[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[PrimevalCommander]

Catching up on some cards.

Cryptic Command: I still like this counter spell quite a bit, but I don't play it much because I'm currently only playing mono-color or tri-color. Currently playing in mono blue and it is perfectly fine. For a budget alternative and I really like, look at Dream Fracture. Counters the scary spell and puts all players at card parity instead of 2 of you down a card.

Infernal Tribute: never played this. Had it when sac outlets that draw cards were rare and I still never wanted to spend the upfront cost on this. Ghen, Arcanum Weaver probably has the best use case for this.

Winding Canyons: pretty interesting card. I had it in a few decks here and there, but nothing that really showed promise until my Wild Pair deck. I tried it in all permanent Adun Oakenshield with 48 creatures, but the mana was just too much to spend. And it competed with Adun for activations. Wild Pair is helmed by Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer and really likes casting creatures at instant speed. When my creatures are all 2 for 1's it makes the extra mana more worth it. Plus it is a toolbox list, so flashing out those silver bullets is extremely valuable. It has a permanent home in that deck.

Doom Whisperer is a great card for graveyard decks. I'm playing it in Karador for the self mill and just to create some board presence with the 6/6 flample body. Always love seeing this card as it is just a good support creature for decks wanting to boost the GY. Would be in my Sefris of the Hidden Ways deck, but it is a budget deck and it didn't make the budget. I wouldn't call it a black staple, but I would say it should be considered for black decks heavly focused on GY usage, which is probably a good number of them. If it gets a reprint, I will pick up another copy.

Gift of Immortality: I have not found a good home for this card yet. Reads good on paper, and probably pretty splashy in metas with low spot removal or low exile removal, but there are actually quite a few avenues to answer this card. Turns out the creature isn't as immortal as is sounds. Well as least I don't suspect it is. I've never played it yet. My brother has it in a BW aristocrats deck and I am interested in seeing if he can get a nice creature loop going with this.

[Serenade]

I am not sure if I had Gift of Immortality in Killian, Ink Duelist or if I only ever used the black return-to-battlefield auras. Minion's Return and the new Fungal Fortitude might still play better in the deck.

[Toshi]

I am not sure if I had Gift of Immortality in Killian, Ink Duelist or if I only ever used the black return-to-battlefield auras. Minion's Return and the new Fungal Fortitude might still play better in the deck.

As a Killian, Ink Duelist player myself i found myself to be quite underwhelmed by Gift of Immortality. It's a delayed trigger returning itself, i don't get to keep any other toys, yada yada.
What makes Minion's Return considerably better aside from having flash is that you can slam it on an opponents' creature - then proceed to Slaughter it...

Outside of Killian, Ink Duelist and other enchantress builds, i think it is best served with Sun Titan! Either you then proceed to loop it instantly with the sunny boy or "settle" for something else and wait for it to return in a non-infinite setup.

[3drinks]

Thursday, November 9th, 2023; The Filter Lands

Are these the new budget lands?

[materpillar]

These lands are super solid in several of my builds. My 5c Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge really wants to hit 1GG turn 3 and these do a great job enabling that.

Extra points for Mana Reflection synergy.

[TheGildedGoose]

The allied pairs are still somewhat pricy for duals.

Functionally these are fine, but I hate the mental math I have to do to make these make sense. They throw me off my rhythm and as a result I personally would lose more games by having these than by not having them.

[Hawk]

I've generally been really underwhelmed by these because they're so awkward on turn 1, and like @TheGildedGoose I often misplay them as well which is a minor but obnoxious concern. I tend to go out of my way to not run them. They're clearly better than a tapland (a Temple, a Gainland, etc), but in many decks I'd rather take a basic land. IMO these are at their best in:

- Decks based around Commanders that have a AABB cost, like Rakdos, Lord of Riots.
- Decks of 3 or 4 colors that still want to be super greedy - the classical "I want to play Cruel Ultimatum, Cryptic Command, and Fiery Confluence" sorta Grixis build where these were so great in Standard.

[PrimevalCommander]

I always have to come in and defend the filter lands. Some of it is because I played them heavily in standard 5 color control, but also because they are solid duals that always enter untapped. I think they are very good lands. Yes, they take colored mana to activate, but they can turn one into in a pinch. Good for those triple pip spells or ultimatums. Once or twice I got burned by them being the only colored land in my opener and kept it anyway. Don't do that. Otherwise, they are great. Good for multi-color decks that lean heavy to one color, so you can make extra pips when trying to multi-spell or leave up counter mana. In a heavy Temur deck, leaving up the for a counter spell after casting an Archmage Emeritus on turn 5-6 is a big ask.

[Mookie]

I think the filter lands are generally alright, particularly in two color decks where you want to hit both AA and BB mana regularly. They drop in value quickly when the number of colors go up further, and they can be a bit awkward if you only need one mana for something... but at the very least, the fact that you can play a filter land and immediately have two pips of colored mana that you didn't have previously makes them somewhat unique.

[umtiger]

These lands are super solid in several of my builds. My 5c Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge really wants to hit 1GG turn 3 and these do a great job enabling that.

Extra points for Mana Reflection synergy.

So so good with Mana Reflection Like the ravnica signets

Shoe in for any 2 color deck where there isn't an insane focus on playing 1 cmc cards.

[gsgfdf]

For a long time these were more expensive than shocks and were first printed when I wasn't playing, making them not worth picking up.
My ranking for dual lands without types is bonds, pains, slows, checks then these, so I need some synergy to run them in three color decks. My elf deck needs untapped on the first turn so neither Twilight Mire nor Deathcap Glade make the cut. My Maelstrom Wanderer runs Nyxbloom Ancient so that is more than enough

[3drinks]

Friday, November 10th, 2023; Rashmi and Ragavan

[TheGildedGoose]

I actually really like this card a lot and would build them in a heartbeat if they had an alternate art.

I guess I can always proxy/get it altered, but ugh.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Triggering on only the controller's turn is what kills it for me. If this could trigger once per turn, it'd be top shelf. As it is, one card and treasure per turn cycle is just too low impact imho

[Mookie]

IMO, Rashmi and Ragavan is generally a downgrade from Rashmi, Eternities Crafter - they only trigger on your turn, and pseudo-impulsive draw is a downgrade from putting the card in hand (particularly if you hit a land). Plus there's the usual issue around opponents' cards often being less synergistic with your own deck. Given my experience with Mind's Dilation, I feel like my opponents' decks are 70% lands anyway.

That said, Rashmi and Ragavan is ultimately a different card, because they scale based on how many artifacts you control - if you have a bunch of artifacts and cast a cantrip, you can still cast something juicy from your opponent's deck. The treasure token is also nice, and adds up over time. Plus, adding an extra color is generally an upside. I guess my overall opinion of R&R is 'provides ramp and card advantage, so probably good'.

That said, if I were looking to build a Temur theft deck, I'd probably go with Pako, Arcane Retriever // Haldan, Avid Arcanist instead.

[DirkGently]

This design sucks. The setup begins and (practically) ends at casting a single spell on your own turn? Dumb. As @TheAmericanSpirit mentioned, the ceiling is quite low - which matches the setup, but what a boring choice of commander on all fronts.

[3drinks]

Saturday, November 11th, 2023; Fall of the Thran

[Serenade]

Barbara Wright/Scorched Ruins tech!

[Mookie]

I've considered Fall of the Thran for Brago before as a soft lock - flicker it every turn to blow up my opponents' lands forever and maybe exile my opponents' graveyards with Angel of Finality while I function on the two lands returned on my turn plus a copious number of mana rocks. That said, I'm pretty sure my playgroup would throw rocks at me if I were actually to do so, so I haven't tried.

Otherwise... as MLD effects go, it's certainly tame compared to Armageddon, but still not a play pattern I particularly enjoy.

[Lifeless]

I've never seen this one but I should consider it in Sigarda since I'm doing Sera's Sanctum nonsense anyway and the sub-theme is mass destruction.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Eh, MLD with caveats is still MLD. It's not something I really enjoy playing with/against. Games just drag so hard when resources get so heavily reset.

It's also the kind of card that will make me target someone really hard in that game and probably a few after (assuming I'm willing to play with them again). You can't jump someone with MLD and not expect them to jam counterspells and removal down your throat for at least a little bit.

The last time I played against MLD, it came out of a "budget" Kaalia deck on T5. I was playing Henzie "Toolbox" Torre I think. That deck was like 80% removal and thankfully I was playing like 41 lands, so I rebuilt faster and punched the Kaalia players teeth in for like 40 minutes afterwards (clearly that guy needed to read drinks' primer, he would have known one Rune-Scarred Demon wouldn't be enough to get there). Anyway, my point is that if you're gonna try to wreck my real estate, you better have a plan to kill me fast because I will remember such an environmental catastrophe and retaliate with extreme prejudice.

[onering]

This is bad at being mld because it gives the lands back. If you're running mld, you're casting it to lock the game state so you win. You probably have a couple of sandbagged lands yourself so you can recover faster than anyone else just in case someone can recover and prevent you from just winning. By being "fair" fall fails.

I've been thinking about yesterday's card, and I think she'd be an interesting Temur lantern commander. You really want her to be free casting rather than impulse drawing, so you want a good number of artifacts, but you also ideally want to see what each opponent has on top so you can make the best choice. Once you're doing that, you might also want some mill to get rid of cards you don't want them to draw, since R&R are only getting rid of one per turn.

[illakunsaa]

One of my favorite white cards. I have foil one that I opened up in prerelease and I'm running it in a selvala armageddon list. Fall has couple of advantages over armageddon. First it's an enchantment, a card type white has more synergy with (eg. tutors) and you can do cool tricks like loop it with Hall of Heliod's Generosity and Emeria Shepherd.

[Igzex]

When someone looks at the other 2 chapters and dismisses this card as trash I breath a sigh of relief. Now, those who know what to do with this card...Oh no someone get me out of this game.

[3drinks]

Sunday, November 12th, 2023; Olórin's Searing Light