[MH2] Void Mirror
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I am of 2 minds on this card.
On one hand, I think it powers up a few underpowered decks (blood moon but not really, more on this in a bit) while not really pumping the format boogiemen that do not need the help (shops, dredge, PO)
On the other hand, the effect this card has is so unbelievably strong I cannot imagine the format as we know it remaining as is. I say this without a tinge of sarcasm, how does shops do anything about this really? They need to have resolved a mox or lotus before this hits play to do anything and then they have to keep it, that's a lot.
I do think people are overlooking the nonbo this has with Blood Moon, since turning their shops into mountains gives them colored mana access. It does have positive interaction with Damping Sphere though since that will turn off their Academy which tends to be the only land out they play. The other facet of this card that will become more apparent as you go is how it protects itself from the thing you would want to use to deal with it, Force fo Vigor.
The list of format relevant things this hoses is so extensive though it is shocking.
- Force of Vigor, Will, Negation, Misdirection
- Chalice on 0
- Moxen and lotus
- Tormods Crypt
- Mental Misstep, Dismember, and Gitaxian Probe
- Dread Return/Cabal Therapy
- Sol lands (Sorta)
- All the new pitch evoke creatures
- Colorless eldrazi and associated lands
- Bolases citadel
- All of shops basically
- Anything you reduce to 0 with Foundry Inspector
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It's looking more and more to me like the biggest winner/beneficiary of this printing is white-based aggro. They play full Moxen, and sometimes Ancient Tomb, which would allow them to get this down on turn one, and they don't play anything that gets turned off by this.
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@protoaddict The card represents a potential crisis for Shops, for sure. But I don't think it is hopeless.
The first thing going for you is that many decks will not want to play the card, at least in the main deck, due to its symmetric effect. Any deck playing Force of Will/Vigor is making a significant tradeoff by adding this card.
If your opponent is playing the card, in some % of games, you should manage to get out a Mox before the opponent lands Void Mirror. And in some % of the remainder, you can get out Tolarian Academy, either with an already-played artifact or with Mishra's Factory. So you will only find yourself in a locked out position in some % of games.
With all that said, I think that Shops will need to evolve to have more options than that. One possibility is to add some more utility lands that add colored mana, such as Bojuka Bog, or any of the Odyssey set lands (Barbarian Ring, Cephalid Coliseum, etc.). Another possibility is to splash at least 1 basic land. This also hedges against Assassin's Trophy and Ghost Quarter. These options can be brought in from the sideboard.
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@revengeanceful If that is really true, then does, this bring back the old "fish" style decks of the past. Merfolk, Spirits and other tribal decks that have be unplayable in Vintage are now playable. Ninjas is even relevant again. I almost forgot to add Humans, which would be a clear front runner here.
Essentially, anything that can play Cavern of Souls.
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@moorebrother1 I suppose it's possible. I wasn't thinking about the potential revitalization of archetypes that aren't in the metagame currently. The question would be, what do those tribes offer up that the current Cavern decks (predominantly Humans) do not?
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@revengeanceful If these decks can play similar to the legacy decks then they have a great tempo game. Right now these decks have a very hard time against Vintage Combo decks that are very resilient like Doomsday and Breach.
If I could play Spirits, Ninjas, Merfolk, Goblins or Faeries then I would be playing Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial. These decks cannot play through Sphere effects like Humans and Archon tempo can, but they can play at a tempo that outpaces BUG and Xerox.
It's a thought, and these decks may just be dead in Vintage but I do think that Delver is once again viable as a tempo option with this card.
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How does this interact with the lattice?
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@botvinik it doesn't? lattice lets you spend mana as if it were mana of other colors, but if you don't spend colored mana on your spells mirror still counters it.
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Back in the day, could you counter Force of Will with Chalice @0?
I remember before they switched the vernacular from CC to CMC that Chalice countered Force. This could be a weird throwback to that format. It would be fun if that was the case. -
Doesn't this also stop storm copies too?
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@david-matthews no, storm copies are not cast, they are just put on the stack
if they were cast they themselves would get storm copies, and so on, infinitely -
I was thinking of Ghost Quarter to fetch a basic land. If Shops has Ghost Quarters in it plus a basic land in the deck, then with 5 Mox + Tolarian Academy + 4(or so) Ghost Quarters + a basic land, that is eleven colored mana sources that can be used to pay for spells so they don't get countered.
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@daniel-worobec
It would be interesting if this forced ghost quarters as a 4 of in all shops decks. -
So this enchantment + Void Mirror in a deck with Ornithopters, all Moxen, Phyrexian Walkers, Memnites, etc, can make a viable "draw my deck, find win con, win" type of deck? I remember people trying it with Chalice before, but this honestly seems much easier to pull off, maybe? Just a thought I had when I seen this trying to take it in a different direction than "anti-stax" or "psuedo Null Rod".
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4 Thoughtcast
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
3 Snow-Covered Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Walking Ballista
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Mystic Forge
1 Trinisphere
1 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Stonecoil Serpent -
Colored aggro shops here is a first shot.
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Chalice@5 is the only Chalice that has ever countered a FoW
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As a Mud player i'm glad i have many other decks i like to play. It seems that G2 on the play is an auto win with : land+mox = mud player looses the game. You only need 4x in side to destroy any mud deck.
I think there won't be so many voices claiming : "Restrict Workshp !".
SAD... -
@francois-f Why wouldn't MUD decks side in Sprite guides. They can naturalize the artifact or use the sprite guide mana to play threats as they look for colored mana. Worse case scenario they just play Prophetic Prism out of the side board.
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@botvinik Replace those thought casts with the new 2/2 flyer and this jawn is golden.
I'd also run Tinker to tutor for Trinisphere/Forge/Lodestone, and for Wurmcoil postboard.
