The Chain Veil

[HappyNewyear]

The Chain Veil

Legendary Artifact
At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a planeswalker this turn, you lose 2 life.

: For each planeswalker you control, you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activated this turn.

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Now, there is some debate about the actual functionality of this card, specifically as to what happens when you activate it twice in one turn.  If we assume that it does the most favorable action (one additional loyalty ability per activation), this does open the door for another potential infinite combo in Vintage, with cards that are (mostly) already used:

Version 1: Tezzeret the Seeker, Metalworker, and Chain Veil in play, 2 Artifacts in hand.  Activate Metalworker for 4, Activate Chain Veil, Use Tezz's +1 to untap Metalworker and Chain Veil, repeat.

Version 2: Ral Zalek, Chain Veil, and any mana source that can net 4 mana (e.g. Tolarian Academy) Activate Chain Veil using Mana Source, untap Mana Source and Chain Veil, repeat.

Once again, the actual rulings about this are still up in the air, but this has the potential to become a powerful combo piece.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I think the easiest response is that you've listed cards that can combo out more compactly. Ie. Tez with Time Vault; Metalworker with Staff of Domination; Ral Zarek with Time Vault.

While there's an argument to be made that unrestricted cards are easier to assemble combos with, I think that both the mana requirements and the additional card in each combo are prohibitive.

[TheWhiteDragon]

This is garbage.

1) It's not blue to pitch to FoW
2) It costs 4 but is not as good as or better than JtMS.

Therefore fails all criteria as a vintage playable.

[DubDub]

Tabak just confirmed on twitter that it does "work" if untapped and activated again.

However, your example #2 doesn't work, because Ral Zarek can't do double duty untapping the Veil and the 4+ mana source.

It also works better if you have multiple walkers out, for instance Ral Zarek and the new Nissa (provided you have 4+ forests), or Ral Zarek and Garruk 1.0 (with one or two lands that collectively produce 4+), etc.

Edit: All of this being said, I find it highly unlikely that this card will perform well in competitive play in Vintage.  Seems potentially awesome in EDH where mana and planeswalkers are more likely to be in abundant supply.

[MaximumCDawg]

It's not garbage *exactly,* but it doesn't do enough to justify its high cost compared to similar cards.  The fact that Rings of Brighthearth exists and sees no play strongly suggests this card is not playable.  Rings does more or less the same thing, the only difference being that Rings doesn't give the Planeswalker more loyalty if you were using a + ability.  Is that worth the mana difference?

I think NewYear hit the nail on the head with Tezzeret being the best way to evaluate this card, because with Tezz, using two of his abilities in a single turn wins the game on the spot.  And, Duck was correct in that this is not a good play because there are better cards to use if your goal is to go infinite with Vault.  

There's also the argument that Veil is a force multiplier that gets nutty if you have multiple Walkers out.  But, in Vintage, when are you going to lose a game with two Walkers in play and active anyway?

This sees play if there is a planeswalker that fetches it out onto the battlefield, lets you activate it for free or nearly free, and then wins the game once it comes out.  Something like this:

-1: Tinker for an artifact that costs 4 or less.
+1: Untap target artifact.  Add mana to your mana pool equal to its casting cost.
ULT: Win the game.

This is not necessarily an unthinkable printing, but it's not here yet, and there's no card that is remotely similar.  So... Chain Veil is bad.

[Saya]

We've already had three monuments from M15.Isn't it sufficient...?

[evouga]

-1: Tinker for an artifact that costs 4 or less.
+1: Untap target artifact.  Add mana to your mana pool equal to its casting cost.
ULT: Win the game.

Isn't Tez + Vault basically a better version of exactly this interaction?

[gkraigher]

For an 8 mana investment, you get almost nothing in return.  Plus you have to invest into other mana intensive cards as well.  Card is garbage. 

[JarofFortune]

At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a planeswalker this turn, you lose 2 life.

As if a card this horrible needed a drawback.

[gkraigher]

At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a planeswalker this turn, you lose 2 life.

As if a card this horrible needed a drawback.

Being legendary is also a drawback, so technically this card has 4 draw backs.  It costs 4, activates for 4, does damage to you without a planeswalker, and you can only have 1 in play at a time.

Too funny.  

On the brightside, if you had a board state with this and Garruk, Apex Predator you could destroy a planeswalker and put a 3/3 deathtouch beast into play.  

[MaximumCDawg]

I still can't get over how much worse Veil is than Rings of Brighthearth.

-1: Tinker for an artifact that costs 4 or less.
+1: Untap target artifact.  Add mana to your mana pool equal to its casting cost.
ULT: Win the game.

Isn't Tez + Vault basically a better version of exactly this interaction?

That depends on what the new hypothetical walker's stats are.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I still can't get over how much worse Veil is than Rings of Brighthearth.

-1: Tinker for an artifact that costs 4 or less.
+1: Untap target artifact.  Add mana to your mana pool equal to its casting cost.
ULT: Win the game.

Isn't Tez + Vault basically a better version of exactly this interaction?

That depends on what the new hypothetical walker's stats are.

Even if the hypothetical walker cost and came with 10 loyalty, you wouldn't play this to enable it.

[evouga]

? Unless there's a better unrestricted enabler, of course you would.

[AmbivalentDuck]

? Unless there's a better unrestricted enabler, of course you would.

You'd run it out on turn 1 and "tinker" out Time Vault. Turn 2 you'd start untapping it and taking infinite turns. Why would you run Veil instead of...Mountain Goat?

[evouga]

You'd run Time Vault *and* Veil, since it takes a turn to go off and artifact destruction is everywhere.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Because you'll have 8 mana on turn 2? Why not just run 4x Voltaic Key?

[evouga]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Your decklist would include one Time Vault, and some nonzero number of Chain Veils. You would play the hypothetical 'walker and tutor Time Vault, and if Time Vault gets exiled or destroyed, instead of scooping you would simply tinker up Veil the next turn.

[Montolio]

Chain Veil just seems like a win more too me.
Much rather be spending a slot protecting my planeswalker with counter magic then to have a 4 cc artifact that is is 100% reliant on having a planeswalker in play to have any applicability.
Too boot it is a kick in the balls every turn if your Planeswalker dies.
Not a fan of this card and i feel it will see zero play in Vintage.

[Templar]

Exactly.  It's not a Vintage card.  That doesn't mean it won't be tinkered around with in some big mana Planeswalker deck in Modern or possibly even Standard to see if it would fly there (Urza land decks with Karn or something, maybe?), but it's not getting there at this level.

[MTGFan]

For the low, low cost of only 8 mana *and* -1 card disadvantage you get to activate a planeswalker or two more than once! (because you won't ever have 3+ planeswalkers in play in Vintage and rarely more than 1)

Nothing to see here, move along!

[mmcgeach]

There's also the argument that Veil is a force multiplier that gets nutty if you have multiple Walkers out.  But, in Vintage, when are you going to lose a game with two Walkers in play and active anyway?

I can tell you this is absolutely the case... 2 walkers active wins maybe 9 of the 10 total times I've ever had two walkers active.  And I've played a lot of Superfriends...  and only ever had 2 walkers in play in 10 total games.  Usually one vintage-playable walker wins the game.  Also people frequently scoop to 2 walkers, even if there's no real threat of ending the game soon.

[WhiteLotus]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Your decklist would include one Time Vault, and some nonzero number of Chain Veils. You would play the hypothetical 'walker and tutor Time Vault, and if Time Vault gets exiled or destroyed, instead of scooping you would simply tinker up Veil the next turn.

Did you ever see a Tinker deck scoop simply because it had it's timevault destroyed (barring you die next turn situations)? they can always just Ywill to get it back, tinker for blightsteel or if they have Tezzeret or Jace win with their ultimates...

Also how is a 4 cmc card with an activation cost of 4, that does absolutely nothing on it's own and requires you to have 2 other cards to work, even remotely playable in vintage? Helm of obedience almost sees no play and is way better than this garbage.

[diopter]

Yes, this card probably won't see Vintage play.

However it is probably important for Vintage players to know that this kind of effect now exists in the game.