Scheming Symmetry
Modern forum
Posted on July 12, 2019, 2:52 p.m. by dingusdingo
Upon seeing the new M20 Scheming Symmetry I thought it had some potential for serious applications.
My first thought was slotting it in Lantern Control, being able to break parity on it with Codex Shredder and changing the Pyxis slot to Shriekhorn or something similar. It would work in tandem with or replace Whir of Invention , and breaking parity on it with a mill card means its Vampiric Tutor in modern at sorcery speed without life loss. Seems like a great application, but does the deck benefit from it over Whir of Invention or something else?
I also thought about a more control oriented build that tries to break parity on it with shuffle and mill effects outside a lantern kind of shell. Winds of Rebuke offers board control. Any kind of shuffle effect on an opponent also breaks parity on the card, so you could run cards like Psychic Surgery or Psychogenic Probe
I think there are a lot more ways to break parity on this card than people realize, and it will be Vampiric Tutor in modern. I'm also guessing buying a handful now to sell later could be profitable $$$
I've been wondering about Scheming Symmetry . My gut feeling is that if you prep a Thief of Sanity or whatever, it's pretty heavily telegraphed once you cast Symmetry. They're going to dig up an extra land or something not currently useful. But as I think about it, the next step would be to let them keep whatever uselessness they searched for. No cards get revealed, so you have to make a prediction.
I like the Lantern Control thought. I think if it's going to find a home anywhere, it's going to be there or some new deck with Psychic Surgery .
July 12, 2019 6:45 p.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #4
Any deck that runs Thought Scour seems like it can run Scheming Symmetry which draws your card while milling your opponent at instant speed. I've seen it as a 2-of in Latern Control so far (Whir is instant speed, so it looks like most people are preferring it still), and many people in UBx Mill are excited to play with it in conjunction with Hedron Crab & Thought Scour (easy mill) and Archive Trap due to the forced search. For mill go turn 1 fetch Watery Grave play Crab, turn 2 play symmetry, play land to mill opponent then draw your archive trap you searched to the top with a thought scour or Visions of Beyond . There are quite a few applications for the card, and I think it will be interesting to see where it goes in both modern and legacy.
July 12, 2019 8:55 p.m.
The problem is that Symmetrie on its own is terrible and the Symmetrie breaking card is mostly also terrible on it's own.
You'd have to find a shell where you need such an effect and can find a good symmetry breaker. It also shouldn't be to bad if you have only one piece at the time.
There might very well be a shell where this is quite good but I wouldn't put my money I to it to be honest.
July 12, 2019 10:31 p.m.
dingusdingo says... #6
I appreciate all the thoughts guys.
Cosi's Trickster Thief of Sanity and Thada Adel, Acquisitor would be an interesting beatdown deck alongside Psychogenic Probe . It's definitely a telegraphed play, but either way you're still breaking parity and getting a tutor to topdeck for
I think that Scheming Symmetry and Psychic Surgery has a lot of potential. I found an older janky deck that ran Psychic Surgery with Extirpate and Surgical Extraction . A 1 cost anything tutor could certainly be an enabler for that deck, and it triggers Psychic Surgery
I also think Symmetry has some potential in combo decks. If you can draw the card and use it to combo off, you negate the opponent getting the card by flat out winning.
As far as the price, once people realize the large amount of cards that shuffle or mill an opponent, I bet this card will go up. It also has potential in other formats too, especially Commander. It has a few applications, its a 1 cmc tutor with a drawback that many effects can get around, and it can cause an opponent to shuffle.
July 13, 2019 12:43 a.m.
That Extirpate deck reminds me of a " Surgical Extraction " tribal deck I saw a while back (I think on MTGGoldfish) that had Kaya, Orzhov Usurper as the wincon after exiling a ton of cards. I doubt it's competitive, but it seems fun. If you want it to actually be good I think your best bet is lantern control.
July 13, 2019 3:25 p.m.
Swamp + Scheming Symmetry + 4x Archive Trap for that gozu turn 1 win.
July 13, 2019 5:35 p.m.
Flooremoji says... #9
sylvannos: Why not just go for the gold with 4x Chancellor of the Dross , 2x Soul Spike ;)?
I don't like Scheming Symmetry , as you are losing a card for the tutor, not putting into your own hand is really painful. I do agree that it could be fun with some of the listed cards, but I don't think it will work as a two card combo, I thinnk it would need to be more "1 card combo", but I might be wrong. I do sort of hope it finds it's way into a storm list or somthing.
July 14, 2019 2:11 a.m.
dingusdingo says... #10
Well boys, more than a year later I was proven correct about the price spike. The spoilering of Opposition Agent in Commander Legends has caused Scheming Symmetry to begin climbing. I hope everybody bought their playsets already as I expect prices to continue to rise
While the Opposition Agent is a printing for commander/eternal, I think this proves that Scheming Symmetry has a lot of potential to pop off with new printings for Modern. This will be a card I keep returning to with new sets being released.
October 28, 2020 4:28 a.m.
Yeah now I really want to kill people with Archive Traps and Scheming Symmetry.
Just imagine getting hit by something like Lotus Petal -> Swamp -> Dark Ritual -> Opposition Agent -> Scheming Symmetry -> Archive Trap on turn one lmao
October 28, 2020 4:14 p.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #12
I bought 14 when M20 came out. Wondering if I should sell now or hold out for a better price.
Snowmen1 says... #2
I made a lantern control list using Scheming Symetry. I am by no means a lantern control player, but I just wanted to try to make a deck with the concept of using it in mind. I really havent devoted much time to developing the list or even completing it, but here it is. I included a 1 of vengeful pharoah because you could find it off scheming and still ruin your opponents search with ghoulcallers bell. Like I said, I just made that list in 5 minutes, its definately bad, but just something I made to get started with.https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/scheming-lantern-2/
July 12, 2019 4:28 p.m.