[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 3 years ago

Saturday, March 13th, 2021; Wayfarer's Bauble



I gotta sneaky suspicion this card is seeing much more play than it should. At 3 to play and activate (plactivate), that puts this right on curve with darksteel ingot - actually worse, since ingot costs 2 effectively and makes many more colours than bauble does (except colourless, which bauble can do by fetching a wastes|tsr.
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Post by Wallycaine » 3 years ago

A significant portion of the value of Wayfarer's bauble is the ability to pay over time. At 1 to play, you can fit this in any turn you've got a spare mana, or easily on your first turn. At that point, the 2 to Rampant Growth is a steal in any non-green deck. Plus, it leaves an artifact card in your graveyard, where it's easy to recur and keep getting value with. By contrast, Darksteel Ingot demands 3 up front, so even with the 1 mana discount from being able to tap it right away, it's significantly less flexible than Bauble. And bauble ends up with way more positive interactions with stuff like Sun Titan and Salvaging Station.

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Want to know why it gets played a lot? It's a cheap colorless landfetch card. Which means it can go in literally any deck.
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Post by Guardman » 3 years ago

Basically what both Wallycaine and Krishnath said. But I would like to add that it also has upside in decks that either want lands over artifacts (i.e. landfall triggers, counting basics, etc.), cares about things/artifacts being sacrificed, or, and this is true for me at least, it can be Rings of Brighthearth.

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

Big fan of this with Emeria Shepherd to pull a ton of plains out of my Bruna deck.

It is just a solid ramp card for non-green decks.

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Post by RxPhantom » 3 years ago

Yeah, it's great in non-green decks. Artifacts are more susceptible to board wipes than lands.
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Post by JWK » 3 years ago

It's fine, but even though artifacts are more vulnerable than lands, even in non-green decks I will usually play signets, talismans and sometimes even things like Thought Vessel ahead of this, as it can be very slow. The exception is in decks with high artifact or sacrifice synergy. Glissa, for example, might want this even though green offers so many ramp options.
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Post by SocorroTortoise » 3 years ago

I've had it in Jaya more or less since the deck was created and would be surprised to ever cut it. While it's never going to be the most exciting card in the deck, the small synergies with the Goblin Welder effects, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Gauntlet of Power effects, Rings of Brighthearth, and Sensei's Divining Top/Scroll Rack mean it almost always has the potential to impact the game more than another mana rock would. Splitting the cost into 1+2 is great for mana efficiency as well, especially because the activation gives you something to do if you hold up mana for unneeded interaction. Past all of that the floor on the card is a 3 CMC ramp spell, which is still not terrible.

It's not a particularly powerful standalone card but it interacts well with a lot of other cards that many decks are already interested in playing.
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

Wayfarer's Bauble is fine. Non-green decks don't have many options for ramping out lands, and while it does cost more mana in total than the two-mana ramp options (signets, talismans, etc), paying 1+2 mana is often more convenient than paying 3 mana. As a result, how good it is in a deck will depend on how many synergies you have with artifacts, lands, and sacrifice. This seems very sweet to use alongside Emeria Shepherd or Salvaging Station. It's also good if you can copy the trigger, or if you're running a commander like Ob Nixilis, the Fallen that cares about landfall.

That said, I suspect the primary reason people run Wayfarer's Bauble (outside synergies) is that lands tend to be stickier than artifacts. If you're in a meta with Cyclonic Rift, Bane of Progress, Austere Command, or Shatterstorm, then there is a high probability of your mana rocks incidentally dying. This makes the value of land-based ramp go way up. Also worth consideration if you're running those cards yourself.

....also, I definitely have to put Wayfarer's Bauble + Salvaging Station on my to-do list.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 3 years ago

I'd probably play Coldsteel Heart over this, or a diamond or Ramos piece in one color, except for Sun Titan. In green, it's no contest.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

3drinks wrote:
3 years ago
Saturday, March 13th, 2021; Wayfarer's Bauble
It's a fine card. Not spectacular, and I usually only run it when there are other synergies.

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Post by RadiantSophia » 3 years ago

Effect: Meh.
Art: Meh.
Fun Factor: Blah.
Lore: Blah.
Synergies: Meh. (Maybe Hmm.)

Overall score: Meh.

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Post by DirkGently » 3 years ago

It's



fine.
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Post by Serenade » 3 years ago

I have Font of Fertility in and out of my green enchantress decks. My experience with it and WB are the same as everyone else.
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Post by folding_music » 3 years ago

Bauble's so good in a Jori En mostly trinkets build! can fetch it with or discard it to Artificer's Intuition as necessary and grab a Snow-covered Island to play an Arcum's Astrolabe with. fifth dawn is so full of nice utility artifacts, what a set!

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Post by 3drinks » 3 years ago

Sunday, March 14th, 2021; Molten Disaster

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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 3 years ago

Awesome card. The ability to screw with sac outlets (not the altars, sadly they are mana abilities) and countermagic is always worth the extra 1-2 mana over earthquake in my experience. Probably the single best kicker payoff on a card too in terms of cost and effect.
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

I've never really been a fan of Earthquake effects as my mass removal, and Molten Disaster is no exception - they require a lot of mana to kill big things, miss flyers, and deal damage to yourself (making them worse in the less aggressive decks I tend to play). That said, there are certainly ways to take advantage of them. One of the more straightforward methods is to make use of a commander that synergizes with spell damage, such as Gisela, Blade of Goldnight or Torbran, Thane of Red Fell - if you increase the damage the spell deals, it requires a lot less mana for it to function as a board wipe. Simultaneously, if you're more aggressive, it can function as a way to close out a game by pressuring your opponents' life totals. You can also just run flyers to take advantage of that asymmetric aspect.

For Molten Disaster in particular, you're paying a bit of a premium for the ability to grant it split second, which is an extremely unique effect - it's great for fighting through countermagic and sac outlets. It's particularly good on a big X burn spell because you're likely to be spending a lot of mana on it, so getting it countered would be a massive tempo loss. Simultaneously, burning out a control player and giving them no window to respond seems extremely satisfying.

....I value the instant speed of stuff like Starstorm and Magmaquake higher than Molten Disaster's split second, and I also favor the efficiency of Chain Reaction and Blasphemous Act. Still, if you're planning to burn your opponents out, Molten Disaster seems like an excellent way to do so. Could also be a good meta call if you're facing lots of countermagic.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 3 years ago

No counters or damage prevention or Withstand Death for you!

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is another card that comes to mind or Curse of Bloodletting. Even Akroma's Memorial, though I'd just run Wonder first.
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Post by Serenade » 3 years ago

I need this variant for my collection. Bummer that it's not an instant, but the optional SS is nice.

Has anyone tried out Toralf, God of Fury // Toralf's Hammer with lots of EQ spells yet?
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Post by RadiantSophia » 3 years ago

Dominaria was a strange place during the temporal crisis. I know those obelisk-y things are supposed to be mountains, but what the $%^&? It reminds me of a field of wind turbines without the, you know, turbines and blades. Just the towers. Anywaywherehow...

I give it: Hmm...

It is too costly (mana-wise) to be really good, and I'm not sure how useful Split Second is in this case due to the ability to still sacrifice for a mana ability.

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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

I run this in my Chandra burn deck and I've found the split second to be extremely useful on this one. Yeah, people can sac to an altar in response as a mana ability but the creature still dies which is the goal, and uncounterable damage can be a big deal as a game goes on and blue players have more chances to draw and hold counterspells.

Rolling Earthquake hits more stuff for less of a mana investment but this has its place too.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 3 years ago

Monday, March 15th, 2021; Liliana, Dreadhorde General



Well that's certainly a card.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

3drinks wrote:
3 years ago
Monday, March 15th, 2021; Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Looking forward to seeing takes on this one today. One of the players in my group used to run her in Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, and it would give us such problems. Once, he had doubling season out, and it was an automatic scoop.

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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

It does some great work in my Yawgmoth, Thran Physician deck. A source of creatures to sacrifice and doubling up on the card draw is pretty great.

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