[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[3drinks]

People do still run Return to Dust for that sweet 2for1

I'm a fan of Crush Contraband myself, though it's not quite the same.

[Dunadain]

Ephemerate doesn't need two targets.

👎

[Treamayne]

Ephemerate doesn't need two targets.

I think he meant the first target and the rebound target. If you only have one creature and thet creature is removed before rebound, you have lost your second activation. Momentary Blink lets you chose when to recast (at the cost of possibly having it removed from the yard - I do enjoy targetting it with Gaea's Blessing when I know somebody milled it to have a stealth blink at-the-ready)

[aliciaofthevast]

Of these, only Anguished Unmaking exiles. The rest are all destroy effects. Resculpt and Return to Dust are in the top 20, and Utter End is in the top 30. Either way, the vast majority of removal spells that are in decks don't hit indestructible artifacts - most people aren't willing to pay a premium for them, presumably because there aren't many indestructible artifacts that see play.

I guess so. I've seen a lot of one ring and that makes me much more inclined to look for the premium answer I guess. Maybe the Ring isn't actually super prominent in today's commander metagame?

Wait, am I the only one that started playing Magus of the Unseen to repetitively start messing with people's burden counters? 👀

[Mookie]

Of these, only Anguished Unmaking exiles. The rest are all destroy effects. Resculpt and Return to Dust are in the top 20, and Utter End is in the top 30. Either way, the vast majority of removal spells that are in decks don't hit indestructible artifacts - most people aren't willing to pay a premium for them, presumably because there aren't many indestructible artifacts that see play.

I guess so. I've seen a lot of one ring and that makes me much more inclined to look for the premium answer I guess. Maybe the Ring isn't actually super prominent in today's commander metagame?

Wait, am I the only one that started playing Magus of the Unseen to repetitively start messing with people's burden counters? 👀

It varies by meta, I imagine. I've seen the Ring once or twice in my meta, but it isn't particularly common. The fact that it's $50+ keeps it out of a lot of decks. On the other hand, I imagine that a meta that regularly features the Ring, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Mithril Coat, and other indestructible stuff will feature more exile-based removal... or just lots of copies of Farewell.

Momentary Blink, on the other hand, is a card I haven't seen played at all. I think I tested it in my Brago deck ages ago, but it seems sort of underwhelming these days. It's not bad, strictly speaking, but I think it compares poorly to Ephemerate and other blink options. Four mana for the flashback cost is a lot to hold up. That said, my perception is certainly skewed by my experience with Brago. Once that deck gets going, it draws more cards than I know what to do with... which means I don't need any additional value from my cards and would instead prefer more efficient interaction.

[EonAon]

Indestructible artifacts are also pretty tricky to deal with - while creature exile is pretty common, it is less common for people to go out of their way to exile artifacts and enchantments. This means you are likely to have the opportunity to protect your commander a second time if it is removed.

You mean people still aren't on Deglamer and Unravel the Aether yet? I thought we were past this whole not respecting indestructible thing. Welp 😳

Looking at the most commonly played artifact removal, the ten most common pieces of spot removal are:

• Beast Within
• Generous Gift
• Boseiju, Who Endures
• Vandalblast
• Reclamation Sage
• Anguished Unmaking
• Abrade
• Nature's Claim
• Krosan Grip
• Putrefy

Of these, only Anguished Unmaking exiles. The rest are all destroy effects. Resculpt and Return to Dust are in the top 20, and Utter End is in the top 30. Either way, the vast majority of removal spells that are in decks don't hit indestructible artifacts - most people aren't willing to pay a premium for them, presumably because there aren't many indestructible artifacts that see play.

In contrast, the most common creature removal does exile - Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Anguished Unmaking, Deadly Rollick, and Reality Shift all can deal with indestructible creatures. I will hypothesize that this is both because indestructible creatures are more common, and because creature recursion is more common. You don't want to Doom Blade something scary only for it to immediately be brought back by Animate Dead or whatever.

lets not forget True Love's Kiss

[3drinks]

Monday, April 29th 2024; Silversmote Ghoul

Nice little self-contained value engine. It's no Bloodghast, but it'll get the job done.

[Dunadain]

I think this guy is sweet, I keep trying to add him to my decks, but I don't have any decks that can reliably gain 3 life every turn. Looks like he'd be great if I did though.

👍

[yeti1069]

Indestructible artifacts are also pretty tricky to deal with - while creature exile is pretty common, it is less common for people to go out of their way to exile artifacts and enchantments. This means you are likely to have the opportunity to protect your commander a second time if it is removed.

You mean people still aren't on Deglamer and Unravel the Aether yet? I thought we were past this whole not respecting indestructible thing. Welp 😳

Looking at the most commonly played artifact removal, the ten most common pieces of spot removal are:

• Beast Within
• Generous Gift
• Boseiju, Who Endures
• Vandalblast
• Reclamation Sage
• Anguished Unmaking
• Abrade
• Nature's Claim
• Krosan Grip
• Putrefy

Of these, only Anguished Unmaking exiles. The rest are all destroy effects. Resculpt and Return to Dust are in the top 20, and Utter End is in the top 30. Either way, the vast majority of removal spells that are in decks don't hit indestructible artifacts - most people aren't willing to pay a premium for them, presumably because there aren't many indestructible artifacts that see play.

In contrast, the most common creature removal does exile - Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Anguished Unmaking, Deadly Rollick, and Reality Shift all can deal with indestructible creatures. I will hypothesize that this is both because indestructible creatures are more common, and because creature recursion is more common. You don't want to Doom Blade something scary only for it to immediately be brought back by Animate Dead or whatever.

Many of the exile creature removal spells don't seem to have a premium tacked onto their cost--Swords and Path are the most efficient removal spells in the format (ever printed?). Deadly Rollick is often free. Reality Shift has a slight cost boost from Rapid Hybridization, and a "drawback" that is hard to weigh against the 3/3 (sometimes it's a 2/2 vs the 3/3, sometimes it has also removed a valuable noncreature, and sometimes it has provided card draw and helped a valuable creature avoid the stack/sneak in), but 2 mana for removal is also pretty reasonable.

Anyway, I think Mithril Coat is a fantastic card.

Monday, April 29th 2024; Silversmote Ghoul

Nice little self-contained value engine. It's no Bloodghast, but it'll get the job done.

I've had this in and out of Varina who both wants the zombie typing and can easily gain 3+ life a turn. If the cost to sac was or or free I would feel better about including it.

[BeneTleilax]

This guy, Witch of the Moors and Veinwitch Coven make a nice little lifegain recursion package, helped by the fact that Blood Artist effects incidentally gain life. They're all quite good in grindier aristocrats decks without a token or combo focus.

[Mookie]

Silversmote Ghoul looks reasonable - it's a free recursive body that can be easily converted into card advantage. It requires more work than, say, Tenacious Underdog, but you get something better if you have the appropriate synergies. It's not hard to loop it with something like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Blood Artist, or Soul Warden. Overall, seems like a fine inclusion for lifegain decks that care about having expendable spare bodies. That said, there is an absurd amount of competition for slots in lifegain / aristocrats decks, so I'm not sure if it gets the nod over other recursive bodies. Free recursion is certainly nice though - paying for Reassembling Skeleton or Nether Traitor can really add up over time.

[Treamayne]

I feel like this just wants something like Venser's Journal, if you ahev already gained the requisite life on Upkeep, then you can play out the attack/sacrifice/return however needed during the turn. Not sure it would make the cut in my Garza Vampire deck though, since that cares more about counters than aristocats interactions. . .

[3drinks]

Tuesday, April 30th 2024; Draugr Necromancer

I'm all for cards that can stop the litany of dies combos (lookin at you, Redcap) passively with no further input required. Just force the combo player to find an out before they can do the thing.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

In a world where Gisa, Glorious Resurrector does all the same things but for free, I can't imagine ever playing this card outside of a thematic dedication to Snow.

[yeti1069]

In a world where Gisa, Glorious Resurrector does all the same things but for free, I can't imagine ever playing this card outside of a thematic dedication to Snow.

There are zombie and cleric synergies to account for. Still, I have both a zombie deck and a cleric deck, but haven't felt inclined to dump resources into snowing out their mana, so the Draugr hasn't ever made the cut.

There are also other differences:
Gisa has to be in play continuously from exile to the beginning of your upkeep, whereas Draugr can leave play and come back later and still have access to those cards.
Gisa's stolen creatures can't block and die if you attack with them, whereas Draugr's have no such restriction.

Getting the creatures for free is a big deal, but a lot of the time, if I'm stealing creatures, I want to be able to block with them. Over all, I think Gisa is a little stronger, but Draugr has more utility. Ultimately, however, if what you want most is the exile dying creatures clause, there are cheaper options, such as Stone of Erech.

[folding_music]

yeah, the Draugr gives you unrestricted use of the creatures you resurrect, a really powerful ability. just happens to be on a 4/4 for 4 that has no evasion or protection abilities
wonder how often you'd use it twice? like, would Animate Dead usually be better?

[3drinks]

In a world where Gisa, Glorious Resurrector does all the same things but for free, I can't imagine ever playing this card outside of a thematic dedication to Snow.

Off the top of my head, there's benefits to keeping the things "on ice" until you say so, rather than just getting them until they attack. Such as keeping your combo pieces in exile.

Ultimately, however, if what you want most is the exile dying creatures clause, there are cheaper options, such as Stone of Erech.

Stone is fantastic. One of my fave Saga hits!

[Mookie]

Draugr Necromancer seems okay, but there are several other versions of this effect that I would say are better. Gisa, Glorious Resurrector is one, but I think Dauthi Voidwalker and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are the strongest if you don't care about the theft effect (to say nothing of more dedicated hate cards like Leyline of the Void). Necromancer can be interesting if you have a heavy snow theme, but I don't think I would run it automatically just because I have a snow manabase - I would want actual synergies for snow creatures.

[pokken]

It's pretty decent in my lame jorn snow deck. :D

[3drinks]

Wednesday, May 1st 2024; Wort, Boggart Auntie

[materpillar]

Wednesday, May 1st 2024; Wort, Boggart Auntie

I tried to run this in my Changeling deck for recursion but it was just too slow. I have a hard imagining running this as an actual goblin commander over some of the mono-R options.

[Mookie]

Most goblin decks are mono-red, but I could see running Wort, Boggart Auntie if you specifically want to do br goblins - she's the only legendary goblin in those colors that actually cares about goblins. Murderous Redcap, Munitions Expert, Sling-Gang Lieutenant... there are plenty of good black goblins to justify adding another color. That said, I would probably go with Grenzo, Dungeon Warden instead - Wort's recursion ability seems pretty slow.

[yeti1069]

Most goblin decks are mono-red, but I could see running Wort, Boggart Auntie if you specifically want to do br goblins - she's the only legendary goblin in those colors that actually cares about goblins. Murderous Redcap, Munitions Expert, Sling-Gang Lieutenant... there are plenty of good black goblins to justify adding another color. That said, I would probably go with Grenzo, Dungeon Warden instead - Wort's recursion ability seems pretty slow.

Yeah. Years ago I had entertained moving my 60-card goblins deck to commander, but, at the time, Wort seemed to be the only relevant Rakdos commander, and she's just unimpressive and slow, so I gave up on that idea. The real draws of adding to goblins are (mass) recursion, better removal, and better (big) draw. The solutions goblin decks have to combat board wipes are either removing the likely player before they can wipe, or jamming more goblins after the wipe. Black provides some additional options there. Wort ostensibly contributes to that plan as well, but she's slow, and susceptible to all the same pressures that the rest of a goblin deck would normally be subject to. Grenzo could be decent.

Mishra, Claimed by Gix isn't a goblin, but reinforces what goblins want to be doing, and helps shore up life for a deck that is typically not great on defense.
Vial Smasher the Fierce is a goblin, but his ability doesn't synergize well with the typical low CMC of goblin decks. Still, it's more damage, which is what goblins want.
Garna, Bloodfist of Keld isn't a goblin, but helps keep the deck flush with cards while being aggressive, AND punishes wipes.

[Dunadain]

Other Wort is better, and you've already heard my thoughts on that one.

👎

[3drinks]

Duel Decks Series: BRed Wort vs Tivadar of Thorn, when?