[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[Sinis]

Sunday, January 9th, 2022; Orcish Lumberjack

This card felt so broken back in Ice Age. I had still have this deck, it was super fun, though it probably needed more card draw:

An Old Deck from a Cafeteria Table

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Decklist

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Creatures

4 Orcish Lumberjack|ICE

4 Tinder Wall|ICE

4 Kird Ape|3ED

4 Earth Elemental|4ED

4 Erhnam Djinn|CHR

Enchantments

4 Stormbind|ICE

Sorceries

4 Pyroclasm|ICE

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt|4ED

4 Incinerate|ICE

Lands

4 Karplusan Forest|ICE

10 Mountain|ICE

10 Forest|ICE

Approximate Total Cost:

Rad. T2 Erhnam is serious business. Would've liked to see Juggernaut instead of Earth Elemental to better capitalize on the Lumberjack though maybe surviving Bolt was more relevant.

Earth Elemental is also a T2 play (Mountain into Orcish Lumberjack, T2 Forest, tap both, burn the forest for , play EE), and clobbers a pair of Knights/Elven Archers without trading (White and Black weenie decks were also very common).

Bolt (and Incinerate) were so common at my cafeteria table that I still, even 25 years later, can't see the appeal of Juggernaut|3ed over something with 4 toughness. Really, the 4/5 Stat block was something I was very fond of, and between the burn and Stormbinds in the deck, I never was worse for wear for combat math.

I think with respect to Juggernaut, I'd have even taken Nettletooth Djinn (had we not still been playing Erhnam).

[3drinks]

Monday, January 10th, 2022; Harmonious Archon

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 9th, 2022; Orcish Lumberjack

This card felt so broken back in Ice Age. I had still have this deck, it was super fun, though it probably needed more card draw:

An Old Deck from a Cafeteria Table

Show

Hide

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Creatures

4 Orcish Lumberjack|ICE

4 Tinder Wall|ICE

4 Kird Ape|3ED

4 Earth Elemental|4ED

4 Erhnam Djinn|CHR

Enchantments

4 Stormbind|ICE

Sorceries

4 Pyroclasm|ICE

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt|4ED

4 Incinerate|ICE

Lands

4 Karplusan Forest|ICE

10 Mountain|ICE

10 Forest|ICE

Approximate Total Cost:

Nettletooth. Man it's a g juzam. Wicked. Why is juzam so expensive again lol?

[Sinis]

Monday, January 10th, 2022; Harmonious Archon

This card slaps for low-to-the-ground decks. The ceiling for buffing your own creatures is pretty low, but the ceiling for shrinking your opponent's biggos is quite powerful. Oh, and it comes with a pair of tokens, I guess. Archons are still a rare creature type, and anything your opponent plays will probably be a 3/3. There's also an angle for creatures with +1/+1 counters. A Fertilid doesn't mind getting +3/+3 out of this.

Nettletooth. Man it's a juzam. Wicked. Why is juzam so expensive again lol?

Scarcity, 100%. We could just play Erebos's Titan, Plague Sliver or Phyrexian Obliterator for that stat block in black at MV 4. I wouldn't say there's an abundance of 5/5s for 4 across all colours, but there are certainly alternatives.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Nettletooth. Man it's a g juzam. Wicked. Why is juzam so expensive again lol?

I mean, it's only a 4/4, and green doesn't have Dark Ritual. But once you get to Nemesis, green gets Blastoderm, which becomes really good once Fires of Yavimaya is printed.

Anyway, Harmonious Archon is weird. I haven't really played it, despite my love for +1/+1 counters (which kinda break a lot of Humility-like cards). It looks good if you have a lot of small creatures. Remember that that =3/=3 is placed above their printed P/T but below all the +N/+N and -N/-N effects in terms of layers.

[3drinks]

Monday, January 10th, 2022; Harmonious Archon

This card slaps for low-to-the-ground decks. The ceiling for buffing your own creatures is pretty low, but the ceiling for shrinking your opponent's biggos is quite powerful. Oh, and it comes with a pair of tokens, I guess. Archons are still a rare creature type, and anything your opponent plays will probably be a 3/3. There's also an angle for creatures with +1/+1 counters. A Fertilid doesn't mind getting +3/+3 out of this.

Nettletooth. Man it's a juzam. Wicked. Why is juzam so expensive again lol?

Scarcity, 100%. We could just play Erebos's Titan, Plague Sliver or Phyrexian Obliterator for that stat block in black at MV 4. I wouldn't say there's an abundance of 5/5s for 4 across all colours, but there are certainly alternatives.

And now r has one too in Ravenous Giant. Meanwhile the era of Balduvian Horde|all being the chase beat stick are rolling over in it's grave at being downshifted to common. 🙄

[Sinis]

Nettletooth. Man it's a juzam. Wicked. Why is juzam so expensive again lol?

Scarcity, 100%. We could just play Erebos's Titan, Plague Sliver or Phyrexian Obliterator for that stat block in black at MV 4. I wouldn't say there's an abundance of 5/5s for 4 across all colours, but there are certainly alternatives.

And now r has one too in Ravenous Giant. Meanwhile the era of Balduvian Horde|all being the chase beat stick are rolling over in it's grave at being downshifted to common. 🙄

The only reason I focus on black analogues is because I think powering out Juzam with Dark Ritual was A Thing™, but, there's definitely Tinder Wall opportunities with Rumbling Slum and the ones you've mentioned.

Meanwhile the era of Balduvian Horde|all being the chase beat stick are rolling over in it's grave at being downshifted to common. 🙄

"Balduvian Horde? In this economy?!"

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

Monday, January 10th, 2022;

Harmonious Archon

I play this card in my Thalisse deck, it's pretty good. Basically a 2/2 anthem for my creatures since they are all 1/1 tokens. Good stats for the complete package too (and it even has flying).

[Sinis]

I play this card in my Thalisse deck, it's pretty good. Basically a 2/2 anthem for my creatures since they are all 1/1 tokens. Good stats for the complete package too (and it even has flying).

Do you happen to have this Thalisse deck online somewhere?

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

Do you happen to have this Thalisse deck online somewhere?

Here you go: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=31710

It's not too great though. I should update it sometime, but I haven't really played with it for a while now.

[3drinks]

"Balduvian Horde? In this economy?!"

Funny, someone said this exact phrase to me when I resolved a Sphinx's Revelation a couple weeks ago at modern FNM.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Orcish Lumberjack

I used this classic goon to pump out an early Shivan Wurm back in the day. I did not win much (still true) yet Good Times were had

@harmonius archon

Was sweet in limited, dunno if a bad humility is worth 6 mana in the current climate of EDH though.

[TheGildedGoose]

This card felt so broken back in Ice Age. I had still have this deck, it was super fun, though it probably needed more card draw:

An Old Deck from a Cafeteria Table

Show

Hide

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Creatures

4 Orcish Lumberjack|ICE

4 Tinder Wall|ICE

4 Kird Ape|3ED

4 Earth Elemental|4ED

4 Erhnam Djinn|CHR

Enchantments

4 Stormbind|ICE

Sorceries

4 Pyroclasm|ICE

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt|4ED

4 Incinerate|ICE

Lands

4 Karplusan Forest|ICE

10 Mountain|ICE

10 Forest|ICE

Approximate Total Cost:

Rad. T2 Erhnam is serious business. Would've liked to see Juggernaut instead of Earth Elemental to better capitalize on the Lumberjack though maybe surviving Bolt was more relevant.

Earth Elemental is also a T2 play (Mountain into Orcish Lumberjack, T2 Forest, tap both, burn the forest for , play EE), and clobbers a pair of Knights/Elven Archers without trading (White and Black weenie decks were also very common).

Bolt (and Incinerate) were so common at my cafeteria table that I still, even 25 years later, can't see the appeal of Juggernaut|3ed over something with 4 toughness. Really, the 4/5 Stat block was something I was very fond of, and between the burn and Stormbinds in the deck, I never was worse for wear for combat math.

I think with respect to Juggernaut, I'd have even taken Nettletooth Djinn (had we not still been playing Erhnam).

Oh yeah. Still, god I love old Magic.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, January 11th, 2021; Neoform and it's incredibly similar second cousin, Eldritch Evolution;

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Love love love Pod effects. I almost build Vannifar like once a year because of it, and only good sense holds me back.

[Dunharrow]

I love these cards, though there is high risk of 2 for 1.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain for 3 mana followed by Eldritch Evolution for something like Blazing Archon is pretty powerful.
I don't currently play either card in my 20ish decks but I should maybe reconsider this.

[onering]

Eldritch Evolution is just so much better most of the time. X+2 is probably better enough than X+1 to justify the extra mana, even losing out on the +1/+1 counter, but the difference between exactly equal to and equal to OR LESS is huge as well. That's a hell of a lot more flexibility, and sometimes you need an answer that's cheaper than what you're sacrificing (like trading a Lignified 5 drop for a Rec Sage for instance). And that's before getting into it being mono color instead of multi.

But the one thing helping Neoform is that it can be recurred, while Eldritch self exiles. If you have some sort of engine set up to keep it coming back, or even if you just have a lot of things that incidentally can grab it back to your hand or give it flashback (not unlikely in Simic) then its value goes way up.

[Mookie]

Neoform is a powerful effect that is somewhat difficult to build around. It's possible to throw Birthing Pod into many creature-heavy decks and have it function as a value-generating engine by churning through value creatures. However, Neoform / Eldritch Evolution represents card disadvantage.... and if you want to fetch a specific target, you need to already have a creature of the appropriate cost to sacrifice. For most decks, I would say it is easier to run something like Green Sun's Zenith to just tutor for the target directly. Paying 6 mana for a 6-drop, then two additional mana and Neoform for a 7-drop just is too clunky.

Still, if we look at Neoform decks in other formats, it becomes clear that it works really well alongside free spells and cost reduction - turning Myr Enforcer or Allosaurus Rider into Griselbrand is well worth it, and a valid way to cheat out a fatty ahead of curve. I've actually been wanting to run it in my Tasigur, the Golden Fang deck for a while. Delving out Tasigur early and turning him into something like Nyxbloom Ancient / Avenger of Zendikar / Nezahal, Primal Tide seems extremely potent. I could see Neoform doing similar work, assuming I had an 8-drop in the deck worth fetching.

[kirkusjones]

@Mookie, did not think about that line of play at all, seems great in the Reanimator-ish build of Tasigur I currently run. Thanks (again) for the inspiration!

[hyalopterouslemur]

For anyone wondering what happened to Rebels...

These are actually nice because they take away the most annoying part of Rebels (waiting for an opponent to shuffle over and over) in a way that Pod just doesn't.

The "X+2 or less" is a nice twist. It gives you the ability to pick what you want back, again in a way Pod just doesn't.

[Myllior]

A one-off pod effect needs to pull its weight to make the cut. In a wide swath of EDH, Eldritch Evolution can get there on its versatility and being able to jump the CMC by 2, but Neoform gets harder to justify. It has use in cEDH - turning a dork into a hatebear for only 2 MV is very powerful - but in more general EDH you need a plethora of very powerful ETB effects to consider it. Considering you're in green too, the wide array of better tutors makes it difficult to justify in my experience.

Maybe it has usage where a deck has particular +1/+1 counter synergies? A cute play I used to do was to Neoform a dork into Incubation Druid, but it was never enough to justify the card in the long run.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022; Cadaverous Bloom

Talk about a Time Warp|tmp. Like Squee says, Let's do it again!

[BeneTleilax]

With five generally as the ceiling for decent ramp, and this forcing you to exile cards, it never seemed worth it. In play, when I saw it, the card disadvantage made it annoyingly all-in. Someone would ditch several cards, play a Primordial Hydra or whatever, and then either lose to a removal spell in the next two turns or win. Maybe there's some way to better work around the downside now with Eternal Scourge or something, but I'm kind of glad that sort of ultra-fragile play has been pushed to the casual and competitive extremes.

[UnfulfilledDesires]

I remain fond of Cadaverous Bloom because of its importance to the game's history. It helped make one of the first combo decks function. You can do the same old tricks with it in EDH. If you're not trying to win immediately, the card often isn't worth it. Currently, my copy has been going in & out of a Pharika, God of Affliction Umori, the Collector list. Amazing with a draw engine like an enchantress effect but otherwise meh. & that deck tends to produce a ton of mana anyway.

[Outcryqq]

Cadaverous Bloom
Man, this card was in some very mean lists back in the day. I never broke down to make the deck, but many times I wanted to!
For EDH purposes, I probably wouldn't play it, mostly because green has access to so much ramp already in EDH that this seems unnecessarily risky compared to the classic Cultivate family of ramp.