Trinisphere, is it really that good?

[MSR9889]

As we all have come to know and love/hate Trinisphere, we have all had it dropped turn one against us. I myself have come up against this probably about as much as anyone else reading this article. But is it an automatic game winner? Why is it that when this hits the board, so many decks start to scream on the inside? With the wishes and all the maindeck hatred for artifacts, why is this so hard to surpass? And also, when you consider how many decks have blue for maximum draw and counter effects, how is it so easily dominant. 3 mana is do-able by any means with all the power running amuck in todays metagame.

I think that the Sphere of Resistance needs to come back. I think its better in stacks just for its ability to tap to the Tangle Wire. It also slows down your opponent, but not you. Granted the 3sphere is more of a 1 shot KO, which is better? Consider that before the 3sphere, the SoR was running amuck. Also consider that the SoR is only 2 mana, more easily turn 1 than the 3sphere.  it also stacks up, such as a turn 2-3 SoR to follow the turn 1-2. And again, it stops turn 1 threats and allows for you to be acticve turn 2.

Post your opinion and please leave feedback a to why you choose your opinion. I know that someone out there has to think that SoR is just as good, and better in stacks.

[Evilkin]

3sphere is coming out turn one with Workshop and occasionaly accompanied with a mox or crypt/lotus/sol ring/mana vault?  Meaning Workshop player has 4-5 mana on turn 2 and is also going to have a 2nd threat in hand such as Jugg/CoW/Smokestack which will not be countered.

If 3sphere resolves and they have that 2nd threat the best an opposing deck can do is drop 1 land 3 turns in a row and maybe on turn 3 cast a Cunning Wish or creature/artifact removal.  If a land is a non basic, chances are Workshop/3sphere player has a Waste/Strip for it and makes it pretty much an unrecoverable situation.

With SoR the opposing player can still drop land and pay for Moxes.  They can also drop lands and have that 1 mana open for FoW.  You can't FoW under 3sphere period.

[Marton]

trinisphere and sphere of resistance play a different role in stax decks (if a stax ever came to find place for a sphere of resistance, which is almost impossible). Trinisphere is good vs 0-2 cc spells, while sphere of resistance is really good vs 3+ cc spells. Sphere of resistance is particularly good versus cunning wish/rack and ruin.

Also, you mention that the sphere of resistance stack together. While true, in practice it is not something you want (stackability). You see, the more a card is good when you have tons of them into play, the more it forces you to keep as many as possible into play. Stax really likes to sac 'useless' permanents, so multiples of trinispheres are never dead (smokestack/welder/tangle wire). I understand your argument that the 'tappability' for tangle wire is nice, but I rarely had a big issue with tangle wire permanent tapping while playing trinisphere. Remember also that by having many sphere of resistance into play makes them worse vs energy flux. I will also make a brief statement that sometimes (very rarely) you want to tap your trinisphere for your hand to explode.

The main problem with sphere of resistance is that it DOES affects you, in contrast to trinisphere, which almost doesnt. Stax wins it's game by having more permanents than the opponent, so you need to always put stuff into play to sacrifice. If you don't draw lands, and all you can cast costs 3/4, then the sphere of resistance can 'do you in' because you can only pay for the stuff you draw which costs 3. Then you need to sacrifice either the sphere of resistance to 'unlock' yourself, or sacrifice your smokestack. Both choices are very much the contrary than what the deck wants to do.

Sphere of resistance effect is not enough gamebreaking in itself. The punch it packs is more a pinch. It's only really good vs 3+ cc cards, but for everything else it's really bad.

Generally, if I could find free spots in stax decks, I would play chalice of the void. Chalice of the void fixes your bad matchups. It's the card that best shores up your bad matchups. Sphere of resistance generally makes your bad matchups even worse (ie: not always better), because it slows you as much as it can slow the opponent.

Trinisphere is what enabled prison decks, in much the same way that thirst for knowledge enabled welder decks. It's that good in prison decks.

[Moxlotus]

Turn 1 3sphere-your opponent's moxen sit in hand.  Your opponent has 2 mana max on turn 2.

Turn 2 SoR-land, tap mox, tap mox, play mox.  Turn 2 they lay land and have 4 mana

[Komatteru]

Opponent's Turn 1: Shop, Trinisphere
Your Turn 1: Land
Opponent's Turn 2: Something broken
Your Turn 2: Land
Opponent's Turn 3: Hardcore lockdown with any of several cards
Your Turn 3: Examine your cards and realize that you're not winning this game, but you decide to play a few more turns to see what's in your opponent's deck

This is all too common in Vintage.  First turn Trinisphere almost always wins the game for the Shop deck.  It is that good.

Meanwhile, with Sphere of Resistance out, this might happen:

Opponent's Turn 1: Land, Mox, Sphere
Your Turn 1: Land, tap land for Mox, tap Mox for another Mox

Well that didn't stop much, now did it?

Trinisphere >>> Sphere of Resistance.  It's not even funny how game breaking Trinisphere.

[Jacob Orlove]

Closed.