The best synergy for Lich's Mirror, I think, is achieved with using Y.Bargain to put 20 draw effects on the stack, let the Mirror trigger and resolve, proceed to draw 27 cards and win the game.

Although to do this, you have to have played both the Mirror and Bargain, meaning you should have already won anyways.

I second this opinion heartily. You should look at what kind of decks you like to play and also at what power cards that deck can operate with. Also remember that semi power cards usually come in sets of four so playing with shops can be more expensive than getting a Lotus or ancestral while narrowing down the decks you can play a lot more.

I would seriously advise against buying a Lotus first, simply based on a cost per viable deck analysis. Sure, a Lotus fits in anywhere, but in my opinion a fish deck with a lotus is a worse deck than the same deck with Ancestral and a Sapphire. Buy the Ancestral first and then a blue mox. This opens a vast array of fish decks that you can start playing. Adding an Emerald after that opens Oath and fish with goyfs.  After that, Jet opens Tog and black in general. This is the earliest point I would consider buying a Lotus. The power of the Lotus is increased exponentially in decks that abuse Will and without the Will Lotus is more of a one trick pony and I would most likely choose Timewalk over it in a tight spot.

If you like control more than combo, get a Ruby instead of Emerald and go Control Slaver. This route means that next you will probably want to get the Lotus since the Welders enhance it's power. I personally took the other route because more interesting strategies opend up with more gradual investment.

Hi,

I'm a long time lurker, infrequent poster, and have always relied on your set reviews to give me a good overview of the newest set. Thank you again for a very nice article. I have one question concerning the Swans + Chain of Plasma combo, which should perhaps go into the rules forum (so mods feel free to move it there).

While resolving the first Chain the Swans prevent damage and put a card draw trigger on the stack (much like Gaea's Blessing goes on the stack during an Oath resolving). Chains continues to resolve and you make a copy of it on the stack by discarding a card in hand. Now this copy sits on top of the card draw and will resolve before you get new cards.

Am I missing something? Does Chains resolve in two parts somehow? Otherwise you will only draw 3 x (cards in hand) right after you can't copy the Chains anymore.

Edit: Oops, read the card again, Swans is  replacement effect not a triggered one. Sorry to bother everyone.

Hi Smmenen,

Thank you for a very thorough and well written article. Even though, or perhaps because, I am an avid Gifts player (both your list and others'), I must agree with the decision to restrict it. It is very very broken, and I guess the degree of brokenness is what is mainly under discussion when talking about restrictions. However, a point in your article struck me as noteworthy, even though it doesn't concern itself with the retriction per se.

You mention that the restriction of Trinisphere opened up a lot of new design space for Workshop decks thus proving to be a blessing in disguise. Hindsight being 20/20, that is of course easy to say now, but what would say the chances are that restricting Gifts will do the same for Gifts decks? To specify: Overall my current list effectively runs 11 Gifts (7 tutors and 4 Gifts) and losing 3 of those could be quite liberating. Inserting Fastbond and Gush would take the deck into the Gush Tendrils direction, likewise substituting Intuitions may prove usefull. Simplistically, is losing the capacity to gifts into gifts offset by the three empty slots gained with which to innovate and take the deck back to the top?

Well, talk about not seeing the forest for all the trees. Thanks for the link.

Am I interpreting the rules correctly if I say that one can imprint Research // Development onto Isochron scepter?

Research // Development
Type: Instant // Instant
Cost: UG // 3UR
Oracle: Choose up to four cards you own from outside the game and shuffle them into your library.
//
Put a 3/1 red Elemental creature token into play unless any opponent lets you draw a card. Repeat this process two more times.

Isochron Scepter
Imprint — When Isochron Scepter comes into play, you may remove an instant card with converted mana cost 2 or less in your hand from the game. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.)
2, T: You may copy the imprinted instant card. If you do, you may play the copy without paying its mana cost.

Rules:
505.5. Effects that ask for a particular characteristic of a split card while it's in a zone other than the stack get two answers (one for each of the split card's two halves).
505.6. Effects that ask if a split card's characteristic (in any zone other than the stack) matches a given value get only one answer. This
answer is "yes" if either side of the split card matches the given value.

I'm leaning totoward05.6, since isochron doesn't ask for the converted mana cost it just checks for a value of 2 or less and one "yes" is enough. I vaguely rerememberome "ask the judge" column or other where it was explicitly explained how split cards work with the scepter but I can't find it again, so I'm asking here.

Actually, I would like to point out, and this should fit in very well with the legal tone of Stephens article, that when the equivalent of the Supreme Court hands down a verdict you do, in fact, comply. Standing on a soap box and arguing ever so eloquently over the details of the trial (which itself happend behind closed doors), isn't really that helpfull, even when it's a very good read. Demeaning someones post because they don't join in the nitpickery of same article is even less so.

About the article itself I'll say that it is a very well written, as always, cry of outrage, which could have been somewhat shorter and less repetitive to make it more effective. It is well argued and thorough and, most of all, it is correct. What, in my opinion, moves it from being a valid protest into the realm of foamy mouthed soapbox ranting are the rather unrealistic demands in the conclusions. Real progress is made by people who take change and make it work in their favor instead of stubbornly demanding some reversal of events. This point cannot be stressed enough.

Right now the Vintage and Legacy community is outraged and I'm very sure that people at WotC are noticing, so instead of pleading for a reversal of the errata, why not ask for realistically achievable measures to prevent this kind of thing from happening again? A more open and active inclusion of players and their opinions in the errata process for example. Imagine if Stephen had gotten a chance to voice his opinions in a meeting where it would have mattered.

Right now WotC may very well be thinking about how to remedy the situation, for all we know, but if we give them no real options or rational demands, they are just going to write us off for the rabid mouthed loonies we appear to be. Once again, real progress is made through moderation and compromise.

Indeed you should never scoop, even if you are the Oath player in the aforementioned situation. Let me give you the tale of "almost scooping to Acroma being your last card".

I was playing at a local T1 tournament against a black rogue deck. The games were 1-1 and game three was tight. I had no counters in hand and low life, which spelled imminent death to almost any of my opponents topdecks.  No worries though because Acroma is just waiting to be oathed up and bring the game home for me in one fell swoop. So I oath and I oath and I oath and I start to silently swear under my breath and yea Acroma emerges not least but definetily last. My opponent starts laughing like mad and I start sweating. I try to hardcast the Blessing but am remeinded that it is a sorcery. My opponent laughs even more manically and the audience we had gathered is likewise amused (though as I am soon to find out not for the reason I assume). So I take a deep breath count my cards in hand consider scooping and finally take a look at the dainty little Platinum angel I had Oathed up two turns earlier... I slap my head, the crowd starts giggling, I say Mainphase? Combat? and smash my still laughing opponents face with holy wrath.

Yeah, I should pay more attention to my board position...

Yup, I didn't understand the deck completely   , I forgot the Cabal Therapies.

I think I'd still try to go for life as fast as possible, i.e., add Worldy Tutor and cut down on the kill combo. WT in your opening hand is already one part of the combo so it should significantly increase your chances of going infinite on turn two. Then you can sit back and search for the kill, that is, if your opponent doesn't scoop.

--TR

I may not understand the deck correctly, but for the Sutured Ghoul part of the combo I would suggest replacing Krosan Reclamation with Gaeas Blessing. Thus you mill your deck -> Blessing on the stack  -> respond with Corpse Dance or Shallow Grave -> Ghoul comes into play -> remove two Polar Krakens -> Blessing resolves and you have a full library again (instead of only two cards with Reclamation).

This eliminates the minute possibility that your opponent is holding Ancestral and finishes you of before combat. It also leaves you less vulnerable to random bounce / Dragons Laquatus kill (which is now depreciated I guess).
 
I'd try Duress instead of FoW's. Maybe one Unmask to get the Ghoul into the graveyard should you draw him. This, however, is probably too unreliable. Finally, how about adding Worldly Tutor? All your life combo parts and half of the Ghoul combo are creatures, so it should be pretty good. Maybe cut down to one Illusionist MD and add two W.Tutors.

Good luck with the deck,
--TR

Here http://www.apathyhouse.com/mtg/fake/index.php is a very good guide to fake MtG cards complete with examples and guides to testing them. I personaly would check the print with a magnifying glass; there are very few printers that can replicate the "circles" style printing pattern. Also try to find the thin blue line on the edge (from the plastic/glue that keeps the front and back together). If it passes these two tests I'd say it's a real card.

Bastian: Your probably right, however it is debatable whether seal would be too powerful for standard with few true bombs to fetch. In parabel they printed spoils as a copy of consultation which is rightly restricted.

In any case, it is, in my opinion, simply a point one should think about before spending over a hundred bucks .

I'll speculate: Wizards is prone to include one black tutor per block. Now we have exhibit a) Kamigawa block with no tutor as of yet, but one set to be released. Exhibit a) is also oriental themed. Then we have exhibit b) A black tutor in oriental style, not on any reserved list, not overly powerful (for standard) and which is arguably going to be in dire need of reprinting. (Note: Exhibit b) may share some, possibly all, of these characteristics with several cards in the portal: three kingdoms expansion).

Of course this is not a certainty, but I like the odds and would think twice before spending $$$ on Imperial Seal.

@Magi Yeah, but then again that (girlies, gas etc.) is just real life and this (mtg) is an addiction. You have to set priorities .

I stand corrected on the bad math. I did indeed forget about rarity issues.
This still leaves the empirical proof about the abundance of power though. You definitely can go on ebay and get any power card you like inside a week.

-T

First off (since it seems to be important): I don't own power (yet).

The subject of proxies is interesting but there are some elemental considerations that have gone unmentioned, also no-one has yet listed hard facts about the neccessity of proxies, where neccessity would be defined by needing to proxy because, regardless of finacial affluence, there are no power cards to be had.

The print run of Limited and Unlimited combined is 50.4 million cards (www.crystalkeep.com) the sets size is 302 cards (alpha was a little bit smaller) so we can definetly say that there are at most 166887 complete power9 sets in existence.

At a population of 6 billion, this means circa one set of power cards per 36000 capita. If you assume that about thirty percent of all the power cards ever printed have been destroyed or lost, this number is much easier; one set per 50000. Now you can calculate how many power sets there should be in you local metagame. Here in Helsinki (Finland) pop:1mill. there should be 20 full power sets. I'd estimate that our local metagame has about a quarter of that.

Another interesting comparison is drawn when you look up the total amount of (sanctioned)magic players: 142866 (www.thedci.com). Even if 15 percent of all power cards had been destroyed or lost (which I would find very hard to believe), there would be a p9 set for every single registered player in the world...  Now let that sink in.

What I'm trying to say is that people, who say that proxying should be allowed because card are too rare, don't really have an argument here.
This can also be empirically proven by going to eBay; there is virtually no card that you cannot aquire within a couple of days.

So that leaves the money argument which many try to portrait as a metagame argument: "The meta game will improve when everybody gets to proxy!" Do you think the metagame will improve if everybody is powered up? I should think that it would get just a bit retarded, I mean the wellspring of innovation has always been limited resources. I think that an environment, where you need to think hard about how to beat up more power with less, creates very interesting decks.

Anyway, the standard metagame will always need some aggro, the traditionaly cheap(ish) deck, to keep control in check. So why, with this natural demand for cheap(ish) decks, is there all this clamouring for proxies?

Oh, I forgot: it's more fun to play Stax/Keeper. Well why not play casually with friends, I'm sure they don't mind proxies.

Oh, I forgot: you want to take part in tournaments. Well why not have one with your friends, four is already enough for a mini tourney.

Oh, I forgot: you want the big cash/card prizes. Well this is starting to sound fishy...

And so on and so on. All this seems to boil down to the all too human trait of wanting a free lunch, which, as any economist will gladly tell you, don't exist.

Just so you all have it easier when you rip this article apart, I'll summarize my main points up till now:

1) There are enought power cards for everyone who wants them. There are enough now and there will be enough for a loooong time.

2) The metagame doesn't need everybody to be fully powered in order to be healthy and versatile, in fact the opposite is probably true.

3) The people who want to play big money tournaments with proxies are looking for a free lunch, whether they admit it or not (I would love to have a free lunch, but sadly the stores around here only have sanctioned T1 play).

Now what strikes me most about the proxy proponents is their faith that this could actually be sanctioned by WotC et al. Of course shops are always going to have proxy tournaments and the more the better I say, but the arguments about it not being against WotC's financial interests to allow proxying of some very old sets are full of gigantic holes.

Lets take a little tour in happy-land where proxies are allowed. Who makes these proxies? You can print them yourself, or for your friends too, actually you could sell good ones on eBay, why not make a couple thousand at a quality printers shop and bring the to genCon? At what stage do think WotC would step in?

Take a close look at a magic card, right on the bottom where it says TM & C WotC. Now WotC could be lenient on not sue you for copyright infringement. But they _have_ to sue you for trademark infringment because if they don't then under US law they lose the trademark (www.law.wayne.edu/litman/). Do you honestly, really, really believe that WotC would let that happen?

Now the crafty of you might argue that WotC could sell licences for making proxies. Which would actually be only one insignificant step away from WotC actually making these proxies themselves. But wait! Those proxies would be functionally identical tournament legal versions of cards WotC said they will _never_ reprint. Of course they could just eat their word on that and... oh yes we were talking about financial damage to WotC?

So point four:

4) WotC cannot sanction proxies without loosing the trademark or drastically renewing its reprint policy.

So now that I have meticulously taken apart the pro-proxy arguments and shown the actual impossibility of any proxy sanctioning, I will give some constructive thoughts:

Since WotC doesn't really sponsor type 1 anyway, why not set up a "second DCI"? I mean the pro boxers have several associations, heck even beauty paegants culminate annually in separate Miss Universe and Miss World competitions.

We have the right of free association, why not use it? We may not be able to provide a plastic membership card or send everyone free cards for playing in our series, but with a lot of people who have some spare time to arrange local tourneys, some space on a web server (TMD ?) and a couple of people willing to organize membership numbers, a result database and the official paperwork, we could have ourselves a bonafide T1 ProTour all of our own (travel expenses not payed, prizes subject to membership fees/donations and sponsors).

Well so much for that, I hope you enjoyed this rant. I actually only wanted to give you the numbers above but then I got somehow carried away.