Rootha, what's your take?

[Cyberium]

Rootha, Mercurial Artist

Copying stuff is good, but the bounce effect turns all instants into life savers, not to mention the bounce is a "cost", not an effect, which cannot be negated.

Recasting Rootha could help trigger cards like Equilibrium and Cloudstone Curio as well.

Though I'm not sure how Rootha's deck would work, there's no evident wincon attached to her. Is she more of a 99 than a leader?

[DirkGently]

I super dig the design, but the problem I have with her (as I do with most RU spellslinger commanders) is that the best way to use her is to copy extra turns, and beyond that...eh? Copying draw spells, not super exciting. Coping burn spells...hard to make efficient enough to be realistic. Copying counterspells, mostly pointless. If you look down the line of most popular spells within RU (Search) you can see that the vast majority are pointless or inefficient to copy, especially at 5 mana per copy. If she were RG you could do it like Wort and ramp up a ton into big fireballs, but lacking green instant/sorcery ramp the whole equation falls apart.

Idk, I've never played with or against a RU spellslinger deck that was fun, I don't think. Probably your best bet would be just throw in a bunch of Reiterates and hope your opponents are playing something more interesting.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I feel like a lot of people are going to try to copy Expropriates and stuff, but doubling up on a ritual like mana geyser on a storm turn will probably be sufficient. She seems to me a general who helps you set up, but leans on you to find the payoff. Best payoff is mind's desire, probably.

[Cyberium]

I super dig the design, but the problem I have with her (as I do with most RU spellslinger commanders) is that the best way to use her is to copy extra turns, and beyond that...eh? Copying draw spells, not super exciting. Coping burn spells...hard to make efficient enough to be realistic. Copying counterspells, mostly pointless. If you look down the line of most popular spells within RU (Search) you can see that the vast majority are pointless or inefficient to copy, especially at 5 mana per copy. If she were RG you could do it like Wort and ramp up a ton into big fireballs, but lacking green instant/sorcery ramp the whole equation falls apart.

Idk, I've never played with or against a RU spellslinger deck that was fun, I don't think. Probably your best bet would be just throw in a bunch of Reiterates and hope your opponents are playing something more interesting.

I was hoping to utilize her invincible self-bounce somehow, to deviate from all the UR value copies, but I can't think much beyond the two options I listed.

[Mookie]

Rootha, Mercurial Artist looks pretty awkward to me. Pay three mana for a 1/4, and an additional two mana later to copy a spell. I guess that's comparable to Reiterate - if you have some way to grant flash, you can go infinite with Turnabout / Reset / etc. I don't know if I would run her as a value commander - adding 5 to the cost of a spell to copy it is pretty significant, even if it is split over two turns. Riku of Two Reflections feels like a more straightforward 'copy spells for value' commander.

She's pretty easy to protect by just holding open mana for something cheap, which is nice. However, I can't think of many ways to abuse that - protection abilities are way more relevant on cards that do things themselves. Could maybe be a roleplayer in Mairsil, the Pretender decks, but I wouldn't expect those to be running a high instant / sorcery count.

[5colorsrainbow]

I like the character and she goes in theme I want in Will and Rowan (coping spells and activated abilities) so I'd like to run her in the 99 but thats just me.

[folding_music]

I like that she's gonna enter the battlefield several times in a game and she's a Shaman so she can constantly recall the Thornbite Staff <3 not exactly breaking the game but it's interesting to me. you can also return her to your hand then copy the flashback spell from the graveyard you discarded to retrieve her? between Odyssey and Time Spiral and Innistrad maybe there's enough red/blue flashback stuff to be meaningful now, and there's Geistblast to reinforce that theme!

[Candlemane]

I was just making up something about her. I feel like abusing her with a replaying her aspect is a good way to go. Baral's Expertise, Electrodominance, even Flood of Tears could be interesting (though that's some hoops there). If you can get enough mana going with some of these kinds of effects, you could go infinite just fine. Or, you know,Impact Tremors and it's ilk.

Edit for forgetting my other brackets.

[Serenade]

She works well with Earthquakes since she will never be impacted by them. Maybe pair that with Repercussion. You're still probably better off with Nin if you want to venture into Stuffy Doll stuff.

[darrenhabib]

Sneak Attack or Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded.
Put Seething Song onto the stack return Rootha to copy. You can then keep putting in Rootha and returning for r2 so you can just keep doing that while the Song is on the stack for infinite mana.
Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded requires 5 mana so needs something that produces 6 mana or more.
Inner Fire, Jeska's Will, Brass's Bounty, Mana Geyser. Battle Hymn, Brightstone Ritual with creatures.
Irencrag Feat I think even works as you are copying and not casting with Rootha, although your last spell needs to be good..hint Fireball.
Heartstone will help to reduce the loops so you can also use Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual with Sneak Attack.
If Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded has enough devotion to be a creature then with Heartstone you'll also get the cost reduction, so would only require 4 mana rituals to go infinite.

Maybe a slight tribal element to include Kindred Discovery, Vanquisher's Banner, Mana Echoes for draw and mana.
On that same note Cryptic Gateway to put Rootha back into play for cheaper. I have no idea what is happening with Shaman or Orcs in Izzet however, probably not much.

Barrin, Tolarian Archmage works without anything else.
Hazoret's Monument for cost reduction and card filtering.

With at least two of Call to Mind, Mystic Retrieval, Narset's Reversal, Relearn you can use the copy element to return another from the graveyard so that you can loop between returning each other while still getting value by returning another spell.

It looks like you need to actually have a target on the stack to use Rootha ability so it would pay to play some no cost spells like Gut Shot, Mogg Salvage, Submerge, so that you can hold up 2 to save from removal.