Pointed Discussion

Can be a great card to have 4 of if the opponent can't counter it. Imagine 4 of these on the table at one time removing 12 cards from the opponents library each turn.

The only thing that would make this card better would be if it had the unearth ability (LOL)

Actually not unearth, evasion so that way you can attack confidently.

It should counter them for the rest of the game...

This card is awesome for milling.. especially with a drowner of secrets you can tap this guy without having to put him in danger for an attack.. Possibly add merrow commerce to the mix and you have a decent milling combo.

The only way to make this a decent milling combo is to have a paradise mantle and be attached to a freed from the real. It then becomes a pretty decent turn3 win.

Cards needed in opening hand and 3 subsequent draws:
3 Islands
Ornithopter
Paradise Mantle
Grimoire Thief
Freed from the real

This card is amazing for one reason above all: It's a 2/2 for 2 mana, for BLUE, and has a POSITIVE effect with no drawback. Blue so rarely gets P/T for equal mana, this is instantly good.

This guy would be pretty good with a basic enchantment such as Ocular Halo and if you combine that with another common card such as Tidewater Minion you could create quite a mess for your opponent and draw a few cards at the same time. =Þ

Hmmm...
Crackleburr and Painter's Servant?
Turn 1, play a land, streamhopper
2, land, play Painter's Servant, say everything is Blue and Red (and maybe black in case your opponent is running doomblade or shriekmaw)
3, land, play crackleburr,
4, land, tap 2 land, crackleburr, streamhopper, and this, deal 3 damage to opponent and mill (and get free counters,) tap 2 land and untap them all (and swing if possible, getting more mill) and bounce something.

If you want to take it farther:
5, land, smokebraider, tap 2 land, crackleburr, streamhopper, and this, deal 3 damage to opponent.
6, land, and start crackling. You'd get 6 cards and 6 damage right there, not counting if you attack this turn. That's a minimum thus far of 12 damage and 12 cards milled, 3 enemy stuff bounced, and a chance at countering stuff.

Try even throwing in vivid lands and disentomb, and bring your grimoire thief back when you counter with it! Weeeeeeeee!

Or maybe I'm just an idiot and this is too hard to pull off (and obviously it wouldn't go that well unless you were really lucky. You might want some counter spells in this deck, as well as some unblockables, and maybe some stuff that bounces stuff (other than crackleburr.)

But this would be okay with banishing knack (bounce something, mill,) but (if, as above, you're running red blue,) you can try "elemental mastery" and then make 2 3/1 red elementals with haste (until EoT) and mill!


The possibilities are endless! (Or maybe I'm just an idiot, which is all too possible. :/)

The beauty of this and Nemesis of Reason is that they force your opponent to deal with them. Nemesis of Reason is a great closer, but this is a better opener and a slightly better card in my opinion because of the early play potential. When you play this you force your opponent to waste a turn and resources dealing with it (whether countering, bolting, or holding back some of the attack squad to block and try to kill it), which can be crucial early on, and if your opponent can't then you've got him right where you want him.

Good thing my Grimoire Thief caught it's Second Wind

Chrisrawr why would you want a ornithopter when you could have a card drawing device likePonder or a Puresight Merrow if you didnt get the right cards, heck, you cant even win on turn 3 with that combo, remember that paradise mantle casting cost is 0 and its equip cost is 1, so how are you supposed to drop freed from reality AND paradise mantle on the same turn? You would have to tap Grimoire Thief to get the last third mana and then it would be pointless and take a whole new turn to use it's hability. Meanwhile your opponent will do nothing? Grimoire Thief screams loud 'IM A COMBO ENGINE, PLEASE KILL ME OR YOU WILL LOSE' for a whole 3 turns while you are completely tapped out, how are you supposed to stop them to kill your creature? Only a moron would let that happen.

Now, for people that look for serious uses for this card, spell pierce, spiketal drakeling and cursecatcher are the way to go. They can assure that your opponent's won't drop their 'bombs' early in the game. Even if they attempt to, make sure you have some counter on your hand so they will waste 7 mana to drop that winning creature just to be owned by a mana leak. If you succesfully screw him twice, you have the psychological advantage, having a 'permission' deck allows you to win more turns even if you dont have counters because they will be afraid of playing their best spells.

Also remember to bring unsummon in case your opponent use a non counterable hability (triggered habilities, volcanic fallout like spells, planeswalker's skills, etc) or to save your ass in case your opponent has gone too far and you can control him to win more time by returning their strong creatures.

I recently built a merfolk mill deck with four of these, 4 drowner of secrets and 4 Merrow Commerce. It is absolutely insane and mills extremely quick. If anything, the counter ability is a bonus. It should be a staple in any merfolk mill deck.

It DOES counter them for the rest of the game

Either we players were Idiots or this card was banned in Lorwyn/Shadowmoore + Timespiral Standard. 3rd turn win.

I would replace one of the 3 islands from Chrisrawr's combo with something like a Svyelunite Temple and throw that out in the first turn. Second turn the Grimoire Thief and the rest on the third... for drawing cards, i'd go for the Fallowsage and other combos, using Freed from the Real/Paradise Mantle that are also useful is Stonybrook Schoolmaster and Veteran of the Depths.

@BelloAbril: Chrisrawr's combo would work if the Ornithopter was thrown out first with the Paradise Mantle and equipped at the same time. would even yield an extra mana on turn 2, but I favor my version because has less of a chance to act on the combo, due to the Coup de Grace (mantle and freed) all coming out in 3rd turn

you know what combo i would use with this? Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with this. it makes a copy, you attack, removed 3 cards, they kill it or not the cards are gone when it taps by attacking with haste. its cheap and the token is expendable. i like it anyway lol

@MDStrawHat:

It doesn't counter those spells for the rest of the game, just for the one time you activate it. Good thing, too, or Swift Silence would be insanely powerful. The awkward wording with "all" is because it can counter multiple spells at once. Imagine this:

You're playing against Jund. You've just removed, among other things, a Bloodbraid Elf and a Sprouting Thrinax from the game using the Thief. They play a different copy of Bloodbraid Elf, cascading into a Sprouting Thrinax. You sacrifice your Thief, and counter both spells. However, the next time he plays anything you previously removed with the Thief, it resolves as normal.

WACKY COMBO DECK TIME!

Merfolk Combo {W}{U}

CREATURES - 34

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Arctic Merfolk
4 Drowner of Secrets
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Fallowsage
4 Grimoire Thief
4 Merfolk Sovereign
3 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
3 Wanderwine Prophets

SPELLS - 8

4 High Tide
4 Merrow Commerce

LANDS - 18

10 Island
6 Plains
2 Hallowed Fountain

SYNOPSIS:

Basically, power out Stonybrook Banneret, Merrow Reejerey, Grimoire Thief, and Drowner of Secrets as early as possible, tap the Grimoire Thief using Drowner of Secrets' ability, then play as many high tides as you can in one turn to continuously bounce two Arctic Merfolk in and out of play. Every time you do, untap the Grimoire Thief using Merrow Reejerey's ability, and mill as many cards from your opponent's library as possible. Remember, if you have multiple Reejerey's, Thiefs and Drowners, you can use the above engine on each of those engines every time an Arctic Merfolk comes into play. You could very easily get an entire player's library into the exiled zone in one turn, if played correctly.

Also, use the Merfolk Sovereigns and Reejerey's to pump up your Merfolk creatures, and use Stonybrook Schoolmaster the Drowner/Reejerey/Banneret/Arctic engine to create many, many tokens. Attack to your heart's content at that point.

Finally, the Wanderwine Prophets can be powered out using High Tide, and then use the token engine described above to continuously sac creatures, taking multiple turns. This also allows for large attack phases uninterrupted by your opponent(s), or to keep the milling going from the mill engine above.

And of course, draw all the cards you need with Fallowsage and either tap engine that works for your situation.

Enjoy!

This pairs really well with Tangle Wire, which tends to tap out and lock down the battlefield for a couple turns. It also solves the "shucks they have blockers and I wanna tap Thief" problem without using one of those heavy-card-investment combos with Drowner of Secrets and whatnot, which makes it easier to run Thief in non-Merfolk blue decks.

Nasty card. I like it nasty.

Not only is this guy a very solid two-drop for Blue at 2/2,
he's also like a living Millstone+Counterspell (for half the total CMC, at that), constantly keeping your opponent guessing.
*Very* solid Blue weenie- on par with Black Knight and White Knight.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what the art was of.

Instant win with Paradise Mantle + Freed from the Real OR Pemmin's Aura

Both attainable by turn 3-4

Don't know why ANYONE has not mentioned this

"After Grimoire Thief is sacrificed to pay for its last ability, but before the exiled cards are turned face up, the exiled cards can't be looked at."

Thank you, Oracle. Just what I needed to know.

@amorgan

Because that combo is really just paradise mantle + freed from the real... You could plug any number of creatures into it, not just Grimoire thief

Chrisrawr isn't wrong, and the reason you have Ornithopter is for that extra mana

Turn 1:Island, Ornithopter, Paradise Mantle, Equip
Turn 2:Island, Grimoire Thief, tap Ornithopter to equip Paradise Mantle to Grimoire Thief
Turn 3: Island, Freed from the Real on Grimoire Thief, tap for blue, exile, untap w/ Freed, rinse and repeat.

Think it through before jumping on him...