[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Xander's Pact

[Mookie]

Free counterspells are good. If you can make Pact of Negation free, it's awesome. If you actually have to pay the mana, it looks significantly worse. As a result, I would say Pact is at its best when it is protecting a combo that will just end the game. If you're stopping an opponent from winning, it's obviously still worth it... but the tempo loss when you have to pay on your own turn is going to hurt a lot.

That said, as a combo player, I'll note that I often wait for the blue players at the table to tap out before attempting to combo.... and if they're running free countermagic, that's significantly more difficult to play around.

....unfortunately, pretty much all of the good free countermagic options are outside my budget limit these days. I guess Daze and Foil are relatively budget, but they're still pretty niche. I don't see myself ever running Disrupting Shoal or Thwart.

[Sinis]

Friday, February 26th, 2021; Pact of Negation

It has declined in playability as more free counterspells have been printed, but I still really like this one. It feels really fair, unless you're making a play where you never get another upkeep.

Fun story time, though. We were nearing the end of the game and I Pacted someone's game ender (I think it was a Craterhoof). The same opponent destroyed the Sol Ring I was depending on to pay for it, and then killed the other players with what he had on board. On my turn, I had a Trickbind for the trigger, and a board wipe for his board. I went on to win that one.

[onering]

It's still really good. Obviously protecting your combo or stopping a win is great, as paying 5 later is better than losing now, but don't sleep on using it to catch something important that won't immediately end the game. Being able to progress your own board, or take stabilizing actions like firing off an Austere command, when doing so won't leave enough Mana open for a counter is important. I look at it not as a tempo loss, but a tempo gain. You trade being able to take proactive or stabilizing actions next turn (or later, if your waiting for enough Mana to be left over for a counter) for doing so this turn. It lets you play more aggressively. Since it's multiplayer, you really want to save your counter magic for key plays anyway, so the pact in your hand as a failsafe giving you the confidence to play out threats on your turn may actually up your tempo for multiple turns, as you may not actually need to counter anything. It's also very useful as a means to bait out an opponents key play to be countered, especially if your the only blue player, by tapping out.

It is much worse in cEDH and fast metas, because it's useless until you can actually pay the Mana.

[pokken]

It is much worse in cEDH and fast metas, because it's useless until you can actually pay the Mana.

CEDH is ramp heavy and full of fast combo, so pact sees a ton of play (though mostly to defend combos). Most decks are looking to have 5 mana on turn 3 at the latest.

On an interesting note it's pretty considered a bit taboo to sacrificial pact in every CEDH meta I have played in -- that is to pact when you know you can't pay to hose another player.

Pact is really at its strongest defending your combo in slower high powered metas where 1) the top end of ramp is higher, e.g. people end the game making way more mana than in CEDH, and 2) combos are still pretty present. But it's still a CEDH staple.

[PrimevalCommander]

I like Pact of Negation, though I don't play it much in EDH. Played it in Extended (pre Modern format) to protect a Chain of Plasma and Swans of Bryn Argoll combo.

I would play this in a storm deck or other heavy control blue deck. Right now it is on the maybe board for no creature Talrand, Sky Summoner which plays Force of Will and Force of Negation to protect Talrand and other important pieces. I'm looking for a Fierce Guardianship for that deck as well since no-creature leaves me vulnerable to attacks if Talrand isn't making creatures.

[hyalopterouslemur]

@Mookie They're literally about a buck a pop, though Thwart is also good in what I call Blue Stompy. And Winter Orb is expensive.

IT WAS ME BARRY!

Anyway, yes, it has its value, it's definitely the best of the cycle, though you don't want to play it early like other free counters. This is just for when you tap out, but not for Stax decks like variants on classic Stompy. Always keep your mana base in account for free counters.

[Toshi]

What will make this one stand out "forever" is, that it is literally the free Counterspell.
No major timing and target restrictions (Force of Negation), board requirements (Fierce Guardianship), ditching other cards or loss of life (Force of Will).
As a result it is at its best when you don't plan on having another upkeep, because you're going to win anyways. Alternatively i use it to avoid losing the game in my Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck.
Countering anything other than game-deciding plays with it feels terrible.

Since it is so strong and best in high powered pods, i'd never run it in my Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. Unwind, Rewind and the likes would be much more suitable for mid-powered pods and not feel like sharking on "fair" decks.

As far as free counterspells go, my ranking would be:

1. Force of Will
2. Fierce Guardianship
3. Pact of Negation
4. Force of Negation
5. Mental Misstep
6. Foil
7. Daze
8. Thwart
9. Disrupting Shoal

[umtiger]

A lot of friends, budget allowing, seem to jam this in every blue deck. I have never been a fan of this card in commander. It is great in 60 card, when you are just protecting a combo and probably won't have to pay the upkeep because this is the last turn of the game anyway.

I'd rather run any number of other counterspells and just try to hold mana open rather than Time Walk myself for the good of the rest of the table. Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship are my go to free counterspells if I need them.

Maybe, if I was playing an all in combo deck and just needed as many free counterspells as protection for the turn I go off I'd consider it. Otherwise I'd rather have Counterspell or Negate or whatever.

I think this is still a good card for aggressive atttacking decks not just combo decks.

You're not totally "time walking" yourself because you'll still get another attack step which is what's important when you're avoiding a board sweeper.

[3drinks]

Saturday, February 27th, 2021; Looter Scooter

Please, do not confuse this with Pooter Scooter. That's a whole other kind of "looting"......

[umtiger]

Copter fits so well into mono red Grenzo. One domino fell and another fell, now I have all around all stars like Raging River.

Unfortunately those type of cards don't fit into as many decks as the copter.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Strong in basically any list with creatures. Alongside skullclamp, its part of my mana dork support package.

[3drinks]

It's really, really difficult to find ways to criticize scooter as a card. It's just so efficient at what it does.

[pokken]

I love Smuggler's Copter so much. It's basically everything I want in a card. cheap, efficient card quality improvement that's wrath resistant and benefits from dorky creatures.

Oh and a discard outlet

[3drinks]

Sunday, February 28th, 2021; Faithless Looting

[pokken]

So some time ago, I think here, I had a discussion with someone about the quality and utility of red looting effects. Generally speaking I think my opinion was still correct, which is that they are inferior to most other approaches to card quality unless you have some kinda strong synergy with discarding stuff.

That said, I have played Faithless Looting as red Brainstorm in a couple decks, most notably mono red, and I find that it doesn't take much for it to be a great card. Just being able to see 4 cards for 4 mana in red is pretty nice.

I'm really enjoying the cards Thrill of Possibility and Cathartic Reunion in my Harnfel, Horn of Bounty deck so far and I had really good results with them in Mono Red Golos.

I do think it's best that you have some synergies but I would play Thrill and Faithless in most mono-red decks. The velocity is really helpful and there're not a lot of other ways to see that many cards in red.

[umtiger]

I don't think you need any synergies beyond just "helps you win the game" to play cards like Faithless Looting. These are the types of cards to glue good decks together.

They are unspectacular but often the real reason why you're in or winning a game.

[pokken]

I don't think you need any synergies beyond just "helps you win the game" to play cards like Faithless Looting. These are the types of cards to glue good decks together.

Faithless kinda self-synergizes, but I still would prefer to have some way to abuse the graveyard most of the time. Like I wouldn't play it just to play it especially in colors that have other stuff going on, it's fundamentally card disadvantage. Most colors have better options.

I just don't think it needs quite as much synergy, like your deck doesn't need to be built around it - but having a few ways to take advantage of the stuff you put there is ideal.

I dunno, Faithless Looting is the closest looting effect to being goodstuff , for sure. It's the only one I would probably play without any synergy, but it'd really depend on the other card options.

Like...I'd never play FL if it competes with Night's Whisper in a deck that doesn't care about putting stuff in the graveyard?

[capitacommunist]

In mono red I'd play it in any list I think, even without any graveyard synergies. In other color combinations it has more competition, but at the same time there are a lot more graveyard interactions that it can support. So in decks with those interactions it's probably one of the best cards in your deck.
On a side note, I really hope this will be in time spiral remastered so that I can get an old border copy.

[onering]

It is much worse in cEDH and fast metas, because it's useless until you can actually pay the Mana.

CEDH is ramp heavy and full of fast combo, so pact sees a ton of play (though mostly to defend combos). Most decks are looking to have 5 mana on turn 3 at the latest.

On an interesting note it's pretty considered a bit taboo to sacrificial pact in every CEDH meta I have played in -- that is to pact when you know you can't pay to hose another player.

Pact is really at its strongest defending your combo in slower high powered metas where 1) the top end of ramp is higher, e.g. people end the game making way more mana than in CEDH, and 2) combos are still pretty present. But it's still a CEDH staple.

Then I revise my analysis to be that it is good everywhere.

[Mookie]

Faithless Looting does a lot of things. I wouldn't run it in a vacuum, but it's very easy to take it from 'okay' to 'broken'. By itself, it's a bit of card filtering at the cost of card disadvantage, which I don't think is worth it - no one runs Mystic Speculation, after all. You could argue that it is card advantage if you're drawing two good cards and discarding two useless cards, but... you really shouldn't be running dead cards in the first place.

However, once you start thinking about synergy, Faithless Looting starts to look a lot better. It fills the graveyard for delve cards and reanimation, can itself be flashback'd for value, and lets you discard madness cards. It's also a cheap sorcery for spellslinging synergies that you can cast twice. I'll also note that it is card neutral when flashback'd. Additionally, unlike almost all other red card filtering effects, Faithless Looting draws before the discard, which means it does a way better job of card filtering. It's also good if you want to dig yourself to something specific, such as a combo piece.

Anyway, the only deck I currently have it in is Mizzix. It's a cheap way to get the first experience counter, and that deck has plenty of graveyard and spellslinging synergies. It's possible that another one-mana cantrip would be better, but I'm already running most of the good ones.

[folding_music]

I like running four copies of this card & I think I own at least twenty eight copies of it all buried in old chaos decks, but I don't like running one copy of this card at all - it's actually one of the top cards in the format that makes me wonder why, um, ninety-nine card highlander is the most prevalent way of playing the game, lol. just looking at Faithless Looting makes the rusted "let's optimize this" gears in my head turn and that always ends up making me switch out a fun commander for a savage one, dig out the Scroll Rack and forget what I originally planned (to durdle with a handful of cards I've never cast before!)

I keep picking bad red-based commanders to play it with, maybe? It was theoretically a nonbo in Arjun, the Shifting Flame since the first casting reduces the handsize, but the flashback casting can save you after you've twirled into a landless hand, so i wonder if I was just misassessing it in commander???

I like that it lets you put various Squees and Flame Jab etc into the graveyard but who cares about that in this format? yr just looting for staples like everyone else

(ps. I run Mystic Speculation lol #playeverycard)

[hyalopterouslemur]

This is meh. As a looting card, it has the same value with graveyard shenanigans and madness, And it can be used with Alhammarret's Archive for a profit.

Looting in a vacuum actually becomes better late-game, when I don't need all those lands I draw. So it does give red a bit of gas.

I actually like repeatable looting and compulsory looting (There's a reason Nekusar, the Mindrazer is considered a dick move in some leagues.) more. Screw people over with Teferi's Puzzle Box.

[materpillar]

I run this in my 5c Dredge deck and it does serious work there (surprise surprise). It's really really easy to take this from card filtering to card advantage. Digging 4 cards deep over two payments is extremely solid. It's probably not worth it compared to most U spells but I can see it having a home in most mono-red or non-izzet 2 color decks.

[Serenade]

You know the rush you get from killing someone with this?



Me neither, but my Brallin deck was not that good. Maybe I rebuild it now that Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty exists.

[MeowZeDung]

Faithless Looting helps you hit lands early, and then dig for gas later. That's with 0 synergy. Perfectly ok bread and butter card, especially if you aren't in blue or black and can't run stuff like Ponder or Night's Whisper for early draw.

Put it in a strong pocket of synergy and it becomes a massive role player. My fave (totally biased) is FL + Kykar, Wind's Fury + Underworld Breach. I also love it in Shabraz, the Skyshark and Brallin, Skyshark Rider, Rielle, the Everwise, and Squee, Goblin Nabob.