[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Journeyer's Kite

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I dig this card, but I'm a big fan of amassing artifact tokens. There's a number of hideous plays I enjoy that are only possible when you're waist-deep in a pile of tokens.

[Lifeless]

I dig this card, but I'm a big fan of amassing artifact tokens. There's a number of hideous plays I enjoy that are only possible when you're waist-deep in a pile of tokens.

Now I want to finally make Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer just to make this card reliable and very annoying.

[3drinks]

Friday, December 15th, 2023; Nexus of Fate

[Guardman]

Friday, December 15th, 2023; Nexus of Fate

Nexus of Fate is the poster child of "If I'm in your deck, you probably aren't playing me fairly".

While I've only seen it once or twice, I distinctly remember it being a key piece in a very annoying Oops, All Turns style deck that was a slog to watch and play against. Other than that, I don't think I've really seen it out in the wild of Commander.

[Mookie]

Tamiyo's Journal is unexciting but fine in a vacuum. Five mana to start, plus another two mana to draw a card every turn isn't particularly efficient - I think Staff of Nin and The Immortal Sun are both upgrades. The tutor every three turns is interesting if you don't have enough mana to crack the clues, but otherwise pretty slow. I think the place it becomes particularly interesting is in a dedicated clue / token deck like Lonis, Cryptozoologist or Jaheira, Friend of the Forest that can really make use of the extra artifact tokens.

Nexus of Fate is an interesting extra turn spell. In a 100-card deck, you're not particularly likely to draw it again after shuffling it back, but it's still easier to loop than self-exiling extra turn spells like Temporal Mastery. It also has some sneaky synergies in self-mill decks - if you get milled out and it's the only card left in your deck, that's an easy source of infinite turns. Most decks would probably prefer to just play Thassa's Oracle or something to win directly, but Nexus has more utility at other times in the game, and it's arguably more difficult to disrupt. I would consider it for a bunch of my blue decks if not for my personal dislike of extra turn spells.

[Dunadain]

Nexus of fate is a great piece of anti-mill tech, while also being much more interesting as a deckout win con than thoracle (OG lab man is still the most classy option though).

[Serenade]

Nexus is not worth using to me because it is only available as foil right now. I await the reprint.

Whenever I mistype "MTG Nexus," this card always comes up in Google. So that's something tied to this card.

[OneAndOnly]

Tamiyo's Journal makes more sense in a deck that's either constantly generating Clues already (so it becomes a tutor per turn), or wants a schmeck-ton of artifacts on the field. Otherwise, it's sub-par compared to a lot of other dedicated tap-to-draw artifacts.

Nexus of Fate -- I know plenty will argue that taking an extra turn isn't worth 7 mana. It's still worth more than a measly two mana. Not sure what the sweet spot is. Of course, in Commander you've got plenty more opportunity to turn this into degeneracy. The anti-mill tech is just a bonus ... .now if only there were a way to tutor it out of your deck each turn.

[Dunharrow]

I have one in my Kefnet the Mindful High Tide.
I can't work out which is better, Nexus of Fate or Blue Sun's Zenith
When Kefnet makes infinite mana I can draw my deck. So either infinite turns or infinite mana BSZ will win the game.
I am not sure which is better as a mid-game draw though. So for now both are in the deck.

[onering]

Journal is a tutor every couple turns, or every turn, in the right decks. Not just in dedicated clue decks, it also can go nuts in token decks (which typically have multiple token doublers) and certain artifact decks. When it's worth playing, it's a powerful engine card that has a very mid, but still relevant, fail state.

Nexus is yet another annoying infinite turns combo card that sucks if you plan to use it fairly. 5 mana is the sweet spot for extra turns. Absolutely fair price, event with self exile. I could see a 4 mana extra turn spell with a self exile clause and the text "the next time you would take an extra turn besides the one you take as a result of cardname's effect, skip it" to be the ultimate fair extra turn spell. Low mana enough to be exciting to run solely as a one shot extra turn, without being too cheap that it's broken, and it limits your ability to string together extra turns, presenting the most fair version of the effect that is still satisfying to cast on its own.

[Dunadain]

Interesting to see how much the general opinion of this card differs from mine.

I've used Nexus of Fate in a couple decks and it fills the same role in all of them. All of them are decks that have a real chance of decking themselves, either because they are wheeling or loaming hard, but decking yourself isn't the main win con, so I prefer nexus as my backup because it's an instant speed cycle (with pretty significants upside), and works whether you mill it or draw it, or it gets countered, where other anti decking options are dead cards if you aren't in danger of decking.

To me, Nexus of Fate is the upgraded Gaea's Blessing.

If your main goal IS decking yourself, then I feel like nexus is pretty low down on the list of options to win the game when you do. Thassa's Oracle is obviously first in class, but honestly, there are a lot of options out there that don't require passing the turn (or additional card draw), 7 mana, and a creature capable of punching through all 3 opponents boards (or some other way to convert infinite turns into a win, you know it's bad when your win condition needs a win condition XD). Taking infinite extra turns is a lot worse when your not drawing into new cards.

I'd still have to give it a 4/5 on the salt scale, simply because all extra turn effects slow the game down, but regular extra turn spells are honestly worse.

[3drinks]

Saturday, December 16th, 2023; Uyo, Silent Prophet and similarish enough "reprint", Echo Mage.

[3drinks]

I have one in my Kefnet the Mindful High Tide.
I can't work out which is better, Nexus of Fate or Blue Sun's Zenith
When Kefnet makes infinite mana I can draw my deck. So either infinite turns or infinite mana BSZ will win the game.
I am not sure which is better as a mid-game draw though. So for now both are in the deck.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, honestly. They're doing the same role for you. So if you want the effect twice, play both. If you truly only want one, I like BSZ more since I can at least cycle it on 4 if I drew it in my opener; can't do that with nexus.

Nexus is yet another annoying infinite turns combo card that sucks if you plan to use it fairly. 5 mana is the sweet spot for extra turns. Absolutely fair price, event with self exile. I could see a 4 mana extra turn spell with a self exile clause and the text "the next time you would take an extra turn besides the one you take as a result of cardname's effect, skip it" to be the ultimate fair extra turn spell. Low mana enough to be exciting to run solely as a one shot extra turn, without being too cheap that it's broken, and it limits your ability to string together extra turns, presenting the most fair version of the effect that is still satisfying to cast on its own.

Idk, I think four is too cheap with such a niche trinket text line stapled to it. Can't imagine extra turn spells going any lower than five mv. I like Worst Fears as my fave extra turn spell though. I've never been unhappy with my seven mana spent. Totally fair and reasonable.

[Dunadain]

Saturday, December 16th, 2023; Uyo, Silent Prophet and similarish enough "reprint", Echo Mage.

I'm stumped: how are these functional reprints?

Like, they both copy spells I guess, but one's legendary, one's not. One needs to be tapped, the other one doesn't. One bounces lands as part of the activated ability one of them doesn't. One of them requires a greater mana investment, but that mana investment can be split over multiple turns.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I'm with @Dunadain, functional reprints they are not.

I think copying spells is usually best done with other spells. Things like Twincast or Repeated Reverberation can hide in your hand until an opportune time, but onboard copiers risk being blown out before they can do their thing. Last thing you want is to tap out for Swarm Intelligence and have it Get Lost.

[Treamayne]

Saturday, December 16th, 2023; Uyo, Silent Prophet and similarish enough "reprint", Echo Mage.

I'm stumped: how are these functional reprints?

Like, they both copy spells I guess, but one's legendary, one's not. One needs to be tapped, the other one doesn't. One bounces lands as part of the activated ability one of them doesn't. One of them requires a greater mana investment, but that mana investment can be split over multiple turns.

I don't think he meant to imply 'functional reprint" so much as "Uyo was abused in many combo-ish ways," and-at the time-Echo Mage was meant to be a "fixed" version (7 over three turns instead of 6CMC, not legendary so no command zone, activation instead of colorless, etc.)

[Sinis]

I secretly think Uyo can be nuts. You're a Training Grounds away from possibly being able to make lots of copies of a spell. That could be spooky; something like Djinn Illuminatus and Lightning Bolt can actually spooky.

[DirkGently]

I secretly think Uyo can be nuts. You're a Training Grounds away from possibly being able to make lots of copies of a spell. That could be spooky; something like Djinn Illuminatus and Lightning Bolt can actually spooky.

Training grounds doesn't really help that much since you need to bounce the lands as part of the cost. It helps insofar as you've probably tapped mana to cast the spell, but since you're probably using fairly substantial artifact ramp that already gets mostly cancelled out ime.

I do think Uyo is pretty gnarly though. Removal is awkward since she can fork it back at you, or ofc counterspell it. But if she ever untaps with time magic in hand, things can get real bad, real fast, in ways that are pretty difficult to interact with.

[3drinks]

Sunday, December 17th, 2023; Echo of Eons

[Dunadain]

One of the tricky parts about making a "wheel tribal" deck (iconic example being Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Is finding the right density of wheels: too few wheels, and you'll find yourself sputtering out, too many, and you'll draw multiple at a time and be forced to wheel away some of them rather than casting them, better than sputtering out, but not ideal.

Echo of Eons is fantastic for wheel decks because you can wheel it away then you have a backup wheel on standby for the rest of the game.

The Gy hate can be good or bad, depends on the deck.

[NZB2323]

I think I ran Echo of Eons in Niv-Mizzet, Parun. It prevented me from milling myself and allows Niv to disperse 7 damage.

[3drinks]

Monday, December 18th. 2023; Glen Elendra Archmage

[folding_music]

good caaaard. I love blue wizard decks and this is one of the stand outs in any stalling version. other tribal themes don't really feel that great to me but BLUE WIZARDs just seem to back each other up without mentioning each other. eg: Barrin or Wizard Mentor can reset Glenda, or alternatively Cytoplast Manipulator can bop the -1/-1 counter, Teferi makes Glenda an instant which is meaningful with that ability, etc. etc. etc. then you have other wizards which can counter spells like Ertai, Disruptive Student, Voidmage (cheating cos this one is definitely tribal), all backed up by Gadwick who can drag the game out beneficially for you. a pile of wizards can be a really fun deck and be more of an optionsy thing than a beatdown thing

[Lifeless]

This little lady was a menace in my Ezuri, Claw of Progress way back when. Just hanging around and threatening a counterspell all day until someone dedicates significant resources to push past her. Great card.

[Dunadain]

I'm a bit lower on this card, face up counter spell's, especially conditional ones, lose a lot of value as she can be played around. She's still good if you have some synergies with her (bounce, +1/+1 counters, reanimation, etc.), but if possible, I prefer Mystic Snake and whatever the name of that functional reprint is if I want to pull some creature-counters shenanigans. That way, even if I don't have any loop set up, it can still clip a game-ending spell by surprise.