[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Fatal Push

[Moxnix]

Seems fine to me kind of does divination tithe thing when it enters lets you maybe dump said lands on that turn cycle like a burgeoning but with the white orchard restriction if it wasn't for that bit about them needing more it would be quite good i think. Main issue is efficiency a tithe can crab 2 plains instant speed land tax also at 1 and massive CA with rack type effects and fetching even weathered wayfarer seems generically more good for this so at 3 i think maybe its better than gift of estates at 2 but the lower your land count the harder it is to slot a 3+ cc card in as a mana slot since it might not be working in a opener but there is enough upside i think if you have curve space at 3 its playble ive seen it be quite good on the other side of the table but when you like exploration and landfall things vs me its normally ramp and looks good when ive tried it myself its felt more like expensive tithe but sometimes that's just fine.

[Ruiner]

I've played this in a number of decks alongside a usual package of Weathered Wayfarer, Lotus Field, Flagstones of Trokair, Thespian's Stage for the whole "play from lower lands in play" angle.

It usually does pretty well. Depending in how things are going, if someone is ramping out of control you can keep up admirably if you have something like Land Tax stocking your hand up.

I've had games where it is essentially "Pay 3, draw 2 cards (that are guaranteed lands)" and even in that scenario its not awful.

Not a must play, but it can do some work.

[Mookie]

Huh, I did not realize that the price of Archaeomancer's Map came down so much. I should pick up a few copies at some point. At a baseline, it puts extra lands into hand and gives you a Burgeoning effect to deploy them, which is a very solid effect. I would be less excited about a plains-only Divination though, so I would want to have some way to go down on lands via bouncelands / sacrifice / etc. You only need one trigger to turn it into Cultivate though, which doesn't seem hard. I'll also note that it's an artifact and can thus be sacrificed / flickered / recurred itself, which is nice. White doesn't have a lot of ways to accelerate out its land drops, but there are a few colorless options like Walking Atlas and Terrain Generator that can help if you find a way to get extra triggers and flood your hand with basics.

I'd say that one critique I have of Archaeomancer's Map and other catch-up ramp is that the enabler half of the equation feels a bit stale. Karoo, Lotus Field, maaaaybe Scorched Ruins or Lotus Vale. We haven't seen many new options recently (presumably because WotC is very hesitant to print lands that tap for multiple mana), so I'd like to see some more redundancy so that there are actual choices. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing an updated borderpost cycle.

...I suppose there are technically some new options in the RG 'sacrifice lands for value' bucket, but going down on lands to enable your catch-up ramp feels a bit counterproductive.

[folding_music]

Tameshi Reality Architect breaks this in two <3 although you could say that about three hundred other cards

[3drinks]

Tuesday, September 15th 2026; Mystifying Maze|C17

[MAGUSZANIN]

Mystifying Maze seems like the perfect card for @DirkGently's Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power list to go up an interaction land! 😁

In all seriousness, it seems ok? There are definitely worse utility lands out there.

[DirkGently]

I think it's already in there lol. Going back to our discussion earlier--having utility lands help to mitigate flood because you'll always have SOMETHING to do even if it's not super efficient. Having a bunch of basic mountains means that you're more susceptible to running out of gas. I think that ended up being a pretty critical factor--we were both somewhat flooded, but my land drops were still putting work in where drinks' were basically dead.

Between this and Labyrinth of Skophos, they're pretty close. Labyrinth can protect your own attackers, and it's better against ETBs. Mystifying Maze is a lot stronger against tokens, auras, and equipment. Both pretty solid utility lands imo, even if they both suck compared to Kor Haven.

[3drinks]

Doesn't guarantee you still see them. You can still brick, as I was doing. Doesn't make me feel any better because the solution isn't "just play removal" because that's not the problem. The problem is "stop losing to variance" which obviously is not something you can address in this way.

[illakunsaa]

I had an idea where you mystifying maze your opponent's commander, hope that he leaves the commander in the exile and then you scoop.

[ISBPathfinder]

I used to play a lot of mazes and now..... I don't even always play Kor Haven in white. Some of the reason for this is that I feel like I see less voltron but also things just feel so much faster its hard to hold up maze level of mana in a lot of cases.

Mystifying Maze specifically..... its not that strong but I think I prefer it as disruption over Labyrinth of Skophos. The downside of resetting an ETB creature is fine because I am probably not willing to use it on some ETB creature outside of extreme emergencies so I would rather the disruption of dropping buffs off of them. I generally won't run them unless I am playing a deck that swims in mana though. I still prefer Kor Haven though. I on occasion even resort to Maze of Ith now and then because of how efficient it is even though it doesn't tap for mana.

[DirkGently]

Doesn't guarantee you still see them. You can still brick, as I was doing. Doesn't make me feel any better because the solution isn't "just play removal" because that's not the problem. The problem is "stop losing to variance" which obviously is not something you can address in this way.

The goal isn't to remove all variance, the goal is to reduce the impact and likelihood of the more extreme outcomes. If you have 20 mountains and 20 utility lands, sure you could still draw 10 mountains, but it's waaaay less likely than if you were running 40 mountains.

[Ruiner]

I can't see ever wanting to play this. If it could target your own creatures at least I could see a use for a land that blinks my own stuff, but this seems extremely low ranking in the list of similar lands.

I guess one edge it has is removing equipment and auras, and just removes tokens entirely, which similar lands don't do. However there is the bad side effect of that giving opponents another ETB if applicable.

[Dunadain]

As usual, Dirk is too high on utility lands XD

(It's a fine land tbh, this is far from the most egregious example of Dirk over-indexing utility lands).

[Moxnix]

Not a super effcient ability slow meant for slow precon like meta maybe where the decks are not optimized and your using less rituals fast mana dorks and things that general make your land count higher. I dont think i run this card anywhere but i can think of some precon paced games it would have been nice in when i did go hellbent many of the unmodified precons dont have enough draw and when they slip things like this in those piles they can get value for that reason but to me just play more refill the core pattern of most non aggro decks is always put things on board ramp stones whatever> refill hand then execute gameplan wasting a turn on refill is harder and less viable in aggro so maybe aggro likes these lands too? i think the tldr for me is it cost too much so for it too be good you have to for some reason anticipate your hand will not be full and most the decks i like dont want to be making that assumption they want to draw the whole deck right now instead lol.

[DirkGently]

Oh yeah, one other bonus that Labyrinth of Skophos has is that it works better against hexproof since you can use it on your blocker.

As usual, Dirk is too high on utility lands XD

To be clear, I would probably never run this outside of mono-color decks (it's currently in my Ojer Axonil build...I think that's the only place I'm currently using it).

[Sinis]

Mystifying Maze just costs too much to activate in today's environment. If it was playable (and I have sleeved it up), the game has long developed past that speed where tapping 5(!) to send an attacker home is worthwhile. There's also a significant over/under with ETBs and erasing counters; sometimes it's very, very bad, and sometimes it's pretty decent.

[ukkuhrmakhai]

Mystifying maze definitely has some unique political value with being able to blink ETBs. Similarly, if P1 is the biggest threat you can blink P2's creature that has draw/removal etb. The ability to remove an attacker has been more of an additional mode than it's primary mode the last few times i've played it.

Mystifying Modes (according to Ukkuhr):
1. Untapped colorless land
2. Blink opponents creatures to answer the biggest threat
3. Remove attacker
4. Leave it untapped as a threat (if you have other instant speed ways to spend mana)
5. Political trading

I've been playing Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter where I don't mind leaving mana up or a colorless land, but Mystifying Maze has performed as more than just antivoltron.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, September 16th 2026; Fatal Push|61131

[Hermes_]

quick kill a mana dork or a token!

[Mookie]

re: Mystifying Maze - there are certainly situations where it can be good, but it costs waaaay too much to activate to see play these days. I'd prefer a different colorless utility land in most situations. Alternatively, manlands like Cactus Preserve and Restless Reef can be decent rattlesnakes if you're looking for a defensive option - threatening to block or trade tends to be a better defense than threatening a blink.

Fatal Push is one of the most efficient removal spells ever printed - paying one mana to kill a 4-drop is an excellent rate. Unfortunately, curves tend to be higher in commander, so missing out on big stuff is a notable weakness. Simultaneously, games are longer, so you may not be as pressured to kill cheap stuff in the early game. I don't think it's a bad card by any measure, but it doesn't really play to the format's themes.

[Lifeless]

Likely the best conditional removal you'll ever see, I don't play at a table that really demands answers like this. If you do, it's top notch.

[3drinks]

quick kill a mana dork or a token!

I think you do yourself a disservice to file a tool so efficient as though it's only good for hitting a saproling. Even if you look at Shut Up and Play this hits Skullbriar, ramp enablers (taking out the ramp on 2 often times will cripple an opening drive), shoots spider-woman outta the sky, and if you can hit revolt (a trivial condition), using your one mv to trade up for a four drop is an absurd efficiency swing.

[Moxnix]

it costs 1 its instant it kills things generally well so its playable its not as good as format staples like rollick or stp but its as good as most non staple removals just by costing 1. Kind of like a lighting bolt which is also good. That being said i dont think i play it very often outside mono black and i think its mostly becuase the other shards just have other removals i like more and i dont tend to run tons unless its like a cedh build. In blue i fee like as a combo guy i favor chain of vapor and into the flood maw in green black i like the mixed abrupt decay type removals or have a reason i like innocent blood better in those shells and white has stp pte etc. That being said I I think its still pretty top tier removal in that its never felt bad anywhere Ive played it the occasional it cant kill the big thing vibe later in some lower power games but mostly strong. I could probably use it more than i do but im using my curve space more for dark rituals than pushes i think but if i i ran more removal this would be a consideration in any build for being 1 mana and instant.

[MAGUSZANIN]

Yeah, I think Fatal Push just generally doesn't scale to the format. 5 Mana commanders are plentiful and threatening, plus a huge number of 5 Mana creature threats. Combine that with many archetypes being built around cards above the 4mv cut off (eldrazi, any green ramp beaters deck like dinos and sea monsters, etc) and this just doesn't cut it.

I will say that it is better than it was when it was first printed. Curves are lower than ever, and the advent of treasures and such means revolt is easier than ever to turn on. It is very possible we will never get to a place this is good in the format, but we are a lot closer to that place than we were when this was printed a decade ago.

[materpillar]

quick kill a mana dork or a token!

I think you do yourself a disservice to file a tool so efficient as though it's only good for hitting a saproling. Even if you look at Shut Up and Play this hits Skullbriar, ramp enablers (taking out the ramp on 2 often times will cripple an opening drive), shoots spider-woman outta the sky, and if you can hit revolt (a trivial condition), using your one mv to trade up for a four drop is an absurd efficiency swing.

I'm never sleeving this up in Shut Up and Play. Imagine @DirkGently drops Samut, the Driving Force and you're sitting on this instead of whatever Go for the Throat variant you favor. That's just a straight game losing choice.

Half the reason this card is even playable is fetches. I'd basically never play this anywhere below bracket 4.