Card/Deck Topdeck Matters: The Heart of the Cards

B

blacksmithy

Good morning lab maniacs!
The Scry mechanic has always been really enjoyable for me and for others I’m sure. But when I started to make my Evolving Wilds cube, I got the hair of an idea to make a deck archetype that gave you a payoff for scrying and knowing what your next draw would be. The deck was never fully realized in that cube, but there are certainly many more possible payoff cards that have seen print in the last 4-5 years.
Some that I ran in the original package included:

And Onder posted a bunch of new goodies in my cube thread as well!
Has anyone else tried this kind of package in their cubes?
What are some other creative ways to reward players for rigging their top decks?
 
W

wackelbernd

I don't run the archetype myself, so I can't say too much about the powerlevel of these cards in a cube setting - For Topdeck manipulation Scry and Surveil should do the job for the most part, as they fit in basically any deck, while stuff like Mirri's Guile will be quite parasitic. Nonetheless, some cards from the top of my head are:


For Payoffs, the main Keywords are probably Miracle and Cascade.
 
inscho

inscho

I've always liked the simple interaction between the temples and the explore creatures



Now there is also:

(Radha, Heart of Keld)

and I've always liked:
 
Nanonox

Nanonox

I keep plugging this card everywhere, but it really is great:



It might not be in the right colors for this theme though.

In the same vein:

 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
I like these:



as a way to graft a unique combo onto an otherwise normal deck, It's easy to find cards with conveniently high mana costs once you go looking (split cards like Commit // Memory, delve cards, Emrakul 13...)



A souped-up Vizier of the Menagerie
 
PyreDream

PyreDream

It needs a bit of fine-tuning as I figure out where empower falls, but you can have a look at the Surveillance Cube I made that includes most of the greatest hits. Caveat: No planeswalkers (aside from empower, of course).
 
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KhitriyKrab

KhitriyKrab

Thank you for reanimating the thread, ravnic Something that would be a good habit for the forum to keep (the Artifact and Sacrifice threads could also use some discussion).


The Scarcity of Miracles
After watching the coverage of Legacy GP 2018 Richmond, where lots of Miracles got played, I got the idea to try to play in the similar space in cube. Top and Counterbalance are not generally fit for cube (Top has notoriously bad play patterns and Counterbalance is unplyayble without support), so we'll have to look deeper and broader. Many builds used Predict, which feels like it's worth at least a test in place of some other random cantrip. Mystic Sanctuary hadn't been printed yet, but has become a mainstay of the deck after getting released.

From the original run of Miracles Terminus and Bonfire of the Damned are sweepers playable in a straight control deck, Entreat the Angels could be nice in a very low-power list as a finisher (but requires building around otherwise).

I'm sure someone can utilise Blessings of Nature and Revenge of The Hunted with Green scry from LotR, for example. Throw Vanishment in, too, tuck it on top with Inkfathom Divers.

I can't make a judgement on Temporal Mastery, so it's the most intriguing for me. Just how strong is it to have a low random chance to Time Walk? In which situation are you not casting it if drawn? And does it actually matter if there are no such situations? Does it produce too much variance?


Miracles after AVR give us the first black one in Entreat the Dead, cracked beaters Metamorphosis Fanatic and Triumph of Saint Catherine and an actually interesting Miracle creature Zephyrim. The real highlight is Redress Fate, a Replenish for Artifacts as well as Enchantments.

This last one makes you look for ways to stack your deck by trinkety means, e.g. Brainstone, Conch Horn, Giant's Boulder, Omen of the Sea, Corrosive Dragonstorm. I also found Spotter Thother during research. The very new Eye of Jace and Plan for All Outcomes also fit here.

I feel there are still a lot of good potential Miracle designs that haven't (yet) been made. We are bound to get at least one or two in a Commander precon in some five years, though.



Besides Miracle, setting your topdeck helps with Polymorphing into something you actually want. Some interesting Polymorph effects from the last years are Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast, Chaos Mutation and Vesuvan Drifter. I don't like that Drifter is also a 2/4 flyer for three as a base rate in Blue, but we must have both stats and abilities nowadays, it seems.

Along the lines of Riddle of Lightning and Sorin, Grim Nemesis are Keen Duelist, Caustic Bronco and Mindshrieker. Marvo, Deep Operative also likes expensive stuff on the top, and these cards that clash are not totally embarassing in very low power: Spring Cleaning, Lash Out, Release the Ants, Recross the Paths.


Finally, a couple of (relatively) recent tools to stack the top, excluding Empower Jace, low power:
 
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