Gitaxian Probe

Sorcery

( can be paid with either or 2 life.)

Look at target player's hand.

Draw a card.

Discussion (51)

bossomus on Play Less With Kess

5 days ago

ManaLink1. Competitive Less decks usually follow along the lines of something as follow:

1. Play lots of Mana rocks

2. Play lots of wheels and counter spells until you find the wincon

3. Play Timetwister to reset and wheel if you need cards in your graveyard

4. Play Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal imprinted and create infinite mana

5. Play Comet Storm

The deck used to be more consistent as you could use isochron with a counterspell imprinted and Paradox Engine to almost guarantee that you would go off, but the recent banning of engine means that it's quite a bit harder to do.

If you really want to increase your competitive viability though, you definitely need:

• Gamble

• Timetwister

• Force of Will

• Dispel

• Mental Misstep

• Gitaxian Probe

• Preordain

• Serum Visions

And essentially, remove most of your more expensive counter spells for cheaper ones that target other people's counterspells. Your goal is to combo off and not care much about what other people do. So, if someone counters one of your combos, you need to have the Mana and correct counters to respond. Cards like misstep allows you to counter other people's counters without any mana which is huge. The others help you find your answers by deck thinning essentially.

Lastly, you could do with some better lands if you really want to be competitive. Honestly, a lot of people run fetches so that they can grab all of the shock lands or original dual lands which Mana fixes them but also thins their deck. You also need more ramp just in general. This could be done with:

• Mana Vault

• Mana Crypt

And just generally more moxes. The only one I'd remove is Mox Amber since you rarely actually want Kess out unless you absolutely need her.

Best of luck!

NAHS901 on OONA, Queen of the Combo

6 days ago

Ponder and Preordain are already in the deck, and my original art Opt is taking the spot of Gitaxian Probe . I also added in the description that you could add more cantrips to make it a little faster as well.

I havent gotten around to keeping this list as updated when it comes to versions of cards on my MTGGOLDFISH LIST seen here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2355693#paper

DoWell on OONA, Queen of the Combo

6 days ago

Gotcha. My response to people running cards I hate is to just run more counters and removal, but to each his own. My oona has 15 basics for now because I'm running back to basics. But that it is my next card to be removed so the land base will change again soon.

One last card that will help you lab man out without needing mana is Gitaxian Probe it's also very good for early game threat assessment. Give it a try!

More one drops worth running would be Ponder and Preordain

RNR_Gaming on How good is infect?

1 week ago

Probably the Gitaxian Probe banning if I had to guess

king-saproling on Melek, The Heartless

2 weeks ago

The Proteus Staff is genius! You might like these: Turnabout , Brass's Bounty , Call to Mind , Relearn , Memory Lapse , Gitaxian Probe

gingerthewritingdog on Niv-Miz on a Budget

2 weeks ago

Try running Gitaxian Probe over one of your card-draw enchantments.

Also, here is a link to my Kykar commander deck, which uses a similar strategy with cantrips.

Sounded on Chulane CIA (cEDH Chulane Primer)

3 weeks ago

Hi! I have seen your reddit thread and as such I am attempting a winconless Chulane deck too. So far my wincon (once infinite mana is reached and all my lands and creatures are on the battlefield and all my deck has been drawn) has been this loop: Beast Within + Reality Shift + Seasons Past + Gitaxian Probe . My deck also includes the Eternal Witness + Winds of Rebuke combo. What do you think of these two as winconless win conditions? Also, it would be of great help if you could check my brew and give me suggestions to go even more winconless. I got 3 free slots, don't know what to put on them. Here is the decklist, Thanks in advance.

SideBae on [cEDH] Chulane's Bounce House

3 weeks ago

I mean, my personal guess at the 'best' combo for this deck is the breakfast hulk package. You already have Flash and Protean Hulk , so fitting it in shouldn't be too hard. Basically you'd just have to run Cephalid Illusionist and Nomads en-Kor in addition to your Laboratory Maniac . Essentially what happens is you fetch all three with Protean Hulk 's trigger, then target the Cephalid Illusionist with Nomads en-Kor 's ability until your library is milled. (Because of the way it is worded, Nomads en-Kor doesn't actually need to have damage coming at it in order for it to target with its ability.) Then you'd just need to draw a card to win, since Laboratory Maniac is out already -- see Gitaxian Probe , your general, etc. If you choose to go this route, it may be helpful to think of your general as a value engine rather than an integral part of the combo, sort of like Kess, Dissident Mage or Tasigur, the Golden Fang .

I see that Finale of Devastation works well with infinite mana, but I still don't think it merits an include. My reasoning is that with infinite mana there're going to be easier ways to win, such s the Walking Ballista you mentioned. Generally you want your combo pieces to be as relevant as possible even without the full combo, since this will mean there'll be fewer 'dead'-ish cards in your deck. Natural Order to grab Craterhoof Behemoth is about as relevant as you can get, since it is a pretty easy way to eliminate a few players or even win on the spot.

I think if you focus the deck on one or two combos plus potentially a combat win-con (see Craterhoof Behemoth ), you'll find you have plenty of room in your list. This is one of the reasons that you want to focus on just a few combos in each deck: Since you're focused on them, you can include tutors, interaction, ramp and a whole lot else rather than four or five combo packages. In short, it'll let you have more relevant cards to top-deck and your average card power will go up. Tutors can help fetch the combo when you're ready to win... Worldly Tutor is a good way to grab Protean Hulk . Tangentially, Silence is a good way to protect your combo.

If you take my advice, that means you'll be able to cut some of the most unreliable/delicate combos. I've never been a fan of Cloud of Faeries or Peregrine Drake , so those'd be the first I'd cut. If you run tutors (which you do in the form of Eladamri's Call , Chord of Calling etc.) you don't have to run Whitemane Lion AND Kor Skyfisher AND Dream Stalker AND Shrieking Drake -- any two of these will do. My personal preference would be to Shrieking Drake because of its low CMC and Whitemane Lion because of its flash, but if you have a bunch of Mental Misstep players running around (I do) you may want to consider other options.

I think Uncage the Menagerie is probably just worse than a Green Sun's Zenith or Worldly Tutor . I'd cut it, but if your experience dictates otherwise please ignore me. (Note that GSZ can grab your Dryad Arbor turn one.)

Muddle the Mixture is, pardon the pun, a card I've always had mixed feelings about. I generally don't think it's very good, simply because it is three mana to transmute and you have to do that at sorcery speed. I also don't think the Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal loop is ideal in this deck, so cutting all three of those is on the table. Like I said in my first comment, I think you'd have more luck running cards like Collector Ouphe to slow down your opponents while you go for other combos like Flash with Protean Hulk .

I'm not sure, but I think Silence would probably be better than Ranger-Captain of Eos if you're going for a combo build.

Right. That's the best I've got for now. Let me know if I can help any more.