[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[Dunharrow]

I think Brainstorm is overplayed in Commander. But I also think cantrips are underplayed. They smooth out your land drops early, they help you dig later. They are great.

I would limit Brainstorm to the following decks:
1. Topdeck manipulation decks - My Maelstrom Wanderer benefits a lot from Brainstorm setting up cascades, putting lands on top of the library to be cleared away by cascade, and the deck has a ton of shuffle effects.
2. Decks that care about how many cards you draw or that double card draws easily. Brainstorm then becomes very strong for 1 mana.

If fetches are your only shuffle effects and you have no synergies, please do not play brainstorm. Opt is better. And Serum Visions. And Ponder. And Preordain. Also 2 mana cantrips. Also lands that cycle.

[folding_music]

Brainstorm's so nice if you're the Windfall/Winds of Change/Teferi's Puzzle Box doofus so the Brainstorm actually is just draw three, keep the best two for next turn. I barely own any fetches and try to build entire decks without tutor effects anyway so I've become a big Tolarian Winds person and value Brainstorm higher than some of the other cantrips in that situation.

edit: not Winds of Change, forgot the text lol. moving to library WITHOUT shuffling is the stuff I've been using.

[pokken]

I'm always surprised to see people without fetches playing Brainstorm over Preordain and Ponder just because it's "better."

I usually prefer Ponder even in my fetch heavy decks.

In a non-fetching low shuffle deck Serum Visions is arguably better even. Though it's worse at 'finding your second land now' it's generally a great first turn play.

[SocorroTortoise]

Brainstorm is much worse here than in legacy with the (typically) lower density of shuffle effects. It's still solid in the right list whether that's because topdeck/cards drawn matters or due to having enough ways to shuffle reliably.

I'm a big fan of cantrips in general. They're likely to never be the most exciting card in the deck, but they're solid at any stage of the game and help you do the interesting stuff you want to be doing more reliably.

[Crazy Monkey]

Brainstorm|ss1
Let's see how many replies we get take the "cantrips are boring, they take up slots for real spells" stance.

Cantrips that don't include a target are boring (coughs in Zada, Feather, and Orvar), but brainstorm is better then Crash Through. /s

Realistically, Brainstorm is one of the most efficient sources of card draw triggers, but it underperforms without shuffle or self mill effects.

[umtiger]

Even if preordain/ponder are more reliable/easier to use to better effect, the power ceiling on Brainstorm is massive.

It's way more busted with Teferi's Ageless Insight. I also play Thought Reflection. And then for cards like Niv-Mizzet...

[Mookie]

Brainstorm is a format staple... just not in the EDH format. It's broken alongside fetchlands in Legacy, but in EDH, people run significantly fewer fetchlands. If you don't have a shuffle effect, Brainstorm looks a lot worse than Ponder / Preordain / Opt. That said, it does have some strong synergies with anything that triggers off card draw, such as Niv-Mizzet, Parun. It also interacts very poorly with Hullbreacher effects, but well with cascade / topdeck effects.

As for cantrip effects in general... the faster you want your deck to be, the more valuable they are. If you're digging for a specific answer or combo piece, cantrips are one of the more effective ways to do so - they can dig you three cards deeper for a single mana. However, you're essentially trading value for efficiency, which is less valuable when the game goes longer. In a non-cEDH environment, I think you're likely to run out of cards if you primarily run cantrips. Still, definitely worth running a bunch of them if they do have synergy with your deck (I run a bunch in my Kess deck, for example). Balancing efficient card filtering vs raw card advantage is always a tricky thing.

I will note that in terms of improving efficiency, card filtering goes down a bit in value in a 100-card format, for a similar reason why tutors go up in value - when you have a larger deck and only singleton copies of cards, the odds of finding something specific goes way down. Still fine for finding a broad category of cards (ex: removal), but I wouldn't run a cantrip to find a more unique effect, like Panharmonicon - I'd rather just run redundancy for the effect in the first place.

[3drinks]

Friday, March 26th, 2021; Basri Ket

Man, I don't even remember this guy coming out at all. Looks like a strong white weenie support though. I'd have loved to jam this into Thalia back in her heyday.

[materpillar]

[Sinis]

Friday, March 26th, 2021; Basri Ket

I remember when 3-mana walkers were exceptionally low-costed. Now, there seems to be many of them.

There could be some exciting token-vomit with this guy (plus the usual Cathars' Crusade to make it super dangerous), but, it's pretty boring otherwise.

[JWK]

I play Basri in my Adriana and Anafenza decks. He's been okay in both. I have considered him in my Odric Keyword Soup deck, to grant indestructibility to the team and to assist in going wide.

[pokken]

Hey a card I am actually playing...I've got this in my Mangara, the Diplomat superfriends deck but haven't gotten to play it yet. It looks promising as a game winning emblem that people will not rush to disrupt because its abilities are generally medium.

[hyalopterouslemur]

This guy is great in tokens and superfriends.

+1 One of many, by force of will, blah blah blah. One will survive your next wrath.
-2 A bit different. in token decks, you play creatures either for entry triggers or for enchantmentesque abilities (Think Blood Artist and friends.) But you will still attack withbsome of them.
-6 Okay, this one gets cute with Cathars' Crusade, Doubling Season, Panharmonicon etc.)

[toctheyounger]

It looks pretty boring, but in the right shell he's relatively useful. The tick down ability more than anything else is pretty great for creature ETB abilities for doing something you mightve been doing anyway, the emblem is pretty great, abd the first ability is not without uses.

At this CMC, I don't expect much more than utility, and he does provide that. I use him in Tayam, Luminous Enigma for toolbox options.

He's also reusable with Titan and thats not nothing.

[3drinks]

Saturday, March 27th, 2021; Pull from Tomorrow

What a reasonable refill at instant speed to boot. Bonus if you care about the discard. Easily superiour to Blue Sun's Zenith, it's closest equivalent.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I disagree it's better than blue sun, which is a legit wincon with infinite mana, and for one more blue, shuffles back in. This card is still really strong though, the discard is almost always either negligible or advantageous.

[3drinks]

I disagree it's better than blue sun, which is a legit wincon with infinite mana, and for one more blue, shuffles back in. This card is still really strong though, the discard is almost always either negligible or advantageous.

Outside of infinite mana (which red sun also finishes with), the difference is at blue sun's minimum cmc ahem I mean mana value 🙄 is four for a +0. While this at four is a +0 with grave setup or at three if you really need that spot on the curve to dig. Blue sun being effectively unplayable at three is a huge setback, not to mention the big difference between two pips and three.

[Serenade]

I never realized this was more than a $1 rare.

[BeneTleilax]

I used to hate running card draw spells, because they always felt dull and off-theme. Now though, I'm coming to miss them as they've been supplanted by synergistic goodstuff with incidental draw. I think the format was in a better place when non-cedh generally had to take a break from their theme from time to time to restock on cards, rather than barreling forwards continually.

[hyalopterouslemur]

They feel off-theme, but they're kinda necessary. Nothing worse than topdeck mode. Even if you're just trying to find a combo piece, or a tutor for a combo piece.

Also, if she were so clairvoyant, she wouldn't be talking about tomorrow.

[JWK]

Solid card. I recently removed this from one of my decks for something cheaper in order to smooth out the deck's mana curve a bit, but I'm going to be watching the results pretty carefully and think it fairly likely I will be switching it back, or adding it back in and removing something else entirely.

[Dunharrow]

I like BSZ in monoblue better.
I like this in Ux decks that make a lot of mana.

But keep in mind that at 6 mv Opportunity is typically better (except for discard synergies), at 5 you have Mystic Confluence, and at 4 you have Fact or Fiction.
At 7 mana this is probably the best, but Into the Story feels more playable.

So ya, I feel like unless you are making crazy amounts of mana, there are probably other draw spells you would play. I know that this scales, so you are more likely to play it over Opportunity. I just think people play it too often. If you are only casting it for X = 2 most of the time, then just play Hieroglyphic Illumination.

[RadiantSophia]

Friday, March 26th, 2021; Basri Ket
Man, I don't even remember this guy coming out at all. Looks like a strong white weenie support though. I'd have loved to jam this into Thalia back in her heyday.

That golden and white armor. Paladin. Hair down on one side, but not quite over his eye. Definitely the cutest thing since Teyo. Oh, wait we're talking about the card?
I mean I don't play him in any of my decks right this instant, but I could see him going in the right deck. I like his +1

End transmission.

[Mookie]

Pull from Tomorrow is solid. There are a lot of options for big blue draw spells, with Stroke of Genius and Blue Sun's Zenith being the two main competitors, and Finale of Revelation as another option if you feel like being particularly greedy. Assuming the same amount of mana is invested, Pull from Tomorrow gives you an extra loot over Stroke / Zenith, which is pretty good. It also can't be redirected by Deflecting Swat effects. On the other hand, Stroke / Zenith can also pull double-duty as a win condition alongside infinite mana to mill an opponent out, and Zenith in particular is occasionally relevant as a way to prevent decking (or as an extra big draw spell if you even manage to draw it a second time).

Anyway, which is best is going to depend on the deck - Pull works best if you have graveyard / discard synergies, Stroke is good if you're playing Mizzix of the Izmagnus and want fewer colored mana symbols, and Zenith is best if you want to use it as a kill spell. They also all face competition from other blue card draw effects like Fact or Fiction, Mystic Confluence, and Rush of Knowledge. Hard to say which is best, but I do like the bigger effects in decks that make a ton of mana.

[3drinks]

Sunday, March 28th, 2021; Nezahal, Primal Tide