City in a Bottle

[gkraigher]

City in a Bottle is another great card against Dredge decks.  

It prevents them from playing Bazaar of Baghdad if played first and destroys a Bazaar of Baghdad if played second.  

My reason for the post is to discover how City in a Bottle interacts with City of Brass.  

If you have Arabian nights Cities of Brass, should you be playing with them?


Edited the title and post for grammar/spelling - Prospero

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

The card basically equates to an over costed pithing needle in the dredge match up most of the time.

[quicksilvervii]

I've actually been using it to great success in my workshop build.

[Diakonov]

If you have arabian nights citites of brass, should you be playing with them?

If you are worried about City in a Bottle you should use 7th edition Cities.  Chronicles will also not work.

EDIT: Same goes for Mountain.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

I've actually been using it to great success in my workshop build.

are you getting lucky with the cities they're playing, or is it just a 2 cc needle?

[TheWhiteDragon]

It does kill the bazaar in play too.  So it's a strip mine + needle.  It also stops them from using their Suleiman's Bottle tech that they sb in.

[Ten-Ten]

It does kill the bazaar in play too.  So it's a strip mine + needle.  It also stops them from using their Suleiman's Bottle tech that they sb in.

I LOL'd

[gkraigher]

there is an oracle ruling on the issue,

City in a Bottle only affects cards with the Arabian Nights scimitar symbol on them, or permanents that are copies of those cards. It does not affect reprints of cards that originally came from the Arabian Nights expansion.

so does that mean chronicles cards are affected?  


Hypothetically, lets say you were a pimped out dredge deck with 4 cities of brass and this card comes up game two.  Can you sub out your cities for 5th edition ones?  Or can you not alter your deck after you present it to your opponent in game 1.

[boggyb]

Yeah the expansion symbol is a characteristic of the card, on the same order as its casting cost, name, power/toughness, artist, flavor text, etc., but it almost never impacts the game state so you wouldn't think about it in that way. It's structurally equivalent to a card that reads "Cards by Mark Poole can't be played" or "Cards named Black Lotus can't be played"

[yespuhyren]

Hypothetically, lets say you were a pimped out dredge deck with 4 cities of brass and this card comes up game two.  Can you sub out your cities for 5th edition ones?  Or can you not alter your deck after you present it to your opponent in game 1.

Morally, changing your Arabian Nights City of Brass to a Fifth Edition version in between games because of City in a Bottle, in my opinion, would be the equivalent of changing from Red Elemental Blast to Pyroblast because your opponent plays Misdirection and you realize that there is a small difference.  If you don't take those cards into account when building your deck, then that is totally your fault.  As much as no one ever expects to see it, you still can't complain when you get beat fair and square by a card you never expected.  Any judge who rules against a player playing City in a Bottle as a 2 for 1 or better is a detriment to magic 

[Smmenen]

there is an oracle ruling on the issue,

City in a Bottle only affects cards with the Arabian Nights scimitar symbol on them, or permanents that are copies of those cards. It does not affect reprints of cards that originally came from the Arabian Nights expansion.

so does that mean chronicles cards are affected?  


Hypothetically, lets say you were a pimped out dredge deck with 4 cities of brass and this card comes up game two.  Can you sub out your cities for 5th edition ones?  Or can you not alter your deck after you present it to your opponent in game 1.

please please please don't ask these questions.   we don't want these card banned

[quicksilvervii]

I've actually been using it to great success in my workshop build.

are you getting lucky with the cities they're playing, or is it just a 2 cc needle?

Granted, I play this over most other hate because I'm currently on shops, but it has been working out great.

It slows them down enough for me to either put in a couple of spheres, or put in a chalice at 1.
It seems just 'okay' on paper, but I have really liked it in practice.  The fact that it does 'splash damage' against the nice city of brass is just icing on the cake.

[yespuhyren]

Chronicles cards aren't affected, and as such I couldn't see any merit in seriously running a City in a Bottle.  Aside from Bazaars, most people don't play a single card from Arabian Nights.  It is rare to see AN ones as well, as most of the pimped out ones I've seen run foil 7e ones.  I still vote for AN, but sadly that's just me.

Now that I think of it, I would argue that there is a better chance of seeing an Arabian Nights Kird Ape.  Definitely a good way for shops to stop the ape 

That being said, for fun factor, winning with it is king

[MaximumCDawg]

there is an oracle ruling on the issue,

City in a Bottle only affects cards with the Arabian Nights scimitar symbol on them, or permanents that are copies of those cards. It does not affect reprints of cards that originally came from the Arabian Nights expansion.

so does that mean chronicles cards are affected?  


Hypothetically, lets say you were a pimped out dredge deck with 4 cities of brass and this card comes up game two.  Can you sub out your cities for 5th edition ones?  Or can you not alter your deck after you present it to your opponent in game 1.

please please please don't ask these questions.   we don't want these card banned

Translation: The Rules currently cannot handle cards that care about print edition?

Seriously though, you really think this is a big deal?  I don't see anyone running amock with Apocalypse Chime or City of Brass.  Even if they did, they could just tweak the rules a little bit to handle it.  Basically, that being "Arabian Nights" or "Homelands" is actually a property of the card you cannot swap out between rounds.  Seems easy.

[quicksilvervii]

I dont think that ruling on this would be too difficult, except in the case of proxies.

[quicksilvervii]

I have still had great success with this in MUD.

[yespuhyren]

I have still had great success with this in MUD.

I'm not taking anything away from your personal success, but I just feel that if you are winning games with City in a Bottle then you are probably already winning.  If you don't drop it on turn 1 and Ichorid gets a Bazaar Activation off then it is effectively neutralized.  It is a dedicated hate card that works against nothing but Ichorid decks, and even so you'd need to also play GY hate to make it relevant.  7-8 cards solely against Ichorid seems like a lot, however, I do not know what your maindeck looks like and if you're that hurt by them.  Precursor Golem and 3/3 buddies chump 2/2 zombies all day.  As do Wurmcoil Engine and if they blow him up, the 3/3 pieces he leaves behind.

[TheWhiteDragon]

It also kills Library of Alexandria, so that's relevant.

[yespuhyren]

Here is a list of every card that sees any play in Vintage from the set:

Bazaar of Baghdad
City of Brass
Kird Ape (It's a stretch!)
Library of Alexandria
Mountain
Old Man of the Sea

It also kills Library of Alexandria, so that's relevant.

If they have library, they don't play Bazaars and there is 99.9% chance it's the only card from the set in the deck.  It will never come in against a deck running Library.  If it does and you win, then you would have done better with an Alpha Myr most likely.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Here is a list of every card that sees any play in Vintage from the set:

Bazaar of Baghdad
City of Brass
Kird Ape (It's a stretch!)
Library of Alexandria
Mountain
Old Man of the Sea

It also kills Library of Alexandria, so that's relevant.

If they have library, they don't play Bazaars and there is 99.9% chance it's the only card from the set in the deck.  It will never come in against a deck running Library.  If it does and you win, then you would have done better with an Alpha Myr most likely.

But if they run that multi-color madness/control/zoo deck with cities, library, old man, kird ape, and bazaars....the CiaB is a BRICK HOUSE.

[TheShop]

Thank goodness they don't make a golgothian cylix for ice age...all my shit would get wrecked

[TheWhiteDragon]

I hear the next DCI promo is:

White Out Bottle

2

Artifact

When White Out Bottle comes into play, destroy all permanents with a black border.  Permanents and spells with a black border cannot be played or enter the battlefield from anywhere.

[yespuhyren]

Arabian Nights U/G/R Zoo

4x Kird Ape
4x Rukh Egg
4x Bird Maiden
4x Ghazban Ogre
4x Naf's Asp
4x Wyuli Wolf
4x Flying Men
4x Serendib Efreet
4x Unstable Mutation
4x City of Brass
6x Island
6x Mount
6x Forest
2x Desert

And yes, this deck would be almost obliterated by City in a Bottle except for forests and islands

[diopter]

Not that it would affect the metagame in any way but I'd prefer they swap City in a Bottle and Shahrazad on the B/R list.

[TheShop]

Not that it would affect the metagame in any way but I'd prefer they swap City in a Bottle and Shahrazad on the B/R list.

Ring of ma'ruf and a dumb judge is your best bet

[BruiZar]

City in a bottle also has implications against workshop builds running welder/bazaar engine, and worldgorger dragon, should some brave soul try to pilot those decks.

Pithing Needle may do the same in those cases, but I like to diversify hate.  Especially if you want to play chalice for 1, city in a bottle is a good alternative to pithing needle. The biggest problem imo is that city in a bottle doesn't stop time vault.