[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Rishkar, Peema Renegade

[Mookie]

Are you running a token / go-wide strategy in green? If so, Tendershoot Dryad is one of the better token producers available - a 1/1 every turn is a lot of bodies, and they'll quickly turn into 3/3s. Five mana is a bit expensive, but you'll get value pretty quickly. That said, they are ultimately just vanilla tokens. My baseline heuristic would be 'if this survives a single turn cycle, are you happy with what you get?' - there are some decks that would love to pay five mana for a 2/2 and three 1/1s (or 3/3s, but this is assuming the Dryad dies), but not every deck.

...my own green decks don't really have any interest in Tendershoot Dryad, since they're generally more focused on lands / ramping than they are on going wide, which means I prefer stuff like Titania, Protector of Argoth and Seedborn Muse. I do wish I could run it in my Teysa deck though - Ophiomancer is great, but not quite the same.

I'll give a shout to Verdant Force, who is the original version of this effect (although pretty obviously powercrept these days).

[3drinks]

I'll give a shout to Verdant Force|ps11, who is the original version of this effect (although pretty obviously powercrept these days).

Consider Verdant Embrace|tsp as a typically better version of the force. Stick it on a hexproof body and enjoy without spending 5ggg.

[onering]

Kill on sight, those tokens add up quick. Your opponents untapping with this risks them dropping Hoof and giving them all +5/+5 and trample, and that's if you have nothing else and they somehow don't get city's blessing. Pooping out a creature a turn also triggers and enables sooo much, from sac effects to Cagar's Crusade. It's not quite a card that you can put into just any deck, because although it's baseline of crapping out what will eventually be 4 3/3s every cycle is strong it's not going to do enough for every strategy, but if someone has this in their deck they are going to be using it to domething that needs to be stopped.

[Chromaticus]

I use this and Ophiomancer as creatures that defend my superfriends in Carth the Lion. They are the only ones that can provide a chump each turn.

[3drinks]

Friday, April 14th, 2023; Sphinx Ambassador

Sorry, I'd have done this earlier, but I got distracted with Fire Emblem: Three Houses and a new tool edhgen.AI

[Mookie]

Sphinx Ambassador is sweet, but inefficient - the main reason why it isn't a bulk card is due to its age. That said, it certainly has a powerful effect - getting a free Bribery on combat damage is quite strong (assuming your opponent is running more than one creature and can't consistently guess your target). On the other hand, seven mana for a creature with no protection and no immediate ETB effect is a pretty steep price to pay. As a result, it's generally outclassed by other options like Nezahal, Primal Tide and Sphinx of Uthuun... or even Ancient Silver Dragon if you're interesting in combat damage triggers.

I'd consider running it in my Thada deck (which has a heavy 'bad expensive beaters' theme) if not for its current pricetag. Maybe if it ever gets reprinted and dropped down to rare - or maybe even uncommon?

[Dunharrow]

I run it in Maelstrom Wanderer, where haste makes it hit a lot harder. I've noticed that people often misplay it and go after the best creature in the deck, or creatures that tutor Rune-Scarred Demon. I have guessed targets a few times when people have hit me with the Ambassador.

[materpillar]

Friday, April 14th, 2023; Sphinx Ambassador

Sorry, I'd have done this earlier, but I got distracted with Fire Emblem: Three Houses and a new tool edhgen.AI

This card is soooo cool. I've wanted to play it forever but it's never on theme for me and I stick to pretty strict themes. Also, it's hella expensive mana wise.

[onering]

Distract your opponents with awkwardly large winged kitty titties.

Even more than it being a big Timmy card with a splashy effect that will die to doom blade, the blue cleavage is what shows this card's age. I feel like back in the day pretty much everything aimed at nerds tried to throw in some fan service and a lot of mistakes were made (see also: bikini plate armor). This is one of the more amusing ones.

[3drinks]

Saturday, April 15th, 2023; Pawn of Ulamog|c17

[RedCheese]

Aristocrats decks yadayada

Tough i think its quite amuzing with Mazirek, Kraul Deathpriest alongside other eldrazi token cards.

[Igzex]

More like pawn of Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, an even more horrifying eldritch abomination.

[Mookie]

I like Pawn of Ulamog, but for my own aristocrats deck (Teysa), I've moved away from cards that create tokens on death and towards cards that are more frontloaded. Death triggers are nice if there is a board wipe so you have a board presence afterwards... but since most of my token synergies / value engines are also creatures (and thus will die to the board wipe), the tokens I get afterwards are significantly lower in value than what I have before. Pawn is also a bit awkward due to the fact that my deck doesn't have many dedicated sac fodder creatures - the deck is built to sacrifice tokens, and I usually want my nontoken creatures to stick around.

That said, Pawn of Ulamog is still a very solid token producer if you're looking to sacrifice stuff. It can do tricks somewhat similar to Pitiless Plunderer or Phyrexian Altar, turning creatures into mana. It's obviously also a good enabler for Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Blood Artist, and other cards that want your creatures to die or be sacrificed.

[3drinks]

This thing is still a $3 uncommon despite having three prints. it's the stitcher's supplier of today's era.

[Mookie]

This thing is still a $3 uncommon despite having three prints. it's the stitcher's supplier of today's era.

Looks like it was $0.70 or so prior to the release of Throne of Eldraine. The price started spiking the exact day the Brawl format was revealed (with the associated precon decks), so I'm going to blame Korvold, Fae-Cursed King for this. Its price has been stable since then, but the last time it was reprinted was several years before ELD, so there hasn't really been a chance for it to fall back down. I expect it to drop significantly in price whenever it gets reprinted.

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 16th, 2023; Illusionary Terrain

Cumulative Upkeep 2 (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)

As Illusionary Terrain enters the battlefield, choose two basic land types. Basic lands of the first chosen type are the second chosen type.

[Mookie]

Illusionary Terrain looks like a bad stax piece - cumulative upkeep makes it expensive to keep around, and it only affects a single basic land type. As a result, it doesn't seem particularly effective against anything other than monocolor decks. Hard pass from me - if you're going to run hate cards, at least make sure they solve the problem you want them to.

[folding_music]

it's for attacking with island fish jasconius, dan-dan and pirate ship
giggle
i love that the game at this point was just rife with enchantments that slow the game down and miss that kind of design, even if they're blatantly unfair
round ice age times the gameplay was clearly meant to be harrowing, underpowered and lengthy rather than any sort of perfect curve concept. casting creatures was a liability cos there's like four wanderlust-like auras as well as binding grasp, that ludicrous 8cmc creature-steal demon and merieke, plus yr likely activating yr opponent's scarabs. best strat is clearly to hold counterspells, put out mean enchantments and try to jester's cap yr opponent for five hours

[OneAndOnly]

My takeaway from the cumulative upkeep cards was that they were never meant to stick around forever. Early MtG was *much* more focused on basics and monocolored decks, to the point where you pretty much had to include basics in decks; there simply weren't as many duals as there are now. So the impact of switching all land types around could be much more catastrophic.

I think in a current design paradigm they'd be gamegineered around a total payment of 6 or 8 mana, spread over however many turns -- lower cost means effective for more turns, high cost means higher impact but shorter lifespan. In just a few sets, there'd be fading (later vanishing) which would be another way to approach this issue, and nowadays I feel like it would be a Saga or perhaps even a Battle.

[3drinks]

I love that this was a card in the same set as Naked Singularity and Reality Twist.

[Hermes_]

reasons why i own Solemnity

[3drinks]

Monday, April 17th, 2023; Walking Archive

[Serenade]

Sunforger is the only winner from this cycle, right? They are all cool, flavorful cards with no play value.

[void_nothing]

The odd thing is this anticipated white getting "every player draws" by almost a decade and a half. I love this cycle as designs and for the fun factor but yes there's a clear power disparity between its entries.

[Mookie]

I've played Plague Boiler before, but yeah, I think Sunforger is the only one from this cycle that sees any play these days (and even then, it has definitely fallen off). I do sort of like Mizzium Transreliquat, but it's generally outclassed by Sculpting Steel / Mirage Mirror.

Anyway, Walking Archive seems meh. It's in the wrong colors for Nekusar, the Mindrazer, which generally limits it to group hug decks. It has the classic problem of your opponents getting the benefit first, and as an artifact creature it is particularly vulnerable to removal. It's probably simpler to run Howling Mine or Temple Bell instead. I suppose one benefit is that its activation ability is instant-speed - you can play it, let each of your opponents draw one card, then throw a bunch of +1/+1 counters on it before your turn to draw extra cards.

I could see some Heliod, the Radiant Dawn // Heliod, the Warped Eclipse decks that might want this, but probably not.

Now, Walking Atlas on the other hand... that's a card I find more interesting. I've been very impressed by Budoka Gardener // Dokai, Weaver of Life in my Samut deck, and while Walking Atlas obviously lacks its lategame flip side, it is a colorless way for nongreen decks to play extra lands. I've been contemplating it for a few of my decks. You need to be drawing a lot of cards for it to be good (or playing a bunch of bouncelands), but it's an interesting alternative to the usual mana rock package.