[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Anje Falkenrath

[onering]

Always loved this card as sideboard tech in UW+ control lists. Strong hate effect, tacked on to a reasonable stat line with flash.

That version is nearly illegible tho.

👍👍

The only thing those frames are good for are being cheaper than versions you can actually read.

Alt frames have been 1/3 sweet, 1/3 barely different from the normal frame, and 1/3 incredibly ugly.

[NZB2323]

I run her as a hatebear in Éowyn, Shieldmaiden human tribal. Tutoring for her with Imperial Recruiter or Recruiter of the Guard is awkward though because then the opponent sees it coming.

I don't run her in Tymna/Ravos cleric tribal. She's not evasive and not good to be sacrificed and then brought back to the hand.

[DirkGently]

Surprised how many people like this thing.

Personally I've basically never seen it played, to my recollection (probably in precons at some point I guess). But like all indiscriminate hate pieces, I'm sure it's great in modern or whatever, but I think it's awful in a multiplayer FFA BO1 game. You don't know if anyone will be affected by it, you don't know if that person will be the person you WANT to be effected by it, and the value of the card on its own is pretty close to nil in most circumstances. Plus running it incentivizes you not to include any anti-synergistic cards in the deck, but it's still a low chance to be drawn so most of the time you're limiting yourself for nothing.

I will admit it does avoid some of the downsides by having flash (so you know what you're stopping instead of just playing it and hoping it does something good) and being a creature makes it easier to kill off if it becomes a liability. Still though, I can't imagine running this thing.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, July 9th 2024; Talion, the Kindly Lord

[yeti1069]

Tuesday, July 9th 2024; Talion, the Kindly Lord

This is a cool card, that gets a bit weaker the lower the power level of the table is.

[3drinks]

Personally I've basically never seen it played, to my recollection (probably in precons at some point I guess). But like all indiscriminate hate pieces, I'm sure it's great in modern or whatever, but I think it's awful in a multiplayer FFA BO1 game. You don't know if anyone will be affected by it, you don't know if that person will be the person you WANT to be effected by it, and the value of the card on its own is pretty close to nil in most circumstances. Plus running it incentivizes you not to include any anti-synergistic cards in the deck, but it's still a low chance to be drawn so most of the time you're limiting yourself for nothing.

Hi, Modern player here. No, this is actually quite poo in Modern. If you want grave hate, you play Surgical Extraction, Leyline of the Void, or Dauthi Voidwalker, with cards a la Faerie Macabre as fringe playable. And it can't even stop Living End. If you want to hose things entering without being cast, Hallowed Moonlight at least draws a card.

In commander, it remains my (Kaalia's) own bane, except that if it responds to her trigger I can either opt not to place something or I can remove it before my trigger would resolve, so even in it's best case scenario, it's still not good enough because you can play around it. Meaning, this thing is specifically only actually good vs Patriarch's Bidding/Twilight's Call.

[Lifeless]

Sort of an interesting and moderately powerful option here. I don't like that it has the dreaded text (draw a card) but I don't think this would create an excessive amount of hate and it's reasonably costed. I kinda like it.

[yeti1069]

Monday, July 8th 2024; Containment Priest|tsr

I hate seeing this when I'm playing Yuriko.

[DirkGently]

Interesting to me that Talion is apparently cEDH viable. I guess that makes sense. Anyway overall I think it's pretty cool, picking a number is a neat line of text that I wish more cards had.

Hi, Modern player here. No, this is actually quite poo in Modern. If you want grave hate, you play Surgical Extraction, Leyline of the Void, or Dauthi Voidwalker, with cards a la Faerie Macabre as fringe playable. And it can't even stop Living End. If you want to hose things entering without being cast, Hallowed Moonlight at least draws a card.

In commander, it remains my (Kaalia's) own bane, except that if it responds to her trigger I can either opt not to place something or I can remove it before my trigger would resolve, so even in it's best case scenario, it's still not good enough because you can play around it. Meaning, this thing is specifically only actually good vs Patriarch's Bidding/Twilight's Call.

I'm definitely not familiar enough with the current modern meta to know whether it's any good in modern, but just that modern is famous for being a format where sideboard cards are really important. Which obviously isn't applicable to commander, hence why I think this card kinda sucks (which it seems like we agree on).

[Dunadain]

Containment Priest is more of a legacy/vintage sideboard card, lining up against Oath of Druids and Green Sun's Zenith respectively (though, Containment Priest stock in legacy is pretty low rn). Side board cards are funny like that.

Talion is an interesting card that I've never seen on the table.

👍

[toctheyounger]

Interesting to me that Talion is apparently cEDH viable. I guess that makes sense. Anyway overall I think it's pretty cool, picking a number is a neat line of text that I wish more cards had.

It's a very heavy control shell that plays permission on the table. You're wanting to let everyone advance enough to nearly get there and stop them before they get there; you want them to play spells and interact, just not really ever achieve their full goals. Not an easy pilot, I would imagine.

Card is good though, I really like it.

[onering]

Interesting to me that Talion is apparently cEDH viable. I guess that makes sense. Anyway overall I think it's pretty cool, picking a number is a neat line of text that I wish more cards had.

It's a very heavy control shell that plays permission on the table. You're wanting to let everyone advance enough to nearly get there and stop them before they get there; you want them to play spells and interact, just not really ever achieve their full goals. Not an easy pilot, I would imagine.

Card is good though, I really like it.

Also, in cEDH it's easier to pick a number that's going to hit a large portion of spells. 1 and 2 both do really heavy lifting, between so much costing 1 or 2 and a ton of creatures having those as their power or toughness, including top commanders. If you are playing cEDH, you're also pretty likely to know what's in your opponents decks and what number is best to pick against them, since there's so much homogenization as a result of optimization at that level.

In more casual edh, your going to see a wider range of mana values and p/ts, 1 and 2 are incidentally still good numbers to pick, but nowhere near as good as they are in cEDH. And it's less likely that you'll actually know what cards are in your opponents decks (beyond staples and key cards for a build being good guesses), so it's more likely that you choose a subpar number. It will still draw a decent amount, but it's more manageable for opponents.

[3drinks]

Wednesday, July 10th 2024; Covenant of Minds

That's a fun minigame. Door #1 or Door #2....like Deal or No Deal meets Magic

[PrimevalCommander]

To me this reads like a bad Concentrate that shows your opponents what you draw for the EXTRA cost of 1 mana. Unless you reveal the thing you desperately need, then those cards go away and you get a decent rate of 5 cards off the top that you know doesn't have at least 1 thing you were digging for in the first place.

[3drinks]

Thursday, July 11th 2024; Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh

[3drinks]

To me this reads like a bad Concentrate that shows your opponents what you draw for the EXTRA cost of 1 mana. Unless you reveal the thing you desperately need, then those cards go away and you get a decent rate of 5 cards off the top that you know doesn't have at least 1 thing you were digging for in the first place.

Admittedly, I'd like it way more as an instant.

[Sinis]

I only recently sleeved Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh for the first time. I started playing it in an investigate-oriented Jeskai deck (Sophina, Spearsage Deserter x Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist). Tezzeret has performed really well (I actually managed an ult, which was nuts), though I think the deck itself needs a lot of tweaking.

It's one of the better Tezzerets, but there are few Tezzerets I've met that I didn't like.

[PrimevalCommander]

This planeswalker seems fine in blue artifact decks. Of course there are lots of cards competing for space in blue artifact decks. My inclusion of this card would depend on how well I think my deck could protect it, or how many activated abilities I had in my list. Probably a shoe-in for blue vehicle decks like Shorukai

[MAGUSZANIN]

Shorkai and any Clue based deck are the primary places I have seen this be strong. If you aren't using the static cost reduction to cheat mana consistently, put something else in it's place.

[Dunadain]

Covenant of Minds is some hot garbage, as a general heuristic for cards that give your opponent a choice, if you imagine a card where your opponent doesn't get a choice, if that imagined card isn't strong/borderline broken, then the card is probably not good. In the case of Covenant of Minds, forget about strong/borderline broken, 5 mana draw three is still a bad card. I could be playing Lórien Revealed and have the same sort of flexibility except I get to pick the better option in a situation, rather than the worse, or I could play Concentrate and get a more powerful effect for one less mana (and I don't consider Concentrate particularly strong to begin with.

You could always bank on playing it politically, 5 mana draw 5 IS above rate, but not even by that much.
👎👎

Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh, on the other hand, is a fine card, very strong in Shorikai, Genesis Engine.

👍

[3drinks]

Always loved this card as sideboard tech in UW+ control lists. Strong hate effect, tacked on to a reasonable stat line with flash.

That version is nearly illegible tho.

👍👍

The only thing those frames are good for are being cheaper than versions you can actually read.

Alt frames have been 1/3 sweet, 1/3 barely different from the normal frame, and 1/3 incredibly ugly.

Not true. It's also the only way you can get a black border Mind Twist without $200 for a Beta copy.

[Treamayne]

This planeswalker seems fine in blue artifact decks. Of course there are lots of cards competing for space in blue artifact decks. My inclusion of this card would depend on how well I think my deck could protect it, or how many activated abilities I had in my list. Probably a shoe-in for blue vehicle decks like Shorukai

Not Mono-U, but I certainly like this Tezz in my Sydri Vehicle deck. Animates without Crew, Reduces crew cost, I don't generaly try to get him to Ultimate since he seems less threatening at or below 4 Loyalty (and less likely to draw removal when bigger fish are available).

[Mookie]

I've been meaning to try out Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh in my Sharuum deck, but haven't been able to find the space. The (+1) is a nice source of repeatable card advantage, the (-2) gives you an alright blocker, and the ultimate (if you get there) represents nigh-infinite card draw. That said, I would say the most interesting part of this version is the passive ability, which doesn't have the usual 'can't reduce to less than ' clause. That makes Tezzeret really good with clues and other things you can activate on your opponents' turns, potentially generating 8+ mana worth of discounts per turn cycle.

That said, I think Tezzeret is just so-so if you're not taking advantage of the passive, hence why I haven't slotted him in Sharuum yet. Not necessarily bad, but the pool of artifact-based planeswalkers (and other value engines) is incredibly deep.

[3drinks]

Friday, July 12th 2024; Heartless Act

That's so heartless! How could you be so cruel!

[RxPhantom]

Really great card for killing counterless creatures or removing counters from something. *shrugs*