Wisdom of the DivinerWUG Enchantment
Flash
Whenever you would scry for the first time each turn, you may instead draw X cards and gain X life, where X is the amount you were scrying.
If a spell or ability you don't control would cause you to discard Wisdom of the Diviner or exile it from your hand, you may instead put it onto the battlefield.
Knight of WisdomWW Creature - Human Knight
First Strike
Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, scry 1. 2/2
LifecallerW Creature - Avatar
Whenever you scry, gain 1 life. 1/2
Divinner's Guide1U Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever you scry, target creature you control can't be blocked and gains +0/+1, untap it. You may not target the same creature more than once with this ability each turn. 1/3
Eyeball SwarmUU Creature - Illusion Horror
Defender
Flying, Hexproof
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, scry 1. 0/5
Mental Primacy1U Enchantment
Flash
Your opponents play with their hands revealed to you.
Whenever an opponent would scry due to a spell or ability they control, instead, you look at the top X cards of their library, where X is the amount by which they would have scryed.
If a spell or triggered or activated ability you don't control would enable an opponent to look at your hand or part of your library, counter that spell or ability unless it's controller pays 3.
BioresearcherUG Creature - Vedalken Mutant Wizard
Hexproof
Whenever you scry, you may put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the amount you scryed. You may not target the same creature more than once each turn with this ability. 0/2
Goresight1B Enchantment
Flash
At the start of each upkeep, scry X, where X is half the number of creatures that died the previous turn, rounded up.
Divination DrainerBB Creature - Spirit
Whenever an opponent scrys, they lose X life, and you gain that amount of life, where X is the amount they scryed by.
When Divination Drainer dies, each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life, and you scry 1. 2/2
Lost Curser1B Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever you scry, each opponent who has more than 5 life loses 1 life, then put a malice counter on it.
When lost curser dies, you scry X where X is equal to it's toughness plus the number of malice counters on it. 1/2
Diviner's Battleguide1RR Creature - Spirit Wizard
Menace, Haste
Whenever you scry, target creature you control gets +X/+0 and trample until end of turn, where X is the amount you scryed by. You can't target the same creature with this ability more than once each turn. 2/4
Ragemind War King2R Creature - Avatar
Haste, Menace, Trample
~ must attack each turn if able.
Whenever you attack with Ragemind, scry X, where X is the number of attacking creatures you control. 4/1
Aura OverblazeR Enchantment
Whenever an opponent scrys, they take X damage, where X is the amount they scryed by.
Whenever an opponent looks at your hand or cards from the top of your library with a spell or activated or triggered ability, they take 1 damage. 1R, Sacrifice Aura Overblaze: Each opponent takes 2 damage, enchantments and artifacts loose all abilities and players may not cast artifact or enchantment spells until the end of your next turn.
Thornvines of MemoryG Creature - Plant
Reach, Defender
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, scry 1. 1/2
Thallid Diviner's Aid1GG Creature - Fungus
When you cast Thallid Diviner's Aid from your hand, gain 2 life.
Thallid Divinner's Aid can't be countered.
Hexproof
Whenever you scry, create a 1/1 green saproling creature token. You can't create more than 3 saprolings each turn with this ability. 0/6
Development1G Instant
Choose one -
* Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, it gains hexproof and reach until end of turn, untap it.
* Exile target artifact or enchantment with converted mana cost 3 or less.
* Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, then put it into your hand, gain life equal to the number of lands you control.
all okay, but the green one seems overpowered
Any suggestions for a different ability set? I was aiming for these to be somewhat better than Abrade, which I assumed was the Standard viable level, and was having trouble coming up with things green can do that are worthwhile in modern at 2 cmc even with modal elements to serve common utility and in-color tricks that would work in a diverse variety of decks.
Reconditioning1W Instant
Choose one -
* Create a 2/1 white soldier creature token. Gain life equal to the number of creatures you control.
* Exile each player's graveyard.
* Destroy target enchantment.
Gratify1U Instant
Choose one -
* Return target creature to it's owner's hand.
* You or target permanent you control gain hexproof until end of turn.
* Choose up to six cards from any number of chosen players graveyards, shuffle those cards back into their owner's libraries.
Shorten1B Instant
Choose one -
* Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
* Exile target player's graveyard.
* Each opponent puts a card from the their hand on top of their library.
Abrasiveness1RR Sorcery
Choose one -
* Destroy target nonbasic land.
* Exile target non-creature artifact.
* Deal 5 damage to target creature. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead.
Development1G Instant
Choose one -
* Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, it gains hexproof and reach until end of turn, untap it.
* Exile target artifact or enchantment with converted mana cost 3 or less.
* Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, then put it into your hand, gain life equal to the number of lands you control.
Unstoppable FloodingUU Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land.
Unstoppable flooding can't be countered.
Hexproof.
Enchanted land is an Island. Enchanted land can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.
When Unstoppable Flooding enters the battlefield, return all other enchantments and fortifications attached to the enchanted land to their owner's hand.
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, tap all it's controller's other lands, that player's lands can't be untapped by spells or abilities until the start of the next turn.
Gid's sac seems like it could play around with all sorts of combo-ish things that like taking damage, like Boros Reckoner, as well as being a type of fog-like thing. Price of Betrayal seems like it is a combo tool waiting to happen, instantly taking a bunch of counters from something, like, say, Thing in the Ice. Arboreal Grazer is another extra land onto the battlefield effect that seems Amulet of Vigor friendly.
I was trying to imply it couldn't be used to do things like tap or sacrifice or whatnot as part of the cost of a spell or ability, whatever that specific spell or ability is, if the action is in the cost, it couldn't be used. Does it need to have a valid rules definition? I thought card text (or at least the latest oracle versions of such) trumped the base game rules? If it has to have a valid rules definition and something specific needs to be called out, perhaps just specifically that it can't be tapped as part of the cost of activating a spell or ability?
Food // Drink Sorcery // Sorcery
Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Gain 1 life. // Untap target permanent. Scry 1.
Milk W // Honey G Instant // Instant
Create a 1/1 white cat creature token with vigilance. // Target creature must be blocked this turn if able. Untap another target creature, it loses all activated abilities and can't be used in any way as part of the costs to activate other spells or abilities it's owner controls until end of turn.
Bread W // Fish U Sorcery // Sorcery
Creatures you control gain +0/+2 and vigilance until end of turn. // Create a 1/1 blue fish creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: Scry 2."
Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch have been the best mana creatures in modern since the format's inception. Deathrite, appearing quickly onto the scene but disappearing soon afterwards, briefly took the first place slot. Third place goes to Arbor Elf.
I believe Modern Horizons would be a perfect place to print new mana creatures that could compete for power level with Birds and Hierarch. These are the type of cards that are too good for standard - where they hesitated to even print Llanowar Elves - but are perfectly acceptable in modern and legacy.
I can't wait to see what they come up with.
Hmm... maybe the Naya version of Noble Hirearch-ish thing (for ally color reasons).
Something like:
Earthly SageG Creature - Avatar Wizard
Whenever Earthly Sage becomes tapped, if you control three more more lands, put target card from a player's graveyard onto the bottom of it's owner's library. t: Add W, G, or R. 0/1
I mean if we are talking about overall performance, Burn is way over-represented and suffers from generally under performing with a win rate of around 45% in the most recent data.
Could be a thing where there are extra less-skilled players and less-tuned decklists driving the numbers down because it is more of a budget deck, although probably that isn't the whole reason.
So, I had a run of bad luck today. BO1 ranked, even using the same deck without any changes, I kept running into matches of either mana flood or mana screw, even with the best choices of mulligan I could pull off and relatively decent looking opening hands. I would either not be able to get past 3 mana until it was way too late, or hit, like, one non-land card after hitting 8 or 9 lands on the field in a non-ramp deck before losing, reliant almost entirely on the cards that were in my opening hand. It was super-frustrating, because it lasted long enough to go down multiple full sub-ranks. I got back up to where I started afterwards relatively quickly, but the maches that I then won were very dissapointing, because it seemed like the same thing that happened to me was happening to my opponents, and most of them conceeded after playing relatively few cards and tons of lands, or after being stuck at 2 or 3 lands after I'd hit my 5th or 6th land drop in between steady non-land playable cards.
The matches were overall very uninteresting because of this, and I wound up more stressed than having fun like I usually do.
I'd never had this long a run of bad matches in arena before, and only once I'd experienced something like this in paper magic.
Any suggestions for how to deal with the stress of runs of bad luck leading to long strings of losses and uninteresting wins?
Note that I got roughly even amounts of mana flood and mana screw, and have decent card draw/fixing, so adjusting the number of lands in my deck won't help, it really was just extreme bad luck that even really good deck design wouldn't be able to help with. I know it doesn't happen very often, but in a random thing like a game with shuffled decks, it can certainly happen again, and I'd like advice for how to deal with the situation without having another morning like this one.
Should I have just quit for the day before that many matches went by? I was trying to get all my daily stuff (the first 5 wins and the daily bonus from doing a special thing) so I wouldn't fall behind too much when relying primarily on free play. Should I try switching up decks more to try to get into a different mindset even if that doesn't really affect luck? Should I take a break and come back later? Should I adjust my lands and cantrips and stuff up and down and such a bit for psychological reinforcement even if it defies statistical sense? Should I build an even more cantrip heavy deck like a phoenix deck even if it's not my favored playstyle and switch to that on days when I hit a string of bad luck?
If this is real, I really hope they don't get off on temporary insanity, as mentioned by an above poster. People with explosive anger issues like this are a public danger, and even if their issues can be medicated away most of the time, and they had an explosive incident even after going to do a presumably calming thing like going for a smoke, and I wouldn't trust someone who'd even become a smoker (thus willingly addicting themselves and indicating poor responsibility, or recognizing the degree of their own issues and using smoking to medicate themselves but not managing it effectively enough despite knowing the issues) indicating that they aren't a responsible and reliable enough character to trust to manage their explosive anger in the future. I've heard some pretty scary stories about people with known explosive anger issues like this even in very controlled environments, because it isn't realistic to expect most people to perfectly follow doctors orders, and all it takes is a little slip coinciding with something that triggers the anger and then you have someone brutally injured or killed as a result.
I like that you have lots of options for permanent types that could crop up for useful exchanges, including lands, for, if, say, you can cause your opponent to lose their only land that produces a certain color they need in exchange for a color they don't, and/or possibly get a color you need off of the opponent if you are going tri-color or don't have enough sources of red or blue to cast a certain thing or group of things in the same turn or whatnot and your opponent has some to 'trade'.
I'm wondering if there is enough negative permanents and things that gives stuff to opponents to justify an archetype in more cubes now for things like this and Harmless Offering to toss self-harming stuff at the opponent.
April1 Artifact Creature Time - Human
Flash
When April enters the battlefield, if it's the first to do so this turn, create a 1/1 green pig creature token with flying.
When April or a flying creature leaves the battlefield, it's controller gains a poison counter. 1/1
Wisdom of the Diviner WUG
Enchantment
Flash
Whenever you would scry for the first time each turn, you may instead draw X cards and gain X life, where X is the amount you were scrying.
If a spell or ability you don't control would cause you to discard Wisdom of the Diviner or exile it from your hand, you may instead put it onto the battlefield.
Knight of Wisdom WW
Creature - Human Knight
First Strike
Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, scry 1.
2/2
Lifecaller W
Creature - Avatar
Whenever you scry, gain 1 life.
1/2
Divinner's Guide 1U
Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever you scry, target creature you control can't be blocked and gains +0/+1, untap it. You may not target the same creature more than once with this ability each turn.
1/3
Eyeball Swarm UU
Creature - Illusion Horror
Defender
Flying, Hexproof
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, scry 1.
0/5
Mental Primacy 1U
Enchantment
Flash
Your opponents play with their hands revealed to you.
Whenever an opponent would scry due to a spell or ability they control, instead, you look at the top X cards of their library, where X is the amount by which they would have scryed.
If a spell or triggered or activated ability you don't control would enable an opponent to look at your hand or part of your library, counter that spell or ability unless it's controller pays 3.
Bioresearcher UG
Creature - Vedalken Mutant Wizard
Hexproof
Whenever you scry, you may put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the amount you scryed. You may not target the same creature more than once each turn with this ability.
0/2
Goresight 1B
Enchantment
Flash
At the start of each upkeep, scry X, where X is half the number of creatures that died the previous turn, rounded up.
Divination Drainer BB
Creature - Spirit
Whenever an opponent scrys, they lose X life, and you gain that amount of life, where X is the amount they scryed by.
When Divination Drainer dies, each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life, and you scry 1.
2/2
Lost Curser 1B
Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever you scry, each opponent who has more than 5 life loses 1 life, then put a malice counter on it.
When lost curser dies, you scry X where X is equal to it's toughness plus the number of malice counters on it.
1/2
Diviner's Battleguide 1RR
Creature - Spirit Wizard
Menace, Haste
Whenever you scry, target creature you control gets +X/+0 and trample until end of turn, where X is the amount you scryed by. You can't target the same creature with this ability more than once each turn.
2/4
Ragemind War King 2R
Creature - Avatar
Haste, Menace, Trample
~ must attack each turn if able.
Whenever you attack with Ragemind, scry X, where X is the number of attacking creatures you control.
4/1
Aura Overblaze R
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent scrys, they take X damage, where X is the amount they scryed by.
Whenever an opponent looks at your hand or cards from the top of your library with a spell or activated or triggered ability, they take 1 damage.
1R, Sacrifice Aura Overblaze: Each opponent takes 2 damage, enchantments and artifacts loose all abilities and players may not cast artifact or enchantment spells until the end of your next turn.
Thornvines of Memory G
Creature - Plant
Reach, Defender
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, scry 1.
1/2
Thallid Diviner's Aid 1GG
Creature - Fungus
When you cast Thallid Diviner's Aid from your hand, gain 2 life.
Thallid Divinner's Aid can't be countered.
Hexproof
Whenever you scry, create a 1/1 green saproling creature token. You can't create more than 3 saprolings each turn with this ability.
0/6
Any suggestions for a different ability set? I was aiming for these to be somewhat better than Abrade, which I assumed was the Standard viable level, and was having trouble coming up with things green can do that are worthwhile in modern at 2 cmc even with modal elements to serve common utility and in-color tricks that would work in a diverse variety of decks.
Reconditioning 1W
Instant
Choose one -
* Create a 2/1 white soldier creature token. Gain life equal to the number of creatures you control.
* Exile each player's graveyard.
* Destroy target enchantment.
Gratify 1U
Instant
Choose one -
* Return target creature to it's owner's hand.
* You or target permanent you control gain hexproof until end of turn.
* Choose up to six cards from any number of chosen players graveyards, shuffle those cards back into their owner's libraries.
Shorten 1B
Instant
Choose one -
* Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
* Exile target player's graveyard.
* Each opponent puts a card from the their hand on top of their library.
Abrasiveness 1RR
Sorcery
Choose one -
* Destroy target nonbasic land.
* Exile target non-creature artifact.
* Deal 5 damage to target creature. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead.
Development 1G
Instant
Choose one -
* Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, it gains hexproof and reach until end of turn, untap it.
* Exile target artifact or enchantment with converted mana cost 3 or less.
* Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, then put it into your hand, gain life equal to the number of lands you control.
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land.
Unstoppable flooding can't be countered.
Hexproof.
Enchanted land is an Island. Enchanted land can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.
When Unstoppable Flooding enters the battlefield, return all other enchantments and fortifications attached to the enchanted land to their owner's hand.
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, tap all it's controller's other lands, that player's lands can't be untapped by spells or abilities until the start of the next turn.
Gideon's Sacrifice
Price of Betrayal
Arboreal Grazer
Gid's sac seems like it could play around with all sorts of combo-ish things that like taking damage, like Boros Reckoner, as well as being a type of fog-like thing. Price of Betrayal seems like it is a combo tool waiting to happen, instantly taking a bunch of counters from something, like, say, Thing in the Ice. Arboreal Grazer is another extra land onto the battlefield effect that seems Amulet of Vigor friendly.
Sorcery // Sorcery
Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Gain 1 life. // Untap target permanent. Scry 1.
Milk W // Honey G
Instant // Instant
Create a 1/1 white cat creature token with vigilance. // Target creature must be blocked this turn if able. Untap another target creature, it loses all activated abilities and can't be used in any way as part of the costs to activate other spells or abilities it's owner controls until end of turn.
Bread W // Fish U
Sorcery // Sorcery
Creatures you control gain +0/+2 and vigilance until end of turn. // Create a 1/1 blue fish creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: Scry 2."
Hmm... maybe the Naya version of Noble Hirearch-ish thing (for ally color reasons).
Something like:
Earthly Sage G
Creature - Avatar Wizard
Whenever Earthly Sage becomes tapped, if you control three more more lands, put target card from a player's graveyard onto the bottom of it's owner's library.
t: Add W, G, or R.
0/1
Could be a thing where there are extra less-skilled players and less-tuned decklists driving the numbers down because it is more of a budget deck, although probably that isn't the whole reason.
The matches were overall very uninteresting because of this, and I wound up more stressed than having fun like I usually do.
I'd never had this long a run of bad matches in arena before, and only once I'd experienced something like this in paper magic.
Any suggestions for how to deal with the stress of runs of bad luck leading to long strings of losses and uninteresting wins?
Note that I got roughly even amounts of mana flood and mana screw, and have decent card draw/fixing, so adjusting the number of lands in my deck won't help, it really was just extreme bad luck that even really good deck design wouldn't be able to help with. I know it doesn't happen very often, but in a random thing like a game with shuffled decks, it can certainly happen again, and I'd like advice for how to deal with the situation without having another morning like this one.
Should I have just quit for the day before that many matches went by? I was trying to get all my daily stuff (the first 5 wins and the daily bonus from doing a special thing) so I wouldn't fall behind too much when relying primarily on free play. Should I try switching up decks more to try to get into a different mindset even if that doesn't really affect luck? Should I take a break and come back later? Should I adjust my lands and cantrips and stuff up and down and such a bit for psychological reinforcement even if it defies statistical sense? Should I build an even more cantrip heavy deck like a phoenix deck even if it's not my favored playstyle and switch to that on days when I hit a string of bad luck?
I'm wondering if there is enough negative permanents and things that gives stuff to opponents to justify an archetype in more cubes now for things like this and Harmless Offering to toss self-harming stuff at the opponent.
Presumably the same way summons erased from a spellbook do? Or forgotten summon spells?
Artifact Creature Time - Human
Flash
When April enters the battlefield, if it's the first to do so this turn, create a 1/1 green pig creature token with flying.
When April or a flying creature leaves the battlefield, it's controller gains a poison counter.
1/1