Anticipate, yay or nay

Modern forum

Posted on March 24, 2015, 2:36 p.m. by Hjaltrohir

I really love Anticipate from the newest set and after pulling 3 at prerelease and having lots of fun and use out of it, I am now wondering what its potential in modern is, especially UWR(b) Control. I would really appreciate your guy's thoughts/opinions. Also, Stratus Dancer. Viable?

I like Serum Visions more. But it is not a terrible alternative. Especially in more of a draw-go control shell. I am also not a huge fan of Stratus Dancer in modern. It is almost playable... but I would much rather just use Snapcaster Mage on a Negate.

March 24, 2015 2:45 p.m.

Arvail says... #3

Telling Time is better with fetches.

March 24, 2015 2:47 p.m.

PValBlanc says... #4

There are about five threads asking this already, and the general consensus has always been nay.

Scroll down a bit in the modern forum and you'll find pages worth of elaborate explanations as to why. I'd sum it up here, but I'm not the best suited to do so.

March 24, 2015 2:48 p.m.

smackjack says... #5

Telling Time does almost the same thing and sees no play. I think Anticipate is better than Telling Time, but not alot. You could always try it out :)

I dont know about Stratus Dancer. If you could morph it at instant speed i would play it :)

March 24, 2015 2:48 p.m.

@ smackjack You can morph Stratus Dancer at better than instant speed. Morph does not use the stack meaning your opponent cannot do something in response to your morph. It essentially becomes and uncounterable negate. But your it winds up costing a total of 5 mana... which is not terrible given that you also get a 2/1 flying body attached to it. But if it is the only morph in your deck, your opponent will see it coming and can play around it.

March 24, 2015 2:54 p.m.

Unless you mean play it as a face down 2/2 at instant speed. But that is not morphing it. That is just playing it as a morph. Morphing it is activating its (mega)morph ability.

March 24, 2015 2:59 p.m.

smackjack says... #8

TheDuggernaught yea i ment play it as a 2/2 instant speed..

March 24, 2015 3:01 p.m.

Chubbub says... #9

Any deck playing Telling Time will want to replace it with Anticipate, but telling time doesn't see a ton of play. Basically, anticipate will see as much play as telling time did.

March 24, 2015 3:04 p.m.

vishnarg says... #10

NAY. For the 30th time, there have been so many threads about this already: do not play this card in modern. It is not good.

March 24, 2015 3:05 p.m.

Stratus Dancer beats split-second at a reasonable cost. If they ever revisit the mechanic, or it ever starts to see a nice increase in play, that'll maybe possibly be relevant

March 24, 2015 4:59 p.m.

Arvail says... #12

Thank you, vishnarg.

March 24, 2015 5:07 p.m.

MollyMab says... #13

Scapeshift plays Time or Dig. Scapeshift also plays a lot of fetches, so holding one for telling time, crack it if need be isn't a hard thing.

Look at it like this. Anticipate gets you 4 cards deeper. Telling Time gets you 2, or 4 depending on if you have a fetch.

March 24, 2015 5:18 p.m.

sylvannos says... #14

LeaPlath hit the nail on the head. You're going three deep and leaving one mystery card on top. Telling Time goes three deep, but puts on of them back on top, leaving you with no mystery card.

I'm anxious myself to play Storm with Anticipate.

March 24, 2015 5:30 p.m.

Oh yeah storm got anticipate!

March 25, 2015 2:39 a.m.

This discussion has been closed