MTGNexus

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Wow, I haven't seen a card this bad in a long time, and I've justified some pretty narrowly useful cards over the years.

Tbh, this could be really useful in my Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle list. It reanimates something else, qualifies to be reanimated and works as a discard outlet - which is pretty rare in mono-white.

I was able to make Lesser Masticore work in that deck, so there's plenty of room for cr*p in there.

Can't honestly say I can see a decent use for this card. It's not every day you need an instant speed discard outlet though, so there's bound to be somewhere it fits, even if it fits like a soggy gumboot instead of a designer loafer.

(Turns out you can't access the random card fetch on Gatherer while on mobile. Good to know -_- )

July 8th, 2019 Scornful AEther-Lich



Is it just me, or are we batting a thousand on these random cards this go around? I can't find any good or even decent use for a four cmc 2/4 with a 2 cost activated ability that puts it into three colours. Even if it were legendary, it would just be a far worse Sydri.

It's wild to me that they were designing cards like this like a year or so before deciding Fear was a bad mechanic. Even just looking at this card, this set had colored artifact creatures and non-black creatures with black mana costs in the text box. This card is little to speak of as far as usefullness and I think you'd have to play some kind "cards that reference Tezzeret" theme deck to justify this in EDH, but I'm pretty sure this card is like a 47 on the storm scale.

tstorm823 wrote: ↑

4 years ago

It's wild to me that they were designing cards like this like a year or so before deciding Fear was a bad mechanic. Even just looking at this card, this set had colored artifact creatures and non-black creatures with black mana costs in the text box. This card is little to speak of as far as usefullness and I think you'd have to play some kind "cards that reference Tezzeret" theme deck to justify this in EDH, but I'm pretty sure this card is like a 47 on the storm scale.

In Alara, they needed to sell Etherium and what it was, what Esper was, so, from a flavour point I get the card itself to the plane. It was a weird set (coloured artifacts are a mixed bag and this was the first time), like, what benefits do you really get by taking the card type any deck can use, and putting it in a colour restricted bubble? What if the Mirari was remade today, would it have a U symbol on it? Because that would suck.

Adding colours is a restriction, not a feature, and it almost seems like WotC views it as the opposite.

I like this card a lot in theory, which has always made it disappointing that it's so bad. Vigilance and evasion is a great combo of abilities but the mediocre body/CMC ratio, very specific color identity, and upkeep cost to actually take advantage of the abilities has always kept it out of my decks.

I mean it is a zombie, a wizard and an artifact. I'm sure there's got to be some random synergy because of those things somehow. Oh... I just glanced around there's 20+ zombie wizards. Morophon, the boundless Zombie Wizard tribal?

I can’t see a use for it. It’s cute, but it’s an also-ran. I even have a deck in these colours that could use its tribal tendencies and this doesn’t get a look in. It’s flavorful for Esper, but just not good.

July 9th, 2019; Collector Ouphe

The good thing about "Magus of something useful" being in green is all the ways green has to protect important creatures.

void_nothing wrote: ↑

4 years ago

The good thing about "Magus of something useful" being in green is all the ways green has to protect important creatures.

He's not a Mag....

o i c wut u did thar.....

Btw 3drinks Scryfall has a random card option that works on mobile.

Dragonlover

Artifacts are good/people ramp with mana rocks in this format → Collector Ouphe is a good card in this format.

It helps that green can easily play with few to no artifact activated abilities. I run Null Rod and Stony Silence periodically and they usually over perform, though they occasionally draw more attention than I would like. Being easier to remove might almost be a benefit sometimes, where Ouphe works primarily as an early game roadblock to slow development rather than more of a lock piece.

It's a good card for any hatebear deck, though he's quite vulnerable to removal unlike his artifact/enchantment counterparts. Narrow in the decks it can go in but pretty strong otherwise.

I haven't played it but its low CMC and P/T makes it easy to recurr. I might get a copy and try it in Asmira.

I read the flavor text as "Some people just want to watch the world burn" which would be far more appropriate line for Jaya than Jhoira.

July 10th, 2019; Fireball



The OG. What's not to love? Can kill any number of creatures and players given an arbitrarily large amount of mana. I've sleeved my textless version of this on more than one occasion even.

Whoops. Forgot scryfall's images are way larger than Gatherer's -_-

I try to play a couple of burn cards in any of my red or red'ish edh decks, just in case. Never know when 6 damage will be enough to finish someone off

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Whoops. Forgot scryfall's images are way larger than Gatherer's -_-

Seems good to me; I like my fireballs BIG. (Even if only because they're flying at my face; I'll have a red deck one day).

Bookstooge wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I try to play a couple of burn cards in any of my red or red'ish edh decks, just in case. Never know when 6 damage will be enough to finish someone off

This is very true. There are quite a few games where I've managed to stabilise at 3, 2 or even 1 life through board wipes or mass bounce effects protecting me from creatures, but a single burn spell would have been enough to finish me off. My playgroup still brings up the time I was trying my hardest to stabilise at 4 life with my Roon (now Derevi) deck, only to have one of them Jeskai Charm me at the last moment. (The next week, I borrowed his deck and got to do the same to him with a Lightning Helix|Ravnica: City of Guilds).

Sadly, I think Fireball is grossly outclassed by better cards in this day and age. Comet Storm is pretty much strictly better in every way, even being an instant. While I run a good number of red X spells in my Ashling list, Fireball isn't even in the running for consideration despite the nostalgia factor.

I really have a thing for rX-spells. Certainly not all of them, but Comet Storm, Jaya's Immolating Inferno and even Fall of the Titans are legit finishers, once you reach enough mana or put enough pressure on your opponents already.
Exsanguinate, Torment of Hailfire and Debt to the Deathless are superior if you aren't able to close out the game yet, but Mana Geyser helps at that often enough.

As mentioned, some of the charms are amazing at burning out a few last hp as well. I've seen people get pushed over the edge by Boros Charm or go from (above) starting life to lethal with Rakdos Charm numerous times.

JqlGirl wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Sadly, I think Fireball is grossly outclassed by better cards in this day and age. Comet Storm is pretty much strictly better in every way, even being an instant. While I run a good number of red X spells in my Ashling list, Fireball isn't even in the running for consideration despite the nostalgia factor.

There's certainly a few choices I'd need to justify first, such as Aurelia's Fury or Molten Disaster, yes. Possibly Banefire but I don't think that is such an open-and-shut case in this context. Perhaps I'm just overly nostalgic for Fireball with my forays into white border deck building.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

There's certainly a few choices I'd need to justify first, such as Aurelia's Fury or Molten Disaster, yes. Possibly Banefire but I don't think that is such an open-and-shut case in this context. Perhaps I'm just overly nostalgic for Fireball with my forays into white border deck building.

I think you're on the right track. If you're trying to kill just one thing, Fireball is tied with some things for the most efficient X damage removal spell. But none of those things target multiple targets. And the other X damage spells that target multiple things can't kill an Oracle of Mul Daya for 3 mana. Being XR costed, capable of hitting any target, and able to target multiple things at once, Fireball is tied for both the best of the X spells at killing single targets for the least mana and the best of the X spells for killing the whole table with infinite mana. Banefire can't kill a whole table on its own. Comet Storm is better mid-game if you want to kill multiple things or at instant speed, but I honestly don't think that's really as important a use case as early spot removal and late win condition, and most of the things you want to early spot remove you probably don't want to let the player untap with them anyway.

Depending on the deck, I guess I might think Fireball or Comet Storm is the better of the two. The only red damage spell I put firmly above Fireball is Earthquake.

A classic, but outclassed. Still runnable for me for nostalgia though.