MTGNexus

I'd say it's a pretty good rate. If you draw three, you're almost certain to hit a land.

I feel like if this weren't blue then many more decks would play it.

R/G has a comparable effect in Escape to the Wilds which I believe is a significantly stronger card made even more appealing by the fact that it is in colors that don't normally get unconditional draw this powerful. Even in a deck with a fair number of six drops, I don't have problems playing at least four of the five cards by the next turn.

5 Mana is a lot to draw three and get an extra land drop at sorcery speed. It's very good in decks that it's has synergy in, like landfall and big Mana decks, but meh in a lot of other places. Spell A CMC + Spell B CMC = Spell AB CMC is a useful way to evaluate cards but becomes less valid as CMC goes up. Explore is good because it accelerates your Mana during early turns when it matters most, at the effective cost of G for that turn since you can use the land it drops immediately and it replaced itself. Urban Evolution is thus not as good of a ramp spell as explore because it does it's thing later when you want to cast other stuff, unless your deck is landfall or wants to never stop ramping. Divination flat out sucks, but drawing 2 for 3 is better than drawing 3 for 5. Concentrate and Harmonize are mediocre cards that generally shouldn't be played since so many better options exist (Harmonize being mono G makes it more relevant). In a generic UG deck, Urban Evolution is just ok, fine for more casual metas but an easy cut. It becomes pretty damn good once you start getting additional value from it (specifically around lands).

Tuesday, December 17th, 2019; Teferi's Veil



I'm just gonna address the elephant in the room. Inb4 "combos with the Unearth mechanic".

Sedris, the Traitor King tech - unearth a thing, attack, phase it out, and it doesn't get exiled at end of turn to the delayed trigger. Note that the cards will still get exiled if they leave the battlefield later though.

Beyond the aforementioned unearth synergies, I've also seen Teferi's Veil do work in some aggressive blue decks like Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive (Scroll Thief tribal) and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and I imagine it may also be good in Edric, Spymaster of Trest - if you plan to attack with a bunch of evasive creatures and never block, protecting your creatures from sorcery-speed removal and board wipes can be pretty good. Also worth consideration if you plan to play a board wipe of your own.

Phasing was a cool mechanic, it was mainly held back by being randomly slapped on creatures too much which was the worst application for it. Activated phasing, things that cause phasing, etc were all cool.

The main thing I have used teferi's veil for int he past is wrath, edict, and sorcery speed removal protection in enchantress decks. The thing that kills the most enchantress decks is fleshbag marauder and you can't sac what's phased out. It's also great against wraths.

And much like finest hour and a few other cool effects it lets you go lighter on auras which is generally safer. I prefer this over vanishing most of the time because while it's narrower it's much, much more efficient.

Teferi's Veil does good work in my Thada Adel deck. It's not so much a go-wide deck as it is a touch-decks deck, so being able to get Thada protected after she attacks is very nice.

I run it in Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, since my stuff isn't up for blocking anyway and it's aggro, may as well protect all the creatures from opponents sorcery speed shenanigans.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Tuesday, December 17th, 2019; Teferi's Veil

I used to play this back in the 90s with a Jokulhaups focused deck. Just swing with the team, and then scorch the earth. Terribly fun with Ball Lightning, too.

Sadly, phased out isn't a zone anymore. But this does have some potential with boardwipes.

It's good protection vs wipes in aggressive decks. Also works well with your own wraths, letting you clear a board with near impunity. Now that Phasing no longer kills tokens, you don't have to be careful of that anymore on your own side either.

Sinis wrote: ↑

4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Tuesday, December 17th, 2019; Teferi's Veil

I used to play this back in the 90s with a Jokulhaups focused deck. Just swing with the team, and then scorch the earth. Terribly fun with Ball Lightning, too.

True. I run this in my Horde of Notions Self-Sacrificing Elemental Tribal (all the Ball Lightning types - also featuring Sneak Attack, Impromptu Raid, and Incandescent Soulstoke).

I also run it in my Karona, False God Avatar tribal deck, so I don't have to "share" my general unless I want to share her.

I miss Phasing almost as much as Banding.

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

It's good protection vs wipes in aggressive decks. Also works well with your own wraths, letting you clear a board with near impunity. Now that Phasing no longer kills tokens, you don't have to be careful of that anymore on your own side either.

Shame about that inability to perma phase those Batterskulls with Reality Ripple anymore though.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Shame about that inability to perma phase those Batterskulls with Reality Ripple anymore though.

I never got to perma phase someone's General either...

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Shame about that inability to perma phase those Batterskulls with Reality Ripple anymore though.

I never got to perma phase someone's General either...

I don't think it worked on actual cards. The interaction was all about wonky tokens with phasing rules causing the attached object to indirectly phase out, since the token then would cease to exist as it "changed zones". Actual cards wouldn't cease to exist as such so as I understand it, they would come back next untap step.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I don't think it worked on actual cards. The interaction was all about wonky tokens with phasing rules causing the attached object to indirectly phase out, since the token then would cease to exist as it "changed zones". Actual cards wouldn't cease to exist as such so as I understand it, they would come back next untap step.

Soul Sculptor to turn their Commander into an enchantment. Toymaker (or a dozen others) to make it an artifact. Bludgeon Brawl to make it an equipment. Vulshok Battlemaster on a Mimic Vat to make a token Battlemaster, which then steals their Commander. Phase it out with Teferi's Veil - under old rules the Commander would never return...


Convoluted, probably darn near impossible, but a hilarious thought experiment back in the day.

That's an awful lot of steps and added cards to utilize a very niche interaction. Wasn't really getting at that since we'd be here all day looking at those 7 part combos.

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019; Teferi's Isle

Is it REALLY a total coincidence that we've got 2 phasing cards with Teferi's name in them, back to back?

This is one of those cards where it's kinda bad but not THAT bad without support, and could be pretty good with support...but it's still just not worth the effort. And also it's annoying to keep track of. Maybe I should have played it in my land-untap-tribal arixmethes deck, though, just for lulz. I think I've got one in my collection, unused thus far.

I only really used it in Talrand. And it's only good when you don't have any land drops left since it'll be three turns before you can use it. That t1 jam this play hurts so much buuuuutttttt

T: Add UU.

That's no doubt stronk.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019; Teferi's Isle

Ahh the first Sol land. Man, they really stepped up their game by the time they printed Ancient Tomb.

If only it were any color other than blue. Being a tapland hurts it, but I'm less likely to consider that with a sol land. The big problem is having phasing...in the color that wants to do everything on other people's turns.

Its better than you'd think. Its not great, or even particularly good, but its actually not bad. I've run it in a couple mono blue decks and it actually does decent work.

I really want a copy for one of my vorthos builds, but otherwise it's not a stunner.