If only we had some way to know if a card reanimating itself for 2 CMC with a hefty delve cost were playable... I forget, it's hard to fill the graveyard, right?
Sure, this isn't an 8/8 trampler, but it gives you a draw 3. Doesn't that just seem like a treasure cruise that you don't even have to have in hand?
Yes, it is extremely hard to fill the yard in standard at the moment, especially a ridiculous number like 7 cards, unless we are going to get some new enablers in this set.
Well, sure, maybe this will be lackluster in standard. But most of the comments bashing this were missing a disclaimer saying they were only talking about it being bad in standard. This card will be bonkers in multiple formats. Forget the body, just imagine this being treasure cruise, only castable from the graveyard.
If only we had some way to know if a card reanimating itself for 2 CMC with a hefty delve cost were playable... I forget, it's hard to fill the graveyard, right?
Sure, this isn't an 8/8 trampler, but it gives you a draw 3. Doesn't that just seem like a treasure cruise that you don't even have to have in hand?
For the sideboard, I've been quite heavy on meddling mage, believe it or not, playing either 3 or 4 copies along with 1 ego. Mage is just lights out against amulet titan, and can slow down PO urza. Ego does the same job, usually better, but can be too slow sometimes, and mage can swing and stretches removal. It also goes in against GDS to name Stubbs or Kommand before landing key pieces.
But that may be just my play style preference, and if you're more comfortable with Ego, then I would find room for 2 copies, for sure. For some reason I like having lots of SB slots for combo, and trust my maindeck to grind it out against midrange/control.
After playing with Emry quite a bit, I've found she's much better in PO Urza (paradoxical urza) than in Whirza. It's best to think of these as two distinct decks. PO Urza is much more combo, storm oriented as Lectrys pointed out, and it has fewer flex spots because the deck relies more on synergies and having a mass of 0 CMC artifacts. PO Urza may be the current best overall deck in modern, atm.
Thopter Sword Urza is still quite good, and my preference. I've gone down to 2 Emry's (and 2 engineers), cut the Ascendancy, and upped the planeswalker count. Currently sitting at 2 T3feri, 2 Karn, TGC. Wishing well is quite nice, currently on 3.
Nice tester decklist, and great write up. I like the spellbomb as an emry win-con, because when you're going infinite you can both use it to burn out an opponent after getting a bunch of mana, or you can just clear a blocker and swing with emry (which is a nice time saver online).
I'm not seeing the purpose of the hammer. I get that you can drop it, and then all your emrys will be hasty. But since an opponent can always respond to her ability and bolt or push her, the haste doesn't seem that relevant. Spellskite is all-around useful, but if you switch it for a welding jar, that just gives Emry one more artifact that along with the baubles will let her start to infinite (and will help cast her turn 1). Maybe skite is just too good, though, now that we have 8 must-answer blue creatures.
The more I think about ascendancy as a card in this deck, the more I like it as a "do-nothing" combo piece. Without an Emry on board, jeskai makes Urza an even better mana producer with his construct. If you happen to have a few thopters lieing around, then he becomes really degenerate with ascendancy. Ascendancy also pumps a board of thopters, makes whir a "free" pump and loot with thopters, and can help dig in the lategame by offering free lootings.
All that said, it's still a card that probably lingers in hand in most matchups. As random 3 drops go, teferi has more wide ranging utility, so we'll see.
I've been playing around with several 5 color lists, so really anything is possible in the deck's numerous flex spots. (Bring to Light for Urza is pretty funny). In the list I posted, you could easily swap out the singleton engineer, or add another, or swap one of the ascendancies for a wishclaw and change the manabase to have a basic swamp.
I have a feeling that 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch will be what ends up being correct, and that maybe some number of Jeskai Ascendancy get included in lists because of its potential being an insta-win with Emry and a mishra's bauble. At least, that's certainly what I'll be trying out as soon as I can get the cards on MTGO.
Just a refresher, with Emry and a bauble in play or the graveyard, and an ascendancy on board, you can cast bauble over and over, make emry lethal and swing. Or you can loot enough to put 2 opals in the graveyard, get infinite mana, and cast something from your deck that can close out the game. The cost of a few ascendancies in lists seems pretty low.
I would imagine wishclaw is being boarded out on the draw nearly every time, and often on the play as well after sideboards come in. Although, if it's against a combo deck that folds to ego, I probably keep it in. Good point on the teferi, but that's even more reason not to include extra cards to hedge against opponents wishing, right?
How important is it really to get sac outlets for wishclaw? Obviously, you aren't handning wishclaw over to a combo player. But against decks like control, or jund, or even burn, or humans, if they use it they're probably just getting an answer for what you just got, then you get to wish again on your turn. Wishclaw is also only being used by you if you can comlplete a combo. So, it either goes (assuming no engineer):
1. You have a Foundry, you wish for sword. This is the best situation, because you can sac wischlaw to foundry before ability resolves.
2. You have a Sword and wish for a Foundry. This is obviously a worse situation, because opponent will get a wish. But if it's a fair matchup, their wish will probably just be some form of removal for foundry, and you will have gotten to make thopters and then you will get a chance to wish again.
3. You have nothing, you wish for Urza because value. This is probably the riskiest, but against Jund for instance, what are they going to get? Their removal can't get both urza and the token.
I really like Emry. While the ETB on her is not as good as goblin, being able to cast for U on turn 2 (like after an astrolabe and witching well) is really nice. And the ceiling for her ETB is even higher than engineer, so occasionally she will bin you a sword and something else useful. She plays well with bauble (no mana to get a card/turn), and unlike engineer, she can let you recur X cost things like explosives and chalice, and can recur stuff greater than CMC 3, although that is of questionable utility with our current builds. Definitely a 1-2 of in every build going forward, given her casting cost and lack of mana on her activated.
Wishclaw is a little silly, and hard to evaluate. I think it's probably a 1-of for us, but will get boarded out a LOT. Obviously makes whir more valuable, and random silver bullet type things. Talisman plays nicely with Karn, the Great Creator (ugh, that card), too. I've been testing Karn out as a 1-of maindeck walker without lattice, and he's OK as a must-answer threat.
As always, before the entire set is even released, posting a hypthetical list with the new tasty spoilers:
I don' think you can cast once upon a time for free unless you "can" pay for it.
No,the only restriction is that it's the first spell you've cast in the game. The game can check permanents under a player's control, like with Invigorate, but whether a player "can" cast a spell for its printed mana cost, as you put it, is out of the game's scope, anyways.
Well, if that's the case, then this card seems like it's geting splashed into any deck that can reasonably run it. Right? Its effect isn't overcosted when it isn't free.
My favorite card of all time: Vesuvan Doppleganger. When I laid eyes on it as a 13 year old, MtG became the game that I played. Beautiful art, great power at the time, fun to play, and one of the first desirable rares I ever opened out of a pack.
Well, sure, maybe this will be lackluster in standard. But most of the comments bashing this were missing a disclaimer saying they were only talking about it being bad in standard. This card will be bonkers in multiple formats. Forget the body, just imagine this being treasure cruise, only castable from the graveyard.
Sure, this isn't an 8/8 trampler, but it gives you a draw 3. Doesn't that just seem like a treasure cruise that you don't even have to have in hand?
But that may be just my play style preference, and if you're more comfortable with Ego, then I would find room for 2 copies, for sure. For some reason I like having lots of SB slots for combo, and trust my maindeck to grind it out against midrange/control.
Thopter Sword Urza is still quite good, and my preference. I've gone down to 2 Emry's (and 2 engineers), cut the Ascendancy, and upped the planeswalker count. Currently sitting at 2 T3feri, 2 Karn, TGC. Wishing well is quite nice, currently on 3.
I'm not seeing the purpose of the hammer. I get that you can drop it, and then all your emrys will be hasty. But since an opponent can always respond to her ability and bolt or push her, the haste doesn't seem that relevant. Spellskite is all-around useful, but if you switch it for a welding jar, that just gives Emry one more artifact that along with the baubles will let her start to infinite (and will help cast her turn 1). Maybe skite is just too good, though, now that we have 8 must-answer blue creatures.
All that said, it's still a card that probably lingers in hand in most matchups. As random 3 drops go, teferi has more wide ranging utility, so we'll see.
Just a refresher, with Emry and a bauble in play or the graveyard, and an ascendancy on board, you can cast bauble over and over, make emry lethal and swing. Or you can loot enough to put 2 opals in the graveyard, get infinite mana, and cast something from your deck that can close out the game. The cost of a few ascendancies in lists seems pretty low.
My decklist to try out:
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
4 Witching Well
1 Pithing Needle
4 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Damping Sphere
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
1 Goblin Engineer
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
2 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Karn, the Great Creator
2 Whir of Invention
4 Prismatic Vista
5 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Spire of Industry
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Glass Casket
1 Pithing Needle
1 Walking Ballista
1 Teferi, Time Raveller
2 Deputy of Detention
3 Battle at the Bridge
2 Unmoored Ego
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Lightning Helix
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1. You have a Foundry, you wish for sword. This is the best situation, because you can sac wischlaw to foundry before ability resolves.
2. You have a Sword and wish for a Foundry. This is obviously a worse situation, because opponent will get a wish. But if it's a fair matchup, their wish will probably just be some form of removal for foundry, and you will have gotten to make thopters and then you will get a chance to wish again.
3. You have nothing, you wish for Urza because value. This is probably the riskiest, but against Jund for instance, what are they going to get? Their removal can't get both urza and the token.
Wishclaw is a little silly, and hard to evaluate. I think it's probably a 1-of for us, but will get boarded out a LOT. Obviously makes whir more valuable, and random silver bullet type things. Talisman plays nicely with Karn, the Great Creator (ugh, that card), too. I've been testing Karn out as a 1-of maindeck walker without lattice, and he's OK as a must-answer threat.
As always, before the entire set is even released, posting a hypthetical list with the new tasty spoilers:
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
3 Witching Well
1 Pithing Needle
4 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Damping Sphere
1 Wishclaw Talisman
1 Mind Stone
1 Ensnaring Bridge
Creatures: 8
2 Goblin Welder
2 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Karn, the Great Creator
Other Spells: 3
3 Whir of Invention
Land: 20
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
6 Snow-Covered Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Spirebluff Canal
Well, if that's the case, then this card seems like it's geting splashed into any deck that can reasonably run it. Right? Its effect isn't overcosted when it isn't free.