Teferi's Realm

[TheShop]

Just listening to the So Many Insane Plays Podcast (which I am very pleased to have access to) and noticed the mention of this card.  I laughed out loud at the mention of realm because I have NEVER seen a blue player use this against shops and this card has been in existence from seemingly ancient times....a few of these have been sitting in my crap cards box for quite some time as well.

Hilarious innovation menendian.  Touché.

[TheWhiteDragon]

OMG!  Teferi's Realm just hit $100 on SCG.com!

No, but seriously...I'm not getting the interaction.  Is it just that it prevents them from casting artifacts if they name artifacts to keep what they have in play?  Cause as I see it, if you name lands to remove all artifacts (while it removes spheres) it still makes you sac to stax and tap for wire, but they won't have to sac or tap anything or remove counters since it comes back into play after that trigger has past.  I guess it's just a way to remove spheres (but not much more effective than energy flux), where it leaves the opponent with a non-fading tangle wire/one-sided smokestack that doesn't affect them at all.  I guess it depends on the pieces they are dropping...or maybe I'm seeing the interaction wrong.

[cvarosky80]

How it works is during the beginning of your upkeep, you choose what to phase out, then your opponent has the opportunity to set up any active triggers of their own (i.e Tangle Wire and Smokestack). Their triggers resolve first via the ANAP rule. After their triggers resolve, the permanent-type chosen to phase out then phases out. At the beginning of your opponent's untap step, their permanents that were phased-out by Teferi's Real re-enter play (But not yours) and, if Teferi's Realm is in play at the beginning of their upkeep, they get to choose what permanents phase out. At the untap step of your ensuing turn, your permanents phase back in and the cycle renews.

The fact that your opponent's upkeep triggers will resolve first is the one flaw of the Teferi's Realm plan as it will not prevent Tangle Wires and Smokestack from making your day rather unpleasant, but it will enable you to play virtually any card you can Sphere-free on your turn, which is the huge benefit of this card.

I think the reason it hasn't been used in other Blue decks is because, it's main use is to phase out Sphere effects, which are artifacts, and, since most Blue decks are on the Tinker plan, phasing out artifacts makes that plan less consistent to execute whereas with Steve's Doomsday deck, the artifact accelerators are really more for post-Doomsday use to power out the Lab Maniac and have mana available to either protect it with counters or use to play cantrips to speed it to the win.

[ilpeggiore]

a cc 1UU solution, is not a solution so worth plain....

[Troy_Costisick]

a cc 1UU solution, is not a solution so worth plain....

Um.  Could you please restate this using capital letters and complete thoughts.  This statement makes no sense.

[TheShop]

1UU is not that far removed from 1GU...

[madmanmike25]

a cc 1UU solution, is not a solution so worth plain....

Um.  Could you please restate this using capital letters and complete thoughts.  This statement makes no sense.

I'm taking a guess and going to say that judging by his name, the poster is Italian and that English is probably not his native tongue.  Maybe a more polite way to ask for clarification would be more appropriate.  But yes, here on TMD we are fond of our caps. 

[Demonic Attorney]

While the presentation might not be the best, I agree with ilpeggiore. An answer that costs 3 mana isn't going to be available to you when you need it most. Especially if Shops gets an even slightly above-average hand on the play, it's rather unlikely that you'll be able to pay for main phase 3 drops.

It's a cute idea, don't get me wrong. But in my experience, I've needed to hate to either come online before I get locked out through Spheres following a good Shops opener or hate that can pull me back from the brink if I'm falling behind. Running a Sorcery-speed 3-drop as my answer to Shops, especially in a deck like "Meandeck" Doomsday that runs so few mana sources, isn't going to solve the problems I need answers to Shops to solve.

[Troy_Costisick]

Here's the thing to take away from Teferi's Realm.  There are many spells that can generate the effect you want.  Some of them have not been used in a long time and will take your opponent by surprise.  If you can find them, then you're going to have an advantage in that one tournament.  But once the secret is out, the advantage is going to be gone.  Bottom Line: innovation is rewarded but you cannot rest on your laurels.

[Smmenen]

While the presentation might not be the best, I agree with ilpeggiore. An answer that costs 3 mana isn't going to be available to you when you need it most. Especially if Shops gets an even slightly above-average hand on the play, it's rather unlikely that you'll be able to pay for main phase 3 drops.

People said the same thing about Trygon Predator.  Yet look at what Owen used in the Vintage championship last year.   And I played 3 Trygons this year and repeatedly used them to defeat Shop players.

As I said in my article thread;

It's vital that decks like this have various game plans to interface Shops.   You can't just rely on reactive plans; you need proactive answers like Trygon Predator, Flux, Teferi's Realm, or others, AND reactive plans. 

The reactive plans, predicated on just deploying mana and Hurkyl'sing, have to be supremely efficient.  The proactive plans need not be as efficient, although they must not be inefficient. 

The diversity of plans is vital because of the diversity of game states with which you will be interfacing.  When you Force or counter the first sphere, there is often an early game opportunity (even more so if the Shop player has had to mulligan) to deploy a 3cc proactive answer.  These opportunities must be seized. 

T1 (on the draw) Fastbond, land, Gush, Teferi's Realm after Forcing their turn one threat must be seized, for example.  Relying exclusively or largely on reactive solutions does not allow a pilot to take advantage of these possibilities to win games. 

This deck's optimum sideboard plan, given the constraints of needing to defeat Dredge post-board, came down to the mixture I proposed in this primer, and implemented in the tournament.  In the future, I would even consider adding a 4th Realm to the sb because it is so good, if I could move one more Island to the maindeck, and therefore save one sb slot.

[TheShop]

I am interested by the change in blue methodology over time.  In 2004-2005 blue decks had more stable manabases (3 islands), so they did not normally opt to counter a single sphere...but rather subsequent spheres.  The rationale being that a single sphere isn't backbreaking and efficient enough counter magic did not exist to be so liberal in the application of counterspells.  In modern vintage, the idea is to counter the first lock piece and drop that proactive spell.  This change MUST be the result in the recent change in draw engines and the recent counterspell printings.

[bluemage55]

1UU is not cost-prohibitive for an active solution, especially one that is difficult for Shops to remove.  However, the question I would have is whether this is truly better than Trygon or Energy Flux.

Trygon is most likely the better maindeck card to have since it's fairly strong in a variety of match-ups, but in the event that you want sideboard artifact hate and don't run green, then the comparison will be between the 1UU Teferi's Realm and the 2U Energy Flux.