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

[3drinks]

The only one I'd ever play would be magmatic. The black is outdone by so many other draw options, the white is likewise exceeded by more efficient lifegain, the green is 3 mana more than Tendershoot Dryad and the blue is weird and pointless.

Magmatic Force is awesome though. UPKEEP, BOLT as they say.

Low key baleful force is my fave reanimate target.

[MeowZeDung]

Agreed they are outclassed these days. Baneslayer type creatures that have to survive a round before they do anything just whiff too often to justify the mana investment.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

The only one I'd ever play would be magmatic. The black is outdone by so many other draw options, the white is likewise exceeded by more efficient lifegain, the green is 3 mana more than Tendershoot Dryad and the blue is weird and pointless.

Magmatic Force is awesome though. UPKEEP, BOLT as they say.

Low key baleful force is my fave reanimate target.

Yeah, but why? Sheoldred does more work for reanimator decks all around, elesh norn makes enemies weep, magmatic force throws bolts and a plethora of things have etb: draw a fabulous quantity of cards.

I mean, we all have pet cards. I'll slam tears of rage into any deck with red and creatures because of how many cheap kills it's given me throughout the years . But I'm wondering what experience with B. Force was so formatively awesome as to make it your favorite, if you wouldn't mind elaborating.

Edit: spelling.

[ilovesaprolings]

I used to reanimate the white one as an early target because no one want to waste a removal on that

[JWK]

I have played Magmatic Force in multiple decks over the years. Currently it is in only one, Mayael, but it has always been good there, and I don't see it losing its spot unless a functionally identical but more cost-effective version is printed.

The rest, I don't think I've ever even been tempted to run. They are badly overcosted for what they provide.

[Dunharrow]

I don't think I would play any of these. They cost a ton of mana. If I am cheating things into play it is probably going to be something that has a bigger immediate impact. Cheating any of these into play, getting one trigger, then seeing it die, is not really worthwhile.

[RxPhantom]

I kinda like the non-blue ones. I think they'd all have a place in certain kinds of decks, especially in a battlecruiser meta. Let's take the white one. I run it in an Orzhov life gain deck, and 12 life per turn cycle is exactly what the deck wants.

[3drinks]

The only one I'd ever play would be magmatic. The black is outdone by so many other draw options, the white is likewise exceeded by more efficient lifegain, the green is 3 mana more than Tendershoot Dryad and the blue is weird and pointless.

Magmatic Force is awesome though. UPKEEP, BOLT as they say.

Low key baleful force is my fave reanimate target.

Yeah, but why? Sheoldred does more work for reanimator decks all around, elesh norn makes enemies weep, magmatic force throws bolts and a plethora of things have etb: draw a fabulous quantity of cards.

I mean, we all have pet cards. I'll slam tears of rage into any deck with red and creatures because of how many cheap kills it's given me throughout the years . But I'm wondering what experience with B. Force was so formatively awesome as to make it your favorite, if you wouldn't mind elaborating.

Edit: spelling.

Because drawing four cards/turn for no mana is pretty good. Least that's what all the cool kids say, anyway.

[Sinis]

Monday, December 28th, 2020; The Forces

I think people low-key sleep on Baleful Force. Magmatic is obviously good. The rest I could take or leave.

[Wallycaine]

The Forces suffer a lot from being 8 mana 7/7's. As Tendershoot Dryad shows, these cards get a lot better when they're 5 mana 2/2's instead. But even back then, 8 mana is a lot to ask, and doubly so now a days. I think I agree with the general assessment that Magmatic Force is the strongest, followed by Baleful Force being slightly underrated. While there's definitely cards that will draw more on ETB, they're often more conditional on board state, and don't continue to accumulate value the longer they're out. Baleful will keep drawing you cards over time until it gets taken out. Which, arguably, is the other big issue with them being 7/7's... they're just big enough to be threatening and make people feel good about pointing spot removal at them, even for the ones who have only mediocre effects every turn. So you can't really try and slip them under the radar.

[umtiger]

I like how no one even calls the white one by name. It's just "the white force." Please show some respect for life gain. Lol

I use every one in the cycle in my type 4. They are all fun.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@3drinks Fair enough.

[Mookie]

I've run Baleful Force as a reanimation target in the past. It's not necessarily the most impactful target, but it's still solid - it draws a lot of cards, and isn't quite threatening enough to be kill-on-sight. As for the other ones.... it really depends on how valuable their triggers are for you.

Tidal Force is pretty underwhelming, but looks better played alongside stuff like Arcanis the Omnipotent and Merieke Ri Berit.
Celestial Force gains a ton of life to enable Regna, the Redeemer and Aetherflux Reservoir.
Magmatic Force kills both creatures and players very quickly.
Verdant Force is the only one I would say is unplayable, but that's due to there being so many better token producers available.

Obviously, better in slower / more battlecruiser-y metas - you want these to stick around for a while. It's very hard to justify running most eight-drops, especially ones that don't have a massive immediate board impact, but these are still some fun options to experiment with.

[Hawk]

Eight mana for a "vanilla" 7/7 is a lot. As Commander has gotten leaner and meaner and there's been more and more "I-win" cards with devastating and more immediate EtB triggers or death triggers or with even more power and more crazy-pants text printed at 5-7 CMC, it gets tougher and tougher to justify spending 8 mana on a stat stick that grinds out slow, steady value over a few turns. That being said, to discuss them in order from least to most playable...

Celestial Force - Wildly unplayable and a posterchild for "white sucks in Commander". Even if this was reliably gaining me 15-24 life, it'd still be marginal, and the risk that it gains 3-9 before dying to attrition and collateral damage is too great. White isn't hurting for powerful endgame threats across a variety of strategies or budgets: Sun Titan and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are its best bet offering more immediacy and long-term value and an arguably better body if you're brawling (Vigilance is so underrated in EDH), and there's any number of powerful angels and angel-adjacent cards such as Emeria Shepherd, Sunscorch Regent, Angel of Serenity, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sephara, Sky's Blade, Archangel of Thune, and newcomer Archon of Coronation that just do more while also bringing an evasive threat to the party. In particular, lifegain decks should really be looking at Archangel and Regent instead.

Tidal Force - This is sorta cute at least. Blue doesn't necessarily have what I'd consider "auto-include" staple finishers like other colors do. Like, Torrential Gearhulk is very powerful but I wouldn't call it a finisher, ya know? I guess for goodstuff this is in competition with Nezahal, Primal Tide and Consecrated Sphinx for grinding value, and sadly both are superior although they also tend to be removal magnets (at least Nezahal protects itself somewhat). There's also lots of "archetype specific" finishers - stuff like Scourge of Fleets and Stormtide Leviathan in Sea Monsters, or Kederekt Leviathan and Kiora Bests the Sea God, or stuff like Archetype of Imagination and Sharding Sphinx and Diluvian Primordial. As a result, I have never run this and can't really see doing so - most decks have powerful alternatives to consider. I can theoretically imagine this being okay in a grindy monoblue deck with a commander that has a potent tap ability, but currently the commanders fitting that bill are Atemsis, All-Seeing (who compete with this card CMC-wise), Arcum Dagsson (who is all about artifact spam and saccing tokens to grab dumb stuff like Darksteel Forge or Possessed Portal) and Jalira, Master Polymorphist (who doesn't want to run a ton of creatures, and generally wants the ones she does run to be a little bit more devastating). Still, something to file away for later?

Verdant Force - On the one hand, this has the advantage of powerful nostalgia as the oldest and most affordable in the class. On the other hand, even with Green's Titan and Primordial banned in the format, Green is the most stacked color for powerful finishers - Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth are the glaringly obvious candidates for token-based wrecking of faces, but even for poors like myself who own only one Avenger and 0 'hoofs there is End-Raze Forerunners. Also, this has obvious competition in Tendershoot Dryad which is "this for 3 less but stronger". That's just token-based decks; green has tons of other powerful cards like Terastodon, Soul of the Harvest, Genesis Hydra, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, and Vigor that I'd tend to look for over this. I still don't hate it in a specifically Saproling deck, but we've definitely reached a point where it's more "cute" and "budget-friendly alternative" than actually good, even in a deck like Thelon of Havenwood, Verdeloth the Ancient, Slimefoot, the Stowaway, or Ghave, Guru of Spores saprolings.

Baleful Force - on paper, I like this a lot. It's a Phyrexian Arena every turn, and Arena is great. Because it's sort of "creeping" advantage and at a drawback no less, it can fly under the radar in a way that bolting people, making tokens, or tapping opponent's biggest threats doesn't and might not immediately draw kill spells. All that said, in practice I find this gets edged out quite a bit - black has no shortage of powerful card advantage demons like classic Rune-Scarred Demon, Harvester of Souls, or releative newcomers like Vilis, Broker of Blood, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, I also find I really like Bloodgift Demon as far as "Arenas on legs" go due to its cheaper cost, evasion, more relevant typing, and occasionally-relevant ability to zap opponents instead. I ran it briefly but it quickly found itself cut. And that's, again, just "Black creatures that put cards into your hand" - black also has rockstars like Sepulchral Primordial and Grave Titan as armies in a can, or stuff like Massacre Wurm and Overseer of the Damned and Noxious Gearhulk to kill stuff, or our queen Sheoldred, Whispering One who can do both.

Magmatic Force - bolting a turn is really really strong in a vacuum; nevermind with something like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell or Fiery Emancipation or a lifelink/deathtouch-granting equipment supercharging the value. This card still finds itself in competition with (and on the losing side of, imo) Tyrant's Familiar, Balefire Dragon, and Inferno Titan in decks that want an effect like this, but unlike the other Forces where that comparison is really one-sided, here it is really close with Force having some definite theoretical upside over its competitors to help justify its increased CMC and lack of any other combat abilities. I haven't personally run it, mind, but it seems totally justifiable to do so.

[MeowZeDung]

Magmatic Force - bolting a turn is really really strong in a vacuum; nevermind with something like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell or Fiery Emancipation or a lifelink/deathtouch-granting equipment supercharging the value.

Yeesh. I hadn't thought of it in Torbran. Spicy.

[tstorm823]

The blue one at face value seems immensely weaker than the others. So much so, it makes me suspicious that it's secretly really good.

[3drinks]

The blue one at face value seems immensely weaker than the others. So much so, it makes me suspicious that it's secretly really good.

There's also the political aspects where you selectively tap and untaps orbs and mines to make an ally by not locking them down to your Stax effects.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, December 29th, 2020; Daxos of Meletis

Hmm. I wonder why this guy remains lost in the annals of history. CA generating, evasion, seems a reasonable choice.

[materpillar]

Hmm. I wonder why this guy remains lost in the annals of history. CA generating, evasion, seems a reasonable choice.

I ran him in my Chromium equipment deck. Turns out he's pretty strong when when you slap a sword on him so he's a 4/4. I don't think I ever actually cast a card off of him in the 7 years or whatnot that I ran him so I very recently cut him for Ethersworn Canonist because life totals seem to matter less than they used to.

[MeowZeDung]

He's such a fun idea for a commander, but the problem is that in-game he's too slow, and you risk bricking by hitting lands way too often. If it was the top 2-3 cards or he had double strike I think he'd be worth playing. He's probably fine if you just want to play azorius goodstuff rather than have a build around in your command zone.

[BeneTleilax]

I still see him around semiregularly, mostly as a voltron general. His ability doesn't fare too well with highly synergistic decks, so he mostly polices goodstuff builds.

[Hawk]

Someone in my playgroup has a budget voltrony version of him, but he is indeed awfully slow and fragile. While I think he has better text than Geist of Saint Traft in terms of your reward for cracking in, I can see why Geist is ever so slightly more popular - that Hexproof really helps set up opportunities to attack (plus, a Spirit Cleric who makes Angels is pretty spicy from a tribal perspective.). That slowness and fragility (and unreliability) also makes him an awkward include in other UWx decks limiting his ability to appear in the 99.

Basically, if you want to build an Azorius deck with a spicy payoff for getting a fragile creature past enemy lines, Daxos looks really awkward compared to Geist of Saint Traft, Taigam, Ojutai Master, and Geist of Saint Traft, and if you want an Azorius deck that's a low-to-the-ground aggressive/voltrony build with some hatebear subthemes, he looks awkward next to Geist and Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. I'd say Lavinia also wins out if you are interested in Soldier Tribal, There's also Bruna, Light of Alabaster stealing his thunder if you really wanted to go all-in on aura voltron, and if/when Glenn, the Voice of Calm becomes more available or normalized, he also really hems in on Daxos' territory and generally outstrips him. He just isn't good enough, sadly.

Fun (?) fact though - while perusing where Daxos 1.0 sat in the ranking of EDHRECs commanders, I found that it looks like Azorius is the least-played guild in EDH. Like Boros, they have only one Commander who has cracked 1000 decks in Brago, King Eternal and have only five Commanders who are above 600 decks (a metric only meaningful because that's what EDHREC's article looks at when judging Commander popularity), but Boros has Feather sitting at over 3000 decks now and there's only 1700 registered Bragos. Overall, Feather has helped push Boros to about 1,000 more decks on EDHRECs than Azorius. I find that really shocking, considering how great Brago is and how great Blue is, so I wonder if that's because white is dragging down the combo or if its because Azorius' "best" generals are high in sodium (Brago, GAAIV, and Lavinia)? Maybe both?

EDIT: Also, a big deal is that Daxos is card advantage, but drawing a card from an opponent's library is generally a lot worse than from your own. As a case in point, the other night I was in a game (my first in months!) and an opponent controlled Geth, Lord of the Vault. They found he was actually kind of useless, because stealing an Abomination of Llanowar from the Elf deck or a Guttersnipe or Goblin Electromancer from my Sevinne deck did not a lot to help their gameplan. Daxos is fun when he works, but in modern EDH there's even more bricks than just lands he can hit - hitting a Ichor Wellspring or Krenko's Command is fiiiinnne but not awesome, and probably worse than a card in your actual deck. Etali, Primal Storm gets away with it because he casts the spells for free and hits all libraries before he even deals damage which is so much more value that it makes up for stealing non-synergistic or unhelpful cards.

[Lifeless]

I feel like ol Daxos is a relic of a bygone era. There was once a time when suiting him up and stealing 1 random card (that you have to pay full price for and has to be played that turn no less) per swing might have seemed like it was enough, but he'd just not resilient or splashy enough for the format nowadays.

He's significant in my mind for being the first card where I remember Wizards using the "spend mana as though it were mana of any color" clause to make this kind of stealing better. I've always considered this a nod to EDH players.

[JWK]

I tried for a long time to build a workable Daxos deck, focusing on tossing people's good stuff from the battlefield to the top of their library and then stealing it, but I never got it off the ground because it quickly became evident it was slow, clunky and usually not even particularly good.

[Hermes_]

I still see him around semiregularly, mostly as a voltron general. His ability doesn't fare too well with highly synergistic decks, so he mostly polices goodstuff builds.

Daxos was my second two color deck,and i had so much fun with it. Wil cast what flips or just exile it lol