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

[Dunharrow]

can you elaborate on this? I can kinda guess what you mean but I am not 100% sure.

Sure. What I meant is that when it comes to single target removal spells, there are plenty that simply destroy or exile target creature (or permanent), even Blue has few of those now. In my mind, I'd rather almost always use one of those than a spell that says 'deal X damage' because there are lot of effects people can use to give their creatures extra toughness. So it kind of feels like a waste of a spell to me. I understand that even destroy and exile spells can be negated, but that I feel like happens less.

Admittedly I just might be thinking about these kind of spells the wrong way. When it comes to removal I think 'destroy target'... not 'deal X damage'. It could also be that all my decks with Red have another colour that has the classic removal options, so I never really had to consider these red spells.

I think making the target hexproof or indestructible is more likely than adding toughness. 6 damage can kill most things, but obviously misses on some targets, so I would definitely not play this over Pongify. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite needs to be killed, that's for sure!

But some color combos suck at removal. I would see playing this in Gruul for sure. Mono-red (on the more controlling side/graveyard recursion side).
And maybe you play this over other removal is you have a Swans of Bryn Argoll or Stuffy Doll deck.

[Avacyn Believer]

But some color combos suck at removal. I would see playing this in Gruul for sure. Mono-red (on the more controlling side/graveyard recursion side).
And maybe you play this over other removal is you have a Swans of Bryn Argoll or Stuffy Doll deck.

I agree, and thinking about it, it's why I didn't have to consider burn spells. I don't have a Grull deck (yet) and my mono-Red is Etali, where I don't care about removal, just causing general chaos quickly

[3drinks]

Yep, I totally missed this card. Probably should replace Lightning Bolt wherever I run that.

I'd argue why not both. I've lethaled a player with lightning bolt enough times to know it's never a cut because it's so efficient. I'd even run chain lightning if it were instant.

That is a pretty good burn spell. I need to get one of those for Zurzoth, Chaos Rider Burn. I discard enough cards, but the deck is mainly creatures, lands, and artifacts. May have a hard time hitting that 4th type.

Urza's Saga is a helluva drug. Everyone has third chapter targets for it too. Why saga? Because it gives two card types toward delirium on it's own.

I am still reluctant to play burn effect removal spells, just feels like it is too easy to get around it in Commander. Maybe if the deck was purpose built for doing damage.

I'd like to challenge you to notate the number of times you actually need to point removal at something and then notate the times it's an x/3. You'd be surprised just how often the penultimate target is a Thalia, Heretic Cathar or Gaddock Teeg...

Dismember hits roughly ~87% of valid creatures in the format. Heat hits those and then some (notably, titans).

[Avacyn Believer]

I'd like to challenge you to notate the number of times you actually need to point removal at something and then notate the times it's an x/3. You'd be surprised just how often the penultimate target is a Thalia, Heretic Cathar or Gaddock Teeg...

Dismember hits roughly ~87% of valid creatures in the format. Heat hits those and then some (notably, titans).

I am definitely curious now, I never thought about it that way. I'll see if I can remember to keep some kind of notes on what toughness the creatures I remove the most have. Thanks for the idea!

[Hawk]

Unholy Heat is probably underrated - 2 damage is not awesome, but 6 damage is huge and handles the vast majority of threats in the format. If your deck reliably will turn on Delirium, which say most spellslingery decks with fetches and dudes for support can, this is a huge upgrade to Lightning Bolt or even Abrade. But I'd dispute that Delirium is easy or a guarantee even for decks with a good range of card types - I think you not only need a critical mass of cards of many types, you likely need ways to loot or Entomb them. And you can also "get got" by graveyard hate, which I find is increasingly common in most metas for most decks to have at least a few cards that blow up your 'yard.

Like others I also undervalue and avoid damage-based removal unless I'm very specifically in mono-Red or Gruul (or very rarely Izzet). Every deck ought to be running 7-10 pieces of single-target interaction, but you do so knowing the risk you get bricked by Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots or other protective measures. So it's tough to stomach running removal that also gets bricked by Cathars' Crusade and other +1/+1 counter nonsense, or by auras and equipment, or by...you get it. It's a necessary evil in mono-Red and some Gruul and Izzet (or Temur) decks given the lack of a critical mass of kill spells. But even in Gruul, these days if your budget allows - Song of the Dryads, Beast Within, Chaos Warp, and Wild Magic Surge are all much better removal than this. Looking at my own R/x decks now for instance...

- Daretti, Scrap Savant: Despite being loot-heavy, will struggle to find a critical mass of card types. Probably worth a look anyhow.
- Samut, Voice of Dissent: Will struggle to hit a critical mass of card types; can run Swords/Path/etc.
- Quintorius, Field Historian: Often struggles to hit a critical mass of card types, has Swords/Path/etc.
- Sevinne, the Chronoclasm: Would have no issues hitting Delirium, but has better removal options.

[Jemolk]

Never really liked damage-based removal. Blasphemous Act is pretty good, being that 13 damage misses very little, and sometimes I'll go for other damage-based sweepers with upside, but for single-target removal? Even in mono-red, it's common enough in my meta for the threat to be over 6 toughness. Not to mention, this gets hosed by instant-speed graveyard hate. Getting your removal spell countered by a Tormod's Crypt seems bad. If I need some extra targeted creature removal in mono-red, I'd rather run Aftershock. Or, if I really need it cheap, to the point of being okay with damage as the mechanism, Skred.

[Toshi]

Yeah, i'm also pretty hestitant when it comes to damage based removal.
The only cards i don't shy away from are Abrade and Cathartic Pyre for their great versatility.
Sure enough Unholy Heat, Galvanic Blast and Lightning Axe are all amazing though, if you can easily set them up.

[Igzex]

Oh hey I probably have a bunch of these when I drafted the set. Seems like a pretty good inclusion for my Rith, Liberated Primeval "You #$%* that's not dragon tribal that's making Repercussion hurt us tribal!" deck alongside Skred and such.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I'd rather play Bolt than this thing. Red has a good amount of better removal spells that require no fancy graveyard antics and Bolt is at least cool. You can kill people with Bolt.

This thing smells to me as the kind of card that's always a shock exactly whenever you need it to deal 6 and that reeks.

[Serenade]

I think the concern would be that it's a Shock when you need it to deal three damage.

Not sure I've ever Bolted the dome in EDH.

They aren't close comparisons, but I do feel like I get a ton of use out of two mana for four damage with Mizzium Mortars and Cut // Ribbons.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023; Blight Mound

Oh, cool, finally a payoff for aristocrats.

[Dunharrow]

versions of this card have existed a long time. Golgari Germination, Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, and Field of Souls being the ones out there when I first started playing.
Since then, Abzan Ascendancy, Anax, Hardened in the Forge, Gutter Grime, Nightmare Shepherd, Ogre Slumlord, Open the Graves, Pawn of Ulamog, Sifter of Skulls, and then a lot that care about the creature type of the dying creature. And some that have other triggers like treasures, card draw, or clues, etc.

I love these types of cards, but in EDH random tokens are just not good enough. I think the mana-generating ones are probably the best, though they are all creatures. Of the enchantments, I think I like Gutter Grime the best because it can put away the game. Downside is if your opponent has a disenchant.

Blight mound is pretty good, but not good enough IMO. If you are going infinite you want to avoid the token makers because you need an attack step to win. Just play blood artist effects.

[folding_music]

it combo'd way too well with Veinwitch Coven in that witherbloom Strixhaven commander deck

[PrimevalCommander]

They aren't close comparisons, but I do feel like I get a ton of use out of two mana for four damage with Mizzium Mortars and Cut // Ribbons.

I have started to become really impressed with Mizzium Mortars in decks to slow down board progression in the early/mid game. I usually would take killing 2/3 of the creatures on the battlefield and leave my board untouched, rather than drop a turn 6 Blasphemous Act and blow up all my utility dorks I have been setting up. I need to get it in more decks to really see if it becomes a favorite of mine.


Blight Mound has been doing great work in my brother's Teysa Karlov aristocrats. He also plays all the other death trigger token makers. Field of Souls is one I didn't know about and will bring that to his attention. Those little pests are quite good when they have +1/+0, vigilance, lifelink, and "die gain 2 life". The lifelink has become one of the strongest attributes of Teysa's token side in our combat meta. It makes it hard to race him once his token production gets online. Vigilance doesn't help either since he can gain life on attack and on block.

[Avacyn Believer]

I was going to dismiss Blight Mound but as you mentioned Teysa, I might have to get a copy for my own deck Same with the Mizzium Mortars, I actually really like that card as boardwipe that doesn't kill my utility dorks... should do well in decks like Feather and Eruth.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It's good payoff, but I generally pefer damage to tokens for aristocrats decks. Something about melting people with Zulaport Cutthroat really appeals to my inner burn player.

[pokken]

It's good payoff, but I generally pefer damage to tokens for aristocrats decks. Something about melting people with Zulaport Cutthroat really appeals to my inner burn player.

Nice part about the tokens is they do both, they give you another body to sac *and* tokens to bash with or grave pact with

[Sinis]

Blight Mound isn't nearly as good as Pawn of Ulamog (or possibly Sifter of Skulls) because of the mana-add, but it's probably better than most other iterations of the nontoken dies → get a token style of card.

[PrimevalCommander]

Blight Mound has been doing great work in my brother's Teysa Karlov. Those little pests are quite good when they have +1/+0, vigilance, lifelink, and "die gain 2 life". The lifelink has become one of the strongest attributes of Teysa's token side in our combat meta. It makes it hard to race him once his token production gets online. Vigilance doesn't help either since he can gain life on attack and on block.

Forgot to add Menace!

Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls are probably better, but many decks playing those two probably wouldn't mind having more that are cost effective mana wise and make tokens that are somewhat relevant on board as a finisher once critical mass is achieved. Adding pump and evasion to your token army for no additional charge ain't nuthin.

[toctheyounger]

Specifically very good in Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

[Mookie]

'Good in aristocrats' is pretty close to 'combos with Doubling Season' as far as obvious descriptions of cards go, but Blight Mound actually ended up being pretty meh in my own aristocrats deck. I was extremely optimistic about it when it was previewed - it's cheap, it makes black tokens for Teysa, it doesn't die to board wipes because it's an enchantment, it gains life, it's an anthem.... lots of good stuff. However, a lot of those positive attributes ended up being outweighed by one massive downside: 'nontoken'. My deck is built around Teysa's ability to churn out 1/1 flying spirit tokens... which means that any death triggers that can't trigger off those tokens go down in value significantly. I do have plenty of nontoken creatures in the deck, but most of them are engine cards like Welcoming Vampire and Blood Artist - not cards I really want to sacrifice.

Simultaneously, some of the things I initially viewed as positives ended up being less relevant. Dodging creature board wipes is great, but my current meta has significantly fewer of them than my old meta (I think I might be the only person in it that actually has any control decks). On the flip side, the fact that it isn't a creature means it can't itself be recurred by Karmic Guide, wear Skullclamp, be sacrificed to Teysa, or feed into any of my other creature synergies. Additionally, its ability to live through and generate a bunch of bodies after a board wipe ended up being lower in value than I initially anticipated - many of my value-generating cards are creatures, so they won't be around to turn the tokens into actually useful value afterwards. I've actually recalibrated my card ratings as a result of Blight Mound's underperformance to boost frontloaded cards like Blessed Sanctuary and Tocasia's Welcome over backloaded cards like Blight Mound and Morbid Opportunist.

Still, while Blight Mound ended up being meh in my own, token-focused artistocrats deck, I do think it's one of the best token producers available elsewhere. If you're running a deck like Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Karador, Ghost Chieftain that can recur Sakura-Tribe Elder and Caustic Caterpillar over and over, it seems great. Alternatively, it seems great if you're playing lots of nontoken sac fodder like Reassembling Skeleton, Vindictive Lich, or Thraben Inspector. It's also nice if you have Regna, the Redeemer or some other way to take advantage of the lifegain.

(it definitely seems awesome in other Teysa though)

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023; Druids' Repository

[Jemolk]

A card that seems potentially really cool, but at the end of the day only seems to exist to combo with Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Aggravated Assault, and Hellkite Charger. Never been a fan of two-card infinites in commander just for their anticlimactic "oops I comboed, next game" potential. As a way for aggressive decks to ramp by doing what they already like to do, it could be nice, if fragile, but its most common use by far is "oops, infinite combats," and that's lame.

[onering]

It is actually pretty solid in aggressive decks. If you are reliably attacking with two dudes, it's a worn powerstone that makes colored mana.

[PrimevalCommander]

It looks like a really good mana generator for aggro decks. Not sure why I don't see it more often. Maybe because you the more mana you bank, the more tempting it is to destroy. But even just getting a few good post combat spells is worth the investment I think. Should be quite easy to pay for itself on the same turn. I suspect the floor of not having any creatures in play and doing nothing keeps people away.