[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[3drinks]

This card has been fantastic for me. The density of enablers vs. problem permanents is lower and lower these days as people get more rocks and tutors and less action.

The number of times I blast some problem artifact and they get a Wayfarer's Bauble back or whatever is...pretty damn high.

I want to agree, but like Tibalt's Trickery the failcase is certainly real. Sometimes you turn their magistrate into a Hoarding Broodlord and RIP. In general though, I believe the card is very strong and at it's best when not hitting creatures.

Nice to see a value uncommon in an era when everything has four prints at least.

[pokken]

I want to agree, but like Tibalt's Trickery the failcase is certainly real. Sometimes you turn their magistrate into a Hoarding Broodlord and RIP. In general though, I believe the card is very strong and at it's best when not hitting creatures.

Nice to see a value uncommon in an era when everything has four prints at least.

Yeah I have gotten blown out by all of those too, but the upside of threatening countermagic in mono red is worth it.

People have started to live in fear of all the stack interaction from my Slicer, Hired Muscle // Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist deck. It's hilarious. Every time I Fork some removal spell it's hilarious.

[Mookie]

Wild Magic Surge is sweet. It is a significant step down in power from Chaos Warp (which will flip into a land or instant/sorcery a large percentage of the time), and there is a very real chance of it backfiring... but two mana interaction at instant speed is pretty efficient. I don't think I would run it in 3+ color decks, but I could see it doing work in monored or some 2-color decks.

[pokken]

I love the fact that it's RR too. Punishing color greed is so nice.

[PrimevalCommander]

I have not actually gotten to cast this in my mono-red deck, but I think that is probably the only place I would look to play this. Any other color combo has answers with less downside, even if more restrictive in targeting. Maybe as an enchantment kill card along with Feed the Swarm. I don't think I play this in anything with , , or even if it does hit permanents that blue has trouble with.

[pokken]

I have not actually gotten to cast this in my mono-red deck, but I think that is probably the only place I would look to play this. Any other color combo has answers with less downside, even if more restrictive in targeting. Maybe as an enchantment kill card along with Feed the Swarm. I don't think I play this in anything with , , or even if it does hit permanents that blue has trouble with.

I think it'd belong in most Izzet decks - they struggle to deal permanently with anything except creatures.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, July 18th, 2023; Aether Flash

[3drinks]

I have not actually gotten to cast this in my mono-red deck, but I think that is probably the only place I would look to play this. Any other color combo has answers with less downside, even if more restrictive in targeting. Maybe as an enchantment kill card along with Feed the Swarm. I don't think I play this in anything with , , or even if it does hit permanents that blue has trouble with.

I think it'd belong in most Izzet decks - they struggle to deal permanently with anything except creatures.

Grixis for sure, but I play it in Kaalia too.

[materpillar]

So I heard you like Polyraptors? Some day I really want to put a lifelink counter on this with Nesting Grounds. This is probably just getting better as the format speeds up but I've never actually seen it played.

[TheGildedGoose]

It ain't Tainted Aether, that's for sure. At 4mv it misses early game mana dorks and utility dorks which sucks, but being able to keep little folks off the board in the mid and late game seems okay. I don't think I'd ever play it but I could see niche use cases (Torbran, Thane of Red Fell mostly).

[PrimevalCommander]

I have wanted to play this card, but never had a deck that wanted it. And I don't particularly like hard control, so I will almost always have a decent creature count, which makes this card less attractive. Possibly good in a big stompy deck to reduce chump blocks, but I'm not sure this is the best way to do that.

[Ruiner]

This card can be backbreaking against some decks. I love it in my Gisela deck whenever I can get it out reasonably early.

[Hawk]

Can attest this card is one of the best cards in the deck for my sister-in-law's Atla Palani, Nest Tender dinos deck. Auto-pops eggs, triggers Enrage effects (including BSoDing the table with Polyraptor if there's no way to remove this first), and absolutely brutalizes token and small tribal decks. Your deck needs a specific plan for this, or your meta needs to be ripe to get Flashed to death, but when this card is good it's good.

[onering]

Play it in Gishath. It's nice getting your enrage triggers to trigger on etb, and randomly hoses opponents at the same time.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 19th, 2023; Master Biomancer

[Dunharrow]

Biomancer is good in decks that want this. Can be an enabler for many combos. good for tokens.

[materpillar]

This is pretty close to a murder on sight. Even if it is being used fairly it goes crazy with tokens. If it is being used with any amount of synergy it turns boards into lethal really fast. If it is being used to combo it combos with a ton of stuff.

[Mookie]

Master Biomancer is sometimes a combo piece (often with persist creatures, but also stuff like Sage of Hours), sometimes played fairly as an anthem, and often a spooky threat. +2/+2 to any future creatures isn't that threatening... but if you throw a bunch of counters on it to increase that number, it can become very scary, very fast. I'll usually kill it on principle, even if it doesn't do anything immediately threatening... unless I'm holding a board wipe, in which I'll just let its controller overextend (and hopefully not hold up countermagic). It's in the 'scary in casual, but slow for competitive' bucket, IMO.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I like that the bufff scales with the biomancer's power. +2/+2 is pretty good, but one tiny buff and you're clocking in for lethal in short order. Nice card, feels mythic.

[3drinks]

One of my best engine cards in Experiment Kraj.....

[Dunharrow]

I wanted to add my favourite use of Biomancer
Play Master Biomancer in Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Play Clever Impersonator and don't copy anything. It's just a 2/2.
Then Rite of Replication Clever Impersonator (kicked ideally)
Now I have 5 clever impersonators coming in (10 if I had doubling season out)
Make them all copy Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and/or Doubling Season to generate thousands of counters.

wait let me math it out
doubling season, MB and Reyhan in play, with 5 Clever Impersonators
Becomes 10 clever impersonators
5 become DS (so 6 total)
5 enter as reyhan. They enter with 10 counters each.
5 die x 6 reyhans in play = 30 triggers
30 x 10 x 2^6 = 19200 counters

IRL, I would not bother finding out if I get more counters with 6 DS and 4 reyhans or whatever other combination. 19 thousand counters is hopefully enough to win the game.

Master Biomancer is one of 2 cards in that deck that enable Clever Impersonator to survive without cloning something. I have to add Arwen to make it 3 cards.

What fun.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 20th, 2023; Jaheira's Respite

Man. That's a blowout waiting to happen.

[pokken]

Yeah this card is pretty good. It's a bit at odds with wanting to keep 5 mana up, but I really enjoy this card in general.

The funny thing is with cards like this how the worry of getting blown out on attack seeps into the collective unconscious and people are really reluctant to just swing out at you. Nobody alpha strikes my Breena, the Demagogue deck *ever* anymore if I have mana up.

[3drinks]

Yeah this card is pretty good. It's a bit at odds with wanting to keep 5 mana up, but I really enjoy this card in general.

The funny thing is with cards like this how the worry of getting blown out on attack seeps into the collective unconscious and people are really reluctant to just swing out at you. Nobody alpha strikes my Breena, the Demagogue deck *ever* anymore if I have mana up.

All it takes is one Batwing Brume or Settle the Wreckage to learn the lesson...

[Dunharrow]

That awkward moment when you leave the mana up and they alpha strike someone else. Good problem, sure.
I would only play this in a deck that has a lot of flash/instants/activated abilities.