that it won't really work to run them, in anything but commander (which does sound fun!)
The last keys to the puzzle were Primal Surge, which has the exact same deckbuilding restriction as spellshift for maximum payoff using minimal slots, and Thassa's Oracle for the instant-kill-at-instant-speed potential.
I've never quite clenched the 5-0 with this list, and it's been tough to know if I could since Spellshift and Primal Surge are bugged together on mtgo. But I have 4-1'd leagues with the deck in MTGO competitive leagues, back when I played the deck more about a year ago. It needs some new tools to make it competitive, but there's a lot of time for them to do so, so for now I'm waiting to see. The deck has been a bit power creeped out and I don't think I'd run it anymore at anything other than FNM or kitchen table Modern. The deck is very successfully a blast though, and very capable of beating any deck in Modern with some finesse and some luck.