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

[umtiger]

It's wild this was banned in Standard...but then, it was in a Standard with Collected Company spamming them in at instant speed to totally break the opponent's tempo followed by the "UW Flash" deck of Kaladesh/SoI/BfZ standard.

In Commander it is obviously better than an Aether Adept but, like, HOW MUCH better? You'll never hit an opponent running duplicates of a card. Its best use is probably to block a commander for a whole round (shipping back to the 'zone doesn't save them from getting silenced off of it) but Commander rarely rewards those small tempo plays, meaning you'd need to see this guy in a deck like Roon of the Hidden Realm or Brago, King Eternal where you can use it over and over again. It's good there although probably not noticeably better than spamming Reality Acid at the same CMC or Stonehorn Dignitary or Venser, Shaper Savant for one more.

If it was a UB card I'd be excited to run it in Inalla, but UW doesn't have an obvious candidate for Wizard Tribal. Still, if you are playing a UW blink or bounce strategy, this card should probably get a look. At 5000 decks on EDHRECs, I'm not sure that's surprising or unknown - if anything I'm surprised at that level of play, as we never see it in my metagame.

I'm not sure that it is better than Aether Adept because bouncing your own creature sometimes is so incredibly strong (like when you can a game-breaking sorcery that's in manifest mode).

It is in a very awesome set of tribes though. Wizard and Human is very nice.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 16th, 2020; Elvish Piper

The original cheat mechanism. Repeatable. And ohsoobvious if you miss this, you're pretty bad ha.

Some day I'll get this 7ED one altered as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. RIP Hotrod, you went to heaven to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and you're out of gum!

[MeowZeDung]

Goes good in Yeva, Nature's Herald! Throw in a Mobilize that also goes good with your dorks and you're in business.

[DirkGently]

I remember thinking this seemed totally broken back when I was working at a summer camp in 2004. I wanted to slam Akroma, Angel of Wrath into play with it.

Man, it's so weird to remember how opaque magic used to be. I found out about cards when a friend showed them to me or told me about them, rather than being able to find anything easily with a search. Or just, y'know, subconsciously memorizing tens of thousands of them somehow.

Funny enough I'm not sure I've ever seen one played in commander (which seems kind of unusual considering how many are run on EDHrec), but it seems fine. Yes, it's telegraphed, but giving your creatures flash + uncounterable + a major mana discount still seems pretty strong. I think the extra mana is worth it for the flash (and color flexibility) when compared to Norwood Priestess. That said, as a 1-of you can't really plan your ramp strat around her, so you probably have to run a lot of ramp anyway if you're running a lot of fatties, potentially making it a bit redundant. But the main reason I haven't played is that big green creatures just haven't ever really been my thing.

[Dunharrow]

I remember being so impressed with this card - I just had to have it. At the time, I couldn't justify spending more than 1$ on a card... but I eventually splurged.
And..
I have not played it in about 8 years
Maybe you are a bit more Timmy when you start out..

[folding_music]

the piper always worked better in consistent decks, casual things where you could play four of anything, do broken elf and Concordant Crossroads things and have five mana on turn three, but at the time there just wasn't anything particularly dominant you could put into play with it... like we were years away from Ravnica and Mirrodin block lockout creatures like Tidespout Tyrant and Nullstone Gargoyle and Sundering Titan and all that, never mind Protection from Everything hydras or creatures with Annihilator. just a total curiosity card. Love the one with the Rebecca Guay art though <3

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Piper is very good, basically a green sneak attack. One of my favorite plays in a monogreen deck is to find an eldrazi with Eye of Ugin and slamming EOT with piper for only 8 mana.

[3drinks]

Once a table let me have this plus a Fauna Shaman. You can guess how that ended. Can't imagine how that went around the table.

I remember thinking this seemed totally broken back when I was working at a summer camp in 2004. I wanted to slam Akroma, Angel of Wrath into play with it.

Man, it's so weird to remember how opaque magic used to be.

Right? Gone are the days my one-of revised Royal Assassin was the terror of the high school cafeteria while hidden behind that Wall of Shadows and a Meekstone.

[Sinis]

Thursday, July 16th, 2020; Elvish Piper

I have a copy, never played it. I actually do want to play it with other cheat cards; Champion of Rhonas, Tooth and Nail, Garruk, Caller of Beasts (there are others, but their costs make their effect pointless).

Though, I wonder if I actually ever will; I've already played the Hypergenesis/Myojin of Life's Web/Eureka deck.

Right? Gone are the days my one-of revised Royal Assassin was the terror of the high school cafeteria while hidden behind that Wall of Shadows and a Meekstone.

This was my near exact experience.

[pokken]

Much like most sneak attack effects I struggle to build a deck that has enough fats in hand to bother with this.

[Inkeyes22]

Right? Gone are the days my one-of revised Royal Assassin was the terror of the high school cafeteria while hidden behind that Wall of Shadows and a Meekstone.

This was my near exact experience.

See for me it was my 1x Hammer of Bogardan and my 2 Brainstorm in a counter/burn deck that terrorized the HS cafeteria. I smited quite a few Elvish Pipers in my day.

[Sinis]

See for me it was my 1x Hammer of Bogardan and my 2 Brainstorm in a counter/burn deck that terrorized the HS cafeteria. I smited quite a few Elvish Pipers in my day.

But, could you stand up to my Force of Nature|4ED + Spirit Link|4ED that I would power out with Untamed Wilds|4ED and decline to pay the upkeep for*?

I kind of miss those days.

*(because, it dealt me 8, so I'm going to go ahead and gain that 8 back, thanks Spirit Link)

[Hawk]

I pulled a few copies early in my MTG Career and of course they were the sickest things ever - casting Ancient Silverback for G? Slamming Hunted Wumpus on their end step so I got first crack with my new fatty? So sick!

I've thus refused every opportunity to trade it, even when it was like $10 at one point, but I haven't played them in a deck since they were standard legal in Onslaught era after that 7th edition printing. The tap ability makes me wonder if it'll make the 99 of my oncoming Samut, Voice of Dissent deck...but probably nah as the goal is for more of a midrangey beatdown deck with a very small smattering of 6 and 7 drops rather than a ludicrous timmy deck.

4777 decks feels overplayed, I think: Green Sun's Zenith, Natural Order, and Finale of Devastation are more versatile, Quicksilver Amulet is safer, and it really needs some Boots to be awesome at which point you could be more safely playing Dramatic Entrance or something instead. We also now have multiple good green cards to give our stuff flash (Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, Yeva, Nature's Herald alongside classic Vedalken Orrery)...all of those just seem more useful to me TBH.

[3drinks]

Right? Gone are the days my one-of revised Royal Assassin was the terror of the high school cafeteria while hidden behind that Wall of Shadows and a Meekstone.

This was my near exact experience.

Did you get super excited to "combo" these things with Xanthic Statue, when that was brand new in Weatherlight too? I know I did. We all had all the dark rits, hitting 8 for statue was child's play!

See for me it was my 1x Hammer of Bogardan and my 2 Brainstorm in a counter/burn deck that terrorized the HS cafeteria. I smited quite a few Elvish Pipers in my day.

Man, Hammer.....when that was new, I was struggling to play with Fireblasts + Rathi Dragon all the while struggling to figure out why 20 mountains wasn't enough 😂. This takes me so back.

But, could you stand up to my Force of Nature|4ED + Spirit Link|4ED that I would power out with Untamed Wilds|4ED and decline to pay the upkeep for*?

I kind of miss those days.

*(because, it dealt me 8, so I'm going to go ahead and gain that 8 back, thanks Spirit Link)

I did Force of Nature things too, but mono-G with Eladamri's Vineyards, wild growths, and Overgrowths to power it early, and with a full playset of Thorn Elementals "in case Force couldn't get the job done". Gosh this was both a simpler time and me thinking I'm clever. 😂😂

Spirit Link (and COP: black) was all about that Lord of the Pit action!

[Inkeyes22]

See for me it was my 1x Hammer of Bogardan and my 2 Brainstorm in a counter/burn deck that terrorized the HS cafeteria. I smited quite a few Elvish Pipers in my day.

But, could you stand up to my Force of Nature|4ED + Spirit Link|4ED that I would power out with Untamed Wilds|4ED and decline to pay the upkeep for*?

I kind of miss those days.

*(because, it dealt me 8, so I'm going to go ahead and gain that 8 back, thanks Spirit Link)

I mean, maybe? I did run like 6 counterspells/boomarangs

[Sinis]

Did you get super excited to "combo" these things with Xanthic Statue, when that was brand new in Weatherlight too? I know I did. We all had all the dark rits, hitting 8 for statue was child's play!

Weatherlight was about where I stopped, so, I remember Xanthic, but I didn't ever brew with it.

I did Force of Nature things too, but mono-G with Eladamri's Vineyards, wild growths, and Overgrowths to power it early, and with a full playset of Thorn Elementals "in case Force couldn't get the job done". Gosh this was both a simpler time and me thinking I'm clever.

Spirit Link (and COP: black) was all about that Lord of the Pit action!

I mean, yes, I had a green version of the Force of Nature deck.

Overgrowth and Vineyard were after I stopped. It was all Wild Growth|ICE, Nature's Lore|ICE and Untamed Wilds|4ED for me.

[Mookie]

Fun fact: the first game of Magic I ever won was with a borrowed Elvish Piper // Dragon Arch // Quicksilver Amulet deck full of nonsense (including Myojin of Life's Web and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, because you totally got their play abilities). Good times...

As for the card itself... Elvish Piper is a respectable way to cheat things out. However, as a creature with a tap ability, it's also inherently high-variance. If you get to activate it multiple times to cheat in fatties, it will look amazing. If you never get to activate it because it dies to a stiff breeze (or because you don't have any creatures to play), it will look terrible. Summoning sickness is definitely a downside here when compared to Sneak Attack or Quicksilver Amulet. Also suffers somewhat from green's ability to just hardcast fatties, which makes cheating things in slightly less necessary.

Still, it is a card to like to give another shot sometime. I've considered it for my Samut deck - currently doesn't make the cut because the average size of my creatures is so small. However, if I ever get around to making a fatty/beatdown-focused version, seems like an obvious inclusion.

I'll call out Dramatic Entrance and Garruk, Caller of Beasts as two other options.

[3drinks]

Friday, July 17th, 2020; Grafdigger's Cage

Good hate piece. It's amazing how much you can cleanly shut down completely for just 1.

[Mookie]

Grafdigger's Cage is an alright hate piece, but it does feel a little narrow to me. There are a lot of things it shuts down. Creature reanimation, undying / persist, flashback, Future Sight effects, Birthing Pod and Green Sun's Zenith.... However, it doesn't hit everything, and there are some huge gaping holes in it due to the exact functionality.

For one, it doesn't hit noncreatures entering from graveyards or libraries, which means that stuff like Curse of Misfortunes and Open the Vaults is unaffected. It also doesn't hit Living Death due to the cards entering from exile. Same thing for Mind's Desire effects like Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. Nothing stopping Regrowth effects either, nor play-from-hand effects like Tooth and Nail either.

It's certainly an alright hate piece, but I wouldn't rely on it exclusively for my grave hate. There's also the floodgate problem - if it gets blown up, your opponents are free to resume their shenanigans. I generally prefer exile effects like Nihil Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern for this reason - they're much more difficult for opponents to play around. I would call out Grafdigger Cage's ability to be fetched as part of a Trinket Mage package, but... sort of redundant with a lot of other graveyard tech.

Still, there are a few places where Cage shines. For one, if your opponents are running a blue or black deck without artifact removal, this is often going to be much more difficult to deal with a one-shot exile effect. Similarly, if your meta is infested with Elsha of the Infinite or Kess, Dissident Mage decks, this is pretty good at shutting them down. And obviously, good at shutting down all the other things previously mentioned. There's certainly also upside to having a persistent effect over a one-shot exile effect - for one, you'll never accidentally fire it off too early, or be tempted to cash it in for an extra card. It's also possible to get forked with a one-shot effect - an opponent does something you have to crack your Tormod's Crypt to stop, then they follow up with a second play afterwards. Often painful for the opponent, but better than being locked out entirely.

[MeowZeDung]

I don't think I would include it unless my meta was consistently swarming with Karador's, Elsha's, and Muldrotha's, etc. Scavenger Grounds gives you close enough to the same thing without taking up a spell slot. Soul-Guide Lantern can at least go get a card later on. I dunno, maybe the real issue is my general aversion to taxes/permission pieces. I tend to like it more when everyone can play magic with the exception of some targeted hate/counterspells for a runaway player.

[folding_music]

I kinda think effects like these are appropriate at competitive levels but they screw over lots of more casual decks. Like, : target Haakon player stares at you balefully for the rest of the game, great! still say it's the fault of Tormod's Crypt for making the destruction of an entire zone cost so little and its effect on a kitchen table game needs to be reconsidered by the design team. but they just reprinted it so basically making people eat dirt for free is casual and righteous forever! I don't even know what to say about Bojuka Bog. like, not everyone putting cards in the graveyard is setting up Uro, or any kind of Dread Return into an instant win. and the existence of these OP cards gives rise to the existence of OP answers which harms virtually every other card in the same theme in the game.

I totally support cards like Cling to Dust, this is beautiful design. just not a fan of Crypting people. the existence of undercosted cards like these basically requires me to be a Seeds of Innocence player and it still doesn't fix every case, you'd need to Bind Nihil Spellbomb. In certain deck idioms these cards are basically wraths for 1 mana and that's really stupid.

I only really put lock-out cards into decks when they're thematic; I have a bunch of Stases from being old but only one's in a deck and that's cos it has Tradewind Rider and Time of Ice and stuff it just feels naturally at home around.

[not-a-cube]

I'm picking cards that exile graveyards over graftdiggers cage. Bojuka bog is in both my black decks, and my non-black deck generally run a scavenger ground, except when the deck itself needs to interact with the graveyard. Cards like Withered Wretch and Scavenging Ooze are cards I like most for these effects, because they don't just exile everything and need a bit more skill to use well.

On the topic that shutting down graveyards is so cheap, i'd say the real cause is the cheap reanimation spells that have always existed. Cards like Reanimate, Animate Dead, ect are ways to cheat big stuff into play, and with those spells being so cheap and fast, the answers needed to be the same.

[pokken]

This card as grave hate in commander is like using a tennis racket to kill mosquitoes.

I like it sometimes when it's completely asymmetrical because your deck abuses the grave and/or library in a way that it doesn't affect, but even then I think it's just too inconsistent a hate piece.

In the casual environment I prefer more surgical and generally applicable tools like Remorseful Cleric or Scavenging Ooze for grave hate. It's pretty unfortunately that there is not more cast-from-library hate, because your only real options are in white/blue (Lavinia, Magistrate).

If I'm in a color with no real good grave hate I'll prefer something that cantrips or to just go without and play more exiling/bouncing/shuffling removal.

[Dunharrow]

I have never played that card. Definitely prefer Relic of Progenitus. I know this is sometimes better, but I just really dislike my hate piece not doing what I want it to do.
I also love Possibility Storm and reanimation strategies, so I am super unlikely to run symmetrical hate cards like this. In my 18 decks, I have one that could slot this in without causing issues.

[Hawk]

I have never used Grafdigger's Cage - it's just a tough sell over Tormod's Crypt's surgical nuking and Relic of Progenitus and Soul-Guide Lantern's effective "cycling" if they are dead in that game, or Scavenger Groundss ability to give nuking in the land slot, nevermind colored options like Bojuka Bog, Ashes of the Abhorrent, Nihil Spellbomb, Scavenging Ooze, Rakdos Charm, Rest in Peace, Deathrite Shaman, and Remorseful Cleric.

@Mookie is also right-on about the "floodgate" problem; in Modern it's less an issue because you probably killed them before they broke the cage, but in EDH where stray Vandalblasts and Cyclonic Rifts and Austere Commands flow like water in many metas and where almost everyone nowadays is running at least a few shatter and disenchant effects unless they're mono-black, this WILL get destroyed at some point.

I know this also mentions libraries, but that's...complicated. It stops some major stuff, like Birthing Pod, Sunforger, and Bolas's Citadel, but a lot of the most common effects of that nature (Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Etali, Primal Storm Chandra, Torch of Defiance) exile the card first which means this doesn't help at all. That's already a niche effect, so hitting only 50% of cards that do it is a bad spot to be in.