Portent: anyone play it?
General forum
Posted on April 22, 2016, 12:27 p.m. by capriom85
Does it see play anywhere? Seems like a powerful effect to be able to Brainstorm for your opponent if you want to. I mean, you can basically set them back by burying something you may know they need or shuffling a good next three draws away. I know it total chance on the shuffle, but...there are worse cards. Does the chance of no immediate effect on the game make it not powerful enough for play?
BloodoftheBloodMoon says... #3
The difference between the two is sorcery speed compared to instant speed. Say someone goes to thoughtseize you. You can hide cards in your hand by casting brainstorm and putting the important ones on top of your deck. You can also get rid of dead cards in your hand with brainstorm. Also it takes away your opponent's info from them. Say after a gitaxian probe, you brainstorm, put two cards back, then crack a fetch. He now knows nothing about your hand. Did you shuffle away two lands or did you shuffle away a couple of spells. All in all, brainstorm has much more versatility to it than portent.
April 22, 2016 12:40 p.m.
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #4
I don't really think its worth playing in anything. Fateseal can already do that, and I'd rather play a ponder on myself.
April 22, 2016 12:44 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #5
Yeah, one mana in legacy is way too much of a commitment for this ability which honestly doesn't do anything but draw a card. It's basically s powerful as scry one, which is like a third of a card's worth of advantage. When your opponents are getting 1.5-2 cards for one mana from ponder and brainstorm, this is just infinitely worse.
April 22, 2016 1:13 p.m.
Makes sense. I don't play legacy so I had no clue what gets done there
April 22, 2016 2:06 p.m.
i played it as another Brainstorm/Ponder/Preordain/Serum Visions variant in my 720 cube, but it and Sleight of Hand got cut on the reduction to 512. it's worse in constructed formats than those other cards, and most decks don't need 24 versions of a 1-mana blue card selection effect.
April 22, 2016 3:49 p.m.
24 copies, not versions.
also i think the ability to affect your opponent's draw doesn't make it worth playing over the rest. obviously people use jace's fateseal ability sometimes, but that's only because it's strapped onto a planeswalker with other more valuable modes.
JWiley129 says... #2
It's closer to Ponder than Brainstorm, but even then it feels bad.
April 22, 2016 12:29 p.m.