It's funny cuz I'm playing a Depths deck with 3 Thoughtseize 2 Inquisitions in it and there's rarely a time where I fear the Seize, but so many times it wins for me.
@@raecelta9766 4 thoughtseize is the way to go... i often find that Inquisition dont stop the important targets so i rather play 2 mana discard spells like " Thought Erasure" or "Castigate"
I still fondly remember pulling a foil Thoughtseize out of a booster from a Theros fat pack my brother had gotten me for Christmas. Definitely one of the best gifts I got that year!
Too funny! I literally stopped the video to get the time stamp because I died laughing when I saw that and wanted to say something; rushed to the comments and behold it's the first thing I read! Lol. I love this game.
Rogue Deckbuilder Turn 1 Thoughtseize.......... And Hymn to Tourach....... Thanks Dark Ritual. Seriously though, that has actually happened to me, and I've done it once.
@@a_fuckin_spacemarine7514 If you seize first, tourach has more chances to get lands, but if you tourach first, then you might get all of the important spells ; fun interaction
I'm only a recent subscriber to your channel and I gotta say, you're stuff is incredible. Ode to Ashnod's Altar was beautiful. Love the perspective and your narrative viewpoint. Just thought I'd say that.
Best Magic channel. Great video. Great content. No bullshit opinion or pandering just retrospect and honest insight. The last magic content producer I actively subscribe to on youtube. Will be here forever.
I don't even play magic, why am I watching this Oh yeah because he makes his videos interesting, even to someone who has no idea what's going on in them. I should probably play magic though, but I have no clue where to start lmao
You can't go wrong with a duel deck. It's a perfect jumping on point. You and a friend split it between you and get a deck each. Since they are balanced against each other it can be great fun. You can get cool cards in them too. Godspeed!
i was playing pioneer recently against a guy on lotus combo, aggressively mulled game 2 into Thoughtseize. game three he knew i had it and mulled into 2 lotus, a boseiju, and thespians stage, just to dodge the t1 Thoughtseize. shows just how much this card still warps the game around itself.
I have just subbed after seeing only three videos and I have to say I am completely hooked. Your videos have so much passion and time into them it is so hard to stop watching. Keep up the informative and high-quality content and you are gonna grow fast!
I still remember facing Thoughtseize for the first time, way back in 2015. It was at my LGS right after Battle For Zendikar released, and I was playing my newly constructed Grixis Eldrazi deck. I had only begun playing at Khans, but was somewhat capable for a youngster. My opponent was running a Dimir control Modern deck, and I was rather intimidated, but I got my opening hand: 4x Mist Intruder 2x Island 1x Red/Black BFZ dual land I win the roll, so I drop an Island and pass, and he immediately Thoughtseizes me. The look on his face was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen, because I just had all four of the same common and he's just like "wHAT," but drops one of my Intruders into the grave. Next turn, I draw a land and play an Intruder, and he goes for second Thoughtseize to get rid of another Intruder. Back to me, and I draw into a Benthic Infiltrator before swinging with my Intruder and trigger its Ingest ability (when it deals combat damage, exile defending player's top library card). He has no response, and guess what I exile? Spoiler: Thoughtseize number 3. By this point, we're both just laughing because he's bricking and can't play anything, and I drop a Benthic Infiltrator so I'm ingesting two+ cards per turn, and he just concedes the first game before kicking the crap out of me game 2. But on game 3, I draw a Ghostfire Blade turn 2 after being Seized, so I play it for giggles and immediately draw a Benthic Infiltrator afterwards. I basically ended up with a 3+ power unblockable beater that continuously exiled the cards he needed until he conceded again. Later on, I learned that what I'd essentially thrown together earlier that day from my Khans and BFZ cards had taken out a $500+ Modern deck, and that kind of made me super happy. Thoughtseize has grown to be incredibly irritating over the years to me, particularly since I can't afford to get them without severely impacting my disposable income. It's also having your opening hand just peeked at and going minus one before you can even play (on the draw) that really makes me hate the card. I may just be whining, but it's one of those cards that I see and immediately think "sweaty tryhard" over and over again. That's very rude of me, and I keep it internal, but I still think it all the time when I see it :( /rant
Reprint the damn cards in eternal supplemental sets! Modern Horizons gives you the ability to reprint modern power leveled cards with no standard in the picture. Commander precons let you reprint the staples we need in casual format that is way too expensive. R&D's obsession with the secondary market needs to stop to make magic more affordable on all fronts. I'm of the opinion that if the reserve list gets to exist, no single card should be above 20 dollars, because all others cards should be printed into the fucking ground! I'm fine having some expensive alternate art foil promo whatever the fuck being expensive, and the reserve list can even still exist, but their sould be no reason to have to anything above 80 dollars for 4 pieces of fucking cardboard. Reprint the fetches in precons, reprint damnation in Horizons, and stop complaining about players wanting cheaper shit when you do nothing about it.
I keep saying this and no one seems to get it, they won’t do it, because they’re too busy commuting investment fraud. That’s why they care so much abt the secondary market but can’t publicly say anything about it. They’re manipulating the prices of their cards. Wotc and their entire board of directors should be in jail.
@@checkthenutz Absolutely. They are completely controlling the supply of product to keep prices and demand high. And now we have the $400 fetch land secret lair bullshit box that isn't even foil and is printed in extremely limited quantities.
I don't even play MTG nor am interested in playing, but your videos are so entertaining, and just so enjoyable, that I would binge watch all of your videos and would not get tired of it.
Cards like this are really, really powerful in Yugioh. Some ones that come to mind are trap dustshoot, and the neo space connector into aqua dolphin or mind crush before the new rule. The card you discard isnt as important as the hand knowledge, as soon as you know their hand and see nothing that can stop you, you’re free to just go ahead and win that turn
Trap dustshoot is kinda ass by now, turn 1 is were these effects matter same with mind crush even without the bs rule change. Its a reasonable trade off to have the card be useless for most of turn 1 and 2. Dolphin Connector on the other hand is just silly busted when its in a decent deck. Dustshoot only really fits into slow control shells and even there it would face strong competition from just another universally good floodgate or solemn.
This is an exceptional insight behind Thoughtseize and why it has caused the situations it has with reprints and the like. Overall a fantastic video, great to see you back Sam!
I really like these Retrospects. Esp for a guy like me who stopped playing 14 years ago or whatever. Thanks for making these. It helps me understand the old metas.
I remember having a theros thoughtseize. Traded it away for multiple deck pieces. Was remembering that card. Pulled it from a Thunder Junction pack. Love this card!
I stopped playing magic years ago. Like...seven years ago. So I have no idea why I've been watching so many of your videos. They are so well thought out and intriguing.
I started playing during Theros block, before RtR rotated out. As miserable as Standard was with Thoughtseizes and Sphinx's Revelations and Supreme Verdicts flying around, while I just struggled to get my wins with my silly Boros Heroic deck, Thoughtseize taught me both the value of hand knowledge/disruption AND how to consider life totals as a resource. I'm glad they were there. I'm am also glad I no longer have to play against it in Standard. So.. yeah, everything the video said xD; Love your content, man.
Very good points brought up. But I'd also like to note that Thoughtseize was printed in a block - and even a standard season - where black had a lot of really powerful cards. Downfall, Whip, Gary, and Erebos (saw some occasional from what I remember) were all in the same set, followed soon by Drown in Sorrows and Bile Blight. In the block preceding it, they had Pack Rat, Consume Flesh, Ultimate Price, Underworld Connections, and host of black-based multicolored cards. And Tarkir didn't help with this, Abzan was perhaps the most broken color combination, as they had the best removal, and creatures, and Thoughtseize could easily fit in with it. So much of Thoughtseize's power was probably due to the time of it's printing, but even just thinking about it being reprinted makes me doubt that.
yep, Black was pretty strong at the time, but I think (as you said at the end) that a card like Thoughtseize can basically elevate any archetype and tie together the loose ends. T1 Thoughtseize in Theros Standard basically informed the rest of your decisions: do I go all-in on Packrat on Turn 2, or sequence with a kill spell, Underworld Connections, and finally Desecration Demon? Without that information, it was easy to fall back on tempo with a deck that wanted to hit its spells on curve.
Coming to this video from the future is a cute experience - WotC have found to reprint this beast without ruining standard! The paradigm shift is good in this regard.
My first deck was mono black modern. Striving to have the strongest black deck after 7 years. It didn’t take long for this to just become an absolute staple. Immediately puts an edge at the start of the game and if it’s in my opening hand these days I’m guaranteed a win 18/20 games.
I feel as if I'm the only non-black player from Theros standard that doesn't hate Thoughtseize. Yes, it needed a reprint desperately, but I very much appreciated how skill-intensive the card is, and I didn't mind losing to a player who demonstrated that capacity. Then again, I'm one of those people that liked the concept of damage-on-the-stack, so take that for whatever it's worth. Anyway, here's to more great content! ^-^
there is a "cap" though, at the cap, which isn't exactly as high as this video would suggest, Thought-sieze is just a back breaker that you can't do anything about, many games can be utterly won on the spot, on the play, turn 1, thought seize, and all it takes to win that game is the "correct" choice, with no counter play
Keith Filibeck This. Most of the time, decisions made with discard spells aren't every difficult, especially if you know the metagame which you should if you're playing tournament magic at all. As cards like Thoughtseize show us one of the less talked about facts of Magic: Pinpoint hand disruption is one of the most powerful effects in the game.
Everyone who thinks turn 1 thought seize is game breaking in standard, has never seen turn 2 thought seize. Unless your deck was casting anything relevant on turn 2, going for the turn 1 thought seize was almost always wrong.
Thought Erasure gets a little better, on account of it requiring Black AND Blue, not just Black. It's a minor hitch and very splashable, but it can matter in deck construction.
Thoughtseize is not only incredibly good at diminishing black's weakness to enchantment and artifacts. It is also an incredibly strong control spell. I would even argue that Thoughtseize is better than the UU Counterspell. Both cards fulfil the same role: deny the opponent from using any 1 spell. Counterspell has 3 advantages over Thoughtseize: - it doesn't cost life - it trades mana costs (UU vs the countered spells cmc) - instant speed Thoughtseize has 4 advantages over Counterspell: - you get to see the opponent's hand - you take out the spell preventively / the opponent can not keep the spell in hand and play around your ability to deny it - you don't gamble with Thoughtseize / don't worry about denying the wrong spell - only requires 1 black mana
When Khans of Tarkir and Theros were in Standard, I ran four copies of Thoughtseize and three copies of Brain Maggot, one of the worse 2 mana discard guys out there, in my Mardu deck just because I wanted to make sure my 3 mana token producer (Rabblemaster or Brimaz) would reliably stick on the table. Thoughtseize gave me an opportunity to brew up and play an actual aggro-control deck, an archetype I hadn't had a real opportunity to give a spin since Extended's Miracle Gro. I was able to paste together something like a 80 percent win ratio over that season with my build that relied on powerful creature removal and discard, three mana token producers, and seven or eight four or five drops that could attack with haste in the air to clinch games. Siege Rhino was never all that tough to deal with, since I could force it out of their hand, or just Crackling Doom it and swing in with my ridiculous three drop. And the archetype wouldn't have worked without the disruption. Keep up the fine work.
I'd love to see a history of this specific type skill intensive hand disruption and how it's changed over the years to become this powerful. (IE: Coercion, Duress, Ostracize, Unmask, Distress, Thoughtseize, Despise, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.)
Your stuff is always top notch! I think Thoughtsieze was a good reprint, and powerful reprints can go in standard, but they must be done aware that they can warp things. What if there was a powerful midrange creature that you could put into play if an effect an opponent controls caused you to reveal your hand? Or raise the stakes and design a set/Standard environment where Thoughtsieze was ONE of the best cards, not clearly head and shoulders above everything else. It's hard but they set a bar once I think they just don't want to have standards powerful enough to house eternal staples anymore. :c
ahh, i love Kithkin, so devious, yet straight forward in a sense. a played Thoughtseize in my vampire deck, ahh... i love that deck... man i wanna play some magic now lol
I actually like the Theros art. To me both have a sinister vibe to them. I guess it's personal preference: Would you want to see a farie haunting someone's dreams, or see someone in the process of losing their mind.
Most Modern reprints are fine for Standard depending on what else is legal at the time. Fetchlands are fine as long as there are no fetchable dual lands in the same standard environment. Combo enablers like Scapeshift and Ad Nauseum are also fine as long as their wincons aren't in Standard at the same time.
Note however the strange dip some time prior to the set being release, almost as if someone who makes the prices for these things found out about it's inclusion in Theros.
I love this card, man. I got a mis-print version, and have played it ever since. Just need to get 3 more to make it really work. I don't play competitively, but I enjoy fucking with people during games. :3
Thoughtseize makes burn players everywhere salivate. Yes please, turn my Lightning Bolt into half a Blightning with no mana cost. Honestly I think the best way to reprint Thoughtseize is doing it in a set/rotation that also has strong burn spells (that can go face).
just saw this video, awesome content. Just a little comment on the art of animate dead; watch the arts of sun titan, the new reprint art for terminate and the animate dead, they make a cicle.
![Limits of a [CARDNAME] | The Story of Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar](/img/n.gif)
Jokes on you I'm playing 60 lands
Meh, you'd still lose. Even the 'Lands.dec' still has other spells.
Can't take my best card if their all the same card!
@@reeeech9245 thats the joke..
Wh...why? Why?
Galaxy brain
> unconditional removal of your opponent's best card
> is playing against lands
God I love Lands for its uniqueness.
It's funny cuz I'm playing a Depths deck with 3 Thoughtseize 2 Inquisitions in it and there's rarely a time where I fear the Seize, but so many times it wins for me.
@@raecelta9766 4 thoughtseize is the way to go... i often find that Inquisition dont stop the important targets so i rather play 2 mana discard spells like "
Thought Erasure" or "Castigate"
@@martinmikkelsen8183 I no longer play depths. I play Abzan midrange using the same set of base cards. I run 4 seize.
@@raecelta9766 look at this character development
I still fondly remember pulling a foil Thoughtseize out of a booster from a Theros fat pack my brother had gotten me for Christmas. Definitely one of the best gifts I got that year!
I'm in love with your Card Studies series. Feels like watching Nerdwriter talking about MTG. Very well done. Thank you for this.
this means a lot. I'm glad you enjoy!
6:51 'You are targeting ME with that?'
6:40 ***
I think he meant "You look or I show?"
It’s not my job to tell you how the card works, brah!!
Too funny! I literally stopped the video to get the time stamp because I died laughing when I saw that and wanted to say something; rushed to the comments and behold it's the first thing I read! Lol. I love this game.
Well it says "Target Player". You need to make it clear who you're targeting.
2:38
Maybe a leyline wasn't the best example
Zoned Oyestander Hmm
I was feelin that ASMR while your cursor hovered over the price timeline, lol glad to see another video from you!
Ugh... turn 1 thoughtseize into turn 2 packrat mutavault. I lost so many games to that scenario in RTR/THS days!
It's a close race, I think, between Pack Rat and Umezawa's Jitte for which is more banworthy in Limited.
^-^
This card is an evergreen... Oh sorry, everblack.
Rogue Deckbuilder
Turn 1 Thoughtseize.......... And Hymn to Tourach....... Thanks Dark Ritual.
Seriously though, that has actually happened to me, and I've done it once.
I looooved the Gary deck!
@@a_fuckin_spacemarine7514 If you seize first, tourach has more chances to get lands, but if you tourach first, then you might get all of the important spells ; fun interaction
make more vids like this. Been looking for magic retros. Awesome vid
I'm only a recent subscriber to your channel and I gotta say, you're stuff is incredible. Ode to Ashnod's Altar was beautiful. Love the perspective and your narrative viewpoint. Just thought I'd say that.
thank you. I appreciate that.
you really do put out great content sam. When it does come out **glare** jkjk, keep it up dude!
Best Magic channel. Great video. Great content. No bullshit opinion or pandering just retrospect and honest insight. The last magic content producer I actively subscribe to on youtube. Will be here forever.
this is a huge compliment. thank you.
I don't even play magic, why am I watching this
Oh yeah because he makes his videos interesting, even to someone who has no idea what's going on in them. I should probably play magic though, but I have no clue where to start lmao
You can't go wrong with a duel deck. It's a perfect jumping on point.
You and a friend split it between you and get a deck each. Since they are balanced against each other it can be great fun.
You can get cool cards in them too. Godspeed!
Niall Reid oh cool thanks for the tip!
Play mtg arena. It's purpose built to teach new players and support veterans alike
Or you could go to your local game store and pick up a welcome deck.
With a starter deck of course, or one of those free 30 card decks they give away in the summer
i was playing pioneer recently against a guy on lotus combo, aggressively mulled game 2 into Thoughtseize. game three he knew i had it and mulled into 2 lotus, a boseiju, and thespians stage, just to dodge the t1 Thoughtseize. shows just how much this card still warps the game around itself.
2:40 I don't think Leyline of Sanctity is a good card to reference on what Thoughtseize can remove, lol.
Technically it can remove Sanctity, if the opp drew it later in the game
Not the best example indeed. But he said that black has trouble dealing with artifact and enchantments, meaning when they’re in play I think.
I have just subbed after seeing only three videos and I have to say I am completely hooked. Your videos have so much passion and time into them it is so hard to stop watching. Keep up the informative and high-quality content and you are gonna grow fast!
I still remember facing Thoughtseize for the first time, way back in 2015. It was at my LGS right after Battle For Zendikar released, and I was playing my newly constructed Grixis Eldrazi deck. I had only begun playing at Khans, but was somewhat capable for a youngster. My opponent was running a Dimir control Modern deck, and I was rather intimidated, but I got my opening hand:
4x Mist Intruder
2x Island
1x Red/Black BFZ dual land
I win the roll, so I drop an Island and pass, and he immediately Thoughtseizes me. The look on his face was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen, because I just had all four of the same common and he's just like "wHAT," but drops one of my Intruders into the grave. Next turn, I draw a land and play an Intruder, and he goes for second Thoughtseize to get rid of another Intruder. Back to me, and I draw into a Benthic Infiltrator before swinging with my Intruder and trigger its Ingest ability (when it deals combat damage, exile defending player's top library card). He has no response, and guess what I exile?
Spoiler: Thoughtseize number 3.
By this point, we're both just laughing because he's bricking and can't play anything, and I drop a Benthic Infiltrator so I'm ingesting two+ cards per turn, and he just concedes the first game before kicking the crap out of me game 2.
But on game 3, I draw a Ghostfire Blade turn 2 after being Seized, so I play it for giggles and immediately draw a Benthic Infiltrator afterwards. I basically ended up with a 3+ power unblockable beater that continuously exiled the cards he needed until he conceded again.
Later on, I learned that what I'd essentially thrown together earlier that day from my Khans and BFZ cards had taken out a $500+ Modern deck, and that kind of made me super happy. Thoughtseize has grown to be incredibly irritating over the years to me, particularly since I can't afford to get them without severely impacting my disposable income. It's also having your opening hand just peeked at and going minus one before you can even play (on the draw) that really makes me hate the card. I may just be whining, but it's one of those cards that I see and immediately think "sweaty tryhard" over and over again. That's very rude of me, and I keep it internal, but I still think it all the time when I see it :(
/rant
Another piece of art by one of the best content creators we have. Thank you, Sam.
Reprint the damn cards in eternal supplemental sets! Modern Horizons gives you the ability to reprint modern power leveled cards with no standard in the picture. Commander precons let you reprint the staples we need in casual format that is way too expensive. R&D's obsession with the secondary market needs to stop to make magic more affordable on all fronts. I'm of the opinion that if the reserve list gets to exist, no single card should be above 20 dollars, because all others cards should be printed into the fucking ground! I'm fine having some expensive alternate art foil promo whatever the fuck being expensive, and the reserve list can even still exist, but their sould be no reason to have to anything above 80 dollars for 4 pieces of fucking cardboard. Reprint the fetches in precons, reprint damnation in Horizons, and stop complaining about players wanting cheaper shit when you do nothing about it.
Agreed. Make foils and shit unique to the original release for mUh CoLeCtOrS, but let people build decks based on the cards, not their wallets.
I keep saying this and no one seems to get it, they won’t do it, because they’re too busy commuting investment fraud. That’s why they care so much abt the secondary market but can’t publicly say anything about it. They’re manipulating the prices of their cards. Wotc and their entire board of directors should be in jail.
@@checkthenutz Absolutely. They are completely controlling the supply of product to keep prices and demand high. And now we have the $400 fetch land secret lair bullshit box that isn't even foil and is printed in extremely limited quantities.
🌚 your wish came true
absolutely, magic should be a game that ordinary people can actually play
Absolutely love these types of videos. Really hoping there's more to come
I'm glad you dig! this style will be my approach moving forward, so you're in luck.
This video was very well done.
thank you!
This series is honestly amazing.
Awesome work, dude. You're honestly one of my favorite MTG TH-camrs and serve as an inspiration for me. Keep it up :)
I appreciate that, man!
You don't make videos often, but when you do they are always great and well made. Keep it up.
Great video! I love discussions of metas I've missed, hope to see more.
I don't even play MTG nor am interested in playing, but your videos are so entertaining, and just so enjoyable, that I would binge watch all of your videos and would not get tired of it.
Such good videos, especially for a guy like me coming back to magic after close to ten years hiatus. Thanks!
I like how Rietzl asked if he was being targeted, then put down his hand and looked at it like it was new information
Cards like this are really, really powerful in Yugioh. Some ones that come to mind are trap dustshoot, and the neo space connector into aqua dolphin or mind crush before the new rule. The card you discard isnt as important as the hand knowledge, as soon as you know their hand and see nothing that can stop you, you’re free to just go ahead and win that turn
Trap dustshoot is kinda ass by now, turn 1 is were these effects matter same with mind crush even without the bs rule change. Its a reasonable trade off to have the card be useless for most of turn 1 and 2. Dolphin Connector on the other hand is just silly busted when its in a decent deck.
Dustshoot only really fits into slow control shells and even there it would face strong competition from just another universally good floodgate or solemn.
This is an exceptional insight behind Thoughtseize and why it has caused the situations it has with reprints and the like. Overall a fantastic video, great to see you back Sam!
It's really nice to see you back Sam I love all your content
I really like these Retrospects. Esp for a guy like me who stopped playing 14 years ago or whatever.
Thanks for making these. It helps me understand the old metas.
I remember having a theros thoughtseize. Traded it away for multiple deck pieces. Was remembering that card. Pulled it from a Thunder Junction pack. Love this card!
This may be my favorite video from you since i've found your channel. Such an interesting narrative brought here.
The quality and content of your vids are incredible!! Just subbed!
so great to here. welcome aboard.
It never feels good to find out that your hand is just an illusion.... thanks thoughtsieze !!!
Your editing with the card images are AMAZING
These videos have great content and are very well made. You got yourself a new subscriber.
You thought it was Pack Rat but it was me, Thoughtseize!
Amazing video Sam!!! I know youre focusing on other stuff for now but if it's not too time-consuming I'd love to see more pack lore videos!
I stopped playing magic years ago. Like...seven years ago. So I have no idea why I've been watching so many of your videos. They are so well thought out and intriguing.
Thoughtseize, Despise and Duress in a time when Siege Rhino was in standard, is the definition of nauseating.
Hey Sam great to see you back with the high quality magic videos! Thank you for the hard work
Thorough and articulate, and brought back so many terrible and lovely memories of Theros block.
I fell in love with this series overnight
I started playing during Theros block, before RtR rotated out. As miserable as Standard was with Thoughtseizes and Sphinx's Revelations and Supreme Verdicts flying around, while I just struggled to get my wins with my silly Boros Heroic deck, Thoughtseize taught me both the value of hand knowledge/disruption AND how to consider life totals as a resource. I'm glad they were there.
I'm am also glad I no longer have to play against it in Standard. So.. yeah, everything the video said xD; Love your content, man.
I hadn't heard of this channel until the Professor did a special on you; I like what I see!
Very good points brought up. But I'd also like to note that Thoughtseize was printed in a block - and even a standard season - where black had a lot of really powerful cards. Downfall, Whip, Gary, and Erebos (saw some occasional from what I remember) were all in the same set, followed soon by Drown in Sorrows and Bile Blight. In the block preceding it, they had Pack Rat, Consume Flesh, Ultimate Price, Underworld Connections, and host of black-based multicolored cards. And Tarkir didn't help with this, Abzan was perhaps the most broken color combination, as they had the best removal, and creatures, and Thoughtseize could easily fit in with it. So much of Thoughtseize's power was probably due to the time of it's printing, but even just thinking about it being reprinted makes me doubt that.
yep, Black was pretty strong at the time, but I think (as you said at the end) that a card like Thoughtseize can basically elevate any archetype and tie together the loose ends.
T1 Thoughtseize in Theros Standard basically informed the rest of your decisions: do I go all-in on Packrat on Turn 2, or sequence with a kill spell, Underworld Connections, and finally Desecration Demon? Without that information, it was easy to fall back on tempo with a deck that wanted to hit its spells on curve.
At 3:25, what is the card in the background? Just wondering, looks cool!
Great video as always. You always put so much care into your work.
thank you man!
I really like this series that you have going here. keep up the great work.
i like the dramatic editing and suspenseful music.
Lol, Paul Rietzl at 6:41: "18 life... you're targeting me? ok, just making sure."
Your videos have serious replay value
I have no idea what are you talking about but I can't stop watching
Coming to this video from the future is a cute experience - WotC have found to reprint this beast without ruining standard! The paradigm shift is good in this regard.
2023 and thoughtsieze still dominates pioneer/explorer and modern
My first deck was mono black modern.
Striving to have the strongest black deck after 7 years. It didn’t take long for this to just become an absolute staple.
Immediately puts an edge at the start of the game and if it’s in my opening hand these days I’m guaranteed a win 18/20 games.
This is great! Puts videos I've done on Magic history to shame!
I don't normally like this type of magic video but yours are so great.
thank you!
I feel as if I'm the only non-black player from Theros standard that doesn't hate Thoughtseize. Yes, it needed a reprint desperately, but I very much appreciated how skill-intensive the card is, and I didn't mind losing to a player who demonstrated that capacity.
Then again, I'm one of those people that liked the concept of damage-on-the-stack, so take that for whatever it's worth.
Anyway, here's to more great content! ^-^
there is a "cap" though, at the cap, which isn't exactly as high as this video would suggest, Thought-sieze is just a back breaker that you can't do anything about, many games can be utterly won on the spot, on the play, turn 1, thought seize, and all it takes to win that game is the "correct" choice, with no counter play
Keith Filibeck This. Most of the time, decisions made with discard spells aren't every difficult, especially if you know the metagame which you should if you're playing tournament magic at all. As cards like Thoughtseize show us one of the less talked about facts of Magic: Pinpoint hand disruption is one of the most powerful effects in the game.
Everyone who thinks turn 1 thought seize is game breaking in standard, has never seen turn 2 thought seize. Unless your deck was casting anything relevant on turn 2, going for the turn 1 thought seize was almost always wrong.
you do such a goddamn incredible job in these videos. Thank you.
And here we are in the future, where even 2 mana thoughtseize (plus card filtering) is borderline too good for standard.
Thought Erasure gets a little better, on account of it requiring Black AND Blue, not just Black. It's a minor hitch and very splashable, but it can matter in deck construction.
@@Bluecho4 In a standard with Shocklands and Buddylands, it's so trivial to splash. Perfect mana is unhealthy.
Thoughtseize is not only incredibly good at diminishing black's weakness to enchantment and artifacts.
It is also an incredibly strong control spell.
I would even argue that Thoughtseize is better than the UU Counterspell.
Both cards fulfil the same role: deny the opponent from using any 1 spell.
Counterspell has 3 advantages over Thoughtseize:
- it doesn't cost life
- it trades mana costs (UU vs the countered spells cmc)
- instant speed
Thoughtseize has 4 advantages over Counterspell:
- you get to see the opponent's hand
- you take out the spell preventively / the opponent can not keep the spell in hand and play around your ability to deny it
- you don't gamble with Thoughtseize / don't worry about denying the wrong spell
- only requires 1 black mana
Very, very, very well done video. Congrats.
Your content is amazing.
The video is informative and calming.
Continue with the good work. :)
Really well made video, hope you put out more like this ^_^
This video is GREAT! sound quality could be improved but I love the format.
Great video Sam, looking forward to the next! :D
0:08 At first, I thought the Mii Channel theme was playing.
The history and the thought behind these videos? Wow!
Great to have another Magic Man Sam video!
How often do you thoughtseize a leyline?
When Khans of Tarkir and Theros were in Standard, I ran four copies of Thoughtseize and three copies of Brain Maggot, one of the worse 2 mana discard guys out there, in my Mardu deck just because I wanted to make sure my 3 mana token producer (Rabblemaster or Brimaz) would reliably stick on the table.
Thoughtseize gave me an opportunity to brew up and play an actual aggro-control deck, an archetype I hadn't had a real opportunity to give a spin since Extended's Miracle Gro. I was able to paste together something like a 80 percent win ratio over that season with my build that relied on powerful creature removal and discard, three mana token producers, and seven or eight four or five drops that could attack with haste in the air to clinch games. Siege Rhino was never all that tough to deal with, since I could force it out of their hand, or just Crackling Doom it and swing in with my ridiculous three drop. And the archetype wouldn't have worked without the disruption.
Keep up the fine work.
you were on the fun side of this card, while I was still trying to run Pyromancer tempo decks. sigh.
Discard is the black equivalent of counterspells and Thoughtseize is as universal and accessible as it gets
A tie under a flanel shirt.
I didnt think i would live time enough to see that
So funny that Kevin from the RDB just gave you a shutout tonight! Good vid.
I'd love to see a history of this specific type skill intensive hand disruption and how it's changed over the years to become this powerful. (IE: Coercion, Duress, Ostracize, Unmask, Distress, Thoughtseize, Despise, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.)
I don't play magic and have no idea what most of what you mention means, but I've watched more than a few of these videos.
Great work Sam!
your video content is amazing, keep up the good work !
welcome back and great vid as usual
You're like the Mark Brown of MTG, easy subscription
I've never heard of him, but shoutout regardless. welcome aboard.
Tho poo th p o.o i8+ oii w iejj e ijeu3iioi22o82l3nnmn3n3nmnmmemekk3
The Mark Ass Brownlee of MTG? Yahhh... that's hot.
I love your videos so much, im commenting on all of them to assist with the TH-cam Algorithm.
Your stuff is always top notch! I think Thoughtsieze was a good reprint, and powerful reprints can go in standard, but they must be done aware that they can warp things. What if there was a powerful midrange creature that you could put into play if an effect an opponent controls caused you to reveal your hand? Or raise the stakes and design a set/Standard environment where Thoughtsieze was ONE of the best cards, not clearly head and shoulders above everything else. It's hard but they set a bar once I think they just don't want to have standards powerful enough to house eternal staples anymore. :c
ahh, i love Kithkin, so devious, yet straight forward in a sense. a played Thoughtseize in my vampire deck, ahh... i love that deck... man i wanna play some magic now lol
Haha love looking back at how badly people evaluated cards in the past (not so different from how we do now :p).
no kidding. reading through the initial thread on Planeswalkers was a trip.
Would you consider making these audios into podcasts? I’d love to listen to your work during my commutes
I actually like the Theros art. To me both have a sinister vibe to them.
I guess it's personal preference: Would you want to see a farie haunting someone's dreams, or see someone in the process of losing their mind.
Most Modern reprints are fine for Standard depending on what else is legal at the time. Fetchlands are fine as long as there are no fetchable dual lands in the same standard environment. Combo enablers like Scapeshift and Ad Nauseum are also fine as long as their wincons aren't in Standard at the same time.
Note however the strange dip some time prior to the set being release, almost as if someone who makes the prices for these things found out about it's inclusion in Theros.
I love this card, man. I got a mis-print version, and have played it ever since. Just need to get 3 more to make it really work. I don't play competitively, but I enjoy fucking with people during games. :3
What an interesting and professionell way to make MTG videos about one card -> sub'd
very very well done videos. thank you!
I remember opening and selling 3 foil thoughtsiezes theros pre release night for 60 each. Good memories
Its like a Caspian Report for MTG. thank you.
Thoughtseize makes burn players everywhere salivate. Yes please, turn my Lightning Bolt into half a Blightning with no mana cost.
Honestly I think the best way to reprint Thoughtseize is doing it in a set/rotation that also has strong burn spells (that can go face).
Thoughtseize was the epitome of oversight. The card should have never been printed. And it should never see standard again.
just saw this video, awesome content. Just a little comment on the art of animate dead; watch the arts of sun titan, the new reprint art for terminate and the animate dead, they make a cicle.
7:20 Why would you put a huge picture of Sam Stoddard over his post, rendering it completely unreadable?
I don't even play mtg, but these are so well done!!!
BRO WAS THAT COURIER NEW??
A.K.A. THE FUCKING BEST FONT????
HELL YEAH