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

[Mookie]

I like Surrak, the Hunt Caller in cube. Less sold on it in EDH though - there are a number of good colorless haste enablers (like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves) that are less vulnerable to removal. I don't hate the idea of playing it to give Giant Adephage / Elder Gargaroth / other combat-focused creatures haste - smashing with big stompy green things is fun. I think Surrak is generally outclassed by Samut, Voice of Dissent, Xenagos, God of Revels, and other options in the command zone, but could be okay in the 99 of a non-red deck that doesn't want the colorless / artifact options for some reason.

[Sinis]

I think Surrak was fine until March of the Machines, which saw Surrak and Goreclaw give your whole team haste (and trample, I guess) for 2 more mana. It's not a bad card, IMO, but it is aging like milk the way wizards churns out cards.

[DirkGently]

Surrak's problem is that you're paying for the 5/4 body that probably isn't very relevant. Most decks that have an interest in haste would prefer Crashing Drawbridge to save themselves 2 mana and give it to their whole team, or even moreso greaves, or Hall of the Bandit Lord for that matter.

To play Surrak I think you'd need to really care about the body for whatever reason, and not many decks will.

Still super strong in draft though.

[3drinks]

Monday, July 1st 2024; Dark Apostle

I got a sneaky suspicion that this card is not as good as it reads.......

[yeti1069]

Monday, July 1st 2024; Dark Apostle

I got a sneaky suspicion that this card is not as good as it reads.......

I suppose it combos nicely with Laelia, the Blade Reforged for a 1-hit kill, but that's fairly telegraphed. Otherwise, you have to spend 7 mana to then give something that's probably 1-2 mana (on curve) cascade? That by itself is not very good unless you're playing a deck built around maximizing cascade value (mana-less suspend spells, for example), but I don't see this card being a big contributor to that strategy as 1/99. I love cascade in Prosper, but even Wild-Magic Sorcerer has gotten cut, and it largely does this same thing without having to spend the mana for an activated ability, not to mention (sometimes) being able to get the benefit the turn it comes down, and even multiple times in a turn cycle.

Pass.

[Sinis]

I got a sneaky suspicion that this card is not as good as it reads....

It reads *really* bad, tbh.

[Dunadain]

Yeah, I just can't imagine this playing out smoothly, four mana, then you got to pass the turn, then three mana and a tap, and a creature spell, and the reward might be great, but it has high variance.

Also, Cascade is such a headache as a mechanic.

👎

[Mookie]

Dark Apostle looks pretty dodgy. Cascade is a strong mechanic, and you can certainly get more than three mana of value from it... but if my options are 'cast a 6-drop' or 'cast a 3-drop and cascade into something that costs 2 or less', then I think the 6-drop will usually be better. It theoretically gets better if you have a ton of mana or cast-from-exile synergies, but I'm not quite convinced it is better than something like Headliner Scarlett or another source of card advantage.

On the flip side, having a consistent tutor for a specific 0-drop or other cheap spell can have interesting implications if you build your deck around it. My Vaevictis deck is built to cascade into Glimpse of Tomorrow, which is certainly strong. Not sure if I would run Dark Apostle as another source of cascade - Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread are plenty already, and I don't have that many noncreature spells - but it could be interesting.

[DirkGently]

Since it was a topic of a recent PK video, an interesting thing to think about is which UB could be printed as non-UB cards without changes. He made the point that Orcish Bowmasters could presumably be fine to reprint.

This seems like it could, except for the stupid "Astartes" type line. Which seems so pointless since afaik there's no tribal support for that type anyway. Anyway w/e it's not like anyone was clamoring for a reprint of this thing.

Yeah, I just can't imagine this playing out smoothly, four mana, then you got to pass the turn, then three mana and a tap, and a creature spell, and the reward might be great, but it has high variance.

Also, Cascade is such a headache as a mechanic.

👎

It's definitely not going to play very smoothly if you cast a creature spell

The main value this has is the potential to cascade low-mv spells to either hit certain specific 0/1 mv targets, or do some dumb "I exiled my deck 1 card at a time" synergy nonsense. If you're casting a random 4-drop and hoping to get something worthwhile you're probably dreaming.

I've never liked cascade as a mechanic. The fact that it appeals to a lot of commander players reinforces my assessment that we have a very different idea of what makes the game enjoyable.

The same could be said, to a much greater degree, about planechase.

[Dunadain]

It's definitely not going to play very smoothly if you cast a creature spell

Typo, lol

[3drinks]

Tuesday, July 2nd 2024; Connecting the Dots

Hmm. Bomat Courier but in enchantment form. I wonder if this is actually good enough slash better-than it's predecessor.

[3drinks]

I got a sneaky suspicion that this card is not as good as it reads....

It reads *really* bad, tbh.

My point exactly. It reads poorly and is functionally worse than even that. Maybe you play this if your whole gameplan is about getting Living End and Ancestral Vision on top, every game, and this is all you want to do. Mystic Sanctuary and all the top deck tutours. Hey, we finally found a home for Cruel Tutor! We did it guys!

[Dunadain]

It certainly doesn't feel like an improvement on Bomat Courier, Bomat was good because it was a 1 drop with haste that also let the red aggro deck refill its hand once it went hellbent. Connecting the Dots costs twice as much and doesn't swing at all.

I think the decks that want this and the decks that want Bomat Courier are fairly different decks.

Instead, it feels like translating the mechanic of Bomat Courier into something more reasonable in commander. Requires much more set up, both in mana and additional creatures, but can go a LOT bigger.

probably pretty decent in red/boros go wide decks, but it stings that it only works when the deck is already doing what it's supposed to be doing.

👍

[onering]

I'll disagree that it only works when the deck is doing what it's supposed to do. Just because you are able to attack, that doesn't mean that things are going well.

Being able to attack doesn't mean you can attack profitably. Plenty of red decks can make tokens that die or are exiled by the end of the turn, and there's not always a good use for them. Even if you have a way to use them as sac fodder, a lot of that is instant speed, so you can just attack with them to feed connect the dots then sac them as you already planned to. Otherwise, lacking a sac outlet you can just attack with them into blockers because they'll die anyway.

It doesn't take a lot for this to net you 4+ cards. Sure, it costs twice as much as courier but it exiles cards much faster. You can actually get low on cards, then draw this, cast it, attack with some creatures and crack it on the same turn to go up on cards. With Courier, you really need to hit it early for it to be impactful. Even just dropping this and letting it accumulate cards while playing aggro is solid, because it lets you recover from a board wipe.

So I think that there are decks that want this that wouldn't be as interested in Courier, and decks that want Courier but would find this too slow, but there's plenty of overlap to run both, with this as the main effect and Courier as a backup (or you get lucky and draw it in your opening hand).

[Dunadain]

I just don't think I've ever seen Bomat Courier do something useful in a commander game.

[yeti1069]

I could definitely see drawing this while you have a handful of attackers ready to roll, cast it and crack it in the same turn to wheel yourself.

[PrimevalCommander]

Never saw this card before, but triggering on every attacking creature does allow it to build cards quite quickly. I have had Bag of Holding do well for me, and if it gets answered, you didn't spend many cards building it up since they all come off the top of the library. I think this might work well in Zurzoth, Chaos Rider since I attack with 3+ creatures every turn if possible and I already use Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner to good effect. There is risk, but red is accustomed to high risk, high reward card advantage. I could get 5-6 cards from this the turn after I cast it, plus I have a sprinkling of discard synergy already.

Thanks RCotD!!

[MAGUSZANIN]

The upper end of slamming this on turn six or so, swinging out with between 5 and 8 creatures, then paying two mana to effectively draw an entire new hand certainly makes this appealing.

That is a fair number of hoops to jump through though. You need a deck that can consistently go wide enough with evasive bodies enough that you are willing to throw a large chunk of them into a meat grinder for card draw, And you need to be a deck that is comfortable casting this in the late game with enough mana leftover to be able to do something meaningful with the new cards.

I definitely would not want to have it in play for more than one turn rotation either, because it's going to be attempting Target for all sorts of removal.

Edit: I could maybe see playing this in my Optimus Prime list since that deck wants to be hyper aggressive and often empties its hand quite quickly.

[Sinis]

I think that Bomat Courier has throughput problems. That it's only ever going to get you one card a turn, and could get blocked and/or answered. Connecting the Dots is part of a more resilient permanent type, and turns *all* your creatures into Bomat Courier.

Is it worth giving a go? In mono-red or boros, I think so. Maybe even outside those colours.

[3drinks]

...Zurzoth, Chaos Rider since I attack with 3+ creatures every turn if possible and I already use Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner to good effect. There is risk, but red is accustomed to high risk, high reward card advantage.

Man, Subira is such a rad deck. I built that with goblins and just jam every Hordeling Outburst and Beetleback Chief effects. People surprisingly under-estimate it until they watch Subira draw6 the first time. Then they get scared and scramble to play wack-a-mole with all your terrible bodies ah ha ha. it's great.

[Serenade]

Reminds me of Flamewar, Brash Veteran // Flamewar, Streetwise Operative, but at least the intel counters save the exiled cards after she is removed. Her knock is that combat has to run through her.

[PrimevalCommander]

...Zurzoth, Chaos Rider since I attack with 3+ creatures every turn if possible and I already use Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner to good effect. There is risk, but red is accustomed to high risk, high reward card advantage.

Man, Subira is such a rad deck. I built that with goblins and just jam every Hordeling Outburst and Beetleback Chief effects. People surprisingly under-estimate it until they watch Subira draw6 the first time. Then they get scared and scramble to play wack-a-mole with all your terrible bodies ah ha ha. it's great.

***scribbles (mental) notes about Subira as an alternative commander if Zurzoth gets retired.***

[BeneTleilax]

I saw a Krenko deck win with this.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 3rd 2024; Ulalek, Fused Atrocity

[PrimevalCommander]

You know despite the overall pushed nature of the ability, I'm surprised they just didn't make this a 5/5 with menace or something. Every legend seems to get above rate stats with random evasion or protection just because "Legendary" . Making this a 2/5 actually showed some level of minor restraint by the design team... I guess