[SCD]Augur of Bolas

[alderon666]

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=249676&type=card

This guy is intriguing. He's CA because you get (almost always) a card and a 1/3 body. The fact that he is 1/3 is somewhat relevant as it blocks Thalia, goblins, etc. On decks with high density of sorceries/instants you might actually get some card quality by having some choice.

He's obviously not good enough to play on RUG because he's too small. But he interacts well with Cabal Therapy.

While he's not gonna be warranted a spot in combo decks because of it's defensive abilities, couldn't we fit it in to have a body to sacrifice to Cabal Therapy? The main problem there is that he is as slow as a Burning Wish (and not as versatile, not even close). But he nets you more disruption and card quality, while giving you a body to hold off small attackers.

It's a long shot, but I think this guy deserves at least a bit of discussion before being dismissed into the "unplayable in Legacy" pile.

[GexxX]

Well... I think the main problem with this guy is his mana cost, because he needs some turns to be played in Storm for Example. He very much is abusable though. Culling the Weak (http://magiccards.info/ex/en/55.html) and Diabolic Intent (http://magiccards.info/query?q=diabolic+intent&v=card&s=issue) have been good in a Vintage Storm variant before. With Cabal Therapy there are 3 ways allready to make him good after he hit the board. Does not seem good enough for the fast Storm decks as 4 of those Augurs are propably not worth a complete package of sacrifice-effects, but never the less we should still think about it. Maybe some kind of Card-Advantage oriented Tendrils build can use the card. Confidant comes to mind, Snapcaster seems okay, too. I don't know but somehow there might be something playable.

[alderon666]

Well... I think the main problem with this guy is his mana cost, because he needs some turns to be played in Storm for Example. He very much is abusable though. Culling the Weak (http://magiccards.info/ex/en/55.html) and Diabolic Intent (http://magiccards.info/query?q=diabolic+intent&v=card&s=issue) have been good in a Vintage Storm variant before. With Cabal Therapy there are 3 ways allready to make him good after he hit the board. Does not seem good enough for the fast Storm decks as 4 of those Augurs are propably not worth a complete package of sacrifice-effects, but never the less we should still think about it. Maybe some kind of Card-Advantage oriented Tendrils build can use the card. Confidant comes to mind, Snapcaster seems okay, too. I don't know but somehow there might be something playable.

I think that when you start adding cards that only work with creatures you just have to build around it. And it also leaves you, eventually, with dead cards in hand. Nowadays you just can't afford that.

The CA storm seems too slow to me. You would just be drawing into more CA creatures and that gets you nowhere. The thing with Augur is that you can view him (far stretch here) as a 2 mana Ponder. It doesn't get you LED/Petal/Land obviously.

I thought about using it on Doomday. The deck is already slow, but you already have a lot to spend your mana on. Top, cantrips, setup Wish already take a lot of time. Maybe a version with 3-4 Chants and 3-4 Therapies? Turn 1 Probe, Therapy. Turn 2 Augur, flashback Therapy, setup for turn 3 kill? One can dream right?

[rufus]

Mostly, I think the body just isn't good enough. He'd be much more playable as a 2/1 tempo card. As it stands - outside of merfolk - I'd expect him to durdle about ineffectually after hitting the table. As for merfolk, the 2 cc slot is already stuffed with strong cards there.

Decks that don't care about how strong he is don't want to spend the extra :1: to put a body on the field. Decks that do care about it can find better threats at the cost.

[slave]

I agree.

I love the effect this card brings - but it's got a difficult mana-cost for so little effect.
Whilst Peer through Depths is a nice and digs deep, being restricted to only sorcery's and instants makes it situational, same thing here. Augury Owl/Owl Familar have flying, making them more effective blockers, and you can potentially do a combat trick with them, whereas this guy is all about the cantrip.

The only useful thing that this guy would have is to fish for a blue card to pitch to Force (I'm sure this would get pitched!), or fetch a Force/Daze etc. - cos this guy already uses up two mana, and potentially puts a land card on the bottom of your deck!
I wonder if many legacy decks will find a use for it?
To be honest I'd rather play Gitaxian Probe.

[dahcmai]

I compare it to Impulse. Except you get a body in exchange of getting any card you want and getting to see the next one down on top of that. That was enough of a convincer to me. He might have some use since he is a creature, but I think his ability to whiff is something most people won't take a chance on. If you got to dump those cards in the yard or even cycle some from your hand to do that, he'd rock, but then he'd be more mana to use also.

[Final Fortune]

The question you have to ask yourself is what decks want this card instead of or in addition to Snapcaster Mage, altho' I agree the card is an "ultra combo" with Brainstorm.

[alderon666]

The question you have to ask yourself is what decks want this card instead of or in addition to Snapcaster Mage, altho' I agree the card is an "ultra combo" with Brainstorm.

For me, they are different. Snapcaster adds a lot of versatility allowing you to buyback Brainstorm, Ponder, Cabal Ritual and even Tendrils of Agony. But it's too slow for my taste, especially in the combo turn.

The idea behind the Augur is to add a body to the table to sacrifice to Cabal Therapy without having to add junk cards like Shield Sphere or Dryad Arbor.

On average it'll allow you to choose between 2 spells and soak up 3-4 damage.
On best case scenario, it sees 3 spells, stop a creature for a turn and then flashbacks a Therapy clearing the way on the combo turn.
On worst case scenario it's a Squire +0/+1 in storm deck..... LOL.


I never actually tested this. I just really liked this card and thought about this possibility with the rise of Cabal Therapy in storm decks. In control decks, the 1/1 Deathtouch, flying, cantrip owl is probably better. And Merfolk just runs too little spells for this to work. I think he doesn't have any other homes in Legacy, sadly.