[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[not-a-cube]

The man, the myth, the legend.

SCOTT STERLING?

On storm crow: It's a meme, but how sad that they left out the flavour text on the secret lair.

[Toshi]

One of my fondest Storm Crow memories was playing against an opponent who had squeezed Alliances Storm Crows with this artwork/flavor text into his clear Dragon Shields as card backs and kept repeating the phrase "Watch for it!" over and over as he was playing his gimmicky Mistform Ultimus deck. It was just as dumb as it was hilarious.

I only ran it once as a filler for sh#ts n giggles in my initial Edric, Spymaster of Trest build, when i was still waiting for cards to get shipped my way.

Oh MTG, you can be such a strange yet wonderful thing at times.

[tstorm823]

Strictly better than Sea Eagle.

[DirkGently]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

[tstorm823]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

The internet claims it's a joke about all blue cards being good because of Force of Will, but my understanding of it is from 8th edition. For some reason, wizards decided that core set required Storm Crow|8ed and Sea Eagle, which is as the saying goes "strictly worse than storm crow".

[not-a-cube]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

There is a couple of things:

This quote where Urza, the (debatable) strongest planeswalker describes himself as a storm crow:
"I am a storm crow, Tawnos. A bird of ill omen. Disaster follows in my wake, and I don't want to hurt her anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. Only a " - Urza to Tawnos, The Brothers' War by Jeff Grubb.

The oracle text that it can change the seasons by its presence.

The fact that it got first printed allongside force of will, so you could pitch it to FoW and "beat" any card.

The fact it can chump 1/1's for days

The fact it can fly over eldrazi

The rumor that there is only one card stronger than it I.e : this

and all that silly stuff.

In the end it's just a meme.

[onering]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

Speaking of Chimney Imp, there used to be a store near me that had a Chimney Imp in one of those super protectors they usually put black lotus in, on sale for $900.

Personally, I've had Chimney Imp countered before. It was in a deck built around top of the library effects and recursions, with the goal being to erase the opponent's hand and board to the top of their library and then beating face with Chimney Imp and Chittering Rats, etc.

[materpillar]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

Speaking of Chimney Imp, there used to be a store near me that had a Chimney Imp in one of those super protectors they usually put black lotus in, on sale for $900.

Personally, I've had Chimney Imp countered before. It was in a deck built around top of the library effects and recursions, with the goal being to erase the opponent's hand and board to the top of their library and then beating face with Chimney Imp and Chittering Rats, etc.

Chimney Imp is straight oppressive in Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. You can hardlock the table with a sac outlet if no one has an answer.

As for Storm Crow... one of my fondest memories in EDH is getting killed by a Squire with Flying Carpet which is a 2-card combo resulting in Storm Crow. That wasn't even a meme game either, I was playing Jaya Ballard vs Sen Triplets and Sharuum the Hegemon combo decks. I managed to kill both the esper decks with multiple Heartless Hidetsugu activations and Jaya herself. Then I was low enough and out of resources enough that the build your own Storm Crow wielding 3rd opponent got me.

I don't know that there's any non-meme reason to run this. Maybe it makes the cut in some weird bird tribal? I doubt that's even the case though.

[illakunsaa]

I've been playing a dinosaur tribal helmed by Derevi and storm crow is one of the better creatures in the deck. As I was playtesting I found out that basically all dinos that cost 3 mana or more are pretty bad just because you can't curve them into Derevi.

Most of my creatures only have 1 toughness which makes them easy to kill with random ping effects (or %$#% random spiders). Storm Crow on the other hand has very thicc 1/2 stats.

https://deckstats.net/decks/88154/16573 ... aur-tribal

[Serenade]

I've been playing a dinosaur tribal helmed by Derevi
https://deckstats.net/decks/88154/16573 ... aur-tribal

I might not call that a dinosaur tribal deck given, oh, Ixalan block, but it is a good goof.

[Mookie]

Storm Crow is usually a meme, but there are a few non-meme reasons I could see to run it. Specifically, if you're running a deck that both cares about cheap, evasive creatures (like Edric, Spymaster of Trest) that also is running bird tribal synergies (like Kangee, Aerie Keeper). That said, there are lot of alternatives available - Glint-Nest Crane, Esior, Wardwing Familiar, Mindshrieker, Stormscape Familiar, Thrummingbird, and Augury Owl are all competitors that I could see played over it.

Crow Storm, on the other hand, is a card with significantly fewer substitutes. Empty the Warrens sees fairly extensive play as a storm finisher, and Crow Storm is cheaper and creates evasive bodies. On the other hand, it doesn't go nearly as wide as Empty the Warrens, nor does it contribute as much total power to the board. However, Empty generally sees play in other formats - it doesn't scale quite as nicely to the life totals used in EDH (or the increased presence of board wipes). The storm finishers I see in EDH are usually Aetherflux Reservoir or Mind's Desire, which scale more explosively.

[Treamayne]

Joking aside, why IS storm crow such a meme? I remember dreadmaw became a meme because it got reprinted in like 3 back-to-back sets, but why storm crow? Obviously it's pretty bad, but it's not THAT bad, certainly not bad enough to get a reputation on that alone, a la squire or chimney imp. A 1/3 flyer for 2 is still a decent draft card even in new sets, and that's just 1 extra toughness. It got reprinted a decent amount, but there's probably dozens or even hundreds of cards that have been reprinted more, and it never got printed closely together like dreadmaw. What's so special about storm crow? Why did it become such a thing?

I don't know specifically about the "meme" part, but if you were playing during Alliances you know how certain commons were more "common" than others (because they had more than one common slot for the different artwork). Anybody who bought any significant amount of Alliances sealed product invariably had more Storm Crows than they could give away (among a handful of other alliances super-commons - <cough> Swamp Mosquito <cough>).

They became a joke because they were both so prevalent and nearly useless in constructed (except certain permission decks - and even then those decks quickly found better things to run and pitch to FoW).

[maeos]

wasnt there also a joke about using a foil 7th edition german storm crow floating around some where as well?

[3drinks]

Tuesday, November 17th, 2020; Jace, Cunning Castaway

What do we think about Jace²?

[not-a-cube]

Initially I liked his ultimate, but the other two abilities are very underwhelming, I say: let him drift away.

[JWK]

This is a pretty weak Jace. The ultimate is fairly easy to achieve, but since the card is so weak, I'n not sure that's a great value even. +1 is dependent on having a lot of creatures, and then all it does is loot one.

The CMC is low, so I guess it can come out earlier, but that makes it's + ability being dependent on creatures even worse.

Not a fan myself.

[Hermes_]

The art work is nice

[Mookie]

Pirate Jace is fine. As mentioned, the (+1) and (-2) aren't that powerful, which isn't entirely unexpected for a three mana planeswalker. Looting is good, but conditional and doesn't generate card advantage without additional support. Meanwhile, a 2/2 illusion token is not particularly exciting. He does ultimate quickly, but the payoff is.... more underwhelming Jaces.

That said, there are a few cards that interact interestingly with Pirate Jace. Doubling Season is the obvious one - you can ultimate Jace immediately, which will let you generate an arbitrarily large number of tokens (or do a ton of looting - note that the trigger is mandatory, so try to not mill yourself out). The other interesting interaction is Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God - while an army of Jaces is somewhat underwhelming, an army of Bolases is... significantly more threatening.

[3drinks]

...an army of Bolases is... significantly more threatening.

Wouldn't that be Bolasi? Boli?

[Toshi]

...an army of Bolases is... significantly more threatening.

Wouldn't that be Bolasi? Boli?

Bolognese should be the only acceptable answer to this,

[onering]

I think it's generally bad design. It's either just too weak to be worthwhile, or a combo win with cards that are already good. Even in standard he was weak. The card is entirely reliant on the gimmick of infinite planeswalkers via doubling season, and that's just sort of cute. +1ing him to the ult +1 loyalty so he lives, then continuing that, is slow, and incredibly weak. That's 4 turns to go up two Jaces, which lets you loot two more cards a turn. Loot 3 every turn is decent, but not when you have to wait 4 turns using a vulnerable walker to get there, and then rely on those vulnerable walkers for the loot. Using his -2 sucks unless your pooping out enough from infinite jaces. Even going infinite, you need mass haste, Bolas, a sac outlet, or something like Purphoros to win, or have your board survive the round.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 18th, 2020; Acidic Slime|sld

It's everyone's fave old faithful 2-for-one. Why do you think this simple little card has managed to survive this long into the format's lifespan?

[pokken]

Why do you think this simple little card has managed to survive this long into the format's lifespan?

Unlike most ETB creatures it often is an actual 2-for-1, because the Deathtouch keyword is really, really good. Much of the time a card like say, Reclamation Sage will land and then sit there doin nothing (outside of a blink/reanimation strat). Slime does work the entire time it's on the board discouraging attacks. In my experience it behaves a bit like Ghostly Prison at making you the less profitable attack.

And of course killing lands is nice. I've seen a lot of games turned around by killing a Gaea's Cradle or similar.

Solid card. The relentless drive toward efficiency in EDH has definitely made it less prevalent and harder to deal with its high cost, but I still put it in pod brews

It's also sick with Reveillark as you can do a lark loop and win the game with it. And it's just good value with Lark as well.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, November 18th, 2020; Acidic Slime

It's everyone's fave old faithful 2-for-one. Why do you think this simple little card has managed to survive this long into the format's lifespan?

Deathtouch.

Deathtouch is the thing that makes this better than the countless analogues that have been printed. I think the conditional ones (like Mold Shambler) are gutter tier, and non-conditional but unremarkable ones like Indrik Stomphowler are passable.

But, I would play Acidic Slime or Reclamation Sage first over almost anything else, unless there were other considerations (like, I guess Mold Shambler might be passable in Hallar or Verazol).

[Dunharrow]

Acidic Slime is one of my favourite creatures. In my first ever game of commander I got it in play with a Conjurer's Closet and forced my opponent's scoop. It always has good targets and if you loop it can win your the game.

Regarding the deathtouch, it also means it can be tutored by Mwonvuli Beast Tracker which is not a great card, but can still work as a toolbox tutor since so many amazing green creatures have random keywords added.