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

[Dragoon]

Always glad to draw this one in my Ur-Dragon deck

[Mookie]

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is one of the most explosive cards in the format, at least in terms of mana production - following her up with something like Phyrexian Dreadnought or Ghalta, Primal Hunger and tapping her for 10+ mana enables a lot of degeneracy... while also drawing cards for some reason. That, in turn, means most Selvala decks are built to turbo out massive creatures way ahead of curve, or just combo out directly with something like Umbral Mantle.

Still, not a commander I see around that often. She is very much a kill-on-sight commander, which may contribute to that - letting her untap is generally a bad idea, and lacking access to her means that her owner may end up with a bunch of uncastable expensive spells stranded in hand. At the very least, Selvala decks are much less threatening when they are actually playing on-curve.

...always interesting to compare / contrast her with Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, but that's a discussion for the ban forum.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I mean, you can boost her ability with anthems and equipment and totem armor and play her "fair", especially in the 99, But let's be honest, this is Phyrexian Dreadnought doing its imitation of a Ritual. This is Voltron by proxy where a big creature helps you summon something like Pathrazer of Ulamog or It That Betrays or Blightsteel Colossus. This is...Yeah.

[Sinis]

I really like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds as a battlecruiser general. I know she's really powerful, but when I did play her, I eschewed all the untap/infinite shenanigans, and didn't play cards like Lupine Prototype that have no use other than to be a complicated and powerful ritual with Selvala. I'm more of a Mossbridge Troll kind of guy.

Bottom line, though, I feel like this card has become more casual in the intervening years. It's not Korvold, or other such crept nonsense.

Really, though, I could just play Alena, Kessig Trapper and another g/x partner...

[3drinks]

Sunday, April24th, 2022; Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

[pokken]

This guy is just so absurdly overwhelming in a board state. Kills all small creatures, draws a kajillion cards, etc. I think it was a pretty big design mistake.

[BeneTleilax]

I do wish there was a way to kill him before his first ability came online. Despite the hate, I like "activate this ability only when you could cast a sorcery" to give windows to remove engines like this. The prior setup pushed holding guys like this in hand until you could activate them umpteen times at once in response, rather than actually trying to get value over time, which to me is the nature of the format. Timing restrictions aren't even that novel, as someone who's played Hell's Caretaker.

[Vertierer]

I once made the mistake of putting the "old frame" version of this guy in my Premodern Balthor, the Defiled deck... Warped the entire deck around him when he hit the field. Switched to Cabal Patriarch, never looked back

[TheGildedGoose]

This guy is just so absurdly overwhelming in a board state. Kills all small creatures, draws a kajillion cards, etc. I think it was a pretty big design mistake.

AND YET

[pokken]

This guy is just so absurdly overwhelming in a board state. Kills all small creatures, draws a kajillion cards, etc. I think it was a pretty big design mistake.

AND YET

As much as I hate Urza's design, I think Yawg's is worse for the broader edh meta. Think of the difference between Sylvan Primordial and Primeval Titan -- they both ended up banned and were problematic, but SP's was in a way that set other people back, which made it far less fun to play with.

Yawg shuts down everything anyone is doing that's creature related, *and* presents comical amounts of CA for you. It's a much worse design than urza, despite being objectively less powerful.

[Igzex]

On top of his busted abilities with costs that basically offset each other, they made this guy so unbelievably gorgeous that it's physically impossible for anyone to focus on the game. Seriously I can't believe that if I ever get around to making my Jodah 5 color bishonens deck that I'm gonna have to include YAWGMOTH in it.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Being able to sac tokens like this is pretty ridiculous. And he's also basically a spellshaper for proliferate (except you don't have to tap him).

You could actually use him in the 99 (but why would he ever want to be second to anyone?) in a Sultai deck just for Fathom Mage.

[Mookie]

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is a pretty absurd card. There are plenty of cards that let you sacrifice creatures to draw cards (ex: Dockside Chef), and there are plenty of free sac outlets (ex: Carrion Feeder)... but Yawgmoth is one of the only cards that does both. The fact that Yawgmoth only costs four mana also makes him significantly easier to use than Jerren, Corrupted Bishop // Ormendahl, the Corrupter or Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and very possibly the strongest sac outlet ever printed... and his sac ability also kills opposing creatures by slinging around -1/-1 colors for some reason? Yeah, seems strong.

...and then, because he's from Modern Horizons, he also gets protection from a relevant creature type and a second ability to proliferate, because he needs more text. I get that it's a callback to Phyrexian Plaguelord, but still feels unnecessary.

I've done a lot of testing of various sac outlets over the years, but it's usually hard to compare them directly - is Phyrexian Altar better than Yahenni, Undying Partisan? Maybe Viscera Seer's cheap price is better, or maybe you value Woe Strider's recursion? But when Yawgmoth was printed, it was pretty clear that he was the immediate new king. Fortunately, decks that want sac outlets are usually going to want multiple, so he's not quite as centralizing as other best-in-class cards, but... still somewhat concerning.

...honestly, my biggest complaint with Yawgmoth is that he's too expensive for me to justify picking up a copy.

[toctheyounger]

Hes incredibly strong. Instant speed sac, draw and eventual removal all packed into one is incredibly strong. Proliferate is nice too and ties in well with the whole package. Add in protection and a 4 mana cost and he is very very strong. Undoubtedly he warps games, strong in the command zone and the 99.

Whether or not he's TOO pushed (I don't think he is) he's an absolute flavor home run. His abilities perfectly encapsulate his actions in Fall of the Thran, even down to him having protection from his own creature type.

In comparison to Urza I tend to think Urza is more warping. Urza is more subtly pushed, but being an artifact combo engine, a stax combo engine and a colorless mana sink makes him pretty gross. And with a novice pilot you're down to watch someone spin their wheels a long ass time. I think both cards are well designed to mirror the characters they portray, but much like the source material im team Yawgmoth. Urza was a jerk and his card does really well in mirroring that lol.

Anyway, strong card is strong. Rightly so considering he is the eponymous mtg villain. It just means you don't whip this deck out unless you're turning g the dial up to 11.

[Venedrex]

He seems completely balanced to me. Perhaps in some metas he might end up being a plague, but as long as you're careful not to let him infect your playgroup, it's probably nothing to worry about.

I'll see myself out of the thread.

[benjameenbear]

A selection from Canto VII of the Phyrexian Scriptures:

5. Yea, and when WOTC revealed unto the people their version of Yawgmoth, there was much rejoicing in the land. For it was clear that the heavens smiled upon the compleated EDH players of the world and brought them great tidings of joy on top of bountiful card advantage and board control.

6. And when the incompleat looked upon the glory of Yawgmoth's card, the gnashed their teeth in fear and trembling.

7. "Why dost WOTC turn their face away from us?" they cried. "Yea, Yawgmoth's brokenness, attractive CMC, and instant-speedness of his ability is too good for EDH!"

8. Then WOTC turned their faces away from the incompleat, knowing the inevitability of Phyrexia upon the EDH world.

9. And then the compleated disciples of EDH turned Yawgmoth into their Commanders and hid him in their 99, to spread the glory of Yawgmoth to all the EDH world, crying

10. "Their weak mana dorks and tokens. Their flawed Commanders. They inhibit the Grand Evolution. In Yawgmoth's name, we shall control the board and draw ALL the cards in honor of the card that is banned."

11. For lo, WOTC knew that before the glory of Yawgmoth, even this powerful printing made sense. They knew that underneath the suns of New Phyrexia, the EDH world would kneel and beg for blessed perfection.

---

Ok, all kidding aside, I firmly agree with everyone's general assessment. There are cEDH Yawgmoth lists that are quite powerful and can win pretty explosively. So, to me, that's a strong indicator of a powerful EDH card. Are his abilities perhaps overpowered and pushed for certain metas? Probably. Does he have more abilities than he really should? Maybe. Does he put a broad smothering effect on creature-based strategies when he's in play? Yeah, I can confirm that having played him since he was printed.

Do I care? Absolutely not. He is 100% my favorite deck to play and he consistently performs well. Like @toctheyounger said, his card design is 100% on par with his character in the book and I was absolutely delighted when they released it. I've never preordered a card so fast in my life.

[3drinks]

Monday, April 25th, 2022; Mishra's Workshop

Perfectly fair and reasonable card, yep, nothing busted here. I've never known WotC to create any artifacts that aren't totally fair or reasonable. 👀

[ISBPathfinder]

I have come.............. close to buying one of these a few times but what ultimately keeps me from doing so had been both its price tag but going wayyyy back doing artificer decks was really hard to pull off at the same level as other decks. I think artifact heavy decks that aren't just colorless have come a long ways in recent years and the eldrazi are still fine but the price tag has always been a little higher than I wanted to pay for what I considered to be sort of a niche card for commander.

I have never seen one played IRL.

[folding_music]

I saw someone tap one of these and a mox for a Su-Chi at an ancient Gencon, had no idea I was looking at one of the most expensive openers of all time )))))))) if I had one I'd get rid, can't convince myself it'd make sense to keep in a 99 card deck. i'd be tapping it to cast Acorn Catapult or whatever, anyway, instant cringe for all concerned

[hyalopterouslemur]

I've played one in paper a few times, and in Shandalar. (I bought mine when it was around $200.)

In Shandalar, it's kinda bad, but that's being limited to Fourth Edition cards and a few banned cards (and all the artifacts in question cost 1 or less). Can't remember how much Pandora's Box, the one Astral artifact, cost, just that it was Not Good, like most Astral cards.

It's obviously ridiculous in EDH. So many artifacts are just inherently broken.

[Mookie]

Mishra's Workshop is one of the most powerful lands of all time. It's obviously limited in the decks it can go in, but if you're running an artifact-based deck, it's a snap-include..... if you ignore the pricetag. Tapping for three mana makes it even stronger than Ancient Tomb, the next-best land for mana acceleration, but being limited to only casting artifact spells (and not even helping with paying for activated abilities) means there are a lot of things it doesn't help with. Still, as long as you cast a single spell off it, it's comparable to a Dark Ritual, so still worth consideration.

...I usually don't play with proxies, but if I owned a Workshop, I'd probably make an exception for it - a bit too expensive for me to be comfortable actually playing with it.

[3drinks]

You haven't lived until you t1 a 3sphere with it. Also unrelated: "how come 3drinks doesn't keep any friends 🙄".

I'm not bringing mine out for casual pickup games but I have some real nice, clean looking versions from another source (the backs are plain white by design). Just like my Bazaar of Baghdad.

[pokken]

My workshop is always worse than I expect it to be, because getting the critical mass of mana rocks to make it good requires just an assload of them. And then I run out of artifacts to cast.

[DirkGently]

I've hardly ever played it. I guess I've also never built an artifact deck either since I don't really find type-specific strategies very interesting. But unless you're going all-in on artifacts or you're playing mono-brown it's hard to justify imo.

Best use I've had for it was in my Golos, Tireless Pilgrim Sorrow's Path deck. Ramps out Golos early, then he usually fetches The World Tree, which lets it tap for whatever.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It's overrated imho. Tolarian Academy eats this thing's lunch and the only reason workshop sees play over it is because Academy is banned to hell most everywhere, and restricted in Vintage.

It also doesn't help my estimation that the only time I've seen it played outside of Vintage, it cast a chromatic lantern and ate a strip mine.

EDIT: @3drinks what a string of heavy hitters here lately. Have you been oddly lucky, or are you trying to stir up the conversation? Lest we all forget, the most controversial magic card is obviously chromatic lantern.