Stream of Consciousness is a forced shuffle effect that you can tutor with Merchant Scroll. Some forced shuffle is necessary for archive trap. You also can choose zero cards and still force a shuffle, so it never has a negative effect. I'm not convinced it's necessary, but while I'm focusing on archive trap, I want to at least play with an option for forced shuffle.
Either I misunderstood your intention or you're mistaken on what exactly enables Archive Trap. It's not shuffling, but _searching_ the library that enables us to cast Trap for 0.
[...] like if players should play according to what they interpret these subjective guidelines to be, or what they believe the judge will interpret them as.
I don't see how you can think that trying to find a way to randomly determine the winner of a game of magic that is somehow legal within the rule that states the winner shall only be determined by playing the game to be either.
I don't know who Uncle Scott is, but I don't think a quote from an unrelated topic can be said to apply here. I don't know the context of this quote (i did some quick google searches but didn't find this) but even if it was relating to the game of magic, I don't imagine unless published in an official format that it actually has any bearing on the official rules. I believe I asked earlier if judges were trained to follow the letter of the IPG or the spirit, which you replied saying that they're not trained to be subjective and that they follow the philosophy of the IPG and AIPG. That statement seems contradictory of what you're implying here. Can you clarify which you mean? Are judges trained to follow the letter or spirit of the law?
"Uncle" Scott is only (one of) the most senior Judge(s) in the program, and he is the one whose posts in the judge forum are Official answers.
So this quote is literally what you've been asking about, currently happening: Judges being trained to follow the spirit of the rules, and not the letter of the law, when players try to construct obscure corner cases.
I've been away from standard since the middle of Amonkhet but might want to play GameDay... how does the UB summonings list look nowadays and is it still viable?
For refference, before switching to modern, my list looked like this (though I liked the transformation to Dynavol Tower/Shielded Aether Thief less and less... UR does DT better than UB anyways. probably would try Kingpin again to fend of aggro until Summonings is online):
I quite like your list and reasoning, xsoulwrecked.
Although I'd want to try to find space for at least 3 Mesmerizing Orbs. On the one Hand, some sort of untargeted Mill is needed to have a slight chance of winning against a Leyline, and Orb is still a good 2-drop that does not hurt having on the board even before Sanity. It's also fun how it messes up their Willingness to alpha strike in the late game
I quite like that card. Will probably replace my one Memory Erosion, and perhaps one of the 3 Mesmeric Orbs. Costing one more mana and not helping to get around Leylines might be problematic, though.
Also, Vancouver Mulligan:
If, after all mulligans have been resolved but before the first turn starts, a player has less than the maximal number of cards (usually 7) in hand, they get to Scry 1.
Edit: whoops, didn't see the muligan note tucked into MrMoustache's Scry definition. Nothing to see here, move along
MKM is available in multiple european languages. I think if you go to there via magiccardmarket.eu it will default to English, in contrast to magickartenmarkt.de
I have ran a 4 of Horribly Awry for the last two weeks of FNM and removed Flaying Tendrils from my 75, which has been underperforming for me. My feeling (did not to a hard count, but did and still do end up in the middle of the field) is that while that change hasn't made the deck that much better, it also didn't worsen it.
Will try to go the Summonings route this Friday, which I hope will do well enough to wait out the time until we get an actually useful sweeper
No to Pithing Needle, as Tokens are not Cards, as far as the rules are concerned (edit: and there is no Card with the name "Clue", yet. If there was, you could name it and thus also shut down the clue tokens).
Yes to Suppression field, as the permanent that is represented by the token does have an activated ability.
Chandra is probably the stronger finisher, but she's a dead card until lategame. I'd be interested to hear about results from people testing with her.
TitI can couble as blocker early, but is more vulnerable to removal and takes a bit of work to turn into a finisher.
Crumble may be nice to have, not sure how to make room for it, though.
Round 1 0-2 against uW, some creature based deck with Humans and Angels.
Both games I did not find Visions in time and was slowly killed when I ran out of bounces.
Round 2 0-2 against the Rakdos Control that destroyed me last week as well. He changed his deck to contain more hand disruption, so his Goblin Dark-Dwellers were even more of a pain.
Round 3 2-0 against an Eldrazi deck.
His biggest threats were Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. Boarded +3 Horribly Awry to take care of the TKS and +2 Thing in the Ice just to test if it helped. -2 Brain in a Jar, -2 Negate, -1 Anticipate.
Round 4 1-0 against UB Control
After a long and grindy match, I won in turn 3 of the timeout, with a full four of Prism Ring and Visions on the Board and at 92 life. Early game I lacked Visions, and we both kinda cautiously circled each other to see who'd move first. For the longest part of the game, I had 3 Prism Rings out, so every time he tried to attack with Dragonlord Ojutai, I profited. He won most counter wars over Visions and regained life with Foul-Tonge Invocation, thus I wasn't able to finish him quickly. To minimize his lifegain, I often traded Fumarole against Shambling Vent.
Highlight of the evening was to see him countering his own Jace in a desperate try to get rid of enough cards to counteract the full four Visions.
Round 5 2-0 against a small kid with a rogue UW deck. Nothing new to report for our deck, but a good time was had by both players.
Notes:
I feel quite good with the Mana Base playing 23,5 lands. Only change I consider is +1 Mountain, -1 Shivan Reef.
Brain in a Jar is very good in matches where it is good. I usually kept it sitting at 2 counters to enable EOT Day's, and I think that is what it's for.
The fourth Anticipate was not missed.
Void Shatter to remove problematic cards intead of letting them recycle them when I play Day's Undoing felt like VS over Calculated Dismisal is the right call.
playing against discard sucks. We already struggle until we can find both Prism Ring and Visions, and this makes it almost impossible to reach that point safely.
Thing would be terrific if it didn't turn on their removal in an otherwise creatureless deck. I still like it G2. G3 it's a bluffing game to guess whether they de-debooarded enough removal to warrant taking it out again.
In theory, Brain in a Jar also makes it possible to recycle Day's Undoing, as it is not exiled when cast in our opponent's turn.
Still unsure on
a) how many Brains to play
b) what to move out to make room... likely candidates imho are
-fourth Day's Undoing, due to it now being recyclable.
-fourth Anticipate, due to Brain's scry option
-fourth 2CMC3 CMCCounter (though I am party to running 4 VS in the main... I feel naked without counterspells ;-) Edit: i meant Void Shatter and Calculated Dismissal, not Negate and Horribly Awry
-eighth targeted bounce (Disperse, as Compelling Deterrance is strictly better (though not relevant in this deck)). perhaps the difference between 7 and eight copies is small enough?
How needed have Horribly Awry been? Right now my plan for Friday has two TitI and a 3rd Void Shatter (2/2 split with Calculated Dismissla in MB) in their spot...
Vantress Gargoyle looks weaker than Jace's Phantasm to me.
Either I misunderstood your intention or you're mistaken on what exactly enables Archive Trap. It's not shuffling, but _searching_ the library that enables us to cast Trap for 0.
I don't see how you can think that trying to find a way to randomly determine the winner of a game of magic that is somehow legal within the rule that states the winner shall only be determined by playing the game to be either.
"Uncle" Scott is only (one of) the most senior Judge(s) in the program, and he is the one whose posts in the judge forum are Official answers.
So this quote is literally what you've been asking about, currently happening: Judges being trained to follow the spirit of the rules, and not the letter of the law, when players try to construct obscure corner cases.
For refference, before switching to modern, my list looked like this (though I liked the transformation to Dynavol Tower/Shielded Aether Thief less and less... UR does DT better than UB anyways. probably would try Kingpin again to fend of aggro until Summonings is online):
1 Blighted Fen
4 Choked Estuary
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Sunken Hollow
6 Island
8 Swamp
2 Aether Hub
Creatures (4)
4 Torrential Gearhulk
Spells (30)
3 Metallurgic Summonings
4 Glimmer of Genius
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Negate
3 Disallow
2 Void Shatter
3 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Murder
2 Ruinous Path
1 Flaying Tendrils
2 Lost Legacy
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Shielded Aether Thief
3 Dynavolt Tower
2 Yahenni’s Expertise
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Negate
1 Ruinous Path
1 Fatal Push
Although I'd want to try to find space for at least 3 Mesmerizing Orbs. On the one Hand, some sort of untargeted Mill is needed to have a slight chance of winning against a Leyline, and Orb is still a good 2-drop that does not hurt having on the board even before Sanity. It's also fun how it messes up their Willingness to alpha strike in the late game
If, after all mulligans have been resolved but before the first turn starts, a player has less than the maximal number of cards (usually 7) in hand, they get to Scry 1.
Edit: whoops, didn't see the muligan note tucked into MrMoustache's Scry definition. Nothing to see here, move along
Will try to go the Summonings route this Friday, which I hope will do well enough to wait out the time until we get an actually useful sweeper
Yes to Suppression field, as the permanent that is represented by the token does have an activated ability.
TitI can couble as blocker early, but is more vulnerable to removal and takes a bit of work to turn into a finisher.
Crumble may be nice to have, not sure how to make room for it, though.
Compared to pyro1934's core, I played -4 Calculated Dismissal, -1 Anticipate, +3 Void Shatter, +2 Brain in a Jar, +1 Mountain.
3 Blessed Reincarnation
3 Horribly Awry
3 Displacement Wave
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
Round 1 0-2 against uW, some creature based deck with Humans and Angels.
Both games I did not find Visions in time and was slowly killed when I ran out of bounces.
Round 2 0-2 against the Rakdos Control that destroyed me last week as well. He changed his deck to contain more hand disruption, so his Goblin Dark-Dwellers were even more of a pain.
Round 3 2-0 against an Eldrazi deck.
His biggest threats were Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. Boarded +3 Horribly Awry to take care of the TKS and +2 Thing in the Ice just to test if it helped. -2 Brain in a Jar, -2 Negate, -1 Anticipate.
Round 4 1-0 against UB Control
After a long and grindy match, I won in turn 3 of the timeout, with a full four of Prism Ring and Visions on the Board and at 92 life. Early game I lacked Visions, and we both kinda cautiously circled each other to see who'd move first. For the longest part of the game, I had 3 Prism Rings out, so every time he tried to attack with Dragonlord Ojutai, I profited. He won most counter wars over Visions and regained life with Foul-Tonge Invocation, thus I wasn't able to finish him quickly. To minimize his lifegain, I often traded Fumarole against Shambling Vent.
Highlight of the evening was to see him countering his own Jace in a desperate try to get rid of enough cards to counteract the full four Visions.
Round 5 2-0 against a small kid with a rogue UW deck. Nothing new to report for our deck, but a good time was had by both players.
Notes:
I feel quite good with the Mana Base playing 23,5 lands. Only change I consider is +1 Mountain, -1 Shivan Reef.
Brain in a Jar is very good in matches where it is good. I usually kept it sitting at 2 counters to enable EOT Day's, and I think that is what it's for.
The fourth Anticipate was not missed.
Void Shatter to remove problematic cards intead of letting them recycle them when I play Day's Undoing felt like VS over Calculated Dismisal is the right call.
playing against discard sucks. We already struggle until we can find both Prism Ring and Visions, and this makes it almost impossible to reach that point safely.
Thing would be terrific if it didn't turn on their removal in an otherwise creatureless deck. I still like it G2. G3 it's a bluffing game to guess whether they de-debooarded enough removal to warrant taking it out again.
Still unsure on
a) how many Brains to play
b) what to move out to make room... likely candidates imho are
-fourth Day's Undoing, due to it now being recyclable.
-fourth Anticipate, due to Brain's scry option
-fourth
2CMC3 CMCCounter (though I am party to running 4 VS in the main... I feel naked without counterspells ;-) Edit: i meant Void Shatter and Calculated Dismissal, not Negate and Horribly Awry-eighth targeted bounce (Disperse, as Compelling Deterrance is strictly better (though not relevant in this deck)). perhaps the difference between 7 and eight copies is small enough?
How needed have Horribly Awry been? Right now my plan for Friday has two TitI and a 3rd Void Shatter (2/2 split with Calculated Dismissla in MB) in their spot...