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

[TheAmericanSpirit]

First interesting abzan commanders in a loooong time. They're not "good" but they're less busted than Ghave and more focused than Doran, so they have a nice little fair niche.

However, I really like partners that curve well into each other, and Y&N don't do that. Yannik wants to precede Nikara into play and that is annoying. A less effective rendering of the pir and toothy model.

[Sinis]

Monday, July 27th, 2020; Nikara, Lair Scavenger (and Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel)

I like them, but I think that Yannik probably requires too many hoops to jump through, and that Nikara would be a removal magnet.

It's probably my least favourite of the C20 partner pairs, but, I don't believe they are especially bad.

[onering]

Look at them not as counters matter commanders, because they are outclassed there even if you are drawing in a bunch of oddball counters that don't normally benefit from +1/+1 counter synergies, but as Abzan blink with counter support. That's at least something unique and interesting to build around that seems pretty open ended.

[cheonice]

Monday, July 27th, 2020; Nikara, Lair Scavenger (and Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel)

oooh I really like these two, BECAUSE they are not Ghave. There is no "solved" list and they can be built in many different ways: darrenhabibs power-equal-to-the-number-of-creatures-list, combo approaches, more traditional +1/+1 counters strategies (like my own list), Abzan blink, Aristocrats.

They are no 8-9 commanders, but are really fun and interesting to play.

[tstorm823]

I play them (and other "partners with"s) in my all legendary banding deck, and both Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel and Nikara, Lair Scavenger are good at offering some wrath resistance, so that's nice in a deck with that particular restrictive setting.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, July 28th, 2020; Cone of Flame

Well, at least it #CombosWithTorbran. Moreover, it's probably worth considering elsewhere since it does deal with multiple cards inside itself. I wouldn't be upset or raising brows if I saw this in a deck anywhere.

[Mookie]

Hmmm.... Cone of Flame just doesn't do it for me. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of Lightning Bolt either. The things I look for in my removal spells are unconditionalness, efficiency, and being instant speed, and this isn't any of those. May be interesting if you're running Torbran, Thane of Red Fell or specifically care about dealing damage to multiple things, but Electrickery and Flames of the Firebrand are cheaper. I'd particularly say that it compares poorly to Mizzium Mortars and Meteor Blast.

That said, I do appreciate it (and all the other Cone of X spells) from a design perspective - they're consistently fun cards to read, and sweet (if swingy) cards to run in limited. Getting full value off them is incredibly satisfying, even if it does only happen when the stars align. Trostani's Summoner (AKA 'cone of critters') is probably my favorite, but Incremental Blight is also awesome.

[Ginuqu]

One thing you can do with these multi-target blast spells is activate Spectacle for free while removing what you want to remove, so you can immediately Light up the Stage or play the actual text on Rix Maadi Reveler... and I think those are great cards to run in a deck that runs any sort of heavy artillery. Light up the Stage is especially complimentary to a really reckless burning bridge-type build.

Cone of Flame isn't specifically a card I've run in a red deck but it's from the same set as Firestorm which is an obsession of mine. In addition to Torbran there's the old Lightning Cloud and Sulfuric Vapors which I've paired with Volley of Boulders to finally make it feel worth casting!

[Outcryqq]

Cone of Flame got a bit better after reading @Ginuqu's post above and I realized that it can hit players in addition to creatures. Playable, but not spectacular.

[Serenade]

Probably would play Jaya's Immolating Inferno over it since I'd probably use it in Obosh or Torbran anyway.

[Hawk]

I love this card's design. I adored it at first sight and played it a lot in 60 card kitchen table Magic. It's also a total beating in any limited format I've played where it was on the table. But in EDH, I hate paying five for surgical removal. Five mana is enough for a boardwipe, so the competition is fierce and it needs to be guaranteed card advantage. For instance, I don't even adore Volcanic Offering and that card is almost always a kill on a relevant target and often a 4-for-1 if you can find someone to play nice and its an instant, and I'd still only really consider it in Mono-Red when I had no other options (ditto Into the Roil or Rootgrapple in other colors).

My analysis of removal also found that 4 is really the magic number, and 5 is even more reliable when it comes to Toughness-based removal. 3 is going to whiff a lot, to the point that I think running Lightning Bolt and Abrade is questionable outside of mono-red and I'd never ever run any other 3 damage removal in EDH. At instant speed, you could engineer board states and blocks where this still was a 3-for-1 (although not really as you probably had to chump and trade off and stuff), but at Sorcery speed? You have to be way far ahead AND hope they block just so if you want to get a bit of extra oomph.

As noted, it can be good if you're running stuff like Sulfuric Vapors, Jaya, Venerated Firemage, Obosh, the Preypiercer, or Torbran, Thane of Red Fell- but those decks could also run Meteor Blast, Comet Storm, Mizzium Mortars, Jaya's Immolating Inferno, Electrickery and even Arc Lightning instead and likely getting more value. Each of those brings greater flexibility, greater destructive power, a lower CMC, and/or instant speed to the party.

I did some playing on Scryfall and found two obscure cards that would also be better in such a deck: one, my old favorite from my first year of playing Volcanic Wind and the other a card I'd never seen in Dwarven Catapult. If you want to get opponents with interesting quirky old cards, I'd start with those.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 29th, 2020; Graveyard Marshal

Hmm. I like how aggressive this is, even if I'm not exactly keen on the activation cost. Are Scathe Zombies worth a card if they have flash and don't cost a card in hand? Hmm, pretty tough sell, but perhaps I'm being overtly tough on them.

[Mookie]

Hmmm... I don't have a lot of experience playing tribal decks, Zombie tribal or otherwise. As a result, it's somewhat difficult for me to evaluate exactly how good Graveyard Marshal is. I've run Mobilization before, and not been that impressed - three mana for a token feels like a fairly inefficient rate. You do gain a relevant tribal synergy and a slightly larger body, which is great for stuff like Noxious Ghoul. Meanwhile, entering tapped makes the tokens slightly worse as blockers. Still, the real kicker for me is that you need to exile a creature card to create the token. Zombie decks are certainly capable of filling their graveyard, but it does put a cap on how many tokens you can create. It also shuts off recursion options like Lord of the Undead and Zombie Apocalypse.

I'll call out Cemetery Reaper as an obvious comparison - incidental grave hate and a lord effect means I'd give it the nod over the Marshal. That said, there are a lot of token producers for zombies, ranging from Liliana's Mastery to Army of the Damned. I don't hate Marshal, but I also feel like there are better token producers available.

[3drinks]

Hmmm... I don't have a lot of experience playing tribal decks, Zombie tribal or otherwise. As a result, it's somewhat difficult for me to evaluate exactly how good Graveyard Marshal is. I've run Mobilization before, and not been that impressed - three mana for a token feels like a fairly inefficient rate. You do gain a relevant tribal synergy and a slightly larger body, which is great for stuff like Noxious Ghoul. Meanwhile, entering tapped makes the tokens slightly worse as blockers. Still, the real kicker for me is that you need to exile a creature card to create the token. Zombie decks are certainly capable of filling their graveyard, but it does put a cap on how many tokens you can create. It also shuts off recursion options like Lord of the Undead and Zombie Apocalypse.

I'll call out Cemetery Reaper as an obvious comparison - incidental grave hate and a lord effect means I'd give it the nod over the Marshal. That said, there are a lot of token producers for zombies, ranging from Liliana's Mastery to Army of the Damned. I don't hate Marshal, but I also feel like there are better token producers available.

Oh. %$#% I missed that before, grave marshal doesn't tap to activate. So you can get a pair of 2/2s for 4BB, and increasingly scaled. Does that change the evaluation?

[Inkeyes22]

I don't think it does, Black really likes playing with your second hand (Graveyard) so getting rid of other people's stuff while reanimating your own is generally a better deal. Now with that being said having a 3 power 2 cmc critter is worth having sometimes even if you never activate his ability. I remember a draft where I just left open 2B and they played around it even though I had no critters in the 'yard. There are so many moving parts it is easy to psych yourself out especially when you have to pay attention to 3+ battlefields.

[MeowZeDung]

Good in Syr Konrad, the Grim where you're already into self-mill and likely running all the mono black big mana stuff like urborg/coffers/nykthos/crypt ghast that you can just sink into this fella.

[Dunharrow]

I think in a zombie deck it fights your recursion plan
But if you are monoblack and don't care much for your graveyard, it can be really good.

[BeneTleilax]

Dedicated Zombie decks tend to have better ways to spam 2/2s (Gisa, Zombie Infestation, Endless Ranks, etc), and as mentioned have other things to do with their graveyards. Outside of dedicated zombie tribal, you're probably better off with another, cheaper token maker. I could however see it as a sink for big mana Coffers-type decks, and if you have one laying around, it's not a *bad* card for zombie tribal by any stretch.

[Outcryqq]

Graveyard Marshal
This would be pretty bad in my Lord of Tresserhorn zombie tribal deck. Exiling your own zombies is bad most of the time, since the deck likes to recur them. Even though it has to tap, I vastly prefer something like Cemetery Reaper, which gives you a lord effect plus grave hate. There are much better ways to make zombie tokens that do not also actively fight a zombie tribal game plan (bin zombies, recur zombies).

[Hawk]

I've tried it in Varina, Lich Queen and it's mostly just a 3/2 vanilla for BB. The ability reads strong and was probably back-breaking in limited, but in the average Zombie deck one of two things is true:

• You don't want to exile your yard, because you intend to use stuff like Living Death or Patriarch's Bidding or Zombie Apocalypse or Gisa and Geralf or Lord of the Undead to spam those dead zombies back over and over again. Coming back for more is what Zombies Do so exiling one is a really tough sell.
• You have less need to preserve the 'yard, but have access to much more efficient effects like Varina, Lich Queen, The Scarab God, or Cemetery Reaper, for all your token-making needs. These crucially can either target the useless non-zombie cards you've milled/discarded/sacked (Varina) or can target opposing 'yards (Reaper, Scarab). The two most popular commanders for Zombie Tribal by a country mile are Varina and Scarab God, so most Zombie Tribal decks have this effect out of the Command Zone even.

It's currently still in Varina, since it is the only 3/2 for BB with no drawbacks in its tribe. But as I write this I suspect that subbing in Highborn Ghoul, Wight of Precinct Six, or Zombie Outlander (or shelling out the money for Undead Augur or Relentless Dead) would generally be better and all that's assuming you are going for a low-to-the-ground curve instead of the more grindy build favored by @toctheyounger on these forums.

A few folks have pointed out that unlike Reaper, this doesn't tap and thus could be of interest as a manasink in some sort of monoblack "Big Mana" deck - but I think that's still a miss. Those decks are much, much less excited about the 3/2 body on two, and most of the best "big mana black" decks like Syr Konrad, the Grim, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Chainer, Dementia Master, and Erebos, God of the Dead have their own built-in mana sinks. Maybe worth a look for Ayara, First of Locthwain Aristocrats though? Adds two devotion, and lets you make more bodies to sacrifice to effects to draw more cards?

[Ginuqu]

I'm not sure how well the Marshal suits commander but it's beautiful in non-highlander multiplayer discard decks with multiple Mindslicers, Mindlash Slivers and bombs like Awaken the Erstwhile... once everyone's at zero cards in hand and topdecking Signets and Rampant Growths, you're spending all your mana making a serious army. I would not put this in a zombie tribal deck but I might mix in Shepherd of Rot!

[toctheyounger]

I've tried it in Varina, Lich Queen and it's mostly just a 3/2 vanilla for BB. The ability reads strong and was probably back-breaking in limited, but in the average Zombie deck one of two things is true:

• You don't want to exile your yard, because you intend to use stuff like Living Death or Patriarch's Bidding or Zombie Apocalypse or Gisa and Geralf or Lord of the Undead to spam those dead zombies back over and over again. Coming back for more is what Zombies Do so exiling one is a really tough sell.
• You have less need to preserve the 'yard, but have access to much more efficient effects like Varina, Lich Queen, The Scarab God, or Cemetery Reaper, for all your token-making needs. These crucially can either target the useless non-zombie cards you've milled/discarded/sacked (Varina) or can target opposing 'yards (Reaper, Scarab). The two most popular commanders for Zombie Tribal by a country mile are Varina and Scarab God, so most Zombie Tribal decks have this effect out of the Command Zone even.

It's currently still in Varina, since it is the only 3/2 for BB with no drawbacks in its tribe. But as I write this I suspect that subbing in Highborn Ghoul, Wight of Precinct Six, or Zombie Outlander (or shelling out the money for Undead Augur or Relentless Dead) would generally be better and all that's assuming you are going for a low-to-the-ground curve instead of the more grindy build favored by @toctheyounger on these forums.

A few folks have pointed out that unlike Reaper, this doesn't tap and thus could be of interest as a manasink in some sort of monoblack "Big Mana" deck - but I think that's still a miss. Those decks are much, much less excited about the 3/2 body on two, and most of the best "big mana black" decks like Syr Konrad, the Grim, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Chainer, Dementia Master, and Erebos, God of the Dead have their own built-in mana sinks. Maybe worth a look for Ayara, First of Locthwain Aristocrats though? Adds two devotion, and lets you make more bodies to sacrifice to effects to draw more cards?

Yeah it's a pass in my list for all of the reasons listed. I'd rather exile lands than creatures from my yard. The CMC to P/T ratio is right but the cost of exiling creatures is pretty antithetical to what a zombie reanimation list wants.

[MeowZeDung]

Don't get hung up on the zombies y'all. Syr Konrad, the Grim is where it's at for this guy. Mill your creatures, delve em away or use this guy and coffers mana to chew em up and spit em out as tokens eager to die for the pinging cause.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 30th, 2020; Colossification

That art though. Does this have a home outside of Sovereigns of Lost Alara decks, a la Eldrazi Conscription?

Poor Mythic Proportions, getting power crept out like this...(lol, like it was good anyway).

[DirkGently]

I wouldn't say this power creeps Mythic Proportions tbh. Giving trample is a big big deal with massive power boosts like this. Not tapping it is an even bigger deal. Putting this card into a deck without a way to abuse it sounds absolutely awful to me. You're soooo cards-on-the-table, giving everyone a full turn to prep for it, untap, use sorcery-speed removal, etc. Even on a hexproof unblockable that still seems like a huge risk, let alone on anything lacking evasion or protection.

With cute ways to cheat it out and/or mitigate the tap drawback it can be useful, though. As far as mitigating that drawback, it does tap as a trigger, so you could, for example, put it onto Marwyn, the Nurturer and tap her in response to the trigger to generate massive mana, rather than just use it to buff for combat. Or of course something like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord can abuse the efficiency. 20 near-unconditional power for 7 is a great rate.

So as a niche card it can be powerful. But as a general-purpose card I think it's almost certain to disappoint since it's way too slow and telegraphed.