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This thread is for discussion of this week's From the Lab article, which goes live Thursday morning on magicthegathering.com.

Am I missing something or does that Arcanum Wings combo not work quite the way the article says? You have to Donate the Reflection instead of the Sages, because the "you" on the Reflection refers to ITS owner, not the owner of the creature it's on.

You're not missing a thing. It wouldn't work since you control the enchantment, which would make your creatures copies of Sages. What a backfire...

Unless, of course, your plan is to draw a boatload of creatures. 

Why is it that van Lunen makes a mistake and everyone is foaming-at-the-mouth mad, but a mistake this blatant here (why on earth would swapping the enchantment in via Arcanum Wings make its controller any different than hardcasting it?) is met with shrugs?

You know what lept off the page to me?

4 x Cavern of Souls

This is in a casual deck with 20 creatures but no unifying creature types (there are two walls, the rest are all unique). However this card is so stupidly good that it is probably a good call. It probably isn't even in there to battle counter magic so much as a three-color land that doesn't enter the battlefield tapped.

If I were to take his Zombie deck and run with it, I would add one thing, which most of the Zombie decks I've seen played in Standard already make use of: Mortarpod. It's a sac outlet for the Captains so that you don't need to wait around for the "another zombie you control dies" ability to activate. That way you can also break through against creature heavy decks that can clog the board and block till the Angels come home. Too bad the Germ Token wouldn't turn into a Captain when it hits though.

Apr 26, 2012 -- 5:01AM, Highwayman wrote:

You know what lept off the page to me?

4 x Cavern of Souls

This is in a casual deck with 20 creatures but no unifying creature types (there are two walls, the rest are all unique). However this card is so stupidly good that it is probably a good call. It probably isn't even in there to battle counter magic so much as a three-color land that doesn't enter the battlefield tapped.

If you are talking about the "Reflected Research" deck, it will only add colored mana if you name one of the creature types and you can only use the mana for creatures of that type.  What it is for most likely is to allow Reflecting Pool to add any color since Cavern of Souls "could" add any color.

Darth Parallax, wherever you are, my hat goes off to you good sir.  You and your 625/625 S.N.O.T. (that's 25 squared if you didn't already know).

here's a fun idea: a soldier deck with Preeminent Captain . With the reflection out, you get free soldiers from your hand where they instantly become whatever is being reflected.  Furthermore, an Ally deck would be bonkers with the reflection... so how about we put Preeminant Captain, Makindi Shieldmate and the Reflection in a deck and mush em all together? Does anyone know what would happen if you enchanted a creature that is paired with another creature through soulbond? More specifically, does the Reflection copy the "paired" condition of the original creature?

Apr 26, 2012 -- 2:36AM, EternalLurker wrote:

Why is it that van Lunen makes a mistake and everyone is foaming-at-the-mouth mad, but a mistake this blatant here (why on earth would swapping the enchantment in via Arcanum Wings make its controller any different than hardcasting it?) is met with shrugs?

Two reasons:

1. This article is all about crazy combos, so occasional misfires are to be expected. Furthermore, it wasn't the author but the person who sent him the e-mail that made the mistake.

2. JVL made a mistake, in a column about building a deck for a specific format, of including a card banned in that format. This is a severe mistake, as it disqualifies the entire deck from competing. It also implied that he either lies about his playtest matches, or was playtesting very casually which flies in the face of his "competitive first, budget rarely" policy. Making a mistake about a single combo in a column loaded with over a dozen combos every week is much more forgivable.

Apr 26, 2012 -- 2:54PM, Tap4Mana wrote:

here's a fun idea: a soldier deck with Preeminent Captain . With the reflection out, you get free soldiers from your hand where they instantly become whatever is being reflected.  Furthermore, an Ally deck would be bonkers with the reflection... so how about we put Preeminant Captain, Makindi Shieldmate and the Reflection in a deck and mush em all together? Does anyone know what would happen if you enchanted a creature that is paired with another creature through soulbond? More specifically, does the Reflection copy the "paired" condition of the original creature?

Checked the FAQ, and it doesn't look like the reflections would count as paired creatures... but one nice thing is that Diregraf Captain is a soldier, so it could enter the battlefield for free with the Kithkin out, so it gives the deck another way of winning other than going bananas with reflected allies.  I wonder if this deck could be built fast enough for Modern?

I still think the best way to work with Infinite Reflection is to bring along an army of chump-blockers and attach it to your opponent's biggest badass.


And any deck running it will probably want to field  Oblivion Ring or Venser, the Sojourner so you can not only protect it in case of targeted removal, but attach it to hexproof creatures your opponent controls when the IR comes back into play.