[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[lyonhaert]

Stop searching for the homerun when all you need is a base hit.

Good analogy.

I use this in green decks, usually along with Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, and Skyshroud Claim (except Spiders, because I primarily need effects stapled to creatures there). Not very much different acceleration-wise than running Coldsteel Heart or other 2-cost rock in non-green, and that happens all the time.

[pokken]

Didn't we have this one like a week ago?

Never play it before nature's lore. And don't overplay it if it doesn't support your curve. Playing rampant growth then missing a land drop is worse than just hitting a land drop.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Also, most of the time, you would prefer Sakura-Tribe Elder. If you're doing something with snow, Into the North. Nature's Lore and Farseek are better if you have duals. (Nature's Lore is also better in monocolor.)

So, the problem with Rampant Growth isn't that it's bad, just that it's been hit with power creep.

(And yeah, this makes Thunderherd Migration dumb. Like, really dumb.)

[Mookie]

Rampant Growth is perfectly reasonable - pretty much every deck wants to be running some amount of ramp. However, it faces competition from Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Nature's Lore, and a bunch of other options. As a result, I would say that which you want to play is going to depend on the rest of your deck - if you have a four mana commander like Mina and Denn, Wildborn, you'll be playing every two mana ramp spell you can. If you have a three mana commander like Animar, Soul of Elements, one mana ramp like Birds of Paradise looks better. And if you want to hit 6+ mana, I'd lean towards cards that get multiple lands, like Kodama's Reach and Skyshroud Claim.

So.... yeah. Wouldn't play it in every green deck, but that's more because there are so many options instead of it being a niche card.

[Morganelefay]

It's an ol' reliable. It will always do exactly as it says on the tin, is best with decks that need to hit 4 ASAP...yea it's just a good card.

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 12th, 2020; Riptide Replicator

[Mookie]

As token producers go, Riptide Replicator is pretty inefficient - if you just want the body, almost every color has something better, whether it be Bitterblossom, Awakening Zone, Mobilization, or even Trading Post. As a result, you're going to want to be able to take advantage of one of its unique properties.

One way to do so is to make use of its ability to scale with charge counters - it becomes much more interesting if you can dump a ton of mana into it. Alternatively, increase the counters after-the-fact with proliferate or Vorel of the Hull Clade. I'd probably favor Orochi Hatchery for this though. Phyrexian Processor is another way to make huge tokens, but it doesn't actually use charge counters.

The other way to benefit is to make use of your ability to choose the creature type - consider something like Elemental for Risen Reef or Scarecrow for Reaper King. It competes against Birthing Boughs on this axis though.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Meh. Most of what it does, Birthing Boughs does cheaper. The other option is a huge vanilla creature, but your token is still vanilla, and will be blocked more easily than other tokens. You can choose a color, though, which might be important.

[3drinks]

I always just named sliver for this and was done with it.

I'm not really sure birthing boughs is a fair comparison because of the time between prints and different eras, but as well you typically don't want to spend your mana generating 2/2s for 4.

I do believe this would be bumped down to uncommon by today's standards though.

[3drinks]

Monday, January 13th, 2020; Seeds of Innocence

[Hermes_]

Creeping Corrosion say "hi pops" and the oracle text adds " They can't be regenerated. "

[hyalopterouslemur]

Well, this does cost 1 less, so there's that. I do like this, though. Mostly because of all the cheap artifacts bouncing around.

[3drinks]

Well, this does cost 1 less, so there's that. I do like this, though. Mostly because of all the cheap artifacts bouncing around.

I loved this as part of my mystical tutour toolbox, right alongside back to nature.

[Mookie]

For consideration: I run Reclamation Sage in pretty much every green deck, but I never play War Priest of Thune or Manic Vandal - I value the extra flexibility very highly, but consider the other two to be too narrow.

So, is playing Seeds of Innocence (or Creeping Corrosion) worth it? I'm not really sure. I've considered them for my Tasigur deck (which runs zero artifacts), but haven't actually tossed them in yet. Instead, I'm running Bane of Progress and Wave of Vitriol - I value blowing up enchantments pretty highly, even if that sometimes includes my own. My general impression of the format is that artifacts tend to see a lot more play (largely because of mana rocks), but the enchantments that get played tend to be much scarier.

Still, it's an incredibly efficient mass removal spell, and it's easy to make asymmetric - a lot of green decks can get away with running few or even zero artifacts. And if you're running an enchantress deck, you're going to want your enchantments to stick around, which makes them a good fit for this sort of effect.

[3drinks]

Tuesday. January 14th, 2020; Energy Chamber

[Sinis]

Tuesday. January 14th, 2020; Energy Chamber

I played this around New Phyrexia when the second generation of charge counter artifacts came out, and the proliferate mechanic first appeared. I loved to power up Titan Forge and Lux Cannon, with some moldy oldies like Magistrate's Scepter on the side.

My general was Skeleton Ship.

[Dunharrow]

I think Charlotte Sable (from the CAG) has a modular artifacts build of Marchesa, the Black Rose. I wonder if this would be good in that deck.

[plushpenguin]

I don't run this in my modular artifacts build of Marchesa, the Black Rose, although it isn't that bad.

The main reason is that you get more +1/+1 counters per turn cycle off a modular creature + a sac outlet.

I definitely considered it as an extra cheap source of counters before MH1, but now I just use Scrapyard Recombiner.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's cheap, so there's that. Obviously it's good, but I don't know if it's the best version of this effect.

[Mookie]

There are a lot of ways to put +1/+1 counters on creatures, so I think that the charge counter half of Energy Chamber is more interesting. It is somewhat unique in that it is both free and fairly cheap though. There are a lot of artifact creatures that are able to use +1/+1 counters as a resource, so could be interesting if you're running Hangarback Walker / Walking Ballista / Arcbound Reclaimer. Etched Oracle also seems fun with it.

Charge counter generation is pretty sweet though - most things that use counters are either one-shot investments (like Astral Cornucopia), or build them up via tap abilities (like Lux Cannon and Magistrate's Scepter). Seems like a reasonable fit for some Atraxa, Praetors' Voice decks that are more artifact-focused. It's possible to turbo-charge these cards in other ways with untap effects and proliferate, but, once again, Energy Chamber is pretty efficient for this niche.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020; Soul Foundry

[Mookie]

Soul Foundry is good alongside Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, Ghired, Conclave Exile, and other populate effects. It's relatively fair to activate - you're paying X mana for an X-drop, which means it's great for making small tokens and more cumbersome for making large ones. You also have to account for the initial investment, both with regards to the card being imprinted and Soul Foundry itself - it's a bit slow to get going, and you'll need to be able to invest a few turns (and a chunk of mana) before it pays back that investment. It's also the sort of card that acts as a removal magnet if you imprint anything scary on it.

Not a card I'd throw in a random deck without a plan, but good if I care about esoteric tokens. Somewhat interesting to compare to its compleated version (Mimic Vat) and equipment version (Helm of the Host) - both require a comparable amount of setup, but offer a flat price for their token production, which makes them much better for making bigger tokens. They also provide haste, which can be relevant if you plan to beat down with your tokens.

[Toshi]

I recall when a friend of mine had Purphoros, God of the Forge out and imprinted Seedborn Muse with Soul Foundry.
Until his next turn he made 8 Seedborn Muses that way, which burned each of us for 16 life, then dumped all mana off his 9 untaps into Purphoros, God of the Forges activated ability and won.

[Sharpened]

I recall when a friend of mine had Purphoros, God of the Forge out and imprinted Seedborn Muse with Soul Foundry.
Until his next turn he made 8 Seedborn Muses that way, which burned each of us for 16 life, then dumped all mana off his 9 untaps into Purphoros, God of the Forges activated ability and won.

That would be cool if it worked. Unfortunately, multiple copes of Seedborn Muse are redundant.

[Toshi]

I recall when a friend of mine had Purphoros, God of the Forge out and imprinted Seedborn Muse with Soul Foundry.
Until his next turn he made 8 Seedborn Muses that way, which burned each of us for 16 life, then dumped all mana off his 9 untaps into Purphoros, God of the Forges activated ability and won.

That would be cool if it worked. Unfortunately, multiple copes of Seedborn Muse are redundant.

Oh, ish! We must've played it like it were a triggered ability.
Come to think of it, i rarely see Seedborn Muse anymore in my meta. Most of us turned away from generic good stuff a while back.