Extort (as seen on Crypt Ghast and Blind Obedience and the like) at first seemed really good to me, then I realized that it was only one drained life, not two, so then I felt like it was a mediocre mechanic.
HOWEVER, as the gods would have it (or God, or Science, w/e), I was running 3 Blind Obedience MB in my Esper control list that I am testing. The card is pretty sweet, but what really made it nice was that little keyword tacked onto it. A 2 life swing is pretty nice. Now, I don't know if it is supposed to be in a control list (probably not), most likely, a tempo list is where it is at, but, I have been loving extort.
In multiples, with Think Twice you can turn EoT wasted mana into a 4 life swing, with 4-5 mana, as well as drawing a card. If you counter something, and you have leftover mana but you don't want to Sphinx's that turn, you can just dump the extra mana in to get that little bit of advantage.
Over the course of the games that I have played, Extort has gained me around 8 life on top of the dealing 8 life and more importantly, making my opponents' Thundermaw's ETB tapped. I have been very, very pleased with it. Has anyone else had similar experiences?
In order to take advantage of having multiple Extort triggers out, you have to have considerable amounts of excess mana to pay for the triggers. This generally means only playing very cheap spells and playing lots of mana. Crypt Ghast helps you get away with this, but in general it seems like a very fragile plan that encourages you to build a deck with underpowered cards.
I've been testing some Orzhov builds, and by itself, no, too slow... but in a grindy control deck that has extra mana to sink or in something a tiny bit extra to make a Blood Artist style build more impressive, it's good. But even then, you won't want to cram more than one or two cards with the ability in the deck as you're using that early mana for more important things.
God I remember that guy that tried to push that 1/1 black extort thrull into a zombie deck and trying to combo it with sacrifice and gravecrawler to drain his opponents to death; he blatantly ignored the fact that blood artist cuts the mana requirement in half for this combo and relentlessly tried to push the new mechanic.
As Artificer Andy said; cards are viable, not mechanics. Some mechanics help and make combos easy but you cannot build around a single mechanic rather than a single strategy.
Out of all the Extort cards I saw, only Blind Obedience and Cryptghast work well because they help themselves while also having extort as a bonus.
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Decks:
Modern: (P/R)(P/G) Infect (P/G)(P/R) UWU Fish UWU WB Disruption BW
Standard: WBR Junk Aristocrats WBR WWW Humans WWW
Commander: BBB Marrowgnawer and Friends BBB GGG Thrun Tron GGG WBR Kaalia of the Vast RBW
Blind Obedience draws out the game and provides you some life. As control and midrange, both are very good things. Considering Jund and Boros will be two of the most popular and powerful decks, and you can play flashback cards to trigger extort many times, BO is excellent all around. I play 3 main and it gives me an overwhelming sense of security and longevity.
However, that aren't that many other extort cards that are playable. Maybe Crypt Ghast in combo or ramp. Thrull Parasite is only 1cc and has a hate ability.
Still, extort costs mana. If you can't pay for them all, there's no point in having so many of them. For me 3 BO is enough.
I've been finding Blind Obedience to be really good in the keyrune control deck I'm messing around with. Extort tends to be worth about 6 life drained per game (12 turn games or so) and the enchantment saves a good deal of life against decks with haste.
That deck has everything extort wants though. Tons of excess W/B mana and lots of card draw for extra triggers. Despite that, I don't see any other extort cards being playable in standard.
3 has seemed like the right number of the card.
I have really liked the curve of
T1 - Land
T2 - Land, Blind Obedience
T3 - Land, Keyrune
T4 - Land, Sweeper, Extort
Good Mana sink for long games, especially will give tokens extra reach. Casting Intangible Virtue or Midnight Haunting late game isn't really using your now 6 or 7 lands in a late game match all that well.
With Stonewright, at least you can dump damage via firebreathing style pumps.
I'm personally a fan of mana dumps late game in anything that essentially isn't aggro and extort might be nice. It can also smooth out a curve or weird hand where you have enough mana but only a bunch of 1 or 2 drops with a spare mana lying around.
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HOWEVER, as the gods would have it (or God, or Science, w/e), I was running 3 Blind Obedience MB in my Esper control list that I am testing. The card is pretty sweet, but what really made it nice was that little keyword tacked onto it. A 2 life swing is pretty nice. Now, I don't know if it is supposed to be in a control list (probably not), most likely, a tempo list is where it is at, but, I have been loving extort.
In multiples, with Think Twice you can turn EoT wasted mana into a 4 life swing, with 4-5 mana, as well as drawing a card. If you counter something, and you have leftover mana but you don't want to Sphinx's that turn, you can just dump the extra mana in to get that little bit of advantage.
Over the course of the games that I have played, Extort has gained me around 8 life on top of the dealing 8 life and more importantly, making my opponents' Thundermaw's ETB tapped. I have been very, very pleased with it. Has anyone else had similar experiences?
MTGS egos at their finest.
Thoughts on proxies:
As Artificer Andy said; cards are viable, not mechanics. Some mechanics help and make combos easy but you cannot build around a single mechanic rather than a single strategy.
Out of all the Extort cards I saw, only Blind Obedience and Cryptghast work well because they help themselves while also having extort as a bonus.
(P/R)(P/G) Infect (P/G)(P/R)
UWU Fish UWU
WB Disruption BW
Standard:
WBR Junk Aristocrats WBR
WWW Humans WWW
Commander:
BBB Marrowgnawer and Friends BBB
GGG Thrun Tron GGG
WBR Kaalia of the Vast RBW
Why is desperate ravings a good card?
However, that aren't that many other extort cards that are playable. Maybe Crypt Ghast in combo or ramp. Thrull Parasite is only 1cc and has a hate ability.
Still, extort costs mana. If you can't pay for them all, there's no point in having so many of them. For me 3 BO is enough.
........................
That deck has everything extort wants though. Tons of excess W/B mana and lots of card draw for extra triggers. Despite that, I don't see any other extort cards being playable in standard.
3 has seemed like the right number of the card.
I have really liked the curve of
T1 - Land
T2 - Land, Blind Obedience
T3 - Land, Keyrune
T4 - Land, Sweeper, Extort
With Stonewright, at least you can dump damage via firebreathing style pumps.
I'm personally a fan of mana dumps late game in anything that essentially isn't aggro and extort might be nice. It can also smooth out a curve or weird hand where you have enough mana but only a bunch of 1 or 2 drops with a spare mana lying around.