[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[Mookie]

Siege Elemental is a fine card. It effectively incentivizes everyone to attack each turn, assuming people want their creatures to be able to block. Would I run a 6/6 trampling Fumiko the Lowblood? In some decks, sure, but definitely not every deck. If you the ability to tap / untap things, then it's somewhat more interesting, but still not amazing.

The playtest cards are generally pretty interesting. I find it interesting that Maro has commented that he regrets letting them see print, since, unlike the silver-bordered un-cards, they went through zero testing whatsoever, resulting in... pretty wonky power levels. On the other hand, given the existence of Blacker Lotus and Jack-in-the-Mox, I wouldn't exactly say the normal silver-bordered cards are exactly balanced either (and the more recent Unstable cards aren't much better).

On the flip side, I'll note that with the addition of digital-only cards to Arena, I could see some of the playtest mechanics actually be printed. Many of them couldn't see print in paper either due to logistical or memory issues, but those aren't actual issues in digital, where the game itself can track things for you.

[Wallycaine]

Siege Elemental is a fine card. It effectively incentivizes everyone to attack each turn, assuming people want their creatures to be able to block. Would I run a 6/6 trampling Fumiko the Lowblood? In some decks, sure, but definitely not every deck. If you the ability to tap / untap things, then it's somewhat more interesting, but still not amazing.

The playtest cards are generally pretty interesting. I find it interesting that Maro has commented that he regrets letting them see print, since, unlike the silver-bordered un-cards, they went through zero testing whatsoever, resulting in... pretty wonky power levels. On the other hand, given the existence of Blacker Lotus and Jack-in-the-Mox, I wouldn't exactly say the normal silver-bordered cards are exactly balanced either (and the more recent Unstable cards aren't much better).

Worth noting that Maro's concern isn't about *power level* playtesting (though I'm not sure I see any unstable cards that are anywhere close to those two). He's concerned about them not having gone through playtesting to ensure fun *gameplay*. Which is a different horse than just being balanced. Just as an example, a card that's Aetherflux Reservoir but without the lifegain aspect is probably *balanced* just fine. But it's not terribly fun for anyone involved.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Sylvan Library, The Great Henge come to mind.

Beast Whisperer Guardian Project Elemental Bond Soul of the Harvest

Garruk's Uprising is on the list as well Primordial Sage too.

Literally none of those are engines.

Anyway, I do think a red Masako the Humorless is a color pie violation and not particularly funny.

[Serenade]

I wonder if Plargg, Dean of Chaos // Augusta, Dean of Order (the Augusta side) had any connection to this guy. It would make for an interesting Boros general.

[3drinks]

Saturday, July 31st, 2021; Steel Overseer|mps

I'm sure there's some combo applications here...

[DirkGently]

Combo applications? Can't think of why it would be better than any random pinger in a tap combo, but maybe I'm just tired.

It's a decent card in an artifact creature deck, but it's definitely a bit slow. The biggest plus is the low cmc, which is nice but kinda offset by the fact that you probably won't have much on board to pump that early. Overall I think I'd usually rather just have some sort of anthem with a bit more immediate and lasting impact.

[3drinks]

Combo applications? Can't think of why it would be better than any random pinger in a tap combo, but maybe I'm just tired.

It's a decent card in an artifact creature deck, but it's definitely a bit slow. The biggest plus is the low cmc, which is nice but kinda offset by the fact that you probably won't have much on board to pump that early. Overall I think I'd usually rather just have some sort of anthem wiof th a bit more immediate and lasting impact.

Off the top of my head I'd say anything that uses +1 counters. Persist, Kraj and the like.

[Sinis]

Saturday, July 31st, 2021; Steel Overseer

This card goes pretty wild in my Emry deck. I've won plenty of games off of Overseer + Unwinding Clock/Clock of Omens.

The best part about Clock of Omens is that the more artifact creatures you have to untap the Overseer, the better the Overseer gets. On its own, it's just kind of okay, but I think it really shines when you get your Clocks/Keys/OG Tezzeret or whatever and it turns into more than a turn-over-turn anthem.

[pokken]

It was always a complete house in my EDH affinity deck. Usually two activations meant victory.

[Dunharrow]

Artifacts and aggro, two things I never play.

[JWK]

It's a solid card, good with even a modestly synergistic build and potentially really strong with decks that with artifact untappy shenanigans. Also very good in artifact Marchesa builds.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Combo applications? Can't think of why it would be better than any random pinger in a tap combo, but maybe I'm just tired.

It's a decent card in an artifact creature deck, but it's definitely a bit slow. The biggest plus is the low cmc, which is nice but kinda offset by the fact that you probably won't have much on board to pump that early. Overall I think I'd usually rather just have some sort of anthem with a bit more immediate and lasting impact.

This. Ghave/Marath Lattice has access to a dozen variants of "you get a counter, you get a counter, you get a counter, over nine thousand counters!" and could just use Cathars' Crusade (and like, three other [carxxx=Ivy Lane Denizen]cards[/card] off the top of my head in Ghave) to work that side of the engine (or, you know, proliferate); at least a half-dozen cards (Earthcraft, Cryptolith Rite, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Utopia Mycon for Ghave, Workhorse, Mana Echoes for Marath) go infinite. Some version of Raffinity could use this, just because modular, but proliferate also exists. (And with Hanna, Breya, Sharuum, or Sydri at the helm, you're in white.)

Sun Titan package? I don't keep my Sun Titan package around that long usually; it's usually recur, crack, repeat next attack. Maybe some blinking.

If you just want a blanket +1/+1, Tempered Steel doubles your pleasure, doubles your fun, though you pay an extra 50% for that stick of gum.

Now that I think about it, my Ghave and Marath when a creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature/all creatures options play well with persist too.

[Mookie]

Re: combo - Steel Overseer + Cinderhaze Wretch + Mycosynth Lattice + Necrotic Ooze makes your creatures arbitrarily large in mono-black.

Anyway, Steel Overseer is fine, but feels pretty niche to me. If you're running a lot of artifact creature or tokens and plan to be attacking with them, putting a bunch of +1/+1 counters on them sounds great. However, there aren't that many aggressive artifact decks in the format. It does work well with the modular mechanic, but that isn't a mechanic that shows up that often in EDH outside Marchesa, the Black Rose... although more recently, we've gotten Alibou, Ancient Witness and Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp, both of which seem like they would love to have Steel Overseer available. Maybe it's finally its time to shine?

[DirkGently]

Off the top of my head I'd say anything that uses +1 counters. Persist, Kraj and the like.

There's only 1 artifact creature with persist, plus two scarecrows that can gain persist. I'm not really sure what the combo is though. You can get a free sac once per turn cycle, sure, but is that really clearing the bar for "combo"?

I'm not sure what the kraj synergy would be either. I guess he makes it easy to set up your artifact creatures so kraj can use their abilities, but I don't see kraj using many artifact creatures, plus he could just put the counter on them himself, so again I'm not seeing how this clears the bar for "combo".

Obviously when you staple multiple other powerful combo-y cards together you can eventually find a combo, but you could hardly call overseer the critical card, nor call those combos efficient. Commander's spellbook shows zero combos with steel overseer.

To me, he doesn't look like a combo card at all. He's just looks like a way to beef up your artifact beeferinos - maybe with a little bit of light synergy with trike or whatever, but nothing to write home about.

EDIT: ooh, I thought of another silly one - Cauldron of Souls + Anger + March of the Machines + sac outlet = infinite sacs + unlimited counters on your other artifacts. But I think this mostly just goes to show that anything in magic can be a combo if you look hard enough.

EDIT EDIT: actually hold up, you also need Glorious Anthem or whatever or overseer will just die immediately.

[BeneTleilax]

Zabaz loves this guy. I don't have any combos with him, but he enjoys unwinding clock

[3drinks]

Sunday, August 1st, 2021; Tendershoot Dryad

I always liked the city's blessing. What a flavourful ability. This is probably the best card to utilize it.

[3drinks]

EDIT: ooh, I thought of another silly one - Cauldron of Souls + Anger + March of the Machines + sac outlet = infinite sacs + unlimited counters on your other artifacts.

Yeah, this is where I was headed. Steel Overseer + Cauldron of Souls + Clock of Omens to generate an arbitrarily large number of untaps plus ETB effects from both your creature's triggered abilities + any static effects you have on entering (say, pandemonium and the like). using Precursor Golem/Wurmcoil Engine/Myr Battlesphere/Triplicate Titan (copper gnomes can even cheat these high mana value baddies out for you!) allows you to also generate an arbitrarily large board as your creature density grows with each iteration of the loop, and using Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar allows you to generate an arbitrarily large amount of mana. Using Altar of Dementia instead would allow you to mill players (or yourself!) for an arbitrarily large amount of cards. This is all even using no colours to expedite the process, so theoretically any deck could do this interaction. Adding colours would then let you take advantage of, say, Time Sieve with all these artifacts to then take all the turns, if you were so inclined. Or the aforementioned Anger to swing out at the end of your loop.

I never said it was efficient. Just that the combo applications were real.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Tendershoot and the other token-at-each-upkeep producers are very dangerous cards. They can easily take over games if left unremoved for too long.

[DirkGently]

City's blessing is kinda meh as a mechanic imo. For limited it was fine - it created some tension around letting the other player get to 10 permanents, and trying to figure out what they'd be able to do if that happened - but for commander it's sorta boring. Outside of cEDH, virtually every game getting to 10 permanents is pretty trivial past the first few turns of the game. And the fact that it sticks around when you drop below 10 permanents is usually irrelevant so it's not a big #mini-goal to achieve for later use. Dryad is particularly boring since you're basically guaranteed to have 6 by the time he comes down. By your next upkeep, if dryad is still alive, you're pretty much guaranteed to have city's blessing. The card would be at most 2% stronger if you just removed the city's blessing requirement, since it only really matters for blocking the turn you cast it, and only when cast on curve without other permanents.

Design aside, it's a solid card though. Sure a hell of an upgrade on old Verdant Force. Strong, but generally reliant on combat and your opponents having turns, so it doesn't play into anything grossly unfair or obnoxious. If I'm playing a green token deck, this is probably making it in. But the thing is, I don't build a lot of green token decks, so I don't think I've played this outside of limited.

[pokken]

It irks me now that 5 mana is the benchmark for "if you let this alone for two turns I will win the game" but on the balance I guess it's fair.

I wish they would make more of this effect in white and blue because the two times I cloned this thing with Ephara were...very nice

[onering]

City's blessing is kinda meh as a mechanic imo. For limited it was fine - it created some tension around letting the other player get to 10 permanents, and trying to figure out what they'd be able to do if that happened - but for commander it's sorta boring. Outside of cEDH, virtually every game getting to 10 permanents is pretty trivial past the first few turns of the game. And the fact that it sticks around when you drop below 10 permanents is usually irrelevant so it's not a big #mini-goal to achieve for later use. Dryad is particularly boring since you're basically guaranteed to have 6 by the time he comes down. By your next upkeep, if dryad is still alive, you're pretty much guaranteed to have city's blessing. The card would be at most 2% stronger if you just removed the city's blessing requirement, since it only really matters for blocking the turn you cast it, and only when cast on curve without other permanents.

Design aside, it's a solid card though. Sure a hell of an upgrade on old Verdant Force. Strong, but generally reliant on combat and your opponents having turns, so it doesn't play into anything grossly unfair or obnoxious. If I'm playing a green token deck, this is probably making it in. But the thing is, I don't build a lot of green token decks, so I don't think I've played this outside of limited.

I actually think CIty's Blessing is so great for the reasons you think its meh. It's enough of a challenge to be a fun mini goal in limited, yet so automatic in commander that some of the cards are actually playable. You can count on having this Dryad do her thing in commander and being high impact, yet not so much in limited so while she was an absolute bomb she wasn't pack rat level format breaking. the same is true about basically any of the ascend cards that have commander viability. That's pretty good design.

[umtiger]

It irks me now that 5 mana is the benchmark for "if you let this alone for two turns I will win the game" but on the balance I guess it's fair.

I wish they would make more of this effect in white and blue because the two times I cloned this thing with Ephara were...very nice

That's a big stretch. I'm also cool with only green getting verdant force.

It's good that most things/mechanics aren't designed for EDH. Mechanics that you have to keep track of are also iffy.

[Igzex]

You all laughed at my old thallid deck but look who's laughing now!

[Ruiner]

This card has given me a number of wins with my Halana and Sakashima deck. Having multiple copies out gets rough quick.

[Hermes_]

You all laughed at my old thallid deck but look who's laughing now!

me