random-mtg-cards-daily

[random-mtg-cards-daily]

Todays card: Spinebiter

Another card with an errata. This one was errata'd to be a phyrexian beast after the phyrexian creature type was introduced.

Spinebiter is a 3/4 creature - phyrexian beast for 2 green and 4 other with 2 abilities. The first is infect, and the second makes it so spinebiter can assign combat damage to players even if blocked, basically super-trample. This is an interesting case of an infect card that's good even in decks that don't revolve around poison counters. It can be pumped with the myriad of green pump spells to insta-kill an opponent fairly easily, and even if you don't do that, it's still a pretty decent clock. It does, however, lack protection, so it's pretty vulnerable to removal and is a pretty big target. Not to mention, it still takes damage from blockers, so if you're using it for the clock purpose, be aware of potential multi-blocking killing it, due to its mere 4 toughness.

The lore on this is pretty simple. It's some animal, infected by the phyrexians. I am curious though why it's called "spinebiter", that mouth seems like it would bite a lot more than just your spine.

The art depicts a grotesque beast, covered in spines and with a large, toothy mouth. I have just realized why it's called spinebiter, because it has spines. It appears to be running through a forest, and the trees behind it look sickly.

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Todays card: Brago, King Eternal

Brago, King Eternal is a 2/4 legendary creature - spirit for 1 blue, 1 white, and 2 other with 2 abilities. The first is flying, and the second makes it so you can flicker any amount of nonland permanents you control whenever he does combat damage to a player. Overall, a very simple card that works great in basically any flicker decks. Flying makes it easy to hit people with and you can get a lot of good ETB triggers with it due to flickering as much stuff as you want. 4 toughness also means it can survive a lightning bolt, which I guess is notable. That's really all there is to the card.

Brago was the king of the plane of Fiora. He was a great king, and most everyone loved his rule and agreed with his choices, but he ended up with a disastrous hereditary disease. The priests did just about everything they could to keep him alive, but he kept deteriorating. Eventually, as a mercy killing, a close friend of his, Selvala, killed him, but his spirit kept going, hence this card. The flavor text reads "My rule persists beyond death itself." The meaning of this is fairly obvious given the card's backstory.

The art depicts Brago's spirit, wielding a large sword and wearing fancy armor and robes. He floats above his throne, with a statue to each side of him. These statues likely depict a specific animal, but I've never been good at identifying species, so I'm not sure what animal they are.

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Todays card: Jade Statue

First card on this blog where there is a notable difference between the printed effect and the oracle text! Pretty simple, the oracle text says it becomes "a 3/6 Golem artifact creature".

Jade Statue is an artifact for 4 generic mana with 1 ability. The ability is pay 2 generic: Jade Statue becomes a 3/6 Golem artifact creature until end of combat, and the ability can only be used during combat. To be honest, this card confused me a bit at first, as I didn't realize that the declare attackers step and declare blockers step were a part of combat at first, but I found some clarifications on the rulings there. Jade statue is a very strange card. It's essentially 4 (6 if you want it to block first turn) mana for a 3/6 creature that costs an additional 2 mana every future time you want to use it, which is pretty bad. However, it's also immune to a lot of creature removal outside of combat, which means sorcery speed removal is practically useless against it (most notably most boardwipes fall under this category.) However, instant speed removal is slightly annoyed by this "protection" at best. The best use I see for this is as a sideboard card for when you know your opponent has a lot of sorcery-speed creature removal, but I'm sure there are far better cards for that purpose, like stuff that can protect your actually important creatures that can do reasonable damage.

Jade Statue doesn't seem to have a lot of lore significance, and I wasn't able to find any information on the character giving the quote in the flavor text, Kabel. The flavor text seems to imply that you're supposed to use it as a strange pseudo-combat trick, but there is not a single circumstance where this would even remotely surprise an opponent that I can think of.

The art depicts a serpentine jade statue wielding a scythe in a room with a domed ceiling and a skylight. I'm not really seeing any indication as to where this is, and I don't think the statue is supposed to look like anyone in particular. The scythe is pretty cool looking at least.

[random-mtg-cards-daily]

Todays card: Folio of Fancies

Folio of Fancies is an artifact for 1 blue and 1 other with 3 abilities. Players have no maximum handsize, pay xx and tap to make each player draw x cards, and pay 1 blue and 2 other to make each opponent mill a number of cards equal to the number of cards in their hand. The idea of the card is to pump a ton of mana into the double x ability, then next turn activate the second ability when it untaps, but in all honesty, I've struggled to make good use of it. The fact that you yourself are drawing tons of cards doesn't really matter due to the sheer amount of mana it cost to draw all those cards, and giving your opponents cards that they didn't have to spend mana on means they can often play most of the cards you make them draw, making the mill ability seriously inefficient. Even if they don't do that, and you manage to make them mill a ton, mill always has the issue of not instantly effecting the boardstate, meaning they can use all those cards you're drawing them to, more likely than not, kill you. Probably the best use I've found for it is combining it with things that let you untap artifacts to activate both abilities on the same turn, or having 2 of them so you can activate both abilities on the same turn, but that requires excessive amounts of mana and really is just a "win more" situation. Good for group hug I suppose, but I've never been a fan of group hug.

Not sure if the card has any lore significance, there isn't any flavor text and I was unable to find anything in the lore related to it from my searching.

The art depicts a winged book, although the exact kind of book is unclear due to the small text. I'm assuming it's something educational, due to the fact it's in blue and the background looking fairly professional, like a university or something.

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Todays card: Command Beacon

Command beacon, a very simple card. It's a land that taps for colorless, and you can tap and sacrifice it to put your commander into your hand from the command zone. The only real use in most cases is getting around commander tax, as commander tax only applies when you cast your commander from your command zone. It can also be used in some niche strategies using commanders that want to be cast from your hand, most noticeably phage the untouchable, but these aren't recommended in most cases due to the beyond small amount of cards that put your commander into your hand.

There is no real lore significance to command beacon, but the flavor text is interesting. Riku of Two Reflections is a rather insignificant character in the lore, and one that I do not personally know much about, but what they say in reference to the card seems to imply it has some sort of magical, mind-warping effect.

Finally, the art. The tower shown in the art is very lighthouse-like, but also has some castle-like features. The landscape and the general vibe of the card, dark and foggy, makes me think the shown tower is on Innistrad, which makes sense to me, out of any plane Innistrad is probably the one that needs such beacons the most.

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main blog: @creeperman247

notes:

these thoughts can be anything about the card. from the art to the gameplay to the lore.

i am by no means a master at magic! i will probably at some point say something wrong, miss a feature about a card, mis-assess a cards powerlevel, or something similar.