[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Black Market Connections

[DirkGently]

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.

I dislike omniscience too, but I think ETI is worse. While most decks running omniscience can win immediately, it's at least plausible to not have draw, or draw into enough bricks to run out of gas. I've seen omniscience not win. Or to get removed if they don't have a counterspell. ETI doesn't really care what's happening since you'll always be in the same position once it's resolved. Unless you already used your free mana, you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to win regardless of the circumstances.

But yeah omniscience also sucks. Real groaner to see played for sure.

As for divinity, I can't say much that hasn't been said. It used to be considered good, but a card that only does combat generally isn't worth much unless it's completely absurd,

[Serenade]

This cycle did have the coolest names. These days they all would have been legends, and I kinda miss that.

[onering]

This cycle did have the coolest names. These days they all would have been legends, and I kinda miss that.

I think they would have been back then if not for Demigod of Revenge. That one was the one they pushed as a chase rare and it needed to not be legendary to work. With a little hand management or dredge so you could return a couple from the yard it could be 15 power of flying and haste for five mana, which was nuts for standard and extended.

[Serenade]

Did DoR ever get banned? I played FNM when it was Standard-legal, but I only recall ever seeing one DoR deck (faeries were the new hotness when I got back into MTG).

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Damn, Demigod of Revenge is such a cool card too! I remember when it was a Big Red Top End in early Modern, and the terror it was alongside Figure of Destiny and Flame Javelin in Standard.

[TheGildedGoose]

Do serious decks play big, dumb beaters anymore? I played a Tymna the Weaver/Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper deck that specifically abused turning creatures sideways and weaponizing life gain. If Serra Ascendant barely made the cut, as cool as Divinity of Pride is it has absolutely no chance anymore.

[Mookie]

Divinity of Pride is a gorgeous card, but not one I see myself playing - even assuming it's always an 8/8, I don't know that I would ever want to run a french vanilla beater. Lifelink does mean it's pretty difficult to race, so I could maybe see running it if you were looking for a pure beater, but... I feel like most lifegain-based decks care more about the number of lifegain triggers than the exact amount gained, which means a cheaper source of lifegain will be more efficient.

[vandertroll]

Divinity of Pride : Cool name, even cooler artwork. Unfortunately doesn't do much in EDH.

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 7th, 2022; Moorland Haunt

I like lands that make an army tbh. Even more when the army has evasion.

[wildfire393]

I don't really like cutting off resources from my own graveyard, especially in a white deck where I'm running Sun Titan, Emeria Shepherd, Emeria, the Sky Ruin etc most likely, but this is an otherwise efficient and solid token generator.

[3drinks]

Friday, April 8th, 2022; Wand of Wonder

I wish this was better. Like this shouldn't cost 8 for the first activation. Such an interesting card that is otherwise gatekept by an unfortunate cost.

[Guardman]

As someone who has played a ton of Chaos Wand over the years, Wand of Wonder looks to be a much better version of that. Well worth the one extra mana. First off, the failure rate is much lower than Chaos Wand since it hits all opponents. It also gives you more choice. So by that alone it is a better Chaos Wand. But then add in the fact you get a chance to cast multiple spells for free and it has the chance to just win the game after one or two activations.

Have to get one for my Etali, Primal Storm deck when it finally comes out.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's definitely something that would be broken at anything less, but that doesn't make it playable.

[Mookie]

Re: Moorland Haunt - I like the card for 40/60-card formats - turning expended resources / creatures into more-useful tokens is pretty nice in the lategame - but my EDH decks are too recursive to want this effect.

Wand of Wonder seems fun, but it's too new for me to actually have seen it in action. That said, I have played with Chaos Wand in the past, and it has been... pretty bad. Even ignoring the relatively low chance of hitting Expropriate or another big spell, the odds of hitting an irrelevant spell are actually pretty high - there are a lot of spells that rely heavily on timing to be good (ex: Boros Charm, countermagic). I think four mana is a relatively fair price for a free 2-3 mana removal spell - or even a 1-mana cantrip - but when you hit something you can't even cast, it feels really bad. Adding a bit of selection is a very meaningful upgrade. Hard to say whether that is enough for Wand of Wonder to suddenly become a format staple, but it's certainly back in the realm of 'worth testing'.

Obviously, if you regularly play 5+ player games, it goes even further up in value. Same with if you have any dice-rolling synergies. I could also see it being good in Prosper, Tome-Bound or other decks that care about exile.

[3drinks]

Saturday, April 9th, 2022; Dreadfeast Demon

[hyalopterouslemur]

This can be fun in a token deck, just sacrificing saprolings for 6/6 flying monstrosities all day. Once you have seven mana (or a reanimator spell) of course.

[onering]

Not just tokens, but all those self recurring black creatures and all those etb creatures with weak bodies. And its exponential yet self limiting, you make 1 thing a demon on your end step, then 2 things demons next time, then 4 things demons, but since you are constantly getting rid of an increasing number of things that aren't demons eventually you won't have enough targets for the triggers, which ends up being a neat way Wizards was able to control how crazy it can get. This is a really fun card and exactly the sort of craziness this format is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, its only viable in more casual metas.

[3drinks]

I always want to put it into zenith seeker....... but I don't like locking me out of my other guys. So I think this is best with some sort of a sprout swarm deck.

[Mookie]

Dreadfeast Demon is an interesting card - it will slowly turn all your non-demon creatures into 6/6 flyers, which is usually going to be an upgrade. That is particularly true if you're getting expendable bodies from something like Bitterblossom or Reassembling Skeleton. On the other hand, if you have a creature you want to actually stick around, it will eventually be eaten by demons, so... yeah.

....of course, as seven-mana creatures go, a 6/6 flyer isn't that exciting - it's competing against stuff like Rune-Scarred Demon and Sheoldred, Whispering One. I also think Sepulchral Primordial is a better army-in-a-can. If you only get a single trigger, it's effectively a bigger Broodmate Dragon, which isn't a card I would want to run. As a result, I wouldn't play Dreadfeast Demon unless I had some way to enhance it, such as Parallel Lives, extra turns, or sacrifice synergies.

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 10th, 2022; Enthusiastic Mechanaut

[TheAmericanSpirit]

The flavor text is super sad, damn. She was trying to fit in, trying to make friends, and the bastards called the fuzz on her. Screw 'em, you're fine exactly how you are. Now go find your people.

[Serenade]

The flavor text is super sad, damn. She was trying to fit in, trying to make friends, and the bastards called the fuzz on her. Screw 'em, you're fine exactly how you are. Now go find your people.

Gotta planeswalk this girl to Kaladesh, STAT.

I think she's pretty great. Stats, evasion, is an artifact herself, cost reduction of a type that is predominantly colorless…the red is worth it as a variant of Etherium Sculptor. The most difficult part for her is that people still want more/different UR artifact generals.

[hyalopterouslemur]

She's also a flying bear, for whatever that's worth. (Not much, TBH. She's more a combo-related general.)

Flavorwise, are akki like other goblins? Like, I know they were going for "Hey, fellow kids!" but instead it comes off as just sad.

[wildfire393]

The problem with this card vs similar cards like Etherium Sculptor and Foundry Inspector is that not having any colorless symbols in his own mana cost means he can't benefit from the reduction of additional copies of this effect. Like if you drop Inspector first, Sculptor then costs only 1, but Mechnaut never gets a discount and will always require two colored mana.

You probably still run it in a UR Artifacts matter list like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or similar, as you want to maximize those effects, but I don't think the flying and point of power is worth turning a 1 into R.

[3drinks]

Monday, April 11th, 2022; Kenrith, the Returned King

*grabs popcorn*

This ought to be good.