Card/Deck Blink

ahadabans

ahadabans

I'm still a big fan of the old Karmic Guide / Reveillark combo. I also love discarding Eternal Dragon on T2 for a plain (still great in white to help secure WW on T3) and then using guide later to reanimate the dragon. That play is particularly nice after a wrath. Not new tech obviously and maybe not good enough in today's cubes? I don't know.

As far as the white being boring problem...

So a deck that has started popping up more and more over here is sort of a hybrid model of aggro/control. My environment is very creature based (no walkers and not many ways to make spell based decks so every deck has dudes in it). And a lot of decks will have aggressive creatures but also ways to win late game (sweepers, CA generators, combo type things like guide/lark, or just a higher curve ensuring card quality past T5). White feels well suited for this especially since that color has very efficient beaters but also a ton of control cards. Try and win the game early with dudes. If that fails, stall and wrath the board, then reset your attack. That is hit and miss as a strategy (and does poorly against many control decks), but it usually wrecks the heavy midrange strategies (prevalent here which is probably why this deck has started to happen more).
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Aston said:
There was a sweet Monowhite deck circa old Zendikar/M11 which used Emeria to recur Sun Titan and Pilgrim's Eye. I don't think it was very good, given that you could instead be playing Jace the Mind Sculptor, but maybe something like that could be used as inspiration?

Sun Titan/Karmic Guide/Reveillark/Proclamation of Rebirth and stuff like Pilgrim's Eye/Solemn Simulacrum/Mind Stone, building up to Martial Coup/Decree of Justice/Entreat the Angels. Could work Martyr of Sands in there too but that's probably not great.
Click to expand...

There is a modern version of that deck that has been popping up over the last couple months.

I would caution everyone that its one of those modern "control decks," meaning its really a midrange deck that gets ahead on slow value generation via 1 for 1 trades and recurring ETB triggers.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

So, I don't want Blink to be a complete own deck to draft but rather want to add cards that also add to other decks. As I do have a lower powered list (not the one in my signature) I'm also thinking about cards that just put cards back to my hand. I'd rather refer to the whole theme as EtB matters.

Actual Blink cards that I consider:

Five classic one-time blinkers, three of them being instant (good for Mystic Snake and the likes)
Five repeatable blinkers with the Thief being a weaker version of Galepowder Mage, Smuggler being a mana sink and Soulherder being a multicolour card that is also good in +1/+1-counters.dec, while Astral Drift needs Cycling to work.

Ninjutsu

Nuff said. I think if I can make these cards work, my power level is where I want it to be at.

Return to hand aka pseudo blink:

Grasp is Momentary Blink's little brother, for a lot less mana, but in the end, you'll need to invest more. Ruse is quite nice as it costs less while providing a hard counter. Sabertooth is an aggressive option that repeatedly gives you the opportunity to etb. RipLab works if you have a high wizard count.
Out of the creatures, I like Stonecloaker and Quickling the best. Having Flash makes them a lot better, but also having an evasive body is quite good. The Skyfisher is able to provide another landfall trigger but I don't see it making the cut. Lion and Impostor are just worse than the rest.

So, EtB matters usually finds itself in UW and to a certain degree in G and B. Surely there are some etb effects in nearly if not every red section, too, but inb my experience, those are the main colours with UW being it's primary colour combination. I know about red cards producing tokens that are copies, but I really dislike those cards as they are more narrow as they aren't able to blank removal and they make for feel bad moments if you need to throw a blocker into a big token that will be exiled eot anyway.
 
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ravnic

ravnic

I like the blink archetype because it can still work if it is just as minor sub theme in a deck. Sometimes you see the fully blown version with Brago in W/U/x, but sometimes you just see 1 enabler with maybe 2 targets, like a spells matter deck that reuses Archaeomancer or a life gain deck that goes Lone Missionary into Flickerwisp. here are a few cards I want to give a honorable mention.



Nice little 2-card-combo that allows you to reuse your favorite spell again and again for 3 extra mana. Evacuation is also nice with these guys (and just a great control card).



That's a good reason to include cards, that can blink/bounce any permanent. Yes Flickerwisp and Glimmerpoint Stag are awesome, but even Kor Skyfisher and Riftwing Cloudskate are worth it.



This guy is not really a blink enabler, but then he somehow is. It works just the same, and he's a fair version of Recurring Nightmare for us lower powered guys. Sweet bleed into {B}.



Cards like these seem narrow, but if you are careful and try to chose those, who can blink opposing creatures, they become much more flexible. They reuse your EtB, they counter removal spells, they destroy opposing tokens, they remove good OR bad auras and they can make combat a disaster for your opponent in cases like double blocking.



I like Crystal Shard. It sometimes bounces opponents creatures after EtB, then cuts them off of a mana and is obviously also a self-bounce engine. But Erratic Portal does this in colorless, which makes it show up in stuff like Rakdos tap out-control decks. Sweet card.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

Wow, didn't know I already posted here about the issues I had with Blink. :D
I'm still unsure and want to talk with you about your experiences before I get some more of those cards to test. Following are only cards I'd consider for my cube, I don't like Erratic Portal, Crystal Shard, Brago, King Eternal, Conjurer's Closet and Restoration Angel, and I don't like UW Venser due to powerlevel concerns. I also don't like bounce that is able to return lands to opponent's hand.

Blink Spells:


Momentary Blink also functions as protection from spot removal, same goes for Flicker that could also bounce lands for landfall. Settle is removal with blink value attached to it, and in worst case still is a removal. Not sure if that's worth 5 mana.

Blink on a Stick:


Those can't help dodge removal, they're just there for value. ETB, landfall, Demonic Pact. I don't find them very interesting, except for Charming Prince as he's very flexible. He's also the only one who can't help landfall.dec and DemonicPact.dec

Repeatable Blink:


If I would wish for a deck that could use repeatable blink value, those cards would be the ones that are interesting. I don't like artifacts/enchantments/planeswalkers that blink as those are cards that are hard to interact with.

Galepowder needs to attack for the value, Soulherder has a multicolour restriction and Smuggler is able to dodge removal but also needs an investment of 4 mana everytime. Those are all restrictions I could live with very well, but I don't know if I want some of this in my list.



Another piece of repeatable blink, able to dodge removal and, although an enchantment and thus hard to interact with, does have a restriction attached to it (cycling). I really would love to put this together with other cards into a cycling deck, but I guess this is just a big trap, although it does have cycling itself. Does anybody have experience with this?

Return to your own hand:


The latter three are able to let your creatures dodge removal, the former three are able to bounce lands and Demonic Pact. Those are cards I still find very interesting, but especially Grasp looks a bit narrow and weak compared to Momentary Blink.

Ninjutsu:



Nothing to add here, those are all great.

Repeatable return to your own hand:


Portal doesn't come at instant speed and only bounces creatures, but is also harder to interact with. Not my card, I think.
Sabertooth is green, it makes other creatures dodge removal and also gets indestructible itself while posing a threat - it actually looks pretty strong to me and I'd like to hear your opinions on this one.
Cavern Harpy deserves an honorable mention at least, I really like this card, but I don't know if it's worth a multicolour slot (same is true for Soulherder). It's also restricted to blue and black creatures.

Bounce nonland permanent:


Universally good cards for tempo plays or selfbounce of creatures and Demonic Pact. Nothing more to say here.

Bounce bleeding into other archetypes:


Barrin opens blue up for aristocrats together with Murder of Crows. This is just sweet and not very competetive, also only bounces creatures.
Banish into Fable could be a sweet card for my UW section. If enchantments is going to be a thing in my cube, and there also is incidental artifact support, this card could be a nice little payoff. The problem here I think is that it's hard to have an enchantment and an artifact on the battlefield at the same time, even if UW is a colour combination that naturally supports both. It just doesn't do enough as a 6-mana multicolour card if you don't have one of each on the battlefield.

Three somewhat special cases:

nightmareshepherd1.jpg


Séance is interesting as it provides you with a blocker on opponent's turn, and if you have something to give haste, you get an attacker on your own. As it's exiling the creatures, you can't repeatedly abuse your stronger ETBs. The last point is true for all three of those cards. Back from the Brink looks very strong to me and I don't really consider it. The Shepherd also looks strong but interesting, too.

I honestly don't want to add Back from the Brink, and as much as I like the concept of Séance, I don't like that it's an enchantment and that it only costs 4 mana. I guess the only one I'm going to try is the Shepherd, hoping that it isn't going to destroy everything in its path. :D

Does anybody here have to say anything to some of those choices? Even if it is something like 'tested that card and I'm absolutely sure no one should ever play this!' or 'I run that card for ages now and still don't know what to think about it because of reason x'. I appreciate any kind of discussion on that topic. :)

PS: I also wonder if there are more cards like Demonic Pact that want to be blinked/bounced of similar reasons?
 
Nanonox

Nanonox

Two cards you didn't mention that can save your creatures from removal and are "repeatable"are



Ephemerate has prowess synergy, is easy to hold up, but it is pretty strong. I do however think that 1 mana is where you want to be to save your creatures as holding up more seems like too much of a tempo loss (might be a byproduct of my power level).

Parallax Wave is also strong and plays well (save your guys, clear blockers, set up a devastating wrath, random proliferate synergy). Is also interesting with the bring back permanent guys below.

Ghostly Flicker has been good, but it costs a little bit too much for my power level. The various card types offer some nice possibilities, sadly no enchantments.

Kor Skyfisher, Emancipation Angel and Shepherd of the Flock are sweet. If you have cards like Legion's Landing, Demonic Pact, Sagas, Parallax Wave they get even better. If you add Oketra's Monument then things can open up even more, with a combo feel.

Charming Prince, Flickerwisp and Soulherder play really well and I recommend them highly. As with Parallax Wave, Flickerwisp is fun to mess up combat and is solid as a 3/1 flyer. Prince is a 2 drop with lots of options which goes into every deck, but shines in the blink deck. Soulherder is a nice signpost for the archetype and super fun to play.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

I don't like Ephemerate in Cube. The Rebound can't save a creature and only makes sense if you get etb value out of it. I like the card for Pauper, but for Cube, it's a pass for me.

Parallax Wave is too strong, I'm sorry.

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate your evaluation of some of the choices. I should go and search for more enchantments that want to get bounced back/blinked, but most sagas want to get to the last lore counter and not being reset.
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
New Thassa is great. I like that in UG your effects that find/recur creatures can get both Thassa and the cards to go with it and the devotion requirement is surprisingly easy to meet in blue despite its usual focus on non-permanents with creatures that you already want to blink (Sower of Temptation, Venser, Urza, Vendilion Clique just off the top of my head)
 
shamizy

shamizy

With the introduction of these cards over the last year:



You definitely have the backbone to make this strategy work in UW with minimal investment as far as card slots are concerned. There are already a ton of ETB effects available between both colors:



Before you had to dig deeper and run archetype specific cards, but I think both Prince and Soulherder are solid enough on their own to be worth inclusion in a variety of decks aside from Blink as well. Thassa is more specific to the archetype, but I just see it as a much more playable Conjurer's Closet in more powerful environments that can also close out the game once you've built a board up with enough blue pips.

Splashing some green gives you access to a variety of nice ETBs there as well that could help accumulate value and let you grind out certain matches. I wouldn't have been running a dedicated theme this time a year back, but I think this minimal package is enough to make the archetype work in most cubes.
 
Alphez

Alphez



Curfew is quite unassuming, and might not be worth it at high power levels. But I like its versatility. It's decent in control decks with few creatures, and can bounce Hexproof stuff under the right circumstances.




I saw you mentioned Ninjas, but you didn't mention THE best one for Blink decks! Student gives you any ETB triggers of the creature it copies, plus it gives you another shot at whatever you bounced.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Not for high powered cubes, but I'm interested by this new toy as well:



I'm probably going to replace Otherworldly Journey with it, since the counter was just as much of a downside as it was an upside often, and end of turn returning has several issues (as well as some upside, admittedly). Also, with the new toy you can reset Demonic Pact directly. And your removal in white is 90% enchantments as well, meaning you can change the target of it.

I wish they would give us another Demonic Pact like card, as it gives another dimension to the whole blink archetype. Treacherous Blessing got ruined by the last line of text.
 
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