[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[yeti1069]

I really dislike planeswalkers.

I hate emblems--I feel like everything in Magic has a foil, a way to negate/remove/otherwise address it, except for emblems, and they are often game-warping.

Saheeli's ultimate and emblem aren't as bad as some others, unless built around. A permanent -1 to the cost of artifacts can easily lead to artifact storm gameplay. That this only takes 1 turn to ult is silly, but the rest of the abilities aren't attractive/strong enough to justify it taking more time to build up. This, again, is part of the problem I have with planeswalkers--you've got something that provides some incremental value over time that can eventually blow up the game, or else it provides significant value upfront...and can eventually blow up the game, or it's not worth running (in EDH), because it doesn't do enough to warrant defending it.

If we had more efficient removal that hit creatures and planeswalkers at a variety of mana values and configurations (destroy, exile, sweep, gain control, etc...) then they might not be so bad, but I feel like PW removal is YEARS behind where it should be. In theory, PWs should be pretty weak in EDH, since there are so many players they have to be protected from, but with the ability to run multiple board wipes or anti-creature techs, it's not that difficult to protect them. Even just a couple of decent blockers can do the trick. Then you have cards or decks designed around dealing combat damage with or attacking a player/opponent specifically, that don't trigger when hitting PWs, so in addition to functionally gaining life = starting loyalty + 1 or 2 per turn the PW is left around, players who want to attack the PW may be doing so at the expense of their own game plan, and for multiple turns.

And all of that assumes just one PW on the field that needs to be addressed. If there are two or more, chances are neither is going to die in short order.

[Dunadain]

Planeswalkers are sweet, incremental value pieces that reward board presence? Sign me up.

I hate emblems--I feel like everything in Magic has a foil, a way to negate/remove/otherwise address it, except for emblems, and they are often game-warping.

The Initiative
The Monarchy
The Ring
Dungeons
City's Blessing
Heck, Stigma Lasher

[yeti1069]

Planeswalkers are sweet, incremental value pieces that reward board presence? Sign me up.

I hate emblems--I feel like everything in Magic has a foil, a way to negate/remove/otherwise address it, except for emblems, and they are often game-warping.

The Initiative
The Monarchy
The Ring
Dungeons
City's Blessing
Heck, Stigma Lasher

Stigma Lasher is problematic. None of the rest of those have game-warping continuous effects.
And you CAN interact with most. You can take the initiative and monarch, can remove the creature the ring is on, and can prevent a player from making use of dungeons or the city's blessing in a variety of (albeit narrow) ways.

Meanwhile, there are numerous ways to power out a PW's ult ability (Doubling Season, Deeplglow Skate, proliferate, etc...), and some are basically game-winning on their own. None of these are game-winning.

[DirkGently]

Ulting a planeswalker usually either requires something on board, or keeping the planeswalker on board either for multiple turns or while casting some other spell to increase their loyalty. That's where you can interact with emblems (outside of, say, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, but he's pretty low impact). And there's a lot of "nonland permanent" removal that deals with planeswalkers pretty efficiently.

As sweet as emblems are, the reality is that there are usually much more effective ways to win the game. For the amount of effort it takes to ult a planeswalker via combo, you probably could have just won. And saheeli is really not that impressive of an emblem. How much would you expect an emblem like that to cost? Etherium Sculptor puts the value of the cost reduction at 2, and Tempered Steel puts the value of the anthem at probably <2. Sure, being an emblem is nice and all, but if you were going to "artifact storm" you could just do it the turn you play etherium sculptor instead of farting around trying to ult a planeswalker in an artifact deck.

[Mookie]

Saheeli, Filigree Master is a card I forgot existed. My artifact deck is Sharuum, so I tend to ignore red artifact cards. She seems... fine? Card advantage, some protection, and an ultimate. The main things of note are that she only costs 4 and she reaches her ultimate pretty quickly. Cost reduction is nice, but not as game-winning as most other ultimates (which is probably for the best, given how quickly it arrives).

In general, I don't have an issue with emblems. If you are able to protect a planeswalker for the 3+ turns they need to reach an ultimate, then you are usually in a dominant position anyway, and the ultimate is just a way to quickly bring the game to a close. I do think mechanics should have counterplay, so I can understand why emblems being impossible to remove could be obnoxious... but they do have counterplay - just attack the planeswalker.

I think the main problems with planeswalker ultimates and emblems are generally related to stuff like Doubling Season and proliferate that let them be reached without giving opponents an opportunity to attack. Those methods deprive opponents of their primary method of counterplay by removing combat as an option, and generally lead to poor experiences.

[Lifeless]

I think the main problems with planeswalker ultimates and emblems are generally related to stuff like Doubling Season and proliferate that let them be reached without giving opponents an opportunity to attack. Those methods deprive opponents of their primary method of counterplay by removing combat as an option, and generally lead to poor experiences.

As an old head I inadvertently play very few planeswalkers unless they are the main theme of the deck. I therefore find myself immediately applying the Doubling Season Test to every planeswalker I see.

This Saheeli passes the test so I'll give her a modest thumbs up based on that alone.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, February 7th, 2024; The Fetchland Appreciation Thread

[pokken]

I'm glad they are finally getting cheap enough for long enough that people can get them. They add a lot of texture to the game on various levels.

[TheGildedGoose]

Overpowered design mistakes that make me shuffle every turn. No thanks.

[Mookie]

If I had a nickel for every time a card has been printed that synergizes with fetchlands, I could buy a playset of all ten.

These days, there are a bunch of options for cheap, high-quality fixing, so I don't think they're necessary for most 2C decks... but the fact that they can fetch off-color lands means they're effectively 5C fixing for decks with more colors. They also trigger landfall, fill the graveyard, enable sacrifice / revolt synergies, and probably several more synergies I've forgotten.

I'll agree that they were a design mistake... but now that they're the backbone of most formats, I'd like for them to be reprinted into the ground. Escape Tunnel and other budget fetches are an okay substitute, but a significant step down in power level.

[Guardman]

As a Blood Moon player, my only complaint is that they can grab basics.

Oh, wait, we are talking about EDH... I do like that they can grab Triomes in three color decks. In most one and two color decks I avoid them unless I need to get a specific land like Mistveil Plains. Though that might change with the Surveil lands being fetchable. Grabbing one of them when you don't need untapped mana seems like a really powerful play.

[PrimevalCommander]

Best land cycle in commander. Defines entire archetypes and monopolizes game play when running the "full suite". I only play on-color fetches in my 3 and 4 color decks for flavor reasons. Titania uses all the off-color fetches because I couldn't play any in monogreen otherwise.

Shout out to cousins Prismatic Vista and Fabled Passage. Why has Prismatic Vista not gotten more reprints? This should get the Fabled Passage treatment because Terramorphic Expanse and friends are a bit slow these days.

[Dunadain]

Best land cycle of all time, Duals have a long-lasting legacy, and so are often viewed as the best fixing lands in the game, but fetches are the real GOAT.

I have mixed views on them. Price wise, it was outrageous that they were so expensive for so long, and I'd still like to see them cheaper, but now the prices have gone from outrageous, to merely steep, so I can't complain too much.

Gameplay wise, they are both powerful and complex, choosing when to use your fetch, what to grab with your fetch, and even whether or not you can afford the 1 life, all lead to complex decisions and interesting gameplay. The addition of mechanics like Domain, Mystic Sanctuary, and, now, the new surveil lands add further levels of complexity. They, along with shock lands, really are a masterpiece of design.

Having said that... they do cause a lot of shuffling in games, and I mean a lot, in 60 card formats like legacy and modern, you just expect, as a matter of course, that both players will be shuffling around once per turn, exclusively through fetches. If memory serves, Maro even said in an article once that they regret printing fetches, simply because of the time they add to paper magic.

In online play, however, they are *chef's kiss*

[yeti1069]

I think, especially in EDH, working to enable/smooth multi-color decks is a positive.

All the shuffling is annoying. I run the full set in Ur-Dragon, and I get tired of using them. Otherwise, I usually restrict myself to on-color fetches.

[Hermes_]

I used to have an OG Zen arid mesa,but it was stolen out of my binder. But before that during a PTQ that was sealed I opened a misty rain forest. My long term plan is to put them and the triomes/shocks into my 5c sliver deck

[DirkGently]

Fixing shouldn't be this effective. It erodes the structure of the game that multicoloured manabases carry so little requirement and risk.

Also I love my perfect manabases and you can take them from my cold, dead hands.

[materpillar]

Overpowered design mistakes that make me shuffle every turn. No thanks.

I'm fully with the Goose here. They're way too good, which isn't a problem in and of itself (I run Gaea's Cradle). For example, if someone came up to me and was like "can I rule zero every land in my 5c deck to be Command Tower because I'm trying to run literally every ultimatum]" I wouldn't care. Losing because of color screw is lame.

The problem is they're way too good and they're really really slow to use. The correct line is almost always to crack them EOT which grinds the game to a crawl.

[3drinks]

Thursday, February 8th, 2024; Cliffside Rescuer

Build-Your-Own True-Name Nemesis wasn't something I knew I could have but here we are. And it's in the right colours, even. Huh.

[3drinks]

Fixing shouldn't be this effective. It erodes the structure of the game that multicoloured manabases carry so little requirement and risk.

Also I love my perfect manabases and you can take them from my cold, dead hands.

Perfect mana is a privilege, not a right.

And I say that as a fetchland connoisseur with the full suite of six in mono, nine in bicolour, and eleven in tri (yes Vista & Passage count).

[Lifeless]

Highly efficient fetching did kind of jack up the dynamics of playing 3+ colors, I can't really argue against that. I guess that's cool if you're only concerned about efficiency but not great if you care about there being some kind of incentive for limiting yourself to fewer colors.

[TheGildedGoose]

Highly efficient fetching did kind of jack up the dynamics of playing 3+ colors, I can't really argue against that. I guess that's cool if you're only concerned about efficiency but not great if you care about there being some kind of incentive for limiting yourself to fewer colors.

There should be a tradeoff to running more colors. Mana fixing should be a real point of concern, not an afterthought, even in budgetless decks.

[Hawk]

I tend to find that the tap really holds Cliffside Rescuer back. She's come in a few precons, and is always a swift cut for me. A 2/2 Vigilance with that ability is great, but having to live a turn cycle is a bummer compared to the competition (Selfless Savior, Selfless Spirit, Benevolent Bodyguard) even though the protection is clearly better and even though she can save Planeswalkers and other permanents and not just creatures. If you were going to tap - you also have to wonder how much better this is than Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, and Skrelv, Defector Mite at that point.

I probably undervalue it though. Seems good in decks that are confident that they can recur it, like Lurrus of the Dream-Den, although again butting up against all that competition...probably better still in Soldier Tribal decks where this should be a staple.

[Dunadain]

Fetches don't provide perfect fixing, in most formats, 2-3 color decks is standard, and only very slow control decks can afford to play 5 color decks (or fast combo decks that are comfortable playing City of Brass and Mana Confluence). If anything, 5 C decks really only became worth the added inconsistency when Domain (particularly Leyline Binding) and trilands were introduced.

I stand by what I said, logistically, fetchlands are a mess, but mechanically, they are brilliant.

The real reason 4-5 color decks are so common in commander is that the format is slow enough to allow it. Even budget 5c mana bases are pretty reasonable in the format.

Cliffside Rescuer is cute, but completely outclassed, Mother of Runes and co. only cost 1 mana and can do this every turn, Benevolent Bodyguard and co. ony cost 1 and are ready to go the moment they resolve.

If she only costed 1, or if she didn't have to be tapped, she might be worth considering, but vigilance and +1/+1 is comically little payoff for costing twice as much, only working once, and requiring a full turn before it works, I guess if you need to run double digits worth of this effect?

👎👎

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Thursday, February 8th, 2024; Cliffside Rescuer

Build-Your-Own True-Name Nemesis wasn't something I knew I could have but here we are. And it's in the right colours, even. Huh.

I used to play this in Raffine, where it served as t2 body and an out for neutralizing removal like Song of the Dryads if Raffine got turned into a tree. I like that it can protect any permanent in a pinch but I do agree that the tap in the effect holds it back massively. Overall I still think it's worth considering in any commander-focused aggro deck despite its limitations.

It's also the best attacker in this class of cards, whereas mom, etc really only block.

[ISBPathfinder]

Cliffside Rescuer is cute, but completely outclassed, Mother of Runes and co. only cost 1 mana and can do this every turn, Benevolent Bodyguard and co. ony cost 1 and are ready to go the moment they resolve.

If she only costed 1, or if she didn't have to be tapped, she might be worth considering, but vigilance and +1/+1 is comically little payoff for costing twice as much, only working once, and requiring a full turn before it works, I guess if you need to run double digits worth of this effect?

👎👎

Just all of this in a nutshell. The only saving grace is that its an uncommon which gives it a little leeway for being worse than really good standout rares but I don't think its better than Benevolent Bodyguard either which is a common so.... whatever.