Hello, here are my thoughts on the current topics, and more!
I actually like Jace, The Mind Sculptor in this deck. Sure, he doesn't insta-win with doubling season in play, but that's what the ~8 copies of Nahiri, the Harbinger, Jace, Architect of Thought, and Tamiyo, Field Researcher are there for. Plus, he provides something that this deck desperately lacks, which is dig and filtering. It's pretty common to have an excess mana dork in your hand after turn 4 and since we play a good amount of fetches (~4-6), it's easy to shuffle them away. Plus, he's somewhat capable of defending himself and can win games that drag on too long. I'd strongly consider 1-2 copies. Also, the mana cost for Chandra, Torch of Defiance is somewhat prohibitive (the only other red is blood moon and Nahiri, the Harbinger, which we can cast off Birds of paradise or Utopia Sprawl, etc.), especially for a card that generally has a pretty awkward first turn in play. It's worth some testing though!
Has anyone else tried Gideon of the Trials? I've been testing 2-3 copies alongside Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, and they fill out the curve nicely. Planeswalkers of turns 2, 3, and 4 can be too much for some decks. He can also occasionally close out games.
Blood Moon can win games, but it can also lead to super clunky draws, so I generally like to keep it in the sideboard. Worship is pretty similar, but sometimes our aggro matchup isn't the best, so a copy or two main deck makes sense to me.
Replacing red for black would be super greedy, but you'd get Liliana of the veil and / or Liliana, the last hope. A turn two LotV can certainly win games, plus, you could try Oath of Liliana, which is not the worst card I've seen. She also has a strong (but not game-ending) combo with Doubling Season and can discard excess mana dorks. It comes at the cost of losing Nahiri, The Harbinger and destabilizing the mana base, but certainly offers some raw power.
After watching the videos in this article, the deck looked so fun that I needed my own copy. I've been toying around with it, and so I thought I would share my current list:
It's a pretty simple strategy - use mana dorks and Oath of Nissa to smoothly accelerate into planeswalkers that clog the board and threaten to ultimate. Finding Doubling Season makes every successive draw potentially lethal. It's a blast to play, so let me know what you think!
Here is the deck on tapped out in case you want to play around.
For me, it's hands down Magister Sphinx. It's also very castable from your hand, and in a zur deck, you will have more than 10 power on the board sometimes.
Odds are the player will still be tutoring for the wincon, thus the overarching plan for Sharuum wins has not changed.
The deck will still be running a ridiculous amount of tutors, but with the increased reliability of drawing a clone, the Sharuum player can now tutor for things like Force of Will or Pact of Negation to make the combo much harder to disrupt. The odds are that the player will draw one of the copy effects during the first six or so turns, as there are 10-15 viable options.
I haven't done any testing (or even finalized a decklist for that matter) but I wouldn't be surprised it could reliably go infinite by turn seven, with both disruption and a ton of resilience.
I'm thinking about building a combo-crazy Sharuum the Hegemon deck, but I have a question regarding the new legend rule. I know she still creates a loop with Sculpting Steel or Phyrexian Metamorph because the copy enters, causing it to be sent to the graveyard as a state-based action, then the trigger goes onto the stack targeting the artifact. Rinse and repeat. But doesn't this mean that any clone effect will allow Sharuum to go infinite?
Let's say we are working with Clone. It enters the battlefield as a copy of Sharuum, causing state based actions to force you to sacrifice one. We choose the real Sharuum, sending her to the graveyard instead of the command zone.The trigger goes onto the stack targeting our general. She returns, restarting the loop without the Clone even touching the graveyard. Since the copy effect is never targeted by Sharuum's ability, is there any need for it to be an artifact? Wouldn't this mean that the combo would now work with Evil Twin, Cryptoplasm, or even Cackling Counterpart?
I'm probably just missing something obvious, so thanks for helping me out.
Just to be different, I'm going to place my bet on the girl at 46 seconds. She part of the selysnia guild and looks to have that "I'm an important character feel. It will probably be the golgari chick, but I wouldn't could a GW walker out yet. There's always a good chance that she'll get different art.
I'm always looking to play a good superfriends deck and jace seems to get along well with everyone else. His -2 works really well with liliana of the veil because you can just get two cards to discard. He can protect other walkers decently well (still need a day of judgment effect or gideon jura). It also curves well into tamiyo, the moon sage. It'll will be pretty difficult for aggro decks to get through those two.
These creatures were exciting before cards like strangleroot geist came along and redefined power levels. A card like diregraft ghoul isn't exactly a game changer, its just a good role player.
Its my understanding that the foil is opaque so they have no need to erase any portion of the original card, just to cut out the foil sticker with an exacto and apply it to the card face. If I remember right the foil paper is already a sticker which makes the process pretty easy and can work with almost any inkjet printer, which is the reason he is using a sealant as any water would ruin the alter otherwise.
They still turn out looking pretty neat looking, but theres no way card like that vess should be going for that high when the cutting job is so incredibly poor.
Are you familiar with the process? I've been playing around with different materials and methods, trying to figure out exactly how these are made, but I haven't succeed yet. I would love to have someone post some sort of walkthrough, because I can't find it anywhere else. All I'm talking about is what kind of products to purchase (What brand is this foil paper and where do you get it?) and a quick explanation. It also looks like Bristol knows how to do this as well. Thank you!!
I think these overlays are disgusting. If anything, because this guy can just mass print them...they should be worth equal or less than the original card's price. While hand painted alters are a testament to the artist's ability and a way to individualize people's cards, I feel like this guy is trying to rebrand wotc's product. I mean, hes quite literally putting a sticker over OC, with his brand/name on it.
This really isn't a case of simply printing out a sticker and slapping it on though. First, they have to blank the card while also keeping the textbox and costs preserved, which is quite difficult. Then it requires high quality printers and expensive foil film in addition to the ability to create and format the image. Finally, the creator needs to carefully cut out the print so that the actual card can be seen. I'd guess that the whole process takes around 2-3 hours, plus the equipment which runs more than acrylic paint and sealer. I completely understand your point about regular altering being an art form, and I think that is why people are so against this.
The creator of these cards could easily make it so that he original artwork is visible. The alter would just simply extend the art, while leaving the picture, textbox, and name/cost visible.
Also, I believe the video shows that the cards are only .4 grams heavier and 1 mm thicker. Who can really notice this difference? After all, altering a card with paint causes an increase in size similar or great to this. Why would digital alters that can prove that it is the originally that card not be allowed while painted alters are?
Article about the deck.
After watching the videos in this article, the deck looked so fun that I needed my own copy. I've been toying around with it, and so I thought I would share my current list:
1x Breeding Pool
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
1x Flooded Grove
4x Forest
1x Horizon Canopy
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2x Stomping Ground
2x Temple Garden
3x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Bastion
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Chandra, Flamecaller
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Gideon Jura
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
3x Nahiri, the Harbinger
1x Nissa, Vital Force
3x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1x Ral Zarek
2x Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1x Xenagos, the Reveler
4x Doubling Season
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Utopia Sprawl
[Creatures]
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
It's a pretty simple strategy - use mana dorks and Oath of Nissa to smoothly accelerate into planeswalkers that clog the board and threaten to ultimate. Finding Doubling Season makes every successive draw potentially lethal. It's a blast to play, so let me know what you think!
Here is the deck on tapped out in case you want to play around.
The deck will still be running a ridiculous amount of tutors, but with the increased reliability of drawing a clone, the Sharuum player can now tutor for things like Force of Will or Pact of Negation to make the combo much harder to disrupt. The odds are that the player will draw one of the copy effects during the first six or so turns, as there are 10-15 viable options.
I haven't done any testing (or even finalized a decklist for that matter) but I wouldn't be surprised it could reliably go infinite by turn seven, with both disruption and a ton of resilience.
Let's say we are working with Clone. It enters the battlefield as a copy of Sharuum, causing state based actions to force you to sacrifice one. We choose the real Sharuum, sending her to the graveyard instead of the command zone.The trigger goes onto the stack targeting our general. She returns, restarting the loop without the Clone even touching the graveyard. Since the copy effect is never targeted by Sharuum's ability, is there any need for it to be an artifact? Wouldn't this mean that the combo would now work with Evil Twin, Cryptoplasm, or even Cackling Counterpart?
I'm probably just missing something obvious, so thanks for helping me out.
Are you familiar with the process? I've been playing around with different materials and methods, trying to figure out exactly how these are made, but I haven't succeed yet. I would love to have someone post some sort of walkthrough, because I can't find it anywhere else. All I'm talking about is what kind of products to purchase (What brand is this foil paper and where do you get it?) and a quick explanation. It also looks like Bristol knows how to do this as well. Thank you!!
This really isn't a case of simply printing out a sticker and slapping it on though. First, they have to blank the card while also keeping the textbox and costs preserved, which is quite difficult. Then it requires high quality printers and expensive foil film in addition to the ability to create and format the image. Finally, the creator needs to carefully cut out the print so that the actual card can be seen. I'd guess that the whole process takes around 2-3 hours, plus the equipment which runs more than acrylic paint and sealer. I completely understand your point about regular altering being an art form, and I think that is why people are so against this.
Also, I believe the video shows that the cards are only .4 grams heavier and 1 mm thicker. Who can really notice this difference? After all, altering a card with paint causes an increase in size similar or great to this. Why would digital alters that can prove that it is the originally that card not be allowed while painted alters are?