Spirit of the Labrynth

[HappyNewyear]

Downsides: 1 toughness, weak to enchantment removal, isn't a human.
Upsides: The look on most blue players faces as they try and dig for a piece of removal.

I like it in hatebears/non-blue fish. Thoughts?

[gkraigher]

This card is absolutely insane.  The best vintage card they have printed since Jace and Lodestone.  

If you own Chains of Mephistopheles, sell them immediately.  

It even has 3 power, which means it trades with lodestone golem and hurts the blue decks.  Hurting both is rare and great. 

Unfortunatly, this card does not stop dredge.  If you replace the first draw effect, you will continue to get more chances to draw a card.  If you have to draw the first card, then you can't draw/dredge anymore that turn.

[Craft]

Some feelings will be hurt when this is viled into play in response to brainstorm; ancestral recall; gitaxian probe; gush...

Just wow.

[msg67183]

Nice Griselbrand sir!

[Demagoguery]

So White Trash gets crazier? This + Kataki hurts like crazy...

Also this kind of really hurts with Draw 7s, but Necro gets around it :/.

[vaughnbros]

This card is absolutely insane.  The best vintage card they have printed since Jace and Lodestone.  

Lets not jump that far.  It's a good card and will certainly see play, but it's ability prevents it from being played with any draw spell, other than bob.  There are only a handful of decks capable of running it because of this.  It's notable that it's nothing more than a vanilla 3/1 against shops, dredge, and most fish mirrors.  As well as not shutting down sensei's top, bob, or tutors.

Nice Griselbrand sir!

Yeh turns him into an easy to deal with 7/7 flying lifelink.

[gkraigher]

white now has access to :

kataki
thalia
leonin arbiter
leonin relic-warder
porcelain legionnaire
dryad militant
spirit of the labrynth
phyrexian revoker

all 2 mana or less, and all having relevant effects in vintage.  

Lets not jump that far.  It's a good card and will certainly see play, but it's ability prevents it from being played with any draw spell, other than bob.

ok, so play black white hate bears with bobs.  You also get access to bitterblossom, yixlid jailer, Tidehollow Sculler, and pain seerer if you go that route.  seems better than playing blue cards in that deck.  

It's notable that it's nothing more than a vanilla 3/1 against shops

actually, 3 power is all you need against shops.  it can trade with lodestone golem, a single blocking mishra's factory, and an attacking factory with backup.  all are very relevant interactions to be able to trade 1 for 1 with.  Although they do fly, devler of secrets and vendillion clique are effective vs shops for the same reason (and they are obviously more effective than spirit).

[Demagoguery]

Necro, Ad Nauseam, Dark Tutelage, Pain Seer, and I'm sure there are others in addition to Dark Confidant that get around the "Can't draw cards" bit.

[gkraigher]

Would you ever want to enlighten tutor for this card?  Or is being an enchantment just a drawback?

[JarofFortune]

Wow, I don't know what to say.  I thought the era of pushed hatebears was coming to a close, but I'm now proven wrong. The fact that its a 3/1 does make it feel like a card just for Vintage, although I'm sure they wanted to shake up Legacy as well. Or this is just a product of Tom Lapille's infatuation with blue hosers. I am not looking forward to the blowouts this will cause. At least its a Theros block card that will have a real impact on eternal, that's got to count for something .

[TheWhiteDragon]

The price of darkblasts just went up to $10 each!

[Demagoguery]

Wait, doesn't this not stop Dredge and Bazaar of Baghdad? It makes them slightly weaker, but as a whole it makes them stronger if other decks become weaker as a result of this?

Would you ever want to enlighten tutor for this card?  Or is being an enchantment just a drawback?

Yes, but only in the case of having a deck that has an Enlightened Tutor board and want's to have more options, otherwise it's just a draw back. Death and Taxes in Legacy sometimes had a board where it would run 2x Enlightened, and then a bunch of random artifact/enchantment cards that it could board in so instead of having 1x-2x copies it would have 3-4x.

So against Storm you get something like Ethersworn Canonist along with Aura of Silence. Against Dredge you get more Cages/Rest in Peaces. Against Shops you get more Aura of Silence and like Seal of Cleansing or whatever it's called, and so forth.

[TheWhiteDragon]

This doesn't affect bazaar at all.  Dredge replaces the draw, so you still bypass this card's limitation on draws.  Blue might just go back to running 4 bob over 4 gush...no biggie.

[Demagoguery]

Well yes and no, it stops Bazaar from letting them view 2 cards on the first activation, but they can still view one if it's on your turn. This means they have less capability to dig for hate and/or more Bazaars, while making their mulligans more relevant, as they can't just Bazaar and draw into a dredger as easily. Yes, it doesn't hurt them as much, but it does hurt them if played early enough in minor ways and every little bit helps.


Additionally, the absence of Gush makes Wastes/Strips/Ghosts better. You also lose a lot more value running Brainstrom, Ponder, Preordain, any Draw 7, Recall, Standstill, Jace, and the list continues.


Also, it says you can't draw more than one card a turn, you can still Library on the other players turn, you can also do something like Think Twice to draw cards on your opponent's turn. It also doesn't hurt Fact or Fiction, which was marginally playable as of late.


Really what makes this card so amazing is that while it hurts decks so much, there are actually a lot of ways around it. Hell, anything that encourages the use of may favourite card (Fact or Fiction) is good in my book. So if this card changes how people play the format, it will be as good as Lodestone, and the fact that you can build around it, because it doesn't just stop you from doing anything at all like Leonin Arbiter might, it's really awesome. Also, Fact or Fiction.... FACT OR FICTION D:


Edit: It also trades with Lodestone... Just saying.

[tribet]

This creature is great no worries. It is roughly an existing great enchantment (Chains of Mephisto) attached onto a great 3/1 for 2 body. So yeah it's gonna be good.

I'm just fuming because, to my mind, that's just real poor R&D efforts. What's wrong with simply creating new & interesting mechanics (such as Flashback, Scry, Madness, Dredge, ...).

What is it next time? Bazaar of Baghdad attached to a body? Ah no, sorry they've already done that one! Though I think next time, they may as well make it 2/1 for 2cc.

Also is there something wrong with just creating simple & elegant enchantments?
- Concordant Crossroads
- Land Tax
- Sylvan Library
- Moat
- Words of Wind
- Exploration
- Leylines
- ...

[xouman]

Well, I just watched the card and came here to see if anybody already noticed... it seems most people did. It's a good card itself, and has small nice synergy with cards that make opponent draw a card (Mikokoro, arcane denial, vendillion...). it kills itself lodestone, but i think people understimates hellkites, kuldothas and wurmcoils.

against dredge it's pretty nice with cages, since opponent can't reliabily use bazaar to fetch answers to cage (at best, draw 1 to discard three in your turn).

Blue gets hosed indeed, against aggro is a 3/1 to attack and block, against oath prevents griselbrand activation/jace brainstorm... good card all around, yes.

[Demagoguery]

Wow, I didn't really think of that Xouman, the fact that Clique is just good with this guy, and Resto is in the same colour... Not to mention Trinket Mage doesn't care about this dude.

Once again, this is why this card is so awesome, it's not just a hate card, it works really well with cards that are already playable to gain even more advantage. Even Mikokoro isn't the worst card in the world and sees fringe play, but this guy makes that card a poor man's Library with less restrictions.

[StanleyAugust]

Wow, this card is pretty insane. It gives White Trash the possibility to attack Blue in an alternative way.

[Protoaddict]

Would you ever want to enlighten tutor for this card?  Or is being an enchantment just a drawback?

I'm leaning towards drawback right now, though, if more playable white enchantment hatebears get made in future set then something like sterling grove could become viable.

Also if you have enough white enchants in your deck, which right now I am guessing we won't, then serras sanctum becomes a playable for that list.

Between Leyline, Rest in peace, and the spirit we are getting closer, but I doubt we will get there.

[Eastman]

Excellent card in Vintage,  very playable in most of the white hatebear type decks you still see occasionally.  Great ability and the 3 power is super relevant both as a beater and to block golem.  Not sure this pushes whitefish to a truly competitive tier (toxic deluge!) but it certainly helps.   I will be curious to see what fish pilots come up with for this.

[davidasmatthews]

I can see this card making it worthwhile no to play enlightened tutor and Dark Confidant in a Wb hatebear deck. This allows the player to run 1-2 copies of rest in peace & stony silence allowing more main artifact hate which is always what I've found to be the biggest challenge while playing with white.

[boggyb]

Isn't this a must-counter card for blue decks? If they don't counter it, they will have a very hard time executing their gameplan and will have to rely on the top of their decks to remove it. Seems like that would translate into an easy 2-3 Time Walks for the hatebears player on average, which is all the time that kind of deck typically needs to win.

[MaximumCDawg]

This card would have been amazing ages ago, but in a world of Bob, it loses lots of its luster.  Don't get me wrong, it's very playable for all the reasons people have said.  Turns off Jace, halves Gush, screws with timing on other draw engines, trades with Golem, its all good.  Between this an Arbiter / Mindcensor, white can really put the screws to any access to the library which could be devastating for these highlander-reserved-list decks.

The problem is Bob.  Bob is everywhere; Bob is probably a better draw engine than Gush.  As if that were not enough, now there's Almost Bob who might even sneak into a few lists.  The other draw engines that are not effected are not as widely played, are restricted, or are more combo pieces than anything thise.  It's Bobthat  really throws some cold water on the concept that you can just put this in your deck to level the playing field.

So, a good, solid hatebear, but because of Bob, nothing to wet yourself about.

EDIT: Also, in Legacy, I've seen Elf decks grumbling about this.  It stops Glimpse and Visionary shenanigans.  It's not really a big deal over Canonist, though.  Dies to creature based removal in green just like Canonist does (though Virdian Shaman is no help) and has more or less the same effect on Elves.  Hits harder, which probably makes it a better metagame choice for Maverick and its friends, but shouldn't shake this up too much.

[nedleeds]

Love this card. It's a hate hammer that attacks along another axis instead just being a duplicate. It helps fight a blue decks ability to find an answer, instead of preventing it from being cast. It makes griselbrand sane. You can really craft a W/g/b prison deck that can attack from so many angles now, sphere effects, mm/teeg effects, artifact and enchantment disruption, and lock effects that lay over the top of all this like Canonist that make assembling a complete answer take a couple of turns -- which is of course problematic with 4-6 power running your way.

Toxic Deluge is looking more and more like maindeck because it's really tough to kill with Sterling Grove out

[MaximumCDawg]

I don't think you can make a white deck focused on locking someone out of their library the way you can make a brown deck out of locking someone out of casting their spells.  Many of the bears you mentioned simply force the blue mage to play "fair," but he's still playing with more powerful individual cards.  This guy does nothing to stop tutor->tinker->BSC, for example.  I feel like white trash is just gonna succeed on the backs of an amazing sideboard more than locking out your opponent.

That said, if we saw some way to dump multiple white creatures on deck on turn 1 (White Ritual?) then we might actually be talking serious jail time.

(The smartest thing I did lately was finishing my playset of Sterling Grove before this block came out!)

[vaughnbros]

EDIT: Also, in Legacy, I've seen Elf decks grumbling about this.  It stops Glimpse and Visionary shenanigans.  It's not really a big deal over Canonist, though.  Dies to creature based removal in green just like Canonist does (though Virdian Shaman is no help) and has more or less the same effect on Elves.  Hits harder, which probably makes it a better metagame choice for Maverick and its friends, but shouldn't shake this up too much.

The difference between this and canonist in legacy is that this card also shuts down two of the biggest cards in the format brainstorm, and Griselbrand.  As such it seems designed for legacy for those reasons since the noncreature version of it will never be widely available.  Spirit versus chains, draws comparisons to some of the other powerful artifacts/enchantments that were put on a body for no additional mana, magus of the moon versus blood moon and thalia versus thorn.  These creature versions of the enchantments are certainly at a much higher power level, but are also significantly easier to answer.

[MaximumCDawg]

So when do we get Invoke Prejudice on a creature?

It will probably be on a white one...

[nedleeds]

I don't think you can make a white deck focused on locking someone out of their library the way you can make a brown deck out of locking someone out of casting their spells.  Many of the bears you mentioned simply force the blue mage to play "fair," but he's still playing with more powerful individual cards.  This guy does nothing to stop tutor->tinker->BSC, for example.  I feel like white trash is just gonna succeed on the backs of an amazing sideboard more than locking out your opponent.

That said, if we saw some way to dump multiple white creatures on deck on turn 1 (White Ritual?) then we might actually be talking serious jail time.

(The smartest thing I did lately was finishing my playset of Sterling Grove before this block came out!)

Yeah that's what I was trying to say, you aren't just hammering one axis (like CMC with sphere, sphere, sphere). There are such a rich compliment of hateful men that you can hit 2-3 different axis and create a soft lock which can last long enough to allow you to deal lethal. This bear is nice because it helps prevent a blue deck from finding answers. Making recall either a brick, or bad Opt, making Gush ... uh really bad. Paired with a 2 power hate bear the clock is a nice 5. The only thing clunky is it's creature type which isn't the best with respect to Cavern of Souls. You get Kataki, Geist and a few other marginal spirits (Tallowisp anyone?).

[MaximumCDawg]

I love me some Tallowwisp, but the fact that it only gets Auras makes it basically tutor for Control Magic.  If he tutored for Enchantments, the deck you are describing would be bonkers.

[Protoaddict]

This card would have been amazing ages ago, but in a world of Bob, it loses lots of its luster.  Don't get me wrong, it's very playable for all the reasons people have said.  Turns off Jace, halves Gush, screws with timing on other draw engines, trades with Golem, its all good.  Between this an Arbiter / Mindcensor, white can really put the screws to any access to the library which could be devastating for these highlander-reserved-list decks.

The problem is Bob.  Bob is everywhere; Bob is probably a better draw engine than Gush.  As if that were not enough, now there's Almost Bob who might even sneak into a few lists.  The other draw engines that are not effected are not as widely played, are restricted, or are more combo pieces than anything thise.  It's Bobthat  really throws some cold water on the concept that you can just put this in your deck to level the playing field.

So, a good, solid hatebear, but because of Bob, nothing to wet yourself about.

EDIT: Also, in Legacy, I've seen Elf decks grumbling about this.  It stops Glimpse and Visionary shenanigans.  It's not really a big deal over Canonist, though.  Dies to creature based removal in green just like Canonist does (though Virdian Shaman is no help) and has more or less the same effect on Elves.  Hits harder, which probably makes it a better metagame choice for Maverick and its friends, but shouldn't shake this up too much.

I would not be so sure about bob. Most decks that run bob run tools to use with bob that do get shutdown because of this. Top, brainstorm, ponder, preordain, etc all get partially turned off because of this, or at least become much worse/bad. Without being able to reorder your deck with brainstorm for instance, you run a lot more risk with bob in a shell with force of will, jace, and BSG. White trash is also a somewhat aggressive list in that it can easily put damage though on an open board, so life totals will be relevant for the bob player.

The key to white trash is to play maindeck hate that also happens to shut down multiple strategies across multiple decks so you don't have dead draws, and this does exactly that. Look at the other cards in the list:

Leonin arbiter - Good against decks with Fetches, tutors, and tinker. This include most control lists, delver, Tendrils stuff, etc.
Rest in Peace - Good against Dredge, Tarmogoyf, Deathrite, Scavenging ooze, Yawg will, and more. Decks include Dredge, control, zoo, etc.
Grafdigger cage - Good against Dredge, Oath, Yawgs will, tinker. Decks include everything this side of creature aggro.

So lets just look at what this card has some game against?

Blue decks - Shuts down Recall, brainstorm, ponder, preordain, Gush, gitixian probe.
Workshops - Creature so it gets in under thorn, Trades with lodestone golem.
Dredge - Slows down weak bazaar hands that dont hit enough dredges. Also gitixian probe for the lists that run it.
Oath - All the above mentioned blue, plus sylvan library and Grizzle
Merfolk - All the blue draw, plus silvergil, plus trades with most creatures.


This card is a thing. It may not be a wide spread thing off the bat because its white, but it most certainly will be a thing.