The biggest issue I see is that Reality Shift is card disadvantage. You get rid of there good creature only to give them another, and one that could potentially much better. If I were playing with Shift I would be terrified of my opponent getting a Goyf out of the deal. Against creature heavy decks this card would be a huge liability. With removal, you always want to be trading up, and that is something I don't see Shift doing 100% of the time.
The upside to shift is getting rid of difficult stuff that blue just can't do otherwise. Pongify/hybridization leaves a 3/3 plus whatever the creature might anyway, like 2 other 3/3 wurms, or a 2/1 finks, or a voice of resurgence token. Shift answers wurmcoil, persist creatures, sundering titan as profitably as possible outside white (or perhaps unravel the aether if it's an artifact creature).
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Modern UB Tezzerator UBW Gifts B 8Rack
Legacy RB Goblins
Reality Shift does something positive (exiles instead of kills), but I see it as a powerful sideboard card - not a maindeck answer to general threats. You basically need to be getting rid of something serious to justify the 2/2 left behind.
It could lead to shenanigans insofar as targeting your own stuff but in general that angle will be too cute for Modern.
As I've said previously, you don't play reality shift hoping to kill it with a bolt later. You play reality shift combined with threats like shackles/batterskull/wurmcoil engine and go over the top. If you can accumulate VCA by making the 2/2 irrelevant it's a fine card.
What blue deck is desperate enough to run it, though? It's so easy to play multiple colors in Modern that I don't see what deck would want it. There may be some corner cases (Delver vs RG Tron or something?), but they're just that: corner cases.
Did you see the list on tcgplayer.com by Craig Wescoe with a similar build?
I didn't notice it until you pointed it out. The list here looks similar. Aether vial is an option, but I don't see yasova in there. The concept builds that list fairly naturally I suppose.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Yasova Dragonclaw actually looks reasonable in Twin Pod. Her main role is to be one heck of an answer to Linvala when combined with Birthing Pod--kidnap Linvala, swing with her, then Pod her away! Podding into Yasova greatly helps. Heck, Yasova goes berserk when you have a Pod out--you get to kill an opposing 3-/X every turn and turn it into a better creature! When you can't put Pod and Yasova together, she can at least kidnap Linvala long enough for you to combo off. Her cons compared to Sower of Temptation and Fiend Hunter are that she can't kidnap 4+/X's unless you Gavony Township her up, she dies to Forked Bolt (Fiend Hunter doesn't), she thus can never kidnap Elesh Norn (Fiend Hunter straight up boots her), she's gotta pay mana to kidnap, she often can't kidnap the turn she ETB, and your opponent still has what she kidnapped by the time their turn comes up if you don't Pod away what she grabbed (or blink what you grabbed with Restoration Angel). Her pros compared to Sower and Fiend Hunter are that she's relevant against combo because she's a 4/2 for 3 mana, she doesn't get hosed by Torpor Orb or Hushwing Gryff (I suppose only Death and Taxes and GW Hatebears are nuts enough to play Gryff and Linvala together, though), and they're not getting Linvala back if you Podded her away (Fiend Hunter is guaranteed to cough up Linvala when he dies, even if you have a Pod).
On an also-relevant-for-Standard note, Yasova Dragonclaw and Humble Defector make a nasty draw engine. Shame Humble Defector sucks on its own, and that's from testing it in Twin Pod...
I think Reality Shift is most useful in combo decks who just need to buy time. And a 2/2 is a slower clock than a 4/5 for example which are the stats of Siege Rhino or the average Tarmogoyf.
I think Reality Shift is most useful in combo decks who just need to buy time. And a 2/2 is a slower clock than a 4/5 for example which are the stats of Siege Rhino or the average Tarmogoyf.
Yeah that's what i was thinking, right now for my scapeshift deck tarmos and rhinos are a real problem.
- L
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"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
In a redundant deck like delver, there is nothing that you can't really kill as a 2/2. What is different? the only thing you care about is if they play green for tarmogoyf. Otherwise everything else is bad for them, delver and pyromancer on the board over a 2/2 vanilla that they can't use. This also includes making them reality shifting into a random snapcaster, and the snapcaster is now useless unless they waste their own vapor snag to try and get value.
Everything else is either what abrupt decay/bolt can't kill or a scaling creature. The only downside is possibly vs the pod/zoo/junk match ups.
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Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
UB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
It could lead to shenanigans insofar as targeting your own stuff but in general that angle will be too cute for Modern.
Modern: GW Hatebears/midrange, WGU Knightfall/evolution midrange stuff
Standard: nope
Legacy: W Death & Taxes
EDH (not Commander!): W Avacyn, Angel of Hope, GR Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, WGB Anafenza, the Foremost, WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator
I didn't notice it until you pointed it out. The list here looks similar. Aether vial is an option, but I don't see yasova in there. The concept builds that list fairly naturally I suppose.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
On an also-relevant-for-Standard note, Yasova Dragonclaw and Humble Defector make a nasty draw engine. Shame Humble Defector sucks on its own, and that's from testing it in Twin Pod...
Yeah that's what i was thinking, right now for my scapeshift deck tarmos and rhinos are a real problem.
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
Everything else is either what abrupt decay/bolt can't kill or a scaling creature. The only downside is possibly vs the pod/zoo/junk match ups.