Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[ravnic]

How big an ask is this in a mono midrange environment? Obviously it’s a terrible topdeck, but i am looking for non-Thoughtseize, non aggro beater, proactive “investment plays” on turn 1 and this feels like it should come online around turn 4-5 probably?

If tokens, sacrifices and combat are a thing in your cube, this card is great. It's a real threat on turn 1 but still a decent topdeck, especially on a full battlefield. Sure, you want an environment where a5/5 is a real threat for it to shine, but that's not even that big of an ask. It's also great in control decks with boardwipes or stuff like Wildfire, plus just the threat of activation makes it impossible to attack into it usually, unless the opponent has precisely instant speed removal.

It is a lower power card, sure, but there it is really, really sweet! I've cut this card once for space reasons or something, and then missed it's presence badly after just two drafts. It will never go anywhere again.

 

[inscho]

I’ll have to check to see I have a saved deck list with a record to share when I’m at my computer, but my favorite Frog deck packs things like:



It can really throw out some crazy sequences, has enough removal from black, both colors give you lots of recursion and self-mill effects

 

[Velrun]

Baby is awake

That’s a good name for a Gitrog Monster deck!

 

[Jason Waddell]

Everyone's favourite frog has a lot of fans around here (me included!) but I want to unpick it a bit. It's easy to list off cards that trigger it or work with it in some way but I'm looking for examples of decks where it excelled

Some awful, unedited, unlisted Gitrog gameplay. Clip starts with me empty handed, no gas. Ignore the misplays.

 

[Nanonox]

If you can stomach a 5 color Omnath, Locus of Creation pile, here is one with self-mill, discard, fetches and recursion to take full advantage of the Frog.



Otherwise, I had a Jund list pop up. Same principal of self-mill, discard, sacrifice and recursion to trigger it as best as I can.



Sacrifice with God-Eternal Bontu and Greater Gargadon are my favorite ways to trigger it. If I had a discard/madness theme, I am sure it would be a popular card in there too.

 

[inscho]

That’s a good name for a Gitrog Monster deck!

My personal favorite is Frog Tricks™

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

How powerful is this? I mean, yeah it's clearly good - I want to run it, but if you untap with it does it just completely runaway with games? Is it bad that one of the reasons I want to run it is so Necrotic Ooze can have some fun with it?

 

[Zoss]

It's not unbeatable per se, but Kenrith is a fine 5c payoff insofar as he's pretty strong when you have access to multiple of abilities. However, his greatest strength is his flexibility, in that he's perfectly fine in a 3/4C deck, and still does a fair bit of work in, say, a Lorehold deck, especially if you're running Winota, Joiner of Forces or something like that. Probably his single nastiest/game-endingest ability is the red one, especially if you have a way to cheat him into play, but they're all typically fine. Just a really nice swiss army knife of a dude. He's a very fair threat, IMO, as you can play him as a Baneslayer on 5 or you can wait a bit and get immediate value with 6 or more mana as a poor man's Charging Monstrosaur goes a long way toward ensuring you get value out of him (provided games go that long in your cube, ofc).

 

[Erik Twice]

Kenrith is a bit dumb in that gaining 5 life is a lot and it can often gain you 10. If that's fine for you, then he's probably fine. The other abilities are expensive so he won't run away with the game at all.

Note that he's not a 5 color card. The important abilities are white and blue, perhaps black.

 

[Nanonox]

I agree with the others, that Kenrith is a solid threat, but he is pretty slow and mana intensive. I don't think it's impossible to catch up even after a few activations. I'll agree with Erik that the +5 life can get dumb though. Don't sleep on the Red ability, haste and trample ends games!



I try to avoid cards that stonewall aggro, as it is already hard to get through in a multiplayer game, but this card looks like it would play well. My format doesn't have many recursive creatures in black, so this would be a boon to sacrifice decks. However, a control deck could just slot it in and have it block forever.
I like it's versatility, single Black pip and multiplayer mechanic.

How has it been against aggro for you?

 

[Jason Waddell]

I agree with the others, that Kenrith is a solid threat, but he is pretty slow and mana intensive. I don't think it's impossible to catch up even after a few activations. I'll agree with Erik that the +5 life can get dumb though. Don't sleep on the Red ability, haste and trample ends games!



I try to avoid cards that stonewall aggro, as it is already hard to get through in a multiplayer game, but this card looks like it would play well. My format doesn't have many recursive creatures in black, so this would be a boon to sacrifice decks. However, a control deck could just slot it in and have it block forever.
I like it's versatility, single Black pip and multiplayer mechanic.

How has it been against aggro for you?

I kind of love this card and I normally can't stomach Commander cards very well. It's a great enabler for sac shenanigans, and so far I haven't experienced a scenario where it was all that frustrating to go against.

Ophiomancery and Queen of the Golgari are best friends.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Given the likelihood that this is coming to Arena in HA5, what are people's opinions on Lady Gaga these days? Is she too backbreaking if she hits the board? Or is she an appropriate payoff for hitting 7 mana or as a reanimation target?

 

[SirFunchalot]

I don't really like it outside of reanimator decks and even in those its more of a sideboard card unless my list can toolbox for it with broken tutors, entomb, intuition/buried alive, survival of the fittest etc. Paying 7 mana for norn isn't something I'm anywhere close to being interested in doing in any higher power format.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Given the likelihood that this is coming to Arena in HA5, what are people's opinions on Lady Gaga these days? Is she too backbreaking if she hits the board? Or is she an appropriate payoff for hitting 7 mana or as a reanimation target?

Yeah I agree with @SirFunchalot. I don't think there are many decks that are looking to hardcast Norn in high-powered formats, and I think she's too swingy to provide a good experience in low-powered formats. I think she's a good reanimator target if you can accomodate her in that archetype, but that's the only place you really want her to be playable.

 

[inscho]

Yeah Norn is an awkward card to place. I feel like it’s only at home in a traditional mtgs “power max” setting.

Pretty backbreaking in the average riptide cube.

I would recommend against running it in most settings

 

[shamizy]

Given the likelihood that this is coming to Arena in HA5, what are people's opinions on Lady Gaga these days? Is she too backbreaking if she hits the board? Or is she an appropriate payoff for hitting 7 mana or as a reanimation target?

Fine at seven mana, miserable if cheated out early. Like just consider the fact that your 1/1 token now trades with whatever 5/5 they had previously. It really depends on how fair your environment is. I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary with pushed card designs nowadays at lower CMCs across the board. Might actually just be fine if it's competing against everything that already gives a card worth of value off ETB. I just don't think it's particularly fun to play against on board or exciting to play with at 7 mana.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Man, played with this for the first time last night
You know this thing lets you get a planeswalker back?
And that if you do cast an instant/sorcery, it doesn't get exiled?


There's good tension with playing it precombat for exp, or post combat if something died.
Drafter never got more than one exp apparently, which people had been saying was the broken part.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Man, played with this for the first time last night
You know this thing lets you get a planeswalker back?
And that if you do cast an instant/sorcery, it doesn't get exiled?

These cards were supposed to be Standard legal together.

 

[Brad]

Am I right in thinking that this is a very fair card when there's no Scapeshift or something present? I'm imagining a green ramp deck or blue control deck using it as a finisher.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

It might be 'fair', but it is tedious to play against. It also had some unintended consequences imo:

* player needs to pick up as many non basics as they can which impacts on availability for other players (duh, but the impact is quite severe)
* higher priority on lands means the player has less picks on 'taking a chance' on synergy pieces, defaulting to more reliable good stuff picks

I personally don't think the benefits of including field outweigh the downsides. And you need to include plenty of land destruction to interact with it.

 

[shamizy]

Am I right in thinking that this is a very fair card when there's no Scapeshift or something present? I'm imagining a green ramp deck or blue control deck using it as a finisher.

Honestly, I don't think most cube decks would be able to hit the requirements to make it work. I guess if you somehow end up with the 4C Goodstuff pile with great fixing and get to deploy early without missing a beat, but I don't think a typical 2 color deck or one barely splashing a 3rd color can get there. Seems difficult unless you've got an overabundance of fixing or doing something unique like going half and half on regular basics and snow basics in your land box.

Completely different format, but the only two color deck that I have made this work in is my Karametra EDH and that's mostly because the commander has a Rampant Growth like trigger for every creature cast. Between lands with dual typing, snow basics and regular basics its doable. But even then it requires specific sequencing to hit the right number for it to come together every once in a while. I don't know if that's doable in a typical cube.

On the flipside, if your deck is a consistent 3 colors it's almost trivial to make it work by the late game. You'll probably just get there without any extra work just playing whatever fixing you draw. I'm just not certain if a colorless tapland is something you'd actually want unless you can really take advantage of that late game inevitability or maximize those bodies with like an Overrun effect.

 

[landofMordor]

Am I right in thinking that this is a very fair card when there's no Scapeshift or something present? I'm imagining a green ramp deck or blue control deck using it as a finisher.

Fair, but also bad. Kinda like Ad Nauseum without Angel's Grace or whatever they combo off with nowadays.

The problem is, what drafter wants to hit their 7th+ land fairly? As a blue control deck, I'm looking to finish the game with Dream Trawler or Frost Titan (which don't require me to draw my 7th land). As a ramp deck, Sylvan Primordial or even Colossal Dreadmaw will provide more immediate stopping power. I don't want my payoff for making my 7th land drop to be a 2/2; I want to win the game STAT.

Compare Field to KHM taplands like Great Hall of Starnheim. I get a similar mana-flood insurance later in the game, have a lower deckbuilding cost (taps for B and doesn't require unique lands), and it's online a full 3 combat steps earlier, meaning that ideally I could punch out 12 damage with an angel by the time Field makes a single Zombie... Or even compare with Gnottvold Slumbermound, which isn't online any sooner than Field, but immediately provides 4/4 stats instead of being reliant on drawing one's 8th land (after already drawing 7 unique lands) to generate the same.

(This is the idea of late-game "tempo". When each player has 7 lands, mana availability is no longer the chokepoint, but card advantage is. Late game, I want my cards to use up all my mana, to ensure that my opponent has minimal draw steps to topdeck their way back into contention. Therefore, sooner is better where big-mana threats are concerned.)

 

[froggy]

Field is a very good card, but it needs a specific environment and specific support cards. You can't just slot it in

 

[Brad]

That all makes sense. Especially the part about being forced to pick too many nonbasics in order to pull it off. Thanks, guys.

 

[froggy]

It's definitely something I've considered for my list, but I'm not willing to make space for it at this point in time. If I ever upsize I'll probably at least test a field package.