MTGNexus

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Used to run Fatal Frenzy in my Zada, Hedron Grinder deck.

Wow that weeks Like an insane finisher. Is there Like a dream target to hit after the commander. Og was it a voltron list

Beyondnoxx wrote: ↑

4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Used to run Fatal Frenzy in my Zada, Hedron Grinder deck.

Wow that weeks Like an insane finisher. Is there Like a dream target to hit after the commander. Og was it a voltron list

No, not voltron. It was based on making a ridiculous amount of tokens, mana, draw almost the whole deck, then buff the tokens and swing with haste. Fun place to use Splice onto Arcane. It's a glass cannon combo deck, really, but doesn't do infinite loops -- rather it achieves ridiculous numbers of tokens/mana/damage from exponential synergy. Thread on Sally, as they haven't ported it here yet.

o_O Thats Sounds amazing!

Like Berserk, it can be pretty fun with something like Cold-Eyed Selkie where the extra power benefits you directly. Or something like Kresh the Bloodbraided. But Berserk has more value with Prime Speaker Zegana (berserk creature out, then summon Zegana, for anyone who doesn't understand).

As usual, anything that boosts power (equipment, anthems, +1/+1 counters, that sort of thing) makes this even better.

Mookie wrote: ↑

4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Well, I know back in my younger days I played Hesitation inside of a Hanna, Ship's Navigator deck, and it always over performed for me. You have to pay more attention to your sequencing, but I'd suggest you run it too. It's still not as good as Standstill though, of course.

Specific to this instance, the plan is to animate Lunar Force and equip it with Assault Suit, which means that it will stick around to keep countering my opponents' spells, while not affecting my own spells. Hesitation affects all players' spells (including my own), which would mean that I animated + equipped it, I wouldn't be able to resolve spells either. So, significantly less useful as a win condition.

I recognize what it's doing, but you can easily break the symmetry of the former options with Cavern, Boseiju, and other can't be countered effects, which are quite playable on their own in the format. Just an Avenue to explore!

Thursday, August 1st, 2019; The Great Aurora

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Thursday, August 1st, 2019; The Great Aurora

Very much a green game reset, consider green is best at lands and tokens, will likely benefit the most from this.

I hope they print more cards like this, something within the color pie but also innovative.

This card is Great. It's the most fun way they've printed to scramble up a board state. It neither makes the game before it meaningless nor the game after it miserable.

I am not a green player in commander. And for me this feels Like a commander card. But i han See a green player warning to Play it. I Like it its able to be countered. And if you build around it i imagine it han be quite the finisher. Maybe in a simic deck. With The simic god that let you save mana.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Thursday, August 1st, 2019; The Great Aurora

I bought a copy when Origins was released, but haven't ever played it. It was going to be in a Ulasht, the Hate Seed token deck I was designing (to be played with Warp World for most tokeny advantage).

But, can we chuckle about how this interacts with Plagiarize?

Sinis wrote: ↑

4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Thursday, August 1st, 2019; The Great Aurora

I bought a copy when Origins was released, but haven't ever played it. It was going to be in a Ulasht, the Hate Seed token deck I was designing (to be played with Warp World for most tokeny advantage).

But, can we chuckle about how this interacts with Plagiarize?

And further with Laboratory Maniac if enough cards were shuffled in.

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

And further with Laboratory Maniac if enough cards were shuffled in.

Since Plagiarize only affects one opponent, I think it'd be hard to actually draw out, unless you were halfway there.

Though, now that we're thinking of it, The Great Aurora doesn't just reward tokens; if you drew a ton of cards without much of a board state, you could Great Aurora into some fun action.

I'm now considering just jamming it into my Toothy/Pir deck, because I sometimes just draw a ton of cards.

Sinis wrote: ↑

4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

And further with Laboratory Maniac if enough cards were shuffled in.

Since Plagiarize only affects one opponent, I think it'd be hard to actually draw out, unless you were halfway there.

Though, now that we're thinking of it, The Great Aurora doesn't just reward tokens; if you drew a ton of cards without much of a board state, you could Great Aurora into some fun action.

I'm now considering just jamming it into my Toothy/Pir deck, because I sometimes just draw a ton of cards.

Oops. I didn't RTFC too well, there.

The Great Aurora is spectacular, I use it in Rosheen for f l a v o r and my playgroup seems to think it's fair and fun.

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Oops. I didn't RTFC too well, there.

Well, there are other problems, too. If you draw over 100, you won't have Lab Man or Jace in play to win (you just kind of lose, unless you played something like Angel's Grace pre-Aurora). Without Angel's Grace, you probably need to Great Aurora into 90+ (but under 100), and then draw the last few cards with a Stroke or something after tabling Lab Man/Jace. Having Lab Man under a Suspension Field would also work.

It's a fine balance, but it's probably relatively predictable with room for a little error. The real crap would be someone using something like big Stroke in response to the Aurora on the player with Plagiarize to throw off your math and make you draw the full 100 (in the event you didn't have Suspension Field + Lab Man).

But, this all sounds less fun than just having a crapton of free resources.

The Great Aurora is a pretty crazy effect. It's a strong payoff for any strategy capable of generating huge numbers of tokens (or other permanents). Although it functions similarly, I actually like it as a card a lot more than Warp World. TGA guarantees you'll end up with the same amount of 'stuff' (cards in hand + permanents) before and after it resolves. On the other hand, WW only puts specific permanents into play, which means it is possible to hit a bunch of instants/sorceries/planeswalkers and end up with nothing. As a result, TGA is a chaos card that I actually enjoy when other people cast - it's pretty straightforward to resolve and powerful when built around, but it won't take people out of the game by itself.

As for other uses... it's technically a board wipe, which can be relevant. Works really well with token generation. Gives you your new lands untapped, so you can immediately start redeploying from your new hand (and taking advantage of any floating mana you may have). On the other hand, all of your opponents will also have new hands and mana available, so they may be able to interact even if they were previously tapped out.

It's also an interesting card to copy, although there aren't as many payoffs for doing so as there are with Warp World - mostly just a chance to generate more mana for your final hand.

I love the flavour of The Great Aurora, and it's a pretty cool control card. I've still yet to find a place it fits well, though, partly because it's not all that easy to break the symmetry of it's effect and follow up with a strong impact on the game. I guess it could be good if you're a spell slinger build and follow up with something like Exsanguinate, Mind's Desire, Genesis Wave or Time Warp, but otherwise because the board is squeaky clean you're starting at square one (relatively speaking) again. You can play out critters and such, but without guaranteed haste you're sort of stuck. It does seem like a really good reset though if you have the ability to follow up with strong plays after it resolves.

(feel free to prove me wrong here, I'd love to see some plays where this card benefits the caster more than the rest of the board, and I do feel like there's something to this card I'm not seeing.)

Fruday, August 2nd, 2019; Bargaining Table

Nice jank. I'm not sure anything wants this, as even if you're playing hand maul tribal you get stable draw for one mana more in The Immortal Sun or the once relevant Staff of Nin. Don't forget Mind's Eye is a thing too. So many EDH has-beens, all in oen name-dropping post. I guess if forced to look for upsides, this thing nets you the card immediately.

I have never played with this card. Looks random and not consistent. But draw in commander for artifact/colorless decks... I Guess?

At X=8, I'd prefer Tower of Fortunes
At X=4, I'd prefer Jayemdae Tome.
At X=3, I'd prefer Arcane Encyclopedia
At X=2, I'd prefer Endless Atlas (assuming I have enough basics)
At X=1, I'd prefer Mind's Eye
At X=0, I might consider it, but would likely still favor Coercive Portal.

I suppose there are ways to make sure an opponent stays hellbent (discard, Sire of Insanity, etc), but it's not a thing that is particularly easy to control, and the payoff for Bargaining Table is fairly meh - there are a lot of more consistent ways to draw cards from artifacts.

On the other hand, could be interesting alongside something like Unbound Flourishing or Rosheen Meanderer, if you're very heavy on the X theme.

I'll throw out Loreseeker's Stone to compare/contrast.

in ancient casual "intentionally bad deck" games I have seen this card played in a mono-blue deck based on donating Thought Devourers to your opponent. It was stupid, because you could just have been donating Illusions of Grandeur for the same cost but that was incredibly far from the point!

I suppose the "key" to having an artifact with the potential to read "Tap: Draw a card" is that it's easy to find ways to untap artifacts. of course it's narrow, but Mind Over Matter lets you tap it to consult your library under those conditions.

Once you get to X=4, you have Jayemdae Tome. At X=3, Arcane Encyclopedia. At X=2 or less, this becomes the definition of win moar.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Fruday, August 2nd, 2019; Bargaining Table

If it had only cost less than 5, it might be playable in a discard-oriented deck. As written, it's just dreadful.

I would almost always play Arcane Encyclopedia or Endless Atlas or both over this card. Card drawing artifacts used to be bad. Maybe you could use the Mind Over Matter thing with a hellbent opponent to get whatever cards you wanted in hand and combo out, sure, but there seem to be better uses for MOM.