"Test of Talents" Highly Unbalanced?

Ampersand

Sometimes a card looks like it will be a bomb in prerelase, but it doesn't play as well as it looks. Sometimes a card looks like a dud, and then an interaction/combo is discovered and it becomes meta warping. 

I tend to think ToT will be a good control card, but not overpowering. Let's wait and see how it plays out. It's never good to call for a nerf before a card has been released, IMO.

Mburn7

I can see this being solid in Legacy, since it stops a lot of nasty combos and 2 shields makes it a little easier to keep out than Decree (being blue instead of white helps too).  It stops or stalls a LOT of combo decks of the non-Omni variety (and will force an Omni deck to pay full price at least).

Luckily its also pretty easy to stop too, as Legacy has a ton of creatures and supports that can take this out, even if they aren't as efficient as the spell ways to do it.

But as always, lets see how this plays out before rushing to drop the nerf hammer.  This may be broken, but it certainly isn't 100% definitely going to be.

OmniTron

My main concern is bugs and softlocks. If Oktagon can fix every bug, then we will manage the game just fine. 
But will @Oktagon_Support ever finish fixing current bugs and at the same time test new sets and deliver them bug-free??? That, I think, is doubtful...

Gunmix25

jtwood said:

This didn’t break the game, and Nyx was around

thank you, I had this card in mind when I read the initial post and while it was a pain, it didn't stop us. 

Tezzeret

jtwood said:

I have to giggle, because this is yet another very strong card that could factor into Legacy... except Omni just runs right over this thing and laughs the whole time. There is still no control option that is good against both Omni-effects and gem conversion effects. Combo still rules.

there is only one thing that dominates omni.... and that omni-ing faster!

Tezzeret

Once again conclave naturalist stock rises

soultwist

Ampersand said:

Sometimes a card looks like it will be a bomb in prerelase, but it doesn't play as well as it looks. Sometimes a card looks like a dud, and then an interaction/combo is discovered and it becomes meta warping. 

I tend to think ToT will be a good control card, but not overpowering. Let's wait and see how it plays out. It's never good to call for a nerf before a card has been released, IMO.

I could be wrong for the exact reasons above but I don't think you will see it played that often and when you do see it the rest of the deck probably wont be anything to be afraid of, it shouldn't stop you from winning

I would be worried about it in any match with the "Spell Caster" objective but currently no PvP standard coalition events use it

Asylamb

In paper the card is just a counterSPELL (not a permanent, which a support loosely is). In paper, when it counters a spell, it exiles all the spells with the same name from the opponent's reach (library, hand, graveyard), but that's up to 4 in normal cases (generally, you can't have more that 4 same cards in the same deck, but there are exceptions).
If I were to implement this spell to MTGPQ, I would still make it a support, but it would be something like:
"While on the board: When your opponent casts a spell, destroy it and its effect doesn't trigger (similar to Insidious Will, but only for spells, not all cards). Your opponent can't cast the spells with the same name until the end of the battle. Then, if this support is reinforced, it loses a reinforcement. Otherwise, it is destroyed."
So, you would have to cast the Test of Talents as many times as the number of spells in the opponent's deck (not library) to prevent them from playing spells.
But I don't know if "Your opponent can't cast the spells with the same name until the end of the battle" is doable for the developpers.
EDIT: And I would either nerf it, or move up in Rarity.

Mburn7

critman said:

I wouldn't mind seeing it shifted upwards in rarity.

New players find this type of card incredibly frustrating to play against, but as we can see from this thread, plenty of experienced players (myself included) don't consider it at all metagame-warping, and don't even think the card is that good.

Raising it's rarity means low level players would encounter it in fewer games, but it doesn't really affect experienced players who generally have access to cards of all rarities.

That's...............a perfectly reasonable and well thought out solution.
Did someone hack your account to post this?   

Heartstone

Bil said:

jtwood said:

This didn’t break the game, and Nyx was around

Definitely right, but the 1 Shield made a HUGE diference back then.

And with Sphinx, you could prépare your spells and cast them once the support was gone. That allowed for a quick recovery.

With ToT, you have a hand full of unusable/unfillable spells, and you can start gaining mana only once it's destroyed, which could mean losing à few extra turns.

Me not like this