[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

[hyalopterouslemur]

Could be interesting for Sunforger. Do remember to kick it, though. I mean, it does have versatility going for it, so there's that.

This is honestly up there with Sunscape Battlemage, which is an 8-mana four-for-one.

[3drinks]

Sunday, December 22nd, 2019; Relic Crush

Wow...this has uhh, not aged very well, huh?

[Serenade]

Also will note Sylvan Reclamation.

This wasn't totally unplayable for that stretch of time between Zendikar and Worldwake...then we all got Terastodon and Nature's Claim and forgot almost everything else.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Also will note Sylvan Reclamation.

Well, if we're counting two-color cards, Aura Shards beats everything. (Still remembers playing Shards, Mycosynth Lattice, and Viridian Revel for extra evil.) Nullmage Shepherd is another option for token decks.

This card is...subpar, but it's not a green Dead Ringers or anything like that. Its big issue is there are so many better cards that do the same thing.

[Mookie]

There are so many better options for artifact and enchantment removal in green that I don't think I would ever consider Relic Crush. Even comparing just to Naturalize, paying three extra mana for an extra target is not a very attractive rate. There may have been a time I would have considered this in white, when Return to Dust was the only multi-target removal spell worth playing, but green hasn't had that problem for a long time.

[3drinks]

Monday, December 23rd, 2019; Phantasmal Image

[Dunharrow]

Often played as a combo card copying Palinchron.
But it has a lot of fair uses. It is really strong. You can recur it with Sun Titan. I like Phyrexian Metamorph better because of the ability to clone artifacts for one additional mana.

[pokken]

Image is a card that used to be autoinclude goodstuff in every blue deck in my playgroup. I have stared down so many phantasmal image copying glen elendra archmage in my career to almost expect it.

I have no idea how it fell so far out of favor. The card is insanely powerful especially with how pushed creatures have gotten. I have killed so many tables with Image. I actually got to the point where despite one time owning 13 images I was down to 3 and almost had to buy another one. Thankfully I was able to put it off until they cratered again

The other day I won a game with Ephara by the innocuous play of imaging a llanowar elves so I could get Ephara out early, and that play just snowballed into me accumulating enough advantage to win (because my hand was otherwise grotesquely good, just missing the ramp).

I've sun titan'd so many images back it's gross, but I've also gone Karmic guide → Titan → Image copying Guide → get Elesh Norn a few times While I love me some metamorph not being sun titan'able makes it a far different animal.

You can also muddle the mixture for it.

3% of decks is way too low.

[Mookie]

Clone is in 3224 decks. Phantasmal Image is in 3259 decks. That number really shouldn't even be close. Card is phantastic. Meanwhile, the strictly-better Clones Gigantoplasm and Stunt Double are at 958 and 2712 decks, which also seems wrong. Might say more about how overplayed Clone is though.

I haven't seen it (or other clones) around as much since the legend rule changed - not being an easy answer to an opposing general makes it a bit less flexible. There is the upside of being able to benefit from the legends yourself, but similar to the discussion on Bribery, the tendency of decks to be more synergistic means copying or using your opponents' stuff has gone down in value over time. As a result, I'd say that the Image is best if you're playing plenty of good creatures to copy yourself.

Personally, I play it in Animar, where the cheap cost is especially relevant. Played a game yesterday where I cloned an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, then bounced it with Temur Sabertooth in response to removal and replayed it copying Risen Reef. Its fragility is certainly relevant, but two mana for the best creature on the board is a bargain, and two mana to copy a Farhaven Elf or other utility critter is also perfectly reasonable.

Not sure if I'd run it in other decks though. Doesn't really work with Brago due to the Illusion ability. Slightly awkward in Thada due to not being able to carry equipment, but probably worth consideration there. Most of my other decks aren't running enough creatures to be interested. Hmmm.... Maybe it is narrower than I thought?

[3drinks]

Clone is in 3224 decks. Phantasmal Image is in 3259 decks. That number really shouldn't even be close. Card is phantastic. Meanwhile, the strictly-better Clones Gigantoplasm and Stunt Double are at 958 and 2712 decks, which also seems wrong. Might say more about how overplayed Clone is though.

I'd say that's just because Clone has way more copies out there and is much easier to get ahold of.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Often played as a combo card copying Palinchron.
But it has a lot of fair uses. It is really strong. You can recur it with Sun Titan. I like Phyrexian Metamorph better because of the ability to clone artifacts for one additional mana.

I remember seeing it in a Standard match copying a Sun Titan (and then it grabbed a second Image...), which wasn't so bad, since I had a Vampire Nighthawk with a Blade of the Bloodchief. Hard to deal with, but I kept killing them until my Vampire was big enough to one-shot them Fun times.

Here, it can also be used with hexproof (Priviileged Position, Archetype of Endurance, Asceticism, Lord of the Unreal), or to copy a creature with hexproof. Being a clone that passes the Sun Titan test is also good. You can also Sun Titan Trollhide onto it.

Note for Sylvan Safekeeper fans, this guy is one of those corner cases where Olle's just not the droid you're looking for.

[Myllior]

Clone is in 3224 decks. Phantasmal Image is in 3259 decks. That number really shouldn't even be close. Card is phantastic. Meanwhile, the strictly-better Clones Gigantoplasm and Stunt Double are at 958 and 2712 decks, which also seems wrong. Might say more about how overplayed Clone is though.

I'd say that's just because Clone has way more copies out there and is much easier to get ahold of.

Yep this is it. Never forget that cost is a factor in how much a card is played, and even after the upheaval in Modern leading to Phantasmal Image costing roughly half of what it did 6 months ago, it still costs roughly 20 times more than Clone, going by CK prices.

It is nice to see it dropping so much though; I'll be waiting for it to drop further but would be nice to pick up a copy sometime, since it does a lot for only 2 CMC.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, December 24th, 2019; Merchant Scroll

[Serenade]

Obligatory "lol only good card from Homelands" post (though peculiar fandoms, tribals, and mechanics have given some other cards more popularity in recent years)

Spellseeker —> this —> some combo piece?
I bought this card a while ago but have never used it. I just angle toward permanent-based decks. I'm sure it does amazing in the right deck.



Just hit me, duh, this into Dizzy Spell into Training Grounds into no friends ever again. That's why I bought this card.

[pokken]

I haven't been playing scroll for a while mostly because of the tedium of searching all the time. I hate tutoring for tutors and most of the time I merchant scroll'd it was for mystical tutor. It's still a pretty cool card to play since you can get drain or rift or any of a bunch of good options.

I've also been generally playing fewer instants in my decks as I've tried to jam more creatures and I happen to have two enchantment heavy decks too which is odd (usually only one).

It's one of those cards that you need to have plans for to play efficiently -- kind of like intuition and sunforger you have to have a heuristic for picking the card fast in different situations. And that's often fun for me, but for some reason this doesn't make the cut much for me.

I think it's just mostly that I've gravitated toward trying to keep the number of tutors down in my decks than that it's not good enough.

[Serenade]

Tutors take the random out of the format and slow down the game.
Ban 'em all. =P

[Dunharrow]

Yeah I have never been tempted to run this. I know you can get Rift, card draw, countermagic, high tide.... but it just seems so bleh to play this card.
I think I really just don't like the design of using a sorcery to tutor an instant. like... you lose the surprise by revealing the instant... especially since the reveal is on your turn.

If it was an instant that tutored a sorcery, it would be amazing - you could cast it end of turn and untap to cast the sorcery you tutored.

[Rumpy5897]

I'd actually argue a well-placed Merchant Scroll tutor reveal can be a fantastic mind game against the rest of the table. Reveal Mana Drain or Cyclonic Rift, the two obvious targets nobody's debating, and the opposition is stuck walking on eggshells until you choose to pop it. All the time they spend faffing around, holding onto their haymaking to avoid it getting blown out, you can spend advancing your game plan unimpeded.

I run it in my somewhat classic control/tempo Tromokratis, as it works well there. However, it never really had a chance to get into Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - Mystical Tutor outshines it there on account of trivial command zone instant speed draw and just generally broader range. That said, both of the decks have been gathering dust in the drawer. Apparently for some reason I'm soft-banned from playing blue in my cute little group

[Sinis]

Tuesday, December 24th, 2019; Merchant Scroll

It never quite ends up making the cut in my decks, ahead of Mystical Tutor, Muddle the Mixture and Personal Tutor.

But, it's still a very good card.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, December 24th, 2019; Merchant Scroll

It never quite ends up making the cut in my decks, ahead of Mystical Tutor, Muddle the Mixture and Personal Tutor.

But, it's still a very good card.

I'd wager a guess it's orders of magnitude greater than personal tutour for sure.....

[Sinis]

I'd wager a guess it's orders of magnitude greater than personal tutour for sure.....

You know, you'd think so, but I don't end up running Personal Tutor unless I specifically want top-of-deck shenanigans (like Djinn of Wishes, cards with Miracle, etc.). I'm not suggesting that being down a card is somehow superior, but, Personal Tutor is sort of a deep dive for something else. Realistically, Personal Tutor is just a different card, and I'm making a mistake comparing the two.

Here's the problem with Merchant Scroll: it lives in this confluence of inflexibility (without other modes/options and limited for what it can search) and boringness (i.e. hard to leverage for more than its explicit text).

---

Okay, I've also been writing/deleting this for about fifteen minutes. Part of the problem also is that most blue instants are reactive, and Merchant Scroll is a sorcery. The claim to fame (for me) for MS is that it finds Ancestral Recall in vintage (I don't play, but I followed it for a long time). A beefy proactive play. But, in commander, proactive plays have to be almost better than that.

So, what are you searching for? The only time I would run Merchant Scroll would be if I wanted to have the option of a proactive play while you have some reactive possibilities in the deck. The proactive blue instants I can think of are Nexus of Fate, Paradoxical Outcome, High Tide, Dramatic Reversal and a handful of others; mostly combo options I'm not sure would be welcome in my group. They're also pretty singular, and having Merchant Scroll basically lets you have one more copy of whatever it is you want to leverage. The other time I would run it would be if I could get value out of it merely existing (Kess, Dissident Mage, or maybe storm decks). Maybe if you're playing in colours without many board wipes (simic? monoblue?) you could use it to find Evacuation.

(Edit to add: Maybe your proactive search is Flying Crane Technique and Merchant Scroll is another prowess trigger on the heap? )

Maybe I'm underselling the flexibility for the number of blue instants you could be playing, but I haven't played Merchant Scroll (or even Mystical Tutor) in a very long time.

[pokken]

It's a real bummer to tutor for reactive things with a spell that requires you to reveal it

[3drinks]

Wednesday, December 25th, 2019; Fruitcake Elemental

Happy Holidays! (Obviously this is a themed choice and not a random one.)

[Hermes_]

I feel like I wanna see what kind of chaos happens after I donate this and then give myself hexproof....

[CTNC]

Hmm... What would be most fun with Fruitcake Elemental? Using it for being a 3 Mana 7/7 in Selvala, Heart of the Wilds sound funny because of being able to use such a silly card in a serious way or maybe playing against it would be more fun if everyone is afraid to give it to my Darien, King of Kjeldor deck. Regardless if you have plans or not, the best part has to be panicked regifting of the one gift no one wants.

If it gets played by or against me, I'm asking for the type line to be excreted to, "Artifact Creature - Food Elemental" but considering how eatable fruitcake is, I'm not sure if many people would agree.