[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Serenade]

I'm guessing Grafdigger's Cage fills the slot instead. Maybe Rest in Peace, too. Just get rid of the GY instead of imprison it. All those other 1cmc GY artifacts exist, too.

I've always ignored the second ability, but I like your use of it. Enough that I need to pick up one of these!

[Melua]

It's nice, but it's a super specific niche that Resi in Peace or Leyline of the Void does better. If you don't want opponents using the graveyard you typically want to stop reanimation which this does very little to stop.

[Dunadain]

Hard to give a good reason to run this over Rest in Peace which is probably the best gravehate card ever unless you plan on using your gy. You can always run both, but how much room do you really have in you deck for gy hate?

It also falls into the trap of only sometimes working, sure it cuts off flashback cards and Reassembling Skeleton but it doesn't do anything against Reanimate.

Honestly, maybe it belongs in a aristocrats deck ALONGSIDE cards like Blood Artist that, for some reason, isn't running Reassembling Skeleton and co., gaining life isn't nearly as powerful as draining life, but maybe stapled onto an okayish grave hate piece it might be acceptable.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I'm guessing Grafdigger's Cage fills the slot instead. Maybe Rest in Peace, too. Just get rid of the GY instead of imprison it. All those other 1cmc GY artifacts exist, too.

I've always ignored the second ability, but I like your use of it. Enough that I need to pick up one of these!

In black, we have Leyline of the Void too. Better if in your opening hand, even. If you hate one particular player, there are a bunch of Tormod's Crypt variants.

[Sinis]

Sunday, August 28th, 2022; Ashes of the Abhorrent

A reasonable hate piece to stave off the bleeding from Blood Artist effects but also shut off grave casting. Hmm why do more people not play this?

I'm going to be honest, if I see things like Aristocrats or Grave Pacts, I'd rather just have Rest in Peace.

[Mookie]

Yeah, Ashes of the Abhorrent seems... very niche. I have a Kess, Dissident Mage deck, so it's not like I can say that shutting down casting spells from graveyards is completely irrelevant, but... other than that deck, it's pretty rare for me to see people casting spells out of their graveyard. Reanimation and recursion to hand are both much more common. As a result, it feels pretty weak as a hate piece.

Meanwhile, the lifegain from creatures dying has made me contemplate how highly I value it compared to gaining life on ETB from something like Authority of the Consuls. More specifically, I've recently been thinking about how Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim compares to more traditional Blood Artist effects. I think my current stance is that having a trigger on ETB is better, particularly if it's on a permanent you plan to play out early - you may miss out on death triggers if the creatures get exiled / bounced, but the bigger concern is with the triggering permanent in question being hit by spot removal. As a result, I think it's preferable to lock in your value immediately, instead of holding it in potential until a board wipe happens (or you find a sac outlet). That said, the math changes a bit if it's on something you plan to play late, after people already have large boardstates.

Anyway, I'm curious how other people feel about this topic - how highly do you value getting this sort of an effect as an ETB trigger instead of as a death trigger? Would you be willing to pay extra mana for one or the other?

[Serenade]

I think you always want the ETB trigger. Too many popular ways to replace dies triggers, too few free sac outlets tacked onto legends.


I don't know if we'll hit a point where they are everywhere, but we do get a lot more Future Sight effects on creatures these days. It's mostly tribal stuff, but Grafdigger's Cage does shut that down.

[3drinks]

Monday, August 29th, 2022; Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca

Hey, it's my finisher from Experiment Kraj|gk2!

[Sinis]

I love Jump|2ed-Berserk|2ed-on-a-land!

Honestly, this is probably second place for me on the flip lands from RIX, behind Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity. It has a serviceable function on the front side, and then the back side is about as good as anyone could hope for.

[PrimevalCommander]

If the back side were just Kessig Wolf Run but flying instead of trample, I would slam dunk that thing into Kalamax, the Stormsire. As is, I don't feel like using the deck space for this enchantment version and the hoops to get to the land. It would probably flip on the first activation if I'm casing it, but still 3 mana for +1/+1 counter and the land doesn't get there for me.

Overall I'm not very into the flip lands, even the good ones. Only one I wish I jumped on was Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun when they were cheap.

[void_nothing]

I love the design of the back half activated ability. Jumpserk is such a wacky, but fitting, combo-platter multicolor thing. Can't complain about the value of the front side either.

[DirkGently]

I love the flip lands, some of my favourite recent-ish design. Being 2c does limit playability of this one, but I'd jam this in most ug combat-focused decks just because it's so cool.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I once got voltroned out by an Animar buffed by this thing and Evolutionary Escalation.

Pretty sweet.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Like. Experiment Kraj, Animar, Soul of Elements, Prime Speaker Zegana, The Mimeoplasm, and so on can flip it easy. And if you don't have one of those, just run Increasing Savagery.

[Mookie]

I'm a big fan of all of Ixalan's transforming lands - they all look gorgeous. Mechanically, I'm not quite as big of a fan of Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca, but that's largely due to its abilities being somewhat niche. If you have a deck themed around +1/+1 counters, then this both provides a nice source of them and transforms into a powerful finisher. Evasion + large power boost can enable a lot of damage.

...I wish Path of Mettle // Metzali, Tower of Triumph had a stronger payoff on the backside. My Samut, Voice of Dissent can trivially flip it (since the condition is essentially 'have two Samut-ish creatures'), but the payoff just isn't impactful enough. On the other hand, Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan is a bit too easy to flip relative to its power level, and I wholeheartedly despise it for that, since I can't run it in any of my own artifact decks. Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity is probably the most balanced of the bunch - you do need to jump through a few hoops to flip it, but they're definitely achievable in the right deck, while the backside provides a powerful but inefficient payoff. Finally, Profane Procession // Tomb of the Dusk Rose is glacially slow to flip, but it was also an absurd bomb in Draft, so... yeah.

[Chromaticus]

I'm playing this (and all the other possible flip lands) in my 80 land Thrasios and Bruse deck. Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder closes out the game if he's the one who got the counters and this is used on him.

Haven't drawn it so far, but I look forwards to it 😁

[3drinks]

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022; Full Flowering

[PrimevalCommander]

Looks cool, but anything XX in the cost usually has a hard time scaling. Populating 1 or 2 times seems like a fair rate, but pumping 7 or more into this seems like a lower return than other big spells. It all depends on what you are populating . I haven't played populate much, but really it seems like a fair ability, being added to Disenchant for no additional mana. I'm thinking this rate is a bit safe for the ability, which is perfectly fine by the way. I'd probably play Song of the Worldsoul before this, as I'd definitely be at least if I care about populate.

[void_nothing]

I'm not sure I have anything to add to that analysis - I want to love Full Flowering but it's impossible to overstate how much better it'd have been at, say, XGGG.

[Sinis]

I would play it in something like Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, but, I think every other general wants something more efficient.

In a vacuum, it's hard to justify this when populate appears on a few reasonable one-time effects like Rootborn Defenses, Sundering Growth, Druid's Deliverance, etc. Even something like Selesnya Eulogist is less efficient mana-wise, but has an effect that's conditionally good, and you can pay out in sections.

[RedCheese]

The double X really weakened it. Didnt even bothered to test in my Ghired deck

[hyalopterouslemur]

You can still use it if you have infinite mana. But then Comet Storm, Entreat the Angels, Decree of Justice, Increasing Confusion, and Exsanguinate all exist.

[aliciaofthevast]

It's really hard to evaluate a card that is just an empty text box with "populate" because it's such an open ended ability with a high ceiling and low floor. Really reminds me of proliferate.

[Melua]

It's really only good if you're making token copies of haymakers, but it is costed way too fairly for the same Commander year that slapped Dockside Extortionist on the table.

[Serenade]

It needs another token out already and some support (haste, Pandemonium effects, etc.) to have an immediate impact. Given those requirements, I think making it uncounterable would have been fair. Yeah, I'd only consider in Adrix and Chatterfang, Squirrel General.