Rumored Card: Lich's Mirror

[Sloth]

I'm not a Vintage player, but I thought to show you this card, which was rumored over at MTGSalvation and is considered to be real there:

Lich's Mirror
5
Artifact
Mythic

If you would lose the game, instead shuffle your hand, your graveyard and all permanents you own into your library, then draw seven cards and your life total becomes 20.

This card looks like a new Platinum Angel first, but after second reading this card is much closer to Memory Jar and thus worth trying to be abused.
You obviously need some ways to loose the game whenever you want and a Finish that does not rely on Permanents in play (For example Tendrils of Agony).

Lich's Mirror combos well with all cards which use your life as a ressource, for example:
- Necropotence
- Channel
- Street Wraith
- Thoughtseize
- Vampiric Tutor / Imperial Seal
- Plunge into Darkness
- City of Brass

Lich's Mirror combos well with all cards which say "You loose the game", for example:
- The pacts from future sight
- Final Fortune / Last Chance / Warrior's Oath

Finally I will post a very raw and untested Deck Idea without sideboard (Sorry, I know you don't like it like this):

Engine: 9
4 x Lich's Mirror
1 x Necropotence
1 x Channel
1 x Yawg's Will
2 x Tendrils of Agony

Draw and Search: 12
1 x Ancestral Recall
1 x Demonic Tutor
1 x Vampiric Tutor
1 x Imperial Seal
4 x Plunge into Darkness
4 x Street Wraith

Disruption: 6
4 x Thoughtseize
2 x Pact of Negation

Mana: 33
3 x City of Brass
1 x Black Lotus
1 x Lotus Petal
5 x Moxen
1 x Mana Crypt
1 x Mana Vault
1 x Lions Eye Diamond
4 x Dark Ritual
4 x Elvish Sprit Guide
4 x Simian Sprit Guide
4 x Summoner's Pact
4 x Manamorphose

I know that this deck is quite bad on the draw without FoW, but the number of blue cards won't permit to use it. Any ideas?
I apologize if this post turns out to be redundant (i.e. if the rumored card is a fake).

[andrewpate]

Note that this only shuffles away permanents you own.  This would allow you to hold on to Forbidden Orchard tokens or anything stolen via an effect like Memnarch's.  There may be some avenue for abuse there.

2 Mythic Rares seen so far:  Tezzeret and this.  So much for being purely a flavor thing.

[vartemis]

I don't think Mirror is that usuable.

By the time you are able to reestablish a board position, you will more than likely be dead.  The only decks that would have difficulty are tendrils decks as they would have to find a way to replay tendrils, but they would just treat this the same way they do Platinum, bounce it or destroy it first, then go off.  This will more than likely end up in the casual multiplayer arena.

j

[Sloth]

@vartemis:
My idea to use Lich's Mirror is to kill yourself to Draw 7 cards, not waiting to be killed by your opponent.
My suggested Deck has 12 cards that can kill you immediately or during your next upkeep.
And the deck doesn't use many permanents, that are meant to stay on the board.

@andrewpate:
The idea to include some permanent stealing effects is good, but I can't think of anything powerful at the moment.

A card that I obviously forgot to include is Tinker.

[beder]

Well, killing yourself in order to draw 7 and start at turn 0 - with perhaps storm and mana - doesn't seem really broken to me. I truly don't think it can be efficently used that way. That's way too much tortured and complex for such a small effect.

[arctic79]

I see this card being possible in a storm deck (slim but possible), or abuse it with something like Taniwha and triggering its effect on your opponents turn, you get all your lands and a mittful of cards.

Edit---In conjunction with dream halls being unrestricted could prove a viable option for monoblue.

[credmond]

I don't think you would want to build a deck out of suicidal cards just to try to set up this card, however broken it is. You wind up with a weak deck that is contingent upon one card being in play to make it a strong deck.

However, an interesting card that could be used to abuse this card without weakening your deck and which doesn't suck on its own is lim-dul's vault. That card could be used to kill yourself if you wanted to and otherwise its a pretty solid card digger and combo enabler.

[Sloth]

@credmond:
I considered Lim-Dul's Vault, but the effect is useless if Lich's Mirror is in play, since you have to shuffle your library.
Most of the cards I have listed are powerful even without Lich's Mirror in play.
Maybe the pacts and plunge into darkness are too suicidal, but they are not really weak.

[Xyre]

No, you wouldn't want this card in a deck. It shuffles itself away - meaning that you're starting at 0 facing down an opponent who's probably had a turn to develop. And for what? a safety valve to Bargain? The odds that you play Bargain and lose are very slim, as opposed to a card like Spoils of the Vault.

[credmond]

Isn't the mirror worded as a replacement effect? As I understand it, once you pay the costs of lim-duls vault to the point that your life is zero, the mirror will replace your game loss at that point with a clean board and a fresh hand of seven and lim-dul's vault is still on the stack now with 20 life to help you dig deep. This seems really broken and very viable. Maybe I have the resolution wrong. 

[Sloth]

@credmond:
Since the life payment is part of the effect of Lim-Dul's Vault and not part of it's cost, you die after it resolves, then the Mirror kicks in.

[Webster]

The easiest way to abuse Lich's Mirror is with Channel.


-   Channel's functionality is reliant solely on being played on the same turn.

-   Channel can be used to accelerate into Lich's Mirror.

-   Channel, unlike Yawgmoth's Bargain, isn't good enough on it's own in a combo-centric deck to beg the question, "Why play Lich's Mirror to support bad cards like Channel when I could play with cards which are independantly good on their own?"

[arctic79]

I definetly think it will fit in a dream halls based deck.  What about with Desire?  I guess if you have a good enough desire you should win anyways.  Tier 2 deck at the best for this.  But should be fun.

[Liam-K]

It doesn't empty your mana pool.  Memory Jar hardcast is a lot easier to draw 7 off, but it's not a symmetrical draw7.  Channel's effect would continue to be useeable after the mirror triggers...

Serum Powder deck?

The obvious best-case play is channel, bargain, mirror, stack 11 bargain activations, resolve Mirror, gain 20 life to channel with and draw 18 for GGBB.

[JamesR404]

When I first saw this card, I went crazy. There HAS to be a way to abuse it. Indeed, it shuffles only permanents you OWN, not control, in your deck. More importantly, mana pools don't empty.

What do you think of the following? ^^

   Creatures   
4   Dominus of Fealty
2      Illusionary Wall
4      Wall of Air   
2      Pshychic Membrame

   Spells
4   Lich's Mirror
4   Pact Of Negation
1   Fork
1   Twincast
4   Puca's Mischief
2   Red Rituals
4   Volcanic Geyser
2   Fault Line
4   Fabricate
2   Force of Will

   Lands
10   Mountains
10   Islands
   
Creatures  12
Spells          28
Lands          20
Total          60


- The counters would be used to protect the Lich's Mirror and optionally other key cards, but really keep 'm to protect your mirror.
- The walls are there to swap with Puca for whatever you like (to bad you can't steal lands, but you can use the Dominus for that (!!!)), the walls won't attack you and you'll return them to your deck anyway   Oh and, good luck in paying the upkeep for your Illusionary Wall Mr Opponent

Your goal is to stall the game as long as possible, just keep playing lands and whenever you want, throw an X-burn at them which can be forked (as can your counters in counter wars). If you would lose the game, just ensure you've got a shitload of mana in your mana pool (tap all out) - then when you draw your seven new cards, hope you've got another X burn.

Maybe more X burn is needed, but definitly prefer instant (so if your opponent kills you in his turn, you reset and kill him ). And if you don't grab an X burn, just grab a Lich mirror (or fabricate one) and try again!.

What ya think? Conjured this up in 10 minutes, so definitly needs tweaking, but I see potential. Will try this for my fun multiplayer games anyway

[Nefarias]

2 Mythic Rares seen so far:  Tezzeret and this.  So much for being purely a flavor thing.

There's actually been six: The first was Hellkite Overlord, then Ajani Vengeant, then Tezzeret. Sarkhan Vol and Sphinx Sovereign have been previewed in the past two days on mtg.com, and now this was leaked.

Of those, three are planeswalkers (highly flavorful), two are Timmy creatures that are almost uncastable and only good if you're cheating them into play, and one is a crazy Johnny card. They all seem pretty Mythic so far.

[Nehptis]

Even with Lich's Mirror in play you still die to Poison counters.  Go Poison!

[CHAOSBLACKDOOM]

2 Mythic Rares seen so far:  Tezzeret and this.  So much for being purely a flavor thing.

There's actually been six: The first was Hellkite Overlord, then Ajani Vengeant, then Tezzeret. Sarkhan Vol and Sphinx Sovereign have been previewed in the past two days on mtg.com, and now this was leaked.

Of those, three are planeswalkers (highly flavorful), two are Timmy creatures that are almost uncastable and only good if you're cheating them into play, and one is a crazy Johnny card. They all seem pretty Mythic so far.

Well, I've seen Hellkite Overlord being played in Oath decks because its Vintage legal.  Tezzeret is POSSIBLE with Academy, I'm not sure though.  Then Mirror might find a place if someone thinks of how to break it properly.

[TR]

The best synergy for Lich's Mirror, I think, is achieved with using Y.Bargain to put 20 draw effects on the stack, let the Mirror trigger and resolve, proceed to draw 27 cards and win the game.

Although to do this, you have to have played both the Mirror and Bargain, meaning you should have already won anyways.

[EnialisLiadon]

The best synergy for Lich's Mirror, I think, is achieved with using Y.Bargain to put 20 draw effects on the stack, let the Mirror trigger and resolve, proceed to draw 27 cards and win the game.

Although to do this, you have to have played both the Mirror and Bargain, meaning you should have already won anyways.

The best synergy is Channel.  Personal Tutor (or any tutor) up Channel, play Channel and start chaining mirrors and jars together.  The deck is inconsistant, though.

[Son of Serra]

Lich's Mirror has the potential to be broken with several other cards, but the one card in particular that it is most likely to pair with to become broken (if it can become broken) is Channel. Channel has amazing synergies with with this artifact because:

1. It pays for Lich's Mirror
2. It triggers Lich's Mirror
3. It's effect is more powerful post-Mirror

With the recent unrestriction of Personal Tutor, you can now play from a large suite of first-turn tutors that setup a Channel into Lich's Mirror.

Here is an idea for a list:

x1  Black Lotus
x4  Lich's Mirror
x1  Lotus Petal
x1  Memory Jar
x3  Mox Diamond
x1  Mox Emerald
x1  Mox Jet
x1  Mox Ruby
x1  Mox Sapphire
x3  Planar Portal

x1  Platinum Angel

x1  Ancestral Recall
x1  Brainstorm
x4  Force of Will
x3  Mana Drain
x1  Mystical Tutor
x4  Pact of Negation
x1  Vampiric Tutor

x1  Channel
x1  Demonic Tutor
x1  Fireball
x1  Meltdown
x4  Personal Tutor
x1  Time Walk
x1  Timetwister
x1  Tinker
x1  Yawgmoth's Will

x3  Flooded Strand
x2  Island
x3  Polluted Delta
x3  Tropical Island
x2  Underground Sea
x2  Volcanic Island

The idea is to get Channel up on turn 2-3 and then combo out using the Mirror to get a new hand and 30+ colorless mana. Planar Portals are effectively Mirrors 5-7 that you can also cast with a mirror, activate to find a card, and then while the ability is on the stack you can Channel to "pop" a Mirror and get whatever you want post-Mirror.

Fireball is a lousy kill, but I can't think of a better X spell to absorb all that colorless mana. And please don't say Demonfire or Kraevak's Torch because nobody will counter the spell after Channel.

Viable?

[BetterThenAndrew]

What about Channel to one, play the Mirror, then crack a fetch.  You die from the activation, the mirror resets the board and then you get to fetch a land, right?  so the game resets, plus you have a land and the Channel mana.  Worth considering? Not as good as Bargain, but easier to pull off.

[M.Solymossy]

Not that I support such an awful concept, but channel's oracle is 

Until end of turn, any time you could play a mana ability you may pay 1 life. If you do, add 1 to your mana pool.

Which means that once you have litch's mirror in play, you actually have unlimited colorless mana, at the cost of drawing 7 new cards for each 20 mana.  Theoretically, you can use this until you either a) find a bunch of lock components or B) find a way to win with the colorless mana.   May I suggest Magma Mine?

[Son of Serra]

Not that I support such an awful concept, but channel's oracle is 

Until end of turn, any time you could play a mana ability you may pay 1 life. If you do, add 1 to your mana pool.

Which means that once you have litch's mirror in play, you actually have unlimited colorless mana, at the cost of drawing 7 new cards for each 20 mana.  Theoretically, you can use this until you either a) find a bunch of lock components or B) find a way to win with the colorless mana.   May I suggest Magma Mine?

I think you are misreading Lich's Mirror... it gets shuffled into the deck after you hit zero life. You do not get unlimited colorless mana because after your first 20 you may not draw another Lich's Mirror in your new 7 cards.

Because the mana is not unlimited, Magma Mine will not get you there without "Mirror"ing in a Mirror several times in a row.

What about Channel to one, play the Mirror, then crack a fetch.  You die from the activation, the mirror resets the board and then you get to fetch a land, right?  so the game resets, plus you have a land and the Channel mana.  Worth considering? Not as good as Bargain, but easier to pull off.

Good reasoning on this. Colored mana is at a premium post-Mirror... you may have to wait until your third land drop to pull this off though.

[ShawnTheDoctor]

I posted this in the improvement forum. What do you guys think?

I was thinking about this deck for a while today. Your goal is to resolve Channel and win. Casting Lich's Mirror off Mana Drain or any other time when you haven't resolved Channel is a weak play. Even if you cast Mirror, say go, Negation something and then die next upkeep, you aren't in a good position to win the game by starting over. So the focus needs to be first on resolving Channel, second on keeping the recursion going so that you auto-win by popping a Mirror after you've resolved Channel.

Here's my version of the deck:

Finding Channel:

4x Personal Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Channel

Resolving Channel:

4x Force of Will
4x Pact of Negation
3x Duress
2x Misdirection

Recursion:

4x Lich's Mirror
4x Planar Portal
4x Fabricate

Misc:

1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Brainstorm
2x Divining Top

Mana Sources:

1x Emerald
1x Sapphire
1x Jet
1x Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
4x Chrome Mox
1x Bayou
2x Tropical Island
3x Green search land
4x Gemstone Mine

That's 59 cards, not sure what the last card should be. Candidates:

Memory Jar - Strong candidate, but I don't like the idea of giving my opponent a chance to draw FoW.
Timetwister - See above, also discards to FoW and gets back Channel should it end up in the grave somehow.
Bounce spell - Is it even needed? Null Rod is a problem.
Another Stroke of Genius
Street Wraith - A strong card, but 17 life is necessary to play Mirror through the Portal. FoW and search lands also are in the deck so you can get below 18 pretty easily.  I think Divining Top may be better here because it runs off colorless too.

So let's say you manage to resolve Channel and cast Mirror. Now what? Do you auto-win? No, you do not.

If you have no mana floating after popping the Mirror, you are drawing to 8 outs - 4x Mirror, 4x Portal. 65% chance of drawing at least one of those. The other 35% of the time hopefully you can make blue through Sapphire / Lotus / Petal / Chrome and cast Fabricate or Stroke. Divining Top is a 2 life tutor for your top 3 cards that you can always cast off Channel. Sometimes you aren't going to make it though and it will be pretty much game.

If you have one blue floating then you are drawing to 13 outs (if you count Stroke as a sure-Mirror, which it is almost) and you have a 83% chance of drawing one. 17% of the time you will have to use your Ancestral, Divining Top, etc to find something to continue.

Note that if you discard non-outs to Chrome Mox your chances will improve slightly.

After a few cycles, it's hard to lose because you will put effects on the stack in resonse to losing the game. Ex. Activate Portal, in response lose the game. Portal resolves after you D7.

After you have gone through about five or so cycles and have a bunch of mana of all your colors floating, just find a Stroke and win.

I need to do some playtesting to determine the probability of winning given that Channel has resolved and Mirror has popped. It's easy to fishbowl, just D7 and pretend you're in this situation.

[bluemage55]

Interesting deck Shawn. 

For the 60th card slot, I'd recommend Yawg.  It's very valuable as a way to recur Channel if you ran up against a counterwall, and it synergizes well with the massive number of tutors you have (I'd recommend Recoup instead, but that would require diluting the mana base).

[Sloth]

@ShawnTheDoctor:
Your Idea to kill with stroke of genius is great!

Some suggestions:
- Your manabase will not work, because you only have 13 green mana sources (Chrome mox won't get you green mana), so casting channel is too difficult. 19 Mana sources is too risky anyway.
- Include Tinker! Even without Channel on the board tinkering into the mirror is a strong play, that may keep you alive until you find channel. At least it's better than a fabricate.
- I don't think Misdirection is a necessary card in this deck. Or is there any special purpose?
- Consider including merchant scroll to find another tutor or protection.
- The best bounce spell for this deck would be Repeal, I think, but it's better placed in the SB.

After a few cycles, it's hard to lose because you will put effects on the stack in resonse to losing the game. Ex. Activate Portal, in response lose the game. Portal resolves after you D7.

You can't respond to losing the game, but you can kill yourself when your Portal activation is already on the stack.

[TopSecret]

Another idea would be to play Channel-Stax, with four Mirrors.

Also, is there a feasible Doomsday kill with this?
Unlike the old Timetwister kill, this doesn't need Regrowth or a similar effect to work,
so it wouldn't necessary be dependent on the graveyard...etc.

Maybe something like:

Recall
Lotus
Channel
Lich's Mirror
Goblin Cannon (Or some other infinite Storm/mana win)

One blue mana, and some cards in hand are required.
All you'd have to do is draw Mirror every time after casting Channel
and then float way too much colorless mana (and possibly colored mana, if Lotus is recasted)
until dropping a win condition that either relies on storm or infinite colorless mana.

I'm thinking there might be a way to use Spoils of the Vault,
or possibly Demonic Consultation (if enough cards were in hand or in play previously),
but both of those require getting Mirror into play beforehand, which makes either unlikely to be worth it.

[jledsome]

I thought about Doomsday as well, but the mirror would kill you after it resolved, because you can't draw 7 cards. If you got your deck down to 7 cards, not five, it would be good though.

[Harlequin]

If you have 1 perment in play you're fine.  5 Cards + 1 doomsday in your yard + 1 land would be a 7 card hand every time.  I was thinking it wouldn't work because if you had like 4-6 permenants in play, you could fizzle if you got a bad draw on your 7 (although I guess you could cast DD a 2nd time after the first Mirror was burned).