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

[DirkGently]

I remember when people said it was going to be an autoinclude. Lol...

I think I've only seen it in superfriends, where it's kind of annoying that they can get instant ultimates but it does take a fair amount of setup and costs a lot, so it's not a big problem imo. Plus they're printing weaker ults these days, which is nice and keeps the card from getting stronger.

I guess if you know your meta is superfriends infested it could be a meta call. But personally I'd pick more flexible removal 100% of the time.

[lyonhaert]

I don't think of this as removal, either. I've considered running it in my 'friends deck, but it'd mainly be a gimmick for ulting somebody sooner for dozens of tokens or a helpful emblem. I think it's a more fair way to do it, too, as opposed to Deepglow Skate, since I'd likely have to lose 1-2 of my own walkers for it.

[Sinis]

Saturday, April 18th, 2020; The Elderspell

I would definitely run this in planeswalker-oriented black decks, like Liliana, Heretical Healer and Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath.

Honestly, my meta is so walker heavy this could be such a blowout.

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 19th, 2020; Ripjaw Raptor

Efficient creature with upside. And combo potential. I like. Erhnam Djinn never looked so good.

[Mookie]

It's not bad - 4/5 body for 4 is respectable, if not exciting. The real draw is the enrage ability, which makes chump blocking awkward. Ignoring combat and building around it a bit more, Ripjaw Raptor has one of the more useful enrage triggers, and enough toughness to take advantage of it repeatedly. Fantastic alongside fight effects and repeatable pings. Forerunner of the Empire is also a solid enabler.

I've seen a deck go off with enrage effects and Splintering Wind before, so it's a definitely a legit thing to build around. Polyraptor is splashier, and Ranging Raptors is more abusable, but drawing cards is a good, clean payoff.

[3drinks]

Monday, April 20th, 2020; Zombie Infestation

I can't recall if this has come up before, but I also can't imagine this cost being payable more than twice. Obviously if you have a crazy draw engine it's different but at that point you're already winning. Thoughts?

[Sinis]

Monday, April 20th, 2020; Zombie Infestation

I can't recall if this has come up before, but I also can't imagine this cost being payable more than twice. Obviously if you have a crazy draw engine it's different but at that point you're already winning. Thoughts?

A friend of mine played this in Vilis, Broker of Blood alongside Bone Miser. It got pretty wild!

[RedCheese]

Its one of my favourites in my Varina zombie deck

[lyonhaert]

Monday, April 20th, 2020; Zombie Infestation

I can't recall if this has come up before, but I also can't imagine this cost being payable more than twice. Obviously if you have a crazy draw engine it's different but at that point you're already winning. Thoughts?

A friend of mine played this in Vilis, Broker of Blood alongside Bone Miser. It got pretty wild!

Vilis is one of those guys that just loves to get wild, though. Pairs well with Skirge Familiar, even.

Aside: OMG, card-tag card name auto-completion!

[Sinis]

Monday, April 20th, 2020; Zombie Infestation

I can't recall if this has come up before, but I also can't imagine this cost being payable more than twice. Obviously if you have a crazy draw engine it's different but at that point you're already winning. Thoughts?

A friend of mine played this in Vilis, Broker of Blood alongside Bone Miser. It got pretty wild!

Vilis is one of those guys that just loves to get wild, though. Pairs well with Skirge Familiar, even.

Aside: OMG, card-tag card name auto-completion!

It was definitely a past-tense 'played'; he recently took Vilis apart after a chat we had, where we basically said it's an 8-mana removal check and doesn't promote interesting play. I don't think he was enjoying it much to begin with.

[onering]

More like Vilis Broken of Blood amirite?

[lyonhaert]

More like Vilis Broken of Blood amirite?

Vilis, Totally Fair and Balanced

[Sinis]

More like Vilis Broken of Blood amirite?

It's true that if a card can make Zombie Infestation good, it's probably broken.

[Mookie]

Zombie Infestation is a discard outlet, which is a thing that most decks don't care about. The ones that do are usually either making use of madness, or doing reanimator stuff. I suppose The Gitrog Monster also cares occasionally. Zombie Infestation is fine for filling the graveyard, and tokens can certainly be useful, but the exchange rate - two cards for one 2/2 token - isn't great. If I needed a discard outlet, I'd probably lean towards a looter, unless I specifically needed creature tokens, in which case I may consider Call the Bloodline.

Being a free way to convert cards into tokens does let Infestation function as a combo piece though. Throw in Doubling Season, Blood Artist, Dark Prophecy, and a sacrifice outlet?

[Hawk]

This has ended up in the "pile" while building The Gitrog Monster and Varina, Lich Queen, but failed to make the cut for either.

For my Gitrog build at least, the space for non-creature, non-land cards is pretty tight and this wasn't good enough. Noose Constrictor and Lotleth Troll got cut last round and this seemed weaker (Noose may return, but I'm testing Skola Grovedancer). Having to discard two, and only getting one card for two lost, makes this a bit too tough as well. as it means it isn't self-sustaining. And the payoff of a few tokens is something readily available elsewhere.

For Varina, this seems like a slam dunk - but keeping her hand full is surprisingly hard once the deck gets humming since she only loots and doesn't draw, so I am not optimistic we'd get more than one or two activations before we were out of gas. And there are again any number of ways to make a horde of tokens in the deck including Varina herself. We may circle back but it seems just okay.

[toctheyounger]

Zombie Infestation is a weird card in that most decks don't ever want it. We've discussed it back and forth in my Varina thread and it's still a relatively risky card even in context. Personally though, I love it. It's gravy with Bone Miser, Archfiend of Ifnir, and any sort of mass reanimation. Aside from that, if you're using it to drop things from your hand that you don't need, you can then use Varina's second ability to get a 2-for-1 on token generation, which is really decent in a deck that attacks to dig for cards.

The other cool thing about it other than synergy with other cards is that it provides instant speed combat fodder. That's occasionally very handy.

Of course, it is diminishing returns in that you very rarely want to empty your hand entirely. That being said, it's a cute trick when you're being Mindslavered. Last time this happened to me with Varina I used infestation to shed my hand, sacrificed everything including itself to Carrion Feeder and the Slaver just had me draw-attack-pass. Seems like a bad idea, but with mass reanimation redundancy I knew it was a matter of time before I bounced back.

[Dunharrow]

Using 3 cards to make your first 2/2 zombie is pretty dull. This is only worthwhile in a dedicated discard/reanimator/madness deck, or maybe in a deck that can draw an insane amount of cards.

Tokens are also pretty weak in commander so this won't make the cut in decks like Gitrog where it is just there for a bit of value.

[ilovesaprolings]

Tech against Nicol Bolas

[3drinks]

Tuesday, April 21st, 2020; Ninja of the Deep Hours

[Serenade]

Ninjutsu returns all mutated creature to hand, yes? Maybe a good reset option.

But I cast Warped Devotion, and your ninjas cry.

[DirkGently]

Lol, way to pick the weirdest edition I didn't even know that set symbol existed until like a month ago.

Kinda hard to imagine it outside of a dedicated ninja deck tbh.

[3drinks]

Lol, way to pick the weirdest edition I didn't even know that set symbol existed until like a month ago.

Kinda hard to imagine it outside of a dedicated ninja deck tbh.

You can count on me to find just a few more cards in white border.

[Outcryqq]

Ninja of the Deep Hours

I play that in my pauper Baleful Strix deck.

PS: I freaking LOVE the new predictive completion card tags! Makes life on a mobile much better!

[Hawk]

Now that Ingenious Infiltrator exists this is only like the sixth or seventh best non-Yuriko Ninja in a dedicated Ninja deck, but of course I still run it and it is still fine. I'm still generally happy to see him in an opening hand even though he's "worse" than Yuriko or Infilitrator, because his Ninjutsu cost is very reasonable (allowing me to continue to reuse my Seers or Baleful Strixs) and unlike the rest of the ninjas with a Ninjutsu cost of 2 or less, his trigger is always relevant in a way that isn't necessarily true of Skullsnatcher or Mistblade Shinobi).

It's hard to imagine running it anywhere else - the problem is that even in a Blink/Bounce/Saboteur deck, this is ultimately a one-shot compared to more permanent boosts from flickering a 'drifter or just jamming a Coastal Piracy effect. In Pauper, this guy is a menace because the reset is so impactful (especially when he hits a Faerie Seer or a Spellstutter Sprite) and because in a one-on-one 20 life format, it is highly probable he'll get to crack in again (especially on turn 2) and even just one crack is good value. Here, one crack is a little under par but unless he was in the opener and you had a good target for him on turn 2, he's extremely unlikely to get a second swing in without significant support. Most decks that go that ham on good targets for an early Ninja are also happier to just develop the board and slam a Bident of Thassa (or, more likely, have such an effect in the command zone a la Edric, Spymaster of Trest or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician), so they would rather go wider than do ninja tricks.

I imagine once I actually get to play with Mutate I may test it in an Otrimi/Brokos/Illuna/Vadrok deck since it is either a "reset" of a mutate stack, or a fine "host" for an evasive mutate to turn into a Thieving Magpie. Even there though...

- I generally will want my "resets" instant speed or more reusable. I'd have to imagine Ghostly Flicker. Crystal Shard, Curfew, or Temur Sabertooth (3/4 mutate commanders are green) are better "resets". Nevermind that I'm in Blue and I'm either in green or white 100% of the time for Mutate.dec, and can also be running counterspells or defensive measures like Heroic Intervention or Flawless Maneuver to protect my mutate stack.

- I imagine most mutate decks are going to want their Ophidian hosts to have some measure of in-built evasion or additional keywords; again we're in the right color for Magpie itself, there is a mutate that plays better with that theme in Sea-Dasher Octopus, and while not a straight draw I have to imagine Looter il-Kor is a very attractive host target. And , we are often going to have the option to run Ohran Viper, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Cold-Eyed Selkie, or Tome-bound Lich instead of or in addition to the mono-blue options.

[onering]

its got 2 power, and returns a dude to hand, so it has some value in UG Ezuri, but that's packed with options already. Its pretty solid in any deck that grants built in evasion and has some etb creatues. Shabraz the Skyshark comes to mind. Thassa 1.0, the mass horsemanship guy, and Vela are the others.