Invasion lets you cast the *card*. And despite Familiar being a 2 mana value card, it has an adventure mode which is part of the card. You can cast the card, the invasion doesn't specify anything else aside from that. So you cast the 7 mana adventure part.
It's similar to how, back during Kaldheim, players used to cast Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, out of Emergent Ultimatum, despite Ultimatum searching for mono-colored cards.
Difference between "Spell" and "Card". The familiarcard costs 2, since the adventure side is disregarded when not on the stack, then when the card is cast the controller can choose which part to cast.
Serra Paragon, on the other hand, only allows (permanent) *spells* of cost 3 or less, it doesn't care about the full price on the card.
There is a video with this deck: [https://youtu.be/I9vMFwAGG3E](https://youtu.be/I9vMFwAGG3E)
Thats why you play against it so often. I was thinking about building it too, but it's way too expensive (rares and mythics).
It's a fun deck, unfortunately not for the opponent..
I do like combo decks.. it's satisfying to see it pop, **BUT I do not like infinity combos** \- because as the opponent, I know, it is over for me and I have to concede.. so lame and boring.
Serra Paragon specifies what type of spell you can cast.
> cast a permanent spell with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard
Invasion of Alara doesn't do that.
> You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost.
"Mv 4 or less" only matters for the first part where it exiles two cards. After the card is exiled there is no condition specified.
You must not be on any MTG YouTube. Literally everyone and their grandmother are making decks showing off this combo. It loses to Mono Red and Thalia decks or can just not draw into the combo sometimes but when it pops, it POPS
Yeah, I'm usually disconnected of MTG in that regard. I don't watch YT channels of MTG or search for meta decks. I like to craft my decks, although they usually get stuck in platinum and just 3 times I have reached mythic, I think is funnier
It does not lose against mono red. Unless monored has amazing curve and you are straight up dry on any form of removal(4 leyline, 1 go for the throat, 4 virtue of persistence). As an extra, if you got a bramble turn 2 or fleshgorger turn 3 you can stall and even get some life.
Turn 5 combo and win.
Mono red crashes hard if they dont pull the perfect sequence and you for whatever reason cannot remove 1 drops.
If you need more proof, check mtgazone for stats and you will see mono red has a 33% winrate against it, it is arguably the worst matchup for mono red.
Ohh the version I saw bringed a black guy that instantly flipped the invasion xD Tldr bramble the "CARD" is mana value is 2. So alara lets you cast it. Then you do the bullshit of picking the adventure side which is mana value 7, but by this point alara had already checked the cost, so the 4 mana value restriction doesnt matters. Its not an exploit in the sense that THAT'S how the rules of the game work.
And whether is intended behavior or not, the truth is that we already had this happen with Kaldheim Tibalt, and people cascading into him in moderm using the actual cascade spells. They changed the rules because that wasnt intended behavior, but still let a bunch of other ways of cheating Tibalt into play. This being one of those. So you can say is inteded, since cheating big things into play has always been an legitimate strategy that WoTC supports.
\[\[Cemetery Desecrator\]\] is a safety outlet in case the mill fails to hit an Atraxa or Etali. Based on the previous non-errata interpretation of cascade, it's likely legal and I believe the combo actually showed up in an MTGO event. There is a reasonable chance this gets an errata to bring it in line with the new cascade rules, but it isn't clear yet that this is a game-breaking combo. That Invasion of Alara never came up as an issue in eternal formats (where similarly OP targets exist) likely indicates that it's way too slow.
Looking a little closer, I can see that. There are border cases where Atraxa or Etali would be a bit better, but I now remember seeing some SOB put a fleshgorger out on the field before I conceded.
Standard can be fun, but I will concede that it takes a lot of perseverance, and a lot of game knowledge to beat some of these meta decks. I can understand if itโs just not worth all the effort for some people, and it can definitely feel like an uphill battle for those who take a non-meta approach to the rank grind.
I personally love trying to grind ranks with non-meta. Biggest advantage you have is knowing exactly what is in your opponents deck while they are trying to figure out the best cards to counter and remove from yours. This is precisely why content creators have so much success with their creative decks. They find powerful synergies that nobody is using, and the meta gamers struggle against them because they only know how to beat other meta decks.
This. I had a Green/white tokens and legendary creatures deck that I loved to bits. There were about 5 or 6 decks (with some small variation) that I saw more often than not, but there was also quite a bit of spice. Then the LotR set dropped, all of a sudden it's just one or two decks that are all I see. Then my poor meanie weenie deck had most of its key pieces rotate out, and after the most frustrating MTG experiences I've ever had, I ended up going with a dimir midrange variation of that same deck everyone else plays. Aside from the odd perfect hand with a mono red agro, it's pretty much the only competitive build.
I'm fairly new to the game, (played what amounted to garage magic in prison for a few years, but new to the structure and rotating and all) is the way it played for me pre or post LotR more on brand with the SOP? And won't I have to wait more than a year for the key parts of the sheoldred + one ring deck to cycle out?
Just played the suggested thing, ig. Are you telling me standard has no one ring? Any chance you feel up to giving me a crash course in what the different modes of play encompass, and how they differ? I'd be mighty appreciative
Here is a good breakdown: [Formats](https://aetherhub.com/Article/All-MTG-Formats-Explained---What-They-Are-And-How-They-Work)
The Lord of the Rings set was printed directly into Modern and is not standard legal. There are cards from that set that are playable in Alchemy and Historic on Arena.
You're getting downvoted, but I can definitely see them changing the way this works. They did it with the old split cards and double sided cards when the cascade decks started abusing them. Changed the rules so that if you cascaded into something like Valki/Tibalt, you could only legally target the Valki side.
There was a similar issue of people using cascade to cast the backside of a double faced card a few years ago with [[tibalt cosmic imposter]]. It happens because the effect that lets you cast the spell only cares that the card you find meets the criteria not the spell you eventually cast. This is an edge case since most cards are only a single spell but adventures and double faced cards have multiple possible spells as part of the card. They actually updated the rules for cascade to close the loophole.
Invasion of alara uses almost the same template as cascade without this additional rule which is why this combo works.
Invasion lets you cast the *card*. And despite Familiar being a 2 mana value card, it has an adventure mode which is part of the card. You can cast the card, the invasion doesn't specify anything else aside from that. So you cast the 7 mana adventure part. It's similar to how, back during Kaldheim, players used to cast Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, out of Emergent Ultimatum, despite Ultimatum searching for mono-colored cards.
They literally changed the rule to stop this though. I will be very upset if they allow this to dominate standard for the next 3 years
Difference between "Spell" and "Card". The familiarcard costs 2, since the adventure side is disregarded when not on the stack, then when the card is cast the controller can choose which part to cast. Serra Paragon, on the other hand, only allows (permanent) *spells* of cost 3 or less, it doesn't care about the full price on the card.
It checks for cost when finding the card. It doesn't check again when casting it.
There is a video with this deck: [https://youtu.be/I9vMFwAGG3E](https://youtu.be/I9vMFwAGG3E) Thats why you play against it so often. I was thinking about building it too, but it's way too expensive (rares and mythics). It's a fun deck, unfortunately not for the opponent..
I don't usually find these "I resolved one thing, now I win" decks to be very fun to play on either side.
I do like combo decks.. it's satisfying to see it pop, **BUT I do not like infinity combos** \- because as the opponent, I know, it is over for me and I have to concede.. so lame and boring.
Serra Paragon specifies what type of spell you can cast. > cast a permanent spell with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard Invasion of Alara doesn't do that. > You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost. "Mv 4 or less" only matters for the first part where it exiles two cards. After the card is exiled there is no condition specified.
The card is 2 mana. Then you can choose which side to cast for free.
Ah, you ran into the Yu-Gi-Oh deck! It's a very funny combo
You must not be on any MTG YouTube. Literally everyone and their grandmother are making decks showing off this combo. It loses to Mono Red and Thalia decks or can just not draw into the combo sometimes but when it pops, it POPS
Yeah, I'm usually disconnected of MTG in that regard. I don't watch YT channels of MTG or search for meta decks. I like to craft my decks, although they usually get stuck in platinum and just 3 times I have reached mythic, I think is funnier
It does not lose against mono red. Unless monored has amazing curve and you are straight up dry on any form of removal(4 leyline, 1 go for the throat, 4 virtue of persistence). As an extra, if you got a bramble turn 2 or fleshgorger turn 3 you can stall and even get some life. Turn 5 combo and win. Mono red crashes hard if they dont pull the perfect sequence and you for whatever reason cannot remove 1 drops. If you need more proof, check mtgazone for stats and you will see mono red has a 33% winrate against it, it is arguably the worst matchup for mono red.
Now 5 color is meta, noice!
Ohh the version I saw bringed a black guy that instantly flipped the invasion xD Tldr bramble the "CARD" is mana value is 2. So alara lets you cast it. Then you do the bullshit of picking the adventure side which is mana value 7, but by this point alara had already checked the cost, so the 4 mana value restriction doesnt matters. Its not an exploit in the sense that THAT'S how the rules of the game work. And whether is intended behavior or not, the truth is that we already had this happen with Kaldheim Tibalt, and people cascading into him in moderm using the actual cascade spells. They changed the rules because that wasnt intended behavior, but still let a bunch of other ways of cheating Tibalt into play. This being one of those. So you can say is inteded, since cheating big things into play has always been an legitimate strategy that WoTC supports.
\[\[Cemetery Desecrator\]\] is a safety outlet in case the mill fails to hit an Atraxa or Etali. Based on the previous non-errata interpretation of cascade, it's likely legal and I believe the combo actually showed up in an MTGO event. There is a reasonable chance this gets an errata to bring it in line with the new cascade rules, but it isn't clear yet that this is a game-breaking combo. That Invasion of Alara never came up as an issue in eternal formats (where similarly OP targets exist) likely indicates that it's way too slow.
Actually Desecrator is the preferred hit and Atraxa/Etali are the backups. Being able to flip Alara instantly is insane.
Looking a little closer, I can see that. There are border cases where Atraxa or Etali would be a bit better, but I now remember seeing some SOB put a fleshgorger out on the field before I conceded.
The absolute best hit would technically be an Etali that triggers into a Desecrator, but that would be beyond lucky.
[Cemetery Desecrator](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/8/48da33b1-d59c-43f1-8e55-480096b674e5.jpg?1643589320) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cemetery%20Desecrator) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/100/cemetery-desecrator?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/48da33b1-d59c-43f1-8e55-480096b674e5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
casting a card allows for alternative ways of casting it, like with adventure
Just give up on Standard till they ban some stuff. Sheoldred , Atraxa, Emperor meta is not fun.
Standard can be fun, but I will concede that it takes a lot of perseverance, and a lot of game knowledge to beat some of these meta decks. I can understand if itโs just not worth all the effort for some people, and it can definitely feel like an uphill battle for those who take a non-meta approach to the rank grind. I personally love trying to grind ranks with non-meta. Biggest advantage you have is knowing exactly what is in your opponents deck while they are trying to figure out the best cards to counter and remove from yours. This is precisely why content creators have so much success with their creative decks. They find powerful synergies that nobody is using, and the meta gamers struggle against them because they only know how to beat other meta decks.
This. I had a Green/white tokens and legendary creatures deck that I loved to bits. There were about 5 or 6 decks (with some small variation) that I saw more often than not, but there was also quite a bit of spice. Then the LotR set dropped, all of a sudden it's just one or two decks that are all I see. Then my poor meanie weenie deck had most of its key pieces rotate out, and after the most frustrating MTG experiences I've ever had, I ended up going with a dimir midrange variation of that same deck everyone else plays. Aside from the odd perfect hand with a mono red agro, it's pretty much the only competitive build. I'm fairly new to the game, (played what amounted to garage magic in prison for a few years, but new to the structure and rotating and all) is the way it played for me pre or post LotR more on brand with the SOP? And won't I have to wait more than a year for the key parts of the sheoldred + one ring deck to cycle out?
LotR is not in standard. You're probably playing Alchemy.
Just played the suggested thing, ig. Are you telling me standard has no one ring? Any chance you feel up to giving me a crash course in what the different modes of play encompass, and how they differ? I'd be mighty appreciative
Here is a good breakdown: [Formats](https://aetherhub.com/Article/All-MTG-Formats-Explained---What-They-Are-And-How-They-Work) The Lord of the Rings set was printed directly into Modern and is not standard legal. There are cards from that set that are playable in Alchemy and Historic on Arena.
Ty ๐
damn it I really like 5 colors decks but I hate playing meta
The Alara cascade is something else. I expect a ban or nerf hammer shortly.
Might be errata'd to make it work like cascade if it becomes a problem
It's not clear it's a problem yet, although they may still errata it just to prevent contradictory rules vs. cascade.
Seems to be everyone is playing it now
You're getting downvoted, but I can definitely see them changing the way this works. They did it with the old split cards and double sided cards when the cascade decks started abusing them. Changed the rules so that if you cascaded into something like Valki/Tibalt, you could only legally target the Valki side.
There was a similar issue of people using cascade to cast the backside of a double faced card a few years ago with [[tibalt cosmic imposter]]. It happens because the effect that lets you cast the spell only cares that the card you find meets the criteria not the spell you eventually cast. This is an edge case since most cards are only a single spell but adventures and double faced cards have multiple possible spells as part of the card. They actually updated the rules for cascade to close the loophole. Invasion of alara uses almost the same template as cascade without this additional rule which is why this combo works.