[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[vandertroll]

She enables the best thing in magic - drawing extra cards - by doing the most basic thing in magic - playing lands in arguably the best dual color combination in EDH.
Obligatory reference to my MTGNexus decklist.

[not-a-cube]

I don't like Tatyova, Benthic Druid as a commander, I think it's a boring value commander that always plays the same.
Ramp → Draw into wincon → Yawn → Go to sleep.

I do admit it's a very powerfull card, I just feel that as a commander, she tends to be build the same way every time. A lot of the recent UB+ legends have that feeling. That's why it's become my least loved color combination in this format, even though it's arguably the stongest.

I noticed that card draw on a commander has become a disincentive for me to build a deck. These decks always end up as generic value build with lots of power, but without much creativity. This is a pitfall i kept falling into. I know you can make creative decks with every commander, but commanders like these allow for lazy deckbuilding which still results in a powerfull deck.

But hey, to each his own.

[Mookie]

I actually have a Tatyova, Benthic Druid "deck". I call it a "deck" very loosely because zero thought was put into its construction whatsoever - it's 40 lands, 20 ramp spells, and the contents of my trade binder. Because the intention was less to build a new deck, and more to have a repository for all the cards I know I'll have a deck for eventually and don't want to trade away right this moment, such as Regal Behemoth and Deadeye Navigator. Despite the lack of care put into construction, it still does alright - it turns out if you generate piles of mana and draw way too many cards, you'll be able to simulate something approximating competence in most games. My description for the deck is 'absolutely everything I hate about Simic in EDH'. Honestly, the biggest issue I've encountered with Tatyova is that turns tend to be really long due to how much shuffling the ramp spells result in. (and because you draw cards after each resolves, batching technically isn't a legal action)

Slightly more seriously, I'm also running Tatyova in my Tasigur deck, because that deck is also running a ton of ways to ramp lands onto the battlefield. Tatyova is a very powerful engine for pretty much any ramp-based strategy.... and even if you aren't running a ton of ramp, turning extra lands into more cards is pretty much always good. Obviously gets even sillier if you have Exploration or other ways to play more lands, or even just fetchlands.

As for the design... definitely pushed for an uncommon, but that was true of most of the Dominaria uncommon legends. A little generic in payoff, which is a common complaint about 'do X, draw card' legends.... but it's an uncommon, so I don't really mind that much. Pretty much the simplest possible design for this card, and I don't think she's too aggressively priced. Probably for the best that this effect was shifted out of monogreen though, since it really didn't need the help (and Tireless Tracker is already a staple as-is).

[folding_music]

hmm from edhrec giggle:

Tatyova, Benthic Druid: 2182 decks, 32nd overall
Tishana, Voice of Thunder: 310 decks, 335th overall and Tatyova, Benthic Druid is in the top recommended cards =P

i feel really bad for the insane bomb merfolk being so supplanted by the boring one

[pokken]

I loathe tatyova. Her design is so pedestrian. You sit down opposite and you're getting a game that requires you to kill her every time she hits the table just about or she'll drown you in cards.

[Dunharrow]

I like her in the 99 of a lands deck, but not in the command zone. Not enough to build around and too goodstuffy. If I had to build around her I would probably focus more on the lifegain - not a lot of UG lifegain decks!!

[onering]

Tatyova is one of the many design mistakes wizards has made in recent years when designing for commander. IMO cards like her are why whenever I hear someone say that WotC should take over the format from the RC I know that I can completely discount their opinion. WIzards does not have a firm grasp on what makes the format popular or enjoyable, and they print degenerate %$#% like Tatyova, Chulane, eminence, experience, Golos, etc. Commanders and mechanics that promote lazy deck building, repetitive play, and homogeneity, three things that are opposed to the spirit and concept of the format.

Tatyova herself is not the most problematic of these by far, but she fits the bill nonetheless. Oh gee, play lands to draw cards and gain life, in a color combo that is great at playing lands and drawing cards and is already loaded with synergies for both, and oh yeah playing lands and drawing cards happen to be recursively synergistic, as playing more lands gives you the mana to cast the cards you draw off them, and drawing cards gets you more lands to play. Its a stupid, lazy design that builds the deck on its own. Its a commander that demands being archenemied because if you let it sit it will just drown you in CA and powerful haymakers from all the mana if its built even halfway competently. A pile of crap can still hang, and a tuned version is gross for casual. Its boring to play against, both due to how it dominates the game not only once its online but in its need to be prevented from coming online, and because it plays slow as a snail. It also demands zero skill, as builds tend to be pretty proactive and pilot themselves. Say what you want about something like Thrasios, another simic easy value commander, but he at least promotes reactive play, which requires some measure of skill to do well.

Suffice to say, there are certain commanders that if I see them in someone's command zone, I will do my best to make sure they can't play, and Tatyova is one of them.

[Dunharrow]

Tatyova is one of the many design mistakes wizards has made in recent years when designing for commander. IMO cards like her are why whenever I hear someone say that WotC should take over the format from the RC I know that I can completely discount their opinion. WIzards does not have a firm grasp on what makes the format popular or enjoyable, and they print degenerate %$#% like Tatyova, Chulane, eminence, experience, Golos, etc. Commanders and mechanics that promote lazy deck building, repetitive play, and homogeneity, three things that are opposed to the spirit and concept of the format.

Tatyova herself is not the most problematic of these by far, but she fits the bill nonetheless. Oh gee, play lands to draw cards and gain life, in a color combo that is great at playing lands and drawing cards and is already loaded with synergies for both, and oh yeah playing lands and drawing cards happen to be recursively synergistic, as playing more lands gives you the mana to cast the cards you draw off them, and drawing cards gets you more lands to play. Its a stupid, lazy design that builds the deck on its own. Its a commander that demands being archenemied because if you let it sit it will just drown you in CA and powerful haymakers from all the mana if its built even halfway competently. A pile of crap can still hang, and a tuned version is gross for casual. Its boring to play against, both due to how it dominates the game not only once its online but in its need to be prevented from coming online, and because it plays slow as a snail. It also demands zero skill, as builds tend to be pretty proactive and pilot themselves. Say what you want about something like Thrasios, another simic easy value commander, but he at least promotes reactive play, which requires some measure of skill to do well.

Suffice to say, there are certain commanders that if I see them in someone's command zone, I will do my best to make sure they can't play, and Tatyova is one of them.

While I agree that many of these new commanders are uninteresting, I don't really care much. I do not tend to see them very often. My playgroup definitely prefers quirky builds and I do not think anyone really has a goodstuff deck.

[toctheyounger]

I have to admit, it's hard not to be resentful of Simic commander options in the last few years. This isn't the worst offender, but there are some seriously obscene options in the guild in terms of just being way over the top for power level. Tatyova, Benthic Druid is in the club if not at the top of the list. She's basically Nissa, Vital Force's emblem from the command zone, and that thing is bonkers.

While not on the level of Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy or Thrasios, Triton Hero (like, how much power can you actually give a legendary creature for ub??) she's certainly pretty powerful for an uncommmon. Also in the list is Prime Speaker Vannifar, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and to a lesser extent Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca. All of them are just super dominant combo machines or oppressive presences that demand removal, and those sort of commanders just aren't fun for anyone.

All that aside, she's obviously quite good. Were I to run her it would be in the 99 rather than at the helm, but nonetheless she's quite powerful.

edit: all resentment aside, I think instead of seeing the power of these sort of commanders spread to other color combinations, I'd probably prefer to see these nerfed. The amount of Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy decks I've played against that have gone off T4 or earlier is 100% and the amount of these games that have been enjoyable for the table is 0%. So yeah, I don't want WOTC anywhere near in charge of our format.

[Rumpy5897]

Once upon a time, PDH was kind of a thing in my group. It never really caught on, as we never figured out how to make it not be miserable in multiplayer, but it sat somewhere in the back of our minds. So when DOM hit with the uncommon legendaries, some of us expressed interest in tossing some of those together in pauper form. This way it's technically both a PDH and EDH deck. I took Tatyova, rammed her full of ramp spells and all the crappy combos Simic commons can buy, went undefeated in a few test games against actual full-blown group EDH decks, and abandoned the deck. Eurgh.

I encountered her in the paper wilds once, back when I was on a scouting mission of the local LGS to try to find a fourth for the playgroup. Daxos, back then about as ugly as he ever got with regards to hand attack, hand attacks. The remaining two guys at the table bleed out options and sit there doing nothing, and Bottomless Pit greets Tatyova in the upkeep with two cards in his hand. The coin flip of fate chooses to not eat the public knowledge Scapeshift. We lost

Not a fan, for all the reasons people listed in here already. Yet she's the most popular Simic commander. Couple that with Golos's prolonged presence in top commanders and you've got a picture of people gravitating to the casual powerhouses. Bummer. Discuss?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Not a fan, for all the reasons people listed in here already. Yet she's the most popular Simic commander. Couple that with Golos's prolonged presence in top commanders and you've got a picture of people gravitating to the casual powerhouses. Bummer. Discuss?

I blame the advent of new deckbuilding resources. A new player logs on to edhrec and sees that there are 4000+ atraxa decks, 3000+ korvold decks, 4000+ golos decks, etc. and they will naturally want a deck that can handle the common competition, which just happens to be atraxa, korvold, golos, etc.

I believe more players are building their decks in a vacuum based on aggregate data rather than inspecting their own meta to inform choices. The whole format is more homogenized than ever in a lot of ways, and that's good and bad. Players have a more uniform understanding of deckbuilding and general strategy, but they're also deviating from the statistical trends less and less.

I for one can attest that of the four decks I own, only one I really built from the ground up. The other three are generic variations of selvala, korvold, and emry. I can live with that because uniqueness doesn't fascinate me as much as sheer functionality, but I suppose it is somewhat sad to see EDH's formerly virbrant and diverse ecosystem get whittled down to only its hardiest components by external stressors such as powercreep.

[Mookie]

Not a fan, for all the reasons people listed in here already. Yet she's the most popular Simic commander. Couple that with Golos's prolonged presence in top commanders and you've got a picture of people gravitating to the casual powerhouses. Bummer. Discuss?

....people enjoy drawing cards? A shocking revelation, I know.

...but honestly, my mental image of most Simic decks is 'ramps, draws cards, and durdles'. That's what those colors do best, and if you're looking to build a deck in those colors, that's probably what you're trying to do too. And since Tatyova is 'ramp, draw, and durdle' incarnate, it makes sense that she would be the default Simic commander of choice. There's also definitely an element of ease of access and usage - as an uncommon, pretty much anyone that played during Dominaria will have gotten one at some point, and building a functional Tatyova deck is dead simple.

...speaking more broadly, a lot of the top commanders are pretty durdle-friendly. The vast majority of them generate recurring card advantage / value (ex: Muldrotha, Teysa 3.0, Yarok), with the ones that don't generally being synergistic with big splashy Timmy nonsense (ex: Jodah)... if they don't just do both (Golos, The Ur-Dragon, Gishath).

[DirkGently]

Also in the list is Prime Speaker Vannifar, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and to a lesser extent Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca. All of them are just super dominant combo machines or oppressive presences that demand removal, and those sort of commanders just aren't fun for anyone.

I don't think it's fair to group Uro in as being an oppressive commander. He's generally only drawing one card per turn at most (either from etb or from attack), and he's just a 6/6 beater without evasion. To compare that to Kinnan, Tatyova, or Vannifar is pretty absurd. Plus he does require some actual effort to get significant value, as 5 cards isn't trivial, especially multiple times. The main thing he has is resiliency. He's usually a pretty terrible removal target, while the other three are more must-answer threats.

I do think a lot of UG commanders do fit into the unfun place of "You have to kill this every time they hit the board or they're going to win". Vannifar is probably public enemy #1 in that regard.

As far as the actual rcotd, Tatyova is often the hardest to gauge of the UG powerhouses. Some Tatyova decks require that you kill her ASAP, and some are pretty tame casual value decks, since she's a cheap, easy-to-acquire commander that requires minimal skill to build for new players. Unfortunately, sometimes adopting a wait-and-see approach can give her enough value to get into a pretty dominant position. I don't consider her a top-tier threat, but she's always worth keeping an eye on.

[toctheyounger]

I don't think it's fair to group Uro in as being an oppressive commander. He's generally only drawing one card per turn at most (either from etb or from attack), and he's just a 6/6 beater without evasion. To compare that to Kinnan, Tatyova, or Vannifar is pretty absurd. Plus he does require some actual effort to get significant value, as 5 cards isn't trivial, especially multiple times. The main thing he has is resiliency. He's usually a pretty terrible removal target, while the other three are more must-answer threats.

This is fair. Truth be told I haven't seen a lot of the Titans in action. Uro does seem to require a fair amount of work around, while still being pretty strong nonetheless. I would be interested in facing down Uro, where others in this list I'm not (see below).

Honestly, of the ones I've mentioned Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy has easily been the most gross in my experience. He combos for infinite mana stupidly easily, and at that point you're looking at free casts for anything you have the colours to dig for with his second ability. All for 2 mana to cast. Last game I faced him down the table was looking at a Blightsteel Colossus turn 4, I think. Just....ridiculous.

[3drinks]

Tatyova...yet another commander that combos with Manabond. Get 'em while their hot!

[onering]

Not a fan, for all the reasons people listed in here already. Yet she's the most popular Simic commander. Couple that with Golos's prolonged presence in top commanders and you've got a picture of people gravitating to the casual powerhouses. Bummer. Discuss?

I blame the advent of new deckbuilding resources. A new player logs on to edhrec and sees that there are 4000+ atraxa decks, 3000+ korvold decks, 4000+ golos decks, etc. and they will naturally want a deck that can handle the common competition, which just happens to be atraxa, korvold, golos, etc.

I believe more players are building their decks in a vacuum based on aggregate data rather than inspecting their own meta to inform choices. The whole format is more homogenized than ever in a lot of ways, and that's good and bad. Players have a more uniform understanding of deckbuilding and general strategy, but they're also deviating from the statistical trends less and less.

I for one can attest that of the four decks I own, only one I really built from the ground up. The other three are generic variations of selvala, korvold, and emry. I can live with that because uniqueness doesn't fascinate me as much as sheer functionality, but I suppose it is somewhat sad to see EDH's formerly virbrant and diverse ecosystem get whittled down to only its hardiest components by external stressors such as powercreep.

Gotta disagree here. EDHrec et al do contribute to homogeneity, but the problem with these commanders is that they are so obviously pushed, playing with mechanics that are so obviously problematic or overly synergistic that they would have been problems in 2008. You don't need to be streamlining your deck with the latest tech and copying tuned deck lists to make these miserable to play against, they do that entirely on their own, and they do it even if the pilot has no idea how to build the deck or even pilot it well. These are commanders that turn any halfway decent pile into a tsunami of CA and/or Mana savings, and they play themselves. Tatyova tells you to play land based ramp. That and some good stuff and you have your deck, proceed to ramp, which then let's you play big spells while keeping your grip full. Golos wants you to ramp into him and activate his ability, that's it. Bonder Prodigy tells you to play fatties and Mana dorks, that's it. It's easy mode, and it's repetitive, and it would be even if the pilots never looked anything up on the internet. I could go into my jank piles for blue and green right now and throw together a decent Tatyova deck.

[DirkGently]

I think when you look at something like Tatyova, my guess is that the popularity is because of how easy it is to synergize, and that easy synergies appeal especially to newer players (and scrubs nawfense). I remember when I first started playing (60 card casual) and seeing the card Dakkon Blackblade for the first time and thinking "oh man, that card is awesome because I do always play a lot of lands" (not more than normal or anything - I didn't even really play ramp, I just played durdly games with other scrubs so they usually ended on like turn 20). If you'd shown me something like, say, Vadrok, Apex of Thunder I would have had no clue what to do with it. Even something like Vannifar, which despite being likely far more powerful than Tatyova is far less popular (likely because he's harder to build). But lands? I know how to lands. I get benefit from playing lands? This good. Me like.

When I look at the top commanders on EDHrec, most of them are very easy to build, and Tatyova (though she misses the top list) is the same. Even without ramp she's a powerful draw engine, just for playing the game. And as an easy-bake commander for new players I think she's totally fine. I think this is likely the target market for dumb commanders like Chulane (I play creatures!), Golos (I play big spells!), Yarok (I play etbs!), Kess and Niv (I play spells!), Tribal (I can use scryfall!) etc. The problem is that then more enfranchised players get a hold of them and try to break them, and they're often trivial to break. And then problems - and bad games - arise.

[BounceBurnBuff]

Tatyova's popularity really boils down to her being popular with 2 demographics that honestly make up the majority of EDH players. Those after a powerful and consistent deck in colours that cover most of their bases for what a deck needs in EDH (ramp, card draw, finishers) and newer players looking for something that is easily rewarding. Its this second demographic that commanders like Tatyova and the Brawl deck options are targeted towards, these "training wheels" commanders that take very little effort and dedication to reap a reward. Sure, Tatty enjoys a good Crucible of Worlds and Titania like the next lands-matter deck, but she can dominate just as easily with a large amounts of ramp, control, then a Beacon of Tomorrows to loop.

If we lived in a world where the more experienced players couldn't play with these legends, I'd forgive their place more.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 15th, 2020; Reflector Mage

For those times you need to buy time against key cards. And what a tempo swing it is.

[Mookie]

Reflector Mage is fine. It's a solid tempo swing - bouncing a key creature for a turn cycle or two can be a significant setback. However, I generally don't love this sort of tempo play in EDH - bouncing a single creature at sorcery speed is rarely worth spending a card on. Reflector Mage also has the downside of not being able to bounce your own creatures, unlike most other Man-o'-War effects.

....I suppose I could maybe test it out in Brago sometime, but never really felt the need to - I'm just running actual removal effects (like Duplicant) instead. Obviously more expensive, but Reflector Mage has always struck me as more annoying than impactful. I'm sure someone will come back with an anecdote about it shutting down a player by bouncing their general right before a key turn or something though.

[not-a-cube]

Reflector mage is fair card, it's ok removal and it gets better if you have ways to flicker it, But a lot of times you'll just want straight removal. I mainly like it for it's art, how awesome it was in limited and the fact they banned it in standard.

[RxPhantom]

Reflector Mage is an awesome card in plenty of formats...just not Commander.

[pokken]

Reflector Mageis really good if you can reuse it and a lot. It's quite cheap to cast which is nice for bounce vs. blink strategies too.

Being able to infinitely remove your opponents' creatures *and* stop them from recasting the creatures forever is pretty good with Aluren so it's a solid card in that fairly niche strategy. Not bouncing your own stuff like Man-o'-War or is a bit of a bummer, but the can't be recast rider has some value.

It's one of the better humans you can run too so decent in tribal humans.

It has a bit of a niche place where it's more powerful than Duplicant in commander (aside from being way cheaper), which is that it disables a commander for a turn too. Not many removal options that guarantee Maelstrom Wanderer doesn't get recast for a turn. I have lost games to it before.

I love me some niche cards

[folding_music]

when SCG coverage was a thing this card was just always on screen, the Human sdeck was pretty mean. Have never picked it up cos I associate it with competitive play!

[Hawk]

It's wild this was banned in Standard...but then, it was in a Standard with Collected Company spamming them in at instant speed to totally break the opponent's tempo followed by the "UW Flash" deck of Kaladesh/SoI/BfZ standard.

In Commander it is obviously better than an Aether Adept but, like, HOW MUCH better? You'll never hit an opponent running duplicates of a card. Its best use is probably to block a commander for a whole round (shipping back to the 'zone doesn't save them from getting silenced off of it) but Commander rarely rewards those small tempo plays, meaning you'd need to see this guy in a deck like Roon of the Hidden Realm or Brago, King Eternal where you can use it over and over again. It's good there although probably not noticeably better than spamming Reality Acid at the same CMC or Stonehorn Dignitary or Venser, Shaper Savant for one more.

If it was a UB card I'd be excited to run it in Inalla, but UW doesn't have an obvious candidate for Wizard Tribal. Still, if you are playing a UW blink or bounce strategy, this card should probably get a look. At 5000 decks on EDHRECs, I'm not sure that's surprising or unknown - if anything I'm surprised at that level of play, as we never see it in my metagame.