MTGNexus

There are plenty of strong things to do with Arjun, the Shifting Flame - Psychosis Crawler, The Locust God, etc - but you still have the issue of Arjun being a six mana creature with no protection or immediate effect. I suppose one upside is that you can trigger it immediately if you have a cheap (or free) spell (instead of needing to wait for your next upkeep), unlike something like Teferi's Puzzle Box.

...more broadly, Arjun lets you draw absurd numbers of cards and churn through your deck, which makes it pretty easy to find whatever specific card you're looking for. On the flipside, just tossing a bunch of mana rocks and cards that trigger off draw into a deck is... not the most exciting deckbuilding challenge. I think Arjun is a bit more interesting in the 99 as a result.

Monday, Novembr 21st, 2022; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden|tsr

Always takes me back to my Conspiracy deck that had Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Phage the Untouchable.

I play it in Rakdos, Lord of Riots, where it is fine.
I think the current mulligan rules help it a bit.
I am sure somewhere there is a combo with Ashnod's Altar

I have played Grenzo, Dungeon Warden as a commander for long time. 6 or so years ago I had the artist alter it at a GP, and he chose to alter it into Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. Good times! And fun design space for a commander that isn't used too frequently.

I love my Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck. You are always one flip away from doing the most absurd thing.
Think Zada, Hedron Grinder, but with weenies.

Dunharrow wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I am sure somewhere there is a combo with Ashnod's Altar

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden + Ashnod's Altar + Murderous Rider // Swift End/The Cauldron of Eternity + virtually anything

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022; Reya Dawnbringer|uma



...man she has not aged well.

Its a super cool design and wish I could get away with running it but yea..... its not aged well. The only real reason to run this card today is because its cool. Power wise it just isn't it.

I ran her in a Kaalia of the Vast Angel tribal deck that had a lot of board wipes. Sometimes she was underwhelming.

This has been a fun but obviously replaceable effect for Nethroi, Apex of Death reanimator - it's a nice reanimation target for both Nethroi and the other spells in the deck that then begets more reanimating, and it's a flying body to mutate onto in a pinch. While mostly "strictly worse" than Sheoldred, Whispering One in the list, it has still held a spot. Nothing world-shattering and very reliant on finding a way to bin her, but still very fun.

Reya is a cool reanimator target, I guess.

...

Breya, Etherium Shaper is a very cool if overplayed-

Oh, Reya? Pass.

3drinks wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022; Reya Dawnbringer|uma

...man she has not aged well.

One of my first favorite cards. It's just real bad though. I used to have it in my high CMC deck as a 9cmc creature target for Grozoth to put into play for free Myojin of Life's Web. Even with that extremely extremely restrictive card pool she didn't make the cut.

Sheoldred, Whispering One is just everything this is and so much more.

I'd still happily play her for the coolness factor, but yeah, not really that powerful considering she's a 9 drop. That said, I think there's room for suboptimal choices like Reya Dawnbringer in most commander decks. If you really want to force a pet card, you absolutely can, and not only can you get away with it, you can win games with it, even when it's much further from being great than Reya. Worth mentioning, too, that the effect only gets stronger the better your other reanimation targets are. Angel Tribal has every reason a Reya Dawnbringer fan could hope to dredge up to run her, for example, and she can put in work there. Obviously she's no Sheoldred, but that's more than fine. Not being as strong as one or more of the New Phyrexia praetors is something that's true of most Magic cards, and I don't just mean that most Magic cards are bad. It's sort of like, sure, Worn Powerstone looks pretty bad next to Sol Ring, but that doesn't mean Worn Powerstone is a terrible card.

Man, 9 mana goes a hell of a lot farther these days. Not sure if that's good or bad overall though.

I wouldn't even say it's an age issue. She was always too slow. Nothing will take that artwork away from her though...Well maybe except for her later printings *Nervously tugs shirt collar*

Huh, strange that they commissioned the same guy to create a very similar, but less interesting, artwork. And they've really reprinted the crap out of her considering how trash she is. She's got more reprints than the fetchlands (depending how you're counting).

I think she was playable in reanimator back in the day. She's okay if you're cheating her out somehow, though still really slow. If you're paying her actual mana cost it's pretty impossible to justify. 9 is really high.

I run a 7 cost angel commander that reanimates and I still don't want her. 9 CMC is too far. Waiting a turn for it is too far. No combat keywords is too far. 4/6 is too far for the cost. Even in angel tribal, she's a hard pass.

Yeah, nine mana for Reya Dawnbringer is... a lot. It's a high enough cost that you're strongly incentivized to cheat her out, and at that point you might as well go for something with more impact. If I want reanimation in white, I'll go for Karmic Guide or Bruna, the Fading Light. If you really care about repeatability, Emeria Shepherd and Dawnbreak Reclaimer are options.

More broadly, I enjoy recursive strategies, but I rarely go for dedicated reanimation targets. I can justify playing a few 6-drops or maybe a 7-drop at the top of my curve with the backup plan of just hardcasting them in the lategame. When things reach the 8+ mana range, they tend to start warping the deck around them - either you need a bunch of ramp, or some more dedicated reanimation support.... and when you're investing multiple cards into cheating our your fatty, it really has to be something worth all the resources invested. Reya, unfortunately, isn't.

Wedmesday, November 23rd, 2022; Privileged Position



I'm so glad this card cratered down to $2.

I have drifted so far from these effects - I just never want to do it. I build my decks for people to be able to interact with them. Instant speed over permanent-based protection.

The issue I have with these effects, even Lightning Greaves, is that you telegraph pretty significantly and you force people to interact at certain times that may not be opportune for you.

I'll play general purpose stuff like recursion or I'll play Heroic Intervention or similar.

The two major issues I have witht hese things are:
1- they require you to proactively commit mana and cards to protecting stuff
2- they force people to try to deal with whatever you're trying to protect right now (although blanket effects you can cast first, they're usually so expensive you don't want to)

So me, I just almost don't run any protection permanents. Instant speed interaction or recursion are a lot more fun and generalizable.

I have never played this card, but I imagine it would be roughly as disappointing as Asceticism. The effect is desirable, but, not at 5 mana.

Now, something like Greater Auramancy I can get behind; at , the effect is worth it. I would say the thing I disagree with about Privileged Position is the cost.

I would only really play it in a deck that does some kind of Genesis Wave stuff. Like, if I am about to dump 40 permanents into play I might as well have one that protects my stuff.

Greater Auramancy needs a reprint, too.

I run PP in Sythis, Harvest's Hand; I do not consider it for anything else. Not everything is an enchantment, and sometimes I need to throw an aura on her, so PP does more work than GA (and I have Sterling Grove anyway). Sometimes PP is just bait (which is fine if I can keep an enchantress safe), and often feels like win more, but I do love that OG RAV watermark.

By itself the hexproof protection this card offers is not as strong as it looks. But when you add cards like Sterling Grove, Karmic Justice, and Gaddock Teeg...

...(You still cry deeply to Cyclonic Rift just like everyone else)

This card is noob bait. It looks like something you could use to build an impenetrable fortress where nobody can touch you. But the reality is that trying to build that fortress will probably cause you a lot more grief as people see what you're trying to do and freak out, and of course it's much much easier to just...y'know...win the game?

Global hexproof is sort of a jank ability too. How many things of yours are people usually going to want to target anyway? Lightning Greaves is way more practical at protecting the thing that actually matters.