Athenaeum

[OPColby]

Athenaeum
1
Artifact
Whenever you are required to draw a card, you may draw a card from anywhere in your library instead of drawing the top card of your library.
When Athenaeum comes into play, draw a card.
He that gets wisdom loves his own soul: He that keeps understanding shall find good - Hebrew Proverb

This is my first card.

First off, even though it's a cantrip, I don't think it's overpowered.  It has good synergy with Impulse, Brainstorm, basically anything that allows you to know where something is in your library.  Of course, if there were another card in existence which allowed you to know, for instance, what the top 20 cards of your library were, it would be overpowered.

However, I've been mana-screwed and mana-fogged too many times.  When you keep drawing lands, you want something else.  And even though it's a cantrip, this isn't a FREE cantrip - it costs 1 to play.  I originally had it so it would cost 0 to play, but you wouldn't draw a card.  I figured that was too weak for anything but casual play.

Plus, I think the thing that draws me the most to this card idea/ability is that it's fun to use, and 'topdecking' is no longer an excuse for losing.

Please let me know if you still think it's overpowered, with things like brainstorm, etc.

[Jacob Orlove]

This is really confusing.

[Ric_Flair]

WAY TOO GOOD.  And it is confusing.  The ability to draw a card from anywhere typically costs more than this.  This card is essentially a permanent Vampiric Tutor for free every turn.  Broken beyond belief.  Oh yeah and it is cheaper than Vamp Tutor, it is colorless and a cantrip.  This is hideous.

[Jacob Orlove]

No, you don't get to know what the cards actually are, though. It's not a super tutor. It essentially just lets you shuffle before each draw.

[Matt]

Yeah, the idea is that you pick a face-down (maybe, Future Sight changes this) card from somewhere in your library and put that one in your hand instead.

I really don't know what to make of this. One thing I notice, though, is that if you tried to play Index-style cards (or Ancestral Knowledge) it becomes really, really hard to remember where you put everything. God help you if you use, like, Goblin Charbelcher or Proteus Staff.

[Alfred]

How about instead of drawing the card from the top of your library, you draw it from the bottom.

[Jacob Orlove]

How about instead of drawing the card from the top of your library, you draw it from the bottom.

We had a huge thread about what a terrible idea that would be a while back.

[combo_dude]

By the way, you know that Athenaeum is the name of a club for posh men (not a strip joint, just a club for posh blokes where they can get drunk and complain about the government) in London? I'd change the name.

Secondly, I think that Matt has a very good point; there are a lot of cards that break this. Ancestral Knowledge is one (although not much good on its own); another is Lim-Dul's Vault. Pay some life and you know the exact location of every card in your deck except the top five (you keep going until you have five bad cards on top of your deck, and you just never draw them). On turn 2. That's too good.

[Matt]

The problem is really a two-parter:

a) Getting this to work (like with LDV) is so powerful that you'd be a fool NOT to use it,
b) Using this puts an incredible strain on your ability to play correctly - having to remember the order of like 7-10 (seven is the average number of things people can remember, which incidentally is why phone numbers are the way they are) cards is hard, but imagine trying to remember a list of thirty or forty cards.

These two factors lead to the conclusion that this card just makes it much, much more difficult to play the game of Magic. I applaud you for thinking way outside the box, but this idea is going to be problematic at any cost.

[combo_dude]

Using this puts an incredible strain on your ability to play correctly - having to remember the order of like 7-10 (seven is the average number of things people can remember, which incidentally is why phone numbers are the way they are) cards is hard, but imagine trying to remember a list of thirty or forty cards.

And even if you are allowed to write down what cards are where, it would take so long and thereby piss so many opponents off that I think you'd get lynched after playing whole tournament with it.  It's a good idea, but this memory issue does make it impractical.  Cards that force you to make close decisions are good.  Cards that force you to remember a list of cards for you to reach a very strong position are not.

[OPColby]

Sorry.

Lim Dul's Vault would seem to be pretty broken with this.  Although, you would have to remember a crazy amount of where things were - which would give people with great memories (I.E., me,) a big advantage.

My whole concept was to alter a good portion of the game.  I love cards like Winter Orb, Stasis, Howling Mine, etc.

How about if we change the name to "Compendium of Reference" and have it so you can only do the ability during your draw phase.  I know this doesn't make it THAT much less broken with Lim Dul's vault, (which you have to pay 10 life to know where everything is in your library anyway), but what if...it did it for both players, and cost more mana?

Compendium of Reference
2
Artifact
Whenever any player is required to draw a card from their draw step, they may draw a card from anywhere in their library instead of drawing the top card of their library.  (The player does not get to look at the card before he draws it.)
When ~this~ comes into play, shuffle your library, then draw a card.
He that gets wisdom loves his own soul: He that keeps understanding shall find good - Hebrew Proverb

That seems to me, however, to be too weak.  Maybe a 3 casting cost, and it only affects you?  Or maybe a 1 casting cost and it affects both people?

I agree that it is wicked cool with Lim Dul's Vault, but that's a cool combo.  Also, I agree it would put a large strain on some people to remember where they placed certain cards, for instance.  Also, decks would have to be shuffled alot.  (which is also why I added the 'shuffle your library' part)

Does this make it more balanced?