Reality Shift

Instant

Exile target creature. Its controller manifests the top card of his or her library. (That player puts the top card of his or her library onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. If it's a creature card, it can be turned face up at any time for its mana cost.)

Discussion (49)

Asmoeus on Duality Upgraded

3 days ago

Flood of Tears to replace Cyclonic Rift - budget replacement.

Impulse instead of Jeska's Will - budget replacement.

Leap vs. Shadow Rift

Reality Shift vs. Expansion / Explosion

Highland Lake instead of Steam Vents - budget replacement

CannedCanOpener on Urza

2 weeks ago

I've got an Urza deck of my own, and I prefer having something like Thassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in order to win on the spot once you exile your entire library with infinite mana. Monoblue has no lack of card draw spells so this is more nitpicky than anything, but Jace or the Oracle can win with just themselves once you've emptied your library instead of having to cast Lab Man then cast a draw spell. I also enjoy Karn, the Great Creator to slow your opponents' ramp down or lock them out of the game with Mycosynth Lattice, kill their 0-drop rocks by animating them into 0/0s, or return a vital artifact combo piece from exile if needed. And since you're running Rings of Brighthearth already, you might like the Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth combo to generate infinite colorless mana, then you can use that colorless to generate infinite blue by tapping the Monolith for U instead of CCC if you need to cast stuff from your hand.

I also couldn't help but notice that you aren't running anything particularly cruel like Tsabo's Web (which doesn't care if it's tapped or untapped), Static Orb or Winter Orb which you can tap for mana on the end step before your turn to be unaffected by them, or Back to Basics. And you seem to be lacking some removal spells for on-board problems - some good ones to possibly consider are Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Ravenform, Reality Shift, and Imprisoned in the Moon.

Lokotor on Marchesa, The Black Rose - Primer

1 month ago

Quodan

Fain, the Broker Is ok, but a bit slow. I would consider it in a budget list possibly, but I think there are generally better sacrifice outlets you could pick from.

Kalain, Reclusive Painter I don't like. you need to devote a lot of space to treasure production and there's really not a lot of cards that fit the bill on that end, and it's too limited to rely only on his own ability to make treasures. in a pirate focused list where you're making a lot of treasures it might be a better fit, but in general I wouldn't bother with it.

Plumb the Forbidden is definitely a playable card, I generally steer more towards creature based card draw like Baleful Strix, Watcher for Tomorrow and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician since they tend to provide better value over a game, but you could certainly play this as well. I have it in my budget list, although the price has gotten a bit higher lately.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Doesn't really do a lot here. I think it's a much better card in formats like legacy and modern than in commander and it doesn't really create the right kind of value for a marchesa deck the way I run it (aristocrats) he doesn't have evasion and is a fairly small body, so you'll probably find it hard to connect and so I think a lot of the time he's going to just sit around and do nothing.

TraceT

Resculpt is definitely something you could play. It's pretty much directly comparable to Reality Shift and you could certainly play either or both.

itsbuzzi on The Pioneer Blues

1 month ago

I never claimed any sort of notion that one deck would always beat another. If you can somehow find where I said that would can concede happily. Even the worst made deck would eventually beat a competitive build given randomness of shuffling and mana screw/flood.

Against faster decks I would agree that would be the gameplan. Your deck is fast but not the fastest on the field so you may need a removal spell to stabilize. If you argue otherwise you have too much confidence in your build. Even a deck at the same speed can go quicker given the first turn against you.

The only purpose for taking out Singing Bell Strike and replacing it with Reality Shift is to have some sort of response, and almost a worst one at that given you trade your opponents creature with a 2/2 instead of tapping it down effectively the rest of the match given they would not reach turn 6 to use the ability. I could see if they had nonland removal you would then make the trade but otherwise the mana value with both are the same.

I don't recall seeing I made the claim that your list wasn't a good list. At this point I will explicitly claim that your list is a good list but my previous point of irl playing will always be better than playing against yourself and in that way I would choose not to utilize the list and use it as just a simple list of meta decks. But as previously said, and not sure if my point has gotten across, but if this is the best playtesting method you can come to more power to you.

itsbuzzi on The Pioneer Blues

1 month ago

There isn't really anything for me to comment on with that response only that playtesting irl is always better than playtesting yourself. You'll always have biased plays that will not play out as a real opponent would whether you made a call differently or didn't make a mistake the opponent would have. The list itself is wonderful but from the standpoint of a single user using all these decks there would be some error involved. Not to say this error would be substantial, but still less so effective than a real opponent using their real deck that may also be different than the deck in the gauntlet. To sum up there is no substitute for the real thing but to say the gauntlet is useless is very drastic and not what I was trying to get across.

But just to add due to the updated manner of the gauntlet I would probably utilize it to get a feel for a meta similar to MTGgoldfish metagame lists. It sounds like you have the time to playtest but maybe not the manpower so what you personally are looking for for playtesting and what you have set up is the most effective playtesting method you can do and I applaud that. There are a few people I can think of that netdeck the best deck and try it out without a second thought at an event and wonder why they did so poorly having not played the deck at all prior.

I would argue that against some deck you would want both Reality Shift and Singing Bell Strike to double your chances of having the removal in the off chance your entire gameplan resolves around getting at least 1 removal spell to win the tide or stabilize. Perhaps add a sideboarding guide to your decks to write down what the choices are and in writing it you may find a more useful method of sideboarding.

Argy on The Pioneer Blues

1 month ago

TriusMalarky like you, I assumed that the opponent would keep paying to attack with the creature tapped by Singing Bell Strike

In reality, they just untapped it once, then left it as a blocker.

Padeem is needed against that deck for draw, so stays in.

It's just the one swap - Ugin's Fate in, and Singing Bell Strike out.

Argy on The Pioneer Blues

1 month ago

I don't see how the Pioneer gauntlet I set up is subpar. I upgrade it from time to time with the current top tier meta decks.

I did that recently, and posted about it in the Pioneer forum on this site.

I see you agree with me that play tests aren't the be all and end all. As I said above, they are really only useful to see if an idea works for a deck, or to test a new card in the build.

I can't remember if I've told many people on this site, "My deck can beat yours easily". Maybe once or twice, in seven years, and only if they were being a jerk to somebody else.

As for doing a couple of play throughs against another deck, if you read what I wrote above, I do a minimum of five matches between two decks, when play testing.

That means I play an opponent's deck between 10 and 15 times. I get to know them quite well.

If I'm unsure how a meta deck is supposed to work, I look it up on YouTube.

I play test every time I have a moment to myself. Around five hours each day.

This is when I am building a new deck. Once I am happy with a deck I just do a bit of practice each day, to keep in mind how to pilot my deck against others in my local meta.

I know exactly how those decks work, because I have played against them irl.

I will also play test against other random decks on this site. Which is a terrific resource.

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I think we have strayed off discussing my build, here.

I have some initial results with Singing Bell Strike

It has proven excellent to get that card out for 2MV, as opposed to Claustrophobia's 3MV.

There has been one deck where Claustrophobia would have been better, because it makes the games go longer, and can easily scrape together the to untap from Singing Bell Strike

It then just left that large creature up as a blocker.

However, my Sideboard plan against that deck is to swap the tapchanment for Reality Shift so I don't see that as a deal breaker.

Playing against Aggro decks is where Singing Bell Strike has really shone. They just don't have the mana to untap from it. Or if they do, they would rather spend it on other things.

itsbuzzi on The Pioneer Blues

1 month ago

Personally regarding legendaries I find that having 1 in deck you'll never see it, having 2 you may see 1 a game, having 3 you are more likely to see 1 a game and won't get the second and with 4 copies you'll see at least 1 usually 2 so I very much agree with the amount of legendaries in the deck. Reality Shift is an amazing card as well if the removal needs to be faster going from 3 MV to 2 is a great place to be.