[XLN] Chart a Course

Machinus

Unfortunately, it's a sorcery, but R&D finally printed the 2cc card I have been hoping for for years.

1U
Sorcery
Draw two cards.
Raid — If you didn't attack with a creature this turn, discard a card.

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ixalan/29305-chart-a-course

boggyb

What's the over/under that 3+ of the champs top 8 this year feature this card?

mediumsteve

under, I think that's an easy call.

blue vintage decks don't tend to run out dudes and attack that frequently.

evouga

First of all, I love the design of this card. It's card advantage when you are in the aggressive role and need to replenish gas, and loots when you are in the control role and can afford to sculpt your hand.

Obvious points of comparison are Impulse, Night's Whisper, and See Beyond, all of which are only fringe playable (at best), and I don't think Chart is significantly better than these options. I feel like Chart is just a half-mana too expensive; at U it would be extremely strong even if it looted most of the time.

13NoVa

@mediumsteve This card is busted in Delver.

walking.dude

@13nova

Yeah. It doesn't take a lot, if a UW deck ran spell quellers, snaps and a clique or two that's enouph to reliably draw 2 cards in the midgame.

MaximumCDawg

Of all the draw 2s for 2, I feel this is closest to Predict. That's a good thing. This guy is playable and I suspect well see it creep into legacy in coming years.

Delver is indeed the obvious home here, maybe BUG, but strangely, I'm not sure delver has room for it after other blue cantrips. I'm cautiously optimistic.

p3temangus

I feel like there is a configuration in a BUG style deck that can abuse this. Several NYSE's back a BUG list T8'd running thought scour's and snapcaster mages for synergy, along with either Angler or Tasigur (Yes, that was when dig was unrestricted...). We now have baby jace and Leovold to further enhance this archetype. This card should see a decent level of brewage, even if it ends up in the fringe playable camp.

@walking-dude mentioned above, Bant "flash.dec" is another potential home for this card.

mediumsteve

@13nova I agree that it's good in Delver. I think Delver is a bad deck right now. I don't think Delver is good enough to put 3 players in top 8 of Champs.

spook

"Attack with Jace Vyns Prodigy, you take zero".

Islandswamp

@evouga said in [XLN] Chart a Course:

First of all, I love the design of this card. It's card advantage when you are in the aggressive role and need to replenish gas, and loots when you are in the control role and can afford to sculpt your hand.

Obvious points of comparison are Impulse, Night's Whisper, and See Beyond, all of which are only fringe playable (at best), and I don't think Chart is significantly better than these options. I feel like Chart is just a half-mana too expensive; at U it would be extremely strong even if it looted most of the time.

I played that Night's Whisper Control Slaver deck on MTGO several times. The only thing that was really bad about Night's Whisper is that as a black card that you wanted three or four of it severely upset your Force of Will math (I'm one of the types to really max out on blue cards whenever possible). The fact that this card is blue is actually pretty great.

Discarding a card isn't the worst thing either Yeah, you'd mostly rather just draw two, but discarding can feed delve, JVP (flipping and flashing), yawgwill, and so on.

I think that Blue Red Delver/Young Pyro deck could really like this card AND it would allow them to run four Wastelands without caring (unlike Gush). Maybe one Gush, three of these things, Dig, Cruise, and the rest of the restricted stuff. Seems legit to me, especially now that this deck wouldn't care about having to go around Mentors as much.

MaximumCDawg

@islandswamp said in [XLN] Chart a Course:

I think that Blue Red Delver/Young Pyro deck could really like this card AND it would allow them to run four Wastelands without caring (unlike Gush). Maybe one Gush, three of these things, Dig, Cruise, and the rest of the restricted stuff. Seems legit to me, especially now that this deck wouldn't care about having to go around Mentors as much.

I think you're spot-on that this card is PLAYABLE and I agree. I initially through Delver, too. But, Blue really does have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to blue draw spells. We've got:

Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain x4, Gush, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and just that is already 10 cards. Which one do you cut for Chart a Course?

Perhaps this is better than some of those cards if your deck (1) attacks a lot but (2) wants specific cards in the yard. Like, a Welder shell? Put another way, is it possible that this card replaces Thirst for Knowledge somewhere? Unlike Thirst, this is cheaper AND you have some control over whether you want the discard or not.

mediumsteve

I'm sort of re-evaluating delver as a deck from "bad" to "potentially not awful" even without this card. I think the restrictions have shaken things up a bit more than I expected.

I think I want to play Chart, and also play more than just 8 creatures with Chart. So a potential shell could be:

4 Delver
4 Peezy
2 Snapcaster
2 Mox Monkey??

Monkey ~~Monkey Monkey~~ is another 1 drop attacker that also has utility against outcome and shops right now.

mediumsteve

Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain x4, Gush, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and just that is already 10 cards. Which one do you cut for Chart a Course?

I mean, you're kidding me, right. a common shell used to be:

1x of acall/timewalk/brainstorm/ponder/dig/cruise
3 preordain
3 gush
0-4 probe

it isn't difficult to shuffle numbers around and find room for 1-3 Chart. Think a little bigger!

Serracollector

I really like this card with Baral as well. Don't forget your Angers and Wonders! Hasty Flying Elemental tokens are some fun.

Shaman Ben

For one more mana you can draw 7 cards. I will just chart a course right the fuck back to where I came from.

MaximumCDawg

@serracollector Thats some good times right there. Baral can usually attack without fear (unless your opponent's deck name ends in -ops or -razi) and he makes this card so cheap its sick.

Serracollector

Also makes cheap deep analysis if you have to discard. (or an anger or wonder....live the dream.)

AmbivalentDuck

I actually considered this as an alternative to Thirst for Knowledge in some flavor of Welder.

@serracollector said in [XLN] Chart a Course:

Also makes cheap deep analysis if you have to discard. (or an anger or wonder....live the dream.)