MACHINUS'S BoK CARD DISCUSSION THREAD

[Machinus]

This thread is for discussion of a few cards from BoK, in particular, this wonderful gem to help out the floundering workshop archetype:



Not only is this yet another lock component which combos incredibly well with trinisphere and tangle wire, but it costs three and is colorless, so it can be cast first turn off a shop or the other broken artifact acceleration.


I would also like to discuss Tendo Ice Bridge and Disrupting Shoal.



I have actually been waiting for them to print a card like this, and I was really disappointed when they printed Mirrodin's Core. Regardless, this is clearly a contender for the CoB spot that has become really popular in stax decks running seal of cleansing.



There has already been some discussion about this card in another thread, but again the emphasis for Vintage would obviously be in the three casting cost spot, to combat lock components, scrying, and other broken stuff like crucible, rack and ruin, tinker, will, and draw7s. Good stuff to pitch would be wish, intuition, thirst, tog, phid, etc.



It's too bad aggro sucks, otherwise this would be cool.

[Bastian]

Why would anyone want Orb of Dreams when you have Trinisphere, Crucible and Tangle Wire. I think that Workshop decks have already enough and better lock components.

Tendo Ice Bridge seems a rather bad card to consider in a deck using CoB for the white splash. Imagine that the white spell you're trying to play gets countered and you have another one in hand waiting. If you tap the Ice Bridge for white you've just lost, quite possibly, your one white mana source to play white spells.

I think it's hard to tell what will make the cut or not in Betrayers for Vintage... but I can make an educated guess.

Disrupting Shoal is going to prove to be more popular than first thought and will, quite likely make appearances in decks whose blue spells mana curve allow it: Hulk Smash and monoblue control.

Genju of the Falls might, perhaps, see play in monoblue based decks. Hey, it's a recursive 3/2 flyer. All you need is an island and even if that gets wasted you can enchant another one. The fact that most decks already have many other sources of fast mana: moxen and sol ring, mean that you're just needing one single island to enchant this since you're likely to have the necessary mana to turn the Genju's ability. I believe this one's worth a look.

Patron of the Akki: quite possibly in goblin burn decks...

Well, and that's just about all. But hey, this is Vintage... if just but a single card makes an impact is because it's one heck of a card, right. Having at least two with potential to make appearances is more than good enough. It means that the set brought something to think about.

Double post deleted. Please hit the submit button only once.[/color]

[CF]

"Combos incredibly"... Let's evaluate Orb by looking at other lock components:

Trinisphere: Asymmetrical, because the workshop deck has workshops and stuff that costs 3 and more anyway. (useless in the mirror, so is sided out)
Tangle Wire: Asymmetrical, because you can tap TW itself, plus stack counters. You typically tap 2 less than your opponent.
Smokestack: Asymmetrical, opponent has to sack first.

Orb: _Symmetrical_. Plus most of your deck is permanents, unlike most opponents, so it will hurt you -at least- as much (For example, Trinispheres come in tapped ie non-working). It is a decent stall SB-card against FCG and such stuff, though.

Stuff it DOES combo with: Winter- and Static Orb. It's probably possible to make a workshop deck where this card is useful, but it needs to be radically different than the current ones.

--
Chris

[Machinus]

Orb is not specifically "asymmetrical," but the disadvantages of it for the workshop player are not as bad as they are for the other player.

First, if you go first, all of your stuff comes into play untapped before you play this (like mana), and playing this will slow them down significantly every turn after it is in play. Basically you get an extra turn to cast spells and attack in the long game. This is a strong advantage, as it can mean another soot counter, 5 extra damage, or just one more card off the top of your library.

Second, not all of the permanents that come into play need to be untapped. Trinisphere suffers from this drawback, but smokestack, tangle wire, juggernaut, su-chi, welder, crucible of worlds, and other cards can come into play tapped without any disadvantage to the workshop player.

The disadvantage to this card is that there are already several good lock parts, and this isn't as inherently powerful as the others, so it might not make it into the deck.