[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Leonin Shikari

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EonAon
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

Ah the most useful and annoying anti aggro cards ever.

umtiger
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Post by umtiger » 2 years ago

I was told that Rishadan Port is a crappy card.

Maze of Ith is why I play Rishadan Port in my Brago deck.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

umtiger wrote:
2 years ago
I was told that Rishadan Port is a crappy card.

Maze of Ith is why I play Rishadan Port in my Brago deck.
They lied to you then.

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Maze of Ith is a very solid card - the ability to negate an attack is a very powerful ability to have on a land. It does have the downside of not producing mana, but the fact that it activates for free means it's much easier to use than similar effects like Kor Haven, Mystifying Maze, and Labyrinth of Skophos. Just count it as a spell instead of a land when constructing your manabase. I'll note that Maze effects are arguably stronger in multiplayer than 1v1 due to the threat of activation - if an opponent knows their attack won't go through, they'll attack someone else instead... then multiply that by the number of opponents, and Maze may be preventing three attacks per turn cycle.

Maze also enables a lot of random tricks.
  • Shut down voltron commanders and creatures that need to deal combat damage
  • Use it politically to help out another player
  • Untap your own creature after combat damage is dealt to grant pseudo-vigilance
  • Combo with Krosan Restorer effects for infinite mana
  • Copy with Thespian's Stage or a similar effect to make the aggro player cry
  • Fetchable with Expedition Map, recurrable with Life from the Loam, etc.
umtiger wrote:
2 years ago
I was told that Rishadan Port is a crappy card.

Maze of Ith is why I play Rishadan Port in my Brago deck.
I'm not running Rishadan Port, but I am running Tectonic Edge and Spreading Seas in my Brago and Thada decks, in addition to the usual Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots / etc. I'm not a fan of land destruction / disruption in every deck, but Maze effects are common enough that having an answer is pretty necessary for any deck that really needs to deal combat damage with its commander.

On the flip side, I'm using its ability to untap my own creatures to serve as a combo piece in Samut - killing people with it and Shivan Gorge is quite satisfying.

I'll call out Thaumatic Compass // Spires of Orazca as my second-favorite version of this effect - it doesn't enable quite as many tricks, but it also provides a lot of additional value.

Fun fact: I got my own copy from an Eternal Masters sealed league, in which I used a 12 land (plus Maze) control deck to get second (I was hard-countered by a Winter Orb + Gamble deck in the finals). Definitely one of the most unique limited decks I've piloted.

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hyalopterouslemur
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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

One of the Great Arguments for Land Destruction. Besides shutting down your opponents' attacks, it can give you attack triggers without the inherent risks of combat. I just wish Mystifying Maze let me target my own guys, but apparently that's "abuse" and "broken".
Thanks to Feyd_Ruin for the avatar!

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Igzex
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Post by Igzex » 2 years ago

You'd think this card would be less good in a game with 3 other people but somehow, this card always pulls its weight. Always glad to draw it...unless I'm mana screwed that is lol

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plushpenguin
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Post by plushpenguin » 2 years ago

This card existing is why I'm glad Malignus exists.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

plushpenguin wrote:
2 years ago
This card existing is why I'm glad Malignus exists.
I wonder why this guy is $6. He sees no sanctioned play, and even with no reprints, like, he's no doubling season now. $6 seems a bit high to cling to.

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

3drinks wrote:
2 years ago
plushpenguin wrote:
2 years ago
This card existing is why I'm glad Malignus exists.
I wonder why this guy is $6. He sees no sanctioned play, and even with no reprints, like, he's no doubling season now. $6 seems a bit high to cling to.
It's a mythic from an old-ish set that sees play in casual and EDH, which are the primary drivers of price for cards that aren't used in competitive formats. Certainly not a staple, but it's also a pretty unique effect and combos with damage doublers (another class of card that is popular in casual). EDHREC puts it at a few thousand decks.

...meanwhile, I'm waiting on Godsire and Twilight Prophet reprints - I'm still extremely annoyed Godsire didn't show up in the Naya populate deck.

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Gashnaw
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Post by Gashnaw » 2 years ago

Ith is in my Questing Beast deck. In fact my whole QB deck is focuses on fog effects.

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TheAmericanSpirit
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 2 years ago

Mookie wrote:
2 years ago
...meanwhile, I'm waiting on Godsire and Twilight Prophet reprints - I'm still extremely annoyed Godsire didn't show up in the Naya populate deck.
I wouldn't sweat the prophet too much. I had one since release (bought for $6) and recently sold it for consistently doing too little. Best work it ever did was reveal a Razaketh one time and then die shortly thereafter. Bob is better and currently cheaper unless you need the vampire part of it.
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Post by PrimevalCommander » 2 years ago

Igzex wrote:
2 years ago
For most decks, this card offers you what you want, not what you need...
I c wut U did thr. 😎


Maze of Ith is a good card. I wouldn't call it underplayed, because you really don't want too many people in your playgroup using this. I have seen up to 3 in play at one time because my small playgroup used it extensively in our early days of EDH. Combat just doesn't happen at that point. It is very good at deterring that random 6/6 flyer looking for a face to bash. It effectively acts as an "Indestructible", Flying, anti-trample, blocker that only costs to keep up. Not a bad rate really. I still play it in my control style decks, or decks that won't have a bunch of blockers up at any given time. I'm almost never unhappy to see it. Opening hand maybe since it doesn't tap for mana, but count it in your spell slot and your better off.

Totally annoying along side Ghostly Prison to shut down both Tall and Wide strategies.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Monday, July 19th, 2021; Consecrated Sphinx|sld



So this goes back to being the gold standard right? Without Hullbreacher and all...

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

So I had another round of playing this card a lot last year and it's still just as ridiculous as I remember and should probably be banned. It contributes literally nothing to good games.

Modes
-"would you guys like to remove this? ok no, I win."
-"oh, I have a Clone I guess I will get one too. Now let's play chicken and see who wins, invalidating everything that has gone before."
-"oh, I have a Reliquary Tower now I'll spend half an hour trying to figure out how to win with my 40 cards."

It's interesting that a part of my absolute loathing of Reliquary Tower is connected to watching people draw half their decks with CSphinx and not know what to do. (or other methods, but Csphinx is the one that jumps out at me).

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Dunharrow
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Post by Dunharrow » 2 years ago

I don't think it is as strong as it was 10 years ago, but still probably one of the best 6cmc creatures in the format.
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Lifeless
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Post by Lifeless » 2 years ago

Centralizing and unpleasant at best, I'm fortunate that my group mostly moved on from this guy a long time ago.

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Sinis
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Post by Sinis » 2 years ago

Monday, July 19th, 2021; Consecrated Sphinx
I have had a copy of this since New Phyrexia, but I rarely play it.

I used to think it was just so degenerate, but really, I've gotten equivalent value out of things like Recurring Insight and nobody has even blinked.

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Outcryqq
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Post by Outcryqq » 2 years ago

Sinis wrote:
2 years ago
Monday, July 19th, 2021; Consecrated Sphinx
I have had a copy of this since New Phyrexia, but I rarely play it.

I used to think it was just so degenerate, but really, I've gotten equivalent value out of things like Recurring Insight and nobody has even blinked.
Ah, Recurring Insight, one of my pet cards, and still so cheap! I love the card and always draw a ton from it.

About the card of the day, Consecrated Sphinx, it's really powerful and thankfully I don't see it a lot in my group any more.

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Post by knight_seb » 2 years ago

I play one in my pillowfort/control deck but I didn't draw it often. But when it comes in play, it often meets a removal soon after ... It's a really (too?)good card but I don't see it a lot in my playgroup.

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BeneTleilax
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Post by BeneTleilax » 2 years ago

It's emblematic of the goodstuff era, and their declines match. Because this was an infamous nuisance just as the format was becoming mainstream, it's still hated more than recent draw-engine-bombs like Korvold.

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Igzex
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Post by Igzex » 2 years ago

Personally I always ran Recurring Insight before I would Sphinx. Insight was faster and usually gave me a lot more cards than the sphinx would before succumbing to the table's ire. Though one thing the Sphinx has over Insight is that being a creature makes it easier to cheat into play and also clone for even more stupidity.

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materpillar
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Post by materpillar » 2 years ago

pokken wrote:
2 years ago
So I had another round of playing this card a lot last year and it's still just as ridiculous as I remember and should probably be banned. It contributes literally nothing to good games.

Modes
-"would you guys like to remove this? ok no, I win."
-"oh, I have a Clone I guess I will get one too. Now let's play chicken and see who wins, invalidating everything that has gone before."
-"oh, I have a Reliquary Tower now I'll spend half an hour trying to figure out how to win with my 40 cards."

It's interesting that a part of my absolute loathing of Reliquary Tower is connected to watching people draw half their decks with CSphinx and not know what to do. (or other methods, but Csphinx is the one that jumps out at me).
Last time I saw this resolve it was during a players first extra turn after their turn 5 Expropriate. The next turn they cast Psychosis Crawler. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Anyway, I don't have that much negative bias against CSphinx. It's a game winning bomb at 6 mana, but it isn't in the command zone so I don't have to constantly see it. It also isn't synergistic enough that people tutor for it religiously (unlike Craterhoof Behemoth). I've seen it resolve a bunch in lower power games. It drew some cards and died. Game moseyed on and continued to be interesting. That's more than I can say for some cards. I don't mind it popping up every now and again, but I wouldn't love to see a ton of it.

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Consecrated Sphinx is still a strong card, but yeah, I see it around a lot less. It's very capable of dominating a game if left unchecked, but it feels like people are more likely to have removal, at which point it just turns into a fancy Mulldrifter. If you have ways to force your opponents to draw cards, it goes up in value - I last saw it alongside Teferi's Puzzle Box in a The Locust God deck.

It also has the classic Phyrexian attribute of making people feel awkward - if you try to draw cards to find an answer to it, you just give its controller more triggers. And yet, it was one of the few Phyrexian cards to not be errata'd to have the Phyrexian creature type, presumably due to the Children's Day version.

I'd probably be running it in a deck or two if I owned a copy, but I don't think it's quite worth its price tag either.

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PrimevalCommander
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Post by PrimevalCommander » 2 years ago

Still a super busted creature at 6mv. I still play it in one deck because it is a really good draw-creature with solid toughness. I agree that it's effect can likely be achieved by a large sorcery or instant draw spell, but I play BOTH of those effects, and use this as a draw spell in the creature slot. If I do a 1:1 swap with a sorcery, then I'm down a creature, or I have to do some other moving around to replace one of my existing non-creature spells with the "Sphinx Replacement" then move Sphinx to a different creature. Effectively the same, but it just doesn't feel like an equal trade. Or just be down 1 creature slot, but I usually watch my creature balance quite closely.

It does feel bad seeing an opponent play this without removal in hand. All you can do is watch their hand fill as the turns cycle around. It typically creates an arch enemy situation, so it is not an auto win by any means.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 2 years ago

Strong but fair, at least compared to Alms Collector and friends. Cards like Augury Adept and Necropotence and Commune with Lava laugh at this, while Sylvan Library and Brainstorm cry themselves to sleep.
Thanks to Feyd_Ruin for the avatar!

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