[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[3drinks]

Friday, June 5th, 2020; Drakuseth, Maw of Flames

I know I love to Reanimate it. Also enjoy it within Kaalia of the Vast. But now does it fare in the abstract? It's certainly a lot of destructive force within an expensive shell.

[Mookie]

Drakuseth is sweet!
...did I finally do it?

Expanding on this a bit now that I have some time....
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames is a sweet card. A bigger Cone of Flame on attack is capable of dealing out a lot of damage, and as a large flier, it is capable of dealing lethal commander damage pretty quickly too. It does however suffer from being, well, really expensive. If you're running it in the command zone, you'll really need a way to protect it and grant it haste. I'd say the main downside for Drakuseth is the competition - Etali, Primal Storm has what is arguably an even more powerful attack trigger (although lacking evasion), while Zirilan of the Claw and Lathliss, Dragon Queen have more dragon synergy. Also, while 4 damage is enough to mow down utility creatures (and many commanders), it doesn't deal with everything. It does, however, work really well with Basilisk Collar.

I'd say that Drakuseth has a bit more potential in the 99. I've considered it for my Samut, Voice of Dissent deck - as a bigger Inferno Titan, it works really well with haste. Also a very solid reanimation target for Chainer, Nightmare Adept. You don't get the attack trigger when cheating out with Kaalia of the Vast or Ilharg, the Raze-Boar, but Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded loves it. As Big Dumb Fatties go, I don't know if I'd put it at the top of the list, but it's a solid budget option, and extremely Timmy.

[Serenade]

I was just looking at this guy the other day. I always thought it only could hit creatures and only on combat damage...it jumps way up in your mind if you misremember it entirely.

Sniping a PW always earns some goodwill. Nice amount of devotion for a supporter like, say, Xenagos, God of Revels. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Obosh, the Preypiercer also give it excellent support. I need to try it.

[Sinis]

Friday, June 5th, 2020; Drakuseth, Maw of Flames

I'll be honest, I like this one (as well as the other mono-colour legends from m20). I felt like they really won with that cycle.

I've played Drakuseth (in a Radha, Heir to Keld ramp deck), and it's a real blast. Torches planeswalkers, little creatures, people's faces... It does a lot of damage. I was excited to play it with Obosh, but...

[Outcryqq]

Obosh, the Preypiercer wouldn't fit in Radha, Heir to Keld due to color identity, unless you had another deck in mind for Obosh?

[Dragoon]

Really cool card. A bit expensive, but it feels so good to trigger that ability!

[Lifeless]

My Godo deck has a dragon subtheme so this guy fits nicely. He's a great option for clearing some clutter off the board if I'm casting Dragonstorm with a haste enabler.

[BeneTleilax]

big stupid beater is good for big stupid beater things

[ZenN]

I put Drakuseth, Maw of Flames into my Maelstrom Wanderer pretty much as soon as it was printed. I've been nothing but happy with it. Obviously being able to consistently give it haste, and play it for free, makes it much stronger. There are many cards that a much more playable in Wanderer than other decks, so my opinions of Drakuseth may be biased. That said, I'm sure he'd be just as good in a Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded deck, or something can consistently play Sneak Attack.

[pokken]

Drak has been savage in my mono red golos deck. One game I had two damage doublers down and he just obliterated everyone.

[Hawk]

Hey look, it's the reason Tyrant's Familiar isn't good anymore! . It feels like we were just discussing familiar, although that's probably the time dilation I am experiencing due to the current apocalypse.

This card has a niche. I think it is generally is worse than Balefire Dragon but generally superior to most other big dumb "on attack" dragons, so if you are in dragon tribal (or just looking for a good red fatty) this is a solid top-end plan.Even the Balefire comparison isn't super clean; this triggers on attack so it can clear blockers, and it can "spread the love" meaning it should usually be a solid 2-for-1 if you untap with it at least once (which is generally easier than getting to connect with it).

For the record, I think this is actually better than Utvara Hellkite, Savage Ventmaw, and Dragon Mage all of whom see more play as "big dumb dragons" - Utvara can be quite "win-more", Ventmaw and Dragon Mage are cute but not that good. In terms of big red beaters in general, I think this is maybe in the top 10? Clearly to me the tops are Inferno Titan, Combustible Gearhulk, Balefire Dragon, Hellkite Charger, and Hellkite Tyrant - most of these have more immediate impact, and the two that don't are more likely to totally bust a game wide open if they do live a round. But after that, I'd at least take a long hard look at Drakuseth before running anyone else.

[pokken]

I like how surgical Drak is. You can hit one person for 7 then kill 3 other creatures who aren't even on their board. I would generally play it before Balefire myself.

[UnNamed1]

Drak is a monster. I want to find a way to put him into my commander decks, but I don't have anything but tribal dragons for him. When I was playing standard, he was my reanimate target, and then your opponent is dead. I imagine he is really good in commander, and best of all, under a dollar. Drakuseth FTW!

[Sinis]

Obosh, the Preypiercer wouldn't fit in Radha, Heir to Keld due to color identity, unless you had another deck in mind for Obosh?

It was to be another deck; My Radha deck isn't around anymore.

I had wanted to make a Jund deck with entirely different cards.

[3drinks]

... although that's probably the time dilation I am experiencing ...

Better a time dilation than a Mind's Dilation HEY-O!

[3drinks]

Saturday, June 6th, 2020; The Borderpost Cycle

Seems like IKO would have been the perfect place to finish this cycle, rather than start the tricycle rock cycle instead. Love these, a bit more under played than they should be, but not enough I'd shake my finger at you for doing it.

[Dragoon]

I don't like those, I see them as worse signets that can be played for an alternative cost that actually makes them not ramp you anymore. They are only useful for fixing but there's already so many dual lands available that I can't see myself playing this in any EDH, except maybe a heavy-artifact deck, but even then...

[illakunsaa]

Some niz mizzet decks like to play them and they can be useful in Armageddon decks.

[DirkGently]

Flexibility is great. Sometimes they're ramp, sometimes they're a land. Sweet!

...except that you won't always have a basic, an etbt dual that dies to artifact wipes is pretty underpowered, and the ramp side is so below curve. There are just so few cases where I wouldn't rather have any 2-cmc rock. A 1-basic-lander with a borderpost is still pretty chancy, and as long as you've got a second land the 2-cmc rock will almost always be better. Sure, if I just mulled to 5 I'd rather have a 1-lander with a borderpost than a 2-cmc rock, but pretty much any other time, I'll take the rock.

Flexibility is great, but there are limits to how much it's worth paying for. Borderposts operate outside those limits. I could imagine specific circumstances that make them viable for synergy purposes, but generally-speaking I would not play them in commander.

[Treamayne]

I generally like these. They are great for 2 and 3 color Landfall decks and can be better than many 3cmc rocks in 2 color decks. They can also be considered when you are already running Amulet of Vigor and other untapping shenanigans.

I also like the way the name scheme was devised (which means we already know the names of the enemy color borderposts, unless WotC dorks it up.).

Not to mention, they're cheap.

[3drinks]

I also like the way the name scheme was devised (which means we already know the names of the enemy color borderposts, unless WotC dorks it up.).

Oh. Ooh! Damn, I just picked up on that.................

[Sinis]

Saturday, June 6th, 2020; The Borderpost Cycle

I'm pretty fond of this cycle; when I first started playing again, I picked up the Assemble the Doomsday Machine to help me catch up with some staples (there were no precons yet). The deck had a ton of good stuff in it; the then-legal Sundering Titan, Signets, Lightning Greaves, Magister Sphinx, the then-highly-played Spin into Myth (this was before the 'tuck' rule was changed), Duplicant, Everflowing Chalice... and, a pair of borderposts.

I immediately liked the borderposts; they were ramp at 3 that came into play tapped, but they could also serve as a land drop if you had run out of lands to play. I liked them. I think they've aged badly as the quality of 2-mana rocks has gotten better (well, just Thought Vessel and Arcane Signet).

I don't think I'd play them nowadays, except in Niv-Mizzet Reborn where they still kind of shine.

[pokken]

If the cycle were completed I would probably play a lot of them in one deck (5c nonsense). They're fun for creating devotion and keeping your land count low for various things that care about that.

I'm really not a huge fan of WOTC taking years and years in between cycles.

[Guardman]

I love these. I played them in my Modern Quirion Dryad deck back in the day. I would've loved if they completed the cycle in Ikoria. I also tried to build a Modern Hero of Precinct One / Noncreature Trigger deck, but was never able to get it to work. While they are alright ramp, I've always preferred them to be used as mana-fixing / cast triggers.

I actually think they are worse in EDH compared to a place like modern, since they I've found them to be better when you are able to have a certain density in your deck. You can do some really dumb things with them that can't be done with any other mana rock, like running ten land decks with only basics and fetches.

[onering]

They're pretty bad, but have a bit of a niche in landfall. They're at their best when you don't have a land drop for the turn, so you can just replay the basic you used for free.