I personally disagree but I'm not a political expert by any means. You seem to be making the classic "dies to doomblade" argument. No Mercy is just one political card, we should be playing lots of other political cards too. It also depends on how your opponents theat assess, using resources to remove a No Mercy that isn't actively messing with their permanents nor advancing a plan seems kinda silly to me. Then again, some people don't like feeling manipulated and may destroy it anyway.
Sorry for the slow reply, I haven't really hopped on MTGS in a while.
I'm not saying No Mercy is bad because it can be destroyed, I'm saying that it's bad because it doesn't actively encourage your opponents to attack people who aren't you; It just discourages people from attacking you until it is eventually destroyed (or until someone can kill you in one swing). And when that happens, No Mercy has bought you basically nothing except for maybe a higher life total than you otherwise would have had, which isn't super good to spend mana or cards on unless it completely puts you out of reach of your opponents. Since No Mercy can't do that, it's probably not worth putting in your deck in the first place for the same reason you wouldn't run something like Blood Tithe.
Although this is meta dependent. If your opponents have a reason to attack in general, then giving them a reason not to attack you is, in practice, giving them a reason to attack someone else. So if your opponents use a lot of attack or combat damage triggers, No Mercy sends them at each other. Its weaker in mono black than it is in B/X/x where other colors can give you access to cards that give your opponents reasons to want to attack (or in the case of red, force them to).
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
@Queen Marchesa Playere. Don't you find her kind of underwhelming after the first cast? All she does is make a 1/1 per turn. That seems like horrid value to me.
I've played Seizan, Perverter of Truth for years now as a mono-B politics deck. He draws people cards so they like him until everyone is at half their starting life and being punished for drawing cards. He's kinda like a mono-B Nekusar.
I played Kaervek for awhile and he's a great politics / chaos / retaliation commander if you want to go BR.
Hmm, maybe I should try Kaervek after all. I assumed that like Vial Smasher, people wouldn't fall for it and assess his threat highly. But maybe his political applications make people look the other way.
Not at all. First, she's very non threatening so she tends to stick as people often won't waste removal. If someone does get her, she's cheap to recast, and when she comes back down you become the monarch again. This is useful once you get your pillow fort built and want cards more than tokens. Also, don't forget that her main ability isn't printed on the card: she makes your opponents hurt eachother to become the monarch. Some will try to become and stay the monarch, others will get to a point where they need cards and make an attack they otherwise wouldn't just to get it. She's all about making others do your dirty work, so you want to build around that.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Queen Marchesa actually is a really good political commander. Get hit once, and you won't be attacked often. Build in some other deterrents in addition to her death touchers, like no mercy, or big Teysa, or pillow fort effects. The thing is, you don't have to be impossible to attack, you just have to make it costly enough to deter attacks. Why pay 2 per creature to attack you and lose a dude to a death toucher when they could swing at the monarch instead? Why beat on the guy stopping the combos and saving you?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
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Although this is meta dependent. If your opponents have a reason to attack in general, then giving them a reason not to attack you is, in practice, giving them a reason to attack someone else. So if your opponents use a lot of attack or combat damage triggers, No Mercy sends them at each other. Its weaker in mono black than it is in B/X/x where other colors can give you access to cards that give your opponents reasons to want to attack (or in the case of red, force them to).
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Not at all. First, she's very non threatening so she tends to stick as people often won't waste removal. If someone does get her, she's cheap to recast, and when she comes back down you become the monarch again. This is useful once you get your pillow fort built and want cards more than tokens. Also, don't forget that her main ability isn't printed on the card: she makes your opponents hurt eachother to become the monarch. Some will try to become and stay the monarch, others will get to a point where they need cards and make an attack they otherwise wouldn't just to get it. She's all about making others do your dirty work, so you want to build around that.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!