Thespian's Stage

[Prospero]

I had the same thoughts when I first saw this card spoiled, but this seems like to much work to be viable at first glance. You can turn it into a workshop, but you have to have a workshop in play and enough other mana sources to cover the  and then you still don't get to use it that turn. If you have that much mana already you probably don't need another workshop. You can use it to copy strip mine/wasteland and then you can use it next turn, but it just feels like too much work. I'm trying to imagine game states where I'm going to be happy tapping 3 mana ( plus the stage itself) to get a strip effect next turn and I already have one of my wastes/strip in play and I just can't imagine that many where I'm not already dominating the game anyways. At some point you might even be better off with something like a Dust Bowl instead. There's also already a ton of competition with stuff like Ghost Quarter, Mishra's Factory, Buried Ruin, Mutavault, etc. that I just don't see much of a place for this card.

This pretty much echoes my thoughts on the card.  I'm open to being wrong, but I don't think I am.

[gkraigher]

This card is showing up big time online.  There are blue control decks (with LoA) that play it and dark depths, as well
as it being a sideboard switch for dredge.  This has to be the first great innovation for vintage from MODO.

For the record, they changed the legend rule for theros.  So this now obvious interaction wasn't a thing back during the original discussion.

I'm wondering if there is a MUD deck out there with depths, expedition map, crucible, tabernacle.  Or standstill.  

[TheWhiteDragon]

See my MUD/Depths deck here:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=45997.new#new

This party's been going for months now.

If you check out this thread - look at the original list at the top, not the heavy shop list that runs an incidental copy of depths or 2.  The shop/depths version I originally posted is more about the depths combo and just enough lock to keep your opponent from doing anything about it (but can also just beat with golems and 2/1 first strikers and lock them out with chalices and tangles).

[GrandpaBelcher]

And President_Skroob played Blue Dark Depths at GenCon last year.

[President Skroob]

The card is just flexible and good. It does a lot of things, doesn't come into play tapped, and can periodically just win you the game with Dark Depths.

It's not an overwhelming bomb, but it's a pretty efficient tool.

It beat Soly at GenCon when I kept a six land hand with Blightsteel as the 7th. I mean, that's something, right?

Friday, Round 3 - Soly playing Burning Oath I think. Could have been Doomsday with Oath. There was definitely Oath involved.

Soly is very vocal about how he is going to destroy me. I shrug and agree.

Game one I keep a hand that has some interaction if I get a turn, but it doesn't have Force. He imprints Griselbrand on a Chrome Mox to Thoughtseize me, and all of the sudden I don't have much interaction anymore. He goes into Orchard and Oath, and I have nothing to do to stop him. On his turn, he Oaths. After flipping the entirety of his deck, Griselbrand is the 5th card from the bottom. Feeling dejected, he passes the turn. I draw an Echoing Truth, and I have the mana to play it. He draws and swings, and I take it. On his next turn, I Echoing Truth the Griselbrand, and he derides me for playing Echoing Truth. I do little else, as his second to last card in the deck is Time Walk, and after casting it and drawing the last card he scoops. Soly informs me that I had no right winning that game, and that I should know that I had no right winning that game. I shrug. Bob Maher, who had been watching the entire ordeal unfold, tells Soly that that's what he gets for playing only two creatures in a deck and walks away.

Soly is not happy at all. I think that probably gives me an edge.

Game two I keep a terrible hand that wins in five turns. Dark Depths, Thespian's Stage, 4x Snow-Covered Island, and Blightsteel Colossus. The way I see it, I won game one, and that allows me to keep a risky hand in game two. Soly mulls to five. On the play, he uses an Underground Sea to Thoughtseize me. I drop my hand and Soly derides me for keeping a terrible hand. I draw a Force of Will, play a land, and pass the turn. I think he plays a land and also passes. I draw an Intuition, play a land, and pass the turn. On his next main, he attempts to cast Oath of Druids, but I RFG Intuition to Force of Will it. Soly derides me for lucksacking into Force and a blue card off the top. Nothing more that's relevant happens as I get the combo assembled and kill him. He states that he was one mana away from hardcasting Griselbrand. I had a Mindbreak Trap by that time, but I don't know if he had a supporting Duress effect to clear the path.

I tell Soly that he needs to relax, but he says he is relaxed. I don't think he's relaxed. After I take the match slip up he apparently got into a verbal altercation with the guy sitting next to him (who apparently said he knows me despite me having no idea who the guy is), but you'd have to ask Soly for the full story on that.

[TheWhiteDragon]

The nice thing is that with 4x urborg, you can make the token on just 3 land drops.

[gkraigher]

The problem I see with it is that it can become a victim of it's own success.  If both players are on the combo, then it's really interesting.  If it becomes so popular, it could become a good idea just to run 1 in the main without playing dark depths, just to psych out your opponent.  Turn 1 stage, turn 2-X standoff. 

I'm really intrigued by this card's success. 

[TheWhiteDragon]

If that ever becomes the case, you run vampire hexmage too (like I do in my GBW depths AND in my Shop Depths build).  Also, a maindeck karakas is very valuable.  I run it mainly to bounce thalia, grisel, emrakul...but occasionally it's good for removing a metamorphed Marit.  In the shops version, you have crucibles and 5 strips, so you are pretty much going to be keeping them off a target for stage.