[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Dunharrow]

At the very least it should have made a beast token so that if someone kills your token in response to your spell you at least get something out of it.

[Mookie]

As usual, I'm hesitant to run low-floor cards unless they have a correspondingly high ceiling. Full Flowering... doesn't. Worst-case scenario, you have no tokens and this does nothing. Best-case scenario, you have a sweet token to populate and a ton of mana... but it still isn't that much better than more flexible populate cards like Rootborn Defenses and Sundering Growth until you invest 7+ mana at sorcery speed, at which point in time you're in 'literally every X spell is good' territory. And even then, I'm not convinced it beats out Gelatinous Genesis unless you're populating something particularly exotic.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, August 31st, 2022; Decoy Gambit whoops I misread it, please hold. Ahem, Terravore.

[3drinks]

At the very least it should have made a beast token so that if someone kills your token in response to your spell you at least get something out of it.

This spell does not target, so removing your token before this resolves does not counter this spell on resolution.

[DirkGently]

It can definitely get big, and its got trample. But I'm just rarely in the market for big dumb creatures, and most lands-into-graveyards green decks are usually planning to get them out of the graveyard and into play ASAP.

This spell does not target, so removing your token before this resolves does not counter this spell on resolution.

True, but I think he means if you only have 1 creature token. Then you're SOL if it's killed before resolution since the spell doesn't make its own token.

[3drinks]

If you have just one token, and you're casting this, you're probably in a pretty desperate position anyway. At that point what you'd really want is a Secure the Wastes I'd think.

[DirkGently]

If you have just one token, and you're casting this, you're probably in a pretty desperate position anyway. At that point what you'd really want is a Secure the Wastes I'd think.

I think a deck that wants populate doesn't necessarily want a bunch of tiny vanilla tokens like StW provides. Like Trostani, Selesnya's Voice isn't wasting 3 mana to make a 1/1, she's probably looking to copy rare tokens like a sweet Mimic Vat clone. You probably aren't waiting around for a backup token before populating in that case.

[void_nothing]

Terravore is interesting in theory as something that can be b i g for cheap and not that much effort, but in actuality, self-mill green decks definitely have a plan that's something other than "attack with a 25/25 trampler I guess"

[BeneTleilax]

Decent trampling ground beater, though lands.dec generally has better things to do with its time. Still, the fact that it grows off opponent fetchlands is nice. Something like a 7/7 trample for three in the right deck and the right meta isn't nothing though.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I think if you play with/against enough fetches to make it a 5/5 on curve, it's pretty good. People underestimate evasive largeness. I think it loses a lot of ground in more budget metas, as it's not the best payoff for self-mill or lands.dec in that tax bracket.

But I admit, I'm a sucker for stompy creatures of all shapes and varieties.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Terravore is interesting in theory as something that can be b i g for cheap and not that much effort, but in actuality, self-mill green decks definitely have a plan that's something other than "attack with a 25/25 trampler I guess"

And if you're doing self-mill, black and blue also come to the party most of the time. Meaning all the 'goyfs can come to the yard, Lord of Extinction and Bonehoard probably being the best of the bunch. But even just classic reanimator is probably better.

[Ruiner]

I've never seen this in a game of commander but have fond memories of years ago playing against a friend's 60 card deck that used lands that sacrifice themselves, casts Balancing Act followed by Terravore, which was often huge and the only thing left in play. That did some scary stuff. I believe it was called "Balancing Tings". That was a cool deck but I don't think that the concept really works in the Commander format too well.

[3drinks]

Thursday, September 1st, 2022; Magus of the Future|TSR and functional equivalent future sight|ONS

[hyalopterouslemur]

Oh yes, these two. First, let me say I love the M.C. Escher aesthetic. Secondly, while I prefer "you may look at the top card", those of you who know me know I hate giving out information (I make an odd exception for the Scents and Seers because the Seers are reusable and four of the Scents are either removal or a potential wincon. With the Seers, you're essentially giving people the same intel over and over. After that first time you're just playing full blast "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you..."), this is acceptable before they had that technology.

[Serenade]

They are outdated. The Reality Chip is cuter.

[3drinks]

They are outdated. The Reality Chip is cuter.

Are they though? It costs 3UU to get this outta The Chip™ contrasted to the Iiconic 2UUU of future sight effects. And chip still needs a body to attach itself to, in order to pull it off.

[void_nothing]

An unforgettable design. I think I like the original just because it's very resilient. Magus and TRC are great options that are unfortunately a lot easier to remove.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Ixidor always has some banging flavor text. What a quotable guy!

[Jemolk]

I never like giving away information like that, but Future Sight is definitely an excellent card. One of the rare times I'd consider making an exception to my "no free info for opponents" rule. Magus of the Future being a lot more vulnerable makes it a lot less appealing. Not going to be as reliable as card advantage. Over all, I think I prefer The Reality Chip and similar, but Future Sight is still very good, and has its own suite of upsides that new versions of the effect tend to lack.

[PrimevalCommander]

Future Sight has been great in my no creature Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. It is not the best card in the deck, but it does perform very well and can create quite a bit of value over time. Upfront cost is high, and takes more than 1 turn to repay its mana value, which is why only play it in the one deck and have not looked for it in any other decks either. But it has proven its value enough to keep a spot in that deck for now. I just got a Kindred Discovery which would have taken the place of Future Sight but I just like the old-school feel and I knew my Onslaught foil wouldn't have any other place to live.

[Mookie]

Future Sight is a strong card, but I haven't ever found myself inclined to put it in a deck. Maybe I should try it out in my Thada deck sometime? As a general rule, it does better in decks that have access to a lot of mana - the more cards you can play, the more card advantage it represents. Simultaneously, the triple blue cost can make it somewhat rough to play outside monoblue. Revealing what you draw is of somewhat mixed value overall - usually bad (since your opponents have additional information), but the threat of a counterspell / other effect can make it so that your opponents are forced to hold back their larger effects. (insert game theory stuff here)

More broadly, there are a lot of these effects available these days - Vizier of the Menagerie and Oracle of Mul Daya come to mind for green, while red has Experimental Frenzy and colorless has Mystic Forge. Or you could just play Elsha of the Infinite in the command zone. None of these are quite as powerful or versatile, but still worth calling out.

Ultimately, I think the main thing it comes down to is the fact that blue has a lot of options for card draw - if you get to play 5+ cards off Future Sight, then it looks amazing... but if your opponents kill it immediately, then you paid five mana for nothing, when you could have cast (insert draw spell here).

[hyalopterouslemur]

They are outdated. The Reality Chip is cuter.

Are they though? It costs 3UU to get this outta The Chip™ contrasted to the Iiconic 2UUU of future sight effects. And chip still needs a body to attach itself to, in order to pull it off.

It does, but it doesn't telegraph itself. I don't like my opponents knowing I have counters.

[Serenade]

Paying over time (and working with ability cost reduction) and doing not-nothing in the meantime, not being the worst small blocker, having some pseudo wrath protection, and getting artifact synergies all also make it the choice for me.

[3drinks]

Friday, September 2nd, 2022; Conqueror's Flail

[Dunharrow]

Friday, September 2nd, 2022; Conqueror's Flail

I put it in Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest so I can voltron without fear. The deck has a lot of equipment tutors.

I think Grand Abolisher is better but it's a close call.