[MCD] Trash or Treasure: New Card Testing and Results

[Mookie]

Technically a rather old card, but I finally got around to testing Loyal Retainers in Teysa - the reprint in Commander Masters last year brought its price down significantly. It's a strong effect if you have expensive legends to reanimate - three mana is roughly on-par for a reanimation effect, and it can also be recurred by Sun Titan and Sevinne's Reclamation. I actually suspect it's better than Persist these days, since so many creatures are legendary.

I'm trying to figure out if there is some sort of combo or engine with it and Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, but I haven't quite cracked it yet. Loyal Retainers recur Liliana, and Liliana recurs Loyal Retainers after she flips, but you need another nontoken creature to die in between. Hmmm... I guess it's a somewhat janky way to convert any nontoken creature into a 2/2 black zombie token (and a death trigger), but that doesn't really accomplish anything.

That said, after playing with Loyal Retainers a bit, I will say: my brain does not want to remember the 'before attackers are declared' clause. Sorcery-speed effects, sure, that's a thing I'm used to... but I'm so used to doing stuff after combat that I kept misplaying it. I guess they got rid of that template for a good reason. Will take some more games to get used to it... and that's ignoring that it actually can be used at instant speed (on my turn only), which will probably come up eventually.

[aliciaofthevast]

Awww, I came in to say what Sinis just did about Pro Tour Nadu but they beat me to the punch!

[Mookie]

I decided to proxy up Glarb, Calamity's Augur and test at the helm of my Tasigur deck. Ended up winning a 2-hour slogfest. I'm not sure whether the frog is better or worse than Tasigur - my general sense is that they're pretty close in power level, and I could see myself running one in the 99 and swapping between them depending on how I feel.

I will call out one difference though, which is that Glarb yields significantly higher card quality while also attracting much less attention. Using Tasigur three times in a row tends to be a time-consuming and mana-intensive activity that yields low-quality cards, while playing three cards off the top with Glarb will often go unnoticed (especially if some of them are lands). Glarb also works well with Exploration effects to clear lands off the top and flashback cards that can be milled for value, which is the reverse of Tasigur - Tasigur only puts nonlands into hand, and flashback cards tend to low-power and easy choices for opponents to return to an activation. In terms of graveyard-filling, I think Glarb's surveil and Tasigur's self-mill are pretty close - both of them work well for fueling Crucible of Worlds and other recursion effects. Fetches and shuffling work particularly well with Glarb though, since you get to peek at a new card.

On the flip side, Tasigur's larger size and higher cost is relevant for stuff like Pernicious Deed, Cactus Preserve, and pressuring battles. He's also usually cheap to cast in the lategame due to delve, and a mana sink when necessary - I suspect Glarb will be a little more prone to flooding out. In a combo context, Tasigur wins with infinite mana, so may be a bit stronger in cEDH? That's outside my area of expertise, although I will note that using Dramatic Reversal to untap Glarb and surveil towards your win condition is a thing.

Overall, I think both of them work pretty well as Sultai ramp // control // graveyard commanders, and I like the idea of a modal deck that could play either.

[Mookie]

Bloomburrow cards are starting to make their way into peoples' decks, and the legends, at least, look to be extremely pushed. Played against an acquaintance's Helga, Skittish Seer deck today, and it looked pretty broken - like Chulane, Teller of Tales if it cost two less mana and turned every untap effect into a cantripping ritual. Helga is technically more narrow than Chulane (you specifically need to play expensive creatures)... but it's trivially easy to play Strength of the Harvest // Haven of the Harvest or another pump effect and go crazy. Presumably weaker in more interactive metas (my own meta is pretty light on board wipes and spot removal, which meant she got to snowball uninterrupted), but... coming down on only three mana is certainly a thing.

...BLB has a lot of legends that both ramp and draw cards, and it feels like a soft rotation in some ways - if you're playing a commander that doesn't do at least one of those (and preferably both), it's hard to keep up.

[Arebennian]

Although I haven't played it, the play pattern for Parting Gust just seems incredible to me in non-blue decks as it provides a lot of the flexibility that a counterspell provides. Ignoring the obvious A+ synergy it has in blink decks, the ability to keep your mana untapped to both protect your key creature or EXILE an opponents seems incredible for the cost of giving them an extra card (and an extra mana over, say, Swords to Plowshares which has its own life swing drawback).

EDIT: Oh WOW. I forgot that the gift isn't even a card. It's a tapped 1/1 token with (highly unlikely) no typal synergies!

[Moxnix]

If its was 1W I feel like it would be staple quality at WW its home is in builds with heavy white symbols I think and much less splash it everywhere like swords and path. Its a good card but the WW costs will limit quite a bit where I want to play it. Mono white though or fi your leveraging the blink then hell yea. As a staple removal in any 3 color deck with white meh pass unless the decks half white and really wants more swords effects for some reason.

[aliciaofthevast]

There's a lot of quality gift cards that sure tempt me to use. I wonder just how much they might be better given my main deck is Orzhov and that I can't upgrade too much without leaving my friend in hjf dust.

[TheGildedGoose]

Nine-Lives Familiar is really just Ophiomancer #2.

[Serenade]

I've used every function of Lazotep Quarry (sac outlet, Scavenger Grounds fodder, recursion, rainbow land) and never been disappointed. Replaced all my High Markets, which I had started to slot back into every deck.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I've used every function of Lazotep Quarry (sac outlet, Scavenger Grounds fodder, recursion, rainbow land) and never been disappointed. Replaced all my High Markets, which I had started to slot back into every deck.

I definitely think this card is being slept on. If it only was a sac outlet, it'd still have a place, but the recursion and land typing are wonderful gravy.

[aliciaofthevast]

Ssh, we don't speak of lazotep quarry lest the algorithms of mtgstocks begin to speculate on it! Let's just enjoy our good and cheap high market ourselves 💖

[onering]

Nine-Lives Familiar is really just Ophiomancer #2.

Despite having a limit on the number of times you can sac it, it has uses Ophiomancer doesn't, since it isn't a token and there are a number of cards that care about non token creatures dying.

[Dunadain]

Still don't see anyone talking about Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber. I've been playing it since I opened it at the prerelease, if you're a Phyrexian Arena believer, this thing is maybe better, easier casting cost, end step trigger is better than an upkeep trigger for the most part, and something to spend mana on in the late game if you're so inclined. Obviously, it brings a lot more hurt than the altar, but it's not a deal breaker. And the two decks I'm running it in don't even have demons! it just gets better if you do.

[Jemolk]

Still don't see anyone talking about Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber. I've been playing it since I opened it at the prerelease, if you're a Phyrexian Arena believer, this thing is maybe better, easier casting cost, end step trigger is better than an upkeep trigger for the most part, and something to spend mana on in the late game if you're so inclined. Obviously, it brings a lot more hurt than the altar, but it's not a deal breaker. And the two decks I'm running it in don't even have demons! it just gets better if you do.

I immediately stuck it in my demon kindred-life payment Sol'kanar the Swamp King deck, Pretty good card there. Life drain and card draw, in a deck that aggressively uses its life as a resource? Don't mind if I do. Only got to use it once thus far, and not remotely to its full potential, but even from that limited test, it surpassed expectations, and my expectations were quite high to begin with. Elsewhere? Eh, we'll see, I suppose.

[Dunadain]

Still don't see anyone talking about Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber. I've been playing it since I opened it at the prerelease, if you're a Phyrexian Arena believer, this thing is maybe better, easier casting cost, end step trigger is better than an upkeep trigger for the most part, and something to spend mana on in the late game if you're so inclined. Obviously, it brings a lot more hurt than the altar, but it's not a deal breaker. And the two decks I'm running it in don't even have demons! it just gets better if you do.

I immediately stuck it in my demon kindred-life payment Sol'kanar the Swamp King deck, Pretty good card there. Life drain and card draw, in a deck that aggressively uses its life as a resource? Don't mind if I do. Only got to use it once thus far, and not remotely to its full potential, but even from that limited test, it surpassed expectations, and my expectations were quite high to begin with. Elsewhere? Eh, we'll see, I suppose.

Damn, takes a brave man to play Sol'kanar the Swamp King in 2024, respect.

[PrimevalCommander]

I cast a Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs as a simple Unsummon, and was very happy to do so since I was already flooded. Same game I played Otawara, Soaring City as a land on turn 4 to get my commander out on curve. Those two cards could have easily switched places and I would have been just as happy. Utility in the land slot is hard to beat when the land side comes in untapped.

I hard cast Flare of Fortitude as a fog to get me another turn to live. Still lost because I was struggling for cards, but hey, it pulled it's weight as diet Tef Prot.

Flame of Anor is being used in the Draw spot, but the removal mode helped me eliminate a player and continue on to victory, along with the previously mentioned Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs. I am loving all the high quality modal spells in RUG right now.

On that very same vein, Trash the Town is an amazing combat trick for decks with commanders that attack. I got to copy a full-send Trash the Town to tremendous value. The draw trigger stacks, so I drew 4 cards.

I'm waiting to see what Smuggler's Surprise will do for me in Titania. It is replacing Heroic Intervention as a board protection slot.

Spiteful Banditry was freakin amazing in mono-red. Wiped the board at X=4 and it ended up making me about 8 treasures over the next several turns. I was getting 2-3 treasures per turn cycle consistently from random chump blocks and aristocrat engines. Might have been the ceiling for the card, but I'll see how it goes next time. I have been overly high on mini-wipes that clear the utility dorks and tokens, but don't reset the entire board and slow the game progression several turns.

I think that is all I can report on for somewhat recent printings. Hopefully more feedback to come in a couple weeks.

[onering]

Spiteful Banditry is pretty strong outside of mono red as well. It's a very solid treasure generator that can trigger multiple times a turn cycle. I've cast it for low X values because of its value as a treasure generator.

[materpillar]

I played a couple games with The Mindskinner as my commander. It's a great way to get everyone to 10-20 cards in library, aggro the entire table and die.

Great fun. 10/10 would recommend.

[Lifeless]

Sounds like most of my decks if I'm being honest. Fynn in particular tends to eliminate 1 person while convincing everyone else to kill me. Such is the fate of aggro man.

[Mookie]

I got to test out Meathook Massacre II recently. Not from my own deck though - I stole it (and a sac outlet) off some lucky Etali, Primal Storm triggers. Something I noticed is that the symmetry is a strong point in its favor.

It's easy to dismiss it as a punisher card - 3 life is a trivial amount of life to pay in a 40-life format, right?
It's easy to dismiss the recursion ability - 3 life is too much to pay to recur every creature, right? (and finality counters make them much worse for aristocrats / death triggers anyway)
...but in practice, it is unlikely for both of these to be the case at the same time - in a game where every life point matters, the theft mode becomes much stronger, while a game where life totals are irrelevant makes the recursion mode better. Ignoring the steep color requirement (which keeps it out of decks that aren't heavy on black) and the XX cost for the sacrifice ability (which is a bit win-more), I think it's actually pretty solid as a four-mana enchantment.

I'll note that it can also function as a janky untap / flicker effect (and works well with actual flicker effects), which is nice for decks like Gonti, Lord of Luxury (and Samut, if you somehow steal it like I did). My one major complaint for it is that tracking all the finality counters is sort of a nuisance.

[onering]

So MTGO gets some cards late, and Zellix, Sanity Flayer just dropped (along with a few other backgrounds and background commanders), so I built it (with Inspiring Leader as the background.

Yeah, Zellix is nuts. It's kind of obvious that both Altar of the Brood and Altar of Dementia are strong with it, but I didn't realize how strong. In a 4 man pod, the Brood altar hits a creature about 2/3s of the time (obviously dependant on what your opponents play, so this can be higher or lower but I'm basing it on both average creature count and what I experienced). Dementia is unreliable, unless you have Inspiring Leader out and the horror tokens are 3/3s, then it also hits about 2/3s of the time. Have them both out, and you basically have a nondeterministic combo where it's possible, but highly unlikely, that you whiff enough to stop the chain. In particular, Altar of the Brood can generate multiple horrors per trigger because Zellix triggers for each opponent that mills a creature, so it can easily chain into a bunch of triggers even though only 1 card is being milled per opponent per trigger. Even without Inspiring Leader out, Dementia plus Brood can mill out the table.

I thought it was going to be a weird sort of mill to make a token army deck, so I think I'm going to have to take at least one of those cards out, because it's actually pretty easy to get both. It's a shame, because both are excellent in the deck in a vacuum without going semi infinite.

[Mookie]

Had a nut draw powered by Copy Land today - T3 Thada, T4 Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale + equip + flip → Copy Lost Vale + cast a stolen Sol Ring from Thada. I untapped with 12 mana on T5, which is... quite good. Both of those lands ended up lasting until the end of the game too, despite multiple board resets - being a land is quite nice. I don't necessarily consider it a staple, but it is nice if you have any powerful lands to copy. Seems viable as a blue Manalith with upside.

In that same game, I also cast Portent of Calamity for 10 (getting six cards including a free Wondrous Crucible). Not sure how I feel about the former as a draw spell, but I do like the tempo boost from getting something for free. My general heuristic these days is that free stuff is broken, so... yeah. I also played Breaker of Creation to gain 24 life, mostly from lands. It felt quite nice as a lifegain option in monoblue, which otherwise doesn't really have many options.

...meanwhile in Animar, I've been experimenting with build-your-own-Earthcraft shenanigans, running more haste enablers alongside mana engines like Inga and Esika and Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea. I've found it pretty easy to make my creatures pay back their mana costs (especially after any Animar discount), which enables some pretty degenerate things. Clement, the Worrywort + Shrieking Drake also does a decent Cloudstone Curio impression. I recently cut Cloudstone Curio and Ancestral Statue to tone down the combo potential a bit, but I almost feel like it has gone up instead of a result of my changes, albeit non-deterministically. (I've also been hardcasting Drowner of Truth // Drowned Jungle a lot, which is... a thing)

[yeti1069]

I played a couple games with The Mindskinner as my commander. It's a great way to get everyone to 10-20 cards in library, aggro the entire table and die.

Great fun. 10/10 would recommend.

Added this to my Captain N'ghathrod deck with some skepticism, since it turns off the damage triggers to be found in the deck (the Captain's own, for example). It is fantastic. For one, it's functionally another copy of Maskwood Nexus in that it allows stolen creatures to contribute to the mill plan, and goes further by making any direct damage effects stolen also contribute to milling. I had Captain, a smallish horror, and Roaming Throne out, along with some beefy stolen creatures. I'd wondered whether replacing Captain's damage trigger mill (x2 with Throne) would be a detriment, but Mindskinner functionally multiplies the trigger x3, since it mills everyone. It also means that I'm free to swing at whichever player is most open, even if they aren't the one I want to be milling/stealing from.

It also "ensures" that I'm not winning with combat damage when I really want to be winning via mill. It honestly felt pretty nuts, though a large part of that was due to the stuff I'd stolen early (Etali, a dino that gives everything doublestrike, and some other fatties). With that board, I milled the table for about 60 cards each in one combat.

[Serenade]

While I have used For the Common Good as a better Full Flowering, it was much more fun as a Meteorite shower in Roxanne, Starfall Savant. We are going to keep getting cooler and weirder tokens (Overlord of the Hauntwoods), so FTCG's possibilities will only increase.

[Mookie]

I drew 26 cards off Lock and Load + Expansion // Explosion (copying L&L) in Mizzix yesterday. Would I have won the game without it? Probably - I was popping off with Mizzix's Mastery at the time. But it was certainly sweet.

I'm not entirely sold on playing the card fairly though - three or four mana for the initial setup cost is somewhat steep, and means you want to be drawing at least 3-4 cards off it... which, in turn, means you want to cast 2-3 spells beforehand. That's certainly doable, but nontrivial. I definitely like it in an unfair context though - a lot of my big draw spells cost X, which makes them awkward hits off Epic Experiment and other cast-for-free effects. It's nice to have something a bit more explosive to hit.