Mastery of the Unseen
Economics forum
Posted on March 9, 2015, 6:45 p.m. by insertcleverid
Mastery of the Unseen is not a card, right? Its price is going out of control because of price manipulation/spec frenzy, right?
It's becoming realized that it has some serious potential in G/W ramp/devotion.
Pro's are eating this card right up.
March 9, 2015 7 p.m.
I've thought this card was awesome ever since I got one in my ugin's fate pack at the pre release. I've come up with some ideas for decks, but mostly used it as a sideboard card so I'm glad it's starting to see some love because it's great.
March 9, 2015 7:29 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #5
And yet according to TO, TCGplayer still has this card listed as $0.24 mid price. Or is TO just slow on updating TCGplayer prices?
March 9, 2015 8:32 p.m.
CommanderOfBolas says... #7
the card is going places. people see the potential and are excited. I have a u/w control list with one in the side for the control matchup
March 9, 2015 8:52 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #8
It's also real good in RW Aggro. Also reasonable in Abzan Midrange.
Infinite 2/2s, sometimes more. Beat that.
March 9, 2015 8:54 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #9
@GlistenerAgent: "Infinite 2/2s, sometimes more". That has to go on a quotable page somewhere.
March 9, 2015 8:56 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #10
I don't know, that was too off-the-cuff to be really funny.
March 9, 2015 8:58 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #11
Yeah, not really wall material.
Dat promo price though. Most likely attributed to G/W Devotion being proven as the real deal in Miami.
March 10, 2015 7:23 a.m.
I've been talking with guys in the UK about a build with it, seems they've had some success with it. Obvious advantages to being able to pay 4 for a huge creature.
March 11, 2015 5:50 a.m.
insertcleverid says... #15
@ GlistenerAgent and Maltanis your comments are how I wished Mastery worked, but it doesn't. I get you're being hyperbolic for fun but I think the spike is fake exactly because I see so many comments along those lines. You don't get infinite 2/2 and you can't pay 4 for a huge creature. You just pay 4 for a colorless, nameless bear with upside.
Let's say your deck runs 20 lands, 20 spells and 20 creatures. 10 of which cost 4 mana or less, and 10 of which are 'huge'(let's just say 5 is huge, because dragons).
You pay 1W (and a card draw) for Mastery of the Unseen, and then you pay 3W more to replace the draw Mastery of the unseen took up. 66% of the time is a land or spell that goes into play as a 2/2. The other 33% of the time it's still a 2/2 but now you may choose to pay the card's actual casting cost to flip it up and 'get' it. Well, you dont have that mana because you already spent it! So you wait a turn and your opponent happily beats your face because he knows youre not going to block. Even then, you're only 50%/50% to hit one of your huge creatures, or 16.5%.
Look closer at those 4 outcomes. Turn 2 you play a land, mastery of the unseen and your opponent plays Seeker of the Way. Turn 3 you play a land and one of your 10 affordable creatures to chump. Turn 4 you play a land and activate Mastery of the Unseen
33% you hit a land. Now the next turn your opponent Naturalizes Mastery and attacks. You've just spent 6 mana for a 2/2 chump. But thats not even the worst part. The worst part is youve effectively put yourself 2 turns farther away from getting your huge creature. 1 turn to draw the land and cast the creature, but remember the creature isnt in your hand. You were hoping to manifest it! Worst case scenario you topdeck another Mastery of the Unseen and you're still 2 turns away.
33% you hit a spell. Hilariously the best-case scenario is to hit another Mastery of the Unseen. Otherwise, you just lost one of your outs, probably in the form of removal, which is bad, but likely you're losing the vital mythological combo piece that makes Mastery of the Unseen good.
16.5% you hit a creature that costs 4 mana or less. Yay you just paid 4 plus 4 minus the creature's CMC to put a creature into play for free and gain a life or 2.
16.5% you hit a creature that costs 5 mana or more. Yay you just paid 4 to draw a card and gain a life life or 2. Best case scenario it has flip-up abilities, and in this case you basically paid 1 to draw, 3 to play a morph, and then whatever the CMC is to flip it up, which is usually AT LEAST 1 mana more than the morph cost! So best-case for all your hard work you net a life or 2 (but probably 1 since you've been chumping this whole time) and worse-case you come out a mana or two down in exchange for that life.
99% of the time that's how Mastery actually plays out. I feel like youre better off running Ajani's Mantra than this clap-trappery.
On the other hand I haven't found the video of the pro putting this card to good use. Can somebody link that so I can see the error Im making?
March 11, 2015 11:05 a.m.
insertcleverid says... #17
Phyrexian Dreadnought combo? Well, then I have to ask how Mastery of the Unseen is better than Pithing Needle, Stifle or any other cards that cheat him in for less setup cost?
Also, isn't this spike a result of it being a 1 or 2 of in the sideboard of G/W Devotion? Just another reason why I wonder if its all hype.
March 11, 2015 2:01 p.m.
The entire time I was reading your post and how thats how mastery typically plays out I was thinking.... this is clearly coming from someone who has never actually seen the deck play out. Then I saw your last sentence lol. Right now the mirror match is really crappy because they're going just G/W for consistency and running their removal in their sideboard so neither deck can stop the other from just flooding out with creatures and gaining a bunch of life.
However, these new creatures allow you to run removal (conditional) in your mainboard and cost 2 or 3 mana depending on if you flip it for its CMC from manifest or use megamorph to put a +1/+1 counter on it. (probably situation dependent, if you have 3 mana no reason to only spend 2 if you don't need that extra mana for something else.) There's also Den Protector which allows you to get back cards from your graveyard. This means if some of your removal gets manifested you have less to worry about because you have creatures that double as removal and you have Den Protector to return it to your hand when it finally goes to the graveyard. You spend 2 mana to flip Den Protector and return Ultimate Price to your hand and if need to cast it on that same turn you can, for a total of only 4 mana. This is what my post is about. These new cards take what is already a strong deck and gives it more utility from the creatures it can include.
I could really see this deck becoming the one to beat and stay there for a while. Although, I did just see Duress got reprinted so add that to Thoughtseize and mainboard enchantment hate and there could be enough tools to keep it in check if such a need were to arise. -+0.001850
March 11, 2015 4:19 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #19
Except that control decks can't beat "a colorless, nameless bear with upside" when you make one or more every single turn. Unless they have Vault or Ugin, their removal spells are in no way keeping up with your 2/2s, especially when the 2/2s are sometimes Goblin Rabblemasters or Polukranos, World Eaters.
Have one in play. Watch your blue opponent cry.
March 11, 2015 4:23 p.m.
GlistenerAgent that's actually why I started running Mastery of the Unseen in the sieboard of my abzan deck. The sultai control decks have a real hard time with it. Your creatures can't be countered as they're entering and like you said, their removal just doesn't keep up with you when they're trying to 1 for 1 the slower midrange decks and their Bile Blight don't 2 for 1 you either because they're nameless. Landing a Whisperwood Elemental also helps you out pace their removal, helps protect against board wipes, and provides you with more opportunities to flip a creature for extra value and some life gain. I can't wait for DTK and these new cards.
March 11, 2015 4:36 p.m.
selesvyaloverer8 says... #21
insertcleverid watch the deck play at gp miami and explain to me why 8 copies were in the mb in the finals. also, >%50 of the cards in this deck are creatures not %33 so it is much better than you calculate in your math. also, with the massive amount of ramp with Elvish Mystic + Sylvan Caryatid + Voyaging Satyr Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx it is the repeatable 4 mana for a 2/2 is very reasonable and gets out of hand.
March 11, 2015 7:20 p.m.
insertcleverid says... #22
Those are all very good points I hadn't considered. My problem is I don't play standard these days, and I get a lot of my magic fix from drafting or edh. I always had mastery as bulk because...well I had my say. I need people to argue with me. Helps me get outside of my own head sometimes.
I also somehow missed that there were 8 copies in top 8. I thought it was just a sideboard card.
vomdur says... #2
Green devotion decks (thats what mtgtop8 has them listed as) are using this card and have placed high in the last two standard tournaments with the last one having 2 of those decks in the final. Card may be worth money if you have it unload it it will not hold value after it rotates or people start mainboarding enchant hate.
March 9, 2015 6:49 p.m.