Roiling Vortex

Enchantment

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, Roiling Vortex deals 1 damage to them.

Whenever a player casts a spell, if no mana was spent to cast that spell, Roiling Vortex deals 5 damage to that player.

{R}: Your opponents can't gain life this turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	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
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

legendofa on

1 month ago

Wait, that Sulfuric Vortex should be Roiling Vortex. Sulfuric has full life gain prevention, which also clashes with Raphael.

wallisface on burn deck help to refurbish

2 months ago

9-lives:

• Roiling Vortex has an activated ability that turns off lifegain - your opponent shouldn’t be gaining any life!

• your deck would be a LOT faster if you optimised it. You seem to be refusing that notion, but it’s true. Playtest your own brew against the meta burn list - i’m willing to bet they out-race you at least 75% of the time.

• you need to be aware that your deck is very “different from the competitive” - lots of small changes add up to a very different deck, and one that sounds quite underperforming.

• i’m not saying 'this is competitive because it's been used a million times', the established list is competitive because it’s able to compete against most of the most commonly seen decks in the meta - that’s the entire purpose of being “competitive”. It is not competitive to lose to the most commonly played decks.

9-lives on burn deck help to refurbish

2 months ago

Hmmm. wallisface there isn't a way I can make it any faster, haha! Even if I cut down to 60 and keep all of the fastest burn spells, it will still be the same speed as what I have now. Roiling Vortex isn only 1 life per turn. Most lifegain decks are gaining more than at least 1 life per turn. I have a problem because one of the decks I played against uses 10 life gain on a creature with flicker. Every time he flickers it, he gains 10 life. The only response was to kill the creature, which I might or might not be able to depending upon my card draw. My deck is very slightly different from the competitive, with the only thing missing is Monastery Swiftspear, or Goblin Guide, and possibly not having Eidolon of the Great Revel. The problem with the meta in tournaments is that everyone is expecting a certain deck to have certain cards in it. Then, they try to optimize their decks based on that. Nothing new happens until someone new comes along with a new deck type, and then that becomes competitive based on how well it performs. You can't just say 'this is competitive because it's been used a million times'.

legendofa on burn deck help to refurbish

2 months ago

9-lives Okay, that's a good starting point.

First thing I want to mention is that if you describe a deck as competitive, there's a very strong connotation that it is capable of succeeding in a tournament setting. Think of it as shorthand for tournament-competitive. That's why people have been questioning that point, and if you've only used it against a few people, that's not going to fit the community definition. Competitive-casual isn't binary; it's a wide spectrum, but the "competitive" end of that spectrum is well-defined. Just to get everyone on the same page.

For actual deck suggestions, Wear / Tear is a reasonable sideboard option in addition to, or in place of, Rip Apart. Lifegain is a pretty hard counter to burn if you let it get established. I see Skullcrack and Roiling Vortex, so the next response to lifegain is to address the sources. Are your opponents gaining life from creatures, enchantments, or spells? Are they gaining big chunks of life, or steady streams? Remove the Ajani's Welcomes and Soul's Attendants or whatever and stop the life gain at the source.

Since you're committing to 60+ cards, you need to get to your key cards ASAP. Card draw becomes highly important. Would you consider turning this into a more combo-centric deck instead of leaning on burn as much?

wallisface on burn deck help to refurbish

2 months ago

Roiling Vortex is the answer to lifegain, which you’re already running, so your deck shouldn’t have any issue there unless it’s too slow. But in general dedicated lifegain isn’t a matchup i’d expect to see in any remotely-competitive scene, and this makes me think Balaam__s point is correct here, that this thread shouldn’t be tagged as “competitive”, because it simply isn’t, and the advice you’re going to get isn’t going to match your expectations.

Burn decks should also be easily-fast enough that graveyard shenanigans aren’t an issue (Dredge can probably outrace burn, but that deck doesn’t exist at the moment), Sane goes for control decks using counter-magic. If these matchups are a problem for you it’s just another indicator the deck is playing too slowly.

9-lives on burn deck help to refurbish

2 months ago

I started out with a deck almost exactly similar to the one you recommended. I had monastery swiftspear, all of those burn spells, and the manabase I have now. I don't care what other decks are doing; that is for them. I'm looking for new additions to my deck that would be pertinent to a burn deck. I'm keeping Satyr Firedancer, and might switch him out with Roiling Vortex if needed. I honestly think they don't run firedancer just because they feel they have no reason to kill creatures. And, no, you're using a specific example of lightning bolt, while the rest of the deck is still useful even if not perfect. Nothing in my deck is wasted, and all of it applies to its own synergies. Your notion that my deck is 'incredibly slow' isn't right at all. i am running exactly the same cards as that deck, yet it's slower somehow. Skullcrack is very useful even if slower. Deflecting palm has more than once won me games. My deck does take into account early and late game, yes, but regardless I know I'm not winning on turn 2 by the very constraints of the game in its damage possibilities and mana used to use burn cards. To make my deck any speedier would mean breaking the certain archetypal nature of the game, such as with a one mana 6-damage burn spell.

Icbrgr on Sideboarding Silence in Burn

8 months ago

@plakjekaas I think Roiling Vortex has outright become a mainboard card in burn. Eidolon of the Great Revel seems to be being pushed out altogether due to the rise of popularity of answers to it without punishment i.e. Leyline Binding/Fury/Solitude.

plakjekaas on Sideboarding Silence in Burn

8 months ago

I thought the sideboard card Burn uses to fight Cascade is Roiling Vortex, because the "5 damage to the face"-line of text punishes it really well.