[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[Gamazson]

I ran it in my Slimefoot, the Stowaway build. Most of the time it sat in my hand, but the games where I could resolve and use it tended to get out of hand quickly. It is a card I am sad I didn't get to play with years ago when it was in it's prime.

[3drinks]

Friday, November 19th, 2021; Workhorse

[BeneTleilax]

Weird card, I think it's pretty outmoded by Crystalline Crawler now. Counters are pretty finnicky to move, so turning them into mana is less good than it seems. Unless you're Ghave, I guess, in which case you dick around with this for 10 minutes, produce a billionty counters, and somehow win from mill.

[pokken]

Oh hey it goes infinite with Eldrazi Displacer ? Unusual, that doesn't happen much.

I used to have this in my Atraxa "proliferating mana" deck and it was pretty fun there although the deck had serious bookkeeping tedium.

Making colorless mana is not quite as popular as it once was, but this card was never all that efficient.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Crystalline Crawler #2 unless you really need colorless mana for some reason.

I have good memories of this in Ghave and to a lesser extent Marath, but it is a bit outdone. And since, due to c, any deck can produce any color, even the excuse that you're getting four instead of at most three no longer applies.

Also, the OG was Rasputin Dreamweaver.

[Igzex]

I'm trying to evaluate this card but I'm just mesmerized by the horse's Super Famicom abs...

[Mookie]

As others have noted, Workhorse is generally outclassed by Crystalline Crawler. It does have some implications if you're doing recursion shenanigans with No Way Out, but otherwise.... six mana is incredibly clunky. I will note it works with all the usual Ghave, Guru of Spores / Doubling Season tech, so there are definitely uses for it, but....

[hyalopterouslemur]

The main uses I can see for it where you can't use Crawler are Reveillark and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. Beyond that, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, though that's just where it's easier to get infinite mana since you have five counters instead of one to pay your sac outlet. (Or just use either with Mike and Ashnod's Altar like a normal person.)

And as I said before, colorless-specific cases.

[3drinks]

Saturday, November 20th, 2021; Sandals of Abdallah

Is it good? No. But funny sure.

[Jemolk]

That is definitely funny. I love old obscure nonsense so much, so it's a pity that this card is so narrow in who it's good against, and also absurdly expensive monetarily. It can be so much fun to wreck people with cards they didn't know existed.

[Serenade]

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/67b47e39-f ... 4cc0a809ce

When you try to use it on two creatures

[Igzex]

That last sentence...God I love old card wording so much,

[Mookie]

Huh, interesting. Not a card I recall seeing before. Completely ignoring mana cost / price / efficiency, I could see some niche cases for granting creatures islandwalk - it's a pretty strong form of evasion, assuming your opponents have islands... or you have some way to give them islands, such as Spreading Seas. I'm running a few such ways in my Thada Adel, Acquisitor deck, and while I wouldn't have any need to give Thada islandwalk, I could see using it as a way to grant my other beaters evasion... not that I'm running any non-evasive beaters, but still.

However, when we start accounting for efficiency, I think Sandals of Abdallah are largely outclassed by equipment like Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots. Throw in the monetary price and its vulnerability to creature removal (making it function more like an aura), and it looks a lot worse.

I think the only legitimate use case I can think of it is to allow a creature to attack with Stormtide Leviathan, and even that is a bit sketchy, since granting flying works just as well. Otherwise... an Arabian Nights theme deck? Footwear tribal? Yeah, I have no idea.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Those are sandals?

Islandwalk is okay. You'll usually find at least one opponent with islands, and there are a couple ways to "give" them islands with Spreading Seas or Phantasmal Terrain or Quicksilver Fountain. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth may be the best land changers for doing so passively, but blue has plenty of options.

But TBH, Traveler's Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots do what this does. But better.

[materpillar]

Wow it's rare that I've just never seen a magic card before and I haven't seen this one before.

This is definitely a bad card you play to flex on people. This is a faaaaaantastic flex card though. My god I want to see someone use this and Spreading Seas to one-shot someone with Rafiq of the Many.

I have lost to Flying Carpet before so this isn't completely unplayable. 10/10 flex card, if I owned one I'd play it in Lazav, the Multifarious to kill someone with Phage the Untouchable.

[Sinis]

Saturday, November 20th, 2021; Sandals of Abdallah

Pile on for Footwear Tribal with this, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Trailblazer's Boots, Winged Boots, and Fleetfeather Sandals.

[Mookie]

Saturday, November 20th, 2021; Sandals of Abdallah

Pile on for Footwear Tribal with this, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Trailblazer's Boots, Winged Boots, and Fleetfeather Sandals.

Crystal Slipper too!

It's always somewhat interesting to look at derived themes for random collections of cards that don't actually have a mechanical bond - for example, I would say that 'Orb / Sphere' tribal tends to be staxy due to Winter Orb and Sphere of Resistance. On the other hand, 'Path' tribal tends to have ramp / land themes - see Path to Exile, Find the Path, and Ranger's Path.

The primary mechanical link for traditional footwear appears to be haste (which makes sense - good shoes make you go faster). Flying (and other conditional evasion, like landwalk) is the other mechanical link, although that is generally reserved for winged footwear (often showing up on Theros).

[3drinks]

Sunday, November 21st, 2021; Clutch of the Undercity

Lotta good juicy targets at the four slot...

[Sinis]

Saturday, November 20th, 2021; Sandals of Abdallah

Pile on for Footwear Tribal with this, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Trailblazer's Boots, Winged Boots, and Fleetfeather Sandals.

Crystal Slipper too!

It's always somewhat interesting to look at derived themes for random collections of cards that don't actually have a mechanical bond - for example, I would say that 'Orb / Sphere' tribal tends to be staxy due to Winter Orb and Sphere of Resistance. On the other hand, 'Path' tribal tends to have ramp / land themes - see Path to Exile, Find the Path, and Ranger's Path.

The primary mechanical link for traditional footwear appears to be haste (which makes sense - good shoes make you go faster). Flying (and other conditional evasion, like landwalk) is the other mechanical link, although that is generally reserved for winged footwear (often showing up on Theros).

I agree! I think that once the reference becomes more orthogonal to the card, the more varied the stuff is going to be. Footwear tribal is one thing, but once you're doing art references (like the infamous Lounging-in-Chair tribal), it really is a grab bag.

[Melua]

Sunday, November 21st, 2021; Clutch of the Undercity

Lotta good juicy targets at the four slot...

I wish Transmute cards were more than tutors, but the cards as a whole are underpowered by today's standards Without Transmute I doubt they would see play.

[Serenade]

Back in the day I used Dimir House Guard instead.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Clutch is solid, like most transmute cards. Powerful colors and a high degree of flexibility make this card quite good imo, provided you can pay the premium for the options.

[pokken]

Every transmute card has to compare itself to the gold standard Muddle the Mixture where the card is actually pretty useful on its own and finds a really important cmc slot

This one...I always want to try it but it never makes the cut. 4 slot is where I mercilessly cut anyway

[Sinis]

Every transmute card has to compare itself to the gold standard Muddle the Mixture where the card is actually pretty useful on its own and finds a really important cmc slot

This one...I always want to try it but it never makes the cut. 4 slot is where I mercilessly cut anyway

My fave transmutes are: Muddle the Mixture, Shred Memory, Dimir House Guard and Tolaria West.

Every other Transmute card is just not functional enough on its own. I could make an exception for Grozoth in the right deck, I suppose.

[Serenade]

I still love to transmute Dizzy Spell into Training Grounds.