Pointed Discussion

I wonder if it is viable in limited to use him even if you don't run its colors, as 7 out of 33 is much more powerful than 7 out of 53.

for me it'll have to go with something like Haunting echoes just need 1 hawk or 1 jace to fall in there and MUUWAAAHAHAHA m... 've got to work on my evil laughter

Absoloutley Stunning. Fantastic Artwork. And its got some wrexial goin on. its opening hand ability is average but shes a 5/7 flyer shes got a big backside. 5/5 chancellors are amazing.

Killer lockout in legacy:
Turn 0: Chancellor of the Spires, surgical extraction their dual lands.
If you opponent has fetchlands, you can archive trap them down to half of their library and extirpate. Great pitch to Force of Will, too.

This is probably my favorite of the Chancellors but I really like all of them quite a bit.

Lots of flavor in my wrexial EDH deck

Do Phyrexian just caught Argent Sphinx?!

I have this mental image of her in a romantic relationship with Jace...

This is my favorite chancellor, if for no other reason than it's a giant sphinx with good art work. The ability is either really awesome, or really terrible. It's exactly like clone, it depends entirely on what is in your opponents deck. Similiarly, like clone against a creatureless deck, it's not so great if your opponent has played nothing but a preordain for instants and sorceries since the beginning of the game. On the other hand, it's not uncommon to see cards like day of judgment, and naturalize, and getting either a free artifact removal on a 5/7 flyer, or a psuedo day of judgment by paying 7 mana isn't half bad at all. I do agree that the wording should have read target sorcery or instant in any graveyard, as it would be more interesting for multi player (can target your team mates graveyard), and because it would improve it's consistency. The mill part still combos nicely with things like haunting echoes, bone hoard, and rise from the grave.

best.Artwork.ever.

Have to say, I like this card. In an era where Wizards seems to be beefing everything up, this card actually has a really cool dynamic going for it. Not too powerful, but a great card. This is why I still have hope for magic.

Venser, the Sojourner, meet the card that you'll be blinking until you get your -8.

And then still be blinking it afterwards.

Soooo Blue....

Limited, man. Limited.

Someone did not have the cojones let the beginning-of-game ability target any player..... nor archive trap for that matter.

I thought that Wizards designed cards primarily for Limited and Standard and passively checked to make sure that the cards don't completely obliterate the rest of the game. With that having been said, having this being able to target yourself wouldn't have completely destroyed Legacy/Vintage (as far as I know), so was there something in standard that is being avoided? Vengevine? Bloodghast? Scrapyard Salvo combo decks? Is that seriously it? But they reprinted Haunting Echoes and Extirpate (or whatever that card's name is), so it's not like such decks that begin the game with 14 cards in their own graveyard would be unstoppable.

...unless there is something significant I'm missing....

@krauser-gogetthegirl Even if you like mill, it doesn't make this card any more playable in constructed. Consider this: if Chancellor of the Spires costs 7, and Frost Titan costs 6, you can have Frost Titan out one turn earlier, at the very least. Frost Titan can lock down any other Titan, and is harder to kill on the board. Chancellor of the Spires, on the other hand, will depend on what card you hit. I'm going to list the sorceries and instants in Standard that you're most likely to hit: LIghtning Bolt, Preordain, Day of Judgment, Go for the Throat, Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, Inquisition of Kozilek, Doomblade, Despise, Explore, Arc Trail, Beast Within, Dismember, Mental Misstep, and Summoning Trap. Of these, the only cards that I'd want would be Go For the Throat, Doomblade, Beast Within, or Summoning Trap. In addition, in the case of Summoning Trap, Valakut Ramp is the only deck that you'll see it in, and if you have 7 mana, the game has already been decided. Valakut Ramp will have either won by then, or you will win anyway. In other words, Chancellor of the Spires will only make a difference on the board if it grabs a spot removal spell. But Frost Titan also shuts down a creature, for 1 less. So Frost Titan is better on the board.
As far as the mill effect, you might hit something good, but does that matter? Let's say your opponent has a 1/7 chance of hitting a "good" card. If you mill 7 cards, you'll then likely mill 1 of your opponent's "good" cards. But what's the probability of your opponent drawing a good card after you mill them? 1/7, just like before. You didn't actually change the ratio of "good" cards to "bad" by milling your opponent. In other words, the mill effect hit nothing, and you're wasting space in your hand when you could have a Frost Titan, which is, as explained above, better as a creature.

I think this card will probably be more relevant in Limited as a 5/7 with flying than anything else. Still a first pick, but it's bad outside of Limited.

learn math. It's not 1/15 to have it in opening hand; it's:
1-(56/60)(55/59)(54/58)(53/57)(52/56)(51/55)(50/54)= 39.94996%

Furthermore, what Valakut list runs 5 threats? Only ones built by retarded 3-year-olds. And what are you trying to hit when milling Valakut? MOUNTAINS. Did you actually read any of the stuff I wrote? Even if you hit "good stuff", they are still just as likely to hit more good stuff. Mill is good against Valakut, but only if you can mill enough mountains to prevent them from going off on T5. Your claim that this is the best Chancellor isn't my point at all. My point is that this chancellor is terrible.

In short learn to play Magic before trying to claim that mill is good.

If you're using this card for the ETB effect, you're wrong... It's nice, dont get me wrong but if you read the other comments you'll know that relying on the opponents deck to get something done isn't a smart idea.

Use this card for it's 1st turn static, then play him later for a big blocker while your crabs/archive traps finish the dirty work or for dmg to combo with a mindcrank.

Limited decks would be fun too, i'm talking type 2 tho really.

This card fascinates me like none of the others of it's cycle. At first glance, you could just see it as an addition to any old Mill deck. However, a second thought makes that seem like a poor idea: it's only function for your deck will be to hope for it in the opening hand, as you're not going to want to cast it late game for beatdown. Sure, it has the 187 ability to offer, but I hope you milled an opponent's mill deck to get a card that fits into your game plan!

You might think I consider this card to be terrible, like all the other Chancellors. But I don't...

If you just ignore it's ability in the opening hand, the rest of the creature isn't that bad for multiplayer. This card can be expected to grab a juicy target of near it's own mana cost. I'm thinking Wrexial EDH as one possibility. There's some potential for casual shenanigans here: cards like Austere Command and Chain Reaction are commonly played and would be great to re-use and pave the way for the Chancellor.

If your opponent has a Rite of Replication in their graveyard, then you get an infinite number of Chancellor of the Spires.

It seems everytime this guy is in my opening hand, I have no land to go with it. Argh! Other than that, I've enjoyed having him in my deck.

I don't like mass mill in blue. Would have been soo great, if you could have searched for a single card and remove that specific card instead.

Edit: black is my favorite chance after playing with them all. but this guy is in a close second.

good point @statiefreez. ill throw him in the deck to. but thats not the strategy im quite going for. i have a frost titan. i like this chick because in the mind of my opponent, her enter the battlefield affect is less opposing than that of the frost titan. while the frost titan has 'kill me' written in between his horns, im betting on my opponent wont see me glimmering this metal biatch coming.

but besides my ideas of using her my main point of her being my favorite chancellor is because even if u dont get her in ur opening hand, you will at least have something to do with her. unless she gets countered or your opponent dosent play any instants or sorceries. the mill if shes in ur opening hand is just an added bonus. even running four of any chancellor only gives you a 6.66667% chance of pulling one in your opening hand. but magic is a game of probability and chance, so if u did reveal this your opponent would have drawn seven cards and put seven cards in their graveyard. which equates to 23.33333% of their deck. i count their hand because they will b playing the cards in it first so they will end up in the graveyard (more than likely). With the average deck running 24 lands and 36 spells, this means that 40% of their deck is lands and 60% is creatures. now lets take valakut from the grandprix dallas metagame expectations from April ninth. the expected valakut deck listing has 17 non creature spells. this equates to 28.33333% of their deck.
4 Explore
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Harrow
3 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Summoning Trap maindeck. now we cant count the heart expedition because it is an enchantment and thus cant be used by this metal ladybird. so really only 23.33333% of this deck is usable with her ability. i am unclear about the Green Sun's Zenith but pretty damn sure its useless too. which leaves us 12 usable spells. exactly 20% of the deck. so probability says one out of every five cards in this particular deck should be a usable spell. if i do pull this metal monstrosity in my opening hand, 23.33333% of the deck will be in their hand and graveyard. which is good odds ill have something to do by turn seven. Reasonably the best of these spells would b the summoning trap, because in the average UW-UB i only have maximum 5 creatures over five mana, and to pull one out for free would b very pleasing. but if i make this deck i will run two. if i pull both in my hand by some miracle, it would mill 14 cards and if they dont mulligan they will have 7 cards in hand. thats 35% of their deck. i like those odds. now running a Traumatize with her. Lets pretend dont get her in my opening hand. Im running two tramautizes and pull one before turn five. my opponent will have 53 cards in their deck on turn one if they dont mulligan. then draw a card for five turns leaving 48 cards left in their library( considering they dont play any draw card spells). i drop traumatize on turn five, leaving them 24 cards left in their library. thats 40% of their library and at least 40% of their deck in their graveyard. the valakut deck i listed above had 20% usable spells. so theirs a good chance i got some good shit in their graveyard to use. shit this is a long post.

lol sorry if i ***ed u off bro lol but ur not gonna change my mind. if u dont think milling is good, your doing it wrong lol. even as a side board option. right now my blue black deck runs a mainboard traumatize and it is incredible when teamed with the bonehoard and geth just to name two. i dont use mill as a win con thats ridiculous. you use mill to help out other things . you should step off your high horse and play more magic. you can talk all the trash on me you want man. its the only thing you can do.

With the Eldrazi mythics rotating out of standard, this guy got a lot better. I've seen many people sideboard Emrakul, Kozilek, and Ulamog just to nerf mill decks. There's still Elixir of Immortality, but if you're lucky enough to mill it then Surgical Extraction can kill any others.

This seems potentially ridiculous with Venser, The Sojourner, a free spell at the end of every turn and (essentially) giving Chancellor of the Spires vigilance? Yes please!

Flashing her out early can be incredibly fun in casual. Especially if you've already milled out an opponents Cruel Ultimatum, or even zombify.

- plays in legacy because they think it's funny
- faces dredge deck
- lolfail

About to get either much better or much worse with the advent of Innistrad's graveyard theme.

Played against an Ally deck today.

I had this in my opening hand and milled a Rite of Replication with it.

Turn 7, play it, cast the Rite from their graveyard, copy it, token's ability targeted the Rite again, etc.

Infinite combo that I didn't even know about FTW.

i can't believe nobody has mentioned reanimate with this...

in a multiplayer game, this + reanimate in your opening hand can be devastating (not to mention disgustingly epic).

So how does this work with cards with X mana costs?

Fireball for max damage?

@Gearmaster: If you use his ability on a card that has X in its cost, that X is zero.

With a Leyline of Anticipation out, you can steal your opponent's counterspells or play their sorceries at instant speed. Just some food for thought.

Oh Chancellor, if only you said "each player" instead of "each opponent", you'd be the missing key in my Mindshrieker deck.

Still, it's a good card, and this cycle is pretty underrated imo.

I know this has been said about pretty much every creature, instant or sorcery card ever printed, but...
It combos in an awesome way with Riku of Two Reflections. If you do all the copies you can you end up with 2 sphinxes and 4 any spells form your opponents' graveyards. For 4UUUUUUGRR (13 mana).

scenario: Commander

battlefield:
Venser
Lots of Lands

Opponents Graveyard:
Take another turn after this one cards.

Casting Chancellor of the spires, take ur turn after this one, exile and ETB with venser. $?$?$?$?
Dont let your opponents play again.

icing on the cake: put 13 +1/+1 counters on Elbrus for every opponent you bitchslapped to death.

:p

Note that the Increasing cycle from dark ascension (Increasing Devotion Increasing Confusion Increasing Ambition Increasing Vengeance and Increasing Savagery)Will technically have been cast from a graveyard if you use this Chancellor's ability on them. Unfortunately, as it says 'opponent's graveyard' that means one of your opponents would have to be running something from that cycle for you to reap that unusual benefit.

Total powerhouse in my deck based around 'enter the battlefield' effects and the new flicker cards (Cloudshift, Ghostly Flicker, and Conjurer's Closet) from Avacyn Restored.

Let's just say Lava Blister is bad enough in my playgroup (lots of non-basic lands!) without it coming up multiple times.

Playing EDH last night, tutored this out to pull a Planar Cleansing from my neighbor's gy. Glares from around the table. Fun stuff!

This card is largely over looked i mean it cant be countered at all unless you play it lol,it mills 7 cards wait what ? it mills 7 cards just for showing it ,I'm just saying if your running a mill deck this should be inn there my mill deck can kill ya on T2 how about yours? Nasferot2@hotmail.com