[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Dreadhorde Arcanist

[materpillar]

Duel Decks Series: BRed Wort vs Tivadar of Thorn, when?

Sign me up. The winner might surprise you!

Seriously it might, Tivadar of Thorn can't beat a Goblin Chirurgeon.

[Toshi]

The inevitable Nameless Inversion each turn... man, feels like that was centuries ago...

[Serenade]

My friend did convert his 60-card goblins to Wort when we got into EDH. It was a fast, resilient deck…back then. She cannot cut it today. If you sliced her in half (stats, cost), she would be worth a look.

Watch, we'll probably get "Forgetful Nimrod," a goblin who doubles upkeep triggers, and she'll have a resurgence.

[3drinks]

Thursday, May 2nd 2024; Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

[DirkGently]

Sometimes it really blows my mind that CA engines this strong aren't good enough for modern commander.

I have a foil Russian one if anyone is interested btw xD

[yeti1069]

Sometimes it really blows my mind that CA engines this strong aren't good enough for modern commander.

I have a foil Russian one if anyone is interested btw xD

I don't know that I'd say Kothophed isn't good enough--it's just inherently very risky. You have no control over what opponents have on their boards, and can end up in situations where the ability kills you. It also does nothing on its own, so it's big draw, but requires other pieces.

[3drinks]

Sometimes it really blows my mind that CA engines this strong aren't good enough for modern commander.

I have a foil Russian one if anyone is interested btw xD

I'll give you $1usd cash money right now for it.

[Mookie]

Black has a lot of card advantage engines available, and Kothophed, Soul Hoarder... is one of them. Harvester of Souls seems like the most natural comparison - both of them trigger whenever a thing dies. Kothophed counts all of your opponents' stuff, while Harvester of Souls includes your stuff but only counts nontoken creatures. Ignoring their bodies (Kothophed is a bit bigger and has flying) and the life loss (greatness at any cost!), their main difference is agency. It's easy to actively trigger Harvester of Souls whenever you want by sacrificing a creature. However, Kothophed is much less consistent - unless you are actively slinging removal at your opponents' stuff, then you don't have any control over when it draws cards. He'll be great if your opponents are playing fetchlands or aristocrats, but there are plenty of decks that just won't generate many triggers... to say nothing of the possibility of a board wipe causing you to suddenly lose 20+ life.

I suppose I'll call out Bolas's Citadel as the other notable black 6-drop that converts life into card advantage. In general, I would say black has a lot of reasonable 6-drops. Kothophed is fine, but I'm generally happier when I have more control over how my cards function, instead of needing to rely on the whims of my opponents. Kothophed is fine in the 99 of a dedicated demon deck, but otherwise I would go with something else.

[duducrash]

I run it in Braids, Arisen Nightmare and use to run in the version of Toshiro Umezawa I used to have. Imma be honest, in Braids he is good because I can sac him if I get low enough, but in other decks I've had it kill myself more times than I would think

[Cyax]

Even during his release, I never considered Kothoped as he's too clunky compared to Consecrated Sphinx.

Kothoped needs support to work well and not backfire, with is a hefty ask in conjunction with his six mana cost. I feel even Vilis, Broker of Blood works a lot better with black's inherent strengths of reanimation and life payment.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This card kills you if someone else has a Smothering Tithe. That is one hell of a format-specific drawback.

[BeneTleilax]

He also signals that you're about to kill a bunch of stuff, so in more slugfesty metas, where value engines on largish bodies otherwise shine, he draws disproportionate aggression because people really don't like having their stuff killed.

[Treamayne]

The (Jank) Dream: Kothophed in the 99, fielded with Aether Flash and Varchild's War-Riders . . . oh, and any of the aristocats death=life triggers.

[3drinks]

Friday, May 3rd 2024; Fires of Yavimaya|inv

Ahhh. Now that takes me way back. I too, remember Saproling Burst ......

[Dunadain]

If it was all creatures get pumped, then I think it would be pretty neat, if still very niche. As is. There are plenty of haste enablers in red.

👎

[yeti1069]

I was using this in my Korvolds lands deck, which could produce a ton of tokens out of nowhere and wanted the mass haste, but could also make use of yet another self-sacrificing permanent. The other mass haste options didn't really offer any more benefit, so this was great there. That said, it's rare that I'd want this in a deck with all the other options now available.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

This card is and always has been sweet. Its competitive glory days are long gone, but not a shred of coolness has been lost to time.

[Hawk]

I recently dismantled my Samut "Fires 2022" deck that had all the old classics - a pile of mana dorks, creatures with powerful EtB or on-attack triggers, classic Fires cards like Saproling Burst and Shivan Wurm, and lots of ways to give the whole team haste. Fires of Yavimaya still has a home in 2024, especially for decks that plan to make a lot of tokens or cast a lot of creature spells in one turn - places where Rhythm of the Wild and Invigorating Hot Spring fail. Also better than Anger if you don't have a ton of efficient ways to discard/sac/mill the anger.

In fact, Fires might even be better today than it was when I built Samut - the printing of "haste matters" cards like Ognis, the Dragon's Lash and Samut, Vizier of Naktamun have made this card better than ever. I'd argue there still is no card that's strictly better than it without having some sort of tribal component - Concordant Crossroads and Mass Hysteria being symmetrical can be dangerous, Emblem of the Warmind is way more fragile, Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods, Samut, Tyrant Smasher, and Samut, Voice of Dissent are all more powerful but also more expensive and more fragile.

[Cyax]

Mass haste is amazing for combat based decks as many good beaters lack haste and do much better with it. It's ideal on your commander since such decks want the effect every game.

Fires is a fine card, but relying on your 99 for haste can be a serious limiter on reliability.

[Hawk]

Mass haste is amazing for combat based decks as many good beaters lack haste and do much better with it. It's ideal on your commander since such decks want the effect every game.

Fires is a fine card, but relying on your 99 for haste can be a serious limiter on reliability.

This is why I think fires still has a home, actually - redundancy is key if haste is already good in your deck. Fires is admittedly mostly worse than Lightning Greaves + Rhythm of the Wild especially if you are mostly spamming mana dorks into one big dude a turn, but not dramatically or direly so and if haste is good, running all three of the effects is probably also good. Plus like I noted, Fires is actually better than those two effects if you're making a lot of creatures or especially a lot of token creatures each turn.

You are right that ideally a deck that wants it just has haste in the command zone if it matters, but commanders like Ognis, the Dragon's Lash, Samut, Vizier of Naktamun, and Rainbow Dash (who I dismantled Samut to build) don't have that luxury. I ran it mostly for the nostalgia in Samut, Voice of Dissent but it definitely mattered after Samut died a time or two that I still had cheaper mass haste cards in my 99, and Fires is still one of the best.

[pokken]

Fires was really critical back in the day and there really aren't that many strictly better options -- especially that work on tokens which is meaningful.

It's gonna sound weird but I almost never have that much of a call to play haste enablers. I'm usually on something that makes generic haste not the right approach. Or I'm in a deck with blue so I'll play Time Warp as a haste enabler. Or I'm in non-red so my option is basically Crashing Drawbridge vs. Lightning Greaves

or I'm Slicer, Hired Muscle // Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist and commander has haste.

I think just from a design standpoint I don't seem to be drawn to stuff that wants team haste. Not sure why that is.

[3drinks]

Saturday, May 4th 2024; Living Death|brb

[Mookie]

re: Fires of Yavimaya - I think Rising of the Day and Rhythm of the Wild are generally better these days, but it still has its place in some decks. It seems most relevant for decks where Rhythm doesn't quite work. I actually looked into Hermit Druid combo for Samut a while ago, and one route I investigated was using mass recursion to bring back Sun Titan and a bunch of other stuff, and then using Sun Titan to recur a source of haste. Rhythm doesn't apply retroactively, so it didn't work there.

Living Death is an incredibly powerful effect, particularly if you juice your graveyard before casting it with self-mill or something like Buried Alive. The later the game goes, the more powerful mass recursion becomes - I think it's one of the stronger ways to close out a game. Living Death is symmetric, which means there are some times it may backfire... but my experience is that it usually wins the game on the spot. If you are concerned about your opponents' stuff, hit them with some grave hate beforehand. On the flip side, it is weak if your opponents remove your graveyard, so.... yeah.

[pokken]

The day that I learned that Living Death is a ramp spell in Varina, Lich Queen was a day that changed my perspective on EDH more significantly than many other experiences :D

[folding_music]

casting Living Death and putting Demonlord Belzenlok and Skirge Familiar into play is becoming a fave play pattern x3 it's just one of those spells that gets more outrageous with time rather than less. and I can't even complain about getting my graveyard exiled when I know I'm packing it cos it's correct to be scared