Not sure if playable or not. It looks cool, and intuition says that you take the face up pile if it has what you need and the face down pile if it doesn't.
Edit: And then the opponent sees 2 Verdicts and splits one face up Verdict vs. everything else face down. You have to take the Verdict face up, right?
Edit again: After a little thought, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this card is good.
I totally didn't see that face up/face down bull****
I should have known better. They wouldn't knowingly print a busted draw spell, not unless it's green.
Not sure if playable or not. It looks cool, and intuition says that you take the face up pile if it has what you need and the face down pile if it doesn't.
Edit: And then the opponent sees 2 Verdicts and splits one face up Verdict vs. everything else face down. You have to take the Verdict face up, right?
Edit again: After a little thought, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this card is good.
I totally didn't see that face up/face down bull****
I should have known better. They wouldn't knowingly print a busted draw spell, not unless it's green.
At least as far as modern is concerned, we're solid on draw spells. We have good cantrips with think twice and serum visions, flexible draw spells with charm, powerful draws with ancestral, and the best removal we could reasonably expect with paths and verdicts. Hell with GenitalThrust420 new hotness we even have convenient life gain now. What we need is a solid generic answer card that doesn't set us up for a major blow out like, gosh, a useful 2 CMC counterspell.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Teferi and Crovax would have been cold-blooded in that format.
OK, can someone please explain to me what the deal is with Bant Charm in that meta? There is a Bant deck in there named after the card ("Charmed I'm Sure"), and one of the Zoo decks is splashing blue just for Bant Charm in the main and Meddling Mage sb. I don't get it -- was Thopter Depths the reason?
As I recall, thopter depths and faeries both saw a lot of play, with a lot of faeries decks playing thopter combo, meaning bant charm has tons of relevant modes in destroying artifacts, removing marit lage and any other creature, and dispelling interaction.
Its not a bad card, especially in a format where people played tons of cryptic commands, so paying 3 to counter something was totally fine for a lot of decks.
I wasn't playing around then but from what I've heard thopter depths was by far the best deck at the time.
Yeah, Crovax and Night of Souls' Betrayal are randomly in the maindeck and sideboards of 2 of the top 8 decks. When someone runs NoSB maindeck, you know you're in a warped metagame.
Could crovax be good now? What about elesh norn? At that point should we just be playing gifts?
Seriously though, Crovax could replace WSZ possibly, but I think it would just be worse. It basically only hoses Infect and Affinity and does so on turn 6. Elesh Norn is even nastier than Elspeth Sun's Champion and wipes out nearly all creature decks, but it's 7 mana. Maybe that could be the new tech.
TBH, if I were to play a teachings-based build, I'd have teferi in the mainboard alongside a grave titan or wurmcoil engine, with some baneslayers in the board, and I'd ditch Elspeth entirely. That way, you can teachings into a fast clock with teferi out, and otherwise you have a serviceable win con in your deck instead of a crovax.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
TBH, if I were to play a teachings-based build, I'd have teferi in the mainboard alongside a grave titan or wurmcoil engine, with some baneslayers in the board, and I'd ditch Elspeth entirely. That way, you can teachings into a fast clock with teferi out, and otherwise you have a serviceable win con in your deck instead of a crovax.
What about a pearl lake ancient, or elesh norn ? Basically just a control deck with a semi-combo finish of teferi into uncounterable fatty
But without all the deck warping that gifts requires
Does Gifts really warp your deck? Both Gifts and Teachings have to be abused to be worth it, but if your opponent isn't running graveyard hate Unburial Rites is practically as broken as Nahiri. Maybe people have historically wrecked their decks by building "tutor decks" to put Gifts and Teachings in, when they could have played a playset of some other card that allows for busted sequences. In Wafo's case it was Ancestral, but there are plenty of positional advantage bombs that also warp any game where you open with them, like Bitterblossom, Nahiri, or Liliana.
I've been meaning to playtest Gifts, but laziness always gets me.
I had a gifts list up a while back--no cute packages, just oozing value at every turn. Well OK, I had buried ruin/academy ruins/crucible/wurmcoil engine for beating jund decks off of a gifts package. Tip: don't play ancestral vision with gifts. It doesn't work. The card you want is thirst for knowledge and the unspoken MVP's are the talismans.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Random goofball game to everyone here. Since the blue "escalate command" has yet to be spoiled, who wants to place bets that it will be wildly unplayable? I'm betting the blue escalate card in EDM be a dumpster fire, likely involving mill because "reasons." I'll quote that in my signature for it's entire lifetime in standard if it's cryptic 2.0.
It will be wildly unplayable, as it won't be made. Escalate is only showing up in Red, Black, and White, not Blue or Green.
I had a gifts list up a while back--no cute packages, just oozing value at every turn. Well OK, I had buried ruin/academy ruins/crucible/wurmcoil engine for beating jund decks off of a gifts package. Tip: don't play ancestral vision with gifts. It doesn't work. The card you want is thirst for knowledge and the unspoken MVP's are the talismans.
Well, my point was that you should win most games where you suspend Ancestral on turn 1. Thirst isn't really comparable.
I dont think we need teaching or gift or crovak or elesh or anything regarding draw power and game finishers. We have all we need. Mot games I win, I have 3-4+ cards in hands. Games I lose, I have 3-4+ cards in hands. When I close out a game, I had won it 10 turns before and it doesn't really matter. When I lose, except vs burn decks, its usually a close match. Like SES said, we need a nice counterspell or an universal answer like vindicate. So let me transform what I said into something more fondamental. We have a deck that is aiming toward 50/50 match ups with everybody. We have no real free wins, and since ton no longer have Emrakul, we have no free lost. We use 3 things to beat our opponent: 1. Skills, 2. Knowlege of our opponent deck, 3. Element of surprise (they usually dont know our deck). What we need is versatility, and universal answers, not new wincons. Of course, if i was able to jam a combo that only uses our 4 flex spot and dont sacrifice our overall synergie, I would (just like uwr did with nahiri-emrakul), but I would not sacrifice too much.
Random goofball game to everyone here. Since the blue "escalate command" has yet to be spoiled, who wants to place bets that it will be wildly unplayable? I'm betting the blue escalate card in EDM be a dumpster fire, likely involving mill because "reasons." I'll quote that in my signature for it's entire lifetime in standard if it's cryptic 2.0.
It will be wildly unplayable, as it won't be made. Escalate is only showing up in Red, Black, and White, not Blue or Green.
What? That sucks. I was really looking forward to seeing the blue escalate.
(typing this as I'm listening to halo theme song) Wow that's ******* racist. Anyway I'm thinking esper needs to follow suite like jeskai and play it's natural draw go game complemented by some high rollers like jeskai did with nahiri/emmy. Typically up to 10 slots are needed for threats in this new breed of draw go control - reference - the current top seed jeskai: 4 nahi, 1 emmy, 4 snap, 1 ven cliqu. So what does black add? Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Bitterblossom, Liliana of the Veil. There's probably more, these just off the top of my head. Must answer power cards, that complement the instant speed nature of draw go and can end the game quicker which can be a big deal. Blacks cards, whilst obviously not as powerful as nahiri/emmy (what is?), are cheaper cmc and are more disruptive. Food for thought.
Jeskai is a very different deck. It's much more midgame than Esper, and can't really play a "bury your opponent in card advantage" game. It also has Bolt-Snap-Bolt, which Esper doesn't. This all adds up to why Jeskai has more threats -- firstly, its removal becomes a wincon to close out the game faster. Secondly, it can't let the game go too long or it won't have enough resources to complete it. Esper, on the other hand, can play until it decks itself and still survive even after that. There is no real reason to include more threats -- they just aren't necessary, because winning is a formality with Esper. In fact, you don't really even need to win -- just Zenith every turn, never attack, and they'll eventually deck without you doing anything really.
In fact, adding more threats to Esper detracts from Esper's game plan -- the good ones typically make you tap out and they typically rot in your opening hand. The only type of "threat" I'd really consider adding in Esper is something like Clique or Venser, Shaper Savant, because they both play into Esper's gameplan and serve mainly as disruption, with the body being very secondary. Those and Elspeth, because it practically says "4WW: Win the game." against almost any deck.
If you want to be a u/b version of jeskai, okay faeries
It's literally a split down the middle between midrange and a permission draw go deck. Everything but blossom and thoughtseize has flash, is disruptive, and swings
Been testing all morning against actual tier decks again getting ready for Syracuse.
I had been testing against rogue stuff just for fun and for Fnm purposes. Anyways, now that I'm back on the tier 1-2 band wagon I just want to make a statement/ask for your experience.
Spell snare is just the nuts!
Needing a snapcaster Mage is huge, especially when some decks only source of c/a is the snapcaster Mage
Huge for tempo, huge for c/a (or anti opponent ca)
Obviously spell snare isn't rocket science, but what im saying is that I had chopped them to 3, and that was WRONG
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Right, but this was the metagame where he played this deck:
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=8100&f=EX
Teferi and Crovax would have been cold-blooded in that format.
I totally didn't see that face up/face down bull****
I should have known better. They wouldn't knowingly print a busted draw spell, not unless it's green.
Could crovax be good now? What about elesh norn? At that point should we just be playing gifts?
At least as far as modern is concerned, we're solid on draw spells. We have good cantrips with think twice and serum visions, flexible draw spells with charm, powerful draws with ancestral, and the best removal we could reasonably expect with paths and verdicts. Hell with GenitalThrust420 new hotness we even have convenient life gain now. What we need is a solid generic answer card that doesn't set us up for a major blow out like, gosh, a useful 2 CMC counterspell.
OK, can someone please explain to me what the deal is with Bant Charm in that meta? There is a Bant deck in there named after the card ("Charmed I'm Sure"), and one of the Zoo decks is splashing blue just for Bant Charm in the main and Meddling Mage sb. I don't get it -- was Thopter Depths the reason?
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
Its not a bad card, especially in a format where people played tons of cryptic commands, so paying 3 to counter something was totally fine for a lot of decks.
Yeah, Crovax and Night of Souls' Betrayal are randomly in the maindeck and sideboards of 2 of the top 8 decks. When someone runs NoSB maindeck, you know you're in a warped metagame.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
What about a pearl lake ancient, or elesh norn ? Basically just a control deck with a semi-combo finish of teferi into uncounterable fatty
But without all the deck warping that gifts requires
I've been meaning to playtest Gifts, but laziness always gets me.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
It will be wildly unplayable, as it won't be made. Escalate is only showing up in Red, Black, and White, not Blue or Green.
Well, my point was that you should win most games where you suspend Ancestral on turn 1. Thirst isn't really comparable.
What? That sucks. I was really looking forward to seeing the blue escalate.
Jeskai is a very different deck. It's much more midgame than Esper, and can't really play a "bury your opponent in card advantage" game. It also has Bolt-Snap-Bolt, which Esper doesn't. This all adds up to why Jeskai has more threats -- firstly, its removal becomes a wincon to close out the game faster. Secondly, it can't let the game go too long or it won't have enough resources to complete it. Esper, on the other hand, can play until it decks itself and still survive even after that. There is no real reason to include more threats -- they just aren't necessary, because winning is a formality with Esper. In fact, you don't really even need to win -- just Zenith every turn, never attack, and they'll eventually deck without you doing anything really.
In fact, adding more threats to Esper detracts from Esper's game plan -- the good ones typically make you tap out and they typically rot in your opening hand. The only type of "threat" I'd really consider adding in Esper is something like Clique or Venser, Shaper Savant, because they both play into Esper's gameplan and serve mainly as disruption, with the body being very secondary. Those and Elspeth, because it practically says "4WW: Win the game." against almost any deck.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
It's literally a split down the middle between midrange and a permission draw go deck. Everything but blossom and thoughtseize has flash, is disruptive, and swings
I had been testing against rogue stuff just for fun and for Fnm purposes. Anyways, now that I'm back on the tier 1-2 band wagon I just want to make a statement/ask for your experience.
Spell snare is just the nuts!
Needing a snapcaster Mage is huge, especially when some decks only source of c/a is the snapcaster Mage
Huge for tempo, huge for c/a (or anti opponent ca)
Obviously spell snare isn't rocket science, but what im saying is that I had chopped them to 3, and that was WRONG