Subtlety

Creature — Elemental Incarnation

Flash

Flying

When Subtlety enters the battlefield, choose up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell. Its owner puts it on the top or bottom of their library.

Evoke—Exile a blue card from your hand. (You may cast this for its Evoke cost. If you do, this is sacrificed when this enters the battlefield.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (42)

capwner on Madcap Control

3 weeks ago

Fringe Jank modern combo? Say no more I'm in. My only thought is to run 4 Subtlety because Subtlety is a wincon plus being interaction it's just phenomenal. And maybe Consign to Memory in the board to protect your stuff from World Breaker and friends?

wallisface on Using Disrupting Shoal

3 weeks ago

The problem as I see it, is that this spell is competing in the same space as all three of the blue-horizons free-spells: Force of Negation, Subtlety, and Flare of Denial.

Those horizons cards are a lot more flexible in what spells they can hit, a lot more forgiving in what cards you need to pitch, and can all be hardcast for a more reasonable/realistic cost. I’m not sure how Disrupting Shoal even remotely competes against them - and so i’m not sure how it would ever be a choice for a deck while those cards exist.

wallisface on Is dour port mage completely …

1 month ago

Bookrook again I would disagree it being "an auto-include in any blink deck". In Modern, for example, there are a bunch of "blink" decks that will utilize cards like Ephemerate or Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, but not use Dour Port-Mage. As a value engine it's having to compete against the likes of Satoru, the Infiltrator, which also sees very little play, but which has a more easily abusable synergy with various strong creatures in the format (Solitude, Subtlety, Aether Vial, Cryptic Coat).

Dour Port-Mage is by no means a weak card, but it is a looonng way away from being an auto-include in any deck. The only deck currently running this card in Modern is one where the deck is specifically built around it - whereas there are multiple other blinking strategies that ignore this card entirely.

Looking further on MtgGoldfish, there are exactly zero decks running this card in both Pioneer and Standard. It's probably the case that these formats just don't have the resources to make use of the card, but it's also a pretty strong sign that it's nowhere-near an all-star.

Coward_Token on Modern Horizons 3

5 months ago

Here's hoping for Null versions of Subtlety's cycle, sure that will work out great this time

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

7 months ago

Some thoughts:

• Last time you started a thread about a deck, it was described as you wanting to make a deck more competitive, but when those suggestions came through you decided you'd rather the deck be casual than strong. Is this the same scenario, or are you legitimately looking for advice on making a strong {W}{U} control deck.

• Azorius Conrtol already exists as a well-defined meta archetype, consistently hovering between 1-5% of the meta. There is an established deck list here

• The kind of deck your describing (being aggressive while also controlling the board state) is basically what the current Murktide Regent lists do - deck here. I think it is going to be very hard to justify playing white over red in such an archetype, because red brings most of the aggression, but it's probably still achievable with some concessions.

Some thoughts on your current list specifically:

• For the deck to work, you need to be running the minimum amount of creatures possible - between 12-15. Running more than this makes it too hard to control the board, and running less than this puts you at risk of not being able to threaten damage.

• All the creatures you run need to be able to quickly close-out the game on their own. If you check the Murktide list linked above, you'll notice all of those creatures are able to dish out extreme pressure. So far, NONE of your creatures are even remotely threatening. You want to be playing creatures that can end the game fast and can do everything they need to by-themselves. You should really be playing cards like Murktide Regent, Ledger Shredder, Tishana's Tidebinder and Solitude/Subtlety instead of these extremely weak creatures.

• Any number of Academy Ruins is excessive when you have no real reason to want to recur any of these artifacts.

• 3 mana countermagic is always bad - there's no reason to run Render Silent especially when you still have room to play another Counterspell instead.

• Assemble the Players is a terrible card and shouldn't be here.

• you need waay more wawys to powerfully interact with cards that the opponent resolves - Oppressive Rays is too weak for this. You need cards like Prismatic Ending and Leyline Binding.

• You are severely lacking in efficient draw. I would expect Preordain instead of Peek at a bare minimum.

Icbrgr on Card Discussion: Grim Discovery

9 months ago

Recently I have Been inspired to brew/play 8-Rack in Modern specifically due to all the hype/buzz generated around Scam decks.

In my brewing/research I came across an old primer off of MTG Salvation and a card that caught my eye was Grim Discovery.

This really seems like a neat card but to my knowledge sees virtually no play... I did a quick search on MTG Top8 Modern and found one deck back in 2011 that used it in a {BG} Vampires deck.

Does anyone else think this card is worth revisiting as a niche tech choice for today? I remember after the Fury ban people placed bets on {UB} scam being a thing... could this maybe do to Subtlety what Undying Evil/similar does for Grief? Or perhaps at its worst just get the elemental/creature back in hand and or recycle a fetchland?... maybe some sort of application in a Yawgmoth, Thran Physician brew?

capwner on Tami-SNOW ((MODERN // Sultai Snow Control))

9 months ago

legendofa The manabase generally feels pretty good, sometimes I am unhappy to see a tap land as it can effectively mean losing a turn, but the main concerns I've found are color fixing and maintaining snow perm count, where falling short could mean losing out on several plays or interactions. I cut a Scrying Sheets because of this, might cut Mouth of Ronom too but I like being able to toolbox with Into the North a bit. It was hard for me to add the Breeding Pool+Watery Grave because of snow count but I think it's necessary to be able to find untapped colors with Lorien. It would be nice to run 4 Lorien but the list was getting tight and I wanted to keep at least 3 ofs for some key sideboard cards. The deck does have a lot of 4 drops but 4 of those are Subtlety which is a flexible card and I think a real necessity in this meta. The deck feels like it curves pretty well, you are likely to have at least a couple 1 and 2 drops and the ability to either Blizzard Brawl or Dead of Winter or Subtlety or flash Ice-Fang Coatl to stall the board until your big 4 drops can hit. Or Force of Negation/Subtlety/Commandeer vs THOSE decks. Turn 2 Into the North feels really good, curves into 5/5 Treefolk or Coatl/Brawl with no land drop. I wish it was snow then I would run more. I think in a lot of matchups it ultimately comes down to who can out attrition the other, and the snow scry mechanic REALLY helps with that. Vs Yawgmoth I can aggro/tempo them out with Treefolk and Subtlety, vs Murktide I'm running them out of removal, clearing with Dead of Winter and when the game is stalled Avalanche Caller or a 7/7 Treefolk ends it. I haven't had a Rhinos match come up yet but the plan is to simply outmatch and outcontrol their board with Treefolk + killing/commandeering the rhinos. I'll likely update the description with some more specific matchup and card selection info over the next couple weeks! Thanks for the feed

legendofa on Dec 4th 2023 Ban announcement

9 months ago

Grief is the best turn 1 scam by far, in a tempo deck where play patterns matter. Fury was good because it had a pretty open window for targeting, and Solitude is kind of in the same boat. Fury's advantage there was that it could clear out a mid-sized target or a swarm of small targets, while Solitude removes one target, take it or leave it. Subtlety is fine, but highly reactive and has a narrow window of utility. Endurance has higher deck building requirements to make its (optional) ability relevant--a flashed-in 4/5 reach creature for {B} and a couple cards in hand is solid in a vacuum, but it's not on the same level as the other options.

I'm wondering if Esper Scam is a viable option. Lean harder into control, the {W} and {B} can be simply flash-evoked and sac'ed if needed (they're still free removal and pseudo-counterspells), and fill in with some of the go-to control cards. The color balancing would be a little harder to work with, but not impossible.

First pass, off the top of my head with minimal consideration:

23 lands

Scam set: 4x Grief, 2x Solitude, 2x Subtlety, 4x Not Dead After All, 1x Undying Evil, 4x Ephemerate

Control: 3x Teferi, Time Raveler, 3x Counterspell, 4x Thoughtseize, 4 Leyline Binding, 4x The One Ring

Finishers: 4x Orcish Bowmasters

Basically, take the Dimir and Orzhov Scam lists and add some of https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/wu-68d6e340-6601-4aab-9a70-4bdccc013e7e#paper.