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

[Dunadain]

A good planeswalker protects itself and provides value, this sort of does both, but neither all that well. It's also a bit on the pricy side.

Then again, I usually under value PWs. Cards that my opponents can potentially kill without dedication any resources scare me XD.

[NZB2323]

It's certainly a playable planeswalker, but seems underwhelming for 5 mana. It's kind of like Vraska the Unseen. For 1 more mana you get Sorin Markov and can make an opponent have 10 life.

[Dunharrow]

There are decks where this is cool. I am putting one in Ratadrabik of Urborg. Decks where you proactively sacrifice your dudes.

[DirkGently]

The third or maybe fourth best Kaya. They still haven't made one half as cool as the original tbh.

[Mookie]

Kaya, Ghost Assassin is one of the best-designed planeswalkers ever printed - while not impressive from a power level perspective, her original card has a fractal-like amount of tactical depth.

Kaya the Inexorable, on the other hand, is just fine. She follows the normal Ob Nixilis Reignited // Teferi, Hero of Dominaria // Vivien Reid template - a five mana planeswalker that generates card advantage with a (+1), removal on a (-3), and an ultimate that can be reached after a few turns to actually win. In this case, you need to jump through a few hoops to get value from the (+1), but it's not difficult to generate value with a sac outlet and some value creatures (or just protecting your stuff from removal). I will note that you can use the emblem to recur Kaya herself, which is somewhat interesting. Her ultimate is also one of very few ways to recur arbitrary stuff from exile, but also not really something you can build around.

...anyway, I would consider Kaya if I had legend / superfriend synergies, particularly if I expected to be able to get value from her (+1). Unconditional exile on the (-3) is an upgrade over what you can get from most other planeswalkers, although she does compete against Anguished Unmaking and other Orzhov removal options.

[3drinks]

Saturday, October 14th, 2023; Cormela, Glamour Thief

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Saturday, October 14th, 2023; Cormela, Glamour Thief

There's dude in my area that brews lists with only commons and uncommons. He built a Cormela Storm list that was pretty brutal even with the handicap. He doesn't post lists though, so I've been trying to reverse engineer the deck for ages now to little avail.

[Mookie]

Cormela, Glamour Thief is sweet. I'm currently running her in Kess, and I'm generally happy to draw her. As a baseline, she generates two additional mana and provides fixing, which is a nice upgrade over running yet another talisman or other mana rock. Her mana is limited to instants and sorceries, but that's not really a limitation for my deck - I'm running around 35 of them, plus I can double dip and cast them again with Kess. Finally, if Cormela dies, she can recur something for a bit of additional value... and if you're grabbing back Reanimate or another recursion spell, then you have a nice loop.

...ultimately, I would say the main reason why I have a positive impression of Cormela (despite being a relatively new inclusion in my build) is that she adds some additional diversity to my deck. I feel like the ramp options for Grixis are overwhelmingly artifact-based, running pretty much every legal two mana rock. That may be optimal from a power level perspective (playing Kess on turn 3 is pretty good), but it also makes the gameplay feel somewhat repetitive. As a result, I like to run more exotic card options (like Cornela) when I have the opportunity to do so.

Cormela also seems fine as a commander - ramp in the command zone is somewhat rare for Grixis, so she provides a unique effect. I think Kess makes for a better spellslinger commander, but there are certainly some interesting things you can do with her.

[Dunadain]

Spell slinging = yawn

You could instead do Shallow Grave/Goryo's Vengeance loops though.

[3drinks]

Saturday, October 14th, 2023; Cormela, Glamour Thief

There's dude in my area that brews lists with only commons and uncommons. He built a Cormela Storm list that was pretty brutal even with the handicap. He doesn't post lists though, so I've been trying to reverse engineer the deck for ages now to little avail.

A player after my own heart. The only thing I hate about that "SilverBlack" limitation is your sweepers are generally poor and struggle to hit everything you need.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Saturday, October 14th, 2023; Cormela, Glamour Thief

There's dude in my area that brews lists with only commons and uncommons. He built a Cormela Storm list that was pretty brutal even with the handicap. He doesn't post lists though, so I've been trying to reverse engineer the deck for ages now to little avail.

A player after my own heart. The only thing I hate about that "SilverBlack" limitation is your sweepers are generally poor and struggle to hit everything you need.

The sweeper problem is better than it used to be. Slaughter the Strong recently got downshifted, Feast of Succession exists, and I imagine there might be other sweeper downshifts in future masters sets

[3drinks]

Sunday, October 15th, 2023; Liliana of the Dark Realms

[3drinks]

There's dude in my area that brews lists with only commons and uncommons. He built a Cormela Storm list that was pretty brutal even with the handicap. He doesn't post lists though, so I've been trying to reverse engineer the deck for ages now to little avail.

A player after my own heart. The only thing I hate about that "SilverBlack" limitation is your sweepers are generally poor and struggle to hit everything you need.

The sweeper problem is better than it used to be. Slaughter the Strong recently got downshifted, Feast of Succession exists, and I imagine there might be other sweeper downshifts in future masters sets

For sure, I noticed they hit Kirtar's Wrath too. Which is totally a reasonable wrath honestly. Six to wipe and leave a pair of bodies is a fine effect.

[TheGildedGoose]

Sigh.

This is my "back in my day" card. It's not good anymore and I'm not sure it ever was, but in mono-black her inclusion at least makes sense.

[3drinks]

If only she protected herself, she'd be pretty low key great.

[cheonice]

I like her in mono black, where I play her as a worse Sad Robot. She's fine, but a mana stone is probably better. Nostalgia still makes me play her.

Koth, Fire of Resistance is basically a carbon copy in red.

[DirkGently]

Last I played her was in Kagemaro, First to Suffer. She's not great at protecting herself but she does decent work if you can. Mostly for mono-B though, hard to imagine her being worthwhile elsewhere. Damn does that ult feel good though.

[Dunadain]

She's fine I guess

[Toshi]

Is she a 10 bucks Liliana's Shade? A 4 mana sorcery speed Defile?
Either way, she didn't age well after being one of the lesser powered PWs anyhow. I'd pick up a Defile instead and spend the money elsewhere.

[materpillar]

I ran her for a while in my mono-B deck while I still had it built. I always found her to be quite good. A huge upside of her is that she "only draws lands" which makes people mostly ignore her compared to a lot of planeswalkers. I usually got a couple of lands out of her before she got removed.

[NZB2323]

I ran her for a while in my mono-B deck while I still had it built. I always found her to be quite good. A huge upside of her is that she "only draws lands" which makes people mostly ignore her compared to a lot of planeswalkers. I usually got a couple of lands out of her before she got removed.

In black if you want card draw Necropotence, Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, Syphon Mind, Bolas's Citadel, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper , Midnight Reaper, Morbid Opportunist, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Vilis, Broker of Blood, and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician are all better.

[Ruiner]

I like her fine enough in monoblack decks. She doesn't tend to draw much attention at all and is basically 4 mana to never miss a land drop. If people start swinging at her to stop the ultimate from going off, that's some damage not hitting me.

[Mookie]

Fun fact: Liliana of the Dark Realms is the reason why my Tasigur deck exists. At the time I made the original build, she was one of the few planeswalkers I owned and I wanted to make a deck for her. I ultimately settled on Sisters of Stone Death as the commander, since it felt like Liliana wanted to be in a big ramp deck. She did get cut eventually (before I even swapped commanders to Tasigur), but Liliana, Death's Majesty is in instead.

Anyway, as I mentioned a few days ago for Kaya the Inexorable, there are a lot of planeswalkers in the Ob Nixilis Reignited mold - (+1) card advantage, (-3) removal, and an ultimate that does something splashy. Unfortunately for Liliana, this incarnation came before WotC quite figured out that recipe for success. In this case, Liliana has the fatal flaw of not being able to survive her (-3), turning her into an overpriced removal spell instead of a removal spell + draw engine. As a result, she's generally inferior compared to other planeswalker options. Her (+1) has gotten over time as we have gotten more nonbasic Swamps, at least - fetching up Witch's Cottage / Fetid Pools or another cycling land gives her a bit of extra versatility. I don't expect it to ever reach the point where you're running her for a Swamp utility toolbox, but it has felt like WotC has been more willing to print interesting lands with basic land types over time.

If you're doing monoblack stuff, she seems reasonable. It's not that difficult to proliferate into her ultimate either, and hitting every land drop can be good for black mana sink commanders like Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief and Geth, Lord of the Vault, to say nothing of Korlash, Heir to Blackblade. I will call out that her (-3) can also pump creatures, which is somewhat rare for black - toss down an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and it may be possible to one-shot an opponent with some commanders (or just Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon).

[DirkGently]

@NZB2323 none of those cards can be removal or a sweet ult though. Versatility is valuable.

Absorbing damage I think is overrated though. Planeswalkers threatening ults provoke attacks way more than one's face (depending on the face I suppose). No guarantee the damage would have gone to you if the PW wasn't there. It's not 1v1.

[TheGildedGoose]

Versatility is valuable.

Especially in mono-color, where you have to eke out value from every edifice.