[Article]Eternal Europe: Nyx Guided Tour

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Ready for your tourist guide to Nyx? Get it here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28337_Nyx-Guided-Tour-.html

Not that much for Legacy, sadly, though enjoy anyway :)

[Sisyphos]

I think your review of Athreos focuses too much on the not given interaction with opponents removal when matched up with StP or Terminus.

While building a deck for Athreos, relying on your opponent to trigger him seems strictly inferior to using him yourself. Legacy offers a lot of possibilities to kill your own creatures for profit. Why not get even more profit out of it? Cabal Therapy, Shriekmaw, Flesbag Marauder are some examples. Sam Blacks Legacy port of Aristocrats gives more. Combining creatures with enter-the-battlefield-abilities gives even chump blocking a Tarmogoyf a positive result. Heck if you're desperate, you can use Jitte counters to kill your own stuff. Finally while StP and Terminus do not interact well with it, I have seen more Bolts, Decays and Lilianas then Termini(?) lately. Your examples are common, but they are far from the only removal used.

Just look at the B/W Vial deck you proposed for Modern. Like 90% of the cards in the list see heavy Legacy play. And some of the examples given above (Shriekmaw, Therapy) seem like natural fits for it. On second thought maybe not Shriekmaw, you will lose enough life to Confidant without a 5-drop, but you get the idea.

I'm not arguing that we're talking Delver or TNN level of power here. But such a deck seems like fun and it might not be total garbage. The bigger problem could be the percentage of decks playing Deathrite or Rest in Peace though.

[Finn]

I have serious reservations about Spite of Mogis. The least obvious is probably which deck it goes into. Not needing white is an important asset for a deck, especially down the road past the current meta. But for now, the only candidate we are really talking about here is RUG. If RUG were to replace Lightning Bolts with Spite of Mogis, RIP would be pretty close to a lock card against it. There are enough of those running about that I would expect that flaw to rule Spite out as an option.

The only card I see making a splash is the red Eidolon. Every other card seems to be a bad something else.

[nedleeds]

Mana Confluence isn't strictly better than City if I'm at 1 and have a Lightning Bolt that will kill you :)

#strictlybetter

[ScatmanX]

Mana Confluence isn't strictly better than City if I'm at 1 and have a Lightning Bolt that will kill you :)

#strictlybetter
Or is at 1 Life and needs to cast a Tendrils...
Agree with Finn and Sisyphos too...

Also, saying "Eidolon of the Great is just Pirostatic Pillar with legs" to me is just like saying "Thalia is just Thorn of Amethyst with legs". Sure, Thalia's power level probably is higher, but I think there may be more to be seen of Eidolon than meets the eye. (remember when people used to say Jace 2.0 was just a 4 mana Brainstorm, or an Unsummon?)
Oh great article again btw =]

[lyracian]

That was a fun read and I did find it amusing to see you promote Kiora to Godhood. A lot of this set does seem to be taking an old Enchantment and either giving it flash or sticking it on legs so I can see why you did not try brewing up some deck ideas.

[nevilshute]

Or is at 1 Life and needs to cast a Tendrils...
Agree with Finn and Sisyphos too...

Also, saying "Eidolon of the Great is just Pirostatic Pillar with legs" to me is just like saying "Thalia is just Thorn of Amethyst with legs". Sure, Thalia's power level probably is higher, but I think there may be more to be seen of Eidolon than meets the eye. (remember when people used to say Jace 2.0 was just a 4 mana Brainstorm, or an Unsummon?)
Oh great article again btw =]

How would you be able to cast Tendrils off of City of Brass at 1 life when it's a sorcery? Sorry if I'm missing something :smile:

[Holly]

How would you be able to cast Tendrils off of City of Brass at 1 life when it's a sorcery? Sorry if I'm missing something :smile:

How to not do it:
Tap City of Brass, try to cast Tendrils and fail since its a sorcery.

How to do it:
Announce to cast Tendrils, cast it at thus getting your mana from City of Brass.
2 triggers will be placed on the stack: CoB & storm.
Put the CoB trigger first on stack, followed by the storm trigger.
Resolve the storm copies.
If your opponent is still alive resolve the CoB trigger.
Resolve the actual Tendrils.

Edit: Obviously doesn't work if you're at 1 at the storm is 0.

[ScatmanX]

@Holly: thanks

Enviado de meu GT-S6313T usando Tapatalk

[nevilshute]

How to not do it:
Tap City of Brass, try to cast Tendrils and fail since its a sorcery.

How to do it:
Announce to cast Tendrils, cast it at thus getting your mana from City of Brass.
2 triggers will be placed on the stack: CoB & storm.
Put the CoB trigger first on stack, followed by the storm trigger.
Resolve the storm copies.
If your opponent is still alive resolve the CoB trigger.
Resolve the actual Tendrils.

Thanks.

[Barook]

Also, saying "Eidolon of the Great is just Pirostatic Pillar with legs" to me is just like saying "Thalia is just Thorn of Amethyst with legs". Sure, Thalia's power level probably is higher, but I think there may be more to be seen of Eidolon than meets the eye. (remember when people used to say Jace 2.0 was just a 4 mana Brainstorm, or an Unsummon?)
Oh great article again btw =]
Eidolon is just a bear while Thalia can charge into combat thanks to first strike. Sure, the body will matter since it tips the scale in your favor, but there's a difference between not being able to play anything or just eating a Shock.

Finn has a point about Spite of Mogis, but I wouldn't dismiss it that easily.

I also want to see what the red doublestrinking card drawer is actually capable of. There's some serious abuse potential here.

[TsumiBand]

How to not do it:
Tap City of Brass, try to cast Tendrils and fail since its a sorcery.

How to do it:
Announce to cast Tendrils, cast it at thus getting your mana from City of Brass.
2 triggers will be placed on the stack: CoB & storm.
Put the CoB trigger first on stack, followed by the storm trigger.
Resolve the storm copies.
If your opponent is still alive resolve the CoB trigger.
Resolve the actual Tendrils.

Edit: Obviously doesn't work if you're at 1 at the storm is 0.

Emphasis mine - people always tend to forget, in fact I only really see people do this when it actually matters a damn, but the total cost for announcing and playing a spell isn't determined until it's already on the stack. The rules of the game allow for you to play mana abilities during a little window of opportunity that doesn't allow for any other game actions, since technically no one has priority while the game is 'doing stuff' like executing card instructions or doing untap step/cleanup step junk.

It's not a universally applicable analogy, but think of it like the stack is a scanner at the grocery store; you don't give the cashier exact change and THEN scan the items, you hand your product to the cashier, wait for them to tell you what your total is and then you pay for your goods and services. It's the same-ish with playing spells. Ish.

[ScatmanX]

Eidolon is just a bear while Thalia can charge into combat thanks to first strike. Sure, the body will matter since it tips the scale in your favor, but there's a difference between not being able to play anything or just eating a Shock.
I actually agree with you. Imo Thalia is way superior to the new guy, mainly because of the casting cost. Still, saying the card is just something with legs, and dismissing it because of it is wrong.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Oops, sorry for not getting back to you sooner!

Sysiphos: Wow, I'm soooo bad. Never actually crossed my mind that you can just set up killing your things yourself. What a brainfart *rolleyes*

@Finn: I agree that Spite won't replace Bolt. However, I'm not suggesting Spite should replace Lightning Bolt, I was looking more at it as a ~2 off in the "other burn" slots to give RUG a way to kill a Goyf when necessary.

@nedleeds, Holly and ScatmanX: I should be more careful with strictly better ;) Also, that Tendrils line is sweet, not having played much TES I don't think I'd ever have thought about it so thanks for sharing that!


Also, saying "Eidolon of the Great is just Pirostatic Pillar with legs" to me is just like saying "Thalia is just Thorn of Amethyst with legs". Sure, Thalia's power level probably is higher, but I think there may be more to be seen of Eidolon than meets the eye. (remember when people used to say Jace 2.0 was just a 4 mana Brainstorm, or an Unsummon?)
Well, Thalia is just a Thorn of Amethyst with legs^^ I'd also argue that Flooded Strand is just a Flood Plain that comes into play untapped and Mana Drain is just a Counterspell that also gives you mana next turn. Just because something is "just" a variant of something else doesn't mean it can't be a lot better than the orginal. Note that I wasn't dismissing it at all - I even mentioned it was looking for a home...

@Barook: Should definitely have at least mentioned Flamespeaker. It's probably too expensive for the format as just a 2/3 but the potential for insanity is clearly there.