I wholeheartedly agree. Still, I don't know if it gets there unless it fuels a broken win condition.Originally Posted by morgan_coke
POSTIIVES
Brain in a Jar does a ton:
1. It doesn't cost you mana to activate. That is, when you activate it, you're always at least breaking even on the activation cost because you're casting a spell with that cost. Once you cast it, you just play your game as normal but you use the Jar if you want to cast a spell that happens to line up with the counter situation.
2. It actually GENERATES mana the third time you activate it. (Because you save 1 mana on the 2cc spell, and 2 mana on the 3cc spell).
3. It fixes mana color (as you mentioned). Even allows you to fix colored into colorless if you really need to cast Eldrazi Charm!
4. At any given time, your Sorceries with a casting cost 1 more than the counters on the Jar have Flash.
5. It combos hard with Fuse cards. (You get to cast both halves if you match either one).
6. It is a non-useless mana sink. By the late game, you can use it to scry a bit here and there.
NEGATIVES
However, there are two downsides to this card that make it worse than Aether Vial:
1. It is a tempo loss. The 2 mana you spend initially is huge.
2. It "dies to removal" particularly if you run it out early like you would Vial. In other words: you can blow tempo casting this 2cc spell and then have it removed by something cheaper, maybe even during your end step, for no value.
Well, how do you feel about the relative power levels of Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top?
It's hard to just like Brain in a Jar because of what it does. Aether Vial is not excellent because of what it does. It is excellent because it does it so well. Ever tried Mercadian Lift?
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Completed my playset after reading your post.
I'm thinking about brain in a jar in some landstill type of control deck.
Regarding having it removed for a tempo loss, probably better they use up their removal on that vs. something threatening, right?
"I made a Redguard that looks like Kimbo Slice. He wrecks peoples' shit. And dragons." - Bignasty197
I agree that Brain has an awful lot of proving to do, and it's not as good as Aether Vial. However:
An artifact could do waaaay worse than be compared to Scroll Rack. That's an awesome $25 Magic card. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Tem...oll+Rack#paper
Well, Brain's not anywhere near as bad as Lift. Brain grows without unwanted shrinkage, like Vial, can be tapped for an effect immediately, and does not cost you mana to activate (functionally).
I agree that the existence of this card would make Brain useless:
Aether Brain
1
During your upkeep, you can put a charge counter on Aether Brain.
T: You may play an Instant or Sorcery from your hand with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Aether Brain without paying its mana cost.
But that card does not exist, soooo...
Just realized that if you could get this to go off without any counters on it, you could use it to cast any of the suspend spells, like Ancestral Vision, Living End, Hypergenesis, or the Balance one.
Would Clockspinning or Hexmage work on that though? I mean, when you tap it, the counter goes on, but is there a "stack" period, like with Vial, or are the number of counters checked when the artifact is tapped? Anyone good enough at rules details to know the answer on that one?
EDIT: Agreed Aether Brain would be way better, but I'm pretty sure they know a straight vial for spells is broken.
The counter and the casting are all part of the ability's resolution, it's impossible to do anything in between. The only way to cast a 0cc spell is to have a replacement effect from another source saying "If a counter would be placed on a permanent you control, instead X", or something like "X can't have counters placed on it".
Based on the second ruling, If you were to pay4/8/2016 When resolving the first ability of Brain in a Jar, the newly-placed charge counter will be counted when determining what spells you may cast. No player may take any action between you placing the counter and choosing which spell to cast.
4/8/2016 If Brain in a Jar leaves the battlefield before its first ability resolves, use the number of counters on it at the moment it left to determine what spell you may cast. That number won’t change because you can’t put a new counter on Brain in a Jar.and put the ability on the stack, maintain priority and cast Abrupt Decay, the "moment it left" it will have zero counters. So it's possible to cast any of the rare Suspend cards if you have a way of getting it off the battlefield in response to the ability.
This is true, but anything that stops counters from being put on Brain during the resolution of the ability will allow you to go off for 0. This could involve destroying it before the ability resolves, as PirateKing suggests, or some other effect that stops the counter from getting placed.
Now, the only way to do that in Magic at the moment would be the following (or something like it) involving instant-speed clones:
1. Have a Tatterkite or Melira's Keepers, an Artisan of Forms, and a Brain in a Jar in play.
2. Cast Animate Artifact on Brain in a Jar.
3. Target Artisan with a spell and have it become a copy of Brain in a Jar.
4. Activate Artisan-Brain's ability.
5. Target Artisan with another spell and have it become a copy of Tatterkite/Keepers./
6. The ability resolves and can't put a counter on Artisan.
7. PROFIT
lol well I mean, yeah, you could do all that. really, any flicker effect will do well if you're not into removal. Goblin Welder or something.
Maybe it's got a lot of value in something like a Lantern Control shell, that's a deck that could benefit very tremendously and asymmetrically from a "balance" effect, and could also easily and profitably run some self-sacrifice-for-a-benefit artifacts or effects. Same with some stax type variants. Then again, maybe not, probably worth at least looking at if you're into those kind of decks.
I don't think that Brain in a Jar is ipso facto a bad card. I just don't think it's good enough for legacy. (I also think it's much weaker than Scroll Rack, but let's not digress too much.)
"Netting Mana" off the brain in a jar is really a bad proposition. You spend 3 and a card to cast a 1 cc spell, 4 and a card to cast 1&2 cc spells, and 5 and a card to cast 1&2&3 cc spells. You could just play Lotus Petal or Simian Spirit Guide.
Breaking split spells off the brain is a bit more intriguing. Firing off a fused Beck // Call or Development for 4 mana and 2 cards isn't terrible. It's also not great, and quite fragile - the same trick that enables the suspend rares means that you can get clipped with an uncastable spell in hand - not a literal 2 for 1, but close.
Casting cc-less spells is cute, but the other cc-less enabler -- cascade -- really doesn't like it, the suspend rares aren't great in-hand, and you're talking about 3-card "combos" that don't win the game.
There's also looking for an edge with quicken, but the spells that make that work are generally bad on their own too.
A quick look over this weekends SCG Classic Columbus results shows
Invasive Surgery - 1st Place Grixis Delver Sideboard
Tireless Tracker - 14th Place Lands Sideboard
My Legacy Decks of choice: Pox, Miracles, D&T or Lands.
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Nahiri is a terrifying card. Saw it on Joe Lossett stream and also just experienced it first-hand vs a Miracles build. Being able to win two turns after dropping it is very strong.
Link to that deck list?
I don't doubt it. Of the recent Walkers, both Narset and Nahiri (and Ajani Vengent, really) are really, really powerful -- at least on the level of the original Elspeth -- but have not really found a place to shine yet. I'm happy to see them both finally proving themselves.
My only regret is that I didn't pull the trigger earlier and bought even more copies of Nahiri. Still sitting on 30 copies on MTGO while waiting to reap the rewards.
She's the real deal and the Emrakul kill might be legit enough to see more play in various decks, not just Miracles. I do wonder into which else decks she could go. Painter has already been called. Maybe Aggro Loam since she synergizes extremely well Punishing Fire and Life from the Loam while being on-color? T3 Nahiri via Mox is a T5 kill if left undisrupted.
Or maybe Sneak & Breach with a white splash for Nahiri? She's another enabler for a fatty and she filters useless cards.
RW Parfait?
Rifter.
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Not really a true Legacy player yet outside of some Miracles sb application, but Nahiri, the Harbinger has made major waves in Modern in Jeskai and Mardu shells. Nahiri is essentially a one-card combo that is hard to disrupt once resolved. Was at like $13, now up to $35 and climbing.
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