MTG Salvation

The playtest cards are silver border-worthy; they're that hilarious! Maybe that's why Unsanctioned will be mostly reprints?

For the matter, the Felidar/Leyline/Oath ban announcement is in https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/november-4-2019-pioneer-banned-announcement.

Interesting thing we learn here: Phenax used to be mortal, died, then escaped from the Underworld. It does make sense, though, since it does kinda look like he's wearing a mask (as a god)--the sign of a Returned.

On another note, Ilysia is so blatantly Elysium respelled that it hurts my eyes.

I think it's not coincidental that the experimentation involving Leyline of Abundance died with the rise of Wrenn and Six. (OK, Lava Dart and Gut Shot also killed it, but Wrenn and Six is probably keeping it down.)

It's probably a sign that Leyline of Abundance builds may still be at a disadvantage in Modern when Gilded Goose is rising in popularity. (Note that the best mana dorks that combo with the green Leyline all have 1 toughness, while Gilded Goose has 2 toughness.)

Quote from protoaddict »

Has anyone dabbled with Fires of Invention? It feels like it could be a solid enabler because it would allow you for turns where you play a fulminator, sac it, cycle a thing or 2, and then living end from hand. Im not sure it actually works with cascade thought so it may be a nonbo there, but it feels like as the game drags on you get turns where you can just play 2 spiders or whatever.

I think it's a good fit for the Kari Zev's Expertise slot, but I was mainly thinking about casting 2 fatties in a single turn and casting Living End from hand. Cascade works with Fires of Invention as long as the Cascade spell is the 1st spell you cast this turn, but that doesn't take advantage of Fires of Invention very well.

Quote from foam_dome »

Quote from Elostirion(again) »

MaRo ponders..."can I poop in a mylar baggie and expect people to buy it? I think I can..."

MaRo designs Standard sets, he doesn't sell anything

I think you missed the point. As far as I can tell, the statement Elostirion(again) made indicates that s/he thinks MaRo is lying about the product's true name.

Quote from IMorphling89 »

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.

Oliver Tomajko just Top 8'd the lastest StarCityGames Modern Open with this Emry Ascendancy Green Splash Paradoxical Urza list!


There's also this more traditional green splash Emry Ascendant list from Zan Syed--he got 10th place in the same SCG Open:


Wouldn't you need to get all the blockers out of the way for the Karnstruct (or Emry) to connect for lethal? I'm not completely confident in my ability to Engineered Explosives everything out of the way (especially without blowing up my win cons), especially if I'm not on the Emry Ascendant plan. That's why I still support the Nexus of Fate plan.

It's about time this thread got made. Heck yes!

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).

Only 16 new Un-cards? I know making silver-bordered cards is hard work (e.g. the MLP-associated card Rarity not letting you grant protection from practically everything), but dang it, Un-sets are generally associated with a lot more new cards!

Seeing as Un-cards get Oracle text, I wonder if they'll be reprinted with their new Oracle text (e.g. "Creature" instead of "Summon" for Unglued cards).

@FuneralofGod - Good news: Bonecrusher Giant's Stomp is an instant. (Still doesn't change the fact that Murderous Rider kills planeswalkers better.)

@pasngr46n2 - It's times like this that I regret not making a Paradoxical Urza thread (I believe those lists are closer in spirit to Storm-like combo decks than to Whirza, although the midrange game of the latest lists is impressively good).

Guess I'd better make a Paradoxical Urza thread soon, eh?

I don't get why the very latest Grixis lists run 3-4 Drown in the Loch myself. Might be my experience trying the card in Niv-Mizzet Reborn Midrange-Control, but I found that Drown in the Loch couldn't kill or counter enough early-game, even as a 2-of. If the answer is because those Grixis lists play 4 Thought Scour, I though we were supposed to mill ourselves with that card, not mill our opponent and improve their card selection and Goyfs.

Given the earlier promotional Hasbro MTG cards Wizards released, I was expecting to be laughing hard at My Little Pony cards. I'm surprised how little I'm laughing at these.

Where is that "cares about rarity" design space in Un-sets that Rarity is using here?!? I want more of it!

Quote from Patronmacabre »

The triggered ability on Princess Luna has the opposite of the intended effect.
Everyone: Let's have fun together!
>Transform Nightmare Moon
>Choose Blood Moon
Everyone: This is not fun at all...

Add Alpine Moon for added grief.

I tried the decklist in the OP and found it slow and clunky. Maybe it's my mulligan rate, but I had a hard time consistently casting the coloured cards, especially on curve. The mana felt worse than 4c Snowheeli, and that was the previous frontrunner for worst mana base in my experience (e.g. that deck needed Arcum's Astrolabe to mana fix all the time, and I still couldn't consistently curve into stuff like Wrenn and Six into SFM into Saheeli Rai). The lack of cantrips compared to UR Storm/Ad Nauseam and the lack of control elements compared to Whirza/Paradoxical Urza didn't help.

At this point, I think the horrific mana base required is the main obstacle to Kethis Combo's viability; I think shaving some of the legendary lands is a wise idea, especially since I often didn't need to activate Kethis that many times in order to mill myself and my opponent completely (a la Altar of Hogaak before both pieces got banned).

As an aside, I anticipate that Oko, Thief of Crowns will be a good sideboard pick; like Whirza, this deck is weak to both graveyard hate and Stony Silence effects, and Oko is an alt win con at worst and anti-hate in droves at his best.

Quote from Fullmetaltezzeret »

Anybody try out emry or witching well yet?

@the nobodys has 5-0'd a MTGO Modern League with Witching Well; ask him/her for details because I haven't tested the Well enough in Whirza.

I tried Emry in a Whirza build the nobodys and I were discussing earlier in the thread; she's better than I thought (at least with Jeskai Ascendancy) and lures removal even harder than Goblin Engineer does. Her self-mill doesn't always compensate for Goblin Engineer's artifact Entomb but gets shockingly close on average. Mishra's Bauble is her best friend. She comes down on Turn 1 at a higher than Magical Christmas Land rate. She's both part of an infinite combo and helps dig for the other one. She's actually been pretty good (even if she makes the deck weaker to graveyard hate and Stony Silence effects, especially since you want to run 4 of her).