Right now, the Magic: The Gathering community is waiting with bated breath to see how Spider Man will shake out. It’s a longer wait than usual this time around. Usually previews end a week before Prerelease, but in this case there’s still another week to go after this Friday. This leaves plenty of time for brewing, and for diving deep into what each new card has to offer. While it isn’t the flashiest MTG card in the set, Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor may well be one of the best.
This is a new one-mana legend that does an uncanny impression of Magic classic Aether Vial, only for artifacts instead of creatures. It also has the potential to scale up to higher mana values much quicker than its inspiration. With all the powerful artifacts running around across Magic’s various formats, this is a card with a ton of potential. Whether you play Modern, Commander, or even Standard, this is one Octopus you won’t want to let slip away.
Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor In MTG Modern
- Mana Value: U
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Scientist Villain
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: Whenever you draw your first or second card each turn, put an ingenuity counter on Lady Octopus.
Tap: You may cast an artifact spell from your hand with mana value less than or equal to the number of ingenuity counters on Lady Octopus without paying its mana cost.- Stats: 0/2
It’s strange to say about an MTG card in a new Standard set, but Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor may be most likely to see play in Modern. The card is an ideal fit in one of the consistent top-tier decks in the format: Belcher.
This is mostly down to the full playset of Lotus Bloom that the deck runs as standard. Normally this allows you to set up a mana burst for the turn when you drop Goblin Charbelcher for an instant win on turn four. With Lady Octopus, however, it allows you to win as early as turn three. If you drop Lady Octopus on turn one, you can use her ability to cheat out Bloom on turn two, skipping the Suspend cost. You’ll then have five mana available, which is enough to drop Belcher. On turn three, you can just activate its ability for the win.
Cutting a whole turn off that clock is a huge deal. On top of that, Lady Octopus can help the deck out in less optimal games, too. If you drop her on turn one, she’ll be ready to cheat out Charbelcher itself by turn five. This is certainly slow compared to just casting it on turn four, but in scenarios where you don’t draw the card until turn five, it lets you win right away without waiting. In that sense, it very much feels like another Lotus Bloom for the deck, letting you ‘bank’ mana for your combo turn.
The only real downside to Lady Octopus in Belcher is that it’s tough to speed up her counter generation. The only draw in the deck comes from Tameshi, which doesn’t come online until turn three at the earliest. This means Lady Octopus is really only good if you draw it early. That said, Bloom has the same problem and is still a staple, so I expect Belcher players to test the card at the very least.
A Commanding Intellect
After Modern, the MTG Commander format seems like the next-best home for Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor. Whether you’re playing casual or competitive, the card has plenty to offer.
In low-bracket games, Lady Octopus will make an excellent Commander. Being able to cast her on turn one every single game is a massive deal. It ensures you can start building up counters right away, which means you’ll get to your big, scary artifacts sooner.
In the early turns you can just cheat out mana rocks and protection pieces, saving your mana so you can hold up interaction. Later, the likes of Portal to Phyrexia and Blightsteel Colossus are very much on the table. This is especially true if you include cards like Ledger Shredder that let you draw on each player’s turn, which will rapidly speed up your counter production.
In cEDH, Lady Octopus is arguably even better. As a one-mana legend, it’s an ideal enabler for Mox Amber, letting you pull off some truly wild starts. It also plays fantastically with the main blue draw engines in the format, Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study. Both consistently draw you a ton of cards, and therefore get Lady Octopus a ton of counters.
You can then use said counters to cheat out a key combo piece like Clock of Omens, or a disruption tool like God-Pharaoh’s Statue. It’s also worth noting that Lady Octopus’s ability gets around timing restrictions. This means she can cast The One Ring at instant speed, to gain protection in response to lethal damage.
Despite all of her qualities, Lady Octopus will probably be confined to the 99 in cEDH lists. Mono-Blue just isn’t really viable in the format, unfortunately. Even Urza, a much more consistent combo enabler, sees little play in the command zone for this reason.
Unstable Experiments
While nothing in MTG is guaranteed, the above are fairly safe bets when it comes to potential homes for Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor. Beyond these, however, are a bunch of other options that are much more tenuous, but very exciting all the same.
Take Azorius Artifact decks in Standard, for instance. Lady Octopus could have a field day in these lists. Flashing in Perilous Snare for instant-speed removal is great. You can also pull off combat tricks with Simulacrum Synthesizer and Braided Net. The problems with this inclusion, however, are twofold. First of all, the card just isn’t great in a Vivi Cauldron/Mono-Red format, since it’s slow to get going. Second, it’s a non-artifact, which compromises one of the deck’s biggest strengths: its resistance to creature removal. Synthesizer decks don’t run a lot of draw, either, making Lady Octopus difficult to accelerate.
It’s a similar story with Affinity decks in Modern. While a card like this seems like a slam-dunk in the deck, on closer inspection it’s a tougher fit. Not being an artifact creature hurts the consistency of the deck’s Mox Opal plan, and the card’s slow speed is even more of an issue than usual. Even if she does stick around, there aren’t any great targets to cheat out here. Pinnacle Emissary is solid, but it can generally come out easily via Warp anyway.
There’s also an argument that Lady Octopus could be a solid addition to Affinity, and other blue Modern decks, as a way to cheat out hate cards like Vexing Bauble or Tormod’s Crypt at instant speed. While interesting, the above negatives make this unlikely at best. The card is still very exciting, but it likely won’t fit in as many decks as people hope.
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