I quote:
You don't think a fair deck would want to cast 4+ drops on turn 1? You can't see how a ramp deck would want to put that Oracle of Mul Daya into play immediately? Turn 1 Grave Pact? Turn 1 Humility? Turn 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge? Like... I dunno... I don't see how you can play with the card and make these kinds of claims.
Well the problem is how you define "fair" because any rule set that allows the use of lotus is also allowing everything else. You seem to be implying that people are going to play Lotus in some derp-like fashion to drop a Sengir Vampire or something, but that is not my experience (my playgroup generally all has power since we've been playing since the 1990s). It's not that any 1 particular card is necessarily problematic, its the synergies between cards. So if you're playing lotus that's going to open the door to ridiculous "broken" vintage lines of play. We can't really have a casual multiplayer environment when we're seeing round 1 emrakuls with force of will backup, can we? Or Tinker-Blightsteel or Timevault + Voltaic Key? And, frankly, I don't want to play against Lotus + DerpCards either. I want to play against innovative, interactive decks to the extent that's possible. To some extent you can't solve these problems with house rules and you need to have people apply common sense of whether the deck they are bringing to the table is suitable for an interactive social game.
I don't think lotus belongs in a multiplayer deck, period. Any deck that can get the full use out of lotus isn't interactive, which is what MP is all about.
Why oh why do people keep posting decks that are so noncompetitive? Copper Tablet? For heaven's sake... this deck does nothing. It would get curb stomped by the most basic creature deck. More importantly - it's just not interesting or interactive in any way. With 20,000 cards to work with, can't you come up with something a bit more clever?
In my view, the most significant new card is young pyromancer. He has had a huge impact on vintage decks, and I think his token-spawning ability will have a big effect on multiplayer too. These tokens give you easy means to pay sacrificial costs such as those of diabolic intent and have nice synergies with cards such as master of waves and Purphoros, God of the Forge. Purphoros turns YP into a Guttersnipe!
Goblin Welder and Sneak Attack are also auto-includes in any list for me because they cheaply cheat things into play.
Lightning Bolt also has to be on any serious list of red's best spells.
And I will say that Wild Research and Gamble also must be on this list as powerful tutors in red. Just pairing them with a simple Library of Leng and your opponents will be feeling a lot of pain!
I think you should find other choices to replace Fathom Mage, Ghave Guru of Spores and Etherium Horn Sorceror. These 3 guys are going to really tax your mana and aren't going to give you a lot in exchange. I've always been partial to the Dimir Guildmage as an early blocker that yields card advantage later.
Maybe you can find some other creatures with useful abilities and consider a singleton training grounds to support them.
I agree with the jist of your comment, and I'm just pointing out that a well-designed deck can protect a normally fragile card that has a strong effect, such as energy field.
In this case, Wild Research can pull a counterspell out of the deck whenever you've got the mana free, and it then goes back into the deck for reuse via Wheel of Sun and Moon. Wild Research is a very strong tutor as it pulls out the combo elements for your defense, protects it with counterspells, and then finds your win condition (fault line or something similar).
This is the same problem that Energy Field has for example. You play that card and your opponent Duresses you. What are you going to do? Counter it? Cause, oh wait, yeah, that puts a card in your GY too ;~;. The effect seems powerful but in practice you can't actually protect these kinds of cards without rending their effect worthless.
I'm working on a deck that uses Sterling Grove to tutor Omniscience onto the top of the deck and then cheating it into play with Djinn of Wishes. Pretty easy to do and after that the sky's the limit!
Djinn of Wishes cheating topdeck things into play
Killing people with Tunnel Vision
Sphinx-Bone wand with buyback spells, Talrand, etc.
Ula's temple deck with Krakens
Sphinx Deck
I think it is important to inform the community that a statement by Wizards of the Coast that something infringes their copyright(s) is a statement of OPINION by Wizards of the Coast.
Altering the images on lawfully obtained cards has, to my knowledge, never been declared illegal in a court of law by a U.S. Judge. Indeed, a
good faith argument could be advanced that such alters constitute "fair use" under copyright law and are entirely lawful.
Further, in the event that a U.S. court did at some future point actually issue an opinion that alterations constitute infringement under US copyright law, this does not mean that such activity would be unlawful in all non-US jurisdictions. Indeed, there are international jurisdictions that do not recognize the validity of copyright law.
Well the problem is how you define "fair" because any rule set that allows the use of lotus is also allowing everything else. You seem to be implying that people are going to play Lotus in some derp-like fashion to drop a Sengir Vampire or something, but that is not my experience (my playgroup generally all has power since we've been playing since the 1990s). It's not that any 1 particular card is necessarily problematic, its the synergies between cards. So if you're playing lotus that's going to open the door to ridiculous "broken" vintage lines of play. We can't really have a casual multiplayer environment when we're seeing round 1 emrakuls with force of will backup, can we? Or Tinker-Blightsteel or Timevault + Voltaic Key? And, frankly, I don't want to play against Lotus + DerpCards either. I want to play against innovative, interactive decks to the extent that's possible. To some extent you can't solve these problems with house rules and you need to have people apply common sense of whether the deck they are bringing to the table is suitable for an interactive social game.
Reality Acid, Notion Thief and card draw like Prosperity
Goblin Welder and Sneak Attack are also auto-includes in any list for me because they cheaply cheat things into play.
Pyrohemia is very underrated, and I think Charm-Breaker Devils and Figure of Destiny both deserve spots on this list along with dragonmaster outcast, boros reckoner and taurean mauler.
Lightning Bolt also has to be on any serious list of red's best spells.
And I will say that Wild Research and Gamble also must be on this list as powerful tutors in red. Just pairing them with a simple Library of Leng and your opponents will be feeling a lot of pain!
Maybe you can find some other creatures with useful abilities and consider a singleton training grounds to support them.
I saw CZ's answer and it was good, but I still prefer my answer: because it is green!
In this case, Wild Research can pull a counterspell out of the deck whenever you've got the mana free, and it then goes back into the deck for reuse via Wheel of Sun and Moon. Wild Research is a very strong tutor as it pulls out the combo elements for your defense, protects it with counterspells, and then finds your win condition (fault line or something similar).
I protect Energy Field all the time using Wheel of Sun and Moon and Privileged Position. It works very well, and makes Energy Field completely broken. I use this in my Wild Research deck and it just brutalizes people.
Djinn of Wishes cheating topdeck things into play
Killing people with Tunnel Vision
Sphinx-Bone wand with buyback spells, Talrand, etc.
Ula's temple deck with Krakens
Sphinx Deck
Altering the images on lawfully obtained cards has, to my knowledge, never been declared illegal in a court of law by a U.S. Judge. Indeed, a
good faith argument could be advanced that such alters constitute "fair use" under copyright law and are entirely lawful.
Further, in the event that a U.S. court did at some future point actually issue an opinion that alterations constitute infringement under US copyright law, this does not mean that such activity would be unlawful in all non-US jurisdictions. Indeed, there are international jurisdictions that do not recognize the validity of copyright law.