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It Works Like That? That's Just Not Fair!

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Magic's rules are a funny thing. Things work one way, until they don't anymore. Then a new thing arrives that would seem to follow the previously set precedent, and nope! It works the old way!

Valki, God of Lies

It used to be that split cards counted like two separate cards. For example, you could imprint Fire // Ice onto an Isochron Scepter because imprinting Fire or Ice was a legal option. This was also true for cascade, as you could Bloodbraid Elf cascade into a Boom // Bust because Boom only cost two, then actually cast Bust because you had the option to choose what spell to cast.

Bloodbraid Elf

Well, there was a bit rules update and all that changed, merging the costs on a split card into one total cost and nullifying these interactions.

So, it would make sense if the new Valki, God of Lies, essentially a split card just split over the front and back of the card, would follow these new rules too.

Violent Outburst
Demonic Dread

But it doesn't!

Time Stamps:

00:04:22 - Match 1

00:28:07 - Match 2

00:52:40 - Match 3

01:25:46 - Match 4

01:57:38 - Match 5


Cascading from Violent Outburst or Demonic Dread into Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter is clearly broken. Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter is supposed to cost seven, not three, and is off the charts powerful when he shows up on turn three (or earlier). Of course, there's more than one Tibalt card currently breaking Modern, making this interaction almost overshadowed by what Tibalt's Trickery can do.

Regardless, we've got a very interesting deck here that is capable of playing a somewhat fair game while also doing broken things with Simian Spirit Guide and Gemstone Caverns. Modern is a crazy world right now, which makes wielding this kind of power formidable.

The best shell for three-mana cascade cards and Valki probably hasn't been found yet, but this is a very good start by d00mwake!

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