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

[JWK]

Winds is definitely way underrated. My win rate when resolving it overloaded in ephara is still approaching 100%.
(I cannot remember a single loss and remember at least 10 wins).

Yeah, I can't remember a single time I've cast Winds of Abandon and not had it win me the game either on the spot or within a turn. Especially with so many people relying on graveyard recursion, exiling large amounts of creatures later in the game, when hands might be fairly empty, tends to be pretty good. Plus I have had plenty of games when I cast Winds and opponents werent' able to pull many - or occasionally any - lands because they had few basics in their deck or none still there when it was cast.

It's very much a timing thing, of course. Winds is what you cast when you are ready to win,. As just a "clear the board of nuisances" boardwipe midgame, it's pretty bad.

As to today's cards, the Zeniths are all pretty good. I don't think I currently run the red one in any deks, but I have in the past and probably will again. Red exile removal with the possibility of drawing it again later is pretty good.

I run all of the others in a variety of decks. I started running Black Sun back when Avacyn was a constant presence in games, and I have never regretted drawing into it. White Sun being an instant offers incredible value. I have won combats by adding a bunch of cats when it appeared I had no blockers, and I have cast it right before my turn then swung with a big army more times than I can count. Blue Sun is among my favorite big-draw U spells, both because it's an instant and because you can draw it repeatedly. And Green Sun is a spectacular tutor, with its limitations rarely mattering much.

[pokken]

I play the green and black zeniths quite a bit.

Green Sun's Zenith + Dryad Arbor is generally the starting point for almost any green deck I build. Makes me feel like I'm playing Maverick again

Black Sun's Zenith is a solid board wipe I look for reasons to play because it gives you the option to neuter some creatures that might benefit from dying too which is nice.

The other zeniths don't really even approach my radar most o the time though I do like White Sun's Zenith as a token and/or control finisher I think it's generally been superseded on both counts (at least for me). Stuff like March of the Multitudes for tokens decks and Finale of Revelation / Expropriate for control shell finishers.

RSZ is just...whatever and Blue Sun's Zenith is not really the type of effect that usually crosses my mind. I'm more of a Fact or Fiction guy than an X draw spell guy.

[RxPhantom]

Green Sun's Zenith is obviously the best one here. I don't need to go into it.
Blue Sun's Zenith is a card I've actually come around on, and it'll probably go into most of my two-color decks with blue.
I may consider Red Sun's Zenith if I ever build a mono-red deck. The exile clause seems like it could be cool.

The others are fine. I don't have a use for them right now, but...maybe one day I guess.

[3drinks]

Pretty much. The only real competitor is Path to Exile. Situationally either of them can be somewhat better than the other, but everything else is so far behind there's no real comparison.

Honestly i started to dislike pte. My last games with it usually went this way:
opponent: cast commander
me: pte
*next turn* opponent: land drop, cast commander again

That's one of those cases where "situationally better" comes into play. At some points in some games, giving an opponent an extra land can come back to bite you. Other times, especially late in the game, giving someone a basic land might not matter at all, whereas giving them life might... or, again, might not. Overall I have found the relative pros and cons of the two cards more or less even out, but it can also be a meta call. In very fast metas, ramping someone can be catastrophic, and in heavy combo metas or cEDH, giving someone any amount of life probably doesn't matter when you're winning with Thassa's Oracle.

Where as instead, if you run Declaration in Stone, you don't fix their colours or give them more life for necropotence|dkm. In fact, you actually cost them a card, and tempo as they spend 2 drawing off the clue. Sometimes they get nothing because you ate a token swarm. Sometimes they don't even draw off it and it sits until it becomes Collateral Damage in a sweep.

But everyone sleeps on it cause the mtg hivemind says play swords and path cause that's what the "influencers" play. 🙄

[pokken]

Declaration in Stone is a sorcery. Sorcery speed single-target removal is a huge risk at upper ends of power. If it was an instant I'd run it over path for sure, still probably not swords though

[Wallycaine]

Honestly i started to dislike pte. My last games with it usually went this way:
opponent: cast commander
me: pte
*next turn* opponent: land drop, cast commander again

That's one of those cases where "situationally better" comes into play. At some points in some games, giving an opponent an extra land can come back to bite you. Other times, especially late in the game, giving someone a basic land might not matter at all, whereas giving them life might... or, again, might not. Overall I have found the relative pros and cons of the two cards more or less even out, but it can also be a meta call. In very fast metas, ramping someone can be catastrophic, and in heavy combo metas or cEDH, giving someone any amount of life probably doesn't matter when you're winning with Thassa's Oracle.

Where as instead, if you run Declaration in Stone, you don't fix their colours or give them more life for necropotence|dkm. In fact, you actually cost them a card, and tempo as they spend 2 drawing off the clue. Sometimes they get nothing because you ate a token swarm. Sometimes they don't even draw off it and it sits until it becomes Collateral Damage in a sweep.

But everyone sleeps on it cause the mtg hivemind says play swords and path cause that's what the "influencers" play. 🙄

I mean, Declaration in Stone does not cost them a card. Yes, if you hit tokens it doesn't give them something, but if you give them a clue and they crack it, you are by definition not costing them a card. Which, on the whole, is why it's not liked: it's more akin to bounce removal in being tempo positive, but card negative for you. Now, there's a strong argument that strict card advantage is less important in multiplayer, since there's no guarentee they'll use that replacement card against you. But it's definitely incorrect to say declaration "costs them a card" when it inherently cantrips them.

[JWK]

Declaration in Stone is a fine card, and great tech against token decks, obviously, but as others have noted, it is also a sorcery, and that matters more than often enough that I think the comparison is kind of pointless.

[ISBPathfinder]

Green Sun's Zenith is amazing and I play it almost everywhere that I play green. Its possible if you were doing creature light in green or in 5c you might pass on it but it fits most green decks.

White Sun's Zenith / Blue Sun's Zenith I think can make lists but I am not excited about them. They have their decks I just don't like the types of decks that would consider them on average. I think white's is probably the second best but still distantly not nearly as good as GSZ. I think blue's is hard to really commit to just because of how many variations of that effect there are and I don't feel like Zenith is the best of that type by any means.

Red / Black - bleh I have better things to do.

[3drinks]

Monday, November 23rd, 2020; Reassembling Skeleton

It's funny how this little inoccuous guy is such a strong roleplayers to many decks. We need more skeletons in this format.

[JWK]

Great card in decks that want creatures to die and come back to die again. I currently run it in five decks (Nath, Geth, Glissa, Teysa 1, Ertai the Corrupted), and it's always good in each of them. I have even been known to occasionally toss equipment (other than Skullclamp) on the Skeleton.

Fine card.

[PrimevalCommander]

Skeleton is a bit slow, but can hold an engine together all by itself by fueling your sacrifice cards without much other investment other than mana. Compared to many of the other self-returning creatures, Reassembling Skeleton is one of the easiest and most efficient. I don't play it much, but it has a spot in Yawgmoth and does quite well there when I can turn it into cards and -1/-1 counters for small investment. Bonus points for being an instant speed activation.

Someone may come along with more time than me to give a comparison list to other self-returning creatures. There has to be at least 6, or so, others.

[Mookie]

I run Reassembling Skeleton in my Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck, where I'm pretty much always happy to have access to it. Having fodder to fuel Skullclamp / Grave Pact / Blood Artist is always nice. Two mana for a single 1/1 body isn't particularly efficient, but it works really well alongside Teysa - getting a token when it dies makes the price much more bearable. It can also do some very silly things alongside anything that can convert it back into mana, such as Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, or Pitiless Plunderer.

There are a few alternatives I'd consider, but Bloodghast and Nether Traitor (the ones I'd like to run) are slightly out of budget. I tested Bloodsoaked Champion, but it felt really awkward. After those, the options tend to be less efficient in terms of mana or have additional requirements, although they often have better stats to make up for it. Despoiler of Souls, Dread Wanderer Gutterbones, Silversmote Ghoul, Ichorid, Prized Amalgam, Gravecrawler...

I'll note that you rarely need access to more than one of this effect for your aristocrats deck - it's effectively just a way to convert mana into bodies, and if you have multiple options, you'll just use the most efficient one. However, you will pretty much always want some way to generate those bodies, and Reassembling Skeleton is pretty much the gold standard.

[toctheyounger]

Yup, solid roleplayer in a sac matters/aristocrat/reanimate deck. I run it in Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and it pulls a good amount of weight there.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, November 24th, 2020; Leave No Trace

Like, I'm a fan. Sweet two drop that is an absolute blowout that can also curve around yourself. Like playing an Archmage, and taking Mastery of Shaping as your first feature.

...alright that's enough d&d talk for me.

[DirkGently]

I really can't find it in me to include cards that only destroy enchantments, no matter how efficiently. There are just too many games that don't have any enchantments, or don't have important enough of ones to be worth removing. And I'd have a very hard time running this over, say, Disenchant (which is itself pretty outclassed by the flexibility of stuff like Generous Gift and Unexpectedly Absent).

I could see putting it in a deck that was planning to use Enchanted Evening or something, but I'd need to have a proactive plan to make this do something beyond its normal power.

[Serenade]

Can't hit From Beyond, 0/10.

Are any radiance cards usable? Maybe Bathe in Light as a Sunforger target?

[JWK]

I... forgot this card existed until just now.

I would probably not play this in my normal meta, should that ever exist again post-COVID-19, because it's fairly rare that I run into enchantress decks or enchantment problems that aren't better dealt with in a more pinpoint fashion, plus I much prefer my removal to be more versatile, at the very least having the option of hitting either enchantments or artifacts, but I can see this being very useful for online play on PlayEDH. Particularly at the mid level, people play a lot of enchantments, often with a staxy aspect to them, and this could clear out a lot of stuff in one shot. I played in a game in which a player simultaneously had out Rule of Law, Aura of Silence, Blind Obedience and Sphere of Safety. This card would have been pretty good to have in hand then. Even on PlayEDH, though, it would probably not be worth running at the less competitive levels.

[pokken]

Yuck. Like...Cleansing Meditation exists.

...if you want anything that narrow. It has the side-effect of being able to generate a huge amount of CA from enchantresses which is nice.

This one just is pointless narrow enchantment removal. I say again Yuck

[Mookie]

Yeah, Leave No Trace looks a bit too narrow to me. It could be a good tech card if you're playing against an enchantress deck, or if you have some way of manipulating colors / turning things into enchantments. Maybe Eight-and-a-Half-Tails? But as a general rule, I'm not a big fan of cards that only kill enchantments. It's just too common for there to be no enchantments on the battlefield to target, and the odds of hitting multiple cards with this seems pretty low. It's certainly a blowout if you're playing against something like Sram, Senior Edificer or another monocolor enchantress / pillowfort deck, but....

As others have mentioned, Cleansing Meditation is an option if you want a one-sided enchantment board wipe. Alternatively, Heliod's Intervention, Return to Dust, and Dismantling Wave are some more flexible options.

[Hawk]

Can't hit From Beyond, 0/10.

Are any radiance cards usable? Maybe Bathe in Light as a Sunforger target?

I don't hate Rally the Righteous in a very aggressive Boros deck. I'm not currently playing it, mind, but it sometimes ends up in the maybeboard and I bet I would play it in a Feather or Anax & Cymede Heroic deck. But in general, Radiance is bad and it should feel bad, yes. Even Bathe in Light has lost a lot of value as a Sunforger target in recent years with the printing of Akroma's Will and Teferi's Protection as even bigger effects to protect you and your toys. Bathe isn't even necessarily better than Akroma's Blessing (cycles and hits all your creatures for just one more) or Brave the Elements (cheaper, and about as likely to hit all your permanents but without any chance of helping the enemy).

But I digress - Leave No Trace is terrible. I just did a spot-check for my ongoing "value of removal" math, and of the top 50 permanents in EDH only 8 are enchantments. That means, as Dirk said, that it's really tough to include a card in your deck that only deals with enchantments. This will sometimes have no targets, and will only very rarely be a two-for-one; if we're comparing it to other 1-2 CMC effects it it very outclassed by Erase, Disenchant, Revoke Existence, Abolish, or Forsake the Worldly - Erase is 1 cheaper and exiles, while the rest hit artifacts and are thus much less likely to be dead draws. I know Forsake and Abolish are 3 and not two, but I actually run them most as I love the optionality of cycling and the efficiency of being free, respectively. I also would be more inclined to run something like a Ronom Unicorn or Kami of Ancient Law or whatever than this, as at least that's a body - and even then, I'd likely only do so in a tribal list. Generally speaking, I find I rarely run those, not when I can run stuff like Generous Gift, Oblation, or Oblivion Ring that hits it all for one more, or run Heliod's Intervention, Return to Dust, or Crush Contraband for two-for-one value train.

Of course, all of those are only one-for-ones in this things weight class so maybe it's better to treat it as a "boardwipe" effect. But I don't run enchantment boardwipes, and if I were doing so, it'd have to be because Enchantress was running rampant in my meta or because I was trying to abuse Enchanted Evening. For the former, I think I'd rather run the more expensive but more powerful and versatile Austere Command, Dismantling Wave, or Cleansing Nova. For the former or latter, this is waaaay too risky compared to just running Cleansing Meditation.

[ISBPathfinder]

Enchantment only targetable removal tends to be too narrow. Its true that this effect "could" be useful in the right situation but those situations come up too rarely. Generally speaking artifact only removal is better than enchantment only removal (just due to density of things that tend to be run in non artificer / enchantress decks) but the best case is being able to target either or even more than just naturalize effects.

I would generally speaking rather have a disenchant effect over the more power but narrower use Leave No Trace effect. I am not sure how often you would expect to hit 2+ enchantments with this effect but I think there are just better removal options to be had.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I prefer Calming Verse or Patrician's Scorn if I'm going to hate on enchantments, personally.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, November 25th, 2020; Fraying Omnipotence

For when playing Pox|ice was too much math, I guess?

[Dunharrow]

Seems good in Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, where you want discard and have a bunch of tokens to sac.
Could be reasonable in Karador, Ghost Chieftain, but Mindslicer is so much more synergistic.

What's tough is that on turn 5 your opponents may only have a small number of cards. 5 mana might be too high on the curve for this to make enough of a difference.

[DirkGently]

One of the worst draft rares I've have the privilege of opening way too many of.