[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Spinal Embrace

[Outcryqq]

I like Burning-Rune Demon in my Nethroi, Apex of Death deck.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I really dislike unconditional tutors as I find they tend to make games way more repetitive and grind the game to a halt. This card is just an unconditional tutor strapped to a demon body, even though it doesn't look like it at a glance. It doesn't take a lot of braincells to find whatever card and a Regrowth effect. If played to its ceiling your opponents don't actually have a choice. The less of these cards I see in my metagame the happier I am.

One of your opponents can shut that down pretty easily tho. And only green actually has Regrowth. I mean, black has YawgWin, but then that's your real issue.

The worst are the ones like Acasemy Rector…

[Mookie]

Burning-Rune Demon is solid. A 6/6 flyer for 6 is a perfectly fair body, and tutoring up two cards is fantastic. An opponent will get to control which of the two you get to hand and which ends up in your graveyard, but there are plenty of ways to get around that - fetch recursion or a redundant effect. If your deck has graveyard synergies, it looks even better. Definitely on my shortlist of cards to test in Kess and Tasigur, amongst other decks. My Tasigur deck is already pretty much fork tribal anyway.

That said, it's not a strictly-better Rune-Scarred Demon. For one, your opponents do control what you end up with... so if you don't have more recursion in your deck, you may not get what you want. Additionally, the card you fetch gets revealed, which makes opponents more likely to hold up countermagic or interaction if you fetch something scary. It is possible to be a bit diplomatic (ex: 'give me the removal spell and I'll kill that creature'), but that isn't always feasible if you're already in a commanding position.

Of course, at six mana, it can be difficult to fit in a deck. It's generally not going to beat out the super-efficient tutors like Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor, and if you're playing a fast deck then you may not want to spend a full turn on a six-drop. I've always considered Rune-Scarred Demon to be pretty clunky, and shaving one mana off the price isn't necessarily enough to make me think otherwise. You really do want some way to take advantage of the double tutor.

[BaronCappuccino]

There was no doubt he had a slot in Chainer, Nightmare Adept. I treat it like a double tutor that I can sac and replay. Pretty insane.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, March 24th, 2021; Estrid's Invocation

[Dunharrow]

I love the card but honestly have no idea what to do with it. I don't have any enchantress decks.

[BeneTleilax]

I've only seen this a combo piece, but if blue starts getting better enchantress effects, I could see it getting more fair play.

[tempoEDH]

Moderately cheap cloning effect on enchantments, can either abuse etb effects, or just use the second bit to repurpose it when a better target enters - which means you never have to wait until there's a good target in order to play it, since you can always reuse it on a future upkeep. However, doesn't seem great unless you're either playing enchantress, or have a lot of strong enchantment enablers - in which case it can typically be more of a win-more card, since most of the enchantments you would likely be looking to as enablers for your deck are often strong enough to tip the game on their own, without needing a second copy. If it could target enchantments that opponents controlled, I might be a bigger fan, because there will almost always be at least one good enchantment on the field that's worth copying, but since it only targets your own, it seems a little underwhelming outside of dedicated enchantress.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, March 24th, 2021; Estrid's Invocation

It's better than Copy Enchantment. I think this card is pretty good, but I wouldn't call it underrated. It gets used exactly as much as you'd think. I do like the idea that you can copy an enchantment early, and then switch to something like Zendikar Resurgent when you table it.

Or, with ETBs/Constellation, you could get a trigger every turn. Omen of the Hunt and similar seem okay. Curves nicely with Omen of the Sea.

[materpillar]

I saw this get used to extremely good effect in a 5c saga deck since it could jump around and constantly be copying different ones without naturally dying off like sagas do.

[Outcryqq]

I really like Estrid's Invocation in my Zur cycling/enchantments deck: tutorable with Zur, becomes a copy of my best enchantment (Astral Slide, Aura of Silence, Propaganda, even just a Detention Sphere).

[Ruiner]

Big fan of this in my Hanna, Ship's Navigator deck. It lets me double up on an enchantment I'd like in play every turn to try to lock things up further or various other effects like another Mechanized Production, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe or whatever as needed.

Combos well with Treachery also when there are effects preventing you from untapping lands normally also. Not a super common thing but can come in handy.

[3drinks]

...this works with Paradox Haze, right? To get more than one upkeep.

[Sinis]

...this works with Paradox Haze, right? To get more than one upkeep.

As well as Sphinx of the Second Sun.

[Wallycaine]

...this works with Paradox Haze, right? To get more than one upkeep.

Mostly? If it's not already a copy of Paradox Haze at the beginning of your turn, then you can't flicker it in time to trigger. But if it's already a copy, you can certainly get an additional upkeep off it, and also flicker it to transform into something else with an upkeep trigger for your 2nd and 3rd upkeeps (and you can even flicker it back to being Paradox Haze on your 3rd upkeep, if you so desire).

[pokken]

I hate most things about Yarok, the Desecrated but I have a hankering to build an enchantment ETB deck periodically and Estrid's Invocation figures prominently in that.

[NGW]

Keep meaning to pick this one up for Amareth. Eventually.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It can also exploit constellation, but not things like Verduran Enchantress. But Paradox Haze is its main use.

[3drinks]

Thursday, March 25th, 2021; Brainstorm|ss1

This should be good. Let's see how many replies we get take the "cantrips are boring, they take up slots for real spells" stance.

[PrimevalCommander]

Cantrips are boring, they take up slots for real spells.

Well, I think they are overplayed at least, in casual circles I usually want to gain cards. Give me Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time, maybe some Fact or Fiction and Mystic Confluence. Impulse is my most liked cantrip due to the dig 4 and then get new cards after that. Early game filtering is decent early game, but typically I prefer to be up a card or two. Maybe I'm out of touch.

Brainstorm is sweet tech if you have topdeck synergies. I'll be using it in Yidris. I'll also try See the Truth.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Unless you're slamming fetches/shuffle effects or need topdeck manipulation, I think this is the worst common cantrip. Its efficacy ceiling is directly proportional to the budget of your manabase and the optimization of your deck, but dang, that floor is low, low, low.

Cantrips in general are solid magic though. Setting up a good turn or trying to cycle out of a bad one is worth one mana. They lower your average MV too. There's no truly awesome reason not to play them aside from eschewing blue altogether.

[DirkGently]

The existence of cards like Hullbreacher, Narset, Parter of Veils, Spirit of the Labyrinth, etc puts a non-zero tax on playing brainstorm (and to a lesser extent other cantrips). Normally they have a low cost and a fairly low (but worthwhile) upside. So it doesn't take a ton of pressure to push them out of optimality, imo.

If I can push the upside to being more significant - i.e. with topdeck matters or spell slinging or whatever - then I'll happily play them because they're worth the risks. Otherwise, eh, not usually.

But also yeah it's just a feelbad to run a do-nothing when there are a bunch of exciting cards to try out. In theory I'd run it if I was low on playables but lets be real, that basically never happens. Our cups runneth over for practically any strategy you can think of.

Worth pointing out that, in comparison to legacy, the percentage of your lands which are fetches is going to be much lower, which does lower the value of brainstorm in particular.

[Lifeless]

Not a whole lot to say about one of the most efficient draw spells ever. I'll agree that this type of card doesn't belong everywhere, but any deck that can capitalize on the drawing efficiency loves it. Arguably my favorite card to see in The Locust God, for example.

[Sinis]

The existence of cards like Hullbreacher, Narset, Parter of Veils, Spirit of the Labyrinth, etc puts a non-zero tax on playing brainstorm (and to a lesser extent other cantrips). Normally they have a low cost and a fairly low (but worthwhile) upside. So it doesn't take a ton of pressure to push them out of optimality, imo.

I remember first being disappointed with Brainstorm topdeck when an opponent had Consecrated Sphinx on the table.

[Ruiner]

It's great but not quite as effective as it would be in a format like Legacy.

I usually choose Ponder over Brainstorm if I am only going to choose one for a commander deck, but often I'll just play both anyway.