[ORI] Pupil of the Rings

[xouman]

Pupil of the Rings   
Creature - Human Wizard
1, Exile an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard, choose one:
- Counter target non-creature spell unless it's controller pays 2
- Pupil of the Rings gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- Tap target creature.
- Untap target creature.
3/4



Quite a planeswalker, isn't it? A 2015 morphling, capable of winning the match as long as you keep playing spells. Costs more than jace, which makes it bad, and gets affected by stp, dismember and any other card that already affects jace (but cannot be attacked directly), but has probably broader suite of tools. However the same turn it comes into play it's unlikely that you have much mana to pay for its abilities.

Can be playable in heavy control decks? In oath, as alternative to griselbrand? Jace seemed kinda unplayable at first and then it became one of the most played cards in vintage.

[Protoaddict]

Oath really fuels its abilities, but its a huge mana hog and you likely want to cast it with mana open as well, so i do not love it.

Could see it as a 1 of in salvagers though, since that deck can very often get its grind on if the combo fails and has plenty of mana to spend. With infinite mana and without a spellbomb loop this guys is still an infintley large, vigilant, tap your opponents creatures that can protect itself beater.

[zimagic]

Oath really fuels its abilities, but its a huge mana hog and you likely want to cast it with mana open as well, so i do not love it.

Could see it as a 1 of in salvagers though, since that deck can very often get its grind on if the combo fails and has plenty of mana to spend. With infinite mana and without a spellbomb loop this guys is still an infintley large, vigilant, tap your opponents creatures that can protect itself beater.

Where are you getting an infintley large number of instant or sorcery cards in your graveyard?

[Protoaddict]

Bah, misread that, thought the exile only applied to the first ability.

I stand by it possibly having a place in that list however.

[brianpk80]

It compares too unfavorably to Magus of the Future at that price to fit into Bomberman, IMO. 

[MaximumCDawg]

3UU is a pretty steep cost, but this is an absurdly powerful card.

(Aside: Is it just me, or has WotC really decided to GO BONKERS with Origins?  We're seeing all sorts of wacky, powerful, modular cards in this set.  It feels like Time Spiral, and I'm loving it!  I have not drafted in a long time, but I think I'm going to draft all of this set that I can.  I'm very, VERY impressed, way more than I was for MM2, and I suspect we will find some format-relevant cards that are just not obvious to us yet out of this set.)

So, let's break it down.  In a blue deck, by the time you've hit 3UU, you're gonna have cards in your yard.  Remember, Snapcaster / Cruise / Dig all help replenish what they use up because they typically give you more gas to find more cards and, themselves.  I don't think this guy competes with that.  Unless you're sitting down against someone who is pre-boarded for Dredge, I think it's reasonable to expect that this guy's abilities are online when he drops.  And, you probably have around 2 - 3 uses ready to go.

So when you resolve this, you can now cast 2-3 Spell Pierces for 1 colorless mana each.  And, as the match progresses, you can cast more.  I don't understand how anyone can look at that ability and not be too busy picking their jaw up off the floor to type.  Multiple Spell Pierces on command each turn?  For colorless mana?  Really?  How the hell is anyone going to resolve a non-creature spell against a blue deck when that's going on?  This card is a soft lock all on its own.

It is a five-drop, sure, so let's say that you're concerned your opponent will have some excess mana by the time you resolve this.  I don't think that matters.  You spend 2 colorless mana, your opponent's spell now costs 4 more.  They're lucky to be able to resolve a single spell through that.  And if you have any counterspells in your hand?  WELL THEN now you get to double counter for each of them.  (Cast Drain.  Let it resolve, say it's countered.  Still in response to the original ability, exile Drain and cast Spell Pierce.)  You could also pair it with Mr. Stone Rain, Dack.  This guy is a brick wall.

So, what else do we get for our 3UU?

Well, we get a 3/4 body.  That's not earth-shattering, but it is relevant.  It stops all incidental damage from cards like Bob, Snapcaster, Revoker, unpowered Mentor, etc.  It trades with Golem if it comes to that.  

But wait, there's more!

If we have a surplus of cards in our yard, it can actually win combat with shops monsters by growing twice.  Golems hate doing battle with 5/6s.  It can tap down Oath and Tinker monsters that are not named Inkwell Leviathan.  As long as you're casting spells, this dork is keeping you in the game.

And, if you want to actually win, this card can do that, too.  With a full yard it's not unreasonable at all to spend 1 card to tap down the opponent and start bashing for 4-5.

It's not all good, though.  I can see three problems with this card:

1. For five mana, we are used to winning the game, not just locking it up.  Tezzeret, the Seeker is the primary example of this.  Then again, people are playing Dragonlord OJ, and like this card, Dragonlord doesn't win immediately so much as lock up the win in the future.

2. This card does not compare well to Mentor or Pyromancer.  They create too many chumps to punch through, come down first, can't be countered by this ability, and can't be tapped down on defense.  

3. This card loses to shroudy creatures like Leviathan or OJ because it can't tap them down and probably doesn't win the race.  

Still, immensely powerful.  I'm surprised people aren't more excited!  Mark my words, this card is just like Deathrite Shaman, and if it doesn't see play, there are only 3UU reasons why.

[Flash_Hulk]

I don't understand the hype, at all.

Not only is this a mana pig, but a grave pig, and a specific one at that.

For this kind of investment/setup I want to win the game, or, draw 7 swing for 7 gain 7 draw 7, not goof around with a resource hungry Spell Pierce(s).

Also, this is nothing like Deathrite Shaman...

[MaximumCDawg]

Sure it is.  Except for the difference between 3UU and 1, which I agree, is substantial.  It's a hell of a lot closer to Shaman than to, I dunno, Mercurial Chemister.

But, once he's out there, he is a counterwall, a possible win condition, an answer to many threats... its very appealing.  

As I said, though, he's not an answer to some commonly played threats in TODAYS' metagame, and that's a problem.  Might be too much for him.

For this kind of investment/setup I want to win the game, or, draw 7 swing for 7 gain 7 draw 7, not goof around with a resource hungry Spell Pierce(s).

I see where you're coming from, and yet we see people play things like Notion Thief or OJ or whatever.  Those cards don't do any of those things.

[gkraigher]

I'm pretty sure this card was designed for standard, and is awful in all eternal formats.  starting with modern.  but by all means, prove me wrong. 

[Islandswamp]

Deathrite shaman eats from any graveyard, this does not. You're paying mana for each ability, and by the time you can play this card, your opponent likely has four mana at least. So just as spell Pierce gets less powerful as a game progresses, this card's ability does too.

There has to be a lot of better choices in Vintage.

[vartemis]

It just seems like a crappy morphling or torchling to me.