[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Mines of Moria

[Sinis]

It's worth noting, that Hecatomb is basically an X spell with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

I can't help but feel like Hecatomb is underplayed.

[TheGildedGoose]

You know, this might be worth it in my Erebos, Bleak-Hearted list. I run plenty of sac fodder. It's tempting.

[3drinks]

Thursday, September 18th 2025; Nissa, Ascended Animist

Planeswalker that protects itself with beefy bodies. Even at the discounted cost. Useful enough.

[PrimevalCommander]

I like this Nissa as an overrun in mono-green with additional flexibility. I don't typically cast it for the +1, but if I have a particularly slow and it's always there. I like the Naturalize is only a -1, so you can hit it 2-3 times if you really were in a bind on removal or had an artifact deck at the table spewing out threats.

[onering]

I drafted this like 3 times, and it was always decent but underwhelming.


The -1 is fine. Boring though. Arguably better in draft, because that set had a lot of artifacts and casting this for 5 and -1ing three times was a huge play.

The +1 sucks if you cast it for 5, and is mid otherwise. The tokens are good populate targets if you keep her loyalty high, and work well with the overrun, but you need them to actually be big in the first place to matter. A 4/4 isn't stopping anything and not worth the 5 mana. A 6/6 for 6 mana is meh, it can at least stop things and while it's a crap rate you still have a big pw sitting around pumping them out possibly. An 8/8 for 7 is at least big, and much more able to deter attacks and keep her alive. It's all underwhelming though. Although, because her ult is very dependent on your board state, the +1 might actually be the better option after casting her into a doubling season a reasonable amount of the time. For 5 mana she'll enter with 6 loyalty and get two more from her +1, so the two tokens she makes will be 8/8s. For 6, you could overrun and have a few loyalty left over, or you could make two 12/12s. For 7, she poops out 2 16/16s or can overrun two turns in a row (assuming she survives the crackback). Again, this all depends on board state, because sometimes the instant overrun will be the choice, but having the +1 be the splashy doubling season play is cool.

And then there's the ult. It needs a bit too much to be good. She can do it immediately if cast for 7. Ok, neat. A 7 mana overrun that gives everything+7/+7 and trample. That puts her in competition with a decent number of creatures that are just better, let alone non permanent overruns. Even with doubling season, she doesn't do it immediately if cast for 5, but at 6 she can pop herself and live. The problem with this ult, though, is that it's only good if all your lands are forests. In limited, it was extremely underwhelming, comparing unfavorably to the actual card Overrun. In commander, it has more potential, because you might actually be playing mono Green or have a Yavimaya in your deck to turn everything into forests. Still, this means that if you ramp into her then her ult will have a lower ceiling. Did you get to 7 mana off a sol ring, a signet, and 4 lands with only 2 forests among them? Too bad, should have run OG Garruk.


I appreciate that she's a cool battle cruiser design. The concept of popping out huge horrors for a few turns then giving them all +8/+8 sounds like a lot of 2010 style fun. And it's the sort of thing mythics were sold as, these ultra splashy game changers that were either clunky or expensive to cast enough to keep them from being staples. Robo Nissa fits that bill perfectly.

[Sinis]

I will say: I've watched the +1 get out of control a ton of times. I think one should never take this Nissa lightly.

[3drinks]

the +1 might actually be the better option after casting her into a doubling season a reasonable amount of the time. For 5 mana she'll enter with 6 loyalty and get two more from her +1, so the two tokens she makes will be 8/8s.

Unsure based on context, but it reads like you're implying you get +2 loyalty on the doubling season turn which is incorrect as doubling season specifically doubles counters generated by an effect while adding loyalty counters by activating loyalty abilities is a cost.

[DirkGently]

I drafted this like 3 times, and it was always decent but underwhelming.

Decent but underwhelming in draft? I know ONE was a pretty fast set but this seems nearly unbeatable in most circumstances. Making a 4/4 as a PLUS ability on a 5-drop walker is nutty and it only scales up. At 6 it's basically colossal dreadmaw with an extremely threatening planeswalker attached. I don't think I'd ever really look at her other abilities most of the time, but she starts with decent loyalty and a big blocker, and then easily runs away with the game if left alive by making increasingly large men. And if you draw it later it just makes even BIGGER men, so it's never off-curve? What else could you want from a draft rare?

Also I didn't realize you drafted that much to get a mythic 3x in a set, that's impressive.

For commander it's still a fine card, but it's probably only really great in mono-green where you can use it as a craterhoof in addition to a stat generator and a removal spell. 7 drops that generate slow value over time are not typically the best.

Edit: just checked 17lands and it had the highest game-in-hand winrate of any card in the set for ONE draft. If you ever drew it, your odds were 2:1 to win that game.

[3drinks]

Friday, September 19th 2025; Boxing Ring

[Sinis]

Obvious include for fight-oriented decks because it gives you free fights and ramps the more you Do The Thing™. Not much else to say about it.

[MAGUSZANIN]

Not a bad little enabler for two mana, and it is worded as up to one other creature so you don't need to use it if you don't want to fight.

Honestly, I don't even know that it needs to be a dedicated fight deck. Just a monogreen/grull/simic big beaters.deck could probably still get some good use out of this. The Mana value restriction is a bit tricky, but as long as you're confident you have a reasonable curve and will be able to activate this at least a few times, I think this is probably worthwhile.

Also note that the creature doesn't need to win the fight, or even survive, in order for you to get the treasure. Having your three Mana 2/3 fight their three Mana 1/3 still gets you a treasure.

You only need to activate it twice for it to pay for itself, and if you get two value fights and two treasures out of this, I think you're doing just fine.

The Main issue is just that 2 Mana ramp that doesn't actually ramp you is a bit questionable. I would not be playing this over Three Visits even in a dedicated fight deck, assuming my curve is the kind of curve that wants two mana ramp.

[Moxnix]

never seen it but i kind of love the flavor. seems good for fight decks

[Jemolk]

What a strange little card. I like it. It's obviously very niche, and even in that niche, it's distinctly flawed, but it's such a cool concept, and the fact that a boxing ring only allows you to fight creatures in the same weight class is such an excellent flavor win. Speaking of flavor, it's a bit too close to modern times for me to really be a big fan -- I much prefer more distinctly magical settings, and I even prefer futuristic magitech ones over what we saw in New Capenna -- but even being as disappointingly mundane as it is, it's still got enough cool factor for me to play it.

[Moxnix]

That's kind of exactly how i feel but i kind of like the art if it was a gladiator ring instead maybe that would be ideal but the weightlcass flavor thing i loved as well

[Sinis]

What a strange little card. I like it. It's obviously very niche, and even in that niche, it's distinctly flawed, but it's such a cool concept, and the fact that a boxing ring only allows you to fight creatures in the same weight class is such an excellent flavor win. Speaking of flavor, it's a bit too close to modern times for me to really be a big fan -- I much prefer more distinctly magical settings, and I even prefer futuristic magitech ones over what we saw in New Capenna -- but even being as disappointingly mundane as it is, it's still got enough cool factor for me to play it.

I feel like the "weight class" aspect of the card is a flavour win... but it's also a mechanical necessity. What would you cost granting ALL your creatures an ETB fight at? Gruul Ragebeast is 7 mana and gives your creatures ETB fight. Ayula, Queen Among Bears is two mana, but... you're playing and only fighting with Bears, so, it's not a huge deal if you can just pick off bear-sized and smaller creatures. Slinza, the Spiked Stampede costs 5, but asks 2 for every fight (making it basically worse than Gruul Ragebeast for costing, unless you're firing out Beasts, but that's not an amazing Kindred).

Frontier Siege is 4 mana, but is restricted to flying creatures, and the one I have the most experience with; it feels really good/powerful (modality making it even better).

I feel like at 2 mana, Boxing Ring would be bonkers if it didn't have the weight-class restriction. Even as it stands, playing a Rhonas the Indomitable already lets you kill any three drop, and there are plenty of others like it across other mana values where the power/toughness is disproportional to the point of it just being conditional removal. Something like Onyx Mage or Trostani, Three Whispers can grant deathtouch in response to the fight trigger, making it one-for-one or better if you feel strongly about it.

Edit: I realize you're not necessarily saying that the weight class thing is an unforgivable mechanical flaw; just... I feel like this thing already does a ton of work for 1G.

[Mookie]

I don't think I have seen Boxing Ring played before, but it honestly looks sort of busted. Two mana repeatable removal + treasure generator, with the only requirement being that you play well-statted creatures at a variety of mana values? That doesn't seem hard to support, and it's even better if you have other sources of fighting. The fighting is even optional, so you'll presumably either win or at least trade in every fight. It doesn't seem great if you're playing a bunch of Wood Elves and other small value creatures, but it seems like a snap-include in decks with beefier creatures.

I suppose the one limitation of Boxing Ring is that it won't function consistently as a two mana ramp spell. On the flip side, I've been impressed by Thorn Mammoth and other repeatable fight effects elsewhere - green isn't known for its creature removal, but repeatable effects are quite strong. Not sure if it fits in any of my current decks (since they tend to be heavy on small value creatures), but I could see myself testing it in Animar. I've recently been trying to support Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma and other 'big creatures matter' cards, and this would slot right in.

I'll give a shout to Herd Heirloom as another recent two mana rock that doubles as a value engine.

[onering]

I think this doesn't seem play because it promises a lot and will often just not deliver. Having a variety of mana values for your creatures, and beef at every value, is doable but it's a legitimately serious deck building requirement. Lean too heavily into it and you don't have enough room for less beefy creatures or non creature spells, while if you don't include enough of them this thing just won't work. Even with a good amount you'll still have plenty of times where you just don't draw the right MV creature, or you have to skip out on fighting because it's bad politics or your creature needs to live so can't fight. It's also a signet, which is nice, but it's an unreliable signet, albeit one that lets you bank mana if you don't immediately need it that turn.

I think this needs a very specific deck to be good, one that already fights a lot and wants fights to happen, where it will basically be a signet every turn with upside. Mookie, you mention Goreclaw, but I don't think I'd trust it there unless you are already heavy on fight. Goreclaw's whole thing is dropping fatties early off of cost reduction, so the MV of the deck tends to run pretty high. It will help your fatties kill other fatties, but will miss hitting a lot of important smaller creatures and commanders, and honestly I feel like Goreclaw is already going to win the battle of the beef just by dropping more beef and attacking. Of course, it depends on your build, so if you're already heavily into fight you can use this as a way to save your other options for smaller guys while this takes care of the fatties.

[ukkuhrmakhai]

I think the hardest part to evaluate about this card (as a standalone) is how meta dependent it is and how unpredictable any given local meta can be . I've played in some metas filled with utility and small creatures where this basically adds "destroy creature on ETB" to all my utility creatures. Other metas have been more battlecruisery where the mana costs are much more spread out and the likelihood of matching values would have been much lower.

This also seems like it could be an interesting addition to clone decks since you would be able to choose your mana value and if you can give a small buff you'll almost always win the fight.

The mana/treasure ability doesn't seem reliable enough for it to count as a mana source when deck building even with treasure stock piling.

Would having a creature survive being the target of something like Atzocan Archer allow the second ability to be activated? Some fight effects seem to say the creatures fight each other but some seem to specify one creature as "fighting" even if they both deal damage to each other.

[Treamayne]

I think part of the issue for Boxing Ring is people try to evaluate it as "any creature fighting any creature" - whereas I would expect it to shine in a narrower focus (such as my 2/2 tokens snipe opponent 1/1 tokens, and I get bonus banked mana from that). Include where it can be effective at the narrower focus, and any interaction above and beyond that is gravy. The other narrower focus that may like this is Threaten decks (or their Rubinia Soulsinger cousins) as another way to (ab)use the "borrowed" creature.

[3drinks]

Saturday, September 20th 2025; Juniper Order Ranger

Man that takes me back. The old school Kitchen Finks combo.

[materpillar]

Saturday, September 20th 2025; Juniper Order Ranger

Man that takes me back. The old school Kitchen Finks combo.

I see this, I Doom Blade. I maybe remember to ask if they were going infinite with it or not after the game.

[Mookie]

Juniper Order Ranger is a neat card, and was on my shortlist when putting together Tayam. Obviously great with Kitchen Finks and other persist-based combos. Unfortunately, it's a bit too expensive to make the list these days when cheaper (and Tayam-able) options like Good-Fortune Unicorn and Master Chef exist. Juniper Order Ranger does have the upside of growing massive itself, but that tends to be less relevant if you're planning to win via combo (to say nothing of its lack of evasion).

[onering]

I miss this dude being good.

[Treamayne]

Saturday, September 20th 2025; Juniper Order Ranger

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Man that takes me back. The old school Kitchen Finks combo.

Juniper Order Ranger has been very good in the Manalink update of Shandalar, and I use it in a number of decks there. For EDH, it seems like a good casual card in any GWx counters matter deck (as long as you avoid Infinite Combos, of course).

- - -

On a separate note - has the site been going down for anybody else. I received a 503 error the first few times I tried to make this post last night.

[MAGUSZANIN]

On a separate note - has the site been going down for anybody else. I received a 503 error the first few times I tried to make this post last night.

Per the information post I read in general, it's been traced to a server issue on the hosting side, not something directly to do with the site. Though it's been intermittent for me as well.

Juniper Order Ranger is definitely one of those cards that's very cool, and would have probably been 2GW if it was printed in 2025.

But between it being a common combo engine and not that strong (for a 5 drop) outside the combo engine role, I don't see it much anymore.