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

[Mookie]

Koma, Cosmos Serpent is quite strong - it's a scaling threat that is hard to kill, often provides some immediate board impact, and can dominate a board. It also scales somewhat degenerately to multiplayer. It won't immediately win the game like Protean Hulk or Nyxbloom Ancient can, but still a strong topend card. It's on my 'would run in Tasigur as a Neoform target' list.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I kinda hate this card as a commander. Most koma decks I've seen are ramp/removal blue piles that seek to end the game in a total grind out. It also falls into that odd category of "too brutal for true casual, not brutal enough for actual competition" which is where some of my most hated designs live and probably explains my opinion a lot.

Still, if you ever wanted to play a legendary Tendershoot Dryad, it exists and it's pretty good imo. Now if they would only give me my legendary Disciple of Deceit.

[Venedrex]

I kinda hate this card as a commander. Most koma decks I've seen are ramp/removal blue piles that seek to end the game in a total grind out. It also falls into that odd category of "too brutal for true casual, not brutal enough for actual competition" which is where some of my most hated designs live and probably explains my opinion a lot.

Still, if you ever wanted to play a legendary Tendershoot Dryad, it exists and it's pretty good imo. Now if they would only give me my legendary Disciple of Deceit.

Best I can do is Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths.

LOL

[Cyberium]

Thursday, May 18th, 2023; Koma, Cosmos Serpent

Downright nasty with cards like Opposition, Earthcraft, and Seedborn Muse.

[toctheyounger]

Pretty strong card for obvious reasons. Honestly though I think I prefer it in the 99 where you can Neoform or whatever into it and not have to worry too much about the oppressive cost of the card. Plus that way you're giving your opponents a lock in the command zone, just seems like good manners to me.

[onering]

I'm not a fan of this card. It's a big, splashy sea monster that appeals to Timmy but plays oppressively. But at least it's no Aesi.

[3drinks]

Friday, May 19th, 2023; Mizzix of the Izmagnus

"It's okay guys, it's just a casual deck." - Mizzix player, right before resolving Thousand-Year Storm

[void_nothing]

Probably the most popular experience commander that I've seen? Mostly because spellslinger is popular.

[3drinks]

Probably the most popular experience commander that I've seen? Mostly because spellslinger is popular.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth has entered the chat.

[Dunharrow]

kill on site commanders suck
Leads to bad gameplay

[Mookie]

I actually cut Thousand-Year Storm from my Mizzix of the Izmagnus - six mana is a lot. D:

Anyway, Mizzix is sweet. I don't play it as often as most of my other decks, since most opponents don't appreciate sitting through a big storm turn more than once per game night... but I do appreciate having a deck that functions so differently from most of my other decks. She functions somewhat similarly to Animar, Soul of Elements, but the decks feel pretty different in practice due to the different card pools. Animar has access to lots of colorless creatures that can be cast for free, but there aren't that many strong creature-based card draw options - if you don't stick Beast Whisperer or something similar, then Mulldrifter and friends are generally outclassed by Stroke of Genius and similar effects. On the flip side, Mizzix can run a bunch of splashy X spells and efficient card draw, but scaling up is a bit trickier - you need to cast progressively more expensive spells, and there aren't many free spells to accelerate up the curve.

...so yeah, Mizzix is quite solid. I don't think she's broken, but spell-based combo isn't an axis that most decks are prepared to deal with. She is very vulnerable to removal though - paying 4/6/8 mana for a 2/2 with no immediate board impact or protection is pretty painful, and it's pretty viable for opponents to make her too expensive to recast due to Izzet's poor ramp options. Fortunately, experience persists even if Mizzix dies, which makes getting the first few counters really important. Of all the experience counter commanders, I think Mizzix scales most impressively with a large amount of experience, but even just one or two counters can be pretty impactful. There are also sweet things you can do with proliferate to get extra counters even without Mizzix on the field - Inexorable Tide is one of the silliest interactions.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Way back over on Sally, there was a really cool high tide Mizzix deck that taught me a lot about sequencing way back in the day. I credit a lot of the careful play I practice now to the building blocks given to me by this commander.

Outside of that nostalgia, it's not my bag anymore. But still a neat card, not too terribly busted.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Probably the most popular experience commander that I've seen? Mostly because spellslinger is popular.

Sticking to the OGs, I'd say it generally goes:

Meren of Clan Nel Toth > Mizzix of the Izmagnus > Ezuri, Claw of Progress >> Daxos the Returned >>>>> Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

I have literally only seen one Kalemne deck, and that was one I made on a lark.

[onering]

Probably the most popular experience commander that I've seen? Mostly because spellslinger is popular.

Sticking to the OGs, I'd say it generally goes:

Meren of Clan Nel Toth > Mizzix of the Izmagnus > Ezuri, Claw of Progress >> Daxos the Returned >>>>> Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

I have literally only seen one Kalemne deck, and that was one I made on a lark.

I've built Kalemne. I feel like she's underrated, she's a Voltron commander that you don't actually have to commit cards to, like partner Akiri. You play threats while she's in play and she permanently gets bigger.

I tried her as Giant tribal before there were better commanders for that, but she was most effective as 5 CMC tribal. If something was 6 or 7 mana it could still make the cut, but I focused on artifact ramping into 5 mana then having a ton of 5 mana threats to cast, and it worked was a fun casual deck. I should update it now that white and red have more CA to keep it from running out of gas.

[3drinks]

Saturday, May 20th, 2023; Evolutionary Leap

[hyalopterouslemur]

Has some niche value in tokens, since you're basically trading a 1/1 token for a card. It's also good for this reason if you're playing Sylvan Library. Don't like the top two cards of your library? You can use this to repeatedly put them on the bottom of your library until you get cards you do like, though note: You can also use ramp spells to shuffle your library for the same reason.

[Mookie]

Evolutionary Leap is alright - it's no Survival of the Fittest, but still a reasonable card. It's at its best in graveyard / sacrifice-based decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth, but I've been reasonably happy with it in my Animar deck. Cashing in an Elvish Visionary for a new creature is generally a good deal, and cashing in my entire board in response to a board wipe is also quite good. I would say its largest weakness is the activation cost - it can be difficult to hold open enough mana to sacrifice multiple creatures, and it's also not very combo-friendly. Other than that... depending on the creatures in your deck, it may be a bit consistent in value... but if your deck is looking to put more creatures into your hand or graveyard, it's a good way to churn through your deck.

[3drinks]

Sunday, May 21st, 2023; Ancient Imperiosaur

I have a feeling this is sneaky good, sneaky low cost and sneaky high power with in-built protection.

[Mookie]

How big does a french vanilla creature need to be to see play? How about... a zero mana 20/20 trampler with ward?

Ancient Imperiosaur is big and stompy. Seems worth consideration if you're a go-wide deck, particularly if you have some way to grant it haste. You do need to tap a bunch of creatures to convoke it, but if you have enough creatures that may not be a significant cost. Maybe in Tana, the Bloodsower + Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder or Emmara, Soul of the Accord?

[Cyberium]

Sunday, May 21st, 2023; Ancient Imperiosaur

I have a feeling this is sneaky good, sneaky low cost and sneaky high power with in-built protection.

Would probably be threatening if it's a legend, but 40 life really makes it hard to few shot an opponent otherwise.

[onering]

This has won me a couple of drafts. It's just so easy to make huge. If you have a couple of tokens to tap it's a 10/10 trample wars 2 for 5 mana. That's not going to win games in its own but it's pretty good for something that's almost it's fail state, since its trivial to obtain in decks built to take advantage of it, and there's plenty of green decks not built around spamming the board that will nevertheless find that to be something they regularly meet the requir for. Then if you can tap, say, 4 utility creatures/random tokens, it's a damn 14/14 trample ward2 for 3 mana, which is pretty bonkers. Even without being a legend, that's nearly enough to 3 shot someone from 40 life, and is enough if they miss a single Mana Crypt flip or take just a couple of incidental pings off of fetch lands or other sources.

Of course, this dude isn't actually coming down turn 3 regularly, but turn 4 is absolutely realistic and by that point could be even bigger, and cheaper, because you can tap the creatures you just put into play to convoke it.
.
It's not for every deck, but it's easier to support than it looks at first glance, and does a lot to support a strategy based around turning things sideways. Or hell, tap 7 plant tokens from Avenger to free cast this as a 20/20 and sac it to Greater Good, or have Pandemonium or similar out, there's plenty of ways to take advantage of something that big.

[void_nothing]

One of the most mindblowingly good Limited cards in recent memory is... not AS good in a multiplayer, 40-life format (really insightful and new thought there), but a turn-4-ish trampler with double digit power that's not the easiest to remove is going to make an impact.

[DirkGently]

Imo ward for small numbers really isn't that great on a big finisher. Good on utility dorks to dissuade removal, but nobody is balking at 2 mana to prevent a 20 damage swing.

@void_nothing eh, it's a good limited card, don't get me wrong, but it's not even top 10 in this set, let alone "one of the best in recent memory". There's a lot of common removal that solves a single large dude pretty efficiently.

[pokken]

Man, Convoke is such a weird mechanic. Like, if you're going super heavy on Convoke your options are basically "play a bunch of tokens" or "play a bunch of garbage creatures."

If you're playing mana dorks, you might as well just play real spells instead of convoke, since you're not really getting a discount

the only reason Chord of Calling saw a lot of modern play was, hilariously, the interaction with Wall of Roots where you could get 2 mana out of it (and Devoted Druid has a similar interaction, though not quite as nice because the mana activation rules don't let you get the last usage out of it like WOR)

[3drinks]

Monday, May 22nd, 2023; The Bringer Cycle