[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Golgari Thug

[WolfWhoWanders]

It's been doing pretty good work in my rankle build, makes sure the fodder is there

[Serenade]

Flying blocker with power every turn. I consider this card the staple-iest black card (excluding tutors).

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019; Scrap Mastery

We all know how powerful living death is in this format...is the same true for the artifact version?

[folding_music]

I think Scrap Mastery's a better card than Living Death because there's less chance of running into another deck that can fully take advantage of it - if you cast this at an average four-player table without another specialist artifact deck then yr opponents are gonna be getting back mind stones and terrarions and stuff like that while you might be putting lock parts, huge robots or extreme mana into play. You can probably cast this spell to win immediately with an interesting graveyard. I guess another thing it has in common with Living Death is that it's outrageous when you're using a Mindless Automaton to draw a new hand and feed the spell at the same time!

[Dunharrow]

The reason why Living Death is more common is that there is a lot of redundancy for that card. To have a deck where scrap mastery is good you basically need to have Gerrard or Daretti as the commander, because there are few other effects that allow you to bring artifacts back from the yard.

[lyonhaert]

On the other hand, because it's less likely others will benefit as much from mass recursion of artifacts, this could be used without redundancy as a one-of recovery spell a la Replenish.

[RedCheese]

100% stapple in my Daretti deck. Hell thatw basically his spell so ofcourse it would be.

[Mookie]

Scrap Mastery is one of the stronger payoffs for doing an artifact-based deck in Red - mass reanimation is a very powerful effect. You'll probably want some way to fill your graveyard and/or sacrifice artifacts, or just be playing a bunch of eggs or other baubles that can sacrifice themselves. Daretti, Scrap Savant is a natural fit.

There are a couple of substitutions, but no other mass reanimation I can think of in red. Goblin Welder is a repeatable effect and Trash for Treasure is a one-shot. Meanwhile, Open the Vaults and Roar of Reclamation are in White.

One thing I'll call out is that as a general rule, graveyards don't fill up with artifacts as quickly as they do with creatures - both because decks tend to run fewer of them, and because they tend to not die as often. Additionally, depending on what sort of artifacts you're running, reanimating them may not even be that impactful - if you just get back a bunch of mana rocks, that won't just win the game for you. You really do need to make an effort to enable it.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019; Scrap Mastery

I think Scrap Mastery is a bit more powerful and a bit more niche. Living Death has a few near-analogues that allow for the same kinds of shenanigans, whereas Scrap Mastery is pretty singular in function (and, like, recursion in red without "phoenix" or "goblin" as a creature type is kind of a big deal). Also, it's not likely to do much for your opponents in the same way Living Death might (really, it might just mangle their mana rock development).

So, pretty exciting all around, IMO. Once you start building around it in the same way you would Living Death, the possibilities are every bit as exciting.

[pokken]

I always think I have enough artifacts for this card and then I don't.

Fundamentally I think it's only really any good if you're trying to storm out with artifacts or at minimum have an extremely high velocity where you're pumping the bin full of stuff.

It's never been good enough for me without an explicit sacrifice / loot / self-mill strategy.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It does allow for some synergy with a lot of the usual suspects. (Wellsprings, Sadbot, spellbombs, Spine of Ish Sah which you would probably never play without a sac outlet)

I have to bring up Nihil Spellbomb here: Annihilate one player's graveyard, draw a card, play Mastery, annihilate another player's graveyard (or if you're a dick, the same player's graveyard), draw another card. I mean, it's good with Living Death, but it shines here.

[onering]

Scrap Mastery is a great example of a power non staple. It's too niche for staple status, but is more powerful than many staples when in a deck that can really use it. Cards like this are good for deck diversity.

I missed BB yesterday, but I want to comment on it. I understand rhe trend away from incremental advantage, but outside of top tier play I think the attitude is going to far. I don't think I've ever played BB and regretted it. A 1/1 flier every turn is tons of value. It's fail state is a steady stream of blockers, and in black there are tons of things that make those 1/1s have a lot more value. Many of those are things you would typically be running already. It's an incredibly versatile value engine for negligible mana. Yeah, it's better early, lots of powerful cards are better early. Sol Ring is amazing turn 2 and sir of meh turn 8. Sometimes you run cards that are explosive or incredible value early at the risk that you'll draw them late and they'll be underwhelming, its just the format. But BB isnt bad, or even mediocre, as a later turn draw, because all the things in black that it supports make it good value even then. Only when it's isolated and drawn late is it mediocre, but still not useless, and even then it's value can quickly change depending on what you draw later

[3drinks]

Thursday, November 28th, 2019; Grim Tutor

Just as good as Demonic, or naah?

[MeowZeDung]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I, for one, am thankful for our awesome hobby and threads like these where I get to talk about it!

Grim Tutor is fine if you're in a more casual or budget meta. I generally don't like tutors in that environment though, just personal preference. I guess if I was trying to assemble a 4-5 card combo I'd be fine with running it.

[Sinis]

Grim Tutor is fine if you're in a more casual or budget meta.

This card is anything but budget.

[MeowZeDung]

Grim Tutor is fine if you're in a more casual or budget meta.

This card is anything but budget.

Well, I feel dumb. Confused it with Diabolic Tutor in my head. Forget everything I said :laugh:

[3drinks]

Grim Tutor is fine if you're in a more casual or budget meta.

This card is anything but budget.

Well, I feel dumb. Confused it with Diabolic Tutor in my head. Forget everything I said :laugh:

The funny thing is that all it would take is a reprint with any kind of semblance of print run, and this price would crash as hard as Imp Recruiter did. Probably more, since recruiter at least has a couple of homes in eternal (imperial painter stone, mostly).

[Dunharrow]

I don't care what my budget is, there is no way I would every pay that kind of money for this effect.

[RedCheese]

I'm happy with my Demonic Tutor. Not cheap, but still cheaper and better than this one.

[onering]

Not worth the price, but on mtgo it's super cheap and a budget option. The 1 Mana less than diabolic matters, and this is the most Mana expensive straight tutor I'd run. Sidisi is 5 Mana but is a solid body if you sac something else and as a creature can be abused. Rune Scarred is a 5/5 flier and again as a creature can be abused. For a card that only tutors one card, 3 is the max I'll pay.

I'm actually of the mind that Grim Tutor is the most correctly costed of all the straight up tutors, with 3 Mana hitting the right power level and paying 3 life being a fair drawback at that cost. The main problem caused by tutors is enabling fast combo, and each Mana matters there. It's the difference between going off on curve or on the same turn you tutor vs having to wait an extra turn and being more open to disruption. 3 Mana is slow enough to fall on the weaker end of that divide,

[Sinis]

Thursday, November 28th, 2019; Grim Tutor

This is a really good card. It's a shame it's so expensive. Realistically, though, I think one can probably get by just fine on Demonic Tutor, Beseech the Queen, Dark Petition, cards with Transmute... I don't think any deck/player is suffering for not being able to afford this particular one.

[Sinis]

I'm actually of the mind that Grim Tutor is the most correctly costed of all the straight up tutors, with 3 Mana hitting the right power level and paying 3 life being a fair drawback at that cost.

Interestingly, it's the lowest CMC find-any-card tutor not restricted in Vintage.

[toctheyounger]

Fairly costed to cast. Not fairly costed to buy.

[Mookie]

Grim Tutor is in the Goldilocks zone of tutors - Demonic Tutor is too efficient, Diabolic Tutor is too expensive, and it is juuuuuust right. It's not an autoinclude, but it's also not a card I would ever question.

Monetarily, on the other hand.... I'm pretty sure I could never justify its inclusion in a deck, given that it would pay for a full suite of Demonic Tutor + Vampiric Tutor + Diabolic Intent (all of which I would run over it), plus a sizable percentage of the rest of the deck. Could definitely use a reprint.

[Hermes_]

This and Vampiric are the only named "tutors" I don't own for black.