[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[Mookie]

I wonder if i would killed if i played with with Omen Machine

....I suspect your opponents would be slightly less likely to do so than if you were to play Omen Machine in a vacuum. Multiple instances of card draw prevention are redundant, multiple Omen Machine triggers are not.

....unless you're using it as a way to nullify removal and make it more difficult to get off the battlefield, in which case the answer is 'maybe'. I played a game once where a Ramos, Dragon Engine chaos deck played out Omen Machine.... while the other two players in the pod were myself playing Tasigur, the Golden Fang (who doesn't technically draw cards with his ability) and another player running The Locust God. As you may imagine, I fought pretty hard to keep Omen Machine on the battlefield.

[Treamayne]

I use this in my mono-brown Karn, Silver Golem deck. Obviously, multiples of Cloud Key, Powerstone Shard an other rocks. . .well . . . rock. But the best game was when I got multiple Golem's Heart and started racking life with multiple Armageddon Clocks proliferated to 10+ counters.

It also does good work in my Sydri, Galvanic Genius Vehicle deck; which can, an does, run Master Transmuter to help get more than 1 token copy of the key artifacts.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Mirrorworks has never been good enough for me. A classic example of doing nothing without other things to do, in which case I'd rather cut to the chase and execute plan A instead of taking a turn off to maybe double it.

[Serenade]

I'm probably using Sculpting Steel or another artifact-clone before it. They are not the same space, but that's how I prioritize spots in my deck.

[3drinks]

Saturday, January 15th, 2022; Sakashima's Will

[Serenade]

First one gives an opponent choice. Second one feels win-more.
I get that maybe you steal a good creature and then make all of your guys that creature….but the proliferation of ETB creatures make me feel not great about my chances of doing that.
Sorcery speed.

Maybe it works well with Sakashima of a Thousand Faces or legends that have death triggers, but I never felt inclined to try this Will.

[Sinis]

Saturday, January 15th, 2022; Sakashima's Will

I've wanted to give this one a whirl. I'm not so keen on the 'grab a guy of your opponent's choice' because it seems... less good? But the second half could be a wincon. That feeling when a swarm of Spirit tokens all become Sun Titans. Or all the Thopters from Sharding Sphinx turn into more Sharding Sphinxes for a turn.

It seems like it could be really good, but it's definitely not an every-deck card.

[toctheyounger]

I've a couple of copies of this myself, though I've yet to see it cast. It feels like it could be nice in a token/polymorph sort of thing for extra attack triggers or whatnot.

Regardless this is at least a little bit niche and probably doesn't go in every deck.

[hyalopterouslemur]

First one gives an opponent choice. Second one feels win-more.
I get that maybe you steal a good creature and then make all of your guys that creature….but the proliferation of ETB creatures make me feel not great about my chances of doing that.
Sorcery speed.

Maybe it works well with Sakashima of a Thousand Faces or legends that have death triggers, but I never felt inclined to try this Will.

Second one can be used in a few cool ways, like make all your creatures Hellrider or Primalcrux or Nacatl War-Pride, so it's not all bad. There are just better ways to do that.

[Mookie]

Sakashima's Will seems.... extremely niche. The first mode, a four mana splashable Control Magic, can be good... but the fact that your opponent gets to choose means you'll often end up with a token or other low-value creature. Still, there are spots where it can shine - it targets a player, and not a creature, so you can steal hexproof creatures with it. I could see it being very strong against Dragonlord Ojutai, Narset, Enlightened Master, or Geist of Saint Traft.

The second mode seems a bit more interesting - a one-sided Mirrorweave definitely allows for shenanigans. Not something you want to use on a legendary creature, but as mentioned above, there are certainly interesting creatures to copy with it (ex: pretty much any fatty). Only copying your own creatures is definitely a significant limitation though.

...looking at EDHREC, it appears that the only decks it consistently shows up in are Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Sakashima the Impostor decks, with Keiga, the Tide Star as the one notable exception. I guess Sakashima's ability to negate the legend rule opens up a few options - clone something sweet with Sakashima, then get a bunch of extra copies. Still niche though.

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 16th, 2022; Baleful Strix

[Dunharrow]

I like Mirrorweave more than Sakashima's Will in my Reyhan deck. Targeting something like Kalonian Hydra will often win me the game, but interestingly it also wraths my opponents by making their creatures 0/0s.
/
Baleful Strix first came from the Ninja planechase deck, where it was amazing. Years later, it is still great with ninjutsu but also just a great value creature. Cantrip and deter attackers, artifact synergies, great with panharmonicon/flicker decks. Can carry swords well too!

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's a cantrip as well, which is always great on any creature that passes the Sun Titan test. This one adds evasion, which something like Elvish Visionary does not have.

Pyknite stands in the corner looking sad.

[Mookie]

Baleful Strix is a classic 2-for-1. Draws a card immediately, then sticks around as a flying blocker to ward off attacks. It's also a value creature to flicker, and enables artifact synergies. The floor for cards that cantrip is extremely high, so I would consider it for most decks that can take advantage of at least one of its other lines of text - it makes sense for decks that care about evasion (ex: ninjas), decks that care about blocking (ex: Aminatou, the Fateshifter), and decks that care about artifacts. That said, I would skip it in decks that don't care about the body.

Of my decks that could run it, I'm currently only running it in Sharuum due to artifact synergies. It might make sense in Tasigur as a flying blocker, but I'm running stuff like Whiptongue Hydra and Wave of Vitriol that make the body worse. Meanwhile, Kess prefers its cantrips to be instants or sorceries.

...somewhat interesting to compare it to the similar Ice-Fang Coatl. I would say that I favor Baleful Strix for most decks, since I value the unconditional deathtouch pretty highly. It does depend on how many snow lands you're running though - if you're running a bunch of snow basics, flash is a very meaningful upgrade. I feel like Baleful Strix aligns better with UB strategies than Ice-Fang Coatl aligns with UG strategies though - a two mana cantrip doesn't make quite as much sense in a ramp / big creature strategy. Hmmm...

[Serenade]

I used to have Winged Coatl in every UG deck back when combat played a bigger role in our group. Ice-Fang Coatl having that flash is a nice bonus over B.Strix.

Sometimes a card needs no tweaks, right down to the art. This critter falls into that box.

[duducrash]

Sakashima's Will - It works well with cards that pump out tokens, like Monastery Mentor Murmuring Mystic it can lead to bonkers turns, it isnt a particularly unique effect but its alright. the will cycle could have been better designed. Jeska and Akroma wills are so much better than the other two. I think Jeska's alone outplays the other 4. I'm not complaining that WR got better cards, just that the cycle is weird

Baleful Strix - its value! it I run it in Alela, Artful Provocateur . it isnt particularly unique nor flavourfull but it replaces itself, triggers alela, gets flying buffs. It's never a bad time getting it.

[ironic gesture]

Baleful Strix is definitely way better if your meta is into attacking and gets a lot worse if everyone is combining off. I run one in my downtuned The Scarab God list that I run with one play group that purposely eschews combo wins and it definitely pulls it's weight by being an early defensive play and later in the game coming back as a 4/4 flying deathtoucher that draws a card.

[3drinks]

Monday, January 17th, 2022; Fireflux Squad

[pokken]

Huh, not that often you see cards I don't recognize up here. Polymorph dude is kinda cool, esp with haste. I could see this being pretty fun in an attack steps deck.

[wildfire393]

Huh, not that often you see cards I don't recognize up here. Polymorph dude is kinda cool, esp with haste. I could see this being pretty fun in an attack steps deck.

Yeah, non-hyped precon cards can go under the radar. It does show up occasionally in Legacy in Moon Stompy decks have run it alongside Goblin Rabblemaster and Legion Warboss as a way to turn dinky 1/1's into more powerful threats.

I've run this thing in Zara, Renegade Recruiter only to discover it didn't actually do what I was hoping - you have to target the thing you want to polymorph as you declare attacks, so you can't use it to polymorph a thing that gets put into play by something else's attack trigger. It can still be pretty powerful though.

[Dunharrow]

What bugs me about polymorph cards is the way they are designed pushes people to play only 1-2 creatures in their deck and the rest tokens so they always hit their threats.
This being a creature is cool since it pushes you away from that strategy.
That being said, I don't play a lot of token decks and not sure I would want this in any of my decks right now.

[3drinks]

Huh, not that often you see cards I don't recognize up here. Polymorph dude is kinda cool, esp with haste. I could see this being pretty fun in an attack steps deck.

Yeah, non-hyped precon cards can go under the radar. It does show up occasionally in Legacy in Moon Stompy decks have run it alongside Goblin Rabblemaster and Legion Warboss as a way to turn dinky 1/1's into more powerful threats.

I've run this thing in Zara, Renegade Recruiter only to discover it didn't actually do what I was hoping - you have to target the thing you want to polymorph as you declare attacks, so you can't use it to polymorph a thing that gets put into play by something else's attack trigger. It can still be pretty powerful though.

I had this same problem when I tried slotting it into Kari Zev, Skyship Raider when I couldn't actually transform the monkey into something else.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Great with Threaten effects and tokens.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I played against this once in a Legacy Dragon Stompy build. I can assure you that when Rabbledad tokens start unceremoniously becoming Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp et al., soiling yourself is a perfectly acceptable reactive play.

In edh Polymorph effects are basically one-shot Oath of Druids effects and Fireflux squad suffers in decks with higher densities of polymorph effects and big targets. You want to hit a Empyrial Archangel kind of thing with your polymorphs, not another weird enabler.

It's probably best as a value piece imho and it is pretty good at that. But it's a red herring for actual polymorph strategies and that increasingly bugs me as I think about it.

[Mookie]

As others have noted, Fireflux Squad is a bit awkward - if you're playing a Polymorph deck, you usually don't want to be playing cheap creatures. Hitting Fireflux Squad instead of an Eldrazi is... pretty bad. Also, because the creature will enter after attacks are declared, you won't get any annihilator triggers, unlike with Sneak Attack or Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded. There certainly are still good targets - Blightsteel Colossus and Balefire Dragon come to mind - but I feel like a lot of the most interesting red creatures to cheat out have attack triggers, like Utvara Hellkite and Scourge of the Throne. Hmmm.....

Looking at the EDHREC page, this assertion appears to pan out - most decks running Fireflux Squad are doing so as a sac outlet, and not for the polymorph payoff. Jirina Kudro and Trynn, Champion of Freedom like to cash in tokens for value, but that's probably also the precon effect in action. After those two, I see Rionya, Fire Dancer and Winota, Joiner of Forces, who have similar uses for expendable tokens.