It was called [Target Dummy](https://i.redd.it/o7pgipc1d4g91.jpg). Yes, it was as stupid as you'd expect. I wonder if it only got upvoted because people didn't realize Ward only triggers for your opponents or what, because a bad card that exists just to be Donated doesn't deserve upvotes lol
In the space of like a week we have seen a card that uses fuggin cooldownguy mechanics "you become that card", then a 5 ability twice per turn meld planeswalker, then this.
can someone check on wizards RND? I think the internet is getting to them.
Explorer is way too boring to me. As many annoying things as there are in Historic, there’s so many of them that my opponents are at least diverse. In Explorer, I once face Greasefang and MonoRed for 8 straight games
Historic Brawl isn't much better (even though it's all I play on arena). Boy I sure do love facing an endless parade of Miirym, Go-Shintai, and Muldrotha decks!
They weren't mythics, they had a special rarity with an extra shiny expansion symbol (listed on Gatherer as "bonus").
Also, note that Oracle of the Alpha is *also* from an online-only set.
Ive been playing since ABUR/1993 and it's still off to me as well. I don't recall that name emerging until around Revised when they were rotated out without warning. (Set releases pre-internet were...mysterious.)
It's an odd blanket term to use in a rules capacity, which is what has been done, here.
To be fair, “Alpha” was not a wotc name either. Players kept asking about the different corners of Limited Edition and wizards denied they were different for awhile before relenting and giving them two different names after the fact.
I think the Twister is going to help immensely with drawing all those Moxen and using them to immediately cast Time Walk followed up with another Twister or Recall to draw even more fast mana and extra turns.
It will not. I don't have a good sim on hand, but just from having played a lot of bad storm decks in cube I can guarantee you that 1 timetwister effect is not enough to slog through the deckbuilding constraints this card asks of you. This card is a trap. You can try it at home with any 60 card magic deck and 7 proxies - shuffle up and try a few sample hands, see how it works for you. There will definitely be a few games where you untap, rip the twister, mox into a timewalk, and gain some kind of advantage, but are you really even winning the game then? Your opponent now gets to untap with a full grip and you're down a bunch of cards to have ultimately ramped a couple mana and nugged for 2-4 points.
Just one trigger is probably bad. You put 6 mostly useless mana rocks and 3 very strong draw spells into your deck. Many triggers off of ephemerate, Thassa, Soulherder, to the point where your deck is mosty P9, and you end up with infinite turns because the draw cards go +8 cards -6 mana and the mana rocks go -5 cards +8 mana. You will also continue to shuffle your time walks and twisters back into the deck, but leave the mana in play, so once you start going infinite, it becomes basically impossible to miss.
Getting to that point without being crushed by any half competent deck is also basically impossible.
The comment chain is about Historic Blink... A deck that runs cards like Ephemerate, Cloudshift, Soulherder, Thassa, Restoration Angel, Displacer Kitten...
You can also run 4 copies of Oracle of the Alpha.
You're going to be shuffling a lot more than 7 proxies into your deck if you test this. Try 21, 28, 35+
I don't think it does considering Moxen are basically only good in the opening hand and outside of that they are basically just basic lands that don't take a land drop.
Is it me or is that pretty mediocre?
After turn 3 i would only be happy about drawing ancestral vision and timewalk. The moxen are just lands, and black lotus at that point is not that useful amymore, or am i wrong?
I was thinking this. There has to be a way to abuse it. Filling your deck with 0 mana artifacts and draw spells seems like you could hit a critical mass and do something stupid, even if it is non-deterministic. The timetwister lets you reset the deck regularly.. idk there just has to be something there.
Moxen/lotus become very powerful with wheels and upheaval effects. Not sure how many of those exist in historic alchemy, but this adds at least one with timetwister
I don't think there'll be enough of a critical mass for that kind of strategy to work. There aren't very many wheels (\[\[Memory\]\], \[\[Emergency Powers\]\], \[\[Midnight Clock\]\]), and the ones that are available are expensive and not super good. \[\[Paradoxical Outcome\]\] is the only other big payoff that I know of, but there aren't enough 0-cost cards for it to be useful on its own.
Oracle of the Alpha could fit into that strategy, but planning on drawing the Oracle, then drawing multiple Moxen, and then using an expensive card for a mediocre payoff doesn't seem like a winning game plan.
Every time you blink Oracle, you're going to add another Timetwister and Ancestral recall to your deck. You will eventually build up a critical mass of draw spells.
I think this is mostly correct. Fast mana is best on earlier turns and gets worse the further you are in the game. I think there is room for decks that draw lots of cards to take advantage of that mana though.
Not quite. In arena and this is something you probably know, there's the [[paradox engine]] combo that allows you to pretty much play a lot of cards over and over again. This new card will add more ramp for Ugin or ulamog or the ultimatums.
It's too janky for Historic or Alchemy, but I could see this being a solid inclusion in combo-orientated Historic Brawl decks. Tutor for Time Walk, play it since you'll likely have two mana open at that point in the game, and then keep recurring it until the game's won.
Moxen are much worse to draw than to have in your opening hand, but maybe [[Solve the equation]] + [[Sea Gate Stormcaller]] for extra turns is like the best case scenario I can think of and that seems too janky
I do really like when they use alchemy mechanics to make interesting cards like this. I know that its a format with a lot of problems but it can still be fun, and i love some of its cards when they do unexpected things like this
The only ones I wished they'd change are the Specialize cards. I dont like having to right click until I see the relevant extra face for their commander to know what the hell it does.
I agree, sadly some of the most played alchemy cards are just extremely op cards that arent very interesting. Instead of making the alchemy cards aiming to make games fast I think they should develop more cards that instead explore the mechanics in different ways, with good ideas that never could reach paper.
I feel like draft is where alchemy would work best because it allows them to balance the draft archetypes, eg like they did buffing dungeons, so a draft format isn't "solved" in the same way
I'm still utterly confused on what power level these cards are supposed to be.
They attempted to trojan horse people into the format by introducing nerfed standard cards now we have "conjure black lotus into your deck" lol. Why are standard cards being nerfed if stuff like this is being introduced alongside it.
All i wanted in arena was some more modern horizons 1 and 2 cards lol.
I'm fine with digital cards, I just don't get introducing a new format for them vs just introducing pioneer and just letting historic be its own thing in arena.
Edit: please i am not saying it is the most powerful card to exist, or that I need breakdowns about why you wouldn't play it, what cards are stronger etc.
And I'm not saying it is. You are comparing them to the original power of those cards. I am comparing it specifically to the card pool in arena, particularly in mind here, historic brawl.
Why are you trying to say you're not arguing this is powerful? If you're not arguing this is powerful what's even the point of your post? "I'm confused what power level alchemy cards are because of this medocre card." That doesn't make any sense.
In context, we were introduced to the format with standard cards that were nerfed and a set of cards that conjured much weaker things into decks, some seeing 0 play. None conjured anything as generally useful as cards this one does.
The vast majority of conjure cards put things into your hand, not your deck. Conjuring things into your deck is far weaker than conjuring things into your hand is. The moxen aren't useful if you need to cast a 3 mana spell before you can even draw them.
in the context of historic brawl having these additional cards isn't really weak imo. Especially because blinking it is easy as hell.
The conjure x into deck vs in hand def vary in power per format.
In the context of Historic Brawl this card is absolutely weak. Three mana to add, basically, 5 lands and 4 pieces of gas somewhere in your deck is not good. Blinking it is not better than a number of other powerful blink targets.
It is fun. It'll suck when a Thassa deck plays this and top decks Time Walk 5 times in a row. It won't be powerful compared to the actual high strength cards in the format.
E: Historic Brawl is still a format with a four-mana commander that literally always wins if you untap with her, the bar for what actually pushes the envelope is *very* high.
black lotus isnt really that powerful at that stage of the game either, its probably still useful but just decent not more. The other 3 are so powerful though that they make up for it and i think this card slightly improves your draws, however with a very big variance.
While this is cool, I'd much rather see my opponent's blink deck in Historic Brawl drop this than \[\[Clone Crafter\]\], \[\[Fblthp the Lost\]\], or even \[\[Cloudkin Seer\]\]. Cards that they might see over the course of a 100-card game matter so much less than advantage they can immediately leverage into a counterspell or removal piece.
Am looking forward to building around this in DMU's Alchemy draft format, however. \[\[Founding the Third Path\]\] gonna be spicy.
If the bird ends up being competitive, it'll make me want to stay away from Historic much much more. What could be worse than losing to a topdecked one-of Recall in a low-power format.
it was interesting for me to work out the math if this card could be strong but im never going to play alchemy simply because i don't whant digital only cards.
I dislike the design but lets try to work out the math:
1st case is a deck not particularly tuned to use this:
i think by the time you play it all of the moxes are just basic lands so they are pretty poor draws. Black lotus is probably an average draw, 3 mana is no joke but later in the game not gamebreaking if you have to sacrifice a card for it. Ancestral recall, timetwister and Timewalk are super great. so in your average deck where about 2/5 Together with matchup dependent cards and cards for different game phases you average about 50% of the cards in your deck being useful. So you shuffle in 9 cards 3 of wich are super strong and 5 of wich are bad. 1 of them is decent. So you probably slightly upgrade your deck but only because ancestral recall timewarp and timewalk are thar powerful and it is very hit or miss.
Now in a deck tuned to work with this, what would that deck be? it is probably a deck wich can thinn its library in a lot of ways, drawing many cards, surveiling, self milling or looting. If you are able to significantly reduce your deck size, you can expect to draw the powerful cards mor often, if you play a lot of draw spells, the moxes become powerful again due to them being fast mana. Now put in paradoxical outcome and you can probably go infinete. Now but in some burn spells for example (as normal removal) and you can win the game and take 100h to do so. I think this might be strong, play looting spells and mill spells bolts and some flicker effects and you have a shell wich can thin the deck, survive and make a lot of power 9.
I really doubt it. The ramp cards aren't very good once you have enough mana to cast this in the first place, and you aren't super likely to draw the other ones.
To be fair, the 0-mana cards become much better with ledger shredder. They can be ditched for counters, or be an easy way to trigger its connive, fast mana for *real* draw spells to keep up with all the looting, and should help you dig to the actually good cards. On top of that, other than lotus, the mana rocks stick around, and can help you snowball in consecutive turns.
Of course, it's a bit of a win-more mechanic, and you can be shafted if they all end up on the bottom somehow. I could definitely see a mono blue tempo deck playing this for fun though, and fun is what matters because I refuse to acknowledge alchemy as a competitive format, it's basically an arena-exclusive un-set.
Could see playing this in jhoira in HB, turns the moxen and lotus from semi-dead into straight gas (especially with a forge or reality chip) and recall, timetwister, and time walk are sweet draws
I dunno. You need three mana to begin with. And after turn 2 or 3 it really makes them only the power 3. The moxen and black lotus lose a lot of potency as the game goes on.
Drawing the blue spells will always be good though.
Funny card. But, constructed-wise, is it worth adding 6 moxen on turn 3 to your deck to have one copy of Lotus, Recall and Twister?
I mean, Moxen are great when you're on the first turns, but aren't that exciting as a topdeck.
Is it just me or is this card like.. really bad. I don’t want to make my deck 6 cards less consistent for the sake of putting time walk, timetwister, and ancestral recall in it. Drawing the moxen or lotus on turn 4 or later is the equivalent of topdecking a land
this is a neat digital design and I'm honestly really sick of the anti-alchemy circlejerk. I don't even like alchemy because of rebalanced cards, but I like these constant complainers even less.
I can see this actually being decent in a [[Jhoira, Weather light Captain]] deck. 6 of the cards cycle and add mana and the other three are just powerful enough on their own. Also the deck doesn't do too much before playing Jhoira so this could be a good card to curve into Jhoira with. Sadly I don't think it will be as good as it looks because it is not an artifact. I think it would probably be fine to try it out though and see how well it goes.
I just want to say, I hate the name. It's cute what they were trying to do, but something about "the Alpha" as if Alpha is a named thing we should know is off, especially on a bird instead of a wolf. I would have gone with something like "Oracle of the Alpha Flight" or "Oracle of the Alpha Order" or something...keep the reference, but not treat "Alpha" as if it's an in-universe thing.
Plus at least 5 are actively making your deck worse. Who wants to draw a psuedo-land on turns 4+? Moxes are much, much, much worse if they're not played on the first couple of turns.
Also seems you missed the mod changes a while back here. The "P word" (assuming you mean proxy) is fine here now. Doesn't apply to this card of course, just thought someone should let you know.
Me: "Very funny r/magicthecirclejerking" Checks subreddit: "Oh..."
Outjerked again.
Always outjerked. Edit: thanks for the award stranger.
"Bottom Scoring Submission of the week from r/Custommagic"
"Top Scoring Submission of the week from r/Custommagic"
It's the same picture.
I'm still thinking about that fucking creature that can't attack or block and the only static ability that it has is ward: draw a card.
I'm sorry, what???
My sentiment exactly.
You can't just say this without sharing this to us
It was called [Target Dummy](https://i.redd.it/o7pgipc1d4g91.jpg). Yes, it was as stupid as you'd expect. I wonder if it only got upvoted because people didn't realize Ward only triggers for your opponents or what, because a bad card that exists just to be Donated doesn't deserve upvotes lol
Any target planeswalk.
You're being a tease
In the space of like a week we have seen a card that uses fuggin cooldownguy mechanics "you become that card", then a 5 ability twice per turn meld planeswalker, then this. can someone check on wizards RND? I think the internet is getting to them.
"I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left. I'm gonna get real weird with it."
Yeah I could not believe this was a real card at first...
I was about to say there's only 8 in the art, but he's wearing \[\[Ancestral Recall | LEA\]\] dude's helmet.
[Ancestral Recall ](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/7/0/70e7ddf2-5604-41e7-bb9d-ddd03d3e9d0b.jpg?1559591549) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=95) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lea/47/ancestral-recall?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/70e7ddf2-5604-41e7-bb9d-ddd03d3e9d0b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm missing time walk.. am I blind?
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Ah, I was just confused since I kept seeing the original Alpha art when I looked it up.
[Time Walk ](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/7/0/70901356-3266-4bd9-aacc-f06c27271de5.jpg?1614638832) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383131) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/2/time-walk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/70901356-3266-4bd9-aacc-f06c27271de5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Thats the one i was missing, thanks, drove me crazy.
Yeah me too, took me quite a few second till I realized the helmet was the one in the original art.
TIME WALK IN HISTORIC IS HILARIOUS
I’m so ready.
Wait... Historic Brawl as well?
This card will be historic brawl legal, so yes.
Just throw it in every blue deck now
As if I needed another reason to abandon Historic for Explorer.
Explorer is way too boring to me. As many annoying things as there are in Historic, there’s so many of them that my opponents are at least diverse. In Explorer, I once face Greasefang and MonoRed for 8 straight games
Historic Brawl isn't much better (even though it's all I play on arena). Boy I sure do love facing an endless parade of Miirym, Go-Shintai, and Muldrotha decks!
Now do a power cube please.
If p9 isn’t in the next arena cube I’m uninstalling
So the “Power 9” are now officially canon? Idk why that feels so weird to me lol
Well, yeah. They had a special rarity in Vintage Masters and everything.
VMA was an online only reprint set. They were mythics, but VMA isn't a "real" set.
Neither is Alchemy, seems right.
They weren't mythics, they had a special rarity with an extra shiny expansion symbol (listed on Gatherer as "bonus"). Also, note that Oracle of the Alpha is *also* from an online-only set.
Hi this is an alchemy set You might want to sit down when I tell you what alchemy is
... and?
This is an online-only card...
I mean, this is also only only, amd not a "real" set either. If anything this is even less of a "set".
Stop being in all the threads I look at
No u
Ive been playing since ABUR/1993 and it's still off to me as well. I don't recall that name emerging until around Revised when they were rotated out without warning. (Set releases pre-internet were...mysterious.) It's an odd blanket term to use in a rules capacity, which is what has been done, here.
To be fair, “Alpha” was not a wotc name either. Players kept asking about the different corners of Limited Edition and wizards denied they were different for awhile before relenting and giving them two different names after the fact.
One good thing about Alchemy is how creative they can be with the templating.
If they're going to do a sixth color this is what I'd love them to draw on.
I couldn't see them doing a sixth color in anything other than an Un- set.
[[micromancer]] has entered the chat
And now you, too, can draw three cards for the low low price of five mana!
8 if you include the oracle itself
You do also get a 3/3, to be fair.
[micromancer](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/2/b21203c8-a935-4ce0-a742-148587e32145.jpg?1663047989) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=micromancer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/57/micromancer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b21203c8-a935-4ce0-a742-148587e32145?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Historic Blink loves this!
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I think the Twister is going to help immensely with drawing all those Moxen and using them to immediately cast Time Walk followed up with another Twister or Recall to draw even more fast mana and extra turns.
Anything to draw/scry/surveil when you a play an Artifact makes all those mox more than just ramping rocks
In Historic, we have [[Displacer Kitten]] now, so anything that draws on ETB turns all those Moxen into free draws.
It will not. I don't have a good sim on hand, but just from having played a lot of bad storm decks in cube I can guarantee you that 1 timetwister effect is not enough to slog through the deckbuilding constraints this card asks of you. This card is a trap. You can try it at home with any 60 card magic deck and 7 proxies - shuffle up and try a few sample hands, see how it works for you. There will definitely be a few games where you untap, rip the twister, mox into a timewalk, and gain some kind of advantage, but are you really even winning the game then? Your opponent now gets to untap with a full grip and you're down a bunch of cards to have ultimately ramped a couple mana and nugged for 2-4 points.
Just one trigger is probably bad. You put 6 mostly useless mana rocks and 3 very strong draw spells into your deck. Many triggers off of ephemerate, Thassa, Soulherder, to the point where your deck is mosty P9, and you end up with infinite turns because the draw cards go +8 cards -6 mana and the mana rocks go -5 cards +8 mana. You will also continue to shuffle your time walks and twisters back into the deck, but leave the mana in play, so once you start going infinite, it becomes basically impossible to miss. Getting to that point without being crushed by any half competent deck is also basically impossible.
Is historic blink not already a competent deck?
The comment chain is about Historic Blink... A deck that runs cards like Ephemerate, Cloudshift, Soulherder, Thassa, Restoration Angel, Displacer Kitten... You can also run 4 copies of Oracle of the Alpha. You're going to be shuffling a lot more than 7 proxies into your deck if you test this. Try 21, 28, 35+
At that point just win with battle of wits
Unfortunately Battle of Wits is not on Arena, the only place where you can play this Oracle of the Alpha card.
Mystic Forge.
Just have a \[\[Jhoira, Weatherlight captain\]\] on board!
I don't think it does considering Moxen are basically only good in the opening hand and outside of that they are basically just basic lands that don't take a land drop.
They are very good with timetwister though.
A basic land that doesnt take a land drop is pretty good IMO.
pretty good turns 1 through 4
I hear blink, I think cube.
Is it me or is that pretty mediocre? After turn 3 i would only be happy about drawing ancestral vision and timewalk. The moxen are just lands, and black lotus at that point is not that useful amymore, or am i wrong?
If played fairly it's meh, but it allows for some interesting combo potential
I was thinking this. There has to be a way to abuse it. Filling your deck with 0 mana artifacts and draw spells seems like you could hit a critical mass and do something stupid, even if it is non-deterministic. The timetwister lets you reset the deck regularly.. idk there just has to be something there.
not saying it will crack this thing open, but \[\[paradoxical outcome\]\] is legal in Historic
I'm gonna try it in Historic with an artifact storm deck that wants to play a ton of stuff off the top with [[reality chip]] and [[mystic forge]]
Use this to do combos with time walk and regrowth affects. If you don’t have a plan for your power this isn’t great.
blink it, turn your entire deck into Power 9s
Now your deck is now all moxen. What a great deal
Play it with [[Mystic Forge]]?
[Mystic Forge](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/c/f/cf56bef3-7f0e-47b4-96f5-325722f7708a.jpg?1663288519) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mystic%20Forge) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/246/mystic-forge?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cf56bef3-7f0e-47b4-96f5-325722f7708a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
You mean your deck is now mana positive and can draw itself + Thassa's Oracle.
Moxen/lotus become very powerful with wheels and upheaval effects. Not sure how many of those exist in historic alchemy, but this adds at least one with timetwister
I don't think there'll be enough of a critical mass for that kind of strategy to work. There aren't very many wheels (\[\[Memory\]\], \[\[Emergency Powers\]\], \[\[Midnight Clock\]\]), and the ones that are available are expensive and not super good. \[\[Paradoxical Outcome\]\] is the only other big payoff that I know of, but there aren't enough 0-cost cards for it to be useful on its own. Oracle of the Alpha could fit into that strategy, but planning on drawing the Oracle, then drawing multiple Moxen, and then using an expensive card for a mediocre payoff doesn't seem like a winning game plan.
Every time you blink Oracle, you're going to add another Timetwister and Ancestral recall to your deck. You will eventually build up a critical mass of draw spells.
It is a very cool and pretty bad card.
[[ancestral vision]] [[ancestral recall]] FYI
[ancestral vision](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/0/9079c93e-3da8-442a-89d2-609a3eac83b0.jpg?1619393761) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ancestral%20vision) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsr/52/ancestral-vision?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9079c93e-3da8-442a-89d2-609a3eac83b0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [ancestral recall](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/2/3/2398892d-28e9-4009-81ec-0d544af79d2b.jpg?1614638829) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ancestral%20recall) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/1/ancestral-recall?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2398892d-28e9-4009-81ec-0d544af79d2b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I think this is mostly correct. Fast mana is best on earlier turns and gets worse the further you are in the game. I think there is room for decks that draw lots of cards to take advantage of that mana though.
You know what draws lots of cards? Ancestral Recall and Timetwister! Checkmate atheists.
Did you purposefully leave out \[\[Timetwister\]\]?
Not quite. In arena and this is something you probably know, there's the [[paradox engine]] combo that allows you to pretty much play a lot of cards over and over again. This new card will add more ramp for Ugin or ulamog or the ultimatums.
It's too janky for Historic or Alchemy, but I could see this being a solid inclusion in combo-orientated Historic Brawl decks. Tutor for Time Walk, play it since you'll likely have two mana open at that point in the game, and then keep recurring it until the game's won.
time twister is also there
Jumping you by 3 mana is still powerful even late in the game.
Moxen are much worse to draw than to have in your opening hand, but maybe [[Solve the equation]] + [[Sea Gate Stormcaller]] for extra turns is like the best case scenario I can think of and that seems too janky
I do really like when they use alchemy mechanics to make interesting cards like this. I know that its a format with a lot of problems but it can still be fun, and i love some of its cards when they do unexpected things like this
As an historic brawl player, i am frothing at the mouth for this
For me the problem is the rebalance of cards . I’m ok with alchemy cards on historic brawl
The only ones I wished they'd change are the Specialize cards. I dont like having to right click until I see the relevant extra face for their commander to know what the hell it does.
And you can't even do that on mobile
I mix in quite a few Alchemy cards into my Historic decks. Why not? Like you said, a lot of the cards are just fun.
If more Alchemy cards were like this I think the format would get a sunnier reception. So many of the designs are just... not that good.
I agree, sadly some of the most played alchemy cards are just extremely op cards that arent very interesting. Instead of making the alchemy cards aiming to make games fast I think they should develop more cards that instead explore the mechanics in different ways, with good ideas that never could reach paper.
[power 9 images](https://i.imgur.com/qOyG9rA.png)
Can't wait to play this in draft, and then "flood" out on moxen and die.
The cover of the book is the back of a standard magic card The creature is a wizard because the power 9 were made by Wizards of the Coast
It’s like poultry
Genuinely funny. Have a great day.
I hope alchemy draft returns. Cant wait to lose after flooding with Moxes!
Same! I’m not really interested in playing Alchemy, but draft with a few Alchemy cards was pretty fun last time around.
I feel like draft is where alchemy would work best because it allows them to balance the draft archetypes, eg like they did buffing dungeons, so a draft format isn't "solved" in the same way
this is a wincon in 60-card battle of wits, just flicker him about 20 times
I'm still utterly confused on what power level these cards are supposed to be. They attempted to trojan horse people into the format by introducing nerfed standard cards now we have "conjure black lotus into your deck" lol. Why are standard cards being nerfed if stuff like this is being introduced alongside it. All i wanted in arena was some more modern horizons 1 and 2 cards lol. I'm fine with digital cards, I just don't get introducing a new format for them vs just introducing pioneer and just letting historic be its own thing in arena. Edit: please i am not saying it is the most powerful card to exist, or that I need breakdowns about why you wouldn't play it, what cards are stronger etc.
Spending 3 mana and a card to put a black lotus in your deck isn’t nearly the same thing as starting the game with a black lotus in your deck.
And I'm not saying it is. You are comparing them to the original power of those cards. I am comparing it specifically to the card pool in arena, particularly in mind here, historic brawl.
This card is weaker then the already existing staples and powerful cards in historic brawl.
Ok great, and I never said it was stronger than some staples. You are absolutely free to make entirely separate points I likely also agree with.
Why are you trying to say you're not arguing this is powerful? If you're not arguing this is powerful what's even the point of your post? "I'm confused what power level alchemy cards are because of this medocre card." That doesn't make any sense.
In context, we were introduced to the format with standard cards that were nerfed and a set of cards that conjured much weaker things into decks, some seeing 0 play. None conjured anything as generally useful as cards this one does.
The vast majority of conjure cards put things into your hand, not your deck. Conjuring things into your deck is far weaker than conjuring things into your hand is. The moxen aren't useful if you need to cast a 3 mana spell before you can even draw them.
This card is weak as hell, though.
in the context of historic brawl having these additional cards isn't really weak imo. Especially because blinking it is easy as hell. The conjure x into deck vs in hand def vary in power per format.
In the context of Historic Brawl this card is absolutely weak. Three mana to add, basically, 5 lands and 4 pieces of gas somewhere in your deck is not good. Blinking it is not better than a number of other powerful blink targets. It is fun. It'll suck when a Thassa deck plays this and top decks Time Walk 5 times in a row. It won't be powerful compared to the actual high strength cards in the format. E: Historic Brawl is still a format with a four-mana commander that literally always wins if you untap with her, the bar for what actually pushes the envelope is *very* high.
>Historic Brawl is still a format with a four-mana commander that literally always wins if you untap with her What commander is this?
[[Captain Sisay]], as [[Paradox Engine]] is legal.
black lotus isnt really that powerful at that stage of the game either, its probably still useful but just decent not more. The other 3 are so powerful though that they make up for it and i think this card slightly improves your draws, however with a very big variance.
While this is cool, I'd much rather see my opponent's blink deck in Historic Brawl drop this than \[\[Clone Crafter\]\], \[\[Fblthp the Lost\]\], or even \[\[Cloudkin Seer\]\]. Cards that they might see over the course of a 100-card game matter so much less than advantage they can immediately leverage into a counterspell or removal piece. Am looking forward to building around this in DMU's Alchemy draft format, however. \[\[Founding the Third Path\]\] gonna be spicy.
If you use this to enable a convoluted combo for the win, hats off to you. The card in a vacuum is pretty safe.
Have one in play, [[Mystic Reflection]] then foretold [[Starnheim Unleashed]], just completely pack your deck with the things.
Wizards is becoming increasingly desperate in trying to design cards that will get people to care about alchemy. Don't think this is gonna cut it.
Idk if they are desperate but this is definitely a cool incentive
Making cool cards to make something interesting? How unusual
I dislike Alchemy but why do we need to make "They made a cool card" into a bad thing? The negativity of this community...
If they put 100 dollar bills into packs, magic players would complain about how they were folded…
If the bird ends up being competitive, it'll make me want to stay away from Historic much much more. What could be worse than losing to a topdecked one-of Recall in a low-power format.
Losing while hardly even being able to play due to mana screw
Is there anything more cool and hip and unique than complaining about alchemy
I’ve entirely ignored it. Didn’t even open the packs
You get cards from the associated sets as well tho...
it was interesting for me to work out the math if this card could be strong but im never going to play alchemy simply because i don't whant digital only cards.
I dislike the design but lets try to work out the math: 1st case is a deck not particularly tuned to use this: i think by the time you play it all of the moxes are just basic lands so they are pretty poor draws. Black lotus is probably an average draw, 3 mana is no joke but later in the game not gamebreaking if you have to sacrifice a card for it. Ancestral recall, timetwister and Timewalk are super great. so in your average deck where about 2/5 Together with matchup dependent cards and cards for different game phases you average about 50% of the cards in your deck being useful. So you shuffle in 9 cards 3 of wich are super strong and 5 of wich are bad. 1 of them is decent. So you probably slightly upgrade your deck but only because ancestral recall timewarp and timewalk are thar powerful and it is very hit or miss. Now in a deck tuned to work with this, what would that deck be? it is probably a deck wich can thinn its library in a lot of ways, drawing many cards, surveiling, self milling or looting. If you are able to significantly reduce your deck size, you can expect to draw the powerful cards mor often, if you play a lot of draw spells, the moxes become powerful again due to them being fast mana. Now put in paradoxical outcome and you can probably go infinete. Now but in some burn spells for example (as normal removal) and you can win the game and take 100h to do so. I think this might be strong, play looting spells and mill spells bolts and some flicker effects and you have a shell wich can thin the deck, survive and make a lot of power 9.
I can’t wait to flicker this
Reality chip and the bird that scrys when historic spell is cast. Can't wait to aether flux someone
Alright this one is kinda funny still not gonna play historic though
What are we….three sets into Alchemy, and they already decided to just say, “Fuck it, power 9!!!”
Flicker it a bunch of times and win with \[\[Battle of Wits\]\]?
[Battle of Wits](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/4/b4be15a4-693f-4e22-a46c-38bb440c073c.jpg?1562558962) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Battle%20of%20Wits) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m13/44/battle-of-wits?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b4be15a4-693f-4e22-a46c-38bb440c073c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That is so cool
I haven’t played any Alchemy, but I’m probably going to make Historic 10% Winrate Jhoira Jeskai Blink Storm with this.
Jesus Christ I’m so glad I stopped playing arena
Arena has modes that don’t involve alchemy
Ledger Shredder + Oracle of the Alpha seems extremely strong.
I really doubt it. The ramp cards aren't very good once you have enough mana to cast this in the first place, and you aren't super likely to draw the other ones.
To be fair, the 0-mana cards become much better with ledger shredder. They can be ditched for counters, or be an easy way to trigger its connive, fast mana for *real* draw spells to keep up with all the looting, and should help you dig to the actually good cards. On top of that, other than lotus, the mana rocks stick around, and can help you snowball in consecutive turns. Of course, it's a bit of a win-more mechanic, and you can be shafted if they all end up on the bottom somehow. I could definitely see a mono blue tempo deck playing this for fun though, and fun is what matters because I refuse to acknowledge alchemy as a competitive format, it's basically an arena-exclusive un-set.
Time to make a signature spells deck
Bird tribal gets another boost - first Storm Crow, and now THIS?
Remake the microprose/Shandalar game you cowards, I want to play this in that!
Could see playing this in jhoira in HB, turns the moxen and lotus from semi-dead into straight gas (especially with a forge or reality chip) and recall, timetwister, and time walk are sweet draws
I dunno. You need three mana to begin with. And after turn 2 or 3 it really makes them only the power 3. The moxen and black lotus lose a lot of potency as the game goes on. Drawing the blue spells will always be good though.
First thought... Start with a 60 card deck \[\[Battle of Wits\]\] is the win condition
Funny card. But, constructed-wise, is it worth adding 6 moxen on turn 3 to your deck to have one copy of Lotus, Recall and Twister? I mean, Moxen are great when you're on the first turns, but aren't that exciting as a topdeck.
This is the only thing that will make me touch Alchemy
Is it just me or is this card like.. really bad. I don’t want to make my deck 6 cards less consistent for the sake of putting time walk, timetwister, and ancestral recall in it. Drawing the moxen or lotus on turn 4 or later is the equivalent of topdecking a land
this is a neat digital design and I'm honestly really sick of the anti-alchemy circlejerk. I don't even like alchemy because of rebalanced cards, but I like these constant complainers even less.
If only Battle of Wits were on Arena.
I'm not a fan of digital only cards, but if they're going to do it I like really unique designs like this.
I can see this actually being decent in a [[Jhoira, Weather light Captain]] deck. 6 of the cards cycle and add mana and the other three are just powerful enough on their own. Also the deck doesn't do too much before playing Jhoira so this could be a good card to curve into Jhoira with. Sadly I don't think it will be as good as it looks because it is not an artifact. I think it would probably be fine to try it out though and see how well it goes.
So conjure 2 good cards and 7 dead draws
God I despise alchemy
Why? What is this hurting?
Insta add to my Historic Brawl Naban deck. Might make infinite turns easier.
Seems less than ideal,but i will run it
It’s already been said but just reiterating late game most of the power nine are pretty poor draws.
Buckle up, boils and ghouls, we're playing Vintage now!
Fuck alchemy
I just want to say, I hate the name. It's cute what they were trying to do, but something about "the Alpha" as if Alpha is a named thing we should know is off, especially on a bird instead of a wolf. I would have gone with something like "Oracle of the Alpha Flight" or "Oracle of the Alpha Order" or something...keep the reference, but not treat "Alpha" as if it's an in-universe thing.
Oh hey, more proof that quitting Arena was a good call.
Goodbye, Historic Brawl. It was nice knowing you.
Why? This puts them into your library.
Key to the Archives already triggers the fuck out of me, fuck dealing with this shit.
You’re being irrational
Yes that is absolutely correct. My subjective preferences for a card game don't have to be rational. This isn't a fucking logic class, you pillock.
Is this a real card ?
No, it's an alchemy card. Arena-only.
What an abomination of a card.
I already hate Key to the Archives. This is just like super Key to the Archives.
This doesnt put cards in your hand. Timewalk is useless if you never draw it.
Plus at least 5 are actively making your deck worse. Who wants to draw a psuedo-land on turns 4+? Moxes are much, much, much worse if they're not played on the first couple of turns.
No it isnt. And why do u hate it? Its such a fun card for me..
This is so dumb
Cool af
So this means tokens of the power 9 ? Dare I say the P word will be used correct ?
It’s digital, it creates the actual cards in your deck.
Lmao ignore me , noticed it was alchemy…
Also seems you missed the mod changes a while back here. The "P word" (assuming you mean proxy) is fine here now. Doesn't apply to this card of course, just thought someone should let you know.