[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[3drinks]

Saturamday, November 7th, 2020; nighthowler|pths

How good does this effect have to be to be playable? Or is this playable already?

[Serenade]

I ran Bonehoard in Geth for a while. The deck was artifact-heavy, GY-focused (wraths and mill), and had a general with evasion. It was a good pump spell and nice that it stuck around, but eventually I cut it for something sexier.

I think you want something similar for this card. I do not think that exists. Otherwise if your plan is to just CHURN your deck into your GY, maybe it fits in...Gyrus, Waker of Corpses.

[Toshi]

Saturamday, November 7th, 2020; nighthowler|pths

How good does this effect have to be to be playable? Or is this playable already?

I don't think there are a lot of decks that can go crazy with it, but in those it is pretty good.
I for one run it - and Mortivore - in my Lazav, the Multifarious deck, where they are legit win cons.

The most creative use of said two i've seen was in a Phenax, God of Deception deck, where they spiraled out of control quickly.

[JWK]

Good in mill and dedicated discard decks, other than that, pretty meh. I suppose it might potentially be good with the new Mardu enchantments commander, but I think those colors offer plenty of better enchantment options.

[RedCheese]

Its good in my Jarad dredge deck

[ilovesaprolings]

I use it in my karador deck to surprise voltron

[onering]

Yeah, this is about as good as the effect needs to be to be playable. Bonehoard gets you there for colorless and is more persistent, this sticks around as a creature for free after the one it's enchanting is removed. It obviously benefits from enchantment synergy, so if your looking to do an enchantment creature deck with black it's an obvious include. You need it to be reliably 6/6 minimum to be worth it (and at the same time it should often be bigger).

[Mookie]

Nighthowler is fine. It's a pile of non-evasive stats, Good if you have enchantment synergies or want a pile of stats for Disciple of Bolas / Greater Good. If you don't have enchantment synergies, I'd go with Bonehoard.

[3drinks]

Sunday, November 8th, 2020; Awakening Zone

It's like they took a strong card in Bitterblossom, made it better, and ofc gave it to g because that's one of the weakest colours so we need to power it up. Obviously.

[Mookie]

Bitterblossom, Awakening Zone, Goblin Assault, Thopter Spy Network.... why did it take until Commander Legends and the printing of Court of Grace for white - the #1 token producing color - to finally get an enchantment that generates a token each upkeep? (no, I'm not counting Spirit Mirror, Assemble the Legion, or Commander's Authority). Seriously, this has been bugging me for years.

Anyway... Awakening Zone (and its cousin From Beyond) is a solid token producer. Eldrazi Spawn aren't the most powerful tokens, but producing mana is a nice perk. More importantly, they're excellent for sacrifice-friendly commanders like Korvold, Fae-Cursed King and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. I'd definitely consider Awakening Zone in any green deck that had token / sacrifice synergies. On the other hand, if you're not getting bonus value out of the tokens, I'd give it a pass. This is a strong role player, not a staple.

[JWK]

Making mana is good. Disposable creatures are good. Sacrifice interactions are good.

Solid card.

[Wallycaine]

Bitterblossom, Awakening Zone, Goblin Assault, Thopter Spy Network.... why did it take until Commander Legends and the printing of Court of Grace for white - the #1 token producing color - to finally get an enchantment that generates a token each upkeep? (no, I'm not counting Spirit Mirror, Assemble the Legion, or Commander's Authority). Seriously, this has been bugging me for years.

At a guess, it's precisely *because* white is the number 1 small token producing color that it's taken this long. That, and getting burned by Bitterblossom in standard. Basically, there's twofold reasons to me: white, being the token/anthem color, is the one best suited to abusing "get a token every turn". Additionally, Bitterblossom was too strong for standard, which meant whatever white version they came up with in a normal set would be much weaker than Bitterblossom, and invite poor comparisons given whites supposed to be better at token gen. Combined, that meant they couldn't deliver one at the power level players would want without risking breaking standard, and doing a significantly weaker one would leave players unsatisfied. So they left off on it until they hit legends, where it wasn't hitting standard, and they could tack Monarch on to make it not just strictly worse.

[ilovesaprolings]

Unpopular opinion: when i started the game green was the color of tokens. Now i have to see it shifted to white and selesnya without saprolings. Bleah.
Complain about blue and black getting white's hatebear cards, not green getting average token cards.

[3drinks]

Monday, November 9th, 2020; Last Stand

That's a lot of text for a wubrg cost but is it worth it?

[Toshi]

Monday, November 9th, 2020; Last Stand

That's a lot of text for a wubrg cost but is it worth it?

Phew!

Hypothetically speaking, if you're playing a land type matters deck, where you're basically cheating on the numbers, this could be somewhat nice.
Let's go even further down the road to MTG wonderland and put Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as the cherry on top. Sky's the limit.
Quite obviously, the card gets a lot better late in the game, compared to when cast on curve.

Once you rake up such a setup aren't there like a few 1.000 better things to do? Unfortunately i think so.
Though, if i were to sit down expecting yet another bland Golos, Tireless Pilgrim list across the table and my opponent jumps through all these hoops to set up this? I'd be one happy guy, reminded of simpler EDH days.

[not-a-cube]

could be a cute combination with Dryad of the Ilysian Grove but that's all it is, cute.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Back when we were arguing about the general validity of Chromatic Lantern, the honor of one Prismatic Omen got called into question and dragged into that deadly fray. I defended its staggering utility by showing that the omen enabled Last Stand, the omnipresent, format-warping powerhouse that has more or less defined modern magic since its release.

I still stand by those statements.

[Dunharrow]

I think this could have been a stronger card. It is 5 colors after all!
If it was
Swamps - opponents lose 3 life
Mountains - deal 1 damage to each creature
Forest - create a 2/2 bear token
Plains - gain 5 life
Island - Draw a card for each island (no discard)

It would be super playable.

[3drinks]

Back when we were arguing about the general validity of Chromatic Lantern, the honor of one Prismatic Omen got called into question and dragged into that deadly fray. I defended its staggering utility by showing that the omen enabled Last Stand, the omnipresent, format-warping powerhouse that has more or less defined modern magic since its release.

I still stand by those statements.

One of the most vivacious debates of our RCotD, I still remember it fondly. A better debate than even the "great" 2020 presidential debate, even. 👀

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Back when we were arguing about the general validity of Chromatic Lantern, the honor of one Prismatic Omen got called into question and dragged into that deadly fray. I defended its staggering utility by showing that the omen enabled Last Stand, the omnipresent, format-warping powerhouse that has more or less defined modern magic since its release.

I still stand by those statements.

One of the most vivacious debates of our RCotD, I still remember it fondly. A better debate than even the "great" 2020 presidential debate, even. 👀

Truer words have yet to be spoken. Kinda wild in retrospect for us to get so wound up about a mediocre mana rock, but c'est la vie, 2020 has shown that anything can be controversial when viewed in the right/wrong light.

[brainface]

I love this card and will never regret casting it, and I'm sad the Commander meta has probably wildly outgrown its power level.

My first deck when I got back into magic 10 years ago was a kitchen table five color semihighlander whatever-looks-cool deck, with maelstrom archangel, coalition victory, and this. It wasn't very good but every play was "something badass," and this card holds a special place in my heart.

[onering]

You basically need prismatic omen for this to be worth it. You really want each mode to count 5 lands at least, because they're all pretty weak and need scale to matter. Burning someone for 10, getting 5 1/1s, killing something relevant, gaining 10 life and looting 5 cards is solid but not crazy, kind of in Cruel Ultimatum territory in this format, a big play that doesn't win the game. If your just trying to get there with duals, your looking at only 1-3 lands of any given type when you cast this on curve, which just isn't good enough, and you really want to be able to cast it turn 5 if need be. With omen, it's spot removal and digging that pads your life, advances your board, and hits someone in the face. Once you get to the late game, it you've been ramping and have like 10 lands and omen out, it becomes the sort of haymaker that this format was built for, letting you sculpt your hand, giving you a big chunk of life, creating a small army, killing something import, and probably taking someone out in the process.

[Sinis]

It's a solid 'meh', even with Dryad/Omen. It just doesn't do enough, IMO.

[Mookie]

Last Stand is interesting. Supposing you have X = 4 for each of the land types, that would mean:
You gain 8 life, deal 4 damage to a creature, make four 1/1 tokens, draw four cards, discard four cards, and an opponent loses 8 life.
Compare to Enter the God-Eternals:
You gain 4 life, deal 4 damage to a creature, make a 4/4 token and mill four.

I consider Enter the God-Eternals to be a bit underpowered for the format, but Last Stand looks to be pretty reasonable at X=4 - looting four cards is a significant upgrade over milling four, while draining eight life from an opponent is a respectable chunk. The issue is that getting X=4 requires twenty lands (if they're all basics), which isn't a realistic scenario. It becomes much more feasible if you're running a full fetch / shock / dual / triome manabase, but that still requires 7-10 lands, and none of those can be lands without basic land types. This is... still pretty difficult. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth does help out, at least.

If you have Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Prismatic Omen, I think Last Stand actually looks pretty good - getting a targeted Debt to the Deathless, a bunch of tokens, and a bunch of looting seems like a solid deal. Otherwise, it requires a lot of commitment for what is only a fair payoff.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020; Harvester of Souls

Is this thing actually good, or is it about three cmc over priced?