MTGNexus

Maelstrom Archangel is a cool card - free spells are very strong, but needing to survive a full turn cycle and deal combat damage is a pretty significant limitation, which makes her pretty fair in practice. Not sure what decks she would go in though. If you rule 0 her to be a commander, I suspect the deck would end up looking a lot like Jodah, Archmage Eternal. However, it also seems like she would feel somewhat redundant in the 99. Hmmmmm....

Speaking more broadly, I'm a fan of creatures like this that need to survive a full turn cycle, opposed to the ETB value creatures that tend to dominate formats. High-risk, high-reward cards are sweet. Unfortunately, it's somewhat difficult for those cards to be viable in EDH due to all the board wipes and premium removal in the format. It's also worth noting that most combat damage triggers are significantly weaker than ETB effects, partially due to their repeatable nature, which makes it even less likely for them to see play. Alas.

Monday, October 25th, 2021; Maelstrom Archangel

Seems okay. You probably need to give it haste in order to hit your opponents with a 'gotcha'.

I like her. It's funny how cards like this are fun, but control cards aren't. (Without us control players, things like this would dominate the game, if even faster things didn't.)

I remember wishing she was legendary when Arrowverse did Crisis on Infinite Earths, which Alara somewhat borrowed from. She would make a great Harbinger.

Geez, if this was legendary, it would stink to play against.

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Geez, if this was legendary, it would stink to play against.

Guess that explains this guy's banning:
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

Venedrex wrote: ↑

2 years ago

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Geez, if this was legendary, it would stink to play against.

Guess that explains this guy's banning:
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

I think Jodah, Archmage Eternal and Narset, Enlightened Master are a bit closer in functionality than Golos, but yeah, not the most fun play pattern - you can never really let their controller untap with them or they get a pile of free nonsense. Maelstrom Archangel is a bit more vulnerable to disruption, at least - has to actually deal combat damage, and can only cast spells from hand. Seems very dependent on having Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots available.

Mookie wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Venedrex wrote: ↑

2 years ago

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Geez, if this was legendary, it would stink to play against.

Guess that explains this guy's banning:
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

I think Jodah, Archmage Eternal and Narset, Enlightened Master are a bit closer in functionality than Golos, but yeah, not the most fun play pattern - you can never really let their controller untap with them or they get a pile of free nonsense. Maelstrom Archangel is a bit more vulnerable to disruption, at least - has to actually deal combat damage, and can only cast spells from hand. Seems very dependent on having Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots available.

Yeah, I agree, I was saying that Golos is about 2-3x more powerful than Maelstrom Archangel, hence why he got banned. Having to deal combat damage for one spell from your hand vs etbing and grabbing a busted land then firing off three spells from the top of your library every rotation.

There's this fun but profoundly jank energy to Alara block mythics that I love so much...

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021; Tromokratis



I love these big dumb goofy sea monsters.

Igzex wrote: ↑

2 years ago

There's this fun but profoundly jank energy to Alara block mythics that I love so much...

Because Alara block is when the rarity was introduced. Wizards advertised it as being for fun, splashy, big spells and not just chase rares, because people were worried it was a cash grab. They abandoned that by Zendikar.

If you are playing some sort of Sea Monsters.dec plan, I'd say Tromokratis is one of the best as its "super menace" makes it nigh-unblockable and near-guaranteed to land a hit. That may sound like faint praise in the tribe of Leviathan and Benthic Behemoth, but I also really like the design overall - it's slick, and can take opponents unawares, that if they have any tapped creatures or creatures that can't block, Tromo here is just unblockable. When he's hit the table, he's definitely gotten attention in my playgroup.

I'm not sure I'd run him outside of a Sea Monsters deck though - turns out even an 8/8 mostly unblockable tempoarily hexproof beatstick for seven is just a bit too fair in modern Magic.

Tromokratis is about where big, evasive, hard-to-remove beaters should be, IMHO. So tired of more recent card designs that do that, and also draw cards, gain life, walk your dog, and do your taxes. You want those other effects, they should come with a smaller and more vulnerable body. Tromokratis will kill you, but he isn't an infinite snowball value engine, and seeing something like that at 7 mana and it still looking like a cool design is such a pleasant difference from what I get looking at designs from the past few years.

Sorry, didn't mean to go all "old man yells at cloud" on you. Those are just the thoughts that come to mind here -- that expensive (mana-wise) cards don't have to be ludicrous value engines to be exciting, and big doofy creatures with even slightly odd and unique mechanics can do it too, and we'd be better off with more of the latter and less of the former.

I've considered Tromokratis for my Thada deck - it's hard to block and has hexproof most of the time, which makes it a consistent way to deal out damage. It's possible that I should be running it over one of my current beaters. Hmmmm.... ultimately, the reason it hasn't made the cut is probably due to the conditionality of its hexproof - there is a lot of instant-speed removal in the format, which makes it feel more likely to be killed than I would like. I guess Lightning Greaves can solve that issue, but...

More broadly, Tromokratis is a cool card that is, unfortunately, a bit too clunky for EDH these days - seven mana is a lot for something that doesn't provide any immediate value. It can be interesting in the command zone as a voltron commander - run Icy Manipulator or other ways to tap down your opponents' creatures, and suddenly they can't ever block Tromokratis. Eight power is also a pretty quick clock.

For those pining for the design era of Tromokratis... So, I feel your beef for the current and most recent design era where we got lots of pushed stuff. I hate cards like Elder Gargaroth that are just too versatile and starkly undercosted.

But, I'm not going to pretend Tromokratis was ever really all that playable. The set right after saw Scourge of Fleets. Theros/Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx were printed after Rune-Scarred Demon. The Gatecrash Primordials pre-date Tromokratis, too.

In terms of 7 cmc things, Tromokratis never even ranked, IMO.

Sinis wrote: ↑

2 years ago

For those pining for the design era of Tromokratis... So, I feel your beef for the current and most recent design era where we got lots of pushed stuff. I hate cards like Elder Gargaroth that are just too versatile and starkly undercosted.

But, I'm not going to pretend Tromokratis was ever really all that playable. The set right after saw Scourge of Fleets. Theros/Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx were printed after Rune-Scarred Demon. The Gatecrash Primordials pre-date Tromokratis, too.

In terms of 7 cmc things, Tromokratis never even ranked, IMO.

This is a really good point. Avenger of Zendikar, Myr Battlesphere, Sphinx of Uthuun. and Hornet Queen all also predate Tromokratis as big, rumbling seven-drops that bring a ton of value on EtB. Opening up to six-drops, a Blue deck also has Wurmcoil Engine, Frost Titan, Steel Hellkite, Consecrated Sphinx, Deadeye Navigator, Archetype of Imagination, Keiga, the Tide Star and Sharding Sphinx all printed before or contemporary to Tromokratis. If you are just looking for strong power-plays, Tromokratis' "just stats on an evasive/hard to kill body" has been out of contention for most Ux decks for as long as EDH has been a mainstream format (i.e. the 2010-2011 area around which WotC started publishing Commander decks).

I still remember Inkwell Leviathan. I think I still have an Inkwell Leviathan. Now that was the era of big, resilient beaters, whose upside was just being big, resilient beaters.

Hawk wrote: ↑

2 years ago

If you are just looking for strong power-plays, Tromokratis' "just stats on an evasive/hard to kill body" has been out of contention for most Ux decks for as long as EDH has been a mainstream format (i.e. the 2010-2011 area around which WotC started publishing Commander decks).

This is exactly my point; Born of the Gods was released Q1 2014. Commander 2013 (with Prossh, Derevi, Avenger of Zendikar reprint, etc.) dropped 3-4 months earlier.

Tromokratis never got played because it feels like it was designed for Time Spiral (2007) era Magic. Like, I starkly remember playing Deep-Sea Kraken|TSP and Tromokratis could have easily fit in that kind of game we were playing, but it feels like it was printed 6-7 years too late.

Yep, same sentiments on this guy. I remember being disappointed back then that he was not...more. I was further disappointed when I actually cracked him in a pack.

I also just think he's ugly.

Tromo was my third papered out deck, assembled for the budget of a precon in 2014. It sounds like lies now, but that deck got to rock Mana Vault, Rhystic Study and Cyclonic Rift without breaking 2 euro per card. The original budget build remains something I reminisce about fondly, as it was quite creative - as blue doesn't do tutoring, and I hadn't grasped the significance of card draw, I ran various transmute packages and a wizard toolbox. Eventually I revamped the deck into a more stereotypical blue control/tempo shell, cutting back a bit on some of the tapping and cuteness for all around powerful plays and leaning into Tromo's control finisher role. However, this also explains very well why the deck is inherently unfun to play against - the build will seek to stall for time and disrupt the opposition until kraken hugs will dispose of the competition. I technically have the list assembled, as it's got a bunch of powerful blue cards in it that would wreck my group regardless of where I'd house them, so there's no reason to pull it apart. However, I have not played it in forever, and am years overdue for an update. I remember wanting to put Narset's Reversal in.

I think Governor Tromo's biggest weakness is that he loses Hexproof if he particpates it combat, which is incidentally the longest, most complex, most subdivided phase in a Magic turn. Figuratively speaking, Tromo in combat is akin to a X-game cyclist getting a lot of air time with no guarantee of a safe landing every turn. All you can do is hold your breath and hope.

Wednesday, October 27th, 2021; Coalition Flag

I play Standard Bearer in my ever-shifting Boros Voltron deck and I think this is a fun effect. It draws off hate and prevents a number of combat tricks that are popular in my playgroup from being played while it's out on the field. I don't think I'd play Coalition Flag in that deck, but I am a huge fan of the effect.

Yeah, the flag bearer effect is pretty neat, and pretty unique. The creatures are usually going to be better than this card because you can recur them. They provide a sort of semi hexproof against removal, eating the first kill spell and eating ALL spells of the Lignify class, with the draw back that they prevent your opponents from aiming removal spells at each other's creatures. They also hilariously hose aura based Voltron because the Voltron player can't target their own dude. This card is harder to keep around, and it's an effect that not every deck is going to want, so there aren't going to be many decks that want this.

I built a Tiana Ships Navigator deck when she came out and I included this. I used it enchant opponents creatures, and would stick it on things that I wanted gone. Tiana gets it back when it hits the yard, so it was reusable, and it basically directed opponent's removal to the creatures I wanted gone. It was only moderately useful. It was ok at forcing people to kill someone else's creature before they could kill Tiana, but worked much better when there were multiple potential removal targets on the field and I wanted to force the issue and get people to kill the one I prioritized. As you can imagine, neither of these, even put together, was enough utility to justify continued inclusion in the deck. I can't really guess what other deck might want this.

How did you get it to enchant opponents' creatures?

I adored Standard Bearer in my younger years, and it's a card I probably don't play enough nowadays. I also think Coalition Honor Guard is reasonable, although two extra mana for just +1/+3 is unlikely to matter in EDH. This effect can be surprisingly potent, and I suspect given the recent shift (for my meta and, I feel from the internet, most EDH communities) to "more point removal, less board wipes", Standard Bearer is better than ever!

All that said - I'd never play Coalition Flag. The Standard Bearer blocking a shot is great, but paying even just one mana to make another creature block a shot is a lot less so. Even in a deck with pretty resilient commanders (Tajic, Blade of the Legion, Sevinne, the Chronoclasm, etc.), I'm not sure this is worth the card. Note also that while it saves your dudes, it also stops opponents from removing your opponents cards, so it's definitely a double-edged flag.