[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Blade of Selves

[materpillar]

Tuesday, June 18th 2024; The World Tree

Ooooh! It's like my favorite land!

I bet this is pretty dumb in changelings lol

That assessment is correct. Finding 10ish Changelings, one of them being Mirror Entity at EOT so they functionally have haste is gonna be good enough to lock up pretty much any game. I also run The Scarab God, so I'll hit everyone for 10+ and scry 10+ on upkeep too.

Other non-Changeling thoughts:
My friend has a "heavy metal" that runs a ton of secret lair gods. Last time he popped this and then I killed him with Insurrection. That was quite funny.

I think commander would be improved if everyone started with this card in play. Get color screwed is a good greed balancing factor for competitive 1v1 formats but only makes EDH games worse.

I really like using this with Maze of Ith or how @DirkGently uses it with Sorrow's Path

[pokken]

Even just getting xenagos, Anzrag and ojer kaslem is enough to do some serious damage these days :D I'm sure I could think of a package of 4-5 that would be good independently and devastating.

The Locust God Purphoros, God of the Forge and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation // Temple of Civilization feels like a good start too :D

[Mookie]

I dislike The World Tree's design - having a 5C manabase should be a downside, not an upside. The fixing effect isn't that powerful - if you have built your manabase properly, you'll rarely have color problems in the lategame... but the fact that this can go into a fixing land slot instead of a utility land slot makes it a pretty free inclusion. Was this the card that got Golos, Tireless Pilgrim banned? Probably not, but it didn't help.

The God summoning ability is usually trinket text, but it does keep it out of non-5C decks, which annoys me. Obviously nuts in dedicated God decks, but there are enough random ones these days that I would expect most decks to be able to find one or two to include. I'd love to run it in Animar if not for the 5C restriction. I've also dabbled with a basic-heavy list for Samut in the past, and having this as a fixing option would make that much more viable.

[pokken]

The God summoning ability is usually trinket text, but it does keep it out of non-5C decks, which annoys me

Yeah that is really annoying that it reduces a fixing opportunity for 3/4 color decks that'd be really nice. Just another casualty of the color identity rule which ruins hybrid cards too :D

[3drinks]

Forest + Chromatic Lantern + Coalition Victory = Profit.

This doesn't work? Chromatic Lantern only gives the mana ability, not the land type Coalition Victory asks for.

[Dragonlover]

I run it in wincons so that I can pull all the creatures out of my deck thanks to Maskwood Nexus then win with either Liliana's Contract or Gallifrey Stands. The fact it fixes me while I'm getting there is pretty handy as well.

Dragonlover

[Lifeless]

Forest + Chromatic Lantern + Coalition Victory = Profit.

This doesn't work? Chromatic Lantern only gives the mana ability, not the land type Coalition Victory asks for.

Oh I wasn't suggesting a combo, just what the abilities of the card reminded me of at first glance.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, June 19th (can I call it Junetenth? Or is that politically charged?) 2024; Solemn Simulacrum|tsr

[pokken]

I still play sad bot occasionally. Is fine in more chill decks.

[DirkGently]

If he's getting blinked or something he's ok. Otherwise meh. 4 mana is too much for ramp.

[PrimevalCommander]

Sad robot gets sadder every year. I built a few new decks last year and had Solemn in several, now I think I'm only playing 1 copy out of 9 active decks. The Ramp + Draw can still be valuable, but there are many ways to ramp that have more synergy at lower mana value than ever before. I'll never fault someone for playing it, but I just don't find it near as valuable these days. 4 mana for 1 land is just slow, and the draw is a consolation prize that doesn't offset the lack up upfront efficiency in the ramp slot.

When it finally got removed from my Karador, Ghost Chieftain list, where it did the most work, I knew I wouldn't likely go back to using it much in the future. Overall I feel less attachment to this old staple than I do many others, so I don't grieve much for sad robot. I'll save my tears for others like Woodfall Primus , which I still play in said Karador list, out of nostalgia and stubbornness. Primus still has some combos that keep it relevant in my eyes.

[Hermes_]

I love with the Doctor Who ub they finally made him an actual sad robot

[Mookie]

I currently run Solemn Simulacrum in Sharuum and Brago, both of which are capable of flickering / recurring it repeatedly. It has been power crept out of most decks if you want it as a generic value card, but there aren't that many other nongreen creatures that ramp on ETB, which makes it a somewhat unique effect. I suppose you could be flickering Sun Titan to recur lands, but that isn't quite as consistent (and you may have better things to recur anyway).

I could see myself hypothetically running Solemn in Thada or Teysa in the past, but it doesn't make the cut these days - there are better ramp options available for those decks. Still a good card, but time marches on. If only there were a better version I could play....

[Guardman]

Wednesday, June 19th (can I call it Junetenth? Or is that politically charged?) 2024; Solemn Simulacrum|tsr

Considering Juneteenth is a federal holiday, I'm sure you're good.

As for Solemn Simulacrum he has definitely fallen out as an every deck card. But I do still play him in decks that aren't green (usually) and wants what the sad robot offers. For example, I love him in Henzie "Toolbox" Torre where he is usually a , , or sometimes even or ramp spell with draw two that I can sack to other effects. I also enjoy him in Etali, Primal Storm where its more important to go from four mana to six mana than any other jump.

[3drinks]

I only reliably go back to Sad Bot when I'm in Alesha. And it's still never the choice, but it's always the #2 choice.

[materpillar]

As people are saying he doesn't really make the cut as goodstuff anymore. That being said with synergies he's still quite playable. I've got in him my mono-W blink deck where he plays extremely well with Delney, Streetwise Lookout and recursion effects. He's also in Chromium where he carries a Sword of Fire and Ice and has artifact synergies with stuff like Master Transmuter.

[Ruiner]

I'm not a huge fan of Solemn Simulacrum, even in decks that are in "bad ramp" colors, I'd generally just rather use a mana rock or something that'll improve my odds of hitting land drops at least, for a cheaper price.

I think of you can recursively loop it entering and dying, or copy it, then it becomes much better. I do run Solemn in my Jaxis, the Troublemaker deck, where I can repeatedly get the benefits from it if I don't have any better targets around to make temporary copies of, and it does fine there.

[NZB2323]

Seems good in Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines.

I don't play it in any of my decks. White has better ramp and card draw with cards like Smuggler's Share.

[Igzex]

Time has not been kind to this card as a generic staple to just cram in.

Time, however, has been very kind to this card as an engine piece with all the blink, cloning, and recursion cards we keep getting.

[Dunadain]

Never found room for it in emiel, green has plenty of similar etbs at 3 mana, the death trigger is nice but didn't feel worth it. If you have some sort of reanimation loop where you get both the etb and the death trigger each loop, then it's probably sweet.

👍

[DirkGently]

There are 43 different printings of this card.

"Rare" lmao.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

There are 43 different printings of this card.

"Rare" lmao.

There are 47 printings of Rampant Growth. Rare is relative.

[yeti1069]

I still like Solemn in Osgir and Henzie, but I don't believe I'm running it anywhere else.

[3drinks]

Thursday, June 20th 2024; Top Deck Tutours

[pokken]

My favorite is Enlightened Tutor to this day, I play it a lot since it's another copy of Sol Ring and can also find value engines and winconditions in many decks. Still, I have been trying to cut out more and more of these in many decks and play more redundant decks.

The card disadvantage they represent is a real thing and something I think people don't think hard enough about in a casual shell.

I'm getting super bored with tutoring and even starting to eliminate land tutors from my lands decks. The higher variance gameplay without them is very appealing but it does change deck construction a lot. You've got to draw a crapload of cards (somehow, sometimes virtually with milling) to make up the efficiency loss.

I find myself really drawn to commanders who represent either a strong gameplan or card advantage (e.g. God-Eternal Oketra or Ephara, God of the Polis) as a result.