Gatecrash Spoilers

[Greenpoe]

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?

This combo is absolutely playable - its comparable to the Painter/Stone combo, except better in a very important way: Emrakul in their deck won't stop the mill. Painter Stone costs 1 & 2, then 3 to activate. This combo costs 2 and 2 and 3 to activate. The Guildmage (like Painter) can be fetched via Imperial Recruiter if someone wanted to go UBR and he pitches to Force. He is a Wizard, so he could be fetched via Vedalken Æthermage or could be played in some Wizard/tribal deck (which could easily support 3 colors via Cavern of Souls and you can still Patron Wizard for that tribal synergy).

Besides that, I imagine it could see play in a UBw deck with Stoneforge. Equipment would certainly make the 2/2 body more relevant and allows for an obvious combo with Sword of Body & Mind.

Also, Gifts enables this combo in a pile of Volrath's Stronghold, Academy Ruins, Guildmage, Mindcrank. It's slow and vulnerable to graveyard hate, but could be decent.

[Lord Seth]

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.

Sort of. It doesn't need to be four copies of the card, just four creatures named Biovisionary. So you can win the game with tokens from something like Soul Foundry.

[Barook]

This combo is absolutely playable - its comparable to the Painter/Stone combo, except better in a very important way: Emrakul in their deck won't stop the mill. Painter Stone costs 1 & 2, then 3 to activate. This combo costs 2 and 2 and 3 to activate. The Guildmage (like Painter) can be fetched via Imperial Recruiter if someone wanted to go UBR and he pitches to Force. He is a Wizard, so he could be fetched via Vedalken Æthermage or could be played in some Wizard/tribal deck (which could easily support 3 colors via Cavern of Souls and you can still Patron Wizard for that tribal synergy).

Why not simply run Muddle the Mixture which is on color, has AWESOME and could potentially protect the combo if you really want to go for 3 mana tutor spells?

Edit:


Most likely not Legacy-playable, though. Still cool with Urborg.

[lordofthepit]

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.

I was actually wondering if you could have three Biovisionary tokens (since the permanent name is the same as its creature type), but I'm not sure "Biovisionary" is a valid choice for a creature type.

[Aggro_zombies]

I was actually wondering if you could have three Biovisionary tokens (since the permanent name is the same as its creature type), but I'm not sure "Biovisionary" is a valid choice for a creature type.

The tokens have to be named "Biovisionary," which is, incidentally, not in the list of tournament-allowed creature types for cards like Volrath's Laboratory.

[EpicLevelCommoner]

Why not simply run Muddle the Mixture which is on color, has AWESOME and could potentially protect the combo if you really want to go for 3 mana tutor spells?

Edit:


Most likely not Legacy-playable, though. Still cool with Urborg.

4 CMC kills it a lot, but I think it still has a teensy bit of potential, particularly with Recurring Nightmare and any of the free Urza dudes that untap four or more lands.

Turn X-Y: Dump Urza Dude
Turn X: Play Ghast
Turn X+1: Play Nightmare Float 3 and Extort 1, Activate Nightmare for Urza Dude, Play Nightmare Float 0, Activate Nightmare for Ghast, Play Nightmare Float 3 Extort 1, etc.

[Erdvermampfa]

And if Maelstrom Pulse is any indication, Vindicate would still cost , but with non-land clause added. Seriously, the "make LD as unplayable as possible"-stance is annoying.

Pulse was printed at a time they pursued a whole different design policy in comparison to what they do now...

[Darkenslight]

New card!

"Rapid Hybridization"
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. That creature's controller puts a 3/3 green Frog Lizard token onto the battlefield under their control.

Source.

[JDK]

Pongify reprint. ;)

[TsumiBand]

Pongify reprint. ;)

Minor point here, but Pongify makes Apes, not Frog Lizards. Simic has this whole "frogs are cool" thing going on, IIRC it wasn't exactly tribal love or anything, they just... like things a whole lot better if they're Frogs. So somehow maybe the creature type matters this time, like there will be some jankety "Gain control of all Frogs" or whatever. I unno.

Anyway, every Blue deck should now feel encouraged and welcome to run 8x Pongify effects. "Say, that's a nice KotR. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's a frog."

[dameus]

Sheesh! 21 pages of chatter without a single exciting Legacy-playable card.
I'm not sure whether to be impressed or depressed.

[Vacrix]

Sick.. I think a few people who didn't want to pay $300 bucks per recruiter just shat themselves.

[FieryBalrog]

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.

That's exactly what I'm making next with Lazav. Bad, but funny.

[morgan_coke]

Dimir Charm - UB

Counter target sorcery, or destroy target creature with power 2 or less, or look at the top three cards of target players library, put two of them into the graveyard and one back on top of the library.

That seems insanely strong. Kills Bob, DRS, and all random mana/utility dorks, counters discard, most tutors, and clears chaff off the top of your library.

Signal the Clans might be good depending on what the final wording/functionality is, but it also might be a strictly worse eladamri's call. really wish it put the extra dudes into your graveyard instead of the library.

[Aggro_zombies]

Dimir Charm is not Legacy material, not if Izzet Charm didn't make the cut. The counter on Izzet Charm is more flexible, the damage is basically the same as destruction in this format, and the double-loot is better than...whatever that last ability is supposed to do, I guess.

Being in a better color combination won't push the worse Charm.

[kingtk3]

Signal the clans
Istant
Search your library for three creature cards and reveal them. If you searched for three cards with different names, choose one at random at put it into your hand. Shuffle the rest into your library.

Seems like it was taylor made for biovisionary.

[TraxDaMax]

So Mindcrank and Duskmantle Guildmage is an infinite loop (as long as opponent has cards or life I guess) when the mage's first ability is active and a card goes to opponent's graveyard? Or how must I see this. Seems legit, but I'm no expert on the ruling.

[bruizar]

Dimir Charm is not Legacy material, not if Izzet Charm didn't make the cut. The counter on Izzet Charm is more flexible, the damage is basically the same as destruction in this format, and the double-loot is better than...whatever that last ability is supposed to do, I guess.

Being in a better color combination won't push the worse Charm.

Dimir Charm could end up in sideboards replacing Envelop. I could be wrong but I don't see Dimir Charm going anywhere soon.

[Vacrix]

Signal the clans
Istant
Search your library for three creature cards and reveal them. If you searched for three cards with different names, choose one at random at put it into your hand. Shuffle the rest into your library.

Seems like it was taylor made for biovisionary.

Somehow I don't think it was.. seeing that nothing happens when you reveal 3 creature cards AAA, AAB, or BBB, etc. only if its ABC do you even get a creature and even then its at random. When I first saw this card, the first thought was, wow you can find 3 ESG/SSG with them and its essentially a ritual that nets you one. Then I thought.. better worldly tutor, then it was woah this card is like drawing 3 Tarmogoyfs for RG... then I reread it.. and yeah you don't get any of the three creatures unless you choose one at random because each creature is different. Really weird wording.


Biovisionary works well with Pack Hunt though. And Soul Foundry.

[catmint]

I am also not set on the charm like aggro zombies. For maindeck its worse then izzet charm since it does not kill delver, spell pierce is better than envelop and looting is better than dimirs option #3 and not even izzet charm made it. To replace envelop in the SB you might think you got some more utility freeing up sideboard slots. Problem is that the decks where you want to bring in envelop are primarily combo & miracles. Against combo 1 additional mana hurts a lot and can never make up for the fringe use case of killing a xantid swarm. Miracles plays for the most part play without stoneforge mystic and the charm does not kill clique. So in both situations you bascially have a worse envelop due to higher cc. Sure there will be matchups where a lot of sorceries and little dorks are played like BW stoneblade but back to why izzet charm did not make it...

For Signal the clans ... why does it have to be "choose at random". I guess that's red, but I think the format would have appreciated a "creature intuition" for RG.