Ambition's Cost

Sorcery

You draw three cards and you lose 3 life.

Discussion (51)

AjanisLastDan on Ayara’s Rats

2 weeks ago

Its seems you want to swarm as fast as possible, and do that quickly, so I would cut Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for the reasons Peoni mentioned above.

Add in some useful mana rocks to speed things up, that aren't too outrageously expensive:

Jet Medallion and Charcoal Diamond are excellent cost reducers,Arcane Signet, Darksteel Ingot, and Prismatic Lens would speed things up more than you know.

Thought Vessel if you've got a few extra doll-hairs sitting around.

I'd also cut Tendrils of Corruption and Corrupt(no more synergy with the Tomb), Revenge of Ravens or Blood Reckoning(is one life really that much when you've got so many other of these effects?), Mindcrank(this card is so much more fun when Duskmantle Guildmage is around, and I don't know about you, but my playgroup loves to have good stuff in the grave, so they can CHEAT it out for cheap, so unless Mill is something you really want to strive for, it just seems clunky to me, especially when more ramp is needed). And maybe cut Ambition's Cost-?? It just seems really expensive, Mana-wise, for more drawback than usual.

Funky_bunch any more useful tips?

Optimator on Yahenni Aristocrats

3 weeks ago

You don't have a ton of card-draw, and I also recommend at least eight pieces for almost any deck. Graveyard recursion, especially the good ones, definitely count as card advantage in my book, so Phyrexian Reclamation is great here, as is Whisper.

Grim Haruspex and Disciple of Bolas are on-theme. Thorn of the Black Rose and Custodi Lich are fun creature-based choices too. Some other classic choices are Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Promise of Power, Liliana's Contract, Syphon Mind, Castle Locthwain, and Read the Bones. Palace Siege is okay, especially if you feel you need more recursion. Diabolic Servitude is nice and repeatable. Victimize and Blood for Bones are a great rate. Oversold Cemetery is nice too, though pricey.

Greed, Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip, Skullclamp and Erebos, God of the Dead are really good but not cheap. Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and God-Eternal Bontu would be decent as well. Bonus points for some being threats/blockers.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury is an interesting choice for card advantage--especially if you can recur him out of the graveyard over and over.

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Dreadhorde Invasion is a great source of sacrifice fodder. So are Grave Titan and Bitterblossom but they're expensive. High Market is good in case your commander get's Arrested or turned into an elk or frog or the moon. Rogue's Passage could help end games once Yahenni is huge.

If you find you can't close out games between all the groupslug aristocrat cards and Yahenni's damage, perhaps a few auxiliary groupslug cards could tip games in your favor. Most of the good ones are very expensive though. Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, Polluted Bonds, Wound Reflection, and Palace Siege et al. Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are classic finishers too.

As far as cuts go... I don't love some of the creature-based removal. I know it's good because you can sacrifice them later but perhaps Morkrut Banshee, Skinrender, and Anowon the Ruin Sage could be cut. I don't love Devour in Shadow and Drag to the Underworld. You should be set on removal even with those five cuts. Feed the Swarm is worth noting! Mortician Beetle is a bit win-more but is uniquely suited to the deck and worth keeping for now. Probably makes a good blocker. Geralf's Messenger is a bit weaker than some of the token generators and recurring threats too.

Also, I don't know if you care (few do) but if you want an accurate price calculation for your deck you should put the cards in the Sideboard into the Maybeboard so they aren't added.

Optimator on Blood Diamonds

1 month ago

Thanks for the advice, ThoAlmighty!! This deck is one of my new decks built almost entirely out of cards on-hand. I bought the Venser's Journal, Gilded Lotus, and kind of bought the Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate for it and had the rest of the good (and bad) cards already in my collection in need of a home. As such, plenty of the card choices are not ideal or optimized. In a sense, this is a budget deck not looking for big-time upgrades yet. I'm aware that Deathgreeter and Falkenrath Noble don't synergize with my deck at all but they are just incidental lifegain and as early-game blockers. Definitely filler for now. Deathgreeter might have enough utility (in my meta) for his cost to stick around until I get something great for lifegain, such as Twilight Prophet or Exquisite Blood etc. I was thinking about replacing the noble with Ivory Tower since it's old and janky and one of those "works almost nowhere except this commander" cards. I want to play more games and see how important lifegain ends up being to me. Some decks run a shitload and some run almost none.

I've played five games now and in the three games where I played Ambition's Cost and/or Ancient Craving they have worked out. Ideally they smooth out my mid-game and draw me into more lands, ramp, and answers/removal to get up to Vilis. So far they have done so. I also don't have a ton of free-life-payment cards like Doom Whisperer so they serve as passable refueling for Vilis. More games will surely give me insight but for now I like them.

So far the ramp has worked out all right but I had an eye to add more already. I have twelve pieces (13 if you count Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx... oh to have a Cabal Coffers too!! Just gotta wait for Commander Legends). I usually have 7-10 in my decks so this is still feels like a good, high amount. I used to have Bubbling Muck and Dark Ritual in the ~105-card prototype but they were late cuts, reducing my overall ramp-card count without replacement. Five games isn't a huge sample size, to be sure, so I'm gonna feel it out some more before I make swaps. I would definitely add Thought Vessel as an early upgrade. I was also thinking of swapping the Leaden Myr for a mana rock that doesn't die to all my wraths.

Thanks again for your comments!

ThoAlmighty on Blood Diamonds

1 month ago

To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of Ancient Craving or Ambition's Cost. They're nice to refuel after you play Vilis but otherwise aren't worth the cost imo. Falkenrath Aristocrat and Deathgreeter don't seem to have the support to be very impactful either, and I imagine you could use more rocks. Charcoal Diamond and Jet Medallion seem like good inclusions from your maybeboard. Speaking of, Lord of the Void and Twilight Prophet are also sweet cards that you might want to swap in; if you can get them to stick they're both terrific.

DeinoStinkus on Token Deck Help

1 month ago

Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, Guardian Project

Bjrn19 on rakdos the heck raiser

1 month ago

helooo my deer have some suggestions

Threats Archfiend of Depravity Spawn of Mayhem Taurean Mauler

Removal Chaos Warp Doom Blade Vandalblast Dreadbore Blasphemous Act Defile Victim of Night

Recursion Cadaver Imp Animate Dead

Draw Doom Whisperer Vilis, Broker of Blood Kothophed, Soul Hoarder Faithless Looting Greed Bloodgift Demon Sign in Blood Damnable Pact Ambition's Cost Ancient Craving

Ramp Wayfarer's Bauble Mind Stone Star Compass Thran Dynamo

Hasty Anger Fervor

Synergy Krark's Thumb

bushido_man96 on Life Lost v3.0

2 months ago

Brainstorm and Gitaxian Probe seem rather lackluster here, when you could lean more into the straight card draw that black offers, like Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Ancient Craving or Ambition's Cost. I don't know how difficult triple black pips are for you here, but if your fixing is good, Necropotence would be great with the life gain.

Scallywallwest on Drain 'N' Gain

2 months ago

Hello! Since you'll be draining people with this deck, I'm sure you'll be able to lose a few life for certain things, right? I think you should consider Phyrexian Arena for card draw. I know it's sometimes not the best in situations, but if you just want a quick boost, you could toss in Read the Bones or Ambition's Cost. In my opinion, I think you might want to playtest without Ayara, First of Locthwain. She's quite heavy on mana, costing to play, meaning you won't always be able to cast her on turn three.

Serra Ascendant is quite powerful in commander, and is useful late-game, too. In looking over your list, I notice that you don't seem to have the most targeted removal. A great removal spell in Orzhov is Vindicate, which is a good price to pay for destroying any permanent. You could also put in an Anguished Unmaking. I notice that you do have things to make your opponents sacrifice creatures, but you don't seem to have many wraths. You'll probably need this most against token decks, but having a wrath on hand while your opponents are jumping ahead is usually a good thing for you.

By looking at your curve, I'd say you could take out at least 3 lands and replace them with mana rocks. If you're planning to lower the 5-mana spells, add in cheaper spells, etc., you could easily lower the land count to 35 or such.

Otherwise, your deck looks really good! I'm personally a big fan of lifegain, and I'll admit, I do try to sneak it in to many decks that...let's just say...don't really need it. :b Take my opinions with a grain of salt if you feel you need to, but I do hope that at least one suggestion was useful to you! Farewell, and good luck with the deck!