[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[EonAon]

Saturday, December 9th, 2023; Song of the Worldsoul

This is one of those cards thats only good as the amount of draw you have to actually to cast ramp enough to get the spells to then cast to populate. It really shows the fear that the MTG devs had about easy token copying. Populate is strong yes but not world ending since it only copies creatures. 6cc is just too late in the game to really light off when you have better options that require less resources.

[OneAndOnly]

This + Starfield of Nyx or Opalescence for shenanigans?

[3drinks]

Sunday, December 10th, 2023; Dreadhorde Arcanist

[3drinks]

This + Starfield of Nyx or Opalescence for shenanigans?

Now see, you mentioned an interaction with Opalescence, so now I have to go ahead and shoehorn Humility into the mix to make every judge within a fifty mile radius have a brain aneurism.

[Mookie]

Dreadhorde Arcanist is banned in Legacy, so it has to be good, right?

....well, maybe not if you're trying to use it to flash back Enter the Infinite.

Anyway, I think Dreadhorde Arcanist is a powerful but niche card. By itself with no pump effects, you can only recur one mana spells, and not many decks have a high density of those. It's also liable to have poor attacks, since a 1/3 statline isn't that impressive. It does get more interesting if you have a commander like Narset, Enlightened Exile or Balmor, Battlemage Captain - the more spells you cast, the more prowess triggers you get and the bigger the spell you can flash back for another prowess trigger.

[Hermes_]

This + Starfield of Nyx or Opalescence for shenanigans?

Now see, you mentioned an interaction with Opalescence, so now I have to go ahead and shoehorn Humility into the mix to make every judge within a fifty mile radius have a brain aneurism.

*addsEnchanted Evening and hears the death screams of untold judges*

[Toshi]

Man, this fella has been so much fun while I ran it in Zada, Hedron Grinder!
Plenty of one drops to cast and usually a high enough density of buffs if you're aiming for even more than that.

And as with other cards in said deck you will likely not see it in a lot of other decks.

[3drinks]

All I want to do with this is cast Restore Balance with it. That's not so bad, right? 💀

[yeti1069]

Demonic Tutor is strong, but not broken

You're going to need to explain that one chief.

First, it's a tempo loss of sorts to spend mana to set up your next play, especially if you're not running them together the same turn.
Second, it's sorcery speed, so it inhibits your ability to follow it up with whatever you're tutoring for.
Third, it's only as good as the cards in your deck--if you're playing a high power deck, it's a high power card. If you're not, it's still strong, but not more so than the best card you're running.
Fourth, it depends very heavily on pilot skill--I've made tutoring mistakes, and I know plenty of people who have done so even more.
Fifth, as a lone tutor, it's solid, but nowhere near problematic. Now, if you are running a whole suite of tutors, that's a different story, but then you're talking about tutoring in general, and eschewing the singleton/random nature of the format in favor of consistency.

I've never seen anyone make the claim that Grim Tutor is broken, or too powerful. In EDH, the 3 life loss is fairly negligible, so it comes down largely to 2 mana vs 3 mana. Does it make a difference? Of course, but I don't feel like it makes so much of a difference as to make one a decent card and the other broken, just strong.

[3drinks]

Monday, December 11th, 2023; Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant

I always liked this as commander. It's not so overt as Kardur, Doomscourge, nor as obnoxiously in-your-face as Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer is.

[Lifeless]

I have a lot of experience playing this guy but only in a D&D cube. He's a brick house in that format - pushing people around and sometimes getting you killed because he simply draws a boatload.

The other thing that comes to mind is how his first ability viciously dunks on Popular Entertainer. Just a funny thing to come up so soon after we had that card pop up.

[yeti1069]

I like Karazikar a lot. I've been running it in Queen Marchesa since it came out, and it has never failed to disappoint. Being able to goad one creature per opponent (sometimes) is more value than some people give it credit for. It draws a lot of cards, and provides enough of an incentive for opponents to swing at each other sometimes even without the goad.

[Dunadain]

Never thought I'd see the day I had to defend Demonic Tutor, yet here I am, not sure if you're trolling, but I'll bite

First, it's a tempo loss of sorts to spend mana to set up your next play, especially if you're not running them together the same turn.

Completely true, this is theoretically the trade off for playing tutors, but in the case of Demonic Tutor the cost is well worth the effect.

Second, it's sorcery speed, so it inhibits your ability to follow it up with whatever you're tutoring for.

Also true, still not a big enough drawback for the effect, especially when tutors are best used proactively anyways.

Third, it's only as good as the cards in your deck--if you're playing a high power deck, it's a high power card. If you're not, it's still strong, but not more so than the best card you're running.

I mean, Ancestral Recall isn't a particularly good card if the rest of your deck is 59 islands.

Let's unban Primeval Titan because it's a really bad card in decks that don't run lands! /s

Fourth, it depends very heavily on pilot skill--I've made tutoring mistakes, and I know plenty of people who have done so even more.

Once again, Ancestral Recall is a terrible card if you are targeting your opponents with it.

Point 3 and 4 seem to be that, if you hamstring, Demonic Tutor, then it's hamstringed. Which is true, but not really relavent to the cards power.

Fifth, as a lone tutor, it's solid, but nowhere near problematic. Now, if you are running a whole suite of tutors, that's a different story, but then you're talking about tutoring in general, and eschewing the singleton/random nature of the format in favor of consistency.

Would you say a deck with 2 tutors is more problematic than a deck with 1? Me too! I'd go so far as to say it's TWICE as problematic when a deck runs twice as many tutors... Wait a minute...

On a serious note, once again, putting a busted card in a bad deck or the hands of a bad player doesn't prove that the card isn't busted.

I've never seen anyone make the claim that Grim Tutor is broken, or too powerful. In EDH, the 3 life loss is fairly negligible, so it comes down largely to 2 mana vs 3 mana. Does it make a difference? Of course, but I don't feel like it makes so much of a difference as to make one a decent card and the other broken, just strong.

Adding 50% to a card's cost and a colored pip at that would make most cards unplayable, the fact that Grim Tutor does that AND adds life loss, yet still remains a decent card is a pretty clear testimony to Demonic Tutor's power.

[yeti1069]

I didn't say DT wasn't powerful, just that it isn't busted. Certainly not enough for a card adding 50% to its mana cost to also require the further restrictions that Ringsight carries.

[Mookie]

Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is sweet - it's a repeatable way to both goad opponents and draw cards. The card draw in particular gives an interesting dynamic to the card - sure, you're forcing your opponents to attack (and potentially annoying them)... but they also get to draw cards when they attack each other, so they're sort of incentivized to do so anyway. Sort of a janky group hug effect, albeit significantly tilted in its controller's favor. I wouldn't be that excited about Karazikar in the command zone - it doesn't seem that unique compared to other goad / value engines - but I've been happy with it in the 99 of Kess.

[Dunadain]

@yeti1069 your tripping, but agree to disagree I guess.

I've always wanted to brew Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, but haven't ever gotten around to it, one of the better "everyone attacks" commanders imo

[DirkGently]

On a serious note, once again, putting a busted card in a bad deck [...] doesn't prove that the card isn't busted.

I don't think a deck needs to be bad for dtutor to go from "busted" to "pretty good". In your average, 7/10, non-combo commander deck I think the card is probably strong but fair. Ofc the context of commander is "all the most busted cards from every set in existence" so it's a high bar.

In the context of cEDH ofc the card is more problematic.

Adding 50% to a card's cost and a colored pip at that would make most cards unplayable

In the context of balanced-for-modern-magic cards, that's probably mostly true, but compared to other old broken stuff I think there are cards that clear that hurdle easily. Sol ring, obviously, is still playable at triple its cost with downside (Worn Powerstone), 2 mana removal is still widely played (compare Swords to Plowshares and even the modern Path to Exile), Mana Drain would still be a strong counter at cancel mv, all the 1mv topdeck tutors would definitely get played at 2 mv (let alone 1.5), Mystic Remora is good at 2mv, Dockside Extortionist is still good at 3mv...I mean yes, all these cards are extremely good but the context of commander is that all these cards are legal so all other cards need to justify themselves against those sorts of cards.

Obviously not to say that Demonic tutor isn't one of the best cards in the format, because it is, but personally I don't think it's as anomalously powerful as Mana Crypt and Sol Ring which are undercosted by a significantly larger margin. That, and tutors are only as broken as the deck that plays them, and if you're getting major mileage out of dtutor costing 1 less than grim, you probably aren't playing normal commander.

The basic question is "how good is the best draw in your deck?" If you're playing a combo deck, probably it's very good and dtutor is very powerful. If the answer is "a good answer to the current board state or my best on-curve value piece" then I think dtutor is strong but not problematically so.

All in all, I don't find tutors to be the biggest problem with the format. Combo decks with a ton of tutors would still be unfun even if they were running trash-tier stuff like Diabolic Tutor. The issue is the competitive deckbuilding mindset.

[TheGildedGoose]

I cannot fathom that I am reading an argument about whether or not Demonic Tutor is busted on an Internet message board in this foul year of our Lord 2023. I'm going to go touch all the grass.

[Dunadain]

@DirkGently I don't really want to derail the thread any further, if you want to keep discussing this I can make a new thread, but again, if we aren't measuring cards based on the most optimal way to use the card, both in piloting and deck building, then what's the point?

Sure, EDH doesn't need ANY ban list as long as everyone's responsible, there are tons of cards that are broken, but probably fine in a certain deck, but if that's the metric we are using, then what's even the point of talking about power level?

Sol ring and magna crypt are definitely more powerful than dt. DT isn't the best card in the format, but it is clearly, firmly, in the "busted" category, even if other stuff is even more busted.

(Ban sol ring btw)

[PrimevalCommander]

Let's unban Primeval Titan because it's a really bad card in decks that don't run lands! /s

Now you are making sense

Karazikar looks pretty good. Good stat line for combat, reasonable goad mechanic that is not oppressive, and some card draw payoff. Too bad I don't have a deck to try him out it. Probably a shoe in for my cube that I haven't drafted in 3 years

[3drinks]

Tuesday, December 12th, 2023; Eye of the Storm

I saw this come up and I knew I had to roll with this monstrosity of a card. Anyone ever stuck an Armageddon on this thing?

[Lifeless]

Yo %$#% this card. If you play it you should go to jail.

[3drinks]

Yo %$#% this card. If you play it you should go to jail.

[illakunsaa]

I thought of a funny idea that you put armageddon in the storm and then don't cast the spell. You can now just threaten people with armageddon with a random instant if people attack you or harm your board position. Put in a planar cleansing variant too to really up the ante.

[Dunadain]

Big dumb spell that slows the game I will echo @Lifeless's sentiment: %$#% this card.

Haven't actually seen it in a long time tho, so that's nice