Everlasting Torment

Enchantment

Players can't gain life.

Damage can't be prevented.

All damage is dealt as though its source had wither. (A source with wither deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

Discussion (51)

Sjorpha on Chivalry is Dead!

6 days ago

Chivalry is Dead!

"Don't ask my name, it's long since I forgot

if once I had a name, a home, a wife?

No words of fame or valor is my lot,

and yet my quest continues past this life."

General gameplan

There are 4 defining cards that embodies the gameplan of this deck

Doran, the Siege Tower: The basic idea of all Doran decks is the ability to turn very cheap defensive creatures like Nyx-Fleece Ram into big offensive threats, based on the idea that 3/3s for 1 and 5/5s for 2 etc is great value and hard to race for most decks. Doran also has a strong defensive quality since his ability applies to all creatures, effectively neutering strategies based on high power creatures or pumping up the power of creatures, like for example Kiln Fiend or Goblin Piledriver. A third advantage of Doran is that he and the other 16 zero power creatures in the deck can attack through Ensnaring Bridge, making this decks matchup against Lantern control and other bridge prison decks a lot better. Assault Formation acts like a backup copy of Doran that can be fetched with Zur and dodges more removal if needed, this redundancy is important since the deck is much weaker if it can't put this effect on the field.

Zur the Enchanter: Solving problems and gaining card advantage by tutoring up additional creatures and enchantments as he attacks. Also a "4/4" flying beatstick in this deck making the 4cmc much more reasonable.

Chord of Calling: Allowing us to get our creatures reactively or in opponents end step rather than tapping out, making the deck much more resilient and flexible when playing around removal, counterspells and board wipes.

Behind the Scenes: Adds a whole new synergy to the toughness strategy. Since all of our creatures have zero or very low power this card makes them unblockable by most things that could trade with them. This fundamentally changes the dynamic of going up against opposing creatures, since we can block their creatures but they often can't block ours it shifts the initiative in our favor and enables much easier lethal swings. While only a single copy, it can be fetched onto the battlefield with Zur, conveniently before blockers are declared.

This all comes together in the signature finishing move of this deck: Casting Chord of Calling on opponents end step putting Zur the Enchanter or Doran, the Siege Tower on the battlefield (assuming the other one is already in play), and then on our turn swing with everything tutoring up Behind the Scenes for an unblockable lethal blow out of nowhere.

Consistency and mana fixing

Doran decks (and treefolk tribals) have a great leg up in this department because of Treefolk Harbinger, a fantastic 1-drop that functions as a 3/3 with Doran, fetches Doran himself if needed and last but not least fetches the best land in the deck Murmuring Bosk or any of the other forests. This improves consistency in the ability to play a turn 3 Doran because you can fix either Doran or mana. Much like with Serum Visions in other decks you also need to mulligan much fever hands since a harbinger + a green land is usually enough to be playable. Without this card I think the deck simply wouldn't be that good.

Green fetchlands play into this as well as they can fetch Murmuring Bosk untapped with a treefolk in hand, typical turn 1 is fetch>Murmuring Bosk revealing Harbinger>play harbinger putting Doran or missing land on top.

Another strong turn 1 play is Birds of Paradise, also synergising well with Doran making it a 1/1 and ramping/fixing, and making our somewhat demanding color pie much smoother to play.

Finally Chord of Calling for 1 can be employed as a consistency engine in a pinch, fetching harbinger to put a needed card on top or fetching a bird to ramp and fix. It is however much more powerful to use the chord for more impactful creatures and should only be used in this way when no other option exists.

An unanswered Zur the Enchanter also leads to consistency all by himself since he can fetch creatures and Assault Formation as a stand in for Doran, but given the preparation needed to cast him this is more of a late game type consistency/inevitability.

Other Creatures

In order of converted mana cost:

Dryad Arbor: Forest doubling as a creature, can be put on the field with with fetch lands. Emergency blocker, sac fodder for edict effects, can be fetched with a Chord of Calling for 0 to get a 4th land, played from the top with Courser, fetched to the top with harbinger and so on.

Dragon's Eye Savants: A rarely played card, but he's actually the only modern legal 6+ toughness 2 drop option for this deck! All of the others (only 5 total) either have defender or needs decks built around them. It's great for this deck to have a way to survive a block/trade with Gurmag Angler, a 4/5 Tarmogoyf, Tasigur, the Golden Fang and other 5 toughness threats. The flip ability can come in handy if you have surplus mana, note that flipping morphs is a special action that can't be responded, so there is no window to bolt him, but usually this guy's job is just to be a "6/6" for 2.

Nyx-Fleece Ram: "5/5" for 2 mana that gains you life and can be tutored up with Zur, a given staple of Doran decks.

Spellskite: Already a fantastic card in many decks for protecting yourself and your permanents from all sorts of things, or to steal your opponents auras and buff spells etc. Here where it's also a "4/4" beatstick for 2 mana it's just amazing.

Selfless Spirit: Sligtly nonbo with Doran unfortunately, but the option to secure yourself against sweepers like Supreme Verdict and also protect more imprtant creatures against spot removal is very useful. Also works really well with Chord of Calling.

Courser of Kruphix: Great value and consistency engine, can be tutored with Zur, gets buffed by Doran but also able to deal some damage without him. All in all a great fit and I'd run 4 if it wasn't for the lack of 3 drop slots in the curve.

Sapling of Colfenor: Topping our curve as the only 5 drop, this badboy provides a hard to remove creature that can both hit hard and stabilize our life as well as restock the hand with creatures. Plus he can be tutored up with Treefolk Harbinger. Very useful in grindy games.

Removal

We have a total of 6 removal spells mainboard, all in sets of 2.

Fatal Pushand Path to Exile: Best 1 mana removal spells in modern, nuff said.

Detention Sphere: Removes just about everything and takes care of multiple copies of cards, tried and true modern staple and here it gains extra utility by being tutorable with Zur.

Sideboard

Zur the Enchanter makes single copies of enchantment SB cards much more useful, so here I have mainly opted for a list of silver bullets that he can fetch. Obviously there are many other possible enchanments to put in there or you could go with a more traditional sideboard.

Aegis of the Gods: Provides protection against burn and hand disruption etc, can be tutored with either Zur or Chord.

Eidolon of Rhetoric: Stops storm and slows down other decks that likes casting a lot of spells at once, we are usually fine casting a spell per turn and can double that up with Zur activations, also a "4/4" beatstick and can be tutored with both Zur and Chord.

Everlasting Torment: Stops life gain decks and fog effects.

Ghostly Prison: Takes the edge off a lot of aggro strategies.

Nevermore: Against decks that rely on a specific card to win, Ad Naseam decks and so on.

Rest in Peace: Graveyard hate

Slaughter the Strong: One sided sweeper against decks with big creatures, since we can easily go under 4 power with all our 0/X dudes.

Spreading Seas: The most obvious land hate option for a Zur deck

Stony Silence: Artifact hate.

Aura of Silence: Artifact/enchantment hate.

Virulent Plague: Tokens.

Wheel of Sun and Moon: 2nd graveyard hate that also counters mill decks.

Vulnoth on Turbo Aggro Grind Time

1 week ago

Continuing where I left off.

continuing from creatures

Something to consider when addressing what to drop for my suggestions is how it affects your overall strategy and politics. Ashenmoor Gouger looks good because on paper it can deal damage, but consider what happens if you draw it 10 turns in and the table has all dug in for the long game. Hyper aggressive cards of the sort that do little else aren't going to help you after the first few turns. Hackrobat, Rakdos Firewheeler, Thrill-Kill Assassin, and the like are what you should look for when hacking cards out of the deck in the creature department. You might be gearing up to go fast and hit hard, but you still are playing the "long game", if you can even call it that.

Support

Onwards we march, starting with the strict spell category. Here, you should be looking for either utility or pure power. Spot removal cards like Go for the Throat work in regular 60 card formats, but lose a ton of value as the game is slowed enough for that one spell to have a diminished effect because it can only hit a single creature, often to little effect. Now Bedevil, on the other hand, is outstanding because you can hold it for either an artifact or 'walker, thus expanding your range and making it always live and effective.

• Allure of the Unknown - A huge resource generation spell. Additionally, it plays into politics well by letting an opponent (or friend) have a card. Gotta keep the train moving.

• Bituminous Blast - Perhaps not the most clutch of cards, but at least worth considering since EDH is slow enough for these types of spells to put in work, mostly because Cascade is nuts. I'd understand if it didn't make the cut, though.

• Captive Audience - Hilarious and effective. Instant enemy-maker, but if you haven't farted in the general direction of everyone at the table, others might turn a blind eye. In my experience, when Joe Shmoe poops out an army of dargons and you slap him with this, the table would generally point and laugh.

• Cauldron Dance - A nice little shuffling of creatures, which is nice if you're rich in chunguses.

• Kolaghan's Command - The best charm from its cycle, for good reasons. It's always live in EDH.

• Spiteful Visions - Perhaps risky for politics, but it does put damage on board, thus making Rakdos live, and generates card advantage.

• Fork/Reverberate/Wild Ricochet - copy spells, in my experience, tend to do a lot since they're just whatever everyone else is playing.

• Beacon of Unrest - There will always be something in the grave, and self-recursion is a godsend in my books.

• Scheming Symmetry - Helps your consistency and makes a friend.

• Subversion - Nibbles at your opponents while sustaining yourself, and makes Rakdos live.

• Generally any spell with X in its cost. As the game drags on, they only get better.

I did a brief skim of cards in Gatherer and from among my own decks, but don't be afraid to look at other decks or EDHRec for things that will help you. Just remember that your goal boils largely down to pinging to make Rakdos live, cards that Rakdos is payoff for, and utility general support that rounds out the deck.

Artifacts

Necessary gears to get the machine moving. Mostly it will boil down to mana rocks to accelerate your state, but there will be others that you want purely because they work well for you.

• Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip - Mana plus ping.

• Commander's Sphere - Obvious utility.

• Sol Ring/Gilded Lotus - Big mana staple.

• Mind Stone/Hedron Archive - Both have their uses, and I adore them both, but in a multicolor they can run the risk of being unhelpful due to generating colorless mana.

• Firemind Vessel - Perhaps slow, but produces plenty of mana.

• Thought Vessel - A personal choice, but if you don't have enough draw power to fill your hand, then it's not worth the cash.

• Tome of Legends - Easy draws.

• Conqueror's Galleon  ^Flip - Another personal choice, but I find that once it transforms, the advantage it generates does wonders, and as a deck stuffed with creatures that could crew it, the fit seems nice to me.

• Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots - Staples for protecting your Commander. Also Haste.

• Sword of the Animist - Free Rampant Growth on attack. Obvious value is obvious.

Lands

Here you can start to have some fun. Being 2-color, you do have to be somewhat mindful of what you're running, but you can definitely make use of a lot of offbeat lands since you're not trying to be a fool and mana fix 5 colors. Keep in mind that you may not necessarily need everything listed here, but it's just a matter of helping keep your ability to produce both colors consistent.

• Temple of Malice - Slow lands may be unappealing, but Scrying usually helps.

• Arch of Orazca - Yet another personal choice. All you need is to have 10 permanents at any point while controlling/playing a card with City's Blessing and you have it for the game. At which point, Arch becomes something to do with spare mana.

• Reliquary Tower - Like Thought Vessel, it's worth considering, but is acceptable to pass on if you keep burning your hand up.

• Command Tower - Staple.

• Graven Cairns - Filter lands are always nice.

• Rakdos Carnarium - Slow, yes, but in the long run gives more mana.

• Shadowblood Ridge - Another pseudo Filter Land

Chopping Block

I encourage you to think these things out on your own or ask friends about this part, because understanding the process of what and why things stay or go is important to understanding your deck. Below are my suggestions for what needs to get yeeted.

• Ashenmoor Gouger/Hackrobat/Hellhole Flailer/Rakdos Firewheeler/Thrill-Kill Assassin/Rakdos Guildmage - All just don't do that much. Awesome to drop in the first turns, but soon are just fodder. They're nice fodder for Lysolda and Judith, but overall too narrow in use and too low impact.

• Void Winnower/Blood Moon - As someone who wins almost all his games through player politics, I advise against these types of cards that choke the entire table. Like infinite combos kept as panic buttons in decks, you really only get to pull it once before the group starts remembering what you have up your sleeve. After that, you risk being targeted because they'll know what you have.

• Phyrexian Obliterator - BBBB in 2-color is a bold move for what's essentially a 5/5 unblockable.

• Dark Ritual/Doom Blade/Go for the Throat - I personally would cut them, but feel free to play around with at least the removal spells for consistency in board control. Ritual, however, is just not suited for this format.

• Everlasting Torment - It's the only card of its type in your deck, and actually makes you vulnerable to getting chump blocked.

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Urborg serves almost no purpose in this deck.

• Rakdos Guildgate - Guildgates are just packfiller.

• Rakdos Signet/Rakdos Keyrune - In the modern day, your mana rocks mostly should be more useful than an overcosted creature, and if it only produces mana, it needs to be efficient like Sol Ring.

• Lava Axe - Shouting "Catch" while literally throwing this is hilarious, but the card's just horribly overcosted.

• Anthem of Rakdos - You will lose a lot of games you shouldn't lose because of this.

• Ogre Battledriver - Giving a dude Haste to swing is nice, but it's a lot easier to just run a pinger like Goblin Fireslinger or Lobber Crew

• Ob Nixilis, the Fallen - His Landfall is nice, but by nature isn't consistent, which is what you're looking for in ways to ping your opponent. Becoming a chungus is nice, but you're better off just skipping the hoops and playing an actual chungus.

• Vial Smasher the Fierce - This one I'm not totally sold on cutting, but she seems more complicated than just running a pinger. Play around with her and see how Vial Smasher synergizes.

• Master of Cruelties - Another I'm not totally sold on chopping, but he can only attack alone, which bottlenecks your options.

I know this all is sort of messy, but when making edits, start with comparable replacements (i.e. swapping a creature for a creature), run a few test turns, and see how things work.

TypicalTimmy on LGS has a Problem Player...what ...

3 months ago

Build a Selesnya deck and run things such as Darksteel Mutation , Lignify and Song of the Dryads . If you want to make it Bant instead and have counterspells, you now have access to Imprisoned in the Moon . There is also Humility , Overwhelming Splendor , Kasmina's Transmutation and Kenrith's Transformation .

Then, so it isn't killed when turned into a blocker, you have Pacifism , Cage of Hands , Prison Term , Arachnus Web , Arrest , and like just a whole slew of them in blue.

Basically you're going about the deck in the wrong way. Stop trying to "kill" him and start trying to "out pace" him.

You can also prevent him from even gaining life; Leyline of Punishment , Erebos, God of the Dead , Stigma Lasher , Forsaken Wastes , Everlasting Torment , Witch Hunt , Havoc Festival , Rampaging Ferocidon , and Archfiend of Despair .

You're going to want solid enchantment removal. For those, you have; Tranquil Path , Back to Nature , Paraselene , Bane of Progress , Primeval Light , Tranquility , Rampage of the Clans , Fracturing Gust , Austere Command , Tempest of Light and Merciless Eviction .

I'd highly recommend you go Bant and just ignore the Rakdos options I have given you, but those are there in the event you want some extra possibilities.

So you have two things here; Prisons & Mass Removal. They are working against each other, so you want something that protects your own boardstate; Teferi's Protection , Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Darksteel Forge + Mycosynth Lattice , Starfield of Nyx + Eldrazi Monument , Soul of New Phyrexia , Heroic Intervention , etc.

Run someone like Tuvasa the Sunlit , Jenara, Asura of War , Arcades, the Strategist or even Rubinia Soulsinger .

I'd recommend you run all of them, actually. Put Tuvasa as your Commander so you always have access to card draw. He basically turns your first enchantment each turn into a cantrip (Trading 1 card for 1 card).

StopShot on Does Wall of Shards' culumative ...

3 months ago

I have three questions regarding this card: Wall of Shards

1.) I have Wall of Shards and an Everlasting Torment on the battlefield. Because my opponents are unable to gain life would I be unable to pay for Wall of Shards 's cumulative upkeep cost and be forced to sacrifice it? (I know this has been asked if it works with Tainted Remedy , but is "Players can't gain life" also a replacement effect or something else?)

2.) I have Wall of Shards on the battlefield and my opponent has Aegis of the Gods on the battlefield. Wall of Shards never specifies targeting an opponent when paying for the cumulative upkeep cost. Can I make the opponent who controls Aegis of the Gods gain life?

3.) I have Wall of Shards on the battlefield and two opponents. Upon upkeep I put a second age counter on Wall of Shards and pay it's cumulative upkeep. Can I pay the cost by making both my opponents gain 1 life each? If so do both opponents gain life at the same time or must I choose priority? And if there is priority can I cast spells between each instance of life gain such as recurring and casting a single Punishing Fire from the graveyard multiple times?

Thank you.

Pheardemons on Horror, Carnage, and Annihilation. All are Rakdos.

5 months ago

Wake of Destruction is a maybe but Nightmare Incursion is definitely staying. I've exiled 15+ cards with. Not to mention adding Sadistic Sacrament on top of it for those that decide to incur Rakdos' wrath early haha. I am looking at AEther Snap as it has been underwhelming as of late. Even though on paper the card is insanely good. Everlasting Torment is another that I haven't cared for. It's in there for the "damage can't be prevented" aspect, but that just hasn't mattered recently. Not to mention I have other instant speed sources. I like the idea and am willing to try it out king-saproling. Thanks for the comment man!

lagotripha on What are the pros and ...

6 months ago

In terms of budget lands, Graven Cairns is cheap because of multiple printings, and fixes both ways instantly. Foreboding ruins, dragonskull and a couple of these will run fine, even if it doesn't leave space for Ghost Quarter and friends.

When assessing lands its also worth looking at hate cards too- Blood Moon , Ghost Quarter , Field of Ruin etc. Mono red ignores them almost entirely, while the more colour requirements your deck has the more they are punished by them.

That said, Black/red offers a lot in terms of sideboard.

From Thoughtseize / Duress to Kolaghan's Command / Rakdos Charm , tech like Rain of Gore / Everlasting Torment and kill spells like Angrath's Rampage , Dreadbore and Terminate , there are a whole suite of tools that become available. If your meta calls for those tools it can be completely worth it.

In terms of strategy, that toolbox lets you take it to the midgame more consistently. If your idea of goblins is activating krenko, black red is where you want to be, because it can keep him on the field. If you want to rush as fast as possible, the question is whether Munitions Expert and the sideboard tools is good enough to be worth it. Siege as a 4 drop is more suited to a midrange 'value' goblins, which likes saccing goblins for direct damage- but its not the same deck.

Hynx on Stop hitting yourself

7 months ago

Everlasting Torment is another option in case you have players who run with damage mitigation cards such as Riot Control Defend the Hearth Deflecting Palm Druid's Deliverance etc, which would be a giant road block to cards that let opponents choose to "take damage" or do the other thing. Dash hopes, risk factor, vexing devil, sword-point diplomacy, sword-point diplomacy, and torment of scarabs, leave your cards in the control of your opponent through choice, which can then be mitigated, when they draw the right cards. Everlasting Torment strips them of that choice with possible mitigations

PhthisisClock on Negative Creep Modern

8 months ago

Zakuzelo, thanks for checking out my build. Lately I find myself running Wickerbough Elder more often than Necroskitter . Necroskitter isn't as useful as it was when I was running Fate Transfer . However, it is theoretically handy if I side-in Everlasting Torment . Problem is, Torment is usually countered or destroyed before anything can happen. So you are right, in practice, I could likely open up the space to something else. That "something else" is the mystery. I have three tutors now, so running one-of answers is always an option, but not ideal. I don't want to muff up a good thing, but at the same time I feel like there is something I could put in here to really make it a very painful deck to deal with. It already is a pretty hated deck, mostly because it's not straight-ahead or as predictable as some other modern builds. So I want to keep it diverse. I've been thinking about going back to Throne of the God-Pharaoh , or possibly even bringing Crocodile of the Crossing back. Also tossed around Cryptolith Rite for extreme ramp. I'm just not sure if the process of replacing cards will ever end with this build. It plays on a pretty good level, but I want to make it a pretty amazing build.