New Phyrexia Assesment: What I like about [U]

Okay! So the New Phyrexia set has been SPOILED! And in response to this Wizards of the Coast has released the ENTIRE Visual Spoiler! And needless to say, we are all very, very excited. So how about we skip the foreplay and jump right into it aye?

First today, we will be looking at the Blue ([U]) cards from the new set. A couple really stand out here, and the offensive power and defensive force the Scars and Besieged lacked is definitely here in all its gory glory. To prove this, we have a lovely little combo to start things out with:

 

So obviously, we see where these two cards shine together. I can see both being a playset for a U/G or U/B Infect deck. But here's the really cool part. Previously, the best option for me was to cast Distortion Strike, and then after the opponent Declares Blockers, respond with as many Virulent Wounds and Vampire's Bites as I could muster out, and hope for a ravaging 5-10 poison fiesta. Won me a couple games, quite a few, even. But never any match for the Kuldotha Red or W/U/G Caw-Go decks and their Vengevines. This, however, gives us room for proliferation, and a cheap (albeit conditional) hard counter alongside Spell Peirce, Deprive or the possible Stoic Rebuttal, and a launchpad for Proliferation a la Contagion Clasp/Engine or Inexorable Tides. Or other cards I'll get to momentarily.

Now we've all seen the Phyrexian Mana, written shorthand as [P(C)], where C is the color. Obviously. 2 Life, or a specific mana. Seems easy right? Well, no. Because half of you think the 2 Life is the easy choice, and the other think its just more pragmatic to pay the Mana Cost. Yes. Okay. lets break it down. 

2 Life is deceptively large. Maybe not so against an Infect deck, but thats 10% of your Life Total a pop. It adds up quick, especially when we look at the fact that 5 Life in the game right now is a precarious position to be at. If possible and still plausible, I will always go with paying the mana. But, the situation where this arises is one which we have never seen in Magic before. Anyone can cast a Phyrexian costed spell. I can play Birthing Pod in a Mono-Blue deck without adding anything at all to add Green mana, and still cast and activate this card without "cheating" it into play. And now I will show you two reasons why this is going to have a huge impact on all formats.

Mental Misstep and Gitaxian Probe are probably going to be the most played cards in any deck, in any format, from this set. The applications are huge. Lets start with Mental Misstep. 

"Counter target spell with converted mana cost 1." In Standard, I can see some decks like U/W or Mono-U Control keeping a couple copies in the mainboard. Otherwise, I can see this being an auto-playset in the sideboard. Not only does it counter the one drops like Kuldotha Rebirth, Distortion Strike, Giant Growth, Lightning Bolt, even Green Sun Zenith and Untamed Might, but other control spells like Preordain and Spell Pierce. And in Legacy, where the games first four turns are the most vital, this card is a heartbreaker. Channel Fireball's Magic TV actually touched on how this could turn into an "attrition battle" between Mental Missteps when a card like Aether Vial is on the stack. This is a picture perfect example of a metagame changing card.

Now Gitaxian Probe is cool too (and notably susceptible to a Mental Misstep), but it has a slightly narrower niche. If only just barely though. A first turn cantrip is never a bad option -never the best, but not bad. Unless that cantrip is free. You get a free slot in your deck, and it lets you see your opponents hand. Extremely valuable information, especially early game when you need to know what to hold your Mana Leaks, Mental Missteps, Spell Pierces or Corrupted Resolves for, or when you need to know if its safe to go out on a limb and cast your critical spell, or if you need to test the water with a bait spell, or if you need to just concede there, sometimes. Whatever. The point is, this one is utterly amazing, and probably worth the 2 Life on your first couple turns to play free. I expect to see these pop up in quite a few Pro Tour decks.

 

These two are in here for one reason only. Proliferate. Tezz has a nice feature card, Divination for anyone, and Proliferate -as I talked about in the past- has many applications outside Infect and -1/-1 counters. Planeswalker Loyalty, +1/+1, Charge, any counter you could imagine! Here's why I like it on these cards specifically: Cheap, effective, or reusable Proliferation versus expensive or inefficient alternative like Contagion Clasp or Steady Progress. 

Tezzeret's Gambit costs only one more than Steady Progress if you pay the [U] instead of {2}, and it has double the card advantage. Huge if you manage to proliferate -1/-1 counter and take some creatures out, or at least out of combat. So we have a Phyrexian Divination and a Blue Priests of Norn. Pretty good, but I don't know how much competitive play these will get. 

And thats what I like about Blue. Pretty cool, counters spells and doesn't afraid of anything.

Decadent Decklists: Extended - Mindfuck Mill

So, after all this time of blogging about Magic, I cannot believe I haven't yet had a deck posted! So, it's time I rectified this issue. Without further adieu, the until-recently unnamed Mindfuck Mill:

Mindfuck Mill Extended

Main Deck:

4 Hedron Crab

1 Jace Beleren

2 Nemesis of Reason

2 Wall of Frost

4 Call to Mind

2 Haunting Echoes

1 Keening Stone

4 Memory Sluice

4 Mind Funeral

2 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Spell Pierce

2 Sword of Body and Mind

4 Tome Scour

2 Traumatize

2 Cascade Bluffs

2 Darkslick Shores

8 Island

7 Swamp

2 Vivid Creek

2 Vivid Marsh

Sideboard:

4 Archive Trap

2 Broken Ambitions

2 Doom Blade

2 Memoricide

1 Nemesis of Reason

2 Sword of Feast and Famine

2 Wrexial, the Risen Deep

So, as you can see, it's obviously a deck that is supposed to get as many cards in the graveyard as possible, without the need for the overly priced JTMS. There are a couple things I'll probably change before trying it out for Extended Season, but we'll focus on the big players for a moment.

Memory Sluice/Hedron Crab: First turn, four cards. Second turn, eight, if you have a Hedron Crab on the field. In which case, you'd get 12. So on turn three (which we hope to follow with a Mind Funeral), we can have as many as 20 cards milled out. Very nice, if I do say so myself.

Traumatize/Haunting Echoes: This of course is a combo that is as ageless as the cards themselves. After a couple small mills to start the game off, a well placed Traumatize followed up next turn with Haunting Echoes could very well eliminate your opponents entire playable base.

Nemesis of Reason: The thing I love about this card is that it never has to connect to your opponent. Like the Annihilator mechanic on the Eldrazi cards, the effect triggers as soon as you declare him as an attacker. So even if he lives one or two rounds before he gets killed by a Go For The Throat, you still managed to take a chunk out of their deck.

One thing people seem to immediately notice is the Pyromancer's Ascension, which is red in a U/B deck. Well, it is a little off-base, but I have two Cascade Bluffs and 5 Vivid Lands with 3 Charges each that can be used to cast it. So if I I have two Quest Counters on it, I can Call to Mind two Tome Scours, which in turn will mill ten each, for a total of 20 for 5 mana in one turn, and thats thinking small. Look at Traumatize or Mind Funeral. A probable mill-win.

I opted to run Baby Jace here for one real reason in particular. The Draw. Firstly, some cards can't be milled. They get shuffled back into the Library if they hit the graveyard. These don't come up often at all, but they can be a problem if I have to force a turn pass and wait to see if they can come up with a Death Throw and kill me before they receive draw priority to be officially milled. Secondly, I may or may not need an additional draw to get that last card I need. Yes, yes, JTMS would be better because he can Brainstorm, and his Ultimate is a for sure finisher. But Big Jace automatically draws attention away from you, so his ultimate rarely gets to go off. If ever. And last but not least, in fact foremost, I cannot afford the big bad Mind Sculptor.

The other thing here is that I have a set of Archive Traps in the sideboard. This isn't so much because I don't think they're useful, quite the opposite. But I really want to maximize playability. Lets say you draw 2 opening hand. If the opponent plays a fetchland like Scalding Tarn or Arid Mesa, you automatically get a 26 card mill without playing a land. Now if you draw 4, then you get 52, exactly the number of cards left in a deck after the first draw.

I have been pondering some different aspects of the deck, and I know for a fact that while being very cool to think about, it isn't yet optimized, and for the moment, I will be focusing on doing just that for this deck. If there are any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Next time...My own Cardset!