You may be right, but you could take the deck in a direction with a higher creature density. Snapcaster gets better because it would be like grabbing a spell, and the same goes for cyclers like street wraith. Also, Incongruity gives some creature-removal flexibility in the late game, when you need to remove problem creatures like queller or other fliers, meddling mage, or opposing shadows. You'd probably want 20 creatures at a minimum, so something like
How do you guys think the BB in Bedevil will affect its Modern play? I feel like Wizards may have given it BBR instead of 1BR to attempt to make it tougher in Modern to play, but it ends up just hurting its play in Standard much more, right? Maybe I'm off.
It's BBR because Hero's Downfall was 1BB, which already had double Black. The colorless was replaced with the more narrow Red to compensate for the fact this was a more powerful effect.
How do you guys think the BB in Bedevil will affect its Modern play? I feel like Wizards may have given it BBR instead of 1BR to attempt to make it tougher in Modern to play, but it ends up just hurting its play in Standard much more, right? Maybe I'm off.
It's BBR because Hero's Downfall was 1BB, which already had double Black. The colorless was replaced with the more narrow Red to compensate for the fact this was a more powerful effect.
That and to justify the artifact hate, which can be found in red but not in black. Basically, two colored symbols (BB or RB) seem to be the benchmark in the design for a spell to kill creatures and PWs (Dreadbore). An extra mana gives it instant speed (Heroes Downfall, Bedevil). The rest are modular, an extra mana (Vraska's Contempt), or a 3rd colored mana add effects
Is there a way to break Emergency Powers in Modern? Drawing 7 cards and then cheating in a permanent that's 7 cmc or less seems pretty powerful. From my experience with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ults in Gx Tron, I think 10 fatties are more than enough to reliably cheat one out, although that many expensive cards in your deck is likely still frightening.
I don't think so don't most of the strongest Eldrazi cost more then 7? I cannot think of any finisher for U or W or UW that cost seven or less and will end the game on that turn or the next without your opponent already being super low.
Besides it pretty hard to get to 7 mana quickly unless your Tron and Tron doesn't need it lol. Or many Ponza but again wrong colors.
It be breakable if you could put any card regardless of cmc on the board. Maybe in some sort of BANT Ramp deck.
The shuffle effect makes it really hard to abuse. You can't use scrys or Jace to stack your deck with good hits, and if you need certain cards in your hand/graveyard (free spells like Fury of the Horde or Nourishing Shoal are common culprits) after cheating in the permanent, they're not guaranteed to be there after the shuffle. Your opponent also has a good chance of drawing into an answer and undoing all your hard work.
Meishin, the Mind Cage can stall some decks when you draw 7 and dump it into play, but it's a laughably soft lock.
If you're cheating in a creature, Summoning Trap and See the Unwritten look at just as many (or more) cards and have fewer restrictions.
Wheel effects are usually found in storm decks to reset their hand with rituals and cantrips, but Emergency Powers is off-color and costs way too much. Reforge the Soul is 2 mana cheaper. If you put Lotus Bloom in with the addendum, it costs a net 4 mana, but that isn't reliable.
I play a version of UR breach that splashes for Time of Need. I tested explore but it conflicted with the decks desire to hold Remand on turn two but now I won’t have to choose. I’m really happy about Growth Spiral.
I don't think so don't most of the strongest Eldrazi cost more then 7? I cannot think of any finisher for U or W or UW that cost seven or less and will end the game on that turn or the next without your opponent already being super low.
Besides it pretty hard to get to 7 mana quickly unless your Tron and Tron doesn't need it lol. Or many Ponza but again wrong colors.
It be breakable if you could put any card regardless of cmc on the board. Maybe in some sort of BANT Ramp deck.
Now I'm wondering whether Incubation // Incongruity enables any Gx deck or build that ideally wants more than 4 Commune With Natures. As a blue filtering cantrip, it has to compete with Serum Visions (and it keeps losing in my testing because it basically cannot get lands while Serum Visions can), but as a green filtering cantrip, it can bring in great amounts of redundancy.
Interesting reprint. Gaining life is always better for a Control deck than the opponent losing life like is the case with Undermine. I remember people mentioning both cards in the what cards would you like reprinted thread. So there is at least one of them.
It's still a 3 mana counter though so the upside needs to be worth it. It's Healing Salve + Counterspell in both function and mana cost so it's neither undercosted nor overcosted.
I have trouble evaluating it right now. Obviously you can't counter things before having 3 mana which is the downside but that doesn't stop Cryptic Command from seeing play since the upside is high enough to be worth it. 3 life might be the difference between between surviving another turn and turning the game around by wiping the board or whatever or just losing. I can't imagine a playset of it but it could take the place of something like Logic Knot. You don't always start with fetches so often it's not active until turn 3 either and then it's not even a hard counter.
I do love it when Wizards gives us good nostalgic reprints, but unfortunately Absorb's mana cost gets tripped up hard by Field of Ruin in Modern UW Control. Field is very impractical to side out since it's a land, and it's a foundation of the deck's success so cutting it is a bad idea.
I love the thought of playing Absorb and Snapcaster Mage together, but it's hard to see this as an essential (or even playable) tool.
Absorb is quite decent in Standard, where there are some aggro matchups where it's effectively a 2 for 1 in regaining life. Sinister Sabotage will often be a better choice, however, because digging for the card you need is good in more matchups than gaining some life. In Modern, I don't think the card will see extensive play if at all. Field is too indispensable for UW Control decks, and three mana counters aren't being played anyway. I'm happy that if nothing else Wizards is reconsidering these old cards in the current metagame. That said, Absorb does highlight a power level issue with Standard: something like Counterspell, Force of Will, Arcane Denial, etc. is just way too strong with something like Teferi running around. I expect we won't see any pushed two mana counters until after he rotates out of Standard.
In Modern, I don't think the card will see extensive play if at all. Field is too indispensable for UW Control decks, and three mana counters aren't being played anyway.
It's true that 3 mana counters are basically unplayable. If the best one printed in recent history (ever?), Disallow, still doesn't see play, this never will.
In Modern, I don't think the card will see extensive play if at all. Field is too indispensable for UW Control decks, and three mana counters aren't being played anyway.
It's true that 3 mana counters are basically unplayable. If the best one printed in recent history (ever?), Disallow, still doesn't see play, this never will.
I think Dromar's Charm is better, but also not Modern/Standard legal so sort of a moot point. Absorb definitely isn't making any Modern cuts though. The lifegain is bad against the aggressive decks in Modern. I think this wouldn't be playable at even 4 life gained. Maybe 5 or 6?
Gain 6, and we are talking for sure, at that point though Standard gets absolutely buried by Teferi.
Yeah, Teferi is a major bottleneck for countermagic right now. I expect we see zero playable 2 cmc counters while he is legal. Thankfully, this might help other generic answers up their game: see Bedevil and Trophy. Hopefully we get more similar cards as the set previews continue.
Right cause when control gets a good card it has to be punished for it.
Gain 6 Life on a counter probably not beatable in Standard.
And in Modern that make it more of a life gain card then a counter ie let them hit you early you will fix it later.
Which raises the question with all the aggro, creature attack first decks in modern. How much life gain at what cmc is good enough to see play on its own?
Or how about counter helix? UW Counter Target creature Spell, Gain 3 Life?
My speculation is that Incubation will push the Eldritch / Chord deck to be good. The Vizier combo doesnt need black anyway, and they already play Noble, so you just splash blue instead. The deck already plays Commune with Nature but typically has no maindeck removal. My thoughts
I also like the new Sphinx. May have some applications in decks looking to do more digging. Possibly Mono-Blue Living As Foretold or UW Control for further manipulation of Terminus in early turns?
Deputy of Detention looks like hot stuff. It's Detention Sphere on 1/3 legs for Detention Sphere's cost, except it can only target and exile opposing stuff. If there's anything we've learned from Spell Queller, it's that no matter how vulnerable the creature is to removal, the card in question suddenly gets significantly better when it has legs and can be cheated out with Collected Company.
Wondering if Sphinx of Foresight can fit anywhere. It has a decent chance of fixing your no-land hand (if my times keeping no-land hands with 2 free cantrips is any indication), but not being an instant/sorcery hurts its chances of being in some low-land decks, and if I've learned anything about how I play with the similar-bodied Curator of Mysteries, it's that I cycle the guy fairly often.
Also wondering if Dovin, Grand Arbiter fits anywhere. He's kinda like Sai, Master Thopterist (including converted mana cost and needing blue mana), except he cannot spit out an insane number of tokens in one turn. But he can gain life! He needs creature support bad to ult the next turn, but his ult is basically "Draw 3 great cards", and he can ult about once every 3 turns if you're good (or maybe even more often once you have enough creatures, but then you really should be winning the game). Hey, at least this walker protects himself in style! (And Shape Anew and Polymorph get yet another cool toy.)
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Tarfire
2 Temur Battle Rage
1 Kollaghan's Command
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Grim Flayer
4 Street Wraith
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Shriekmaw
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Besides it pretty hard to get to 7 mana quickly unless your Tron and Tron doesn't need it lol. Or many Ponza but again wrong colors.
It be breakable if you could put any card regardless of cmc on the board. Maybe in some sort of BANT Ramp deck.
Meishin, the Mind Cage can stall some decks when you draw 7 and dump it into play, but it's a laughably soft lock.
If you're cheating in a creature, Summoning Trap and See the Unwritten look at just as many (or more) cards and have fewer restrictions.
Wheel effects are usually found in storm decks to reset their hand with rituals and cantrips, but Emergency Powers is off-color and costs way too much. Reforge the Soul is 2 mana cheaper. If you put Lotus Bloom in with the addendum, it costs a net 4 mana, but that isn't reliable.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
At 7-mana you can get Karn Liberated or Elesh Norn which can be pretty back-breakeing against certain decks.
Other potential options can be: Azor, Nezahal/Sphinx, Ancient/Chromioum (with a black splash), Angel of Serenity, Elspeth, Magosi and Wurmcoil Engine.
Well well well.
Interesting reprint. Gaining life is always better for a Control deck than the opponent losing life like is the case with Undermine. I remember people mentioning both cards in the what cards would you like reprinted thread. So there is at least one of them.
It's still a 3 mana counter though so the upside needs to be worth it. It's Healing Salve + Counterspell in both function and mana cost so it's neither undercosted nor overcosted.
I have trouble evaluating it right now. Obviously you can't counter things before having 3 mana which is the downside but that doesn't stop Cryptic Command from seeing play since the upside is high enough to be worth it. 3 life might be the difference between between surviving another turn and turning the game around by wiping the board or whatever or just losing. I can't imagine a playset of it but it could take the place of something like Logic Knot. You don't always start with fetches so often it's not active until turn 3 either and then it's not even a hard counter.
I love the thought of playing Absorb and Snapcaster Mage together, but it's hard to see this as an essential (or even playable) tool.
It's true that 3 mana counters are basically unplayable. If the best one printed in recent history (ever?), Disallow, still doesn't see play, this never will.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I think Dromar's Charm is better, but also not Modern/Standard legal so sort of a moot point. Absorb definitely isn't making any Modern cuts though. The lifegain is bad against the aggressive decks in Modern. I think this wouldn't be playable at even 4 life gained. Maybe 5 or 6?
Spirits
Yeah, Teferi is a major bottleneck for countermagic right now. I expect we see zero playable 2 cmc counters while he is legal. Thankfully, this might help other generic answers up their game: see Bedevil and Trophy. Hopefully we get more similar cards as the set previews continue.
Gain 6 Life on a counter probably not beatable in Standard.
And in Modern that make it more of a life gain card then a counter ie let them hit you early you will fix it later.
Which raises the question with all the aggro, creature attack first decks in modern. How much life gain at what cmc is good enough to see play on its own?
Or how about counter helix? UW Counter Target creature Spell, Gain 3 Life?
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Reflector Mage
4 Incubation//Incongruity
4 Chord of Calling
4 Eldritch Evolution
2 Postmortem Lunge
Lands (22)
22 Lands
A mainboard answer that exiles with no target restrictions? Sign me up!
Draft My Cube!
Spirits
I also like the new Sphinx. May have some applications in decks looking to do more digging. Possibly Mono-Blue Living As Foretold or UW Control for further manipulation of Terminus in early turns?
Wondering if Sphinx of Foresight can fit anywhere. It has a decent chance of fixing your no-land hand (if my times keeping no-land hands with 2 free cantrips is any indication), but not being an instant/sorcery hurts its chances of being in some low-land decks, and if I've learned anything about how I play with the similar-bodied Curator of Mysteries, it's that I cycle the guy fairly often.
Also wondering if Dovin, Grand Arbiter fits anywhere. He's kinda like Sai, Master Thopterist (including converted mana cost and needing blue mana), except he cannot spit out an insane number of tokens in one turn. But he can gain life! He needs creature support bad to ult the next turn, but his ult is basically "Draw 3 great cards", and he can ult about once every 3 turns if you're good (or maybe even more often once you have enough creatures, but then you really should be winning the game). Hey, at least this walker protects himself in style! (And Shape Anew and Polymorph get yet another cool toy.)
This one seems quite powerful. With a sac outlet it can get scary!
Apologies if the image is too large.