Since the release of battlebond, i've ran both Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend in the 99 of my Atraxa commander deck. The most obvious reason for this is obviously Pir, and that card will probably never get cut.... ever!
So this is really about Toothy. I'd very much like to hear other peoples expierences with the card as a stand alone value piece.
Reason for this is i'm actually nevery really impressed with it on it's own, but having the card in the 99 has merrits.
With a whole revamp of the deck in progress, Toothy is an option to cut so i'd like to go a little in depth on how i view things:
Objective Pros on having toothy in the 99
-Toothy makes Pir act as it is has "draw a card" stapled on it, which leads to board advantage with card parity;
-Toothy acts as a tutor for Pir;
-Toothy could potentially be a buffer for card advantage. though i don't have ways in the deck to trigger it myself without spending precious resources.
-Toothy could become very big over time, good for defense since it deters people from attacking without evasion even if the attacker is bigger.
Objective counters
-When both are in hand, none of the tutor effects have value;
-Any black/green tutor can find Pir and others;
-There are other card draw spells and engines;
-I don't have much need for defense.
Rather subjective cons
-Toothy has no evasion on it's own so it won't help me win directly;
-Toothy and Pir in hand is pretty meh;
-Toothy needs a little build around to gain max value, thus always feels a little lackluster on its own in the deck;
-Toothy is in the pretty occupied 4cmc slot and almost never the follow-up play on Pir in my deck (Atraxa usually is).
Writing this down makes me realize, Toothy is probably fine to cut. The card that would replace it would be Jace, Unraveler of Secrets which is in fact, just the better card for it's versatility. Though it takes a little utility away from Pir.
I'd very much like to hear peoples oppinions on this brakedown and on Toothy, Imaginary Friend as part of the 99 in commander.
I used run Toothy in my Kydele/Bruse wheels deck, mostly as an enchantment that draws cards later and can block most things with his soon to be hefty body. The only reason I stopped is my meta has a few Pyrohemia effects in it to hit Toothy before any triggers go off, but despite all this I find him to be a more useful version of Chasm Skulker. Between 3-8 1/1 tokens feels worse to me than 3-8 cards regardless of whether Toothy is exiled/bounced/flickered or killed.
Toothy tutors Pir, which is kind of nice (it also puts more value in playing Pir, if you have it the other way). Toothy's card draw is also totally reasonable. Toothy can also be a wincon if you play Rogue's Passage.
I'm fairly sure I wouldn't play Toothy if the partner mechanic didn't include a tutor, but being able to get a bit more value out of Pir by tutoring Toothy or being able to tutor Pir makes it worthwhile, IMO.
I play Toothy in my Brago deck, where the interaction between getting blinked and Toothy’s triggers really ramps up the counters and card draw. I also run it in Damia where it is in-theme. In both instances, I don’t run Pir in those decks and Toothy stands alone just fine.
I run Pir in my Atraxa deck as well, and I should probably put Toothy in as well. The interaction with Pir and Planeswalkers is amazing and I think that Toothy being a Pir tutor on top of potential card draw makes it well worth the inclusion.
I play both Pir and Toothy in a counter-based Atraxa list, and I absolutely would run both under nearly any circumstance. The fact that one tutors the other makes your chances of "drawing" Pir double without needing to take up the space to use a tutor, Toothy does something in addition to tutoring Pir, card draw is always relevant, and Toothy should almost always draw removal or else you gain a massive advantage, which I think is already on par (or better than) Jace, which you're contemplating replacing him with.
I think toothy is a fine "fun" card in atraxa as his full value through card draw and/or flickering is almost non-existant unless you are already winning. If you are playing tutors and want a more fine tuned deck there is no reason to play toothy. If you are having no fun playing him then there is no reason to play toothy.
I run Toothy in my Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis "Maro" deck, as just one more thing that gets pretty absurdly huge as I draw Mind Unbound levels of cards. I don't run Pir, as very little of the deck otherwise has interaction with counters.
It works, but it's certainly not the most exciting card of the deck, although the 'if this thing gets killed' fallback is nice to have.
However, in your case it might be a pretty safe cut.
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So this is really about Toothy. I'd very much like to hear other peoples expierences with the card as a stand alone value piece.
Reason for this is i'm actually nevery really impressed with it on it's own, but having the card in the 99 has merrits.
With a whole revamp of the deck in progress, Toothy is an option to cut so i'd like to go a little in depth on how i view things:
Objective Pros on having toothy in the 99
-Toothy makes Pir act as it is has "draw a card" stapled on it, which leads to board advantage with card parity;
-Toothy acts as a tutor for Pir;
-Toothy could potentially be a buffer for card advantage. though i don't have ways in the deck to trigger it myself without spending precious resources.
-Toothy could become very big over time, good for defense since it deters people from attacking without evasion even if the attacker is bigger.
Objective counters
-When both are in hand, none of the tutor effects have value;
-Any black/green tutor can find Pir and others;
-There are other card draw spells and engines;
-I don't have much need for defense.
Rather subjective cons
-Toothy has no evasion on it's own so it won't help me win directly;
-Toothy and Pir in hand is pretty meh;
-Toothy needs a little build around to gain max value, thus always feels a little lackluster on its own in the deck;
-Toothy is in the pretty occupied 4cmc slot and almost never the follow-up play on Pir in my deck (Atraxa usually is).
Writing this down makes me realize, Toothy is probably fine to cut. The card that would replace it would be Jace, Unraveler of Secrets which is in fact, just the better card for it's versatility. Though it takes a little utility away from Pir.
I'd very much like to hear peoples oppinions on this brakedown and on Toothy, Imaginary Friend as part of the 99 in commander.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
Toothy tutors Pir, which is kind of nice (it also puts more value in playing Pir, if you have it the other way). Toothy's card draw is also totally reasonable. Toothy can also be a wincon if you play Rogue's Passage.
I'm fairly sure I wouldn't play Toothy if the partner mechanic didn't include a tutor, but being able to get a bit more value out of Pir by tutoring Toothy or being able to tutor Pir makes it worthwhile, IMO.
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I run Pir in my Atraxa deck as well, and I should probably put Toothy in as well. The interaction with Pir and Planeswalkers is amazing and I think that Toothy being a Pir tutor on top of potential card draw makes it well worth the inclusion.
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Melira PodRIP 1/19/15GWHatebearsIt works, but it's certainly not the most exciting card of the deck, although the 'if this thing gets killed' fallback is nice to have.
However, in your case it might be a pretty safe cut.