[SCD] In Search of Greatness

[chunderbucket]

Am I missing something? Did no one bother to test it, is it just bad? As a cmc<3 card with a "without paying its mana cost" clause it seems to have a low floor for playability, surely it has to fit in somewhere even if that's just a bad brew.

Has anyone had any success (or failure) playing with it in whatever shell? Not really interested in theorycrafting as to why it's not playable, just test results.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

Am I missing something? Did no one bother to test it, is it just bad? As a cmc<3 card with a "without paying its mana cost" clause it seems to have a low floor for playability, surely it has to fit in somewhere even if that's just a bad brew.

Has anyone had any success (or failure) playing with it in whatever shell? Not really interested in theorycrafting as to why it's not playable, just test results.

Because it doesn't count itself the floor is closer to "upkeep, scry one".
I'm down on it but I have seen people try in modern and pioneer.

[Barook]

Because it doesn't count itself the floor is closer to "upkeep, scry one".
I'm down on it but I have seen people try in modern and pioneer.
Realistically, what would be the best shell for it in Legacy? Something with Leylines and Helm combo? I mean, with a god draw and green acceleration to put a ISoG into play on T1 with LotV in play, you can Helm combo on T2.

[Reeplcheep]

It needs to match exactly, so leyline helm doesn’t even work. The best home was what FTW and I mentioned in January: a way to turn etutor into mana for star field of nyx in leylines.

[rufus]

Realistically, what would be the best shell for it in Legacy? Something with Leylines and Helm combo? I mean, with a god draw and green acceleration to put a ISoG into play on T1 with LotV in play, you can Helm combo on T2.

Maybe there's something grindy that can profit off the "scry once per turn" side of the card.

[kinda]

I still like leyline into strong 5 drops like Curse of Misfortunes or possibly dreamhalls or even just strong 5 cmc critters. Delve creatures being the other option, like Gurmag into grizzly being the one option. Pokemoki did 5-0 with isog once.

[sco0ter]

Scornful Egotist likes it, but Leylines are the better plan.

[Fox]

Having problems knowing what to do once you've found greatness? Never fear Research // Development can restart the chain.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

Having problems knowing what to do once you've found greatness? Never fear Research // Development can restart the chain.

How?

[kombatkiwi]

Due to the fact that it only helps you play something exactly 1 bigger than the biggest thing you already have it seems VERY hard to build a gameplan that goes "up the chain" with it.

Therefore (as people have already identified) it seems the best use for it is a dedicated 1-step "A to B" plan (like Leyline into a 5drop etc) but then if this is your plan it's not clear how In Search of Greatness is better than something like Lotus Bloom or Seething Song or whatever

[Fox]

How?

Hmm, that's the job of another card/engine. I'm talking more about the issue with finding greatness, and then having an enchantment that can only scry. Part of the challenge with a card like this is that you need to have a way to get unplayables into your deck [or hand] without ever risking drawing them from an initial stack of 60. Options are Research // Development, Karn, Glittering Wish-types.

[rufus]

Due to the fact that it only helps you play something exactly 1 bigger than the biggest thing you already have it seems VERY hard to build a gameplan that goes "up the chain" with it.

Therefore (as people have already identified) it seems the best use for it is a dedicated 1-step "A to B" plan (like Leyline into a 5drop etc) but then if this is your plan it's not clear how In Search of Greatness is better than something like Lotus Bloom or Seething Song or whatever

A potential way to prevent the "ratcheting up" is to play it with sacrifice stuff, but that would still be slow (at 1 free spell per pair of turns) and I'm not sure there's a suitable pool of sacrifice cards available. How many 2 and 3 drop self-sac cards are viable in legacy?

[Reeplcheep]

I agree that with combat kiwi that it’s stuck in a bad place. It seems incredibly hard to pull this off more than once for a large amount of mana. If you are going leyline into 5 drop grim monolith or seething song or even orcish lumberjack does it way better. If you just want a few 2 and 3 drops and then it stops how is it better than utopia sprawl or vial. If you want to chain things pod is not that much more mana and is more consistent.

Only options I can see For chaining is a backup pod (Imperial recruiter -> feldspar guardian-> Kiki-Kiki).

I guess one thing unique it can do is curve heliods pilgrim into splinter twin into some 5 drop aura (curse of misfortunes?)

Maybe you can start something with trophy mage into cloudstone curio?

[Reeplcheep]

I think I figured out a way to break it. You need a lot of copy effects, since copy effects are unique in that they are permanents that are higher cmc on the stack than on the battlefield. Copy effects are easier to find than self sacrifice I think.

A bunch of 2 mana ETB enchantments plus Estrids Invocation and Copy Enchantment should turn this into a gilded lotus, since you should have a bunch of 2s on the battlefield and 3s in your hand. With no non-copy 3 or 4 cmc permanents it should just cast a 3 drop every turn.

The best option for self sacrifice imo is ball lightning tribal with 2cmc support cards like destiny spinner, thunder kin awakened, the elemental harbinger, or creeping trailblazer.

[Reeplcheep]

Another option is x spell tribal.

Unbound flourishing plus a bunch of x spell permanents. Quarantine zone, gadwiz, the wizened, niko aris, Nissa, steward of elements etc.

Edit: x must be zero, the above doesn’t work at all.

[Fox]

Another option is x spell tribal.

Unbound flourishing plus a bunch of x spell permanents. Quarantine zone, gadwiz, the wizened, niko aris, Nissa, steward of elements etc.

Edit: x must be zero, the above doesn’t work at all.
I would guess that there are also hasty dudes or other permanents with some value printed on them w/ a bounce clause. A card like Deprive could also add some resets.

This enchant also looks like it operates on last-known information, so there are tricks with phasing and blink until EoT clauses to trick the highest cmc you control.

[FTW]

High CMC permanents that put other high CMC permanents in hand seems like the best way. Then you only need to run 1 copy of the unplayable thing.

Karn, the Great Creator -> 5 cmc -> Lattice

Fierce Empath -> fatty, enabled by some Delve fatty like Mandrills or Angler

Imperial Recruiter -> 4 cmc 2/x

Imperial Recruiter -> Aluren (has to be already in hand, but at least you get it for free)

The tough thing is the card needs to be in hand during your upkeep. EOT tutors like Worldly Tutor and Congregation at Dawn are too slow.

The other important thing is that In Search of Greatness "casts" the card, so maybe you can abuse it with cards that are even better if you "cast" them. Hooting Mandrills casts Phage the Untouchable for the memes.

[pettdan]

Sorry Chunderbucket, I have no test results, only theorycrafting. I think this card is very much in the theorycrafting stage, at least I don't play cards before I have an idea on what purpose they will fill in my deck. And this card lacks a purpose.

I think another possible approach to use this card is to cast expensive spells without having access to lands. Not saying this is good, just an alternative path to value generation. This could mean playing cards like Armageddon and Smokestack. They actually all seem to work pretty well with delve. Maybe Winter Orb.

The card doesn't seem good at ramping, maybe it's better in slow, grindy builds.

[colo]

Skyshroud Cutter and friends could also do some wort here, I guess. That one's even recruitable :)

[Barook]

Skyshroud Cutter and friends could also do some wort here, I guess. That one's even recruitable :)
There's also Vine Dryad an another pitchable 4-mana card. Between those and Leylines, question is what 5 cmc permanent has the most impact to win the game?

Also, how does ISoG interact with the new Tibalt? Would you be able to cast it with a 1 cmc card in play?

[Fox]

There's also Vine Dryad an another pitchable 4-mana card. Between those and Leylines, question is what 5 cmc permanent has the most impact to win the game?

Also, how does ISoG interact with the new Tibalt? Would you be able to cast it with a 1 cmc card in play?

Pretty sure that wasn't ever possible or it would have been running modern right now.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

There's also Vine Dryad an another pitchable 4-mana card. Between those and Leylines, question is what 5 cmc permanent has the most impact to win the game?

Also, how does ISoG interact with the new Tibalt? Would you be able to cast it with a 1 cmc card in play?

ISoG lets you cast a Valki with a CMC1 in play. It does not let you cast Tibalt because Tibalt is not a CMC2 spell.
The templating on cascade that made it work was "find a CMC lesser card. Then Cast that card [without caring if the card's CMC is still lesser]" and why it still works with Bring to Light.

[FTW]

There's also Vine Dryad an another pitchable 4-mana card. Between those and Leylines, question is what 5 cmc permanent has the most impact to win the game?

There's no shortage of "free" 4 cmc cards. The problem is there's nothing at 5 cmc worth cheating out with ISOG.

There's a lot of creatures worth cheating at 6-9, but 5 is a bit blank. If there were better 5s, Neoform+Skyshroud Cutter is already a better combo than ISOG. It's possible Turn 1 OTP and only requires a 1-of in the deck, not to be in hand. It sees no play. ISOG is a worse version of that.

You might find something valuable among Planeswalkers or Enchantments.

As Reeplcheep said, the most playable idea so far has been as a 1-of backup plan in Leylines.dec when you need to ETutor for ramp to put Starfield of Nyx into play (Serra's Sanctum is not ETutorable)

[HdH_Cthulhu]

https://www.trader-online.de/out/pictures/master/product/1/WAR-EN207_War_of_the_Spark.jpg

Tbh not that great. But with the free skyshroud dude you have a jump blocker and eventually Bolas will take over the game!

[chunderbucket]

I think I figured out a way to break it. You need a lot of copy effects, since copy effects are unique in that they are permanents that are higher cmc on the stack than on the battlefield. Copy effects are easier to find than self sacrifice I think.

A bunch of 2 mana ETB enchantments plus Estrids Invocation and Copy Enchantment should turn this into a gilded lotus, since you should have a bunch of 2s on the battlefield and 3s in your hand. With no non-copy 3 or 4 cmc permanents it should just cast a 3 drop every turn.


Yep I think you're right, probably some Enchantress shell would work. Some Enchantress builds already run Estrid's Invocation and a bunch of three-drops anyway.

Or Leylines I guess.

[Vacrix]

I thought about playing this as ramp in EDH. It sets up Laboratory Maniac with mana untapped for something like Paradigm Shift + Brainstorm.

On Paradigm Shift, maindeck graveyard hate like Tormod's Crypt could double as a way of clearing the yard for Paradigm Shift + Labman/Oracle.

[Barook]

http://mythicspoiler.com/stx/cards/conspiracytheorist.jpg


Conspiracy Theorist :1::r:
Creature - Human Shaman
When Conspiracy Theorist attacks, you may pay :1: and discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
When you discard one or more nonland cards, you may exile one of them from your graveyard. If you do, you may cast it until the end of this turn.
2/2

The English translation had an error, so I fixed it. You can only choose one of the cards if you discard multiples at the same time. Otherwise, it would turn LED into an actual Black Lotus. Still seems pretty good, though.