[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Archfiend of Depravity

[3drinks]

Thursday, June 17th, 2021; Rishadan Port|a25

[3drinks]

Psychotic Fury has been useful in my Ruhan and Rakdos decks and Zurgo decks. I sometimes Sunforger for it in Ruhan, And yes, while combat tricks do carry a risk of losing 2 cards to an opponent's removal, the power they potentially offer some decks makes it worth the risk. About 1/3 of the instants in my Kalamax build are combat tricks, and I have found that adding double strike or a power doubler when you already have a fewcouple counters on the big dino produces pretty easy one-hit kills. Etali becomes a lot harder to deal with if he has double strike or trample. Zurgo is another commander who likes those surprise boosts.

This. I've certainly never had any qualms about the potential blowout when seeing berserk|2ed in Korvold.

[onering]

Combat tricks only really risk a 2 for 1 from 1 player most of the time, with politics and archenemy situations providing the exception. When you cast a combat trick, it's usually only going to be relevant that turn, and so the only opponent that has to worry about it is the one it's hurting right now. That means that the chances to safely cast one are much higher than it seems at first glance, since you only have to worry about one players instant speed removal and can catch them tapped out or without an answer in hand.

[Dunharrow]

I wonder if this became better over the years with all the utility lands.
And even the flip lands.
tapping Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx on upkeep or tapping Scavenger Grounds to set up an Entomb + Reanimate... these seem pretty good uses of this card.
I think that I should maybe toss this into monocolor decks.

[JWK]

I have considered running Rishadan Port, but whenever I think about it, I decide that if there's a land I want to tap down, I'd probably be better off just removing it. For that reason, I would pretty much always run Strip Mine, Ghost Quarter and/or Wasteland or some other piece of targeted nonbasic land hate (I am particulary fond of Shivan Harvest ) before I would run today's card.

[umtiger]

I play Rishadan Port in Brago.

The u/w manabase is strong enough to accommodate it + one of the strongest anti-Brago cards is Maze of Ith.

The art and flavor text are tops.

Getting to slow Cradle, Nykthos, and Coffers is a bonus.

[PrimevalCommander]

Have we seen Rishadan Port recently? I feel like I talked up this card not forever ago.

Anyway, I only use Port in one deck, but I actually really like seeing it there. It is in Karador as a combat against control players. Control players really like to optimize their mana usage, advancing their board slowly while holding back mana for interaction where needed. Typically you will see a control player with just enough mana open for their availalbe interaction and spend the rest on set up for next turn. This leaves them with 1-3 mana on any given turn unless they take a turn off. It is quite easy to capitalize on this with Rishadan Port. When I want to set up for a larger play, not even game winning, but even just a "big" play, leave Port and a land open for a turn. Control Player leaves 2-3 mana open for counter/removal, EOT Tap one of their producing lands. On my upkeep tap another producing land, which leaves them without enough for counterspells or you hit the if needed as well. It taxes your mana yes, but think of it like a situational :spells can't be countered this turn.

I have done this with success in the past, and the ability to lock opposing Maze of Ith's has also been clutch in several situations. Not to mention all the other utility lands running around. It really screws with the fog lands Kor Haven, haste lands Flamekin Village, and sac lands Phyrexian Tower. I love the Port and really should play it in more decks.

I think it may be better than Wasteland types just due to flexibility. It can lock down opposing utility lands, but can change targets mid-game without putting you down a land. Gaea's Cradle has a nasty habit of NOT staying dead. Rishadan Port sticks around to keep the lock going.

[Sinis]

Thursday, June 17th, 2021; Rishadan Port

I've played Wintermoon Mesa, but never owned a Port.

I don't think I've ever activated Wintermoon Mesa; it was in a Neheb the Eternal combo pile that also played Defense Grid and other cards intended to force big spells through.

[PrimevalCommander]

Psychotic Fury has been useful in my Ruhan and Rakdos decks and Zurgo decks. I sometimes Sunforger for it in Ruhan, And yes, while combat tricks do carry a risk of losing 2 cards to an opponent's removal, the power they potentially offer some decks makes it worth the risk. About 1/3 of the instants in my Kalamax build are combat tricks, and I have found that adding double strike or a power doubler when you already have a fewcouple counters on the big dino produces pretty easy one-hit kills. Etali becomes a lot harder to deal with if he has double strike or trample. Zurgo is another commander who likes those surprise boosts.

Do you have a decklist for your Kalamax deck? I'm playing a small suite of combat tricks, but have not leaned into it that heavily. Every time I draw them I think, "I need more of these in this deck".

[illakunsaa]

I don't think Rishadan Port is particularly playable card. You are basically paying two mana to tap one land. Maybe it could see some use in a Winter Orb stax list where you can break parity with orb.

[Hawk]

I only briefly owned a port, before its reprint when it was sitting at around $90? I cached it in alongside a foil Spell Snare and a few other miscellaneous rares and mythics (I think my Flusterstorm was in there too?) for just two cards - badly-battered revised copies of Plateau and Savannah. The trade was equal value then, and for the guy I traded to at least he got NM original printings of each of those cards, but still it is a wonky trade today. It was the one time in history I wager that Rishadan Port generated mana and joy instead of devouring it. It makes up for the long, heartbreaking list of tragic trades I've made in my 22 years of playing Magic the Gathering.

As for the card itself - as others have said, I can't imagine playing this in EDH these days. If messing with mana isn't taboo in your group (and surgically blowing up Cabal Coffers or Gaea's Cradle shouldn't be!), you might as well just run Ghost Quarter or Strip Mine or Dust Bowl or Wasteland or any number of bargain-basement budget alternatives to those. All of them save Wasteland come in at a lower price point than Port and do the job better before even considering the forbidden fruit of looping them with Crucible of Worlds or Sun Titan or other such effects.

[Dunharrow]

Okay, Port is better against Darksteel Citadel than all the stripmine effects

[PrimevalCommander]

Several are missing, or not caring about, the upside of really messing with opposing interaction or opponent's mana math without permanently reducing your mana production. You don't have to leave the 2 open every round, only when it becomes relevant does it tax your mana. And when it is relevant, it is a good card. I have only ever played it in one deck out of dozens, but is has done well when I need it to. You know when the or player leaves open 1 or 2 lands your next play will be running right into their permission.

Overall it's niche, and the benefit may not be worth the deck space, but I wouldn't call it unplayable. Utility lands have been increasing in power level, which puts Port ever lower on the totem pole, but I have found a use for it that I really can't replace.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Thursday, June 17th, 2021; Rishadan Port

I've played Wintermoon Mesa, but never owned a Port.

I don't think I've ever activated Wintermoon Mesa; it was in a Neheb the Eternal combo pile that also played Defense Grid and other cards intended to force big spells through.

Mesa is crap, limited to Sun Titan packages.

This is really good, though I can't help but think my interest in land untap makes it a lot better.

[3drinks]

Friday, June 18th, 2021; Rest in Peace|sld

Kill it. Kill it with fire! 🙄

[pokken]

Rip dominates edh. Almost all decks are grave synergistic if not full on dependent these days..

I hate that it's countersynergy with replenish which makes the choice very difficult of what to run in enchantress decks.

Somewhat related I got tuned the hell up by a leyline of the void the other day playing ephara and that was frustrating. I did eventually bounce it and combo out but that brings up a point which makes these effects more difficult to use right

You really need to be able to either defend them or take advantage of them synergy wise or I would avoid them.. you're just a target for everyone if you don't have a gameplan to win while likely all three people are pissed st you

[JWK]

People should be running more grave hate. RiP is excellent, but it can be rough to use if your own deck includes recursion/graveyard syergies. I tend to play Leyline of the Void and various targeted grave removal effects instead of RiP for this reason.

[Guardman]

I've been contemplating whether or not to build Bell Borca, Spectral Sergeant, and one of the main reasons I think it would be fun is that he synergizes great with graveyard hate, Rest in Peace in particular.

[tstorm823]

Great with Mirror of Fate. And when you can find synergies to make something like RIP even more playable, you've truly entered into valuetown.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Hate cards, regardless of class or creed, are always a risk and need to be considered as such. At a hypothetical table, RiP can blow the brains out of certain decks while leaving others nearly totally unaffected. The risk here is not that it does nothing, rather that it can reduce the game to a two-horse race that you might not necessarily win. I prefer more surgical grave hate than RiP in fear of exactly such a scenario. It's just too heavy handed imho.

[Lifeless]

I love this card but it's a classic example of a card that needs to be backed up. If you're dropping RiP and don't have a gameplan for absorbing the hate it generates you're better off not playing it. I don't play this in Sigarda because like most enchantress builds I want to work with my graveyard, but it's impossible to ignore the impact this has. So much so I should probably consider it as a silver bullet even in a deck that wants to Replenish.

[BounceBurnBuff]

I cannot think of another common card that simply reads "a zone of play doesn't exist this game" as often as Rest in Peace does.

Many a frustrated Feldon deck yeeting half their library away to Meteor Golem/Chaos Warp this.

[DirkGently]

Design-wise I really don't like this sort of effect. It's kind of just a newer version of Light of Day-style color hate, except towards strategies instead of colors. "Oh, you're playing X? Well eat poop and die." Or maybe it does absolutely nothing and is a dead card rotting in your hand all game. It turns the game into some rock paper scissors BS that I'm really not into. Something like Scrabbling Claws is much more my speed - never totally dead, and has a lot more play to it on both sides, with one player trying to bait the activation, and the other trying to be judicious in its use. Infinitely better gameplay imo.

I also agree strongly with @TheAmericanSpirit. Slamming a hate card could easily end up hurting you by hurting potential allies against a stronger, perhaps not-grave-using opponent, even without the risk of drawing hate because of the card itself. Precision is the superior tactic imo.

[Ruiner]

I really dig this and don't really hesitate on including it if I can find room and it won't hurt my own deck too much. It's really effective at what it does.

It sucks for red and black decks but on the other hand, decks utilizing the grave tend to be "cheating" on the cost of expensive stuff at the risk of grave hate. If the player has white or green in their deck then they should be running removal that can take care of it though.

All that said, I do tend to hold off on actually playing the card early game when I know someone has limited answers, unless they are getting cocky or rude. Dropping it turn 2 and having a player just hope to draw their colorless removal can make a dull game, but shutting them out later on when I've got a great board state helps end the game easier.

[materpillar]

I used to be one of the few people in my metagame that really abused the graveyard back in the day. My favorite was a Atogatog + Eternal Witness + Cruel Ultimatum + Unnatural Selection. I moved on to a different play group and played one game. After that game I bought 5 Scavenger Grounds and slotted this into my Chromium deck. No regrets were had.

I find this is much more often a hate card towards much more boring strategies. It does a lot against aristocrats, land-snore and Cyclonic Rift loop all of which I find extremely tedious to play against. I don't want to watch someone cast the same spell 5 times in one game, those decks tend to get blown out by Rest in Peace whereas "I have a random Sun Titan in my deck" lists tend to only get minorly hampered. I'm pretty ok with that.

My favorite rest in peace moment. My opponent (Chainer, Dementia Master) T1 casts Dark Ritual → Buried Alive for some stupid stuff and Sidisi, Undead Vizier. T2 casts Reanimate on Sidisi, Undead Vizier with the intent of tutoring Living Death or something like that. I Twincast his Reanimate to target Sidisi, Undead Vizier (which fizzles his) and sac her to go find Rest in Peace.