I have a weak spot for certain walkers. If there's one on theme for my deck I will try harder to make room for it: blink, artifacts, tokens, blink, ramp, discard, blink, these are all fun to use and proactive threats. Generically 'good' walkers that are card advantage and removal stapled to a permanent never get me as much value as they would in a duel because they have to live through so many more combat steps, amplifying the entire conflict behind a planeswalker's most glaring mechanical weakness. The exception for this philosophy being Chandra, Elspeth and Ugin, whom are not particularly thematic but their board wipe potential vastly outrank things like 5 mana vindicates or 4 mana brainstorms in multiplayer.
Mercurial Pretender: Clones are always playable in MP but this one certainly isn't winning any awards for power. Sakashima the Impostor is still a thing after all and so you're not really getting your money's worth with this guy. I like that he can keep copying Titans and Primordials and whatnot but paying 9 mana for it isn't exactly cheap. Ultimately this is just another playable-yet-unexciting 5 drop that will typically play out "fine" in an average MP game.
I thought this was at the level you described as well at first, until somebody pointed out that it can only copy creatures you control and guess what, you're playing blue, you want other people's creatures. I put this in solidly unplayable.
I use Strionic Resonator in a commander deck led by Maelstrom Wanderer. What I want to know is when the last moment occurs that I am able to copy the cascade trigger. My best guess for now is that I can copy the second cascade trigger while I am resolving the first one, but once I start exiling cards for the next one I have no priority until the spell the trigger lets me cast is put onto the stack. If I wait until I see the resulting spell from the last cascade trigger, is it correct that I no longer am able to copy the ability? There are no cascade triggers on the stack when I know the spell?
Yes you can do this. Proliferation doesn't target and which counters are put on are chosen during resolution so when the triggers go to resolve the PW is already on the battlefield.
Yes, the stack as I've described would work this way, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to create this stack.
In a multiplayer game I have an Inexorable Tide on the battlefield and a Jace, Architect of Thought ready to ultimate. I activate the Jace -8 and do all of the searching, I have several cards in exile now and am ready to resolve the ability by casting the spells and putting them on the stack in an order of my choosing. I understand this part so far, but what I'd like to have happen is casting another planeswalker last, so that it resolves first, and then having as many proliferation triggers happen as possible with it in play. Am I allowed to order the triggers in such a way:
Spell 1
Proliferate
Spell 2
Proliferate
... etc
New planeswalker
Last proliferate so that new planeswalker gets every trigger except this one
I have a feeling it doesn't, because casting the cards is part of Jace's ability, and any triggers that occur as a result are actually delayed so that they all appear at once on top of the stack I created during the resolution. Am I right in this thinking or can I get what I want?
Playing Ghave, Eldrazi Monument active, people are worried, politics assembling. Opponent 1 casts Incendiary Command with the mode of wheel/clasm, opponent 2 says to instead pick the mode that removes artifacts. I let it happen, because it's a command so of course it does everything. My heart still hurts.
* Playing around with Etherium-horn sorcerer's cascade too much and not trying to like, just take over the game already. In my defense I was having a lot of fun...
I too throw away far too many wins cascading for curiosity and mana efficiency instead of using cards in my hand that are great. "Winning the game is winning the game, but the next 2 spells in my library could do anything... EVEN WIN THE GAME!"
I would almost have to post a list to really answer this question, but I like a play-multiple-lands-per-turn plus Future Sight engine to rip through the deck. I also like cards that control the top of the deck like Scroll Rack and Jace 2.0. Brainstorm and Top as well. Warstorm Surge is probably my favorite win condition.
My version of the deck also wants multiple ways to replay Wanderer even if they don't kill it like Crystal Shard and Capsize.
I'm with this guy. With how much the Wanderer spits out onto the field I made it kind of U/G devotion, red splashes for various fun dragon stompies and the Surge. It's like Timmy's dream deck.
It's a really unfair comparison to make between even extremely addictive chemical substances like caffeine or nicotine and crack cocaine, so let's not ignore addictions that happen to be less devastating. The qualification for addiction is not that it must be ruining your life, but that it continues to occur despite having any adverse impact. You don't cross some line into addiction suddenly when they take your house, you just have to recognize that you continue to take some action that is proven to cause you harm. Do you frequently lose sleep? Is it curtailing your finances? Are people becoming less social with you? Is it causing you stress related symptoms? Has anybody expressed any concern? I'd say for certain that there are people addicted to MTG, but people like the OP who have a career and are concerned that they're maintaining status quo instead of moving forward don't really qualify. If however many years from now you start a family or a business and your habits haven't changed, maybe it might start to have a real impact, but you haven't actually described anything negative happening.
More often than I should due to P.Em.S. (premature emotional scooping). From legit beats? Probably not that often. I used to run so many reactive answers that even though I'd say I've noticeably cut back people still just expect me to have them, but the power level of my finishers is always lower than other things at the table (Gisela, Kozilek, Praetors, a billion goblins) so I'm not looked at as a must-kill.
Blue promo pack rare: Mindreaver. I knew this would happen, at least I had my real packs to recover. Pyxis of Pandemonium, Fated Retribution, Silent Sentinel. Very not great. Luckily though Gift of Immortality and Shipbreaker Kraken were quality playables, if not very exciting to open.
Blue white pseudo heroic tempo deck ended up with the following, carried heavily by many quality commons and uncommons:
Retraction Helix is fantastic, truly. Inspired and Heroic enabler in one removal spell. It reset ordeal once when I didn't want 10 life, I wanted another big creature. It let me emergency scry with Omenspeaker when I only needed a white mana to be in the game.
Nyxborn Shieldmates are terrible 1 drops and 'good enough' auras. It's interesting to see the sizes of creatures out there, I found the 1 toughness was not negligible.
God-Favored General was obviously destined to do work, and it did, but Deepwater Hypnotist's inspiration is more useful than it looks at first glance - 2/1 for 2 is already an acceptable curve filler, if you get in with it early it snowballs into many blocks that just don't do anything for your opponent. Hilarious what it does against those pesky green/black deathtouch dorks.
Nullify hit a spell each time it needed to. It was a last minute addition over a Traveling Philosopher, which, while it's probably right to play in draft as a curve filler, would not have had any impact on any game I played. This is a fine counter that nobody really expected. It's been a while since you saw your opponent with 2 blue open and actually cared I guess.
I didn't get to play the Floodtide Serpent, but it was encouraging to think of bouncing my 2 cheap bestow creatures to milk more counters out of them, or send them back to my hand so they're not just chump blockers after they fall off of a good creature.
Chorus of the Tides would have been good just as a 3/2 flier, I was very happy to play it. The scry was welcome, and though it didn't compete with the Wingsteed riders when I had the choice, it was no slacker.
My Theros playables are obviously good, no comment there.
The spells played against me that I thought were worthy:
Game 1: Black/Blue got a significant amount of straight life loss cards in this set, I was surprisingly low from the Claim of Erebos, in combination with the Fate Unraveler and Servant of Tymaret, that I narrowly missed death by Grey Merchant by having Retraction Helix up to lower devotion. This opponent did not have good things to say about the promo, and neither did my friend who chose black. After game 1 they were left out of the decks.
Game 2: Green/White got a Bow of Nylea online with Archetype of Courage, which was a VERY scary concept. Luckily for me he just gained an unwise amount of life instead of beating me down. There was also an Ephara's Radiance in play at one point. Don't ask. This guy had Karametra and I didn't get to see it in action, nor the hydra promo. /shrug
Game 3: Red/Green got a Fanatic of Xenagos which beat me hard. That wasn't a very nice place to put a 4/4 as far as my curve is considered. The red promo was devastating. If it drops the next turn is almost guaranteed to be the alpha strike to end you. I didn't get to play the sphinx to compare, but I can't imagine that it wins games quite like that. Sheesh. This guy also had a Polukranos and a Xenagos (god) so I wasn't likely to beat him anyway, there's only so much tempo that can survive those beats.
1 drops for heroic have proven very good. This one is even good out on turn 6. I can't imagine what removal is really good yet, but my second choice would be Retraction Helix. Heroic enabling plus cheap removal, I think it could be excellent.
It fills a role in limited, and it allows them to NOT print divination in the next two core and next four expert sets. Going up to Draw 2 + Scry gets you Foresee, which they probably felt fights with 4 mana cards (or something). You would think there was something between Preordain, which is apparently broken, and Foresee, which is very slow. Oh right, they gave it to black. Carry on, business as usual.
The art for the sky is nice and all, but the cloth on and around the figure feels kind of tortured.
Is Thrun in as control-hosing mainboard material, just a 4 drop you felt like you were missing, or is he that much of a star with the wolf-run and blasphemous act?
I thought this was at the level you described as well at first, until somebody pointed out that it can only copy creatures you control and guess what, you're playing blue, you want other people's creatures. I put this in solidly unplayable.
Yes, the stack as I've described would work this way, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to create this stack.
Spell 1
Proliferate
Spell 2
Proliferate
... etc
New planeswalker
Last proliferate so that new planeswalker gets every trigger except this one
I have a feeling it doesn't, because casting the cards is part of Jace's ability, and any triggers that occur as a result are actually delayed so that they all appear at once on top of the stack I created during the resolution. Am I right in this thinking or can I get what I want?
I too throw away far too many wins cascading for curiosity and mana efficiency instead of using cards in my hand that are great. "Winning the game is winning the game, but the next 2 spells in my library could do anything... EVEN WIN THE GAME!"
I'm with this guy. With how much the Wanderer spits out onto the field I made it kind of U/G devotion, red splashes for various fun dragon stompies and the Surge. It's like Timmy's dream deck.
Blue white pseudo heroic tempo deck ended up with the following, carried heavily by many quality commons and uncommons:
2 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Deepwater Hypnotist
1 God-Favored General
1 Omenspeaker
1 Nimbus Nyad
2 Wingsteed Rider
1 Heliod's Emissary
1 Ephara's Warden
1 Great Hart
1 Chorus of the Tides
1 Floodtide Serpent
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
1 Arbiter of the Ideal
2 Retraction Helix
1 Nullify
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Voyages End
1 Excoriate
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Sea Gate's Oracle
8 Plains
Retraction Helix is fantastic, truly. Inspired and Heroic enabler in one removal spell. It reset ordeal once when I didn't want 10 life, I wanted another big creature. It let me emergency scry with Omenspeaker when I only needed a white mana to be in the game.
Nyxborn Shieldmates are terrible 1 drops and 'good enough' auras. It's interesting to see the sizes of creatures out there, I found the 1 toughness was not negligible.
God-Favored General was obviously destined to do work, and it did, but Deepwater Hypnotist's inspiration is more useful than it looks at first glance - 2/1 for 2 is already an acceptable curve filler, if you get in with it early it snowballs into many blocks that just don't do anything for your opponent. Hilarious what it does against those pesky green/black deathtouch dorks.
Nullify hit a spell each time it needed to. It was a last minute addition over a Traveling Philosopher, which, while it's probably right to play in draft as a curve filler, would not have had any impact on any game I played. This is a fine counter that nobody really expected. It's been a while since you saw your opponent with 2 blue open and actually cared I guess.
I didn't get to play the Floodtide Serpent, but it was encouraging to think of bouncing my 2 cheap bestow creatures to milk more counters out of them, or send them back to my hand so they're not just chump blockers after they fall off of a good creature.
Chorus of the Tides would have been good just as a 3/2 flier, I was very happy to play it. The scry was welcome, and though it didn't compete with the Wingsteed riders when I had the choice, it was no slacker.
My Theros playables are obviously good, no comment there.
The spells played against me that I thought were worthy:
Game 1: Black/Blue got a significant amount of straight life loss cards in this set, I was surprisingly low from the Claim of Erebos, in combination with the Fate Unraveler and Servant of Tymaret, that I narrowly missed death by Grey Merchant by having Retraction Helix up to lower devotion. This opponent did not have good things to say about the promo, and neither did my friend who chose black. After game 1 they were left out of the decks.
Game 2: Green/White got a Bow of Nylea online with Archetype of Courage, which was a VERY scary concept. Luckily for me he just gained an unwise amount of life instead of beating me down. There was also an Ephara's Radiance in play at one point. Don't ask. This guy had Karametra and I didn't get to see it in action, nor the hydra promo. /shrug
Game 3: Red/Green got a Fanatic of Xenagos which beat me hard. That wasn't a very nice place to put a 4/4 as far as my curve is considered. The red promo was devastating. If it drops the next turn is almost guaranteed to be the alpha strike to end you. I didn't get to play the sphinx to compare, but I can't imagine that it wins games quite like that. Sheesh. This guy also had a Polukranos and a Xenagos (god) so I wasn't likely to beat him anyway, there's only so much tempo that can survive those beats.
The art for the sky is nice and all, but the cloth on and around the figure feels kind of tortured.