[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Ginuqu]

I always thought this card was inspired by the Battletech card game, another WOTC thing at the time. I remember in that game you could construct mech cards over a number of turns as long as you kept paying something into it?
Really fun with X spells late game, and you can also tap it for 0 and use it like Gustha's Scepter.

[3drinks]

Sunday, November 1st, 2020; Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

How does this hold up today, nearly a decade after it's inception?

[Mookie]

I run Oran-Rief, the Vastwood in Animar, Soul of Elements - an extra +1/+1 counter on Animar is usually even better than tapping for mana, since it will get multiplied by the number of discounted creature spells I cast. I run Opal Palace for the same reason. In general, I'd say it is pretty solid for decks that value +1/+1 counters highly - I'd certainly consider running it in Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, for example. It can also be worth consideration if you're a go-wide deck that expects to win via raw stats - tapping a land to throw five +1/+1 counters on your creatures is pretty respectable if you care about their stats.

On the other hand, if your deck doesn't have uses for +1/+1 counters or is less combat-focused, this looks a lot worse. Coming into play tapped is a significant cost, as is only producing a single color (although it is an improvement over producing colorless only). I am of the philosophy that most decks can get away with a few ETBT lands, but slots for utility lands are competitive. I suspect most people are going to pass due to concerns re: speed - the faster your meta, the more painful it is to have a land enter tapped, and the more costly it is to use Oran-Rief's ability instead of tapping it for mana.

[JWK]

I currently run this in 4 of my decks: Rhys, Radha, Gahiji (token swarm) and Kalamax. All four of these decks have strong token elements, and this helps boost many of the tokens (sadly, it does nothing for Talrand's drakes, the sharks made by Shark Typhoon or The Locust God's bugs, but I have found it still good enough to stay in Kalamax). Plus, Rhys can make tons of mana, so using a land to boost everything that came in that turn is almost never a problem.

I don't run this in my Animar hydra tribal deck because I run lots of other effects that double counters and I want to maintain room for a fair number of basics in case of Blood Moon and other non-basic hate. YMMV, as this card is obviously potentially good in Animar decks and in other decks that care about +1/+1 counters... but you have to be careful of tempo loss. Aside from the issue of it being a land that ETB tapped, using it to put counters on things is often not what you want to be using your lands for, especially if you run a fair amount of instants in your deck.. I don't run it in Atraxa beause that deck has lots of other ways to add counters and runs a lot of interaction, and I took it out of my Anafenza counters deck because I found that it slowed the deck down too much. It was almost always better to just cast a slightly more costly threat or leave mana open for respones rather than giving a +1 counter to 1-2 creatures. Combined with it coming in tapped and with me wanting more basics in the deck for land ramp to find, I decided its upsides weren't enough for me to justify running in place of a basic Forest.

I used to run it in Riku, but once again, I found Riku always wanting more mana to cast or copy things, so running a land that comes in tapped wasn't worth the benefit of sometimes having things I cast or copied come into play with an extra +1/+1.

[Sinis]

Sunday, November 1st, 2020; Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

How does this hold up today, nearly a decade after it's inception?

I think it's still worth it in a lot of lists. Any list that goes wide with green creatures/tokens, or cares about +1/+1 counters likes it. The only other deck I can think it might be worth it would be a land-heavy deck that needs any non-forest.

[3drinks]

Monday, November 2nd, 2020; Ice Floe

Jank Maze of Ith. For when you can't afford the real deal.

[DirkGently]

Pretty hard to justify the slot since it's so restricted. Can't even target something attacking someone else or even your planeswalkers - it has to hit YOU. Which is really easy to play around for most decks. Plus then it's out of commission permanently unless you let the thing go. If it tapped for mana as well, it'd maybe be a decent rattlesnake utility land, but as is...nah, I don't think I'd ever play it.

[JWK]

Worse Maze of Ith , doesn't produce mana. Yeah, I doubt I'd ever run this. I appreciate the flavor of this card, but the card itself is pretty bleh.

[Serenade]

The lockdown is nice. Maybe a snow version that is in between this and Maze would be playable, but there are too many hoops for a non-mana-producing land.

[Sinis]

Monday, November 2nd, 2020; Ice Floe

Jank Maze of Ith. For when you can't afford the real deal.

I actually have a fondness for this card, despite owning a Maze of Ith.

I think the one thing people are discounting are attack triggers that Maze doesn't beat, but that Ice Floe minimizes, especially Annihilator or Newlamog's attack trigger.

I will admit that the vast majority of the time, you're just buying other people time, though.

[onering]

I used to run this in a spell slot when I started out. It's better than it seems, it's a decent enough rattlesnake as nobody wants to get their stuff locked under it, so they attack other people instead. Not good enough, but a solid budget option.

[Hawk]

I haven't seen this before. It's definitely worse than Maze of Ith which is down to a mere $7 now thanks to its 2XM printing. Also seems worse than Glacial Chasm as far as fogs on rocks go. But if you don't have those - how much worse is this than Mystifying Maze/Labyrinth of Skophos? I'm not convinced it is worse - I think it's better. Not hitting fliers is a big deal, for sure, but the potential to lock down a card seems like a strong upside to me TBH - it reads as scary enough to be a deterrent in and of itself whereas Ith just invites them to hammer you with two big dudes. I am eager to track down a copy for Gitrog .

[3drinks]

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020; Lich's Mastery

Man, I love this card and I want to use it, but i hate the idea of losing to an errant Back to Nature 😂

[Ardeyn]

I really enjoy Lich's Mastery, especially in Varina, Lich Queen, where it's such a flavor win. It works well with the Commander for some draw in addition to the looting and fuels some janky Combo Win: Skirge Familiar + Faith of the Devoted + Lich's Mastery will kill the table.
And you even have some redundancy for the pieces in Drogskol Reaver, Confessor and Ghostly Pilferer.
Also, pairing Mastery with Blue is a nice safety valve as you have Counterspells and Trickbind to safe you from wipes or the lose the game trigger itself.

Ardeyn

[Dunharrow]

There are enough enchantment sweepers to really make me rethink this in any deck. Austere Command, Bane of Progress, Cyclonic Rift, etc.

I feel like you can't play it without counterspells in hand or the ability to win on the spot.

[Hermes_]

wouldn't having either cast Angel's Grace or having Platinum Angel or both the emblem for Gideon of the Trials and a gideon negate the losing the game clause?

[3drinks]

wouldn't having either cast Angel's Grace or having Platinum Angel or both the emblem for Gideon of the Trials and a gideon negate the losing the game clause?

Correct. As well as anything that prevents abilities from triggering upon leaving the battlefield.

[nobody]

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020; Lich's Mastery

Man, I love this card and I want to use it, but i hate the idea of losing to an errant Back to Nature 😂

I am still waiting for a legendary "lich effect" creature WOTC, preferably with indestructability!

[Myllior]

I run it in my "You lose the game" tribal deck, along with various Donate effects. Of the various liches available for this purpose, this is the best as it has the fewest downsides and is harder to be accidentally triggered via the self-removal effect that all liches have. Although it is more expensive, so if your plan is to give it away ASAP then cheaper liches may run better.

I did have some fun with a similar card (Nine Lives) in a recent game. In response to a Wrath of God, I used Zedruu the Greathearted to donate it away to the player with the active Starfield of Nyx, causing them to lose when the Wrath resolved. That was a fun game. (We had four copies of Fevered Visions out for most of the game as well, thanks to my Fractured Identity).

[Hermes_]

I run it in my "You lose the game" tribal deck, along with various Donate effects. Of the various liches available for this purpose, this is the best as it has the fewest downsides and is harder to be accidentally triggered via the self-removal effect that all liches have. Although it is more expensive, so if your plan is to give it away ASAP then cheaper liches may run better.

I did have some fun with a similar card (Nine Lives) in a recent game. In response to a Wrath of God, I used Zedruu the Greathearted to donate it away to the player with the active Starfield of Nyx, causing them to lose when the Wrath resolved. That was a fun game. (We had four copies of Fevered Visions out for most of the game as well, thanks to my Fractured Identity).

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 4th, 2020; Emrakul, the Promised End

As a rule, I'm usually anti mindslaver|mrd effects as the one thing that's a bit far in a unsanctioned event with nothing on the line, as someone that's gotten slaver'd more than a couple times. It's so not fair, it leaves you feeling powerless, helpless. Lastly it always brings about RL feelings of Spite // Malice.

But this is different. Kinda. What do we think of it?

[Wallycaine]

I love the concept of mindslaver abilities. I dislike how they interact with commanders. It sucks when instead of something creative, the best play when stealing your turn is "play your commander, sacrifice them, leave them in your graveyard/exile".

[Dunharrow]

I like the card, and probably should be playing it in more decks. It can be used as a political tool. Can get an extra attack in against someone else who is winning, for example.

Last time I resolved this my opponent drew Toxic Deluge for the turn. Doesn't happen often but crazy when it does!

I think it is pretty fair, honestly. I can get why someone may not like Mindslaver since at best they skip a turn.

[materpillar]

As a rule, I'm usually anti mindslaver|mrd effects as the one thing that's a bit far in a unsanctioned event with nothing on the line, as someone that's gotten slaver'd more than a couple times. It's so not fair, it leaves you feeling powerless, helpless. Lastly it always brings about RL feelings of Spite // Malice.

But this is different. Kinda. What do we think of it?

This isn't different. You're still mindcontrolling someone and that's probably going to result in a lot of salt. It's extremely easy to do an unrecoverable amount of damage during their turn. If they didn't have enough resources available to cripple themselves they were probably in a terrible spot already. Obviously, this isn't always the case and most of my experience is coming from cube drafting.

I really like the art, flavor and card design here a lot. The effect is incredibly cool and perfectly fits Emrakul's theme. I just don't play it purely because of the salt factor which is a shame.

[DirkGently]

Ugh Mindslaver effects top my list for most miserable parts of the game. Partly because they punish you for building a responsible deck. If all you've got is a bunch of threats, your opponent often can't do that much to screw you up besides make a couple suicide attacks (although graveyarding your commander can be rough). But if you're being a responsible citizen and playing answers, they can absolutely obliterate you by using your answers on your own stuff.

If they never print another mindslaver effect, I'd be happy about it.