[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Sinis]

Sir, how do you feel about Hallowed Ground? I realize it's not a legendary creature... but...

Significantly lower - I'm willing to build around / lean into effects in the command zone, but less so for things in the 99. Maybe if you're running a ton of redundancy, I don't think it is an effect that you really want to see in multiples.

...now I sort of want to see a legendary 'bounce lands to hand' white commander to enable Knight of the White Orchid / Land Tax shenanigans. You can sort of lean into those already with Karoos and Lotus Field, but wouldn't hurt to have more support.

I guess, the big question is how many lands are that are going to be useful with this effect. I think there's probably a w/g/x deck that does it with all the goodies people have mentioned so far, but nothing really jumps out at me.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022; Vicious Offering

I forgot about this card. I find it fairly comparable to dismember|tsr. Easy to cast, "free" kicker that is often a benefit as a hidden sac outlet, not colour intensive. Idk, this card should be seeing more play than it does. Good utilitarian piece of removal.

[Hawk]

When Dominaria first dropped this was probably underrated and better than it looked. My old math showed that Dismember tended to hit most relevant cards in the format, and this is a weaker Dismember. Still, even then in 2018 this was facing competition from Go for the Throat, Dismember, Tragic Slip, Doom Blade, Curtain's Call, Reckless Spite, Ashes to Ashes, and Hero's Downfall in the monoblack kill spell race and probably only worth consideration for monoblack or dedicated control lists that also anticipated keeping a dork around to sac to it like Toshiro Umezawa.

Since then, our cup runneth over - they've printed Heartless Act, Infernal Grasp, Feed the Swarm. and Deadly Rollick and that's just the cream of the kill spell crop. There's also Deadly Dispute and Village Rites doing different effects but generally being much stronger "sac a dork for profit" spells. Hard to justify this these days imo.

[void_nothing]

Since then, our cup runneth over - they've printed Heartless Act, Infernal Grasp, Feed the Swarm. and Deadly Rollick and that's just the cream of the kill spell crop. There's also Deadly Dispute and Village Rites doing different effects but generally being much stronger "sac a dork for profit" spells. Hard to justify this these days imo.

If you are all in on the Aristocrats theme, Vicious Offering does very nicely as a piece of removal, but yeah, you're 100% right that there are better and also plain different options at this stage.

[DirkGently]

In order to even consider this, sacking a creature has to be a positive, since there are many stronger removal spells at the same cost even when the kick is free.

However, most any deck that is so desperate for sac outlets would much prefer one that's repeatable. How many decks really really want a sac outlet, so badly that sacking a creature is upside, but don't really need to do it more than once?

Maybe certain decks trying to get the death trigger off their commander, but even then you need the sac desire and the removal desire to line up - what if you really need the sac but there are no good removal targets? Or if you really need removal but your commander isn't out, or it's not a good time to sac?

That niche is too narrow and the upside isn't there. It has no relevance in commander imo.

[Crazy Monkey]

My only deck that was interested in Vicious Offering continues to run it: Baron Von Count. It has the right numbers and instants that trigger "destroy target player" are great fun.

Outside silver boarder commander, I considered it for Rayami, First of the Fallen because that deck is built around sacrificing as cost to gain keywords without interaction. I don't think that it lasted.

[OneAndOnly]

If the kicker were sac a dude to force an opponent to sac a dude, maybe. There are plenty of decks that generate tons of mooks (living weapon decks, Sengir Autocrat) or have enough recursion a la Haakon, Stromgald Scourge that the drawback isn't that huge. It takes a little more effort to turn it into a bonus with leaves/dies triggers. But -5/-5 doesn't always clear out the threat you need to get rid of, and 2-for-1'ing isn't really a path to victory in any format.

The non-kicked version is an overcosted Disfigure. It's nice to have the option (?)

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Get thee behind me, draft chaff!

[BeneTleilax]

I think we're nearing the point, at least in W/B, where even two mana removal needs to hit more than one card type, or do something special. This just doesn't make the cut.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022; In Too Deep

[void_nothing]

Strangest functionality: turning off Agent's Toolkit

[Hawk]

I passed on In Too Deep on reveal, partially due to the flood of cards this year. I think my initial skepticism was that this isn't good at "locking" commanders like Imprisoned in the Moon or Darksteel Mutation so I lost interest.

But it's clearly a fairly solid kill spell even at sorcery speed. A clue is probably more useful than a frog lizard or a random 2/2 that might be a real card, and this can be removed by disenchants as well, but Split Second is worth a ton and is one of my absolute favorite "CEASE YOUR NONSENSE" abilities of all time. I think this is an underrated little gem of the year especially for mono-blue, Simic, Izzet, and Temur decks and doubly so if those decks have any enchantment or devotion synergy. Not worth it if you add White or Black, as those colors have too many great removal spells to run a sorcery speed effect like this (again this is a "4th best" after the aforementioned spells and Pongify in monoblue, so it isn't even for every mono-U deck).

[Guardman]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022; In Too Deep

"The Karnfather has been concerned about certain rumors that you are, in fact, an enemy commander. He has asked that you sit over there, out of the way, for the rest of the game."

[OneAndOnly]

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

[Dunadain]

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

Right? Like… I'm sure I can manufacture some edge case where you might want to, but I find it amusing they'd bother to print it on the card.

[TheGildedGoose]

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

Right? Like… I'm sure I can manufacture some edge case where you might want to, but I find it amusing they'd bother to print it on the card.

It's so the enchantment doesn't fall off from being on an illegal target.

Also,

[Dunadain]

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

I'm humored by the fact that it can turn a Clue into ... a Clue.

Right? Like… I'm sure I can manufacture some edge case where you might want to, but I find it amusing they'd bother to print it on the card.

It's so the enchantment doesn't fall off from being on an illegal target.

Also,

Oh yeah! Good catch!

I look dumb now.

[duducrash]

Eh, it's playable. Encahntress are so abundant nowadays almost everything is tbh. But flavour is pretty sweet, I have it in a WIP Tatsunari, Toad Rider deck. The deck is really bad though

[PrimevalCommander]

I want to play this card, but I don't have any blue enchantment decks, and sorcery speed isn't where I want to be with any of my blue decks that run counterspells. Maybe some day it will find a home for me. Looks like a fun and interesting removal option. I'd probably play Resculpt over this as well for instant speed exile along with Reality shift.

[EonAon]

well the fact it has split second means that nobody can counter it period makes the sorcery speed not detrimental in some cases

[Serenade]

Dang, I assumed everything with split second had flash or was an instant. Interesting.

The split second is nice! Hitting more than one card type is excellent. I always worry about the two U, but maybe I am overthinking it. If I'm running U-heavy-enchantments (Tameshi, Reality Architect? Hakim, Loreweaver? Somehow Rootwater Shaman is your general?), these auras are competing for the removal spots in this order. ITD probably sits in the middle of the list.

Witness Protection
Imprisoned in the Moon
Frogify
Kasmina's Transmutation

[ukkuhrmakhai]

One big downside to In Too Deep for answering commanders (or recursion) compared to the other auras is that they can sac the clue to get the card back. It doesn't require an answer to your answer.

[folding_music]

(I feel like Witness Protection is unplayable in most decks that have any kind of in-universe theme, it's such a one-and-done joke that you then have to stare at in yr hand. and the joke doesn't even work for me. this isn't *AS* bad but I still hate the title and still wouldn't play it in any circumstances I'd be having fun. I grabbed a Getaway Car but I honestly cannot justify putting that in a deck either. Capenna is definitely my new least fave set, somehow to me a more glaring flavour clonk than UB Warhammer 40,000 etc. sorry for mini-rant giggle)

[DirkGently]

I'd rather have instant speed over split second pretty easily. It's not just about how effective it is at stopping something bad, it's about being able to wait until the last minute to see if it's a serious problem and/or if someone else will solve it for you.

Blue doesn't have infinite creature removal, so it's still a decent option, and if you already have a lot of instant removal, having one split second option provides some versatility. So for mono-blue control I think it's reasonable. For other color combos, they probably have better options imo.

[Sinis]

I *really* liked In Too Deep when it was spoiled, but it turns out it's probably junk for being sorcery speed.