[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[Lifeless]

A personal favorite of mine in any deck running a Loam engine, particularly Titana where saccing the land often has added value. I agree that it's a wild blowout in many casual environments and next to worthless at higher power tables, but when it's good it's really comically good.

[pokken]

The other day someone tried to turn my Gaea's Cradle into an artifact so they could exile it with an exile spell. I sacrificed it to buyback Constant Mists and then annihilated them when I untapped and loamed back cradle, tapped cradle for a crapload, and went off.

Card is really flexible.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah, if there's a card that'll make someone claw their hair out in frustration it's this one. Card has no business being this versatile. I've won games just off the back of this keeping me in the game longer than I should've been. Average at best in higher power, but great otherwise.

[NZB2323]

It's definitely a good card, and IMHO aggro decks should have a way to still get damage through, be it Purphoros, God of the Forge, Goblin Bombardment, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Sanctum Seeker, Blood Artist, Mishra, Claimed by Gix, Skemfar Shadowsage, Éomer, King of Rohan, Dragonlord Dromoka, Questing Beast, Myrel, Shield of Argive, Grand Abolisher, Dosan the Falling Leaf, or just Counterspell.

[3drinks]

Monday, July 31st, 2023; Moderation

[yeti1069]

Looks decent for a draw-go control deck, but is going to stop most attempts at comboing. Almost certainly needs Arcane Laboratory, etc... alongside it to ensure everyone else is similarly restricted. Rule of Law tribal?

[Mookie]

Moderation is an interesting draw engine. You can certainly draw a lot of cards off it, particularly if you have a lot of stuff to cast on opponents' turns... but the downside of being limited to a single spell per turn is otherwise pretty harsh. What's the point of drawing a bunch of cards if you can't actually play any of them? Seems alright if you can make it symmetric or have some other way to mitigate the downside, but otherwise I would have tempo concerns.

[PrimevalCommander]

Never saw this card before. Looks interesting on paper. Probably too limiting on the restriction. Control players never want to limit the number of spells they can cast per turn, it gives other players easy openings to sneak in removal on you in response to draw spells.

[pokken]

Moderation is an interesting draw engine. You can certainly draw a lot of cards off it, particularly if you have a lot of stuff to cast on opponents' turns... but the downside of being limited to a single spell per turn is otherwise pretty harsh. What's the point of drawing a bunch of cards if you can't actually play any of them? Seems alright if you can make it symmetric or have some other way to mitigate the downside, but otherwise I would have tempo concerns.

Probably at its best in a deck that loads up on activated abilities and stuff to allow other angles of attack (e.g. Maze of Ith, Voidmage Prodigy etc)

[Toshi]

I recall a Zedruu the Greathearted gifting this to an Izzet Storm deck... MTG is a wonderful thing

[Dunharrow]

Any delayed flicker effects to pair with it?
Maybe okay with some play extra lands cards so you don't end up with a million cards in hand and no way to take advantage.

[Igzex]

There is an amazing irony in putting a card called Moderation in a Modern Horizons set.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, August 1st, 2023; Triangle of War

Tell me to fight, without saying the word fight.

[Toshi]

Of course this is super niche, but i did have Traxos, Scourge of Kroog smack stuff with Triangle of War so many times and it will never get old.
Opponents usually expect you to need a lot more mana for Spine of Ish Sah/Meteor Golem/... and the likes, while this is very efficient with a beefy commander. It's one of my favorite interactions in the deck aside from countering stuff with Not of This World or Warping Wail.

[Mookie]

Tell me to fight, without saying the word fight.

FWIW, it appears it has been errata'd to be a fight effect.

Anyway, Triangle of War looks niche, but solid. Black decks have access to Executioner's Capsule, while red and green decks have normal fight spells, so I would probably only consider it for blue or white decks... although I think they also usually have better removal options. There are a few cards that would make me consider running it (Salvaging Station and Glissa, the Traitor most obviously), but I think three mana for a fight effect is usually a bit too much.

However, this seems solid in colorless decks, which generally lack access to efficient removal but have lots of Eldrazi / other fatties. It's also interesting if you're running Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator or some other card interested in fighting in non-Gruul colors.

[Treamayne]

Tuesday, August 1st, 2023; Triangle of War

Tell me to fight, without saying the word fight.

FWIW, it appears it has been errata'd to be a fight effect.

It's not even the first - IIRC that distinction belongs to Arena (of the Harper Prism "collection"). Fight mechanics were around for a long time before it ever got a key word.

Of note, I used to love using this (and Arena - which I actually got by clipping the stupid coupon from my book) to let my Sengir Vampire eat prey in 60-card casual back in college when Visions was new. Sadly it didn't make the cut in my Garza Zol, Plague Queen Bloodsucker deck which prefers effects that damage one-way (Dizzying Gaze, Blazing Sunsteel, Soul's Fire, Chandra's Ignition, etc.)

It was also great as a "coup de grâce" with Seraph to finish off and steal a blocker (back in the day). I would think there have to be some good W, U, WU damage/death triggers this could synergize with now. . .

[Dunharrow]

I never understood what I was looking at. It looks like it was sewn into something leather. Or something pinned onto a cloth.

[illakunsaa]

I never understood what I was looking at. It looks like it was sewn into something leather. Or something pinned onto a cloth.

It is a triangle.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023; Perish / Nature's Ruin

Given the prevalence and relative commonality of g, you'd imagine more people play these. I know they've been very strong for myself, anyway.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I think these and Virtue's Ruin, etc. are very good. Green and white are usually creature-oriented, and being able to wipe out an entire army and kill some multicolor commanders as a bonus can be totally devastating.

Granted, color hate is always a meta call, but in the right meta these kind of cards are very efficient at what they do.

[Mookie]

My hunch of Perish is 'probably better than it looks'. In theory, a board wipe that hits only one color would only affect 20% of creatures, which is pretty mediocre. In practice, a large percentage of creatures that see play are green, plus there are numerous multicolor green commanders. I don't think I would play it without a good idea of what my meta looks like, but it does seem worth consideration, particularly if your meta is heavy on Craterhoof Behemoth decks.

...that said, I recently played a game in which I had Reap stuck in hand against a nonblack table, so I'm a bit dubious of color hate cards in general.

[PrimevalCommander]

Cards relying on particular colors never made it into my decks. I like my removal to be consistent, so while 90% of games I play will probably include someone playing green, and would be a great asymmetrical removal piece. The 10% that there are no green decks at the table would leave me cursing this card and probably wishing it was something with a lower ceiling, but higher floor. Not sure those would ever get the nod over something like Black Sun's Zenith that can wipe a weenie army quite effectively whether it be a Zombie, Plant, Soldier, or Goblin army.

I never warmed up to Carpet of Flowers either, and I can agree that it is a good card. I just never wanted to put it in any decks.

[BeneTleilax]

These also tend to create "targets of convenience" where if, say, the blue player is ahead of the table, but someone in Gx has a decent board, the player who draws this tends to fire it off anyways for card advantage. So while they can be good, I find them irksome.

[3drinks]

thursday, August 3rd, 2023; Pile On

What a wonderfully efficient hard removal spell.

[pokken]

I almost don't play targeted destroy creature spells anymore. The number random blowouts from triggering death effects/revivify effects/indestructible/etc. is just too high.

I'll run Generous Gift since it's flexible, but I won't run Hero's Downfall very often. I'd just rather do something furthering my gameplan than play a card that is gonna get me got. I know that's silly, but man have I been burned by Fateful Absence so many frigging times that it got cut.

I don't really play mono black, but if I did I'd tend to play more -x/-x stuff I think. Toxic Deluge and Mutilate and Black Sun's Zenith stuff usually do the trick for me.