Until end of turn, target nonland permanent loses all of its abilities and becomes, your choice of a Blue Frog creature with base power and toughness 1/1, or a Blue Octopus creature with base power and toughness 4/4.
"For sun's sake, I just want a crab!"
Test of Skill 1U
Uncommon
Instant
Counter a target instant or sorcery spell. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with the same name as that spell and exile them. Then that player shuffles, then draws a card for each card exiled from their hand this way.
Dream Strix 2U
Rare
Creature — Bird Illusion
Flying
When Dream Strix becomes the target of a spell, sacrifice it.
When Dream Strix dies, learn.
3/2
Test of Skill seems really good, to me. Countering an Ultimatum will feel really good. Also, I want more humanoid Frogs, please.
Wow, that counterspell used to cost 4 mana and saw SB play. This is going to make Control mirrors pretty wild, even if you give the opponent a card, getting rid of all of their hard counters is worth it, and dear Narset can even render the drawback meaningless. Keep your eye on this one guys.
Test of Skill it real neat. Probably will see play in Modern in sideboards, maybe will see play in post-Archive Historic, will definitely see play in Standard against Sultai Ultimatum. Also, first card art with Lukka on it. Unstable Transformation is very versatile. It saying "nonland permanent" gives it a lot of flexibility, so you can turn stuff like Planeswalkers and Enchantments into frogs and either kill them or just disable for a turn. It's also a combat trick in a pinch. Might be better than the White Rare as a catch-all Lesson. Dream Strix is just a generic good card. Evasive, good rate, essentially cantrips when it dies. No idea where to run it tho. The first idea is Azorius Fliers, but Staggering Insight is the best card in that deck and Strix nonbos with it. Maybe it's just so generically good that you run it anyways? idk.
Unless there's a lesson worth running, I don't think Azorius flyers would be interested in a 3/2 for 3 that does nothing to help the team. I'd rather play Brazen Borrower for its Flash.
I fear that the bird is rare because of limited, which is a crappy reason to make it rare. But then again, why is Brazen Borrower Mythic? Blue fliers are hard to balance, apparently.
Dream Strix is rare because it's a 3/2 flyer for 3 mana that (effectively) draws a non-land card when it dies. It even gets to be a non-land of your choice. That's a fairly powerful card, and a reasonable rare. The "drawback" isn't a huge one in constructed, since most spells that can target it are kill spells anyways, and this lets it avoid most exile spells keeping it from dying.
Esoteric Subtraction 1U
Common
Instant
Target creature gets -4/-0 until end of turn.
Learn
"The class didn't learn much that day."
Burrog Scrambler 1U
Common
Creature — Frog Wizard
Flash
When Burrog Scrambler enters the battlefield, target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-0 until end of turn.
Students looking for river grasses in Doradur quickly find themselves soaking wet and dark.
2/1
Unstable Transformation 1U
Uncommon
Sorcery — Lesson
Until end of turn, target nonland permanent loses all of its abilities and becomes, your choice of a Blue Frog creature with base power and toughness 1/1, or a Blue Octopus creature with base power and toughness 4/4.
"For sun's sake, I just want a crab!"
Test of Skill 1U
Uncommon
Instant
Counter a target instant or sorcery spell. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with the same name as that spell and exile them. Then that player shuffles, then draws a card for each card exiled from their hand this way.
Dream Strix 2U
Rare
Creature — Bird Illusion
Flying
When Dream Strix becomes the target of a spell, sacrifice it.
When Dream Strix dies, learn.
3/2
Test of Skill seems really good, to me. Countering an Ultimatum will feel really good. Also, I want more humanoid Frogs, please.
Unstable Transformation is very versatile. It saying "nonland permanent" gives it a lot of flexibility, so you can turn stuff like Planeswalkers and Enchantments into frogs and either kill them or just disable for a turn. It's also a combat trick in a pinch. Might be better than the White Rare as a catch-all Lesson.
Dream Strix is just a generic good card. Evasive, good rate, essentially cantrips when it dies. No idea where to run it tho. The first idea is Azorius Fliers, but Staggering Insight is the best card in that deck and Strix nonbos with it. Maybe it's just so generically good that you run it anyways? idk.
That counter is off the chain.
Been on this forum for 10++ years
Playing since '94