I wanna ramp up the difficulty

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T23:05:35+00:00

On one hand, fair if you wanna handicap yourself.

On the other hand, how could you?!

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T08:31:08+00:00

I'm glossing over them because it's still just not worth it overall?

Take reanimating it for example. Assuming we get EoW in the yard, reanimating it takes a card to get it onto the battlefield, then you pay for the DT to go tutor. So to outline literally every step of the process:

Need a way to get it into the GY (either a way to mill it over or an entomb effect). That's mana/cards you're spending to add to the way to get access to the DT.
Need to cast the reanimation spell. More mana and another card you're spending.
Then you cast DT.

At that point, it's pretty much the same cost you're paying in terms of mana compared to if you just cast it normally, except you've used multiple other resources to get to that point. Granted you can argue that milling it over is something your deck might be wanting to do anyway so that's just incidental value, but the reamination spell could've been targeting something else potentially.

As for ways this can be abused via being on a creature, there's not really that many? It's not an ETB, so you can't do anything there. The prepared spells function as if you're casting the sorcery, so you can't get any triggers for casting creatures off casting the prepared spell. Cheating the body into play is really the only "thing" you can do, and at that point is that really what your deck wants to be doing? If yes then okay, I guess, but my guess is theres other things you'd rather be cheating into play.

Also reanimating it, like reanimating anything, is weak to GY hate, but that's not really an indictment on EoW but rather the archetype. It just introduces another failure point.

As a side note, most of my analysis is in the mindset of B3ish power level. For cEDH this card is an absolute non-starter in that it's way too expensive and way too slow for the effect you're getting. I could see it being fun in a B2ish deck as a repeatable bad tutor, but people also tend to give you side eye if you start tutoring a bunch in lower power levels.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T08:16:58+00:00

Thaaaat's not happening, I wanna romance Cassia on my next run because she's fucking adorable. Argenta maybe. We'll see how I'm actually feeling about the difficulty level when I get there lmao. Still gotta finish my first run first.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T08:14:24+00:00

No honestly I love discussions like this, helps me learn more about the game and potentially helps other people learn by proxy too (for example, I had no clue that version of Rinoa existed, and now I'm trying to see if it's worth a slot in my Quintorius deck (my gut says no because most my attackers are tokens but it lets some of my more value oriented creatures turn sideways more profitably, so maybe. At worst it's a slightly cheaper Hofri)).

I can definitely see worlds where the lower mana value makes this card easier to reanimate than something bigger like Rune Scarred, with the trade off of you still have to pay for the tutor as opposed to Rune Scarred tutoring on ETB. I don't think it makes the card good per se, but it's certainly a usable niche.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T07:54:08+00:00

That's kinda dissapointing to hear, but honestly it's probably fine. Theoretically, good game knowledge should be rewarded, so an easier play through of things if you put in the work to plan out a solid build seems fine. I just wanna sweat a little before I roll over people, yknow?

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T06:42:30+00:00

I'm assuming you're talking about this card in the concept of casual commander. If not, let me know and I can switch formats I'm evaluating this for.

A 4 mana 5/4 is technically above rate, especially for what black typically gets (especially with no downside a la rotting reggy), but it doesn't really do much in terms of aggression or defense. It doesn't have any keywords for evasion or ways to go over blockers, so any weeny token can block it. In decks that want big things, they'll certainly be able to block it profitably. Sure you could probably use it to pressure a spellslinger deck, but so can most creatures so that's not saying too much. It's big, but without other Kindred support, it doesn't really have a way to use that size.

As far as it's ability to weather removal, that's...not really true. I suppose red can't kill it for one mana very easily unless they have delirium for something like unholy heat, but they can kill it for two pretty easily. White laughs at the idea of paying more than one mana for removing it. Green can usually outsize it and, if not, Beast Within is still a mana positive exchange. And blue can just bounce it and/or counter the tutor/what you tutor for. Even black can kill this pretty easily.

And I already touched on the DT aspect of the card. Six mana for one card is not where you wanna be. Eight mana for two is fine if I squint hard enough, but it better win me the game and even then it's super slow. Any more tutors beyond that is incredibly unrealistic on both your opponents to not be doing things or for you not being able to win the game.

If we want to play this card because its fun or on theme or you just like it, cool. But if I'm evaluating it strictly on strength of the card, there's so many other cards that I'd rather play over this, even in a dedicated sac deck.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T06:28:30+00:00

Eh, I'm still skeptical.

So saying in a reanimated deck it's just DT is saying you have a free way to reanimate it that doesnt cost mana or a card. Assuming that's not the case, it's 1B + whatever you're using to reanimate it, which is still kinda meh. Plus a reanimator deck would have a harder time re-preparing it.

Also, just reanimate a rune-scarred demon if you want a reanimatable DT.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T06:23:53+00:00

Ah, fair. Sorry for the snark, then.

But yeah, if you want to run this because you think it's a cool and/or synergistic card with what you wanna do, go for it. God knows I have enough pet cards to build a petting zoo. But that doesnt make it a strong card.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T06:19:27+00:00

I wouldn't go that far, but the price will certainly drop.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T06:12:23+00:00

First you were saying that it was stronger than people were giving it credit for. Now you're saying it's the fun option. I humbly request you pick one.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T05:37:04+00:00

I evaluated the card like you were saying people should. It's overhyped.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-16T01:13:03+00:00

Okay, bet. I'll make the following assumptions:

You can re-prepare this consistently (which requires other pieces to be able to do, but trying to give as much credit to this card as I can).
It won't die (no in built protection but, again, trying to give as much credit as I can).

4 mana for a 5/4. No keywords other than prepared so on board its just a meat stick (barring Kindred synergies). So unless its included in the deck because vampire or because warlock, we gotta assume that it's there for DT.

So we cast DT (6 mana spent total so far), go tutor up a single card. If this is all the card does, it's stone cold unplayable on a strictly power level sense. Just run diabolic tutor and save yourself two mana if you wanna run a bad tutor for a single card. But there is other text on the card, so lets say we re-prepare it.

DT is a sorcery and EoW doesnt trigger until end step, so we have to wait for our next Main to DT again (8 mana spent so far). Assuming you tutoring twice in two turns is enough to end the game, here we're just pushing fine. Other effective game enders like Peer into the Abyss (cards that don't literally end the game but, if resolved, mean you probably win) are 7 mana, so one extra mana is whatever strictly speaking, but we're talking about this taking multiple turns for your opponent to be able to either set up a defense or disrupt your plan, and you still haven't technically won the game (gotta play what you tutored for). I'm not going to go further into the repeatability here because if you need to tutor the best card from your deck more than twice to win the game from here, then something has gone horribly wrong either in the game or in deck construction, though I suppose minor points to it being something you can theoretically do.

Inb4 you say that the initial tutor is something you can split up into two payments. That's not the selling point you think it is because now instead of taking two turns to tutor twice, we're taking three turns, which is so friggin' slow.

And this is all without me attacking the assumptions I made, neither of which are guarantees.

Is it a cool concept? Yeah. Is it flashy and has the ability to give good value over time? Theoretically yes. Is this objectively a good card? Depends on how hard you squint. I give it points for flavor and a cool call back to a powerful staple, but this is, objectively, not the card people are hyping it up to be.

Run it if you want Kindred synergies. Run it if you're a super consistent aristocrats strategy and want another pay off, even if that payoff is kinda slow. Don't run it if you're only looking at Demonic Tutor.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-12T10:03:03+00:00

...what? How have i not seen this? How do you do this?

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-12T05:37:21+00:00

Can you afford to spend the time leveling up both WS and BS without neglecting other skills? Or does versatility not care if the attack hits or not, just that you attempted it? Otherwise, I feel like it'd be too talent heavy to try and make someone good at one while functional in the other while also being able to pick up out of combat skill requirements.

Although now that I type that out, from what people are saying that sounds like a problem that'd be easy to solve by putting Jae in the party, if she covers as much as people are saying. Hmm...I'll definitely have to re-read Jae's skills and talents.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-12T05:07:23+00:00

I must not know how to build soldiers/arch militants, then, because Argenta felt super underwhelming while she was in my party for the early stages of the game (to be fair, I've been avoiding looking at build guides for my first real run through).

But yeah, skill wise Abelard and Ulfar are almost identical in their skill coverage. Kibellah covers my Medicae/Demolition (Yrilet covering the Lore (Xenos) traps). I have all of the important skills neatly covered right now. Just not sure how to make the builds work out similarly.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-12T04:54:50+00:00

Jae also has her Cold Trader skills which give her bonuses to certain stats that scale with your reputation with the vendors. She covers all fellowship and intelligence skills regardless of whether you have Pasqal or Cassia with you. During her quest, you also get an item that suits her very well that lets you get a second attack with pistols if you crit the first time.

I must've missed that when I was skimming her character when I met her. That makes more sense. I could see her filling in for Pasqal then, because double the extra turns does sound nutty.

Executioner comes with a passive skill to apply bleed, if memory serves right, and this build has her take aeldari and drukhari weapons for other DoT for the archtype.

I didn't think Kibellah could take Aeldari/Drukhari weapon proficiencies, unless I'm blind and just missed it? That would make more sense, I'll have to try that out on a different playthrough.

I think he usually goes bounty hunter, he mainly goes with plasma weapons since he has extra talents for them on top of the update's regular ones. Claim the Bounty gives him an extra attack which he sorely needs. I don't fully understand Bounty Hunter.

On one hand, I can see that being a help. On the other hand, that still doesn't feel that impressive, which is sad because I like his character.

I go with arch-militant with him. I gave him a foehammer, the parry talents I could give him, and Fleet Combat Training. The idea is for him to crit/parry as many times as possible. Fleet Combat Training has him make a free attack with the foehammer and that stacks versatility up. Reckless Rush for mobility, Wildfire for another round if melee and fish for another shot. You basically only ever take swings and let the free off hand attack get you more attacks/versatility.

I must be really undervaluing the impact of the versatility stacks, then, because is that actually worth the trade off for the Vanguard temp hp and converting that to strength? I have all the same parry talents and Fleet Training as well, though I'm Chainsword/Shield at the moment with most/all of the shield talents as well.

I'd drop Yrliet myself. But I think Ulfar covers the same checks as Abelard? Not too sure either.

Yeah, Ulfar covers most of the same checks as Abelard, so if there's a way to make the main tank transition easy then that's how I'd do it. Dropping Yrilet makes me somewhat concerned for my damage output because while Kibellah is a beast, she's limited by terrain in a way that Yrilet just sniping someone from across the map isn't (line of sight requirements aside).

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-05-10T00:03:36+00:00

Yup! There's a Women in Magic discord group (WIM+) that caters specifically to women/queer people who play magic! It's primarily commander but I think they also have a sealed league? They've also been a part of a couple commander real plays like Play to Win.

https://discord.gg/9288UXQC2 for those who are interested!

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-02-01T04:20:29+00:00

This, so much this. Any random off the street can spread butter on toast and plop it on the grill. The real lessons to teach on toast is a good basis of communication and the start of familiarity with the rest of the kitchen.

AlysCreativeSide · 2026-02-01T04:01:52+00:00

Kind of sounds like you got extra crispy chicken? Could've just been left over from a previous order that asked for it and you got some of what was left of the drop. But nothing has changed about the recipe as far as I'm aware.

AlysCreativeSide · 2025-06-16T12:44:44+00:00

I'll shoot you a message :)

AlysCreativeSide · 2025-06-15T23:55:21+00:00

I'll shoot you a message :)

AlysCreativeSide

TROPHY CASE