Eternal of Harsh Truths

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Eternal of Harsh Truths

Creature — Zombie Cleric

Afflict 2 (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, defending player loses 2 life.)

Whenever Eternal of Harsh Truths attacks and isn't blocked, draw a card.

9-lives on

1 year ago

I'll define aikido as follows:

  1. Receiving damage, then dealing damage; exempli gratia: Deflecting Palm, Boros Reckoner.

  2. Causing damage through combat by using a defense against them; exempli gratia: Spellweaver Eternal, Eternal of Harsh Truths.

  3. Preventing spells and dealing damage through this prevention; exempli gratia: Ionize, Essence Backlash.

Do you see the common thread in this? It's that there is a transformation of receiving damage into dealing damage, or preventing damage into doing damage, or if the opponent prevents damage then causing that damage. This is essentially the aikido martial art's goal. Aikido doesn't deal direct damage like a burn deck. It seeks to simply transform damage.

I know that in order to be useful as an archetype it has to be literally a useful gameplay. Although, the cards Boros Reckoner, especially when paired with Gideon's Sacrifice, and Deflecting Palm have won me a few games alone, and I've only played a few games with a burn deck and my testudo deck. The two former are excellent when someone becomes too cocky and swings with all (s)he's got. However, a archetype will not always be the best, just ilke a defense-to-damage deck is very difficult to play.

wallisface on

1 year ago

So, I think you need to translate what you’re doing to magic archetypes. Your current deck appears to be trying to do 3 things at once that are all in conflict with each-other:

  • Control: control decks need 3 things to be successful, (1) efficient spells, (2) card advantage, (3) spell density. You’re not going to be able to build a control deck here, because you’re forcing yourself to use weak countermagic. Added to that, you have almost no way to gain card advantage, and have too many non-control pieces in the deck to make this viable.

  • Wizard-Tribal: requires good creature synergy, and the ability to cast a lot of spells (as well as being aggressive). Your current Wizard selection isn’t ideal for this, and your spell choices don’t work well with the tribe at all.

  • Damage Redirection: requires building around Boros Reckoner and Blasphemous Act effects. I’m sure your theming-enforcing will make this impossible.

Currently, from a mtg perspective, you have too much going on here - your deck is an array of half-constructed archetypes that don’t work. You have to remember that this “aikido” theme is something that just exists in your head (that is, an opponent is never going to guess that’s what your deck is doing). Whatever your plan, it needs to work in mtg-terms (because that’s the game we’re playing!).

As for your other consideration, it’s just more disjointed ideas, Slither Blade doesn’t work with anything you’re currently doing, and requires on-damage triggers. Eidolon of the Great Revel wants to exist in an aggro/burn deck. Eternal of Harsh Truths needs to be in a deck with lots of killspells to guarantee making contact.

I think that you need to focus on ensuring you have a clear archetype/vision within a mtg framework. Focusing on aikido as an idea has left your deck very disjointed and lacking direction/synergy.

9-lives on

1 year ago

Well, even though my deck would be much better if I weren't following a specific theme, I think I'm going to keep this aikido theme. What should my source of damage be? I would permit monks doing damage, considering it is kinda lore-wise with aikido. Also, I'm not going Izzet with my deck since I have Boros Reckoner, and Deflecting Palm. Perhaps I should add more cards with afflict ability like Eternal of Harsh Truths? Perhaps increase my number of Basri Ket to 4?

Balaam__ on Balaam__

1 year ago

lespaul977 I don’t mind offering advice, but I’m not exactly a tier 1 player myself. So I’d definitely recommend shopping the idea for this deck around and collecting as much perspective as you can on it before you invest any time or money in finalizing it.

This may sound excessive but I’d cut

Djinni Windseer (doesn’t contribute)

Eternal of Harsh Truths (doesn’t contribute)

Homarid Explorer (cmc too high, not enough value)

Laboratory Maniac (useless, you’re milling the opponent and not yourself)

Minister of Inquiries (it’s ok, but with no way to get more energy counters his value fades fast. Blinking him to get more energy counters is not efficient)

Screaming Swarm (cmc way too high, won’t see play often and mill decks rarely have more than a handful of creatures, none of which are used for attacking)

Soulknife Spy (doesn’t contribute)

Essence Flux (Blink is ineffective here)

Trepanation Blade (seems good but rarely is, not to mention you won’t be attacking)

Curiosity (doesn’t contribute, your other draw spells are much better)

Wizard Class (doesn’t contribute)


So that’s what I’d cut. Dream Twist and Visions of Beyond are great and synergize well, Unsummon is good but Vapor Snag is better; I’d replace that with it if possible. I’d fill the remainder of the slots with Crabs if it’s an option (see below), countermagic (Counterspell, Mana Leak, Spell Pierce etc) and if you are adding (again, see below) there are oodles of instants/sorceries to choose from. If not, try to accommodate as many mono direct mill spells as possible.


I guess we have to address some of the elephants in the room. If you’re intent on keeping this mono , then you’ll miss out on what the complimentary color brings to the Mill archetype: cards like Breaking / Entering and Glimpse the Unthinkable.

Which brings us to the next obstacle, budget. If you’re looking to keep the price down and/or only build from your current collection, that also complicates things. Cards like Archive Trap and Tasha's Hideous Laughter are Mill staples, but are also costly. There are alternatives, like Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony which are both cheap and mono , so that can help fill the gaps.

Third, you’ll want to run the crabs. Hedron Crab is pricey, but Ruin Crab is doable. Ideally you’d run both, but one is ok. You’ll be capitalizing on every possible opportunity to mill like this; every land played mills, nearly all your spells should mill, etc.


Hope this helps, and again—I’m no expert. But I’ve built one mill deck (check my page if interested, I think it’s called Trouble at the old mill or something like that) and have another in the works so I’m somewhat familiar with how they play. Ask around, collect info and don’t be afraid to inspect the ones the pros play for some ideas.

lespaul977 on

1 year ago

Balaam__, I know you mentioned a couple of cards you thought should be taken out. If you have some time, I'd love to hear all of the cards in the deck you think should be removed. This would be a big help, and I greatly appreciate it.

Admittedly, I'm not a competitive player at all. I just like sitting around the kitchen table and playing with my friends. If something isn't finely tuned enough to play in a tournament, it certainly won't be the end of me.

I have some things like Curiosity and Eternal of Harsh Truthsthat allow me to draw cards, which would synergize with Jace's Erasure to mill opponents cards by drawing my own. Do you think that this method is too roundabout in getting opponents to mill?

Thank you in advance for your help.

TheoryCrafter on Satoru Umezawa Brainstorming

2 years ago

Phage the Untouchable and Etrata, the Silencer are cards I can imagine going into a deck with Satoru.

Others I could imagine include cards with ingest such as Benthic Infiltrator or card draw such as Eternal of Harsh Truths.

I concur with average_overlord_enjoyer...this card is getting banned.

GrimlockVIII on Rise from the Tides (Dimir Zombie control)

2 years ago

This whole deck is just chef's kiss byotiful.

The only card I'm not sure on is Eternal of Harsh Truths. I dunno, part of me thinks he just doesn't quite do enough for the kind of role he's supposed to fulfill.

There's this 3 CMC modal Counterspell coming out in the new DnD set that gives you the option to draw two and discard 1. I think it's called You found the Villain's Lair or something. But ye it's not only flexibile as either card draw or interaction, but it'll also better help fuel cards like Voracious Reader, Spellweaver Eternal, and Rise from the Tides.

Otherwise ye I got nothing else.

TheVectornaut on Blue-Black Deck

3 years ago

I'd start by identifying what you want the main goal of your deck to be. I see two main ideas here that could be built around.

The first is dealing unblocked damage by disincentivizing blocks with deathtouch. Darkblade Agent , Eternal of Harsh Truths , Graveblade Marauder , and maybe Blightsteel Colossus (with enough reanimation) fit this archetype. Because of the two "blade" cards, there is some overlap with the second archetype which I'll cover next (and if you keep them, cards like Notion Rain , Mission Briefing , Thought Erasure , and Discovery / Dispersal are likely to get more mileage than Divination or Secrets of the Golden City ), but there may be even better ways to profit from unblocked creatures. Curiosity enchantments like Curious Obsession , Sixth Sense , and Keen Sense are frequent accompaniments to the Invisible Stalker s and other bogles of the world, and Bident of Thassa is a strong option for those going wide. I like Quietus Spike as a sort of midway point between Basilisk Collar and Master of Cruelties in decks like these too. Other beaters to get in with could be Tomebound Lich , Oona's Blackguard , Dimir Cutpurse , Looter il-Kor , Shadowmage Infiltrator , Surrakar Spellblade , Wharf Infiltrator , or Virtus the Veiled if he's legal in whatever format this is for. More generic deathtouch synergy could include Hooded Blightfang , Viridian Longbow , Thornbite Staff , Psionic Gift enchantments, and any source of first strike. Finally, I like Cipher as a way to gain advantage from repeated attacks, so maybe a Hidden Strings or Paranoid Delusions could come in handy.

The second main idea is to stack the graveyard(s) with as many creatures as possible to extract value from Undergrowth and similar mechanics. Avatar of Woe , Lotleth Giant , Trepanation Blade , Teferi's Tutelage , and some of your Disentomb effects fit here. Major threats in these kinds of decks include Wight of Precinct Six , Jace's Phantasm , Consuming Aberration , Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker , Fleet Swallower , Nemesis of Reason , Bonehoard , Mortivore , and Nighthowler . If you want to focus on your own graveyard, green is a great color to dip into as I alluded to earlier. Ghoultree , Boneyard Wurm , Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord , Splinterfright , Nyx Weaver , Nemesis of Mortals , Spider Spawning , and Kessig Cagebreakers are just some of the tools you get access to. Golgari is also the king of Undergrowth, so Hatchery Spider , Izoni, Thousand-Eyed , Molderhulk , Rhizome Lurcher / Undergrowth Scavenger , Kraul Harpooner , and Necrotic Wound are on the table. If milling your opponents is more your thing, some staples to consider are Thought Scour , Sphinx's Tutelage , Drown in the Loch , Traumatize , Fraying Sanity , and the crab duo. Jace's Erasure , Psychic Corrosion , and the Tutelage pair benefit the most from other draw synergy, and Visions of Beyond is an obvious inclusion if that's the route you take. Either way, I'd cut down to only the most efficient of your reanimate to hand cards and the like since you don't want to be stuck with a fist full of them and no creatures in the graveyard to target. Speaking of cuts, for maximum power, it's usually correct to play as close to the 60 card minimum as possible. Picking a single strategy to hone in on should make it easier to whittle down to the most important 60 in the deck.

If you have questions, let me know. Good luck with your build!

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