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

[DirkGently]

It's honestly stupid on their part.

Imo anyone who thinks they know better than WotC's legal team about the ramifications of reversing the reserved list - especially if those people don't have a law degree, which I would estimate is roughly 101% of them - sounds ridiculous. WotC is a company. If they could make more money printing RL cards than they lose in lawsuits, they'd do it. Companies do lawsuit math with customer safety all the time, where they're going into court against someone's mangled infant instead of a neckbeard with a black lotus collection.

I would guess - as a total legal novice - that if they announced they were reverse the RL, they could be forced to cease and desist (like how that shoe company was prevented from selling their modified nike shoes from the lil nas video). So then they'd be out the lawsuit money, but also wouldn't get the revenue from the RL reprints, and customers wouldn't get them either.

But honestly, who knows? They've certainly got the money to get a knowledgeable legal opinion. Whatever the reason is, any layman thinking they know better is pure wishful thinking.

Their stinginess with non-RL reprints, though... that's completely greedy on their part. And maybe also stupid, because in the long run, it is stifling some formats, such as modern, and because they could be making money hand over fist by putting out special printings of high-demand stuff at a somewhat premium price, but instead their practices are encouraging players of the most popular format - commander - to give up buying things at grossly inflated prices and just proxy instead.

It's a delicate balance. If they reprint everything expensive into the dirt, it makes it really hard to justify picking up expensive cards and the whole economy tanks. Who wants to spend even say $40 on a card, if it's likely to get reprinted down to $2? I dropped a lot of money on my RL cards that I would have been a LOT more hesitant to do if there was a possibility that they'd get cratered in a few months due to a reprint.

WotC makes money off packs, but the economy needs to be intact for cards to have any value. WotC is greedy, obviously - they're a company, greed is their DNA. But if they were just trying to make as much short-term money as possible, they'd spew fetches out of every orifice so sell as many packs as possible. They're perhaps overcautious, but I think it's reasonable to be cautious with the long-term health of the magic economy.

But then I've already got all the cards so I'm definitely a biased observer.

[JWK]

But honestly, who knows? They've certainly got the money to get a knowledgeable legal opinion. Whatever the reason is, any layman thinking they know better is pure wishful thinking.

I know %$#%-all about the law, but there are lots of attorneys who also play Magic. I've talked to some of those attorneys - including ones that specialize in business and/or contract law - about this, and there are more who have talked about this issue in various venues, and the opinion is pretty uniform. Legally, they can do whatever they wish with the RL. They have already reprinted things from it, and removed cards from it, with zero legal consequences, because it is not legally enforceable. It is highly questionable whether it was ever enforceable, but once the company that made the initial decision was bought by another company (Hasbro) the new company was under no obligation to maintain it, and they can discontinue it whenever they wish. The question is, why do they maintain it, and that's a place where we can only speculate.

It's a delicate balance. If they reprint everything expensive into the dirt, it makes it really hard to justify picking up expensive cards and the whole economy tanks. Who wants to spend even say $40 on a card, if it's likely to get reprinted down to $2? I dropped a lot of money on my RL cards that I would have been a LOT more hesitant to do if there was a possibility that they'd get cratered in a few months due to a reprint.

If once a year they released some sort of premium product that included a handfull of the high-demand cards from the past couple years, plus some much-needed reprints on older cards - including, potentially, RL ones - they could make a lot of money while still charging a high enough price that it wouldn't crater the secondary market. It would be a balancing act, for sure, but as is, they're on the verge of the current model tanking pretty bad as people stop waiting for reprints that never come or come in such a trickle they are irrelevant, and just start proxying everything, thus preventing either WotC or the secondary market sellers from making a cent.

But then I've already got all the cards so I'm definitely a biased observer.

I have a pretty deep pool too, and more disposable income than the average player, but I also build and maintain a lot of decks, and I'm fed up with the lack of reasonable availability of a wide range of cards, for me and for players in general. At this point, I'm not planning to pick up further copies of anything I already own that costs more than a couple of bucks. I'll keep buying new releases and using stuff I get from those purchases, but If I decide a deck of mine needs some fetches or something like Smothering Tithe or Finale of Devastation or whatever, and the copies I already own are spoken for, from here on until WotC changes their model, I'm just going to proxy rather than continue to support the current, predatory system.

[Rumpy5897]

Credit where credit is due, 2020 was a surprisingly good reprint year. A bunch of their efforts got stuffed by pandemic-related shortages, but there's been a lot of needed cards covered between Mystery Booster, M21, JMP and CMR. This is particularly useful for desirable cards with non-existent print runs. Some examples include Rings of Brighthearth, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Staff of Domination.

2021 has been less fortunate on this front. There are some okay reprints scattered in the various commander decks, but that's about it. The release schedule does not have me believe this is about to change, minus the heralded MH2 fetch reprint. I was hoping 2020 was a trendsetter, not a fluke. Hopefully they'll implement the positive feedback from 2020 once their time frames allow them.

[DirkGently]

I know %$#% about the law, but there are lots of attorneys who also play Magic.

I'm very-much-not-an-expert in the law, so the only thing I can reasonably justify my opinion on - and I would argue the same for you - is the authority of the person making the argument. And I can't think of any reason why some random magic-playing lawyers - or any human being on earth, really - would know more about the issue than the WotC legal team, or who would have more incentive to want the RL removed than WotC. But they don't remove it.

I mean if you want to hedge and say "idk, it seems like maybe it's possible" then sure fine whatever, but confidently saying they're being stupid when you know essentially nothing on the topic is uh...welll........

If once a year they released some sort of premium product that included a handfull of the high-demand cards from the past couple years, plus some much-needed reprints on older cards - including, potentially, RL ones - they could make a lot of money while still charging a high enough price that it wouldn't crater the secondary market.

Isn't that basically just describing what they're doing with masters sets, secret lair, commander precons, etc?

I mean, back in ye goode olde dayes the only reprints that happened were basically whatever ended up in the core set, which usually wasn't anything very exciting. So it may not be as much as people want, but it's a lot more than it used to be.

Personally it's too much for me. Whenever a reprint set comes along to clog up the draft environment for a few weeks I gag =/ And don't even get me started on secret lairs.

I have a pretty deep pool too, and more disposable income than the average player, but I also build and maintain a lot of decks,

Just keep an omni-collection, then you never need more than 1 of anything. And you can build new decks at the drop of a hat for no extra money.

As far as the business being predatory...yeah no %$#%, it's always been predatory. It's not suddenly predatory now. I've got a friend if mine that barely even plays the game but keeps buying booster boxes just for the excitement of maybe opening something good. The booster pack model has always been predatory.

[3drinks]

Friday, April 23rd, 2021; Zendikar Resurgent

How good is this, really? At the seven I have my doubts. Especially in g where I can double my mana for half the cost via vernal bloom. Idk, I just find this incredibly over played and over rated.

[Sinis]

Friday, April 23rd, 2021; Zendikar Resurgent

I find it's pretty hard to justify 7-mana setup pieces. Even something like Nyxbloom Ancient is pretty hard to leverage, IME.

I recently built Moritte of the Frost with a lot of cards like this with the intent of copying them to make them even more crazy; Thought Reflection, Mana Reflection, etc. I think they're probably only good if you find yourself ramping every turn for the first three turns.

[Outcryqq]

Zendikar Resurgent: first two comments were negative towards it, and frankly I'm surprised. I can see this being terrible in very competitive metas, but in more battlecruiser style EDH, this thing is a complete bomb. You don't use it solely for the mana doubling - comparing to Vernal Bloom isn't realistic, as the doubling for that card is symmetrical, and it completely ignores the very important second part (card draw). This card gives you two things that green decks with heavy creature counts want - more mana and more cards. It's a great way to allow your stompy deck to continue committing resources to the board while keeping your hand full of stuff for post-boardwipe.

[JWK]

I think this is a fine card, but it often ends up not making the cut in my decks because I run relatively few cards CMC 6+. It's hard to argue against mana doubling + card draw in big, stompy decks that include G, but at the same time, if you are ramping aggressively to play this early, why aren't you just using that ramp to push out aggressive cards that win on their own rather than depending on the enabling provided by this card? In my Ruric Thar deck, for example, I would prefer to be hitting people in the face for a lot of damage as quickly as possible, rather than rushing to 14 or 16 mana before I start punching face. I don't think either path is wrong, though, it's just a matter of which one you'd prefer.

[Sinis]

Zendikar Resurgent: first two comments were negative towards it, and frankly I'm surprised. I can see this being terrible in very competitive metas, but in more battlecruiser style EDH, this thing is a complete bomb. You don't use it solely for the mana doubling - comparing to Vernal Bloom isn't realistic, as the doubling for that card is symmetrical, and it completely ignores the very important second part (card draw). This card gives you two things that green decks with heavy creature counts want - more mana and more cards. It's a great way to allow your stompy deck to continue committing resources to the board while keeping your hand full of stuff for post-boardwipe.

I think I should clarify my position: I think it's an absolute house when you can table it. If the player to your right wraths, and you plunk down a ZR, you're in a very decent place.

I just find the ability to table it (and cards like it that I mentioned) to either be in a) very ramp heavy decks, or b) in particular situations (like post-wipe).

I mean, I still play the card.

[Lifeless]

It does a lot of work at your "average" EDH table, but the real gem is that last sentence since it's so easy to leverage unfairly. 7 cmc is certainly an issue, but this was a card my playgroup was very excited about when it was released and it's pretty much lived up to expectations.

[Hawk]

I'd say my meta is generally pretty 50-60%, with just a few decks skewing higher, and this has been pretty medium even there. Seven mana is a ton, and it's absolutely devastating if it gets nuked on the turn cycle. It's good in a deck that can ensure you're going to have a Wilderness Reclamation/Seedborn Muse effect active with it (maybe like newcomer Beledros Witherbloom?) to immediately leverage the mana, but many decks that fit that bill also have access to, well, those effects, or something cheaper like Mirari's Wake. Even monogreen has stuff like the aforementioned as well as Vernal Bloom, Caged Sun, Mana Reflection, and Gauntlet of Power coming in a bit sooner.

So on balance, this card definitely feels pretty win-more; the few times I've seen it take over a game were games where the player was a heavy favorite anyways and didn't really "need it", and for every game where it's helped someone snowball and slam the door there's been a game where this was a crippling tempo-loss since they tapped out for it and it immediately ate a disenchant.

[Dunharrow]

Not for every deck but I use it very well in my Mina and Denn, Wildborn deck. I have a lot of ramp, so it basically doubles mana and lets me chain a bunch of creatures together.. often as of turn 5.
It is also very good with Temur Sabertooth and Possibility Storm

In non-blue decks this can be a huge source of card draw. you untap with this and have 14+ mana to chain together multiple threats... pretty strong!

I think it is my only deck that runs it.

[pokken]

I am super tired of this card. It just overwhelms every game it's in, if it isn't immediately removed. The idea of them putting a mana doubler and a draw engine on the most resilient permanent type is just super annoying.

This is way up there in my least favorite design approaches.

At a higher level the concept of "I tap out for this then dare you to let me untap with it" card design is super irritating to me. Cards like Swarm Intelligence and Thousand-Year Storm and so on. Blech.

[Mookie]

WotC: "Green's weakness is it needs creatures to draw cards"
Also WotC: "All of green's creatures now draw cards"

Zendikar Resurgent is a strong card. It costs seven mana... but you're in green, so you can just ramp to it. Once you do, you have even more mana, and all your creatures cantrip. It's very capable of dominating a game if left unchecked. That said, green decks do have a lot of options for this effect - The Great Henge, Soul of the Harvest, Beast Whisperer, and a bunch of others. There are fewer ways to double your mana, but they do exist - Mana Reflection, Keeper of Progenitus, Vernal Bloom.... Of course, there aren't many other cards that combine both of the effects, but as anyone that has ever seen a Simic deck in action knows, ramp and card draw go very well together.

Speaking more broadly, I'm a fan of expensive, high-risk, high-reward cards. If they stick around, you probably win, and if they get killed immediately, you probably lose.... but that just adds variance to the gameplay, and makes things interesting. Snowballing effects on cheap cards are miserable (see: many cheap planeswalkers), but when you start casting six or seven mana cards, I do think they should start to affect the game in big ways. That said, I will agree that snowballing effects can be problematic on enchantments, since they tend to be more difficult to kill than other permanent types.

....I'm going to hope that WotC is going to start pulling back on green's 'play a creature, draw a card' effects though - they've sort of gotten out of hand, to the point that green is arguably better at drawing cards than blue (in Standard, at least).

[hyalopterouslemur]

Not quite. Green needs to draw cards in a green way (i.e., focusing on creatures, lands, or enchantments, or high mana value cards, or destroying artifacts) or just standard cantrips and cycling). Token players have been using the combo of Mycosynth Lattice and Viridian Revel for some time. (You can then use Aura Shards, Nullmage Shepherd, or Martyrs' Bond to destroy everything and draw your deck.)

Seven mana is a lot, but you're in green. The big problem is Mana Reflection and Nyxbloom Ancient superficially more value, but they don't draw so insanely.

[pokken]

I think I would have liked zendikar resurgent a lot more of it keyed off forests only for doubling mana. That's really the thing that craps it up for me is becomes goodstuff instead of a neat mono green tool.

[RadiantSophia]

Friday, April 23rd, 2021; Zendikar Resurgent

How good is this, really? At the seven I have my doubts. Especially in g where I can double my mana for half the cost via vernal bloom. Idk, I just find this incredibly over played and over rated.

+ Grinning Ignus. Much fun was had by all (well, by me anyway). Draw, draw, draw, draw, draw more cards

End transmission.

[Treamayne]

I think I would have liked zendikar resurgent a lot more of it keyed off forests only for doubling mana. That's really the thing that craps it up for me is becomes goodstuff instead of a neat mono green tool.

At least it is "Cast a creature" rather than "When a creature ETBs..."

Though I like having ZR boost any color, since mono green already has Gaea's Touch, Vernal Bloom, Nissa and Sasaya's Essence. I run it in my Gahiji Beast deck since if it sticks, it helps cast the fatties; if it doesn't then it drew removal that might have hit Cream of the Crop or Lurking Predators.

I would have preferred a cost on the draw effect for better balance and flavor. Something like: Creature spells in your hand have "Kicker G" and "When this enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, draw a card"

[pokken]

At least it is "Cast a creature" rather than "When a creature ETBs..."

I guess, although it beating Hushbringer has come up a few times

[Treamayne]

Very true, though I feel that the number of Token decks that would use ZR if it was ETB would outstrip the number of players packing Hushbringer.

[3drinks]

Saturday, April 24th, 2021; Riptide Shapeshifter

[DirkGently]

This was among the first cards I owned. I remember wanting to break it by (shock gasp) the brilliant strategy of having just one powerful target for whatever creature type I chose. I bet no one has thought of that.

I guess he's a decent way to hit jin gitaxias or whatever. Costs less, splits it in half, gives you a recursion target, and gives it pseudo-flash if you want to drop in an eldrazi right before you untap and swing. I'm kind of surprised he's in so few decks, less than 200. Maybe it's just because it's annoying to reveal most of your deck (as a Plargg, Dean of Chaos player I can confirm this).

[pokken]

I like this effect it just kinda winds up being too expensive for me most of the time. I don't tend to play a lot of fatties or decks that want to fetch a single creature.

I could definitely see it doing work in a polymorph-type deck though, where you control the types and can always fish out the appropriate fattie. But that mana cost

The nice part is, it's a standalone card, kinda slow Oath of Druids-esque that lets you not have to find ways to make tokens or sacrifice your commander to polymorph, I guess?

[hyalopterouslemur]

Ah yes, Riptide Shapeshifter, a card that is distinctively anti-tribal, and obviously means you'll be annoyed by your own changelings.

Alternately, use it with Vizier of the Menagerie and just go with whatever's on top.

But let's be honest: This idea is usually good, and fun (for you) with Illusionist's Bracers'

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 25th, 2021; Armix, Filigree Thrasher

What's not to love? Partner, reanimator setup, removal, cares about artifacts...