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

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

I vaguely recall there being a bit of hype around Deathbellow War Cry as an OTK finisher - Kragma Warcaller is a very strong lord effect. Throw in Moraug, Fury of Akoum, Neheb, the Worthy, Sethron, Hurloon General, or other minotaur lords to generate a massive pile of damage. Of course, if you want it to be functional, you need to be playing minotaur tribal, which is... a pretty significant limitation. Snap include if you are in that deck, but it's pretty niche.

Another option would be to run Arcane Adaptation / other type-changing effects to use it as an improved Tooth and Nail - fetching a bunch of Eldrazi (or just some combo pieces) is a strong play for eight mana. I could also see it being run in a changeling deck.

....always somewhat amusing to see WotC's evaluation of different tribes - the more jank they are, the stronger the support cards tend to be. It would certainly be interesting to see this sort of effect in other tribes. I guess there are Dragonstorm and Kindred Summons, but I would imagine some types would be a bit too strong.

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Igzex
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Post by Igzex » 2 years ago

This card highlights the joy of being a garbage tier tribe. WOTC can make some of the most over-the-top support cards imaginable and won't break anything unless they happen to be Eldrazi.

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Post by illakunsaa » 2 years ago

You can play this as a "you win the game on the spot" card. All you need to do is run Reaper King as the commander and couple of the champion changelings.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Saturday, October 16th, 2021; Autumnal Gloom // Ancient of the Equinox


Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Reasonable setup card with an aggressive upside. There's decks I'd use this in.

Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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Dunharrow
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Post by Dunharrow » 2 years ago

I just don't see which deck wants this.
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Sharpened
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Post by Sharpened » 2 years ago

No deck wants this card.

A 3 mana 4/4 with Trample and Hexproof is nice, but I have trouble seeing any deck that plays it. Since it takes a little time to turn on.

As a self mill card, it's pretty poor, especially since once you hit Delirium, it can no longer do that.

It's not a bad card. It just doesn't do anything well enough to draw you in. You can find places where its fine, but never anywhere that there aren't a ton of more exciting options for that slot.

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hyalopterouslemur
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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

Underwhelming effort, underwhelming reward.
Thanks to Feyd_Ruin for the avatar!

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Sinis
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Post by Sinis » 2 years ago

Saturday, October 16th, 2021; Autumnal Gloom // Ancient of the Equinox
I actually like the front half more than the back. I'm not sure I'll ever run it, though.

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Serenade
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Post by Serenade » 2 years ago

Whenever I see this guy, I imagine an inefficient but maybe fun The Gitrog Monster enchantress deck that also uses Crop Sigil and Crawling Sensation.

I never build it.
Mirri, Cat Warrior counts as a Cat Warrior.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Sunday, October 17th, 2021; Ghave, Guru of Spores


Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

We used to have so many jokes about Ghave, my buddy had a deck and he would repeatedly have combos on the board he didn't recognize or had to puzzle out, and multiple times people (Myself being the worst) pointed out combos to him. He's the OG 'combo on accident' commander though he is in great company these days :P

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TheAmericanSpirit
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 2 years ago

Mushroom man is awesome, but it's a shame he can't do much beyond fungus tribal and combo. I tried to build an aggro list with him back in 2015, but even that tended to combo out.
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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Ghave, Guru of Spores is one of those cards that combos with pretty much everything, similar to Doubling Season and Paradox Engine. It's possible to build a Ghave deck that doesn't combo, but it generally requires some dedicated effort - there are a lot of ways to convert creatures into +1/+1 counters and vice-versa, and a lot of them are just obvious synergy pieces for a +1/+1 counter-based deck.

....I feel like I don't see Ghave played that often - I guess the deck has been mostly solved at this point, so people know what to expect and how to shut it down. For an alternate Abzan +1/+1 counter commander that's a bit less straightforward, I'll call out Tayam, Luminous Enigma.

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hyalopterouslemur
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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

The trick to Ghave is finding cards that make him even more oppressive. Rule of Law doesn't stop your triggers. Mycosynth Lattice makes Aura Shards and Martyr's Bond hit anything. And shoring up your defense to his weaknesses. Ghave's a bit slow, which is what keeps him at tier 2.
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toctheyounger
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

Definite ham sandwich commander, as in, combos with. I had good fun with him for a while back there, but I was specifically trying to avoid too much degeneracy and....it just got too hard. Having to check everything off in the list per addition to make sure it doesn't go off was tiresome.

Hes very good and a lot of fun, I just think you have to lean into the grossness.

Also as a pseudo shout out, diestodoomblade had a very excellent enchantress stax primer for Ghave over on Salvation. It really was a very masterfully brewed list.
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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Definite ham sandwich commander, as in, combos with. I had good fun with him for a while back there, but I was specifically trying to avoid too much degeneracy and....it just got too hard. Having to check everything off in the list per addition to make sure it doesn't go off was tiresome.

Hes very good and a lot of fun, I just think you have to lean into the grossness.

Also as a pseudo shout out, diestodoomblade had a very excellent enchantress stax primer for Ghave over on Salvation. It really was a very masterfully brewed list.
Not sure if you're talking about Ghave or Kraj, but the answer to the question is surely just "yes". We need a pod of these accidentally infinite wombo combo commanders together at once. At least for the hilarity.

Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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toctheyounger
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

3drinks wrote:
2 years ago
toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Definite ham sandwich commander, as in, combos with. I had good fun with him for a while back there, but I was specifically trying to avoid too much degeneracy and....it just got too hard. Having to check everything off in the list per addition to make sure it doesn't go off was tiresome.

Hes very good and a lot of fun, I just think you have to lean into the grossness.

Also as a pseudo shout out, diestodoomblade had a very excellent enchantress stax primer for Ghave over on Salvation. It really was a very masterfully brewed list.
Not sure if you're talking about Ghave or Kraj, but the answer to the question is surely just "yes". We need a pod of these accidentally infinite wombo combo commanders together at once. At least for the hilarity.
Add in Urza and Kinnan and you got yourself a stew goin'.
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| Shadowthrone/Lazav | Raest/Yidris | T'iam / The Ur-Dragon |

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Igzex
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Post by Igzex » 2 years ago

Of all the OG commander precon face cards, this one aged the best IMO. Also bust this out at a table and it's going to be the one OG Commander face card that won't get a reaction of "Oh snap I remember that card!" but rather a stern "Kill you."

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Igzex wrote:
2 years ago
Of all the OG commander precon face cards, this one aged the best IMO. Also bust this out at a table and it's going to be the one OG Commander face card that won't get a reaction of "Oh snap I remember that card!" but rather a stern "Kill you."
As a person with both Animar, Soul of Elements and Zedruu the Greathearted decks, I feel obligated to challenge this assertion. Looking at EDHREC, it appears that Ghave is the fourth most popular commander, with 1922 decks, losing to Kaalia of the Vast (3830), Animar (3115), and Riku of Two Reflections (2105). Zedruu isn't that far behind Ghave either, with 1740 decks. Plus Edric, Spymaster of Trest is very popular in the 99.

....of course, popularity isn't necessarily a good sign of aging well. Still, I do think that several others are still capable of invoking fear in your opponents. Kaalia lost a bit when Iona, Shield of Emeria was banned, but Master of Cruelties is still a thing. Animar's protection (and cheap cost) means it can blitz down opponents before they can interact, and Karador, Ghost Chieftain (1700 decks) is still one of the grindiest commanders in the entire format.

....still, there are definitely some commanders (Damia, Sage of Stone, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls) that have aged pretty poorly.

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Post by Wallycaine » 2 years ago

My first commander, and still one of my favorites. It actually ended up being surprisingly easy to avoid making it a combo deck, but required strict adherence to A) not running ways to turn dudes into mana and B) avoiding tutoring. But it also helped that I was running in local playgroups, and thus avoided the "unknown ghave player" problem.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Monday, October 18th, 2021; Chainer, Nightmare Adept


Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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BeneTleilax
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Post by BeneTleilax » 2 years ago

Chainer's fun. Fuels reanimator, Madness and just value recursion without being overpowered. He's like a Tortured Existence in the command zone. I've considered building him on-and-off.

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Guardman
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Post by Guardman » 2 years ago

I really like Chainer, and was one of the few good things from the otherwise extremely disappointing madness commander deck. I've actually thought about trying out my Etali deck with him as the commander to give access to a second color while also giving Etali, Primal Storm haste (Plus since black has so many good cards to put Etali into the graveyard it should be easy to find).

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Sinis
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Post by Sinis » 2 years ago

Monday, October 18th, 2021; Chainer, Nightmare Adept
Seems okay. The card is remarkably fair, given its wording about casting and activation limits.

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