[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Igzex]

Oh come on don't Terror my Seedborn Muse she's 5 mana for only 2 power! Hit that 3/3 beast token over there!

[DirkGently]

Oh come on don't Terror my Seedborn Muse she's 5 mana for only 2 power! Hit that 3/3 beast token over there!

Oh god, that'd be classic Jon logic there. He'll often attack whoever has the most life even if they've got nothing relevant going on, when someone with lower life is building a doom cannon.

[Igzex]

Oh god, that'd be classic Jon logic there. He'll often attack whoever has the most life even if they've got nothing relevant going on, when someone with lower life is building a doom cannon.

He started it! He hit me with his Llanowar Elves on his second turn!

[Avacyn Believer]

Try resolving Tooth and Nail for this + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir if you want to feel extra dirty.

no, no I really don't but thanks for the tip!

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 8th, 2023; Elemental Resonance

[3drinks]

Oh god, that'd be classic Jon logic there. He'll often attack whoever has the most life even if they've got nothing relevant going on, when someone with lower life is building a doom cannon.

He started it! He hit me with his Llanowar Elves on his second turn!

For the love of god Bolas, I've seen this crap far, far too many times. Right up there with dice rolling for targets -_-

[Avacyn Believer]

I kinda like this Elemental Resonance, think I'll try to make use of it in my enchantress deck

[Igzex]

Elemental Resonance looks insane but then you have to consider that 1: This is some pretty overkill ramp considering that you have to be at a stage of the game where there's something big to enchant, 2: It is an enchant permanent so it's an easy 2 for 1 against yourself, and 3: It does nothing until your next turn. In most games, this card is gonna be a brick in your hand that's at least cool to read.

[TheGildedGoose]

I could see this in Xenagos, God of Revels, actually. I would play a rock that came into play tapped, cost 4, and tapped for 5.

[Jemolk]

Elemental Resonance seems strong, but it definitely needs the right kind of shell, and the right kind of target. Could definitely see putting it into something with one of the Theros gods as a commander, since that would give it a good target at basically all times.

@Jemolk Except for true cEDHers, we're all limiting the power level of our decks in some way. That goes all the way from the guy who says "I want as strong of a deck as possible, but I want to play control" all the way down to the guy who says "I'm building chair tribal - but only within masques block". The degree of specificity, and the severity, with which you're limiting yourself is naturally going to dictate which sorts of cards are viable in your deck.

But that degree of limitation is going to restrict the degree to which card evaluations are relevant to other people. If Pretender's Claim comes up as the RCotD, and someone says "that card is great because it's one of the best cards in my masques chair tribal deck", that might be true, but when most people are evaluating the card's usefulness, its utility within masques chair tribal is not exactly a common metric.

All that to say - I assume we're both in agreement that, whatever the complete list is, any doran deck that's running Treefolk Seedlings is clearly very intentionally restricted in power level (I didn't even realize that card existed, and that's a VERY rare occurrence, especially for an older card). And that's true to greater and lesser degrees for all the other cards you listed as well (Reach of Branches might have some broader utility somewhere, not as sure about that one).

They're all very good in Doran Treefolk. In fact, I've found the Seedlings are frequently better than Dungrove Elder because they don't die to my one-sided low-power-matters wraths (Retribution of the Meek, Dusk // Dawn, Slaughter the Strong, and Wave of Reckoning). I'm not going for max power or anything like it -- it's Doran Treefolk -- but I'd say in the context of the power level of a Doran Treefolk list, any deck not running at least Treefolk Seedlings, Magnigoth Treefolk, Dauntless Dourbark and Reach of Branches is handicapping itself. They have proven themselves to be some of the best cards in the deck repeatedly. This is not a joke, not in the slightest. They may not look like much, but the constant recursive value of Reach of Branches, the unblockability combined with high toughness of Magnigoth, and the sheer size of Treefolk Seedlings and Dauntless Dourbark, each with their own significant synergies, is actually a big deal. Battlewand Oak is rather weak, mind, and I really should swap it out for something better, but I can get away with running a bad card occasionally.

A "mono black" multicolor list running coffers was a hypothetical example that occurred to me (things that pay you off for playing mono-color always has coffers near the top ofc). My difficulty there is, theme aside, if you're so committed to coffers that you're warping your manabase around it, surely you're running a decent number of tutors for it to ensure you get that payoff. And if you're already running tutors for lands, then why not just rely on urborg and then you can build a normal multicolor deck with good fixing, all the advantages of another full color, plus get the benefit of coffers counting itself etc? Of course, if the theme of the deck is committed to doing the pseudo-monocolor thing, then that question is irrelevant - it doesn't matter if it's more effective, it's not what you want the deck to do. Fair and fine. Build what you like, of course. But, again, maybe not so broadly useful in terms of card evaluation.

It's not that the theme is so heavily predicated on the pseudo-monocolor thing, so much as that demons are heavily black and only really tertiary in both blue and red. Plus, Sol'Kanar cares about black spells specifically. The deck just really wants a crapton of black mana, plus a splash of blue and red. Not really warping the manabase at all, just adding a few extra taplands in place of other duals for the benefit of Coffers. That can be a cost, but I've never found it to be nearly so great a cost as you're making it out to be. Urborg is in there too, of course, but I'd rather not be forced to tutor for Urborg all the time.

Btw, are we talking about fetchland manabases for these decks? Because pretty much the entirety of this conversation has been in the context of fetch/shock+ manabases in terms of power/budget. Of course, if you're building on a sufficiently tight budget then pretty much anything can be justified. I ask because a fetch manabase generally won't have any trouble enabling things like Mystic Sanctuary in 2c. It would also be capable of getting a decent number of islands into play for scourge of fleets - having 1 more dual land really wouldn't make much difference considering you already have 4 superior dual fetch targets (3 if we're excluding ABUs, 5 if there's a benefit to snow) and you're unlikely to fetch more than that without recursion. At that point, I'd just run a basic island instead, since fixing really shouldn't be a major issue for a 2c deck with a strong manabase and I'd prefer the untapped mana. Same situation for the Depala deck. And in both situations I'd want to consider how much I was willing to warp my manabase based on how many tutors for that card I was running, and how well I could protect it. Not much sense hurting your mana for a card you'll rarely draw, or that will likely die and undo much of the sacrifice you've made.

I don't run off-color fetches for "spirit of the color identity" reasons, so I willingly limit myself on that front. I have and use shocks and original duals, but even on-color fetches are a rarer occurrence. I only really have fetch-dual manabases in my 5-color decks. On the topic of basics, believe me, I run plenty already. Some might say I run too many. Even my 5c decks run 10 basics each. (Largely because I insist on running Thawing Glaciers, which has yet to disappoint me even once.) The cards that I would be replacing with basic-typed tapland duals are other 2-color fixing lands. Checklands, temples, Ravnica bouncelands, and sometimes fastlands. I find painlands to be more trouble than they're worth in my playstyle, which is highly reactive. Sure, sometimes an untapped land is critical. Very often for me, though, 4-5 life over the course of a game is critical. Far more often than simply having a tapped land rather than an untapped one at a critical time, even.

[Dunharrow]

can't elemental resonance be put on an opponent's permanent?

[onering]

Yes, and depending on the situation that's either riskier than playing it on your own or far less risky.

[DirkGently]

This is one of those cards that makes me go "ooooh, that's a really cool strong effect" and then I never once consider actually playing it. Four mana, aura, and it doesn't do anything until next turn? Oof, I don't want to get blown out THAT badly.

@Jemolk I don't think what you're saying really contradicts what I've said. You're building with significant restrictions and that's all good, but it does skew your assessment away from the "norm".

My final, more nuanced take on the DMU taplands is:

• I think for "normal" deckbuilding without budget considerations, they're not worth using.
• If your deck is likely to fetch a lot of the same basic land type, especially if you're on a budget, they might be justifiable, though I still wouldn't play them personally.
• I think most "X land type in play matters" effects are not effective in multicolor decks, however if you are running either multiple and/or tutors for them and/or they're important to your plan, especially if you're on a budget, they might make DMU duals justifiable. (I have run Emeria, the Sky Ruin in Child of Alara for example, though I definitely wouldn't run DMU duals there)
• If you're on a particularly tight budget, guildgate-caliber duals are better than only having basics so go nuts.
• Literally any card can be justified under significant enough self-imposed restrictions - or just because you want to.
• Normal card assessment cannot and should not attempt to evaluate the card under every possible circumstance - if you're building in an unusual context, you'll have to assess the card within that context yourself (for example - Drag to the Bottom is a bad board wipe, but in my Soul of Windgrace DMU-only build, it's one of the only wipes available so it's great!)

[materpillar]

@DirkGently just another small counterexample for their usefulness. My Yurlok of Scorch Thrash has a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle subtheme so I'm running basically every non-basic mountain I can get my hands on. Falls into your 'X land type in play matters' example you mentioned. I'm extremely pleased that these exist for budget reasons too. Some people happen to open a fetch but don't spend the money on them. Having commons they can throw into their decks to greatly improve that fetches quality is fantastic. Basically stuff you already pointed out but I think you're underrating their existence a bit.

Elemental Resonance. Seems terrible. This looks awful even in my High CMC Tribal deck. Only activating in pre-combat main phase is sooooo bad. I could see building a huge janky engine (Xenagos, God of Revels was a cool idea) around it but meh.

[3drinks]

Yeah that precombat rider gives me an awful lot of pause. I suppose it's another way to buy back some mana on Savor the Moment turns. That's the best I got.

[Hermes_]

awww they do like each other

[Venedrex]

Does the art remind anyone else of the scene in ATLA when Aang energybends Ozai?

[3drinks]

Monday, January 9th, 2023; Unholy Heat

One of the best spot removal in the format, capable of hitting more than even the classic dismember|tsr...that I see no one play. Spare me the SpOt ReMoVaL iS bAd diatribe.

[Serenade]

Yep, I totally missed this card. Probably should replace Lightning Bolt wherever I run that.

[PrimevalCommander]

That is a pretty good burn spell. I need to get one of those for Zurzoth, Chaos Rider Burn. I discard enough cards, but the deck is mainly creatures, lands, and artifacts. May have a hard time hitting that 4th type.

[Dunharrow]

I think it is a good card, but niche. I only really fits into decks that a) can conceivably get delirium every game, and b) don't have access to better removal.

I should maybe consider for Mina and Denn, Wildborn

I don't see a mono-red krenko deck running this, it's just going to be a bad shock every game.

[Avacyn Believer]

I am still reluctant to play burn effect removal spells, just feels like it is too easy to get around it in Commander. Maybe if the deck was purpose built for doing damage.

[Dunharrow]

I am still reluctant to play burn effect removal spells, just feels like it is too easy to get around it in Commander. Maybe if the deck was purpose built for doing damage.

can you elaborate on this? I can kinda guess what you mean but I am not 100% sure.

[Lifeless]

I've never seen this but it's a great example of YMMV removal. Wouldn't make the cut for me I don't think but I could see it having a place in some metas.

[Avacyn Believer]

can you elaborate on this? I can kinda guess what you mean but I am not 100% sure.

Sure. What I meant is that when it comes to single target removal spells, there are plenty that simply destroy or exile target creature (or permanent), even Blue has few of those now. In my mind, I'd rather almost always use one of those than a spell that says 'deal X damage' because there are lot of effects people can use to give their creatures extra toughness. So it kind of feels like a waste of a spell to me. I understand that even destroy and exile spells can be negated, but that I feel like happens less.

Admittedly I just might be thinking about these kind of spells the wrong way. When it comes to removal I think 'destroy target'... not 'deal X damage'. It could also be that all my decks with Red have another colour that has the classic removal options, so I never really had to consider these red spells.