[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Dunadain]

I love this card, I cram it into most bx decks.

[Mookie]

I used to run Phyrexian Reclamation, but not recently. It's at its best in toolbox-y graveyard decks - paying two mana to grab back Caustic Caterpillar / Ravenous Chupacabra is great... but recurring Thraben Inspector is much less efficient than just using Greed. I feel like two mana (and two life) is somewhat expensive for repeatable card draw, but good if you can use it as a repeatable tutor.

[PrimevalCommander]

Phyrexian Reclamation is a good enchantment for aristocrats build. I have seen it do a lot of work.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I remember doing some disgusting stuff with this and Dockside Extortionist in an old Korvold deck. 2 life and two mana is a bargain for what this card provides.

[Sinis]

That sweet, sweet, w/g madness enabler

Underrated comment. The Selesnya Madness deck we never knew we needed. Finally, we found a home for Vengevine! We did it guys!

I'm going to be honest, I didn't check how many madness cards there were in w/g. It's 4. There are 4 of them.

That said, w/g/b or w/g/r is totally a place where this could have a home. Also, any deck that plays lands out of the graveyard can squeeze extra juice when the tempo isn't needed (though, does that mean the deck is undertuned?)

[yeti1069]

Reclamation is such a strong card. 2 mana for a repeatable instant speed Raise Dead is quite an enabler. It helps dodge grave hate, facilitates loops, and is generally just a workhorse piece in a deck that expects to either be binning its own value creatures, or having them removed regularly.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023; Karona, False God

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023; Karona, False God

A relic of a bygone era that loses hard to sac outlets. Not my bag.

[Dunadain]

Was this ever good? This card is way before my time, but giving your opponents creatures is generally a bad idea and breaking parity to make it worthwhile is very difficult, I can only imagine breaking parity was even harder back when this was printed.

[materpillar]

Was this ever good? This card is way before my time, but giving your opponents creatures is generally a bad idea and breaking parity to make it worthwhile is very difficult, I can only imagine breaking parity was even harder back when this was printed.

It's a fantastic "kill the person to my right card". If you get everyone on board with that politically, 3 people can kill the 4th in one turn cycle

[Mookie]

I've seen two types of Karona, False God decks - voltron-y decks that buff Karona with stuff like Finest Hour or equipment and force attacks, and typal decks using Karona as an Overrun effect. I don't think Karona is great for either case - you need to jump through several hoops to get opponents to attack each other in the former case, and Morophon, the Boundless and other typal lords are generally better for the latter. As a result, I feel like the main use case for Karona is nostalgia.

...I wouldn't be surprised to see a new version of Karona at some point though - we've gotten old characters with new cards like Jeska, Thrice Reborn and Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, so a known 'iconic character with underwhelming card' like Karona seems like a prime target for a remake.

[Treamayne]

I've had a number of Karona, False God decks over the years. Sometimes for tribes without enough creatures "in color" for the available legend (or no available legend), but my current version is Avatar Tribal using Phasing so I don't have to share Karona. Vanishing, Teferi's Veil, etc. Results really seem to depend on the table though, she'll either die every time she's cast or be ignored until she threatens Commander Damage lethal. Doesn't really seem to be a middle ground in my experience for the last few years.

[DirkGently]

Karona was always bad and relied heavily on the "why would people attack me? I'm the one giving them free stuff!" logic. If anything it used to be worse before the tuck rule was changed, though, because beforehand most decks were running a couple sac outlets just to prevent tuck from happening.

She was the only 5c pick-a-tribe option until Morophon arrived, though. Now she doesn't have much home outside of memes.

[Igzex]

I always assumed that her design as a card made absolutely no sense because it was trying to be as nonsensical as the Scourge novel's climax as a whole.

As someone who is nostalgic for the onslaught block I would love to see a retrain of Karona.

[NZB2323]

I considered using Karona, False God for my Kavu commander, and I could get her back with Horned Kavu, or Sparkcaster, but Morophon, the Boundless works much better as he's a Kavu who goes infinite with Horned Kavu and goes infinite with Sparkcaster as long as I have Urza's Incubator or Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma in play.

EDIT: I guess with Nahiri's Resolve Karona is more playable, but it's still worse than Morophon, the Boundless and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa.

[3drinks]

I hope everyone's Turkey Day was a good one!

Friday, November 24th, 2023; No, not that one, this one Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023; Karona, False God

A relic of a bygone era that loses hard to sac outlets. Not my bag.

Needs more Assault Suit.

[3drinks]

I always assumed that her design as a card made absolutely no sense because it was trying to be as nonsensical as the Scourge novel's climax as a whole.

As someone who is nostalgic for the onslaught block I would love to see a retrain of Karona.

Her design, by the lore, was that she was an instrument of war. Leading people to a false power only to spread war. A byproduct of the chase for the Mirari. They could have done so much more with it, and I'd love to get a revisit of this too. Probably right up there with my desire to go back to Ulgrotha.

[Lifeless]

This Vorinclex is kind of awful right? I suppose the failure state is terrible but I'm not going to be excited about it, and the payoff really seems to be the first Saga power and you're 13 mana deep to get there. And there's much better ways to hand out fight too. I could make arguments to add this into just about any G deck with fatties but I could also easily skip it every time.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I actually dig this form of Vorinclex. It's not nearly as busted as its previous iterations and it provides a nice escalating value over time as it loops. Being an undercosted 6/6 with keywords and a draw two isn't a bad floor either.

Overall it's not really fancy or novel, but it checks most of my boxes for generic green commander option. If I'm ever in the monogreen market again I may give this a spin just to see how it goes.

[Mookie]

It feels weird to say it, but I'm underwhelmed by Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution. 5 mana 6/6 with two keywords that fetches two lands on ETB is clearly above the curve.... but I look at it and think 'this is just two Borderland Rangers standing on top of one another. I do love card advantage, but when I'm at five mana, I'm generally not looking to draw more lands. The flip side is probably good, but high-variance - eight mana is a lot to invest into flipping, and if Vorinclex gets killed in response you may just lose on the spot. The saga offers some good stuff, but it also feels a bit win-more - chapters two and three don't do much unless you already have an established board, and chapter one feels unlikely to hit something good unless your deck is absolutely stacked with fatties.

...I would consider Vorinclex for a deck that specifically cares about forests or lands in hand, like Titania, Nature's Force or Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence. Could also be fine as a random value creature in a deck looking to run lots of fatties. Otherwise, I think green has a lot of strong 5-drops - Elder Gargaroth is the most direct comparison that comes to mind, but Silverback Elder, Titania, Protector of Argoth, and Kura, the Boundless Sky can fill a similar role. Something to keep in mind if we ever get a fetchable forest on par with Mystic Sanctuary though - Gingerbread Cabin doesn't quite cut it.

[3drinks]

Otherwise, I think green has a lot of strong 5-drops - Elder Gargaroth is the most direct comparison that comes to mind, but Silverback Elder, Titania, Protector of Argoth, and Kura, the Boundless Sky can fill a similar role.

Man, I keep forgetting that ape exists. Dang is that pushed, how is this card not just everywhere? Just incredible.

[Moxnix]

I play silverback elder in kogla but its not that good it costs 5 to not even get an effect off. I don't really like this vorinclex for one of the other cards mentioned titania just always feels better in this slot for me in most decks. Having super high cost game ending stuff printed on otherwise good cards does not add a whole lot of value but it is some. Kinda like somberwald sage vs the one that only taps two but has biorhythm stapled on it.

[3drinks]

Saturday, November 25th, 2023; Reservoir Kraken

[Mookie]

Reservoir Kraken is a punisher card, which have historically been pretty meh. If your opponents always have a spare creature to tap, then it taps something every turn cycle and makes a 1/1 unblockable fish token. That isn't necessarily bad, particularly if you have a Coastal Piracy or some other way to take advantage of the fish... but it doesn't excite me either. I think Thopter Spy Network is a more consistent token engine (which even comes with its own draw engine), but stuff like Efficient Construction and Metallurgic Summonings can also work. I suppose they need a bit more support though - one upside of Reservoir Kraken is that it is self-contained.

That said, there are a few decks where I could see running it. The first place is in sea monster decks like Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep - four mana is relatively cheap for a kraken. The other place is tap-based decks like Tromokratis that make it more awkward for opponents to tap their creatures. I will note that it doesn't trigger Hylda of the Icy Crown, but it does work with Verity Circle.