[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Outcryqq]

I enjoy Leyline of Anticipation in my Thassa Sea Monsters deck. I've been dunked by Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience many times in EDH. I don't use Leyline of Abundance, but it could fit in my Atraxa counters deck; its just that 8 mana activation is steep when compared to other cards that do the same thing for way less like Gavony Township, Felidar Retreat, and Mikaeus, the Lunarch. The mana doubling is cool, I'll have to check how many dorks I run to see if it's worth it.

[Serenade]

I think it might see more Legacy play, but Leyline of Sanctity is the other one I could see getting some play depending on your meta. Protects from Bojuka Bog or a thrice-copied Cruel Ultimatum, that sort of stuff.

[Dunharrow]

I think it might see more Legacy play, but Leyline of Sanctity is the other one I could see getting some play depending on your meta. Protects from Bojuka Bog or a thrice-copied Cruel Ultimatum, that sort of stuff.

Leyline of Sanctity used to be better to protect your graveyard. I find it is now a little too niche as many effects do not target a player.
I have also seen Aegis of the Gods or even Sigarda, Heron's Grace play this role since they are easier to tutor or get into play.

[Mookie]

Yeah, Leyline of the Void and Leyline of Anticipation are the two standouts for me as being generically useful. Void is some of the best grave hate available due to its asymmetry (Rest in Peace hits your graveyard too). Meanwhile, flash is an incredibly useful keyword for pretty much any deck.

After those two, I could see Leyline of Abundance being played in decks with lots of mana dorks. Maybe Leyline of the Meek in a token deck, but there are much better anthems available (especially since they won't be symmetric).

The others seem even more niche, and would require a pretty specific meta to be worth playing. Leyline of Sanctity stops targeted effects like Emrakul, the Promised End and Sorin Markov, Leyline of Punishment shuts down lifegain decks, and Leyline of Lifeforce is tough for counterspell-based control decks.... but there are other options for these effects that have more upside or are costed more aggressively (Teferi's Protection, Erebos, God of the Dead, and Destiny Spinner, respectively).

I will note Leyline of Singularity as being good for Empress Galina and other 'legends matter' decks.

[3drinks]

Saturday, November 14th, 2020; Angel of Condemnation and close fuctional copy, eldrazi displacer. (The unicorn is definitively dufferent enough to not be included here).

So I'd guess 3 is the going rate for fair, repeatable blinks? Given that commander is an inherently unfair format, wouldn't that make these cards objectively not strong enough to make the cut? And if so, what is the real scope of the format if cards like these aren't playable?

[3drinks]

I will note Leyline of Singularity as being good for Empress Galina and other 'legends matter' decks.

Ssh. Don't go giving away my secret Minamo, School at Water's Edge tech. 👀👀

[pokken]

Angel can't be activated when it comes down and costs more, really worse by a lot.

Displacer has the limitation of colorless mana which is a real limit. It can't usually be played outside of 1-2c decks unless they are so colorless heavy that they don't care about making their colors or have limited color commitments.

Generally speaking these cards require around 15-20 ETB effects to be worth bothering. But they are great in the right deck at the right power level.

[Dunharrow]

I like what pokken said but wanted to add that Displacer can go infinite pretty easily. Think Ashnod's Altar and Trostani's Summoner-type cards.

[Wallycaine]

Agreed, Angel of Condemnation is very different from Eldrazi Displacer.

The angel tries to be a Blink engine and Repeatable Removal in one, and suffers for the versatility. There's definitely some interesting tricks to be done with it, but the difference between tapping and not tapping as a cost is stark. The more interesting angle for the angel is to lean into the second ability, and run it in decks that can untap it independently, reducing or eliminating the cost of Exerting.

The Displacer is a lot closer to Emiel the Blessed than the angel, though they both have restrictive color identities in different ways. As Pokken mentioned, it's hard to reliably run enough colorless sources unless you're 1-2 color. I think with the new talismans, there might be enough colorless/colored sources out there to make getting enough colorless sources in a 3 color deck possible, but you'd definitely have to build your mana base around it, and I'd expect there to be a significant number of pain lands involved.

[Toshi]

I'll echo that Angel of Condemnation doesn't resemble Eldrazi Displacer that much.
Mistmeadow Witch allows to flicker opposing creatures as well, while Emiel the Blessed can only flicker own creatures, yet returns them instantly and untapped on top of that. Anyhow...

Eldrazi Displacer is very powerful and can slot into a lot of decks. Abusing ETBs as well as getting rid of tokens and attacking creatures is plenty of potential. I'd disagree though that needing makes it tricky, since there are dozens of utility lands and rocks that can generate it naturally.
In one of my first games with Lazav, the Multifarious, i was lacking a sac/discard outlet late in the game, so i did hard cast Phage the Untouchable - only to see an opponent cast Eldrazi Displacer on their next turn and flickering her. Idk if i ever hard cast her ever again instead of waiting for a window to open. Still, i did enjoy the unlikely interaction.

I despise Emiel the Blessed even more than Roon of the Hidden Realm, since it's just such poor card design. Who in their right mind enjoys Deadeye Navigator in their (opponents) command zone? I've played against it in the hands of a random player at my LGS once and i'm most certainly not looking forward to doing that ever again. "Thanks" to Covid that's not gonna happen anytime soon anyways, yay.

Mistmeadow Witch is a remnant of older EDH days. The activation cost is just too steep, especially with creatures only returning at the beginning of the next end step. She got a little thing going for herself though, which is, that she can protect herself, if need be.

Overall, i'd say a the deck leans into ETBs heavily, they are all more or less playable.

As far as Angel of Condemnation goes, i'm a lot less enthusiastic. With summoning sickness in the mix you're just telegraphing too much what you're trying to do. Idk how much her two modes make up for it. I could see running it in Bruna, the Fading Light at best.

Honorable mention: Galepowder Mage is a blast from the past and a lot more fun and fair than all of the above.

[ISBPathfinder]

I have used Angel Of Condemnation in several situations where my goal is more of to have the ability to disrupt opponents. I have used the angel to flicker people's commanders at the EOT before their turn and they won't have their commander through their turn and they also come back summoning sick at their EOT.

The fact that the angel's flicker comes back at EOT is great as it works vs wraths.

I think it makes for a good equipment carrier given it has vigilance and flying as well. Its mana cost puts it in a fairly competitive value equipment carrying body.

Being an angel does put it as a slightly better creature type as well. It doesn't come up often but it can.

Its nothing to dismiss. I like the card, if anything the thing possibly holding it back is that it lacks haste and needs to tap to activate. Its a cool creature though.

[3drinks]

Sunday, November 15th, 2020; Commandeer

Now see, this is a brilliant example of the kind of splashy rare that sees no home elsewhere but would be a terrific plant in the yearly deck releases.

[Peterhausenn]

never have seen this played in edh but i did have it used against me at regionals some fifteen years ago. i was on dragonstorm and my opponent was playing dralnu control. i was able to go off and with the storm trigger on the stack my opponent free cast this targeting one of my copies of dragonstorm. my opponent started talking about he next leveled me and how there was nothing i could do about it while i simply replied that i had a free spell as well and played pact of negation. he lost that match. other than top eighting that is about the only thing i remember from that day. that and i recall it was a gorgeous spring day and i kept telling myself how stupid i was for spending it inside for twelve hours playing magic.

commandeer has a strong effect but i think its cost is too much. seven mana feels too steep and pitching two blue cards feels even steeper. if this were five mana or just pitching one card i think it becomes a player. its best use is probably to prevent an opponents game winning spell but there are many counterspells that will do it for a lot less mana.

[Serenade]

In earlier EDH days I think this saw more play given the smaller card pool. Then I think it faded into just Ramirez piracy decks. Now I could see it in Yuriko decks, if anything.

This steals the X in X spells, right? Exsanguinate where X=20, I get that?

[onering]

Being a pitch spell is really relevant. I've got this in Flash tribal, it does work.

[3drinks]

In earlier EDH days I think this saw more play given the smaller card pool. Then I think it faded into just Ramirez piracy decks. Now I could see it in Yuriko decks, if anything.

This steals the X in X spells, right? Exsanguinate where X=20, I get that?

X is zero anywhere except the stack, so yes you steal whatever it was cast for.

[ironic gesture]

This card has a steep price and for that I'm glad. I feel it would be fairly obnoxious if it was costed similarly to Force of Will. Because of
it's high cost it probably only belongs in certain decks. I run it in 2: Rashmi, Eternities Crafter whose triggered ability helps offset some of the cost and Kami of the Crescent Moon whose goal is to get everyone drawing 5-6 cards a turn but denying mana resources.

[Rumpy5897]

I used to be in the same group as a guy who made it a point of honour to Commandeer every single Sol Ring he saw. I remember he pulled it on me when I rocked up with my Mana Crypt freshly inserted into Daxos. As such, my first Crypt casting actually benefited someone else. I sat there sour as hell until I got to play Skybind and flick it back to my side of the board.

I was never tempted to run it. Three cards is a hell of a cost. What sort of stuff can you even steal with this anyway? Are the three cards really worth it?

[ironic gesture]

I was never tempted to run it. Three cards is a hell of a cost. What sort of stuff can you even steal with this anyway? Are the three cards really worth it?

I agree there's a lot this can't hit but there's some juicy targets: Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Study, Ruinous Ultimatum are the first few off the top of my head. Also any targeted removal if you're trying to protect a key piece of your board.

[pokken]

I have played a lot of commandeer, but mostly in my blue-heavy control shells that have copious card advantage mechanisms to recover from that kind of 3-card blowout.

My Inalla deck used it very well, since it was a free counterspell for defending wincons when was pretty nice. But I also commandeered a lot of bombs like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and such.

[RxPhantom]

Three cards is a steep, steep cost. I think I'd rather run Narset's Reversal.

[pokken]

Three cards is a steep, steep cost. I think I'd rather run Narset's Reversal.

2 is infinitely more than 0

*if* you're about 75% blue cards I think it's reasonable to run commandeer, especially if your meta is higher powered.

[Mookie]

Commandeer is sweet. I had no idea its price crept up so much. I'm not particularly surprised, given both the lack of reprints and how useful free spells are, but... I haven't been that impressed by it when I've run it in the past.

One reason for that is just due to the decks that I've run it in - having two extra blue spells in hand can be rather difficult if you're not running it in a mono-blue deck with lots of card draw (and my own mono-blue deck skews heavily towards colorless). Paying seven mana for this effect is not something you want to be doing.

Simultaneously, the other reason I haven't been impressed by it has been its tendency to rot in hand while I wait for the perfect spell to steal - there aren't many spells worth burning three cards on. In contrast, I'm often fine with spending Counterspell on an opponent's Doom Blade - that's card parity. But spending three cards to steal it? That's card disadvantage. I'll also note that stealing a spell isn't always that much better than just countering it outright - stealing Wrath of God does nothing, while stealing an Insurrection is merely equivalent to countering it.

Anyway, as others have mentioned, this makes sense in decks like Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Kami of the Crescent Moon, and Azami, Lady of Scrolls - heavy blue decks that draw more cards than they're likely to ever have the mana to cast. If you're in 3+ colors, I'd generally pass.

[Sinis]

Sunday, November 15th, 2020; Commandeer

Now see, this is a brilliant example of the kind of splashy rare that sees no home elsewhere but would be a terrific plant in the yearly deck releases.

IFL this card. I've played it a lot, but the most memorable was in Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar draw-7 tribal. Just stealing people's spells and then resetting hands/graveyards felt so good.

But, in a world where people play Expropriate, extra turn spells, or whatever, this effect is powerful, and on top of that, it's a pitch spell. Easily the best of the coldsnap 7-cmc pitch-two spells, though I like most of those (except Soul Spike, that card sucks).

Worth noting, Aethersnatch is 6 cmc no pitch.

[3drinks]

Monday, November 16th, 2020; THE LEGEND

The man, the myth, the legend. Nothing you can say.