MTGNexus

folding_music wrote: ↑

5 days ago

Withering Wisps is my #1 fave card

My current "ultra tame" deck is Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, and it's really ... just dorky things you can throw bodies into, in a demon-kindred shell. Demon of Catastrophes, Goremand, Eaten Alive, that kind of thing where you just need a body to make it go, and the effects are acceptable. There's some strong stuff, like Skullclamp and Attrition, but there's no real way to exploit them except with Jadar's ponderous creation of the saddest zombie.

Anyway, the deck has 30 basic Snow Swamps from Ice Age in it, and I have a Withering Wisps in there because it's ostensibly a midrange-ish demon pile. It always does what I want (except kill my commander, it's a rough life for a 1/1).

Sinis wrote: ↑

5 days ago

Pestilence is deeply underrated, answers tons of strategies, and can even be a wincon in the right deck. I'm never sad to see my copy of Pestilence (a Beta copy!!!).

Honourable mention of Pyrohemia|PLC + Torbran, Thane of Red Fell|ELD as a symmetry changer, and for Pestilence Demon|ROE existing. Also, honourable mention to using any of them with The Wanderer.

How about adding Repercussion along with that Torbran?

Thursday, June 27th 2024; Rough // Tumble



Huh. I should've added this to the "baseline" Kaalia brew, if I'm honest. Awfully similar to Flame Sweep in targeting scope, with a big mana option baked in for later. Sorcery version of Scourge of Kher Ridges. Fantastic sweeper.

umtiger wrote: ↑

4 days ago

Sinis wrote: ↑

5 days ago

Pestilence is deeply underrated, answers tons of strategies, and can even be a wincon in the right deck. I'm never sad to see my copy of Pestilence (a Beta copy!!!).

Honourable mention of Pyrohemia|PLC + Torbran, Thane of Red Fell|ELD as a symmetry changer, and for Pestilence Demon|ROE existing. Also, honourable mention to using any of them with The Wanderer.

How about adding Repercussion along with that Torbran?

...Stop giving me reasons to reassemble Oros, the Avenger in 2024.

I've never played with or against this card, probably about equal with Pyroclasm all things considered, and that's not a high bar.

👎

I've played Rough // Tumble... It's not amazing. If your environment is rife with lots of non-flying token decks, it's an easy 2 mana wipe, but the other mode just too expensive to manage things like Alela's faeries, spirits, or whatever (though it's probably fine if you're facing Dragon typal or something like that). I would struggle to play this over pre-existing options for red that are either more efficient, more comprehensive, or have additional utility; like Blasphemous Act, Fiery Confluence, or... Pyrohemia.

Rough // Tumble is fine. But unless there is a meta reason (or a specific deck building reason), there are a lot of better choices. And while not mono-red, I do want to shout out to Firespout as a better version of Rough // Tumble.

Can't say that I've ever seen this cast or thought about putting it in a deck myself.

Friday, June 28th 2024; Eriette of the Charmed Apple



That's interesting.

Eriette turns auras into classic C11 Vows... but, the Vows never really did it for me. They just weren't strong enough, and the Impetuses that debuted in C20 are barely playable.

Does the end step trigger redeem Eriette? Hard to say, but I think that clock is going to be very, very slow. It doesn't help that most of the Cursed role things are in blue or for your own creatures, and token auras just aren't really in w/b. Second, with the full cycle of Swords of Protection and Value out, there's some nonzero chance they're playing a protection from White or Black sword that just... could remove your auras.

You can play Eriette naively and enchant your opponents creatures with cards like Battle Mastery and maybe they'll consider attacking with the restriction, but at the end of the day, you'll be spending resources for an agonizingly slow clock that will almost certainly get answered. And when Eriette does get answered? All the benefits you've heaped on other players' creatures can come crashing down on you.

The other way to play Eriette is to pretend her first ability doesn't exist, and just play w/b auras and this is just gravy for your strategy. But, it's not much gravy. You could just play Killian, Ink Duelist for the ramp.

While I like the card in a general sense, I think there are practical limitations with the current card pool. It is simultaneously too fragile and too awful. (All this in mind, Eriette is apparently the second most popular Orzhov commander on EDHREC, so... maybe I just don't get it.)

I like her, but I've already gotten into that argument once before XD.

👍

I've never understood the hype for this card. Maybe she would be cool with curses? I'd want another color, though, so I could use Amphibian Downpour or Smoke Spirits' Aid.

Serenade wrote: ↑

2 days ago

I've never understood the hype for this card. Maybe she would be cool with curses? I'd want another color, though, so I could use Amphibian Downpour or Smoke Spirits' Aid.

Or Asinine Antics.

What aura's in WB don't backfire on you when she isn't on the field, but also don't already pacifism or kill creatures? There's stuff like Banewasp Affliction and cards that grant protection from colors (choose Red Green or Blue), etc, I just don't think that's good enough.

This feels like it would draw a ton of aggro considering it's realistically not that threatening. Other than that I would want it to have G in the color identiy before seriously considering playing it.

AH, I knew I was forgetting one of those mass-aura cards. Good call.

Maybe you play reanimator (Animate Dead) or try to steal things (Minion's Return, Enslave)? Killian, Ink Duelist remains a better play for the latter or the obvious Voltron strategy.

Whoops, I was watching day two of the Pro Tour. Here's Saturday, June 29th 2024's card; Phyrexian Triniform

The front half of Phyrexian Triniform is pretty meh - a 9 mana 9/9 is underwhelming by itself, and the tokens it leaves behind are okay, but not amazing. However, Phyrexian Triniform also has the encore ability - for 12 mana, you can recur it and hit each opponent, then leave behind nine tokens, which is... certainly a lot of bodies.

The two cards I would compare it to are Wurmcoil Engine and Triplicate Titan, both of which I would run over Phyrexian Triniform. Vanilla 9/9s just don't excite me - they're just too likely to be chump blocked. The tokens are fine, but a bunch of vanilla 3/3s aren't that exciting without some additional synergies. The encore ability is powerful, but also too expensive for most decks. I could see it for decks that plan to cheat it out (such as Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded and Muzzio, Visionary Architect), but I also feel like there are better things to cheat out (especially since it's very difficult to cheat on the encore cost).

Mookie wrote: ↑

2 days ago

The front half of Phyrexian Triniform is pretty meh - a 9 mana 9/9 is underwhelming by itself, and the tokens it leaves behind are okay, but not amazing. However, Phyrexian Triniform also has the encore ability - for 12 mana, you can recur it and hit each opponent, then leave behind nine tokens, which is... certainly a lot of bodies.

The two cards I would compare it to are Wurmcoil Engine and Triplicate Titan, both of which I would run over Phyrexian Triniform. Vanilla 9/9s just don't excite me - they're just too likely to be chump blocked. The tokens are fine, but a bunch of vanilla 3/3s aren't that exciting without some additional synergies. The encore ability is powerful, but also too expensive for most decks. I could see it for decks that plan to cheat it out (such as Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded and Muzzio, Visionary Architect), but I also feel like there are better things to cheat out (especially since it's very difficult to cheat on the encore cost).

It was best in the Growing Threat deck, I think, where Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos would incubate nine for you as you cast it. Helluva wrath insurance.

I would also say it's reasonable in Osgir, the Reconstructor. The deck generally wants games to go long, it makes huge amounts of Mana, it has a sacrifice outlet in the Command Zone, you are discarding artifacts anyway, and it wants tons of artifacts entering and leaving play.

Sunday, June 30th, 2024; Surrak, the Hunt Caller



I think people under-estimate how easy this is to use as a haste outlet given it's already 5/8 of the formidable clause on it's own. Except in, like, only the case where you have this on an empty board I guess.

3drinks wrote: ↑

1 day ago

Brings back memories of playing against a Surrak, the Hunt Caller player, who didn't stop ramping, for some reason - turns out it was hasty Eldrazi...

Not to sure about him as a commander, given all the insane green 'manders we've gotten over the years. But he's great as support.

Not and exciting card, but he's a perfectly reasonable haste enabler if you're not in R.

It is very easy to achieve formidable, especially when this card already has a lot of power, however four mana to only give one creature haste is a pretty raw deal, of course you would never even consider it in red, but even if you aren't there's a lot of strong colorless haste enablers out there as well.

I'm sure some deck makes great use of a 5/4 body and wants some haste, but In general I don't think he's a particularly strong option.

👎

Dunadain wrote: ↑

1 day ago

It is very easy to achieve formidable, especially when this card already has a lot of power, however four mana to only give one creature haste is a pretty raw deal, of course you would never even consider it in red, but even if you aren't there's a lot of strong colorless haste enablers out there as well.

I'm sure some deck makes great use of a 5/4 body and wants some haste, but In general I don't think he's a particularly strong option.

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Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma came to mind immediately.