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

[3drinks]

What, don't you want to go back to the days of the Sensei's Divining Top/Rhystic Study/Mind's Eye dance?

Pay 1 for top
Did you pay 1 for that?
I pay 1 for that.
I pay 1 to top
Tap top to draw
Pay 1 to draw with you
Pay one to draw with you
Pay 1 for top
Did you pay 1 for that?
I don't pay 1 for that
I draw a card
I pay 1 to draw with you

No, no I'm quite fine never seeing that again, tyvm.

[RxPhantom]

Top slows down games to an almost unbearable pace, especially if it's being used by an indecisive player. I hate seeing it.

[pokken]

Top slows down games to an almost unbearable pace, especially if it's being used by an indecisive player. I hate seeing it.

I play top in a number of decks, and never get accused of slowplay (for that) - mostly I have to shuffle a lot in many of my decks, but nothing top related.

The key to being a good top player is:

1. Do it ahead of time (with the shortcut described below).
2. practice remembering what's on there so you don't have to look all the time.
3. take your lumps when you mess up.

I think people expect too much latitude with topping. The only real shortcut I use is "I'm going to top while you guys are playing your turn but please assume I'm doing it at the end step before me, so if something changes I may re-order." And that works pretty well.

The fundamental thing with top is if you get to your draw step and you draw your card and it was wrong, you don't get to go back, and you just need to practice remembering.

Land Tax is much the same way. You really need to do it ahead of time, and then if someone happens to blow up your tax or something just re-shuffle. This is a casual game and you can move some things asynchronous.

With Land Tax I'll set the top half of my library aside and search the bottom half then shuffle after if there's a topdeck interaction on board (e.g. etali, primal storm) which at least saves the searching.


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As far as power level, I find that tempo is getting more and more important in commander. If you can't abuse top by shuffling or with miracles / other topdeck interactions like oracle of mul daya it's often worse than just playing a cantrip or a draw spell in its place.

I think a lot of people include top in a deck where it's worse than mirri's guile because they don't understand that the tempo loss of spending that mana every turn really adds up, especially as decks have gotten more efficient.

As such I only play it in decks that can use it as a combo piece or reliably interact with it. The deck where it's most borderline is ephara, god of the polis where I can shuffle a lot and have a miracle, but the tempo is very demanding and possibly worse than other things.

If they ever print a collector ouphe in white I will strongly consider cutting it

[umtiger]

When you watch a strong player use Sensei's Divining Top and compare it to a indecisive player, then you would see that Sensei's Divining Top is not the actual problem. In fact, when you watch that same player who doesn't make decisions at a reasonable pace play many other cards, you see that no card is actually the problem.

Too many players used Top without shuffle effects and then made the wrong conclusion that Top isn't a good enough card.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Top isn't that hard if you juat remember. Of course, a draw, mill, shuffle, or scry later changes things. It actually reminds me of Sylvan Library, but with the added fun of a bounce to cantrip (which also lets me have fun with the smith cycle from Scars) or "Did you pay 1 for that?"

There are other times when I might want to use Top more, but I really only get offended if you Top without your untap step in between (via Clock of Omens, Unwinding Clock, or Seedborn Muse)

[plushpenguin]

I'm a very capable top user, but through that experience I will say that in optimized proactive lists (and even some reactive lists) it loses a lot of its appeal. Still a very good card, but not a sacred one, even with the necessary shuffle effects and support for it.

I'm on the verge of cutting it from Xenagod as soon as something more important shows up for the deck.

[FoxOfWar]

I don't particularly like it, but that's more my playstyle: I prefer raw draw to topdeck manipulation and tutors. I'd rather have another piece of draw, removal or my gameplan.

Granted, it's not helped by having played with some people who love their top and are indecisive. Seeing the thing just makes me sigh inwardly even when it's not warranted.

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 12th, 2020; Armillary Sphere

For us non-G players, I am a fan. Definitely better than myriad landscape in 2+ colour. Nothing you're gonna be writing home about winning a game for you, but absolutely reasonable, solid, and dependable.

[DirkGently]

Definitely better than myriad landscape in 2+ colour.

How is that true? Myriad landscape puts the lands into play, it's actual ramp. Especially for 5-drop commanders, it ramps you there directly. Not to mention, it's a land itself, so it doesn't cost anything to put into play. I don't run landscape everywhere, but where it's good, it's good. Being 2 colors doesn't matter that much, you've probably got at least one color covered, so you can get the other with landscape. If you've somehow got 2 other lands and none of them tap for a color...you might be running too many utility lands.

Armillary sphere used to be considered a staple, but I never loved it even back in the day...and I definitely don't see it being worthwhile now. 4 mana for 2 cards, and they have to be basics? Ew. Even in installments, that's pretty awful. I can't imagine any deck that really wants this tbh.

[cheonice]

Armillary sphere used to be considered a staple, but I never loved it even back in the day...and I definitely don't see it being worthwhile now. 4 mana for 2 cards, and they have to be basics? Ew. Even in installments, that's pretty awful. I can't imagine any deck that really wants this tbh.

Yep, I never understood, why everybody loves this card. A signet is almost always better. I would rather play Hedron Archive or one of the better three-mana-stones.

[3drinks]

Definitely better than myriad landscape in 2+ colour.

How is that true? Myriad landscape puts the lands into play, it's actual ramp. Especially for 5-drop commanders, it ramps you there directly. Not to mention, it's a land itself, so it doesn't cost anything to put into play.

Because sphere let's you fix any of your colours. Rather than just one. That's really it's only draw.

[DirkGently]

Because sphere let's you fix any of your colours. Rather than just one. That's really it's only draw.

Both effects essentially cost 4 mana, so they're pretty similar except that one can get you two different colors and one ramps. Out of the two of those, I would take ramp over slightly better fixing nearly 100% of the time. Manabases in commander are so strong already, and even with myriad landscape you're still getting to pick one color, so it's kind of an evolving wilds++ in terms of its fixing. Pretty rare you'd still need more fixing at that point, unless you've got a pretty budget manabase.

Plus myriad you can just play as a land and crack it later. The front half actually *does* something. The front half of armillary sphere just sits there and hopes that it doesn't get picked off by some random effect before you get the chance to crack it. That'd be pretty embarrassing.

[Treamayne]

Definitely better than myriad landscape in 2+ colour.

How is that true? Myriad landscape puts the lands into play,...<snip> I can't imagine any deck that really wants this tbh.

Yep, I never understood, why everybody loves this card.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a "staple" by any means; but let me try explaining my thought process on why I have some decks that run this (there are decks that want this).

- Landfall that wants to spread triggers out, rather than try using fetches that dump directly to battlefield to get as many triggers/turn as possible
- Other land manipulation that needs land-in-hand to use as fuel (Nantuko Cultivator, Bone Miser, etc.)
- They have different primary purposes; ML is about ramp (with a side of fixing) and AS is about hitting land drops and fixing
-- Myriad Landscape (without outside aid - i.e. untap manipulation) will always be:

Land drop (for no gain), wait one or more turns, Search, Wait at least one turn to untap
So, always two turns until payoff, barring hijinx

-- Armillary Sphere can potentially be:

Cast, Search, Land (4: Put one land in hand, one on the battlefield)
Cast, Wait one or more turns, Search, Land (2, wait, 2: Land in hand, land on battlefield)
So, 4 mana for payoff this turn, 2 and 2 mana for payoff next turn or later.

- People have mentioned ML is a land and also taps for mana; but don't forget that AS is an artifact. Not that lands can't be recurred but artifacts are generally easier to recur (excepting Crucible of Worlds).

In short, Armillary Sphere can be good for decks that care about having lands in hand, but should not be confused with true ramp.

[RxPhantom]

This card certainly exists, so it's got that going for it. If I'm going to pay 4 though, it should at least ramp me by one. There are just so many better options out there.

[onering]

AS is only good for decks that care about land in hand AND aren't green. It sucks if your green and should be cut for one of the dozen or so better spells. In two color it should be a signet or other rock. It is only relevant in 3 color sans green and Breya's 4 color. It's just not very good, but it can occasionally have some relevance in decks that need what it does, and I mean the whole package of what it does. Being an artifact has to be relevant, or the lands actually being in your hand has to be relevant. Myriad Landscape, otoh, you just need to care that it ramps, that you aren't 4+ colors (unless it's strongly in one or two), and that you can afford the tempo loss (affording the tempo loss is also important when paying 2 Mana for an artifact then another 2 to crack it when it doesnt even ramp you). Any interactions with crucible or whatever are just gravy, rather than a prerequisite for it being playable.

[MeowZeDung]

Something heavy on the landfall and Oracle of Mul Daya effects might like it, maybe? Borborygmos Enraged might run it? I guess I could see a casual Daretti, Scrap Savant list running it to keep lands flowing.

[DirkGently]

Don't get me wrong, it's not a "staple" by any means; but let me try explaining my thought process on why I have some decks that run this (there are decks that want this).

I'm not saying there aren't corner cases where armillary sphere might be considered (top of the edhrec list is sasaya, orochi ascendant - fair enough for him, although it's still pretty far down the list compared to other green land-drawing spells), but there's really no comparison to myriad landscape, simply because ramping is so much more powerful than anything armillary sphere offers in the vast majority of cases. Honestly, you can justify it to yourself if you want, but I have a hard time believing it's actually the best option for any of your decks. Sasaya's really the only one I can see playing it, simply because he wants to play so many land-drawing effects that he'll even run the crap ones like armillary sphere.

Drawing basic lands is usually just kind of garbage tbh. I mean land tax draws three basic lands per turn on a one mana enchantment with no further investment - that's how bad drawing basic lands is. Usually you'd rather just draw cards, because if you're drawing cards then you'll get some lands in there, as well as actual spells, all mixed together. Funny how that works out.

[pokken]

I play armillary sphere in a couple of my golos decks (that aren't white). In that case I do it for two reasons:

1) the decks can make use of extra swamps or mountains (coffers, valakut, terrain generator)
2) the decks *really* can't afford to whiff on a land drop until they get to 5 mana, because they're designed specifically to have a lot of gas and not a lot of ramp

So I ran out of critical mass 1-3 cmc draw spells in those colors that I wanted to play; truth be told it's possible the black deck could play sign in blood over sphere. But sphere is *consistent* and that deck cares a lot more about getting to Golos than anything else, and the possibility of whiffing on a draw 2 is pretty bad. It's happened with night's whisper often enough.

the blue golos deck doesn't play this even though it cares about artifacts. In that deck, I would play mycosynth wellspring first -- since I'd like to sac it to make 2 mana or tap it to untap another artifact or whatever.

Generally speaking I think there are better ways to hit your land drops than sphere, but it does have a place. Usually in decks that care about basic land types specifically.

The first time I saw it in a non-jank deck was my buddy's geth-coffers deck, and it was always very good since he cared so much about swamps.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I think hitting all one's land drops is oft underrated. Sphere is acceptable in that it is colorless card advantage that (more or less) sets your next two turns straight in terms of achieving basic resource parity.

Is it busted? No. Is it worse in a world where Ash Barrens exists? Absolutely. Is it unplayable jank? Hardly. I've played in a number of non-green control decks and been pleased enough with what it provides, simple and small as it may be.

[Mookie]

Armillary Sphere is fine. It does what you want it to do - fix mana and help hit land drops. However, it doesn't do so at a particularly efficient rate. Obviously outclassed by Kodama's Reach and other green ramp, so focusing on other colors instead...

I suppose the main question is how valuable hitting land drops is in comparison to ramping directly, which is generally dependent on how consistently you're hitting land drops - if you tend to miss them, Armillary Sphere goes up in value over something like Wayfarer's Bauble. However, even if you are missing land drops, I don't think the right solution is to run a way to fetch lands into hand - I think a better solution is to just run more card draw. If you're drawing more cards, you'll naturally hit your land drops more often. There are arguably some upsides to getting more cards in hand so you can discard them to looting effects, but unless you specifically need lands or have a bunch of extra land drops, I'd favor just raw card draw instead - you can get a more efficient rate than two cards for four mana.

Anyway, there are a lot of alternatives to Armillary Sphere I'd also consider. Worn Powerstone would probably be the most direct swap - costs slightly less total, and actually ramps. As for other options... Wayfarer's Bauble ramps out land, while signets and talismans ramp more efficiently. Thaumatic Compass is a way to get lands into hand that isn't as dead in the lategame. Wanderer's Twig is half the price for half the effect, while Expedition Map gets any land (which can be better than two basics). Burnished Hart also fetches two lands, but directly into play at some additional cost.

I don't think that Myriad Landscape is a particularly good comparison though, since it takes a land slot instead of a spell slot.

[3drinks]

Burnished Hart also fetches two lands, but directly into play at some additional cost.

My fave thing about B-Hart is it's an elk . I really don't "like" it, but it's a reasonable Alesha target when you're not trying to fork up the $ for Sad Robot.

[3drinks]

Monday, April 13th, 2020; Essence Warden and it's sisters from another mister Soul Warden and Soul's Attdendant

I almost threw these back but...I see these pop up all the time. Why. Outside of combo elves I guess but even there it seems dubious at best. I don't get it.

[DirkGently]

I think the primary spot for the white soul sisters is lifegain triggers. Which, off the top of my head, is karlov and heliod2.0. And, presumably, any other commanders that might care about lifegain triggers, like some oloro decks or whatever. WB being the most common colors.

As such, essence warden seems like it has a much more difficult time justifying itself anywhere. It's in a decent number of decklists but it doesn't make much sense to me except as a decent lifegain source that happens to be an elf. Which seems unexciting to me but w/e.

[cheonice]

Never underestimate the lifegain in 75/85% non-combo-creature-based metas! These women do SO MUCH WORK in keeping you alive and supporting lifegain subthemes (like Dawn of Hope in my Selvala, Explorer Returned).

Not a great choice in more competitive environments, I guess?

[Mookie]

I've had Soul Warden betray me before - specifically, against a Kenrith, the Returned King deck that was packing Tainted Remedy. Other than that, it's usually preferable to Soul's Attendant due to the triggers being mandatory, which means you can get them retroactively if you forget them (and you will forget them, because they trigger a lot).

Anyway, I'd say the white ones are preferable to Essence Warden, primarily because they go in two types of decks. Firstly, decks that care about gaining life as a way to trigger cards like Well of Lost Dreams and Ajani's Pridemate. And secondly, decks that care about using that life as a resource for cards like Necropotence. Most payoffs for gaining life are white, and ways to spend life are black - green doesn't have nearly as much synergy for lifegain. You could stick them in a go-wide tokens deck as a life buffer if you're expecting aggro, but at that point, I'd prefer something like True Conviction or Angelic Skirmisher as a lifegain engine.

Analyzing the cards themselves... there are some Human tribal synergies they can play into, and they're fetchable by Ranger of Eos. There are plenty of payoffs in white for running small creatures. They can also be hit by Skullclamp. And if you treat them purely as a lifegain spell, they're actually pretty efficient, often gaining 10+ life for a pretty minor investment. I wouldn't run them without a payoff, but they're good at what they do.

Somewhat interesting to compare to Auriok Champion - an extra mana, but it also has two relevant protections, which make it a much better blocker. I'd probably favor the Champion if not for the price tag (seriously, it could use another reprint).