Potential Card to Kick Vintage In the Nuts

[credmond]

This card diminishes the power of top, brainstorm, and ponder as well. Those cards aren't nearly as powerful without fetches or tutors to shuffle away chaff. I imagine you could still pop a fetch just to reshuffle.

Vegeta, at 1 mana the card would be totally freaking insane and redefine the format so nobody would play fetches or tutors, and people would play either oath, landstill, or shops with this card in the meta.

[nineisnoone]

Hopefully this is  .  Without any color.

I like this card a lot.  1 mana for a much better Orb of Dreams.  In fact, I wonder what it would look like if you ran 9 spheres, 4 Mindlock Orb, 4 Orb of Dreams... + all the other Stax goodies.

[Troy_Costisick]

This card, like a whole wad of others in ALA, has potential in theory, but practice will have to prove it.  ALA could be the best set for Vintage since Future Sight.

Peace,

-Troy

[misslehead3]

wait but even if the card costs 3U and it is an artifact like all the creatures in the format costing colored mana but still be called artifacts, then couldnt this be casted off a workshop and blue mox/lotus/blue mana off a mana base.

[Xyre]

wait but even if the card costs 3U and it is an artifact like all the creatures in the format costing colored mana but still be called artifacts, then couldnt this be casted off a workshop and blue mox/lotus/blue mana off a mana base.

Yes, but Stax doesn't play blue usually, and that severely restricts the ability of decks like MUD to play it. But I suspect this is an artifact in the vein of Eon Hub et al and isn't colored.

[Troy_Costisick]

wait but even if the card costs 3U and it is an artifact like all the creatures in the format costing colored mana but still be called artifacts, then couldnt this be casted off a workshop and blue mox/lotus/blue mana off a mana base.

Yes, but Stax doesn't play blue usually, and that severely restricts the ability of decks like MUD to play it. But I suspect this is an artifact in the vein of Eon Hub et al and isn't colored.

If some decent blue artifacts get printed, there could be a Blue Stax archetype out there that uses In The Eye of Chaos very effectively.  We'll just have to see how this block turns out.  I don't think there'll be enough in ALA alone.

Peace,

-Troy

[ristoman]

Ristoman, this card hits 14-15 cards in the current list of TPS. That's a lot.  It also shores up a weakness in shop prison decks (namely tutor for rebuild).

What i was trying to say is that TPS can be slowed down enough already with Spheres / Thorns. Adding this card is win more, also you need an above average draw to put it into play turn 1. I'd much rather play Arcane Lab against TPS.

Not all decks are so reliant on search, CS and Ichorid being the first two that jump to mind.

[credmond]

This card is not win-more. It is the missing component to getting a total lock on the opponent. Both TPS and drain tendrils are built around exploiting a hole in the lock that a shop prsion player gets.

When an opponent is able to successfully break out from under a flood of spheres, how do they do that?

Typically,

1) they tutor up a rebuild or a hurkyll's recall

or

2) they build up a wasteland resistant suite of fetches or basic land and then start draining or rebuilding or whatever.

This card kills tutoring outright, kills their fetches in hand, and makes ghost quarter into strip mine.

[RJ]

wait but even if the card costs 3U and it is an artifact like all the creatures in the format costing colored mana but still be called artifacts, then couldnt this be casted off a workshop and blue mox/lotus/blue mana off a mana base.

Yes, but Stax doesn't play blue usually, and that severely restricts the ability of decks like MUD to play it. But I suspect this is an artifact in the vein of Eon Hub et al and isn't colored.

If some decent blue artifacts get printed, there could be a Blue Stax archetype out there that uses In The Eye of Chaos very effectively.  We'll just have to see how this block turns out.  I don't think there'll be enough in ALA alone.

Peace,

-Troy

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=20145

This is a place to start.    I have been working on this deck for a couple years and have played it at SCG events a couple times.  I think the list will have a chance to be a surprise contender.   

This is the subsequent lists that I played:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=22101

The second list actually already has a good match against combo, but this will help the drain match up. 

Didn't mean to hijack the thread.  Orb will be amazing for more traditional prison decks, which are actually playable now in the post Gush/Brainstorm/Flash/Ponder/M. Scroll metagame.

Anybody that wants to know more about Blue Stax just shoot me a PM.

I guess it ended up being blue after all..

[Nefarias]

Heh, it gets spoiled a day before mtg.com was going to spoil it anyway:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ftl/4

It's officially  , thank God.

[Vegeta2711]

Vegeta, at 1 mana the card would be totally freaking insane and redefine the format so nobody would play fetches or tutors, and people would play either oath, landstill, or shops with this card in the meta.

Which is my point. At 4 it would be close to unplayable / niche anyway. Anything lower would give it niche playable status.

[slyfer]

Ethersworn canonist
1W, 2/2
Each player who has played a nonartifact spell this turn , cannot play additional non artifact spells
Rare

it's a bombs, slow down TPS/Long by at least 1 turn

[nineisnoone]

Heh, it gets spoiled a day before mtg.com was going to spoil it anyway:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ftl/4

It's officially  , thank God.

Lame.  Oh well.  I had kinda wanted a Blue Stax deck anyways (trying to jam enough blue to make 3-4 FoW playable). 

[The Wolf]

This makes this card so much worse.  Boy did I jump the gun getting those foil ghost quarters.

[Razvan]

and people were saying it needs to be 1 mana to be playable

and yes, at this point, i think this card might be too weak. after 9 wastelands, 4 workshops, 8-9 artifact mana... you will have at most 4-5 blue producing lands...

bleah.

at least you can "still" cast it off a workshop.

edit: maybe 9 waste effects is too much anyway. this change means that you cannot get it into play first turn, but it doesn't mean it's unplayable. maybe it's just not going to be the bomb lock everyone was wanting, but it's still a very powerful card, and if people make blue stax playable...

[misslehead3]

First and formost i have to say i told you all so. Also, maybe this doesnt need to be in blue stax maybe 5C could make a  serious comeback since it plays like 7 rainbow lands and then moxen lotus and stuff to be able to get blue eisier. I think that this card will be better in 5C because 5c isnt restricted to playing suboptimal locks.

[Bill Copes]

First and formost i have to say i told you all so. Also, maybe this doesnt need to be in blue stax maybe 5C could make a  serious comeback since it plays like 7 rainbow lands and then moxen lotus and stuff to be able to get blue eisier. I think that this card will be better in 5C because 5c isnt restricted to playing suboptimal locks.

Unfortunately, 5 color is often heavily reliant on its 3-5 tutors to win the game (Demonic, Vamp, Tinker, Crop Rotation, Imperial Seal).

Nonetheless, this is probably an exciting card for workshop sideboards.  I wouldn't jump on building a deck around them any time soon, since we don't have a crystal clear picture of what the meta is going to look like a month from now.

[Sean Ryan]

Hmmm.... Perhaps multi-color Bazaar Stax with Mox Diamond would work out. 

Any ideas on what the manabase would look like?

[credmond]

I would probably go U/R Bazaar Stax with volcanics and/or shivan reefs (depending on whether you are playing titan or not). Also, you will want to play a coalition relic.
Going U/R means you can still play some blue power cards, in the eye of chaos, and even some cards like windfall.

Being able to both hardcast and bazaar/ weld the Orb into play will likely be the most efficient. Playing welders proactively helps you versus slaver.

You probably won't need a full set of 9 strips. It will be a close call whether wastelands are better than ghost quarter. I would probably go with 1 strip, and 4 quarters and play with 4 crucibles, 4 smokestacks, and 4 orbs. Bazaar enables you to discard away duplicates. Uba mask should also be in there.

[kalisia]

Meddling Artifact
4
delta, strand, vamp, mystical, imp, demonic, merchant scroll, and TINKER cannot be played.

Hell yeah.

The card is strong, but It does nothing against OATH.
And Oath is not restricted , and this artifact is not a problem for tyran

[credmond]

Well the idea is to be able to have a deck that maindeck beats the bajeezies out of tps, slaver, and fish, and then use the sideboard to handle any bad matchups (like oath, ichorid, and the mirror).  In addition to the usual standbyes of tormod's crypt and duplicants, playing U/R allows you to play the obvious goblin bombardment and viashino heretic as well as interesting sideboard cards like propaganda and arcane lab.

But, yes, if this card winds up being any good then it will make a meta-environment that is favorable to oath. Only time will tell. The blue as part of the casting cost might kill the card.

[nineisnoone]

Meddling Artifact
4
delta, strand, vamp, mystical, imp, demonic, merchant scroll, and TINKER cannot be played.

Hell yeah.

The card is strong, but It does nothing against OATH.
And Oath is not restricted , and this artifact is not a problem for tyran

Oath runs (or sometimes runs) all those cards except for Tinker.  So it's not really that bad a card against Oath.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Meddling Artifact
4
delta, strand, vamp, mystical, imp, demonic, merchant scroll, and TINKER cannot be played.

Hell yeah.

The card is strong, but It does nothing against OATH.
And Oath is not restricted , and this artifact is not a problem for tyran

Oath runs (or sometimes runs) all those cards except for Tinker.  So it's not really that bad a card against Oath.

oath typically will run the following: 4-5 fetch (much less then most decks), demonic tutor, vampiric tutor( which it likes to chalice out), crop rotation sometimes (also usually chaliced out).

mystical is a waste of space, no optimized list will run this, because it really has poor lines of play and again chaliced out a lot.
merchant scroll was seldom used in oath pre gush. After the restrictions a lot of people decided to give it a shot. Most people, myself included, have been cutting it from their lists.

Basically, you hit the black tutors and 4-5 lands out of an extremely robust mana base. Barring ghost quarters, I will let this thing resolve every time. Only shop and ichorid will have an easier time playing through this thing.
edit: Also a sweet drain into hard cast dude play!