[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Archfiend of Depravity

[Dunharrow]

in response to the trigger cast Mystic Reflection ?

[onering]

Has anyone ever played Hunt the Wumpus?

[3drinks]

in response to the trigger cast Mystic Reflection ?

Ha! That's good, like a much more playable Gather Specimens. Uhh, if gather was incredibly niche and just comboed with one card.

Has anyone ever played Hunt the Wumpus?

Hilarious top deck response to Sire of Insanity question mark

[wildfire393]

It's a group hug card, which is something I actively dislike, but it's there. And even when it comes to that, Tempting Wurm does this effect a lot better.

The best use I can think of for Wumpus is to get people to overextend into a wrath effect, but even that seems pretty limited because you're also giving up a card to make that happen. Maybe play this, then Fractured Identity it to force everyone else to get one, so that you get to dump in three creatures? Everyone else does though, too, and if you're spending 9 mana making that happen you could just like, idk, cast Myojin of Life's Web and dump in all your creatures.

Overall, I'm not likely to ever play this nor would I be happy seeing it played across the table.

Catching up, I missed Avenging Druid, which is a card I really like. It might not be Wood Elves, but it does put the land into play untapped, so if you can swing clearly the turn after you play it, you get ramp that you can use that turn and aren't behind Wood Elves or its ilk. Add in the graveyard-stocking, and it's a neat little package. I'd say you probably want two of {extra combat steps, ways to grant double strike, lots of recursion} for it to be really great, but I've definitely played it in the past and will likely again in the future.

[onering]

The classic 2011 play was to play this into Blatant Thievery or Insurrection. Now that was commander, spending 12 mana and 2 cards to trick your opponents into letting you beat them over the head with their own Eldrazi and Darksteels.

[Hawk]

Picture it: 1999. A bunch of young middle school dorks in middle-of-nowhere, Wyoming are just learning Magic: The Gathering. One of them buys a pack of the newest set, and is greeted by a foil (?!?!? we'd never seen one before) Hunted Wumpus. Immediately assuming this was an ultra-super-secret rare, our entire playgroup somehow misread it to say "each player" and not "each other player", and this lone card became the terror of the playgroup as even with everyone getting a creature, the Wumpus player got their Wumpus AND a Yavimaya Wurm or Weatherseed Treefolk or whatever - Show and Tell on a 6/6 stick.

Eventually we reread it (I think this was weeks though; I blame the blinding foiling but make of what that says about education and attention span in rural America what you will) and realized it wasn't nearly as good, but it remained a favorite pet card of all of us.

In truth this card is obviously bad, and is even worse in EDH where it's a multiplayer format and odds are lots of players are going to have bigger fish to slam down. I have tried it in a brawly Gahiji, Honored One group hug deck for pure nostalgia, and it underwhelmed every time even compared to Iwamori of the Open Fist - turns out a 6/6 just doesn't hack it in EDH these days, if it ever did. I think even at G this would be pretty mediocre and niche.

Basically: if you want undercosted beef, the last several years since EDH exploded have been extremely kind to green players with Elder Gargaroth, God-Eternal Rhonas, Thragtusk, Shifting Ceratops, Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth, Ant Queen, Surrak, the Hunt Caller, Territorial Allosaurus, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, and Gigantosaurus covering a wide variety of budgets and archetypes before we even look at the Theros Gods or higher CMCs. None of these are explicitly a 6/6 for 4 mana value - but none of them have horrific, potentially game-losing drawbacks either.

And if you want group-hug friendly beef, I'd be looking to either the much more controllable Hunted Troll (a frequent MVP of that aforementioned Gahiji deck), or the much more explosively fun Tempting Wurm. Iwamori of the Open Fist is also a much less terrible drawback much of the time.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I remember InQuest having this as one of the best cards in Masques. While it's not bad per se, it's rarely good, but it is caught between two sets with extremely popular green fatties (Thorn Elemental|Urza's Destiny and Blastoderm|Nemesis)

InQuest also thought Security Detail was underrated, so take that as you will. It's not the worst card in Masques but, yeah.

On the plus side, you can't play Palinchron and friends and exploit them in response to the Wumpus. Nor can you kick things that way. But a Blinding Angel can still negate the entire reason for playing the Wumpus.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, January 25th, 2022; Easy Prey

I like removal like this. Even when it's off, it's not off. Cards like Forsake the Worldly, Radiant's Judgment, Expunge, it goes a long ways I think.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I like the art a lot. Kelsien thinks he's soooo tough, picking on frog lizards and such. Tough maybe, observant clearly not.

[Hawk]

There's nearly zero reason to run this. I also am a huge fan of cycling - so long as the cycling is on a card I feel like I'm going to cast at least 50% of the time. Wilt and Forsake the Worldly are classic examples and near-staples, since sometimes the match doesn't require artifact/enchantment destruction and sometimes it really, really does. Sometimes cycling is on a card I'd run without cycling and it's just fringe benefit - like on Migration Path or Reconnaissance Mission - and that's great too. And of course there's a whole legion of cards normally run to be cycled (Nimble Obstructionist, Ash Barrens, Street Wraith, Decree of Justice and its cycle-mates).

Where it gets messy is if I almost never want to cast the card and I'd be cycling it in 90% of cases (and only cycling for a single card). I've stopped slamming cycling lands like Forgotten Cave unless my deck has a strong cycling/discard theme or a Loam engine, for instance. In black this misses a ton, and Black is the king of removal with a dozen spells I'd play before this. As a card draw effect, it is just replacing itself whereas black has a few actual draw spells at 2 mana value or the aforementioned Wrath as a "free" cycle. Expunge is a bit better in that it misses less relevant targets but I still don't know if I'd play it without some cycling/discard synergy; if my deck had that Expunge and even Death Pulse and Ichor Slick seem more useful. At least this is almost always better than Swat? That's a low bar to clear though.

[Dunharrow]

Removal is so rarely dead that even if this up to CMC 4 I doubt I would play it.

[onering]

And its an uncommon! This wouldn't even have been that good in limited. I can't think of a valid reason to run this card. Maybe you're a cycling deck and your meta is super low curve? Mono black cycling? I feel like this is about right for Ikoria though, that set was poorly conceived and poorly designed in every aspect. Cards were mostly either crap or busted mistakes, companion was a historic mistake, ability counters were odd and gimmicky and shouldn't come back, ability matters was sparsely and weakly implemented, cycling was oddly implemented and second fiddle to the monsters, mutate was kinda cool though. Tribal was poorly implemented as only human stood out. The factions were ill defined and poorly developed. The art style was too busy, to the point where everything sort of looked the same. Giant monsters are cool, but when every other card features a giant monster and every other creature is one they become samey and boring, think the Syndrome quote "When everyone is super, nobody is." Not the lowest power set this decade, but one of the worst overall.

[DirkGently]

I could imagine running this in a color-restricted deck abusing Fluctuator. That's about it.

I never like cycling on answers as much as I think I will, because it's hard to be sure if you might need it. You could cycle it, only to need it the next turn and wish you hadn't. Unless you're desperate for something else, it's hard to justify using the cycling a lot of the time. Less of an issue in 1v1 since there are so many fewer threats there, so the odds of immediate regret are a lot lower.

The other issue is that, as a general rule, I want my answer to kill the big thing, not the small thing. There are obviously 2mv creatures worth killing, but the majority are definitely 3+mv.

[Mookie]

Cycling is a fantastic mechanic in Limited, but usually an underwhelming one in Constructed, assuming no synergies (ex: Astral Slide or reanimating a big cycled creature). In Limited, running a strong-but-narrow card with cycling (such as Easy Prey or Wilt) is often going to be better than running filler. The cycling card will be great in the games where you have a target, and you can cycle it away when it is dead. However, in Constructed formats, the card quality is high enough that you never need to run filler.... and you'll also be familiar enough with the meta to know whether a card is worth including or not. As a result, the flexibility offered by cycling cards goes down in value.

For Easy Prey in particular... yeah, not a fan. Black has access to a ton of flexible two-mana removal spells, and it is extremely rare for there to be nothing worth killing, particularly in multiplayer. If I were concerned about there being situations where I need to dig for something in particular, I would prefer to run a dedicated draw spell instead - to draw a single card isn't a very efficient rate.

[hyalopterouslemur]

A lot of it depends on what you play. This can kill a ton of utility creatures (mana dorks, spellshapers, Mother of Runes if she's already tapped/has summoning sickness, Scavenging Ooze), and is playable for that reason (plus cycling) alone.

[DirkGently]

A lot of it depends on what you play. This can kill a ton of utility creatures (mana dorks, spellshapers, Mother of Runes if she's already tapped/has summoning sickness, Scavenging Ooze), and is playable for that reason (plus cycling) alone.

But I would almost never use a full card worth of removal on those creatures. If mommy is already tapped, I'd kill whatever it was protecting, not her. Scooze is the only one I'd maybe kill (and only if I really needed graveyard value).

The other problem is that there are so many much more flexible removal spells at the same cost. How is anyone going to justify playing this over Go for the Throat, Infernal Grasp, even Doom Blade?

[TheGildedGoose]

Bolting the dork is usually a bad play in multiplayer.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 26th, 2022; The Lair Lands

These are great, I'd like to see the wedge versions though. Piru, the Volatile's Treasure Horde for example would be interesting to me. 3c lands that unconditionally enter untapped are great. These especially in xw for natural synergies.

[wildfire393]

I'm a fan of the White Catch-up Ramp with lands that set you back on land count without completely stunting your mana development - stuff like Boros Garrison, Lotus Field, Lotus Vale, Scorched Ruins. (I had a particularly spectacular opener on last week's stream where I went turn two Flagstones of Trokair into turn three Lotus Vale, then turn four played a fetch and Surveyor's Scope, waited until everyone played their fourth land, cracked the fetch and responded with the Scope to go up 3 more lands. I untapped on turn 5 with 8 mana available). Lairs... are not that. Having to bounce a land to play a land that only produces one mana is a fairly significant cost, and at that point you're using the Catch-up Ramp just to try to break even rather than actually getting ahead.

I think the overall quality of mana fixing has gotten good enough that I'd basically never consider these lands.

[Wallycaine]

These are quite awful. Much worse than Come into Play Tapped lands, in my opinion, and those are reasonably reviled. It trades off losing tempo the turn you play it for setting you behind for the rest of the game (or at least until you'll naturally miss a land drop), which is... not a good trade.

[Melua]

This is a land cycle that could fit in a commander precon.

[Hawk]

I tend not to play these since they're in an awkward spot. They are stone-cold unplayable on turn 1, unlike the tapped trilands (Seaside Citadel. They're also pretty awkward across the curve; while they enter the battlefield untapped unlike the Karoos, they set you a land behind and only make one mana (also unlike the bouncelands and Karoos like Azorius Chancery . They won't throw off your curve that turn since you can return a tapped land floating mana, but will mess up your curve going forward. The trade-off is that you get great fixing in a 3-color deck, but we've got a variety of cheap options nowadays thanks to Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, and Exotic Orchard being printed into the ground before we even look at more exotic and expensive options like Mana Confluence and Reflecting Pool or archetype-specific options like Voldaren Estate and Spire of Industry - it's easy to get a 3+ color land that either doesn't EtB tapped or has significant upside on a budget.

There are a few places these do get a bump in playability, however:

- If you are playing a 3+ color shard deck with a fairly aggressive curve, the fixing and ability to EtB untapped might just overcome stone raining yourself. Most examples here are Wedge not shard commanders but I could envision a fairly Bogle-y Tuvasa the Sunlit that might prefer this over Seaside Citadel

- If your deck has some sort of landfall synergy, these shoot up in value by helping you have a landrop every turn. Still not great, but looking at someone like Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor I'd say this is underplayed there and has to be better than a guildgate even if it isn't necessarily better than Evolving Wilds nevermind more expensive fetches.

[illakunsaa]

There is synergy with spell/lands from zendikar (which I think are all quite good even in a more higher power decks) and kamigawa has those legendary channel lands. You can also play these along side various cycling lands or temples.

[folding_music]

I do love bounce lands but the lairs don't concentrate yr mana so they're more of an Undiscovered Paradise-style setback. Never quite wanted to play these, even in Invasion-era standard people were playing 0-1 of these and 4 Cities of Brass, giggle. I do like the way they can bounce non-basics which give you incremental advantages like temples, Halimar Depths etc but you're still putting yourself behind the curve; check Guildless Commons for that sort of thing

[PrimevalCommander]

I played these back in 2009 commander, but stopped quickly. Maybe a niche deck that regularly gets multiple land drops in these colors, then it helps hit multiple land drops. But these are just really bad early game, which makes me shy away. Modern lands-matter cards with spell/lands do make these potentially playable, but I think there are better ways to re-buy your spell lands than this cycle.