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

[Dunharrow]

works so well with the magecraft mechanic, so only improved since it was made.

[hyalopterouslemur]

"Battlecruiser". Riiiiight.

In an odd way it reminds me of Sphinx-Bone Wand, which is actually quite strong, but there are just so many better "not quite storm" wincons. This is definitely one of them. Have you ever drawn six or more cards off Divination? I have. High Tided and ritualed your way to 300 mana easily? I have.

[Igzex]

I'm personally imagining how funny it would be to get like, 10 copies of Death by Dragons.

[Mookie]

I'm running Thousand-Year Storm in my Mizzix deck, but I don't think I've actually gone off with it yet - it's pretty hard for me to both find a turn to drop a 6-mana enchantment and have it survive a full turn cycle, since it's a rather threatening card. Still, definitely a sweet effect. Somewhat interesting to compare to Swarm Intelligence and Double Vision - TYS is better if you're casting lots of spells, but that will generally only happen once, at the end of the game. Meanwhile, the other two feel like better value engine cards. Hmmm....

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This card is neat, but requires some self control in building to not become a miserable time sink in game.

[Dragoon]

I'm personally imagining how funny it would be to get like, 10 copies of Death by Dragons.

Target yourself each time, then drop Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund while laughing maniacally.

[Igzex]

Target yourself each time, then drop Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund while laughing maniacally.

Oh man you really brought me back to the really old days of EDH with that one. I actually ran Death by Dragons (and Blades of Velis Vel) in my Karrthus to do what I called The Karrthus Kombo™. I stole a number of games with that gimmick. Memories...

[wildfire393]

Thousand-Year Combo Turn

[3drinks]

Friday, April 29th, 2022; Promise of Loyalty

I must have missed this. Should probably get more play tbh.

[wildfire393]

Friday, April 29th, 2022; Promise of Loyalty

I must have missed this. Should probably get more play tbh.

It's vaguely interesting, but it falls down in effectiveness a lot if people are playing Commanders that mostly Do Their Thing outside of the combat step. Like now, instead of wiping your board, I'm leaving you with an Urza, Lord High Artificer or Krark, the Thumbless that can't attack me, oh no how will you ever win?

[RxPhantom]

I thought I had missed an undiscovered gem here with Promise of Loyalty, but @wildfire393 brought me to my senses. Bummer.

[Mookie]

As @wildfire393 has pointed out, letting a non-combat commander like Urza or Krark live is pretty bad. I don't hate the idea of Promise of Loyalty if you're in a meta heavy on voltron commanders, but... the ratio of combat-focused vs noncombat-focused commanders is skewed very heavily towards the latter. Even when I think of some of the commanders that are scary in combat, the first ones that come to mind are stuff like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King that are played primarily for their passive abilities, and not for their combat prowess.

....more broadly, giving opponents choices is bad, which is why sacrifice effects tend to be pretty weak in EDH. I'd consider this if the selection of which creature stuck around were more controllable, like Make an Example or Crackling Doom.

Also: I'll call out the existence of the similar Divine Reckoning, which has been around since the original Innistrad and seen approximately zero play.

[Serenade]

It's also some pretty weird flavor. Did all these college students…murder all their peers and promise each other to shut up about it?

[DirkGently]

Awesome card if you're playing in an insular meta where all the creatures just attack and block. Outside of kitchen table circa 2010, though, it gives your opponents way too much flexibility.

It's also some pretty weird flavor. Did all these college students…murder all their peers and promise each other to shut up about it?

I think they all promised not to come after the dude who just murdered everyone else they knew. "Okay mister, if you let us live we promise not to call the cops." Something like that.

And then later they decided to make it sound heroic. When they say "it's us against the world" they mean "it's us against the world...except the dude who murdered everyone, we gotta be loyal to him. Forever."

[Serenade]

Oh, gosh, that's worse.

The sacrifice here is good. Letting opponent choose is not. I was going to compare to Slash the Ranks, which gets the boost of offing PWs as well, but it's not similar enough.

Given recent set mechanics, I wish we had more punishment for getting counters on stuff. This…is a weak effect, but I still like the idea of negative counters or going back to our buddy Kulrath Knight.

[Dragoon]

Also: I'll call out the existence of the similar Divine Reckoning, which has been around since the original Innistrad and seen approximately zero play.

Hey now, this card was all the rage with voltron decks back in the day. My Uril, the Miststalker and Bruna, Light of Alabaster decks were never sad to draw it.

[Toshi]

In theory these wipes sound tempting, but as long as the caster doesn't get to choose they usually fail to impress me.
Speaking of which, for that reason Tragic Arrogance is by far my favorite wipe - especially with the abundance of artifact creature tokens these days...
Other than that i like wipes that can be backbreaking incidentally. Slaughter the Strong is very mana efficent and often times leaves your opponents with a maximum of 2 creatures. Maybe i should dig it up again...

[3drinks]

Saturday, April 30th, 2022; Back to Basics

[Dunharrow]

Saturday, April 30th, 2022; Back to Basics

not a friendly card. Like Contamination or Blood Moon , very attractive in a monocolor deck, but it will make you a target.
Also, unlike the aforementioned cards, your opponents can play new non-basics untapped and cast spells.

[Serenade]

I love it. Fun to say, original art is terrific, classic flavor text. I always see this card as an interesting challenge and enormous target. Alas, my friends disagree, and it is banned in my playgroup.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Kismet/Frozen Aether can help break it. The real problem is if they have some other way to untap lands. Seedborn Muse or Garruk Wildspeaker or Intruder Alarm or Reset will seriously ruin your day.

Personally, I love nonbasic hate for the "stop hitting yourself" factor.

[Mookie]

I run Back to Basics in my Thada deck - my own manabase is mostly basics and I have a bunch of mana rocks (stolen or otherwise), so it usually will set my opponents back significantly further than it will set me back. That said, not a card that I would recommend to everyone - it definitely gets a lot of groans when it hits the table. Still, it is one of the better ways to shut down (or at least slow down) 3-5 color decks. Also backbreaking against colorless decks, I suppose.

More broadly, I don't mind Back to Basics or Blood Moon that much - as a general rule, I'm a fan of cards that encourage monocolor decks, and I think it is good for people to play more basics. I might be saltier about them if I ran into them more often though. Contamination is in a different category though, since it doesn't really have any counterplay other than 'play more mana rocks', which makes it too close to Armageddon, IMO.

[Treamayne]

Stax combo piece is casual-unfriendly; and I am never happy to see this at a table. In my experience:
1) ~7 of 10 times it's as @hyalopterouslemur said, a Simic (or GUx) deck running Seedborn Muse and friends
2) ~3 of 10 times it's a Stax "nobody can play" glurgfest
3) 10 of 10 times, the nature of the card means it punishes the player furthest behind far more than the non-basic ramp players it is supposedly being fielded against.

I look forward to the day when a fixed version of this exists.

[ironic gesture]

I run a copy in my Rashmi deck and can confirm it brings the groans. However, that deck is "high" power and I only play it against decks at that level. Running it at lower power levels seems like a good way to lose friends, especially if you have ways to protect it.

[onering]

It's strong, but honestly it's fair. You should be running some basics, and if your in the colors that have them you should be running some enchantment removal. At this point only mono red and rakdos should be kind of screwed in terms of removing it, but they also should be able to play around it.