[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[materpillar]

I've always really liked this card. The flavor is awesome. The art is cool.

Probably not actually a great card as it is so easily disrupted. I assume it could easily find a home in a wide range of decks though. Go get 'em Dragon Blood

[BeneTleilax]

Any counters deck is gonna have enough ways to enable it. It's a slow, setup-dependent steal effect, which isn't super powerful, but its solid in ~60% percent type metas, particularly because of all the battlecruiser creatures that tend to tromp around in them. I ran it in a casual Atraxa deck I had for a while and it pulled its weight.

[Mookie]

Cytoplast Manipulator is pretty clunky. In a vacuum, there aren't a lot of great ways to put +1/+1 counters on your opponents' creatures. The Manipulator can throw one +1/+1 counter on a creature an opponent plays using its graft ability, but unless you have some way to give it more counters, that's it. Admittedly, I would expect Manipulator to be played in a deck capable of giving it more counters, but it's still somewhat clunky to do so.

Manipulator gets a bit better when you have ways to just throw counters on your opponents' creatures directly - The Mimeoplasm and Kenrith, the Returned King are two such ways to do so. At that point, you have a creature that can repeatedly steal stuff, which is pretty strong... assuming it isn't dealt with. Still, its small body, tap requirement, and setup requirement mean I wouldn't really be interested in playing it unless I were really dedicated to the theme (or wanted to hose a +1/+1 counter deck in my meta).

I'll call out Roil Elemental, Willbreaker, and Beguiler of Wills as alternatives that don't require quite as much setup.

[3drinks]

Sunday, September 13th, 2020; Damping Sphere

Or aka...why we don't play filter lands anymore. 🤔

[RxPhantom]

Sunday, September 13th, 2020; Damping Sphere

Or aka...why we don't play filter lands anymore. 🤔

Lol whut? You're telling me that Damping Sphere is so prevalent that it pushed out filter lands?! I suppose that's why nobody plays Ancient Tomb anymore either.

This card is...ummm...a card. I'm sure it can give some decks a hard time, but it can often be a dead draw and thus not worth a slot in any deck unless it's a metagame consideration.

[Mookie]

Damping Sphere is a card that always seems to be more annoying than oppressive. At a base level, it doesn't really do anything, unlike Sphere of Resistance - because it doesn't tax the first spell cast each turn, you generally can't lock people out of casting spells entirely. It does add up once people start casting multiple spells per turn, but, again, it doesn't do more than Sphere of Resistance until the fourth spell cast... and casting that many spells per turn tends to be pretty rare. The fact that the tax changes throughout the turn does make it waaaay more likely to mess up my mental math though, which is pretty obnoxious.

As for the land hate effect... again, I don't find it to come up that often, since the Tron lands don't see much play. It does shut off karoos and filter lands, but I don't really consider them to be worth running hate cards for. It is a good answer to Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers though. I will call out its awkward interaction with Mana Reflection, but note that it doesn't shut down most other mana doublers.

Anyway, it's a potent hate piece if you're running into a lot of spellslinger / storm decks. Still, as a person running both Animar, Soul of Elements and Mizzix of the Izmagnus decks, I will note that it is entirely possible to just power through it (or, just bounce / blow it up before storming off). It can also be better if you operate primarily at instant speed - casting three spells spread through your three opponents' turns means you won't be affected by it at all, unlike Sphere of Resistance.

[Sinis]

Sunday, September 13th, 2020; Damping Sphere

I don't think I've ever seen someone play this. After the hype when it was released, it really just faded out of existence for us.

[illakunsaa]

The card is kinda bad. These pay 1 more to do a thing aren't very strong unless you got a lot of them or you couple it with another resource denial effect (winter orb, armageddon etc.).

I personally like God-Pharaoh's Statue.

[plushpenguin]

Dsphere is pretty meh in most playgroups. It gets better the more powerful your pod is, generally.

[ilovesaprolings]

Or aka...why we don't play filter lands anymore. 🤔

Poor filterlands, they are so cool....

[3drinks]

Monday, September 14th, 2020; Shifting Shadow

Sweet. It's like a repeatable Transmogrify. Even if you only keep the new card for a turn.

[DirkGently]

Combo with Eldrazi Monument or Sliver Hivelord. Or Darksteel Plate if you don't mind paying the equip cost every turn.

[3drinks]

I should probably be playing this, tbh. Seems a fair Kaalia alternative.

[Mookie]

Shifting Shadow is sweet, but I don't think I've ever seen it played. Being an aura is bleh, as is being an upkeep trigger - both mean it's pretty difficult to get consistent value out of it. It's also a fairly unique effect, which makes it hard to build a deck around. If you had a bunch of copies of it in a deck, you could do some pretty crazy stuff - enchant a token, then cheat out hasty eldrazi / Blightsteel Colossus / etc every turn. I'd definitely consider it for a Polymorph-ish deck. I don't hate the idea of using it as a value engine alongside a deck full of ETB creatures, but the random nature of it makes it a lot more difficult to get value from than Birthing Pod.

I'll note that another upside of Shifting Shadow is that it will dump creatures in your graveyard over time, which can be relevant if you're running a reanimator deck like Feldon of the Third Path or Chainer, Nightmare Adept. Feldon actually seems like a great fit in general, since you're generally incentivized to run value creatures like Wurmcoil Engine and Myr Battlesphere that generate value even when sacrificed.

[JWK]

I have never played this card, and I don't think I've ever seen it played. I do like the interaction with Eldrazi Monument, but it's awfully slow to actually do anything.

Interesting card. Not sure I will ever play it, but good to be reminded of its existence.

[tstorm823]

I should probably be playing this, tbh. Seems a fair Kaalia alternative.

If you're using black's creature recursion, you definitely should. This sucker is great for filling up on graveyard targets.

[Dunharrow]

I have this card and have considered playing it in two decks:
1. My creatureless Tainted Aether / Burning Sands deck (targeting opponents)
2. My Marchesa, the Black Rose deck

Ultimately, I think it can be good in both decks, but I resist playing it because there are so many other good choices to play.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, September 15th, 2020; Brutal Hordechief

Finally, a Master Warcraft variant that's playable. One of the best cards in Edgar Markov, and it isn't even a vampire.

[BounceBurnBuff]

Hordechief is such a unique, interesting and powerful creature that is held back by its own colour identity. Mardu really restricts decks where I think he would fit a lot better than their options for generals. Sure, there's Markov (eww, off theme) and sub-optimal Alesha builds, but I'd love to put this in even just a B/R aggro deck with loads of tokens.

[Mookie]

I run Brutal Hordechief in my cube, although due to how infrequently I draft it, I don't have any stories about it. I do think it's a sweet card though - sort of Hellrider mixed with Master Warcraft. It does suffer a bit from the format though - aggro effects like this don't scale as well to multiplayer and 40 life. Forced blocking is also nice, although you can't force your opponents to attack or not block at all, unlike Master Warcraft. It does have some interesting political implications though, since you can activate it when another player is attacking.

Anyway, I'd consider it if I were building a more aggressive deck, especially a go-wide one. Edgar Markov makes sense, as could Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Queen Marchesa, or Saskia the Unyielding. It's also a warrior for Najeela, the Blade-Blossom.

....it is a bit of a pity that such a sweet effect is on a tricolor card though, since those tend to be pretty hard to throw into random effects. Still, if you do want this effect elsewhere, consider Odric, Master Tactician. Red also has some other 'must block' effects, although none as potent.

[JWK]

I run Brutal Hordechief in three Mardu decks (Zurgo, Alesha and Queen Marchesa) and in Saskia, and it is always strong. The attack-based life swing is not insignificant, and being able to force inopportune blocks, and let some attackers through unscathed, can be a wonderful thing. "Yeah, all your blockers gang up on the Knight of the White Orchid and let volron Zurgo through" tends to make games shorter.

Forcing bad blocking during opponents' combat steps has been particularly good with Queen Marchesa. "Your Jhoira decides to block Derek's random 1/1 deathtouch creature" and other stunts along those lines are usually pretty good ways to get rid of annoying creatures or to put dangerous commanders off the battlefield for awhile.

If I could run this guy in more decks, I absolutely would. Solid card.

[not-a-cube]

I have this card but I've always overlooked it. Reading these oppinions, I've decided i'll give it a shot in my Queen Marchesa deck. It's an aggro build to begin with, running Ankle Shanker and Odric, Lunarch Marshal to give my team deathtouch. Combined with the Brutal Hordechief, it would be even better.

[Sinis]

Tuesday, September 15th, 2020; Brutal Hordechief

This is probably my favourite from that cycle in Fate Reforged. The attack trigger really adds up.

[Dunharrow]

Love the card, do not have any Mardu decks.
And the only mardu deck I want to build will not run this card.

[JWK]

I have this card but I've always overlooked it. Reading these oppinions, I've decided i'll give it a shot in my Queen Marchesa deck. It's an aggro build to begin with, running Ankle Shanker and Odric, Lunarch Marshal to give my team deathtouch. Combined with the Brutal Hordechief, it would be even better.

That sounds like a perfect set-up for the Hordechief. I don't think you will be disappointed by the results.