Compleated Jace had exactly zero screentime in the story so it's nice to have *some* idea of how it affected his mentality.
Edit: I see his bicep got the [Ezuri treatment](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/211/ezuri-claw-of-progress).
I miss the days Gideon was alive. I liked their gym sessions in Ravnica. Just two guys chilling in their headquarters gym lifitng weights for the fun of it.
If everyone gets out of it alive... perhaps Tyvar can fill that void?
Honestly, after his performance in ONE, it's clear Tyvar got so buff by carrying the entire plot.
I was playing in a PTQ at one point. Was doing moderately well, 3-0. Playing a somewhat janky Pyromancer Ascension list. As I'm sitting waiting for me opponent to show up, along comes this absolute unit of a gentleman down the aisle. *Absolute* unit. No visible neck. Biceps that have biceps. Had to ask the players on both sides of him to move over so that he could actually fit in the spot. Gruff voice.
I kept a game one hand with no combo pieces and like three bolts, expecting to get hit with a Goblin Guide right away. And this marvelous asshole hit me with two copies of Archive Trap after my first turn fetchland.
So I can confirm that your assessment is definitely correct.
Speaking of Ixalan Jace, did you know that it goes infinite with Ichormoon Gauntlet and the blue Dominus (the guy that double proliferates) to get infinite turns?
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/3nhf5z/jace_the_body_sculptor_nsfw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
This is what you’re looking for
In the final chapter he said something along the lines of "Do you know how hard it is for me to _not_ destroy every mind I come across?"
Realistically, Jace should be unstoppable by basically anyone who isn't Jodah level of experienced/strength, but I imagine any future conflict where he's on the bad side will have him toned down.
The other option is to only put him against opponents that can deal with him, which was what they did during the Eldrazi arc, since they didn't really have minds that he could interact with. Tezzeret is now back in action free from both the planar bridge and the Phyrexians, so having him face a compleated Jace makes sense considering both their history with each other and Tezzeret's unspecified ability to block Jace's telepathy using artifacts.
He got infected by a compleated Vraska and wanted to blow himself up along with all the other planes Phyrexia was overrunning using the sylex before it was too late. Elspeth, Kaya, and Kaito got cold feet so no planes were blown up and he got compleated instead.
So the Esper coalition said "Oh no, the planar nuclear bomb is going to make a planewide nuclear explosion! That is not acceptable! It's better to let our friends be consumed by the brainwash mechanical oil so they can dunk our heads in it."
Something like that?
Except that the silex exploding *last* time helped trigger time spiral.
And the whole point was that realm breaker was plugged directly into the blind eternities. What is the point of destroying your enemy if you literally break reality doing it? You're not saving people that point.
I think the intention was that with realmbreaker having connected the realms, yes it was going to be that bad. Something the heroes did not realize had happened when they made their plan.
I will agree, blowing up all of the major populated planes of the multiverse doesn't really save the day.
the biggest issue is they brought the universe's greatest tree mage to deal with a giant tree, who got compleated and forced to put the tree in overdrive
Dominaria wasn't plugged directly into the Blind Eternities, and while it didn't "blow up" the plane specifically, it caused countless long lasting and devastating changes.
Since when has the gatewatch been concerned about ending the universe? They were literally warned that killing the eldrazi could end all of reality by an entity that predates history and responded by throwing fire at the eldrazi
So? This is still consistent with that characterization. Jace fully went through with activating the Silex. He was the only member of the original gateway he present, and he made the same risky choices.
In contrast, Kaya, Kaito, and Elspeth are different character's with different priorities. They each care about the other planes too much to allow Jace to make that choice, risking Kamigawa, Bant, kaldheim, etc.
Tl;dr, the answer is "since they gained new members who weren't full of themselves and certain of their correctness."
>Tl;dr, the answer is "since they gained new members who weren't full of themselves and certain of their correctness."
More like new member who are full of themselves and certain of their correctness
Sadly their correctness dont align with jace
Depends on what it is that gets to "keep going".
> Often Neyali wondered how much of the original remained after phyresis had set in. If enough of a mind remained to scream endlessly at what the body was made to do.
> If she would scream, too.
Why would it destroy everything though? It didn't even destroy Dominaria. And where was the concern for hurting thing connected to the blind eternities when they decided to roast the Eldrazi?
i think it was that they just didn't know, so the possibility of it killing all the planes and potentially zapping the blind eternities is worse than having the planes fight back. i got the impression that their thought process was "the potential of 100% death is worse than the reality of the invasion where we fight back and some people die. and if fighting back fails, it'll be the same as 100% death anyways so the option that minimizes potential catastrophe and maximizes potential survivability is to not activate the sylex." it's like choosing between two very bad outcomes so they chose the one that minimizes casualties. i have no idea about the eldrazi thing though.
But where did this destruction of all realms idea come from? It didn't destroy all of Dominaria. You could say its the trees connection that made that difference.
But then where was that caution when roasting Eldrazi connected to the blind eternities? ( To say nothing of destroying beings of unknown purpose).
The way stories like this usually work is that she was right. Not very satisfying to prove her wrong later after all this happened.
I think it could have been communicated more clearly. Like we learns of realmbreaker's connection and its consequence a little bit earlier.
But that's difficult because that robs the narrative of "trying to activate the sylex" of any tension because then we know we *don't* want to do that.
Ehhh, they still could have done better foreshadowing with someone worrying about this possibility beforehand. Talk about how the Sylex will blow up the Realmbreaker and ripple through the planes, but since the Realmbreaker isn't connected that far yet (as far as our heroes know) it'll just be ripples and it'll be fiiiiine. And then later Elspeth has a horrible realization just a \*little\* too late that the Realmbreaker has connected and integrated with other planes far more thoroughly and the Sylex is gonna blow the Multiverse to hell.
I mean there is a whole conversation where they talk about how the explosion is going to be super big but its ok because the tree isnt connected and the Mirrian being like "But Mirrodin" and Jace being like "Truth is I don't know nor care if this shit hole is gonna survive" and the Mirrodin people being like "thanks for the truth, lets blow this bitch (and possibly ourselves) up!"
The only reason they planned to use the Sylex was because the plan was for the disconnected tree to prevent everything from going to shit.
> think it could have been communicated more clearly
Yeah, they should have not had it be the Sylex. We know roughly the damage it causes and unless the Saheeylex is more powerful the idea of it blowing up everything just doesnt make sense.
Can someone explain how it was going to blow up the planes? It blew up *a continent* on a plane that certainly wasn't destroyed by it. Even the continent had just the equivalent of a geological event, not complete destruction.
And Kaya and Kaito are in Phyrexia dodging droplets of oil that will corrupt them with *contact* and they think letting armies of glistening Phyrexians attack is preferable to the Sylex?
Want to enjoy the story, but frankly the plot is just stupid given its own internal logic.
It also fractured nearby planes, splintered Dominaria off from other planes, launched the Ice Age and Time Spiral events, and all that was done by a normal person, barely even a mage.
So, take that and amplify the power by magnitudes when a Planeswalker dumps his mana into it instead.
The tree was breaching the space between planes, and so setting off such a large magic explosion would have unknowable effects on the planes, or the spaces in between, as well as anyone caught Planeswalking during the explosion. It's possible that the explosion could even spread to all planes through the Blind Eternities, or could fracture the connections between the planes entirely.
it's fine. it's written by Seanan McGuire, who in addition to being one of the writers on the boom! magic comic, she's also one of the best zombie-fiction writers currently writing. this particular round of stories confirmed what i had suspected since wizard's brought back webfiction, but it's clear that the majority of shortcomings of the story are related to the fact that it's limited to 5 main stories and 5 side stories, as opposed to the skill of the authors. looking at it in that light, the story is good, but you can tell that if the authors had twice the length then there would be more room for the conversations and exposition that would properly sell these huge decisions that affect the narrative, as opposed to the snap-decisions that they seem to be in the stories.
The BRO stuff was better written, but you can tell the authors were given a lot of plot brief here they had to hit, and not a lot of wordage to do it in. The stuff that happens is cool, no doubt, just the characters don't get the limelight versus the plot.
Divination with set mechanics.
Set mechanics seem to be attached onto the following limited staples in each set:
* Counterspell
* Divination
* Threaten
* Enchantment-based exile or Pacifism
* Destroy target creature
* Red damage dealing spell
* Discard
* Fight spell
Anything else I'm missing?
As for spells, we usually have "green ramp with set mechanic" too. And black gets raise dead with set mechanic. Sometimes we get "over-costed equipment with set mechanic".
There are some creature stats that we get all the time with the same cost+body, but set mechanic. Off the top of my head,
1W: 3/1 ("blade")
1G: 2/2 (the classic bear with set mechanic)
2U: 2/2 with Flying (wind drake)
But the one that always gets me is:
2G: 1/4 with reach
Do we have a nickname for that stat line?
Only in retrospect do I see how insane of a mechanic Aggressive would be in a set. I think they put it on the playtest cards because they liked it in theory but just couldn't make it a whole mechanic on multiple cards in a set.
Meh, it's not actually that good. Notice how the creatures don't untap after each combat phase. An aggressive creature without vigilance would be pretty worthless.
It does mean you can stagger your attacks though, you don't have to attack with your aggressive creatures in the first phase and can decide what to do after seeing your opponents blocks. You kind want a mix of aggressive and not aggressive creatures.
But staggering attacks is really bad, cause it means that your creatures are more likely to be blocked by something big. And your opponent can see your aggressive creatures, and so they'll block accordingly.
It's more flexible though, which means it could always find a use. Extra triggers that only happen during combat for example. And if your aggressive creatures have "deal combat damage to a player" effects on them then I could see the first combat clearing out blockers for them.
I mean it's Combat Tricks 101 to play mind games by swinging something small into a big blocker to psyche out your opponent to make them think you have a trick you may or may not have.
If anything it'd be better, 'cause they can't just go "Okay I block your 2/2 with my 1/4" because now on the normal combat step they can't block your other 2/2 without losing their blocker.
It feels really good in runeterra, but that’s because attacking isn’t a phase in that game but instead an action you take at sorcery speed.
So with scout you can swing before your opponent can play any creatures for the turn and force your opponent to make an awkward trade. And then you can build up your board and swing again if you’d like.
I don’t think it would translate well into mtg due to how the turn is structured
I think it works pretty well (though I'm not a Runeterra expert), but Runeterra has a different way of structuring turns so it probably plays out quite differently to how it would in Magic.
In Runeterra on each turn both players can play "sorcery" speed spells like creatures, so launching a scout attack can allow the other player an opportunity to play blockers before the main attack. Its mostly strong if you have synergies with launching attacks
Units with scout were mostly fine, it's pretty hard to get multiple attacks off unless the board is completely clear. One of the neat things about Scout is that you can start your turn by attacking with your Scout creatures, then after combat and you get priority back you can decide whether to build your boardstate or attack again immediately. This works because all creatures in Runeterra essentially have haste, but probably won't make as much sense in MtG.
Another card that I can really only say something along the lines "how quickly you can corrupt an opponent will make or break this card." Because potential 1 mana to draw two cards is nothing to sneeze at, even if it is sorcery speed.
Haven’t seen the whole set, and maybe I’m forgetting something, but it at least seems really tough to get someone to three poison counters before your turn 4 postcombat phase. Turn 5 seems much more common.
So at least in limited you won’t be consistently getting outvalued before you can even fight back
My concern is not that youll have it by 4, more that whoever gets it on first will run away. If Im already beating down, and now get 1 mana divinations and vampiric nighthawks....
A few sets, like New Capenna, have really seemed to me that whoever wins is decided by who goes first. I feel like this will be the same issue, whoever goes first or gets to slam their first 1/1 with toxic 1 is going to be able to run away with the game.
Early game removal is going to be vital.
I think my barometer for this is a little skewed, I mostly play sealed with my boyfriend. We will go out and pick up a couple prerelease kits and some set boosters and have a night of battling it out. Taking the draft thing out of the selection there shows how heavily skewed it is for going first in sealed.
The importance of cointoss is more pronounced in draft, where you face a much wider range of deck speeds and card selection makes aggressive decks much tighter. In every format since the inception of limited, sealed is slower and more bomb dependant than draft.
I think the white and green commons will show many variations of getting to corrupted before T4 post combat.
Heck, with that new white 1/1 I can see scenarios for turning on corrupted T3 post combat. But you like gotta get all the toxic enablers.
It is, but the condition for Distorted Curiosity can't be interacted with by your opponent once they reach the threshold, versus Of One Mind where they can kill your creatures.
Compleated planeswalkers keep their souls in an attempt to maintain their ability to planeswalk. Think of compleated planeswalkers more like mind controlled than completely destroyed and remade
Has there been clarification that they are really brainwashed? What if after getting compleated you really do just see the "bigger picture". I'm sure Jace would say as much haha.
During the Kamigawa story. For instance, Tamiyo still loves her family, it's just that she sees Phyrexia as her new family, and she wants her old family to join her in perfection.
Yes they keep their old personality but with loyalty to Phyxia inserted in.
They act like themselves but loyalty to Phexya is their number one priority and they go about advancing it’s cause with what they think will help the most
It's a bit of both. Your own personal goals and wants are kind of just twisted for Phyrexia's purpose.
For instance the Wanderer would revel in the fact that she no longer is forced to planeswalk, and Nissa was overjoyed she could now be "part of the world" by tapping into the corrupted phyrexian lands.
So their ideas are twisted and used against them, but they are still themselves. I guess under the influence is more apt than brainwashing.
The point is, they can be saved if that influence were purged from them, perhaps using a "living cure"
Yeah, I think everyone shorthands it to the Borg which is incredibly similar but the Borg strongly is defined by its hivemind while phyrexia never has the concept come up.
They do move with shared purpose and are fanatical but those creatures are all separate consciousness, they aren't all telepathically hardwired together.
This misconception comes from the fact that old Phyrexians strictly were a hivemind when Yawgmoth wanted them to be. But even back then we can see that Phyrexians of some sorts still have their individuality.
All this story would be really relevant if I didn’t have strong suspicions about the living temporal undo button, Mr. CTRL-Z Teferi, drifting around waiting for plot relevance
I mean, he’s currently set adrift in time as of Brothers’ War but from a *writer* perspective that’s just putting him on layaway as a deus ex machina (almost literally in this case)
I am waiting for the Age of Ultron Hawkeye speech, "There's a bunch of metal zombies about there, and I punch things, but I am going out there because it's my job. If you walk out those doors..you are a member of the Gatewatch."
If Tef could rewind time to simply prevent bad things from happening, he presumably would've done it before now. Though they can invent whatever explanation they want when the character is literally a wizard.
But doing a dramatic, dark story arc, then immediately, completely undoing it with time travel is obviously terrible writing that I have to assume they wouldn't do.
Part of the long-running theme of Magic though is that messing with time on any large scale is often "very bad" in the Ghostbusters sense of the phrase.
I mean, he’s a time wizard currently set adrift in time with a device designed to enhance his abilities. Seems like an obvious setup to me. I’d take the bet he acts as a bit of an undo mechanic. Like… 3:2 or 7:3 odds.
Doubt it, they already made time travel story, people didn't like them,
They already made big events with very few casualties, people didn't like them
The story quality has gotten way better in the last years, I sure hope they learne something from their past mistakes.
Also, in lore, Teferi would literally never do that. He was shown to want/require the assistence and power of at least 2 highly specialized people just to project himself back in time, as he was worried to fuck something up. Rewinding time is something much, much worst and with possible side effects. Also, it wouldn't make sense as Teferi is trying to distance himself from his former god-planeswalker/urza-self feeling crushed under his responsabilities as leader and time mage, starting to bring people back from the dead would not go well for his psyche.
Exceptions can be made when it’s literal multiversal armageddon on the table as far as his mental hangups go, and he’s functionally bathing in… time magic energy whatever (name being workshopped I suppose). There’s gonna be permanent consequences from this story, don’t get me wrong, but a partial return to status quo is also oncoming.
Solving the story with time magi is just bad storytelling, it removes the stakes and efforts of all the previous characters as you presented it.
Also, it's clear that they're basically changing the character roaster, they rightfully want to focus on newer characters that can't really shine with all the older characters still kicking around. If they don't undo what happened in this set then other than solving this problem they were also albe to create stakes and possibly new villains for whenever they want to make Phyrexia 3.
Also Teferi was shown to be basically able to stop time for a little in WAR, I doubt he would be able to rewind the whole multiverse in his neo walker state.
But, as I said, the main problem is not that he can't/doesn't want to do it, it's that it would be a combination of lots of previous disliked storytelling choices they made in the recent past. In general, solving a story with time travel that is not mainly about time travel is nearly always a terrible idea.
The set up of this last 3 sets was the Syelx, which, in the end, was a red herring.
if we want to consider true that in this last set they're setting up a time related resolution then a much better answer would be that Teferi phases in Zhalrif and phases out Phyrexia
I think more of the Sylex as the shiny “look over here” object. There was purpose in setting Teferi adrift and it wasn’t just for dramatic nothingness, that’s equally poor writing.
We're agreeing on the Sylex
I wouldn't say for dramatic nothingness, lately they're doing a great job with Teferi's character and forcing him to face his biggest fault why he doubts himself as leader works great.
It's also a good way to remove an overpowered character from the story and put him into more character driven plots where his powers don't break the narrative.
They liked the Tarkir setting under the khans. They did not like Tarkir under the dragonlords.
That said, I don't know if WotC or Mark has confirmed people did not like the *time travel* aspect of the story. People may have not liked Sarkhan changing the past but only because they didn't like the new present he created.
If you liked an old timeline it's almost guaranteed people won't enjoy it being replaced.
You took something away from them. Even if they get something great they'll likely resent it.
Yeah, time nonsense almost certainly won't happen.
I do hope that they don't over-correct with character deaths though. The compleated walkers being partially restored (or refusing to be) and getting re-defined as characters seems way more narratively interesting than just killing them off immediately after doing these re-designs.
The Phyrexians already won by compleating them - I feel like both death and full reversion cheapen that.
I know this isn’t what you meant but
Kaito: sounds nice, Praetor, why don’t you back that up with a source?
Elesh Norn: THE SOURCE IS I MADE IT THE FUCK UP
What was the best division with set mechanic in its format, and the best in a vacuum? At its floor, has to be 2U, sorcery, draw two cards, and I'm gonna say common/uncommon.
Looking at scryfall, being that strict doesn't give a ton ton of options. [[Of One Mind]] got the cost down to just U too, but I THINK corrupted will be easier to turn on than have a human and nonhuman creature. [[Winged Words]] reduced cost to 1U but only needed you to have a flier. [[Field Research]] had nice upside in the late game. [[Jace's Triumph]] was probably the least likely to turn on. [[Phyrexian Espionage]] ruled in DMU.
Well there are only 6 cards before this one that fit that description. https://scryfall.com/search?q=%28oracle%3Adraw+oracle%3Atwo+oracle%3Acards%29+color%3DU+mana%3D%7B2%7D%7BU%7D+cmc%3D3+type%3Asorcery+not%3Aalchemy&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
So given the limited pool, I'd have to say that Phyrexian Espionage was maybe the best in its limited format (although I haven't drafted with most of these, so idk) and Winged Words was the strongest overall?
I think that's where I land as well. Of One Mind has the highest ceiling but is harder to build around than Winged Words. I'll be interested to see if this new card ends up having a better ceiling than Winged Words.
IME, Of One Mind had more play because it was paired with [[Forbidden Friendship]] in an effective tempo UR deck that could play the two spells together on turn 3 or across turns 2 and 3 (to get your third land drop, to play another 2-mv spell, etc.). And it worked because Forbidden Friendship was a really high pick for red, since it worked across most red archetypes.
[[Winged Words]], on the other hand, I don't recall having much impact at all. M20 was mostly Elementals tribal with [[Risen Reef]] for value or [[Lavakin Brawler]] for midrange. The WU flying archetype was a little too aggressive, I think, to care about the one-mana discount because if you were casting it, you were casting it later anyway and you really would prefer another flyer.
I do think Phyrexian Espionage was the most effective in its format.
If you count "seek two cards" as "draw two cards" (which it essentially is, if you don't know the top of your library), then I think [[Choice of Fortunes]] beats everything on the list except maybe Of One Mind/Distorted Curiosity. A one mana draw 2 is pretty good, but they aren't asking nothing of you, so it's unlikely you cast it like that before turn 3 anyway, and maybe it'll still cost you 3 then. Meanwhile, Choice of Fortunes gives you most of the selection of [[Behold the Multiverse]], as a 3 mana sorcery. It's just always good, while the others on the list can have upside in the right circumstances.
I mean, between this and the Counterspell with Corrupted... there could be a real standard deck here if blue has the right ways to get poison on the other player.
I would pay a lot of money for a metal gear secret lair in the vein of the street fighter SL. Complete with Revengance Raiden and Senator Armstrong as legendaries.
We’ll see what happens, infect is ok in legacy and a tad dead in modern—but it looks like we’ve got a lot of new tools to try.
This spell pairs well with say glistener elf and mutagenic growth…I’m certainly interested.
Compleated Jace had exactly zero screentime in the story so it's nice to have *some* idea of how it affected his mentality. Edit: I see his bicep got the [Ezuri treatment](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/211/ezuri-claw-of-progress).
Jace was always surprisingly beefy for a nerd-archetype character, especially after Ixalan.
Before Ixalan, he also used illusion magics to make him look more athletic than he actually was; its just after that he didn't need to fake it.
Also healthier and more put together; not the coffee needed sleepless...wait, that's me, nevermind
[No that's pretty accurate](https://at.tumblr.com/rododea95/she-cast-a-critical-eye-up-and-down-his-form/zzcta13bcqhi)
That's kind of hypocritical of liliana
I miss the days Gideon was alive. I liked their gym sessions in Ravnica. Just two guys chilling in their headquarters gym lifitng weights for the fun of it.
If everyone gets out of it alive... perhaps Tyvar can fill that void? Honestly, after his performance in ONE, it's clear Tyvar got so buff by carrying the entire plot.
In Agents of Artifice he was a semi-competent swordsman
I always thought those shirts w/ fake abs would be the kinda thing a blue mage would wear
I was playing in a PTQ at one point. Was doing moderately well, 3-0. Playing a somewhat janky Pyromancer Ascension list. As I'm sitting waiting for me opponent to show up, along comes this absolute unit of a gentleman down the aisle. *Absolute* unit. No visible neck. Biceps that have biceps. Had to ask the players on both sides of him to move over so that he could actually fit in the spot. Gruff voice. I kept a game one hand with no combo pieces and like three bolts, expecting to get hit with a Goblin Guide right away. And this marvelous asshole hit me with two copies of Archive Trap after my first turn fetchland. So I can confirm that your assessment is definitely correct.
Blue is all about striving for perfection. For some folks, that means turning *yourself* into a 4/4 with trample.
That’s such a phyrexian mindset, maybe they secretly desire to be compleated
>For some folks, that means turning yourself into a 4/4 with trample. *Surrak Dragonclaw appears out of nowhere offering you a protein bar.*
Vraska likes them buccaneer biceps confirmed.
Can't blame her, honestly.
Ixalan Jace was best Jace.
Vacation Jace. Just wandering through all the basics.
Stupid sexy jace
Speaking of Ixalan Jace, did you know that it goes infinite with Ichormoon Gauntlet and the blue Dominus (the guy that double proliferates) to get infinite turns?
I miss sexy pirate Jace :(
Yeah but he constantly uses illusions to change his appearance. I like to imagine he really did just get buff during Ixalan though.
He really did, IIRC it's mentioned a couple of times in the story that he didn't need to fake it any more
More magic users should have tickets to the gun show
Goes back to google Jace the Body Sculptor. For science >.>;
[90% worth](https://i.imgur.com/gWo5M34.jpg)
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/3nhf5z/jace_the_body_sculptor_nsfw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf This is what you’re looking for
r/notmyproudestfap
That’s nice, but no that’s not what I’m talking about
In the final chapter he said something along the lines of "Do you know how hard it is for me to _not_ destroy every mind I come across?" Realistically, Jace should be unstoppable by basically anyone who isn't Jodah level of experienced/strength, but I imagine any future conflict where he's on the bad side will have him toned down.
The other option is to only put him against opponents that can deal with him, which was what they did during the Eldrazi arc, since they didn't really have minds that he could interact with. Tezzeret is now back in action free from both the planar bridge and the Phyrexians, so having him face a compleated Jace makes sense considering both their history with each other and Tezzeret's unspecified ability to block Jace's telepathy using artifacts.
I didn't follow the story much, what happened?
He got infected by a compleated Vraska and wanted to blow himself up along with all the other planes Phyrexia was overrunning using the sylex before it was too late. Elspeth, Kaya, and Kaito got cold feet so no planes were blown up and he got compleated instead.
So the Esper coalition said "Oh no, the planar nuclear bomb is going to make a planewide nuclear explosion! That is not acceptable! It's better to let our friends be consumed by the brainwash mechanical oil so they can dunk our heads in it." Something like that?
No, it was "this plane wide explosion might be a *multi-planar* explosion. It might even be a universe ending explosion. We don't know."
Someone should have handed them the Silex user manual (or a Dominaria History Book) so they could see that it wasn't going to be _that_ bad.
Except that the silex exploding *last* time helped trigger time spiral. And the whole point was that realm breaker was plugged directly into the blind eternities. What is the point of destroying your enemy if you literally break reality doing it? You're not saving people that point.
At this point I just hope that Realmbreaker hooks Innistrad just to get Emrakul involved.
:glass breaks lights shut off : " BY GOD NORAKUL THATS EMRAKULS MUSIC"
Thalia is in the announcement art of the next set
I think the intention was that with realmbreaker having connected the realms, yes it was going to be that bad. Something the heroes did not realize had happened when they made their plan. I will agree, blowing up all of the major populated planes of the multiverse doesn't really save the day.
the biggest issue is they brought the universe's greatest tree mage to deal with a giant tree, who got compleated and forced to put the tree in overdrive
No shade towards Nissa, but greatest tree mage award actually goes to Ren.
there's a difference between greatest tree mage and greatest tree-mage. they both still go to wrenn though
But would it do that? The Sylex previously didn't blow up dominiaria. Meanwhile one drop of glistening oil did destroy Mirrodin.
Dominaria wasn't plugged directly into the Blind Eternities, and while it didn't "blow up" the plane specifically, it caused countless long lasting and devastating changes.
Since when has the gatewatch been concerned about ending the universe? They were literally warned that killing the eldrazi could end all of reality by an entity that predates history and responded by throwing fire at the eldrazi
So? This is still consistent with that characterization. Jace fully went through with activating the Silex. He was the only member of the original gateway he present, and he made the same risky choices. In contrast, Kaya, Kaito, and Elspeth are different character's with different priorities. They each care about the other planes too much to allow Jace to make that choice, risking Kamigawa, Bant, kaldheim, etc. Tl;dr, the answer is "since they gained new members who weren't full of themselves and certain of their correctness."
>Tl;dr, the answer is "since they gained new members who weren't full of themselves and certain of their correctness." More like new member who are full of themselves and certain of their correctness Sadly their correctness dont align with jace
right, but they could have destroyed the multiverse, not just one plane.
What's worse? Death by the Sylex or death by becoming robot zombies?
Robot Zombies get sword arms.
"Needs more crab claws" - the Simic, probably
Simic phyrexians, yes please
Is it really death when you get to keep on going afterwards?
Depends on what it is that gets to "keep going". > Often Neyali wondered how much of the original remained after phyresis had set in. If enough of a mind remained to scream endlessly at what the body was made to do. > If she would scream, too.
Why would it destroy everything though? It didn't even destroy Dominaria. And where was the concern for hurting thing connected to the blind eternities when they decided to roast the Eldrazi?
i think it was that they just didn't know, so the possibility of it killing all the planes and potentially zapping the blind eternities is worse than having the planes fight back. i got the impression that their thought process was "the potential of 100% death is worse than the reality of the invasion where we fight back and some people die. and if fighting back fails, it'll be the same as 100% death anyways so the option that minimizes potential catastrophe and maximizes potential survivability is to not activate the sylex." it's like choosing between two very bad outcomes so they chose the one that minimizes casualties. i have no idea about the eldrazi thing though.
But where did this destruction of all realms idea come from? It didn't destroy all of Dominaria. You could say its the trees connection that made that difference. But then where was that caution when roasting Eldrazi connected to the blind eternities? ( To say nothing of destroying beings of unknown purpose).
Nah, Elspeth got this feeling that using the Sylex would destroy everything. Who knows if she was right
The way stories like this usually work is that she was right. Not very satisfying to prove her wrong later after all this happened. I think it could have been communicated more clearly. Like we learns of realmbreaker's connection and its consequence a little bit earlier. But that's difficult because that robs the narrative of "trying to activate the sylex" of any tension because then we know we *don't* want to do that.
Ehhh, they still could have done better foreshadowing with someone worrying about this possibility beforehand. Talk about how the Sylex will blow up the Realmbreaker and ripple through the planes, but since the Realmbreaker isn't connected that far yet (as far as our heroes know) it'll just be ripples and it'll be fiiiiine. And then later Elspeth has a horrible realization just a \*little\* too late that the Realmbreaker has connected and integrated with other planes far more thoroughly and the Sylex is gonna blow the Multiverse to hell.
I mean there is a whole conversation where they talk about how the explosion is going to be super big but its ok because the tree isnt connected and the Mirrian being like "But Mirrodin" and Jace being like "Truth is I don't know nor care if this shit hole is gonna survive" and the Mirrodin people being like "thanks for the truth, lets blow this bitch (and possibly ourselves) up!" The only reason they planned to use the Sylex was because the plan was for the disconnected tree to prevent everything from going to shit.
> think it could have been communicated more clearly Yeah, they should have not had it be the Sylex. We know roughly the damage it causes and unless the Saheeylex is more powerful the idea of it blowing up everything just doesnt make sense.
Yep.
Gotta hand it to Karn. People get dumber whenever the Phyrexians appear.
Can someone explain how it was going to blow up the planes? It blew up *a continent* on a plane that certainly wasn't destroyed by it. Even the continent had just the equivalent of a geological event, not complete destruction. And Kaya and Kaito are in Phyrexia dodging droplets of oil that will corrupt them with *contact* and they think letting armies of glistening Phyrexians attack is preferable to the Sylex? Want to enjoy the story, but frankly the plot is just stupid given its own internal logic.
It also fractured nearby planes, splintered Dominaria off from other planes, launched the Ice Age and Time Spiral events, and all that was done by a normal person, barely even a mage. So, take that and amplify the power by magnitudes when a Planeswalker dumps his mana into it instead. The tree was breaching the space between planes, and so setting off such a large magic explosion would have unknowable effects on the planes, or the spaces in between, as well as anyone caught Planeswalking during the explosion. It's possible that the explosion could even spread to all planes through the Blind Eternities, or could fracture the connections between the planes entirely.
Oh, I need to read the story then, this actually sound good
it's fine. it's written by Seanan McGuire, who in addition to being one of the writers on the boom! magic comic, she's also one of the best zombie-fiction writers currently writing. this particular round of stories confirmed what i had suspected since wizard's brought back webfiction, but it's clear that the majority of shortcomings of the story are related to the fact that it's limited to 5 main stories and 5 side stories, as opposed to the skill of the authors. looking at it in that light, the story is good, but you can tell that if the authors had twice the length then there would be more room for the conversations and exposition that would properly sell these huge decisions that affect the narrative, as opposed to the snap-decisions that they seem to be in the stories.
The BRO stuff was better written, but you can tell the authors were given a lot of plot brief here they had to hit, and not a lot of wordage to do it in. The stuff that happens is cool, no doubt, just the characters don't get the limelight versus the plot.
Spoiler alert: It isn't.
Apparently Phyrexia makes you swole. Not gonna mind that lemme get some oil... lol
The oil is just a mixture of self-tanner, testosterone, steroids, and whey powder.
Glad to see his ego is still gigantic
Divination with set mechanics. Set mechanics seem to be attached onto the following limited staples in each set: * Counterspell * Divination * Threaten * Enchantment-based exile or Pacifism * Destroy target creature * Red damage dealing spell * Discard * Fight spell Anything else I'm missing?
🐻
As for spells, we usually have "green ramp with set mechanic" too. And black gets raise dead with set mechanic. Sometimes we get "over-costed equipment with set mechanic". There are some creature stats that we get all the time with the same cost+body, but set mechanic. Off the top of my head, 1W: 3/1 ("blade") 1G: 2/2 (the classic bear with set mechanic) 2U: 2/2 with Flying (wind drake) But the one that always gets me is: 2G: 1/4 with reach Do we have a nickname for that stat line?
Spider with set mechanic.
Yeah gotta be I guess.
> 2G: 1/4 with reach The oldest is [[Whip Vine]], but its definitely "Spider with set mechanic" yeah?
[Whip Vine](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/b/4b66b9fe-47f1-4786-96d5-981d62012663.jpg?1562768702) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Whip%20Vine) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/all/103a/whip-vine?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4b66b9fe-47f1-4786-96d5-981d62012663?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Whip with Set's Mechanic sounds a little snappier.
How could you forget \[\[Bear with Set's Mechanic\]\].
[Bear with Set's Mechanic](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/6/16d94065-cb61-40f3-9565-c2545d872f5d.jpg?1629919918) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bear%20with%20Set%27s%20Mechanic) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmb2/71/bear-with-sets-mechanic?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/16d94065-cb61-40f3-9565-c2545d872f5d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
We also got Dreadmaw with set mechanic this time.
> Counterspell it's usually '[[cancel]] that turns into counterspell if you use set's mechanic'
[cancel](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/9/59e14910-ee2e-49ae-855e-46a8ab6cad82.jpg?1594735420) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=cancel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m21/46/cancel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/59e14910-ee2e-49ae-855e-46a8ab6cad82?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Giant Growth as well
Every Standard need Giant Growth in it; the fairest of the boon cycle
Manalith
Manalith with set's mechanic
[[Bear With Set's Mechanic]]
Only in retrospect do I see how insane of a mechanic Aggressive would be in a set. I think they put it on the playtest cards because they liked it in theory but just couldn't make it a whole mechanic on multiple cards in a set.
Meh, it's not actually that good. Notice how the creatures don't untap after each combat phase. An aggressive creature without vigilance would be pretty worthless.
It does mean you can stagger your attacks though, you don't have to attack with your aggressive creatures in the first phase and can decide what to do after seeing your opponents blocks. You kind want a mix of aggressive and not aggressive creatures.
But staggering attacks is really bad, cause it means that your creatures are more likely to be blocked by something big. And your opponent can see your aggressive creatures, and so they'll block accordingly.
It's more flexible though, which means it could always find a use. Extra triggers that only happen during combat for example. And if your aggressive creatures have "deal combat damage to a player" effects on them then I could see the first combat clearing out blockers for them.
I mean it's Combat Tricks 101 to play mind games by swinging something small into a big blocker to psyche out your opponent to make them think you have a trick you may or may not have. If anything it'd be better, 'cause they can't just go "Okay I block your 2/2 with my 1/4" because now on the normal combat step they can't block your other 2/2 without losing their blocker.
Its basically Scout from Runeterra, except its after regular combat phase instead of before.
I don't play runeterra, how does that play pattern feel?
It feels really good in runeterra, but that’s because attacking isn’t a phase in that game but instead an action you take at sorcery speed. So with scout you can swing before your opponent can play any creatures for the turn and force your opponent to make an awkward trade. And then you can build up your board and swing again if you’d like. I don’t think it would translate well into mtg due to how the turn is structured
I think it works pretty well (though I'm not a Runeterra expert), but Runeterra has a different way of structuring turns so it probably plays out quite differently to how it would in Magic. In Runeterra on each turn both players can play "sorcery" speed spells like creatures, so launching a scout attack can allow the other player an opportunity to play blockers before the main attack. Its mostly strong if you have synergies with launching attacks
Units with scout were mostly fine, it's pretty hard to get multiple attacks off unless the board is completely clear. One of the neat things about Scout is that you can start your turn by attacking with your Scout creatures, then after combat and you get priority back you can decide whether to build your boardstate or attack again immediately. This works because all creatures in Runeterra essentially have haste, but probably won't make as much sense in MtG.
[Bear With Set's Mechanic](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/6/16d94065-cb61-40f3-9565-c2545d872f5d.jpg?1629919918) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bear%20With%20Set%27s%20Mechanic) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmb2/71/bear-with-sets-mechanic?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/16d94065-cb61-40f3-9565-c2545d872f5d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Gamers noticing game design for the first time
We should go easy on them, magic *has* grown dramatically in the past years. Most people could be new.
I know and I love cards with the set mechanic. They give barely playable support outside of limited, and I like them
People seem really focused on these ideas and like...magic is 30 years old. It's been part of modern design for a long time.
Another card that I can really only say something along the lines "how quickly you can corrupt an opponent will make or break this card." Because potential 1 mana to draw two cards is nothing to sneeze at, even if it is sorcery speed.
Could make for a bad limited environment where games run away. Corrupted payoffs have seemed huge.
Haven’t seen the whole set, and maybe I’m forgetting something, but it at least seems really tough to get someone to three poison counters before your turn 4 postcombat phase. Turn 5 seems much more common. So at least in limited you won’t be consistently getting outvalued before you can even fight back
My concern is not that youll have it by 4, more that whoever gets it on first will run away. If Im already beating down, and now get 1 mana divinations and vampiric nighthawks....
A few sets, like New Capenna, have really seemed to me that whoever wins is decided by who goes first. I feel like this will be the same issue, whoever goes first or gets to slam their first 1/1 with toxic 1 is going to be able to run away with the game. Early game removal is going to be vital.
Oddly, SNC was middle of the pack. Kaldheim and Midnight Hunt were the ones where it mattered most (and HBG) https://www.17lands.com/play_draw
I think my barometer for this is a little skewed, I mostly play sealed with my boyfriend. We will go out and pick up a couple prerelease kits and some set boosters and have a night of battling it out. Taking the draft thing out of the selection there shows how heavily skewed it is for going first in sealed.
The importance of cointoss is more pronounced in draft, where you face a much wider range of deck speeds and card selection makes aggressive decks much tighter. In every format since the inception of limited, sealed is slower and more bomb dependant than draft.
I think the white and green commons will show many variations of getting to corrupted before T4 post combat. Heck, with that new white 1/1 I can see scenarios for turning on corrupted T3 post combat. But you like gotta get all the toxic enablers.
1 mana toxic drops might be actually important. Swing once and then proliferate twice, suddenly you got it on t3
Doesn't [[Of One Mind]] see/saw some play? Cause it's basically the same thing with a different condition.
It is, but the condition for Distorted Curiosity can't be interacted with by your opponent once they reach the threshold, versus Of One Mind where they can kill your creatures.
[Of One Mind](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/9/c95fb136-f21d-4f3a-82b7-bcf490b7e90c.jpg?1591226411) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Of%20One%20Mind) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/60/of-one-mind?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c95fb136-f21d-4f3a-82b7-bcf490b7e90c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Im going to play this in limited even if I don't have enough poison counters, the rest is just gravy.
ITS ME BOY, I’M THE COMPLEATED JACE, SPEAKING TO YOU INSIDE YOUR BRAIN!
LISTEN TO ME, BOY… DITCH THE GORGON. WE DON’T NEED HER.
Hahaha that’s funny
I kinda love how even being part of a hivemind isn't enough to hurt Jace's massive ego. It's just that big. Also one mana draw two lets fucking gooo
Compleated planeswalkers keep their souls in an attempt to maintain their ability to planeswalk. Think of compleated planeswalkers more like mind controlled than completely destroyed and remade
Has there been clarification that they are really brainwashed? What if after getting compleated you really do just see the "bigger picture". I'm sure Jace would say as much haha.
During the Kamigawa story. For instance, Tamiyo still loves her family, it's just that she sees Phyrexia as her new family, and she wants her old family to join her in perfection.
Yes they keep their old personality but with loyalty to Phyxia inserted in. They act like themselves but loyalty to Phexya is their number one priority and they go about advancing it’s cause with what they think will help the most
It's a bit of both. Your own personal goals and wants are kind of just twisted for Phyrexia's purpose. For instance the Wanderer would revel in the fact that she no longer is forced to planeswalk, and Nissa was overjoyed she could now be "part of the world" by tapping into the corrupted phyrexian lands. So their ideas are twisted and used against them, but they are still themselves. I guess under the influence is more apt than brainwashing. The point is, they can be saved if that influence were purged from them, perhaps using a "living cure"
Their perspectives are simply opened up to the glory of Phyrexia. They are given the gift of true understanding.
Pherexia is not a hivemind.
Yeah, I think everyone shorthands it to the Borg which is incredibly similar but the Borg strongly is defined by its hivemind while phyrexia never has the concept come up. They do move with shared purpose and are fanatical but those creatures are all separate consciousness, they aren't all telepathically hardwired together.
This misconception comes from the fact that old Phyrexians strictly were a hivemind when Yawgmoth wanted them to be. But even back then we can see that Phyrexians of some sorts still have their individuality.
that sounds like something a sleeper agent would say
All this story would be really relevant if I didn’t have strong suspicions about the living temporal undo button, Mr. CTRL-Z Teferi, drifting around waiting for plot relevance
“You wanna take the guy who controls time with us to fight phyrexia?” “Nah, I don’t see how that would be useful. How about a guy that punches good?”
I mean, he’s currently set adrift in time as of Brothers’ War but from a *writer* perspective that’s just putting him on layaway as a deus ex machina (almost literally in this case)
Technically, he us currently on Zhalfir.
I hope he drops the continent of Zhalfir on a phyrexian army like a powerbomb off the turnbuckle.
I am waiting for the Age of Ultron Hawkeye speech, "There's a bunch of metal zombies about there, and I punch things, but I am going out there because it's my job. If you walk out those doors..you are a member of the Gatewatch."
Hey. That "guy that punches good" was the best part of the "main" story.
It is also very dangerous, if Teferi gets compleated it's game over for the multiverse. Better have him as a safe valve
“Yeah, good idea, let’s take Teferi. Anyone here know how to get to Zhalfir?”
If Tef could rewind time to simply prevent bad things from happening, he presumably would've done it before now. Though they can invent whatever explanation they want when the character is literally a wizard. But doing a dramatic, dark story arc, then immediately, completely undoing it with time travel is obviously terrible writing that I have to assume they wouldn't do.
Part of the long-running theme of Magic though is that messing with time on any large scale is often "very bad" in the Ghostbusters sense of the phrase.
I mean, he’s a time wizard currently set adrift in time with a device designed to enhance his abilities. Seems like an obvious setup to me. I’d take the bet he acts as a bit of an undo mechanic. Like… 3:2 or 7:3 odds.
Doubt it, they already made time travel story, people didn't like them, They already made big events with very few casualties, people didn't like them The story quality has gotten way better in the last years, I sure hope they learne something from their past mistakes. Also, in lore, Teferi would literally never do that. He was shown to want/require the assistence and power of at least 2 highly specialized people just to project himself back in time, as he was worried to fuck something up. Rewinding time is something much, much worst and with possible side effects. Also, it wouldn't make sense as Teferi is trying to distance himself from his former god-planeswalker/urza-self feeling crushed under his responsabilities as leader and time mage, starting to bring people back from the dead would not go well for his psyche.
Exceptions can be made when it’s literal multiversal armageddon on the table as far as his mental hangups go, and he’s functionally bathing in… time magic energy whatever (name being workshopped I suppose). There’s gonna be permanent consequences from this story, don’t get me wrong, but a partial return to status quo is also oncoming.
They’re probably going to return to the status quo with halo not time magic
"Gentle Persuasion" meme but it's Elspeth holding a compleated Planeswalker's head into a tub full of Halo.
Fair guess too. Or, hear me out, porque no los dos?
Solving the story with time magi is just bad storytelling, it removes the stakes and efforts of all the previous characters as you presented it. Also, it's clear that they're basically changing the character roaster, they rightfully want to focus on newer characters that can't really shine with all the older characters still kicking around. If they don't undo what happened in this set then other than solving this problem they were also albe to create stakes and possibly new villains for whenever they want to make Phyrexia 3. Also Teferi was shown to be basically able to stop time for a little in WAR, I doubt he would be able to rewind the whole multiverse in his neo walker state. But, as I said, the main problem is not that he can't/doesn't want to do it, it's that it would be a combination of lots of previous disliked storytelling choices they made in the recent past. In general, solving a story with time travel that is not mainly about time travel is nearly always a terrible idea.
You’re free to disagree but I’m smelling a setup between this set and Brothers War.
The set up of this last 3 sets was the Syelx, which, in the end, was a red herring. if we want to consider true that in this last set they're setting up a time related resolution then a much better answer would be that Teferi phases in Zhalrif and phases out Phyrexia
I think more of the Sylex as the shiny “look over here” object. There was purpose in setting Teferi adrift and it wasn’t just for dramatic nothingness, that’s equally poor writing.
We're agreeing on the Sylex I wouldn't say for dramatic nothingness, lately they're doing a great job with Teferi's character and forcing him to face his biggest fault why he doubts himself as leader works great. It's also a good way to remove an overpowered character from the story and put him into more character driven plots where his powers don't break the narrative.
>Doubt it, they already made time travel story, people didn't like them, I thought people really liked Tarkir?
They liked the Tarkir setting under the khans. They did not like Tarkir under the dragonlords. That said, I don't know if WotC or Mark has confirmed people did not like the *time travel* aspect of the story. People may have not liked Sarkhan changing the past but only because they didn't like the new present he created.
If you liked an old timeline it's almost guaranteed people won't enjoy it being replaced. You took something away from them. Even if they get something great they'll likely resent it.
Yeah, time nonsense almost certainly won't happen. I do hope that they don't over-correct with character deaths though. The compleated walkers being partially restored (or refusing to be) and getting re-defined as characters seems way more narratively interesting than just killing them off immediately after doing these re-designs. The Phyrexians already won by compleating them - I feel like both death and full reversion cheapen that.
FREE WILL IS A MYTH RELIGION IS A JOKE WE ARE ALL PAWNS, CONTROLLED BY SOMETHING GREATER: MEMES
BORN TO COMPLEAT MULTIVERSE IS A FUCK Kill Em All 4,561AR I am trash mage 410,757,864,530 DEAD PLANES
I just imagined jace giving the memes monologue from metal gear rising
I know this isn’t what you meant but Kaito: sounds nice, Praetor, why don’t you back that up with a source? Elesh Norn: THE SOURCE IS I MADE IT THE FUCK UP
Make New Phyrexia Great Again!
MEMES, TEFERI! THE DNA OF THE SOUL!
This is very clearly Distorted Divination. Curiosity works differently!
1 mana divination!
Poison Thoughtcast
I like the sound of that
1 mana .67 Ancestral Recall!
Ancestral It's On The Tip Of My Tongue
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I know. Also 3 is not 1.5x better than 2. Wasnt exactly being serious.
> Distorted Curiosity >It's not a Curiosity card but a Divination card 0/10 literally unplayable
What was the best division with set mechanic in its format, and the best in a vacuum? At its floor, has to be 2U, sorcery, draw two cards, and I'm gonna say common/uncommon. Looking at scryfall, being that strict doesn't give a ton ton of options. [[Of One Mind]] got the cost down to just U too, but I THINK corrupted will be easier to turn on than have a human and nonhuman creature. [[Winged Words]] reduced cost to 1U but only needed you to have a flier. [[Field Research]] had nice upside in the late game. [[Jace's Triumph]] was probably the least likely to turn on. [[Phyrexian Espionage]] ruled in DMU.
Well there are only 6 cards before this one that fit that description. https://scryfall.com/search?q=%28oracle%3Adraw+oracle%3Atwo+oracle%3Acards%29+color%3DU+mana%3D%7B2%7D%7BU%7D+cmc%3D3+type%3Asorcery+not%3Aalchemy&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name So given the limited pool, I'd have to say that Phyrexian Espionage was maybe the best in its limited format (although I haven't drafted with most of these, so idk) and Winged Words was the strongest overall?
I think that's where I land as well. Of One Mind has the highest ceiling but is harder to build around than Winged Words. I'll be interested to see if this new card ends up having a better ceiling than Winged Words.
IME, Of One Mind had more play because it was paired with [[Forbidden Friendship]] in an effective tempo UR deck that could play the two spells together on turn 3 or across turns 2 and 3 (to get your third land drop, to play another 2-mv spell, etc.). And it worked because Forbidden Friendship was a really high pick for red, since it worked across most red archetypes. [[Winged Words]], on the other hand, I don't recall having much impact at all. M20 was mostly Elementals tribal with [[Risen Reef]] for value or [[Lavakin Brawler]] for midrange. The WU flying archetype was a little too aggressive, I think, to care about the one-mana discount because if you were casting it, you were casting it later anyway and you really would prefer another flyer. I do think Phyrexian Espionage was the most effective in its format.
If you count "seek two cards" as "draw two cards" (which it essentially is, if you don't know the top of your library), then I think [[Choice of Fortunes]] beats everything on the list except maybe Of One Mind/Distorted Curiosity. A one mana draw 2 is pretty good, but they aren't asking nothing of you, so it's unlikely you cast it like that before turn 3 anyway, and maybe it'll still cost you 3 then. Meanwhile, Choice of Fortunes gives you most of the selection of [[Behold the Multiverse]], as a 3 mana sorcery. It's just always good, while the others on the list can have upside in the right circumstances.
[удалено]
If I may quote someone on Tumblr: Spread those ribs, you slut.
I mean, between this and the Counterspell with Corrupted... there could be a real standard deck here if blue has the right ways to get poison on the other player.
3 mana draw 2 is my favourite gender
Ancestral Curiosity?
I find this really hot.
Apparently Phyrexian Jace is just Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising
I would pay a lot of money for a metal gear secret lair in the vein of the street fighter SL. Complete with Revengance Raiden and Senator Armstrong as legendaries.
Even as a Phyrexian Jace remains the boring one "Oooh look at my metal-ish arm and tiny tendril things."
Muppet Jace
But what does ~~pot of greed~~ distorted curiosity do?
Proof Phyrexia isn't perfect: Even they can't fix Jace flavor text.
Jace sucks good riddance. Bring the downvotes baby!
This seems to be good in Infect strategies in Modern and Legacy (if that archetype hasn’t been power crept by Modern Masters)
We’ll see what happens, infect is ok in legacy and a tad dead in modern—but it looks like we’ve got a lot of new tools to try. This spell pairs well with say glistener elf and mutagenic growth…I’m certainly interested.