[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[3drinks]

It's cool, I guess. Big robot angels aren't really my bag, I'm more of a mutant-of-evolution organic monster guy (e.g. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger) when it comes to fatties. The card is certainly playable, it's just not my type.

...Sharktocrab is that you? How long ago did the Master Biomancer let you out of your cage?

[DirkGently]

Neat how it works well with our good friend Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Fetch a plains to power it up, and provide a spicy target while in the bin. It does feel intended mostly for reanimation strategies, but the flexible modes are good anywhere - just probably not good enough to make the cut.

[ISBPathfinder]

I have been happy with it in angel, reanimator, and flicker concepts. Its a strong effect and the fact that you can ship it for a land early on is really strong and enabling for reanimator strategies. Honestly its been one of my happier new cards for mono white (as far as not being a tech include somewhere) in quite some time.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It's cool, I guess. Big robot angels aren't really my bag, I'm more of a mutant-of-evolution organic monster guy (e.g. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger) when it comes to fatties. The card is certainly playable, it's just not my type.

...Sharktocrab is that you? How long ago did the Master Biomancer let you out of your cage?

Hey, we'd all be lucky to be Sharktocrab. That thing may have one of the greatest type lines ever written.

[Mookie]

Angel of the Ruins seems sweet. White is pretty lacking in Reclamation Sage effects, but a bigger version that exiles two things is definitely something I'm interested in. Seven mana is obviously a lot, but plainscycling means it isn't totally dead in the early game either. It can also fetch nonbasic plains, which is somewhat rare for landcyclers.

Anyway, I've been meaning to test it out in Sharuum and Brago. Definitely a card I'm happy to have been added to white's toolbox.

[Sharpened]

I really love Angel of the Ruins. I think it's a great card and an even better design.

It's versatile, and multifaceted. It's strong, but lacks the efficiency to be prevalent in the most cut-throat of metas. It's good, but probably not good enough to run without additional synergy, but also not an auto-include where the synergy is present. It just hits the sweet spot.

[Ruiner]

I've only played it in my Bruna deck so far but it's been pretty awesome there. I think any Wx deck with reanimator elements should consider trying it out.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I find the flavor here questionable. By my understanding, destroying something is breaking, where exiling something is sending it away. If you exile a couple artifacts, there shouldn't be ruins left by them being broken, cause they weren't destroyed, they were exiled. Obviously, this makes the card totally unplayable.

Exile, permanent exile, can also be "make it completely unrecognizable". Think Into the Core. Or transmutation. Or outright comic book-style erasure from existence.

5/7 for seven mana and get rid of two artifacts or enchantments is expensive, but good if you can swing it. (Protip: If you're not playing Kaalia, you can still use green for accel or black for reanimation.) Actually, this is a card where you can cycle and then reanimate.

[BeneTleilax]

I find the flavor here questionable. By my understanding, destroying something is breaking, where exiling something is sending it away. If you exile a couple artifacts, there shouldn't be ruins left by them being broken, cause they weren't destroyed, they were exiled. Obviously, this makes the card totally unplayable.

By my understanding, the two exiles were represented by those glowing white lasers it's shooting on both sides. It doesn't create ruins, it's from ruins. Think the "ancient superweapon" trope.

Anyway, borderline consideration in my Zabaz deck, but it was a bit too expensive, and I wanted to stick to low-to-the-ground grindy recursive stuff, rather than straight up reanimator.

[Igzex]

"Sorry for turning your format into a painful reminder of the Tempest-Urza days of Magic. Have a cool angel."

[3drinks]

Saturday, August 21st, 2021; Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

[DirkGently]

I like the idea of Arixmethes a lot. In practice he's not quite as much fun, but he's still pretty fun. I think the biggest bummer is that "activating" him is less of a cool minigame (or mini-goal, if you will) but something that's pretty trivial to achieve and comes down mostly to whether you actually want it to happen or not.

Still, he's a land, and I really like lands. I wish we got more lands with mana costs that did interesting things. I'd happily pay a couple mana for a fixed Library of Alexandria.

[3drinks]

I'd happily pay a couple mana for a fixed Library of Alexandria.

Magus of the Library has entered the chat.

[DirkGently]

I'd happily pay a couple mana for a fixed Library of Alexandria.

Magus of the Library has entered the chat.

I have played it on occasion, but it's really not the same thing since it dies to sweepers and whatnot. Also, crucially, it's green restricted. It does ramp, though.

I'm not sure exactly how I'd price lands. There aren't many lands with mana costs, the only ones that come to mind really are the Rupture Spire clones (arixmethes doesn't really count since he's not land per turn, so he's more like a ramp spell). Those are obviously all trash-tier terrible garbage for noobs to put into their 2-color decks because they don't know how to build a manabase. Realistically we've already got 90% of an etbt rainbow land in Path of Ancestry that also has some bonuses, so a straight-up etbt any-color-regardless-of-CI land that just etbts would be fine, without the rupture spire tax.

If I had to price library, it's kinda hard...2 mana is a lot, but 1 mana is basically just etbt and it'd be a hell of a land if it just etbt'd. So I guess 2 mana is probably correct, on par with rupture spire basically except not terrible.

[pokken]

A simic deck with Explosive Vegetation as a commander is pretty good usually. Pretty boring all things considered.

[Mookie]

I've contemplated Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle for a few decks. Mostly held off due to price, but the reprint brought it down significantly, so maybe I'll actually give it a shot now. The deck I'd be most likely to test it in is my Animar deck, which is running Primal Surge and thus doesn't have access to most of the land-based ramp spells like Cultivate and Explosive Vegetation. Having a creature that also acts as a ramp spell is pretty relevant there.

It also seems reasonable as an upgrade for any decks that are running Explosive Vegetation or other four mana ramp spells - four mana ramp is often in a bit of an awkward spot, but they're not that far below the curve, and turning your ramp spell into a massive beater in the lategame is a pretty relevant upside. It can be a bit soft to removal though - people are definitely more likely to target it with Strip Mine effects than the basics you would be fetching with a normal ramp spell. Hmmmm....

Seems fine in the command zone of a deck that wants to ramp to 6/7, but otherwise doesn't seem that exciting as a commander.

[Igzex]

Now this is a simic commander design I like to see. Sure you can still break it if you want to, but you don't have to really go out of your way to not break it. If only we got more of this and a lot less Kinnans, Uros, and Rashmis.

[Sinis]

Saturday, August 21st, 2021; Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

I had a Radha, Heir to Keld deck where you always played Radha turn 2, and then always played a 3G Explosive Vegetation analogue turn 3. This was a couple of years ago before they printed a couple more Explosive Vegetation analogues (Migration Path and Vastwood Surge) and I resorted to stuff like Market Festival (decklist here.)

Anyway, I wonder if there's a deck that uses 2-mana ramp into a reliable Turn 3 Arixmethes, into turn 4 big, stompy, whatever.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I like how it says "you may". If you go that way, obviously Wonder and Brawn work to your advantage. Otherwise it's still a land.

[brainface]

I played him with a bunch of precon planeswalkers and he worked well for a certain powerlevel. Really bad walkers are pretty good when you can pay the mana for them a couple turns earlier it turns out. Arixmethes paid for mu yanling and jiang yanggu and then they gave it evasion, and a 12/12 general is a threat. It was fun for a thrown together overcosted ug effects deck.

[Treamayne]

I like how it says "you may". If you go that way, obviously Wonder and Brawn work to your advantage. Otherwise it's still a land.

If you do want to animate Ari, Power Conduit also comes in handy...

[3drinks]

I like how it says "you may". If you go that way, obviously Wonder and Brawn work to your advantage. Otherwise it's still a land.

If you do want to animate Ari, Power Conduit also comes in handy...

That is the most random jank uncommon to hold a price point above a booster pack.

[Stapler]

Anyway, I wonder if there's a deck that uses 2-mana ramp into a reliable Turn 3 Arixmethes, into turn 4 big, stompy, whatever.

There is, and it's here! My Arixmethes runs fifteen pieces of >2 MV ramp with more than fifteen 7 mana-ish bombs to ramp into on turn 4, including a bunch that don't get to see a lot of play in the format (Treeshaker Chimera, Sphinx Ambassador, Wizard's Spellbook, etc.). Aminatou's Augury can pop off in that deck; I specifically play a couple tribal cards to try to live the dream of hitting all 8 cards types (hasn't happened yet).

He can knock someone out pretty easily with commander damage using Berserk or Overwhelming Stampede.

I play him in the 99 of a couple other decks like Niv-Mizzet Reborn. One of my favourite cards of recent years.

[3drinks]

Sunday, August 22nd, 2021; Amareth, the Lustrous

Why can't they put cool dragons like these in mardu 🙄

[Dunharrow]

Makes me want to dust off the old Elvish Piper, grab an Intruder Alarm and a Cream of the Crop.