[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Sadly now a relic. As Materpillar said, it just doesn't provide the protection necessary to warrant the cost anymore.

[Mookie]

I've run Spearbreaker Behemoth and it cousin Soul of New Phyrexia in the past, plus the more distantly related Archetype of Endurance. They're all alright, but power creep is certainly a thing. Indestructible is still strong against the majority of spot removal and board wipes. Sure, Farewell and Toxic Deluge exist... but so do Blasphemous Act, Ruinous Ultimatum, and Supreme Verdict.

My primary critique of Spearbreaker and other protection that sits around is that I'm not sure it is a viable gameplan. Generally, they say to me that they intend to entrench and protect a board position... but I think decks generally want to be more proactive and actually advance their board position instead. Simultaneously, stuff like Heroic Intervention and Tamiyo's Safekeeping can be a massive blowout when cast in response to removal. With Spearbreaker, your opponents just won't cast their removal, and will do other things instead.

...anyway, there are a bunch of good green 7-drops available these days. Spearbreaker seems okay if you have indestructible synergies like Anzrag, the Quake-Mole. Otherwise I would go with Titan of Industry, Vaultborn Tyrant, or some other option.

[pokken]

Ain't nobody got time for 7 drops that don't draw a million cards these days.

[Lifeless]

Once upon a time, in a simpler age, this guy won Maelstrom Wanderer a lot of games. Sometimes I miss battlecruiser Magic.

[Dunadain]

Card is nigh unplayable in 2024 and I don't really like the design anyways.

👎

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 4th 2024; Ezrim, Agency Chief

[pokken]

That is indeed a magic card I guess. :D

That is a damn lot of annoying text for a guy who wouldn't be particularly playable if he was a 5/5 with Flying, Vigilance, Hexproof and Lifelink for 5 who investigated twice on ETB. I mean, maybe someone would make a crappy voltron deck with that?

** the more I noodle on that, I think he would be pretty good if he just had all the keywords and double investigate on etb. Not great, but playable. I'd play that. but I wouldn't go out of my way to play all the signpost crap like wellsprings and stuff.

It's a sac outlet I guess, but it costs mana, which makes it significantly worse, and it's in a color combo that doesn't have all the nice red payoffs for artifacts entering/dying.

Garbage.

[Dunadain]

Actually a kind of compelling Voltron commander now that I'm reading it.

Comes with decent stats, card draw, protection, evasion, lifegain, and a little bit of defense, strong colors, a bit high on the mana cost, but still palatable, especially when you can use spare mana rocks as protection/lifegain/vigilance

Even has it's own unique angle on the voltron formula with Ichor Wellspring and co.

👍👍

(but 2 thumbs down for the alt frame 🤢)

[Sinis]

There's some keyword soup going on with Ezrim, but, I can't see myself wanting to play it. The mana cost is demanding, Investigate twice isn't super-compelling (what are you really doing here; paying 9 mana for a 5/5 flying draw 2? Is that better than Sphinx of Uthuun?).

Maybe in a clue/investigate focused deck, but... it just feels like junk.

[DirkGently]

Busted in limited, mediocre in commander, and nobody is left happy.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I like Ezrim. He's nothing special, but he has access to some nice options and fuels himself upfront. I think he's probably a deceptively good voltron control commander simply because he hits all the important boxes without being busted enough to attract undue attention. Just let your bog-standard azorious control tools grind down the board and then finish them with your 5/5 flyer at your leisure.

[onering]

Why would I run this guy to be my control commander when I could run Chromium 2? Yeah, 2 more mana, but flash is huge for a control deck and he kills in three hits instead of 5.

[Serenade]

He mostly generates tension. Are you using the clues for cards or his abilities? Are you holding mana for popping clues or other spells? I wish these detective/clue legends generated more clues more often, too.

[Mookie]

Ezrim, Agency Chief is certainly sweet - 5/5 flyer for 5 with multiple potentially keywords, plus he's a sac outlet for artifacts and can do all the clue synergies. There's definitely some tension though - you'll want to hold open both mana and expendable artifacts if you want to protect Ezrim, plus mana to crack the clues. There are interesting things you can do with an artifact sac outlet in the command zone, but I think Cloudblazer will often be better in the 99 due to being significantly less mana-intensive. That is a pity though, since Ezrim is a sweet card.

I am planning to add Ezrim to my cube, at least. Makes artifact tokens, hard to kill, good with blink, and a legend - all are relevant things there.

[3drinks]

Friday, April 5th 2024; Sen Triplets

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Friday, April 5th 2024; Sen Triplets

One upside of powercreep is that someday I may get to actually play this card without getting immediately dogpiled for doing so. I think it's still far away, but someday....

[Mookie]

How to fix Sen Triplets, 2024 edition: now has 'Ward '!

Sen Triplets are pretty meh, IMO. They were never particularly powerful, but people hate having their things stolen, which means they tend to draw a lot of hate. Not necessarily as immediately powerful as (insert scary broken commander here)... but if I like the stuff in my hand and don't want to risk losing it, I would certainly consider throwing some removal in their direction. They are an artifact creature, which makes them even more vulnerable to removal.

There are interesting things you can do with Sen Triplets (like copying the trigger), and there are some deckbuilding considerations due to needing the ability to generate off-color mana (5C fixing like Chromatic Lantern is particularly valuable here). I'll mention Xanathar, Guild Kingpin as a similar effect that feels less oppressive.

[pokken]

"I play this, then everyone has to kill it or I %$#% them in particular out of the game" is not a fun play pattern.

[Dunadain]

Why would I run this guy to be my control commander when I could run Chromium 2? Yeah, 2 more mana, but flash is huge for a control deck and he kills in three hits instead of 5.

Lifelike and vigilance are both really good in these Voltron/control shells, though the fact that it costs you each turn to use it is the big sad. Plus hippy points for having the unique eggs + Voltron angle. Probably worse than chromium, but more interesting imo.

Sen Triplets is one of the most overhyped commanders out there, but the play pattern isn't exactly fun so I don't really care to push back against the general hate towards the card.

👎

[materpillar]

I don't think Sen Triplets was ever particularly strong. It's just miserable to lose to after the game has boiled down to a 1v1. I imagine it'll get hated on for basically ever because of this.

One upside of powercreep is that someday I may get to actually play this card without getting immediately dogpiled for doing so. I think it's still far away, but someday....

As mana curves drop getting hit by Sen Triplets is actually worse and worse. It's more likely you double spell from my hand and completely wreck my gameplan. As opposed to casting Spearbreaker Behemoth from my hand and kinda setting me back some. I expect the time you wish for will never come because of this. Once things get super pushed it'll just Silence one player to let you combo/power creep off in whatever flavour.

[BeneTleilax]

The only Sen Triplets decks I saw were Turns, which did not endear them to me

[umtiger]

"I play this, then everyone has to kill it or I %$#% them in particular out of the game" is not a fun play pattern.

I know that's how many people feel. But is that really how this card ever played out?

Even a decade ago, it's not a given the Sen Triplets controller could even get an overwhelming advantage in one turn. And I've been around long enough to even remember the old mana generation rules that limited stuff like Gilded Lotus.

Now, it's lacking green, any come into play trigger and protections. It's kinda like a Don Andres that enables itself.

[Lifeless]

As a rule "choose target opponent" is a recipe for disaster.

[WizardMN]

"I play this, then everyone has to kill it or I %$#% them in particular out of the game" is not a fun play pattern.

I know that's how many people feel. But is that really how this card ever played out?

I think I played against it once in Paper and only a couple times online but I would agree it probably isn't quite as egregious as pokken is getting at in a lot of situations. However, it still messes with things as others have pointed out. It doesn't have to be game breaking to be annoying but it absolutely *can* be game breaking which is something most players would want to avoid I would imagine.

I enjoy the planning and strategy of the game and having a card that basically throws all that out because the Triplets player getting to steal my lands and my answer cards just feels bad. And I don't want to get into that situation so I will generally do what I can to ensure Triplets' trigger never resolves. The last game online I played, that is exactly what happened. 3 players ganged up on Sen Triplets and their trigger never happened.

And 3 players in that game were happier for it.

In the end, it is less about what it does do and more about what it can do. I always assume the worst with it.

[BeneTleilax]

As a rule "choose target opponent" is a recipe for disaster.

There's also a play pattern that this and other cards that go-off by screwing with a particular opponent create, where the person playing them gets desperate to let their deck do its thing after being preemptively stopped as a threat too many times. So instead of targeting the strongest player, who has visible answers/large creatures for counterattacks/self-protection effects/etc, they make a deal with the strongest player to essentially kingmake them in exchange for finally getting to do their thing (repeatedly mug a weaker player of their chances to catch up). This is deeply annoying for everyone else at the table.