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

[Dunharrow]

Innocent blood is an excellent card, but I tend to favour instant-speed options or things like Plaguecrafter.

Liliana's Triumph is probably the best one. Or Crackling Doom in Mardu.

[Mookie]

Innocent Blood is efficient but symmetric. It's possible to build around by having expendable tokens of creatures you want to sacrifice, or just not playing creatures in the first place... but I'd usually favor something asymmetric instead, like Liliana's Triumph or Plaguecrafter.

....I'm not the biggest fan of edict effects in general though. I suppose hitting each opponent is a significant upside compared to targeted removal like Doom Blade, but I feel like people often have expendable creatures lying around. On the other hand, if you have a several creature-light decks like Narset, Enlightened Master in your meta, edicts go up in value a lot.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Step one: play tragic arrogance or divine reckoning, leaving behind some hexproof or indestructible menace.

Step two: play this.

Why would you play this when Dictate of Erebos also works with Tragic Arrogance and is flavorful? Also Martyr's Bond.

I will say, I prefer Liliana's Triumph or, you know, all the Grave Pact variants. This isn't bad, and it does have synergy with Grave Pact variants.

[pokken]

It's a pretty good academy rector enabler with side effects, mostly the only reason I would be thinking about this kind of effect in addition to fleshbag marauder.

[3drinks]

Frudau, March 13th, 2020; Counterspell

Lem'me get this started. Inb4 nOt As GoOd As MaNa DrAiN /10

[FoxM1]

Inb4 nOt As GoOd As MaNa DrAiN /10

Ah yes, the end all be all of counterspells. I mean I hate to be that guy but to be fair it isn't as good as mana drain, but mana drain is also over $100 at this point and I think that, for the price difference, a little more mana isn't really worth that much money to me.

I don't run many counterspells in my decks but this one always has a place when I do run them. Mana efficient and always effective as it can counter any kind of spell.

I like to toss counterspell onto an Isochron Scepter and just flex that counterspell on my opponents purely as a power move.

[DirkGently]

It's good.

I'd also put it solidly below arcane denial, but after those two it might be the next best counterspell depending on your manabase and gameplan. Tends to make the cut if you're a blue control deck, basically.

Drain is obviously a lot more expensive, but in the right deck/situation the mana bump can be absolutely absurd. I mean, if it gives you 6 mana and you can use it, that's a -4 mana counterspell you've got right there. Not too shabby.

[3drinks]

It's good.

I'd also put it solidly below arcane denial, but after those two it might be the next best counterspell depending on your manabase and gameplan. Tends to make the cut if you're a blue control deck, basically.

Drain is obviously a lot more expensive, but in the right deck/situation the mana bump can be absolutely absurd. I mean, if it gives you 6 mana and you can use it, that's a -4 mana counterspell you've got right there. Not too shabby.

Debatably, I can agree that Arcane Denial is sometimes better than Counterspell but I don't think there's any case where you can just say matter-of-factly that Arcane Denial is better all the time. I do however, believe that Arcane Denial is wildly under played and deserves to see much, much more play than it currently does.

[materpillar]

Frudau, March 13th, 2020; Counterspell

Lem'me get this started. Inb4 nOt As GoOd As MaNa DrAiN /10

I don't necessarily agree with it not being as good as mana drain if you factor in the political side of it. Obviously in a pure vacuum Mana Drain is way better. That being said, at least in the metagame I'm in, if you cast Mana Drain your threat factor to the rest of the table is going to go way up. Drain is busted, and really expensive ($$$). If you play it you're telegraphing that your deck is likely full of super busted, expensive ($$$) stuff. I'm not sure that it is strong enough to be worth the political bulls-eye that comes with it. We're a more mid-range filled metagame and pretty far from cEDH. The more spiky your metagame the less likely this is to be accurate.

[Mookie]

I'm probably not playing Counterspell in as many decks as I ought to - as, well, counterspells go, it's sort of the default - often imitated, never replicated (minus the strictly-better Mana Drain). It is extremely vanilla though, which makes me find it a bit... unexciting. While other cards may not be as optimal, I do find myself drawn a bit to higher-variance options that are more fun.

In general, I find myself drawn to other options that are either more efficient (Swan Song) or generate more value (Arcane Denial, Narset's Reversal). Even Muddle the Mixture gets the nod occasionally. And that's before we get into more expensive options - Mana Drain, Pact of Negation, Force of Will... and the other more expensive options, like Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence. There are a lot of countermagic options, so if you want to find something more specialized for your deck, it's not hard to do so.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's good. I also like Mana Leak, Negate, Exclude, Thwart (for Stax decks featuring Winter Orb), Daze (same), Foil, Memory Lapse, Forbid, Dismiss, Rewind, and Absorb, Izzet Charm, Ojutai's Command, and Suffocating Blast have a lol spot in my Sunforger package. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[pokken]

I haven't played an honest to god counterspell in forever. I always use all the 1U stuff first and then the ones that stop eldrazi triggers are higher on my priority than counterspell (summary dismissal, disallowl, voidslime). Obviusly good.

I think most countermagic is getting worse in casual circles these days, lots of uncounterable stuff and insane value.

[Sinis]

Frudau, March 13th, 2020; Counterspell

I haven't played it over Mana Drain in a long while.

I kid, I kid. I find myself gravitating towards different counterspells; I'm a big fan of Disallow in 2 colour decks, and Negate in 3+ colour decks for the more manageable cost. I also find myself playing things like Familiar's Ruse (to combo with Eternal Witness or some other ETB), Mystic Snake, etc. For quick-and-dirty counterspells, I play Swan Song.

It's not that Counterspell is worse than most of these... it's just kind of vanilla where I would rather it be less flexible and cheaper, or more flexible and costly.

[Hermes_]

I don't own it or mana drain, i do however own and play mana leak

[RxPhantom]

I find that this spell is good for countering spells and not much else.

[DirkGently]

Debatably, I can agree that Arcane Denial is sometimes better than Counterspell but I don't think there's any case where you can just say matter-of-factly that Arcane Denial is better all the time. I do however, believe that Arcane Denial is wildly under played and deserves to see much, much more play than it currently does.

If it's a 1v1 game, or the guy who gets to draw 2 is the archenemy, then I'd probably rather have counterspell (assuming the mana cost isn't an issue).

But in a vacuum, when I'm building a deck, I'd pick arcane denial over counterspell 100% for any multiplayer-focused commander deck. For some decks I'd even take it over mana drain (i.e. Phelddagrif, since it usually gets very little, if any, value from the mana).

I'd always run mana drain over counterspell. Politically it's worse, but if I'm always cracking out ABU duals anyway it's not going to make a huge difference. Anyway I tend to prefer to assume my opponents are smart, and won't be bothered by a mana drain if my deck has proven itself to be fair. Of course, that optimism isn't always rewarded.

[3drinks]

Saturday, March 14th, 2020; Sandwurm Convergence

[Mookie]

Sandwurm Convergence is one of my favorite cards in Tasigur, mostly because it does a really good Blazing Archon impression. I'm not running any fliers in that deck, which means I can find myself vulnerable to them at times... and while I do have spot removal, I would rather not have to burn it on every evasive commander that gets played (I actually added this to the deck after dying to Aurelia, the Warleader and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice one too many times). Meanwhile, it spits out 5/5 wurms for blocking on the ground. I guess you can attack with them, but for me, they're usually on blocking duty (or so I claim). Triggering on end step means you'll pretty much always get value. And unlike Assemble the Legion, the tokens are actually decent beaters.

While it does cost eight mana, that also gives it the hidden text 'doesn't die to Gaze of Granite or Pernicious Deed'. You do need to be running a decent amount of ramp to be able to play it though.

Anyway, I'll recommend people give it a shot in any controlling green deck.

[schweinefett]

It looks pretty unplayable in my eyes, but then again, I'm one of those few edh players who actively don't play green. So what do I know.

The can't be attacked clause seems good, but the 5/5 clause seems nice in a lower powered meta.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It looks pretty unplayable in my eyes, but then again, I'm one of those few edh players who actively don't play green. So what do I know.

The can't be attacked clause seems good, but the 5/5 clause seems nice in a lower powered meta.

The obvious synergy is Moat. You can also use the usual token-boosting things (and things like Warstorm Surge and populate since, you know, 5/5).

8 mana is a bit expensive, but entirely possible. Token decks often have excess mana just because cards like Ant Queen are natural mana sinks (meaning the usual advice to err on the side of too much mana is doubly true here), and Earthcraft/Cryptolith Rite/Ashnod's Altar can help pay for it..

[Mimicvat]

I run sandwurm convergence in my Tuvasa deck. The deck is all about second rate lock pieces, designed to (try and) let me play that archetype into a semi-competitive group without being overbearing. I bring it out against big smashy decks like Gishath

[Sinis]

Saturday, March 14th, 2020; Sandwurm Convergence

I play it in Golos.

The best function is that flying creatures can't attack your walkers. But, it's pretty great if your opponents don't have removal.

[3drinks]

It's a great Academy Rector target. Fine payoff to a Replenish too.

[3drinks]

Sunday, March 15th, 2020; "Signet Lands"

I love...seeing others play these. Wastelanding around them to effectively put you down -2 mana.

[DirkGently]

Hey, these predate signets! You ought to be calling signets "signet land artifacts". Or something. I always just call them "ODY filters".

I have no idea what you mean about wastelanding someone to put them down 2? Unless they have no other lands. Which either means they're already way behind and probably not worth kicking while they're down, or it's turn 2 and it's really not worth wastelanding anyone since you'll both get wrecked by the other two players, plus they can just float the mana anyway, and then play another land next turn? So I'm just confused. I guess if a control player leaves this up with one other land to hold up a negate or something, but in that case just hitting any one land would have worked so..................................?

I kinda like these. They're good budget duals, and they can do neat things like let you cast a geist of saint traft (or similarly costed commander) off an ancient tomb on turn 2 with no ramp, or give you strong fixing if you drew too many colorless utility lands. I used to run a couple in my Child of Alara deck since it needs colorless lands like high market but still wants to cast CoA ASAP. I'd probably run 1 (if available) in almost every 2 color deck. For 3 color, kinda depends what your manabase looks like. You do want to be careful with running multiples of these, or other lands that can't always product mana, since it can really suck to have, say, 2 of these plus a temple of the false god in your starter.

I would be happy if they did the full cycle. I'd much prefer it to the full cycle of the TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD TANGO LANDS.