Muse Vortex and Elementalist's Palette are both just silly in Mizzix X-spell decks.
The Vortex is a weird Stroke of Genius that still lets you play a massive x-spell for free.
"Cast for x=12, Blaze you for 12, and put 7 more burn spells into my hand. Your go!"
If you really wanna do that, then just play Epic Experiment that is 100x more efficent, not a much weaker and watered down version lol.
Also, you totally misread the card. Vortex do nothing for X-costed spells because you cast it without paying the mana cost, which means you can't choose any value for X, and that will always be zero in those cases.
Same issue with Epic Experiment, but at least the last one is exciting for real if you wanna just chain in the same turn non-x burn spells (or other insane stuff like extra turns, storm spells etc).
Muse Vortex lets you put the non-casted cards in hand, which is friendlier to X-spells than just casting them for free. If you play a lot of X-spells in your deck, Epic Experiment might end up being less effective.
He said that he could use Blaze for 12 while casting Vortex and I replied that thats the wrong use of the card and that Epic does the same job but better.
None of the cards are friendly to X spells. If your deck is full of X-spells both Vortex and Epic are inefficent options for you. At this point even any "draw X cards" is better.
I'll admit to misreading the card, but this IS still slightly more efficient than you might think. It won't let you deal play an x-spell with the primary effect, very true, but playing a non x-spell for free and then loading up a decent amount of additional x-spells into your hand isn't bad at all.
I'd say that it's definitely better than Epic Experiment in an x-spell deck. Whether or not it's better than something like Stroke of Genius is debatable. Stroke could just as likely draw you a bunch of lands as useful spells, but this is almost guaranteed to draw at least SOME gas for you.
Lots of good stuff here, but I have to say the Archaeomancer's Map jumped out at me. Less broken Burgeoning is a great tool for white - somewhere between keeping up with the ramp players and actively ramping yourself, while feeling totally in White!
long story short it’s not based in Harry Potter or any other magic school theme in anything
This will be 100% unqiue outside anything even tolarian academy
(Fun fact are tolarian academy was born before Harry Potter)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, published in 1997
Urza's Saga (not sure if that was the first time Tolarian Academy was mentioned though) was released in 1998
Even if you take into account that the design took place one year before, at best, they were invented at the same time. But considering that Rowling came up with the story before it was officially published...Looks like Potter WAS before Tolarian
Edit: The first time the players heard of Tolarian was in 1998, so Potter precedes. But perhaps you're tacit to additional facts I missed?
As far as I can tell, the first mention of Tolaria at all would have been in Legends, but in the storyline the Academy first appeared in the Weatherlight set (where the crew picked up Hanna and Ertai before heading to Rath). As luck would have it, the Weatherlight set released on June 9th, 1997, while the first UK publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is actually, June 26th, 1997.
So, while we never saw it mentioned specifically on a Card until Urza's Saga in 1998, the Tolarian Academy in the MTG storyline ACTUALLY predates Harry Potter by 25 days, and the Island itself by a bit longer.
Honestly, I really love this design in a control deck. Drop her on turn three as a blocker for any early weenies, and if she's not immediately needed to keep the board stabilized, exile her and let her sit back for a few turns. Once control is established and you get more into the late game, she comes back in FOR FREE as a beefier finisher that restocks your hand. The lack of evasion does hurt a little, but this is a very solid, very cool design.
I'll admit to misreading the card, but this IS still slightly more efficient than you might think. It won't let you deal play an x-spell with the primary effect, very true, but playing a non x-spell for free and then loading up a decent amount of additional x-spells into your hand isn't bad at all.
I'd say that it's definitely better than Epic Experiment in an x-spell deck. Whether or not it's better than something like Stroke of Genius is debatable. Stroke could just as likely draw you a bunch of lands as useful spells, but this is almost guaranteed to draw at least SOME gas for you.
The Vortex is a weird Stroke of Genius that still lets you play a massive x-spell for free.
"Cast for x=12, Blaze you for 12, and put 7 more burn spells into my hand. Your go!"
As someone who loved playing the original, im incredibly pleased by this.
I still really want it to be Radiate, just for the lulz.
I run Mortify over Anguished Unmaking because Mortify isnt 10 bucks a pop, tbh.
As far as I can tell, the first mention of Tolaria at all would have been in Legends, but in the storyline the Academy first appeared in the Weatherlight set (where the crew picked up Hanna and Ertai before heading to Rath). As luck would have it, the Weatherlight set released on June 9th, 1997, while the first UK publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is actually, June 26th, 1997.
So, while we never saw it mentioned specifically on a Card until Urza's Saga in 1998, the Tolarian Academy in the MTG storyline ACTUALLY predates Harry Potter by 25 days, and the Island itself by a bit longer.
*retreats into nerd cave*