[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Serenade]

I like that they try to give us draw-artifacts in the Commander series, even if they are conditional (Idol of Oblivion, Endless Atlas).

Vault wants so much mana.

[Outcryqq]

@shandiris
Re: Bag of Holding versus Knowledge Vault: In my opinion, they are more comparable than you suggest. I think the bag's activated cost of 4 and tap is big when considering that you pay nothing and don't need to tap the vault to use the last ability. However, I acknowledge that you can cast the bag earlier and hopefully get in some activations earlier. But in total it costs more to cast the card, exile a card with it, and draw that card with Bag than Vault, until you factor in other cards that might help bag get better.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, February 19th, 2020; Knowledge Vault


Kinda reminds me of Bomat Courier, tbh.

KV's oracle text makes it... okay. It's a big investment for this kind of effect. I guess they didn't know how to cost things well in Legends.

It's cool, but bag of holding is way better in terms of mana cost.

I really like Bag of Holding; I would not give you a weird look, I would give you a high five.

[Mookie]

I've been meaning to test out Bag of Holding in my Sharuum deck - one mana artifact that generates card advantage and lets me dig for whatever I want. I've mostly held off on it due to concerns re: shutting off my reanimation, which comes up somewhat often - that's the primary use case for the discard modes on Trading Post and Artificer's Intuition.

Knowledge Vault, on the other hand, I didn't even know existed. It looks... not particularly exciting. There are so many options these days for both card advantage and card filtering that I think I would prefer to get my cards immediately. There aren't a ton of direction comparisons to the delayed card advantage, so it seems a little difficult to evaluate how valuable it is. Feels like I would activate it a few times, have an opponent attempt to blow it up, crack it in response, and contemplate my life choices depending on how good my new hand is.

[shandiris]

shandiris
Re: Bag of Holding versus Knowledge Vault: In my opinion, they are more comparable than you suggest. I think the bag's activated cost of 4 and tap is big when considering that you pay nothing and don't need to tap the vault to use the last ability. However, I acknowledge that you can cast the bag earlier and hopefully get in some activations earlier. But in total it costs more to cast the card, exile a card with it, and draw that card with Bag than Vault, until you factor in other cards that might help bag get better.

The fact that you also actually draw a card whilst setting up, is pretty key. If you just loot with bag of holding, it's decent. If you just exile the top card with knowledge vault, you've done nothing. So the floor of the card is way higher, but the ceiling is slightly lower compared to Knowledge Vault.

Wednesday, February 19th, 2020; Knowledge Vault


Kinda reminds me of Bomat Courier, tbh.

KV's oracle text makes it... okay. It's a big investment for this kind of effect. I guess they didn't know how to cost things well in Legends.

It's cool, but bag of holding is way better in terms of mana cost.

I really like Bag of Holding; I would not give you a weird look, I would give you a high five.

Thanks,!

[hyalopterouslemur]

Kinda slow, but at least you don't exile everything forever. What the hell are those things in the art? I see moon phases and human and ape skulls, a yellowjacket, a flying stag beetle? A frog because reasons. But a pelvis and two femurs? This is one of those "smile and nod" cards like Stasis, Reality Twist, and Blue Mana Battery, isn't it?

[Hermes_]

I like the art and the rust look,wish artifacts still had that look

[Toshi]

Artificer's Intuition.

Man, that's one of those insanely cool cards i have sitting in a box with no deck for. It's a shame.

One day i'm going to build a deck just for Wild Research, i swear to all non-existing gods!

I like the art and the rust look,wish artifacts still had that look

Most certainly! If i'd be able to have my 2 artifact based decks all in mono "brown" instead of "silver" i'd love it.

[3drinks]

Thursday, February 20th, 2020; Artificer's Intuition

Like a U Survival...

[DirkGently]

This card seems like it ought to be busted. It's survival in a stronger color and fetching the most busted card type. Truth be told I've never really tried, though. If only it was B or G, I'd throw it into a glissa build in a heartbeat. Might be good with Emry?

[Mookie]

Survival of the Trinkets is amazing, and one of my favorite cards in Sharuum the Hegemon. Fetches Sol Ring, Codex Shredder, Aether Spellbomb, Executioner's Capsule, Altar of the Brood, Voltaic Key, and a bunch of other tutor targets, while also setting up reanimation targets for Sharuum and turbo-charging Salvaging Station. Trinket Mage may get the nod in most decks, but only one of them is a callback to a card banned in legacy. And why would you fetch lame creatures when you can get fair and reasonable cards instead? (cheap artifacts are by far the least bannable of card types, right?)

It's also the primary reason I play Seat of the Synod, but not Vault of Whispers or Ancient Den - tapping for blue to activate Artificer's Intuition again makes it worth occasionally getting blown up by mass artifact removal.

I could gush about it for hours - strong recommend in any graveyard-based artifact deck. Also BFFs with Salvaging Station, as mentioned. The entire trinket / 1-mana artifact package is super fun to play with - there are a ton of toolbox options available in addition to the obvious fast mana.

[Toshi]

There are so many decks that could go nuts with this. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Arcum Dagsson, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Sharuum the Hegemon, heck, even Muldrotha, the Gravetide could make great use of it.
It may be strongest in builds, since Goblin Welder and Daretti, Scrap Savant can "exchange" the discarded artifact with the tutored freebie.

[hyalopterouslemur]

This is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. Especially with (of course) Sun Titan.

[shandiris]

Thursday, February 20th, 2020; Artificer's Intuition

Like a U Survival...

Yeah, this is pretty damn good. You need to have enough 1 drop artifacts, which aren't all mana rocks but other than that... I really like it in a lot of artifact decks.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

The AI is the real deal. The 1 drop clause is barely a limitation given the legion of insane artifacts that cost next to nothing. Between Codex Shredder, Sol Ring/crypt/Vault/Moxen, and the myriad of removal options, this turns chaff into perfection at a rate that makes Survival so pale it might as well be Sean Paul or a white card.

You can trust me. I've done it; I've seen it done. I'll probably do it again within the foreseeable future. You should do it too if you've never tried it.

[3drinks]

This is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. Especially with (of course) Sun Titan.

It doesn't even need Sun Tits to be ridiculous. It was ridiculous just by existing.

...makes Survival so pale it might as well be Sean Paul or a white card.

Lmaooooo I love that "or a white card" caveat.

[illakunsaa]

The card goes really well with salvaging station.

[3drinks]

Friday, February 21st, 2020; Arcane Lighthouse

I wonder if this even sees play. Is it even practical? I mean, for all the colourless lands you could play, and this one makes the cut? Has Shadowspear finally pushed this thing out?

[shandiris]

I think this was always a meta-call. If your buddy is running an Uril, the Miststalker deck or Geist of Saint Traft. Then you'd probaly start running this at some point. I don't think the printing of shadowspear actually matters for that.
Pretty good if there's a lot of voltron in your meta, otherwise it's a decent card to shut off the ocassional lightning greaves or swiftfoot boots

[Serenade]

Maybe gets some play in a general-focused deck that needs to target opponent's creatures (Nin, Kumano).

[DirkGently]

Whether I run it comes down to how important solving hexproof is vs how stable the manabase is. So a control deck is a lot more likely to want it, as is a mono-color deck. My Phelddagrif runs it because it really wants answers to hexproof, even though it's 3 color. Though I've rarely activated it.

I think another oft-overlooked factor is how much (nonbasic) land search you have. If you're counting on drawing this naturally, then you're multiplying the unlikelihood of having it matter. Whereas if you have a nonbasic tutoring package (or, in a pinch, generic tutors), then you can search for it when you need it. Basically: silver bullets are a lot less useful if you can't get them when you need them. If you won't be able to reliably get this when it's necessary (vs narset, for example), then it's probably not worth the cost of your mana being worse when you draw it in the games where you don't need it.

[3drinks]

I suspect this card will lead to a fairly active day of discussion.

[Rorseph]

I think another oft-overlooked factor is how much (nonbasic) land search you have. If you're counting on drawing this naturally, then you're multiplying the unlikelihood of having it matter. Whereas if you have a nonbasic tutoring package (or, in a pinch, generic tutors), then you can search for it when you need it. Basically: silver bullets are a lot less useful if you can't get them when you need them. If you won't be able to reliably get this when it's necessary (vs narset, for example), then it's probably not worth the cost of your mana being worse when you draw it in the games where you don't need it.

This is exactly correct. Narrow answers demand a suite of tutors to be effective.

[Sinis]

Friday, February 21st, 2020; Arcane Lighthouse

I've used it a lot.

It depends on how dependent I am on targeted removal I am. Some decks want it really badly, but others are just edict/wipe-fests and don't much care about hexproof/shroud at all.

I don't believe Shadowspear replaces it because it fails to breach Shroud, and that remains fairly common from Lightning Greaves. Also, the opportunity cost for Arcane Lighthouse is lower, on account of it being a land.

I think in casual/75% metas, Arcane Lighthouse is a real candidate for a land slot.

[Sharpened]

I'm still blown away by people talking about Artificer's Intuition like it's a powerhouse. It's not better than Survival of the Fittest and is barely in the same league. It's not ridiculous.

It's a niche card that can be powerful if built around, but requires a massive deck building requirement to make it worthwhile. Even if you are focused on recurring artifacts, since it doesn't let you search for a lot of the big ones you'd want to discard, it's CMC requirement is a major limiter.

It's not a card you add to a deck, even with some tweaks, and improve the deck. Even most artifact decks probably don't want this card.

Now, if you build around it, it can be quite strong. it's not a bad card. But wow the hyperbole.

The Arcane Lighthouse is fine. It's certainly better than the Detection Tower which can't penetrate shroud. Shadowspear is an interesting comparison. You'd want to run the equipment for its combat buffs, the Hexproof penetration is just a bonus. Lighthouse you are running for the penetration, but most people plan to deal with untargetable threats with sweepers, I don't think this card is enough to change that outside of small specific cases.