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

[3drinks]

Absolute terror in PDH.

In commander, I don't think I see a reason to use it outside of rat tribal, and even there it just seems okay. If you can pump its toughness it can be a repeatable wipe, but that's a lot of work.

Idk, I liked having a wipe I can bring back with Alesha. Throw a Basilisk Collar to make sure it's always lethal, or a Shadowspear if I just want to make a massive life swing. That always felt like peak rats to me.

[Mookie]

I like Skyclave Relic - it's not as versatile as some of the other premium 3-mana rocks we've seen (like Midnight Clock or Cursed Mirror), but it's a reasonable choice for decks that know they want a ton of mana (and are thus unlikely to want to cash in Commander's Sphere or Dreamstone Hedron). Indestructible means it will generally live through board wipes, and creating artifact tokens gives it some marginal upside alongside stuff like Shimmer Dragon.

I don't think it's the first mana rock I ever reach for, since I don't think indestructible alone is worth paying an extra mana over a 2-mana rock. That said, there are two places I like it - firstly, in decks that are looking to hit 8+ mana and thus are likely to be interested in kicking it. Secondly, in decks that are particularly reliant on artifacts for mana, and want to run something that lives through a board wipe. While artifact board wipes are generally less common than creature wipes, they do still exist - losing 1-2 mana rocks is generally manageable, but if you're regularly in a position to lose 3+ mana, it may be worth investing in something more survivable.

[3drinks]

Monday, May 8th, 2023; Fumble

Gee, why is voltron so awful these days? Man, what a blow out this card is.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Can attest, this card is a beating. One of my worst losses with my Sythis aggro deck was to fumbling an Ancestral Mask, an Armadillo Cloak, and a Hyena Umbra onto an enemy Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker, which then proceeded to take my lunch money and throw my new school shoes over a powerline.

[Hawk]

This card looks so strong on paper, but it definitely needs the right deck - a tempo-y deck that wants to stick creatures and disrupt opponents. I don't currently have any decks like that, but I can see as I make tweaks and upgrades to Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir that maybe this would be disgusting. Realistically this is overcosted for just bounce - there's a ton of powerful bounce spells that hit more targets and/or have more reliable upside. But if this hits even 1 equipment or aura, it's insane value. A bit of a meta call, but probably underrated.

[Mookie]

Fumble looks powerful but niche - two mana Unsummon is meh, but stealing even a single piece of equipment for two mana is a bargain. If you can blow out a voltron deck and steal multiple, that will probably knock them out of the game.

...unfortunately, the two most commonly-played pieces of equipment in the format are Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, both of which protect from Fumble. The next two are Skullclamp (which often kills the equipped creature), and Sunforger (which can be unequipped). As a result, I would generally expect the theft effect to be flavor text unless you're specifically running it to deal with an equipment deck in your meta.

As a result, I would generally lean towards one of the other bounce effects available - Chain of Vapor, Mystic Confluence, Venser, Shaper Savant, etc. Most of those have more consistent upsides than Fumble. Alternatively, run Thieving Skydiver if you want a blue answer to equipment.

[Hawk]

Fumble looks powerful but niche - two mana Unsummon is meh, but stealing even a single piece of equipment for two mana is a bargain. If you can blow out a voltron deck and steal multiple, that will probably knock them out of the game.

...unfortunately, the two most commonly-played pieces of equipment in the format are Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, both of which protect from Fumble. The next two are Skullclamp (which often kills the equipped creature), and Sunforger (which can be unequipped). As a result, I would generally expect the theft effect to be flavor text unless you're specifically running it to deal with an equipment deck in your meta.

As a result, I would generally lean towards one of the other bounce effects available - Chain of Vapor, Mystic Confluence, Venser, Shaper Savant, etc. Most of those have more consistent upsides than Fumble. Alternatively, run Thieving Skydiver if you want a blue answer to equipment.

That's a good point Mookie - also notable that this wouldn't be able to hit someone armed with Sword of Truth and Justice, Sword of Fire and Ice (or the other blue swords but these are actually played), Champion's Helm, Whispersilk Cloak, and possibly Commander's Plate (color depending), Cranial Plating (reattach at instant speed), and Robe of Stars (phase out in response). That's a lot of the top 50 equipment cards in the format this doesn't touch especially as we weight it towards the top 5/10/20. It's better against auras (only one of the top 50, Shielding Plax, shuts it off) but most decks heavy on the auras are heavy on innately hexproof creatures. I'm now remembering why this hasn't made the cut most of the time.

[Avacyn Believer]

Might be just the local meta I am used to playing in, but one of the most common Auras I see the Bear Umbra. I would actually give Fumble a go in some of my blue decks, though I don't think it would be as useful against dedicated Voltron decks since those will use Auras and Equipment for protection.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023; Duelist's Heritage

[pokken]

I always forget this card, it's pretty fun political shenanigans. I probably should think about it in my latest Abzan enchantress deck, as it's kinda like a weird Ghostly Prison effect (encouraging people to attack others?)

[EonAon]

yeah such a good card. Use it for yourself to finish games or start using it on opposing players to start ending them. Very underrated card, sadly its also the second pick when you need to cram other more important cards in.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah this card is underrated as hell. Really helps make combat profitable for you if you're targeting well. It should see more play.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023; Endless Detour

Well that's a neat take on this effect. I'm with it.

[onering]

I loathe this effect generally. Giving the opponent the choice of putting it on the top or bottom makes them crappy, and unfortunately they are typically way overcosted. Doing one or the other, or being able to choose for yourself, is great. Putting it on the bottom is basically exiling it, while putting it on the top can be a huge tempo play. With these effects, the opponent will always put it on top if it's worth taking the tempo hit to get back, and on the bottom if it isn't.

This particular card has some saving graces. It hits the graveyard, is relatively cheap, and can target your own stuff. Being able to be an overcosted recursion piece gives it flexibility, and as removal it's only moderately overcosted. It also can save a key piece from removal or counter magic, for even more flexibility.

But the flexibility is really everything with this spell. Everything it does is overcosted. It would be a fairly costed spell if it just put everything on the bottom of it's owners library, a strong removal piece that hits a staggering variety of targets including spells in the stack, but the opponent being able to just put it on top and get it right back severely undermines it's usefulness.

Compare it to Bant Charm. That isn't as flexible but it's more reliable against what it does hit. Creatures are always sent to the bottom of the library, artifacts always die, instants are always countered.

[Sinis]

I like the flexibility of targeting, but it feels like a half-measure. I'd much rather just run Commit // Memory for the extra oomph and the wheel/graveyard erasure option.

[3drinks]

Oh, I did not read the owner chooses where it goes. I don't think that changes my opinion of it, and I'll still play it at least.

[PrimevalCommander]

Extremely flexible spell being able to interact with the graveyard, the battlefield, and the stack is pretty much every facet of interaction you could hope for except maybe exile zone. Flexibility isn't free (most of the time), but this is probably a well balanced tradeoff. I like the comparison to Bant Charm and like both for their flexibility. I think it is a good card for many bant decks. Sometimes you don't need to exile a threat to deal with it. I have been extremely impressed with how effective a well timed bounce spell can be, and this is better than bounce by replacing a draw with the card they want and allow you to Reclaim your best card if you want to. If I had a bant deck, I would probably play it. Adding more colors ups the competition for card slots, so I'm not sure how it competes beyond the 3 colors it requires.

[toctheyounger]

The effect is nice, insofar as it can affect the tempo of a player's plans. Sometimes that is enough, but I think if you're wanting more you may be disappointed. That said, letting someone hoist themselves on their own petard is quite delightful and can really do wonders to make your own path to victory easier. If someone thinks they have the game they're much more likely to put everything on the table, and something like this can leave a player pretty rudderless. There's also the added versatility to being able to topdeck or bottomdeck your own stuff if, say, for whatever reason you're running Hermit Druid or Jodah, the Unifier or miracle cards or what have you. Idk, there might be something there in niche places.

I like everything about this spell other than the mana cost. I'll also say that as another similar effect, Moonsnare Prototype is a pretty good option that's much, much harder to interact with and has added value.

[DirkGently]

I think @onering is making too much hay over the choice aspect. This card would be at most 1% better if it forced it to the top. You'll basically never target an opponent's card that isn't worth drawing again, and you'll never target your own card unless your intent is to recast it. The only exceptions I can really think of would be if you're removing a blocker for a 2-hit lethal, and redrawing that card doesn't save them, or maybe if it's something cheated into play that's too expensive to recast from hand, but those are very rare scenarios. Some savvy opponents might put a major threat on the bottom if they decide that it's politically expedient, but that's a vanishingly small number of players.

I do think it's overall just okay. It can solve almost any problem, but typically only temporarily. Mana cost isn't amazing either. The CI restriction really limits the places it can go as well, and when you've already got bant there's already a ton of other interaction options at your disposal. So it's kind of a card built to exist towards the bottom end of Phelddagrif's viable removal options and not much else.

[pokken]

I still think people grossly undervalue Memory Lapse and Unexpectedly Absent type cards. Trying to wheel the table while everyone knows you are public enemy #1 is difficult. And there aren't that many ways to guarantee you can just draw it again right away (it happens, but it's the exception).

Someone Craterhoof Behemoth and you Memory Lapse it, that's as good as Counterspell much of the time, sometimes politically superior (since everyone has a time limited time to deal with that person, it incentivizes them to spend resources to finish them off).

This card is great. Super flexible. I'd play it over something like Generous Gift or Beast Within most of the time just for the addition of being able to interact on the stack and situational graveyard hate.

[DirkGently]

I still think people grossly undervalue Memory Lapse and Unexpectedly Absent type cards.

I like UA a lot more for the flexibility. Someone trying to fast combo when you've only got 2 up? X=0 and you've got enough room to find a better solution. Endgame and someone plays a bomb? X=10 and you'll never see it again.

Politically something like memory lapse where x always equals 0 can definitely have interesting implications, but it's a lot more contextual. In a Phelddagrif context, if it's 1v1 and I'm trying to stabilize, I'd REALLY rather have a more permanent solution. Or if someone is just kinda archenemy-ing the table, it doesn't matter so much that everyone knows they've got a big threat incoming - they were already doing as much as they can to stop them, so nothing much changes.

[pokken]

Politically something like memory lapse where x always equals 0 can definitely have interesting implications, but it's a lot more contextual. In a Phelddagrif context, if it's 1v1 and I'm trying to stabilize, I'd REALLY rather have a more permanent solution. Or if someone is just kinda archenemy-ing the table, it doesn't matter so much that everyone knows they've got a big threat incoming - they were already doing as much as they can to stop them, so nothing much changes.

Yeah I don't completely disagree; my experience is that I have never once lost a game due to Memory Lapse putting something back on top in all my years of jamming it, but part of it is that when I'm playing Memory Lapse I am pretty damn deep on counterspells and I'm probably going to draw a bunch of cards in my turn as well. So getting the turn off makes it somewhat better than Remand (where the card is immediately available again).

There're also times where lapse is > Counterspell (typically against decks like Kess, Dissident Mage or Gravecrawler type decks.

Anyway the point is more that *in my experience* effects like Endless Detour are usually close enough to as good as Counterspell that I tend to think of them more like that?

[onering]

Its 3 mana though, of 3 different colors, for at best the same effect as Memory Lapse. Yes, flexibility has a cost, but the cost is too damn high. Memory Lapse is a good not great card that is, as you said, typically ran when you're already deep into counter magic and can reliably use it to buy a turn to use another counter spell later and hit the tempo of the opponent. Memory Lapse for 3 mana of different colors is just very mediocre.

And that's really the problem with the card. The top or bottom choice ensures you always get the worst version of the effect and means that whatever you choose its very mediocre for the cost. 3 mana to top deck a threat is just really meh compared to just running better removal. Same goes for 3 mana memory lapse, 3 mana reclaim, 3 mana gy hate, etc. You are never going to get a decent rate with this card, and it only gets to the point of being ok overall because of its flexibility. But I stress again, its the flexibility to choose from a lot of sub par but somewhat useful choices. It would be a lot stronger if you could use it to permanently deal with a threat by bottom decking it, but that would be too good at 3 mana. I feel like it would have just been better to always topdeck, because the only time it will ever bottom deck is when it will hurt you. Always top decking would still be just fringe playable in Bant, which isn't really strong enough to run the risk of it getting undermined even in somewhat fringe cases.

For me I don't think I'll ever play this. It was very mid in limited when I ran it considering its a rare interaction spell. I'd rather sacrifice flexibility for the effects I do get being stronger.

[pokken]

Its 3 mana though, of 3 different colors, for at best the same effect as Memory Lapse. Yes, flexibility has a cost, but the cost is too damn high. Memory Lapse is a good not great card that is, as you said, typically ran when you're already deep into counter magic and can reliably use it to buy a turn to use another counter spell later and hit the tempo of the opponent. Memory Lapse for 3 mana of different colors is just very mediocre.

And that's really the problem with the card. The top or bottom choice ensures you always get the worst version of the effect and means that whatever you choose its very mediocre for the cost. 3 mana to top deck a threat is just really meh compared to just running better removal. Same goes for 3 mana memory lapse, 3 mana reclaim, 3 mana gy hate, etc. You are never going to get a decent rate with this card, and it only gets to the point of being ok overall because of its flexibility. But I stress again, its the flexibility to choose from a lot of sub par but somewhat useful choices. It would be a lot stronger if you could use it to permanently deal with a threat by bottom decking it, but that would be too good at 3 mana. I feel like it would have just been better to always topdeck, because the only time it will ever bottom deck is when it will hurt you. Always top decking would still be just fringe playable in Bant, which isn't really strong enough to run the risk of it getting undermined even in somewhat fringe cases.

For me I don't think I'll ever play this. It was very mid in limited when I ran it considering its a rare interaction spell. I'd rather sacrifice flexibility for the effects I do get being stronger.

I think you're undervaluing slot efficiency but I also don't play this unless I'm in a snapcaster/mission briefing deck. but I sure would try it in those shells.

[3drinks]

Thursday, May 11th, 2023; The Epic Cycle!

Man. I have never gotten to play an Enduring Ideal deck, but I sure do enjoy watching them pop off every single time.