[Aether Revamped] Paradox Engine
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Would I ever want this instead of jar in combo outcome? If I have Academy I Tinker for Candelabra. If I don't have Academy I need 4+ tapped mana and a zero, or some untapped mana to cast something (or a stupid Gitaxian Probe).
Probe seems hideously bonkers with this in play. Mox, Land, Mana Vault, Monolith. Probe you.
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This card's effect is insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane. Basically, every spell you play, you generate 3+ mana by the midgame. EVERYTHING IS A DARK RITUAL. This is the most obviously broken effect I've seen Wizards print in a long time. The combo possibilities are bonkers, the ability is powerful, the thing is just busted as all hell. Imagine tearing through your deck with Ponders, Brainstorms, and Preordains with this lovely bastard out there.
Okay, but coming down to Earth, it's a 5cc artifact so we're talking about playing it in three contexts:
- Tezzerator-style big mana artifact deck.
- As a Tinker target.
- In Shops.
- In a Ritual deck.
Let's look at each one.
In Tezzerator, this really pushes your mana production to 11, but once you've hit five, it's not clear to me that you need any more mana. I'm skeptical.
As a Tinker target, this may have some advantages over stuff like Blightsteel. Say you're playing Drain Tenrils or something like that. Engine can be hardcast reasonably, so it sort of plays like Dramoka does. However, is that worth not winning on the spot? Tinker this out, Brainstorm and untap your board seems like a pretty easy way to win. Would Memory Jar do the same thing, most of the time?
Shops can easily cast this on turn 2, and then it will promptly barf out its entire hand. But... then what? Shops can't keep digging like a blue deck can to replace cards as it generates mana.
Ritual decks actually seem pretty reasonable. This is arguably easier to cast than, say, Necropotence, certainly Bargain, and depending on your hand it might be just better.
Card is really exciting, and properly costed for its ability. I absolutely think it's Vintage playable. The question is whether it will see MUCH play, given the competition.
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Its kinda dumb with Time Vault, or Aether Marvelworks (I believe, the new energy based bolt on a stick?). Maybe blue is gonna start using 4 shops.
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@Serracollector said in [Aether Revamped] Paradox Engine:
Its kinda dumb with Time Vault, or Aether Marvelworks (I believe, the new energy based bolt on a stick?). Maybe blue is gonna start using 4 shops.
Yeah, I don't know if there is a win condition in Vintage that does not work once you're digging with this.
Blightsteel (or other random fattie?) a few U draw spells and you've got enough mana.
Time Vault? Untap that sucka.
Yawgwill? You generated mana and filled your yard, so...
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Fine, Wizards, I'll play a 4th Stony Silence and just put them all in the main deck.
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Five mana, do nothing. You know your card is good when it makes Thing in the Ice look proactive.
I like how you're the guy telling us to stop running Mental Misstep in our decks because it's the reason why Thorn over performs. Please tell me this irony isn't lost on anyone else.
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The effect is untap nonland permanents. I don't think there's a reasonable context today to play this instead of any copy of Paradoxical Outcome. I don't think we're even close to the point where a fifth copy is warranted (in fact I prefer fewer Outcomes [i.e. 0])
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@MaximumCDawg Your statement above is slieghtly off imo, with the plethora of Chrome/Opals allowed plus the 5 Moxen, and the amount of tutors/filter draw, every "blue mage" spell is not a dark ritual, but instead a dark petition of the colors of our choice. I for one am not happy where this could lead Vintage.
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5 mana. Once you have that, it's really difficult to justify this over tezz, jace, jar, dark petition, gifts, paradoxical outcome, auriok salvagers... As someone said, once in play it does nothing. While the effect is really pretty (specially with the other paradox or vault), it seems win more. Unless you get another engine (patreon wizard, arcanis...), untapping moxen does not seem enough to play this.
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@xouman
This card seems absolutely absurd in Elves, doesn't it? -
@msg67183 Ummmm, haven't thought about elves, but I'm not sure I'd play this over something that draws cards. It can be interesting with birchlore elves, but heritage + nettle hardly needs this. Of course skullclamp is also mana hungry, so we can in fact be interested in something that increases mana a lot. In my experience, once with 5 mana and few elves, mana wasn't the problem: the problem usually was drawing cards. But I haven't played birchlore or skullclamp in elves for +3 years, maybe it will work even in a world with 4 maindeck removal.
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@xouman
This seems like it would form a new version of Elves though, since it really wants Elvish Archdruids and Priest of Titanias. I don't even think I would play Skullclamp in this list, I'd play multiple Regal Force, Concordant Crossroads, probably 3 of this card, GENESIS WAVE as my Engine!!! -
@socialite said in [Aether Revamped] Paradox Engine:
Five mana, do nothing. You know your card is good when it makes Thing in the Ice look proactive.
I like how you're the guy telling us to stop running Mental Misstep in our decks because it's the reason why Thorn over performs. Please tell me this irony isn't lost on anyone else.
Wizards has really cranked the power level of doing nothing, though
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Shops do have a way to churn through their deck with massive amounts of mana: Staff of Domination.
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This card is colorless and an artifact. That means in Vintage it is "not" 5 mana. This card is a Workshop/Grim Monolith/Mana Vault away from being "free". Its a Voltaic Key, an UNLIMITED Voltaic Key, for all your stuff, at the price of a Git Probe or Gush? I mean, is no one else seeing how utterly retarded and broken this card is?
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@Serracollector said in [Aether Revamped] Paradox Engine:
is no one else seeing how utterly retarded and broken this card is?
It has the ability to generate a ton of mana. Yes, but so goes Gush + Fastbond, and that's already running an above average number of draw spells; but sees next to no competitive results. It's an engine card without a strategy that neither needs additional mana, nor can afford to waste Tinker to find it.
Time Vault is already broken with Voltaic Key and Tezz. Adding Paradoxical Enginer doesn't change how broken Time Vault already is.
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@Koby It does in at least one sense, in that you no longer need a Key to combo with Vault. It removes Mental Misstep from the list of things you need to worry about stopping your combo. And yes, Tezz does the same thing, but there's nothing to Needle here beyond Vault itself, which was always the worst target since it's a 2 mana brick without an enabler.
I think this is going to be a card that people ignore at their peril. It's a self-evidently powerful effect in a format where the cmc of artifacts rarely matters.
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"CMC of artifacts rarely matters" is really not true or relevant. In every deck playing artifacts, the cost of said cards not only matters, but is critical to winning. Shop mana curves are probably more important than Gush even.
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I would love for this to be a thing in Vintage, but I really doubt it will be.
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Paradox Engine with buyback spells may give you infinite mana. 3 to 5 mana with buyback cost like Searing touch, Lab rats, clockspinning, mystic speculating, whim of volrath, change of hearts. Maybe not in vintage.
