[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[hyalopterouslemur]

I actually like this idea, but let's be honest, you'll use it for a legend only most of the time. Otherwise, maybe something like Adarkar Valkyrie or Ohran Frostfang, or maybe a saga now and again. Or a land.

Yeah, something this parasitic will probably suck.

[Mookie]

I like the fact that Search for Glory exists, mostly in the context of white having more support for 'legendary matters' - building a deck with it, Thalia's Lancers, Urza's Ruinous Blast, and other legendary synergy cards sounds sweet, plus you can throw in some additional synergies with historic cards like Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. Search for Glory also works with snow stuff, which is nice, although the number of relevant snow cards is somewhat lower.

That said, I don't think Search for Glory is a particularly powerful card, mostly due to its cost - my general heuristic for tutors is that 3 mana is... a fair price, but not one I'm excited about unless my deck is really synergy-driven or it has a ton of targets. That said, if you have snow synergies, it certainly goes up in value - hitting it off Scrying Sheets (or whatever) is certainly sweet. I don't think there is quite enough snow support to justify it in EDH, but worth consideration if we ever get more snow cards.

[Jemolk]

I quite like Search for Glory. Got it in Kangee U/W Birds. There are several good snow birds, and a good number of strong legends for the tribe that I never don't want at least one of, plus the ability to get a land, including two on-color tapped duals or a Scrying Sheets, in a pinch. With Kefnet as an honorary bird, a snow mana rock that goes very well with the proliferate synergies that Kangee already greatly appreciates, and Sword of the Animist for ramp, that leaves me with an excellent number of options for any scenario. Makes it very worthwhile.

[3drinks]

Monday, June 20th, 2022; Plaguebearer

Relevant creature type too. Mox monkey for creatures is probably more playable than people think.

[RxPhantom]

That art freakin' rules. It reminds me of my wish, nay, demand that the old school artists in all of these Double Masters 2 treatments return on a more permanent basis.

I didn't even know this card existed, but it seems cool. Who doesn't need a late-game mana sink that kills things?

[Melua]

Relevant creature type, and considering mama curves in EDH now the creature kill isn't too hard to abuse. Especially with All of Blacks mana increasers. I'd run it in Scarab God.

[Jemolk]

Repeatable removal on a stick is awesome. Very expensive, but still quite strong if you can make the obscene amounts of mana it requires to kill big stuff. Otherwise, I'd say it's too limited for my tastes. Luckily, Black has a lot of explosive mana production. In fact, it may actually be the best mono-color at ramp, beating out even green. I can see this being very strong in mono-black zombies. Less sure about 2-color zombie decks, though.

[Mookie]

Plaguebearer is interesting, but I don't see myself running it in most decks, simply because it isn't very tempo-efficient - paying five mana to kill a 2-drop is pretty steep, and the rates just get worse from there. Even if it isn't repeatable, I would prefer the efficiency of black's many Doom Blade variants, which trade up on mana. I guess it's good for killing tokens, at least. I could maybe see running Plaguebearer in a slow meta with a deck running Cabal Coffers / other black mana doublers and planning to make absurd amounts of mana... but given that you're probably running Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief in the command zone, it's somewhat redundant.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I dub thee Mox Mortis (after Mox Monkey, for the unfamiliar)

The mana curve is an issue, but you also get card advantage out of it.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, June 21st, 2022; Volrath's Stronghold

Man that price has certainly skyrocketed.......thanks inflation. 🙄

[folding_music]

do not want to think about this card, used to have one and traded it for basically nothing x3 groooooan

also it's way too good, not even CIPT

[Serenade]

For some reason I always forget it exists and rarely add it to my first cut of black decks. Bojuka Bog and Phyrexian Tower? You know it. This? Never on my radar. Maybe my experience is that it gets blown up too quickly. It also does not provide black mana but wants black mana, so it's not the best thing early game before you have targets for it and mana to spare.

Budget alternatives in cost and power exist. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire gives instant speed and is legendary. Mortuary Mire provides black mana and works with ETB shenanigans. Memorial to Folly and Haunted Fengraf trade the land for a creature card with various speed bumps. But this card remains king.

Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are pretty great, too.

[PrimevalCommander]

Thanks Reserved List

One of my top 10 favorite lands. Excellent value engine in toolbox creature decks. Yes black can put creatures right to play, but having redundancy on a land drop is good. Bonus for being able to put your commander on top if commander tax gets too steep. Worth it when it was under $40, but at $100, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze. Many places my $$ would go before this card. Many fond memories of looping Reveillark or Yosei, the Morning Star with this. Now my new favorite is Nethroi, Apex of Death, because looping 10 power worth of creatures every turn is easily worth replacing my draw that turn.

[Lifeless]

If I'm looking to durdle or run a value engine in black I'm going to seriously consider this card. I guess I can count myself lucky that I've got copies since it was bought out in early 2020.

[TheGildedGoose]

It took me an embarrassingly long time to give this a fair shake in Erebos, whose only creatures really worth recurring are Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Crypt Ghast. As it turns out, recurring those is worth the fact that Volrath's Stronghold is a Wastes most of the time.

[Mookie]

I haven't played with Volrath's Stronghold, but I have played with its younger sibling, Academy Ruins. As a general rule, I would say that giving up a draw step is an extremely steep cost - it isn't quite card disadvantage, but it does decrease your overall velocity. This means you need to be pretty picky as to what you recur. Grabbing back something like Reclamation Sage or Ravenous Chupacabra to deal with a problem may be tempting... but giving up your entire turn to do so will put you behind relative to the rest of the table. On the other hand, if you're recurring a key combo piece or a threat that your opponents struggled to deal with last turn? Then the recursion looks a lot more attractive. Additionally, I'll call out that if you already have a lot of card advantage, then the opportunity cost of giving up a draw can be outweighed by the additional consistency from tutoring up a useful creature from a stocked graveyard.

....more broadly, I'll call out that Volrath's Stronghold works well with things that care about the top of the deck (ex: manifest), and can be used to protect your dead creatures from grave hate. It can also be useful as a way to prevent decking (or more intentionally to recur Thassa's Oracle after milling yourself). That said, it's also an extremely expensive Reserved List card, so not a card I would generally actively seek out to run.

If you're looking for cheaper options, I'll call out Haunted Fengraf, Memorial to Folly, and to a lesser extent Port of Karfell and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire. I'm actually a fan of Memorial to Folly + Crucible of Worlds / Life from the Loam / Ramunap Excavator as a durdley lategame recursion engine, although it certainly is very slow.

[Ruiner]

The only reason I don't have this in more decks is because I don't have enough copies. As far as I'm concerned, if i'm ignoring budget concerns, this is a staple for any Bx deck with even a moderate amount of creatures.

[hyalopterouslemur]

If you need something now, this is really great. It can also help you win a clash or a Counterbalance, or make sure your top card is cheap for Bob or expensive for Augury Adept.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It's pretty good, no doubt. But I think academy ruins and Hall of heliod's generosity are better. Creatures are already pretty easy to recur, and 100 American bones is pretty steep for something with the overall functionality of Haunted Crossroads minus the mana cost.

[Dragonlover]

Might see if my LGS has a gold bordered version in stock for Virtus and Gorm. Works nicely with all my top of deck manipulation for manifests/playing morphs off the top.

Dragonlover

[Hawk]

I know mine is in use somewhere, but can't recall if it is in The Gitrog Monster, Mirri the Cursed, or Varina, Lich Queen. I think it's in Mirri?

It's generally been just fine. As has been noted, creatures are easy to recur so this is a lot less useful than its Blue and White counterparts and can frequently be expensive. That it plays a bit awkwardly with Cabal Coffers (unless you've also got Urborg) is also a bit of a shame. I think it never gets activated in Mirri, so I may see about yanking it for a basic swamp and giving this to the Syrix, Carrier of the Flame I'm brewing where it seems better.

Black has amazing cards that yank creatures back to hand or battlefield, from expensive cards like Reanimate to budget-friendly spells like Omen of the Dead. There's also Witch's Cottage as a one-shot of this effect, and one is probably all you need. And if you are in zombies, Unholy Grotto is this effect for one less.

[DirkGently]

Being able to circumvent commander tax in the late game can easily be worth the cost of activation, not to mention fueling engines by repeating powerful effects every turn. 3 mana is a significant cost that won't be worth it until the late game, so it's not a card I would likely want in a super fast deck, but in decks that want to play long I think it gives a lot of value for a land.

It is pricey but honestly I thought it'd be higher. Don't think it's moved for a while. I really ought to find an extra one for Kaervek.

As a general rule, I would say that giving up a draw step is an extremely steep cost - it isn't quite card disadvantage, but it does decrease your overall velocity. This means you need to be pretty picky as to what you recur. Grabbing back something like Reclamation Sage or Ravenous Chupacabra to deal with a problem may be tempting... but giving up your entire turn to do so will put you behind relative to the rest of the table. On the other hand, if you're recurring a key combo piece or a threat that your opponents struggled to deal with last turn? Then the recursion looks a lot more attractive. Additionally, I'll call out that if you already have a lot of card advantage, then the opportunity cost of giving up a draw can be outweighed by the additional consistency from tutoring up a useful creature from a stocked graveyard.

I don't think you need to be THAT picky - you're not "giving up your entire turn", just your first draw. So if you think a creature in your graveyard is going to give better results than the EV of a random card still in your deck, go for it. The main cost is the 3 mana you're paying to activate the land, but if you're doing it EOT then that's not as much of an issue. However, since it does lock in your first draw, that can make it easier to determine if you can afford the 3 mana that turn, if you're considering activating it on upkeep.

Emotionally, seeing a card you already played isn't as satisfying as ripping a sweet topdeck, but it's a lot better than ripping a land when you needed something to do.

[Cyberium]

Very nice land to have with various green tricks, deploying creatures from top card(s) to the field.

[onering]

It's fantastic, hands down, and if something is worth paying what amounts to 3 mana to recur it's worth giving up a draw for. You don't use it to recur random crap, you use it to recur important pieces of your game plan. 10/10 card worth the c-note

[Jemolk]

An absurdly powerful card. In general, repeatable utility lands are very good, and recursion effects on lands are some of the strongest around. Never been sad to have this around, and its mere existence makes an incredibly strong argument for everyone to run at least some targeted land destruction.