[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[3drinks]

Friday, June 30th, 2023; Restore

I always thought this card was a sleeper. It never shows up in lists but it's easily another fetch at the low end, or another wasteland at the high end. Sometimes you rebuy a krosan verge for the double fetch. Seems so easy to get good value on.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Friday, June 30th, 2023; Restore

I always thought this card was a sleeper. It never shows up in lists but it's easily another fetch at the low end, or another wasteland at the high end. Sometimes you rebuy a krosan verge for the double fetch. Seems so easy to get good value on.

The irony of this card is that it's probably at its best in a high powered meta with lots of fancy lands and yet decks operating at that power level usually have better things to do than cast a 2 mana ramp card with a floor of doing nothing on curve.

[Mookie]

Restore seems pretty niche. Green has a lot of options for land recursion - Ramunap Excavator, Life from the Loam, Splendid Reclamation, etc. As a result, I'm not that excited by the prospect of a one-off, single-target effect. It can do double-duty as a Rampant Growth if you have a fetchland available on T2... but without a high fetchland count, that won't be very consistent. It does have the ability to target your opponents' lands, so you could, hypothetically, blow up a Cabal Coffers and steal it... but when was the last time you were excited by Annex?

One style of deck I could see wanting Restore is in decks built around sacrificing lands or otherwise putting them into the graveyard, like Titania, Protector of Argoth and The Gitrog Monster - an off-curve Rampant Growth isn't particularly exciting, but if you can recur a fetchland for an extra card or other value, that seems worth consideration. I wouldn't run it over the premium land recursion effects, but it's a reasonable 5th or 6th choice if you want to max out on them.

[3drinks]

Saturday, July 2nd, 2023; Reconstruct History

Anyone else feeling with the current state of power creep, even the RCotD feels smaller? I shift through so many cards that were good or could be hidden gems that these days are niche at best because we're flooded with product shoving better cards in front of us?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Saturday, July 2nd, 2023; Reconstruct History

Anyone else feeling with the current state of power creep, even the RCotD feels smaller? I shift through so many cards that were good or could be hidden gems that these days are niche at best because we're flooded with product shoving better cards in front of us?

RH is pretty good if you can hit all the types. A solid restock.

As for powercreep, there's always been better and worse cards. Sedge Troll has laughed at Gray Ogre since Alpha. Not all cards are created equally. Niche cards don't get same play as generic staples. Given that the RCotD thread doesn't actually suggest a context for the card in question, we are all evaluating them in the broadest possible context and very few cards hold up under that level of scrutiny.

That doesn't necessarily mean Pain Seer or whatever is bad, just that Dark Confidant is usually better (for example).

[pokken]

Card is so utterly bananas in Hinata, Dawn-Crowned it makes me laugh every time.

[NZB2323]

This is my first time seeing Reconstruct History, and it's definitely a solid card, but not sure if it's power creep. Yes, it can return a max of 5 cards to your hand, but Noxious Revival is an instant that cost 0 mana.

I like how they're giving conditional card draw to Boros, and it works well with red's looting and white's board wipes, but when thinking of the most powerful cards to get back, I'm mainly thinking of cards in other colors.

[Mookie]

Power creep in the context of RCotD is somewhat interesting - there are many cards that have been strictly outclassed by newer options, but there are also other cards that have found their own niches supporting new commanders. Clicking through random cards on Scryfall, I felt like a majority of them were worth discussion, even if some of them seem a bit underwhelming. I wonder if it has some bias that Gatherer doesn't, or if I just happened to get lucky. Hmmm....

Anyway, Reconstruct History looks like a strong card in the right deck - recurring five cards for four mana is an absurd rate, although it does seem tricky to pull off. Most decks tend to have a bias towards one or two card types, so I'm not sure what deck would consistently have all of them available. It also misses on the two most widely-played card types (creature and land), which makes it slightly more narrow. That said, it's always better than Pull from the Deep, and I'd generally be happy with it if I got three cards with it, which seems doable. Seems particularly good in prowess / noncreature-based decks like Narset, Enlightened Exile and graveyard-focused Lorehold decks like Quintorius, Loremaster, but I could also see playing it as a value card in random RWx decks as long as they aren't too creature-heavy.

I won't strictly consider it power creep though - sure, it's better than Pull from the Deep / Restock, but it is also in different colors and specific in its targets.

[3drinks]

Monday, July 3rd, 2023; Seismic Spike

Kinda a decent ritual. If you're gonna hit a problem land, may as well get something back to double spell.

[Serenade]

I am not sure if RG midrange/tempo/spellslinger is a deck, but whatever Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant or The Howling Abomination are supposed to be doing, it feels like Seismic Spike goes with them.

Other ritual+ cards in red look like...
Jeska's Will
Path of the Pyromancer
Infernal Plunge
Explosive Welcome
Dragonrage

(Mostly making this list for myself when I get more serious about Elmar.)

[onering]

It's, essentially, a 2 mana stone rain. People aren't running sinkhole. If you are trying to multi spell, is this the right effect for you? birthday.... Is there nothing better to spend (essentially) 2 mana on?

I see the viability of this being highly reliant on somehow getting more mana out of it, most likely by copying it. Taking out 2 lands and getting RRRR is pretty sweet, but what are you investing to copy it? Otherwise, you're looking at reducing costs, which is another somewhat viable option, but you can only reduce it by 2 which makes it mana neutral rather than mana positive (which is the point of a ritual). Is taking out one player's single land worth going down a card? Sometimes, but that's really what Wasteland and Stripmine are for, since you can actually use them for mana until you need to crack them. I suppose if you jump through hoops already that let you be able to copy it or make it cost RR, then it's worth it as an alternative to those or as a supplement against metas rife with must kill lands.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023; Nemata, Primeval Warden

Honestly, I don't get the hate. You get a stax piece that's also an engine + payoff in the zone, that's pretty sweet. Yet, this card is bulk and sees no play. Why?

[Toshi]

this card is bulk and sees no play. Why?

As a Slimefoot, the Stowaway player myself, i believe he's just the better option - while being bulk too.
He's not reliant on your opponents having creatures and them dying, costs less mana and can spew out saplings himself. Even tryhards could be happy with his mana dump.

The main hinderance of both is that saplings aren't just as popular as slivers, dragons or whatnot.
I for one am happy with my build and the fact he works with Keen Sense and Snake Umbra oh so well.

[BeneTleilax]

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023; Nemata, Primeval Warden

Honestly, I don't get the hate. You get a stax piece that's also an engine + payoff in the zone, that's pretty sweet. Yet, this card is bulk and sees no play. Why?

Incidental stax, except at higher powerlevels, is generally a disincentive because it means any graveyard or aristo deck will making keeping him out of play a main priority. Unlike stax/hate pieces in the 99, which can be deployed to counter the threat in play, stax in the CZ locks you into hosing an archetype regardless of who's ahead. Unlike many of the times a general is hated out, it's also very often the rational play, because a deck that relies on looping creatures through the graveyard just can't operate while this guy exists.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 5th, 2023; Tivadar of Thorn

Smh, c'mon Tivadar, goblin lives matter. Terrible! I dream of a time in which goblins and humans can live together in harmony, yep.

[pokken]

:shrug:

This is certainly a magic card that I guess has changeling interactions? yay

[NZB2323]

I guess you could use Unnatural Selection and Eldrazi Displacer to make this a machine gun engine.

I thought about running him in Captain Sisay because I could search for him against Krenko, but even then it didn't seem worth it.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Materpillar has a whole deck around this janklord and I'm forever impressed that it even exists.

[3drinks]

Materpillar has a whole deck around this janklord and I'm forever impressed that it even exists.

Lowkey that was the primary reason I went with this when it came up on the random wheel.

[gsgfdf]

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023; Nemata, Primeval Warden

Honestly, I don't get the hate. You get a stax piece that's also an engine + payoff in the zone, that's pretty sweet. Yet, this card is bulk and sees no play. Why?

Tbh Dominaria United had 41 new legendary creatures plus 15~ in Dominaria United Commander. We have more new options every month than we can consume as a community. Some commanders will be left behind.

[materpillar]

Each tic mark around the border is a confirmed goblin kill, fighter pilot style. Looks to be about 58 now.

Actually this deck has one of my best winrates of all my decks. It's very metagame specific but it kinda murders people in my metagame while simultaneously flying under the radar.

For those who haven't studied my decklist in depth the idea to target your opponents with Shields of Velis Vel to turn them all into goblins for Tivadar to eat. You loop Shields of Velis Vel with Mistveil Plains and a tutor like Kithkin Harbinger or Angel of Flight Alabaster. Alternatively, Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist can equip your opponents creatures with Runed Stalactite. Once you have those set up you just slaughter all the goblins with Teleportation Circle and friends.

The deck has gotten so much support that it is actually a bit of a terror against unprepared combat focused decks without much graveyard hate. That sounds like a niche situation but that's a lot precon/midpower lists. Turns out that Emeria, the Sky Ruin + Archon of Coronation just wrecks some decks. The deck has pretty insane amounts of late game grind potential. Last time I played it someone wrathed and I went Emeria Shepherd → land-drop → recur Karmic Guide → recur Sun Titan → recur land → recur Solemn Simulacrum → recur Sanctuary Warden.

There's so much blink/card advantage in mono-W now it's kinda crazy. Teleportation Circle guarantees you're the monarch. Then, theres Welcoming Vampire/Mentor of the Meek/Tome of Legends/Endless Atlas/Loran of the Third Path/Sanctuary Warden/Mangara, the Diplomat.

Fun fact: this deck has lost against several Krenko, Mob Boss decks because Goblin Chirurgeon completely blanks Tivadar of Thorn.

Materpillar has a whole deck around this janklord and I'm forever impressed that it even exists.

<3

Lowkey that was the primary reason I went with this when it came up on the random wheel.

<3

:shrug:

This is certainly a magic card that I guess has changeling interactions? yay

Once someone sat down with Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces "oops all spells" while I already had Tivadar of Thorn sitting face up as my commander of choice. They didn't read my general until turn 2 and immediately rage scooped upon reading it. That's a particularly fond memory of mine. For some reason I feel like this would make @3drinks smile.

That being said the highlight of this deck ever was a game where I Crib swaped Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I also killed Emrakul, the Promised End and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim with Tivadar of Thorn.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 6th, 2023; Kuon, Ogre Ascendant // Kuon's Essence

[3drinks]

That being said the highlight of this deck ever was a game where I Crib swaped Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I also killed Emrakul, the Promised End and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim with Tivadar of Thorn.

If I'm ever at a point that my goblins get lolpwnt by this guy, I will just bow my head and graciously accept defeat. There's so many expert interactions here it's like the Spanish Inquisition because no one expects it from the mono-w deck.

I'm gonna need to run this list through MPCfill and enshrine it next to my Hall of Fame retired Experiment Kraj deck. But I already have my memeable deck led by Kei Takahashi and the sliver horde.

[illakunsaa]

Kuon, Ogre Ascendant
{B}{B}{B}
Legendary Creature — Ogre Monk

At the beginning of the end step, if three or more creatures died this turn, flip Kuon, Ogre Ascendant.

2/4
Kuon's Essence
Legendary Enchantment

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature.

[illakunsaa]

It doesn't look too bad. It should be fairly trivial to flip this and the effect is quite potent. It's just annoying to play with these flip cards. Just reading the card is annoying.