[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Leonin Shikari

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 4 years ago

I can see where the stax angle comes in. Slap some auras on mana production, bust out untap freezing (hello previous card of the day), you've got yourself a setup. Estrid encourages all sorts of nastiness. Upon seeing her, I gravitated towards wrath crawl with a Chain Veil combo finish that got immediately vetoed by my group. Unsurprising, really.
 
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Post by Dunharrow » 4 years ago

Is she related to the Happy Mask Salesman?

The flavor on Estrid is really weird. Like, ok, put masks on other creatures and it protects them.... but what exactly happens when I put a mask on a swamp? Or on swiftfoot boots?

What does a mask on True Conviction mean?
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Post by lyonhaert » 4 years ago

At least one of my friends is player her rather fair. No Chain Veil, no stax. Just good ol' enchantress and enchanting lands to use her +2 as ramp and pseudo-vigilance.
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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

Saturday, October 19th, 2019; Polymorph


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Post by DirkGently » 4 years ago

I remember comboing this card back in the day. Not sure it has much use anymore, it's too fragile and requires too much to be very good. Still, it's neat to have a readily available creature in the command zone to poly into something big and scary, in an otherwise all-noncreatures deck.
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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

Last I played this...was LRW-SHA standard, with Dramatic Entrance with the target being Progenitus. A bit of a gimmick, but fun times.

Oh, wait I lied. I ran this in creatureless Talrand to fetch an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. That one wasn't such fun times...for anyone but myself.
Last edited by 3drinks 4 years ago, edited 2 times in total.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 4 years ago

DirkGently wrote:
4 years ago
I remember comboing this card back in the day. Not sure it has much use anymore, it's too fragile and requires too much to be very good.
It's a 4-mana sorcery. You're not using this as removal, though it's really where blue removal should be. Most likely you're using it in combination with some topdeck card (Vampiric Tutor, Worldly Tutor, blue has as bunch of these and green has a few too) to turn your guy into something else.
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Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

Polymorph is a card that is very rarely played without a plan. I usually see it (and other, similar effects) in creature-light decks to turn tokens into Eldrazi or other scary monsters. I remember it causing problems alongside Baral, Chief of Compliance in 1v1 commander - T2 Baral, T3 Polymorph into Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. No Emrakul in the multiplayer format, but on Turn 3, pretty much any Eldrazi is enough to win.

It is a destroy effect, which has a few niche applications - you can use it with Kefnet the Mindful or another indestructible commander. I think I would usually prefer Jalira, Master Polymorphist if I were to want to make a dedicated Polymorph deck though.

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Post by Legend » 4 years ago

Cool for chaos decks.
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Post by ilovesaprolings » 4 years ago

I hate the fact that this card was used as an excuse to give blue cheap removals like pongify or reality shift

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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

Sunday, October 20th, 2019; Timetwister



Huh. The only legal power in the format...

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Post by DirkGently » 4 years ago

I've only played mine in one deck - alexi, zephyr mage - and I think I cast it a total of once. Definitely $350 well spent.

It's useful in the right circumstance - storm, nekusar...Alexi I guess - but as a general goodstuff card I think it kinda sucks. It reloads your enemies and, if you're playing blue, you shouldn't be terribly in need a reload very often, and you have access to less symmetrical reloads for a bit more mana. I don't love wheel of fortune either, but at least it's in a color that's more likely to want it. Obviously there are times when it functions as disruption for grave synergies or a sculpted combo hand, but I'd say there are better solutions to those situations.
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Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

Timetwister is a powerful card in the right deck - usually Storm, since it's a cheap draw-7. It is symmetric, but that doesn't matter quite as much if your opponents aren't getting another turn. Alternatively, use it alongside Notion Thief or any other way to disrupt card draw. It also shuffles back graveyards, which can be relevant - blue doesn't have a ton of recursion or other grave hate, so this can be a minor benefit for some blue decks... or a significant downside if you're using you graveyard heavily. Uniquely, it doesn't exile itself, so you can cast it multiple times if you have some way to recur it - I've seen it cast 3+ times in a single game before.

Interesting to compare to Time Spiral - Timetwister can come down earlier and works well with fast mana, but Time Spiral is theoretically free (or even mana-positive, if you have any discounts or mana doublers). I think I would lean towards Time Spiral in a vacuum, but it really depends on what my deck is doing.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

I've yet to use mine. Keep waiting to find a good spot for it where it won't just be for bragging rights.
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Post by WizardMN » 4 years ago

I slot it into pretty much every blue deck I have. While refilling my opponents isn't that great, I have more often than not heard at least one opponent say "I would have won next turn if you hadn't twistered" or "I could stop what you are doing". I find that I almost always benefit the most from Twister when I cast it.

That is not to say I don't hold off for fear of refilling my opponents since it can backfire but if I have 0 cards in hand, or my hand is terrible for the current board state, I will fire it off just to get myself back in the game.

Some of my favorite plays with this (and things like Day's Undoing) is casting it on turn 2 or 3 just to mess with everyone's starting hands. I even got it off turn 1 once in Ephara.

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 4 years ago

It's powerful in storm or something like Nekusar, the Mindrazer or Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. Can be useful with bounce spells.

In storm, I'd probably prefer Time Spiral, interestingly enough, just because it's free, and I can use things like High Tide and Sapphire Medallion (or just all of green's doublers).

For the most part, though, the symmetry hurts it. Now, keep in mind, cards like this aren't "bad" if you know what you're doing. (This is one of those places where Alhammarret's Archive is good.) But they can very easily enable a combo player other than yourself. Or a control player.
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Post by Sinis » 4 years ago

3drinks wrote:
4 years ago
Sunday, October 20th, 2019; Timetwister
I bought one in 2008 for $250 Canadian. I've played it a few times, but most of the time, it sits in a hardcase with some other valuable cards. It's just not an everydeck card. I think, at this point, there are a couple of draw-7s I don't own (the Battlebond one, and the Modern Horizons one).

Realistically, if you're playing a 'fair' deck, you could easily replace it with something like Day's Undoing.

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Post by Legend » 4 years ago

Twister never felt like "power" to me. I heard that it was only part of the 9 because you could loop Twisters and Loti in the early days, before there was the four card limit and before the restricted list, which was indeed powerful. I'm not saying that Twister isn't powerful as a one-of, but imo it isn't Power Nine caliber. I would rate Balance and Channel above it in terms of singular, raw power.

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Post by Cyberium » 4 years ago

3drinks wrote:
4 years ago
Sunday, October 20th, 2019; Timetwister



Huh. The only legal power in the format...
By the time I need a full hand again, I usually have enough mana to cast a Time Spiral, so I haven't felt the urge to include this card. Echo of Eons serves as a discard fuel before I need to cast it also.

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Post by umtiger » 4 years ago

hyalopterouslemur wrote:
4 years ago
For the most part, though, the symmetry hurts it. Now, keep in mind, cards like this aren't "bad" if you know what you're doing. (This is one of those places where Alhammarret's Archive is good.) But they can very easily enable a combo player other than yourself. Or a control player.
Well, the most important part is that it enables yourself :)

I wouldn't spend too much time discussing Timetwister's "downsides." It's really no more downside than Armageddon, Wrath of God. You're obviously going to play it when it advantages you.

Is Timetwister the only card that has a "fixed" version that's actually stronger (i.e. Time Spiral) in EDH? I know people proxy cards, but here's one where you don't have to.

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Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

umtiger wrote:
4 years ago
Is Timetwister the only card that has a "fixed" version that's actually stronger (i.e. Time Spiral) in EDH? I know people proxy cards, but here's one where you don't have to.
I could see an argument for Mox Diamond and Mox Opal, because they tap for five colors. Much more difficult to argue for Gilded Lotus over Black Lotus, but it's probably better in prolonged games. There are some niche uses for Treasure Cruise over Ancestral Recall (specifically Mizzix of the Izmagnus experience counters, and other things that want a higher CMC).

Note that these are all cards I would play in addition to the original, and not instead of - there is a limit to how many wheels you may want in a deck, but there are significantly fewer limitations on efficient mana production and card draw.

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Post by gilrad » 4 years ago

Definitely in the category of cards that, if I were ever driven to run it, i'd opt to bring a proxy instead. Playing with expensive and powerful cards is fun and all, but there's a practicality threshold where you're essentially carrying a bag full of a non-insignificant slice of your net worth.

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Post by Sinis » 4 years ago

gilrad wrote:
4 years ago
Definitely in the category of cards that, if I were ever driven to run it, i'd opt to bring a proxy instead. Playing with expensive and powerful cards is fun and all, but there's a practicality threshold where you're essentially carrying a bag full of a non-insignificant slice of your net worth.
This. I remember reading an article about how Magic cards are among the most liquid and fungible assets people just kind of carry around without any respect for the value it has. If you have an Underground Sea in your deck, it is near equivalent to its buylist price in cash. There are stores in my home city (Toronto) that will pay you cash on the spot for your trade-ins. They might cut you a cheque if it's over a certain amount, but, carrying valuable Magic is basically carrying around something resembling cash.

But we don't treat it that way. If you were carrying around 5k in cash, you a) probably wouldn't, and b) would protect it with more than some deck boxes and a backpack.

I am at the point that my collection causes me anxiety. Some decks do not leave the house, and I have been considering just selling the really big ticket cards, or buying a small airtight fireproof safe for them.

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Post by onering » 4 years ago

Timetwister is strong enough to be an auto include, but it isn't a must include. For most blue decks, it's very good but replaceable, either with a fixed version or just another good card. Even in the decks it's best in, there are enough versions of the effect that it's not absolutely needed. That, I think, is a big part of why it's not banned despite being power 9. It's hard to meet the old perceived barrier to entry criteria if there are numerous budget alternatives that come close enough that you don't feel like you have to run it. It's a luxury, its definitely better but not by such a degree that it's an obligation.

And yes, Timespiral is better in edh because the untap. But there's another fixed card that's better than it's already broken original, so much so that it's banned, Yawgmoths Bargain. For 3 more Mana it's more splashable, gets you the cards immediately, and doesn't exile your discards. It's arguably better in 60 card as well for the same reasons, but the extra 3 Mana means a lot more in Vintage and gives the edge to necro.

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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

There are certainly Timetwister variants that you can much more easily buy and that are comparable or better replacements.
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