[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Samwise the Stouthearted

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Isareth the Awakener makes me want to build a 'the counters do nothing!' deck with stuff like Xathrid Gorgon, and other cards with counters that are only used for memory reasons and don't have any mechanical effect. Well, not actually - that sounds like a pretty lame theme - but the idea sort of amuses me.

More broadly, I'm not really a fan of Isareth. I do enjoy repeatable recursion, but Isareth is very, very fair - you need to both attack and pay the reanimated creature's mana cost, and you can't even recur the same creature repeatedly. I guess Isareth's deathtouch makes attacking a bit safer, but the ceiling ultimately isn't very high. If I were looking to build a reanimator deck, I'd prefer to run a different reanimator commander instead, like Chainer, Dementia Master, Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, or Olivia, Crimson Bride.

...I guess one upside of Isareth is that at three mana, they're pretty cheap, and paying one or two mana each turn to recur Dusk Legion Zealot or another value critter could be good. Again though, a lot of the value in recurring cheap creatures in black decks is as sac fodder, and the fact that the creatures gets exiled shuts off most death triggers - you can't fuel Skullclamp or Blood Artist.

So.... yeah, not sure what use cases there are for Isareth in the command zone.

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Serenade
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Post by Serenade » 1 year ago

I never realized that the reanimated creature is not automatically attacking as well. Still not a fan.
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Post by Legend » 1 year ago

3drinks wrote:
1 year ago
Monday, August 1st, 2022; Isareth the Awakener
I was fortunate enough to play her to great effect in draft . . . or was it sealed? Anyways, very fun.
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Post by 3drinks » 1 year ago

Having to pay the creature's mv tells me they took the overtly safe approach with this.

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Post by 3drinks » 1 year ago

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2022; Mirage Mirror


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DirkGently
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Post by DirkGently » 1 year ago

Damn do I love this card. It's so versatile, and has such a high skill cap, yet the design is dead simple. It's the sort of card that, hours later, you'll go "dammit, if I'd copied that, held priority, activated again, then activated the ability of the copied permanent before the second activation resolved, and then..."

Flavor text is meh. How many "other" mirrors are we talking about, exactly? Eh, WYGD.
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Post by kirkusjones » 1 year ago

I feel like the Mirror is a card I put down in most first drafts and then have to convince myself to take it out. It does such a great job of flying under the radar until you need it. One of the best designed cards of the last ten years.


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Serenade
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Post by Serenade » 1 year ago

I always say, "OH, YEAH, I forgot I have this in here!" and then am happy with the results.
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Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

What kind of deck is everyone putting this in? Many of my decks are focused enough to not have much interest in this card. Where are you using it and what type of things do you regularly copy? I have a couple mono-color decks that may have room for this, but it is hard to pin a specific role this card plays that I can use in deck building. Unless it takes one of the few "for fun" slots in a deck. It is hard to judge on paper since the variance I assume is quite high on its usage.

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Post by Serenade » 1 year ago

It lives comfortably in my Syr Konrad, the Grim big mana deck, copying a doubler or major mill artifact or Coffers.
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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Mirage Mirror is a card I keep meaning to test out, but can never quite find the space for. It's certainly a flexible card, but like most Clone effects, it's not inherently synergistic with anything either, which means I can never quite find the space for it. It will probably go up in my evaluation after I've played with it a bit, but for now, I'm not sure which (if any) of my decks want it. Hmmm... it may just be an issue that a lot of my decks operate mostly at sorcery speed, and thus don't hold up a lot of mana for activations.

More broadly, from playing against it, I'll say that it is extremely annoying to kill - turning into a land lets it dodge almost all removal. On the other hand, it is a bit mana-hungry - at the bare minimum, it costs to activate, which adds up over time. If you have enough mana available, you can activate it multiple times to turn into various things, which can open up some very weird lines.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 1 year ago

I mean, it is a bit mana hungry, but you can do so many things with it. Turn a doubler into a quadrupler. Or turn Nyxbloom Ancient into 9x mana.

Experiment Kraj also exists, for some real rules-screwing.
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Post by pokken » 1 year ago

One time I used it to copy a consecrated sphinx forcing opponent into a game of csphinx chicken (my favorite magic mini game). I won.

Another time someone used it to copy a Tomik, Distinguished Advokist that I was killing right before I went apeshit with an Azusa and an excavator and fetch lands. I was mad. Such a sick play.

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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 1 year ago

Mirage mirror is one of those things that always does insane stuff for other people and never seems to do anything for me. I'm probably just too stoned on most edh nights to properly fill out the skill cap, so %$#% it say I, I'll play another removal spell instead and spare my brain the gymnastics.
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Post by kirkusjones » 1 year ago

TheAmericanSpirit wrote:
1 year ago
Mirage mirror is one of those things that always does insane stuff for other people and never seems to do anything for me. I'm probably just too stoned on most edh nights to properly fill out the skill cap, so %$#% it say I, I'll play another removal spell instead and spare my brain the gymnastics.
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Post by 3drinks » 1 year ago

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022; Arcane Bombardment



I never seen this card before but judging from it's price being roughly even to a pack, I'd think it's not exactly a hidden gem.

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Post by pokken » 1 year ago

Not a giant fan of these active player timesink spells. But this one could be a pretty compact wincon I guess? Just bin a time warp then cast a spell. Long as you keep drawing instants/sorcs you win?

I have a soft spot for stuff that wombocombos with Dig Through Time for some reason


Not the worst spellslinger thing I guess.

It reminds me of Swarm Intelligence and Thousand-Year Storm

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Post by onering » 1 year ago

That this selects the cards from the yard at random makes this a lot less obnoxious than it could have been. You have to do some actual setup to guarantee you exile the spell you want, so it's not able to just reliably loop extra turns or other nonsense immediately unless you invest in culling your yard or you get lucky. Makes it less of a feel bad to focus on just going the Timmy route and trying to just trying maximize how much burn you can throw around without getting caught up on just grabbing an extra turn spell ASAP and establishing an infinite turn loop.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 1 year ago

pokken wrote:
1 year ago
It reminds me of Swarm Intelligence and Thousand-Year Storm
It does, but I kinda like those better. This one is killed by the word "random", meaning x-cost spells, counterspells, fogs, and the like are at risk of being exiled. Which doesn't do much against you, but it does nothing for you.

I mean, if you do it right, you can end up with Searing Wind being the only card in your graveyard, but now you're using a "build around me" with a card that costs nine mana.

My favorite is Thousand-Year Storm, just for giving every spell in your deck storm. Suddenly a ritual is a huge mana source into a Comet Storm.
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Post by Dunharrow » 1 year ago

This card is insanely strong. Yes, it's great if you can set it up and take infinite turns
But if this sticks around for a couple turns, you have such insane value it doesn't matter what's exiled with it. You cast each spell exiled with it. So if you cast a spell on your turn, an impulse on your opponent's turn, then counter a spell on the next player's turn, well, now you're casting 3 extra spells every time you cast something. All your instants become counterspells. All your spells become removal. And eventually you will start chaining a win condition and end the game.
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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Arcane Bombardment looks sweet, but I haven't played with it yet. It gives me heavy Eye of the Storm vibes (although being asymmetric obviously makes it much better), and seems like a crazy value engine if it sticks around for a while. That doesn't necessarily make it different from Thousand-Year Storm, Double Vision, or other splashy spellslinger enchantments, but it is nice to have another option. I will call out that the fact that it only triggers once per turn makes it better for more controlling decks, and less useful for storm decks.

...I should really do some more testing of my Mizzix deck - I currently have Double Vision, Thousand-Year Storm, and Metallurgic Summonings as my value-generating enchantments of choice (plus Inexorable Tide, I guess), but I'm not convinced those are the optimal choices. I recently cut Swarm Intelligence because it's pretty difficult to fit expensive enchantments into the deck, but they certainly are fun to play with. Hmmm....

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Post by Serenade » 1 year ago

I have not built any version of this deck yet, but I would try it in non-U spellslinger. Maybe with our new friend Tor Wauki the Younger?
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Post by DirkGently » 1 year ago

I guess I'm going against the grain by saying I don't care for this card. In any deck built to capitalize on it even loosely, it becomes a must-answer threat almost immediately, of a permanent type that can be somewhat difficult to remove. That, and I just generally find stormy spellslinger lists to be arguably the most antisocial archetype in the format, so I'm predisposed to dislike this card on principle. I appreciate them making it random and making it once per turn, but it's still super easy to go nuclear with this sort of effect. It's not just time magic, a lot of instants/sorceries becomes really oppressive when able to be used repeatedly. I mean, compare this to panoptic mirror. Mirror gives you more control, sure, so it's better for time magic combos, but for decks that aren't trying to do something super specific, this card can generate way way WAY more value than the (banned) mirror. Without even really trying.

It's the kind of card where, when it goes off in limited, I think "wow, that was really cool" and when it goes off in constructed I think "ugh, not this %$#% again".
Perm Decks
Phelddagrif - Kaervek - Golos - Zirilan

Flux Decks
Gollum - Lobelia - Minthara - Plargg2 - Solphim - Otharri - Graaz - Ratchet - Soundwave - Slicer - Gale - Rootha - Kagemaro - Blorpityblorpboop - Kayla - SliverQueen - Ivy - Falco - Gluntch - Charlatan/Wilson - Garth - Kros - Anthousa - Shigeki - Light-Paws - Lukka - Sefris - Ebondeath - Rokiric - Garth - Nixilis - Grist - Mavinda - Kumano - Nezahal - Mavinda - Plargg - Plargg - Extus - Plargg - Oracle - Kardur - Halvar - Tergrid - Egon - Cosima - Halana+Livio - Jeska+Falthis+Obosh - Yeva - Akiri+Zirda - Lady Sun - Nahiri - Korlash - Overlord+Zirda - Chisei - Athreos2 - Akim - Cazur+Ukkima - Otrimi - Otrimi - Kalamax - Ayli+Lurrus - Clamilton - Gonti - Heliod2 - Ayula - Thassa2 - Gallia - Purphoros2 - Rankle - Uro - Rayami - Gargos - Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa - Ashling1 - Angus - Arcum - Talrand - Chainer - Higure - Kumano - Scion - Teferi1 - Uyo - Sisters
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote
Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena
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Post by 3drinks » 1 year ago

Thursday, August 4th, 2022; Camouflage|2ed



(I freakin love it! Just the right amount of mind games to screw up your carefully laid blocking strategy.)

Oracle text to alleviate confusion:

Cast this spell only during your declare attackers step.

This turn, instead of declaring blockers, each defending player chooses any number of creatures they control and divides them into a number of piles equal to the number of attacking creatures for whom that player is the defending player. Creatures those players control that can block additional creatures may likewise be put into additional piles. Assign each pile to a different one of those attacking creatures at random. Each creature in a pile that can block the creature that pile is assigned to does so. (Piles can be empty.)

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