[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Mookie]

Edit: holy %$#%, it's $50? %$#% wow, I bought mine way back for like 1.57 or something.

Reserved List says 'hi'.

Anyway, Mana Vortex is a stax card - unless a player has some way to ramp beyond the one land per turn they'll be sacrificing to it, they will be stuck at their current land total (assuming they hit every land drop), which is problematic for decks that want to cast bigger spells. Additionally, unlike Smokestack, there isn't a safety valve to sacrifice it - it's sticking around until its job is done or it gets blown up. I generally don't play stax, so I can't say how it compares to other options.... but if I saw it across the table from me, it would definitely be a headache, at the very least.

Also, obligatory Ramunap Excavator / Crucible of Worlds / The Gitrog Monster shout-out. I could see it doing some nasty things in Tatyova, Benthic Druid / Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait / Muldrotha, the Gravetide.

[pokken]

I've just stopped playing stuff like this mostly. It doesn't have a lot of place in the type of games I like to play. I'd rather people have the mana to try to execute their strategies and then react to those, mostly.

I especially am not a fan of "stax" pieces that wind up incentivizing green ramp There's plenty of that already.

[3drinks]

Monday, March 14th, 2022; Archangel of Thune

[pokken]

I love this card. Played it a ton in modern with the Spike Feeder combo. I am looking forward to putting it into an Ephara lifegain build at some point when I psych myself up to get all the missing pieces for that.

It puts just so much power on the board and lifelink is really fun for racing in commander in my opinion. I much prefer cards like this over Cathars' Crusade for some reason, just more fun for me.

[PrimevalCommander]

I need a high volume reprint to bring price down on Archangel of Thune. I like the card, but never wanted to pay that much $$ for it. I also don't have a dedicated life gain or +1/+1 counter deck, so my interest is only in knowing it is a good card to have if I ever did want to build those decks. Otherwise, good card for heavy white decks where the synergy plays. Likely a staple of mono-white where incidental life gain is more common.

[ISBPathfinder]

Its a good card in the right deck. I like it a lot with Soul Sister cards. Its nice in that it can enable itself even if it isn't optimal attacking and triggering itself is at least still something. I play it in a few decks and I think its a really sweet card when you find yourself in that sort of a deck.

[Ulka]

I love the card but I am a veteran soul sister player in modern so It's been a pet card for years. I think it is safe to compare to Cathars' Crusade in the right deck while not as readily usable as the crusdade it is a card that pulls its weight and I love it.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Obligatory Peaches reference.

So, when I was filling out my curve for Ghave, and adding more Unspeakable Symbol fuel, I put Soul's Attendant and Suture Priest in, adding Leyline of Vitality as well. This card really fits there, without being infinite. Cathars' Crusade is still better.

In tokens it's pretty useful, as well as in lifegain decks. Don't expect it to be great in lifegain if you don't have a lot of (preferably evasive) creatures.

Another cool story I have is where I gave my Drogskol Reaver Sword of Light and Shadow with her out. So besides drawing five cards, everything gets five +1/+1 coubters.

[Mookie]

Archangel of Thune is sweet, and has a ton of synergies. It's a combo piece (with Spike Feeder), a growing evasive threat, a payoff for lifegain, a way to pump your team, a way to get a bunch of +1/+1 counters to fuel other shenanigans... lots of good stuff. Lifegain by itself isn't a particularly powerful strategy, but Archangel of Thune is a strong way to convert it into an actual win condition.

I would say the best part of it is that it is a self-contained engine - unlike most other lifegain payoffs, it is capable of gaining life on its own due to lifelink, which means you don't need quite as much support. You'll probably still want other lifegain in the deck on principle, but you'll never be in the awkward 'payoff but no enabler' state. It looks like the only other card that has both of these abilities is Heliod, Sun-Crowned?

...it could definitely use a reprint though. White has a problem in that the vast majority of its EDH-relevant cards are at higher rarities (and thus tend to be more expensive), which makes it difficult to build on a budget. It would also be nice to see more of this effect at lower rarities. There are some cheaper substitutions if you want the same effect - Cleric Class and Nykthos Paragon both come to mind - but they're definitely a step down in power.

[Sinis]

Monday, March 14th, 2022; Archangel of Thune

My favourite card from M14. Opened one at the prerelease, and never looked

[cheonice]

I would say the best part of it is that it is a self-contained engine - unlike most other lifegain payoffs, it is capable of gaining life on its own due to lifelink, which means you don't need quite as much support. You'll probably still want other lifegain in the deck on principle, but you'll never be in the awkward 'payoff but no enabler' state. It looks like the only other card that has both of these abilities is Heliod, Sun-Crowned?

Valkyrie Harbinger is another selc-contained lifegain engine, but obiously more a thing in lower powered pods.

Archangel of Thune on the other hand... pure love! I took years for me to buy a copy but ... oh boy ... Selvala, Explorer Returned + Soul Sisters with the angel is such a delightful trigger happy joyfest!

[3drinks]

Tuesday, March 15th, 2022; Seed the Land

[PrimevalCommander]

I didn't know this was a card. Not bad actually. Surprised I haven't heard of it before. Probably because it is symmetrical. Cool card, bet there is a deck that wants this for causing creatures opponents control to die.

[Lifeless]

4 feels expensive for a symmetrical effect but I can't imagine them lowering the cost on this back in the day. Could probably get away with printing this in a Commander deck these days a 1G. Certainly has some interesting uses, although possibly providing your opponents with fuel for their engines is concerning.

[BeneTleilax]

Bet there is a deck that wants this for causing creatures opponents control to die.

Grismold says hi. Also saw this in a recent Kodama of the Center Tree memish deck (it started as someone running every Kodama, and built from there), which was better than I thought. Decks that can go both wide and tall with some level of resilience tend to perform above expectations in my experience, even when they run "bad" cards.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Bet there is a deck that wants this for causing creatures opponents control to die.

Grismold says hi. Also saw this in a recent Kodama of the Center Tree memish deck (it started as someone running every Kodama, and built from there), which was better than I thought. Decks that can go both wide and tall with some level of resilience tend to perform above expectations in my experience, even when they run "bad" cards.

@kirkusjones do you play this gem in your list?

[3drinks]

Whoa, I didn't notice it was symmetrical this morning. Probably would have been a respin but I've shot worse cards in here 👀😂

[kirkusjones]

Bet there is a deck that wants this for causing creatures opponents control to die.

Grismold says hi. Also saw this in a recent Kodama of the Center Tree memish deck (it started as someone running every Kodama, and built from there), which was better than I thought. Decks that can go both wide and tall with some level of resilience tend to perform above expectations in my experience, even when they run "bad" cards.

@kirkusjones do you play this gem in your list?

Not any more, I think Tombstone Stairwell took that spot.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Grismold says hi. Also saw this in a recent Kodama of the Center Tree memish deck (it started as someone running every Kodama, and built from there), which was better than I thought. Decks that can go both wide and tall with some level of resilience tend to perform above expectations in my experience, even when they run "bad" cards.

@kirkusjones do you play this gem in your list?

Not any more, I think Tombstone Stairwell took that spot.

I mean, Tombstone Stairwell has a lot more potential for abuse with Purphoros, God of the Forge, Warstorm Surge, Massacre Wurm[/cad], [card]Blood Seeker/Suture Priest, and Blood Artist and friends. Or you can use Cathars' Crusade or Doubling Season.

The real problem with this card is, okay, if you're also in white, Felidar Retreat and Retreat to Emeria are better out of the gate. If you're willing to pay more, Zendikar's Roil and Rampaging Baloths. If you don't mind it being a creature, Emeria Angel and Scute Swarm. Even red has Nesting Dragon for one more. And if you're willing to pay more, and you're in Gruul, and you don't mind it being a creature, Omnath, Locus of Rage.

[wildfire393]

Yeah even back in the day this wasn't great due to the symmetrical nature. Like, I guess if you're playing That Deck that wants to give your opponents things to kill to make them lose other resources or to trigger your own Oath of Druids Defense of the Heart type effects, it could do some work, but it even suffers in those cases by being symmetrical for you (and most of the punish you for things dying cards like Tainted Aether are symmetrical as well).

So it doesn't really have a great home, especially with the overwhelming quality and quantity of landfall token producers these days.

[Serenade]

Always felt too risky for snek tribal.

[Treamayne]

Tuesday, March 15th, 2022; Seed the Land

SPOILER

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BLUF: Objectively good - probably not; subjectively good/fun - yes, in the right deck.

I've run this in all three Snake tribal decks I've built:

G Seshiro the Anointed - Some landfall and self-bounce lands (to get Sasaya trigger) usually let me get asymmetrical triggers from Seed the Land

GU Kaseto, Orochi Archmage - The more casual version of the deck ended up cutting this (since it was more focused on unblockable weenies); but the aggro control version ended up as a Manabond/Storm Cauldron aggro-control that got quite a bit of mileage from this. It wasn't very fun though, so it didn't last long.

URG Xyris, the Writhing Storm - My one attempt at making Xyris fun as tribal/casual was still too annoying to pilot or play against (and didn't last long); but it also had Seed the Land and had good playtest results with land-bounce, Manabond (no Storm Cauldron), etc.

Edit:

Always felt too risky for snek tribal.

That's why Kaseto, Orochi Archmage has access to Peer Pressure . . .

[RxPhantom]

Just make sure you're playing red so you can play Aether Flash, and then make sure you have a couple anthems out. See guys? It only takes three cards to break parity. Totally doable and worth it.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, March 16th, 2022; Dreadhorde Arcanist|tsr

[pokken]

I unabashedly love this card. I've tried to make it work a bunch of times and every time it just dies. I think the big problem is it can't really sustain itself in a mono-red deck cos there aren't enough good things to play. It always ends up getting cut.

I think if I ever make a mardu version of my Breena combat tricks deck, Arcanist would fit really well in there, but need a Mardu commander who is Breena =P (brings all the pumps without needing any support - because the combination of needing to make arcanist bigger and have critical mass of instants / sorceries makes it very difficult).

Also possible I just need to suck it up and play it in ponder.dec.