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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:21 pm
by Myllior
Definitely the Blackblade. It's a mana cheaper and it's uncommon for there to be more total lands of a given basic land type (because you're not exiling a non-basic land to the Scythe) than the total number of lands you have. The 'normal' equip option for the Blackblade may appear prohibitive, but if you're making the decision between these two cards chances are you're running a deck where your Commander is an ideal target for the equip anyway.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 11:08 am
by Gashnaw
Tooth and nail. DotH may be good but it has to go around a full turn and has a requirement of them having 3 creatures. Meanwhile I managed to get a T&N off turn 3 (yeah I had Mana rocks to help)

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 11:26 pm
by toctheyounger
Depends on the aim. The Ur-Dragon for true tribal, Scion for competitive decks. I prefer the former than the latter, it suits the big, timmy splashiness of dragons.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:47 pm
by materpillar
toctheyounger wrote:
4 years ago
Depends on the aim. The Ur-Dragon for true tribal, Scion for competitive decks. I prefer the former than the latter, it suits the big, timmy splashiness of dragons.

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Easy, Lazav, the Multifarious makes hilariously terrible cards feel busted. Declare attacks. Before blocks Lazav, the Multifarious is now Fog Bank. No blocks? Before damage Lasav is Vector Asp and now has poison until end of turn. Lasav is now Nighthowler, enjoy your 15 poison counters.

I just did Cephalid Inkshrouder + Phage the Untouchable this past weekend.


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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 3:16 pm
by MeowZeDung
Panharmonicon by a mile. It's fun both to build around and play with. Stax effects aren't fun, but they are powerful if cedh is your thing. It's not mine :P

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 4:51 pm
by Sinis
Wayfarer's Bauble by a country mile. Burnished Hart sucks. 6 mana for Explosive Vegetation (even if it's colourless!) is such a raw deal at this point in the game's development. Even in decks that want to recur Hart over and over aren't really going to get the value they want. It's just a little too costly.

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(Sidenote: It tickles my fancy that both these have alliteration in their titles.)

Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 5:27 pm
by hyalopterouslemur
Metallic Mimic, just because if I make it some types, I can get even more use out of it. Did I mention it lets me abuse persist?

Battle of the Landcestral Recalls:

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 2:33 pm
by Nimbaway
Going to give that one to Land Tax, Yavimaya Elder has always been a tad bit underwhelming to me due to the existence of Sakura-Tribe Elder.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 8:01 pm
by toctheyounger
Easily Harrow. If you're sacrificing a land, you want mana parity at minimum, so Edge giving you tapped land is disappointing. Comparatively Harrow gives you two untapped, so ideally if you play it right you can find yourself playing Harrow for free by sacrificing an already tapped land. Add to this that Harrow is instant, for me it's no contest. I guess there's a place for Autumn in Astral Slide/Astral Drift decks, but it still seems pretty narrow.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 8:15 pm
by Mookie
Skyshroud Claim based on pure efficiency, although Hour of Promise goes up if you have some spicy tutor targets.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:15 pm
by MeowZeDung
In a vacuum, Spitting Image probably gets the nod because you can target any creature, not just those you control, and that's probably worth the added mana cost and less flexible of the two "cast this card from your graveyard" mechanics.

That said, we don't play magic in a vacuum, and if you're just looking to copy any creature on the battlefield there are far better options than either of these. What makes these two cards stand out are those wonderful words "Create a token", which can really be abused by a commander like Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, who can't run Spitting Image but can run Quasiduplicate. (Speaking of Brudiclad and Quasiduplicate, I've run Zada, Hedron Grinder in Brudiclad lists and there's probably no better target for Quasiduplicate in the context of a token deck :cool:)

Furthermore, the only green decks that are as interested in making token copies as much as Brudiclad would be the Selesnya populate generals, and they can't run Spitting Image either. So my vote is for Quasiduplicate unless there's some green commander or shenanigans I'm not aware of that could leverage this effect.

I'm looking to include one of the following in my Kykar, Wind's Fury deck and keep going back and forth on which to roll with. Hit me with some hidden insight y'all!

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:19 pm
by Sinis
Quasi-duplicate. I find Spitting Image's cost fairly onerous (we're blue! We're supposed to have lands untapped!), and I usually end up copying my own creatures anyway. It was another story when you could legend-rule other people's commanders out repeatedly with Spitting Image.

Increasing Vengeance. I find myself pretty rarely copying my opponents spells; a RR Explosive Vegetation or whatever is all well and good, but I find it just doesn't happen very often. My favourite Increasing Vengeance combo when it was first printed was Seething Song + copy it with IV, then, flash back IV with the fresh RRRRR from the Song copy. Get 15 red total, time to cook. Even more silly with Mana Geyser.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:28 pm
by toctheyounger
Bonus Round. It's just excellent value for a miniscule cost. Sure, it can backfire, but hey, those sort of games are usually memorable anyway, which is cool.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:46 pm
by Sinis
Prototype Portal. The dream, of course, is to imprint either Sculpting Steel or Phyrexian Metamorph onto Prototype Portal, activate it, and make a copy Prototype Portal. This new Prototype Portal could imprint anything, but the important part of this exercise is that on your next turn, you could make yet another new Prototype Portal for yet another artifact. Soon, you could have a vast array of Prototype Portals, churning out everything from Seats of the Synod to Steel Hellkites. You could even create an ever increasing number of dining sets with Bargaining Table, Chalice of Life, Sharpened Pitchfork, and Throwing Knife. Maybe get some waitstaff by imprinting a Voltaic Servant, who as befits their station, will assist in the production yield of a Prototype Portal.

Really, the possibilities are endless once you have that first Sculpting Steel imprinted.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:20 pm
by Myllior
Godsend is the more powerful card - in a straight-up contest the exile-on-block ability beats the Kaldra avatar every time - but Sword of Kaldra is the funner of the two due to it being part of the Kaldra trinity, whose assembly is one of the things near the top of my EDH bucket list.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 3:52 am
by Mookie
Magus of the Candelabra. Arbor Elf is more consistent, but I like to go big, and multiplying my mana doublers is pure nonsense.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:51 pm
by Sinis
Path to Exile. Winds of Abandon basically does something different: it enables you to swing for lethal if you have the damage. For casual usage where you expect your opponent to have another untap step, Path to Exile is better for a single target on account of being 1/2 price and Instant, and if your opponent gets to untap with a boat of lands from an Overloaded Winds of Abandon, you're basically going to have a rough time, not only because they've ramped a lot, but also because they have better draw parity. Worst of all, Winds doesn't even have the option of Settle the Wreckage, where you could do it to yourself for more lands with some expendables.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 10:28 pm
by MeowZeDung
Master Biomancer. Both are good, but Biomancer doesn't require you to sac creatures to get the initial +1/+1 counter value, and it doesn't take a whole lot to get his power higher. That said, both can and should be abused with counters being moved around a la Forgotten Ancient or Bioshift type nonsense. In a deck like Ghave, Guru of Spores I'm already going nuts with Juniper Order Ranger, Corpsejack Menace, and Sigil Captain, so I'm happy to include Bloodspore Thrinax and not even particularly sad to be without Master Biomancer because I have incidental saprolings just lying around to Devour.


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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2019 5:46 am
by Mookie
Haunt. Sweet build-around in the command zone, lifelink, generates card advantage, and gets big without needing to deal combat damage.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:22 pm
by toctheyounger
Tasigur. Dragonlord is great in the 99 as a control tool but Tasigur is just so much wider in build options and that's something I love.

I guess you could interpret this as 'which is less of a threat across the table from you' or 'which has more applications outside of combo':
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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:29 am
by Myllior
Tooth and Nail. That it's not CMC restricted means you can grab two big fatties to have a bunch of fun with, which will more often lead to the exciting board states I love in Commander. Hulk is much more ordinary outside a combo application.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 3:30 pm
by Sinis
Selvala 2.0. I really like green effects that are parasitic on creature size, and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds does that, and does it well. Once, I tapped Selvala for 50! (Mossbridge Troll, played Grothama, All-Devouring, tapped Grothama to give Mossbridge Troll +20/+20, attacked with troll, drawing 25 off Grothama, Berserked the Troll to kill a dude. Post-combat, tapped for 50 and spent 5 to play Traverse the Outlands. It was glorious.)

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 8:57 pm
by toctheyounger
Vorel, for ease of use. Sure it doesn't hit walkers, but there's enough superfriends decks around anyway. Besides, the untap mechanic is just harder to make use of.

All this being said, the Bairn gets serious points for being one of the most adorable pieces of artwork in the history of MtG, so it's closer than it ought to have been.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:29 pm
by MeowZeDung
Demon. The reanimation seals the deal for me, even with the enters tapped clause. There's enough ETB critters to abuse. Either of these is at it's best in a mono black deck, and you'll probably running coffers/urborg and some of the other black mana doublers and big mana spells a la Black Market, so having a mana sink on board is great. Stuff dies all the time, and you're in the premium sac color, so this is one of the few self contained energy cards, especially for EDH. I ran it in a Gonti, Lord of Luxury list a while back and loved it! It gets gross with Panharmonicon.

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Re: Which do you like more?

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:47 pm
by RxPhantom
Mana Burn. Fireheart can probably cause some real impactful damage, but only after investing a massive amount of mana.

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Side note, whoever fixed the site's formatting so that the 'vs.' appears between the two card images and not awkwardly under them, thank you.