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GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

I can understand that; Tutelage has some crazy value attached to just existing. Kinda like Consecrated Sphinx (though obviously not as good.) Do you think such an 'archetype' would be way too strong in a cube of deliberately moderate strength?
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

I love Chasm Skulker, it's super sweet! I guess you could also throw in
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and other similar cards?

Do you have any alternative suggestions for a neat U/R synergy? It's been really causing me trouble, because U/R seems to be really singularly focused.

Edit: The only thing I know involving Mesmeric Orb is the Four Horsemen, and that deck is an abomination. :p
 
sigh

sigh

There is a ton of good UR discussion on here. I'd try out searching "spells matter" in the forum search first. Thing is, it might be one theme, but its broad as heck. It can be very high velocity, get doods on the board, burn spells etc.; or it can be U control + big red finishers; or a spectrum of other things. One spell I like for the color combo:
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
genericco said:
Has anyone run Mesmeric Orb?
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I've given it a try in my cube (which is extremely rough and only been drafted once, you have been warned) and it fit into a UB control deck. It worked well as a finisher of sorts, as once the board is clear every threat from there on should cost them more mana to cards than it will for you to remove it. Then they get into this spiral of doom they can't get out of.
It can also enable self mill, which a decent amount of people run (I personally added it to give Laboratory Maniac another card to pivot off of). Overall I was a fan of it's first run so it can stay in for a while longer.
 
Lucre

Lucre

Grillo_Parlante said:
Guys...what kind of support does this dude need...and which art is better

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To make him awesome, he has to do more than just pitch to force, he needs to be a walking wrath of god.
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In super loose interpretations trike has been printed as a functional uncommon (sorta incorrectly) in some euro releases as like uncommon 2 (or somethin). It makes for a super decent reanimation or ramp target in peasant cube! I mean if you still prefer damage on the stack...
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Mesmeric Orb is pretty much the quirkiest, easily-playable buildaround in my list, and it's loads of fun. It's colourless, so that's obviously a huge boon, and being {2} means you can run it out fairly easily at any time. There are a few scenarios to consider it for, though there's a lot of overlap among them and the list is by no means exhaustive.
  • Control-Mill: This is the purest and most wild version of the deck. Here, you're looking for additional effects to force draws, mill extra, and tap-down, as well as board clog effects like Whirler Rogue and Meloku the Clouded Mirror. There's a lot of tools I've tried on and off over the ages, dialing back down and back up as the strategy intrigues me. Good enablers for mill include Dakra Mystic, Mindshrieker, Altar of Dementia, Reforge the Soul, Magus of the Wheel, and, typically, running a few extra cards in your deck as some extra-super-sneaky tech; even like 3 more cards can help a lot imho (but no more than 5 extra, you still need to draw into your mill!)
  • Living Death/reanimator: less combo win, more value win. This one can get much more complex and would really like for tools to make sure that your reanimated board is best if you're using Living Death, and can sometimes wind up being more of a straightforward reanimator package, though things like Deathrite Shaman, Scavenging Ooze, and Mardu Woe-Reaper can help keep opposing 'yards in check while still being very cube-worthy includes
  • Aggro-Mill: This is a deck I'd like to feature here in my discussion, because it's kind of a quirky brew and I'm not sure if it's a very obvious possibility. The angle of this deck is to drop the Orb as part of a low-curve deck, and if your opponent is midrange/control, they're gonna get wrecked just by trying to commit to the board or remove your paltry threats. Versus control, their usual cadre of draw spells works against them quite wickedly, which makes the Orb worth saving and dropping a bit late sometimes. A nice tutor effect helps the aggro version of this deck a lot; the point here though is that the mill win is primarily an alternative, rather than necessarily the top plan. Think of it like a cool, anxiety-inducing Devil's Play for guaranteeing you can go the distance if you get stumbled, except your opponent will likely misplay themselves into the loss rather than eating it out of nowhere.
These are just a few highlights; the card can do a lot, and needs exploring in your own format to work out. Often, the correct answer can be to just ignore it or race it if the deck isn't built to maximize on it, but most players don't realize that and start FREAKING OUT and playing terribly, which is hilarious and really fun. Usual mill caveat to consider as part of this whole discussion is some people get really whiny facing against mill and you may need to get less boring friends consider how this will translate to mill being present in your format.

Re: Sphinx's Tutelage, if you want a 1-card quirk-piece for blue control/durdle wins, I prefer Increasing Confusion, which takes longer to start happening but cleans up the match quick. Also works just fine with draw-more effects like Magus of the Wheel for accelerating the win/digging for the card itself, and ties into graveyard strategies, if you're dead-serious about them.

Aside from that, if you're looking for a U/R identity, I'll echo other comments that suggest a Spells-Matter theme. I've tried a very gentle form of storm before in my cube that was mostly URg, and I wasn't super impressed, though it was "neat" for a few drafts. UR artifacts is also a popular idea, although imho it lacks enough incentives in most cubes, as Goblin Welder does not a 2-colour theme make (though it does provide a cool, fun deck). U-centered artifact interactions has been fun (note that I've only got like 3 blue cards in my list which feed into this, noting, again, it's sort of thin unless you want to get really poisonous...), but that's another tale for another time. For UR, I'd look at things like...



Flashback spells help push it and are also quite playable. The theme overlaps into white very well, but that actually just makes it a better theme for being flexible.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Lucre said:
In super loose interpretations trike has been printed as a functional uncommon (sorta incorrectly) in some euro releases as like uncommon 2 (or somethin). It makes for a super decent reanimation or ramp target in peasant cube! I mean if you still prefer damage on the stack...
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The French and German Peasant communities have synced their rules set, the result of which is that the French are now following gatherer as well when determining rarity. I don't think Triskelion is any Peasant tournaments.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

My cube runs a lot of cards that fit into UR tempo/spells matter/control:











..and a lot more of counters, bounce, card draw, burn, aggressive red creatures. As this colour combination is the most interactive of all I don't see why people want to change the archetypes within Izzet as tempo and control are a lot of fun to me and those colours are very contested anyway (besides black) so it seems a lot more poisonous to me to change it to have some more specific choices. I'd even like to add some more of this like Brutal Expulsion (poor Jilt) or Ral Zarek.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

RavebornMuse said:
if you're looking for a U/R identity, I'll echo other comments that suggest a Spells-Matter theme. I've tried a very gentle form of storm before in my cube that was mostly URg, and I wasn't super impressed, though it was "neat" for a few drafts. UR artifacts is also a popular idea, although imho it lacks enough incentives in most cubes, as Goblin Welder does not a 2-colour theme make (though it does provide a cool, fun deck). U-centered artifact interactions has been fun (note that I've only got like 3 blue cards in my list which feed into this, noting, again, it's sort of thin unless you want to get really poisonous...), but that's another tale for another time.
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Thank you for the explanation! I think my issue was that I wasn't considering 'tempo goodstuff'/'spells matter' to be a real archetype. That, and I was obsessing a little bit over trying to find something new and interesting to bring to a cube. But hey, if it ain't broke...

Mondschwein said:
As this colour combination is the most interactive of all I don't see why people want to change the archetypes within Izzet as tempo and control are a lot of fun to me and those colours are very contested anyway (besides black) so it seems a lot more poisonous to me to change it to have some more specific choices.
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I'm going to have to give the archetype another look, now. Thank you for your assistance!

What do you guys think of this card in an Eldrazi cube? (lots of Eldrazi scions running around, plus tokens as a G/W strat)

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GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

If Pithing Needle hitting Treetop Village is savage, then what's Pithing Needle hitting a Fetchland? Being able to vial in that effect seems a bit nasty :p
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Okay, the closest thing in my cube that can do that is Collected company, and craking in response to that is some next level shit.
Also I don't think the difference between revoker and pithing needle is enough that I want to make a custom card to correct it
 
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