[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[Myllior]

Grand Abolisher's price tag almost exclusively comes from its status as a cEDH staple, due to its ability to shut off practically all interaction from opponents during a combo turn. It's not even a hatebear, since it doesn't stop opponents from progressing their own gameplans, regardless of how busted they may be; it's an anti-interaction piece. In that sense, it makes me think of the newly-printed Benevolent Geist; I wouldn't call that a hatebear either. It's obviously far less egregious on the anti-interaction scale than GA, but can be used to fill a similar role.

It does make me wonder about where hate and anti-interaction effects meet. Clearly you have Grand Abolisher and Benevolent Geist at the anti-interaction extreme while Drannith Magistrate and others sit at the hate extreme. There are plenty of hate effects you can leverage as anti-interaction - I love cloning Archon of Valor's Reach - or as combo pieces, but is there some 'true' middle ground between the two? Teferi, Time Raveler and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir come to mind, but while they can be used as hate against Cascade, Dualcaster Mage combos or similar, they are also definitely strong anti-interaction pieces, which I imagine is largely their primary purpose. Just a random thought.

[Mookie]

Personally, I'm glad that Grand Abolisher exists. If it showed up in a majority of decks, that would be a bad sign for the format... but as a tech card people can run to deal with specific metas, I think it is good that it exists. I'll also note that other than Silence effects, white decks are pretty lacking in ways to protect their stuff from interaction. Black decks have discard, red can Reverberate or Shunt, green has can't be countered and hexproof, and blue obviously has countermagic and stuff like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir.... but outside granting creatures indestructible / protection (which is often less relevant on your own turn), white is pretty limited.

I'll also state that while I do consider Grand Abolisher to be a hatebear, I don't consider it to be a stax / prison piece - it can't lock your opponents out of playing spells, and it doesn't restrict resources in any way. (yes, I'm aware it stops people from doing stuff on your turn... but it doesn't lock out instants entirely, unlike Teferi, Time Raveler effects - they can still be played on other players' turns)

Anyway, I'll call out Cavern of Souls and Boseiju, Who Shelters All as two other ways to deal with interaction, although they also have a different opportunity cost and are somewhat more narrow. I'll also call out Tidal Barracuda, which is a hilarious card.

[Dunharrow]

I remember playing Grand Abolisher to try to prevent my commander from being Spell Crumpled. I don't know that I have it in any decks anymore.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021; Black Market

[BeneTleilax]

A staple black ramp effect. Not as good as it once was, but still quite solid if you have aristocrats or counters synergies.

[materpillar]

I haven't seen this cast in years. I ran it in my mon-B aristocrats deck for a while but I found it just ate immediate removal the vast majority of the time.

[Jemolk]

Love the card in extremely black-heavy decks. I run it in Sol'kanar the Swamp King Demon Tribal and in Phage the Untouchable. It can generate absolutely silly amounts of mana every turn in either case, making the upside if it sticks well worth the risk of it getting removed or countered.

[pokken]

I don't think i added mana from Black Market once in my entire time playing it in 4 different decks.

It suffers badly from not having the Carpet of Flowers templating.

[Sinis]

It suffers badly from not having the Carpet of Flowers templating.

Or is CoF's mana value.

[Hawk]

Black Market is a weird one for me. I swear I owned multiple copies since Masques was my first block playing, but come 2011ish as I start playing EDH I can't find any in my trade binder for various aristocratic decks - must be misremembering, or perhaps I traded them off as dollar rare chaff. As EDH takes off I kick myself more and more as the thing soars to $18 at its highpoint and I have a pile of decks that could use it. Finally, it starts to come down thanks to reprints and is now a reasonable $4...but, I'm not as inclined to rush out and grab it.

This thing can be powerful, but it is sure slow. Grave Pact comes down a whole turn earlier and you can immediately benefit from it if stuff starts dying. This is a whole mana more and while you can immediately start charging it, you don't get any mana out until your next pre-combat main phase. This thing also compares unfavorably in just monoblack to Dictate of Erebos, Pitiless Plunderer, and Syr Konrad, the Grim for aristocrat payoff cards.

As Commander has gotten faster and faster, I've also grown colder and colder on 5+ CMC ramp cards - and Mirari's Wake, Caged Sun, and Gilded Lotus all do more right away than Market does. For monoblack, we also live in a world of Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as the ultimate ramp cards (with Crypt Ghast also existing) - and typically these provide all the mana I need to end a game with Exsanguinate.

I suspect Black Market can still do some good work if you are very heavy on the high costs and mana sinks or have some sort of enchantress subtheme while also having some aristocrat/tokeny themes - perhaps a deck like Daxos the Returned that also has Tombstone Stairwell and stuff?

[Sinis]

I suspect Black Market can still do some good work if you are very heavy on the high costs and mana sinks or have some sort of enchantress subtheme while also having some aristocrat/tokeny themes - perhaps a deck like Daxos the Returned that also has Tombstone Stairwell and stuff?

Tombstone Stairwell belongs everywhere :D

[Mookie]

I had a game this last weekend where I was playing my Teysa deck and played Black Market + Tombstone Stairwell in the same turn. When it got back to my turn, Black Market was already generating over 30 mana. Goooooood stuff.

Anyway, Black Market is a strong card in the right deck - if you're running aristocrats or another sacrifice-heavy deck (or just a deck with a lot of board wipes), it can produce a ton of mana. However, it's also extremely high variance - it has to live a full turn cycle before you get any of that mana, and it won't generate mana unless you can actually make things die. You also only have access to that mana during your main phase, which limits what it can be spent on - unlike the treasure from Revel in Riches, you can't bank the mana for a later turn. Fortunately, enchantments tend to be somewhat difficult to kill, so it tends to stick around for at least a turn cycle or two.

I would say that Black Market is a card worth running if only for the novelty - something like Gilded Lotus is obviously going to be more consistent ramp, but if you can generate 10+ mana off a single card, it's definitely worth consideration. It goes up in value if you have big X spells like Exsanguinate or other mana sinks.

[3drinks]

I remember this card from the days I used to jam Altar of Shadows into everything. They kinda played off the other decently. Time has not been kind to either.

[PrimevalCommander]

I always liked the idea of Black Market but now that it's price is back down I don't find myself running out to get one. If I owned one by chance it would probably go in Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and if I find one in a trade binder, I'll probably go for it. Otherwise is has never made it into my cart since I can't hardly keep up with all the other nonsense they print these days.

[toctheyounger]

I still have this card recommended to me a lot. Its fine if its all you have, but the prevalence of treasure as somewhat of an evergreen mechanic in every colour now was a headshot for this card imo. I can't think of a place where this trumps Pitiless Plunderer for example. That card is actually disgusting fwiw.

Theres a couple of problems with this. Firstly it gives you mana once per turn in first main and if unused that mana goes. Secondly the resource is tied to the card itself. If one goes it all goes, and thats just a lightning rod for Rec Sage effects. Thirdly it has to survive a round before you get anything out of it. It all sort of adds up to a card that 'if I untap with this you better watch out'. And usually those cards are pretty big ifs.

Its just too costly for a very conditional resource that leaves you out 3bb and with nothing to show for it if anyone runs removal. There's better ways to generate extra mana now, and they're a lot less risky.

[hyalopterouslemur]

How would this work with Carpet of Flowers templating?

It's good for Aristocrats decks to build up enough mana for Exsanguinate.if your pingers haven't won the game for you already.

[Serenade]

We would get mana in the second main phase...and possibly more than earlier in the turn if critters died in combat.

I still throw it into decks that use Fleshbag Marauder and all of its brothers, but otherwise I have moved away from it. It always seems win-more in my meta.

[Hawk]

How would this work with Carpet of Flowers templating?

It's good for Aristocrats decks to build up enough mana for Exsanguinate.if your pingers haven't won the game for you already.

Carpet's Oracle wording has been updated to say:

"At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven't added mana with this ability this turn, you may add X mana of any one color, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls."

The flexibility to get your mana second main, post-combat, would dramatically improve the card - first for the flexibility of not needing to commit until post-combat, but second for the ability to slam this in your first main, attack/sac, and then immediately get some mana back second main.

(FWIW - I didn't know this about Carpet until today. Disgusting!)

[Igzex]

It's a card that looks good at a glance but then you actually use it and realize just how slow and telegraphed plays with Black Market are so you just cut the card for another broken mana rock instead.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, October 6th, 2021; Doomsday|6ed

[BeneTleilax]

At least this is a combo people generally personalize. What's everyone's favorite pile that they've used or seen?

[Mookie]

Doomsday is a card I haven't really seen outside a cEDH context. Paying half your life is a pretty steep cost, but stacking your deck is a worthy payoff, particularly if one of the remaining cards is Thassa's Oracle. It's not a card that really shows up in casual games. I guess I did see it out of a Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck once, but the caster ended up milling out, so... yeah.

Speaking to the card itself, it's sort of like a super-Vampiric Tutor - you pay three times the mana for five times the payoff, plus a bunch of additional life. However, by doing so, you remove pretty much all flexibility from your deck. Five cards puts you dangerously close to decking, so you have to have some sort of plan to win with those cards (such as the previously mentioned Thassa's Oracle). You can't use it to fetch removal or a utility card, unlike normal tutors. It's also somewhat vulnerable to disruption - mill obviously works, but casting Doomsday is also a strong sign that your opponents should hold open countermagic. There are piles that can be made to fight through disruption, but... predicting exactly what your opponents will have is tricky.

Not a card for the faint of heart.

[Sinis]

At least this is a combo people generally personalize. What's everyone's favorite pile that they've used or seen?

Shelldock Isle into Hazoret's Undying Fury, ThOracle or Lab Man and counterspell backup.

Boring, I know. In 1v1 formats, it's Shelldock into Emrakul 1.0.

FWIW, I think Doomsday has gotten less interesting over time, because of cards like Laboratory Maniac. When we opened these in Weatherlight packs back in the day, the idea that you'd draw out before winning was a serious consideration.

[materpillar]

I have never seen this card cast and I hope to never see it cast. Thassa's Oracle has made this card dramatically less interesting. I suppose it could be used to do silly things but I doubt that'll usually be the case.

[onering]

I have never seen this card cast and I hope to never see it cast. Thassa's Oracle has made this card dramatically less interesting. I suppose it could be used to do silly things but I doubt that'll usually be the case.

If you ever see it cast, it's because you're playing in a meta where it will be the quaint throwback alternative to Consultation Oracle. The card is aversive enough to the casual crowd that people don't randomly play it, and so obvious that everyone will hold all removal and counters for it if someone tries to pubstomp so it backfires. Its best in cEDH where the risk is justified for the reward, and fine there.