Gatecrash Spoilers

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Originally Posted by rufus

Sword of Fire and Ice

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That's interesting for sure. Works also great with SFM.

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Originally Posted by rufus

Chains has text that's way too long and is too messy.

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All you need to do is boil it down to this:

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Spells and abilities can't cause players to draw cards.

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Simple and elegant. Maybe a little bit of different wording instead of "cause", but that's what the card should do.

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Originally Posted by Nihil Credo

"6/6 for 4 that blows if your opponent has creatures" is an extremely narrow category of Magic cards, and Alms Beast still gets savagely outclassed in it by Desecration Demon, which came out last set.

On the other side, Skullcrack may be better than it looks. Flames of the Blood Hand was almost playable in Legacy, and 3 for 1R is a lot better than 4 for 2R.

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Don't know about Legacy, but if there's a red aggressive deck in T2 after GTC, people are gonna go crazy casting this in response to Thragtusk/Angel blinking Tusk. That's basically 8 "damage" for 1R.

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Originally Posted by rufus

Chains has text that's way too long and is too messy. I'd rather see a creature with "If a card would be put on top of a library from anywhere, exile it instead. If a player would look at cards from the top of his or her library, exile it instead."

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That'd just make Brainstorm better, but annihilating Top would be nice. I would rather see a creature with, "If a player would draw a card, that player discards then draws a card instead."

Priest of High Pentitenance + Pendelhaven seems pretty decent. Turns him into a 2/3 to more easily destroy permanents.

It's a Cleric in the correct color combination, so you could throw it into life.deck. Except that instead of gaining an arbitrary amount of life you get to fucking destroy your opponents board. Awesome.

Edit: No, wait, you don't. Kind of useless then.

Just strap any sword on him and you'll be good. Though I think Light and Shadow would be the best, as it allows you re-use the Priest. This guy was meant to play nice with SFM.

also, fuck yeah, my BW Human Tax Collectors deck just got that much better. Mother, Mangara, Thalia, Bobby, Champion and now this dude...with Cavern and Vial. XD

I guess in a BWx deck the cleric could be useful. But for Esper Blade and other UBW decks, it seems to me like Baleful Strix is generally better for that sort of mana investment. It replaces itself, has evasion, blocks Delver and other flyers, pitches to Force, can be abused with Academy Ruins, isn't a complete dud against combo decks in game 1, and still makes your opponent reconsider attacking into it while it's on the board. The Cleric probably has some way of abusing it to gather board control, but requiring enablers makes the card that much weaker.

Just spoiled:

Duskmantle Guildmage UB
Creature - Human Wizard

1UB: Whenever a card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere this turn, that player loses 1 life.
2UB: Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard

2/2


It's a 2 card combo with Mindcrank... viable?

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Originally Posted by Zinch

Just spoiled:

Duskmantle Guildmage UB
Creature - Human Wizard

1UB: Whenever a card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere this turn, that player loses 1 life.
2UB: Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard

2/2


It's a 2 card combo with Mindcrank... viable?

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To win without fear of being dicked by either creature or artifact removal it's essentially a 3 card combo though; Duskmantle Guildmage, Mindcrank, and some bad card that mills. Or a great card that mills; but it's still 3 cards. Or you make :3::u::u::b::b: the turn you also cast both parts of the combo, but that kind of mana buys way better tricks.

It might be cute in Standard, but still pretty easy to just disrupt.

Not at all like a 6/6 for :2::w::b:. That's the horse to bet on.

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Originally Posted by Zinch

Just spoiled:

Duskmantle Guildmage UB
Creature - Human Wizard

1UB: Whenever a card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere this turn, that player loses 1 life.
2UB: Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard

2/2


It's a 2 card combo with Mindcrank... viable?

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Interesting, but it costs at least :3::u::u::b::b: to pull off AND you need a way to get your opponent to lose life in the first place (Deathrite Shaman?).

Also pretty cool with Sword of Body and Mind for what's it worth.

Edit: Standard players are probably love it - two activations + Jace, Memory Adept are pretty much an instant gib as long as they didn't gain tons of life.

Edit2: Though conditional, Archive Trap might be a thing. You need two Traps or Guildmage activations, though.

Really nasty guildmage, especially in Limited where he is an amazing late-game mana sink that can put the hurt on your opponent very quickly. Blue/Black EDH decks will also love him as well. All this mill stuff makes me want to make a U/B EDH deck with something like Circu or Szadek and have nothing but janky mill and none of the really good hallmarks of Blue like Time Warps, steal effects, and counterspells. A Blue deck that wouldn't ruin everyone else's EDH game.

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Originally Posted by TsumiBand

To win without fear of being dicked by either creature or artifact removal it's essentially a 3 card combo though; Duskmantle Guildmage, Mindcrank, and some bad card that mills.

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That third card can be any card that sends a card to your opponent's graveyard from anywhere: Wasteland, Thoughtseize,... I don't think these are bad cards...

It's a little expensive manawise, but it's resilient to creature hate

If you have four or more tokens of creature type "Biovisionary", do you win the game if you have a Biovisionary (creature card) in play? (Is that even a valid creature type if an ability asks you to name one?)

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Originally Posted by lordofthepit

If you have four or more tokens of creature type "Biovisionary", do you win the game if you have a Biovisionary (creature card) in play? (Is that even a valid creature type if an ability asks you to name one?)

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It's not the creature type, it's the name of the card. You have to have four copies of the card Biovisionary in play.

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Originally Posted by Zinch

That third card can be any card that sends a card to your opponent's graveyard from anywhere: Wasteland, Thoughtseize,... I don't think these are bad cards...

It's a little expensive manawise, but it's resilient to creature hate

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It dies horribly to artifact hate, though.

A potential sequence could be:
T1: Land, Vial
T2: Land, Mindcrank
T3: Land, vial in Guildmage, keep mana open just in case anything happens or provoke action with a free spell like Gut Shot

The main question is the rest of the shell. Brainstorm and counters should be good, vialed in Snapcasters (or Baleful Strix) could be interesting as well.

Actually, while thinking about it - what about a B/U Storm shell with Rituals and stuff + Brain Freeze? You would need 6-7 storm (depending on fetchland use) + one activation to go lethal. Mindcrank doesn't sound too hot with Abrupt Decay around. You could even include Nivmagus Elemental.

Edit: Quick question: Does the Priest trigger once or multiple times if the gets e.g. blocked by three creatures without first strike?

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Originally Posted by Zinch

That third card can be any card that sends a card to your opponent's graveyard from anywhere: Wasteland, Thoughtseize,... I don't think these are bad cards...

It's a little expensive manawise, but it's resilient to creature hate

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Oh right, 'from anywhere'. That could actually be randomly funny to watch your opponent forget and crack a fetch, or like... play something that doesn't enter the battlefield, I guess.

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Originally Posted by Barook

It dies horribly to artifact hate, though.

A potential sequence could be:
T1: Land, Vial
T2: Land, Mindcrank
T3: Land, vial in Guildmage, keep mana open just in case anything happens or provoke action with a free spell like Gut Shot

The main question is the rest of the shell. Brainstorm and counters should be good, vialed in Snapcasters (or Baleful Strix) could be interesting as well.

Actually, while thinking about it - what about a B/U Storm shell with Rituals and stuff + Brain Freeze? You would need 6-7 storm (depending on fetchland use) + one activation to go lethal. Mindcrank doesn't sound too hot with Abrupt Decay around. You could even include Nivmagus Elemental.

Edit: Quick question: Does the Priest trigger once or multiple times if the gets e.g. blocked by three creatures without first strike?

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or vial in mage in response to a fetch activate him and insta win

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Originally Posted by Fizzeler

or vial in mage in response to a fetch activate him and insta win

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This doesn't work. As soon as any player would have priority, the land is already in the graveyard.

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Originally Posted by Koby

This doesn't work. As soon as any player would have priority, the land is already in the graveyard.

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True, could this guy be played in Painter? He gets around Emrakul and Progenitus and does something while Grindstone is in play

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Originally Posted by Fizzeler

True, could this guy be played in Painter? He gets around Emrakul and Progenitus and does something while Grindstone is in play

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So paying :4::u::b: to deal ~45 dmg, and manage to keep Painter alive? I doubt that's profitable or easy to assemble. Painter doesn't really have too much trouble vs Emrakul with other Plan B's.

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Originally Posted by Koby

So paying :4::u::b: to deal ~45 dmg, and manage to keep Painter alive? I doubt that's profitable or easy to assemble. Painter doesn't really have too much trouble vs Emrakul with other Plan B's.

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True, nonetheless I'll see if I can brew a deck to make this Mindcrank combo work