[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - The SHM Lieges

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Damn this is expensive. You can outright steal things for less mana and no life with a swath of cards. If you replaced Casualty with Retrace and cut the CMC in half, maybe this would have some legs, but the era of random 6 mana "value" plays is long gone.

[Sinis]

but the era of random 6 mana "value" plays is long gone.

This statement is very true, and it makes me very sad. I really liked the 6 mv CMC setup plays.

[onering]

The best case scenario with this in a 4 man pod is you freecast 6 random spells in exchange for a 6 mana spell, a creature, and a bunch of life.

It could be pretty fun in a few decks without the paying life rider. I used to have a Jeleva deck focused on stealing opponents cards that this is perfect for. She could free cast it when she runs out of exiled cards and sacrifice herself (with just a bit of help to get to 2 power, which the deck could do easily) and get up to 6 more spells while being able to recast her to exile even more spells to steal. But despite being fairly easy to do getting her to 2+ power isn't garaunteed, and having to pay a bunch of life to get those cards just makes one of the basic 2 mana sac a creature draw 2 spells that Black has a ton of just better.

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 18th 2024; Archfiend of Depravity

As Kaalia's personal liaison, it pains my soul every time I see this end up in someone's list. I'm sure it's got some use...but c'mon players, it's really, really not as good as it reads...

[Lifeless]

YMMV. Puts in work against token lists that don't leverage haste and has some funny applications with various cards (personal favorite is Living Plane or Opalescence). There are places for this guy but I mostly agree he's not as good as he looks at first.

[Sinis]

I think it is very good in metas where mass haste isn't hotly played, or people aren't just winning with stack-based stuff. It's actively bad when someone is going to win with Approach of the Second Sun and it becomes a cooperative effort for the table to beat that player up. I think it's probably also good in decks where you reliably shut down haste (you're playing a lot of Blind Obedience-style effects, or your general is literally something like Thalia and The Gitrog Monster).

I also think that it's one of those cards that when it's played and how good it feels is often opaque: If you play it after someone plays Avenger of Zendikar, it's not very good, but if you play it as a preventative measure (i.e. before the token swarm arrives) it feels pretty good. It rarely feels exceptional in any way, but I've had lots of players tell me that it shut them down from future plays. I will grant that it doesn't often answer anything; it just stalls players into removing it or waiting for removal to happen (which isn't nothing). I think the bottom line is that it's really hard to know when it's doing work and when it's not, and you really have to either take it on faith, or be very conscious of evaluating what other players' game plans are and whether it's disrupting those plans.

As Kaalia's personal liaison, it pains my soul every time I see this end up in someone's list. I'm sure it's got some use...but c'mon players, it's really, really not as good as it reads...

I think it's exactly as good as it reads, but that players often initially read it as "you may only have two creatures ever" and then are disappointed when it doesn't work out that way, but I think it's far from useless in lower power environments.

[Dunadain]

They get to save TWO creatures?

They get to wait until their turn to deal with it?

It triggers on end step instead of upkeep?

Good grief.

👎👎

[BeneTleilax]

This was in every GBx goodstuff deck for a year after its release before people realized it kinda honked. It's fine in Mazirek, I guess?

[Mookie]

Archfiend of Depravity is meh. It's in the 'technically playable because a big flyer is a decent baseline' bucket alongside stuff like Bloodgift Demon and Doom Whisperer. Scryfall says it's the second-most played 5 mana black flyer after Junji, the Midnight Sky, which sounds overplayed... but then I look at the alternatives and feel unimpressed. Guess I'll stick to non-flyers like Massacre Girl and Archpriest of Shadows as my black 5-drops of choice.

...anyway, I don't think you need that much extra text on a 5/4 flyer for 5 to be playable. The archfiend's sacrifice effect is pretty narrow, but it can be good against some go-wide strategies. It also works well with Grave Pact and other sacrifice effects that may otherwise be hitting tokens. I would say its main weakness is that it isn't particularly synergistic with anything - you can use it with Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern or Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest to benefit from opponents' sacrifices, but most decks don't particularly care about that. Otherwise, I think leaving your opponents with their two best things is generally unimpactful outside particularly stalled games.

[DirkGently]

There are a lot of ways to handle it. But, at a casual level, this can single-handedly lock a decent number of decks nearly out of the game. Not just token decks but most tribal decks can't really function under this. So it's definitely not competitive but it's a far cry from a vanilla flyer imo.

[pokken]

Niche control finisher. Does a lot on a card but requires a certain kind of deck

[3drinks]

Friday, April 19th 2024; Runechanter's Pike|brr

I remember the days slapping this onto Wydwen, the Biting Gale and dumpstering people in 1-2 shots when they thought they had 6-7 turns to cope with her. Ah, good times, feels like just yesterday. Just a good control finish that's relatively low cost to play and equip for the power ratio.

[Sinis]

I love Runechanter's Pike! It's cool in spellslinger or self-mill that's weighted more heavily towards instants and sorceries than creatures. The first strike is clutch. It's got a huge upgrade in Glamdring, but I think if you're playing one, you're probably playing both.

[Mookie]

I once one-shotted an opponent after stealing their commander (Horde of Notions) and throwing a Runechanter's Pike on it. Good times.

I'm not sure how I feel about Pike these days. I have been looking to run another win condition in Kess, and Pike is certainly capable of enabling a bunch of commander damage. That deck does have a tendency to exile stuff from its graveyard though, which makes me wish it also counted exiled spells. I'm not sure how consistently it would actually support a voltron kill. Hmmm... I think it's generally nice as a way to open up another axis for your deck - spellslinger decks tend to not be very combat focused, so opponents may not be prepared for sudden aggression. On the other hand, it also makes you more vulnerable to grave hate.

Glamdring is a good comparison, and one I entirely forgot about. Blackblade Reforged is my usual 'slap on a commander and threaten lethal' equipment. It's great if you only care about commander damage, but significantly more expensive to equip to other creatures. Hard to estimate whether you will have more lands or spells in your graveyard, but they seem comparable.

[Serenade]

My issue with it in Kess is that I'm always chewing up my GY. I still always liked it in Kess, though. The tension is always whether equipping is worth the mana (since this provides no protection) or would you rather cast a spell.

In a deck that wants to keep instants and sorceries in my GY (and then protect them?), I would hope it is a house. If I build something like Eris, Roar of the Storm, it will have a spot.

[pokken]

It's still a strong card and I think there's another similar one. Definitely a deck for spellslinger swords (or more than one, really).

[yeti1069]

I feel like I would always default to Glamdring if this effect is something I cared about. For 1 more mana on the equip you get a pretty significant upgrade, I think.

[Dunadain]

If you have to play spellslinger (hint: you never have to play spellslinger) then this is actually a pretty cool finisher.

It's probably even better in control decks, but I try really hard not to have any cards in my control decks that only serve as a wincon.

👍

[pokken]

I feel like I would always default to Glamdring if this effect is something I cared about. For 1 more mana on the equip you get a pretty significant upgrade, I think.

I've still got this Aragorn, King of Gondor spellslinger brewing in my head that probably wants both. A huge vigilant first striker voltron bro who helps you hold onto monarch is sweet (and brings his own evasion, so all you need to worry about is making him huge and protecting him).

[3drinks]

Saturday, April 20th 2024; Harnessed Snubhorn

Hmm. That's probably important. Anything that can rez straight to the battlefield with no mv req is playable I think, especially if it's repeatable.

[Mookie]

Harnessed Snubhorn is cool, but I'm not sure what decks want it. Recurring expensive artifacts and enchantments is clearly good, but connecting with a non-evasive 4-drop creature can be challenging. On the flip side, decks that naturally have ways to grant evasion may not be running any expensive artifacts / enchantments to recur. Plus, there is tension with regards to putting stuff in the graveyard to begin with - white doesn't have many self-mill or discard effects.

Looking on EDHREC, it appears that it is most commonly run in 'toughness matters' and dinosaur decks, but that feels like a miss - what is it realistically going to recur in those decks? I've considered it for Sharuum, but that deck doesn't really have any ways to grant it evasion. Samut could potentially make use of it (haste is good, and Kessig Wolf Run helps), but that deck is unfortunately light on stuff to recur.

...I actually had it in my cube for a short while, but I ended up cutting it. Seems like a strong card without an obvious home.

[onering]

The huge play is somehow getting an expensive artifact or enchantment into the yard then cheating it in, but that requires a lot of setup and deck building requirements. This does a solid job of just recurring artifacts and enchantments for value though, so I think it really wants a deck where cheating something big out is possible but grinding value is the main plan. It brings back artifact and enchantment creatures, which tend to end up in the yard pretty reliably anyway, so if you are running an artifacts deck or enchantress deck that makes use of creatures of those types, then all you need is a reliable way to grant evasion. That's fairly easy to put in both types of deck.

[Dunadain]

Enchantment loops are something I have next to no experience with, but it is cool.

👍

[folding_music]

seems really fun with Legion Loyalty? i feel like there's usually one player you can gore with the dinosaur in a four player game, the whole "how do I hit with this?" question is usually overstated

[3drinks]

Sunday, April 21st 2024; Sol Ring|leb

This is always good for discussion...let's see if the landscape has changed any.