[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Tymaret, the Murder King

[Sinis]

It's a Time Walk that sort of loops. All you need is some baroque recursion engine to make it go infinite. The real problem is, how is that not easier than "empty graveyard, Charmbreaker Devils, Time Warp"?

I think the selling point for Walk the Aeons is that you can also loop it in any way you'd loop Time Warp (like with Charmbreaker Devils), but for one more mana, you have the option of looping it in a bunch of other ways, or just casting it with sacrifice 3 islands.

I once had a sea monster deck that absolutely did not mind sacrificing 3-9 islands if it got to untap with some beaters.

Honestly, the naive sac-3-islands to try and close out the game line of play is something I don't find unappealing. In the play-it-naively scenario, it's also harder to interact with any given casting of it.

[Mookie]

As extra turn spells go, Walk the Aeons is pretty middle-of-the-road. Doesn't exile itself (and instead provides easy-ish recursion), but also doesn't have the incidental upsides of stuff like Part the Waterveil or Karn's Temporal Sundering. Seems worse in general than Temporal Manipulation due to the extra mana, but can go the other way if you have Crucible of Worlds or another way to get back the lands. And sometimes you'll have a bunch of Islands to burn and just feel like going all-in.

(I'm not a big fan of extra turns spells though)

[3drinks]

Saturday, January 25th, 2020; Millikin

[lyonhaert]

I use this and Deranged Assistant currently as manadorks in the Spiders deck.

Edit: Because the deck cares very much about self-mill and number of creatures in the graveyard.

[Mookie]

Somewhat interesting to compare Millikin to Manakin and Mind Stone. If you only care about mana production, I'd usually lean towards a mana rock - losing my mana production to any board wipe is a pain, and the body usually isn't going to be that relevant unless you intend to sacrifice it to Skullclamp or something similar.

On the other hand, Millikin also provides a bit of incidental mill, which can be a significant upside for decks like Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Karador, Ghost Chieftain. Those decks in particular also care about card types and creatures, which gives a bit of additional value to Millikin. Being multipurpose makes me like the card a lot more than Manakin. Not sure if I'd run it over Iron Myr and friends though - depends on how valuable the colored mana is in comparison to the self-mill.

[Serenade]

I used the Myr in my Jor deck, but I stayed away from this guy because recursion was not as good back then (the zero power didn't help much either). These days we have so much more.

Anyone use it in/with Teshar?

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's good if you have some sort of recursion or other graveyard shenanigans. But I wouldn't use it as just a mana dork: Diamonds, Mind Stone, mana myr, signets, and Coldsteel Heart all come first. And if you're in green, yeah.

[Toshi]

Anyone use it in/with Teshar?

I did consider it for a while but decided not to run it.
Summoning sickness is hindering since my deck is already slow enough and my deck doesn't require absurd amounts of mana.
The incremental mill can come in handy, but i'd prefer low curves and sac outlets over it.
Something among the lines of Cathodion and Myr Moonvessel is easier to abuse, Palladium Myr and Metalworker generate more mana.

On the other hand Millikin and Deranged Assistant would be perfectly fine in more toolboxy Lazav, the Multifarious lists than mine.

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 26th, 2020; Seal of Primordium

[hyalopterouslemur]

I always liked the seals. In this format, these are guaranteed card parity, made better by Sun Titan and enchantresses. (Constellation is a huge benefit as well, better than a simple enchantress with Sun Titan's help.)

[Mookie]

Naturalize is a card I'm not excited to play, but somehow, making it sorcery speed and vulnerable to removal makes it a lot more interesting.

More seriously, Seal of Primordium is pretty reasonable for the decks that want it - namely, any deck that cares about enchantments, graveyards, or permanents. I've considered it as an option in my Primal Surge deck, and it also does a lot of good work in decks like eMuldrotha, the Gravetide and Tuvasa the Sunlit. It's also reasonable as a rattlesnake card - if you play it out early, your opponents may just hold off on playing scary artifacts / enchantments until you pop it, which can buy a lot of time.

[3drinks]

Mondau, January 27th, 2020; Mishra's Factory

The OG man land. I have my thoughts - how does the original stand up to today's crop?

[TheGildedGoose]

Literally my favorite Magic card from 2001-2016. Mediocre at best in EDH, I still use it in Daretti as an artifact to weld in a pinch.

[Mookie]

As man-lands go, Mishra's Factory is efficient but unexciting - enters untapped, cheap to activate, attacks as a 2/2 and blocks as a 3/3. Also some incidental artifact synergies. Still though, slots for colorless lands are pretty competitive in most decks, and there are a lot of utility lands I'd run before it. Could be good if you're running a bunch of board wipes and care about having creatures live through them. Otherwise, I only see this getting played in colorless decks, or 50+ land decks with a ton of slots for utility lands.

In general, I feel that manlands are a bit niche in EDH - they're mostly small french vanilla creatures, which aren't that exciting. I run the two-color Zendikar manlands as fixing, but don't activate them that often. I suppose the one exception is in my Proteus Staff deck that isn't running many other creatures - manlands are pretty good for sacrificing to Polymorph effects.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Efficient, but unexciting. I'm obviously more a fan of Inkmoth Nexus (now to teach you why lands aren't sacred MWA HA HA) or Zoetic Cavern (just for being able to circumvent the one-land limit). I've considered Dryad Arbor, more for the weird things you can do like simultaneously get two modes off of Druidic Satchel.

I do play the Zendikar duals sometimes, if I really need what they offer. But in general, manlands aren't as good as lands that make tokens.

[onering]

2 color and fewer can use more colorless lands than most decks, so the question is really under what circumstances do you want this effect. It's too small to be relevant on its own, and it lacks relevant abilities (creeping tarpit is unlockable and thus can get through a stalled board, lavaclaw reaches is a wincon with the potential to one shot people), so there needs to be some synergy in your deck. Mutavault has changeling, so tribal synergies can make it a great inclusion, while factory has artifact synergies. In a deck where I'd consider factory, I'd also want inkmoth and blinkmoth and all the artifact lands I can run because at that point it's clear the goal is to abuse artifact synergies

[Serenade]

Good blocker in Jor.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, January 28th, 2020; Sword of Body and Mind

[PrimevalCommander]

This sword was referenced when Sword of Truth and Justice came up. Usually considered one of the weaker swords because the protection colors are weakest, and the abilities are not widely powerful. I personally consider Body/Mind and Truth/Justice to be about even because a couple +1/+1 counters or a 2/2 wolf are mediocre in most cases.

Overall, boring sword with weak abilities unless mill is relevant to you. The 2/2 is nice, but not something that will swing a game most instances. Although it is a way to make repeatable tokens and still be aggressive.

[Serenade]

Trep Blade is better for Wrexial since the milling triggers on attack. =P

Because creatures are so good these days, and since UG is a top color combo, I feel like the protections are good offensively, no?

[pokken]

Ugh, so sword of body and mind.

I remember when I first saw that card in a game and got nearly milled out before someone killed it. I was so angry and threw a bit of a fit about how busted it was. Remember kids, I grew up when millstone was the most aggressive milling card, and this thing was 5xbetter than millstone with power, protection, and it didn't go away when the creature died like an aura. I believe it was actually my first exposure to equipment in EDH.

"Ten cards? WTF!"

To be fair my understanding of mill was a bit limited, and my deck did have tons of graveyard recursion in it so I don't know wtf I was complaining about I did not realize the scars of losing to millstone decks so much as a kid ran so deep.

[ISBPathfinder]

I think I did manage to include it in a deck once for Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. It probably is the least used of the swords. It has its place, that place just rarely ever comes up in any format much less in commander.

[Sinis]

Tuesday, January 28th, 2020; Sword of Body and Mind

Relevant Comic

I did play this a few times. Once was in Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, where I would try and snipe big critters to make Lazav a huge threat (and get a wolf token!). Truthfully, though, the mill ability coupled with the frequently irrelevant
protections often feels far too clown-y for even remotely serious play, especially that we now have Sword of Sinew and Steel which feels like the Colour Pie Unrestricted Answer Sword™. I guess you can block giant green creatures without trample in the absence of a Questing Beast.

I will probably play Body & Mind again, when I try and play mill again. So, soonish.

[Mookie]

Sword of Body and Mind is generally regarded as the weakest Sword of X & Y, at least in EDH. Blue and green are two of the most widely-played colors for creatures, so it can be good for granting evasion.... but there are a lot of other options for evasion available. Meanwhile, those two colors have the least targeted creature removal, so it doesn't do as good of a job of protecting the wielder.

On the other hand, looking at the trigger, a 2/2 wolf is fine, but not exciting. Milling ten cards is a bit more exciting, but when everyone is playing 100-card decks, its impact is significantly decreased. It also suffers somewhat from many decks running graveyard interactions, which can make mill a liability. It could be good if you have a dedicated mill theme, or a plethora of grave hate, but otherwise I'd only run it if I were running all the swords as a theme. There are a lot of other pieces of equipment I'd run before it.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Sword of Body and Mind did have some value originally. Mostly it was yet another way to combo with Bloodchief Ascension. Of course, infect will murder your ass before you get those three counters on.

A 2/2 token isn't really spicy. It's nothing I'd complain about, same with Sword of Truth and Justice's +1/+1 counter.. The big problem is the mill half. If you're exploiting your opponent's graveyard, or if you can protect your BCA long enough, that's great, draining for 20 every turn in the latter case. But if your opponents are exploiting their graveyards, it's not so great. You can also use Rest in Peace, or Leyline of the Void to just go for straight-up mill, but you're unlikely to make mill matter without a lot of work.