[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

[3drinks]

Saturday, May 1st, 2021; lingering Souls|tsr

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Oh, that is pretty in old border. 4 flying bodies for 5 is good already, but splitting it up makes it even better. This card is killer in constructed, but I wonder if being only above-rate is good enough for edh. Has anyone played this?

[Hawk]

I can't recall ever playing this. It's solid, and I probably would at least take a look in Orzhov Tokens. I don't think it's quite auto-include levels though - most WBx token decks will have an aristocrat bent to them, making this go up against stuff like Woe Strider, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, and Ministrant of Obligation that are better enablers of that strategy in terms of providing multiple bodies at 3 CMC as well as stuff like Pawn of Ulamog, Blight Mound, and Midnight Reaper that are all awesome payoffs for a go-wide tokeny deck. All of those have extra synergy with Teysa Karlov, the queen of the archetype, and have the ability to be shuffled back to the table with stuff like Unearth, Victimize, and Sun Titan too. Tellingly, Souls is not on the list of cards commonly played in Teysa as a result.

Souls is a bit better in decks like Thalisse, Reverent Medium that need token making specifically, or like Teysa, Orzhov Scion since for five mana it's a vindicate + a spirit, or newcomer Extus, Oriq Overlord // Awaken the Blood Avatar where it's especially great as an immediate 2 bodies to pay for the ritual as well as being a magecraft trigger for Extus himself.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Of all the "one card, two tokens" cards, this is easily my favorite. Not as broken as the saproling with buyback and convoke, but still...

That said, there is something to be said for getting all your tokens at once, if only for Cathars' Crusade.

[BeneTleilax]

Playable in spirits, haven't seen it much anywhere else. Dedicated token decks I see tend to go for slower, but ultimately more profitable, creation engines.

[Mookie]

I've contemplated Lingering Souls for my Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck, but it hasn't quite made the cut. It's certainly worth consideration, but my deck is pretty light on one-shot token generation - I prefer stuff like Ophiomancer that can produce bodies repeatedly. I'll also note that Teysa prefers black creature to white ones, since you can double-dip on them. As a result, I feel that Chittering Witch and Sengir Autocrat are better, since they effectively make eight bodies for four mana.

Ignoring Teysa's niche case of caring about creature color, Lingering Souls is a pretty efficient token producer for decks like Elenda, the Dusk Rose. 1/1 flying spirits are also pretty good - they have evasion, an occasionally relevant creature type, can carry equipment, and die to Skullclamp. If you have a way to dump it in the graveyard, its flashback can give free value. Wouldn't bat an eye at it showing up in most aristocrats / token decks.

[JWK]

Oh, that is pretty in old border. 4 flying bodies for 5 is good already, but splitting it up makes it even better. This card is killer in constructed, but I wonder if being only above-rate is good enough for edh. Has anyone played this?

I currently run it in three decks, and have run it in others in the past. It turns out a card that makes multiple flyers can be pretty good.

[3drinks]

Sunday, May 2nd, 2021; Exquisite Archangel

[Hermes_]

Commander damage laughs

[Dunharrow]

There are so many ways to lose with this in play (commander damage, continuing infinite combo, etc) I think it is better used as a combo piece. Like use Necropotence and Sanguine Bond or something.
though it is 7 mana and probably worse than other options.

I always liked Resolute Archangel better.

[Cyberium]

Sunday, May 2nd, 2021; Exquisite Archangel

Without flash, it'd be difficult for her to be a defeat-prevention since opponent could always prepare to remove her.

[Mookie]

If you're expecting to lose to life loss or damage, Exquisite Archangel is an expensive but passable solution. Unfortunately, a lot of games are lost to other causes - commander damage, mill, combo, locks, poison.... this feels like a job that is better fulfilled by Platinum Angel.

That said, Exquisite Archangel does have some interesting implications if you have your own synergies to abuse it - you can pay a bunch of life to Ad Nauseam or Necropotence, or negate the downside of Last Chance and Chance for Glory.

[Ruiner]

If I want just one of these effects I'd definitely go with Angel's Grace since that is way easier to utilize.

I do like this card though as it is pretty neat. I think you have to reanimate or otherwise cheat it into play with something like Sneak Attack to best use it. I've wanted to give it a shot but it never makes the cut.

[hyalopterouslemur]

She's okay. Angel's Grace, Platinum Angel, and Platinum Emperion do it better. She does give you a body, but so do two of them. And a 4/4 or 5/5 flying body for 7 is overcosted.

I like Emperion for my Ad Nauseam deck. But this one just seems inferior to Platinum.

[3drinks]

Monday, May 3rd, 2021; mind stone|wth

The humble mind stone. Cheap to cast, comes untapped, cantrips latre. "Hey, nothing you can say!"

There is literally no problem with mind stone in a not null rod deck. Change my mind.

[Wallycaine]

It's a pretty great card. I think, outside of Null Rod, the only other main reasons not to run it is an abundance of other ramp or heavy color commitments. In either case, though, it's still reasonable to play, just may not be the optimal option for that slot. I'd generally rank it below Rampant Growth and other land ramp, but ahead of most mana rocks, just due to occasionally becoming collateral damage on a wipe.

[JWK]

Absolutely fine artifact ramp that can draw you a card at the point in the game when ramp is less relevant or you are desperate. Solid card, I run it in an awful lot of decks. In most builds, it's probably my third or fourth choice for 2 cmc artifact ramp, after Arcane Signet, a relevant Talisman and maybe Thought Vessel. In decks that really need the draw option, I'll run this ahead of Thought Vessel.

[Gamazson]

Other's have already extolled this cards virtues. I run it in any deck that isn't and few that are. Honestly it should be as ubiquitous as Sol Ring.

[Mookie]

Mind Stone is good. Two mana, enters untapped, cantrips in the lategame. From a quadrant theory perspective, it's relevant in every section, which is a significant upgrade over most other mana rocks. If your deck doesn't care about fixing, it's an excellent inclusion. If you do care about fixing, it may be appropriate to instead play Arcane Signet or another rock that produces colored mana. There aren't many other options that cantrip at two mana, but at three mana, there's an upgrade in Commander's Sphere, and also the various lockets.

That said, I think I'm only running it in two or so of my decks. Thada is running it to ramp early and cantrip late, and Brago runs it because there is pretty much no limit to how many two mana rocks that deck is willing to play. I could run it in Sharuum, but I'm already running pretty much every color-producing two mana rock already. I don't think I would be interested in running it in a green deck (since land ramp generally synergizes more), and my other decks care about color fixing.

I'll also call out Hedron Archive and Dreamstone Hedron as bigger versions of this card. All of them are reasonable considerations depending on your curve - the higher it goes, the better the bigger hedrons are.

[Serenade]

This art is going on 25 years old and has not been replaced. I find that amazing. It is probably the only piece that works tremendously well with either the original brown artifact border or the current silver one.

[BeneTleilax]

Depends on how color-heavy your deck is, but yeah, this is the Standard Mana Rock

[Hawk]

This is a great rock, one of the best. The "two-drop rock slot" is pretty stacked, but I generally find this one of the most competitive options.

- Arcane Signet is the gold standard, and the only reason one wouldn't run it is if they were base-green (where generally speaking Rocks are worse than Farseek et al at ramping on two) is budget concerns as even printing it to the ground leaves it at ~$2 - affordable, but not trivial.
- After that it depends. In mono-color decks, I find Mind Stone the next best card 99% of the time, even ahead of Thought Vessel. Obviously it gets even better if you have some artifact/permanent recycling synergy, which isn't uncommon at all in white, red, or blue (Sun Titan, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Scrap Mastery, etc, etc).
- It gets a bit more complicated in 2+ colors, where you've got competition from the signets and talismans. In 3+ colors (or greedy two-color decks like Sygg, River Guide that are trying to muster triple blue for Cryptic Command but still need plenty of white) there's also Fellwar Stone as a major consideration. I may still look at Mind Stone over those if I have significant sacrifice or artifact synergy though.
- I hate running three-mana rocks, but in a 3+ color deck with a 5+ CMC Commander this can also get edged out by Commander's Sphere or Chromatic Lantern (as is the case for Sevinne for me).

But one thing Mind Stone has over almost all of these cards is price - it's way more affordable than a lot of those cards. I don't think it's ever wrong to run, as a result - great card is great.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Costs 2
Enters untapped
Cycles from play

Yeah, nothing more need be said. Mana rocks that cycle from play should always be considered, and this one's practically an auto-include.

[RadiantSophia]

Monday, May 3rd, 2021; mind stone|wth

The humble mind stone. Cheap to cast, comes untapped, cantrips latre. "Hey, nothing you can say!"

There is literally no problem with mind stone in a not null rod deck. Change my mind.

It needs a new coat of paint picture.

End transmission.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021; Noble Benefactor

When you want to tutour but you try to make it fair.