[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Argothian Enchantress

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It was SO MUCH fun speculating on this guy when they first announced the Commander product. Everyone thought the art meant he was a RBW general.

Yeah, loved the double-edge on him. He never lived long.

It is some sweet art. Would have traded tariel for this guy in a heartbeat. %$#% Wayne Reynolds and his anatomically impossible chest-thrusting.

[Serenade]

Eh, I feel like I always can hear WR's art. It's different. I like it.

Anyway, I like that the Avatar does not have haste.

[DirkGently]

It was SO MUCH fun speculating on this guy when they first announced the Commander product. Everyone thought the art meant he was a RBW general.

Yeah, loved the double-edge on him. He never lived long.

Having the packaging and partial text early was super fun. They really ought to do that sort of thing more often imo.

If you just want double strike there are plenty of cheaper and less dangerous ways to get it. I guess you could give this guy haste, but I think the real reason you'd run this guy is because you just love sowing a bit of chaos and aren't that worried about the actual power of the card.

[Sinis]

Wednesday, July 7th, 2021; Avatar of Slaughter

This is the most metal card I never play. It didn't make the cut in Purphoros 2.0. I'll probably include it in my next brew that has red; I've been thinking about Surrak Dragonclaw stompy/landfall, and this guy would be a good fit.

[Igzex]

Avatar of Slaughter looks like a ton of fun, but sadly I can't quite find a home for him.

[materpillar]

I'm running him as 1 of my 3 Polymorph targets in my Velomachus Lorehold deck. He's there aside Colossus of Akros and Magmatic Force. I've only hit him once, people freaked out and he was immediately Murdered. That deck is intentionally not running prime polymorph targets like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre because it's supposed to be more chill.

[ilovesaprolings]

2/3 of times he survives, he makes me win the turn after. Other 1/3 he makes me lose.

Yeah, the art would have been cool as the mardu general. Even the card, with some tweaks

[Sinis]

2/3 of times he survives, he makes me win the turn after. Other 1/3 he makes me lose.

3/3 times he survives the game is over, and there's a virtue in that.

[plushpenguin]

Making players dead quickly, you or your enemies. The kind of card I like.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Eh, I feel like I always can hear WR's art. It's different. I like it.

I can hear it too. It sounds like ribs breaking.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 8th, 2021; Dead Man's Chest

Why do more people not play this though...

[EonAon]

Thursday, July 8th, 2021; Dead Man's Chest

Why do more people not play this though...

The variance in decks can be huge and a good spell for one unless its removal is a meh spell for others....unless your in a mirror match then its hopefully all gravy. Adding it to a huge creature isnt always going to gain you much. That and memory issues crop up on the rfg pile can cause headaches. People also get mighty annoyed when somebody continually plays their spells. Gonti is a commander I hate cause if set correctly and people know how you deckbuild you get picked ALL THE TIME!!!!

[BeneTleilax]

People run too many sac outlets (and sometimes random protection effects) for this to even enter reliably. I could see this being a meta call if you see a lot of goodstuff decks in your meta.

[DirkGently]

Conceptually I like the idea of using other people's cards. But I've also realized that I kinda hate it when people handle my cards, especially strangers. It makes me paranoid that they're going to damage it on accident, especially since a lot of people aren't used to playing with valuable cards and might not take it as seriously. Or that they'll forget they have it and walk off with it, if they gained control of it.

So, I mostly don't play those sorts of things unless they're really important for the deck.

Anyway, this card in particular it just too much risk. They might not have a high power creature, it might not die, or might get bounced, or get exiled, or get sacked in response. And then they need to have cards you actually want, and then you actually need to hit decent stuff, and you can't even play the lands ffs so you'd better hope you get decent spell density. Oh, and now your permanents are dependent on them continuing to be in the game, so if they die you lose board presence, which is fun.

So to answer your question, people don't play this more because this card is garbage in every format.

[Dunharrow]

I don't play it because I hated this set and didn't know this card existed

wish it had flash

[3drinks]

I don't play it because I hated this set and didn't know this card existed

wish it had flash

That sure would save it, wouldn't it.

[rujasu]

And then they need to have cards you actually want

Honestly this might be the biggest problem. Drawing cards from your own deck is generally going to be much better than drawing them from your opponent's deck, especially non-land cards, especially in Commander where everyone is playing tribes/themes/synergies. If I'm playing a mono-black Zombies deck, I'm probably not all that interested in casting your Lord of Atlantis!

[Mookie]

I think Dead Man's Chest is a cool card in concept, but it's really clunky in execution.

• It requires your opponent to have a sufficiently large creature, and no sac outlet
• The creature has to die (it can't be bounced / exiled), which usually requires investing a board wipe or removal spell into it
• Your opponent has to have cards you're interested in playing
• It doesn't allow you to play lands
• Everything you do get is revealed, so your opponents can play around it

The net effect is that it's pretty conditional. There certainly are situations in which it is going to be amazing - imagine enchanting Ghalta, Primal Hunger or another massive beater, for example - but if your opponents aren't playing anything with 6+ power, it's really not worth it. It did improve after commander death triggers became a thing, at least.
....snap include in Ramses Overdark though.

[Serenade]

Man, I always wanted this to be useful and fun, something different to do with auras. Killian, Ink Duelist! Hateful Eidolon! Rootwater Shaman!

I reached the same conclusion as everyone else, though, and did nothing with it.

[Igzex]

I don't play it because I've grown to despise spell stealing as a mechanic.

However, at least this one is nowhere near as obnoxious as Sen Triplets or Villainous Wealth. Probably why I didn't even know this card even existed until now.

[3drinks]

Friday, July 9th, 2021; Rashida Scalebane

...Kaalia got you down?

[3drinks]

Man, I always wanted this to be useful and fun, something different to do with auras. Killian, Ink Duelist! Hateful Eidolon! Rootwater Shaman!

I reached the same conclusion as everyone else, though, and did nothing with it.

Now see, this just makes me want to play Hateful Eidolon in Rayne, Academy Chancellor.

[folding_music]

Reserved list card, proxy without guilt <3 happen to have one from my old collection, though, and was hyped when all the Onslaught era creature type meddlers appeared. but in the end, if you take the misty-formy approach, what you're mostly doing is constructing a Royal Assassin.

works better in a Dragon deck of her own where she is kinda a Diamond Valley. but have never felt the need to put Rashida in a commander deck myself

[DirkGently]

I assume this was supposed to be the sideboard tech against Zirilan of the Claw back in the day. Looks like he got the last laugh, at least relatively speaking.

With a quick scryfall search, I can't find anything in mono-white that would enable changing enemy creature types. Oh, wait, there's Shields of Velis Vel.

So I guess you build the whole deck around that?

(ngl it would be absolutely hysterical to see someone wreck a craterhoof swing out by shields-ing their board and then tapping and untapping this god-awful old mirage legend to eat their entire board and gain a hundred life.)

[materpillar]

With a quick scryfall search, I can't find anything in mono-white that would enable changing enemy creature types. Oh, wait, there's Shields of Velis Vel.

So I guess you build the whole deck around that?

Sooooooooo.... I've done this thing. You can set up a loop of Kithkin Harbinger/Forerunner of the Legion + Conjurer's Closet/Sac and Sun Titan + Mistveil Plains to basically always have Shields of Velis Vel in hand. It's a pretty easy to consistently assemble this 3 card combo since there's a handful of creature tutors and land tutors for those cards.

The other second way to do it is using Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist to equip Runed Stalactite or Amorphous Axe to opponents' creatures. Again, there's a bunch of tutors in white for these cards.

If you get the loops online you can lock people out of playing creatures pretty well in lower power games with Eldrazi Displacer+Tivadar of Thorn+Shields of Velis Vel.

Rashida Scalebane could be built like this but more pillowfort than blink. If you're going that route though, you should probably be rolling with king Suleiman unless you really want to hard lock someone with Rashida Scalebane + Yosei, the Morning Star + Swiftfoot Boots + Emeria, the Sky Ruin