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

[3drinks]

Does anyone still grab Eldrazi Conscription with this?

[pokken]

:dies to stp:

[Mookie]

Sovereigns of Lost Alara is six mana gold card, which means it has a lot of competition. The payoff can be strong if you fetch up something like Eldrazi Conscription or Colossification... but that requires you to be running those cards in the first place. I would consider it for aura-based decks like Bruna, Light of Alabaster or Kestia, the Cultivator, but even then it still seems like a hard sell. Otherwise... I guess Rafiq of the Many? I can't think of any other decks that care about exalted.

That said, Sovereigns do have a unique effect - I can't think of any other way to tutor out an aura for free every turn. I guess Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice and Boonweaver Giant, arguably? I could theoretically see it being good if we ever get a broken aura to tutor out, but that seems unlikely.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, April 24th 2024; Garna, Bloodfist of Keld

Is this actually good? Or just midrange trash?

[Dunadain]

I think he's a sleeper. He's not flashy but he does everything an aggro deck needs. Namely, card draw and boardwipe protection.

I did a deep search on the best play creatures and turn them sideways commander. And for my sensibilities, I actually decided garna was the best option. I built him, though. I never posted the deck list on MTG Nexus, and yeah he works great.

👍👍

[pokken]

that's a deceptively strong legend at uncommon. Nobody will want to block so you can piggy back combat damage triggers to force blocks, or simply play sac outlets and draw a crapload of cards off swinging blindly with tokens. Even just bashing with recursive creatures is good value.

Then it provides a kill condition for infinite sac combos as well.

That's a lot of text. I kinda like it. Lots of ways to approach the deck. The global one damage each makes it efficient enough you could kill with non infinite sacs too especially with damage doubling.

There's a lot of reach in flooding the board and forcing people to have to kill garna or get obliterated too.

I think I might try playing it with phoenixes if it were me. There are a lot of very efficient self recurring creatures too.

[Lifeless]

Geeze this is in fact a good card, maybe even a little too threatening. Red zone ability has a very very good failure state. I also like that it works with tokens so you can just make him a wonky goblin commander or something. I would seriously consider this for a RB deck some day.

[yeti1069]

I keep meaning to find a cut in Marchesa, the Black Rose to try this out. That deck already attacks with creatures it's happy to see die, and has sac outlets to bin them after combat damage, but before combat ends, and doesn't lose board presence in doing so. It also can make good use of the ping. Just hard finding cuts.

[Guardman]

Remember as the ninjas do, you can sac a creature after combat damage, but before the combat step ends to still draw a card.

[Serenade]

My buddy ran her for a while as BR go-wide and eventually turned it into Mishra, Claimed by Gix. The latter tears off bigger chunks of damage on everyone. Both versions are fun/terrifying when the deck gets going.

[3drinks]

Thursday, April 25th 2024; Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

Tell me you have an emblem without saying you have an emblem.

[folding_music]

I never get why this guy is so popular. maybe its his pose? <3

[Treamayne]

Tell me you have an emblem without saying you have an emblem.

Wasn't the fallout from this card (and Elspeth, Knight-Errant ) the reason they created the Emblem mechanic? Starting with DarkAscension Sorin?

[DirkGently]

Wow, this guy is still highly rated. Can't say I get it. He's so boring. 2 life per turn is borderline irrelevant except for triggers.

Wasn't the fallout from this card (and Elspeth, Knight-Errant ) the reason they created the Emblem mechanic? Starting with DarkAscension Sorin?

Koth of the Hammer had an emblem before oloro was released. Anyway oloro's mechanic isn't like an emblem, it's like eminence.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I dig this guy as a control commander. 2 life/turn adds up to a comfy buffer over time and the fact that it never requires you to cast it for that value is really quite nice. It also plays really well with Humility, but ymmv depending on the meta.

EDIT:

I never get why this guy is so popular. maybe its his pose? <3

It does appear that he learned to sit in a chair by watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Everyone loves a good pose!

[Dunadain]

I made him the head of a Ajani's Pridemate type deck and it worked pretty well.

I think the two life per turn is pretty small potatoes if you're not using it to get more triggers like I was, so I've never really understood why he's thought of as a pillow fort commander.

Honestly, I kind of like him. But, I consider him to be the prototype for the Eminence mechanic. And I hate the eminence mechanic. So I'll have to give him a

👎

[3drinks]

Friday, April 26th 2024; ABUR Duals

I saw Savannah come up and it made me think of the recent influx of new typed lands and tri-typed lands. Is this why so many untyped lands (Isolated Chapel et al) are hitting bulk rates? Because it's so much better to have all typed lands? And that sounded like a good discussion to me.

[yeti1069]

I hate the RL.

[FoxHybrid]

Is this why so many untyped lands (Isolated Chapel et al) are hitting bulk rates? Because it's so much better to have all typed lands?

While typed lands could be the reason why the check lands and such are getting cheaper, I think that repeated printings in sets with large print runs is more to blame. My main arguing point for this is which check lands are the most expensive Rootbound Crag and Sunpetal Grove. These two hover around 30 to 40 cents above the others, and my reasoning for why is because they've been printed less often in products like commander decks.

As for the argument that having all typed lands is so much better, I think I would have to argue that how much better it is than running untyped duals is proportional to the number of both fetches you run, and colors you run. I think a two color deck would prefer a check land over a Volatile Fjord, as most of the time, the check land is basically an unfetchable ABUR dual, which is still good, while the flipside of that, a fetchable land tapped land is outclassed by so many other lands.

[Hawk]

I'm both happy and sad to own a few of these. On the one hand, my life is full of absolutely shameful and horrific trades and that's one of the good ones instead - 8 years ago I traded a Rishadan Port (the MM printing, before it had had any meaningful reprint when it was still a $90 card), a foil original printing Spell Snare, and a few other meaningless non-reserved cards for a beat-to-snot white bordered copy of Savannah and Plateau. I'm happy because these are hands down the best duals in the game; I'm sad because I own only the two.

To @3drinks question - yes, I imagine aggressive reprinting and the lack of dual land types has really killed interest in non-typed duals. That's actually a bit unfair and needless, because if you aren't either playing Green (and thus have access to lots of ways to fetch typed duals like Nature's Lore, Farseek, Wood Elves, Skyshroud Claim, etc.) or running multiple fetchlands you probably don't NEED typed duals, and they probably aren't worth running without them either being "basically free" (like the ABU Duals are and the Shocklands mostly are) or having additional synergy in your deck (graveyard or controlly decks like the new Surveil lands, Snow decks like the Snow Duals, cycling or certain Lands.dec decks can enjoy the cycling duals).

I do generally think you should only play, say, the typed common duals (Tangled Islet et al) in the most niche of places, mostly budget 5C decks where you somehow have all the green fixing and a few fetches but can't afford Triomes, Shocks, and ABU Duals or some weird 3 color deck that also cares about your Forest/Swamp etc. count like Domain? And the Cycling, Surveil, and Snow lands are only slightly more playable than that which is to say they're unplayable to me outside of budget or niche decks (admittedly the Surveil lands have a lot more niches).

But if you have these suckers - they're nearly free especially in a format where the things that make them less free in Vintage and Legacy are bad manners and rarely played, and they're the biggest arguement against the reserved list imo as they do absolutely create a "haves" and "have nots" in a way more subtle, and more toxic, than Mana Crypt and Wheel of Fortune do.

[Cyax]

I think the biggest factors driving down land prices are the high number of alternatives and availability. Many good lands have been getting lots of reprints and even the onslaught fetches are getting reprinted soon. I personally find the tapped multi-typed lands to be weak compared to the other ways to color fix in EDH, but green, budget multi-color decks can use them in conjunction with forest ramp like Nature's Lore as good color-fixing. Still, alternatives such as the painlands and the battlebond lands help to offer the same consistency without requiring the player to run tapped lands.

The existence fetchlands, shocklands, and the good non-typed duals such as Sea of Clouds means there is little benefit to running OG duals relative to how much they cost to buy. In the context of commander, I find purchasing the OG duals to be an inefficient use of funds given the myriad of powerful alternatives. Even the CEDH playerbase, which has the largest need for the OG duals, is in large part fine with proxies. I cannot imagine myself ever needing copies of the OG duals, so I view them strictly as collector pieces.

[yeti1069]

Speed of the format, too. When turn 1 plays were less common, playing a tapped land on 1 because you don't have the basic to get your land in untapped (for example) wasn't a big deal, but now it often means a loss of tempo.

[pokken]

I was havin a convo with @Rumpy5897 the other day and I stand by my hope which is that they ban these and then print legendary versions of them into the damn ground so everyone can have nice manabases. :D

personally getting closer to being on board with a flat out banning of the RL in EDH. Mox Diamond never made a game of magic better.

[yeti1069]

I was havin a convo with @Rumpy5897 the other day and I stand by my hope which is that they ban these and then print legendary versions of them into the damn ground so everyone can have nice manabases. :D

personally getting closer to being on board with a flat out banning of the RL in EDH. Mox Diamond never made a game of magic better.

How about legendary dual-type pain land?

[Dunadain]

Death to the reserve list!

I've heard a number of people call these the best land cycle ever, I disagree. They're the second best after fetch lands. Either way, pretty much every multi color deck wants these and it's a disgrace to the game that they cost triple digits.