MTG Salvation

I put Stolen Strategy in my Queen Marchesa control deck. I have only played it once, but it was a nice source of threats and answers from the top of my opponents' decks. None of the threats were things I would have played in my deck, but they were nice when I didn't have to put them in the deck to be able to play them. The answers were amazing, and included things I can't play in Queen Marchesa. My favorite was a Cryptic Command.

The only other feedback I have gotten on it was someone who said it was a bunch of non-synergistic trash, and he just ignored the cards and was left just playing what he drew from his deck.

What are people's thoughts? Has anyone played it yet? What were the experiences? Gas or trash?

I've played against it once and it didn't manage to do too much. The random quality is probably the biggest knock against it. That being said, it provides a ton of extra cards in the late game. It isn't a huge threat so it might dodge removal.

Stolen Strategy reminds me a lot of a favorite of mine, Mind's Dilation. High variance, a lot of fun, and can turn out a ton of advantage if left unchecked. The random element really is your worst enemy, but it's also what makes it interesting - with three opponents, you're bound to hit something of minor relevance at least.

A bit slow, maybe, being a 5 cmc cards that has no impact until your next upkeep... But it's more or less just a Phyrexian Arena for stealing your opponents cards. I'd say it's gas, unless you're up against aggro a lot.

Quote from ilovesaprolings »

Meh, isn't that just a weak Etali, primal storm?

Technically? It's an Enchantment though, making it harder to interact with/remove. Etali is easier to trigger but harder to maintain. OP's Queen Marchesa deck is more pillowfort than aggro.

Quote from Dudemichael »

Downside is that your opponents may begin to draw into better spells (you exile lands for example) but then red is a colour that takes risks. This is no exception.

maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but your opponents won't draw any better or worse on average when you play Stolen strat.

It's great if you're playing a relatively low synergy deck and want generic gas. If you're playing it in tribal gobbos or fast combo ofc it will suck. Etali is more powerful but he costs more and dies to more removal. I think it's a great card for red control decks.

I honestly never saw that card looking through the Battebond spoilers. I want to Copy Enchantment it.

I played Stolen Strategy again today. My favorite moment was Lapse of Certaintying a Sanguine Bond when the blue player was tapped out and the Karlov player tried to combo off. Hard counter to exile against a combo player from a Mardu deck. I let it go to exile just for spite because I didn't need it. Priceless. This is gas.

Been playing it in my Jaya Ballard, Task Mage control deck. So far it's been good. My group usually plays 3 player pods, so sometimes it just rips lands from both opponent's and if somebody has a Top they will give me a land 100% of the time. The card usually is going to give you an unusual card that doesn't exactly fit your decks strategy, but sometimes you get a niche answer card or a super bomb and you can turn the game on it's head.

Some of my greatest hits in the few weeks I've played it have been:
-Torment of Hailfire when I had a gauntlet in play.
-Exsanguinate when I was at 8 life.
-Capture of Jingzhou.
-Scour from Existence to take out a Consulate Crackdown.

I'm happy just to see the upkeep trigger give me more options on my turn, even if I decide not to use them.