[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

[BeneTleilax]

Oddly, I don't run this in Zabaz because most of my artifacts are <3 MV. That said, just copying someone's sol ring makes this a better Worn Powerstone.

[Hawk]

I've found this weirdly underwhelming in most artifact decks I've played. I know copying Sol Ring or Hedron Archive is still good (which is the most often case for this) but I don't find Worn Powerstone to be a staple, and don't think marginally better Worn Powerstone is that great.

I know the ceiling on this is way, way higher - maybe it's that my meta has no artifact decks beyond my own Daretti, and my Daretti deck is weird - there's for sure Wurmcoil Engines and Darksteel Forges in there but its planeswalkers and rummaging spells are its plan A.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It passes the Sun Titan test. It also has synergy with Mycosynth Lattice, letting you copy anything. Lot of potential here.

[Mookie]

I've been meaning to pick up a few copies of Sculpting Steel ever since it was reprinted - it's quite useful in artifact-based decks, but particularly useful alongside Sharuum the Hegemon as a combo piece. Copy Sharuum → have it die as a state-based action → use the Sharuum trigger to recur Sculpting Steel → repeat (ideally with a payoff for artifacts dying). Outside decks with heavy artifact synergies, I'd avoid it - the most commonly played artifacts to copy are mana rocks, and if you're just copying a Worn Powerstone or Manalith most of the time, it's simpler to just play a mana rock directly.

I will call out Phyrexian Metamorph as being superior in the majority of situations - outside Sun Titan / Trophy Mage situations where you care about the mana value, the additional flexibility from copying creatures greatly outweighs the minor cost of two life. There are a lot of phyrexianized versions of classic Mirrodin artifacts (ex: Duplicant → Phyrexian Ingester), so my headcanon that the two are actually the same item.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, August 1st, 2021; Reckless Crew

Finally, another way to equip the Argentum Armors and Kaldra Compleats of the world. And I think I see a Dwarven Berserker in the art.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This has gotta be an ace in Depala, Pilot Exemplar decks, that's quite a few dwarves.

[Serenade]

Why was it that we do not get tribal cards anymore?

[BeneTleilax]

Why was it that we do not get tribal cards anymore?

Because the card type was inconsistent and confusing.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, August 1st, 2021; Reckless Crew

I actually love this card. Auto-equips are always good stuff; I'd rank this next to Kazuul's Toll Collector and Vulshok Battlemaster.

What do you suppose the number of dwarves threshold is for this card? If you get 3, it's clearly better than something like Hordeling Outburst. Is 2 bodies plus the equip-tempo enough for this to be 'worth it'?

Also, obligatory skullclamp note here.

[Hawk]

Wednesday, August 1st, 2021; Reckless Crew

I actually love this card. Auto-equips are always good stuff; I'd rank this next to Kazuul's Toll Collector and Vulshok Battlemaster.

What do you suppose the number of dwarves threshold is for this card? If you get 3, it's clearly better than something like Hordeling Outburst. Is 2 bodies plus the equip-tempo enough for this to be 'worth it'?

Also, obligatory skullclamp note here.

I think I'd need to reliably and consistently be getting 3 Dwarves. At two dwarves, this looks pretty mediocre compared to Hordeling Outburst or Kazuul's Toll Collector for one more mana (similar total P+T, but one more mana). In my experience even in a dedicated equipment deck that can be tough - unless you're Sram, Senior Edificer cheerios running every 0 and 1 MV equipment in the game, you likely aren't going to reliably have more than two, maximum three equipment on table especially not on curve. And the ceiling of 4-5 Dwarves in the very, very, very late game doesn't feel worth it. I think some amount of Vehicle or Dwarf synergy as well as equipment is pretty crucial for this to be worth its four mana pricetag.

As a result, this card seems great in Depala, Pilot Exemplar, reasonable in Magda, Brazen Outlaw and various Boros Equipment Decks (especially any with Bruenor Battlehammer or Koll, the Forgemaster at the helm with a dwarf subtheme), and quite poor in any other Rx equipment heavy decks where it it competing with Brass Squire, Magnetic Theft and the Toll Collector for freebie equips.

[hyalopterouslemur]

The auto-equip makes it worthwhile. But you have to be playing a lot of equipment. (Or equipment tokens become a thing.)

Actually, I wouldn't mind equipment tokens or aura tokens, so long as it's "square stats and keywords". Something easy to remember.

Anyway, being bigger than 1/1 goblins and having auto-equip is nice.

[3drinks]

Thursday, September 2nd, 2021; Pyrokinesis|ema

[Signe]

TBH I just can't think of why I would play this opver the myriad other burn spells. I'm sure that back during alliances where 4 damage t ocreatures even remoptely meant something it was usable, but at this point dealing 4 damage is likely meaningless i nthe situation where you would actually pay either of this card's costs.

[PrimevalCommander]

Compares poorly to Mizzium Mortars, besides being potentially free, but I would play Mortars 99/100 times. Unless you really need that next free burn for your storm deck?

[Serenade]

Until we get Pestilent Spirit.legend, this card would not make the cut for me.

[hyalopterouslemur]

TBH I just can't think of why I would play this opver the myriad other burn spells. I'm sure that back during alliances where 4 damage t ocreatures even remoptely meant something it was usable, but at this point dealing 4 damage is likely meaningless i nthe situation where you would actually pay either of this card's costs.

I don't know what kind of games you play, but this does hit Mother of Runes, mana dorks, spellshapers, Zulaport Cutthroat and friends, Sylvan Safekeeper, Bob, Seedborn Muse, Hokori, Dust Drinker, tappers, Soul Sisters, most infect creatures, and hatebears. So it has quite a few targets in most games. If you play dinos, this is four enraged triggers.

What makes it not so good is that unless you're specifically pitching it, or the aforementioned dinosaur example, Mizzium Mortars is better. And unlike pitch counterspells, damage prevention, bounce, pumps, etc., this isn't as time-critical.

[plushpenguin]

While it is instant speed, I can't help but compare this to Fury. Being a body that can be hardcast to get 6 power is not insignificant with blink or equipment synergies.

These days, even monored actually has a decent amount of removal that can be conditionally better than bolt depending on the context of your deck.

[3drinks]

Friday, September 3rd, 2021; Grand Master of Flowers

[Serenade]

I don't like planeswalkers as a card type. Never have, never will.

[Ruiner]

I like the idea behind the gimmick. It's cool for him to transform into a dragon that has loyalty abilities, and a 7/7 indestructible flyer for 4 is a good deal (provided you can get the loyalty high enough).

However, his actual loyalty abilities are pretty bland and not always even useful.

[onering]

Bahamut sure is weak huh? The monk he fetches can be ok in the right deck as a growing threat, but is generally really weak in this format. Like Nissa 1.0, it really suffers from fetching a creature from the library, since this is a singleton format, which means you can only make 1 to protect him. Its worse than with Nissa though, as Nissa's Chosen isn't just bigger, you can put it on the bottom of your library when it dies, so you can actually use the ability to bring it back, but the Monk just dies, so Bahamut's ability is one and done. His other +1 sucks. Stopping one creature from attacking or blocking in a multiplayer format just isn't very good, and to have it be limited is a joke. A 7/7 indestructible dragon for 4 is pretty cool, but it takes 4 turns for him to get there, and if he gets dinged at all he stops being a dragon. He seems pretty solid for standard, but I can't see a home for him here.

[BeneTleilax]

I'm happy with rares and mythics not being made for our format, and this dude is clearly not made for this format. Maybe run him with a bunch of proliferate if you want to be cute?

[ironic gesture]

..,but the Monk just dies, so Bahamut's ability is one and done.

The ability lets you search library and/or graveyard for the monk so you can still keep getting him back. That said, still a very weak EDH card.

[Ruiner]

A 7/7 indestructible dragon for 4 is pretty cool, but it takes 4 turns for him to get there, and if he gets dinged at all he stops being a dragon.

Just a quick correction, this part isn't right. Once he becomes a dragon, he's no longer a planeswalker and doesn't lose loyalty when taking damage.

[hyalopterouslemur]

A 7/7 with flying and indestructible is, eh...not bad, but what do you do? In a format where I can poop out ten or more tokens at once and use Cathars' Crusade to make them bigger than Bahamut, contra Hill Giant|Portal's flavor text, being big does not, in fsct, count for a lot.