[Card Discussion] Azorius Guildmage

[serracollector]

Azorius Guildmage

I have been testing out w/u/g fish/noble beats variant if you will for a while, and I was looking for even more "toolbox" critters, and I came across this.  I have been testing 2 in my maindeck for a while and it has done surprisingly well.  Lets look at just a few of the benefit's:

2/2 Body for w/u w/u, 2 mana total, for 2 easily accessible colors.  Not bad already for fish.

Tap Ability:
Pros
Can be used the turn it comes into play
1. Taps Tarmogoyf
2. Taps sphinx
3. Taps other random NON-Inkwell Oath critters/Tinker targets.
4. Taps Ichorid/fatty from grave cards.

Cons
Can only tap critters.  Against combo useless. Against EVERYTHING else, descent.

Stifle Ability
Can be used the turn it comes into play
1. Read above, it's stifle on a stick, what are goods things we can do with stifle.
2. Stop Welder
3. Stop confidant draw
4. Stop Key/Vault/Top
5. Stop sac and search lands/waste/strip. <---------
6. Stop Tezz......? (not sure not completely caught up on Planeswalkers rules, sorry)
7. Grindstone.  Can hold painter for a minute.

Anyways, in testing is has been quite helpful for me, saving me in matchup's against tarmogouy's, exalted selkies, and even the occasional oath creature for that 1 turn I needed.

I have also used him to hold a lock against a welder, and against a Survival of the Fittest.  slow building resources while keeping them from playing with their toys.

Overall I find him very very useful.  Some people are gonna say 3 mana for the 2 activations is too much, but really its not, and the fact that you can do them instantly, and repeatedly (if you have the mana) more than makes up for it IMO.

What do you guys think?

[swawagon]

I don't think it's all that bad actually. I had it in a SB for aggro matches in a UW weenie deck years ago, but it really is not very proactive.

This slowly, mana intensively, and conditionally - sometimes prevents losses - from a few decks... I'm more often looking for cards that win - cheaply.

[serracollector]

Well the idea in my deck is get out Noble, get out Selkie, draw>dominate.  Its not the fastest, and since it is a creature deck, and most blue has been nerfed, it has definitely had it's "draw go" periods, and when those happen, he (she? it?) shines.  Think you go first turn Mox, Noble land, go etc, they go Duress, Tarmogoyf at 3/4-4/5 depending on land sacs and w/e else.  Casting this on turn two and holding that beast at bay til you get a swords or sower is clutch.  If you don't need him, at worst it's a 2/2 beat stick that pitches to force, but I doubt that will be the case most of the time, there are usually some kind of nasty activation you can stop, or some fatty knocking on your door you can tap.

[Bone]

Garbage (sorry for that)

Again as it is with alot of cards that come up in this sub-forum this is not a bad card. In many situations it would be really good. But in all those decks that could use this cards (I see only two, UW Fish and UWG Fish there are better options. That is the reason this card will never see play. As long as there are better options why play sub-optimal cards?

[silvernail]

Fish decks do not have suboptimal cards if you know ahead of time, or can reasonably guess your metagame.

[Guli]

This idea is not new. Go read this thread http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37264.0

Even the azorius idea to connect your selkie was discussed. I suggested it. The conclusion was that it was too mana intensive.

[honestabe]

Vintage is too fast for him.

[Wagner]

3. Stop confidant draw

No it doesn't, it can only counter Activated abilities, it is nowhere near stifle.

Also, regarding Welder and others, to effectively stop them, you need a ton of mana, they will most likely try at your EOT and again at their turn, so you need 6 mana to stop 1 card for 1 turn, leaving you tapped out for anything they may do. Way too slow.