TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑7 months ago
I'm a little lukewarm on
Everybody Lives!. The "can't lose life" clause doesn't protect against commander damage and the overall symmetry of the effect may force us to save people we'd rather see dead. I think if we really want a thoracle combo-breaker, it may just be better to play
Angel's Grace.
The fact that it doesn't defend against commander damage IS a real problem, but I don't think it's that big of a deal, and I imagine you agree because in the very next sentence you reccomended
Angel's Grace which also doesn't save you from commander damage.
As for saving everyone else as well, I touched on this a bit earlier, but it's a bit of a mixed bag. If Timmy casts hoof in the late game, when we are sitting on a grip full of wraths, removal, and counters, Then we'll happily cast
Teferi's Protection and go to the 1v1 stage. However, if some aggro deck comes out swinging when we still are only setting up, then we kind of need our opponents to stay alive. I find myself using
Phelddagrif, or the spells in my hand to save my opponents all the time, so having the ability to save our opponents can be a good thing.
Overall, I think it's a toss up, fogs that only protect you and fogs that protect the whole table are roughly equal, and I'm more interested in what else the fog offers. If I had to choose, however, I think the fogs that save everyone are slightly better. Going back to the first scenario, if we are already set up with wraths, removal, and counters, then we are doing fairly well, and if we have to wait a few more turns to get into a 1v1, so be it,
Phelddagrif is nothing if not patient.
If we could get a fog that gave any number of target players protection though, now that would be sweet.
I started writing a whole thing comparing fogs, then realized I really need a visual, so I made this:
Leeches is just a joke because I noticed that none of the fogs save you from proliferation or
Prologue to Phyresis.
Now obviously, flexibility isn't everything,
Angel's Grace might be the least flexible of the options I listed above (besides
Leeches), but it's also the cheapest and pretty much impossible to interact with. Having said that, this is
Phelddagrif, we do like our flexibility.
If I expected to go up against at least one
Thassa's Oracle gamer every game, then I'd be all over it. But outside of
Thassa's Oracle and (to a lesser extent)
Maze's End,
Angel's Grace is going to pretty useless in probably a little over half of my games.
Compare that to all these other options that, at the very least, provide an answer to a lethal combat swing (something I expect at least one player to be capable of in every game I play).
Additionally, not all of these win-cons are created equal, being able to fog regular combat damage is probably the most important mode on a fog. This table is far from the end-all be-all for determinign how good a fog is, but I thought it was a handy visual for getting an idea of how often you'll be able to find a use for them.
Having listed the options out like this, I do think
Teferi's Protection is still probably the best, but I'd probably put
Everybody Lives! in second place, then
Comeuppance, then regular
Fogs.
Orim's Chant and
Mandate of Peace are so close to being great, but they have back-breaking timing restrictions, to the point where I honestly don't think either of them merit too much consideration.
But again, this is a meta-call. I probably see a
Thassa's Oracle in a quarter of my games, which is insane, but still far too rare to play
Angel's Grace.
Everybody Lives! however, is pretty much always going to be relevant against SOMETHING.
Edit: meant to add that my table ignores mill-win-conditions because I run
Nexus of Fate. If you don't
Blessed Respite might be something to look at.