Very nice as usual. Just a few random comments from a Commander perspective.
Conundrum Sphinx has burned me every time I've played it. You never realize how many Sylvan Libraries, Top's, Scroll Racks and other ways there are to view the top of a library until you play Conundrum and start giving all your opponents free cards.
Isperia and Sphinx Ambassador are fun little mini-games in a game. Ambassador is even better because you get to look at an opponent's library, and you almost never see an opponent guess the right creature. And it's even more funny when people forget what's in their decks.
Medomai is amazing, especially with haste. I was happy every time I drew him in my Daxos deck.
Argent doesn't have evasion, though, she has "situational evasion" (if for evasion you mean the flicker effect, not the flying). Not being an artifact herself, you need 3 artifacts in play for that to work. Even in Tribal Wars, that would mean adding a bunch of artifact lands, and in a blue/mostly blue deck, after the first 4 Seats of the Synod, it'd be like adding colorless sources. Maybe Argent deserves a 6.5/7, but Conundrum is definitely the superior creature in most occasions.
I gather you never saw this deck in action. I'll be happy to put some videos of it for you next time. When I say that I never went less than 3-1 (or 2-1) with it, and I played it probably two dozen times, I'm not lying. There were also people claiming that Living Death should be banned, so your "Living Death? That does nothing" position is very welcome. :)
I don't get your concerns, though. Burn spell will go to my face? Um, duh? And as I explained, in that deck Living Death is never double-edged (barring late game, but at that point I'll have creature superiority most of the time: it's been fun playing this vs. a Living End deck), as I don't kill anything, so nothing comes back from their graveyard during the first Living Death, which 80% of the times is also the LAST Living Death. Do you really think you'll have your own answer to 3-4 Sphinges attacking you the next turn, some of which aren't even targetable? And did you answer my Vexing Sphinx and Lost Truths or you got damage from them before that?
If you replace Living Death with Damnation/Supreme Verdict, it'll be a dull deck, but also a less effective deck, because it'll leave me with an empty board too, and chances are the non-Sphinx deck will rebuild first from there. The battleplan is that I don't have to rebuild after a sweeper: the sweeper builds my side of the board for me.
Also, Vexing Sphinx and Sphinx Lost Truths are powerful creatures, but if you don't have ways to exploit the cards they put in the graveyard, then they're just massive looters that are hard to pull off.
... but I almost think that Zur is the worst card in that deck. When I played the Zur list, I felt like Zur was the worst in the list (compared to Geist, which might be the best), and I'm still concerned he is. Karakas bounces him, which makes me pretty sad, and I certainly don't think he ever hits the board against most decks without a Cavern out. Enlightened Tutor might be better? Then you can still run the hoser enchantments. Not sure. Believe me, I want Zur to be awesome, but I felt like the only reason I was able to Top 8 that tournament was because everyone had sold off their Tangle Wires beforehand in preparation for FTV20. In fact, I think one of the reasons I even decided to pilot it was because I thought the warped Wire-less and Jace-less metagame was the only chance for Zur.
Also, have you considered Spell Snare as an alternative to either Mana Drain or Steel Sabotage? It still counters Spheres, most of the Affinity creatures, and also Oath, but it obviously has no value against a Blightsteel or Lodestone. I've run it in the past and felt good about its versatility, but sometimes you just need answers against brown cards.
A deck critique from the peanut gallery (one who has never played it):
Living Death makes little sense to me. Granted, in Pure events the white exile effects are gone, but Burn spells will be going to your face at that point, and opponents' Pacify-variants or bounce won't complement Living Death. Vexing Sphinx is the only crit that has a chance of cycling to the graveyard on its own. I don't really see, short of a few black removal spells, how you really plan to profit from them sufficiently enough to justify 5-mana potentially double-edged resurrect spells. If you don't find a Bog (another sub-optimal card in a 3-color, base-blue deck that has to be timed just right), it might even be a liability. Shackles raises much more difficult questions for the opponent, and isn't contingent upon anything else. Cryptic Command or Supreme Verdict are also solid options.
4 power with evasion is a jump of two turns on 3 power: Four power with evasion for 4 mana is worth the risk of getting bolted, especially if it can try to dodge it. Argent to my opinion is better than a 6. Great work as always.
It was more of a really poor assumption that my opponent was on Scapeshift. I was playing against Chinese Notebook who had used Scapeshift often during WAFTT. When they dropped an appropriate Fetch, I just went with "I know!" and so instead of playing T1 Bogle, T2 Aura that wouldn't pump toughness and thus die to Pyroclasm, I went for T2 Voice, thinking that I would either buff the 2/2 to a more durable threat, or get the Elemental which could then grow larger from dropping multiple 1/1's as well as being buffed. So I played my hand out "backwards" instead...bigger things to buffs and finishing with 1/1's. CN didn't have the combo either, so if I had raced with a hexproof creature (my voice sucked down a bolt early) there was a strong chance I could have gotten there since I got them down to about 7 with my "slow plan" and playing it correctly would have gone faster.
The assumption compounded by my odd card inclusions equaled train wreck. In a format as fast as Modern, stumble enough and you fall. I hope that filled in the gaps.
As always an entertaining and bar raising read Blippy. Sorry I missed your birthday celebration but it sounds like it was fun, based on Procrastination's report. I look forward to more details in yours.
"I think my opponent is on Scapeshift, so I try to be sneaky and play around it. " I really don't understand how you made this mistake. You are clearly a fairly good competent player. I wish you detailed your mistake here a bit more with the play by play since this is completely missing.
I have been distracted too much lately to be involved regularly in MTGO competitively even for the wonderful PREs that are run on an almost daily basis. I am a little sad I completely missed out on Blippy's celebration as I was planning to at least watch but it just didn't work out. Thanks for describing it somewhat.
I was under the assumption that Farf made it as I'd never seen it anywhere until it showed up in WAFTT. It was mentioned a few times on SCG, but also always credited to Farfishere. Recently it got a thread on Salvation as well, so it's gaining momentum.
Dan, you should obviously do an article about it for Modern Noob since that was one of the decks you were running, right?
I would do an article for it, but I don't have all of the cards for the deck. I'd gladly give it a spotlight if folks don't mind that I can't do test matches?
I'll have to agree, Prognostic Sphinx is definitely the best card in the deck. It dodges a lot of the removal in the format and against the unconditional removal you can always sandbag cards to negate that effect. Master of Waves is decidedly unimpressive I've found. It's okay against green, but a resolved Polukranos makes them weak, and black can always kill it. Of course, there isn't a better card you'd run over it atm.
Thanks for the shout-out to Modern Times, Gio!
The starting time is thought to be Euro-friendly. Of course, the event could branch out an American version. If only a certain American guy decided to become a host... :P
I guess it was in 2009...I don't remember the episode number. Probably around #15 or so ...
Anyway congrats on #250! That's a big milestone.
Brilliant cast guys. :) Masques block ftw! FYI Josh I also enjoyed playing the original MNP draft. I am not convinced drafting the block packs will replicate that fun. They weren't as fun as Rath Cycle drafts but they had some fun times. Haunted Crossroads was a champion card for me. :D
I wish I could summon the inspiration to contribute to the Sphinx Week articles because Sphinges are awesome! (Though Kuma didn't even approach me about it so it would have to be outside the organized bit.) I have been having a really long dry spell creatively speaking and in particular with regards to M:TG and MTGO. I guess this is partially procrastination taken to extremes and also some very deep seated dissatisfaction with the way MTGO has been managed in the last year or so.
That's a fantastic tip. Even against an aware opponent, it still shrinks the guy which isn't irrelevant, and the ability is obscure enough that it could easily blow people out.
Wow, all FIVE of the card's abilities have some use. Crazy!
The Anti-Mill is useful against Mono Black and their Nighthowlers. Against a smart opponent it won't matter much, but your average opponent won't take Bow into the equation and you can make their seemingly good attack into a very bad one.
Very nice as usual. Just a few random comments from a Commander perspective.
Conundrum Sphinx has burned me every time I've played it. You never realize how many Sylvan Libraries, Top's, Scroll Racks and other ways there are to view the top of a library until you play Conundrum and start giving all your opponents free cards.
Isperia and Sphinx Ambassador are fun little mini-games in a game. Ambassador is even better because you get to look at an opponent's library, and you almost never see an opponent guess the right creature. And it's even more funny when people forget what's in their decks.
Medomai is amazing, especially with haste. I was happy every time I drew him in my Daxos deck.
Argent doesn't have evasion, though, she has "situational evasion" (if for evasion you mean the flicker effect, not the flying). Not being an artifact herself, you need 3 artifacts in play for that to work. Even in Tribal Wars, that would mean adding a bunch of artifact lands, and in a blue/mostly blue deck, after the first 4 Seats of the Synod, it'd be like adding colorless sources. Maybe Argent deserves a 6.5/7, but Conundrum is definitely the superior creature in most occasions.
I gather you never saw this deck in action. I'll be happy to put some videos of it for you next time. When I say that I never went less than 3-1 (or 2-1) with it, and I played it probably two dozen times, I'm not lying. There were also people claiming that Living Death should be banned, so your "Living Death? That does nothing" position is very welcome. :)
I don't get your concerns, though. Burn spell will go to my face? Um, duh? And as I explained, in that deck Living Death is never double-edged (barring late game, but at that point I'll have creature superiority most of the time: it's been fun playing this vs. a Living End deck), as I don't kill anything, so nothing comes back from their graveyard during the first Living Death, which 80% of the times is also the LAST Living Death. Do you really think you'll have your own answer to 3-4 Sphinges attacking you the next turn, some of which aren't even targetable? And did you answer my Vexing Sphinx and Lost Truths or you got damage from them before that?
If you replace Living Death with Damnation/Supreme Verdict, it'll be a dull deck, but also a less effective deck, because it'll leave me with an empty board too, and chances are the non-Sphinx deck will rebuild first from there. The battleplan is that I don't have to rebuild after a sweeper: the sweeper builds my side of the board for me.
Also, Vexing Sphinx and Sphinx Lost Truths are powerful creatures, but if you don't have ways to exploit the cards they put in the graveyard, then they're just massive looters that are hard to pull off.
... but I almost think that Zur is the worst card in that deck. When I played the Zur list, I felt like Zur was the worst in the list (compared to Geist, which might be the best), and I'm still concerned he is. Karakas bounces him, which makes me pretty sad, and I certainly don't think he ever hits the board against most decks without a Cavern out. Enlightened Tutor might be better? Then you can still run the hoser enchantments. Not sure. Believe me, I want Zur to be awesome, but I felt like the only reason I was able to Top 8 that tournament was because everyone had sold off their Tangle Wires beforehand in preparation for FTV20. In fact, I think one of the reasons I even decided to pilot it was because I thought the warped Wire-less and Jace-less metagame was the only chance for Zur.
Also, have you considered Spell Snare as an alternative to either Mana Drain or Steel Sabotage? It still counters Spheres, most of the Affinity creatures, and also Oath, but it obviously has no value against a Blightsteel or Lodestone. I've run it in the past and felt good about its versatility, but sometimes you just need answers against brown cards.
As always, wonderfully written article.
A deck critique from the peanut gallery (one who has never played it):
Living Death makes little sense to me. Granted, in Pure events the white exile effects are gone, but Burn spells will be going to your face at that point, and opponents' Pacify-variants or bounce won't complement Living Death. Vexing Sphinx is the only crit that has a chance of cycling to the graveyard on its own. I don't really see, short of a few black removal spells, how you really plan to profit from them sufficiently enough to justify 5-mana potentially double-edged resurrect spells. If you don't find a Bog (another sub-optimal card in a 3-color, base-blue deck that has to be timed just right), it might even be a liability. Shackles raises much more difficult questions for the opponent, and isn't contingent upon anything else. Cryptic Command or Supreme Verdict are also solid options.
4 power with evasion is a jump of two turns on 3 power: Four power with evasion for 4 mana is worth the risk of getting bolted, especially if it can try to dodge it. Argent to my opinion is better than a 6. Great work as always.
It was more of a really poor assumption that my opponent was on Scapeshift. I was playing against Chinese Notebook who had used Scapeshift often during WAFTT. When they dropped an appropriate Fetch, I just went with "I know!" and so instead of playing T1 Bogle, T2 Aura that wouldn't pump toughness and thus die to Pyroclasm, I went for T2 Voice, thinking that I would either buff the 2/2 to a more durable threat, or get the Elemental which could then grow larger from dropping multiple 1/1's as well as being buffed. So I played my hand out "backwards" instead...bigger things to buffs and finishing with 1/1's. CN didn't have the combo either, so if I had raced with a hexproof creature (my voice sucked down a bolt early) there was a strong chance I could have gotten there since I got them down to about 7 with my "slow plan" and playing it correctly would have gone faster.
The assumption compounded by my odd card inclusions equaled train wreck. In a format as fast as Modern, stumble enough and you fall. I hope that filled in the gaps.
As always an entertaining and bar raising read Blippy. Sorry I missed your birthday celebration but it sounds like it was fun, based on Procrastination's report. I look forward to more details in yours.
"I think my opponent is on Scapeshift, so I try to be sneaky and play around it. " I really don't understand how you made this mistake. You are clearly a fairly good competent player. I wish you detailed your mistake here a bit more with the play by play since this is completely missing.
I have been distracted too much lately to be involved regularly in MTGO competitively even for the wonderful PREs that are run on an almost daily basis. I am a little sad I completely missed out on Blippy's celebration as I was planning to at least watch but it just didn't work out. Thanks for describing it somewhat.
"Actually I don't think it existed before I made the deck."
Well, I wasn't 100% sure, but it's the reason I called it "prototype". :)
Wasn't there Extraplanar Lens at some point? The reason why the Snow-Covered lands are still there?
Thanks, Procr. I will cover it as part of my December 9 Modern Noob update.
It would be very interesting if you did a deeper article about it after that, if you want to
I have plenty of videos of me and Farf playing the deck on my Youtube channel. Feel free to use them.
BTW, extra thanks to Farfishere for creating a fantastic deck and for being an awesome coach for the Modern Noob
I was under the assumption that Farf made it as I'd never seen it anywhere until it showed up in WAFTT. It was mentioned a few times on SCG, but also always credited to Farfishere. Recently it got a thread on Salvation as well, so it's gaining momentum.
Dan, you should obviously do an article about it for Modern Noob since that was one of the decks you were running, right?
I would do an article for it, but I don't have all of the cards for the deck. I'd gladly give it a spotlight if folks don't mind that I can't do test matches?
I am also fairly sure you are the creator, Farf.
I'll have to agree, Prognostic Sphinx is definitely the best card in the deck. It dodges a lot of the removal in the format and against the unconditional removal you can always sandbag cards to negate that effect. Master of Waves is decidedly unimpressive I've found. It's okay against green, but a resolved Polukranos makes them weak, and black can always kill it. Of course, there isn't a better card you'd run over it atm.
OH MAN THAT DECK IS SOOOOOO COOL!
Seriously, I'm gonna play the crap out of it.
Actually I don't think it existed before I made the deck. I could be wrong though.
Thanks for the shout-out to Modern Times, Gio!
The starting time is thought to be Euro-friendly. Of course, the event could branch out an American version. If only a certain American guy decided to become a host... :P
They're equal parts cool and annoying. :)
Here's the prototype list by Farfishere, who's a big fan of the archetype.
I would be interested in hearing about these time walk decks. I've been away from modern for a bit so these are new to me.
I guess it was in 2009...I don't remember the episode number. Probably around #15 or so ...
Anyway congrats on #250! That's a big milestone.
Brilliant cast guys. :) Masques block ftw! FYI Josh I also enjoyed playing the original MNP draft. I am not convinced drafting the block packs will replicate that fun. They weren't as fun as Rath Cycle drafts but they had some fun times. Haunted Crossroads was a champion card for me. :D
I wish I could summon the inspiration to contribute to the Sphinx Week articles because Sphinges are awesome! (Though Kuma didn't even approach me about it so it would have to be outside the organized bit.) I have been having a really long dry spell creatively speaking and in particular with regards to M:TG and MTGO. I guess this is partially procrastination taken to extremes and also some very deep seated dissatisfaction with the way MTGO has been managed in the last year or so.
I've started on 246, so fairly recent. Better late than never, yes?
Congrats on # 250 - very impressive :)
Zach
That's a fantastic tip. Even against an aware opponent, it still shrinks the guy which isn't irrelevant, and the ability is obscure enough that it could easily blow people out.
Wow, all FIVE of the card's abilities have some use. Crazy!
The Anti-Mill is useful against Mono Black and their Nighthowlers. Against a smart opponent it won't matter much, but your average opponent won't take Bow into the equation and you can make their seemingly good attack into a very bad one.
Congrats on a hitting a benchmark. Don't stop now.
FWIW, I have been listening since episode #1, and it's not my job. (althoug I have been known to steal stuff for SotP...)