Probably going to be an unpopular opinion / hot take, and obviously Mana Confluence and City of Brass are still awesome fixing cards that should be in most cubes, but I'm wondering how "uncuttable" they really are in this day and age of fetchable tri-lands like Raugrin Triome and cards like Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage and Ash Barrens.
It's not that those cards are better than Mana Confluence (and actually 3 of the 4 are probably worse in a vaccum, only Prismatic Vista may be better in a vacuum), but rather that:
1) the tri-lands have the knock-down effect of increasing the power and flexibility of fetch-lands like Polluted Delta.
2) Cards like Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage and Ash Barrens have great synergies with cards like Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Dig through Time, Treasure Cruise, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Deathrite Shaman, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Wrenn and Six, Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds. There's so many cards that either benefit from shuffle effects or feed off the graveyard.
3) Thinning your deck - the previous 3 cards plus the original fetchlands really provide a non-negligible value by removing a land you don't want to draw in the late game from your deck. This gives you more live draws and also lets you improve consistency by starting with a higher land count. If you play 18 lands and 22 cards and fetch on turn 1 on the draw for example, you on average have 14.4 lands left in your deck (out of 32), or 45% of your deck. A single fetch reduces that to 13.4 lands out of 31 cards, or 43%. If you draw 10 more cards through the rest of the game, you are going to draw an extra 0.18 relevant non-land cards. Nothing ground breaking, but marginal card advantage basically for free stapled onto an already great card should not be ignored. Obviously blue based control decks with lots of draw effects should gain the most from this - it's easy for those decks to draw 20 cards over the course of a game and they also tend to have shuffle effects. Anything you can do to recur the land and fetch again will just increase the thinning value you are getting from a single card.
City of Brass and Prismatic Vista, while great cards, really don't have these types of synergies and side benefits that other fixing lands (especially the fetches) do. For me, they seem like bubble cards at 360 (50/50% if you should play, depending on what you are trying to support), although they still should be in almost every 450+ list and likely staples at 540 and above for a long time to come.
In the instances where we run no sideboard events, the unused cards go back into the cube box, mainly for security reasons. It prevents the players from having to keep track of multiple piles of cards and prevents cards from getting lost, misplaced or ignored. So our events like that don't physically have sideboards for players to interact with. So banning "outside the game" cards is something I've been considering for a while. But, as I said, I haven't had a need to pull the trigger on that change until now. It fixes a few small things, but the main one was the companion mechanic.
If companion gets errated into a more fair state (e.g. have to take a mulligan when declaring a companion) do you think you'll consider adding companions back?
Balance concerns aside, the deckbuilding restrictions add another level to the draft.
I'm seeing an increase in green splashes for sideboard Oko, Thief of Crowns; he's both an alt win con and anti-hate, which puts him in a good position. For that reason, I support renaming this as plain old "Paradoxical Urza".
The most common win con I see in Paradoxical Urza decks nowadays is Nexus of Fate, which neither of your deck lists have and which you barely acknowledge in the primer; this has the advantage of working even if Emry mills it (which is why I cannot recommend Fae of Wishes instead in Emry decks despite loving those Fae in non-Emry decks).
Thanks for the reply! I
1) Changed the title to just Paradoxical Urza
2) Mentioned this green variant at the top under versions and mentioned it briefly under the history section
3) Added Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard planeswalker section (along with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Teferi, Time Raveler).
3) Moved Nexus of Fate up to a more prominent position in the alternative win cons.
4) I mentioned Nexus of Fate as an example of an alternative win con in step c) of the Gameplan section (how you win).
If you have a link to an example decklist that uses green that would be great!
One point quickly with regards to Nexus of Fate - while it's a fine card, I've personally found Saheeli, Sublime Artificer to be an extremely underrated win-con, as animating a random artifact into a 30/30 hasty Karnstruct works pretty well and she serves as both engine and win-con in much the same way Urza does.
Also, I would imagine in the Jeskai list where you still have the Urza/Saheeli win con plus the extra Jeskai Ascendancy win con, Nexus of Fate would be a bit overkill.
Urza Ascendancy / Paradoxical Urza is a blue based artifact deck that uses card advantage and fast mana to develop an unbeatable board state.
What distinguishes Paradoxical Urza from the Whirza archtype is that the Thopter-Sword combo (and the associated cards like Whir of Invention and Goblin Engineer) is abandoned in exchange for Paradoxical Outcome and far more cheap 0 mana artifacts, which combine wonderfully with the other lynchpin of the deck, Urza, Lord High Artificer.
With the release of Throne of Eldraine, the deck got significantly stronger due to the addition of Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Emry will typically only cost 1 mana, and along with the other legends the deck runs it makes Mox Amber significantly stronger. Running both Mox Opal and Mox Amber enables the deck to be extremely explosive, as both fit in with the Paradoxical Outcome plan perfectly. Furthermore, in the Jeskai variant, Emry goes infinite with Jeskai Ascendancy very easily - all you need is a Mishra's Bauble, Welding Jar, Tormod's Crypt or two Mox Amber or Mox Opals across the play and graveyard zones. Even without Emry, Jeskai Ascendancy works extremely well with Urza or Outcome and a bunch of cheap artifacts.
As of late Oct 2019, the Ascendancy variant of the deck has been become more common than the original Esper variant known as Paradoxical Urza.. Many of these variants are now splashing green, mainly for Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard.
Core Artifacts
These are usually all 4-ofs, except Mox Amber which is typically a 2-4 of.
Engine
These are the core engine pieces that make the deck hum - you typically play 3-4 of Urza, Outcome, Emry and Ascendancy (if you're running it) while Saheeli and Sai are typically 1-3 ofs.
Flex Spots
A variety of cards are used to fill up the remaining slots - usually you play a 1-3 of these and play 1-3 of each.
Alternative Win Conditions
These cards are typically a 1-of in the main deck and you typically only play 1 of them.
The Remands feel very lackluster in current Modern.
I also dislike Narset in your shell. I would play Teferi and another cantrip. Saheeli in three copies has been perfect for me. If you run Stoneforge/Batterkull (expecially) it's way better to max out on one cc removals instead of Helixes/Abrade.
EDIT:
I'll give you the list I would play *with* Stoneforge Mystic in the deck.
Though, Astrolabe is too good to omit. And I'm worried about the blue count. Mmm.
With so many good 1 cc spells, why not play Dreadhorde Arcanist? It's the centerpiece of the top control deck in Vintage with a similar number of 1cc spells.
Turn 1 - mox emerald, Mishra’s workshop - lodestone golem
Turn 2 - forest, the great Henge -> 3 drop artifact creature
Hey, it could happen!!
I think you've pretty much won after turn 1 when you workshop into a turn one Lodestone Golem and the Great Henge here is just win more. Just replace the turn 2 great henge with the less situational and colorless Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal and I'm pretty sure you also lock up the game with cards that can go into every deck and have worst case scenario costs that are half that of the Great Henge. This means there are definitely scenarios where Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are castable but Great Henge is not.
Having a great best case scenario and bad worst case scenario like Great Henge is a hallmark of win-more types of cards, and it's a big reason why value engines like Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are much less win-more and help you in a greater percentage of scenarios.
Whoa, whoa. Your cuts all made sense until this one.
Cutting Coalition Relic? That card has been a stone cold staple for us. When you drop it turn 3 it ramps you up to 6 mana turn 4. The charge counter capability is really something special.
Why is everyone cutting terramorphic expanse/evolving wilds for fabled passage? They're all such great lands in cube, just cut an artifact instead. Don't cut Coalition relic either though lol, something clunky like Lodestone Golem, a Talisman, or even that seventh sword. I think I'm cutting Blast zone for it, as that has only ever been used in UW control, and that's just too narrow for me.
I 100% don't want to cut another land for Fabled Passage - I'm intending to get it into cube to help with fixing. Admittedly, removing Coalition Relic also doesn't help with this goal.
I'm only running 5 Swords (I cut B&M and W&P when I added the MH1 Swords), so don't want to trim one, and categorize Talismans as guild cards, so they can't be cut for the new card.
Lodestone Golem is the other card that I was considering axing for Fabled Passage, though. I'll try out both cuts.
I also want to try out Gilded Goose, but haven't figured out the right cut for it yet, so it may stay out for now.
That makes sense ... if you want to cut an artifact for Fabled Passage, from looking at your cube I would recommend cutting Karn, Silver Golem, Chromatic Lantern or Hedron Archive instead of Colalition Relic but your milaage may vary so cut whatever you think is best.
It's a toolbox hatebear that suffers from missing the 2nd point of attack - I can see it as a 1 of sideboard card in Survival of the Fittest decks in Eternal formats (it's almost certainly not good enough to main deck in survival as there are much better hatebears) but not cube.
2. Ranger Captain > Mirran Crusader > Marshal > Executioner
3. Leonin >Gisela, but not by much
EDIT: Oh, it's because it says cast, not play. Good catch, thanks
It's not that those cards are better than Mana Confluence (and actually 3 of the 4 are probably worse in a vaccum, only Prismatic Vista may be better in a vacuum), but rather that:
1) the tri-lands have the knock-down effect of increasing the power and flexibility of fetch-lands like Polluted Delta.
2) Cards like Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage and Ash Barrens have great synergies with cards like Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Dig through Time, Treasure Cruise, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Deathrite Shaman, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Wrenn and Six, Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds. There's so many cards that either benefit from shuffle effects or feed off the graveyard.
3) Thinning your deck - the previous 3 cards plus the original fetchlands really provide a non-negligible value by removing a land you don't want to draw in the late game from your deck. This gives you more live draws and also lets you improve consistency by starting with a higher land count. If you play 18 lands and 22 cards and fetch on turn 1 on the draw for example, you on average have 14.4 lands left in your deck (out of 32), or 45% of your deck. A single fetch reduces that to 13.4 lands out of 31 cards, or 43%. If you draw 10 more cards through the rest of the game, you are going to draw an extra 0.18 relevant non-land cards. Nothing ground breaking, but marginal card advantage basically for free stapled onto an already great card should not be ignored. Obviously blue based control decks with lots of draw effects should gain the most from this - it's easy for those decks to draw 20 cards over the course of a game and they also tend to have shuffle effects. Anything you can do to recur the land and fetch again will just increase the thinning value you are getting from a single card.
City of Brass and Prismatic Vista, while great cards, really don't have these types of synergies and side benefits that other fixing lands (especially the fetches) do. For me, they seem like bubble cards at 360 (50/50% if you should play, depending on what you are trying to support), although they still should be in almost every 450+ list and likely staples at 540 and above for a long time to come.
If companion gets errated into a more fair state (e.g. have to take a mulligan when declaring a companion) do you think you'll consider adding companions back?
Balance concerns aside, the deckbuilding restrictions add another level to the draft.
Thanks for the reply! I
1) Changed the title to just Paradoxical Urza
2) Mentioned this green variant at the top under versions and mentioned it briefly under the history section
3) Added Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard planeswalker section (along with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Teferi, Time Raveler).
3) Moved Nexus of Fate up to a more prominent position in the alternative win cons.
4) I mentioned Nexus of Fate as an example of an alternative win con in step c) of the Gameplan section (how you win).
If you have a link to an example decklist that uses green that would be great!
One point quickly with regards to Nexus of Fate - while it's a fine card, I've personally found Saheeli, Sublime Artificer to be an extremely underrated win-con, as animating a random artifact into a 30/30 hasty Karnstruct works pretty well and she serves as both engine and win-con in much the same way Urza does.
Also, I would imagine in the Jeskai list where you still have the Urza/Saheeli win con plus the extra Jeskai Ascendancy win con, Nexus of Fate would be a bit overkill.
What distinguishes Paradoxical Urza from the Whirza archtype is that the Thopter-Sword combo (and the associated cards like Whir of Invention and Goblin Engineer) is abandoned in exchange for Paradoxical Outcome and far more cheap 0 mana artifacts, which combine wonderfully with the other lynchpin of the deck, Urza, Lord High Artificer.
There are at least three version of the deck:
However, the core engine and cards are the same all versions of the deck
1) An Esper variant with many example decklists variable here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-paradoxical-urza-101142
2) A more Jeskai variant that abuses Jeskai Ascendancy and Emry, Lurker of the Loch with many example decklists available here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-urza-ascendancy#paper
3) Some versions are starting to splash green for Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard.
History of Paradoxical Urza
The first variant of the deck to start posting competitive results is the Esper variant that is almost monoblue and generally does not run any black cards in the maindeck, with a tiny while splash for Teferi, Time Raveler. However, black cards such as Fatal Push,Thoughtseize and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas feature prominently in the sideboard. This deck starting posting strong online results in September 2019, almost three months after Modern Horizons released the key card for the deck, Urza, Lord High Artificer. A couple lists that posted strong early results include:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2284321#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2297849#paper
With the release of Throne of Eldraine, the deck got significantly stronger due to the addition of Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Emry will typically only cost 1 mana, and along with the other legends the deck runs it makes Mox Amber significantly stronger. Running both Mox Opal and Mox Amber enables the deck to be extremely explosive, as both fit in with the Paradoxical Outcome plan perfectly. Furthermore, in the Jeskai variant, Emry goes infinite with Jeskai Ascendancy very easily - all you need is a Mishra's Bauble, Welding Jar, Tormod's Crypt or two Mox Amber or Mox Opals across the play and graveyard zones. Even without Emry, Jeskai Ascendancy works extremely well with Urza or Outcome and a bunch of cheap artifacts.
A couple successful examples of the Ascendancy based decks include:
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/133703
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/133701
The remainder of the deck tends to consist of powerful value engines such as Sai, Master Thopterist and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer along with cantrip cards like Arcum's Astrolabe, Serum Visions and Wishing Well. Everflowing Chalice and Engineered Explosives are also key 0 mana artifacts, the later of which gives the deck some control game as well, and works particularly well given that the deck runs almost no zero or one drops. The Jeskai variant, of course, also runs Jeskai Ascendency as a maindeck card.
As of late Oct 2019, the Ascendancy variant of the deck has been become more common than the original Esper variant known as Paradoxical Urza.. Many of these variants are now splashing green, mainly for Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sideboard.
The Decks
Here's a few example decklists that illustrate some different variants of the deck.
Many other lists can be found at https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-paradoxical-urza-101142.
4 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
Creatures
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
4 Engineered Explosives
1 Everflowing Chalice
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Witching Well
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
2 Mirrodin Besieged
4 Paradoxical Outcome
3 Mox Amber
4 Mox Opal
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Galvanic Blast
3 Mystical Dispute
1 Weather the Storm
3 Oko, Thief of Crowns
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
3 Mox Amber
4 Engineered Explosives
3 Serum Visions
1 Pithing Needle
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
1 Ichor Wellspring
4 Paradoxical Outcome
Creature
3 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
Land
1 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Prismatic Vista
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Fatal Push
2 Thoughtseize
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Spell Pierce
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Collective Brutality
1 Dampening Sphere
1 Defense Grid
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Dead of Winter
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
4 Mox Amber
4 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
4 Paradoxical Outcome
Enchantment
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
Creature
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
Land
1 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Prismatic Vista
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
3 Path to Exile
2 Galvanic Blast
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pithing Needle
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dampening Sphere
1 Defense Grid
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
The Gameplan
A) Dump your handle and ideally play an Emry, Lurker of the Loch as soon as possible, e.g. turn 1.
B) Use your fast mana to ramp into either Urza, Lord High Artificer, Paradoxical Outcome or Jeskai Ascendancy and combo off from there to gain absurd card advantage
C) At this point, there are a multiple of options on how to finish of the game. You could use any of the "Alternate Win Cons" mentioned below (like Nexus of Fate and attack for the win), just naturally wait a turn and attack with a giant army of tokens and huge Karnstructs, or use Saheeli, Sublime Artificer to turn any artifact that doesn't have summoning sickness into a hasty Karnstruct. Alternatively, in the Jeskai version, Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Jeskai Ascendancy combos off with any of Mishra's Bauble, Welding Jar, Tormod's Crypt, or two of Mox Opal or Mox Amber across the play and graveyard zones.
Core Artifacts
These are usually all 4-ofs, except Mox Amber which is typically a 2-4 of.
Engine
These are the core engine pieces that make the deck hum - you typically play 3-4 of Urza, Outcome, Emry and Ascendancy (if you're running it) while Saheeli and Sai are typically 1-3 ofs.
Flex Spots
A variety of cards are used to fill up the remaining slots - usually you play a 1-3 of these and play 1-3 of each.
Alternative Win Conditions
These cards are typically a 1-of in the main deck and you typically only play 1 of them.
Fringe Cards
These cards rarely show up in lists.
Sideboard
Assuming free snow basics.
I think it's better than City of Brass. Remember with Garruk it's 3 mana, nice little bonus.
With so many good 1 cc spells, why not play Dreadhorde Arcanist? It's the centerpiece of the top control deck in Vintage with a similar number of 1cc spells.
All close but for me:
1) Memory Lapse
2) Daze
3) Condescend
4) Force Spike
5) Arcane Denial
I think you've pretty much won after turn 1 when you workshop into a turn one Lodestone Golem and the Great Henge here is just win more. Just replace the turn 2 great henge with the less situational and colorless Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal and I'm pretty sure you also lock up the game with cards that can go into every deck and have worst case scenario costs that are half that of the Great Henge. This means there are definitely scenarios where Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are castable but Great Henge is not.
Having a great best case scenario and bad worst case scenario like Great Henge is a hallmark of win-more types of cards, and it's a big reason why value engines like Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are much less win-more and help you in a greater percentage of scenarios.
That makes sense ... if you want to cut an artifact for Fabled Passage, from looking at your cube I would recommend cutting Karn, Silver Golem, Chromatic Lantern or Hedron Archive instead of Colalition Relic but your milaage may vary so cut whatever you think is best.