The most absurd sounding (out of context) play I recall hearing of at high level play was a 5-0 split on Fact or Fiction in an Invasion Block Constructed game.

Not only was it a gamewinner, it was the only possible play that would have won the game.

I've been trying this on MTGO as well.

Can't make it work yet, but I think it has potential.

At the moment, it wins when it draws Academy and doesn't do well without it (I run a lot of cycling artifacts - Urza/Mishra Bauble etc). In those hands it was casting Treasure Cruise as a bad Concentrate until I removed the card (it was terrible without Academy).

Oh, I don't think it will be tier 1, but it is an all-instant speed (except for the uncounterable Kiki-Jiki) way to win. And it can probably be done better than that too.

Any time I see something like this I immediately think "Modern with Congregation At Dawn to fire off a combo".

I don't yet know *what* the combo will be. I just know I want it to work.

All I can say is turn 1 Bird of Paradise, turn 2 Congregation into Kiki-Jiki, 2x Pestermite, turn 3 draw KJ, then cast Collected Company, turn 4 Cavern - KJ is pretty darn insane. Not going to happen often, but insane.

If you have a Preordain, it strikes me that it's better to cast it then +1, than to -2 then cast it.

The comparison to JtMS is accurate (in Vintage only; elsewhere the card's power level is in line with Brimaz or Courser - 'a good card' but nothing more).

Narset's ultimate is actually better than Jace's as it shuts down all of the best creatures in the format except Delver as well as all non-creatures. Mentor is a Pearled Unicorn. Young Pyromancer becomes a Goblin Piker. Etc.

The +1 is three quarters of a card in Vintage and should help you draw stuff to protect her. The -2 will be useful sometimes too, as it makes cantrips important to counter. Not just premier cantrips like Brainstorm, Ancestral and the like either - Gitaxian Probe is kinda bad to let resolve when it has Rebound.

Cards that can cast themselves from the graveyard may be worth considering with Mentor.

Has anyone tried Cabal Therapy, Raven's Crime and Monastery Mentor in one deck? I don't have the answers for what else you want in there; probably Life from the Loam and a bunch of hatebears (not sure about Thalia in this context).

Alternately, it could be a Fish variant that uses a lot of colours fuelled by DRS.

This card looks like a serious competitive Standard card and maybe (at best) a fringe Modern card. That is all.

First the 2 mana mode (2/1 flier for 2) - it's all upside that you have the option, but it's not enough.

On the main mode. 3 + 2 mana is too much for a Negate and a pre-flipped Delver in this format. Mana Drain is better at countering spells and has a comparable upside, yet costs 2 mana not 5, and isn't widely run as a 4-of these days.

I don't like Abolish now. Used to love the card, then, fetchlands became hegemonic in manabases.

Nothing sucks quite as much as having Abolish in hand, having enough mana to pay for all the Spheres, but your hand has a Flooded Strand, not a Tundra, and so the Lodestone Golem kills you and your family.

The opponent puts a "You may draw up to two cards" ability on the stack when Lotion Thief is not in play.

You then cast Lotion Thief.

The card draw ability resolves. Your opponent makes decisions that are called for upon resolution ("I elect to draw zero cards"). Lotion Thief's replacement effect would apply here but under most circumstances there will be no event to replace.


You cackle maniacally and say "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or it gets hosed again".

It's a card you are probably happy to draw against Dredge but you wouldn't want to sideboard it for the purpose as there are much better cards.

This is my experience, as long as you don't ignore the general ettiquette of each play room.

Expect hostility, however, if you play Power in the less competitive rooms (Just For Fun, etc), even if your deck is goofy. I took a terrible joke deck (a Nivmagus Elemental storm combo) into that room that was fully powered and it drew rage.

Tinker wasn't restricted because of the Colossus (or other random fatty) interaction. Tinker gets much more broken stuff, like Time Vault, Memory Jar, etc.

If you could only get BSC with it, Tinker may not have ever needed restriction. After all Natural Order into either Craterhoof or Progenitus is considered fair in a weaker format, Legacy.

Re Mentor being restricted - there are plenty of answers available at sorcery speed that solve it very, very effectively. Toxic Deluge, Virtue's Ruin, Dread of Night (the best one), Supreme Verdict, Tabernacle - whenever Mentor feels unfair, the actual unfair card isn't the Mentor, it's the Time Walk with it.

SS kills the Mentor but does not stop it making one Monk under most circumstances. It's also a terrible card except against Mentor.

Zealous Persecution is harder to cast, but less mana and its effect is considerably better.

Dread of Night is slightly better than Engineered Plague or Illness In The Ranks against Mentor (although it doesn't have the same effects against Pyromancer).

Also, Virtue's Ruin kills the Monk and his whole family.

I have a Tremor in my wishboard at the moment for Pyromancer, and it is hilarious. It doesn't catch Mentor though.

With FoW, Mental Misstep and no other blue cards in hand, and less than five mana, I know I have definitely allowed my opponent to resolve Ancestral Recall on a few occasions.

Usually it comes from a read that the A-call is bait.

This looks like a home for Monastery Mentor.

That Tog/Berserk comparison is a very good one. Actually Psychatog is probably the best card to compare this to - it's a slightly above the curve creature with insane synergy with spells you were probably already playing, that is capable of very rapidly ending the game if unanswered.

Unlike Tog, however, it's a resilient little mongrel, and it doesn't leave you crippled if you go all-in on it and get hit with one of the few really solid answers to it. Tog/Serk loses to random fringe playable cards like Wipe Away, whereas even if you hit Mentor with one of the hardest answers to it (Supreme Verdict, a resolved Toxic Deluge for 4 or more, or *maybe* Anger of the Gods) it isn't like the opponent invested much into their Mentor.

Yeah this line of play is insane; probably even better in Legacy where Mental Misstep is banned.

Messing around with Ugin, I'm finding Mana Drain on a Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time happens enough that he is viable in those decks that want 4 drain (although I feel Kozilek is usually a slightly stronger play in those situations).

Still not impressed with any decks I have experimented with him in.

I don't think a 3 mana 4/4 artifact creature with no other text would be viable in the format. This is a bit weaker than that hypothetical card.

That's not to say there will never be a game where this card would be good, I just don't feel it is well positioned or even close to it at present.

None of the creatures named are bad off Manifest effects, but none are so good you'd jump through such hoops for them.

In what way is any form of these shenanigans better than Entomb - Exhume into Griselbrand? Remember that is a fringe deck.

Delver is the deck that can best convert an extra turn (and a turn at -3 mana to boot) into a win. That's why it's the first place I'd have thought of for this card, even if Cruise Delver hadn't already demonstrated its ability to use Delve cards.

I do agree that the card synergizes with an Oath activation, especially if you also run Recoup. That said, there are simply better ways to win the game after activating Oath, like drawing 14 cards off Griselbrand.

I don't see this being played anywhere. Assume you were considering it in Delver.

Compare the effect to that of Treasure Cruise, and for a second ignore the higher mana cost.

When you are ahead, TT is better than TC, but both are probably enough to seal the game. All TC needs to do is get you some disruption and you'll get your 'extra turn' when it would normally come around.

When you are at parity or behind, drawing three cards is better than taking an extra turn.

So overall - even if they cost about the same to cast, TC is probably stronger. But they don't cost close to the same amount.

I certainly have high hopes for this card.

If you spend 3 mana on a creature in Vintage, you want it to seal the game quickly if you are stable or ahead, and put you back into a game where you are behind.

This card does both, assuming you do not already have an empty hand. It just kills so fast, especially if you do any chaining of cantrips, and at the same time shuts down creature-based attacks including Blightsteel Colossus.

Abrupt Decay and Repeal will keep any Manifest shenanigns from ever being a big player.

You can get around them (Manifest something that protects itself or that wins you the game immediately, like Emrakul or Iona or Griselbrand, then Momentary Blink it) but doing so is no stronger than just Entomb-Exhuming Griselbrand or Iona.

I do think in Legacy, where Brainstorm is legal as a 4-of, that decks that already want to play Brainstorm might experiment with these shenanigans, however. I don't think they'll be all that good.

Not a TO, but my attitude would be "You are welcome unless I believe, beyond reasonable doubt, that you willingly cheated". Or did something as bad.

For the Skullclamp issue above, I'd consider it 'more likely than not' that the regular involved willingly colluded with the teammate that was caught cheating, but not 'beyond reasonable doubt', so I'd accept them in the event and warn judges 'this person has a history of maybe cheating, watch them'.

Wafo-Tapa would have been fine by me.

I would run 4 Crop Rotation for Tabernacle (and Tolarian Academy) if Misstep proliferation wasn't quite so bad.