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.
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.
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.
Scornful Egotist likes it, but Leylines are the better plan.
Having problems knowing what to do once you've found greatness? Never fear Research // Development can restart the chain.
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
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.
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?
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?
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.
Last edited by Reeplcheep; 03-12-2021 at 10:38 AM. Reason: X spells don’t work
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.
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.
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.
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?
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