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Thread: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

  1. #1

    [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    This card from strixhaven seems very powerful, but hasn't seen much discussion:

    Creature — Human Shaman

    Whenever Conspiracy Theorist attacks, you may pay {1} and discard a card. If you do, draw a card.

    Whenever you discard one or more nonland cards, you may exile one of them from your graveyard. If you do, you may cast it this turn.
    2/2
    For example, it's very strong with stuff that relies on discard to be balanced like Lion's Eye Diamond or Gamble. I'm stuck wondering about something that combines Ridddlesmith as a looting engine with the conspiracy theorist and 0cc artifacts:


    Conspiracy Theorist
    Riddlesmith
    Echo of Eons
    Careful Study
    Faithless Looting
    Grapeshot

    Chrome Mox
    Mox Opal
    Lotus Petal
    Lion's Eye Diamond
    Urza's Bauble
    Mishra's Bauble

    ...

  2. #2
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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Gamble is definitely a good find as it as Theorist turns it essentially into a 1-mana Demonic Tutor.

    Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is also worth mentioning as it's on-color and allows you to draw your entire deck on demand. You can then win from there with LED + Oracle.

  3. #3

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Ovalchase Daredevil is another classic pairing with Ridddlesmith.

    Artificer’s Intuition seems busted to give you almost infinite LEDs.

  4. #4

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by Barook View Post
    ...
    Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is also worth mentioning as it's on-color and allows you to draw your entire deck on demand. You can then win from there with LED + Oracle.
    Harnfel doesn't draw so you need something like Vega, the Watcher to turn the exiled cards back into cards that can be discarded.

  5. #5
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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by rufus View Post
    Harnfel doesn't draw so you need something like Vega the Watcher to turn the exiled cards back into cards that can be discarded.
    Nevermind, I remembered the card wrong. But still, free Ancestral Recalls are nothing to sneeze at.

  6. #6

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    I've tried it, and was actually a bit disappointed. I tried different variations of my riddlesmith + ovalchase daredevil deck that I played a bit last year but I also had birgi and sometimes faithless looting in. The main problem was that in that deck at least the card did not do anything if I already had ovalchase daredevil. With daredevil you always discard daredevil, and you don't want to put that in exile. While in theory it could be nice to have if you don't yet found a daredevil, in practice that never came up as I usually had to pass the turn with either riddlesmith or conspiracy theorist in play (i could not afford to cast both in a single turn), and both are really easy to kill. One of the strengths of riddlesmith+daredevil is that you can cast riddlesmith turn 1, opponent lets it go because they might have a bolt, and then I start to chain artifacts so even if I have to pass the turn I have lots of mana in play and multiple bauble triggers when they remove it.

    The LED interaction was kind of nice sometimes, it's cool to play t1 conspiracy theorist, t2 LED, sacrifice it and discard multiple daredevils, keep and play Horn of harnfeld, the daredevils return to hand and you can go off. Never happened in a real game, but it would be cool at least :)

  7. #7

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    I do agree you need to be able to go off without passing the turn if you have an led at least.

    See the truth is an ancestral
    Echo of Eons is a mull to 8
    Brought Back is a dark ritual with a fetch or petal.
    shadow of the grave turns led into a petal.

  8. #8

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    What if you want it to use as an engine? With lilliana of the veil and stuff like that!?
    “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

  9. #9
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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by HdH_Cthulhu View Post
    What if you want it to use as an engine? With lilliana of the veil and stuff like that!?
    Anvil of Bogardan would work well with it as a draw engine, especially when backed up by Narset and Hullbreacher to further break the symmetry. But the 3 mana draw 7s are probably more effective than that.

    As for engine cards, Jeskai Ascendancy could work really well with it since you would discard quite often while going off, significantly reducing the chance of fizzling.

  10. #10

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    What about Wheel of Misfortune? You should be able to bid high enough to get the draw the first time, though that would make the other copies dead.

  11. #11

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by Barook View Post
    ...

    As for engine cards, Jeskai Ascendancy could work really well with it since you would discard quite often while going off, significantly reducing the chance of fizzling.
    Hazoret's Monument is another looter, but CMC 3 is a lot in legacy and Grinning Ignus/Runaway Steam-kin piles probably aren't much good.

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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Artificer's Intuition seems like a busted build-around

    With Artificer + U
    Discard Mox Opal/Lotus Petal -> search for Mox Opal/Lotus Petal #2. Replay Opal/Petal #1 and tap for U

    You can go
    Opal -> Opal -> Opal -> Petal -> Petal -> Petal -> LED -> LED -> LED -> any win condition
    e.g. if your hand contained a Tendrils or Burning Wish, you could exile that when you crack the first LED and then cast it at the end of the chain for lethal

  13. #13

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by FTW View Post
    Artificer's Intuition seems like a busted build-around

    With Artificer + U
    Discard Mox Opal/Lotus Petal -> search for Mox Opal/Lotus Petal #2. Replay Opal/Petal #1 and tap for U

    You can go
    Opal -> Opal -> Opal -> Petal -> Petal -> Petal -> LED -> LED -> LED -> any win condition
    e.g. if your hand contained a Tendrils or Burning Wish, you could exile that when you crack the first LED and then cast it at the end of the chain for lethal
    This is the way. Consistent t3 storm kills and immune to sorcery speed creature removal is a great place to start. It can also get a bag of holding as a backup theorist.

    Salvage Titan plus Ridddlesmith also does a decent impression of theorist.

  14. #14

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by FTW View Post
    ...
    You can go
    Opal -> Opal -> Opal -> Petal -> Petal -> Petal -> LED -> LED -> LED -> any win condition
    e.g. if your hand contained a Tendrils or Burning Wish, you could exile that when you crack the first LED and then cast it at the end of the chain for lethal
    I understand chaining the petals, but how does this handle that you have to discard your hand to activate LED?

  15. #15
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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by rufus View Post
    I understand chaining the petals, but how does this handle that you have to discard your hand to activate LED?
    Conspiracy Theorist's static ability.
    "The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
    Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order

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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by rufus View Post
    I understand chaining the petals, but how does this handle that you have to discard your hand to activate LED?
    Good point. You can get at least 2 LEDs, which should be enough to win.

    U, discard & exile Petal: search for LED
    Cast Petal
    Sacrifice Petal for U
    U, discard & exile 1st LED: search for 2nd LED
    Cast 1st LED from exile
    Cast 2nd LED from hand
    Crack LEDs: RRRBBB. Discard hand & exile Burning Wish or Tendrils of Agony or Infernal Tutor
    Cast Wish/Tutor/Tendrils & win

    With an extra U floating or an LED already in play, you can do stack tricks to get more LEDs.

    **Pay 2nd U, discard & exile 2nd LED: activate Artificer
    In response crack 1st LED: UUU. Discard hand & exile Wish/Tendrils/Tutor
    Artificer ability resolves: get 3rd LED
    Cast 2nd LED from exile
    U, discard & exile 3rd LED: get 4th LED
    Cast 3rd LED from exile
    Cast 4th LED from hand
    Crack LEDs: RRRBBBUUU
    Cast Wish/Tutor/Tendrils

    If you have an LED in play at the beginning of the chain then you can just do it at the start, in response to any Artificer's Intuition activation.

  17. #17

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by FTW View Post
    Artificer's Intuition seems like a busted build-around

    With Artificer + U
    Discard Mox Opal/Lotus Petal -> search for Mox Opal/Lotus Petal #2. Replay Opal/Petal #1 and tap for U

    You can go
    Opal -> Opal -> Opal -> Petal -> Petal -> Petal -> LED -> LED -> LED -> any win condition
    e.g. if your hand contained a Tendrils or Burning Wish, you could exile that when you crack the first LED and then cast it at the end of the chain for lethal
    I'm not sure i understand, you don't really gain mana? And after you sacrifice the first LED you can't activate Artificer any more? (well maybe if you have salvage titan you could bring it back..)
    I might be missing something and i will assume i do and that it works :) EDIT: i see your explanation now.

    Are there any artifacts that could be used as the killcondition? If infinite mana could be achieved Magma mine is pretty nice. Without an artifact kill condition (or an artifact way to find a kill condition) it really becomes a 3 card combo that's vulnerable to almost everything (leyline/deafening silence/spheres/StP/Bolt/Decay/ouphe/counterspells etc etc)

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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by JosefK View Post
    I'm not sure i understand, you don't really gain mana? And after you sacrifice the first LED you can't activate Artificer any more? (well maybe if you have salvage titan you could bring it back..)
    I might be missing something and i will assume i do and that it works :)
    See above. Chaining Petals and Opals is mana-neutral but builds free storm in a non-random chain that won't fizzle (unlike random card draws). You gain mana from the LEDs.

    You can always get at least 2 LEDs (cast 1 from exile, cast 1 from hand) which is enough mana for Wish/Tutor-> Tendrils, which you can exile when you crack one of the LEDs.
    To chain more LEDs yeah it takes either an extra mana or an LED in play from the start, but that isn't always necessary.

    Edit: Nevermind.
    Yeah, needing a Wish or Tutor in hand makes it a 3-card combo and vulnerable. But it doesn't need much else to go off so you can have a lot of protection slots. Unlike Ad Nauseam or Peer it doesn't care about life total or need as much mana, so you can fight through more disruption and take more damage before going off. Unlike Echo and IGG it doesn't put Force in their hand. But you'd need to protect Theorist with something like Silence or Defense Grid.

    With infinite mana Walking Ballista is a wincon. How to get infinite though? Is there any 0-1 cmc artifact that would put Auriok Salvagers into play? Then you can loop LEDs for infinite mana and use Artificer to find Ballista.

  19. #19

    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Hmmm not really thought this through. But could Conjurer's bauble be used as a way to draw your deck? Crack led as a response to intuition, get bauble, discard it to get a LED, discard again . hmm something, i'm tired.

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    Re: [SCD] Conspiracy Theorist

    Quote Originally Posted by JosefK View Post
    Hmmm not really thought this through. But could Conjurer's bauble be used as a way to draw your deck? Crack led as a response to intuition, get bauble, discard it to get a LED, discard again . hmm something, i'm tired.
    I think you're onto something.

    Since LED produces multiple mana you can sneak in another artifact in between LEDs to get value. The problem is Conjurer's Bauble only puts back 1 card. You can put back another Bauble or an LED, but eventually you run out of Baubles or LEDs (mana). What about 1-of Elixir of Immortality though? Infinite life and infinite mana into 1-of Walking Ballista?

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