[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Samwise the Stouthearted

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TheGildedGoose
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Post by TheGildedGoose » 2 years ago

Haven't seen this one before, but it looks spicy in any reanimator deck sporting red. Shreds of Sanity pitching a fatty to get your Reanimate back seems pretty good. You'd even get back your Terminate to boot! I actually might give this a shot over Recoup in Daretti, Scrap Savant.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

TheGildedGoose wrote:
2 years ago
Haven't seen this one before, but it looks spicy in any reanimator deck sporting red. Shreds of Sanity pitching a fatty to get your Reanimate back seems pretty good. You'd even get back your Terminate to boot! I actually might give this a shot over Recoup in Daretti, Scrap Savant.
Would definitely like this over Recoup. This is a ton of value packed into one card, even if it doesn't look flashy.

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hyalopterouslemur
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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

The ability to discard a card for whatever reason is often just added value. I'm not completely sold on it, but it's definitely considerable for reanimator decks.
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

I'd consider it for Spelltwineesque decks as well that want to discard Enter the Infinite and get Spelltwine or some other cast from the bin effect. Grabbing High Tide and Spelltwine while chucking Enter the Infinite feels like pretty much living the dream to me =P

It's a solid card all around, but I don't see any really good reason it needs the "recursion punish" rider, it's not like the fact you can't recur it is what's preventing it from seeing much play. I wish they'd stop just putting those stupid riders on things. Regrowth is not exactly a broken magic card so making it cost 3 and exiling itself doesn't seem super necessary.

Obviously this is two spells, but it requires both an instant and a sorcery and you have to discard so it's card neutral, so I see no reason it needs to be additionally worse. Is it pushed at 3 mana? Maybe a little?

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Post by BeneTleilax » 2 years ago

It's good. I kind of like the exile rider, because this lives in Kess/Anje Falkenrath type decks, and that rider doesn't so much mean they can't combo with it, it just means if they fail, they have to wait a bit before trying again. The fact that you can grab a ritual *and* whatever nonsense you really want to recur is huge for this, when I've used it in my old Zada or seen it used against me in Kess. Whack-a-mole on the stack is only fun if a majority of the players are blue.

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Post by Wallycaine » 2 years ago

pokken wrote:
2 years ago
I'd consider it for Spelltwineesque decks as well that want to discard Enter the Infinite and get Spelltwine or some other cast from the bin effect. Grabbing High Tide and Spelltwine while chucking Enter the Infinite feels like pretty much living the dream to me =P

It's a solid card all around, but I don't see any really good reason it needs the "recursion punish" rider, it's not like the fact you can't recur it is what's preventing it from seeing much play. I wish they'd stop just putting those stupid riders on things. Regrowth is not exactly a broken magic card so making it cost 3 and exiling itself doesn't seem super necessary.

Obviously this is two spells, but it requires both an instant and a sorcery and you have to discard so it's card neutral, so I see no reason it needs to be additionally worse. Is it pushed at 3 mana? Maybe a little?
Especially on ones like this that are uncommons, the exile rider is geared more towards Standard and Limited play than Commander. They're generally looking to avoid repetative gameplay "loops", so basically anything that can get another copy of itself back along with something else is a no no. Without that clause, you could easily end up in a gamestate (or even standard enviroment) where the best play is to loop Fiery Temper and 2 copies of this card over and over.

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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Saturday, November 27th, 2021; Quicksilver Elemental



Can't help but think this a little remembered Necrotic Ooze but in u. I suspect this should be seeing far more play.

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Post by Wallycaine » 2 years ago

It's much, much worse than ooze because you need all the abilities in play anyways. At which point, why aren't you just playing 2-3 card combos, rather than 2-3 cards that take an extra 5 mana card and 2-3 mana to "combo"

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Post by Dragoon » 2 years ago

Wallycaine wrote:
2 years ago
It's much, much worse than ooze because you need all the abilities in play anyways. At which point, why aren't you just playing 2-3 card combos, rather than 2-3 cards that take an extra 5 mana card and 2-3 mana to "combo"
You can still assemble a combo using your opponents' creatures in non-black decks, that is certainly worth a few bonus style points.

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Post by illakunsaa » 2 years ago

This is playable in Mairsil. You can target Mairsil himself and get a second instance of his abilities.

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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Yeah, Mairsil, the Pretender is the only place I've seen Quicksilver Elemental played. Gaining activated abilities is pretty niche - a basic Clone effect will do the same thing the vast majority of the time, while also providing a lot of additional flexibility. It only makes sense if you want to combine the abilities of multiple creatures - for example, Bloom Tender + Pili-Pala or another untap effect. However, I can't think of many decks that would be interested in doing so - other than Mairsil, Experiment Kraj is the only one that comes to mind.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

Well, given all the callbacks, this should surprise no one. But Necrotic Ooze is not a Phyrexian card, where a huge point of the callbacks from a flavor perspective was that Uncanny Valley aspect: Someone familiar, but not.

Anyway, this guy can get pretty ridiculous with q, even more than most. And like Necrotic Ooze and Experiment Kraj, it's painfully easy to break this guy.
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Post by RxPhantom » 2 years ago

Quicksilver Elemental is really great in my Merieke Ri Berit deck, which is built around abusing activated abilities. Quicksilver Elemental is a super versatile Swiss army knife, doing great impressions of Arcanis the Omnipotent, Cao Cao, Lord of Wei, Merieke herself, or even just Aphetto Alchemist. Love it.
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Sunday, November 28th, 2021; Total War



When you have players that just want to draw cards and play with themselves, rather than actually win.

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Post by Melua » 2 years ago

3drinks wrote:
2 years ago
Sunday, November 28th, 2021; Total War



When you have players that just want to draw cards and play with themselves, rather than actually win.
If they just want to turtle up this doesn't actually do anything. It still encourages combat though, and at a relatively decent CMC. It doesn't quite put in the work that War's Toll does, but being able to hold up mana for interaction is big as War's Toll forces you to hold up interaction for everyone. In all, a decently political card.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Ah yes, the old all or nothing effects. I'll cop to not being a fan to effects that take decisions out of the game. Part of my absolute loathing of Thantis, the Warweaver for example.

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Post by Treamayne » 2 years ago

3drinks wrote:
2 years ago
Sunday, November 28th, 2021; Total War
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When you have players that just want to draw cards and play with themselves, rather than actually win.
Similar to Angel's Trumpet and the aforementioned War's Toll. I think the decks that want this kind of effect benefit from having enough variation that you can pick the card(s) that mesh best with the strategy; but I'm not a fan of people who just jam these into "random deck X" 'cause "chaos/moar attks/rawr". . .
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Total War feels like a pretty niche effect - if a player wants to attack, they're effectively forced to attack with all of their creatures if they don't want them to be destroyed. On the other hand, if they aren't planning to attack, it doesn't really do anything. Still, if you have ways to force attacks (such as goad), it becomes a bit more interesting. Unlike War's Toll, Total War doesn't care whether or not the non-attacking creatures are actually capable of attacking - it just destroys them unconditionally. So, throw in Moat or Crawlspace to lock out excess attacks and you have a janky way to wipe out your opponents' creatures.

....probably more effort than it is worth - I'd prefer to just force attacks outright with Thantis, the Warweaver / Fumiko the Lowblood, but at least it's amusing.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

This does have a few uses, but I think I'll just use like, a ton of other cards to get the same effect. Basically if you're in red, white, or blue, you should have something.
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 2 years ago

Sick drew tucker art. I'll look to snag one as a bookmark.
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Post by Hermes_ » 2 years ago

take that non-wall creatures with Defender
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Post by Jemolk » 2 years ago

Hermes_ wrote:
2 years ago
take that non-wall creatures with Defender
Hah, yes. Though, changelings aren't affected regardless of whether or not they have defender. Actually, thinking about it, that might be a legit use to break the symmetry. Good card for tribal tribal...? Probably not, but it's an amusing thought regardless.
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Post by Dunharrow » 2 years ago

combo with No Mercy for the old combo wombo. Wait, you're attacking for lethal? No fair stop spiking.
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Monday, November 29th, 2021; Hallowed Moonlight



As a Sneak Attack|usg player, this scares me. It's not on the board, you've no idea if they have it, and it's not like it's telegraphed by holding up 3uuu via Gather Specimens. Cool card. Great way at keeping things balanced...

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Post by Melua » 2 years ago

Well designed card that hates on a few different strategies without being oppressive.

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