[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Karametra's Acolyte

[Sinis]

The point of the thread is to discuss the cards. So I was discussing the cards. I'm reading a lot of hostility in your post, I apologize if you feel attacked or insulted, as I was not intending to do either.

Alright. If the whole point of your post was to say "Nemesis Mask is bad, but might make a good tale" then, sure.

I think anyone who manages to find their way to this corner of the internet is going to know that Nemesis Mask is a bad card. It takes a certain kind of person to google Nemesis Mask with specific enough terms to lead them here in the first place.

2. Playing Nemesis Mask is a bad decision. The card is not the strongest version of that effect available. If you are going to build your deck in such a way that you want that effect (which is also probably a bad decision), you probably want to play a bunch of other cards to accomplish that before you look at Nemesis Mask.

This isn't necessarily true. I mentioned Glissa the Traitor because she recurs Nemesis Mask (and has Deathtouch, and First Strike, both of which are very good in combat which Nemesis Mask forces).

My point here is that there are different metrics by which one can judge a card, and you've clearly locked into mana investment being the primary one (rather than resilience, in the case of Glissa).

Look, if you don't care what other peoples opinions are, why are you reading a thread that's designed for people to post and discuss their opinions?? You do care. We all do.

I do care what your opinion is. But, if you think Nemesis Mask and Lure effects in general are not the kind of game you want to play or won't do anything in your environment, it's nothing to me. The discussion should probably surround the idea of how you could use it, rather than about how you hate lure effects and think they suck. The former might be useful to someone, the latter is you just crapping on something.

I don't care that you don't want to play the card. I do care about whether you're going to provide a useful application for it, even if that application is unlikely to happen in your environment. One of these is constructive and the other isn't, and I would rather constructive discussion.

[Mookie]

One of my ethos for EDH is that if I have an opportunity to play a card in a deck that usually doesn't make sense, I'm going to give the card a shot. It's why I'm running Psychic Surgery in my Thada Adel, Acquisitor deck and Dimir Charm in my Tasigur, the Golden Fang deck. Would those decks be better without those cards? Almost certainly. But both make sense where they are - Thada forces opponents to search, and I refuse to play mono-blue cards in Tasigur, which sharply limits my countermagic options. And while they rarely pull their weight, it's also very satisfying when they do.

Fun story: I once had an opponent tutor up Sidisi, Undead Vizier with Defense of the Heart. They start to exploit, but I point to Psychic Surgery. Top card of their deck? The Primal Surge they were going to search for.

Another fun story: I'm playing Tasigur. Opponents are on Ramos, Dragon Engine chaos and The Locust God. Ramos has Omen Machine out, shutting down Locust God. Tasigur is unaffected by Omen Machine. Locust God flips Mystical Tutor and tutors up Chaos Warp to remove the Omen Machine. I cast Dimir Charm to mill it. One of the most lopsided kingmaker-y games I've ever played, and by far the most memorable.

My opinion of Nemesis Mask is similar to my opinion of those cards - your deck is probably going to be better without it.... but it's also important to be able to recognize when the card can be good, and consider including it when the stars align. Because winning with silly cards is one of the most satisfying things to do.

------

As for Plasm Capture.... it's hard to cast, but certainly capable of setting up some big plays. I'm generally not a huge fan of it though - four mana is a lot to hold open for a counterspell, and I value efficiency in my answers - when you need them, you need them really bad. It can make sense if you have a bunch of payoffs to ramp into, but if you're ever caught without something to spend the mana on, it looks really awkward. There is also some tension in wanting to save it for maximum value, even if it is better to burn it on something cheap (like Swords to Plowshares on an important creature). The lower your opponents' curves are, the worse it gets. I might consider it for Tasigur due to it being a gold counterspell, but I'm not sure my manabase can consistently support double blue. Hmmm...

I'd almost favor Spell Swindle over it - more mana total, but easier to cast, and treasure is more convenient than a single pile of mana. More importantly, treasure tokens are artifacts and can provide value and synergy if you're running stuff like Trading Post, which gives a higher maximum upside.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Nemesis Mask[/card] - only 510 decks on EDHRec. The decks that do play it tend to be bad general decks that want to do weird and fun stuff regardless of quality - Gabriel Angelfire - getting something with Rampage 3 blocked by a swarm of creatures is hilarious. A lot of the decks that play this also play other versions of the effect Lure, Noble Quarry, Destined // Lead, Ochran Assassin.

Oh yeah, why wouldn't I want a whole bunch of free hits? I mean, it's not something I would do in a combo-heavy meta, sure, but a free hit's a free hit. And over a couple turns, that can add up. And if you fail, Lure is decidedly worse in one way. Can you guess what way that is? Here's a hint: Look at the type line.

The key is to know what you're doing. Maybe you don't know what you're doing, or maybe you're doing a burlesque of the overly Spikey players who think every card sux until it wins a Legacy tournament. As for me, I'm more than happy to sacrifice multiple creatures, provided it wins me the game. (Hey, I'm sounding like an actual Spike.)

Okay, that dealt with, Plasm Capture has one huge problem, besides Mana Drain doing the same thing for cheaper, albeit without the {wubrg} versus c advantage. (Hey, how many times has this mattered to you?) And paying four mana. No, the big problem is that it depends on what your opponent's playing. And no, he's not going to drop Baleful Force or Blightsteel Colossus or some Eldrazi just because you asked nicely.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020; Mox Opal

#TheBestCmdrMox as it requires no CA loss? You be the judge.

[Mookie]

Contrast Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mox Tantalite, and Mox Diamond.

Mox Opal is arguably the best - Chrome and Diamond incur card disadvantage (barring land recursion shenanigans), while Amber doesn't function until after you've played a legend, which means you probably don't need the mana as much anymore. And Tantalite is.... slow. Metalcraft is a significant limitation, but artifacts are a pretty popular theme, so there are many decks it can fit into.

On the other hand, if you do have land recursion, Diamond's downside is negligible, and it can be active turn 1. Chrome is also easy to have active turn 1, although the color limitation is a bit awkward. If you care exclusively about speed, they're worth consideration over Opal.

I'd definitely be running it in my Sharuum deck if not for the cost. Might also run in Thada, but that deck benefits more from heavier rocks (or possibly Lotus Petal for a turn 2 Thada). I don't think I'd run it in any other decks though - they aren't running enough artifacts for consistent metalcraft.

Seriously though, that price.... Opal could really use a reprint.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020; Mox Opal

It's probably my favourite, but it's the one I use the least; I've eschewed my Mana Vaults, Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt, etc. since my group is significantly more casual than turbo-mana. I think I play it in Rona, Disciple of Gix at current because it's a very artifact heavy deck.

Too bad about the pricetag, though. I remember buying it for dirt cheap around New Phyrexia when I first came back, because I wanted to play it in Jor Kadeen.

[lyonhaert]

Kinda wish I had one, but there's no way I'm spending my own money on it. I have an equipment deck in the works where it would be convenient. I do have some other pricey cards I'll probably never use that I could use to trade, though. I don't expect the price to come down enough for me even if it's reprinted, but I still want a reprint to happen as well.

As for the others Mookie mentioned, I use Chrome Mox in a couple decks where there's enough card draw, variety of cards (or redundancy in cards) that the exile loss of a card has little impact. One of them is Zada, and I'm also going to run Mox Amber in that because I do have a need for every little r I can get after she's on the field because I'm probably trying to go off. Also Amber is in the 5C superfriends deck atm because of the density of legendary cards, so it's usually "on".

[pokken]

For me the mox order goes:

• mox diamond
• chrome mox
• mox opal
• mox amber

Opal just requires too big a deckbuilding commitment. To be actively good instead of randomly good you need to be playing around 20 artifacts 2 CMC and under (ballpark) which is a crapload.

I do play one in one deck (which has around 35 artifacts many 0 costed). But I won't just jam it in a deck with 12 rocks as goodstuff -- and coincidentally has mox amber in it (but doesn't have enough colored spells to enable chrome mox).

[ISBPathfinder]

In playing commander for like 10 years now, I only recently found a deck that Mox Opal was viable in. Now, its fantastic in that deck but I would say its generally speaking too situational in general. The price tag on the dang thing due to modern is also a little bit unreasonable.

In general I would say its overpriced for this format and incredibly narrow in use. When it is good though, its freaking great.

[hyalopterouslemur]

This is a card that can be awesome or awful. It just happens most of my decks fit in the awesome end of the spectrum, with things like affinity, Stax, and eggs being common for me.

But if you don't have one, then please, don't buy one. At least until your rich uncle dies.

[3drinks]

Thursday, January 9th, 2020; Grenzo's Rebuttal

[Dunharrow]

I didn't even like this card in Conspiracy. I don't get the idea behind it.

[onering]

It's mass CA, and its probably going to clear out the most problematic artifacts and creatures on the board. If you have another creature out already, you either get a 4/4 as compensation for your best dude dying or the 4/4 gets killed. It's difficult to make deals with it because you have no leverage over the person destroying your stuff. It's a solid card for when you are behind as it takes out the strongest artifacts and creatures on the board while doing minimal damage to you (if your behind, since by virtue of being behind you probably have less to lose). It's easy to break the symmetry if you cast this with no artifacts out. The LD clause gets rid of a bunch of problem lands. There's going to be times where you won't want to cast this because you won't want to lose something important, but there's also going to be times when you don't have an artifact and whatever creature and basic land of yours get killed is a bargain compared to whatever else gets taken out.

[Dunharrow]

It's mass CA, and its probably going to clear out the most problematic artifacts and creatures on the board. If you have another creature out already, you either get a 4/4 as compensation for your best dude dying or the 4/4 gets killed. It's difficult to make deals with it because you have no leverage over the person destroying your stuff. It's a solid card for when you are behind as it takes out the strongest artifacts and creatures on the board while doing minimal damage to you (if your behind, since by virtue of being behind you probably have less to lose). It's easy to break the symmetry if you cast this with no artifacts out. The LD clause gets rid of a bunch of problem lands. There's going to be times where you won't want to cast this because you won't want to lose something important, but there's also going to be times when you don't have an artifact and whatever creature and basic land of yours get killed is a bargain compared to whatever else gets taken out.

But let's say the player to your right has a big threat and they are killing you with it. The other players don't need to help you.
I just find this card to be bad at dealing with the cards you specifically want to get rid of, and that it is really bad if you have an important artifact or creature in play.

I don't see what deck in Commander would play this. Even in a deck with no artifacts or big creatures, this is 6 mana to maybe blow up an important piece.

[ilovesaprolings]

This is clearly a card made with EDH in mind that gets almost no play in EDH because people just their removal to be as efficient as possible

[hyalopterouslemur]

Allow me to introduce you to Martyr's Bond.

Yeah, this card still sucks because it's so inefficient, but the idea of my losing an artifact and a creature to make everyone else lose the same on top of this card brings a smile to my face.

[3drinks]

Friday, January 10th, 2020; Worldslayer

[DirkGently]

Hoo boy, I played this in my Rayami deck and people were NOT happy about it.

Honestly it's way more fair than other MLD imo. But it can create pretty savage "no one ever gets to have a permanent again" situations when you put it on an indestructible.

I think it mostly fits into that valley of being too nasty for casual, and too crappy for cEDH.

[Serenade]

So strange to me that they reprinted it.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Hoo boy, I played this in my Rayami deck and people were NOT happy about it.

No lie, I read t his as "my Rei Ayanami deck". (And this card would certainly fit. Or Phyrexian Rebirth would. Guess which one I play more.)

I will say, Worldslayer is a lot less useful in 1v1, since you have to actually hit, so it's really only useful if you have a creature with "can't be blocked".

[ConstantMists]

I play this in my Zurgo Helmsmasher deck. Too bad for everyone else my commander is indestructible!

[Myllior]

I ran it in Kefnet for a short while, but took it out before I ever actually played it because I prefer a heavily aggressive approach, which Worldslayer does not support. A combined 10 mana to play and equip is astronomical (although not unreasonable for a card that effectively reads "You win the game"), by which point I'm usually about to knock out a second player. At that point, blowing up the board is going to slow the game down but do little to increase my likelihood of winning. If my meta changes so that rushing players down becomes less viable then I could see it being part of a more controlling build, but I'm happy to leave it out for now.

I also leave it out because I dread what will definitely happen if I ever connect with it: Someone will float mana and then proceed to Swords to Plowshares Kefnet, since I've destroyed my own Swiftfoot Boots, while also having a counterspell to deal with my own that tries to protect Kefnet. That scenario just sounds miserable.

[Mookie]

I've seen it connect once, out of a Sapling of Colfenor deck hitting a Kaalia of the Vast deck that was far behind and decided to just take the hit instead of playing a blocker. Because some people just want to see the world burn. Or they want the game to end? Hmmm....

Anyway, it's pretty expensive, and usually telegraphed as a result, which makes it difficult to pull off. It is a powerful win condition though, assuming you have some indestructible creatures to throw it on (and your opponents don't hold open Swords to Plowshares). Heroic Intervention and Boros Charm also work well.

[3drinks]

Isn't it just easier to pull this effect off with, say, a sac outlet plus Bearer of the Heavens?

[3drinks]

Saturday, January 11th, 2020; Rampant Growth

Like...I enjoy these simple effects. Sometimes you don't need "the value" for the added cost. Stop searching for the homerun when all you need is a base hit.