Rekindling Phoenix

Creature — Phoenix

Flying When Rekindling Phoenix dies, create a 0/1 red Elemental creature token with "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature and return target card named Rekindling Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn."

Discussion (51)

DwaginFodder on Wolfrider's Saddle: Yay or Nay?

1 day ago

Limited star not built for Standard play. Most decks want their four-drops to either kill the oppponent with a larger body and/or evasion ( Rekindling Phoenix , God-Eternal Kefnet ) or generate significant card advantage ( Ravenous Chupacabra , Hostage Taker , Kefnet again). Any deck that could play Saddle has a better option.

Nemesis on Power Overwhelming

2 days ago

additions:

Kaladesh

Blooming Marsh

Bolas Land

Gideon of the Trials Hazoret the Fervent

Ixalan

Blood Sun Carnage Tyrant Kitesail Freebooter Ravenous Chupacabra Rekindling Phoenix Search for Azcanta  ^Flip Settle the Wreckage

Dominaria

Karn, Scion of Urza Muldrotha, the Gravetide Shalai, Voice of Plenty Teferi, Hero of Dominaria Cast Down Lyra Dawnbringer

Ravnica 3

Assassin's Trophy Niv-Mizzet, Parun Thief of Sanity Bedevil Electrodominance Hydroid Krasis Light Up the Stage Nullhide Ferox Risk Factor

War of the Spark

God-Eternal Oketra Teferi, Time Raveler Ugin, the Ineffable Oath of Kaya Liliana, Dreadhorde General Blast Zone God-Eternal Kefnet Narset, Parter of Veils Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

Modern Horizon

Eladamri's Call Genesis Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis Giver of Runes Seasoned Pyromancer Horizon Canopy Archmage's Charm Force of Negation Hexdrinker Scale Up Wrenn and Six

m19

Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip Resplendent Angel

m20

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim Scheming Symmetry Chandra, Awakened Inferno

sdh101 on TRY JUND!

3 weeks ago

I'm not a huge fan of the Chandra, Acolyte of Flame s. The first 0 does next to nothing while the other one is just not a great threat. The last ability lets you rebuy a removal spell, but I like playing more Lava Coil s more. What I don't like about Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is it doesn't give inevitability like most walkers. I think if you want that, I would play Treasure Map  ^Flip.

Also, I'm curious as to the exclusion of Llanowar Elves . I think you just get some free wins by curving that into Gruul Spellbreaker or Legion Warboss . It also ramps you into Rekindling Phoenix , Doom Whisperer and Chandra, Awakened Inferno . I might cut 2x Merfolk Branchwalker s and mabye 1x Assassin's Trophy and 1x Thrashing Brontodon .

Another thing I'm curious about is maybe some Temple of Malady s.

Tzefick on New Alara

1 month ago

Again I have to emphasize that without something tangible to compare to, I don't know what makes your Soulbond idea work better than the idea of Caretaker. Please provide some tangible ideas of how you would make this mechanic and put it on some creatures.

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"First-off, it’s too similar to old Naya."

• Well... you do actually want to make it feel like it came from Naya, don't you?

"But more importantly, it doubles down on what made Naya the least popular shard- that is, that “power 5 or greater” is really tough to secure because most creatures in that range cost four or more mana, which basically disqualifies it from most competitive environments. It’s just too slow to be functional."

• Are you seriously saying that 4+ CMC is non competitive? In what format? Modern, Vintage and Legacy? Sure in most settings hard casting a 4 CMC dumb Beast is likely not something you want to do in those formats, but are we really designing cards for the sole purpose that they should appear in competitive eternal formats? In Standard? No way is that too slow.

I strolled through War of the Spark standard decks on MTGtop8.com. We have a group of Esper Midrange who utilizes fringe amount of Hostage Taker , a bit more uses Elite Guardmage and all uses Teferi, Hero of Dominaria . That's a midrange deck with no efficient ramp access.

We have Gruul Aggro, featuring cards like Nullhide Ferox , Rekindling Phoenix and Skarrgan Hellkite . They also have a selection of ramp creatures.

Even Red Deck Wins have 4 CMC cards, although for a slightly different reason, Chandra, Fire Artisan and Experimental Frenzy .

And these are just the most present aggro decks and only one of whom utilizes mana ramp. If I go to UR aggro (next in line) they have Arclight Phoenix (although they may not actually cast it) and Crackling Drake

So I think it's wrong to say that 4 CMC cards are non-competitive.

It's also quite possible to make cards with the Caretaker idea that is definitely going to see play in eternal formats. It's just a matter of pushing the cards far enough.

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Additionally the border for Naya's threshold doesn't necessarily need to be at 5. It could be at 4 instead to push the mechanic as a baseline a bit more.

But as you said yourself; "Not only that, but both the power # and whether it’s “greater than X” or “less than X” makes it very broad design space, and gives me a lot of good knobs to work with. It’s also the furthest thing I can think of from a parasitic mechanic (which one could argue old Naya’s “power 5 or greater was, given nearly all of the decent power 5+ creatures below 4-5 mana were from Naya at the time, and kinda still today- most are either flip cards or have a serious downside)."

The Power X or greater/lesser than X does grant a certain amount of design space.

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I also fail to see how a shifted Soulbond that forces a particular pairing (you said yourself you wanted it to be restrictive pairing) is a better transcending mechanic outside block than a mechanic that have you play lower CMC creatures that can bounce themselves to gain a powerful effect when you play a higher CMC creature.

Thematically, Caretaker plays into the same space as Exploit, except it's the other way around where you first play the mechanic and THEN the enabler, and you only lose tempo and not resources like you do with Exploit - which was a liked mechanic on the Storm Scale.

Based on MTGTop8.com's historic data, the only Soulbond cards who ever made it to competitive eternal formats (here Modern, Legacy, Vintage) are: Deadeye Navigator and Silverblade Paladin . Deadeye is used in 1 Legacy deck back in 2013, and ended up in rank 5-8 out of 8. Silverblade has occurred a few more time, 4 in Modern (3 of whom back in 2012 - 1 year after Modern launch) and 4 in Legacy (mostly in Death & Taxes decks).

Now these data are all taken from one source, granted, but Soulbond as a mechanic doesn't seem like it has shown much competitive potential or at least result. One of the present cards is a combo component. The other is a Double Strike enabler on a body. Double Strike is an incredibly powerful keyword, especially when you can grant it to any creature. The best alternative is Battle Mastery for a permanent Double Strike ability.

I don't think I'm stretching the truth when I say that Deadeye Navigator and especially Silverblade Paladin were both pushed cards.

Actually looking at it, Spellbreaker Behemoth has 5 entries in Modern but it dies there for him. Woolly Thoctar had 4 in Modern and 2 in Standard. So either the data is just not there for Alara Standard or they made more splashes in Modern than in Standard. Ah and Woolly made 41 entries in Extended (yeah, it was back in those days). I think Naya was kinda overshadowed by the Naya zoo archetype featuring Wild Nacatl .

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As for Soulbond's entrance on the Storm scale, MaRo states that the mechanic is very popular but the design space is medium. The template for Soulbond is mostly in P/T upgrades, Evergreen Keywords and occassionally other abilities. Another hindrance is that both paired creatures gets the same effect.

They also say their data may be skewed toward more enfranchised players who are more likely to be competitive. In Standard Soulbond was used quite a lot, especially Wolfir Silverheart , beating Silverblade Paladin but sharing a lot of decks too under Aggro. However Wolfir shows up nowhere in competitive eternal formats.

They haven't made a Storm Scale article about Shards of Alara (or they have hidden it beyond the reach of Google) so where do you get your data on Naya's Power 5 being unpopular with the players? I'm genuinely curious.

The Storm Scale is also a strange way to measure popularity TBH. It kinda pitches the block's mechanics against each other, so if there's a mechanic that overshadows the rest, then you may get a skewed picture compared to considering the mechanics individually. Food for thought I guess.

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In conclusion, I don't think a restrictive Soulbond is that much better of a mechanic than what you could do with Caretaker and "Gargantuan". I do however think there's a flavor break on using Soulbond - I don't see the soulbonding between a massive beast and their worshippers. Unless the beasts somehow got way more sentient and actually starts having empathy for their worshippers.

I think you yourself have a dislike of the Naya Power-5 mechanic, so a mechanic that goes somewhat close to what it was is something you dislike. Unless you provide some sauce on the unpopularity of Naya's Power-5, I don't think it's right to say it is disliked as a mechanic. It may not have been a competitively pushed mechanic, but that doesn't mean the mechanic is disliked.

redbird97 on Does this need a change?

1 month ago

Hey check out my deck Chandra's Unhappy Here's my question. Would Arclight Phoenix do anything for this deck? If so how many and what do I pull? Thanks and any upvotes appreciated. Rekindling Phoenix , Hazoret the Fervent and Chandra, Torch of Defiance will remain no matter what.

hullos on My First Deck

1 month ago

Some suggestions I have are, Gutterbones can be a real annoyance to opponents, especially if you put something like Judith, the Scourge Diva in the deck, Legion Warboss and Fireblade Artist are also great cards that work with judith and put down a ton of early game pressure on opponents. Finally, some removal and hand control like Drill Bit / Duress and Skewer the Critics could also fit in. maybe as a late game threat you could put in a Rekindling Phoenix if you wanted to. those are my suggestions.

Chuckles24 on Mardu Superfriends

1 month ago

Boroswins thanks for the suggestions and the upvote!

I like the idea of Tibalt, Rakish Instigator in the sideboard. I’m thinking it’s a 3 of and I take out the Lyra Dawnbringer s and the Rekindling Phoenix s and find something to take that fourth spot.

I do like Bedevil as well. It doesn’t feel great in those situation where you don’t have exactly BBR though. Maybe it’s a two of?

I’m not a huge fan of Widespread Brutality . It does work well with Dreadhorde Invasion , but without one on the battlefield it’s not that great. It deals one less damage than Deafening Clarion , but you do get a 2/2. I feel like four mana, I’d rather have the guaranteed board wipe in Kaya's Wrath .

Mullac on Heroic Aristocrats [Sideboard help needed]

1 month ago

I think the Priest of the Forgotten Gods should be in the mainboard as an Aristocrat deck as another sac outlet. Instead of Midnight Reaper which may harm you more against other aggro decks (White Weenie, Burn, etc) you can add in Rix Maadi Reveler which can give you a potentially bigger advantage, once you've emptied your hand. It's also definately worthwhile having some exile in your sideboard against Planeswalkers or Rekindling Phoenix . Cards such as Prison Realm , Bedevil or Lava Coil can help you against more Midrange decks (While Heartfire is an interesting choice which could work).