MTGNexus

I have him in my Atarka Dragon Tribal deck. Dont know how good it is since im yet to draw him tough

I don't play cards like this often but he seems pretty solid to me. Discounts himself when you play him at very least and then provides multiple fights since you probably have decent blockers to protect him. The static power bonus is not special but for 3cmc I like this one a lot.

We lost Borborygmos for this angst filled idiot. I don't play him on principle. I'm glad his character died. /rant

I should probably put this into Korvold tbh. And, I suppose Jared Carthalion, True Heir as well. Really hard to imagine a deck within it's colours not appreciating this as bare minimum it's a cavern of souls for your commander.

Pretty cool gruul card. No notes!

Essentially 2 mana to prevent creatures from being countered and give all yours +1/+1 until eot. It's a solid sorcery that might live to do a lot more.

Just gave my foil copy to a friend as part of an all-foil deck I built for him.

Tbh I like this sort of design for planeswalkers because it's not a must-kill situation since it has no ult to worry about.

Most planeswalkers, because they're relatively free to kill provided you have good attacks, and because they're so potentially threatening with their ult, it's almost always a no-brainer to smack them back to the shadow realm before they build up loyalty and either ult or take longer to kill, which is kinda boring. Very "Here is a threat, show me an answer" gameplay. Domri is cool, though, he just gives decent utility and doesn't put a ton of pressure to kill him, while still being reasonably effective at what he does.

Sunday, January 22nd, 2023; Green Slime

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Man this card is sick.

Not half as sick as Voidmage Husher.

Everyone expects counters from blue, but trigger counter from green?! I gotta think which deck to but that into, seems fun.

3drinks wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I recently had much fun with Emerald Dragon // Dissonant Wave, so this CotD looks great!
Aaand, as with tons of cards the last 1-2 years, i didn't even knew it existed...
Gotta pick up 1-2 copies, i guess.

Isn't this worse than Reclamation Sage the vast majority of the time? Kinda a neat card I suppose.

materpillar wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Isn't this worse than Reclamation Sage the vast majority of the time? Kinda a neat card I suppose.

I wouldn't say worse. Ignoring the difference in toughness, the Slime has Flash and it also counters whatever they were trying to do. It can't hit mana rocks, so its not useful when you want to slow down someone but it can stop things like equipment or draw abilities. So in my opinion not worse, just different utility. Might be worth keeping track of what kind of artifacts/enchantments you destroy most often with the Sage to make an informed assessment. I am curious for myself too.

materpillar wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Isn't this worse than Reclamation Sage the vast majority of the time? Kinda a neat card I suppose.

You hide it then flash cast it for G. Can't imagine a 3mv sorcery answer is better all the time. The best part is hitting the living weapon trigger on a batterskull|sold or Mortarpod.

I would have to think about how often this is relevant. It misses on Phyrexian Altar because it is a mana ability. Misses most mana rocks.
I am sure it has targets most games though.

Monday, January 23rd, 2023; Tariel, Reckoner of Souls|2x2

This was always bad and hasn't improved at all.

This card is just so dang cool, but talk about being massively overshadowed by Kaalia of the Vast. I've never seen it built or cast. It was too slow a decade ago and that has only continued to be the case.

I'd love to be in a meta where I could jam this babe as a commander.

I'd love to build Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, because the effect is cool and I love multi-colour angels and the card has so much theme; but the casting cost is waaaaaaay too high for what the card does, and she doesn't even have haste. So unless you are playing in a friendly pod, at most you gonna cast Tariel once and then she gets killed and becomes 9 mana to cast, yikes. That just sounds frustrating. Tariel should have been only to cast, and lower stats maybe. It is a card for commander, so probably wouldn't impact other formats.

Avacyn Believer wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I'd love to build Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, because the effect is cool and I love multi-colour angels and the card has so much theme; but the casting cost is waaaaaaay too high for what the card does, and she doesn't even have haste. So unless you are playing in a friendly pod, at most you gonna cast Tariel once and then she gets killed and becomes 9 mana to cast, yikes. That just sounds frustrating. Tariel should have been only to cast, and lower stats maybe. It is a card for commander, so probably wouldn't impact other formats.

I don't think at 3 mana I would play this either. Not even with haste. Being random is so bad. Being dependant on your opponents having good creatures is so rough.
I get that 3cmc with haste others might play it, but I would still think it was a bad commander.

I don't know what you're smoking to say a 3 mana 4/7 with flying and vigilance + another relevant ability is STILL not good enough, but I'd like some of it.

However, at 7 mana, it's pretty bad.

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls is cool, but inefficient. Seven mana has always been a lot, and no haste means she'll often die before you get to activate her. The random targeting is also awkward - I understand that recurring the same thing over and over may be poor gameplay (hence why many recursion effects exile the recurred thing if it leaves the battlefield), but at seven mana I expect something a bit stronger. I'll also give my obligatory callout that the more synergistic your opponents' decks are, the less likely they'll have generically useful stuff to steal.

....anyway, Olivia, Crimson Bride and Sheoldred, Whispering One are somewhat more modern versions of this effect. Arguably also Captain N'ghathrod and Lorcan, Warlock Collector. I could see Tariel being playable if she were a mana cheaper and recurred something the turn she came out (or otherwise generated some sort of value).

Having me and my buddy both try to play Tariel in the past, I will echo everything that has already been said. It should have cost 5 AND had Haste, or cost and cut the P/T in half. Being random is a big enough downside as to be more aggressive with the MV.

But, making it only 3 mana leaves room for Entomb shenanigans . Also this was the very first commander deck product, so designs were highly variable since cards have never been made for Commander before. See Animar, Soul of Elements and Kaalia of the Vast vs Damia, Sage of Stone or Tariel, Reckoner of Souls

Damian was pretty common back in the day. She was one of the few commanders in her color combo, and was a CA queen if she lived a couple turns, which given her color combo she could very well do. The gulf in playability between 6 and 7 mana is actually pretty big, and back then 6 was fairly reasonable while 7 was overcosted. So cheaper, better color combo, and stronger effect all added up to Damia seeing solid play until we got flooded with other options in her colors, and particularly ones that do good stuff CA better.

For Tariel, she's one of those commanders I failed to ever build despite trying. To build her, you either have to make her the centerpiece or make her an afterthought. The latter was always boring, and while playing her for the colors as a less threatening option than Kaalia yet more interesting one than Oros was a thing way back then it hasn't been for years. So focusing the entire deck around her is the only way to go. Anything less than maximizing her will lead to her being irrelevant because of her cost, her slowness, and her reliance on your opponents.

o focus everything on her, you must dedicate slots to protecting her, and Tto giving her haste so she can't start stealing creatures from the yard as soon as you cast her and live long enough to generate value. Yea, because it's random, you either have to build her around activating her as much as possible to be worth it on sheer volume, or you need a way to prune your opponents gys so you can be sure of what you're getting. The latter requires gy exile, especially targeted and repeatable, while the former involves filling the deck with ways to untap her and ways to fill your opponents yards. Fortunately, there is some synergy there, as there are a number of creatures with activated abilities that require a tap that either make people discard or kill creatures. Not a ton, but enough to benefit from the untap effects you include for Tariel to help keep gys filled. Keeping yards filled is also helped by kill spells, which thankfully are things you'd want to run anyway.

So there's a basis for a deck there that tries to leverage untapping your creatures while controlling your opponents creatures (and hand), with the payoff being able to activate Tariel multiple times a turn cycle to load your battlefield with the stuff you killed earlier. It seems like it could potentially be fun, except Tariel costs 7 and the deck falls apart without her. With so many slots dedicated to untapping her enough to make her ability worth it, killing creatures (or forcing discard) consistently enough to give her a steady stream of targets so untapping her a bunch is worth it, and protecting her/ giving her haste so you actually get to use her, there aren't enough slots for any sort of plan b, and in today's meta the game will be out of hand for you by the time she comes online.

Avacyn Believer wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I'd love to build Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, because the effect is cool and I love multi-colour angels and the card has so much theme; but the casting cost is waaaaaaay too high for what the card does, and she doesn't even have haste. So unless you are playing in a friendly pod, at most you gonna cast Tariel once and then she gets killed and becomes 9 mana to cast, yikes. That just sounds frustrating.

materpillar wrote: ↑

1 year ago

This card is just so dang cool, but talk about being massively overshadowed by Kaalia of the Vast. I've never seen it built or cast. It was too slow a decade ago and that has only continued to be the case.
I'd love to be in a meta where I could jam this babe as a commander.

I had a Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Lifeline (and Enduring Renewal) deck that used her ability to nip things from the yard before Lifeline could return them at EoT. Add Haste and untap shenanigans (no shortage of Haste in those colors and things like Vintage Wine for the untap part).

Lifeline also also helped dodge Commander Tax frequently (of course there was much less Exile removal back in '11-'12).
Fun, but definitely a casual-game-only build.