Illness in the Ranks

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander 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

Illness in the Ranks

Enchantment

Creature tokens get -1/-1.

Breakaway on grixis dagger burn combo

1 month ago

Do you want Illness in the Ranks and/or Virulent Plague in the Side or Main board to go heavier into the anti-token burn plan?

wallisface on Esper Priest

1 month ago

Some thoughts:

  • Gather Specimens costs far too much mana to be viable, the game’s not lasting long enough to cast it.

  • Similarly, Panharmonicon is far too late-game to be helpful. It’ll either serve as a “win more” card (unhelpful), or lose you the game (by having to take a turn-off to cast it).

  • Sygg, River Cutthroat feels too cute to be good here - you want to be focusing all your attention on enacting your gameplan and this card feels like its not helping with that. I’d put Authority of the Consuls and Soul Warden in the same bucket.

  • a lot if decks i’ve seen trying this strategy use both Hunted Phantasm and Illness in the Ranks to great effect.

  • as mentioned above, Eldrazi Displacer will serve you better than your current flicker effects. Also, while it’d only target your own stuff, Ephemerate would be strong here.

Mave on endles whispers edh

4 months ago

I read the thread when I tried to look up the rules for the cards which is kinda important for EDH Endless Whispers. (I plan on including it in Obeka)

In a 1v1 match it mostly tries to get the best creature of an opponent while donating negative effects. But in commander it becomes a game of "hot potato" where you can never be sure who gets the creatures of another player but you can decide what "garbage" you donate. That is the gist of what the deck will do in a multiplayer game.

Depending on what you give away you may want cards that can counter triggered abilities in case ove Leveler, Sky Swallower, Boldwyr Heavyweights, Eater of Days, Hunted Wumpus, Inverter of Truth, Dust Elemental, Avatar of Discord, Indentured Djinn Ebon Drake Plague Reaver Master of the Feast Tempting Wurm, the haunted one like Hunted Troll, Hunted Dragon,Hunted Dragon, Hunted Lammasu or Hunted Phantasm. Personally I would use Obeka, Brute Chronologist to counter the ETB of the creatures you play by ending the turn and then giving them to an opponent. But that only works for when the creature with negative effect enters the battlefield during your turn. But it is a great plan B in case you don't have Endless Whispers to give your opponents creatures from the list above by simply playing an 8/8 trample for then ending the turn before the trigger resolves.

Other options are Jon Irenicus, Shattered One or Blim, Comedic Genius both want your opponents to control your creatures. If you just want the effect of giving your opponents negative ETBs you can also build a deck on The Beamtown Bullies. But including Endless Whispers in this deck can backfire by giving you one of the negative effects if the creature dies. And it also is hard to let e.g. Leveler enter the battlefield to donate it through endless whispers. What helps with that may be to manifest a creature with a negative effect with e.g. Scroll of Fate. You can also manifest creatures with negative effect from your library but that is a bit more random.

To prevent getting creatures with negative effects from your opponents you to gain hexproof. There are plenty of effects giving yourself hexproof in white but I couldn't find a good commander for that. To gain hexproof yourself in a non white deck you most likely need Orbs of Warding which may be the way to go to prevent opponents to return the hot potato to you. Which is what I do in Obeka (sadly I don't have any list online of that deck).

If you like Endless Whispers to take your opponent cards however you might rather want to play Grave Betrayal or Lim-Dul the Necromancer. Overall it can still be used as a politicle tool. Especially if you donate one of the Haunted once you can build a pact with another player that you always trade them with each other to get more and more tokens.

Talking tokens it is also possible to put Endless Whispers in Grismold, the Dreadsower which gets into the direction of Dagger Burn known through Rampaging Ferocidon, Trespasser's Curse, Massacre Wurm, Slaughter Specialist and e.g. Illness in the Ranks/Virulent Plague. Whenever you donate Hunted Troll to an opponent or it enters the battlefield you let the 1/1 faeris directly die causing Grismold to trigger and also cards like Poison-Tip Archer.

It is also possible to play with effects like Plaguecrafter, Abyssal Gorestalker, Gravelighter. The player who gets the creature has to sacrifice one creature less and choses who sacrifice one creature less the next turn. But as long as you profit from death triggers via e.g. enchantments or artifacts you will profit most from your favourite card.

I also like Rakdos the Defiler to use Endless Whisper. After all one can donate some negative effects and if the opponent sacrifices creatures they have to donate them to someone else. Altough that also works better in 1v1.

I hope the explanation helps to find the right deck to play Endless Whispers in Commander.

jdogz32 on

8 months ago

I really appreciate the feedback wallisface legendofa I completely took out white. It was mostly just instances of life gain. I replace Suture Priest with Blood Seeker and Blood Artist. I added that amazing Enchantment Illness in the Ranks I thought for sure I'd have to splash red for that same effect. I also tried to find more cards that added tokens to their side of the battlefield but came up mostly empty handed. The next best thing I could find was Hunted Horror the other hunteds I wasn't too impressed with. Hunted Troll wasn't bad but I don't think he's worth splashing another color for.

legendofa on

8 months ago

This sort of deck usually uses some amount of for Blood Seeker, Trespasser's Curse, and/or Illness in the Ranks. This deck in particular also has eleven blink effects, but only really wants to blink Hunted Phantasm. I recommend cutting most of these and adding more protection and ways to win.

If you want to stay in , Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse help prevent attackers, and Boarded Window and Cumber Stone reduce damage. Just note that your damage output will be slowed, so you'll have to find ways to stay active.

GabeBurch on Grismold, the Token Vending Machine

9 months ago

Edit: Oops I must have missed your not wanting these when reading your description


I like to use what I call 'Mass Minus' cards in my Grismold deck so the tokens die immediately

legendofa on

11 months ago

Trespasser's Curse. It turns all those small tokens into life drain before Illness in the Ranks makes them pop.

legendofa on Death to Tokens

1 year ago

(With Forbidden Orchard fitting in this sequence after you get Illness in the Ranks out).

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