[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Bloodthirster

[Toshi]

it totally hoses my Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck, so I'm going to hope that no one in my meta decides to ever run it.

Same goes for my Lazav, the Multifarious deck. Only 4/33 creatures would withstand it and i'd be dead in the water, if it ever hit.

[folding_music]

(Shadows' Verdict)

it also smashes my colfenor deck :))) im glad it exists though, costs next to no money and is better than Damnation in a lot of games

[hyalopterouslemur]

(Shadows' Verdict)

it also smashes my colfenor deck )) im glad it exists though, costs next to no money and is better than Damnation in a lot of games

Selective wipes often are. Like, a Kaalia deck will likely run Earthquake simply because most of her creatures are big and/or (usually and) have flying. An Arcades or Doran deck will run Wave of Reckoning because low power, high toughness. And token decks love some March of Souls and Humility because "This does nothing to us." (And in March's case, it's far more...interesting.)

[wildfire393]

Four mana gets you Ritual of Soot, which does the most important thing this card does: kills 3mv and lower creatures.

The added mana lets you hit the occasional planeswalker, exiles instead of destroys, and gets everything in the graveyard too.

There's some cases where that will be backbreaking, but I feel like most of the time the speed you're losing for that extra mana isn't worth it. If you're trying to stomp back a cheap creature swarm, you want to do so ASAP.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022; Enter the Infinite

[wildfire393]

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022; Enter the Infinite

Ah Enter the Infinite, a card from Gatecrash, the set where they did an Xzibit on EDH cards and just jammed infinite value on top of infinite value.

Drawing your entire deck, at any cost, is honestly pretty snore-worthy. Like yeah, you're winning, likely immediately. Let's just move on.

[Guardman]

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022; Enter the Infinite

Ah Enter the Infinite, a card from Gatecrash, the set where they did an Xzibit on EDH cards and just jammed infinite value on top of infinite value.

Drawing your entire deck, at any cost, is honestly pretty snore-worthy. Like yeah, you're winning, likely immediately. Let's just move on.

At least it isn't a durdly win condition.

[Mookie]

Combos with Dream Halls and Thassa's Oracle, which I'm pretty sure means it is a fair and reasonable card.

[wildfire393]

At least it isn't a durdly win condition.

You can pry my durdly win condition from my cold, dead hands.

[Lifeless]

The only redeeming quality of this card is when someone casts it and then fails to win for some reason or another.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Another Laboratory Maniac card. Not that you should need an altcon, and I prefer to use Demonic Consultation for mill infinity lolgg

[pokken]

Generally speaking I think the mana cost required to win the game in a single card should be about a bajillion (or whatever a table kill with Comet Storm costs, 50+?). Cards like this, and Torment of Hailfire and Crackle with Power and even Genesis Wave that rate to just win the game with a large amount of mana are offensive.

This one and Tooth and Nail and Razaketh, the Foulblooded are probably the most egregious examples (and Griselbrand were it legal), with Ad Nauseam and Necropotence placing in there (with more deckbuilding constraints).

All things considered Expropriate kinda unseated this one as the go to meathead bomb, but all these cards are kinda tiresome, in the vein of 1 card combos with your commander.

[DirkGently]

Personally I find this more offensive than something like Crackle or even Torment, as well as cards like necro and T&N, albeit for different reasons.

I'm more okay with Crackle and Torment because they don't waste a lot of time, and they DO cost a pretty major amount of mana. Crackle from 40 costs 27 mana to win. Torments cost varies a lot with the board and hand sizes, and can be pretty dead vs tokens. 12 mana really isn't that much in the setting of commander, when you're talking about immediately winning the game. Torment also puts the power in the hands of your opponents to attempt to save themselves by drawing cards or creating tokens or whatever (still don't like the card, but it does have SOME counterplay which I think is good). But at any rate, both of those cards will generally just be immediate game over when cast correctly. I guess there's a panic-button 5 damage crackle to kill a jin gitaxias, obviously that's also a good thing imo. EtI is going to be "okay, I play this and this and this, and then cast this, and then this, and this loops with this, and yadda yadda yadda." It's even designed so that you can take an extra turn and then win on THAT turn. Blech. Just kill me already.

I'm more okay with necro and T&N because I do see those cards frequently played without immediately winning. Plus most T&N wins allow for more interaction, ETI is usually unassailable once it resolves and you have 20 counterspells in hand. I've seen lots of necro games where it's just a really good draw engine that gets them ganged up on and killed. Don't like those cards either, but people do play them semi-fairly. ETI is basically only usable as a wincon because it sets you up to lose in 2 turns if you don't win.

So yeah, this card epitomizes so many things I hate about "designed for commander" cards, and big splashy bombs in general...but I also very rarely see it played so I can't in good conscience care enough to complain too much about it. It's just a big signpost for bad design that nobody likes.

[pokken]

I would agree that enter is the worst of all those cards next to Expropriate but they're all just whatever, like mana shouldn't be a wincondition

[3drinks]

like mana shouldn't be a wincondition

cries in Helix Pinnacle

[Mookie]

The only redeeming quality of this card is when someone casts it and then fails to win for some reason or another.

As an anecdote, I'll note that I have seen someone resolve Enter the Infinite and lose before...

...in this case, because it was Twincast. The player that actually cast the original copy won the same turn, with Thassa's Oracle backed up by a pile of fast mana rocks and free countermagic. So.... yeah.

[DirkGently]

I would agree that enter is the worst of all those cards next to Expropriate but they're all just whatever, like mana shouldn't be a wincondition

Expropriate handily wins the bad-for-the-format contest by being significantly more played. If it wasn't for that factor, idk...expropriate does waste a lot more time which is irritating, and costs a lot less, but it can also resolve without winning the game.

[onering]

Agreed, usually if people are smart Expropriate is Blatant Thievery with a Time Walk stapled to it, which is stupidly good but beatable. There are times where someone has something on their board that's more dangerous than, or at least equivalent to, an extra turn, but it's uncommon. ETI is a lot like Coalition Victory in that there is no fair use, the only difference being someone could fire it off in desperation even if they don't have a way to win immediately and hope they survive until their next turn to go off.

[ukkuhrmakhai]

Shadows' Verdict is a card that I haven't seen before but I want to try out. Small creatures are often used in recursion loops so having a wipe that exiles them no matter where they are could be worth the extra mana.

To me Enter the Infinite is one of those cards that interacts poorly with the format and is basically a MLD/bomb/draw/storm/durdle/ramp wincon/tutor/etc with the worst parts of all of them. I don't see it enough to worry that much about it but it never makes the game more interesting when it resolves.

In metas where 12+ mana is common, ETI is the best threat/value available. Because ETI draws your entire deck, it is the same as if tutored your entire deck which is much more expensive effect. Enter the Infinite is ~100 mana worth of value available for 12 mana. The only reason that it works as a wincon is that you get so much value you can't lose. But it can require additional cards to complete the win so it ends up with the everyone's favorite kind of game, one person playing solitaire.

In metas where 12+ mana is rare, ETI is playable mostly as a combo piece.

Similar to MLD, it requires stack interaction or an extremely specialized response. They also have to have a separate wincon which they usually will but if someone has exiled their oracle/labman/jace and they just cast it for value then it leads to them taking up a bunch of time trying to figure out a win but since they have a hand full of counters no one else can do much.

I have also seen people resolve it and die usually when it was resolved later in the game and/or someone had uncounterable draw to force them to lose.

[Outcryqq]

You can pry my durdly win condition from my cold, dead hands.

I will, but very slowly. I'll draw the process out so much that it's awkward and painful!

[3drinks]

Wednesday, April 6th, 2022; Divinity of Pride

[3drinks]

I'm surprised at yesterday's reaction to Enter the Infinite tbh. I'd expect this response from Omniscience, which is an actual can't lose card once it's resolved. I still think it's unhealthy for the format, but I'd expect it to be less reviled at least than the dumb enchantment.

[onering]

I'm surprised at yesterday's reaction to Enter the Infinite tbh. I'd expect this response from Omniscience, which is an actual can't lose card once it's resolved. I still think it's unhealthy for the format, but I'd expect it to be less reviled at least than the dumb enchantment.

As hated as ETI is, Omniscience would get an even stronger reaction. Once you have card draw, its ETI plus infinite mana. Its also cheaper. ETI might not be banworthy, Omniscience should be.

As for the Divinity, I miss when this was good. An 8/8 flying lifelink for 5 is just OK nowadays, and that heavy color requirement means it only fits in W/B decks.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Love the Divinity! It's very fair for what it is, but more efficient racing beaters are few and far between.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I'm surprised at yesterday's reaction to Enter the Infinite tbh. I'd expect this response from Omniscience, which is an actual can't lose card once it's resolved. I still think it's unhealthy for the format, but I'd expect it to be less reviled at least than the dumb enchantment.

As hated as ETI is, Omniscience would get an even stronger reaction. Once you have card draw, its ETI plus infinite mana. Its also cheaper. ETI might not be banworthy, Omniscience should be.

As for the Divinity, I miss when this was good. An 8/8 flying lifelink for 5 is just OK nowadays, and that heavy color requirement means it only fits in W/B decks.

I don't know, it can be done in three-color, but most of the time, a beater isn't really enough these days. Evasive lifelink (mostly fatties) are one of the wincons in my 75% Oloro. (Basically it was a challenge to jam as many wincons in one deck and actually have them work together instead of dragging the deck in too many directions.)