Gitaxian Probe

[DubDub]

Just saw this in the Godbook:

Gitaxian Probe  /2-life
Sorcery
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card.

At first I thought it was an instant, but sadly it is a sorcery.

As a fixed Street Wraith it: a) gains a tiny amount of value by 'Peek'ing, b) builds storm (but can be countered), and c) is blue, and so pitches to Force.

[Wagner]

Yeah, instant would have been a bit too strong.

But I still like it a lot, it's free storm and it allows you to easily see if you should be going this turn or not.

I smell a crazy fragile cantrip storm deck coming back... Go SX!

I'd say it could even be worth it in some Aggro decks that can't run Duress, knowing what to expect in the next turns without losing tempo can be very decisive.

[TopSecret]

Pitches Force?!
What?!

Not broken, but totally playable in the right deck.
Also has the added effect of totally pwning with stuff like Meddling Mage and Cabal Therapy or Pithing Needle and Revoker.
Don't know if that'll make it worth enough to include in normal decks.
The information from the peek effect definitely makes this card totally interesting.

The counting as a spell thing is swell too and also "interesting" against sphere effects when compared with Street Wraith.
Neat indeed.

[Troy_Costisick]

Gets Belcher decks down to 52 cards instead of 56.  Not bad.

[Meddling Mike]

I look at this card and wonder if it could be everything I wanted Street Wraith to be.

Pros of Street Wraith:
-Cycles: No counters, no opportunity to respond, occurs at instant speed, no concern for chalices, spheres, Meddling Mage, Iona, etc.
-It's a bad creature: it's a 5cc 3/4 with swampwalk, seems bad, but sometimes you need a creature. More importantly, in dredge this is ideal Ichorid food, pitches to unmask and makes a theoretical Golgari Grave Troll bigger.

Pros of the Probe:
-Pitches to FoW.
-Contibutes +1 storm
-Bonus peeking at an opponents hand, obviously a ton of synergy there with a wide number of cards and helps you develop your strategy.
-You have the option of playing this card for U, Street Wraith is pretty bad when you are low on life, this card, not so much.
-Can be replayed off Yawgmoths Will
-Lower CMC for happy confidant flips

Edit: Added good points made by Paul and Mike.

[Mr. Type 4]

A BIG plus for G-Probe that no one has mentioned is that you can replay it off yawg Will.  Cant re-cycle street wraith. 

[Klep]

Be warned; Your 52 card decks are going to have some serious mulligan issues.

This is exactly why I cut Street Wraith from Belcher after some play with it.  Making mulligan decisions with cards like Street Wraith or even this probe in your hand can be a lot more difficult because you have no idea what you're going to draw off them.  For Street Wraith this problem wasn't worth the benefit, because the card did almost nothing else (aside from an amusing game in someone else's hands against a UB Fish deck; how can you deal with a 3/4 swampwalker?!).  With Probe actually doing something else besides draw a card, it could prove to actually be playable where the Wraith wasn't.

[mike_bergeron]

Isn't a Pro for this card that it is much better with Dark Confidant as well? 

[Eastman]

Also note that this pumps Quirion Dryad and triggers Tidespout Tyrant.  Wraith does neither of those things.  Appropos of the Tyrant point, this is not a creature and is thus playable in Oath decks, whereas Wraith can't be played in Oath (unless you want to oath him up which blows).  

Edit:  Thinking about it, paying 0 mana or cards to peek is pretty awesome in a control mirror.  This would be a sweet card if shops weren't killing it with spheres right now.

[Stormanimagus]

Also note that this pumps Quirion Dryad and triggers Tidespout Tyrant.  Wraith does neither of those things.  Appropos of the Tyrant point, this is not a creature and is thus playable in Oath decks, whereas Wraith can't be played in Oath (unless you want to oath him up which blows).  

Edit:  Thinking about it, paying 0 mana or cards to peek is pretty awesome in a control mirror.  This would be a sweet card if shops weren't killing it with spheres right now.

What about a Tyrant Oath list like this?


Tyrant Oath

Land (15):
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island

Artifacts (8):
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt

Enchantments (5):
4 Oath Of Druids
1 Fastbond

Creatures (2):
2 Tidespout Tyrant

Planeswalkers (1):
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Instants (19):
4 Force Of Will
4 Gush
4 Spell Pierce
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brain Freeze
1 Krosan Reclamation

Sorceries (10):
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

SB
4 Leyline Of The Void
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Forest
2 Nature’s Claim
3 Steel Sabotage
1 Tinker
1 Blightsteel Colossus

With Probe in your deck you have a whole slew of extra free spells that give you the critical bounce you need post Tyrant. The lack of instant speed could be a big problem, but I think this is worth considering for a such a list.

-Storm

[patat]

Because of it's synergy with cabal therapy (already mentioned) and how it provides an extra draw effect, this seems like it might be pretty playable in dredge, especially for those crazy kids who play FoW.