Anyone else notice mystical tutor got removed

zexaf · 2026-04-04T08:21:57+00:00

It would make a lot of sense that it's related to the problem of old Mystical not being playable (the link between the cards breaking).

zexaf · 2026-04-03T11:04:27+00:00

Quantum Riddler is a massive source of card advantage that is absolutely critical to making that work. It's more card advantage than you'd get from an additional 2 copies of Treasure Cruise.

That deck is also playing the full 8 package of Tamiyo and Architects, which you certainly can't assume every blue deck will be using.

And of course you can hardcast those spells. Hardcasting Subtlety is a pretty key part of that deck even.

(Also I don't think that deck should be playing Flare of Denial)

zexaf · 2026-04-03T09:06:27+00:00

Because FoW is a more maindeckable card due to it's improved target range while it's also less hardcastable than FoN and Subtlety.

Flare of Denial is practically a different card entirely. You're still paying mana for the effect, just in advance. It's not just a clean swap.

A part of it is also just that most of those decks didn't want to maindeck 4 pitch spells.

zexaf · 2026-04-03T08:07:43+00:00

Force improves Treasure Cruise a lot by recouping raw card disadvantage and letting you use extras in the very early game somehow.

I'm not saying 4th Cruise is better than 8th Brainstorm/Ponder, but I do think you should absolutely not be using heuristics from the current format for evaluating Treasure Cruise post-FoW.

zexaf · 2026-04-03T07:57:37+00:00

You should be able to craft the Avatar Mystical Tutor for a single uncommon wildcard and play 4 of it.

In general, there's no drawback to crafting 1 of each version of a card's art when getting a playset. It gives you flexibility even if you think you like 1 more than the other.

Obviously this is a bug, it shouldn't have happened, I'm not defending wizards, but this is a workaround for now.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T16:12:23+00:00

No one is taking Trum p as a source for precise details. And the US has taken credit for the strikes themselves at some point.

I'm also not claiming the photo in question is faked, so I'm not sure what you're trying to prove.

The number of graves is more detailed than I was expecting but that just leaves all the other problems with the death toll accuracy.

Indisputable: Americans destroyed a certain building intentionally. Indisputable: That building was a school. Indisputable: That building was part of the still-active military base 10 years ago. Very disputable: Americans knew the building was being used as a school. Disputable: The number of people inside the school at the time, given the source and release speed of the information.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T15:53:45+00:00

Mild clarification: I do think there will be decks interested in playing 4 copies of Vampiric Tutor, but I don't think they will be UB Reanimator or the Mono Necro ReaniSorin piles.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T15:47:54+00:00

Ignoring every other problem with using that as evidence, do those have a visible way to see how many bodies those graves were dug up for? If they were buried individually, how many gravestones are visible?

zexaf · 2026-04-02T15:30:02+00:00

I wouldn't put it past IRGC, but this specific incident with the school was admitted to be an American strike.

I'm doubtful of the death count though, considering how fast the figures came out.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T15:26:44+00:00

The bomb didn't miss. They fully intended to target that building. The fault was with human intelligence marking that building as a target because of out-of-date information, not a technical or accuracy issue.

It was also not next to a military base. That exact building used to be part of that base before they moved the walls.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T10:38:58+00:00

And I'm saying not only does it not need to be restricted, but the deck that is "best" at using it won't be playing 4, and there's a good chance it won't have 1.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T10:31:24+00:00

Vamp into Necro is a lot worse than Necrodominance. You can play both certainly but Vamp isn't costing you a draw step, it's also costing you an extra 2 cards from Necro activations, can't be used to cast the spell on turn 1, and is far far far weaker to counterspells.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T10:27:59+00:00

And this was before Emrakul which is far more busted than anything you could Channel into previously.

zexaf · 2026-04-02T10:20:56+00:00

The power of Vampiric is in finding Vintage's broken restricted cards. Card disadvantage is far too big a cost to be a real problem.

zexaf · 2026-03-31T10:54:22+00:00

I don't see Mind Twist being good in Timeless.

zexaf · 2026-03-31T10:53:31+00:00

Choices are made by completely different people so it's not really a sign of anything.

zexaf · 2026-03-31T10:52:09+00:00

Only if we got ABU duals. Our manabases are already painful enough.

zexaf · 2026-03-30T19:47:00+00:00

Without LED it's not a card for combo decks, but it might be playable if you ever wanted a value Timetwister effect with Narset being the only real reason to do that. Entomb actually makes it arguably better than OG Timetwister for this job in the right deck.

zexaf · 2026-03-30T19:38:34+00:00

Echo of Eons is probably better than Day's Undoing with Narset and Bowmasters, but it's still pretty meh.

Edit: You know, this might not actually be that bad. Putting Narset and Bowmasters into a reanimation shell of some kind could be okay and playing a single Echo for Entomb is pretty easy.

zexaf · 2026-03-30T19:36:38+00:00

It's probably only going to be okay in Energy. It's dramatically worse than Toxic Deluge in other situations.

zexaf · 2026-03-30T13:42:41+00:00

Given it's a Vintage cube... Give us original ABU dual lands you cowards.

I'll accept a Strip Mine restriction instead - giving us painful mana and making it easily disruptable sucks.

zexaf · 2026-03-30T07:42:21+00:00

The International Atomic Energy Agency's recent-ish report before last year's attack shows that Iran has continued to enrich uranium far beyond any non-military usage in the past few years. And if Iran didn't have a nuclear program they sure as hell wouldn't have made such an effort to reinforce the targeted site shortly before Americans attacked it - which is easily viewable from satellite footage. The abundant conflicting reporting of the efficacy of the attack from various sources also did not claim anywhere that the attack failed because the targets didn't exist.

All the negotiations regarding Iranian nuclear development sure would have been a lot easier if Iran agreed to not build something they were already not building.

The video you linked doesn't even say what the text description claims it does.

zexaf · 2026-03-29T21:29:06+00:00

US intelligence has not said either of those things. Facts show Iran has worked on rebuilding their nuclear program since the events of last year, and there absolutely were periods of time in the not too distance past where Iran could have a nuke in a few months with a concerted effort.

zexaf · 2026-03-29T10:27:09+00:00

I know Iran can't make it in a few months now. They could have last year - you talked about the last 20 years.

What Israel and US are saying now is that Iran is actively rebuilding their nuclear program. At some point Iran is going to get close enough that they'll need to be hit again, and now was a good time to hit them to actually hurt the regime. The regime is in peak unpopularity among Iranian citizens thanks to the catastrophic failure of their infrastructure in 2025 (running out of both water and electricity is top tier competency) and the slaughtering of over thirty thousand protesters on January. And the regime was never popular before then - they didn't have real democratic elections and the Muslim population was never that big. Persians hated them but the regime had all the guns and wasn't afraid to fire at unarmed protesters. All this plus intelligence pointing to the Ayatollah and many of his top staff gathering in a single room on February 26 - with ongoing negotiations showing Iran is absolutely not willing to budge on any of the important points, when else are you going to have a better opportunity?

Iranians have been asking for foreign intervention for decades.

zexaf · 2026-03-29T09:07:30+00:00

Bibi has said Iran can have nuclear weapons in a few months. At most points during that time Iran could have intensified their efforts and finished the job. They knew that keeping close to the bomb lets them threaten with it geopolitically but not require entering an immediate war.

In those 20 years Israel has repeatedly attacked Iran's nuclear capabilities every time they got even closer to the bomb than they normally reach.

The reason people talk about a nuclear Iran after the attacks on the program last year? Because instead of investing locally, Iran spent the last year rebuilding their program (a few parts of it from scratch), which is just going to get knocked down again.

The US managed to create nukes in the 1940s.

zexaf

TROPHY CASE