[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

[DirkGently]

Useless outside of combo afaik.

I remember a guy had a mill deck with this and Scalpelexis back in high school lmao.

[Mookie]

Combos with Painter's Servant... but the fact that it only knocks out one opponent makes it a weaker combo than Thassa's Oracle in a competitive setting. It is a colorless combo, at least, but so is Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth.

I had no idea it was so expensive, but I guess it is an old Legacy staple with no reprints. Weird.

[Dunadain]

Terrible on-rate, and still pretty bad as a combo piece.

👎👎

[3drinks]

Sunday, March 10th, 2024; Krav, the Unredeemed and his partner, Regna, the Redeemer

[Mookie]

I actually tested Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer in the command zone of my Teysa deck when they came out. You may infer from the fact that they didn't keep that slot that I was unimpressed. They're cool in theory, but the basic problem I encountered in testing is that it is extremely difficult to keep two expensive commanders on the table. My meta at the time did have an abnormally high number of board wipes and spot removal, so it's possible they would function better in my current meta (which is much lighter on disruption), but it's hard to say.

Beyond the clunkiness, I do think Krav and Regna are cool - Regna can potentially pump out eight tokens per turn cycle, while Krav is a powerful draw engine and potentially massive beater. The clunk is definitely there though - I'm always disappointed by sac outlets that cost mana to activate, so using Krav repeatedly sounds awkward unless you're regularly sacrificing 3+ creatures at a time. They also add additional complexity to aristocrats decks that already have a lot of moving parts - you always want a token producer, sac outlet, and some sort of payoff, but Regna adds an additional dependency on lifegain, and if you want to win with Krav beatdown then you'll likely also need some protection and equipment that grants evasion. Theoretically, having both on board gives you the full package, but... keeping them both out can be tricky.

Still, I'll welcome anecdotes from anyone more familiar with them - when I ran them in the command zone, I didn't make any meaningful changes to my list, so it's possible that they function better than my experience with a bit of tuning. At the very least, I would expect a dedicated Krav & Regna deck to be running significantly more ramp than my list at the time. I'll note that you can run the pair in the 99 and use one to fetch the other, which is sort of cool, although I'm not sure what decks would want them.

[3drinks]

Am I the only one most excited by these providing free shuffles on etb?

[3drinks]

I'll note that you can run the pair in the 99 and use one to fetch the other, which is sort of cool, although I'm not sure what decks would want them.

Allow me to introduce you to my good friend Kaalia, Zenith Seeker. Draw one, fetch the other, and kill off Kaalia to get a re-proc. That deck swims in value CA.

[Dunadain]

A neat combination of abilities, and their high MV prevents them from being problematic the way most partner commanders are.

👍👍

[pokken]

yeah I've both theorycrafted this deck and had multiple friends build it, but two 5+ cmc commanders in an orzhov deck basically says you're going to be either:
1) playing incredibly slowly
2) playing so many mana rocks you can't support synergies

The other huge issue is that Krav, the Unredeemed says "I am going to draw so many cards the moment I come out I will immediately win, lulz" -- it's damn hard not to auto-win if you're a competent builder when you can draw a gajillion cards so easily.

I think it may be possible to build as a breakfast deck, in the fashion of my Tivit Second Sunrise build. but all those issues still are there. :shrug: Pretty iffy design all things considered.

[yeti1069]

I was super-excited for Krav when it came out, and got copies for a few decks (lot's of sacrifice/graveyard themes among my piles--Marchesa, Meren, Teysa), but over time Krav started coming out, and now isn't in anything, though I keep looking at it. 5 mana is higher than I want an engine/payoff piece, usually, and sac outlets that cost mana can be rough, especially when they're already 5. I think I had a few too many games where I was able to activate the sac once in a turn cycle, but couldn't a 2nd time when I needed/wanted it. Still, as both an outlet and a payoff in one card, it's very powerful.

As for Regna, I also had it (and Krav) in my Teysa list for a bit, but, again, 6 mana is a lot, and there are other cards that do similar things for less mana, or stronger things for the same cost.

[3drinks]

Monday, March 11th, 2024; Overwhelming Stampede

[pokken]

Have lost to the card as recently as 2023. :D

[PrimevalCommander]

Good overrun which did work for me for a little while. Only recently came out for Nissa, Ascended Animist as a more flexible, albeit more expensive, overrun. Other similar cards to this I have are on creatures for the Natural Order and Concordant Crossroads/Finale of Devastation synergies. Wouldn't fault anyone for running it and it has won me games in the past.

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

Ooh, a classic . I used to run it as one of my overrun effects when my Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist was still put together. Not as good as Craterhoof Behemoth and not tutorable in green, but usually strong enough to kill all my opponents.

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

yeah I've both theorycrafted this deck and had multiple friends build it, but two 5+ cmc commanders in an orzhov deck basically says you're going to be either:
1) playing incredibly slowly
2) playing so many mana rocks you can't support synergies

The other huge issue is that Krav, the Unredeemed says "I am going to draw so many cards the moment I come out I will immediately win, lulz" -- it's damn hard not to auto-win if you're a competent builder when you can draw a gajillion cards so easily.

I think it may be possible to build as a breakfast deck, in the fashion of my Tivit Second Sunrise build. but all those issues still are there. :shrug: Pretty iffy design all things considered.

I theorycrafted the deck as well and it is slow indeed. Having to pay 11 mana to get them both out is a lot, and if they get removed... yeah, they aren't cheap to recast. When they stick things get out of hand quickly though, but opponents realise that after a game or two and just start targetting Krav with removal.

[Hawk]

Have lost to this card as recently as last weekend. Craterhoof Behemoth is clearly the end-all, be-all of this effect and other cards like Finale of Devastation, Return of the Wildspeaker, Pathbreaker Ibex, and End-Raze Forerunners have definitely put pressure on this card, but don't discount the strength of this as one of the best straight-up Overruns ever printed. It's not a staple anymore, as some decks legitimately will struggle to make this more than a +2/+2 reliably, but the vast majority of green decks should be able to make this as good as if not better than Overrun.

[folding_music]

overwhelming stampede with a massive drizz't do'urden in play is very funny! some players find overrun wins really depressing though, it can feel unearned. personally I love the stompy but it definitely makes people sad

[Mookie]

Overwhelming Stampede is one of the stronger Overrun effects in the format. It doesn't help if you have a bunch of 1/1s, but a single beefy creature means it can potentially grant +5/+5 or more, which is significantly more than what most other cards can grant at five mana. If you have Ghalta, Primal Hunger or some other massive creature, then it looks even better. That, said, it is only good when you're ahead or at parity - it doesn't have much flexibility outside trying to win the game. In contrast, Craterhoof Behemoth is fetchable, Finale of Devastation is a tutor, and Pathbreaker Ibex is a reasonable creature by itself. It's not a bad choice if you want an 'I win' button to close out the game, but not something I would want multiple copies of.

The other 'pure' Overrun I would compare it to is Triumph of the Hordes. I think Triumph is better if you want to sucker punch one or potentially two opponents - it's not hard to set up a position where you have 10 or so power and can take out an opponent that neglects to have blockers while they're still at 40 life. However, I think it is difficult for Triumph to actually finish a game unless you already have 30+ power available due to its small power buff. It's not difficult for an opponent with an established board state to soak up some infect damage and survive, particularly if you have to split your damage three ways.

On the flip side, I think Overwhelming Stampede is excellent at ignoring opposing board positions and just ending the game. If your commander is, say, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, (ignoring Prossh activations) then six 0/1s and a 6/6 represents 13 infect damage with Triumph - barely enough to kill one opponent. However, it represents 48 damage with Overwhelming Stampede, which can potentially take out two opponents if they have taken prior damage, and it scales up quickly from there. It also works very well with commander damage, since it will at least double your commander's power, freeing up your other creatures to attack elsewhere if you have some prior damage on an opponent.

...anyway, I have mixed feelings about surprise 'I win' buttons, but I think Overwhelming Stampede is generally pretty fair - it requires some setup and can be disrupted if an opponent has spot removal for the biggest creature.

[Dragonlover]

Literally used this to win two games this weekend. Nice solid finisher.

Dragonlover

[Dunadain]

Iconic, and still holds up in 2024.

👍👍

[pokken]

I did some more reflecting, and the thing I like about this card as a design is:

1) it's a little faster than hoofdad in many ways so there's a reason to run it
2) it rewards having taller creatures
3) it provides an attack surface (kill da biggest boi) to non-counterspell decks

It's not a perfect card but it's a fine example of a reasonably strong wincondition that isn't just bog stupid (e.g. Finale of Devastation for whatever nonsense)

[3drinks]

Tuesday, March 12th, 2024; Memory Deluge

[pokken]

Man I love flashback cards. THis card seems fine. FOF-esque cards are great. I love that you can mill this one.

[Mookie]

I like Memory Deluge in cube, but I'm a bit less enthusiastic about it in EDH. It's not necessarily bad, but it doesn't really lean into any of my blue decks' synergies - Sharuum and Kess prefer dumping extra cards in the graveyard with Fact or Fiction, while Thada and Mizzix prefer to cast Pull from Tomorrow and other draw-X spells to take advantage of their piles of artifact mana / cost reduction, respectively. It's certainly a good card, and I think it plays well in pretty much any blue deck... but its lack of synergy makes it a bit more difficult to find a slot. I probably could put it in Thada, but I think One with the Machine is more fun. Hmmm...

I think the main draw for Memory Deluge is its flashback mode - if you're only casting the front half, then other draw spells are generally better. Unfortunately, seven mana is a lot... especially compared to Deep Analysis only costing two. It also doesn't work with copy effects like Sevinne, the Chronoclasm, and you don't want to cast it for free either. I guess that leaves its synergies as 'a reasonable instant-speed draw spell you can sometimes cast twice', which makes it mildly interesting for decks like Nymris, Oona's Trickster and Rashmi, Eternities Crafter that want to cast stuff on their opponents' turns. Otherwise, it's in the middle tier of draw spells for me - always good, but rarely great.

[PrimevalCommander]

Nonbo with Kalamax, the Stormsire too