Confinement

[Crater Hellion]

 Here's a rough list of what I've been working on. There isn't a whole lot of explanation needed, but I'm not thrilled with the manabase or the sideboard.
3 Solitary Confinement
1 Balance
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Intuition (it's awesome. It gets squees, it gets AK's, it gets Fire/Ice when I'm ready to kill)
1 Timetwister (for recycling my library, I really feel like I need a card that does that.. I might look to the mirrodin card that shuffles hands and graveyard into library without the draw 7 since I will be able to recover with drawing much faster, but if I'm not mistaken it costs like 5..?)
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Time Walk
3 Isochron Scepter (obviously imprints Drain, Ancestral, AK, Chant, whatever)
2 Fire/Ice (I don't know the current ruling on this with the scepter, once I hear it this slot might or might not change)
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Plains
3 Island
SB: 2 Orim's Chant
SB: 4 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Volcanic Island
SB: 3 Flametongue Kavu
SB: 4 Swords to Plowshares
Again, the sideboard is extremely rough, just the way I like it.. or not.

edit: should cunning wish find it's way into my deck?

Light bue is annoying to read.\n\n

[TheRock]

The Mirrodin card that you are thinking of is Temporal Cascade, but unfortunately, it costs 7 (5UU), so I do think it is a tad expensive for use.

Another card you could try is Reminisce, that is, if you only want to shuffle your graveyard.  It doesn't give you a new hand though.

Do you have problems with stip lands?  I would just replace an Island with a Volcanic Island so that you have the red to use Fire/Ice with.  (This of course not assuming any sideboard changes or problems with Fire/Ice.)

Good luck!

[Terevaune]

The main reason you can't use reminisce is that it targets soi confinement will stop it.  Same with ancestral, but I wouldn't cut that.

[Crater Hellion]

If anything, I would use feldon's cane or thran dynamo, whichever one of them it is that works (drawing a blank) However, I think I will stick with fire/ice as a kill as opposed to library depletion.

[Godder]

The cane only works on you, whereas Thran Foundry can be directed against your opponent occasionally... On the other hand, Feldon's Cane costs 1 less (total), so take that as you will. Library depletion is a bit slow, so you may want to come up with something a little faster.

[Jacob Orlove]

I think his point was that the cane doesn't target, so it works with confinement, whereas the foundry doesn't.

[IvoryGargoyle]

Does Meditate target? It could work along the same principles as it does it Stax - skip a turn of being Tangled, Smoked, etc. So why not skip a turn of paying for the Confinment? Its not like they can hurt you anyway with it in play.

Isochron Sceptor looks to have the potential to be really powerful. Though I think you need a faster win condition than two damage a turn. That gives your opponent to much time to find a way to deal with your Confinment. And in T1, they could do that and kill you in the same turn.   And I don't think attacking with Squee will do it either.   So perhaps either boring your opponent to death, decking them or some other means?
     Also, I assume that the interaction between the Sceptor and Fire/Ice regarding imprint will be that, when you imprint the Sceptor, you choose either Fire or Ice.

I like the idea a lot. I'm not sure how it would fare against combo or Hulk, but would probably roll over any aggro deck.

[Jacob Orlove]

Quote     Also, I assume that the interaction between the Sceptor and Fire/Ice regarding imprint will be that, when you imprint the Sceptor, you choose either Fire or Ice.

Not quite. You imprint the card fire/ice, and each time you activate the scepter, you get to choose which "half" (fire or ice) you want to use.

This deck looks like it really wants Stifle somewhere (maybe the SB?). Otherwise, stuff like Pernicious Deed would be really bad.

edited to clarify my stifle point.\n\n

[Crater Hellion]

I think that rather than maindecking stifle, I might maindeck 2 cunning wishes..?

[Browser]

Quote Not quite. You imprint the card fire/ice, and each time you activate the scepter, you get to choose which "half" (fire or ice) you want to use.

Not quite.  The card is the thing imprinted.  And the card "Fire/Ice" has a converted mana cost of 4.  So it can't be Imprinted on Scepter in the first place.

[MoreFling]

Quote (Browser @ Sep. 16 2003,05:04)

Quote Not quite. You imprint the card fire/ice, and each time you activate the scepter, you get to choose which "half" (fire or ice) you want to use.

Not quite.  The card is the thing imprinted.  And the card "Fire/Ice" has a converted mana cost of 4.  So it can't be Imprinted on Scepter in the first place.

It has a cmc of 2. It CAN be imprinted on the scepter.

[Jacob Orlove]

Not again. I should put this in my sig:

Quote 505.5. Effects that ask for a particular characteristic of a split card while it’s in a zone other than the stack get an answer that consists of a combination of the split card’s two halves.

505.6. Effects that ask if a split card’s characteristic (in any zone other than the stack) matches a given value get only one answer. This answer is “yes” if either side of the split card matches the given value.

505.6 applies here, not 505.5.

[IvoryGargoyle]

So it seems I was correct, you can imprint?

[Crater Hellion]

No, you said you choose either fire or ice when you imprint right? You can imprint fire/ice and choose every time you activate it if I'm not mistaken.. which would disappoint me because it's been discussed to death.

[IvoryGargoyle]

It seems to make sense that you'd have to choose which "side" to imprint. Regardless, I was at least half right. However, I do agree, no ground has been gained regarding your deck. No one ever did comment on whether or not the includsion of Meditate would be worth while.

[Crater Hellion]

I don't want to run meditate, because it's not that good compared to other options.

[Browser]

Interesting ruling.  I guess I knew about the first one.  Not the second.

About imprinting.  It clearly states that the "card" is imprinted on the Scepter.  Not the "spell".  So there's no way you would be forced to choose upon imprinting.

I'm assuming you would choose which spell was going on the stack every time you activate it...  which sounds really nice.

[IvoryGargoyle]

What are the other options? Meditate does seem like it has synergy with the deck, skipping turns and thus skipping upkeeps on the Confinement. I heard drawing four cards is some good as well. Perhaps there just isn't room? Or do you just not want to run it?

[AlwaysOath]

From the Mirrodin FAQ:

* If the copied card is a split card, you may choose to play either
side of the split card, but not both. (The split cards Fire/Ice,
Illusion/Reality, Night/Day, Stand/Deliver, and Wax/Wane all have at
least one side with converted mana cost 2 or less.)

From the MTG-L Digest (basically a bunch of netreps):

"
Date:    Thu, 18 Sep 2003 22:29:58 +0200
From:    Ole Kofoed Hansen
Subject: Re: Split Cards with Isochron Scepter

David Weinlick skrev:
> If a split card has one side that has CMC 2 or less, but the other side
> is not, can you play the more expensive side once it is imprinted on
> Isochron Scepter?

Ahh, you're getting tricky now. The imprint ability on Isochron Scepter
does not give any specific requirements to the spell you play from it
(except that it must be an instant), so yes, as soon as you have the
card imprinted, you could play either side.

Regards

Ole
"

So you can imprint split cards--the entire split card--if at least one side has a CC

[Spizzard]

Upon testing, I'd debate whether or not Scepter would be better than meditate.  If you imprint an AK without any in the grave, than it is a slow draw engine that Meditate would more then likely be better than.  But, even 1 card a turn is enough for confinement and Scepter could be used for other uses and without a confinement.  Meditate is good in theory, but you don't really want to skip turns without a confinement in play.  It doesn't seem to be better than any of the choices already included.

To me, with confinement, I would rather play Abeyance in the side than Orims Chant.  The drawing a card could be huge, helping to maintain the lock as well with Scepter.

[Crater Hellion]

I'm feeling pretty strongly that scepter + ak +  intuition > meditate. I also want to find room for 3 MD abeyances, any help there?