[MCD] Trash or Treasure: New Card Testing and Results

[Sinis]

I've been playing Flubs, the Fool as a general, and it's been pretty decent. Definitely demands to be built around, and I think it can be interesting and more varied than just storm.

I've had good experiences with Parting Gust as a modal flicker or removal. Perhaps not the most exciting card, but it feels pretty great to play.

[Mookie]

Forgot to mention it because I didn't play against it myself, but someone was piloting Storm, Force of Nature yesterday at the table next to me. I inquired after the game and their feedback was that Storm is, shockingly, quite broken - they apparently won with four copies of Expropriate. Captain America, First Avenger was apparently also quite strong.

[Lifeless]

That very much sounds like an Expropriate problem and not a Storm problem. A common malady really.

[Dunadain]

That very much sounds like an Expropriate problem and not a Storm problem. A common malady really.

Meh, could have just as easily been Time Stretch. As long as big instants/sorceries exist, I have no interest in playing with or against Storm, Force of Nature.

[Mookie]

I recently pulled off the Samut, Voice of Dissent + Conclave Sledge-Captain wombo combo - if Samut isn't blocked, she'll deal 30 points of commander damage and grow to a 96/97, which is... very big. There aren't that many green commanders with double strike, but certainly worth consideration for any Rafiq of the Many decks out there. Maybe Anzrag, the Quake-Mole too?

@Rumpy5897 - I also finally cast Evercoat Ursine. T5 Samut, T6 smack an opponent with it and cast a free Ezuri's Predation, followed by Etali, Primal Storm the next turn. I do think that was a bit of a highroll, but the odds of getting at least one good thing in six cards are pretty good.

Overall, I think the card is good but replaceable - Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth // Temple of Cultivation is a straight upgrade, while Emergent Woodwurm and Doomskar Warrior also fill a similar role (as do plenty of other green stompy value creatures like Elder Gargaroth). I have found myself to be a bit risk-averse with it though - I often hesitate to cast it without haste. Sharing a mana slot with Samut is also a bit awkward. Hmmm.... not sure if it will stay in my list long-term, but I do think I'll add it to my cube.

[cheonice]

I recently pulled off the Samut, Voice of Dissent + Conclave Sledge-Captain wombo combo - if Samut isn't blocked, she'll deal 30 points of commander damage and grow to a 96/97, which is... very big. There aren't that many green commanders with double strike, but certainly worth consideration for any Rafiq of the Many decks out there. Maybe Anzrag, the Quake-Mole too?

@Rumpy5897 - I also finally cast Evercoat Ursine. T5 Samut, T6 smack an opponent with it and cast a free Ezuri's Predation, followed by Etali, Primal Storm the next turn. I do think that was a bit of a highroll, but the odds of getting at least one good thing in six cards are pretty good.

Overall, I think the card is good but replaceable - Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth // Temple of Cultivation is a straight upgrade, while Emergent Woodwurm and Doomskar Warrior also fill a similar role (as do plenty of other green stompy value creatures like Elder Gargaroth). I have found myself to be a bit risk-averse with it though - I often hesitate to cast it without haste. Sharing a mana slot with Samut is also a bit awkward. Hmmm.... not sure if it will stay in my list long-term, but I do think I'll add it to my cube.

Conclave Sledge-Captain is so much fun!

[TheGildedGoose]

As predicted, every relevant untapped MDFC has overperformed in every deck I put them in, and I replaced lands with them. If Otawara, Soaring City is a land with upside, so is Soporific Springs.

[aliciaofthevast]

I've heard lots of chatter about Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs, and I only today saw what it did because I kept forgetting to look it up. It seems so obvious to me, that this card belongs in any deck with u! Three isn't a bad rate for a counterspell anyway and this one does that and more 🤔

[Ruiner]

I threw together a Templar Knight deck led by Haytham Kenway recently, knowing full well its a dumb deck. After four games so far, it's done better than expected. A steady stream of cheap 5/3's with vigilance is definitely a threat. It's still a "bad deck", but better than I thought it'd be.

[onering]

What legendary artifacts are you putting in there to grab with the templar's?

[Ruiner]

What legendary artifacts are you putting in there to grab with the templar's?

Bident of Thassa
Akroma's Memorial
Thrumming Stone
Dragon Throne of Tarkir
Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut

I haven't fetched them all yet, but they all seem very solid to me. I just put Graaz in the deck today after some cards showed up in the mail, I think it is very promising.

Oh, and Horn of the Mark and The Reality Chip are also in the deck as fetchable targets but its very unlikely I'd actually search them up specifically.

[Mookie]

I added Glamdring to Kess a while ago, and I finally actually got to have a game with it. I played Kess T3 off a mana rock, played and equipped Glamdring T4 and used it to cast a cantrip, then connected again the next turn and got a free Blatant Thievery. By the end, it was granting +8/+0 or so, which felt impressive.

I'm not entirely sold on the card - the fact that you only get spells from hand means it doesn't generate any card advantage, and the tempo boost of getting a free spell matters less for a control deck. Still, control decks can sometimes struggle to close out games, so it gives a nice alternative path to victory. Seems great if you're running a spellslinger deck that actually cares about combat.

I also played one of the speed lands (Amonkhet Raceway), and saw an opponent play Muraganda Raceway. I'm not sure if either of us hit max speed, so I would say they felt pretty inconsequential - by the time you reach max speed, the game is probably already wrapping up. Might be okay in more aggressive decks, but I feel like they're a bit of a miss if you're tossing them in a random list. Will keep testing though.

...I also got a free The Great Aurora off Plargg and Nassari, which was.... a thing. Not sure if P&N are good, but they're certainly interesting.

[onering]

P&N are great. They are similar to Etali, but cheaper. With that cost reduction comes the fact that your opponent will almost certainly choose the best card to ensure you cannot cast it (though politics means that sometimes you can choose an opponent who will work with you, or the best card revealed happens to help the chosen opponent so they let you have it). It also limits you to two spells, which means you'll generally be getting less than with Etali, but unlike Etali it doesn't whiff (revealing 4 lands with Etali is a feel bad). Etali having an attack trigger instead of an upkeep trigger with P&N, which is both exploitable but also a liability (give him haste to get the trigger the turn you cast him, and extra attacks get extra triggers, but sometimes you need to put him in danger to get the trigger and can be prevented from getting it by effects that prevent it from attacking).

I think it's just not quite as good as Etali, but is going to be great nevertheless in anything he's great in.

[Mookie]

Got in another game with Muraganda Raceway - I played it T1, and I finally hit max speed around T10 or so. So... yeah. I think speed may, ironically, be one of the slowest mechanics ever printed. I think they could be okay in more aggressive decks, but they feel like a miss unless you're already running a bunch of cheap enablers. Maybe Flying Men decks like Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow? Hmm....

On the plus side, I had some positive experiences with a few other newish cards.

• I used Copy Land to copy a Hullbreaker Horror that I had previously hit with Imprisoned in the Moon, which was amusing. I'm not sure if it was actually better than copying the Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale I had out, but certainly silly. I've found Copy Land to be pretty good, as I have mentioned in the past - the 'is an enchantment' downside is pretty minor, since it's not an intuitive attribute of the card... and thus opponents are even more likely to forget about it. Mass enchantment removal is pretty rare in my meta, which helps.
• Benthic Anomaly has consistently impressed me by the sheer number of stats it adds to the board - the token is consistently 10+ power, and it's not hard for it to reach 15 or even 20 power... and if my opponents do get rid of it, I still have the 7/8 left behind. It does tend to result in some confusion from opponents though - I've seen people try to counter the token multiple times.
• Shadow of the Second Sun did something silly - I used Benthic Anomaly to copy a Psychosis Crawler, then cast a big draw spell. Opponent responded with March of Swirling Mist... but Shadow let me phase it back in and untap all of my lands at end of turn, which let me cast another big draw spell (Pull from Tomorrow) and burn out the rest of the table. I'm not entirely sold on SotSS (or Sphinx of the Second Sun, by extension), but it seems to be alright, assuming you have stuff to do at instant speed. It plays particularly well with flash (as you may expect), and I also saw an opponent running it in their Braids, Conjurer Adept deck. That said, I will note the trigger timing is not intuitive - I've found myself regularly casting it during my second main phase and thus missing the trigger, because I parse it as an 'at end of turn' trigger.

[PrimevalCommander]

Finally go to see Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power in Zurzoth, Chaos Rider. Had a Heraldic Banner in play that turned my devils into Lava Axes, which was essentially living the dream for me. It was all dash hopes when a Farewell hit the stack, but it was fun watching my opponent's squirm for a few turns. Where was my Goblin Bombardment?

[Ruiner]

Got a chance to see Elsha, Threefold Master in action last night as a new card in the 99 of my Narset, Enlightened Exile deck. With double Prowess it got out of hand fast. Ended the game swinging out with 9 Monk tokens, Elisha, and Narset all swinging at "storm count 3" with the 3rd spell being Akroma's Will.

[Mookie]

Had a nice game with Darksteel Mutation - I'm running it with Tayam, and I got to reanimate it with Sun Titan to throw it on a Valgavoth, Terror Eater (ignoring ward!) that would have otherwise hosed my deck. I'm usually ambivalent on aura-based removal, but the reanimated-auras-ignore-targeting-restrictions trick has come up multiple times - it's great against ward, shroud, and hexproof, and it's also something opponents rarely see coming. I'm probably going to add Kenrith's Transformation as a second option, and I'll recommend it for any deck that can cheat (or flicker) an aura into play.

I also got to do some fun things with Battle of Hoover Dam. Tayam is uniquely suited to it, given its ability to remove finality counters and high density of cheap creatures to recur, but I could see myself running it elsewhere even without a way to reset the counters. Doubling-dipping on value creatures like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Thraben Inspector seems pretty nice. Seems reasonable in any deck that can fuel it. I guess Smile at Death is a generally superior effect, but end-of-turn effects always feel nice - I don't like giving my opponents a chance to disrupt my value.

On the flip side, I've decided to cut Calamity of Cinders. I liked the idea of it in Samut, since I can untap opponents' creatures (and easily tap my own), but in practice, killing tapped creatures is usually more important than killing untapped ones... because the tapped creatures are usually the ones attacking me. Missing big (7+ toughness) creatures is also a concern. Hoping to replace it with Split Up.

[Serenade]

Would you use Reprobation over Darksteel Mutation?

[Mookie]

Would you use Reprobation over Darksteel Mutation?

Huh, I was not aware of this card. Darksteel Mutation is particularly good at shutting down commanders, but it also gives an indestructible blocker. Hmmm.... I could see myself testing it. I think trading off a commander and recasting it is slow enough to not be too concerning, and I can always just recur it anyway.

[MAGUSZANIN]

Darksteel Mutation and Kenrith's Transformation have both been great in every Enchantress deck I've ever built. Why yes, I would like my spot removal to draw 1-5 cards, thank you! Locking Commanders down for an indeterminate amount of time, potentially resulting in a two for one as they remove their own commander is hilarious as well.

Eaten by Piranhas and Amphibian Downpour are notable as an instant speed version of the effect if you're in Blue, with Downpour even being able to scale into mass disruption if you time it right.

Adding to the thread, I am consistently impressed with Case of the Shifting Visage in Mirko, but basically any Blue graveyard deck can use it. The base mode is nothing to write home about, but once you solve the case, it is basically guaranteed to win the game in a couple turns or less. It's basically a must kill card. 15 cards in the graveyard isn't trivial, but if you are consistently playing out of the yard anyway then you probably are already built to do that pretty easily. I can't count the number of times I've killed people with copied Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Massacre Wurm, or Dreg Mangler, especially with the clone sub theme often allowing me to dump 4+ copies into play at once.

[onering]

I'm not sure if Smiles at Death is actually better than Hoover Dam.

As mentioned, the Dam Battle triggers at the end step so it's harder to disrupt, but there are other differences in favor of the Dam Battle. While it only rez's. Ome creature instead of two, it can get 3 drops, which can be very consequential. It also costs one W less, which makes it come out earlier (which combined with being an end step trigger makes it do its thing two turns earlier than Smiles at Death). Then there's the Caesar's Legion mode, which cannot be discounted. Smiles at Death's effect is more powerful, but not strictly better because of the mana value difference, and that's before getting into the other aspects of the card.

[DirkGently]

Just played against Ugin, Eye of the Storms for the first time last night, and hooooo boy is that card some ol' %$#%$#% in a colorless deck. Just casually exiling 5+ cards per turn cycle before even activating him. Didn't help that the other 2 players were running pretty low-powered decks but still. Extremely frustrating design imo.

[Moxnix]

Thats the best card for colorless edlrazi style decks card they have printed in a long time pure gas

[onering]

Ugin was stupid in draft with zero support, I'm not shocked it's broken in any deck that actually supports it.

[DirkGently]

After opening an Ugin, Eye of the Storms in the spring flourishes draft and cruising to an easy 3-0, I can now attest that the card is totally fair and not at all broken nonsense.