Searing Spear

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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
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Searing Spear

Instant

Searing Spear deals 3 damage to any target (creature, player or planeswalker).

multimedia on Rakdos, Lord of Riots Demon Tribal

2 years ago

In my last comment suggested a lot of cards to add, now here's some cards to consider cutting. For cards to consider cutting I would start with all the lower mana cost nonDemon creatures. I would simply replace these with other lower mana cost cards that can better enable Rakdos without attacking and reduce creature mana costs without attacking.

Rather than playing a lot of single creature removal spells, rely more on Demons who can destroy or remove creatures? Especially Demons who have repeatable removal effects. You could cut many creature removal spells and replace them with more draw.

Searing Spear, Shock, Disintegrate can target a player to make them lose life, but you have Lightning Bolt for that and you can make opponent lose life better ways then playing single burn spells. Some budget single removal spells are helpful such as Chaos Warp and Feed the Swarm because these spells can remove an enchantment, Warp any permanent. When attacking is important to your game plan these can remove Ghostly Prison, Propaganda and others.


Rakdos can only reduce the mana cost of creatures therefore play very few noncreature high mana cost spells or spells that require a lot of mana to be useful. Spells that need a lot mana paid to make them decent is not really what you want when playing many high mana cost creatures. Could cut these for more draw and ramp.

Rolling Earthquake is a budget spell like this that's worth playing because you can control how much damage each creature is going to take, most Demons including Rakdos have high toughness. You could cut a few of the lesser Demons.

Master of the Feast is really bad card in multiplayer Commander because only your opponents draw. Awaken the Sky Tyrant, Wretched Confluence and Seal of the Guildpact are subpar for the mana costs.


In my last comment I recommended adding a lot of loot effects for draw. Loot is excellent with Blood Speaker and Speaker is a good reason to play Demon tribal since it's a tribal tutor that can be repeatable, return to your hand from your graveyard. Rakdos can reduce Speaker's mana cost to only 1 mana, making it a mana efficient way to repeatedly tutor for Demons.

Loot can be an enabler for reanimation and recursion which are helpful effects to have with Demons. Reanimation is a way to get Demons onto the battlefield without having to cast them, a backup for when Rakdos is disrupted. Recursion is getting Demons back into your hand or casting them from your graveyard. Patriarch's Bidding can reanimate all Demons in your graveyard. Persist and Exhume can reanimate for only two mana.

Chainer, Nightmare Adept has interaction with looting, getting Demons into your graveyard to cast them using Rakdos mana cost reduction. If you discard a Demon using Chainer's ability you can cast that same Demon giving it haste to attack. Rakdos also gains haste from Chainer when he's cast from the Command Zone. Any creature you reanimate gains haste from Chainer.

Chainer has excellent interaction with creatures who can sac themselves for value such as Magus of the Wheel and Doomed Necromancer. With Chainer these creatures gain haste when cast from your graveyard allowing them to tap and activate their abilities right away. Doomed Necromancer can reanimate even at instant speed. Chainer is good with Blood Speaker as discard outlet that can keep coming back to your hand.


Some more budget Demons to consider adding:

Some budget land upgrades to consider:

Temple of the False God is not a good land when you have no land ramp. It will not tap for mana until at least turn five and that's if you make all your land drops. Even if playing green and land ramp such as Cultivate I still wouldn't play Temple of the False God, it's just not a good enough land in the early turns of a game.

Scarecrow1779 on Mono-Colored Beginner Decks

2 years ago

Krikr I'm glad you like them! Whenever I show somebody these lists, I almost always tell them about the card kingdom rookie decks in the same breathe. Not everyone wants to go through the work of assembling lists, even if those lists would be better suited. I'm glad my lists had teaching strengths, though. I always enjoy how easy it is to teach the stack with my lists, but was never sure if anybody else felt the same.

Swapping out Lightning Bolt for Demon Bolt is interesting. I hesitate because of Demon Bolt being a more complex card and Lightning Bolt already having a lot of decision making associated with it, but the point of being slower is a good one. I had considered replacing Lightning Bolt with Searing Spear, but ultimately didn't do it because I didn't want to weaken the matchup against white. Having a cheap removal option is very important for taking out an enchanted Healer's Hawk before it gains white too much life. It's interesting that red was too powerful in your testing. IIRC, red's win rates for me were just a hair below 50% in most matchups. I never worried about it too much, though, because most of the people I have taught tend to not want to play with or against aggro. They're all destined to play value decks in EDH, I guess XD. Was there any particular matchup where you felt red was too strong, or was it across the board?

Sideboards are a really interesting option that I hadn't thought about before. I worry that by depending on new players evaluation, you're more likely to end up with one-sided games. However, I suppose making the learner's deck more powerful than the teacher's is actually the perfect way to show how much card choice matters. I've had times when I was teaching two people at once and they each had a beginner deck and we're playing against each other. In those cases, I could just have a suggested sideboard for each matchup that guides them to an evenly matched game 2.

Thanks for necro-ing the post! I always love talking about these little decks, and now you've got me excited to try sideboarding with them when I get a chance!

RNR_Gaming on Why Have Direct Damage Spells …

2 years ago

They probably want to give some of the cards they designed painstakingly for standard to actually see play in standard lol. Though the vast majority of them would likely be outclassed by a Searing Spear or Lightning Strike at least that was the case with neon dynasty.

Regulus_Rising on Come On Baby Light My Fire

2 years ago

duchessCretina Honestly, I hadn't thought about it lol, but it seems so obvious now that you point it out! So I just updated and swapped out a few of the Phoenixes for more ascensions and one last Magma Jet. I like having the ability to scry for free when the top of the deck is being exiled with Outpost or Chandra, but it's a little niche, so I'll likely sub out magma jet for Searing Spear or Skullcrack.

Thank you for your feedback!

TheVectornaut on The Burn deck

3 years ago

The best way to power up this deck would probably be to find lower CMC alternatives to Lightning Strike and Searing Spear , plus something a little stronger than Shock . Lava Spike and Rift Bolt are some popular options. With Thermo-Alchemist being an easy source of damage on demand, spectacle cards like Skewer the Critics and Light Up the Stage would be my personal choices. You also have a lot of lands for burn, so maybe Shard Volley or Searing Blaze could be on the table. Finally, any cantrip becomes a lot better with all of your creatures caring about them. In mono-red, the best options would probably be Manamorphose , Tormenting Voice / Cathartic Reunion , or Needle Drop .

VinDiesel9999 on Too much variety?

3 years ago

Excellent! Those were all concerns I thought of but it helps having a second opinion--since obviously I'm biased.

I am going to have to help my new group regardless, since my deck is already as you said: "hugely dangerous -- something your group doesn't want to play against, because it's just too big of a crushing." Keep in mind they bought pre-made mono decks--so it's not really an accomplishment; I have been play testing my deck against izzet dragons and I do not even stand chance.

Speaking of, izzet dragons was the deck that originally inspired me and I see they follow the rules of thumb you outlined above.

You gave me an idea, I will keep the lightning bolts and the powerful cards in the sidebar when I play my friends. Shock and Searing Spear sound be a better fit for the group.

Would it make sense to split this deck up into one deck that is more classic Izzet and the other that is Dragon themed? (Make them both 60 cards).

I feel like I have two good deck's smashed into one sub-par deck.

Thanks for the feedback!

DragonOfTheWest on Card creation challenge

3 years ago

Infernus Invoker is basically a buffed Prodigal Pyromancer with the option to cast it as Searing Spear instead. The power comes from the flexibility, but I don't think it's at a completely unreasonable power level. I could see +1 mana to the creature side to account for the increased stats and +1 to the discard ability to account for the flexibility.

Cotter11 on

4 years ago

Cavern of Souls Protects against counters from blue. With the number of creatures in this deck, this should be a high priority!

Goblin Chieftain is better than Reckless Bushwhacker, in my opinion, as the buff and haste effects are permanent, not just for the turn. But that's down to personal choice!

Reality Hemorrhage, unless there's a specific reason for the 2CMC, Shock is better by default, or you've got Incinerate, Searing Spear, both for greater damage.

I believe Shared Animosity has a place in this deck, as it can push turn 3's over the top, especially if you already have a Legion Loyalist and 2 other creatures on the field.

Lastly, being creature heavy, I understand Mogg War Marshal, but Dragon Fodder or Krenko's Command offer the same number of creatures, and power, but you get to keep both creatures without ever having to pay additional mana.

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