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

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's a glorified Fleshbag Marauder for twice as much in most games. And you don't even get card parity.

[Sinis]

Sunday, Match 6th, 2022; Reign of the Pit

I want to like this card, but it's dreadful for cost. I, of course, have a copy I've never played.

[wildfire393]

I've got a copy in my Garth odd tokens deck, but it might get replaced by a Phyrexian Rebirth which does something similar but is much better against a big board of opposing tokens.

[Dunharrow]

I remember a 6 player game of conspiracy where I cast this and got a 20/20 flyer. I was at 20 life, swung at someone who didn't have a blocker. He says "are you sure you want to attack me? I will kill you."
And I am like 'what kind of dumb ass bluff is this you no board.'

Ya well he reveals two Double Strokes and casts two Brimstone Volleys. dealing me 20 and another 10 at random creatures.

Moral of the story? Not sure.
But don't play this in commander.

[3drinks]

Monday, March 7th, 2022; Strength of the Tajuru

[Dunharrow]

Weird card. In limited it's like an expensive buff with the potential for a combat phase blowout every once in a while.
In commander, it is pretty bad unless you are putting a ton of mana into it, in which case I am not sure how good this is. doesn't even give trample.

[Mookie]

Strength of the Tajuru is somewhat interesting to compare to Comet Storm - both are X-cost instants with multikicker to hit additional targets... but while I think Comet Storm is pretty solid in EDH, I don't think I would ever play Strength of the Tajuru. If you have a wide board and can use it to pump 5+ creatures, and you have a bunch of mana to dump into it, it could represent a ton of damage... but 'if you have a wide board' is a pretty big ask. Green also has a lot of other cards that can win given a bunch of mana or a wide board, many of which require significantly less setup. Requiring a board presence and mana and being soft to removal means I don't think it is a very consistent finisher, unlike Comet Storm (which only cares about having lots of mana). I'll also call out that Strength of the Tajuru's instant typing is less valuable than Comet Storm's, since the only time you are likely to cast it is during your own combat phase.

....I suspect the best way to use Strength of the Tajuru is as a way to enable voltron damage - there aren't that many cards that can put that many +1/+1 counters on a creature at instant speed. Throw it on a commander with double strike (or even an opponents' commander) and it can represent surprise lethal. It also works well with +1/+1 counter synergy commanders.

[Hawk]

In an awkward spot for sure. Technically, there is no card that does exactly what it does in Green. Wren's Run Hydra is likely more flexible of you just want to pump a single creature for Voltron blowouts, and The Crowd Goes Wild is better if you want to ratchet up the whole squad, but this card can do either or both in a way its competitors can't, and at sufficient mana also does either or both better than Swell of Courage.

The problem is that what this is doing just doesn't seem that great next to Finale of Devastation and Craterhoof Behemoth or even Overrun and Overwhelming Stampede. For single-target, again this is worse than Hydra and I'd also mark this as worse than Increasing Savagery as a power play. Further, if you are hoping your X-spell kills without a big board most X decks are Rosheen Meanderer or Zaxara, the Exemplary and thus have access to much stronger spells like Crackle with Power and Exsanguinate.

I have tried it in a few decks - both GB Elfball and Simic Counters, and it was super underwhelming in both decks and got cut.

[3drinks]

Experiment Kraj has entered the chat.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It can also be used with infect, but that's not so different from Voltron. If you have a combat-based wincon, it's okay, but never great.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022; Twist Allegiance

[Sinis]

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022; Twist Allegiance

Is this just Reins of Power but bad, but with kinda cool art?

[Hawk]

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022; Twist Allegiance

Is this just Reins of Power but bad, but with kinda cool art?

Yes.

Longer answer: Very yes, but Reins of Power isn't in red and thus not available as competition in monored, Gruul, Boros, Rakdos, Jund, Mardu, and Naya decks. Even there though - we're one mana away from Insurrection and at the same CMC as Molten Primordial. That means we're also over the mana values of Mass Mutiny and Mob Rule. Reins is so cute in blue because A) it's an instant and B) it's in a color not known to have decent, brawly boards of its own. For Red, their mass Threatens are just better at surprise killing the table in a 75% meta.

Still grinds salt in the wound - it's unrelated but it reminds me of MaRo talking about if Hullbreacher could have been white and the answer was "maybe, but not at that efficiency level and not without more restrictions". Blue's color pie is often "what other colors do, but for less mana and at instant speed".

[Sinis]

Still grinds salt in the wound - it's unrelated but it reminds me of MaRo talking about if Hullbreacher could have been white and the answer was "maybe, but not at that efficiency level and not without more restrictions". Blue's color pie is often "what other colors do, but for less mana and at instant speed".

I'm convinced some significant percentage of Magic Development hates White. I'm going to make a discussion thread in a moment; I feel like we'd be derailing how awful Twist Allegiance is by continuing that discussion here.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022; Twist Allegiance

Is this just Reins of Power but bad, but with kinda cool art?

It's not blue. If it were blue, you'd get Reins of Power. Funny how that is.

Twist Allegiance is made worse by the fact that so many better cards exist for the same mana or one more. Insurrection costs just one more mana.

[onering]

Remember how Wizards thought people didn't like Kamigawa because of the setting? This %$#% is the real reason. Severely overpriced weakness. Opening a pack and flipping through a flood of 5 mana 2/2s and 8 mana 5/5s only to find this chunk of sadness as your rare.

[Sinis]

Remember how Wizards thought people didn't like Kamigawa because of the setting? This %$#% is the real reason. Severely overpriced weakness. Opening a pack and flipping through a flood of 5 mana 2/2s and 8 mana 5/5s only to find this chunk of sadness as your rare.

I once spoke with someone who was close with members of R&D from that era, and they were saying that Mirrodin block was a major black eye on Design, and that player dissatisfaction was so palpable that it really hurt business. Senior members of Design were hauled in front of executives, and warned that another misstep like Mirrodin block would result in serious consequences (probably dismissals?).

Anyway, they decided that Kamigawa would be super safe. Everything they designed, they second guessed themselves asking "Does this really need flying?" and saying "Perhaps this should cost one more...". I believe this is the enduring reason original Kamigawa had dreadfully weak cards. The setting itself was tarnished by the weak prints, and I would estimate that there was a fear that a return to Kamigawa would leave a warding feeling in players, a worry that it would be another block (or set) full of cards too awful to be interesting.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, March 9th, 2022; Wake the Past

[Dunharrow]

Very niche card, but good in that specific deck, I guess. 7 mana is a bit more than I normally want to pay to cheat things into play, so I would only play if I have a ton of artifact creatures, self milling and some heavy hitters.
I wonder if this could have hit all graveyards without costing more.

[Hawk]

Very niche card, but good in that specific deck, I guess. 7 mana is a bit more than I normally want to pay to cheat things into play, so I would only play if I have a ton of artifact creatures, self milling and some heavy hitters.
I wonder if this could have hit all graveyards without costing more.

Roar of Reclamation says no, but mostly because Boros doesn't get nice things - artifacts are more niche than creatures and black gets Rise of the Dark Realms, so in theory Boros SHOULD be able to have hit all 'yards with this for the same CMC. But in practice, something something Council of Colors.

As noted, this card is disappointing. It's technically the best version of this effect in Boros, but 7 mana is just too much. If you want to cheat stuff in play, I'd be looking for ways to break the symmetry of Scrap Mastery instead (an actual nice thing they gave Red with no Red taxes over Living Death). If you are more excited on the raw quantity, you might as well just slam Open the Vaults and assume you'll get more than the opponents.

[hyalopterouslemur]

A bit much to be one-sided. I mean, I could just use Krark-Clan Ironworks and Scrap Mastery.

TBH, it doesn't need to be one-sided. Replenish is busted and it's not one-sided.

[Dunharrow]

I just feel like how many artifacts do your opponents actually have in their graveyards. You expect creatures to be in yards over the course of the game, and Rise of the Dark Realms counts on it... but for 7 mana, boros colors, I think letting you steal the odd Mind Stone could be cool without actually making this more powerful.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Hitting all graveyards would have been nice, but instant speed would have been better

[Mookie]

I've played enough with Open the Vaults (and Roar of Reclamation) to confidently say that Wake the Past making the effect asymmetric is worth an extra mana. Mass reanimation effects are very strong when built around, and you won't always have grave hate available to shut down your opponents' graveyards. Blowing up an opponent's Null Rod only to need to deal with it a second time is... very annoying. Assuming you have built your deck around it, you'll generally get more value than your opponents... but it's still annoying to deal with.

....I'm also not sure why people are wishing this hit all graveyards. Assuming you're talking about Rise of the Dark Realms-style 'everything enters under your control', I only see that ability showing up on two other cards - Grimoire of the Dead and Liliana Vess, plus a few conditional cards like Thrilling Encore and Myojin of Grim Betrayal. In other words, that is pretty clearly a black ability, not a red/white one. I'm also dubious of how much value stealing your opponents' artifacts would be in the first place - unless they are also playing an artifact-based deck, you would probably only get one or two cards of value.

I'll also call out that Replenish is one-sided (in that it only hits your graveyard), and that is part of why it is so busted (with the other part being the fact that it is incredibly undercosted at four mana).

I will agree that seven mana is a lot, but I don't mind mass reanimation effects being somewhat expensive - they scale very well into the lategame, so the longer you wait to cast it, the more stuff you'll have to recur. I suppose that means you can't rush into it with self-mill / looting effects, but I generally view mass reanimation as a plan B to use after plan A has been dealt with, and not the primary gameplan itself.

Assuming you're playing the appropriate Lorehold deck (i.e. Alibou, Ancient Witness), granting your artifact creatures haste is also pretty sweet - this can represent a ton of unexpected damage. I was annoyed when it was printed because it was yet another artifact synergy card for Breya, Etherium Shaper (*shakes fist*) decks that I can't run in Sharuum, but the printing of Brilliant Restoration has mitigated my complaints somewhat.

[3drinks]

Thursday, March 10th, 2022; Rafiq of the Many

Well that's one way to one shot people with your Progenitus commander.