[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[3drinks]

Sunday, August 15th, 2021; Kambal, Consul of Allocation

[Mookie]

Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a pretty reasonable hatebear-ish creature. Taxing your opponents for their noncreature spells definitely adds up over the duration of a long game - not enough that Kambal is likely to kill an opponent outright (20+ spells is a lot), but enough to make opponents think twice in the lategame about how badly they really want to cast a spell. The lifegain also adds up, and provides an easy way to enable Karlov of the Ghost Council and similar effects, or just buffer your life total.

Still, like many hate cards and tax effects, Kambal tends to draw a disproportionate amount of hate, so he won't always stick around for long. I ran him in my Teysa deck a while ago, but ultimately cut him because I didn't really have a use for the lifegain - even if he drained 10 life or so, I didn't feel like it was worth spending a full card, given how often he got swept away in a board wipe. If you're running Necropotence effects or another way to make use of the lifegain, he goes way up in value.

...not sure if I'd ever run Kambal in the command zone. He is ultimately a punisher card, so it is possible for opponents to play around him (and there are some decks that are largely unaffected outright). Ruric Thar, the Unbowed does a similar effect, but also hits three times as hard (and lets you play Possibility Storm). Ultimately, a bit of a meta call - better against spellslinger decks, worse against creature-based decks.

[illakunsaa]

Lot of times Kambal is kill on sight target. I've played against him with my narset and kykar decks and he is a massive pain in the ass to deal with. Sure losing 10-16 life might not kill you but it will hurt when people start punching with random creatures.

Lot of decks run a lot of noncreature spells in their deck. According to edhrec the top 20 spells are noncreature spells. I'm honestly surprised how little he sees play.

[Dunharrow]

I personally don't see the appeal of playing him.

Pretty marginal as a hatebear. Doesn't stop people from playing their cards. No impact on the board. Will just die to a sweeper at some point.

[Serenade]

I've probably been shelled for 100s off this guy. He's my buddy's favorite Time of Need target.

[Ruiner]

Love having this in play when playing my Liesa, Shroud of Dusk deck. Doubling up on punishment and gaining bits of life definitely adds up over time.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Hate cards generally work better in the 99. This one is slightly different from Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, in being one-sided. Also better than Gaddock Teeg in that regard, but Teeg shuts down noncreature spells with CMC > 3, and complete restriction is more restrictive than a punisher.

This guy's still great in Stax. I like him like I like Painful Quandary: Would suck as a one-time thing, but repeatable is good. Great in lifegain decks as well.

[3drinks]

Monday, August 16th, 2021; Unearth

This little guy gets no respect for how for how overarching it really is.

[folding_music]

have used it to put various jerks back into play:
Abyssal Gatekeeper High Priest of Penance Crypt Rats Gangrenous Zombies

insanely good card, just as good as Reanimate in high utility decks imo

[materpillar]

I run this in Lazav, the Multifarious just as a way to dodge commander tax. I'm always happy to see it there, that deck also has a cycling subtheme. Not stupid powerful but extremely good at what it does.

[Sinis]

Monday, August 16th, 2021; Unearth

Me: I want Reanimate!
Mom: We have reanimate at home.
The reanimate at home: Unearth

I like this card, though I question whether it's actually good enough to play outside of decks looking for playable cards with cycling or looking to recur a specific creature with mana value 3 or less as frequently as possible. I'd very much consider it in a Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Skullbriar, the Walking Grave or Grist, the Hunger Tide deck, but outside those decks or the decks that meet the criteria I mentioned before, probably not.

It's not that it's a bad card, it's that it's just not good enough compared to the alternatives.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Card is nutty in Dockside Extortionist storm decks. Cycling is gravy to unearth's baseline biscuits, but that's just further proof that this is a good breakfast.

[Mookie]

I keep meaning to try Unearth out in my Teysa deck, which runs a lot of small creatures that I'm interested in recurring. That said, I'd still favor Reanimate - the additional flexibility of hitting a creature of any cost is massive, as is the ability to hit opponents' graveyards. I suppose Unearth's ability to cycle gives it a bit of extra flexibility.... but I don't think it's that unlikely that someone will have a Mulldrifter / Solemn Simulacrum / other utility creature to recur that outclasses the ability to cycle.

I'll call out Call of the Death-Dweller as a similar effect with the flexibility to recur multiple creatures.

[toctheyounger]

Card is nutty in Dockside Extortionist storm decks. Cycling is gravy to unearth's baseline biscuits, but that's just further proof that this is a good breakfast.

1. Tbh i think this speaks more for how truly gross dockside is than our RCOTD. That card should never have been printed. At least not for 1r.
2. Don't get me wrong, Unearth is cool and I really like it. I do find its a common cut in a lot of my decks, but its usually in the running at least.
3. Its a travesty that we don't have biscuits and gravy in NZ.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Card is nutty in Dockside Extortionist storm decks. Cycling is gravy to unearth's baseline biscuits, but that's just further proof that this is a good breakfast.

1. Tbh i think this speaks more for how truly gross dockside is than our RCOTD. That card should never have been printed. At least not for 1r.
2. Don't get me wrong, Unearth is cool and I really like it. I do find its a common cut in a lot of my decks, but its usually in the running at least.
3. Its a travesty that we don't have biscuits and gravy in NZ.

1. I don't disagree, but Unearth is still very good in the home it has and imho has underexplored applications elsewhere.
2. I sometimes build with self-imposed pauper/budget restrictions, so I'll concede I have some rosy-ass glasses from playing it when reanimate, et al. were not available. It's very good in all commons at least.
3. That's supremely tragic, and my sympathies extend to all the peoples of the great nation of New Zealand. I had wanted to visit your islands someday but discovering this only furthers my belief that the American southeast is the only place for me. Nice climate, marvelous breakfast food, friendly people, and cheap cigarettes. (On the other hand, I think "There's no biscuits and gravy in New Zealand." is an oddly excellent idiom to express the hardship of leaving one's familiar settings. Someone should coin it.)

[Ulka]

I love Unearth in Kaalia, Zenith Seeker as my version is a cycling matters deck. Its super powerful and actually can be used both as a spell and a cycler. A+ all star deck.

[BeneTleilax]

I wish there was a white version of this.

[Mookie]

I wish there was a white version of this.

Sevinne's Reclamation is probably the closest. Or maybe Proclamation of Rebirth? Hmmmm... But yeah, not many options for super cheap white reanimation.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I wish there was a white version of this.

Sevinne's Reclamation is probably the closest. Or maybe Proclamation of Rebirth? Hmmmm... But yeah, not many options for super cheap white reanimation.

Sun Titan costs six mana, but is repeatable either through combat or blink.

I like these effects. How many low CMC creatures do you play? They're mostly utility: A cheap cantrip here, a mana dork there, maybe a Tim or a Pestilence or some bounce or a counter or anti-removal tech. You can use this to get back a lot of ibfect cards, Ichor Rats and Plague Stinger being two of the deadlier ones. (Deadliest is of course Blighted Agent, but any evasive one or the Rats for poisoning everyone.,)

Creatures serve two purposes in EDH: Utility and failure mode when what you're doing fails.

[toctheyounger]

Card is nutty in Dockside Extortionist storm decks. Cycling is gravy to unearth's baseline biscuits, but that's just further proof that this is a good breakfast.

1. Tbh i think this speaks more for how truly gross dockside is than our RCOTD. That card should never have been printed. At least not for 1r.
2. Don't get me wrong, Unearth is cool and I really like it. I do find its a common cut in a lot of my decks, but its usually in the running at least.
3. Its a travesty that we don't have biscuits and gravy in NZ.

1. I don't disagree, but Unearth is still very good in the home it has and imho has underexplored applications elsewhere.
2. I sometimes build with self-imposed pauper/budget restrictions, so I'll concede I have some rosy-ass glasses from playing it when reanimate, et al. were not available. It's very good in all commons at least.
3. That's supremely tragic, and my sympathies extend to all the peoples of the great nation of New Zealand. I had wanted to visit your islands someday but discovering this only furthers my belief that the American southeast is the only place for me. Nice climate, marvelous breakfast food, friendly people, and cheap cigarettes. (On the other hand, I think "There's no biscuits and gravy in New Zealand." is an oddly excellent idiom to express the hardship of leaving one's familiar settings. Someone should coin it.)

I love that idiom! It needs to be on a t shirt or something. Also, at some point I really do need to try biscuits and gravy.

[Igzex]

You'd think that a reanimation spell that only targets cheap creatures is kinda missing the point, but then you remember just how much modern MTG card design loves its ETB effects and sacrifice synergies...

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I love that idiom! It needs to be on a t shirt or something. Also, at some point I really do need to try biscuits and gravy.

I've enshrined it forever in signature. And when you finally seek out the biscuits and gravy — get them made from scratch or from a small local greasyspoon, don't get that commercial extruded crap from a chain. It'll give you the wrong idea and do an unquantifiable disservice to one of the great pillars of southern breakfast.

[EonAon]

Card is nutty in Dockside Extortionist storm decks. Cycling is gravy to unearth's baseline biscuits, but that's just further proof that this is a good breakfast.

1. Tbh i think this speaks more for how truly gross dockside is than our RCOTD. That card should never have been printed. At least not for 1r.
2. Don't get me wrong, Unearth is cool and I really like it. I do find its a common cut in a lot of my decks, but its usually in the running at least.
3. Its a travesty that we don't have biscuits and gravy in NZ.

Otherwise unearth is a interesting card for lower cc synergies but yeah there are other types of this card that work on a larger cross section of the EDH library of cards.

[onering]

Its a great card. In the right deck, its reanimate #2. In cycling decks, its great. In many other decks, its surprisingly effective. There are plenty of CMC 3 or less utility creatures, and a 1 mana spell that grabs them back to the battlefield and that can be cycled away if not needed is pretty good.

[materpillar]

I've enshrined it forever in signature. And when you finally seek out the biscuits and gravy — get them made from scratch or from a small local greasyspoon, don't get that commercial extruded crap from a chain. It'll give you the wrong idea and do an unquantifiable disservice to one of the great pillars of southern breakfast.

^^ This advice is good advice