MTGNexus

Arcbound cards can get huge, but (outside of things like Mycosynth Lattice) I can't see this one being there. It is still, at its heart, a 1/1 for 4 with no innate anti-removal abilities until you start dropping more artifacts. While Panharmonicon and the doublers (plus Hardened Scales) can help, and even the doublers and Scales can make it really big. Meh, at least you get a +1/+1 counter (or four with a doubler) on the artifact creature of your choice and it eats a removal spell.

The problem is, Raffinity's big win condition, sacrificing artifacts to trigger Disciple of the Vault and to a much lesser extent Moriok Rigger, well, Ghave, Guru of Spores does that exact same thing so much better with creatures. And you're (generally) immune to Null Rod. Like, it won't kill you unless part of a larger Stax build. Affinity is, of course, very vulnerable to Null Rod. And the one-of rule pretty much means you have anywhere from 2 to 6 artifact lands if you're playing Raffinity.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Friday, July 26th, 2019; Arcbound Crusher

This might be exciting in Saheeli, the Gifted, any deck running Storm the Vault, or Sai, Master Thopterist... that kind of thing.

I did not know this card existed, and I'm kind of excited.

Trample is very nice here. Not the most powerful creature with modular but it's enjoyable to spam Treasures or Clues to make it big.

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Extruder.

I love that old color of rust for artifacts over the new look.

Saturday, July 27th, 2019; Live Fast

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Saturday, July 27th, 2019; Live Fast

I kinda like it, honestly. It's not nights whisper, but it does generate a natural +1 and contains minor support for an archetype without enough of a critical mass of supply. It's probably gonna fall between read the bones (digs four) and sign in blood (easier to cast) in it's scope of playability.

Energy is a somewhat difficult mechanic to build around in commander - there aren't a lot of energy cards, total. Also, other than something like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and proliferate, there aren't many enablers (or payoffs) in the command zone. As a result, I suspect most decks will prefer Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, or other options.

There are a couple of interesting energy payoffs though - in black alone, Demon of Dark Schemes and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner are both solid places to spend energy. I could also see a deck built around Aetherworks Marvel wanting to play Live Fast.

Also, obligatory Die Young mention.

Pretty much one for the energy decks, as mentioned. I can't imagine there's too many of those around, seeing how this was a two-set thing and you'd probably dry up the supply of sensible playables pretty quickly. Also, I remember the uproar from the EDH crowd how there was no energy legend or artificer in the set. I guess this may have been a contributing factor to aggressive legend support for anything at all that happens in standard sets these days.

Mookie wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Energy is a somewhat difficult mechanic to build around in commander - there aren't a lot of energy cards, total. Also, other than something like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and proliferate, there aren't many enablers (or payoffs) in the command zone. As a result, I suspect most decks will prefer Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, or other options.

Idk. I'd definitely play it before Sign in Blood, even without energy support. I much prefer 2B vs BB. Although I guess for one more you can buy Ancient Craving so there's that.

void_nothing wrote: ↑

4 years ago

There are better and cheaper free discard outlets, fwiw, but hey - this is colorless.

It was worth a lot in Ultimate Masters limited.

EDIT: Woops, I didn't realize that when I opened the thread it wasn't on the last page.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Idk. I'd definitely play it before Sign in Blood, even without energy support. I much prefer 2B vs BB. Although I guess for one more you can buy Ancient Craving so there's that.

A lot of it depends on how much of your mana base potentially produces black mana, too. Usually two colored mana isn't that hard to hit; the question becomes if you need additional black mana on this turn.

Read the Bones is also a fine option. There are so many "draw two, pay 2 life" cards that frankly the question becomes how many do you need?

If you're playing with energy, this is a shoo in.

hyalopterouslemur wrote: ↑

4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Idk. I'd definitely play it before Sign in Blood, even without energy support. I much prefer 2B vs BB. Although I guess for one more you can buy Ancient Craving so there's that.

A lot of it depends on how much of your mana base potentially produces black mana, too. Usually two colored mana isn't that hard to hit; the question becomes if you need additional black mana on this turn.

Read the Bones is also a fine option. There are so many "draw two, pay 2 life" cards that frankly the question becomes how many do you need?

If you're playing with energy, this is a shoo in.

It's true that BB isn't too hard to hit, especially in the blessed mana base I own, though it is an opportunity cost nevertheless (I stopped running Urborg as a matter of principle, I don't need it and it fixes other people's mana too much, despite the corner cases of turning my Tomb/Bandit Lord "off").

Likely, I'd have to run them as

Night's Whisper
Read the Bones (digs 2-4)
Ancient Craving (digs 3)
Live Fast (digs 2)
Sign in Blood (digs 2, bad mana)

But, right, the second and third are pretty interchangable - oftentimes you don't want to spend four during your main phase just to refill.

On a related topic, how do people feel about Live Fast / Night's Whisper / other one-off draw effects compared to recurring draw effects like Phyrexian Arena / Dark Tutelage / Midnight Reaper? I find myself usually favoring the recurring effects due to a higher potential ceiling, but I can definitely see the appeal of lower-variance card draw.

Mookie wrote: ↑

4 years ago

On a related topic, how do people feel about Live Fast / Night's Whisper / other one-off draw effects compared to recurring draw effects like Phyrexian Arena / Dark Tutelage / Midnight Reaper? I find myself usually favoring the recurring effects due to a higher potential ceiling, but I can definitely see the appeal of lower-variance card draw.

Apples to oranges. You can't really compare the two effects. Arena might draw more but it'd take 3+ turns to see it which is an eternity. Often you need the cards right here and now.

Unless we're talking about Bob, because everyone misevaluates his power level in this format as if you haven't set up a proper mana curve.

Yerp, Bob is nowhere near as bad in EDH as the world seems to believe he is. Somehow it's perfectly acceptable to pay four life per card into Sylvan Library. Bob will hurt less on average.

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Yerp, Bob is nowhere near as bad in EDH as the world seems to believe he is. Somehow it's perfectly acceptable to pay four life per card into Sylvan Library. Bob will hurt less on average.

Far, far less. But yet the number of people that let me keep my Bob for 4+ turns is astounding.

Sunday, July 28th, 2019; Solitary Confinement

This is the main reason why Blood Artist was replaced by Zulaport Cutthroat in my decks.
Also why I put [card]Malignus[/cards] into one of my decks.

I do not see it as often as I used to, but every deck needs to be able to deal with it knowing that it could have shroud very easily.

I got a Mangara of Corondor for my legendary creature deck because of two specific games I couldn't win based on Solitary Confinement and then Glacial Chasm.

Just like Glacial Chasm, this is an obvious Sun Titan target. It's even better in multicolor decks, though. There are plenty of ways to draw extra cards every turn.

This is why if you're not playing green or white, you need some sort of colorless generic permanent removal. If you are playing green or white, this is nothing. If you're playing green and white, it's less than nothing.

The original Teferi's Protection? In a 'neener neener, you can't touch me' sense.

It's a powerful effect, but also has a pretty steep downside that means you need access to a lot of card draw (such as enchantress effects) to keep it around. Or something like Sun Titan or Hall of Heliod's Generosity to recur it. Red decks struggle to get past it. Black decks.... not so much, due to the prevalence of life loss (ex: Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire) instead of damage.

....I sort of want to see a deck built to keep Solitary Confinement around with Eternal Dragon now.

What a coincidence; I just started researching a 5C Enchantress list over the weekend and Solitary Confinement popped up many times. The player-shroud ability is a great upside over Spirit of Resistance, while the downside can be mitigated by cards like Honden of Seeing Winds|CHK or by being the Monarch, which is very easy to hold onto thanks to Solitary Confinement itself. It's a strong effect for one card.

It is true that Black's life-loss effects get around it, but if that's a concern, you can run the classic Phyrexian Unlife & Solemnity combo to sort that out.

Myllior wrote: ↑

4 years ago

What a coincidence; I just started researching a 5C Enchantress list over the weekend and Solitary Confinement popped up many times. The player-shroud ability is a great upside over Spirit of Resistance, while the downside can be mitigated by cards like Honden of Seeing Winds|CHK or by being the Monarch, which is very easy to hold onto thanks to Solitary Confinement itself. It's a strong effect for one card.

It is true that Black's life-loss effects get around it, but if that's a concern, you can run the classic Phyrexian Unlife & Solemnity combo to sort that out.

I must tell you from experience, your enchantress fort will probably always be vulnerable to someone like me playing Opalescence and aiming Mirrorweave at my own Pandemonium and aiming like 20 direct damage triggers at you, but the good news is, there aren't many people carrying around nonsense like that.

Monday, July 29th, 2019; Soul Sculptor

First time seeing this card. This is delightfully weird, and actually somewhat flexible. Ultimately outclassed by various options that permanently solve things in a less janky manner (Intrepid Hero, Royal Assassin, or Visara the Dreadful/Avatar of Woe a bit higher up in CMC), and already don't see a ton of play. I'll keep it in mind going forward, might be of some use to some low power jankatron Selesnya.