As soon as this was spoiled, I made a proxy deck with Clone, Stolen Identity, etc. I discovered that adding another creature that likes to be copied, such as Timberpack Wolf, gives the deck another win condition and makes it more consistent.
rollinsclone
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
A combo deck in Standard. I'm already coming up with ideas.
.Blaze.
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(9 votes)
I REALLY want to build an EDH deck around him.
Jojabi
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
You guys had all better hope your opponents aren't running to many Detention Spheres...
@Taudisbam: Turn 4 win condition which allows you to play 100% defensively up until that point, to boot. No need to damage the opponent. Granted it's a pipedream to get that perfect hand consistently but with the insane hand advantage you can gain in green/blue, it's pretty decent.
A guy at the 2nd pre-release event at my store managed to win with it twice in the 5 rounds because he managed to draw 3 of them in his two packs along with Stolen Identity.
zzxyyzx
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
'Fine! Be that way! You people are idiots! I'm gonna start my own school, with MYSELF! Clones of me!" *evil cackle*
Rakshana
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@.Blaze. Rite of Replication will help you out with that. At least, that's what I plan on doing
Would have been funny if they made this guy legendary...
RPGfan
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
And I thought that Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Curiousity was dickish. This is just begging to have token copies of it, especially since it's Blue. I wonder how long until Wizards rules that tokens don't count.
This + Spitting Image + Life from the Loam Sure, it will cost a bazillion (actually 23 with only one LftL use) mana, but we're in green anyway.
Violinist
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I, for one, welcome our new Simic overlords.
kaneofchaos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think it should be mentioned that if your going to clone, you should add cards like Master Biomancer or Pack Rat for a secondary wincon. I can see some enchantments working well with him as well, and maybe even some of the M13 rings.
LordRandomness
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Sure he's good, but like all instant win triggers he goes off in the upkeep so the opponent gets a turn to-
What?
He triggers in the end step?
...
gamexpert1990
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before or not, although better options have been stated, I think that one somewhat fun option for those who may or may not have better cards is Phantasmal Image.
Buderus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Imprint this guy with Soul Foundry or mimic vat to ensure you have always some on the board.
Oh and as usual: Combos with Doubling Season (if you make tokens)
Two cards which form pretty powerful components towards winning via Biovisionary: Soul Foundry, and Body Double. Soul Foundry speaks for itself, and given that it's an artifact there'll be slightly less removal options for it as opposed to a straight up creature (though keep in mind that you'll lose the 'visionary to exile should the Foundry get removed, so counterspell protection, or pinpoint discard like Duress is a solid plan). Body Double is usually going to be able to copy a Biovisionary, as opposed to other Clone effects which might find none on the board (and if BD can't, it means they've left the living ones alone which is always a plus).
Beyond that, a new Dragon's Maze card, Progenitor Mimic, is very solid on its own, but makes getting a Biovisionary win even easier than the Stolen Identity method. It'll come in as a Clone of one, and create a token copy of one each upkeep.
Finally, for some other options - Followed Footsteps is good, but being a powerful aura is just asking for a 2-for-1. Mimic Vat combined with Sundial of the Infinite gives you a cheap way of making multiple copies without risking card disadvantage. Mimic Vat alone can make an EoT copy, and a copy during your turn, meaning you just have to source 2 others to get the win. Cackling Counterpart is a good choice because it's instant, which lends itself well to the control deck.
@TheMetaRidley: probably because it's too easy to win with broken cards. And Biovisionary is a silly way to go about abusing the ridiculousness that is Protean Hulk. ^^
Habreno
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Play him in Maelstrom Wanderer EDH. VERY fun to just go "Hey, this creature. Each of my other creatures is now this creature.
Even more fun is doing this on an opponent's turn. Note that the triggered ability states "At the beginning of *the* end step", not *your* end step. Win on your opponent's turn is fun.
MostlyLost
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
There aren't many things that can match the disappointment of pulling this guy as your guild rare at the prerelease.
Combo's with Spitting Image, Mirrorweave, Cytoshape and many more! Great flavour and my deck built around him is one of my favourite decks to use - a fantastic alt-win card.
wideyes
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
LOL @ mostlylost - that's exactly what I thought... When I did exactly that. I had to double-check the expansion symbol before I could believe it was a rare. 2/5
Phantasmal Image anyone? Cheap "fragile" clones to accelerate the win condition.
Tamerlein
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In Standard I've found that the easiest way to get a win with Biovisionary is if you play with plenty of defenders like Fog Bank and Gatecreeper Vine and then have four Axebane Guardians. You can get a lot of mana ramp from that, and it usually doesn't take too long for you to have ten or eleven mana open so that you can play Biovisonary, play Infinite Reflection on Biovisionary, and still have mana up to counter a kill spell.
Fun card.
4.5/5
Arachnos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@zzxyyzx: and blackjack! And hookers!
kiseki
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
When you cast mirrorweave, the player whose turn it is puts their win condition on the stack first, followed by the next players in turn order. Then, the person who put it on the stack last has their instance resolved and they are the winner. Thus, to win, play mirrorweave during the player to your left's turn.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Its not a sound game plan, but should make for a unique decktype.
Watch out for Wrath of Bob and Doom Blade.
chrome_dome
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm not a big fan of Johnny type cards but this would be fun to build around.
Ferlord
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I like that it says "End step" versus "upkeep".
Upkeep win-cons are harder to do, since you almost always have to wait a turn. Azor's Elocutors is a cool card, but it's hard to win when you opponent has at least 1 turn to do something. When it's at the end step, you can complete your combo in just one main phase, and only have to wait.
Play in a Momir Vig EDH deck, load up on blue-green creatures. Turn 5 (or earlier), play Momir Vig. Turn 6, play random blue-green and pull Prophet of Kruphix. Turn 7 play the Prophet, and pull Biovisionary.
Now, if you're playing two player, wait till your turn to play biovisionary... Then on their turn during their end step play Progenitor Mimic, and pull out a Clone. Start your turn, clone for the fourth Biovisionary, and end the game.
If you're playing 3+ players, it's even easier. Biovisionary on opponent's turn, Progenitor Mimic on the turn before yours during the end step, and clone. (Helps to have Teferi out to prevent people from "responding" in an unkind way)
Basically, I intend to make this my ultimate workaround-to-victory when my opponent's think they can stop me with things like Blazing Archon.
InDesignKat
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Merry Christmas, Biovisionary fans: Fated Infatuation in Born of the Gods. Eeesh.
potato87
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
step one, biovisionary step two progenitor mimic step three clone the progenitor mimic, target the first progenitor mimic with the new cloned progienitor mimic step four win moar
Still, it has a lot of points against it, Design wise, before we get to gameplay.
1. There are a scant handful (18) cards that "Win the Game", on the spot. Of these, numbers varying from 5, to 7, to 10, to 20, to 200 all appear in the requirements. I believe this is the lowest number of such cards, which requires that you have four of something. "Four copies of a specific card in your deck", now that's harder than it looks at first, it's not at all the same as "four creatures", so it is *Sort Of* challenging, but it's very easily broken wide open with Clone Effects, and effectively *DOES* become "Control Four Creatures" in a Deck built to maximize it. If the card said "CARDNAME can't be copied", then in my opinion, as a Design, it would be better because it wouldn't look so undercosted in comparison to the other similar cards.
2. It costs only 3 mana to play and is a 2/3 for 3 mana, in {U}/{G}. Would be playable as a 1/1, same cost, but now it's also mildly useful for attacking and blocking? Quite surprising. Not necessarily bad in and of itself, but if you play 4 copies of this, and 4 copies of any mana elf....you can already say you have quite a consistent base for a deck that you might just want to add control and draw to. Seems a little sketch. A bit surprised this isn't played in Legacy a little bit more, but I suppose the 2-drop Phantasmal Image just isn't QUITE enough? You can build a very very Spikey, very Shark Deck if you really try, and that's not what I normally imagine when I look for "Win the Game" cards.
3. End Step/Upkeep Step. As a Card Designer, I'd prefer the dramatic tension that comes from the Upkeep Step cards, as well as the feeling there is more sense of fairness. A game piece ought to not necessarily be 'fair' itself but should contribute to the overall fairness of the game as a whole. The more I consider this card, the more I believe it breaks a lot of Rules of Good Design and I wonder why it isn't rated higher for Power Reasons.. o_O
Comments (66)
Kind of...
Soul Foundry
clones
Rite of Replication
18 Creatures
4 Biovisionary
4 Clone
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sakashima's Student
2 Quicksilver Gargantuan
18 Other Spells
4 Rite of Replication
4 Cackling Counterpart
4 Followed Footsteps
4 Back From The Brink
1 Door of Destinies
1 Simic Signet
24 Lands
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Island
4 Forest
4 Halimar Depths
2 Cavern of Souls
Oh wait, we haveStolen IdentityClone,Evil Twin,Infinite Reflection, and Cackling Counterpart. And if you make a token you've got Selesnya to populate it. This win condition will be exploited and broken quickly. WOTC is going to regret printing this.
Turn 2: Island, this guy
Turn 3: Island, Clone
Turn 4: Any land, Cackling Counterpart, Druid's Deliverance, win.
Turn four win in standard ain't half bad.
Also, in terms of Stolen Identity, both this guy and Elusive Krasis curve nicely into Elgaud Shieldmate.
A guy at the 2nd pre-release event at my store managed to win with it twice in the 5 rounds because he managed to draw 3 of them in his two packs along with Stolen Identity.
Turn 1: Forest;Arbor elf
Turn 2:Forest;chromatic lantern;Arbor Elf
Turn 3: Land;Biovisionary;Invisible Stalker
Turn 4: Infinite Reflection
Dance of Many
Minion Reflector
Clone
Vesuvan Doppelganger
just to name a few
End turn.
Sure, it will cost a bazillion (actually 23 with only one LftL use) mana, but we're in green anyway.
What?
He triggers in the end step?
...
Oh and as usual: Combos with Doubling Season (if you make tokens)
Beyond that, a new Dragon's Maze card, Progenitor Mimic, is very solid on its own, but makes getting a Biovisionary win even easier than the Stolen Identity method. It'll come in as a Clone of one, and create a token copy of one each upkeep.
Finally, for some other options - Followed Footsteps is good, but being a powerful aura is just asking for a 2-for-1. Mimic Vat combined with Sundial of the Infinite gives you a cheap way of making multiple copies without risking card disadvantage. Mimic Vat alone can make an EoT copy, and a copy during your turn, meaning you just have to source 2 others to get the win. Cackling Counterpart is a good choice because it's instant, which lends itself well to the control deck.
@TheMetaRidley: probably because it's too easy to win with broken cards. And Biovisionary is a silly way to go about abusing the ridiculousness that is Protean Hulk. ^^
Even more fun is doing this on an opponent's turn. Note that the triggered ability states "At the beginning of *the* end step", not *your* end step. Win on your opponent's turn is fun.
Still, 4/5 for all the clone-y shenanigans.
that is all
Biovisionaries everywhere
Fun card.
4.5/5
Thus, to win, play mirrorweave during the player to your left's turn.
Watch out for Wrath of Bob and Doom Blade.
Upkeep win-cons are harder to do, since you almost always have to wait a turn. Azor's Elocutors is a cool card, but it's hard to win when you opponent has at least 1 turn to do something. When it's at the end step, you can complete your combo in just one main phase, and only have to wait.
For epic wins in Standard, use Strionic Resonator to win twice.
Now, if you're playing two player, wait till your turn to play biovisionary... Then on their turn during their end step play Progenitor Mimic, and pull out a Clone. Start your turn, clone for the fourth Biovisionary, and end the game.
If you're playing 3+ players, it's even easier. Biovisionary on opponent's turn, Progenitor Mimic on the turn before yours during the end step, and clone. (Helps to have Teferi out to prevent people from "responding" in an unkind way)
Basically, I intend to make this my ultimate workaround-to-victory when my opponent's think they can stop me with things like Blazing Archon.
step two progenitor mimic
step three clone the progenitor mimic, target the first progenitor mimic with the new cloned progienitor mimic
step four win moar
Artisan of Forms
Clone
Fated Infatuation
Progenitor Mimic
Stolen Identity
Favorite way to clone him? Probably either the Original Clone, or Riku of Two Reflections?
Still, it has a lot of points against it, Design wise, before we get to gameplay.
1. There are a scant handful (18) cards that "Win the Game", on the spot. Of these, numbers varying from 5, to 7, to 10, to 20, to 200 all appear in the requirements. I believe this is the lowest number of such cards, which requires that you have four of something. "Four copies of a specific card in your deck", now that's harder than it looks at first, it's not at all the same as "four creatures", so it is *Sort Of* challenging, but it's very easily broken wide open with Clone Effects, and effectively *DOES* become "Control Four Creatures" in a Deck built to maximize it. If the card said "CARDNAME can't be copied", then in my opinion, as a Design, it would be better because it wouldn't look so undercosted in comparison to the other similar cards.
2. It costs only 3 mana to play and is a 2/3 for 3 mana, in {U}/{G}. Would be playable as a 1/1, same cost, but now it's also mildly useful for attacking and blocking? Quite surprising. Not necessarily bad in and of itself, but if you play 4 copies of this, and 4 copies of any mana elf....you can already say you have quite a consistent base for a deck that you might just want to add control and draw to. Seems a little sketch. A bit surprised this isn't played in Legacy a little bit more, but I suppose the 2-drop Phantasmal Image just isn't QUITE enough? You can build a very very Spikey, very Shark Deck if you really try, and that's not what I normally imagine when I look for "Win the Game" cards.
3. End Step/Upkeep Step. As a Card Designer, I'd prefer the dramatic tension that comes from the Upkeep Step cards, as well as the feeling there is more sense of fairness. A game piece ought to not necessarily be 'fair' itself but should contribute to the overall fairness of the game as a whole. The more I consider this card, the more I believe it breaks a lot of Rules of Good Design and I wonder why it isn't rated higher for Power Reasons.. o_O
Tell me this doesn't sound like a competitive list:
4x Breeding Pool
4x Tropical Island
8x Forest
8x Island
4x Biovisionary
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Phantasmal Image
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Counterspell
4x Ponder
4x Sword of Feast and Famine
4x Worldly Tutor