[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[Dunharrow]

you'd think a diamond lion would be tougher than 2 toughness.

[vandertroll]

Utterly hot garbage

[wildfire393]

Interesting note: Lion's Eye Diamond doesn't actually have a tap symbol on it. If this followed suit it might have been worth considering. As it stands, this is pretty well hot garbage. I've got a deck that's running LED and is focused on artifact creatures, has ways to cast things out of the graveyard and ways to give this haste, and I'm still not even considering this.

[3drinks]

Monday, February 21st, 2022; Jalira, Master Polymorphist

Idk we might have done this before but I can't recall, I've slept since then.

[BeneTleilax]

Hey look, it's Blightsteel Colossus.

[Sinis]

Monday, February 21st, 2022; Jalira, Master Polymorphist

I played this one as a general for a while. Small legendaries into big non-legendaries. It was okay.

[duducrash]

What "activate only as an instant" means?

[BeneTleilax]

What "activate only as an instant" means?

It means people can respond to it on the stack, unlike mana sources.

[tstorm823]

What "activate only as an instant" means?

Mana abilities can be used during the casting of a spell, instants cannot be used with that timing. If it didn't have that text, you would be able to declare that you're casting a spell, put that spell on the stack, then activate the ability to pay for that spell without discarding it.

[tstorm823]

It means people can respond to it on the stack, unlike mana sources.

It is a mana ability, you cannot respond to it.

[wildfire393]

"Activate only as an instant" means that you cannot use the ability "as a mana source" during the casting of a spell. This rider was added to LED and brought back with Diamond-Eye Lion because otherwise it becomes a lot easier to use this as an actual Black Lotus because you can announce a spell from your hand, then crack the LED to help you cast it. The first step of casting something is moving it from your hand to the stack, and this takes place prior to the window for activating mana abilities.
Do note that despite the "instant" wording, the ability IS still a mana ability (as it isn't a loyalty ability, has no targets, and produces mana) and thus cannot be responded to by either player.

As for today's card:
Polymorph effects are fun when you've got a deck that's mostly just built normally, and you turn a creature into a random other creature that could be decent or could be really bad. If you're using it to automatically flip into Blightsteel Colossus or whatever dumb bomb every single time, stuff gets real boring. Jalira is interesting in that it can't hit legends, which stops her from being used with some of the biggest offenders like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, but it also means that you can run cheap legendary creatures as ways to get creatures into play without running into the issue where they cause your polymorph to stop before you hit a "big" target.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I never run her as a commander. Vampiric Tutor and Worldly Tutor love her too much.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022; Wilderness Reclamation

[Melua]

It's almost strictly worse than seedborn muse, but limiting it to your end step only and being an enchantment makes it more likely to stick.

[Dunharrow]

What actually differentiates this from Seedborn Muse is that it is a trigger. Meaning, you can float mana, and effectively double your mana to use at instant speed. Makes it easier to activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways.

[PrimevalCommander]

My Kalamax, the Stormsire deck loves this card. I don't like Seedborn much as a lightning rod for removal/salt. This card gets me what I need, a rebuy of my mana for casting creatures on my turn and instants on my opponent's turn. Low key mana doubler for decks that like instants or activated ability mana sinks. Zacama, Primal Calamity probably would like this.

[Sinis]

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022; Wilderness Reclamation

Good card is good. It's cute with Nexus of Fate in your own end step, or other big instants or activated abilities that you might want to leverage. I don't really mind that it's worse than Seedborn Muse. SM is a ridiculous card anyway.

[hyalopterouslemur]

It's no Seedborn Muse, but it does do a big thing the Muse does.l, gets around Winter Orb amd friends.

This one will get around Stasis. Meaning I can play both to really annoy you!

[BeneTleilax]

Worse versions of must-play staples are often still playable cards. Also this much cheaper than Muse.

[Myllior]

It's no Seedborn Muse, but it does do a big thing the Muse does.l, gets around Winter Orb amd friends.

To my understanding, Static Orb and Winter Orb only affect players during their own untap steps, so Seedborn Muse gets around them by minimal tapping on the turn before yours, while still allowing full resource access on the remaining players' turns.

[Mookie]

Wilderness Reclamation is a four mana (or free, depending on your definition) doubler, assuming you have a way to use the mana at instant speed. That is a pretty easy hoop to jump through, and it is an extremely powerful card as a result. I run it in my Tasigur, the Golden Fang deck to generate more Tasigur activations (or just hold open mana for instant-speed interaction), and it can also do filthy things with Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Kruphix, God of Horizons, and Alchemist's Refuge.

...if you're not doing UGx flash nonsense, it goes down a bit in value, but still worth consideration. I don't know that I would run it without an instant-speed mana sink in the command zone though.

Seedborn Muse is a good point of comparison, since both let you generate extra via land untapping on your opponents' turns. I would say that Seedborn Muse is a more versatile card, since it can also untap nonland cards, which is relevant if you have useful tap abilities. It also generates a lot more total mana. However, it is also significantly more vulnerable to removal and exile - enchantment removal is generally a less common effect than creature removal. So, not a strict upgrade / downgrade.

[Igzex]

This card is a super star in my Tatyova, Benthic Druid oops no rares deck. Nothing puts me in socially awkward situations quite like spamming ramp and then untapping all those extra lands while holding a big hand of counter spells!

[vandertroll]

This card and Nexus of Fate give me PTSD syndrome from the time I used to play Arena.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022; Josu Vess, Lich Knight

Always thought this would make a sick mono-b control commander.

[BeneTleilax]

Saw this once in a big mana black deck. One of the more formidable armies-in-a-can, especially backed up with Vengeful Dead and similar.