Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[NZB2323]

Maybe Gix's Command will see play in Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern, but it's the same mana cost as the commander and competes with cards like The Eldest Reborn, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Archfiend of Depravity, Necrogoyf, Junji, the Midnight Sky, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Tergrid's Shadow, Fraying Omnipotence, Awaken the Erstwhile, Living Death, Dictate of Erebos, and Painful Quandary.

It's certainly a playable card, but I can't think of a deck where I would prefer it over other 5 drops.

[DirkGently]

@DirkGently by the way, your estimates of the new commands is off. You can only choose each mode once (unlike the confluences, which specifically state you can choose a mode more than once). So they're probably worse than you thought 😆

I know, but treating the spell as though you could pick the same mode twice makes it easier to determine if the effect is worth half of the spell. Otherwise it's kinda tricky to calculate the value of each mode, because smooshing two effects together saves you a card, but also higher costs get progressively more difficult (i.e. casting an 8mv card is more difficult than casting 2 4mv cards).

Say you had a 2mv command where one mode was "draw a card". Is that a good mode? Well if you split the cost in half, 1 mana to draw 1 card isn't exciting. But if you imagine you can pick that same mode twice, you realize that it's a strong mode because draw 2 for 2 would be pretty good. Do a similar calculation for the other modes and you can determine which combinations are likely to be worth it. It works better as a metric for some modes than others, though, so you have to think critically about it.

Looking at the white command, creating 2 2/2s for 3 is pretty meh outside of limited. Drawing 2 plains is pretty weak. Scry 4 gain 4 is really really bad. The double strike mode is sorta harder to analyze, but obviously double strike can do some major high rolls. So imo it really comes down to the double strike mode, with the plains being a likely secondary mode, and the other two modes being weak backup options.

So that's how I like to break down that type of multi-choice effect to determine how good it is. Trying to look at the card as a whole is a bit too complicated to get a good estimation imo.

[NZB2323]

Tocasia's Welcome is more card draw for white, and later in the game you could draw cards during an opponent's turn with Aven Mindcensor, Alms Collector, Glorious Protector, Guardian of Faith, Restoration Angel, Solitude, Vexilus Praetor, ect.

[DirkGently]

@NZB2323 mv 3 or less. Most of those guys can't trigger it.

Most any token can, though, so that's fairly easy to do on enemy turns. Thraben Doomsayer etc work great.

[NZB2323]

@NZB2323 mv 3 or less. Most of those guys can't trigger it.

Most any token can, though, so that's fairly easy to do on enemy turns. Thraben Doomsayer etc work great.

Whoops, must have read the card wrong. Tokens make it easy then, as do cards like Archivist of Oghma, Deep Gnome Terramancer, Keeper of the Accord, First Response, and Monastery Mentor.

[Hermes_]

per-con deck list https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/th ... -decklists

[DirkGently]

So far all the prototype mythics seem pretty trash, at least in commander.

But hey, at least proxies are legal now. (Arcane Proxy)

Edit: good lord the flavour text of the Diabolic Intent reprint is soooo bad wtffff.

[cheonice]

New Saheeli is quite a bit unexpected, but looks fine.

Saheeli, Filigree Master
2UR
Legendary Planeswalker - Saheeli
[+1]: Scry 1. You may tap an untapped artifact you control. If you do, draw a card.
[-2]: Create two 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying. They gain haste until end of turn.
[-4]: You get an emblem with "Artifact creatures you control get +1/+1" and "Artifact spells you cast cost 1 less to cast."
[3]

[Venedrex]

Gosh, I love it when double digit priced cards get reprinted in Standard legal sets. I know it doesn't always tank the price, but when it does, it brings me great joy to watch card prices crater. Now I can snap one up for my Meren deck.

[Mookie]

We finally did it! Loran of the Third Path is a white Reclamation Sage with several significant upsides.

Other than that, more interesting stuff...

• Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor is interesting - lots of surveiling, plus a potent mass recursion ability.
• Visions of Phyrexia is a solid ramp // draw engine.
• Diabolic Intent reprint is much appreciated.
• Portal to Phyrexia is going straight in my Sharuum deck as a splashy reanimation target. It's not quite a full board wipe, but still seems quite fun.
• Urza's Sylex is a splashy board wipe. 5WW for Planar Cleansing that also knocks everyone down to six lands is... interesting, particularly if you're running some indestructible stuff.
• The Temporal Anchor is another interesting artifact to reanimate, but I'm a bit less excited by it - two extra cards per turn is good, but losing them if it gets blown up is a little awkward.
• Hall of Tagsin is a durdley land that can repeatedly ramp (and the powerstones can pay for further activations). Very slow, but could be fun.
• Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist is another efficient powerstone generator. I'll need to check my Teysa deck to see how many mana sinks I have for powerstone mana....
• Tocasia's Welcome is another powerful white card draw option for token / small creature decks.

[TheGildedGoose]

Loran of the Third Path is perfect. No notes.

@TheAmericanSpirit Yeah, nu-Gix had a step down, aesthetically. Statistically, it's almost certain I look at art of Gix more than anyone on this forum and I gotta say, they did my boy dirty.

[RxPhantom]

How does Diabolic Intent not get banned everywhere it's about to become legal?

[darrenhabib]

A card that might have gone a little unnoticed but extremely good is Scholar of New Horizons. Goes great with Sagas, Cumulative Upkeep. Keeping around a Mystic Remora or Glacial Chasm while guaranteed to keep up with lands is very powerful. You can keep around a Saga indefinitely by responding to the last Saga trigger (or whatever stage) so that it remains in play.
Urza's Saga is a nice one to keep around, just keep searching for artifacts and keep making constructs.

Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter is another enabler for the cEDH Zur the Enchanter into Necropotence and draw into Shimmer Myr and now this to start storming off.

[darrenhabib]

How does Diabolic Intent not get banned everywhere it's about to become legal?

Tutors are not as valued in other formats because of the 4 of a card, 60 card limit. You are far more likely to draw into your cards than Commander.

[TheGildedGoose]

A card that might have gone a little unnoticed but extremely good is Scholar of New Horizons. Goes great with Sagas, Cumulative Upkeep. Keeping around a Mystic Remora or Glacial Chasm while guaranteed to keep up with lands is very powerful. You can keep around a Saga indefinitely by responding to the last Saga trigger (or whatever stage) so that it remains in play.

Also solid in my Noble Heritage deck.

[Mookie]

How does Diabolic Intent not get banned everywhere it's about to become legal?

Tutors are not as valued in other formats because of the 4 of a card, 60 card limit. You are far more likely to draw into your cards than Commander.

I'll also call out that sacrificing a creature is a significant cost, and is also particularly weak against countermagic. It is a powerful card, and I could see it being played in Yawgmoth, Thran Physician decks in Modern, but unlikely to be banworthy, IMO.

Yeah, Scholar of New Horizons looks quite solid. I've been half-ignoring the commander deck cards (mostly because it's hard to tell which cards are reprints and which are new), but there have been some nice options there.

[Dunadain]

How does Diabolic Intent not get banned everywhere it's about to become legal?

Tutors are not as valued in other formats because of the 4 of a card, 60 card limit. You are far more likely to draw into your cards than Commander.

Yup, you know what the best tutors in legacy are? Ponder and brainstorm.

[RedCheese]

Daretti and Portal to Phyrexia

[pokken]

Daretti and Portal to Phyrexia

Man that card is going to be...oof. Extremely problematic

I heard you guys liked Brago, King Eternal building his own Grave Pact

[NZB2323]

I really like the design of fortified beachhead and hope it's a cycle.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

No One Left Behind is a neat little card with some cool scaling.

[pokken]

I really like the design of fortified beachhead and hope it's a cycle.

This is basically Wanderwine Hub with upside (and better templating that lets you control a critter), which is awesome Hope there is a cycle!!

[ISBPathfinder]

No One Left Behind is a neat little card with some cool scaling.

Its not quite the same but I feel like Unearth occupies a very similar space to this card. The option to cast as a five mana spell for any rez vs cycling when its not what you need. I think I still like Unearth more because if you draw it early I would prefer the cycling option to the late game big card rez but I suppose it depends on if you do a lot of self milling / discard with the deck. Unearth is probably stronger if you don't have a strong engine to get cards to your graveyard but that might change if you have a lot of card movement / mill.

I suppose the quantity and frequency of grave hate also could give Unearth more credit too if you see a lot of grave hate.

[ukkuhrmakhai]

Wizards just isn't holding back anymore. I guess we know how they really feel about the green players now.

Joking, aside that seems like a pretty nuts ability if you can pull whatever land you want off of an Evolving Wilds, Prismatic Vista or Ash Barrens right after playing it.

No One Left Behind is a neat little card with some cool scaling.

Its not quite the same but I feel like Unearth occupies a very similar space to this card. The option to cast as a five mana spell for any rez vs cycling when its not what you need. I think I still like Unearth more because if you draw it early I would prefer the cycling option to the late game big card rez but I suppose it depends on if you do a lot of self milling / discard with the deck. Unearth is probably stronger if you don't have a strong engine to get cards to your graveyard but that might change if you have a lot of card movement / mill.

I suppose the quantity and frequency of grave hate also could give Unearth more credit too if you see a lot of grave hate.

I like the design of No One Left Behind but I like Unearth more as well. Cycling plays nicely with dredge so if you have any dredge cards it helps you fill the yard. Unearth is on before you fill your graveyard, when you have a graveyard and after your yard gets exiled. NOLB is only good once you have a yard.

That said it does play nicely with cascade cards, especially living end (which matters more for other formats). A high cmc tribal deck probably doesn't want it because it wants to target low cmc creatures but you could use it to bring back a utility creature and still Vial Smasher the Fierce for 5.

[duducrash]

Demolition Field is a very nice upgrade!