Crescendo of War

Enchantment

At the beginning of each upkeep, put a strife counter on Crescendo of War.

Attacking creatures get +1/+0 for each strife counter on Crescendo of War.

Blocking creatures you control get +1/+0 for each strife counter on Crescendo of War.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Gleeock on Favorite EDH Cards

1 week ago

I will go lower power on these pets, but oddities as well.

Oath of Druids my baby! it can crap on control in great ways while making sure the game will have impactful play from many spots.

Descent into Avernus I write about this one all the time

Shiny Impetus I ramp away while not being the guy that removed my opponent's thing.. Also, lets that pain train keep on rolling

Any of the monarch courts

Titania's Song hilarious, kills treasures too.

Crescendo of War for the sake of aggression

Wand of Wonder it just randomly will get me out of a bind and makes my deck function unpredictably

I don't have much for pet creatures, I will have to look into that

ShieldOfHolyShadows on Arms Race (Boros Aikido)

1 week ago

I believe there's a spectrum between "encouraging someone to attack someone else" and "discouraging someone from attacking me" and different people respond to different stimuli.

Some people are highly motivated by reward. Those people love getting bonuses and will respond well to cards that give them, like agitator ant, noble heritage, wound reflection, etc. These people are our friends and will usually take every advantage we give them.

Some people are highly loss adverse. They hate punishments, and will avoid it until they have to. They respond to rattlesnakes, No Mercy, and even Ghostly Prison because it stops their development. These people are also our friends as long as we have enough effects to keep them wary of us. And if they're already not attacking, they may as well take some counters, right?

Some people don't care about either. Sometimes they hate the idea of being manipulated and will do anything to spite you, even if it's irrational. These people are not your friends, and that's where pillowfort cards really shine. They can't attack you with everything most of the time, and if they do, it's later in the game when they don't need to develop. But even then, it drains their ability to use combat tricks or counterspells for when you're reacting to them. Even if it only stalls them a few turns as they're building up, you've gotten more draws, more mana, more +1/+1 counters, etc.

I run these pillowfort cards specifically because they encourage people to build up one large threat to break through, which motivates them to take counters, and makes it easier to aikido as well.

And for the flying/first strike/lifelink creatures, they synergize very well with all the scaling buffs, especially Crescendo of War (assuming I keep it in the list this time). Pillowfort plus first striking lifelinkers makes it almost impossible to sneak in chip damage, and the lifelink is great for wars of attrition. It's good against things like extort or group slug, while also making it awkward for the token player to attack you, because they have to do enough damage to ignore your 10/10 lifelinker. Basically, they set it up so that people have to commit hard to taking you down, and if they do, you're well equipped to answer them.

DreadKhan on Overpopulation

1 year ago

Crescendo of War is pretty decent if you've got a lot of vigilant bodies, though it can feel bad vs a deck with lots of tramplers. The idea is to wait to play it until you're going to 'win next turn', everyone else gets a small buff (which also applies to only your blockers, so swinging at you will cost people creatures) when swinging, but you'll swing at +4 after one cycle, +8 after a 2nd.

SirHipHopHippo on Ewwww Kros, infect

1 year ago

RedNova700

Hi Nova! Thanks for the comment!

Yes, we all had a budget restriction of $45. You can see the budget version of the deck here. The deck plays really well. In my experience the fogs are imperative for this deck, especially when you get into the 1v1. With Kros you spend all game buffing your opponents creatures and when it gets down to just two players you need to be able to buy time to proliferate the infect counters with something like Contagion Clasp.

As for Paradox Haze I have a very nice hand painted alter of the card, I haven't had a home for it in a while since I took apart another deck so I just have to put it in here. Here's a link to the alternate art if you wanna check it out. There are a lot of cards in the build though that trigger on upkeep Orzhov Advokist, Aven Mimeomancer, Evolutionary Escalation, Sheltering Ancient, Sporogenesis, Crescendo of War, Kumena's Awakening, Phyrexian Swarmlord, and of course the commander Kros, Defense Contractor so I think it will be really strong.

I'm excited to see how Kros can be improved with upcoming sets and more community research.

Gleeock on Pattern Recognition #243 - Into …

1 year ago

Love forced combat. Love dropping a Crescendo of War & pushing engine-to-endgame decks to consider a field presence midgame or watch as they realize how much life can matter again in these types of games. Forced combat is just another strategy that is opening up new avenues of playstyle, new tempo, new threat recognition. Other players that can't see the forest-for-the-trees with the strategy are the ones left complaining the most. I've seen vigilance heavy decks dominate goad games (vigilance...seriously!), lifegain decks dominate, tap/untap decks dominate. It is an easily circumvented strategy that scales well to whatever combat capabilities the opponents are fielding. It inherently brings importance back the the midgame aspect of the game & it can force chip damage to be an important factor in games, which I love because before I had this option I saw far less: midgame, chip damage matters games & more 90% alternate wincon games. I honestly couldn't give less of a crap when I "do not have a choice" on my combat, usually I planned on swinging anyway - as long as my beater isn't removed I'm happy. Even happier if I'm swinging a vigilant lifelinker - Agitator Ant that all day long.

Gleeock on Dealing with politics as an …

1 year ago

You too. I would say that I only play true "aggro" a little. Mostly I play goading midrange with little rampers. Most aggro I play is with disposable threats. I once played an Edgar Markov deck though that did involve some forced aggro... things like lifelinkers & Crescendo of War to turn the game upside down with aggro advantage & it actually played very well. When I focused my player removal with that deck I just picked my opponent by strategy, honed in on him, & the other players didn't have that rationale: "you slapped me earlier" they were more like: "oh well, better him than me", & I didn't go: "oh you have 45 life so I will trim that now" (that player remembers that).... Remember, life IS a resource, especially for aggro, so pressure whoever can least afford it instead of chipping at everyone frivolously & just pissing them off :)

Gleeock on New Social Contract Breach Discussion

2 years ago

It does truly vary wildly

I've seen players scoop & significantly alter the game for everyone else on Crescendo of War with goad in effect. This is a very low-compete, able to respond, game expediting effect. I wonder if they just didn't know how game-altering it was to not complete 1 more go-round?

Likewise for Havoc Festival with Kardur, Doomscourge. I'm not exactly time-burgling (the opposite actually) & this is not stopping anyone from playing magic... maybe dedicated lifegain decks, for 6 cmc

It would be nice if players considered the ramifications a little more before they scooped is all. For me, my way is black & white. If I've committed I stay in I play until the end. I pick up a snack or something if I hate my opponents strategy :)

IHATENAMES on Avacyn, Angel of Wipes

2 years ago

I like and hate alot of what I see here. Land destruction is difficult to play unless you tell people before a game "o hey I run some Armageddon effects" but it is also one if whites way to win by resource denial.

I think you need to focus on your mana curve. You have many impactful 6 drops. Which can help only if you get there. Replacing some with ramp could help.

Marble Diamond I have come to believe is a bad card there are so many 2 mana rocks that this can easily be upgraded with a cheap Alternative.

Magus of the Disk board wide every turn with your commander.

You should probably designate some targeted removal for artifacts as Shadowspear is your biggest concern.

Crescendo of War helps end games you can block for days not your opponents.

A sac outlet for when you may need to wipe without avacyn. Altar of Dementia Perhaps.

Some sort of non indestructible protection like Ghostway or Eerie Interlude orGuardian of Faith

I'd look into 1 or 2 indestructible creatures so you can wipe without needing avacyn to break the Symmetry. Besides Stuffy Doll I don't run alot but it's something to look at maybe.

You have a inf combo w/ a sac outlet btw. Sun Titan Fiend Hunter effect with sac . Hunter exile sun titan sac repeat.