[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Treamayne]

Okay somehow I didn't realize until just now the staggering coincidence which is that today is actually my birthday xD

I'm 36 btw

ew, old

Not old! Significantly younger than some of us. . .

SPOILER

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Besides, after 30, it's no longer a "Birthday" it's the Anniversary of your 21st Birthday. . .
. . . which mean's I'll be 28 this summer.

[3drinks]

Saturday, May 18th 2024; Black Market Connections

Is this really the best? Sure getting a Carnival of Souls trigger is good and two life for a card is an okay rate but you can't just bolt yourself every turn for a lotus petal + cantrip. I'd argue a Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff + Phyrexian Arena|apc is still better overall for the effect as you can last twice as long and get the same output (or more output, in terms of Lotho as it can proc each turn instead of your upkeep).

[materpillar]

Saturday, May 18th 2024; Black Market Connections

Is this really the best? Sure getting a Carnival of Souls trigger is good and two life for a card is an okay rate but you can't just bolt yourself every turn for a lotus petal + cantrip. I'd argue a Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff + Phyrexian Arena|apc is still better overall for the effect as you can last twice as long and get the same output (or more output, in terms of Lotho as it can proc each turn instead of your upkeep).

You can bolt yourself every turn as long as you use that to kill the table in a couple of turns. At least that's how this plays out in my Changeling deck. *shrug*

[Dunadain]

👍

[Mookie]

Black Market Connections is a strong card in the right deck. It's not that impressive if you're only getting a card or treasure each turn, in which case it is outclassed by Phyrexian Arena or any mana rock... but it's pretty sweet if you are using multiple modes each turn. The life cost does add up quickly though, so you'll want to either end the game quickly, have lifegain to offset it, or use shenanigans to negate the downside.

I'll call out the token as a unique effect that is hard to replace - there are plenty of Bitterblossom effects that can make a token every turn, but changeling gives it extra utility. If you card about playing angels, demons, dragons, or any other usually-expensive creature type, then Black Market Connections is a cheap way to get another creature of that type every turn... to say nothing of more dedicated changeling-based decks.

I don't think it is quite deserving of its current price tag ($20+), but it does have its place.

[illakunsaa]

I seriously think Sylvan Bounty is a better card than Market.

[onering]

The life payment adds up... but there's more incidental life gain running around than people sometimes think, including on some commanders. Ramping and drawing a card is strong, and having only 1 colored pip makes it easier to cast that Phyrexian Arena (both for 3+ color decks and for casting off rocks). That's really important, you can turn 1 this off Crypt or turn 2 it off Sol Ring and get extra cards and mana as early as turn 2 or 3. So yeah, in more competitive metas you can easily take a bolt to the face every turn because it's unlikely to exceed 15 damage and getting the extra cards and mana quickly is important. Less competitive metas can easily find enough life gain to defray the pain of life payment. If you're putting this card in your deck, it's worth it to stick in some incidental life gain.

[NZB2323]

Black Market Connections is a phenomenal card. It gives you card advantage, ramp, and/or a changeling. You can use lifegain to offset the life loss or just win.

In Cleric tribal I have so much lifegain I don't care about the life loss.

[DirkGently]

It's an interesting question, how much life a card is worth. Depends a lot on how strong the deck is, of course. The stronger the deck, the more life the card is worth.

That said, anyone who thinks 2 life is too much is out of their gourd. 1 mana per card is banned for life, on cards that costs twice as much as connections. I know it's stupid to take a stock meme image too seriously but wtf, worst take I've ever heard if it's even 5% serious.

And then add in the treasure option which is also pretty solid, and the creature token which is potentially very valuable (though the least versatile option). Card is pretty bananas. I could see the argument against it if you're expecting the game to end on turn 5 or whatever, but if you're worried about a couple life per turn adding up then I don't expect that's the issue. Yes, it's worth planning ahead and maybe not going 6 life deep every single turn, but that's an issue of player skill, not the card itself.

In regards to lotho + arena...ok for starters that is 2 separate cards costing 5 total mana across 2 colors, as compared to 1 card that costs 3 across 1 color, so using that comparison to disparage connections is ridiculous. Despite that, connections is surprisingly close to being equivalent to both those cards put together - and those are two individually reasonably strong cards. Plus with Lotho you're at greater risk of killing yourself, at least with connections you can abstain from (most of) the life payment if necessary.

Anyway, absurd hot-takes aside, it's a very versatile and strong card - it's the best 3mv rock ever and/or the best phyrexian arena ever and/or solid tribal token production. If you're really not in the "market" for any of those, then probably give it a pass, but if you're anywhere in the zip code of interested in those effects it's probably going to be worth the inclusion. If you have some lifegain it does gain some extra value as well, but honestly unless your meta is super weird I can't imagine it being a dealbreaker even if you don't have any.

Damn, I was going to have a productive evening but now I'm sitting here annoyed at the ridiculous takes on this card and I'm praying on my hands and knees that @illakunsaa meant Sylvan Library...

[folding_music]

I kinda hate posting about the really strong, obviously pushed to be generically useful in all decks kinda cards so I was hoping to see someone post that Black Market Connections is ludicrously strong and does too much for one card, have been losing my mind reading the above few comments

[3drinks]

Sunday, May 19th (also Happy Kane Day) 2024; secret Ashnod's Altar|bchr appreciation thread.

[Dunadain]

I did give it a thumbs up Dirk, Geeze.

The altars are sweet.

👍👍

[Mookie]

I have mixed feelings about Ashnod's Altar. On one hand, yes, it's clearly a powerful sac outlet - turning expendable bodies into mana lets you cast big spells way ahead of curve. It's not hard to cast Secure the Wastes or another token producer and use it as a ritual to have more mana than you initially invested.

However, I cut it from Teysa a while ago for one reason: I never had any use for the mana. Orzhov isn't a color combination that has much access to ramp, and my curve is pretty low to the ground as a result. I've actually cut Mentor of the Meek from my list because I didn't want to deal with the extra cost, and I don't have any mana sinks in my list. So, while I could theoretically cash in my tokens for a burst of mana, I found myself rarely spending that mana on anything... which meant that Ashnod's Altar generally felt less useful than a sac outlet that actually did something, like Viscera Seer or Altar of Dementia.

...that said, I think the issue is less with the altar, and more due to the makeup of my deck - I don't have uses for large amounts of colorless mana. I suppose I could just use it to discount my 3 and 4-drops, but... that doesn't feel like the optimal use. However, I do have uses for colored mana, which makes stuff like Pitiless Plunderer and Phyrexian Altar pretty useful. I could see Ashnod's Altar perform well in an alternative build with more X spells or other topend, but I think it's generally a better fit for a commander like Slimefoot, the Stowaway that actually has a use for the mana.

I will call out Krosan Grip as a reason to run Ashnod's Altar - split second doesn't stop mana abilities, so I have used it to combo out in response to Krosan Grip in the past.

[DirkGently]

Yuck, a ubiquitous combo piece. May it die in a fire.

I did give it a thumbs up Dirk, Geeze.

I can't follow your inscrutable grading scale, I only understand opinions if they're filtered through the aesthetics of classic 1960s westerns.

[Mookie]

Yuck, a ubiquitous combo piece. May it die in a fire.

Amusingly, this is the other reason why I cut it from Teysa. When people see Ashnod's Altar, they kill it with fire. When they see other, less notorious (but still free-to-activate) sac outlets like Cartel Aristocrat or Bartolomé del Presidio, they tend to ignore them. It draws more hate than it's worth, IMO.

[pokken]

I have recently developed an appreciation for Ashnod's Altar as a fair mana source. It's pretty fun to make a huge board and threaten then respond to sweepers with 20 thrasios activations. Alright you did it!

I first saw it in that light in my buddy's Tana and tevesh deck that just used the mana fairly from various tokens and it was really entertaining.

[5colorsrainbow]

I run Black Market Connections in Teysa Karlov and its really nice there since I can often use the tokens to regain the life i lost making them.

[krakked]

Recently I've been considering cutting out Ashnod's Altar out of one of my decks and replacing it with Viscera Seer. Since I'm playing Dimir reanimator Seer is much easier to get out of the bin than a artifact. But I can also do a infinite combo with Desolation Twin after creating infinite mana with the Alter. If your not playing self mill it's a great card to get you scraping by if your behind at worst.

[3drinks]

Monday, May 20th 2024; Cosima, God of the Voyage // The Omenkeel

[DirkGently]

What I find funny about Cosima is how it seems like the majority of people build around the absolutely god-awful back half of the card, instead of the pretty-dang-strong front half.

The issue with the back half...well, one of them...is that in mono-blue it's pretty hard to enable playing multiple lands in a turn, which means your absolute maximum value is basically drawing 1 land per turn, which isn't even worth a full card since it renders drawing your own lands significantly less valuable. And since the Omenkeel is just a vanilla 3/3, you need to actually put some effort into enabling this extremely mediocre payoff. And then to add insult to injury, stealing lands kinda sucks because when people leave the game they'll take their lands with them. As far as I can tell, people just like the novelty of a mono-blue vehicle payoff even if the payoff is trash.

Cosima herself is a pretty solid if confusing commander. My version basically played as a heavy blue control deck - lots of (mostly artifact-based) board wipes, counterspells, etc, alongside nearly every available fetchland. For the killing blow, you pop her back into play with 19 counters (making her 21 power), ideally EOT with a fetchland having just wiped the board, drawing an insane number of cards to protect your wincon and then smashing people for an easy 21-damage commander hit while controlling the board with a brutal iron fist.

What makes her really strong, imo, is that she's almost impossible to stop as long as she's not removed immediately - and who the hell would remove her that quickly? She's mono-color and pretty obscure - not even in the top 1000 on EDHrec - and most people build her as a bottomlessly-terrible vehicle tribal deck (well, more than half at least - Smuggler's Copter at 57% currently). So as long as she's not killed ASAP she's exiled and basically untouchable until you decide to put her back into play, an action which automatically puts a billion cards in your hand to deflect any potential incoming answers. And even if someone has a stifle, it's basically worthless - countering her trigger just stops her from entering on that particular landfall, it doesn't strand her in exile or reset her counters or stop all the card draw. She can just try to enter again the next time a land enters the battlefield. So they'd need to be able to stifle every turn, if not multiple times per turn with fetchlands.

The biggest weakness is that she doesn't contribute anything until she does re-enter, but in a pinch you could always bring her back early for some mid-game draw and then exile her again. That should re-stock you on fetches at least.

Anyway, underrated commander for sure, imo. Seeing her kinda makes me want to rebuild her.

[yeti1069]

Saturday, May 18th 2024; Black Market Connections

Is this really the best? Sure getting a Carnival of Souls trigger is good and two life for a card is an okay rate but you can't just bolt yourself every turn for a lotus petal + cantrip. I'd argue a Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff + Phyrexian Arena|apc is still better overall for the effect as you can last twice as long and get the same output (or more output, in terms of Lotho as it can proc each turn instead of your upkeep).

I've moved away from Phyrexian Arena (as I think most people here have), but this gets a slot in a few decks that can make use of all 3 modes (Captain N'ghathrod and The Ur-Dragon) or specifically wants the treasure (Prosper, Tome-Bound in Brawl). The life loss really adds up, and I have often found myself downgrading to just the treasure to minimize the life loss.

[materpillar]

I hate the design of basically all the Kaldheim gods. In theory they sound cool. In practice, they all feel like I have to read two books before the game even starts. Then, I have to guess which book is actually relevant. None of them feel worth the effort it takes to read them. I get exhausted just skimming past @DirkGently's analysis that I'm sure is insightful and on point.

[Dunadain]

Very unfun play pattern. Regarding the Kaldheim gods in general, they all feel like they work better in 60 card format.

👎

[DirkGently]

I hate the design of basically all the Kaldheim gods. In theory they sound cool. In practice, they all feel like I have to read two books before the game even starts. Then, I have to guess which book is actually relevant.

With a few exceptions, I think you could treat them as two separate cards and just pick the one you want to play as your commander and ignore the other.

Definitely true of Cosima. You could build around the front side and then you'd simply ignore the back side during play. Or you could build around the back side...and then still ignore the back side because even if you build your whole deck around it, it's still worse than the front side.

I think the main goal of the design was to enable non-creature commanders. Though with the exception of Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge I think the back sides don't see a lot of play.

[Ruiner]

I tried Coisima's vehicle side in my Kotori, Pilot Prodigy deck for a few games and it was incredibly lackluster whenever I played it. I quickly replaced it and did not miss it at all. Even in a dedicated vehicles deck, the effect really isn't at all worthwhile in my opinion. I'd much rather use Land Tax or Archaeomancer's Map type cards to guarantee my land drops than something that situational.

The normal creature side is definitely more intriguing, but probably more in the 99 of some UGx deck rather than as a commander.