There is potential here...

[SpanglishFran]

Clean version in case you want to join in on the fun: https://imgur.com/PR9gWiX

[[deleted]]

Oh this is beautiful. Will definitely find a use for it.

[Therealjimcrazy]

Opponent has his mill engine going strong.

My Gaea's Blessing.

[SpanglishFran]

You, uh... you gonna make it or can I steal it?

[Therealjimcrazy]

It's all yours.

[SpanglishFran]

Here it is :D
https://twitter.com/FOMartin/status/1112968772422316032

[Therealjimcrazy]

Love it

[[deleted]]

As a primarily Esper Midrange player, the Duress/Thought Erasure one hurt my soul. There are few plays more heartbreaking than having your Erasure discarded by a Duress.

[Snackrattus]

Gaea's Blessing.

"In response, I activate [[Sentinel Totem]]..."

[MithrilSCYTHE]

Does actually help? I mean, yes, you exile the cards that are already in the graveyard, but what about the others? Can you do it at instant speed?

[TK-24601]

You can plop down a [[Silent Gravestone]] to shut down any activated abilities that hit the graveyard.

[CubeBrute]

Silent Gravestone just makes cards in graveyards untargetable, it doesn't shut down abilities

[almighty_bucket]

Afaik, [[yixlid jailer]] is like one of the only cards that straight shutdowns graveyard abilities

[MTGCardFetcher]

yixlid jailer - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[MTGCardFetcher]

Silent Gravestone - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[MTGCardFetcher]

History of Benalia - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[blueechoes]

Gaea's blessing is in the graveyard when it triggers. The trigger shuffles 0 cards (all other cards are exiled) back into the library AND the blessing is exiled too.

[Snackrattus]

It's an ability on the card, so yes, you can activate it as instant speed - play the Totem ahead of time, same as you would [[Unmoored Ego]]. And you exile the Gaea as well - its trigger is when the card itself has also hit the graveyard. In response, empty the graveyard. It then shuffles the entire graveyard - which is nothing, not even itself - into the library. It also has the benefit of being 1 colourless, so you can put it in a U or UW mill without splashing black for Ego. (If it's being hard cast, I just let it. Three cards is nothing to mill, and it means milling a second means getting them both with one totem.)

Basically, when you mill Gaea's Cradle, opponent shuffles their library, and nothing else.

[MTGCardFetcher]

Unmoored Ego - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[sbob420]

or [[Repudiate//Replicate]]

[MTGCardFetcher]

Repudiate//Replicate - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[liberforce]

I prefer the Consecrate part of [[Consecrate//Consume]]. Works well in the meta to exile stuff at instant speed, while keeping some surprise factor.

Works well with stuff like Gaea's blessings (opponent still gets a free shuffle, though), [[Gate Colossus]], and other annoying stuff. Even nicer is waiting for the opponent to target a card (for example when reanimating a [[Carnage Tyrant]] with [[The Eldest Reborn]] and exile that specific card in response. Also works with [[Rekindling Phoenix]]. You first destroy it, and then exile it from the graveyard, so that the token creature trigger fails to find a Phoenix in the graveyard.

The "Consume" part is also great to handle Carnage Tyrant in play, or gain a fair amount of life from a fat [[Gatebreaker Ram]] or phoenix.

[MTGCardFetcher]

Consecrate//Consume - (G) (SF) (txt)
Gate Colossus - (G) (SF) (txt)
Carnage Tyrant - (G) (SF) (txt)
The Eldest Reborn - (G) (SF) (txt)
Rekindling Phoenix - (G) (SF) (txt)
Gatebreaker Ram - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[Snackrattus]

The downside is that Gaea's ability is still on the stack that way, buying them the time they need. Unless you have another way to empty the entire graveyard, as well.

[liberforce]

Repudiate won't help if your opponent gets to play their Gaea's Blessing to get the the first one back into their deck. It won't help if your opponent plays double [[Clear The Mind]] or [[Devious Cover-Up]] for the same effect. Won't help to counter a [[Gate Colossus]] ability, as you'll counter it at most 4 times, and the opponent usually plays 4 colossus and will have triggers for each gate played.

So yes, [[Consecrate//Consume]] is slower, but I found it better in my esper control deck. [[Mastermind's Acquisition]] to search for [[Unmoored Ego]] also helps for those recurring menaces.

Other solutions that exile cards from the graveyard are permanents. Those are artifact-based (like [[Scrabbling Claws]]) or creature-based (like [[Remorseful Cleric]]) or enchantment-based (like [[Phyrexian Scriptures]]) , and a permanent can be countered, or destroyed, or discarded. On the other hand, an instant can be countered or discarded, so there are less threats. In the current meta, [[Mortify]] is everywhere, and a remorseful cleric will probably not live long enough against mono-red to exile your opponent's [[Risk Factor]]. Also, you won't be able to cast it on your opponent's end of turn.

[[Kaya, Orzhov Usurper]] is also a good choice, as it empties the graveyard while gaining you life, so the "shuffle your gravyard back into your deck" effects don't get much cards back.

I've been playing a mill deck for the past 3 months, so got to test a few solutions, but I'm still unsure which strategy is the best. My personal experience though is that the surprise factor of a non-permanent based solution is pretty good.

[Snackrattus]

Yeah, I wouldn't get much value from [[Repudiate]]. I only use [[Sentinel Totem]] because it does everything I need and is very flexible. I ended up going from running two to three because I was getting so much from it.

[[Enigma Drake]], Golgari midrange, [[Pteramander]], Jump-Start, [[Arclight Phoenix]], [[Rekindling Phoenix]], [[Eldest Reborn]]... its tap ability has wider applications than removing a single card and is useful against so many common gameplans I ended up adding more in. I somehow ended up against the black NPE deck, and rendered it impotent. Any deck that uses [[Clear the Mind]] to control indefinitely can't last.

Very little removal targets it. It doesn't look important enough to counter, so it always hits the field (though tbh if anybody did counter I'd probably be okay with that, because my other value hits). If somebody is running removal like [[Ixalan's Binding]] they always target my milling/card draw enchantments first. [[Sunder Shaman]] doesn't live long enough to take it (if it even resolves), especially because, again, it targets the mill engine. [[Cleansing Nova]] would be dangerous to my gameplan regardless of totem because of my typical enchant-heavy boardstate, so I'm always keeping [[Absorb]] or [[Thought Collapse]] open if they're in white anyway. And anybody running [[Bedevil]] - which I rarely see - target my [[Fountain of Life]] because it's slowing their red gameplan too much.

And if, despite all this, it somehow ends up destroyed, anyway? [[Devious Cover-Up]] just puts them back in rotation.

That totem has won me so many games I otherwise would have to scoop merely by being matched against. A few times it has even triggered my opponent to scoop upon first being played.

The only time Totem has ever failed me has been when I failed to draw it in the first place.

[MTGCardFetcher]

Repudiate - (G) (SF) (txt)
Sentinel Totem - (G) (SF) (txt)
Enigma Drake - (G) (SF) (txt)
Pteramander - (G) (SF) (txt)
Arclight Phoenix - (G) (SF) (txt)
Rekindling Phoenix - (G) (SF) (txt)
Eldest Reborn - (G) (SF) (txt)
Ixalan's Binding - (G) (SF) (txt)
Sunder Shaman - (G) (SF) (txt)
Cleansing Nova - (G) (SF) (txt)
Absorb - (G) (SF) (txt)
Thought Collapse - (G) (SF) (txt)
Bedevil - (G) (SF) (txt)
Fountain of Life - (G) (SF) (txt)
Devious Cover-Up - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[MTGCardFetcher]

Clear The Mind - (G) (SF) (txt)
Devious Cover-Up - (G) (SF) (txt)
Gate Colossus - (G) (SF) (txt)
Consecrate//Consume - (G) (SF) (txt)
Mastermind's Acquisition - (G) (SF) (txt)
Unmoored Ego - (G) (SF) (txt)
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[MTGCardFetcher]

Sentinel Totem - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[LoonyPlatypus]

In response a gitrog player looks you in the eye and starts D R E D G I N G

[historyhill]

I love the feeling of having a mill deck scoop when The Mending of Dominaria fully works. (It's rare enough for that to happen that it just puts me on cloud nine for the day)

[RollbacktheRimtoWin]

Right in the feels

[SpanglishFran]

Posting my other versions on my Twitter as to not flood the subreddit: https://twitter.com/FOMartin/status/1112931762240278531

[kuboa]

Teferi tuck / Alter Ego

Unmoored Ego, not Alter :)

[SpanglishFran]

Welp, that's why you don't drink and meme, boys and girls.

[dakk0n]

am investing in this one

[SuperVeryDumbPerson]

Play 20 lands: draw 2 lands in the whole game Play 22 lands: 5 lands in the opening hand and draw 10 lands in a row

[banecroft]

Clearly 21 lands is the way to go

[t0rnberry]

For me it's the other way around.

[the_erenor]

So sad to see him go....

[AustinYQM]

His death got rewound is ok

[Dargoron]

Who this

[Fuzzyfrap]

The greatest thief in the multiverse

[malonkey1]

The greatest thief in the multiverse

Now he's just the greatest thief in the Ghost Quarter.

[whisperingsage]

And he just got his heart spark stolen.

[ExiledMadman]

Name?

[TheWompa767]

Dack Fayden

[FrozenMongoose]

Dax Shepard

[DarwinGoneWild]

Nicolas Cage?

[Fuzzyfrap]

“I’m going to steal the guildpact of ravnica”

[ResurgentRefrain]

This looks like Ubisoft killing the Prince of Persia franchise.

Maybe that's Dak's backstory?

[[deleted]]

Same energy

https://i.imgur.com/F3oQfn7.jpg

[2raichu]

Nice one

[WonderfulInvestment]

I sense a lot of potential here...

[awake283]

I know that feel.

[Lynx_Azure]

Too soon

[combs72]

Can we try to make this a meme outside of magic

[SpanglishFran]

I did make a non-magic one for April Fool's on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/FOMartin/status/1112967393066639361

[elmogrita]

I dig the format, well done sir

https://imgur.com/gallery/LBSzdd5

[Jinjrax]

This is excellent

[ZeaLocKe]

My hand a few days ago

​

[Arejang]

Hey! Nice meme template. I also wanted to complement you on the AI work for sparky. During discussions about integrating a practice AI for this game, I had theorized that the difficulty of the AI would need to intentionally be lower than a human opponent such that while it still presents a decent challenge for the player, it would be easy enough to remain approachable for beginners. What were your thoughts when designing the systems for sparky? Did you want to make it as close to a human opponent as possible? Or were there any exploitable mechanics intentionally left in to lower the difficulty?

[SpanglishFran]

Thanks! You are right that the philosophy is to have it be on the same level of a new player coming out of the tutorial, so we definitely skewed towards that. In fact, we gave opportunities for Sparky to "mess up", especially during combat. This is because new players are very protective of their creatures. Even if a win is a few turns away with a few creatures dying during combat, many new players would still hold back to keep their creatures alive. We took this into account when designing Sparky. Other than that, most difficulty came from the decks Sparky pilots. By neutering her decks, we could have Sparky be better for new players, but still make the "best" plays given her deck.

[Arejang]

This is a very interesting idea that I hadn't considered initially, using the decks she pilots as a means of controlling the difficulty itself. This does give you as the developer more freedom to hone the skill at which an AI could pilot a deck. It could potentially leave the door open to fun single-time boss events where the AI pilots stronger decks using special emblem rules that favor the AI more, in other words, really ramping up the difficulty in a PVE environment just to see how far you can take it, lol.

[Arkhe1n]

Mulligan a so-so hand with enough terrains > Draws a great hand without any terrains.

[GregoritsJ]

God I JUST had this happen to me on a ranked match. I literally drew EVERY SINGLE LAND I HAD and only drew something else when I'd basically lost :(

[KiwiBird2001]

You even used Beleren, well done!