MTGNexus

Friday, August 19th, 2022; Magnetic Web



Well there's a card I never seen before.

I can't imagine there's a deck that wants to play this. Way too cute for its own good. Pump in a bunch of mana for dubious benefit, considering the effect is symmetrical and you're usually only building up counters one at a time. Pretty easy to see what you're trying to set up, and avoid it.

That art is pretty gnarly, though.

Yeah, my takeaway was that it doesn't actually force you to attack, like Angel's Trumpet or Total War. Or even a Bullwhip.

Hmm, best spot for it is likely in a Mathas, Fiend Seeker style deck, or anything with heavy goad. But it's never gonna be the best in class at what it does.

DirkGently wrote: ↑

1 year ago

That art is pretty gnarly, though.

and that rusted look

DirkGently wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I can't imagine there's a deck that wants to play this.

I used it back in the day (before EDH pre-cons). I think it was an Assassin deck. . .
Primarily I used it to snipe value critters (along with Provoke effects) forcing things like Lighthouse Chronologist to block. Didn't hold up well against the value weenies with tap effects though. Could also be niche-useful occasionally to force what would otherwise be a blocker to attack. Got though a hit with Quietus Spike once or twice that way.

Still - style points.

DirkGently wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I can't imagine there's a deck that wants to play this.

I ran this in my super short-lived Perry build that wanted to collect all the various weird counters. It was functional there, pumped Perry up a notch like desired, and served as a form of creature removal.

Ok if I ever build Firkraag, Cunning Instigator this could make a cool surprise slot.

Kind of slow, no? I'm sure it has a Stax use, but I'm reminded of the expression "Never provoke a Wellwisher."

Saturday, August 20th, 2022; Repercussion

This plus Blasty Act is a pretty effective way to end a game very quickly.

Repercussion is one of my favorite build around cards. Functionally a Bedlam, doubling up or more on damage based board wipes, and multi-replacing with Furnace of Rath effects. It's great more most creature-light decks and really upends typical play patterns.

This was an absolute staple of my highschool groups metagame. One player ran Ashling the Pilgrim control. This was probably his most common way to win the game. Card is an absolute house.

I used to use this in a Pestilence deck. I can confirm how ridiculous it is.

Use Caltrops, Lightmine Field, Circle of Flame. Then force them to attack.

I am shocked this card is not RL.

I have it in Nin where it probably does not do enough…though I've won with that Dirk situation before, so I am reluctant to remove!

Give me a modern reprint like now, please.

The ultimate mix up is to just play the card without deliberately trying to abuse it, just to leave it there and have the table on edge

Sunday, August 21st, 2022; Krond the Dawn-Clad



That mv though.

Krond is kinda weird from a commander perspective. On the one hand, he's quite good if you can enchant him and start swinging. On the other, he's a 6 drop with total color requirements and a massive target on his forehead that encourages at least one of your opponents to 2-for-1 you whenever he has an enchantment on him before you go to combat. As a commander, he's rather limiting, very threatening, and very difficult to protect. In the 99, his mana cost will create some issues for decks that are more colors, and still both very threatening and very difficult to protect. I dunno. Does a Bant aura deck want this guy? I have no idea.

Might not be bad in an Estrid, the Masked deck, since her masks will cause his ability to trigger and also protect him, but that mana cost. Is the payoff worth it? ...Probably...?

We got Sigarda, Host of Herons THAT SAME MONTH.

Vela: works with ninjas, third ability impacts all opponents, doesn't do mill stuff
Krond: rEmEmBeR tOtEm ArMoR?

Poor dude just had so much working against him.

If only he at least had hex proof from Instants. Or even like a four mv 3/4 version. I'd play that probably.

I wanna see more things like this without generic costs. Screw your color splashes, either commit to your Niv-Mizzet, Parun or die to your lame fixing. Magic needs more prohibitive mana costs!

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I wanna see more things like this without generic costs. Screw your color splashes, either commit to your Niv-Mizzet, Parun or die to your lame fixing. Magic needs more prohibitive mana costs!

Honestly, in eternal formats where fetch lands are legal, it's an underexplored balancing tool. I support this.

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I wanna see more things like this without generic costs. Screw your color splashes, either commit to your Niv-Mizzet, Parun or die to your lame fixing. Magic needs more prohibitive mana costs!

Fair to say. Though I must say, I have played Deus of Calamity and friends in three- and four-color decks before. Krond is more prohibitive (six mana, and it has to be three of each color, not just any mix), but it's still pretty easy to play things like this.

Or, if he's not your commander, you can just put him in your graveyard and reanimate him.

Also, I really expected "dawn-clad" to have a robe of red, orange, yellow, and magenta while "night-clad" would have something like a dress of stars.

It always sounds like Krond the Donk-Lad. Like, he's a small boy who likes donkeys.

I dunno about making expensive manabases even more important. Not that I personally would be affected, of course. But I think the area where anti-splash is more relevant is cards like Smothering Tithe and Cyclonic Rift in the 99, not the commander itself.

Interesting comparison to Tetsuo, Imperial Champion, insofar as they both want to be enchanted/equipped but don't care about having more than 1. Which I would say charitably makes them open-ended, and uncharitably makes them kinda boring because they hit their maximum synergy cap almost immediately and then you don't have anything else to do.

But in Krond's particular case, costing 6 and having no inbuilt protection makes him particularly dicey, especially with auras.