imagine the cards in your library are game objects
they are numbered from the top (1, 2, 3, 4, etc)
most of them are hidden because the zone is hidden
however, Courser has you reveal #1 so everyone can see it
Grisly Salvage doesn't do anything at first with the five cards, you turn them all faceup, but they are still in your library in the same order, card #1 happens to have two effects telling you to reveal it, Salvage also has you show cards #2 to #5 as well.
You choose one of the five cards to put in your hand (assuming you reveal a creature or a land) and then the other 4 cards get put in the graveyard and Salvage finishes resolving and goes to the graveyard from the stack.
now card #6 is the top card of your library so it gets revealed via Courser's effect
in fact, card #6 is revealed during the resolution of grisly salvage, the moment it's the top card of the library. this information can be used to affect your choice of card for grisly salvage, as well as informing you if courser will in fact be finding you a land at the top of your deck.
Its just 2.
You have to think of devotion as if it cares about mana units. Hybrid mana is still one single "circle".
by that logic, wouldn't boros reckoner only give xenagos 1.5 devotion?
gray merchant reads: (Each Black in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.) i know reminder text isn't rules text, but it sounds like you're not saying this is the appropriate method for determining devotion. it sounds like you think devotion means (Each mana symbol in the mana costs of permanents you control which contains either red or green counts toward your devotion to red and green.)
Look at it this way. With BTE and Xenagos out, my devotion to green is 3 and my devotion to red is 3. it is hard for me to understand, then, how my devotion to red and green is not 6.
He drops vengevine and swings at Mindsculptor, putting him to 1.
I use my -1 to bounce vengevine, then memoricide naming vengevine.
He had two others in his hand.
So my opponent brainstorms with Jace TMS. On my turn I cast Vengevine but he mana leaks it. I then play Forest, Llanowar Elf, trigger Vengevine, kill Jace.
All in all, for two mana it's hard to do worse. For one mana, Dismemeber and Disfigure are in vogue, Vendetta being a mostly unplayable third option.
Frankly, I'd play the third Dismember before I played the first Victim of Night, but maybe 4 life is too much for you. Full disclosure: my list doesn't run spot removal. We already have 4 smallpox and 4 liliana of the veil (I also run 2-3 Funeral Charms).
I've also been testing Slay, but I have no mentionable results as of yet and it is probably best to disregard that I ever said this.
I guess I wasn't around for it but a Faerie per turn doesn't seem too broken to me...it'd do great w/ faerie tribal I guess?
Spellstutter Sprite, a 2 mana 1/1 flyer with flash that can counter any spell, Mistbind Clique, a 4/4 flash flyer than denies your opponent a turn AND can turn off your BB if you're getting low on life, Peppersmoke, 1 mana removal that cantrips. I'm probably forgetting some things but the deck really was just bonkers and turn 2 BB was a massive part of that.
With the banned list change coming up, if in the extremely unlikely event Bitterblossom gets unbanned, what would it mean for 8Rack?
Personally I would run a few copies at least. Any notion of Bob would be history for me. BB would generate a lot of advantage, while taking pressure off Bridge, Racks and Lili. The Faeries fly and can always attack. Our discard coudl be used to protect a BB.
I think it would be quite strong.
Bitterblossom is in no way comparable to Dark Confidant, except that they cost the same and both provide incremental advantage that can eventually win you the game. Bitterblossom is a lot more comparable to Ensnaring Bridge, except that it doesn't just sit there doing nothing and can instead attack your opponent.
However, it's moot. Bitterblossom was a problem in standard. In modern? Multiply that by 10 (or however many more cards are in modern than in standard (500 vs 5,000?)). Its power level is too high.
If you're playing 22 land and you're playing 1 urborg, you're playing 4 urborg. Test it before you dismiss it. You'll be glad you did. Not drawing urborg is A LOT worse than drawing 2. Honestly, I'd play 5 or 6 if rules allowed. There's something about playing black spells that gets a lot easier if your lands tap for black.
That's what I was referring to with saying "Lotus Petal", but your snideness is appreciated.
New legend rule turns extra legendary lands into essentially Lotus Petals, whereas under the old rules they would both be sacrificed.
you'd be surprised how rarely having to lotus petal yourself comes up. if you're playing mono black, obviously don't play urborg. it fixes your opponent and is an unnecessary legendary swamp. but if you play 3+ (really 1+, but I'm willing to feign leniency) colorless lands then you're going to want all four urborgs. and you'll surprise yourself how often you just sac the extra copy to smallpox or discard it to raven's crime or liliana or just bite the bullet and lotus petal yourself and still not really miss a beat.
personally, I play flagstones, and let me tell you, going turn 1 urborg+discard, turn 2 flagstones+smallpox is a thing of beauty.
theres so much top decking going on for all of the non land cards, i'm kind of wondering if temporal mastery might do something for the blue splash of the deck?
some spots like recross the path and search for tomorrow seems to be disputed for whether something else should be used in there space. I.E. fabricate in previous blue splash list. I even went as far as to mention street wraith.
I'm just trying to understand. Smother seems better. (Also smother kills all manlands which doom blade doesn't.)
in fact, card #6 is revealed during the resolution of grisly salvage, the moment it's the top card of the library. this information can be used to affect your choice of card for grisly salvage, as well as informing you if courser will in fact be finding you a land at the top of your deck.
by that logic, wouldn't boros reckoner only give xenagos 1.5 devotion?
gray merchant reads: (Each Black in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.) i know reminder text isn't rules text, but it sounds like you're not saying this is the appropriate method for determining devotion. it sounds like you think devotion means (Each mana symbol in the mana costs of permanents you control which contains either red or green counts toward your devotion to red and green.)
Look at it this way. With BTE and Xenagos out, my devotion to green is 3 and my devotion to red is 3. it is hard for me to understand, then, how my devotion to red and green is not 6.
So my opponent brainstorms with Jace TMS. On my turn I cast Vengevine but he mana leaks it. I then play Forest, Llanowar Elf, trigger Vengevine, kill Jace.
That guy you can't kill
That other guy you can't kill
That guy your opponent wants you to kill
That Vampire Lord Nobody Plays
That 2/2 for 4
Chameleon Colossus isn't killed by either, mostly because of the whole pro black thing.
All in all, for two mana it's hard to do worse. For one mana, Dismemeber and Disfigure are in vogue, Vendetta being a mostly unplayable third option.
Frankly, I'd play the third Dismember before I played the first Victim of Night, but maybe 4 life is too much for you. Full disclosure: my list doesn't run spot removal. We already have 4 smallpox and 4 liliana of the veil (I also run 2-3 Funeral Charms).
I've also been testing Slay, but I have no mentionable results as of yet and it is probably best to disregard that I ever said this.
Spellstutter Sprite, a 2 mana 1/1 flyer with flash that can counter any spell, Mistbind Clique, a 4/4 flash flyer than denies your opponent a turn AND can turn off your BB if you're getting low on life, Peppersmoke, 1 mana removal that cantrips. I'm probably forgetting some things but the deck really was just bonkers and turn 2 BB was a massive part of that.
Bitterblossom is in no way comparable to Dark Confidant, except that they cost the same and both provide incremental advantage that can eventually win you the game. Bitterblossom is a lot more comparable to Ensnaring Bridge, except that it doesn't just sit there doing nothing and can instead attack your opponent.
However, it's moot. Bitterblossom was a problem in standard. In modern? Multiply that by 10 (or however many more cards are in modern than in standard (500 vs 5,000?)). Its power level is too high.
round 1 is against 8rack. pilot seems mostly awful. haven't finished watching. just letting you guys know.
you'd be surprised how rarely having to lotus petal yourself comes up. if you're playing mono black, obviously don't play urborg. it fixes your opponent and is an unnecessary legendary swamp. but if you play 3+ (really 1+, but I'm willing to feign leniency) colorless lands then you're going to want all four urborgs. and you'll surprise yourself how often you just sac the extra copy to smallpox or discard it to raven's crime or liliana or just bite the bullet and lotus petal yourself and still not really miss a beat.
personally, I play flagstones, and let me tell you, going turn 1 urborg+discard, turn 2 flagstones+smallpox is a thing of beauty.
if street wraith is good, gitaxian probe is better.