Psychic Vortex ?

[DamnedMarine]

Look at this card: Psychic Vortex
http://www.magiccards.info/?id=7737
You can draw sooo much cards and in a few turns you can overwhelm your enemy...
Why is this card not played?
Disadvantages of this card can also easily be negated...

[Razvan]

The card is 4 mana, and it sucks in a control deck, because it attacks the two things most important to the control player: mana and handsize/control during your opponent's turn.

The 4 mana is the reason why it's not played in combo, not to mention the fact that it is so much slower than most other cards (aka, Bargain).

In aggro, it would be okay, except the 4 mana really kills it.

So yeah.

[Erdrick]

Why is this card not played?

That is pretty easy, it is 4cc and you don't get to draw the first card until the next turn.  That means it is too expensive and too slow.  Also, about the disadvantages, land destruction sucks and blue does not like having an empty hand during the opponents turn.  I doubt this would even be good in casual.

[DamnedMarine]

But it is like Future Sight, some turns and you won...
Decks without Counters but Aggro/Disruption would get HUGE advantage if this cards is on board for at least 2-3 turns!

[Meddling Mike]

Well, this card is alot like grafted skullcap with a few differences. The skullcap is an artifact and can be cast with Mishra's Workshop mana, but there seems to be more artifact removal available than Enchantment Removal. This card has the potential to draw you many cards, skullcap only draws you one additional one a turn.

Also, you'd also have to run something to kill this card should he get out of hand, cumulative upkeep is not a may effect, and I could see somebody decking themself with this card before they could actually win, although that's not terribly likely.

So, he seems to be superior, the problem is the UU in the casting cost, the decks you would probably play this in don't particularly need it. If you were playing control slaver for example, it fits the deck fairly well: The UU casting cost shouldn't be a problem, it's got a number of cheap spells so it can empty out large hands quickly, the heavy cc artifact spells can all be gladly dumped into the yard, there's a Platinum angel to negate being decked. However, the biggest problem with this card is that it leaves you vulnerable, your opponent can just have his way with you during his turn entirely sure that you have no counters for his spells. So essentially this card fits in a deck that doesn't have or need a counter base yet can support a UU casting cost, I personally can't think of any other than perhaps U/G madness. But I will default that matter to folks who actually play that deck.

[PucktheCat]

there seems to be more artifact removal available than Enchantment Removal.

Red.

Elemental.

Blast.

Basically this would have to go in a deck that had blue but didn't run Force of Will.

Good luck finding that.

Even if you did find that, it still costs you a land every turn over skullcap.

Leo

[Justinsane]

It seems like a worse grafted skullcap.  
If you are looking for a blue enchantment that draws cards, it seems like standstill or mystic remora would be much better.

[Jander78]

Also, you'd also have to run something to kill this card should he get out of hand, cumulative upkeep is not a may effect, and I could see somebody decking themself with this card before they could actually win, although that's not terribly likely.

Cumulative Upkeep is optional.  If you don't pay it, the card will be sacrificed.  But there are a vast variety of blue card draw and I don't see any reason to run an expensive enchantment over any of them.

[Meddling Mike]

Also, you'd also have to run something to kill this card should he get out of hand, cumulative upkeep is not a may effect, and I could see somebody decking themself with this card before they could actually win, although that's not terribly likely.

Cumulative Upkeep is optional.  If you don't pay it, the card will be sacrificed.  But there are a vast variety of blue card draw and I don't see any reason to run an expensive enchantment over any of them.

Ya Got Me, not sure what I was thinking just then.

[Tristal]

I've seen this card used in an old, old, old build of U/G (/r) Madness.

[Colossus]

I built a bizarre combo deck based around this, Ensnaring Bridge, Stasis and Zombie Infestation- and when it worked it was amazing.  BUT it was too complex a combo to try to get around the falws of the card, and way too slow.

[Machinus]

What? This card is horrible...there are SO many better draw engines than this. But I am not going to list them, just explain to you why this card is in fact, total crap:

First of all, you must invest this card, sacrifice a land, and discard the rest of your hand, THEN WAIT A TURN before you see any "benefit" from this card. Two land drops, two whole turns, four mana, and a card nets you...one card.


It several turns to warm up, negating any possible use in combo.

It costs four and requires a land sacrifice per turn to work, meaning that you can't play the early game...which is aggro's strength.

And, obviously, it requires that you DISCARD YOUR HAND EVERY TURN meaning that you could never use it in a control deck.


Why is anyone even humoring this card?

[jpmeyer]

I played around with this card for a little bit.  The big problem was that you can't count on drawing land with this card for a turn or two, which means that you may get into situations where you've more or less locked yourself out and can't take advantage of all the cards that you're drawing.

[bebe]

This was my old Psychic Vortex deck. it was built before fetchlands were available as is completely outdated.  In fact we were not even using Null rods much back then. It was built on a dare in an effort to abuse two cards thought to be completely useless ... Vortex and Scholar. For some reason it never became a Tier 1 powerhouse. ah well.

The engine: 7
4 Oath of Scholars
3 Psychic Vortex

The kill cards: 8
4 Land’s Edge
4 Mindless Automaton

Search: 7
Timetwister
Mystical Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Enlightened Tutor
Merchant Scroll
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk

Utility: 9
4 Lodestone Bauble
3 Seal of Cleansing
Replenish
Balance

Mana: 29
7 SoloMoxen
11 Basics
11 Duals

[Covetous]

One of my friends made a casual psychic vortex deck using gustha's scepter and null brooch.  It won against unsuspecting players but once you knew the deck you could easily beat it.  We tried to make it type 1.5 but then it was even worse.  It's just another one of those cards that needs too long to be really good.  By the time you use this to draw enough cards to threaten your opponent, you will probably be dead.  But, again, if you want to build a deck using this card, I would suggest null brooch and gustha's scepter because they synergize very well with the vortex.

[MuzzonoAmi]

VGB and I tried to make a soft-lock deck using this and Solitary Confinement on the old TMD, it killed with a massive Sickening Dreams I recall. The biggest problem is that it needed to be ungodly lucky and cast them either in the same turn (7 mana, meaing you pretty much needed Lotus and Sol Ring on your first 3 turns) or in successive turns, meaing you had to protect Confinement from spot removal while protecting Vortex from Duress AND staying alive somehow, and then keeping both enchamtnets in play until you could get a 20 card hand, meaning that double Sterling Groves werre often needed. in short, it was completely unworkable.

[rmn]

Hey, don't forget Null Brooch and Ensnaring Bridge, Voidmage Prodigy and such.  I love this card, it is so much fun to play with in scrubby metas.

Hail the mighty Manabond!!