Strixhaven, Episode 8: Magma Opus (Brew Session) + Kasmina, Enigma Sage (Flashback)
Eight mana, no problems. Big, flashy mythics are usually destined for Commander rather than serious constructed play, but Magma Opus might be different. The option to make a quick Treasure, while conveniently stashing your payoff spell in the graveyard, opens up a whole canvas of possibilities. From big mana engines to Torrential Gearhulk, there’s plenty of options for the Prismari combo virtuoso. We break down five new decks for cheating out Magma Opus in Modern and Pioneer, with a little help from returning guest Zach “ManaCymbal” Ryl.
Meanwhile on the Flashback, last week’s decks with Kasmina, Enigma Sage racked up way more wins than expected (and a healthy dose of losses as well). Clearly Kasmina is a synergy piece with very little standalone power, but which payoffs unlock her -8 most effectively? Enter the Infinite notched a 4-1, but Obliterate, Emergent Ultimatum, and even Body of Research made cameo appearances in our test leagues.
Where to find Zach:
Twitch: https://www.twitch.com/manacymbal
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/manacymbal
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRdjisnv8bhjdsa27UU9qg
Podcast: https://serumvisions.podbean.com/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode At a Glance
[3:01] Flashback: Kasmina, Enigma Sage
[4:13] Sultai Kasmina Ultimatum: 2-3 league
[9:48] Bant Turbo Kasmina Combo: 4-1 league
[11:51] Bant Kasmina SuperTurns: 2-3 league (Watch on YouTube)
[18:36] Temur Kasmina SuperTurns: 3-2 league (Watch on YouTube)
[22:38] Closing thoughts on Kasmina
[27:30] Brew Session: Magma Opus
[28:27] Temur Opus Reclamation
[33:27] Urza’s Magma Opus
[36:55] Torrent Sculptor Living Lore
[43:47] Izzet Gearhulk Creativity
[46:37] Temur Magma Opus Flash Ramp
[48:46] Simic Flash w/ Decisive Denial
Full Episode Transcript
(Automated transcripts are not 100% accurate. Please use this transcript for cursory reference only. If you need to quote our content, contact us).
Damon Alexander: [00:00:00] You are listening to Faithless brewing a magic, the gathering podcast for the spike robe. Each week we designed new decks in modern pioneer. We put our crisis to the test and sheriff findings on the air part Mulldrifter part Flametongue Kavu, all Magma. This week, we’re going to brew around Magma Opus because it have what it takes.
This is episode eight of Strixhaven season. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
David Robertson: [00:00:52] hello and welcome to the Faithless brewing podcast. I am David Robertson, joining you from Minneapolis. And I am joined as always by my guy on the left coast, coming to us live from Seattle. He is Damon Alexander Damon.
Damon Alexander: [00:01:06] What’s up. Hey, I’m still kind of giggling at how we converted. Camberleaf’s lovely teamer ultimatum deck into this. Nice, you know, Galazeth blue, red Izzet deck per our style. No more. Kinnan where is it? Majors here. Dan’s gone.
David Robertson: [00:01:20] So Damon is referencing the fact that if you listen to our last podcast, we went through some very cool brew reviews. From, uh, our patrons on our discord and we perhaps made them significantly worse or just conform them to our preferred style of deck.
As Damon has alluded Dan Schriever, the CEO of the Faithless brewing podcast is unable to join us. He is taking advantage of his newly vaccinated status to visit some family members, but we have a special treat. We are joined again by Zach rile. He is ManaCymbal. Symbol like the instrument. So it is twitch.com backslash ManaCymbal.
It is twitter.com backslash ManaCymbal and on YouTube. It is Zach Raul. Zach, thank you for once again, joining us on the Faithless brewing podcast.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:02:08] Happy to be here, Dave. It’s a, it’s a chilly evening here in Oakville. Uh, we got snow. Randomly and yesterday I was out for running a t-shirt. So the seasons don’t know what to do with themselves. And neither do we,
David Robertson: [00:02:21] Oakville is in,
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:02:22] it’s just a, it’s a satellite city of Toronto. I, I I’ve been saying Toronto before. I should just keep saying Toronto cause nobody knows.
David Robertson: [00:02:30] And we don’t know where that is.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:02:33] I lived in, I’ve lived in Mesa. What I mean there, the Phoenix, Phoenix I lived in.
Damon Alexander: [00:02:38] Exactly. I also suspect that basically almost every listener has an Oakville about 30 miles from where they live.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:02:45] Is that real? Is it like Springfield? I had no idea.
David Robertson: [00:02:48] Do you know any place that has deciduous tree? He says Oaks because they are the oldest trees,
Damon Alexander: [00:02:55] I guess, listeners in climates that don’t have Oak trees. Maybe they don’t have Oakland’s there.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:02:59] Oh, there we go. We got to be climate inclusive. We got this.
David Robertson: [00:03:01] So Zach is a member of the Serum Visions podcast.
He helped us out earlier in the week, taking a look at the latest. Uh, technology got a Strixhaven and both modern and pioneer. Today, we are going to do a quick flashback on our first card of the Strixhaven brewing season, and that was Kasmina, Enigma Sage quick reminder Kasmina, Enigma Sage one, a green and a blue for a.
Planeswalker it has the static text each other. Planeswalker you control has the loyalty abilities of Kasmina, Enigma Sage plus two loyalty sky one minus X loyalty. Create a zero, zero green and blue fractal creature token put X plus one plus one counters on it. Minus eight. Search your library for an incident sorcery car that shares a color with this Planeswalker exile.
That car then shuffle. You may cast that car without paying its manna cost. Kasmina starts with only two loyalty. So we proposed a bunch of different lists in pioneer. And modern Damon, you liked the look of, it was sorta like a modified version of the Sultai ultimatum. We’re talking about the emergent ultimatum list that exists as a sort of fringe tier two, tier three competitor and pioneer.
And, uh, Kasmina had some synergies with that existing, um, shell. So you took that into a league.
Damon Alexander: [00:04:13] Yeah, Davius gave us a few lists and he had the great idea that the whole point of Kasmina really is to get the minus eight. I mean, maybe you like the fractals scrying one is fine. Uh, but the minus eight to be able to cast an incident sorcery out of your deck, uh, the color with whichever Walker is assaulting off of her static, uh, is really what, what you were trying to figure out.
And so Emergent ultimatum, the Sultai one, lets you. Find three cards that are Mono colored, uh, with different names and your opponent has to choose one that goes back in your deck and you get a cast, the other two for free. And so the, the typical pilot you would get with this is typically involves Alrund’s Epiphany.
Uh, and then you can also include, for example, is a pretty powerful one. The Kiora Bests the Sea God with a Vorinclex out. We’ll immediately go to chapter two, giving you an eight, eight tapping all your opponents non-line permanents and they don’t untap. And so from this position, uh, you’re all but guaranteed to win, um, in a Turner too.
Then from there, I kind of disregarded David’s approach was Sylvan Caryatid. And a lot of Planeswalkers in a streamlined 60 cut shell. Uh, I was like, well, maybe your line will help at least, uh, balance things out and with Emergent ultimatum. Um, the thing is that you actually want to have a lot of these one-offs because sometimes actually the key card you need is a shadows verdict or an Elder Gargaroth, whatever fits the board position.
I was actually begins rogues once they were milling certain cards. And so I was glad to have redundancy, um, or at least maybe not redundancy, but additional options available. This list plays a three Kasmina and then another car we thought would work well with. It was Teferi master of Time and Kiora Behemoth Beckoner for different reasons to ferry basically gets to improve his loyalty production to plus four per turn cycle.
So he can use his old or Kasmina’s ultimate in a hurry. Kiora comes into seven with no uptick, but it keeps me it lets you uptick Kiora to nine and then Ulta the next turn. In theory, it’s around the deck out, it features a bunch of kind of ramp cards like Growth Spirals and cultivates. Um, WolfWillow havens for Binding the old God, because it’s just a good removal spell that works well with you, Ryan.
And then from there, so a combination of sweepers and just kind of all these one of us. So it took the deck through a pioneer league and I went two, and three, I was up against green walkers in the first round. They just kind of had their thing going where they just had this good mix. You know, they’ve one Nykthos.
So they have two men and elves, you know, you push one, they still have another, you know, that happens. Um, my draws, you know, actually I think that. If I drew better than mashup is fine. You have the sweepers to answer a lot of their stuff, or you can go over the top, but didn’t work out around toucans Lurrus combo.
I just kind of died on there, turned five. Um, I didn’t really do anything before that. And the deck doesn’t have a lot of Mendeck interaction against that deck. Then game two and game three, having thought distortion out of the sideboard. Uh, it means every emergent ultimatum pile is really fun because you put thoughts to stores and they just have to give you the other two, you know, it was the Alrund’s Epiphany.
Kiora Bests the Sea God like your point. It looks it. And it’s like, well, I have some options here and they kind of think about it and they could actually feasibly, you know, choose whichever one works best for them. But a load is kind of a person started on thought the stores and, uh, they just kind of have to take that card.
It is very hard for them to recover from it. And then game three, they had a off, off draw and I had to Unmoored Ego and turn three. And they scooped. So not really the decade is best, but it was able to win a round three against spirits. I lost Oh, two shadows verdict was almost able to shine. I was like, ha ha this dot spell color.
This is, this is great. I’m so happy with this card. And then. They go Supreme Phantom, mausoleum Wanderer, mausoleum Wanderer. And I was like, Ooh, well, it’s kind of a problem. But if I drew a single ONTAP land, I’ll be able to play it. And I drew a Kasmina, um, note that this match up and the first matchup also were mashups where Kasmina just doesn’t survive very well.
I actually mentioned this. Have her survive to turn cycles, I guess the spirits deck, cause it kind of a slow draw. So I played around two objects for my prototype around a two I’ve secured, a four by opponent flashing the Spirit and killed her. So not super impressive. They’re playing this red white burn in the fourth round.
I lost that one. It was close and I was up against blue-black rogues. Playing musical dispute is a little bit tilting. Two of them. I was like, well, the first one’s gone just to very much Time, definitely gonna resolve. And it didn’t. Um, so actually lost game one and then post sideboard. I was able to bring in some, some key cards I did at least once get to pull off the Kasmina.
I plus Kiora next turn up to Kiora into the ultimatum. Where everything worked. It was firing on all cylinders kissed me and I made a chump blocker, which was critical. Uh, and so round five, game three, I did the thing the deck was trying to do.
David Robertson: [00:08:48] So what was your takeaway Damon from how did Kasmina feel, uh, in this shell or just in general as a car?
Damon Alexander: [00:08:55] Yeah. So the thing with the Kasmina is Kasmina on her own is clearly just not a very strong Planeswalker. The thing that makes her good is her static. And the thing with her static is her set of quarters. You’re not having just a Kasmina and play, but another Planeswalker and this deck has a lot of interaction and it has to spend his turns interacting because otherwise it just gets run over.
It. Doesn’t have a lot of, kind of. It’s own aggressive game plan to put your port on their back foot or anything like that, asking your deck to be able to get to planes, walkers and on tap with them is just hard. Um, especially in this, this sort of pioneer Metta, we don’t force litigation or super-efficient removal or anything like that.
Uh, it was hard to just get even a single Planeswalker to survive. Um, and so all that made me feel like, uh, I put down in the notes Kasmina is Garbo.
David Robertson: [00:09:48] All right. Well, fair enough. Uh, Dan is not here to join us, but he did play a modern list. Uh, he played through our, what I propose is like sort of a band turbo Kasmina.
So this is a bunch of one drops. I think there’s 11 accelerating one drops. Uh, we’ve got four Kasmina two Kiora four Teferi. Then we have four, excuse me, for three mana Teferi, then we have four, four mana Teferi. And the goal is to try to resolve and enter the infinite, which will allow us to put Thassa’s Oracle and, uh, Jace Wielder of mysteries, wielder of mysteries into your hand.
And when the next turn. So, this is a pretty speculative brew by myself. Um, Dan picked it, cause it, like you said, it was kind of the opposite of what Damon was doing. Damon was sort of playing a deck that was all good cards. And it sounds like Kasmina was one of the worst of them. Um, this was a deck that really was just relying on that synergy.
It’s just trying to win, uh, getting an ultimate resolve with, enter the infinite and then winning the game. And Dan was actually quite successful. So we went four one, he beat Hammertime Mardu ReAnimator, uh, Temur Opus, reclamation lost, uh, convincing the Luminarch Aspirant Heliod and then beat Amulet Titan.
And he even noted in his notes here. Uh, how surprised he was. By, uh, how functional the deck felt. So, um, he did get to cast four mana Teferi, one of his favorite cards, and he actually got to win like multiple games with it. So he’s not here to say so, but I’m just gonna assume that he was in his glory.
Damon Alexander: [00:11:12] Dan is the modern whisper. He sneaks out these four ones where lesser players will go, Oh, three, drop. He has all these screenshots of just beautiful ports with him having multiple planes walkers out. And that is not easy to negotiate a game into where you, you have that position. Uh, and so the fact he was able to do that so many times is super impressive.
David Robertson: [00:11:33] What do you think of the shells?
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:11:34] Uh, well, sir, I have to fire back in your claim that a lesser player couldn’t do it because I am that lesser player. And I took a tweaked version of Dan’s list into a league myself too, that I then have here too.
Damon Alexander: [00:11:48] Awesome. Glad to hear you went four one as well. Then
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:11:51] I did not.
You seem to go to three, but I have exceptional evidence to, uh, how, uh, unbelievably brutal, uh, Mulligans and, and, and terrible, terrible opening hands are. I read Dan’s notes and obviously his four, one was inspiring. He noted, uh, the Time Warp, but temporal mastery are suspect. You never want them honest minus eight for them.
So it’s just randomly hoping to draw them. You almost lost a game because mastery for seven, didn’t leave two birds behind the block, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Um, Might want Supreme verdicts. I didn’t listen to that advice. Um, but I did listen to his advice that Kiora was not particularly useful in the deck.
So if you scroll down a little bit, you can see a band turbo, Kasmina, uh, oath of Teferi special, um, that I played now, you guys came to the conclusion that Teferi plus Kasmina meant that Teferi was gaining four, uh, loyalty per turn cycle. But what if we went big Lior? What if we played oath of Teferi, because then you can go plus eight on Teferi master of Time per turns cycle.
So I jam some in here reading Dan’s note, uh, I put in more copies of Time Warp, but I cut the temporal mastery and I even threw in a body of research, um, which for those who do not know. Is the green, green, green, blue blue blue source of roots gives you a fractal equal to the size of your deck. With the idea being that I could shave down to one, enter the infinite shaved down to one Jace wielder of mysteries.
So that the combo still exists to win with. Um, but then I had a B plan of just putting in the body of research and, and winning with a giant, um, fractal. Um, so I’m interested to hear what, uh, Dave has to say about that before any, any story time, because
David Robertson: [00:13:33] I’m glad you tried it. Cause Dan just keeps saying like, Oh, body research has this sweet combo finish.
I noticed your first. Thing of one of your first languages is just this six minute smell resolving immediately upon opponent taking it and you having to kill it. It’s like this does not win the game. Enter. The infinite actually does win the game.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:13:50] So, um, no, but that was, that was in fact, me hard casting the spell, um, not fetching it up.
So it ended up in my hand. Right. And I was in a position where I did that. And the idea with body of research for me was that I could go get it and then play a Time walk out of my hand because I had more of those, um, plus Tamiyo um, the, uh, collector of Tales who can pick up, uh, uh, Time walks out of your Time, walks out of your graveyard.
First of all, both of Teferi plus some of the Plains walkers in this deck is very, very good. Uh, it’s a very time traveler in round two, I played against, uh, some poor SAP playing black, white stone blade. And, uh, I crushed them so hard in game one with both of the very plus Teferi, Time Raveler plus Teferi, master of Time.
They scooped the whole match. They were just, we’re just very done with that one. Um, The overall result. I mean, there’s a lot of screenshots here. Um, the, the last three that I lost were to the white, red prowess deck. They killed me basically on turn three, both games, uh, dredge. I couldn’t find a capable hand and Mardu shadow.
I couldn’t find a capable hand, but, uh, the, the, the matchup, the first matchup, which was against one of the blue, red, blue moon style decks, the second match was against black, white Stoneforge. The deck felt very, very powerful and the assemblage of Planeswalkers was. Was was really good. I mean, putting this engine together was amazing.
It’s just that modern is so polarized into these hyper aggressive decks versus the, the very controlling decks that, uh, the hyper-aggressive decks are gonna get under you and really, really kill you dead. But both have to very works with either it’s Teferi master of Time, Teferi Time Raveler. Um, it works incredibly well with Tamiyo the moons or Tamiyo, uh, the.
The field researcher, whichever one, I was playing the blue-green one. Uh, collect your tales. Thank you. I went through all the other ones before I got the right one. Um, because. Just being able to have your Tamiyo go plus one and then minus three on a single turn is very good. And then if you have a Kasmina, you can go plus two minus three.
So essentially she just goes down in a one loyalty per turn cycle to rebuy a Time warp. Um, so that really, you know, it takes you over the top very quickly. Um, and there were even some games. Uh, that I was able to win by just vomiting out fractals off of all of my planes, walkers, and then take an extra chair and just attack with a bunch of two twos, three threes, and four fours.
Damon Alexander: [00:16:11] Yeah. See, when I, when I look at this deck and I hear you talking about it, and I look at Dan screenshots and yeah, like the premise that it looks like you’re leveraging here, says if I have multiple plans, walkers and play the best card in the game is either Time or Oath of Teferi both of which get extremely good at once you have that board presence.
The problem is how you get to that board state. I mean, it’s a lot to ask.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:16:32] Yeah. Yeah, it is. And, uh, I should have taken Dan’s advice about the Supreme verdicts. Uh, those would have gone far all the manna dorks, the density of those was really, really useful in making sure that you started hitting walkers on turn to really hit the ground running.
And of course to ferry was almost always infinitely better than. Uh, Kasmina in those situations, bouncing your opponents, uh, turn one or two and to play, uh, the Mardu shadow deck. One of the problems I had in the first game was the fact that they played the, the Knight of the Ebon Legion. Most of the Mardu shadow decks really don’t have that much to do on term one or two, other than a thought’s easier.
But this guy, this guy, gal, they, whoever they were, was playing and it really caused me a problem because then when they played their second creature might Teferi live once I bounced one. Um, so that, that really derailed that plan quite quickly. But overall, I mean, it’s just, just the synergy is powerful enough that I think with some massaging or, or some inclusion of, of other maybe types of interaction, maybe a few less Kasmina’s, uh, maybe the enter the infinite and the Jace Wielder of mysteries aren’t necessary, but the Kasmina, it could be okay.
Even though you’re not shooting for anything super gigantic, that just wins you the game off of it.
David Robertson: [00:17:43] I do think the fact that you get to cast a three-minute Planeswalker that interacts with the board, which is something you basically cannot do in pioneer, uh, does give the modern lists something a little bit more interesting to do.
You know, you get to play a one minute ramp card. There’s a bunch more of them. You don’t just have to play crappy Lenoir elves, and then you get to cast to ferry, which is just generically, super powerful. I mean, some people are talking about maybe the cards should be banned in the format. I mean,
Damon Alexander: [00:18:07] gosh, David, no respect for Mu Yanling. Skydancer.
David Robertson: [00:18:11] I wish that card was good, man. I know
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:18:13] it looks good. It’s got a beautiful piece of art and for four, what is it flying elemental?
David Robertson: [00:18:18] Just get the shaft, just every moon folk related to anything. Just nothing it’s like hilarious. Now, comparing that to oko is just home
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:18:26] JSS. Local tournament with a Meloku the clouded mirror. My moon folk will not take your, uh, not take care of offenses lying down.
David Robertson: [00:18:36] So I see, I see you took the generic concept. Uh, Zach, and then you went, you know, beyond, uh, you did play Wrenn and Six, which is the car that Dan was excited to try out with this. And you change your sorcery package to include a target, which I had not even thought of, which is obliterate.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:18:51] Yes. Um, obliterate has perhaps the biggest Delta of all time in flavor text from a very serious flavor text that is soaked in lore and tragic. To the white bordered flavor text, which is just a throwaway comedy joke of the enemy has been destroyed, sir, as well as your palace, the city, your dog obliterate is Six red red, and it destroys basically everything but not everything and is uncountable.
So it destroys all the creatures. It destroys all the lands. Uh, and it stores all the artifacts, but not in chairman’s because red doesn’t do that and not Planeswalkers. So this is a combo finish with, um, uh, either Wrenn and Six or Chandra, vomiting it out off of a Kasmina is minus eight, which she generously shares to them.
But it’s one that can’t be counted because one of the things we didn’t really talk about is there were a couple of times where I. Um, was happy. I had it Teferi, Time Raveler and play against blue faeries because I was down ticking Kasmina or another Planeswalker for eight. And I didn’t want my giant spell to be countered, which is something they can do.
Um, but our glittery is uncountable. So you’re using an ability to put an uncountable spell on the stack. That could be either gusted. Luckily it never happened to me. Um, This deck also went, uh, totally all the way up to four Time warps. And, uh, I did include the enter of the infinite and the JS wielder mysteries as a concession to the, the idea that Kasmina could, could do that.
Um, general thoughts on this one, guys, I snuck boom bust in there and I got to tell you, just having an Armageddon is sometimes more than good enough.
Damon Alexander: [00:20:26] Yeah, I caught some of your league with this deck on stream, uh, during the Workday. Don’t tell my boss. Um, and yeah, I thought you, you really picked up on some interesting concepts to try out here with the obliterate as the top.
And I, I completely agree you, uh, When you ultimate Kasmina, uh, is pretty bad. If you, you get a card and they just, you know, cryptic command or whatever, um, that you worked so hard for. And then meanwhile, the double uptick on both Wrenn and Six and Chandra, Uranus is always seem like they were close with running ultimate.
And if they do Time more becomes incredible. It just basically wins the game. Um, if you have a single Wrenn and Six to cast after, then you just get a land back retrace time warp, and let’s do the Time warp again, as they say. I was a little bit less sure about this whole boom bust business. I can understand that I’ve asked this to like a couple of sweepers, but you’re running a full place at, uh, it felt like a little bit more interaction will go a long way in a deck like this.
You didn’t need to have quite so many planes, walkers, but I’m not really sure what interaction you would want.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:21:22] And for anyone who does not know boom-bust is a split card from Time spiral, both halves, our red and the part of boom that you, I don’t know if you picked up on, I don’t know if you’ve ever been aware of.
So boom is one in a red destroy target land you control and destroy target land, and opponent controls. However, If you target a fetch land that you control, and then you hold priority, you can sacrifice it once this is on the stack and you do not go down a land. Um, so my idea was since we were playing as many dorks as we were now, initially he was playing 11.
I did shave that down because we were playing Wrenn and Six is, so there are four Arbor Elf. There are four utopia sprawls in this list, the most explosive synergistic ones I left in there. And, uh, spoiler alert, turned to Chandra, did win me a game. But, um, with the acceleration on one, you can play a fetch land on two and then use that boom, to take your opponent off of land very quickly.
So the idea with boom bust is that half was in fact quite useful. And of course the bust half being a six man of Armageddon. I mean, any Armageddon in a storm, uh, is going to be good enough. And, uh, I definitely have screenshots of at least one game one by just resolving boom with a couple of planes, walkers in play and, uh, and finishing it out from there.
David Robertson: [00:22:38] Excellent. So, I mean, I think at this point it’s like, Kasmina is obviously. Like a synergy piece. Right? So, you know, when we’re looking at Kasmina in pioneer or modern, it seems like the power level isn’t there. You know, she requires you to build your deck in such a way that you, you have to at least have the threat of this combo package in there.
So I don’t know. Where’s your takeaway, are you encouraged to keep brewing, uh, with, with Kasmina a bruise or I feel like Damon felt like, you know, this card is not really paying you off for where it’s asking you to do.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:23:09] I love a good super friends deck. And I like some of these cards that you’re incentivized to play.
Um, it is fun. And while I don’t know if I will continue to do so, um, just because modern can be so brutal, it’s definitely a romp. When you do it. I mean, I was enthused by the level of success that I had. Um, this league would have been a three to 100%. Um, except that one of the opponents had me play out the entirety of game two, where I was taking, uh, turns off of the Wrenn and Six emblem.
I was so short on time in the last game. I didn’t have time to think about the fact that if I used Tamiyo to pick up an obliterate, I was just going to win the game. I picked up a Chandra instead. So, so it’s at least very, very entertaining gameplay. So I wouldn’t be surprised if. Uh, I saw other people trying this stuff out and, uh, I mean, I just, it’s been a while since I’ve been like kind of laughing and having as much fun as this deck was even when I was losing.
So is Kasmina the biggest part of that? Probably not. Can I cut the, enter the infinite? Definitely. But generally speaking, this is something that is entertaining. And if other people want to try it, I highly encourage it just because it was a blast. I mean, as I said, I haven’t been laughing this hard playing games in a while and modern and, um, there’s definitely ways to improve it.
Maybe it is, um, cutting a number of Kasmina, uh, cutting the, enter the infinite and the Jace Wielder of mysteries probably won’t won’t lead you too far wrong. Mmm, and then just hammering out the other numbers. Um, Teferi, Master of Time was less impressive without a view to Barry, but I don’t want to break dance heart.
Damon Alexander: [00:24:47] So that’ll do it for Kasmina. I think Mercedes still an enigma to us. If you have any ideas, please tweet at us @FaithlessMTG and. Uh, before we get to our brew session around Magma Opus, uh, we have some messages for you.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:25:02] When I was younger, I used to spend hours devouring, every new set. I knew every card name, read every article and stayed up late tweaking and tuning.
My decks were always the talk of the LGS, but times changed. And I just can’t seem to keep up. Does this sound familiar? If it does, we’ve got something that can help Serum Visions.
Damon Alexander: [00:25:23] Hi, I’m Dr. and my team of DJs. And I had a simple goal in mind, crushed
David Robertson: [00:25:28] done. Once we did that,
Damon Alexander: [00:25:30] we had some more time and energy.
So we decided to create Serum Visions a twice monthly oral supplement for your magic, the gathering brewing
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:25:37] health taken every two weeks directly through the years, Serum Visions has been proven to increase the playing of non-metal IDEXX, phenoms, and spicy cards by up to 80%.
Damon Alexander: [00:25:49] Unlike other podcasts.
We’re not solely focused on being competitive, maybe even not focused on it at all, because at the end of the day, That’s probably not your focus. What we’re interested in is ideas that excite us and we
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:26:02] hope they’ll excite you. You feel a strong desire to register, burn, call your doctor immediately. Jank brewing is not for everybody and to mix poorly with other hobbies, drugs or alcohol, do not listen to Serum Visions.
If you’re listening to podcasts that deal with standard in a serious way, the makers of Serum Visions are not responsible for any loss tickets, revenue, or Digna Nita, any persons inspired fully or in part by the contained information. Thanks to Serum Visions. I’m inspired, confident. And ready for my next weekly magic.
The gathering tournament. Ask your doctor Serum. Visions is right for you, or just download it. Wherever high quality podcasts are provided the Serum Visions podcast, iterative jank for the modern world.
David Robertson: [00:26:40] And we are back. So what you just heard was, uh, something from the creative lab of Zach rile. He is famous for whipping together. These delightful ad spots in addition to a bunch of super cool. Uh, Simpsons means and things all over the Faithless brewing discord, uh, that was, uh, uh, an ad for his own podcast Serum Visions podcast. He is one of the three co-hosts, uh, along with Brian Madden and a rune. Or jiggy wiggy.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:27:09] Yeah. First time I had to write for anyone else, but, uh, I think I managed to make the other guys sound as good as knowledgeable.
And, uh, they really came through for me. So, uh, I’d love to collaborate if, uh, people on their podcast or anything like that or, or what have you, or if you’re just inspired by me, we’d go make your own ad. It’s really not that hard folks. You just need a, some enthusiasm.
David Robertson: [00:27:30] All right. So our card of the week is Magma Opus.
Damon. Tell us about Magma Opus.
Damon Alexander: [00:27:36] Yeah. So this is Six blue red for the flashy. Prismari mythic rare out of Strixhaven. It is an instant deal for damage divided. As you choose among any number of targets, tap to target permanence, create a four for blue at elemental creature token, and lastly, draw two cards.
And in the cycle of these Prismari cards, that also has. Blue red hybrid, blue, red hybrid discard, Magma Opus, credit, treasure token. And so this is obviously trying to steer you towards either a, just getting a treasure because that’s cool or be casting the card off of, uh, some sort of graveyard effect or just playing a cooler, you know, living Lore style card to the benefits or the new warden Dean or whatever.
I forget the name of the blue one, but that seems more of like a, a draft level, uh, interaction. We however, have some modern and pioneer level interactions with this card.
David Robertson: [00:28:27] Yeah. So this car did see a little bit of play over the weekend. Obviously people are interested in trying out newest Strixhaven cards.
If you’re interested in our thoughts on the newest Decay Strixhaven technology. Go ahead and check out our last episode also with Zach, um, this card, you know, like Damon said, this is the big flashy Prismari card. What were people going to do with it? So we’re going to start our exploration in modern. Um, the first list I have proposed here is a Temur reclamation or excuse me.
Yeah. Is a Temur reclamation list using the car wilderness reclamation. That is a way to get you up to eight men. And so if you have four men and in play, because this is an instant at the end of your turn, you tap format. The reclamation on taps that you get another form and you get to cast your spell.
I will note that this card at EOT is not at its best because you don’t get to normally tap anything for value. If you can cast it in your opponents upkeep, for instance, you get to tap to lands or tap to creatures that might be able to attack. But this is a pretty, I don’t want to say stock, but pretty close to what the stock of the team or reckless used to be.
So you’ve got lightning bolt, Growth Spiral, Remand, Wrenn and Six. On four, you have wilderness reclamation and cryptic command. And then we’re just playing kind of a little bit of an eccentric, more expensive package to try to take advantage of the, and so we have two shark typhoon, one Torrential Gearhulk that can flashback, uh, either cryptic command or, uh, Magma Opus.
Uh, one next is a fate. That’s kinda your inevitability. Uh, and then you have to Magma Opus. So that’s the car we’re sort of speculating on in terms of a couple of things I wanted to note here, I have not liked. Uh, the Ice-Fang Coatl very much. Um, I think it just dies to everything. I think Archmage’s Charm is a really important card right now, and I think it’s really hard to cast Wrenn and Six on two Archmage’s Charm on three and give your snake deathtouch, uh, anywhere near early in the game.
Um, so I just kind of moved away from when I play. I’m playing more Snapcaster mages. Yeah. Uh, this is, uh, just like a place where I’d like to start. I just, I think wilderness reclamation is like kind of the most obvious way to get up to eight men and without doing anything too crazy.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:30:29] Yeah. I mean, it seems wonderfully straightforward.
Um, I played this when it was in, um, standard or the Temur reclamation deck that wasn’t standard, um, during that period. And, uh, I have played the modern version. I mean, this, this is kind of like throwing one copy of a card into the, uh, blue moon decks, uh, that, uh, I think Damon has more familiarity with it’s going to be fine, but I think this.
Maybe specifically speaks to how media Magma Opus is because as you were saying, tapping two things on your end step, when you’re getting all this man is, is really not that spectacular. Do you remember when there was the Torrential Gearhulk with the, um, what is it? The ultra command, the Six man that command sublime, sublime Epiphany.
Is that not just like a huge amount, more beneficial than this during, during your end step, if you’re doing that and cloning, Torrential Gearhulk,
David Robertson: [00:31:25] if you can do both, the thing is sublime Epiphany is not normally in your graveyard already. This card naturally can find its way, your graveyard first. So he is why I’m Tiffany is better, but that’s a 12 man of player to script. Right?
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:31:35] And I, I suppose, splitting for damage is a, is a pretty big deal, uh, in Modern right now. I mean, if we imagine a Heliod, uh, deck against you, you’re going to kill. Um, probably one of their dorks and one of their important creatures splitting at three in one, um, for, for elemental, I don’t know how valuable that is, but trying to cards is good.
Especially if you’re playing some fortunate negations in your deck, uh, as you are here. I mean, yeah. As you said, it’s obvious it’s got good legs and, uh, the, the idea of retracing it with Wrenn and Six someday, it seems like the most amazing thing. I just want to go pig, dude. I want to go big. What do you think Damon?
Damon Alexander: [00:32:12] Yeah. So this is just kind of the key question for us this week is how good is Magma Opus? Dan S interesting question of, of is it costed correctly? Um, and the comparison is supposed to have like a four, four creature ETB trot to deal for. So it’s like a Omnath Flametongue Kavu, but without a lot of what Omnath does actually in terms of, uh, gaining, you know, a ton of life, et cetera, et cetera.
And so that creature that’s just like Mulldrifter flametongue. You know, and modern, if you could play that for six Magma, you’d probably display provable playing. And so like, is that, and this is asking to pay eight. It also has to be instant and a taps too. Um, but it’s kind of like questionable if it is big enough. Um,
David Robertson: [00:32:55] I agree. I, I think, I think in the modern world, I think you’re right Damon and I think it’s probably a little underpowered. That’s why you notice I’m not playing for them. And, and I, listen, I’m proposing there. It’s a little bit more exploratory and modern for all the reasons. I think you, you just outlined.
Damon Alexander: [00:33:07] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And pioneer. I mean, over the time since Strixhaven has been out, we’ve seen a bunch of lists published with Magma Opus and they don’t have a card that, you know, like Primeval Titan. Um, the power level is a little bit lower, uh, while still retaining access to Torrential Gearhulk probably the best card that interacts with Magma Opus.
David Robertson: [00:33:27] Alright. And so my second list is, uh, playing. A Galazeth Prismari as sort of a fifth Urza, but this is an Urza list. So we have a bunch of chief artifacts. Uh, we have four Bauble, two Amber, three explosives, four Gilded Goose, three lightning bolt, three Wrenn and Six, four tireless tracker, three Emry again to Archmage’s Charm.
I think this is a very good car right now. For Urza, Galazeth Prismari is really like the bad Urza, but we don’t get to play more than four versus, and then, um, three cryptic command, one Torrential Gearhulk that’s an artifact that Emry can get back, or it does have for ManaCymbal if you need it to, with Urza or Galazeth and play, and then to Magma Opus again.
So what do you think about this list, Damon?
Damon Alexander: [00:34:11] So, yeah, the theory here is that Urza just produces a ton of manna for you when you cast a lot of good spells plus Magma Opus. My question here is I guess, what is Magma Opus doing for us that, you know, versus any, any other spell in this slot? You know, even like Alrund’s Epiphany, which I don’t think really belongs in this deck, we can play that.
David Robertson: [00:34:29] Well, one of the things I was thinking is that the reason that Magma Opus costs eight is because it has this fail case where you make a treasure and a treasure is actually. Really good. If you have an Urza in play, it’s buffing up your token. It’s uh, it’s functioning is basically, uh, uh, what’s Mox Sapphire.
Is that the blue one? So that was the thought here is you, you can cycle both Magma Opus is, and it’s not that terrible if you have, you know, an Urza or two in play, um, or, and Urza in play or multiple horses resolving throughout the course of the game. Cause it’s just adding a ton of man out to your board, basically.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:35:04] So I played against an notable Urza player. Haubidtran, um, who was at one point, I think the trophy leader during the, uh, sort of one of the classic Urza seasons, I think it was after the and he was playing this deck and he dropped after losing game one, uh, from that, uh, From that match. I think he was like, he did exactly what you suggested.
He made the, the, uh, the treasure token instead of casting the Opus. And you don’t really have any thing to do with that afterwards, unless you get to the Wrenn and Six emblem. Right. I don’t think I’m missing anything here. There’s a, there’s a, Oh, there’s one Torrential Gearhulk yeah. Yeah. Um, so I mean, the trackers a list is actually pretty good.
I was shocked by how good it was. Um, but I don’t really know. I think the guy Galazeth Prismari can, can get outta here drawing two arises is sometimes a death nail and modern. So I definitely don’t think you need a fifth one, but yeah, I’m just not sure what it’s adding, but I, I would encourage Dave to take this one in this week.
At minimum to go experience what Urza is like right now, because you may have real evaluate how busted you think Urza is without enough good artifacts around it can be very lackluster. This deck in particular is really good, and you’re going to be able to cast the Magma Opus if you top deck it later.
And I think this may be actually better than the wilderness reclamation deck that you suggested because similar to cryptic command, the Magma Opus can sort of. Clear out some, some junk from their side. And then you go in with your thick tireless tracker and your giant construct from the Urza and just, just take them down, not super excited about the treasure generation mode, but you know, sometimes you have to fail case, but I could even go up to the third Magma Opus instead of the, the guys are at the Prismari and, uh, in a testing like this.
David Robertson: [00:36:55] Interesting. Okay. So that’s kind of where we’re at in modern. And then I have a bunch of different shells in pioneer. So the first one I have, I called like alluding Prismari list. So this list is playing for Boon of the wish-giver for Magma Opus. And it’s taking advantage of the fact that. Both Torrent Sculptor and living lore are four manager ops.
So you can ramp into them directly by cycling, Magma, Opus, living lore, uh, when it comes into play exiles and in-center sorcery from your graveyard and gets a power and toughness equal to the cast and cost. So if you. Exile Magma Opus on to you. Cast Living Lore on three XL, Magma Opus. You’ve made a format of eight, eight, and then whenever it does combat damage, not to a player to any, at any point, you may sacrifice it and cast a card that’s exiled.
So if you cast this, you may then on your next turn, Cass, Magma Opus. If you damage your opponent or if they block. Yeah. Um, Torrent Sculptor has a similar tax. It actually exiles a car permanently and it gets a number of postal postal encounters equal to half of the CC of the spell exiled rounded up. So for Magma Opus, that’s four for Boon of the Wish-Giver that three. Both of those cars interact very interestingly with discovery / dispersal, uh, discovery is a way to fill up your graveyard filter, et cetera, but the both of those cards see a man, a cost total of seven on that card. And then the rest of the deck is trying to take advantage of the fact that we’re going to have these high power creatures in place.
We have three stubborn denial. Um, we have four bonecrusher, giant, three Rielles or we’re playing for Censor one neutralize for both Boon of the wish giver. And four Magma Opus, we have all these built and discard effects. And retail is just going to be a generically powerful car that draws a bunch of value.
Yeah. So it’s a little bit of a interaction and then it’s just a bunch of big boom booms. I do like the idea of Torrent Sculptor, having that, um, blue Titan, a factory opponents to spend more if the spend four men and a dread boarder, whatever. And then it just so backbreaking tempo wise to be able to stubborn denial that, or even get to censor removal that, that you’re asking your opponent to pay more for.
So when you guys think of this show,
Damon Alexander: [00:39:03] I really like how you isolated the Boon of the wish-giver being like a backup big spell that gets in your graveyard easily to exile along with, uh, the four Torrent Sculptor to pair with four living lore as the other half of this kind of eight and eight synergy. I think that’s really cool.
Yeah. I’m a little bit skeptical of the stubborn denials. Um, I was playing those in the heroes play deck. I was like, Oh, the theory is great. I’m going to get a four power creature. The problem is that like in practice, I take like desk shadow. They played the desk shadow on turn three or turn four sometimes earlier they have their men up for separate denial.
Uh, when you’re playing hard, like bone crusher, giant, or living lore, you may not have men available that turn. You may have to tap out for your three or four drop. And that case there’s this whole window where your summer and I was dead. The were spelled, then you on tap. You have your summer, and I was ready to go, but it’s too late.
Maybe your cut your diet to begin with. So I might, I might kind of think of rethink the interaction is pieces of this deck a little bit.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:39:58] I’m a big fan of the Censor and the Boon of the wish giver, because both of them having cycling gives you something to pretty much always have. If you have a real, because you’re discarding a car, you’re going to draw two, both from the cycling ability and real and saying, Hey, look, you discarded a card.
Let me give you a card to draw. So that, that, that deck building is very clever. And the discovery dispersal. I mean, that just does everything that you want it to do, right? Cause you could just dump the boon in the wish giver or the Magma Opus integrated and immediately and draw past it into whatever you’re looking for.
And then spikefield hazard, being a little something to poke mana dorks, as well as, uh, taking your land count up to sort of virtual 25 is fantastic, but. Yeah. Well, I mean, what is the best kind of other thing to, to play in this format as main deck interaction? Is it mystical dispute or,
Damon Alexander: [00:40:47] yeah, I mean, this is, this is a weird duck in the sense that it’s a blue red deck, but is it trying to be interactive or is it trying to create a Living Lore? Is that. Hit like a truck and then cast Magma Opus, um, as your Living Lore scatters into a four, four plus the spell half. And so like, do you need to interact as much? Like, are you meant to be more of like the tempo or the aggressor?
David Robertson: [00:41:11] Yeah, I guess my concern is like living lore. Doesn’t do anything if they just fatal push it.
So I wanted a way where I’m kind of trying to steal that tempo back. Um, the best removal spells in the format is probably fatal push and then the next best removals spell is probably binding and the old gods. And those both line up pretty well, not with Torrent Sculptor, but very well with living lore in terms of the trade that you’re going to get.
So I’m just trying to like, not lose those interactions. Um, if that involves, like you have your, um, treasure from Magma Opus and so you play, you’re living lore on four, but you still have your treasure. You can sacrifice, you know, if you’re playing a turn behind to do that, Maybe that’s what you have to do, but yeah, I mean, this is, you know, a very theoretical build.
There are up to 15 creatures that could have for power for summer and denial is that enough, you know, Southern and I’ll definitely plays better if you have cheaper, expensive creatures. So it’s probably at its best with bone crusher, giant, the format. For power plus cards are not as good, but yeah, I don’t, I don’t know what the other card would be.
You know, I don’t want to play any more like one man, a shock effects.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:42:17] We’ll not have for power as well. She can, right?
David Robertson: [00:42:20] Yeah, she can. So that’s seven plus the eight.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:42:23] Yeah. You said 12. I think you missed her. Um, I mean, that’s cool. Is there a way to sneak. The best way to cast a Magma Opus into this deck, which is Torrential Gearhulk.
I mean, twenty-five lands plus four Magma Opus makes me think. Maybe you could pull that off.
David Robertson: [00:42:38] Yeah. You could certainly play it. You know?
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:42:40] I mean, that’s, that’s all, I think it needs maybe cut one of the reels three, three might be too high and split it into like one, one Torrential Gearhulk and then, and then grab one from somewhere else.
It’s just because that interaction is so good. And, um, With playing the full four Magma Opus and a bunch of cycling cards. I think you could get there maybe more often than you think. And that’s just such a crazy, powerful play that it might maybe clear the way for your living and lower your Torrent Sculptor to smash it in.
And, um, you know, if it is a living lore, you cast the second Magma Opus and, and then you’re, I mean, you gotta be winning there.
Damon Alexander: [00:43:16] One thing also I’d be interested in is like, Maybe we should be trying to give our living Lore haste. You have to maybe wait another turn cycle to have a, you know, five-oh up. Um, but that way, that even if they do have the fatal push, you can get them when their shields are down.
David Robertson: [00:43:29] Yeah, that’s an interesting thought. I build a bunch of casual decks to that effect. So, uh, I’m not sure the best way to get faced with it.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:43:37] You’re not thinking that the crashing Footfalls in Chapman from Ikoria, are you, I mean, it does have cycling, so it synergizes with Rielle.
Damon Alexander: [00:43:45] That is one option.
David Robertson: [00:43:47] All right.
Onto the next one. So speaking of Torrential Gearhulk this is a list I can get you a Torrential Gearhulk. Whenever you need it. So I had pointed out, we in Prismari command was spoiled that the actual making of the treasurer was going to be great with indomitable creativity. Uh, this is a list that really is trying to maximize that.
So we, um, we’re only playing for creatures. They are Torrential Gearhulk. So every time we sacrifice an artifact and we get an artifact from Prismari command, we get one from Magma Opus, and we’re playing like the lesser version of Magma Opus, creative outburst. Every time we get an artifact that is a target for our indomitable creativity.
And every time we sacrifice an artifact, we are going to hit a Torrential Gearhulk and the Gearhulk is going to cast. Whatever we use to make our token. So it’ll allow us to cast a creative outburst or the Magma Opus or in the absolute fail case. Unfortunately, Prismari command, uh, which is not a very good card, although right now it’s, it doesn’t work correctly on magic online.
So it’s a more powerful than it ought to be. But basically this is like a sort of full control list. So you have some counter spell effects. And then once you kind of get going, the, the hope is that you’re just kind of cycling, you know, into your next Torrential Gearhulk into your next one. You’re also playing shark typhoon.
That’s another body that can be done a little creativity to way. And again, we’ll always hit, um, Torrential Gearhulk and yeah, I think that Gearhulk plus Magma Opus, let’s say you, you know, kill a creature. Also you have nine power in play. I mean, your opponent does die quite quickly. With that kind of power
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:45:18] and splitting the damage from Opus. I mean, that really takes apart a lot of boards. I mean, maybe not the green decks, but anything else that’s trying to play creatures.
Damon Alexander: [00:45:27] Yeah. What’s interesting to me is, does that mean pre all in, on this Gearhulk Opus line? And I think he can do it pretty reliably. It’s built to do that, but is that alone kind of.
Powerful enough, you know, like a legacy deck with an AB combo, it was trying to do something like this is going to be getting a Emrakul off the show and tell or something like that. And this clearly isn’t quite at that power level to, you know, definitely instant win.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:45:50] But, I mean, I think this has gotta be, if this isn’t pioneer power level, I’m going to be a little disappointed with, with pioneer P I mean, any of the aggressive decks are gonna kind of stomp on them and probably close that out in a, in a, in a.
Real second. And then any of the more controlling deck, anything with bringing to light, anything with salt, I ultimatum the emergent ultimatum. You can probably fix that with sideboard slots. You board down board up. It’s sort of a nice middle ground. Like the Emrakul through the breach decks in, in modern.
Damon Alexander: [00:46:23] Well, the aggressive attacks or, you know, Swift End your Gearhulk Fatal Push your token, bring back Scrapheap scrounger um, maybe you, maybe you’re drawing too. You can just do it again. Uh, yeah, it’d be interesting to find out.
David Robertson: [00:46:37] All right. And then my phone final list is like a Temur Opus list. So. Wilderness reclamation banned in pioneer appropriately.
So this list is basically like a flash list. Uh, playing growth spiral is our ramp spell, and it’s just trying to do it the old fashioned way. So Magma Opus is just another car we can cycle to our graveyard. We’re also trying to maybe hit Dig Through Time. Uh, very powerful top end Nightpack Ambusher is a card I think is actually very good.
Right now it’s a card I’ve been looking for an excuse to play. Uh, slots in perfectly in here. A Eureka moment, I think is a, is a really powerful for drop that. No, one’s really talking about. It’s a, like a bad Growth Spiral. What do you want to call it? A draw to only put one land into play. So not quite a double growth spiral.
So it’s a card. If you growth spiral on two. Eureka moment on three, the next one you could Torrential Gearhulk and recast your Eureka moment. So that’s kind of cool. Obviously Nightpack, Nightpack Ambusher are very good against other control lists, especially like Jeskai list. They don’t have easy ways to, um, kill it once it’s in play.
These other Torrential Gearhulk lists, for instance, they have to basically resolve like a Magma Opus, like effect to get it. Yeah. And then just playing like normal control cards. Uh, there’s a neutralize. There’s a Censor, Sinister sabotage a couple bonecrusher giants, et cetera.
Damon Alexander: [00:47:58] This list actually feel funny things, David, this list is so sweet
David Robertson: [00:48:02] in and he’d be in, I even stuck in one decisive denial.
So decisive denial, kind of a cool card, uh, with a split mode. It also works really well. Torrential Gearhulk. So when you want that to be, you know, a bad negate, it can be that, but Gearhulk gives you the body that lets you fight. So as long as your opponent’s creature is only five, five, it gives you a flash backable way to kill larger creatures, which is something that red really struggles to do. In this one.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:48:26] We haven’t mentioned shark typhoon Hardcast plus Magma Opus. I mean, I want an eight, eight shark that just dealt for damage and put a four for elemental into play alongside them. I’m in like, let’s go. I love it. I love it. Good stuff. And w what if I didn’t want to meme, David, do you have anything for someone who doesn’t want a meme?
David Robertson: [00:48:46] Yeah. So I’ve really been tooling around a lot with trying to find a home for decisive to not. And I thought it was really powerful card. I thought Damon made a great point that, you know, the sort of turn one Llanowar Elf turned to three mana gigantic creature. They don’t necessarily have time to play decisive denial.
They don’t want to leave to mana up. They’re going to tap out. Uh, all the time. So I was like, what is the best way to do that? And I think that is a flash list. So I have a blue-green flash list here. That’s kind of a throwback to like the standard days of your it’s not relying on, um, Magma Opus. It’s not relying on red at all.
So it’s just, blue-green there are three decisive denials in it. The creatures that, uh, Quote, unquote, work with it. Our Brineborn cutthroat the four Nightpack Ambusher and then you have a Nissa who shakes the world kind of on your top end, along with shark typhoon. Uh, this is a list that I played to a four one.
It felt great. I mean, I put Nightpack Ambusher to me, it just felt awesome. And it’s a great card against a lot of what the format is doing, which is like really slow ponders control. I’m talking about like the Yorion. Whatever shells, including Niv-Mizzet and uh transmogrify and then it’s, it is, uh, it is a big body.
It’s like a fine blocker against red. You don’t have to spend plus it probably gets to block or, or it’s a straight up two for one, um, decisive, denials, like do double duty, a counter spring delight against Mono red or whatever. Uh, you know, you flashing your Nightpack Ambusher and then you’re fighting their, uh, whatever crappy little two two.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:50:13] Yeah, all these ponderous decks, I have a plan, but then you just get in there and punch them in the mouth. So it seems like the right way to do
Damon Alexander: [00:50:20] so with these lists behind us, where do you think you’ll start, David?
David Robertson: [00:50:24] I want to cast Eureka moment. I’ve been, uh, like champing at the bit to play this. Dan is a hater or a non-believer or whatever term you want to use, but yeah, I’m in for this list.
Uh, I w I want to cast a slice of denial. I want to cast. Magma Opus. You can just Torrential. Gearhulk getting back, Dig Through Time. It feels awesome for people who remember doing that. So, uh, I that’s where I’m going to stop.
Damon Alexander: [00:50:44] Yeah. This team rope, this deck really speaks to me. Exactly. Be able to play in these texts on the stream. What’s your plan for the week?
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:50:50] Oh man. You know, I’ll be able to play these on streams. If people want to tune into them or get updates on what decks. I’m going to be playing. Usually I tweet that out before I go live and it’s, uh, eight till late, most, uh, most weeknights, unless I’m taking a night off. So, um, if you do check out my Twitter, if you do check out my YouTube, you can always find the recordings and uploads.
And, um, that’s an Eastern standard time, 8:00 PM.
David Robertson: [00:51:13] And that is twitch.com backslash ManaCymbal cymbal. Like the instrument. And at ManaCymbal again, cymbal like the instrument on Twitter.
Zach Ryl (ManaCymbal): [00:51:22] Correct. So there are so many of these that are awesome. Um, certainly some of them that all tinker tinker with first, I think Magma Opus specifically speaks to, uh, an excuse for me to play a little more pioneer.
Uh, when I did play the best deck and pioneer the Narset BTL list, uh, bring to light list. That was a good time for me. Uh, I got reminded that black, white auras is still very much a deck and we’ll kill it unturned for. So, um, but that the pioneer format is amazing. And I got some Torrential Gearhulk in a binder behind me that are just itching to get played in paper someday soon enough.
Um, so it seems like everything’s coming together and maybe that is. Something that I could be doing in the near future.
Damon Alexander: [00:52:04] Yeah. I can’t wait to see some of your stream. Uh, on the sec, that’s going to be a wrap for this week on Magma Opus. Will we be making treasures in the loser’s bracket or casting our eight man of bomb, mythic rare in the winters brackets.
Only time will tell.
David Robertson: [00:52:20] Alright, take care, gentlemen.
Damon Alexander: [00:52:22] See ya. That’s a wrap on episode eight of Strixhaven season tune in next week for our testing results and download the latest tech list as Faithless brewing.com. Support for this podcast is provided by brewers like you, if you like what we do. Be sure to join our community@patrion.com slash Faithless brewing for discord access bonus content and more that’s all for today.
Stay safe and we’ll see you next time. Yeah.
