[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[not-a-cube]

I really like Harvester of Souls, it looks cool and it's a good effect on a solid creature. It's important to note that this triggers on each nontoken creature dying, not only those you control. Is that combined with the bigger body worth 3 mana more compared to Grim Haruspex ? Maybe not, but this is allows for redundancy, which is good.

I play it in my Chainer, Dementia Master deck together with Grim Haruspex and i'll be glad to draw either.

[Dunharrow]

Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper are probably the best at this.
Then I would say Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is a good option as he is also a sac outlet.

Finally, for the same CMC there is Liliana, Dreadhorde General.

I just don't think Harvester's marginal upside (all non-token creatures) is better than any of these other options. I play Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper in decks where I am sacrificing creatures every turn. 3 mana is a lot better for this than 6!!

[JWK]

I think it's still a solid card - a 5/5 with deathtouch is a significant threat - but yeah, it's probably a bit overpriced by current standards, and particularly if you are only concerned with the card-draw aspect.

[onering]

In a deck where I want this effect, I usually want as much of it as I can get. It's 3 Mana overcoated by today's standards if your just looking for draw, and Lili is better at the six slot, but this effect stacks well so it's worth it to draw multiples, making redundancy even more valuable. Maybe one day enough versions of this will be printed that this will no longer be a reasonable option outside of death touch or demon tribal or some other deck that cares about other aspects of the card like it's p/t or CMC, but it is not this day. Don't forget Dark Prophecy btw as an enchantment option, though that is more limited by the heavy black cost.

One last note, not being limited to your creatures does actually matter. Obviously it's marginal in sacrifice decks, but in a deck based on killing other people's creatures it's important. Mathias and Horobi care about that.

[Outcryqq]

Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper are probably the best at this.
Then I would say Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is a good option as he is also a sac outlet.

Finally, for the same CMC there is Liliana, Dreadhorde General.

I just don't think Harvester's marginal upside (all non-token creatures) is better than any of these other options. I play Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper in decks where I am sacrificing creatures every turn. 3 mana is a lot better for this than 6!!

I will point out that Harvester of Souls is not restricted to YOUR creatures, and the ability is a may ability. I've only ever seen that be relevant once, but a player in my group died to his own Midnight Reaper before.

[Dunharrow]

Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper are probably the best at this.
Then I would say Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is a good option as he is also a sac outlet.

Finally, for the same CMC there is Liliana, Dreadhorde General.

I just don't think Harvester's marginal upside (all non-token creatures) is better than any of these other options. I play Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper in decks where I am sacrificing creatures every turn. 3 mana is a lot better for this than 6!!

I will point out that Harvester of Souls is not restricted to YOUR creatures, and the ability is a may ability. I've only ever seen that be relevant once, but a player in my group died to his own Midnight Reaper before.

I mean, that seems like a pretty uncommon result from Midnight Reaper. I have sacrificed it before to avoid any additional triggers, so I get that it can kill you... but it just seems that most of the time it will win you the game not lose you the game.

And yes, I know that Harvester is for all creatures. I specifically brought it up. I think this is a marginal upside, unless you are playing against a sacrifice based deck. I only play these types of effects in decks that want to sacrifice creatures, and I think all the other options I brought up are better in that regard.
Harvest is 6cmc... at which point Liliana is about 9 times better, imo.

I would rather my 6 drop be something that will win the game. I want my card advantage to be 3 cmc.

[Mookie]

I like Harvester of Souls.... but as others have said, it's a bit overpriced by today's standards. Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper do the same job for cheaper most of the time. Harvester does trigger off opponents' creatures, but that is usually much more difficult to control than killing off your own creatures. Harvester could be interesting in a creature-light control deck, I suppose - turning Damnation into Decree of Pain is pretty nice. Otherwise, I feel like there are more significant threats in the six mana slot.

[Ginuqu]

I think it's correctly priced for a 5/5 deathtoucher which can draw you an incredible number of cards and powercreep has decided that correctly priced cards are bad now.

[Serenade]

I never got a Grave Titan, and early on I figured this would be an okay substitute. I never ran it for very long.

I do like that Soul of the Harvest and Harvester of Souls exist as seemingly rival cards, AND THEN we got Beast Whisperer and Midnight Reaper as smol versions.

[Sinis]

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020; Harvester of Souls

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

When it was printed, the functionality was fairly unique, but I think it isn't now, and that makes it a lot less playable. Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper both now take this slot, even if it's only your creatures.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 11th, 2020; Smoke

How effective is this actually.

[Hermes_]

locks down token swarms, while Relentless Rats laughs at it.

[Dunharrow]

I play it in my creatureless Mogis deck. It adds two devotion and can really slow down an aggro deck. Obviously weak against voltron, but pretty decent at slowing down the game, which is what my deck wants.

[Lifeless]

I've run it before in various Boros punisher decks and I've always been happy with it. Has the added bonus of making mana dorks and utility creatures beyond the first very bad. Doesn't do squat against haste-based finishers but for 2 mana it does a lot of work.

[RxPhantom]

This is a card that exists.

[3drinks]

Thursday, November 12th, 2020; Stolen Identity

Well reusable clones ARE pretty good, so I hear. What say you to this?

[Dunharrow]

Probably one of the top two cipher cards. It puts a target on the creature though.

Could actually be a good option for Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate deck. Linvala can protect your ciphered creature and there are probably a few really good options you'd want to clone.

[Lifeless]

In the Prophet of Kruphix days, aka when clones ruled the world, we saw this at our table almost every game. I certainly don't miss it or Followed Footsteps for that matter.

[JWK]

I have played this in the past, but found it never really worked out as well in play as in theory. The creature upon which it is cyphered becomes an immediate must-remove target, and I'm not sure I ever got to untap with that creature still in play.

For that reason, yeah, new Linvala would probably be a good place to play it.

[onering]

6 for 2 clones is fair, assuming you can immediately got someone with the ciphered creature to ensure you get at least the 2 if it gets removed before you untap. Obviously nice with hexproof dudes

[Hawk]

This card frequently ends up in my "maybeboards" because the effect is pretty powerful - for six you get two clones assuming you have an evasive dork around. It's a Phyrexian Metamorph so it can dupe artifacts as well as creatures, and unlike most noncreature morph spells, it can hit anyone's cards and not just yours. Also, unlike other 5+ mana clone factories (Progenitor Mimic, Followed Footsteps, Soul Foundry), you don't have to keep cloning the same target over and over and over again - you can switch it up, if doing so is advantageous.

But ultimately I'm not running it anywhere. I can dimly recall it being in some older decks that have long-since been dismantled like Lazav, Dimir Mastermind clones, and it underwhelmed me there. It was in the ~200 card pile I had to winnow down when building Pir//Toothy, Yuriko, Sygg, and Sai, but my feeling was that it was just a little too slow. It paints a huge target on your agent you encode it to, making untapping with that creature close to impossible unless you were already winning in which case this is very win-more, and it can even be tough to hit once. This card is just wildly under rate if you don't hit at least once, and this has always been "close but no cigar" as a result.

[Serenade]

I'd run this in a super-casual Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest deck. I need to pick up that idea again.

[Mookie]

Stolen Identity is fine, although I'm not sure what (non-'clone tribal') deck I would put it in. Six mana for a Clone effect is a bit overpriced, even if it can also hit artifacts. If you have an evasive creature to cipher it on, you can also get a second copy, and potentially more if that creature sticks around for a while. However, if you don't have an evasive creature (or it gets killed), this looks way worse than Clever Impersonator. There is some marginal upside of being a sorcery instead of a creature, but... I'd usually lean towards Phyrexian Metamorph or Saheeli's Artistry. I'll also note that ciphering it requires exile, which makes it difficult to flash back with Dralnu, Lich Lord / Snapcaster Mage / Kess, Dissident Mage.

[3drinks]

Friday, November 13th, 2020; The Leylines

One of the more intriguing non-cycle cycles, in that not every colour has has the same number of leylines - in fact only Gruul has three each, while b only has the one.

[Dunharrow]

I think there are only 3 of these that are really relevant in Commander outside of an enchantress dec. Anticipation, Void and Abundance are all pretty strong.