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

[Hawk]

This is actually my favorite disenchant in white - while Disenchant itself is a little cheaper, Aura of Silence has some synergy and stax-y ness to it, and Heliod's Intervention and Return to Dust offer possible 2-for-1s, I love that this exiles (a critucal benefit versus many artifact-centric decks like Daretti or Sharuum) and that it can always be pitched for a card.

That being said, it still isn't an auto-include. I do currently play some copies in mono-white and Azorius decks, but for some decks there's no need for this when Generous Gift and Oblation exist at the same CMC and offer much better flexibility (nevermind sorcery-speed effects like Oblivion Ring and Council's Judgment). And once you add other colors, you start getting the option to run much more efficient spells like Nature's Claim or Return to Nature, or more flexible spells like Mortify, Anguished Unmaking, or Wear // Tear.

[Serenade]

Now this is cycling! Honestly, this seems like the perfectly-balanced cycling card.

I think it's an autoinclude in Boros decks since they probably run/will run Sunforger and/or Reconstruct History.

Otherwise it might be a meta call. I'd never rip anyone for including it. The exile is great, and sometimes Theros gods are everywhere! But I might use Heliod's Intervention for this spot instead.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, April 14th, 2021; Forsake the Worldly

I like it, but rarely run it. I usually favour the sometimes-dead but more value oriented cards others have mentioned. In my group, it's pretty rare for there to be no enchantments or artifacts that need destruction.

[folding_music]

it's a solid removal spell but you have to think about why yr holding it, so it has brain tax as well as mana tax and mostly I am gonna put Fragmentize there instead or something. I have used Forsake the Worldly cos I've used just about every Amonkhet card there is, and I love the set, but the deck that ran it involved flickering Rasputin Dreamweaver through Astral Drift so the cycling cost was the most pertinent thing on the card <3

I love the title, though. good in theme deck circles

[hyalopterouslemur]

This is high on my list, but I like Nature's Claim more. I like Abolish more. Aura of Silence and Aura Shards are Staxy. I've even been known to squeeze some card advantage out of Caustic Caterpillar, Qasali Pridemage, Reclamation Sage or even Capashen Unicorn with a ton of triggers and our old friend Sun Titan[/card, who also loves [card=Dispeller's Capsule]capsules and seals]. On the flip side, Slice in Twain.

And graveyard shenanigans have Devout Witness.

[Mookie]

Hmmmm.... I've never really been a fan of Forsake the Worldly. It can be good if you have discard or cycling synergies, but I'm not convinced that its ability to cycle makes it a better pick than a different option. Aura of Silence and Heliod's Intervention are probably my default picks for Disenchant effects in mono-white. If you open up black, green, or red, you have even stronger options like Anguished Unmaking, Aura Shards, and Wear // Tear. Not many better options if you add blue though.

I suppose the main reason that I've avoided Forsake the Worldly, other than the fact that I don't have a mono-white deck, is that I prefer more synergistic options. I'm running Leonin Relic-Warder in Teysa, Dispeller's Capsule in Sharuum, and Act of Authority in Brago. Those decks have synergies with creatures, artifacts, and ETB effects, respectively. On the other hand, my white decks don't have any discard or cycling synergies.

I suppose that Strixhaven brings new instant / sorcery synergies to all colors, so Forsake the Worldly looks a bit better in that context. Otherwise, Astral Slide decks probably want it.

[capitacommunist]

I think this fits very closely the definition of a 101th card. Quite playable, will never be actively bad with cycling, but never makes it into the main deck (except in a cycling archetype).

[JWK]

I like exile removal and am usually willing to pay a little more for it, but I also like my individual cards to have a little more impact, and thus tend to prefer options like Crush Contraband, but I have given this some thought in the past and imagine I probably will run it at some point in one deck or another.

[MeowZeDung]

This card looks good, but I always found it surprisingly meh. I usually had better options than cycling it, and it was rare that I couldn't Sunforger up something more impactful. It's definitely a low ceiling card that does what you need it to in a tight spot (and instant speed is great), but there's enough good competition here that it's not really an auto include except maybe in a cycling deck. True Love's Kiss, Crush Contraband, Wear // Tear, Generous Gift, Cleansing Nova, Austere Command, and Heliod's Intervention are all comparable or more efficient/valuable enchantment and artifact removal IMO.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It'a competing with too much premium removal at that mana cost. I don't think cycling away removal is really all that great anyhow.

[PrimevalCommander]

I can count on one hand the number of times I cycled Akroma's Vengeance. But that might be the fact that I forget it even has cycling 90% of the time. But I play removal to have when I need it, so cycling it away if I don't need it right away doesn't mean my opponent isn't sitting on something spicy that I'll need that removal for later.

So as mentioned above, cycling away removal is something I don't really do because I want to sand bag it anyway.

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 15th, 2021; Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

[Ruiner]

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser is super fun as a commander in my experience. You get to swing pretty early and then throw your opponents into a bit of disarray.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Seems really cool on paper, but I've never seen anyone play it irl. It seems like a lesser version of edric as to how you want the deck to curve out, but that saboteur trigger is pretty solid.

[JWK]

I used to run this in some decks, but found it didn't work out as well as I'd wished in those decks. I think the problem was the decks more than the card, though. Goad ranks very high in my list of favorite dynamics, and I am fairly certain I will keep experimenting until I find the right home for this one.

[illakunsaa]

I've been playing him in kykar artifact stax list. Grenzo really likes decks that have lot of mana and go wide. Kykar does both. Kykar also really doesn't care what spells you cast so the randomness of opponent's decks is mitigated. I tried grenzo when he came out in goblin tribal but I almost always wanted just cast my own tribal synergy spells rather what grenzo exiled.

[Mookie]

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser is like a red Edric, Spymaster of Trest - go wide with evasive critters, draw piles of cards. That said, the fact that the drawn cards come from your opponents' decks (and you only get impulsive draw) means that he ends up playing pretty differently. Your opponents are unlikely to have a bunch of cheap, evasive creatures to enable Grenzo, so he doesn't spiral out of control like Edric. Red also doesn't have access to piles of countermagic, so protecting Grenzo is a bit more difficult.

...that said, while Grenzo definitely seems like a lot of fun, but I haven't actually seen him in action that often. Seems like he would be solid in the 99 of Krenko, Mob Boss or another goblins / aggro deck, but a bit higher variance in the command zone. Goad is a nice perk though, and certainly helps with the aggro gameplan by making your opponents attack each other.

[toctheyounger]

He's quite strong, from the games I've played against him. He suits a weenie tempo build that operates similar to Etali, Primal Storm, but a little earlier and a lot more aggressively. Ultimately this means if you can survive the early game he brings the deck is prone to running out of steam, but it's not an easy storm to weather.

I'd say it's a good, balanced blend of Edric, Spymaster of Trest without all the extra turns and Etali, Primal Storm but with less dependence on extra combats. It seems a lot of fun to pilot, and in true conspiracy fashion games seem like they would generally be quite varied depending on what's available to goad or play from topdecks. I really like the design, and in my opinion this sort of design is what has made Conspiracy and the sequel some of the best product WotC has printed in a long time for our format.

[Lifeless]

Goad is my favorite mechanic in recent memory and I enjoyed a Grenzo build at one time. He wasn't finishing out the game by himself but there are goblin related combos that can do the job just as well. Ultimately I replaced him with Marisi, Breaker of the Coil because he ultimately gets the job done better, adds the flexibility of G and W to the deck, and allowed me to consolidate my Goad and Sunforger decks into a single package.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Strong, but situational. Goad isn't that useful unless you give him some evasion, but if you do...

The other ability is pure card advantage, though it is unreliable.

As with all saboteurs, Fireshrieker is a must.

[pokken]

I love this guy. Goad is a really deceptively powerful effect when you can goad everyone. Kinda wish you could use the second part to hit land drops though.

[umtiger]

Strong, but situational. Goad isn't that useful unless you give him some evasion, but if you do...

The other ability is pure card advantage, though it is unreliable.

As with all saboteurs, Fireshrieker is a must.

Berserkers' Onslaught is a must!

I love this guy. Goad is a really deceptively powerful effect when you can goad everyone. Kinda wish you could use the second part to hit land drops though.

You can get the lands too if you can team it up with oblivion sower.

[materpillar]

I had an extremely memorable game against this guy once. I was playing Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait and he was playing a pile of non-sense 1/1s. He had Krenko, Mob Boss. I believe he hit Lightning Greaves + Repudiate // Replicate + Eternal Witness off me. Something of that nature, but the result was 3 krenko activations in 1 turn ending him with 100+ goblins. He had Skirk Prospector, so that yielded a ton of mana. He also played a drawspell of mine that got him to Skullclamp. So he drew his whole deck and killed us all with some card.

I usually get somewhat salty when someone storm/draws their entire deck in one turn to kill the table but in this case I thought it was just hilarious.

[3drinks]

Friday, April 14th, 2021; Mise|pal04

Seeing the WotC version of doggos playing poker meant I couldn't hit the respin on this card.

[folding_music]

broken with Psychic Network and your reflection in a window <3