MTGNexus

tstorm823 wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I think you're on the right track. If you're trying to kill just one thing, Fireball is tied with some things for the most efficient X damage removal spell. But none of those things target multiple targets. And the other X damage spells that target multiple things can't kill an Oracle of Mul Daya for 3 mana. Being XR costed, capable of hitting any target, and able to target multiple things at once, Fireball is tied for both the best of the X spells at killing single targets for the least mana and the best of the X spells for killing the whole table with infinite mana. Banefire can't kill a whole table on its own. Comet Storm is better mid-game if you want to kill multiple things or at instant speed, but I honestly don't think that's really as important a use case as early spot removal and late win condition, and most of the things you want to early spot remove you probably don't want to let the player untap with them anyway.

Depending on the deck, I guess I might think Fireball or Comet Storm is the better of the two. The only red damage spell I put firmly above Fireball is Earthquake.

This is a reasonable point. I'd rather pay the 1 extra mana (Comet Storm or Rolling Thunder) for greater flexibility in the midgame, but that may be more a function of meta. If infinite mana combos aren't really a thing and red zone decks are common the midgame uses pick up a lot of value.

I find burn in general really underplayed in a lot of metas. Single target burn like Lightning Bolt or Lightning Helix is still great for removing utility creatures or reach, even with the higher starting life totals. I've gotten a lot of people with Price of Progress, Acidic Soil, and Fiery Confluence too. That's not even going into the X-cost spells, whether that's Fireball or Earthquake analogues.

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I find burn in general really underplayed in a lot of metas. Single target burn like Lightning Bolt or Lightning Helix is still great for removing utility creatures or reach, even with the higher starting life totals. I've gotten a lot of people with Price of Progress, Acidic Soil, and Fiery Confluence too. That's not even going into the X-cost spells, whether that's Fireball or Earthquake analogues.

I'm so glad someone else said this too. This is one primary reason why I've swapped to heavily preferring burn based removal because it's both cheaper mana wise and has the added benefit of going to the dome. I can't even count the number of times I've nuked players with a Char or Chain Lightning, nor the players that remain surprised they got burned out in commander.

Burn should either be cheap Lightning Bolt, powerful Price of Progress, or have utility Fiery Confluence. X cost burn tend to be found lacking.

Or be multi-functional, such as the new Smiting Helix. Because everybody needs more Helixes.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

July 10th, 2019; Fireball

Okay, amid my nostalgia, I found the flaw. You can't kill an x/2 and an X/5 with this, without wasting some mana efficiency (needing to over hit the X/2 because of the "divided evenly" clause). That may or may not be a corner case, but nevertheless it is A case.

July 11th, 2019; Bloodline Shaman

Great card for elf lists. If you have the critical mass of elves (30+) or some kind of topdeck manipulation, it's a two drop that says tap: draw a card most of the time.

I've never played it.

Would I play a card that was 1G for a 1/1 with "T: Draw a card"? Probably, but I don't know if it'd be an auto-include at the same level as Eternal Witness. It'd clearly be very good, but also very fragile and slow - I'd probably be on the lookout for a deck that really needed that effect or could somehow abuse it, like Experiment Kraj or a tribal list. I mean, Dryad Greenseeker and Fa'adiyah Seer are that for most decks and even then it's only played in a smidgen more decks. I know that seems silly when I would play Merfolk Looter but, again, Looter isn't an auto-include (and indeed misses the cut a significant percentage of the time) and often the discard is a boon and not a drawback for Looter. Looter also always lets you see a new card and that's key.

Because of course, Bloodline Shaman doesn't actually say "T: Draw a card" - in the average Wizard, Shaman, or Elf deck (because let's be real, you wouldn't typically run her in a deck where she doesn't match those tribes) she's a lot closer to "T: 30% chance to draw a card. 70% chance to mill it instead". That means she's at her best where you can either tweak those numbers hard OR where the mill isn't a bad thing, but that's just really rare. Most of the time I'd rather run Elvish Visionary and Sylvan Ranger because they never fail to replace themselves.

I believe that I considered it briefly for a tap-ability-tribal deck, but ultimately didn't decide to use it - supporting it properly requires consistent topdeck manipulation, and there was no way that deck was going to have enough cards that cared about the top of the deck to justify the manipulation. Could be good in something like Maelstrom Wanderer - haste lets you activate it immediately, while I imagine many Wanderer decks are running Sylvan Library / Mirri's Guile / Sensei's Divining Top already.

If you're not running a lot of topdeck manipulation, could also be decent in an Elf deck - much higher density of a single tribe, alongside some untap effects like Quirion Ranger.

Also: sweet synergy with Hua Tuo, Honored Physician.

There are better draw effects for creature decks, but this one synergizes with untap effects, and there are plenty of good ways to untap a creature on repeat. I am a fan of shamans though, so I should probably own one of these.

Hawk wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I know that seems silly when I would play Merfolk Looter but, again, Looter isn't an auto-include (and indeed misses the cut a significant percentage of the time) and often the discard is a boon and not a drawback for Looter. Looter also always lets you see a new card and that's key.

Merfolk Pooter might miss the mark more than it should, but I'd argue Enclave Cryptologist deserves that cut. At least at a far, far higher rate of play than it currently sees. 🙃

Lotta types for this critter.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Hawk wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I know that seems silly when I would play Merfolk Looter but, again, Looter isn't an auto-include (and indeed misses the cut a significant percentage of the time) and often the discard is a boon and not a drawback for Looter. Looter also always lets you see a new card and that's key.

Merfolk Pooter might miss the mark more than it should, but I'd argue Enclave Cryptologist deserves that cut. At least at a far, far higher rate of play than it currently sees. 🙃

Amen - hard to understand why that little dude isn't an auto-include in almost every Merfolk deck, most Wizard decks, and most Madness/Spellslinger/tap ability decks. I don't play it because I don't own one (skipped RoE) and it's never a priority, but if you have it it seems good. In the average Kumena deck it seems much much better than Kumena's Speaker minus the flavor points and probably better than Benthic Biomancer too, but Speaker is played more.

The fact that Enclave Cryptologist isn't an autoplay, however, is a sign of just how far from the mark this card is outside of extreme deepcut reaching. Again, Experiment Kraj can just run Cryptologist and is also likely to prefer Dryad Greenseeker. Ditto any random Temurelemental deck, be it Maelstrom Wanderer or Omnath, Locus of the Roil. Even for Shaman tribal, I think I like Elvish Visionary and Fa'adiyah Seer more. I like the note on Honored Physician though - this card's true home!

July 12th. 2019; Maelstrom Nexus



In honour of the end of this thread on @mtgsally, I felt it appropriate to take the final card there in a moment of remembrance.

I love this card with Academy Rector. I know saying an enchantment is good with Rector is sort of like saying spells are good with lands, but I've always hated not being able to cascade the first turn because Maelstrom Nexus was technically my first spell for turn, and sneaking it into play dodges that issue.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

July 12th. 2019; Maelstrom Nexus

In honour of the end of this thread on @mtgsally, I felt it appropriate to take the final card there in a moment of remembrance.

Well done. I definitely appreciated the Sally thread, and look forward to similar discussions/opinions here.

I might be a black sheep on Maelstrom Nexus, but, I've never had much success with it. It doesn't trigger the first turn you table it unless cheated into play without casting a spell (usually with Academy Rector, but sometimes Starfield of Nyx). It makes it a bit of a 5-mana do-nothing for the first turn. Part of what makes other haymaker enchantments so devastating is that you can use them right away. Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection and others have an immediate effect. Maelstrom Nexus, not quite so much.

That said, I am totally thrilled at the idea that I might eventually play a delve card for cheap, but cascade into something huge (i.e. Dig Through Time into something huge!).

There used to be a gold border tribal deck in my meta, it ran stuff like this and Cloven Casting to generate swaths of multicoloured value. The list kicked the bucket with the split card rules changes, a pity really, it was a fun deck and this card was pretty decent in it. That was my only experience with the card. Seems like in a Yidris world you wouldn't really reach out to it anymore.

This card is why I wished for a 5cc Cascade commander for ages. The First Sliver delivered and now I just need to actually build it.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

July 12th. 2019; Maelstrom Nexus

Cards like this are why the format is awesome.

Last time I saw one, I stole it with In Bolas's Clutches, then cascaded a Counterspell off the top to protect it!

I'm pretty sure it's not a good card, but it is a great card. Five mana across all colors for an enchantment that has no immediate impact is pretty bad. The card is a lot of fun if you do get it to stick for a turn or two. It picks up a lot of value in a deck that plays heavily at instant speed because it's not restricted to your turn, though that sounds like a very forced theme. The color identity restricts it a lot, which is kind of a shame.

I won't lie, it depresses me immensely that there's just not the room to run this in my 5c wincons deck, it's one of those quintessentially EDH cards that almost always does something cool assuming it survives to your turn.

Dragonlover

I feel like it’s cool and splashy but probably doesn’t pull its weight as much as you’d like it to. That being said I had a hiatus around Alara, so I’ve never had a copy nor played one.

I've been wanting to make a gold/multicolor tribal 5c deck for ages, and cards like Maelstrom Nexus are the reason why - there are a ton of sweet multicolor cards that you can't really play anywhere else.

As for the card itself... As an enchantment that doesn't provide any immediate impact, I don't think it is actually a particularly powerful card.... but it definitely seems like a lot of fun to play with. I suspect that it is largely outclassed by Sunbird's Invocation, which is easier to cast and applies to every spell you cast from hand. Main reasons for running Nexus are if you specifically want lots of colors (such as for Ramos, Dragon Engine), or if you have synergies with cascade (such as Ancestral Vision). I suppose that Nexus is superior to Invocation if you have a lot of spells in the 2-4 mana range - whiffing with Invocation is pretty common for small spells. Alternatively, if you cast a lot of spells from zones other than your hand (such as your general, or flashback from graveyard), then those spells get benefits from Nexus but not Invocation.

Note that Nexus applies to the first spell you cast on each turn (not just your own turn), so it has some interesting applications in decks with lots of instants / flash spells.

July 13th, 2019; Relic Seeker

Blade of Selves it is.