[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

[3drinks]

Friday, March 10th, 2023; Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold

[Mookie]

Hero of Bladehold, you look... different?

In the 99, Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold reads as somewhat clunky to me. If you happen to have a large, evasive creature to attack with and you don't mind that creature not dealing damage and you can get some benefit from the mite tokens, then this seems great. But... that's a lot of things to go right. Maybe you don't have an evasive creature and the one you chose gets blocked. Maybe that creature has lifelink, and you don't want to prevent the damage. Maybe you connect and all the mites get swept away in a board wipe before your next turn... or your opponents just attack you back, because the mites can't block. Ria Ivor has a very high ceiling - there aren't many creatures that can generate 4+ tokens per turn cycle - but also a pretty low floor.

Ria Ivor seems easier to make work in the command zone, since you can run a bunch of enablers. Throw in Whispersilk Cloak and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar or other creatures that scale with the number of creatures you control, and suddenly you can double your board every turn. That strategy does seem extremely soft to board wipes (or other disruption), but going wide with an army of mites does seem fun.

[DirkGently]

I just picked this guy up yesterday and yeah, it's interesting but it's really hard to build around. The chaos of this format rewards immediate results, so sacrificing damage right now for a better attack later is a tough pill to swallow. And it's so telegraphed, any interaction can be devastating. And then the battle cry (besides being confusing for hearthstone players) feels really random too. Are you supposed to risk her in combat to buff the big attacker for just 1 more mite? Are you supposed to buff the mites - but surely the point of the mites is to focus on infect damage, not regular damage? It's a lot of stuff going on, but it's hard to imagine a functional game plan with any of it.

I am currently taking a look at which ONE commander to build my set-commander list for, and while I don't think Ria is good, it is definitely interesting, so I may come back with results at some point. Honestly the 2-color rare cycle legends are mostly very bleh as commanders. A lot of limited bombs with a relatively low ceiling in the CZ. Kethek, Crucible Goliath is my favorite but he'd be impossible to get much value from in a set-commander list. So I might just run Ria and see if it plays better than it looks.

As the resident limited expert (?) I'd kiiinda disagree. Like I don't think I'd ever cut it from any RU limited decks,

Without wanting to debate you, "I don't think I'd ever cut it" feels like a ringing endorsement. I defer to your wisdom on this, though.

That's true of almost every multicolored uncommon these days though. The only multicolor uncommon from ONE I'd consider cutting is Cinderslash Ravager...but he's also got the highest in-deck winrate of all of them so I'm probably wrong on that anyway.

For point of comparison, a REALLY spicy uncommon like Pyrotechnics, Zenith Flare, Loxodon Warhammer, Elite Scaleguard, Ravenous Chupacabra, etc wouldn't just be uncuttable - they'd also make me very seriously consider shifting colors if I saw one in pack 2 or maybe even 3, and they'd make me commit pretty hard to that color if I had one early. Whereas if I opened a fire // ice in pack 2-3 and wasn't in RU already I'd probably pass it, and wouldn't commit very hard to it (especially the blue side) if I took it in pack 1. If I was in red I'd take it as a mid-late pick but it wouldn't really make me want to splash blue and it could potentially get cut if my card quality was high. If I was only in blue it would very likely get cut.

Scaleguard and warhammer are huge value over time bombs, pyrotechnics and chupa are both big, efficient board swings, and zenith flare is an entire game plan in a can. fire // ice is flexible but nothing it does is that powerful. Your opponent is never flipping the table over a fire // ice.

Not a bad card, but definitely not something I would look at and think "that could destabilize the format at uncommon".

[Serenade]

...how does she work with double strike? I do not think there's much there, but the second hit should punch through like normal, right? Only the first strike damage is prevented and becomes Mites?

[EonAon]

This feels like somebody wanted to be clever and just didnt realize battle cry, create untapped two mite tokens with toxic 1, when this card attacks and two other creatures are attacking with it draw a card would be enough for us. Except for the angel all the other mites have to be created from mana and/or are per turn. Use of this as a commander would have been perfectly fine the way i described above, since its on the next turn you can gain advantage.

[Guardman]

I've played with Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold and against her in limited. And she good in a toxic deck and kind of weird every where else. She also plays two important roles in a toxic deck:

1. She can turn you non-toxic creatures into delayed toxic.

2. Battle cry helps get your toxic creatures through by making it a bit harder to block profitably.

I think her main place is in poison decks as a way turn utility creatures you want to play into psuedo-toxic creatures, but I've also thought about her in my Armix, Filigree Thrasher & Rebbec, Architect of Ascension Artifact Aggro deck. Yes, she is slow. But Battle Cry, plus creating several artifact creatures each turn isn't nothin'.

[3drinks]

Saturday, March 11th, 2023; Skrelv, Defector Mite

[Mookie]

Skrelv, Defector Mite is a worse Mother of Runes, and I would also rate it lower than Giver of Runes in a vacuum. Can't block, there is an extra cost to activate, can't target itself, and only gives half of what protection does - most notably, it doesn't prevent damage, which makes it much worse at protecting a blocker or an attacker after blocks are declared.

That said, it does have a few things going for it. For one, it's a legendary artifact, so you can fetch it with Trinket Mage and Captain Sisay or untap it with Manifold Key. It also doesn't make auras or colored equipment fall off (unlike granting normal protection), which may be useful if you're playing a voltron deck. Finally, toxic gives it a bit of extra utility as an alternative kill condition. I don't know if I would ever run it in the command zone, but I could see running it in the 99 if you wanted Mother of Runes and were worried about protection being awkward.

[3drinks]

Not for nothing, Mook, Giver of Runes also can't target itself. And given the price points of the two, I'd lean into Skrelv a lot more, almost unquestionably. Nearly free cost and ability to create an army is a huge selling point.

[Serenade]

I'd probably take it over Devoted Caretaker. The latter's big plus is "permanent" instead of just creatures, but being immune to abilities is nice given all the ETB stuff.

Not sure I have Mother/Giver in anything but Giada. The damage prevention is too good.

[duducrash]

Its better than prorection in some scenarios like voltron because you dont lose your auras

[Guardman]

Also, a big point in its favor. It's an artifact creature, which is huge for a lot of decks.

[umtiger]

In Sram (auras), having hexproof instead of protection is nice. Now, I can effectively give protection from StP and PtE without losing the stack of crappy white enchantments I've built on top of Sram.

It goes in for sure if I ever come around to getting cards again. Starting to play again after 3 years, it's not like there wasn't already enough cards to own.

[Dragonlover]

Love it in mono W legends, cause until recently I've has very little interaction in the card pool.

Dragonlover

[3drinks]

Sunday, March 12th, 2023; Darkest Hour

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Teysa combo trash. Yeah, I said it. What're you gonna do about it, huh?

[3drinks]

Teysa combo trash. Yeah, I said it. What're you gonna do about it, huh?

Play it with Absolute Grace. Who said Bedlam was a r card?

[OneAndOnly]

Play it with John Cleese...

[Mookie]

Teysa combo trash. Yeah, I said it. What're you gonna do about it, huh?

Write a dissertation, apparently.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about the Darkest Hour / Painter's Servant + Teysa, Orzhov Scion combo. To summarize it succinctly: when a black creature you control dies, Teysa gives you a token. Darkest Hour makes that token black, so you can continually sacrifice those tokens for value. The thing to note is that by itself, this combo doesn't actually do anything - you'll also need a way to sacrifice creatures, plus some sort of payoff for having creatures die. There are some cards that combine the two, such as Altar of Dementia, but if you're using a less-impactful sacrifice card (like Cartel Aristocrat), then you'll need to find Blood Artist or some other payoff.

As a result, this turns into a four card combo. One of those cards is in the command zone, and two others are things you're likely to run multiple copies of... but the fact remains that you need four cards. Additionally, this sort of combo is vulnerable to pretty much every type of disruption - creature removal, enchantment removal, countermagic, grave hate, and possibly also artifact removal if you're using an artifact sac outlet. It's surprisingly tricky to get it all to come together, assuming your opponents are running instant-speed interaction.

Additionally, Darkest Hour doesn't really do anything by itself. I love Karmic Guide and Reveillark as combo pieces because they also happen to be good cards on their own. Darkest Hour... isn't. Unless you specifically have cards that care about color, it doesn't do anything... and those cards are somewhat rare compared to cards that care about swamps, or mana symbols for devotion.

That said, I do think running Darkest Hour in Teysa is worth doing for one specific reason: it's really, really cheap. Throw in Viscera Seer, Blood Artist, and Teysa, and you have an infinite combo that costs a total of seven mana, with nothing costing more than three - it's very easy to deploy half of these cards the turn before and combo off on only three or four mana. Alternatively, it's viable to both tutor up the missing piece and cast it on the same turn, which is more challenging for expensive finishers. I recall one game where an opponent cast Torment of Hailfire to cripple the rest of the table and shred all of their opponents' hands, and I was able to survive on five life or so after sacrificing my entire board and cast the full combo from hand on my turn. If I were running a more expensive combo, that wouldn't have been possible. Obviously, this doesn't compete with cEDH combos like Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle or Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter... but it's still cheaper than Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite or Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host.

Overall, I'd say that Darkest Hour is a fine card in Teysa, and pretty meh elsewhere. That's part of the reason why I'm still running it in my own deck, honestly - I feel happy when I get to run cards in decks that only work in those decks and nowhere else.

[Igzex]

It's just one of those cards where the less experienced players dismiss it as jank while everyone who knows better immediately go "Hehe. I'm in danger!"

[Jemolk]

Shame it doesn't make creatures black in addition. Painter's Servant with Teysa means infinite removal in addition to its combo potential, where Darkest Hour is just a combo enabler. Still a pretty interesting and unique card in the one deck it goes in, though.

[PrimevalCommander]

Potential use in Savra, Queen of the Golgari since everyone says it's only playable in one deck. Not as potent, but still a commander that cares about creature color.

[3drinks]

Monday, March 13th, 2023; Vile Entomber

[3drinks]

Potential use in Savra, Queen of the Golgari since everyone says it's only playable in one deck. Not as potent, but still a commander that cares about creature color.

Wow she looks really good in the new frame with the legendary crown.

[Dunadain]

Monday, March 13th, 2023; Vile Entomber

He's in a really awkward spot, Entomb and Unmarked Grave are so much more efficient Buried Alive costs 1 less and does so much more, and for 1 more, you could get Gravebreaker Lamia, which also provides a little ramp, or Corpse Connoisseur which can be used twice (though, for the record, I think all 3 of these are just okay).

The big appeal of cards like this that are spells stapled onto a creature is that they can be used with cards that care about creatures, but Vile Entomber kind of works against all those synergies. the fact that it's a creature for tutoring purposes doesn't really matter, because you are in black if you are playing this you have tutors that can grab anything. it's unlikely a deck playing this will have much blink/bounce going on as it clearly lends itself to graveyard shenanigans, and while getting the etb over and over again with reanimation loops is probably the best use of this card, wouldn't it be better to just put something else in the yard with the etb and loop THAT?

I find myself putting this card into a lot of decks because I want entomb effects, then I cut him because I don't need entomb effects THAT badly.

I'll shout out Oriq Loremage as an even slower option, but an option your more likely to get multiple uses out of.

However, I try not to say only bad things about the card of the day, so I'll say that it's probably worth the slot in Araumi of the Dead Tide, it tutors a card into your GY, and later it can be encored for a build-your-own Buried Alive.