I'm surprised there was no thread for this card. It's not in the set, and is the Buy-a-Box promo, however it's unlike any Time Walk variant we have seen before. Seven mana for a Time Walk effect is way too expensive in general, but I don't think this card is going to play like that. Given the instant-speed nature of the card, when you cast this on your opponent's end step it facilitates two turns with all of your mana. Time Warp is on the mediocre end because you have to use most of your mana on one of these turns. In a control deck you can keep up interaction, and if you deem it unnecessary to respond, you can immediately take two turns. That's incredibly powerful.
And that's not even where the potential ends. Given the shuffle-back clause, building a deck capable of chaining this due to tutors, or even a card like Dack Fayden seems plausible. It might turn out to be too clunky, but I think it deserves some testing. What do you think?
I want to Necro this thread. After having Nexus in my cube for 6 months now, I have to say that it is NOWHERE close to getting cut. If you never tested this card, I think you should reconsider. Here's a quick list of interactions/things you can do with Nexus:
Treat it as a combo with Oath of Druids. We've had two control decks over here that played very minimal creatures and had Oath as a mill the whole deck to take infinite turns win condition. Creatures like Venser that can bounce themselves were fantastic too.
Control decks that focus on card advantage have loved the card. Mana rocks followed by card draw like Fact or Fiction means you can easily set up a turn where you hold up interaction, and if you don't need to interact, you Nexus and take two turns in a row. Having all of your mana for two turns is nothing to scoff at, and you often pull too far ahead to lose.
Some decks churn through their library at an unbelievable rate thanks to cards like Dack Fayden, Looters, Search for Azcanta, and the like. When you put Nexus in these decks, it puts the ball in your opponents court. They can't hope to grind you out and need to find a way to win. And often these decks are best at not losing. Usually they win with some big threat like Inferno Titan, but we've found Nexus as such a resillient win-condition that snowballs once you get a window to cast it the first time. God forbid you have any tutors.
I think the majority of this community really missed the ball on how easy it is to find your Nexus once you cast it the first time thanks to 40-card decks to start. The play pattern that made me raise an eye-brow was out of a UR control deck. The pilot cast nexus on Endstep. Untapped, played Chandra Flamecaller, and immediately zeroed the card. Took another turn, and 0'd to find nexus, and from there it was easy to facilitate infinite turns.
Has anybody else here tried the card? Did you have the same success I did with it? Maybe it failed for your group and I would love to hear why. But over here, it's played often, and really shines!
I want to Necro this thread. After having Nexus in my cube for 6 months now, I have to say that it is NOWHERE close to getting cut. If you never tested this card, I think you should reconsider. Here's a quick list of interactions/things you can do with Nexus:
Treat it as a combo with Oath of Druids. We've had two control decks over here that played very minimal creatures and had Oath as a mill the whole deck to take infinite turns win condition. Creatures like Venser that can bounce themselves were fantastic too.
Control decks that focus on card advantage have loved the card. Mana rocks followed by card draw like Fact or Fiction means you can easily set up a turn where you hold up interaction, and if you don't need to interact, you Nexus and take two turns in a row. Having all of your mana for two turns is nothing to scoff at, and you often pull too far ahead to lose.
Some decks churn through their library at an unbelievable rate thanks to cards like Dack Fayden, Looters, Search for Azcanta, and the like. When you put Nexus in these decks, it puts the ball in your opponents court. They can't hope to grind you out and need to find a way to win. And often these decks are best at not losing. Usually they win with some big threat like Inferno Titan, but we've found Nexus as such a resillient win-condition that snowballs once you get a window to cast it the first time. God forbid you have any tutors.
I think the majority of this community really missed the ball on how easy it is to find your Nexus once you cast it the first time thanks to 40-card decks to start. The play pattern that made me raise an eye-brow was out of a UR control deck. The pilot cast nexus on Endstep. Untapped, played Chandra Flamecaller, and immediately zeroed the card. Took another turn, and 0'd to find nexus, and from there it was easy to facilitate infinite turns.
Has anybody else here tried the card? Did you have the same success I did with it? Maybe it failed for your group and I would love to hear why. But over here, it's played often, and really shines!
I tested it for a couple months and it felt playable, yet mediocore. I felt the same about the card in the MTGO vintage cube. However, the sample was small enough that I'm not 100% convinced it doesn't deserve a slot.
There were decks that wanted it , and in those decks it was pretty good, but still nothing special. Control decks that churn through their deck fast, risk losing to decking and preferably having an instant speed tutor like Mystical or Vampiric were the decks that wanted Nexus the most.
Shoved into a random control deck, it felt mediocore at best... Ramp decks prefer a more traditional win condition that could be turboed out via mana rocks, and stabilize the battlefield... Hence, it felt narrow.
There's a plethora of very good 6+ drops printed throughout magic history, so decks rarely lack win conditions. In decks where the card shines, 7 mana is still a lot.
Against agro it's basically a dead card, and 7 mana spells are always susceptible to soft counter magic, even if they are instant speed.
A few members of my playgroup are obsessed with the card and nag me about it, so given you posted this, I'll probably give it another run for more testing.
The playgroup member who has played standard turbo fog since the deck was even a thing, including playing it at the mythic championship, is convinced the card isn't good in cube, so that also biases my thinking.
"There were decks that wanted it , and in those decks it was pretty good, but still nothing special. Control decks that churn through their deck fast, risk losing to decking and preferably having an instant speed tutor like Mystical or Vampiric were the decks that wanted Nexus the most."
I think this describes precisely 0 decks over the life of my cube lol.
One of the awesome things about cube is how many archetypes exist. Since we all cube with different people, different decks come up. I know that at least every other session there's a person here with a deck that churns all the way through and plays very few win conditions. Surprised that hasn't come up at all for you, since looking at your list it's certainly supported, but depends entirely on the players.
I will say that my group, including myself, seems to like the card more than most, which is likely biasing the results. When Nexus is just another piece of top-end, then it's nothing special. But when simply including the card in your deck enables you to attack on a different axis, that's something I find exciting that seems to happen a lot in my group. It's similar to the Clear the Mind decks in the current limited format in the fact that it makes your opponent need to find the way to win the game, and quick. Here's an example of one of these decks from my CubeTutor: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/1017872 (never made cuts fwiw)
Oh, I wasn't trying to say no one should run it. Just that that's why I don't run it. Cube is all about having fun, so if your group likes a card, run it! God knows I run cards that are worse than cards I'm not running because they are a fun and unique effect.
It's just that I don't think I've seen a deck in our cube that really wants Nexus, and no one in the playgroup is pushing for the card, so we haven't tested it.
I'm wondering if anyone has any interesting Nexus of Fate stories? I'm considering swapping the Jace, Welder of Mysteries for a Nexus of Fate (Forbidden Combo)
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I'm surprised there was no thread for this card. It's not in the set, and is the Buy-a-Box promo, however it's unlike any Time Walk variant we have seen before. Seven mana for a Time Walk effect is way too expensive in general, but I don't think this card is going to play like that. Given the instant-speed nature of the card, when you cast this on your opponent's end step it facilitates two turns with all of your mana. Time Warp is on the mediocre end because you have to use most of your mana on one of these turns. In a control deck you can keep up interaction, and if you deem it unnecessary to respond, you can immediately take two turns. That's incredibly powerful.
And that's not even where the potential ends. Given the shuffle-back clause, building a deck capable of chaining this due to tutors, or even a card like Dack Fayden seems plausible. It might turn out to be too clunky, but I think it deserves some testing. What do you think?
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Would not consider at 3000+.
I think the majority of this community really missed the ball on how easy it is to find your Nexus once you cast it the first time thanks to 40-card decks to start. The play pattern that made me raise an eye-brow was out of a UR control deck. The pilot cast nexus on Endstep. Untapped, played Chandra Flamecaller, and immediately zeroed the card. Took another turn, and 0'd to find nexus, and from there it was easy to facilitate infinite turns.
Has anybody else here tried the card? Did you have the same success I did with it? Maybe it failed for your group and I would love to hear why. But over here, it's played often, and really shines!
Social Media: Twitter, Twitch
MTG Articles: 200+ Articles on StarCityGames.com, MTG Draft AI Article
MTG AI Code: Limited Draft Bot, CubeCobra Recommender System
I tested it for a couple months and it felt playable, yet mediocore. I felt the same about the card in the MTGO vintage cube. However, the sample was small enough that I'm not 100% convinced it doesn't deserve a slot.
There were decks that wanted it , and in those decks it was pretty good, but still nothing special. Control decks that churn through their deck fast, risk losing to decking and preferably having an instant speed tutor like Mystical or Vampiric were the decks that wanted Nexus the most.
Shoved into a random control deck, it felt mediocore at best... Ramp decks prefer a more traditional win condition that could be turboed out via mana rocks, and stabilize the battlefield... Hence, it felt narrow.
There's a plethora of very good 6+ drops printed throughout magic history, so decks rarely lack win conditions. In decks where the card shines, 7 mana is still a lot.
Against agro it's basically a dead card, and 7 mana spells are always susceptible to soft counter magic, even if they are instant speed.
A few members of my playgroup are obsessed with the card and nag me about it, so given you posted this, I'll probably give it another run for more testing.
The playgroup member who has played standard turbo fog since the deck was even a thing, including playing it at the mythic championship, is convinced the card isn't good in cube, so that also biases my thinking.
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I think this describes precisely 0 decks over the life of my cube lol.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I will say that my group, including myself, seems to like the card more than most, which is likely biasing the results. When Nexus is just another piece of top-end, then it's nothing special. But when simply including the card in your deck enables you to attack on a different axis, that's something I find exciting that seems to happen a lot in my group. It's similar to the Clear the Mind decks in the current limited format in the fact that it makes your opponent need to find the way to win the game, and quick. Here's an example of one of these decks from my CubeTutor: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/1017872 (never made cuts fwiw)
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It's just that I don't think I've seen a deck in our cube that really wants Nexus, and no one in the playgroup is pushing for the card, so we haven't tested it.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i