[THS] Steam Augury

[Second Harkius]

Enjoy!

[Platypus]

Bad compared to Fact or Fiction.

[Kaitscralt]

This card has the potential to be good. Digging 5 deep at instant speed is good. It will usually be better than an Inspiration, that or you'll get your best card/s.

[Yannaria]

I like it. Promotes interactivity and good magic.

[warwizard87]

Def playable will almost always draw three or two cards, some times it will draw 4 or 1

[Link]

think chandra's phoenix in UR.

Think putting that in the "good" pile to deter it from going to the GY

profit

[ExarionUniverse1]

think chandra's phoenix in UR.

Think putting that in the "good" pile to deter it from going to the GY

profit

defintely

[Kazekirimaru]

I'm guessing the red adds that extra little bit of chaos over FoF, eh?

Meh. Usable.

[Mcdonalds]

Bad compared to Fact or Fiction.

Captain obvious strikes again

[Platypus]

Bad compared to Fact or Fiction.

Captain obvious strikes again

Indeed. Question is how bad it is compared to FoF. Giving the opponent the final choice is no small thing. Sure, it's better than Inspiration as a card draw, but you can't reliably get what you want (like good dig 4/5 cards like FoF, Impulse, Browse...). So it must be seen as a card drawing spell, except the opponent knows what you draw.

[warwizard87]

Bad compared to Fact or Fiction.

Captain obvious strikes again

Indeed. Question is how bad it is compared to FoF. Giving the opponent the final choice is no small thing. Sure, it's better than Inspiration as a card draw, but you can't reliably get what you want (like good dig 4/5 cards like FoF, Impulse, Browse...). So it must be seen as a card drawing spell, except the opponent
knows what you draw.

its a odd animal, almost reminds me of a combo of fact or fiction and gifts ungiven. I like it Its such a strange design I really need to play with the card a bit before I can tell if its bad or not, but lets face it your going to get SOMETHING good cuz you make the piles, like I said it will often draw 3 cards for 4 mana but sometimes only draw 2 on even rarer occasions it will draw 4 or 1. picture this scenario, your American flash opponent is r/g you NEED multiple removal spells or a verdict next turn you eot this, flop verdict, charm, strike, land, land how do you pile? I love this card I remember entire articles on just FOF piles, welcome back FOF you were missed =] almost want to splash blue in my RDW so I can play this....bad idea I know but FOF always made me happy

[Platypus]

It's hard to evaluate without a boardstate/knowledge of the cards drawn, you have to play with it. If you find two good options among the five, you will get one of them. So if most cards in your deck are solid in lots of situations, then you'll probably get value from it. But in that case, maybe straight card draw is just as good. For one more mana you get Thoughtflare. Digging for silver bullets with it is very iffy.

[Platypus]

its a odd animal, almost reminds me of a combo of fact or fiction and gifts ungiven. I like it Its such a strange design I really need to play with the card a bit before I can tell if its bad or not, but lets face it your going to get SOMETHING good cuz you make the piles, like I said it will often draw 3 cards for 4 mana but sometimes only draw 2 on even rarer occasions it will draw 4 or 1. picture this scenario, your American flash opponent is r/g you NEED multiple removal spells or a verdict next turn you eot this, flop verdict, charm, strike, land, land how do you pile?

Yeah, how do you pile?

I have Rakdos Cackler, 2x BTE, Chandra's Phoenix, Hammer on the
table.

[warwizard87]

its a odd animal, almost reminds me of a combo of fact or fiction and gifts ungiven. I like it Its such a strange design I really need to play with the card a bit before I can tell if its bad or not, but lets face it your going to get SOMETHING good cuz you make the piles, like I said it will often draw 3 cards for 4 mana but sometimes only draw 2 on even rarer occasions it will draw 4 or 1. picture this scenario, your American flash opponent is r/g you NEED multiple removal spells or a verdict next turn you eot this, flop verdict, charm, strike, land, land how do you pile?

Yeah, how do you pile?

I have Rakdos Cackler, 2x
BTE, Chandra's Phoenix, Hammer on the table.

I don't I know lol my first impulse is verdict +land vs the other 3, and id consider verdict vs the 4. but ultimately depends on what I have in my hand also, I love what this card does it actually makes me play bloody magic if I have a shock or a chained tot he rocks in my hand either pile is good for me, but that is a good start for r/b lol uwr must of had a removal light hand for you to have so much out turn 4 =P

[Platypus]

Yeah, could be a bit too nut-draw, but still possible. With lands that is 8 cards out of 10, so there's room for some removed stuff.

[redthirst]

This might just be the exception to the rule that every card that gives your opponent a choice is shit.

[warwizard87]

Yeah redthirst but cards like for and gifts have alawys been abusable

[Thrillho]

most people cannot split fof piles to begin with so i don't trust people to split their own fof piles

[Thrillho]

i liked this card better when it was called thoughtflare.

[Styrn]

I play a lot of U/R and I'm looking forwards to using it. You guys think it could work well in a Grixis control deck with Whip of Erebos? Seperate into spells and creatures , if they graveyard the spells , Spellheart Chimera , if they graveyard the creatures you can whip something nasty like Gray merchant , fanatic of mogis , or even mnemonic wall for Steam Augury again and just replay it next turn in the hopes of something like stormbreath dragon.

[LP, of the Fires]

Card is very good, especially if your deck is lots of cheap interactive spells. Me and friends where testing recently and in grixis, the card is amazing.

The key is how good is it when you're behind and I've found it to be stellar since simply getting lots of mediocre spells is often good enough when you can play multiple of the spells in a turn.

I also thought of the card compared to thoughtflare and 4 vs. 5 mana is huge enough to make the comparison nonsensical.

[Thrillho]

for 1 more mana your deck contains a good card instead of a bad one.

[Kaitscralt]

i'm leaning towards this card being an overrated bust but if it sees play as a 1-of i'm not going to be surprised enough to be like I WAS WRONG OMG SHOULDA SIGGED ME

[Yannaria]

but it's a bad fact or fiction that you can play in a red deck!!!1!

[Thrillho]

That's not true if it were merely a red card I would wholly endorse it. This effect in mono red would be crazy

[DroppinSuga]

This card in monored would make redbros heads explode.

[Thrillho]

I see all of the hype for this card paid off in the first weekend of events.

[redthirst]

It's not like there was a deck that could have played it but didn't, so I'm not sure what to say to that... I mean, it'd be different if a single deck playing UR did well that chose not to run it, but that's not the case.

If we want to pretend a random SCG Open means something, I did notice about 26 of those unplayable "garbage" dragons in the top 25, though. Looks like it was an auto 4-of in pretty much anything that could run it.

[Thrillho]

Your justification for why a bad card was not played in relation to a completely unrelated card has been noted.

[Kaitscralt]

It's not like there was a deck that could have played it but didn't, so I'm not sure what to say to that... I mean, it'd be different if a single deck playing UR did well that chose not to run it, but that's not the case.

If we want to pretend a random SCG Open means something, I did notice about 26 of those unplayable "garbage" dragons in the top 25, though. Looks like it was an auto 4-of in pretty much anything that could run it.

The results of SCG Opens matter to everyone who matters in the competitive Magic community. They're obviously relevant, especially the first one following a new set, which you have dubbed as "random."

nThis card is bad, Shaheen Soorani is pushing UWR and doesn't run a single copy.

[redthirst]

It's not like there was a deck that could have played it but didn't, so I'm not sure what to say to that... I mean, it'd be different if a single deck playing UR did well that chose not to run it, but that's not the case.

If we want to pretend a random SCG Open means something, I did notice about 26 of those unplayable "garbage" dragons in the top 25, though. Looks like it was an auto 4-of in pretty much anything that could run it.

The results of SCG Opens matter to everyone who
matters in the competitive Magic community. They're obviously relevant, especially the first one following a new set, which you have dubbed as "random."

This card is bad, Shaheen Soorani is pushing UWR and doesn't run a single copy.

It may be bad, that's certainly a possibility, but using the results of a single Open (which is right up there with States) as definitive proof that a card is bad is stupid - especially when there wasn't a single deck in the top 25 that could have even run it.

Like I said, it's not like there were a half-dozen UR/x decks in the top 25 and none of them chose to run it - that would be some evidence that the card is bad - there were just no UR/x decks. That's evidence that the deck the card would be run in is not viable, not the card.

[Yannaria]

but one of the best players who is championing the deck doesn't want to play any because the card is bad

[Alex]

but one of the best players who is championing the deck doesn't want to play any because the card is bad

It's probably just better in Grixis or acual UR. You have other stuff you can do with those slots in UWR, (like play Elspeth) but it's probably fine if you aren't playing white.

I don't think it's inherently good or bad, it's just as good as the rest of the cards in your deck. If you have cards worth digging for it's great, but right now the pool of cards is pretty small and not very exciting. In UR colors the most "exciting" thing you're going to find with Fact or Fiction is like, Stormbreath Dragon or something else that's equally "eh" that I can't think of right now.

[zemanjaski]

It's not good when you're running a super low number of win-cons (eg: Aetherling and Elspeth) because they can give you 4 cards and dump your only way to win.

The card is wonderful at accumulating resources, so if there's a more tempo oriented or midrange URx deck; that just cares about card quantity and not finding a specific card, it's at it's best there (don't know if it's actually good, just it's reaching the cards natural power ceiling).

So, UR tempo or counter-burn anyone?

[Thrillho]

Card quantity is not a substitute for card quality. You play draw spells in a deck to increase your odds of drawing your Wrath of God or Upheaval or Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Playing a card that says "Draw 4 land" does get you literal card advantage, but the quality of that advantage is not very high, and if your opponent has cards that do things versus your card/s that don't do things or do the thing you need, you generally aren't going to win.

The problem with Steam Augury is that your opponent knows what the cards are and knows what their cards are and, barring the event you flip over two Wrath effects or two win conditions, they're never going to give you the pile that doesn't favor them.

The problem with punisher cards, and that also is the problem with this card, is that your opponent will always choose what works best for them, and that's rarely going to be what works best for you.

There are non-
zero times this card can't not work for you (re: flip over multiples of the same card/effect), but it's not going to do what FoF or other card draw spells do which is draw you into the one card you need.

[zemanjaski]

Yes, and you would hope you've built your deck in a way that takes advantage of it. A midrange deck cares much less about specific cards and way more about having more cards for example. I specifically excluded control decks. If they give you 4 land (your example), then bully for them, that's extremely rare.

[Thrillho]

But if you just want to have the most cards, why not play a card that is going to just straight-up draw you 3-5 cards? Why leave the choice in your opponent's hands?

[zemanjaski]

I would love to. There isn't an aggressively costed alternative in these colours. There isn't even a URx midrange deck! If such a deck existed (high threat density, high card quality), this card would be a good fit. I'm imaging Hoogland's RUG Flash from last season. There's no analogous deck now of course.

[Alex]

I'll probably play Opportunity instead.

[Yannaria]

Jeff Hoogland is on UR control at the SCG open and is playing Thought Flare over Steam Augury from what I can see of his deck tech