[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Spinal Embrace

[Outcryqq]

Mirage Mirror

I play it very often and it is extremely powerful most of the time. While it might not appear to have synergy with your deck, it can become a copy of your best utility card to boost your decks theme. I can copy Doubling Season in my Marath deck, I can copy Sunbird's Invocation in my vial smasher deck, and Caged Sun in my Thassa sea monsters deck - doesn't work, pointed out by lyonhaert. And like another poster said, hard to kill. Great card.

[lyonhaert]

...and Caged Sun in my Thassa sea monsters deck.

That doesn't work. The choice of color doesn't get copied.

[Outcryqq]

That doesn't work. The choice of color doesn't get copied.

Fair enough. Still a great card!

[pokken]

Probably the worst mirage mirror blowout I ever had was when I was playing mimeoplasm and I was about to go off with crucible/azusa and I went to kill someone's Tomik, Distinguished Advokist -- and another guy mirage mirrored it, shutting me off of the pile of land drops I was gonna make that turn after I had burned mainphase removal to achieve it.

The card always gets me. I always cut it from my decks, but it's always doing wild stuff. I won a game once when someone mirage mirrored my consecrated sphinx and played sphinx chicken with me

[Outcryqq]

I had a blowout with Mirage Mirror when I was playing Thassa. I had bunch of treasures from countering a spell with Spell Swindle. I then copied an opponents Korvold, Fae Cursed King, sac'ed a bunch of treasures, drew a bunch of cards, and came back to win.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah, it's the little rock that could. It's instantly your best thing doubled. I use it in my Nissa build where it can copy some neat stuff. I remember a game copying War-Pride with Karametra's Acolyte out, swinging for a ton, hitting second to cast Shamanic Revelation, tapping acolyte to generate something like 80 odd mana to funnel into a Squall Line. Its capable of some pretty neat stuff. Much like M11 Voltaic Key|M11, it's the missing piece to every puzzle.

It shouldn't be underestimated how damn hard it can be to kill, too. You can stack its ability to get what you want from it and still avoid removal, resource dependent. The worst part of the card is holding up mana, but the cost is still decent to my mind, considering what it's capable of.

[KMA_Again]

Mirage Mirror is one of those cards that feels worth it due to its potential rather than any known power level. It's essentially like clone tribal which can scale with the playgroup without needing to be built around, seeing all the potent permanents that already exist. Notice a lot of the examples people have been posting are using opponent's cards rather than their own. If I can, I try to make room for it unless it really does not fit the deck, like some tribal decks, blink decks, or a stax deck I have where holding up mana is a huge issue (since no one usually has much of anything and it grinds victories off of Liliana, Heretical Healer).
I just wanted to emphasize how in this discussion how high the ceiling is for this card.

[Crazy Monkey]

Mirage Mirror

I remember wanting to try this in multiple decks on release, but it only ended up in one. My primary use is with Mairsil, the Pretender. Turning Mairsil into a land to dodge most removal, or survive his own Nevinyrral's Disk activation is the minimum potential value.

I should probably try in Sydri, Galvanic Genius for some stupid combo like sacrificing it as a copy of Dreamstone Hedron to recur itself via Scrap Trawler while drawing cards.

[Sinis]

Tuesday, April 28th, 2020; Mirage Mirror

I have a foil of it, because it's a mirror.

Anyway, card is pretty decent, but I rarely find myself playing it. It's one of those contextual cards that's hard to evaluate once you play with it.

[Serenade]

Too often these days I focus on synergy when deck-building, missing an excellent card like this.

I had a Jeskai deck that was a ton of flexible, modal $1 rares. Supremely casual pile of non-staples (staples were in other decks, and I had an extra set of sleeves). Ojutai's Command, Saheeli's Artistry, this gem. One of my most fun experiences because of the deck's fluidity and because I got to use these forgotten parts of my collection.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, April 29th, 2020; Spelltwine

This has always looked like the epitome of a blowout spell but I can't recall but one person I've seen resolve it. I wonder why. I imagine it's especially effective against decks that dump large swaths of cards into their graves fast.

[Dunharrow]

It needs two targets. It costs 6 mana. It exiles itself and the targets.
These are three negatives that make it seem weak in comparison to many similar effects. At this point I would never play it.

Chancellor of the Spires
Diluvian Primordial
Mizzix's Mastery
Snapcaster Mage
Torrential Gearhulk
Dire Fleet Daredevil

To me, these are all much stronger spells.

[folding_music]

semi-relatedly, can you discard a big goofy sorcery (Amnesia?) to cast Spelltwine through Dream Halls, then have Spelltwine cast the Amnesia you just discarded to pay its cost? playing other games always unlearns my grasp of M:TG's timing system

anyway in that scenario, Spelltwine gets you a free casting of something interesting. that's the deck where I'd play this.

[gilrad]

I have many fond memories of getting my games turned upside down by this card run by a spellslinger deck around the days when it was printed. I always wanted to build my own spellslinger deck just to include it, but I'm afraid power creep has not been so kind to this card. There are enough big sorcery-speed spellslinger payoff spells that you'd really want to load that theme heavy to want to include this I feel.

Still isn't going to stop me from using it for nostalgia factor though

[DirkGently]

semi-relatedly, can you discard a big goofy sorcery (Amnesia?) to cast Spelltwine through Dream Halls, then have Spelltwine cast the Amnesia you just discarded to pay its cost? playing other games always unlearns my grasp of M:TG's timing system

You pick targets before paying costs. So no.

[folding_music]

semi-relatedly, can you discard a big goofy sorcery (Amnesia?) to cast Spelltwine through Dream Halls, then have Spelltwine cast the Amnesia you just discarded to pay its cost? playing other games always unlearns my grasp of M:TG's timing system

You pick targets before paying costs. So no.

drat! and thank you!
but I still think Spelltwine works as a meta-card in games where you expect to have Dream Halls.

[ZenN]

Once upon a time I saw someone cast Spelltwine and hit Praetor's Counsel and Time Stretch... I almost miss when big dumb spells were more playable.

[pokken]

Man spelltwine was such a staple in my original group. Don't see it a lot these days cos spells have generally gotten more efficient.


The main thing is twine used to always represent a sweeper plus value. Nowadays you can'tcount on either really heh.

[Segrus]

Currently I only play Spelltwine in one place, and that's in my Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper deck. Even if all I'm hitting are basic/weak draw and/or removal spells in the graveyard, it's still 6 mana for three Noyan Dar or Sphinx-Bone Wand triggers. The extra effects are what end up making the card worth keeping around.

Admittedly, my Noyan Dar build is likely less powerful than other people's builds considering how much investment the above setup requires.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, April 29th, 2020; Spelltwine

I remember when this was printed in M13 and we went hogwild with it. It felt completely at home in my clone-themed Sakashima the Impostor deck. Time Warp into this? Sure.

Then, the very next year, Diluvian Primordial got printed.

[Mookie]

I remember trying out Spelltwine back in the day, but I always felt somewhat disappointed by it. I think the main reason was that my meta didn't really have many splashy spells to steal. Average case was something like 'copy Cultivate from an opponent and a cantrip from my own graveyard', which isn't really worth six mana. Likely would have been better if I were running mill effects or splashier spells in my own deck.

On the other hand, I've been consistently happy with Chancellor of the Spires and Diluvian Primordial in the decks I run them in - turns out stapling a large flying creature to your stolen spell makes the floor much higher. Chancellor in particular has the upside of not exiling the spell, which makes it pretty good with Rite of Replication and other copy effects.

These days, not sure where I'd put it. I think I would try to use it primarily as a reanimation spell for Time Stretch, Enter the Infinite, or another nonsense spell. Alternatively, throw it in a mill deck to make sure there are more good targets. If you can't guarantee good targets, I'd lean towards the creatures instead.

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 30th, 2020; Big Game Hunter

One if the better 187 creatures to date, right? The best, if you can fulfill the alt cost consistently.

BR draw 2, discard 2, destroy target creature with power four or greater. It can't be regenerated.

Seems strong to me. And if you disagree, I'd say either your crazy, or you're a Simic lifer that's used to getting 10/10 hexproofs with haste for 1cmc, that also time warps, draws four cards on cast, and steals something on etb such that card interactions that exist in the real world and not this sawft easy mode fantasy world where simic is king, has become lost on you. 🤔

[Mookie]

As a Nekrataal variant, it is on the cheaper side. Other than the alternative casting mode of Shriekmaw, I can't think of any cheaper options. However, ignoring the Madness ability, I don't think I'd play it in a deck. While large creatures are certainly high-profile targets for removal, they're also a relatively small percentage of creatures played. It may just be me being risk-averse, but I'd rather not risk being unable to kill a problematic Riku of Two Reflections or Azami, Lady of Scrolls - I'd prefer paying an extra mana for the significantly more flexible Ravenous Chupacabra.

Adding in the Madness ability, things get a bit more interesting. Would I pay b to kill a creature and sort-of draw a card? Yeah, probably. I'd consider it for decks with consistent discard outlets, such as Chainer, Nightmare Adept or Olivia, Mobilized for War. A lot of Madness cards are pretty below-rate, but I'd say that Big Game Hunter consistently makes the cut.

I'm not aware of any Assassin tribal synergies of note, but I'll call it out as a Rebel for any deck running Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero or other Rebels. It's a solid inclusion in any Rebel toolbox.

[tempoEDH]

It's a very easy play in Grenzo, Dungeon Warden. I considered it for Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, but that's tuned for a more competitive environment, and the cedh meta at my store has very few relavent creatures that are over 4 power (think teferi, kess, derevi as the main ones). Grenzo has ways to discard it, but being able to pop it off the bottom for 2 mana is welcome anyway.

[Sinis]

Thursday, April 30th, 2020; Big Game Hunter

I really like this guy. Removal has very much increased in quality over time, but, this guy still sometimes makes the cut. I think what I like about it most is that it's different, every set there's a Dreadbore/Hero's Downfall/Ruinous Path/Never // Return/Bedevil/Murderous Rider // Swift End... But this guy is just not one of those.

You don't even really have to be playing discard outlets. Sometimes you exploit Ghastclamp a bunch and have extra cards, or someone else forces a discard. Sometimes you just pay 1BB and call it a day.

I like this card a lot.

Seems strong to me. And if you disagree, I'd say either your crazy, or you're a Simic lifer that's used to getting 10/10 hexproofs with haste for 1cmc, that also time warps, draws four cards on cast, and steals something on etb such that card interactions that exist in the real world and not this sawft easy mode fantasy world where simic is king, has become lost on you. 🤔

Are you ok there, bud?