Neil

The following is a quote from one of the head judges at a Mid-Atlantic Regionals tournament:

One of the players at the event had an entirely foiled Goblin Bidding deck. He used white out correctional tape on all of the text boxes, obscuring the entire box. Then he wrote a different biblical quote on every card. This was caught in a deck check midway through the tournament. Since the correctional tape used to white out the text boxes had no appreciable thickness to it, the cards were not marked in any noticeable way. After the head judge was advised of the matter, he took pictures of the deck, and then talked to the player. The player had the full Oracle text for each of the cards in question, which allowed him to narrowly avert a penalty.

On to the Uba madness… :) Say I’ve got an Uba Mask in play, and a Goblin Welder. In my opponent’s draw step he removes his card from the game, as per Uba Mask. Then he passes priority, and I weld out the Uba Mask (preferably for another Mask). Then we go to his main phase and the removed card can no longer be played, because ‘its’ Uba Mask is gone. Using this trick, I can lock out any card my opponent draws unless it’s an instant. (Which is where the Null Brooch comes in!)

Now, say I’ve got TWO Uba Masks in play, and a Goblin Welder, and a Memory Jar… This is where things get interesting. I’ve got no cards in hand, of course, because the Masks replace actual drawing. So, what happens when I activate the Memory Jar…? (The aim, of course, being to ‘switch off’ any counterspells my opponent ‘draws’.)

How’s this for tech? Once I’m wearing an Uba Mask, Null Brooch becomes almost a win condition. : )

Under a Mask, my opponent only gets to “draw” one card per turn, and I’ll never have any cards in my hand, so the Brooch will always be able to counter whatever they try to cast. (Except creatures…) Soft-lock! That should hold the game for the long enough that I can draw my Mindslaver, and start recurring it. ;)

There are hardly any creature spells in Vintage, and obviously I’d sideboard it out against an aggro deck. But against a control field, it’ll own. :) For the Library of Alexandria tournament on Saturday, I’m going to try to build a deck around this combo. “Uba Null” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? ;) I’m going to use Bazaar of Baghdad as my draw engine, because the Uba Mask negates their drawback completely. Crazy card advantage. :)

Hmm… I’m not sure I understand what all this is. New technology is always a bit daunting for me.

But while I’m here: What happens if you use Uyo, Silent Prophet to make a copy of Squelch, targeting Uyo’s ability? : )