[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Friday, December 29th, 2023; Cathars' Crusade

I own a set of +1/+1 dice and even I don't wanna bother tracking this crap.

This is the card that spawned my hatred of bookkeeping. Never again will I waste so much time fiddling with dice just to lose everything to WOG.

[Mookie]

I considered Organic Extinction for Sharuum when it came out, but six extra mana over Supreme Verdict is pretty rough. That's okay for decks with lots of random tokens to tap for improvise, but a lot of my artifacts have tap abilities (or are mana rocks). I could definitely see it doing a lot of work in the right deck though, particularly if you're heavy on artifact creatures.

...I did test it in my cube (which has an artifact theme), but the feedback from my cube group was 'too clunky'.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, January 3^rd, 2023; Zedruu the Greathearted|cmr

I saw it and I just knew I had to run with it. Great Jeskai control commander. I can gift you a spreading seas or excess land and net a positive Phyrexian Arena|apc. Control decks with +1 card/turn are nigh unbeatable.

[Lifeless]

A classic pain in the ass and a wonderful design. The goat, if you will.

[Dunadain]

Always a puzzle when I see one at the table: is it some dumb group hug deck? Or is it a brutal control/stax list?

When you brew her correctly, she's deceptively powerful, but the CA is tied to her being alive on her upkeep meaning savy players can make sure she doesn't draw many cards.

[Serenade]

Man, did we want Ruhan of the Fomori and Zedruu the Greathearted's first types switched.

[Hermes_]

I use the goat for my curses deck....a few years ago a friend had a "donations gone wrong" deck with it.

[Mookie]

I retired my Zedruu the Greathearted deck - I was only playing her infrequently, and power creep meant the deck would need a significant overhaul to function properly. That said, Zedruu is certainly a powerful card - drawing 3+ extra cards per turn is pretty easy to pull off and will win most games, assuming you have things you're okay with giving away. My own build mostly focused on giving away neutral stuff like Oblivion Ring, but Illusions of Grandeur and other cards with downsides are also an option (if you want your playgroup to hate you). Losing Zedruu to removal (mass or otherwise) does hurt a lot though.

I'll call out Zedruu's evil twin, Blim, Comedic Genius. Similar in design, opposite in effect. If you want to do group hug, I'll recommend commanders like Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis - I think Zedruu tends to do better as a control / combo commander, and kingmaker is just obnoxious.

[Sinis]

My favourite story around Zedruu is a friend of mine asking his wife what to cut from the deck, and she says to him "Have you thought of cutting Zedruu?"

I'm personally mixed on it; I've played with/against 'poisoned gifts' (like Pyromancer's Swath), Rust Elemental and Illusions of Grandeur), seen tech pieces like Rainbow Vale, played the 'exchange' game with Puca's Mischief, Vedalken Plotter/Political Trickery, Legerdemain/Role Reversal, and played against the "doesn't matter who controls it" style of deck (Pacifism and its variants, Oblivion Ring).

The true answer is to just always answer Zedruu because even if it isn't extreme like poisoned gifts, you'll probably lose to the CA, which isn't much fun, IMO.

[materpillar]

I'm not a huge fan of Zedruu the Greathearted. In theory it's cute. In practice it's a kill on sight. If the deck is chill, you need to kill it on sight or be buried in card advantage. If the deck isn't chill, you need to kill it on sight or die to some random Transcendence effect.

[3drinks]

My kill was always (if not venser the sojourner + illusions of grandeur), sunforger beats. 6 commander while I can pop the 'forger to go dig out my Suffocating Blast or Offering to Asha if needed. Turns out your win con is good when you can protect it with counter magic that doesn't have to be in your hand. Who knew?

[Hawk]

Man, did we want Ruhan of the Fomori and Zedruu the Greathearted's first types switched.

I wish we lived in a world where we got a control Giants Zedruu as a giant and an aggro American Minotaurs deck with Ruhan, but at the time it made sense to have an aggro giant for Lorwyn Giants to splash blue to, and it's even more sensible now post-Kaldheim.

I had Zedruu around for a while as a control list (donating neutral cards like Howling Mine and Detention Sphere) before winning off haymakers like Insurrection. It was fine and fun, but as others have noted with power creep you either need to build Zedruu pretty ruthless combo or stax list, or she's pretty slow and easy to disrupt. I am part of the cult of Hippo now, and can't imagine a better commander for UWx control than our lord and savior the Pheldagriff. That deck being in the roster meant there's no room or reason to have a Zedruu deck around for our meta anymore.

[tstorm823]

The secret Zedruu the Greathearted tech that was passed to me and will be passed down for generations to come is Pentad Prism. It's a smoooooth curve into cast Zedruu on 3 and donate an empty prism on 4, with even room to fit a tapped land in there if you prefer.

I think "kill on sight" may be a bit harsh in a world where there are way more egregious card draw engines in the command zone, but the general assessment of targeting the draw engine is valid. Always play more card draw than just the goat in your Zedruu deck.

[Dunadain]

Pentad Prism is clever, probably falls off a bit mid-late game, but I'm surprised I've never seen it.

[3drinks]

Thursday, January 4th, 2024; Luxior, Giada's Gift

[Dunadain]

I made a funny Dihada, Binder of Wills oathbreaker deck around it.


Best use case is unfortunately Devoted Druid which is boring, but oh well

[materpillar]

I think "kill on sight" may be a bit harsh in a world where there are way more egregious card draw engines in the command zone…

Zedruu tries to look unassuming but after one turn cycle I expect it to be drawing more than 2 cards per turn. It's not Chulane, Teller of Tales levels of kill on sight where you expect to immediately lose if it survives a single turn. It's more of a high priority, not immediate disaster.

[Igzex]

I wonder if anyone has ever killed a player in a game of commander by swinging in with an equipped Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded...

[ironic gesture]

Thursday, January 4th, 2024; Luxior, Giada's Gift

Luxior is a weird card with a unique effect which makes it hard to evaluate. The main use in edh (devoted druid combos aside) would be to make a planeswalker unable to be attacked but still retain its abilities (especially ults). It's vaguely along the lines of Swift Reconfiguration for planeswalkers but minus the flash and ability to shutdown anything on the other side of the board. Due to it's low MV, I could perhaps see this making some superfriends lists or decks with a light planeswalker theme (do those exist?).

[Ruiner]

I have yet to actually draw it to be able to play it, but a copy is in my Chandra deck. In theory at least, i like it for stopping people from being able to directly attack a planeswalker. However, opening up planeswalkers to creature removal is a factor.

Being able to commander damage to death someone with Chandra is a goal but I doubt it's going to happen.

[Dunadain]

Being able to commander damage to death someone with Chandra is a goal but I doubt it's going to happen.

I've been meaning to make a deck around that goal (well, probably not chandra, but some planswalker).

Then again, Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged might just be a better way to do it.

[Toshi]

decks with a light planeswalker theme (do those exist?).

Brago, King Eternal says "hi!".

Come to think of it, if it weren't for the 5€ price tag, i'd give it a try. In my list, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Tezzeret, Artifice Master usually sit at 5 loyalty for most of the game anyhow.

Other than my Brago, King Eternal applications, swinging with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for 9 sounds hilarious - or the weird a$$ use of Jeska, Thrice Reborn targeting herself before combat...

Aside from those whacky plays, protecting PWs against swings is the obvious best use.

[Hawk]

I wonder if anyone has ever killed a player in a game of commander by swinging in with an equipped Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded...

Dang it, now I have to add this to Daretti Superfriends to try...

real talk, I think this card is fine. Outside of the stupid Druid tricks, it seems best in a deck that's going to be running a 'walker in the command zone or that is running a ton of them in the '99 (Daretti has 10 which I don't know would be enough if I didn't have Daretti in the zone) - I'm thinking you'd want 20+ like in an Atraxa superfriends list. My read on this card is that it feels a bit win-more; if you have a 'walker done with 6+ loyalty you are probably already in a very good, strong position. A few folks have mentioned this protects a 'walker, but that's hard for me to see - sure, if your meta is all green decks that only kill walkers by attacking, this is protection, but against most decks making a planeswalker into a creature makes them just as easy to kill if not more so.

[3drinks]

Friday, January 5th, 2024; Swooping Pteranodon

[3drinks]

I wonder if anyone has ever killed a player in a game of commander by swinging in with an equipped Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded...

But only if you use tibalt, the fiend-blooded|sld for maximum troll.

Then again, Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged might just be a better way to do it.

Hmm. Gideon, Battle-Forged as a not-planeswalker-creature that's indestructible and prevents all damage to it and can't be attacked to lose loyalty because it isn't a walker is a helluva goal. I kinda dig that.