Sovereigns of Lost Alara is six mana gold card, which means it has a lot of competition. The payoff can be strong if you fetch up something like Eldrazi Conscription or Colossification ... but that requires you to be running those cards in the first place. I would consider it for aura-based decks l...

I've seen a few Wort, the Raidmother decks over the years. I think she's a cool card - Gruul is usually pretty creature-focused, and Wort is one of the few spellslinger payoffs in that color pair. Copying Rampant Growth s and other ramp spells, and eventually copying a Comet Storm to win is pretty g...

Sand Scout , for reference. I think it's alright. I'm not running Knight of the White Orchid or Loyal Warhound in any of my decks at the moment - they're good T3 on the draw, but I'm generally risk-averse. They're great if you're running Lotus Field or other ways to go down lands, but less exciting...

Didn't someone do the math on how often a t1 ring actually happens? I haven't seen one in a few years myself. EDHREC says it's in 84% of decks, which converts into about a 25% chance of it being in at least one player's opening hand (or first card drawn). I'll note that if Mana Crypt were also play...

Didn't someone do the math on how often a t1 ring actually happens? I haven't seen one in a few years myself. EDHREC says it's in 84% of decks, which converts into about a 25% chance of it being in at least one player's opening hand (or first card drawn). I'll note that if Mana Crypt were also play...

Sol Ring is the iconic EDH card. I think the format would be better without it (and other fast mana rocks) - playing them early tends to result in uninteresting, snowball-y games. I do at least appreciate that it is widely available, unlike Mana Crypt . If someone isn't running it in their decks, i...

Concurring with 3drinks . Extraplanar Lens used to be a 'payoff' for snow lands when it was used as an asymmetric ramp card for monocolor decks that otherwise lacked access to good ramp. These days, I think even nongreen decks have access to plenty of reasonable ramp options. Simultaneously, there a...

Harnessed Snubhorn is cool, but I'm not sure what decks want it. Recurring expensive artifacts and enchantments is clearly good, but connecting with a non-evasive 4-drop creature can be challenging. On the flip side, decks that naturally have ways to grant evasion may not be running any expensive a...

Snow analysis: Lands: Of the utility snow lands, Dark Depths and Scrying Sheets are the clear standouts - a tutorable combo piece and an efficient draw engine (assuming you have topdeck manipulation or some other way to hit with the latter consistently) Faceless Haven and Frostwalk Bastion are fine ...

I once one-shotted an opponent after stealing their commander ( Horde of Notions ) and throwing a Runechanter's Pike on it. Good times. I'm not sure how I feel about Pike these days. I have been looking to run another win condition in Kess, and Pike is certainly capable of enabling a bunch of comman...

Archfiend of Depravity is meh. It's in the 'technically playable because a big flyer is a decent baseline' bucket alongside stuff like Bloodgift Demon and Doom Whisperer . Scryfall says it's the second-most played 5 mana black flyer after Junji, the Midnight Sky , which sounds overplayed... but the...

Some more analysis for Deserts: Cactus Preserve , Scavenger Grounds , and Arid Archway look broadly applicable for most decks Creosote Heath and other fixing deserts enter tapped, but are otherwise reasonable fixing Ifnir Deadlands , Hashep Oasis , and the rest of that cycle let you sacrifice desert...

I use snow in mono Black to support cards like Dead of Winter and Blood on the Snow . The art on the Modern Horizons Snow-Covered Swamp is awesome as well. I used gates in 5c Shrines and it was really consistent. There is some cards that can make them enter untapped like Spelunking and Baldur's Gat...

Had an amusing (and durdley) game yesterday. Drew a bunch of cards, combo'd with Urza, Powerstone Prodigy + Artificer's Intuition to make a bunch of powerstones, and gained 40 life with Fumigate . Swapping around a few cards to try out some new tech. Sculpting Steel → Synth Infiltrator - not sure ab...

Swapping around a few cards to try out some new tech. I'm expecting the next update to be a bit larger - I'd like to try out all of the gold OTJ cards, plus I noticed Loyal Retainers is now a budget card, which has some interesting implications. Dictate of Erebos → Kaya, Spirits' Justice - Dictate i...

I saw someone use Map the Frontier to fetch Arid Archway yesterday and was inspired to start this thread. I feel like conventional wisdom is to focus on untapped lands and lots of fixing when building a manabase, but we have received some interesting land types over the years that allow for more int...

and Simic Growth Chamber are my current top picks. I have been really warming to the karoos lately. The virtual card advantage plus extra landfall they provide is often really good. :D Indeed. They can sometimes feel a bit clunky, but they're a fantastic way to make up for a mulligan and avoid miss...

Got in two games yesterday. The first one went pretty terribly due to a mull to 5. I technically won, but it felt pretty undeserved - my opponents effectively ignored me and took each other out. The last opponent took out another player instead of me, but ended up at three life while I had a Creepin...

Sliver Queen is alright, but too expensive for most people to consider running. The oversized version is technically cheaper, but still pretty expensive ($80 or so). Her token-producing ability is quite efficient and capable of churning out more slivers, especially if you have Manaweft Sliver or an...

There are a couple of creatures that can repeatedly blink stuff, and Galepowder Mage ... is one of them. In the context of uw blink decks, you have Brago, King Eternal , Meneldor, Swift Savior , and Soulherder as options, plus stuff like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Teleportation Circle . I think Galep...

Of the various one mana cantrips, I would say Brainstorm is pretty high-variance in terms of deck construction. It's hard to go wrong with Ponder or Preordain , and I love Thought Scour and Consider for graveyard-based decks (which is most of them). But Brainstorm? In a vacuum, I don't think it's ve...

Yes, you can. 406.3. Exiled cards are, by default, kept face up and may be examined by any player at any time. Cards "exiled face down" can't be examined by any player except when instructions allow it. However, if a player is instructed to look at a card and then exile it face down, or on...

Changes! I ordered a bunch of singles to spruce up the deck and replace some of the more questionable inclusions. Obnoxiously, half of my order was stolen (which included Vaevictis and all the cascade stuff. I got everything refunded, at least), which means I can't fully shift into the Glimpse of To...

This seems like a reasonable moment to acknowledge @3drinks dedication. On Salvation, there were 3 RCotD threads from November 2013 → July 2019, passing from Cryogen to LouCypher to me, 5 years and 8 months, a little less than 2 years per person. This thread has been going for 4 years and 9 months,...

Changes! The main highlights are: cutting some of the ur spellslinger cards in favor of more artifact support. adding a few more enchantments in bg mixing up the colorless options a bit, and trimming some of the draft-matters cards. I'm planning to add a little more enchantment support in black. Not...