Hour of Devastation [HOU]

[Crimhead]

And uh, what happens when Thespian's Stage copies the Mirror copying a land?

Only printed characteristics are copyable. Stage would become a Mirage Mirror.

[morgan_coke]

Oketra's Last Mercy would actually be a decently playable card if it was an instant, but Sorcery speed makes it a sad panda.

[Scott]

It's a shame that it essentially costs (which I suppose is understandable in a design/cost sense given that it hits more than just lands, and who knows, maybe it'll find a different use), because it might've been cool in a Dark Depths shell with Ancient Stirrings.

[MaximumC]

"Until end of turn" kills a lot of its use.

Well, no, I think it's more of a feature than a bug. It can copy Smokestack for one-sided hilarity, for example.

Card is more expensive than other things that do it, but it combos with a LOT of powerful things:

Dark Depths
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Time Vault
Smokestack

And it still gives you a clone effect for not just creatures but also wasteland, equipment, etc...

It's really amazingly versatile. Is that going to be enough to overlook the fact that it costs 3 to put out and 2 to activate?

Oketra's Last Mercy would actually be a decently playable card if it was an instant, but Sorcery speed makes it a sad panda.

Nah card sucks. Life gain is good when it's tacked onto other useful effects because it lets you get ahead while basically undoing a turn or two of your opponent's attack. (See Sphinx Rev, Thragtusk). It's really bad when it costs you a card that is NOT developing your board in order just to gain life. It's really, REALLY bad when not only does it cost you a card, but it also costs you the tempo you were trying to gain life to gain in the first place.

I mean, compare it to Bontu Does Dallas. That card has a similar mechanic, but at least it can put your opponent's dorks permanently in the graveyard when it resolves. You might lose tempo, but they lost permanents. This white version doesn't even do that -- life gain is practically ONLY tempo, and giving up that tempo in return means the card is doing precisely the opposite of what you want.

Nor do I see this alongside Ad Naseum or Griselbrand, b'c we have cheaper cards or that effect.

[Cire]

Oketra's Last Mercy destroys that theory of mine that the "last" cards would help trigger the gods themselves.

[Koby]

Smokestack

Good discussion, but this one unfortunately doesn't work. There's no method to copy Smokestack and have it trigger to add Soot counters or sacrifice triggers.

[Darkenslight]

It's a shame that it essentially costs (which I suppose is understandable in a design/cost sense given that it hits more than just lands, and who knows, maybe it'll find a different use), because it might've been cool in a Dark Depths shell with Ancient Stirrings.

You can also do fun tricks like copying Phyrexian Dreadnought or Death's Shadow.

[morgan_coke]

Nah card sucks. Life gain is good when it's tacked onto other useful effects because it lets you get ahead while basically undoing a turn or two of your opponent's attack. (See Sphinx Rev, Thragtusk). It's really bad when it costs you a card that is NOT developing your board in order just to gain life. It's really, REALLY bad when not only does it cost you a card, but it also costs you the tempo you were trying to gain life to gain in the first place.

I mean, compare it to Bontu Does Dallas. That card has a similar mechanic, but at least it can put your opponent's dorks permanently in the graveyard when it resolves. You might lose tempo, but they lost permanents. This white version doesn't even do that -- life gain is practically ONLY tempo, and giving up that tempo in return means the card is doing precisely the opposite of what you want.

Nor do I see this alongside Ad Naseum or Griselbrand, b'c we have cheaper cards or that effect.

As an Instant it would be an amazing sideboard card against Burn or Tendrils. You're really underestimating the value of "gain 15 life" in one card, in specific decks against certain plans they are otherwise weak to. On turn 3-4 it basically retro counters a burn decks entire graveyard, and you still get land drops. That's not something Burn, specifically, can recover from. In some shells, it's almost playable as a Sorcery for that reason alone.

[Zombie]

There are things that can compare, depending on what you are looking for. A Song of Ice and Fire (before Martin just lost his way) and The Price of Nothing (and Aspect Emperor) do a pretty good job painting rich worlds that are moralistically more complex than LotR. Of course that's the point though, you aren't really going to outdo Tolkien at his own game, best to set up shop in the next town over.

I get that part of the role of fantasy is the allure of the fantastic moral certainty, I'm just saying that simplistic things like that don't really appeal to me in my old age.

I get it, I just don't really like it.

Of course, a "darker," more "realistic" (i.e. moralistically complex) story line would not appeal to the vast majority of Magic players though, so it's not as if I can really fault them for the contrived, slap-stick plots and so the relatively poor quality of writing.

The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss is great as well. What I've read of Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy was good too.

[Barook]

Mirror is an amazing card and my favorite from the spoiled cards so far.

Aside from shenanigans with Time Vault and Dark Depths, I think people undervalue it as a flexible answer to S&T. If they can't win right of the bat, you're going to copy their card and wreck them.

There are probably more ways to abuse this.

[tescrin]

Honestly I think it's an anti-Depths anti-S&T card. Someone gets their huge obnoxious thing into play, you copy it and swing first.

@Dice
It doesn't matter if it's EoT if you copy Depths as you'll sac and create the token. Also doesn't matter if you copy Emmy and swing as you'll wipe their board. Similar could be said about swinging/drawing with griselbrand, as they'll either trade or you'll have a board stall as you both continuously gain/lose 7. Seems fine. It really feels like the anti-S&T colorless card the guy wanted in the other thread haha.

[maharis]

"Until end of turn" kills a lot of its use.

But not it's main use, which is copying Dark Depths.

I don't think this slots into an existing Depths deck as is, but it is a two-card game-over combo and isn't that much more costly than Stage.

I also think you can net mana off this even with the activation cost with Cloudpost or Metalworker which is something to keep an eye on.

[Dice_Box]

@Dice
It doesn't matter if it's EoT if you copy Depths as you'll sac and create the token.

I get that, my comment was on the idea that you would copy Maze, Mox Diamond (What?) and Exploration for an advantage from each. This card would be much stronger in Lands if it persisted. I can see its use outside of Lands, but this card is not something I would cut another card in Lands to use.

[MaximumC]

But not it's main use, which is copying Dark Depths.

I don't think this slots into an existing Depths deck as is, but it is a two-card game-over combo and isn't that much more costly than Stage.

Yeah, why do we want to let Force of Will AND Ancient Grudge interact with Dark Depths combo again?

[rufus]

...
Of note is that it can only be activated once per turn.
....

You can stack activations and it can target itself, though that's mostly not going to do much.

Once in play, you could copy Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith and net 1 mana.

Copy Lodestone Golem or chalice in a prison deck.

Pretty fun with Mirror of Fate.

I think it's too mana intensive to see lots of use in legacy. Maybe some kind of Tron thing?

[maharis]

Yeah, why do we want to let Force of Will AND Ancient Grudge interact with Dark Depths combo again?

Stage is still best but this can replace hexmage as an alternative plan. That also opens the combo up to decks in any color.

[Echelon]

Mirage Mirror seems like a fun hatecard to me. Can screw over Show and Tell big time, or copy Merit Lage to threaten w/ a deadly backswing. Turn into your opponents' Leovold when they Brainstorm, that type of thing.

Probably too narrow though.

Question: If you turn the Mirror into a Delver of Secrets on your opponents' end step and manage to flip it to an Insectile Abberation, does it turn back to Mirror at end of the turn or does it stay an Abberation indefinetely?

[Barook]

Question: If you turn the Mirror into a Delver of Secrets on your opponents' end step and manage to flip it to an Insectile Abberation, does it turn back to Mirror at end of the turn or does it stay an Abberation indefinetely?

"until end of turn" - that doesn't work EoT, as the effect definitely stops, no matter what. You can't cheat on that like with "at the beginning of your end step"-abilities.

[Zombie]

Question: If you turn the Mirror into a Delver of Secrets on your opponents' end step and manage to flip it to an Insectile Abberation, does it turn back to Mirror at end of the turn or does it stay an Abberation indefinetely?

AFAIK the answer is: Not a two-faced card, can't transform.

[Gheizen64]

Why are you guys talking about a card that need 5 and another card to do anything?

Hexmage is BB and it's a fringe card even with depths. I concede that's is a semi-answer to SnT that isn't outright uncastable on its own, but still.