[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Ulalek, Fused Atrocity

[Lifeless]

I've run blue Braids for years and I'm always happy to see this. At very least it's a really unique effect and over the course of time most unique effects find their niche.

[Sinis]

Oath of Ghouls? I never liked that cycle since it could help opponents, but I know some people like those cards.

Oath of Ghouls is definitely one of the more manipulatable ones via creature density your deck or repeatable, but you're almost better off running Oversold Cemetery if you're willing to pile up your dead.

[ChazA4]

Illegal now, but I love the logic bomb you could pull on someone with this and Frankie Peanuts:
First upkeep: "Will you answer the next question with the same answer as this one?"
Second upkeep: "Do you concede the game?"

[Mookie]

I've run Paradox Haze in Zedruu the Greathearted. Getting double triggers is a little win-more, but it's not like I'm going to complain. Speaking more broadly, I'd consider it for most commanders with valuable upkeep triggers. Sen Triplets, Braids, Conjurer Adept, The Scarab God... That said, there aren't that many commanders with those triggers in the first place. Plus, as mentioned, it is a little win-more - if your commander is living a full turn cycle to get a trigger, you're probably already in a good spot. Having a scary upkeep trigger live a full turn cycle is hard.

As for other decks... if you happen to be running a bunch of Shrines or other enchantments with upkeep triggers, it may be worth consideration. You'd need a pretty high threshold of them though, to justify running a do-nothing over another enchantment. That said, a Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck that plans to flash in a bunch of upkeep effects does sound pretty amusing.

Beware of Eon Hub.

[Wallycaine]

Illegal now, but I love the logic bomb you could pull on someone with this and Frankie Peanuts:
First upkeep: "Will you answer the next question with the same answer as this one?"
Second upkeep: "Do you concede the game?"

First answer: "No". Second answer: "Naw."

[3drinks]

Thursday, December 24th, 2020; Imp's Mischief

You haven't lived until you've fired this off against a Time Stretch .......I love this card.

[JWK]

This one still takes people by surprise every time. So good.

[Dragonlover]

I've got nothing for todays card, but Paradox Haze does a lot of work in my wincons deck. I think about half of them trigger on upkeep, as do a fair few enablers, so being able to set up and also win on the same turn is pretty handy.

Dragonlover

[Sinis]

Thursday, December 24th, 2020; Imp's Mischief

You haven't lived until you've fired this off against a Time Stretch .......I love this card.

One of my personal favourites, and generally has a permanent home in my resident mono black deck. I don't understand why people still don't see it coming; this card is now over 10 years old, and it's a somewhat narrow effect, but it's an absolute blowout half the time I leverage it.

[BeneTleilax]

What's wrong with his feet?

[Sinis]

What's wrong with his feet?

I think an Imp got to it, dude.

[3drinks]

I'm sad this thing has climbed to $13usd. Isn't this exactly the kind of stuff that should make it into commander boxes?

[kirkusjones]

Still waiting to cast this in my Vilis, Broker of Blood deck.

[ChazA4]

Imp's Mischief: hm, very interesting.
I love redirect cards in general, as they get around just about every 'can't be countered' effect. That this is in black is one of the reasons I think so many people don't see it coming; everyone© knows about Redirect or Wild Ricochet, but those are expected, especially from blue. Sure, it's 10 years old, but how often do you see it played aside from your own copies? The colors are getting a lot of versatility from the days of "Red=smash, blue=tricksies, white=healing, etc", but I think people are still stuck in those mindsets, so when something out of a color's comfort zone comes along, people put it aside and forget about it.
As for me, I think I definitely need a few copies, lol.

First answer: "No". Second answer: "Naw."

Cute try, but one could argue that the second answer goes against card text, and thus is invalid. Do admire the out-of-the-box thinking to get around that, though.

[Wallycaine]

First answer: "No". Second answer: "Naw."

Cute try, but one could argue that the second answer goes against card text, and thus is invalid. Do admire the out-of-the-box thinking to get around that, though.

While you could argue that, the card text itself states only that the question must be "yes or no", it places no such restriction on the answer. Maro, who's the silver bordered rules manager, has been asked about this more than once, and any form of negative/positive answer is acceptable, including non-verbal ones iirc. Which makes sense, since you don't want it to auto break someone's Atinlay Igpay just because they got targetted with the question.

[3drinks]

December 25th, 2020; Zedruu the Greathearted and Stocking Tiger

Happy holidays, Zedruu here to remind you of the joys of giving gifts to those family and loved ones, and the reward of happiness you get when giving to others. Don't forget to check your stockings - you never know what you'll find in there!

[tstorm823]

Zedruu is bad, only idiots play that card.

[Treamayne]

I still have my (updated) Iron Chef:EDH* Zedruu Monk from way back on the old official forums. Loads of fun without being combo based, but also without ignoring Zedruu's ability. I think the key to casual Zedruu is, as Oscar Wilde said, "everything in moderation... including moderation." You don't want to give away "all the things," and you don't want to ignore her ability, so incremental advantage is key. Maybe donating 1 perm per opponent; or self-switching permanents (things like Coveted Jewel, Pendant of Prosperity, etc.) to keep interaction up, without being a combolicious threat.

Stocking Tiger was a featured prize in the Grixmas card swap 2016 (with two packs of Eternal Masters). Such a great card, too bad Holiday promos are so hard to find and so expensive...

Zedruu is bad, only idiots play that card.

Thank you. I have long desired independent verification of my intelligence from a stranger whom I have never spoken with face-to-face. What a wonderful Holiday gift.

*Note:

SPOILER

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Iron Chef: EDH was an irregular competition (quarterly-ish) from the old official forums, where we would have a panel of volunteer judges set a deck building challenge and judge the entrants (usually given 2-4 weeks to submit entries). I made "gold, silver, and bronze" jpg versions of a card that represented the challenge that they could then add to a signature or use for an avatar. The winner had first dibs on leading the next panel of judges and setting the competition requirements. Scoring was 4 categories on a scale of 0-5.

Some of the events (off the top of my head):
- Basic "Create a deck for X" - such as Zedruu deck, Gabriel Angelfire, Marton Stromgald, etc.
- Create a pre-modern EDH deck using a Legend from Legends and all cards in original frames.
- Contest theme was dual decks - requirement was a build one half of a Guilds of Ravnica EDH Duel deck (e.g. Building the Izzet side of a notional Izzet vs. Golgari Dual deck) - you had to name the opposing pair and your deck submission had to include a write up of why they are the dual decks, and "how to play" the deck you submitted (similar to the short blurbs in a true dual deck).

Examples:
Guild War Duel Deck final scores:

Gold medal "Avatar" image

[3drinks]

@Treamayne you got that idea from Iron Chef competitions at The Giant, didn't you? Have you seen the Junkyard Wars variant too?

I could start that and host it here, if the interest was enough.

[Treamayne]

@Treamayne you got that idea from Iron Chef competitions at The Giant, didn't you? Have you seen the Junkyard Wars variant too?

I could start that and host it here, if the interest was enough.

I'm not sure where the idea originated (other than Japanese TV/Food Network), another person started the first event. I offered to help organize, then we both worked on it (so one could enter the competition while the other managed/scored), until interest waned and it died out.

[Mookie]

Possibly the greatest game of EDH I've ever participated in involved me stealing an opponent's Stocking Tiger. Good stuff. Unfortunately, the deck I was playing (a borrowed Ramses Overdark) only had two colors, which meant that the vast majority of cards in the opened pack were unplayable. As a 5 mana 3/3, it's not the most impactful card, and the opened pack is obviously going to be pretty high-variance, but still fun. I could see a pack of Commander Legends being pretty strong, but most packs are going to be full of limited chaff.

As for Zedruu the Greathearted.... she's a fairly divisive card. If you've ever played against a Trix (Donate + Illusions of Grandeur) build of her, you probably have a pretty negative opinion. (I played against her back before they errata'd Thought Lash, which was a particularly obnoxious interaction) Those decks tend to be pretty miserable. On the other hand, I've found some success running her purely as a draw engine - if you're drawing 3+ extra cards each turn, that's really, really strong. It does require running some suboptimal cards to support, but Oblivion Ring effects are pretty reasonable when they also draw cards. Vedalken Plotter effects also work really well, since getting rid of lands is almost impossible.

...that said, my own build is currently incredibly out of date. I should really update it sometime.

[tstorm823]

Zedruu is bad, only idiots play that card.

Thank you. I have long desired independent verification of my intelligence from a stranger whom I have never spoken with face-to-face. What a wonderful Holiday gift.

I apologize if it was unclear, but I'm like the Zedruu player. I've spent thousands of words across multiple websites gushing over the card, so I decided to betray expectations this morning and call myself dumb.

[RxPhantom]

Zedruu is bad, only idiots play that card.

Thank you. I have long desired independent verification of my intelligence from a stranger whom I have never spoken with face-to-face. What a wonderful Holiday gift.

I apologize if it was unclear, but I'm like the Zedruu player. I've spent thousands of words across multiple websites gushing over the card, so I decided to betray expectations this morning and call myself dumb.

I wasn't sure what to make of @Treamayne's response to your post, but perhaps if he'd have taken a glance at your sig...

[Wallycaine]

Thank you. I have long desired independent verification of my intelligence from a stranger whom I have never spoken with face-to-face. What a wonderful Holiday gift.

I apologize if it was unclear, but I'm like the Zedruu player. I've spent thousands of words across multiple websites gushing over the card, so I decided to betray expectations this morning and call myself dumb.

I wasn't sure what to make of @Treamayne's response to your post, but perhaps if he'd have taken a glance at your sig...

I believe the intention was to "play along" with tstorm's obviously facetious comment. At least, that's what I got out of it.

[tstorm823]

I believe the intention was to "play along" with tstorm's obviously facetious comment. At least, that's what I got out of it.

And if it wasn't, I take the blame. Just cause I'm making a joke, doesn't mean it needs to be that low effort.

I was pondering the other day, what sort of nonsense I could do with donating Smothering Tithe. Like, if I play a crafty cutpurse, I can make it so that I make treasures whenever I draw cards. That's Zedruu related.