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

[Mookie]

Fruitcake Elemental is a giant beater, but the drawback of taking 7 is pretty giant too. You'll generally want to give it away... or give it lifelink. Even better, give it Spirit Link or Spirit Loop. It will still hit its controller, and you gain a bunch of life. Would this be called 'not having your cake and eating it too'?

Other than lifegain shenanigans, a 7/7 for 3 mana is pretty huge, and works well with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Also relevant if you have Momentous Fall or Greater Good.

[3drinks]

Thursday, December 26th, 2019; Daybreak Coronet

[pokken]

I have used this in a few decks but honestly it is surprising how many times even with 15-20 auras I didn't have the right loadout to want to use it (because someone could blow me out with a single target rift or something).

The rate doesn't scale quite as well in multiplayer but it's a nice source of vigilance.

My issue honestly is that doing aura math and trying to voltron people out is something I like less and less these days.

I generally will prefer a card like spirit loop that's resilient and try to develop the buffing more efficiently with something like ethereal armor.

[ISBPathfinder]

I play it in my Sram, Senior Edificer deck and it works well there but its also an auras deck. I don't know that I would find it good enough if I wasn't also cantriping when I did it.

Its effect feels kind of narrow for most decks. I can't say I really recall seeing anyone else or even myself play it anywhere else offhand in this format.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I have played it in Uril, but nowhere else. You need a good reason to be playing a lot of auras. And as Voltron decks become rarer and rarer, it loses even that.

[Mookie]

Daybreak Coronet is really efficient in terms of stats, but has a significant limitation both in that it is an aura, and that it requires another aura to already be attached to the creature. You can't run it without a lot of support. I could see it being played in Uril, the Miststalker or Bruna, Light of Alabaster. Maybe Sram, Senior Edificer. But you really need some way to protect your investment.

Still, it's a strong payoff - makes a creature big, gains a pile of life, and makes it really good at attacking and hard to attack into. Somewhat interesting to compare it to the pile of stats granted by Batterskull, which costs significantly more.

[Serenade]

Combined these abilities are amazing defensively.

But no evasion or protection (hexproof)? You have to hope the creature or other aura help with those.

[3drinks]

Friday, December 27th, 2019; Somberwald Sage

[pokken]

I feel like 3 mana is probably too much to pay for a mana dork these days especially one that doesn't 1) play elfball, 2) work for non-creature spells.

There's a wealth of duders at 2 mana available, probably 15 playables between 1 and 2 cmc.

I think if those type of decks want 3-drop ramp they'd probably be happier with Cultivate most of the time since they rate to be running out of lands by turn 3 anyway.

[Sinis]

Friday, December 27th, 2019; Somberwald Sage

2G is a lot for a mana dork, but, 3 mana for creatures is a ton of mana. It's at least a consideration, given people will play Gilded Lotus (which can fuel counterspells, but costs 2 more) or Thran Dynamo.

The only sticking point is that it's mana for creatures only... but, that's not a big deal, is it?

[hyalopterouslemur]

Could be useful in a creature-heavy deck like Animar, Soul of Elements or Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. But I find myself using a lot of hatebears, so there's that. At worst, this lets you get out a six-mana Commander.

[lyonhaert]

I was running it in Spiders since there's so many creatures in it. It tended to work well but I'm testing Krosan Restorer in its place lately (along with 3 guild karoo lands).

[Mookie]

I usually lean away from creature-based ramp, but Somberwald Sage does generate a lot of mana - it trivially ramps to 7 on turn 4 by itself. Only generating mana for creature spells is a significant limitation, but it really depends on what you're trying to ramp into and how many creatures you are running.

I could run it in my Animar deck, but that deck isn't really as interested in dedicated ramp, since cheap creatures are already my ramp. Seems better for Ruric Thar, the Unbowed or Nikya of the Old Ways.

I do run Krosan Restorer in Samut, but that is primarily for untapping utility lands (like Maze of Ith).

[plushpenguin]

It generates the most mana on a mana dork without requiring a board presence (Tied with the three llanowar elves, which is amazing in monoG). The downside is not too bad if you build around it well enough or have expensive creatures paired with inexpensive noncreatures.

[3drinks]

It's like they made a reusable lotus but then said you can only use it on Sunday between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. It's good when it's good (where it becomes great), but realistically this only belongs in a deck with 50+ creatures, like lead the stampede.

[3drinks]

Saturday, December 28th, 2019; Null Rod.

...And friends.

But it doesn't DO anything!
No, it does nothing.

Best flavour text in the game...and even better results. Hilarious watching 25% of people's decks cease to function.

[illakunsaa]

The more I play more I feel like playing stax is the only way to have fun when playing edh.

Every %$#% deck I play against is just some variant of ramp, ramp, ramp, bomb, bomb, bomb. And the only way to survive in this meta you have to either play faster or become stax.

Degenerate cards are not the problem with edh it's the people who play them and giving those people big sad is the only way to play.

[lyonhaert]

The more I play more I feel like playing stax is the only way to have fun when playing edh.

Every %$#% deck I play against is just some variant of ramp, ramp, ramp, bomb, bomb, bomb. And the only way to survive in this meta you have to either play faster or become stax.

Degenerate cards are not the problem with edh it's the people who play them and giving those people big sad is the only way to play.

While it's not every group/meta, I mostly agree that in groups/metas with mostly tuned decks that if you can't go faster to their pace then slowing them down can be pretty effective. Even if it's not "hard" stax (Smokestack/Winter Orb) but "soft" stax that just adds bottle-necks or trade-offs instead of lock-outs (Orb of Dreams, Rule of Law, City of Solitude, Storage Matrix, Trinisphere).

Where I disagree is "playing stax is the only way to have fun when playing edh", because I still believe in the game being fun for all players, if possible. Of course, I'm not talking about cEDH levels here, and "ramp ramp ramp bomb bomb bomb" doesn't sound like cEDH anyway. There's a line with stax where you can cross from "derailing their usual plan so they have to problem-solve" into "can't do anything because no resources", which is not fun for them. I once endured a very long game where they used Gravepact, Attrition, and Reassembling Skeleton to keep the rest of us off having any creatures while they slowly drew 1-2 cards turn after turn looking for board development or wincon. We were still near 40 life for a long time. That's just not the right way to me.

While I'm not using it as much in Chainer as I probably should be, it's just never a fast deck and stax is the most efficient way for MBC to keep the board in check. But for the reasons above, I need to be careful to balance how much sacrifice or discard I'm using so that I don't lock my friends out from playing magic at all.

[hyalopterouslemur]

The more I play more I feel like playing stax is the only way to have fun when playing edh.

Every %$#% deck I play against is just some variant of ramp, ramp, ramp, bomb, bomb, bomb. And the only way to survive in this meta you have to either play faster or become stax.

Degenerate cards are not the problem with edh it's the people who play them and giving those people big sad is the only way to play.

The format favors control and combo. If you nerf control, combo rules. (Sorry, but it's not aggro or midrange or that pile everyone who complains about Stax and isn't just mad their combo was disrupted plays. It's combo, which is fun once.)

In other news, this and Mycosynth Lattice.

[NZB2323]

Amazing cards, but I always have a hard time justifying their inclusion in my decks. Stony Silence is probably best in Zur, and Collector Ouphe is probably best in Ruric Thar. I'm not sure which deck is the best for Null Rod.

[NZB2323]

The more I play more I feel like playing stax is the only way to have fun when playing edh.

Every %$#% deck I play against is just some variant of ramp, ramp, ramp, bomb, bomb, bomb. And the only way to survive in this meta you have to either play faster or become stax.

Degenerate cards are not the problem with edh it's the people who play them and giving those people big sad is the only way to play.

I mean, using Olivia Voldaren or Empress Galina as a commander and stealing all those bombs sounds like a fun thing to do in that meta.

[Mookie]

I had a game recently where someone dropped a Stony Silence against my Thada Adel, Acquisitor deck. Given that deck relies very heavily on stolen artifact mana, it was pretty inconvenient - turned off around 7 of my 12 available mana, plus some equipment I had in hand.

All these cards - Stony Silence, Null Rod, and Collector Ouphe - are powerful hate pieces, especially if people are running a lot of artifact ramp in your meta (which is most metas, in my experience). There is definitely some variance though - most decks don't have nearly as many ramp pieces as Thada does, and I think it is unlikely to shut down more than 1-2 rocks, which is inconvenient but not backbreaking. It is usually a stronger hate piece against equipment-based decks (although Balan, Wandering Knight gets around it) and artifact-based combo/synergy decks like Breya, Etherium Shaper.

How good it will be also depends somewhat on how much artifact / enchantment / creature removal the affected players are running, depend on which card you're running. Grixis decks are going to have a hard time getting Stony Silence off the table, while a Selesnya deck will be able to get rid of it pretty easily. I know my Sharuum deck has never really cared about Null Rod because I'm running a bunch of artifact and enchantment removal.

One of the more significant downsides of all three of the cards is the symmetry though - their presence limits how many mana rocks and other artifacts you'll want to be running. Most green decks can function without any artifact mana, but that is significantly more difficult for other colors.

[Serenade]

SS is nice in enchantress.

[NZB2323]

Even excluding mana artifacts, many green decks may want to run these artifacts:

• Elixir of immortality
• Skullclamp
• Sensei's diving top
• Lightning greaves
• Swiftfoot boots
• Whispersilk cloak
• Helm of the host
• Altar of dementia
• Lifecrafter's bestiary
• Thousand-year elixir
• Birthing Pod

For artifact heavy decks Karn, the great creator gives you a one sided effect.

[3drinks]

Sunday, December 29th, 2019; Rancor