[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[pokken]

I feel like the odds of Coastal Piracy effects outperforming in most dude decks too are pretty high too.

Yeh, I dunno. Maybe this is in UG seedborn shenanigans in some builds?

[gsgfdf]

I have added this in Minn, Wily Illusionist. The goal of that deck is to maximize the number of turns I get to draw two cards and create a token, so I hope to use this with a couple summoning sick illusions and some leftover mana. Another one that serves a similar purpose is Meeting of Minds

[3drinks]

If you are tribal, this is Distant Melody and Kindred Discovery with extra steps and thus not very good.

If you are in the market for an X-spell for a midrangey deck, chances are you'd rather use your creatures for attacking and blocking and Pull from Tomorrow. Blue Sun's Zenith, and Stroke of Genius are better. (Zenith and Stroke are also better for infinite mana builds since you can kill people with them).

So you specifically need to be in a Ux tokens deck to make this good, and even there it seems good not great. But I keep getting the niggling feeling I am underrating this spell a lot?

I am unsure. Your first example is more apples to oranges because they are sorcery speed or permanent based and rely on unity to a type. I do find it closer to blue sun's where you trade the reshuffle for a potentially cheaper cost, i.e. two bodies makes this more efficient than zenith. Hmm, this makes me think it's sneakily better than options others would consider but people don't know it yet. And even if you can't convoke it, you get a zenith -1, which isn't spectacular but it's not awful either (I've "cycled" a zenith early on an end step to keep it moving before, it's not completely terrible).

[Venedrex]

If you are tribal, this is Distant Melody and Kindred Discovery with extra steps and thus not very good.

If you are in the market for an X-spell for a midrangey deck, chances are you'd rather use your creatures for attacking and blocking and Pull from Tomorrow. Blue Sun's Zenith, and Stroke of Genius are better. (Zenith and Stroke are also better for infinite mana builds since you can kill people with them).

So you specifically need to be in a Ux tokens deck to make this good, and even there it seems good not great. But I keep getting the niggling feeling I am underrating this spell a lot?

Yeah, I'm not sure how good it is, but that wont stop me from trying it in my Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. Probably win more/not as good as Blue Sun's Zenith, but I'll give it a shot and see how it does.

[Hermes_]

One of those cards whose potential fun is ruined by the existence of something miserable and broken. Bleh.

Ha, that's such a good CC.

my favorite is

[Hawk]

If you are tribal, this is Distant Melody and Kindred Discovery with extra steps and thus not very good.

If you are in the market for an X-spell for a midrangey deck, chances are you'd rather use your creatures for attacking and blocking and Pull from Tomorrow. Blue Sun's Zenith, and Stroke of Genius are better. (Zenith and Stroke are also better for infinite mana builds since you can kill people with them).

So you specifically need to be in a Ux tokens deck to make this good, and even there it seems good not great. But I keep getting the niggling feeling I am underrating this spell a lot?

Yeah, I'm not sure how good it is, but that wont stop me from trying it in my Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. Probably win more/not as good as Blue Sun's Zenith, but I'll give it a shot and see how it does.

If it's good anywhere, Talrand is probably it with Kykar, Wind's Fury and Xyris, the Writhing Storm as close 2nd and 3rd.

[Mookie]

Transcendant Message is a draw spell with a low floor and high ceiling. Worst-case scenario, it's a more expensive, harder-to-cast Pull from Tomorrow / Blue Sun's Zenith. Best-case scenario, it's an instant-speed and free way to refill your hand. If I were running a blue token / go-wide deck, I would at least consider it. Coastal Piracy and other combat-based draw spells are probably better for more aggressive decks with evasive tokens, but it seems reasonable if you're making non-evasive bodies (or just want to diversify into some options that aren't vulnerable to enchantment removal).

Also, again, this is both free and instant-speed. I could easily see a situation where you play Coastal Piracy or another sorcery-speed draw effect and are left with no mana to do anything else, only to have to discard to hand size. Card draw is great, but having mana to spend on the stuff you draw can be just as important. Alternatively, there may be a Ghostly Prison around, or your creatures may be summoning sick due to a board wipe. While Transcendant Message is somewhat high variance, that also applies to combat-based draw. I think it's generally a good plan to diversify your effects so you aren't quite as vulnerable to any one type of counterplay, even if your cards may be slightly less efficient as a result.

[Serenade]

Maybe in a casual Talrand, Sky Summoner deck? That's just a lot of blue mana symbols.

[DirkGently]

I think everyone is expecting a little too much from this card. Compared to USZ - currently #79 most played blue card on EDHrec - this costs 1 more for the addition of convoke. So if you have just 1 untapped blue creature this is equivalent, and if you have 2+ it's superior. (tbf there's also the shuffling in bit, and the targeted bit, but I think those are pretty small details).

I mean, you aren't running it in a creatureless control build but otherwise it seems pretty okay. And the ceiling is very high for the right deck.

God awful in draft though. Can't wait to crack one P1P1 tonight.

[Treamayne]

Seems like it might be good in my Exalted deck (which want to tap creatures for effect before my turn starts but after they would have been needed for blocking).

[pokken]

I think everyone is expecting a little too much from this card. Compared to USZ - currently #79 most played blue card on EDHrec - this costs 1 more for the addition of convoke. So if you have just 1 untapped blue creature this is equivalent, and if you have 2+ it's superior. (tbf there's also the shuffling in bit, and the targeted bit, but I think those are pretty small details).

Yeah, it's totally fine. It's just....UUUU mana cost plus convoke makes it super narrow.

Blue Sun's Zenith is probably grossly overplayed by virtue of being in so many commander precons. People just don't take it out. It's not a *bad* spell per se, just usually not great and has almost no synergy with anything.

Gimme Aminatou's Augury or Recurring Insight if I want some bomb card draws.

[3drinks]

Friday, May 26th, 2023; Kederekt Leviathan

Man, this takes me back! Flashing in Necromancy to bring this back and stop anyone from trying to mount an onslaught, ohhh ha ha ha.

[pokken]

It's so wild, the game has changed *so* much - this card used to be a hard reset, now it's "hey everyone, accrue all that value again taking half a turn off to recast your ramp spells. please enjoy the free card advantage brought to you by Whaley the Magnificent"

Curves have come so far down and value so far up, I don't even consider this a soft lock with Animate Dead/Necromancy anymore. You can straight up just die to a hasted army of dinosaurs Warstorm Surgeing your face

I used to be really high on mass bounce as interaction but I don't feel like it's all that good these days. Even Cyclonic Rift is becoming questionable in my opinion--it only works anymore if you're presenting a lot of board state.

[Mookie]

Yeah, I'm also low on Kederekt Leviathan. Eight mana is a lot for a mass bounce effect when Crush of Tentacles, Coastal Breach, and Consuming Tide exist. They can be good if the format is slow and your opponents' board states are too expansive to redeploy, but the format is less battlecruiser-y than it used to be. Plus Kederekt Leviathan is at sorcery speed, so you'll probably be discarding a bunch of your own stuff. It may be worth consideration if you have some specific creature / unearth synergies, but otherwise I'm not that excited by it.

That said, I will note that I'm a fan of Scourge of Fleets - making your bounce asymmetric is a significant upgrade. I suppose you miss out on the noncreature permanents, but when half of those are cheap mana rocks that can be trivially redeployed, that doesn't matter quite as much.

[materpillar]

I'm still pretty happy with this in my dredge deck. A free reset button from the graveyard is still extremely nice even if it hasn't aged incredibly well.

[Ruiner]

If it had Flash I'd be more inclined to run it.

The Unearth part of it is the best aspect, since opposing blue decks need a Stifle effect to stop it generally. In a particularly counterspell heavy playgroup I could see that maybe being a consideration factor.

I'd usually just stick to Evacuation and Cyclonic Rift as my usual go to mass bounce cards over this in general.

[pokken]

That said, I will note that I'm a fan of Scourge of Fleets - making your bounce asymmetric is a significant upgrade. I suppose you miss out on the noncreature permanents, but when half of those are cheap mana rocks that can be trivially redeployed, that doesn't matter quite as much.

Scourge of Fleets was an absolute animal in my online only Thassa, Deep-Dwelling deck.

This kinda dovetails in how I am trying to use wipes *in most decks* -- if I can easily make them asymmetrical. A lot more Living Death and Winds of Abandon and such. also Farewell winds up being "wipe all your enchantments, graveyards and artifacts, i have none, lol" in a lot of my decks =p

[NZB2323]

That said, I will note that I'm a fan of Scourge of Fleets - making your bounce asymmetric is a significant upgrade. I suppose you miss out on the noncreature permanents, but when half of those are cheap mana rocks that can be trivially redeployed, that doesn't matter quite as much.

Scourge of Fleets was an absolute animal in my online only Thassa, Deep-Dwelling deck.

This kinda dovetails in how I am trying to use wipes *in most decks* -- if I can easily make them asymmetrical. A lot more Living Death and Winds of Abandon and such. also Farewell winds up being "wipe all your enchantments, graveyards and artifacts, i have none, lol" in a lot of my decks =p

That's where I'm at as well.

Doomwake Giant for an enchantment deck.
Archfiend of Ifnir for a discard deck.
Crux of Fate for a dragon deck.
Urza's Ruinous Blast for a legendary deck.
Cyclonic Rift, Winds of Abandon, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, for other decks.

White can get a one sided board wipe if they combine a Flawless Maneuver with a board wipe.

[pokken]

White can get a one sided board wipe if they combine a Flawless Maneuver with a board wipe.

It's absolutely brutal with Akroma's Will when you kill someone and then wrath in second main to make sure no one comes back (or first if they have colorless blockers:P)

Wishing I had collected more copies of that one for sure.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This card was an unbeatable control bomb in Alara limited. Those days are long past, but I still die a little inside everytime I remember my poor sweet Meglonoth getting double bounced and losing to a hasty 5/5 and a stupid Vithian Stinger.

In edh, I would play it probably. A mediocre wipe applied twice is still pretty good, if Divine Reckoning has taught me anything.

[Hawk]

It''s only in the last ~5 years or so that I can say every color has a better 0-mana discard outlet if they're trying to do Hellbent/Madness/"whenever you discard a card/a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere" nonsense and in fact, I'm not convinced every color can be better than this (specifically red and white - Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is 5 mana in red, and white all I can think of is Peace of Mind and Tireless Tribe which are not free and are super janky, respectively). The thing is though, that such an effect just isn't as widely good or useful as 0-mana repeatable sacrifice outlets. Outside of Madness decks and Sefris of the Hidden Ways, few decks need that many discard outlets, making this card really bad.

[TheGildedGoose]

It''s only in the last ~5 years or so that I can say every color has a better 0-mana discard outlet if they're trying to do Hellbent/Madness/"whenever you discard a card/a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere" nonsense and in fact, I'm not convinced every color can be better than this (specifically red and white - Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is 5 mana in red, and white all I can think of is Peace of Mind and Tireless Tribe which are not free and are super janky, respectively). The thing is though, that such an effect just isn't as widely good or useful as 0-mana repeatable sacrifice outlets. Outside of Madness decks and Sefris of the Hidden Ways, few decks need that many discard outlets, making this card really bad.

Huh?

[Serenade]

I think Hawk had the first page up, which had Patchwork Gnomes toward the bottom.

I have a lot of nostalgia for K.Leviathan because I cracked it early in Alara block, when I got back into MTG. It used to be a blue staple for me, but it has aged. If you are cheating out creatures in sea monster tribal...Kederekt Leviathan wiping your board is not ideal. In that deck you have more options for board wipes (and creatures) now. I always seemed to hit it at the wrong time in Kenessos, Priest of Thassa.

[3drinks]

Saturday, May 27th, 2023; Fiery Gambit

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Saturday, May 27th, 2023; Fiery Gambit

Good lord, this card can waste some time. It's pretty standard Zada tech, but I've definitely scooped to the threat of 20 minutes of coin flipping before. Same thing with Scrambleverse. I just don't have the time for all that.