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 (51)

Tzefick on Pattern Recognition #136 - Counters

18 hours ago

I think counter magic is perfectly fine as a concept. It's a way to deal with issues, before they actually become an issue and it examplifies one of blue's main weaknesses: Difficulty in dealing with the board. I used to hate counterspells when I got into Magic again (during Lorwyn, damn Faeries), as they simply seem like a disability to play the game; "I want to play something." - "You may not". I have since accepted their place in the game and their importance.

The reason I still do dislike counter magic is because it exists to provide a strength to cover a weakness. A weakness that since then has been partially filled out by strong answers to the board over the course of Magic's history. One of the main offenders is Cyclonic Rift , especially present in Commander and other multiplayer formats that are significantly slower than Duel Magic (1 on 1). Other offenders are cards that really should be enchantments, but opted for a more nefarious although simpler route: Curse of the Swine and Reality Shift , and their predecessors; Pongify and Rapid Hybridization .

As said by Berry in the article; Blue has the ability to change something from one thing to another. We have also seen various types of such polymorphing done in enchantment form; Darksteel Mutation , Lignify , Frogify . All of this makes perfect sense in what blue is capable of doing.

However doing a change irreversibly like the Curse of the Swine or Reality Shift, is giving hard answers to a color whose weakness is hard answers - at least on the board. Yeah, you replace them with a creature, but a much weaker creature and if a token, one you can permanently remove by having it change zone.

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Another issue with counter magic is the tempo shift. The opponent casts a 5 mana spell, you cast a 2-3 mana counter spell. Suddenly there's a disparity of 2-3 mana in the counterspeller's favor. It is mainly equalized because the blue player must have ready mana, resulting in that player not developing their own board state. However that can again be offset by utilizing instant speed spells or abilities that either advance board state or card draw for the blue player.

If the blue player didn't have these chances to apply disparity in mana spent and benefit, the color would struggle to have meaningful strengths, I know that. However the issue is in finding the fine line between how much mana disparity is acceptable. The cat is out of the bag on this one, as there have already been printed numerous versions of unconditional counterspells that have set a precedent for what blue counterspells are allowed to do and how cheaply.

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If you compare a counterspell to a destroy spell, the main difference is obviously zone of application and also timing of application. One proactive, one reactive (well actually both are reactive, but you probably know why I have to make a distinction). Reactive spells provide a lot more flexibility in when you're required to use them. Their main problem is that sometimes reactive spells are too late to cause the same mana disparity that a counterspell does. As soon as that permanent hits the battlefield, an ability may come into effect, be it triggered, static or active. A reactive spell cannot avoid that.

Also take into account that blue can deal with any spell in existence, with the possible exception of spells with Split Second, specifically designed to be uninteractive - and still they can be interacted with . If there's a spell that is uncounterable, you can get creative with Venser, Shaper Savant , Time Stop , Mindbreak Trap , Ashiok's Erasure , there's load of ways to get around "uncounterable". Blue is also the color that will straight up see a threat on the board and simply take it for themselves, with Control Magic , Gather Specimens , Blatant Thievery , Expropriate . Effectively a removal, card draw and threat all in one.

No other color can boast the same catch all mechanic. White comes close for something in the same ballpark, but it is still just a bleak imitation - as countermagic goes. And evidently look at that price tag.

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In the earlier days of Magic, blue was not the only user of countermagic. I feel like you could provide other colors with more conditional types of countermagic, to better even it out. And not just anti countermagic like Guttural Response . Blue would still be the best, but not the sole user. - White is a color that protects itself, so something like Hindering Light is the most likely avenue to take White Countermagic, anything that touches my stuff - go away. Think Equinox in terms of templating but not necessarily that specific. Giving their spells on the stack protection from a color or supertype or plain "old" Hexproof. - Green already has an affinity to provide hexproof to their stuff, Heroic Intervention and Veil of Summer , so expanding on that seems reasonable. - Red could go the Fork / Shunt route but is unlikely to get countermagic that straight up nullifies other types of spells than spells with targets. - Black is kinda difficult. The usual is just to tack an alternative payment of life, cards or permanents on an otherwise Blue card. Black already have an indirect proactive answer through selective discard, like Duress . The issue is these are all sorcery speed, so if an opponent suddenly starts drawing a lot of cards, it can be difficult for black to be proactive in time. So perhaps just providing Duress at instant speed through a condition would be acceptable. Something like "Instant Duress may be cast as an instant if an opponent has drawn two or more cards this turn." / "Instant Duress may be cast as an instant if the target opponent has 5 or more cards in hand". Any kind of variation on that.

Of course some would talk about color pie bleeding/breaking, but ain't that already happening by giving blue hard removal (by proxy) and large scale soft board removal? I know some of these issues are mainly aimed at multiplayer formats, but we cannot ignore that Magic has grown to be something else than only Duel Magic (1 on 1). Blue's counter magic is here to stay, but is it too much to ask that the other colors can get even slightly in on the action if not directly, then indirectly by interacting more with the stack?

Green has one of the best palettes available to them for a slightly slower format; mana ramp, card draw, large threats, ability to scale well, protective measures, explosive finishers and a hell lot of combo potential and pieces.

I think Green is only beaten slightly by Black in terms of Commander due to tutors in a singleton format. And because Black can cheat mana costs or pays differently, has access to card draw and good finishers, along many more combo pieces.

Blue is one of the only colors that reliably can stop combo or finishers dead in their tracks. Reversibly, they are the color best suited to keep those combos or finishers uninterrupted. They have the best access to card advantage and resource manipulation. And extra turns.

There's a reason that many cEDH decks are mainly some variation of Sultai colors (Green, black and blue) with maybe one added color or full WUBRG. I think this picture would be more diverse, if more colors became able to interact better. The ability to interact is one of the core foundations and strengths of Magic. Counter magic is a pillar of this interaction, more colors should find a way to do it or something similar.

alechodgin23 on Drawing Dead

4 days ago

I personally don't like Avatar of Woe , Endbringer , or Oona, Queen of the Fae . Their Mana costs are way too high and so easy to remove. I personally don't they'll do you much good. The main reason why is because I like to keep my average comvererted Mana cost pretty low. If any of these, I'd run Endbringer but he specifically cost a diamond Mana. That's not just any Mana. That will be hard to cast a lot of the time unless you have a solid ring out which is definitely not every game.

I'd never run Avatar of Woe simply because there's so many cheap or 0 cost targeted removal spells. Time after Time, you'll cast her and she'll be removed. That's a turn wasted. I'd rather run more efficient forms of removal: Snuff Out , Sickening Shoal , Vendetta , Reality Shift , and Rapid Hybridization .

Kazierts on Blind Eternities Summoning

4 days ago

Yeah... I know that feeling of selling cards I shouldn't have.

Since you are crazy enough to wanna hear my suggestions, then here I come. I have to say one thing before though. A sideboard is somewhere you can put cards to switch between matches to fix your deck's weak point. So, even if have one Garruk, absolutely mainboard him. That would make the deck more consistent. Having him in the sideboard doesn't help.

Mutiny is another card that just isn't good. It's too unreliable as it needs your opponent to have at the very least two creatures and one of them needs to be strong enough to kill the other, in which case you'll kill the weaker but will still need to deal with a strong creature. Kozilek's Return isn't budget friendly. However, it's a good boardwipe that doubles if you cast a big Eldrazi, clearing the way for an attack. If you strictly want a single target removal you could use Lightning Bolt , Wild Slash , Abrade or, if want to have as few colors as possible, Reality Shift .

Same goes for Spark Harvest . Too unreliabe and sacrificing the resources you'll need to accomplish your goal doesn't seem good. You can use Dismember instead as really few creatures can survive -5/-5 and you wouldn't need a black source anymore.

Mist Intruder is just generic, and ingest isn't a really good mechanic. Run Eldrazi Skyspawner instead. It's one mana more expensive but also ramps you for one mana.

Hamletback Goliath is cute altough being nothing else. It's not bad per say, but offers nothing more than just a big body. No protection, no evasion, not even trample. Even if it becomes a 40/40 it can be blocked by a 1/1. Just as a comparison, Hamletback Goliath can be destroyed, bounced or exiled, but Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger can't be destroyed and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has protection from an absurd amount of things while simultaneously having evasion. You're investing a lot of mana in those Eldrazi and they "pay you back" by impacting the board as soon as they come in and are rather resilient. Rather than the Goliath, you could use Emrakul's Hatcher , Beanstalk Giant , Oblivion Sower or even Drowner of Hope . Here's a more organized way to explain:

1. Emrakul's Hatcher - Not nearly as big and has no potential to grow, but helps you "ramp". Also is a red card, so makes you have to properly adjust your manabase accordingly.

2. Beanstalk Giant - Not as big, but can grow really big if go all in the ramp plan as it also helps you ramp by being a ramp spell.

3. Oblivion Sower - Can be searched with From Beyond and disrupts the opponent while also stealing their lands and ramping you.

4. Drowner of Hope - Sort of a Control(?) option. It can sacrifice you scion tokens to tap your oppoent's most troublesome creature and it's also searchable by From Beyond .

I've been writing a lot. Feel free to agree or disagree with what I said. Just because I think something would be better it doesn't it will be better or that you should like it, after all, the deck is yours.

Also, if you could change the format to Casual it would help a lot. When writing these comment, TappedOut can directly show you cards I want to suggest. However, since the deck is labeled as Unknown format, anything I try to recommend ends up being recognized as illegal.

rhinosoul on Alela, Faerie Comboteur

5 days ago

For cEDH level, I'd recommend putting in:

Mox Diamond , Fellwar Stone , Talisman of Progress (better than Signet) for additional mana source

Mystic Remora for additional card draw

Ponder and Preordain for draw/top deck manipulation cantrips

Drown in the Loch for good removal/protection, as well as Reality Shift for extra removal.

Dispel , Delay , Flusterstorm , Spell Pierce , and Mental Misstep are all good protection/mitigation spells at cEDH tables, as well as Force of Will

Vampiric Tutor for your instant generic tutor and Imperial Seal if you can afford it. Lim-Dul's Vault is also a good tutor/pile maker and Merchant Scroll can search Dramatic Reversal and any counterspell/blue removal spell.

Maybe cards are Chain of Vapor , Blink of an Eye , and Into the Roil if you want more removal, or Pongify and Rapid Hybridization if you want more creature removal.

I'd recommend removing Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots as these are only relevant when you have a creature on board and are only sorcery speed protection for said creature.

With the banning of Paradox Engine , Despark does not have many relevant targets. In fact, I'd say it's only niche to reanimator targets or any other big creatures that get cheated out, which is VERY dependent on your meta.

Arcane Denial is something I'd only find not bad if it's literally used to protect your win con on the turn that you're going to win; otherwise, you just netted your opponent over you. This one's up to you but I'd rather not play it.

TronBonne on Fblthp: Lost and Found

6 days ago

n8dog8freefood, it's a meta call for sure. He's a one sided Null Rod that can also recover our Proteus Staff if it gets exiled.

He also gives us blockers or sets up creature targets for Reality Shift loops.

The card puts in work, he's definitely earned his spot.

enpc on Tasigur Control

1 week ago

So straight up a few things I notice:

Your land count is too low for both your curve and for the copious amout of ETB tapped lands you run, ESPECIALLY since you're running the ravnica bounce lands. Even though Tasigur has delve, that doesn't mean that the rest of your deck does. You should either up the lands/ramp, or look to reduce the deck curve.

Generally most Tasigur control decks will win via combo rather than big stompy creatures, as it lets you lean into the control aspect more. They typcailly generate infinite mana (either from Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal or from Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron or other simialr combos) and tehn proceed to loop cards like Reality Shift over and over to exile each opponent's library. The benefit of this is that you don't have to dedicate anywhere near as many cards to your win condition allowing for more ramp/control/draw.

If you were going to build a more aggressive control deck (aggressive in the sense of turning sideways + counterspells), you could potentially look at building Tasigur leading tribal elves. You would get access to all the green/black elves (which is a decent chunk of mana dorks) as well as untap effects. That way your list could be more relevnet the whol way through the game, with Tasigur providing recursion and your elves forming an infinite combo backup win condition.

steamcat on HexBroker

1 week ago

Reality Shift another good card, for infinity Tasigur ability - exile opponent library

hejtmane on EDH Under $1 is Back ...

1 week ago

A great card for green is Into the Wilds you get to look at the top card of your library upkeep if it is a land put it on the battlefield best part does not count as your land played for your turn so filters your land + can be ramp oh and is like 25cents

Abundance is another variation of filtering your deck also green

Den Protector budget eternal witness

Echoing Truth flexible bounce because if it is tokens it hits all the same tokens

Creature exile Reality Shift Crib Swap

Look at charms some are cheaper than others some will fit budgets some may not but see example below Sultai Charm

More removal Status / Statue Turn / Burn

Shenanigans Reins of Power ignore the $5 ones someone is trying to rip people off outside those they are all 50-85 cents

Polymorphist's Jest

Look for value creatures like Savage Ventmaw Giant Killer Steel Hellkite