[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - North Star

[RowanKeltizar]

Silent Arbiter - its a decent effect but I think Crawlspace and Ensnaring Bridge are better unless you have specific synergy with creatures or artifact creatures. It's 1/5 body makes a decent wall which is a marginal upside, however being both an artifact and a creature is it very fragile.

This is the kind of card that could find a home in my Atraxa artifact stax beatdown but I'm not sure it's good enough. It doesn't stop voltron commanders, where Ensnaring Bridge does.

[BeneTleilax]

I've never seen this as a stax card, just as a voltron enabler, precisely because voltron can break symmetry with it.

[hyalopterouslemur]

You mean break symmetry?

In Stax, it can slow your opponents down. A lot of Stax players just play a couple threats that aren't even creatures, or if they are creatures, they don't even attack (Think Tims amd things like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Guttersnipe.) which is where this might come in, though it is relatively rare.

Stax hates direct conflict, but little swipes courtesy of triggered and/or activated abilities? Oh hell yes!

[Mookie]

Silent Arbiter is a bit like an artifact version of Propaganda - it makes things awkward for go-wide strategies that want to attack you. However, unlike Propaganda, the effect is symmetric... which means those unused forces won't be attacking opponents either. Alas. I think Crawlspace and Ensnaring Bridge do that function better - not being a creature makes them a bit more resilient to spot removal. I also think it's somewhat difficult to find space for this in effect in a deck, given that warding off small attackers can usually also be done by playing pretty much any large creature. I vaguely recall running it in my Sharuum deck ages ago, with the logic that the deck generally wants to discourage combat... but 'I have a 5/5 flying blocker in the command zone' did pretty much the same job.

Where Silent Arbiter is somewhat more interesting is as a way to stop opponents from multiblocking - if you have a creature like Tromokratis or anything with menace, that creature becomes effectively unblockable. It's also good with stuff like provoke or Grappling Hook that forces a creature to block. A somewhat niche effect, but worth calling out.

[Toshi]

As has been pointed out, Silent Arbiter is great support to Voltron strategies. You won't be taking much damage from go wide archetypes due to him being a solid defender and if your commander tramples you will rarely be jump blocked and chip in cummulative damage.
I was very happy with Silent Arbiter in my Traxos, Scourge of Kroog build. Having only one blocker against a 7/7 trample guy is a great mismatch created.

[Treamayne]

I think the only place I still run Silent Arbiter is in Exalted.dek. Really, any deck that wants to only attack with 1 creature at a time, or force the aforementioned blocking mismatch could, at least, consider this. As a general ward against combat, many better alternatives have already been mentioned.

[3drinks]

Friday, December 10th, 2021; Tempting Contract

"It's a trap!"

[BeneTleilax]

Far too expensive for a card that does nothing if your opponents don't play along.

[Serenade]

It's not even X+1 like Will the Wise. Boo this card.

[Mookie]

Wait a minute, that's not Tempting Contract! *Rips off mask* That's three Rhystic Caves in a trenchcoat!

Anyway, Tempting Contract seems pretty underwhelming. Assuming a standard four player game, it's a Thran Dynamo that enters tapped, gives your opponents mana, and sometimes doesn't produce mana at all. There might be some diplomatic shenanigans you can pull, but... generally seems pretty bad - you need to be pretty desperate for Treasure tokens to want it over an actual mana rock.

[Hawk]

This card is not great:

- If you are in the market for a 4 CMC mana rock (and few decks are these days), you ought to be playing Smothering Tithe, Thran Dynamo, Firemind Vessel, Hedron Archive, Everflowing Chalice, or Nyx Lotus. Those will all reliably ramp you into your 6/7 drop commander and many have some extra upshot. None are reliant on our opponents playing along, and none are giving opponents a leg up on us.

- So, for this to be good, we need to be a deck like Prosper, Tome-Bound or Kalain, Reclusive Painter or Saheeli, the Gifted that specifically cares about having treasure/artifact tokens around. Except if that's the case, opponents are even less likely to pay along. If you want something that demands opponent cooperation in exchange for a pile of treasure, play Curse of Opulence or Trove of Temptation.

[hyalopterouslemur]

*sigh* At least tempting offer is X+1. And even then, I don't usually play them. Either too much risk (Tempt with Discovery, Tempt with Reflections) or too weak (Tempt with Glory, Tempt with Immortality) I guess Tempt with Vengeance is acceptable?)

And no one's going to take Tempt with Discovery's bait if I have an Aven Mindcensor Nobody's going to take this card's bait if I set it up so it all favors me. (Which is a problem with Tempt with Vengeance too.)

Four-mana mana rocks need a lot more to be viable. Nyx Lotus and Solemn Simulacrum being good examples. This might actually be worse than Rhystic Cave.

[Sinis]

Friday, December 10th, 2021; Tempting Contract

It's not even a little tempting.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Looked at Gatherer. Things better than this at 4:

Crystalline Crawler
Empowered Autogenerator
Everflowing Chalice
Firemind Vessel
Hedron Archive
Khalni Gem
Krark-Clan Ironworks
Nyx Lotus
Sisay's Ring/Thran Dynamo/Ur-Golem's Eye (and this has no fewer than three strictly betters!)
Solemn Simulacrum

Though, TBH, even classic (as in "oldies" but definitely not as in "goodies") mana batteries can baffle opponents with their art. Even Diamond Kaleidoscope has the usual synergies. And that's ignoring all the much better mana rocks (practically all of them) at 3 or less. Like, this comes in behind mana myr (which to be fair I do play in Animar) on my list.

But as I said before, your opponent will only take the offer if he or she either 1) is a complete moron, in which case why are you losing?, or 2) has something better, in which case you're a complete moron who is about to lose.

[Jemolk]

Everything's already been said. The only real reason to comment is to show my appreciation for the "three Rhystic Caves in a trench coat" line, which definitely made me laugh.

It shouldn't have been a "may." Then in the right deck it might actually be worth considering, even with its downside of giving your opponents mana. As-is, like everyone else has said, it's stone unplayable.

[3drinks]

Saturday, December 11th, 2021; Sphinx of the Second Sun

[pokken]

This card is legitimately super strong in the right circumstances. I've considered it a lot in Ephara, God of the Polis to get double Ephara triggers and a lot of other random upkeep things. I think it's

I like the design a lot and I love shenanigans that go with it

[Crazy Monkey]

Sphinx of the Second Sun is great in a deck that wants to be able to commit cards to the field and hold up interaction. It's nearly a blue Seedborn Muse effect. Add on that it is, quite obviously, a sphinx and it is a solid inclusion in Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign decks.

EDIT for phrasing. This is nearest that blue as a color has to seedborn muse in a card. It's fewer untaps per turn cycle, but it is more than the colorless options.

[Mookie]

Sphinx of the Second Sun is sweet - untapping your mana and drawing an extra card at the end of your turn is quite strong. If you have any upkeep triggers, it gets even better. Eight mana is, admittedly, a lot of mana... but similar to Wilderness Reclamation and extra turn spells, the fact that you get all of your mana back means that its mana cost isn't an accurate description of its tempo cost. It goes down in value if you don't have anything to do with your mana on opponents' turns, but that isn't really a concern for most blue decks.

Not sure how it stacks against other big blue creatures, like Sphinx of Uthuun, Consecrated Sphinx, and Nezahal, Primal Tide. Drawing one card per turn means it will usually represent less raw card advantage than other options (assuming it gets dealt with), but getting an entire extra untap phase is a pretty unique effect, which makes it go up in value in decks that can make use of that ability.

I will call out that I've seen a lot of confusion as to how its extra phases work - if you're playing in paper, be sure to be familiar with its mechanics. I once saw someone take their extra untap step and then try to cast more spells at sorcery speed, which... isn't how it actually works.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Sphinx of the Second Sun is great in a deck that wants to be able to commit cards to the field and hold up interaction. It's nearly a blue Seedborn Muse effect. Add on that it is, quite obviously, a sphinx and it is a solid inclusion in Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign decks.

Nearly. I'd say Seedborn is usually better, but it's a matter of how many mana sinks you have, how much your deck depends on instants/flash, etc. (So, if your deck uses Rule of Law and friends, Seedborn is much better.) 5 mana versus 8 doesn't hurt, though 6/6 with flying is a better body than 2/4.

In addition, Seedborn does something S3 doesn't do. She untaps all permanents, unconditionally. This has Stax implications, since you can effortlessly get around Meekstone, Juntu Stakes, Static Orb, and Winter Orb and friends. Essentially everything but Stasis.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This card is legitimately super strong in the right circumstances. I've considered it a lot in Ephara, God of the Polis to get double Ephara triggers and a lot of other random upkeep things. I think it's

You think it's what? What do you think?! Tell me, damn you!

[pokken]

I think it's

You think it's what? What do you think?! Tell me, damn you!

It's what it's like to live with a 6 year old lol

I think I was going to say something about the mana cost which is obviously a lot, but getting to untap makes it reasonable - just get blown out hard on countermagic.

[Serenade]

Does it play well with Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor? The blue curses were on the weaker side, I thought, and she's risky anyway.

Other curses like it, though, and shrines, too. Is it a worthwhile reanimation target?

[Dragonlover]

I keep forgetting this exists. I need one for wincons, since basically all of them are upkeep triggers.

Dragonlover

[3drinks]

Sunday, December 12th, 2021; Citanul Flute