Ambition's Cost

Sorcery

You draw three cards and you lose 3 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

xram666 on Volrath: No School, like Old School

5 months ago

Cool Deck. Plus 1 from me.

My friend s and I built real Elder Dragon Highlander Decks with the same restriction as your deck. These are really cool games.

And I also have some cards for your deck:

• Ambition's Cost The price tag sucks, I know ;-) but another source of card draw is always good.
• Ashen Powder I not sure with this one because we don't want to "steal" new frame cards from opponents ;-).
• Royal Assassin is still a good card in EDH.
• Sadly your deck may not have enough creatures for Koskun Falls. As this card is so unknown everyone has to look twice, if you play a Propaganda in black ;-).

Profet93 on Haunted Shadowheart

1 year ago

Vessiliana

To deal with stalling out, more draw can't hurt. Syphon Mind, Phyrexian Arena, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving are all decent ideas.

I would add some more interaction as a preventative measure for staying power such as Contamination and/or Infernal Darkness. How are they gonna wipe if they can't cast spells? Swapping out your 4cmc lili for Karn, the Great Creator could be worth considering as well. Having one of the above enchantments + karn = fun times.

I personally disagree with insidious dreams because 1) It's an additional cost to cast. Without any anti-blue measures in the deck, this would be strongly meta dependent IMO. 2) It doesn't bring the cards to hand. Even ignoring mill, you have to wait to draw them or cast an additional draw spell just to get them. Why not add a more expensive CMC card that can accomplish what you're looking for? Your avg cmc is low enough to support it. Something like Peer into the Abyss (synergy with Archfiend of Despair) or Diabolic Revelation might work for you. Never hurts to try insidious though.

While not necessary, have you considered an alternate wincon? Rings of Brighthearth + cabal coffers + Deserted Temple = {INFINITY}{B}. You have a lot of flexibility in your landbase, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can reduce the amount of swamps you need. Temple can be used for politics and ramp with coffers on it's own. Rings synergizes with your commander, your shadowborn apostyles and several other cards. Adding in fetches could allow you to ramp. All depends on your goals + budget.

You have no instants. While I'm personally biased, Imp's Mischief can "counter" counterspells and redirect targeted removal, draw and extra turns! You definitely need an instant or two to bluff.

Optimator on Goblin Shenanigans (The Secret of Kiki Jiki)

2 years ago

A bunch of card-draw cards you will want to note for any future shake-ups:

Moldervine Reclamation, Dark Prophecy, Species Specialist, Skullclamp, Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, Liliana, Dreadhorde General,

Collective Unconscious, Shamanic Revelation, Ohran Frostfang, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Culling Dais

Colossal Majesty, Phyrexian Reclamation, Phyrexian Arena, Slate of Ancestry, Herald's Horn,

Greed, Erebos, God of the Dead,

Mask of Griselbrand, Fecundity, Guardian Project, Idol of Oblivion, Coveted Jewel, The Deck of Many Things

Painful Truths, Harmonize, Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, Reforge the Soul, Wheel of Misfortune,

Damnable Pact, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Syphon Mind, Minions' Murmurs, Necrologia,

Return of the Wildspeaker, Soul's Majesty, Rishkar's Expertise, Peer into the Abyss

I would skew toward permanents (for Kodama) and higher mana values (for Vial-Smasher)

Vincentc1 on The King Has Returned.

2 years ago

Hey, I really like the theme and your deck ! Is Ambition's Cost a pet card or ? If not, how about Feed the Infection ? They do the same thing except FtI does a little bit more for the same CMC.

jarncards on hasteland

2 years ago

For global haste you can use Fires of Yavimaya, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Urabrask the Hidden who will also conveniently turn off other people's haste. Anger and Barbarian Class also give haste after more effort.

Ant Queen, Artifact Mutation, Battle Hymn, Circle of Dreams Druid, Dragon Broodmother, Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, Tempt with Vengeance, Sylvan Offering, Termagant Swarm are all useful if you can give haste to all of them.

Birds of Paradise is just the best mana dork.

You have green, so you might as well use the standard ramp package with Cultivate , Kodama's Reach, Explore , Farseek, , Rampant Growth, Three Visits and Nature's Lore. Probably ignore most mana rocks, because people are going to want to vandalblast you just because of the treasures.

Relentless Assault, Scourge of the Throne, Combat Celebrant, Hexplate Wallbreaker, World at War grant extra combats, with Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault potentially going infinite.

Vandalblast goes in every red deck. Even though youll have a ton of treasures i'd still run Brotherhood's End too

For draw spells consider Scroll Rack, Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond, Soul's Majesty, Furious Rise, Rishkar's Expertise, Beast Whisperer, Shamanic Revelation, Disciple of Bolas, Pact of the Serpent, Painful Truths, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, Lifeblood Hydra, or maybe Necropotence although the color restricion on necro is tough, treasures should take care of it.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer , The Reaver Cleaver , Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge , Ancient Copper Dragon , Old Gnawbone Ziatora, the Incinerator for more treasure makers. Pyrohemia and Pestilence could be fun with the extra mana. Awaken the Woods is an amazing x spell too, but wont appreciate the two aforementioned cards.

If you're using magda the deck will benefit from dragons and expensive artifacts. throw in Imperial Recruiter and Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all go in your colors. so you can get her more consistently. Darksteel Forge and Gate to Phyrexia can be tutored into play with her for five treasure.

If you use dragons, you could add Dragonstorm, but you should carefully consider how many cheap spells you expect to be able to cast if you arent building specifically towards this card. Chatterstorm, Empty the Warrens, Yawgmoth's Will, Jeska's Will, Mana Geyser, and Manamorphose, Past in Flames are all good on their own and would add synergy.

If it ends up dragon tribal, cards like Crippling Fear , Kindred Dominance, Crux of Fate

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire is a very good payoff for using treasures if you dont use certain other nightmarish dragons like Atarka, World Render, Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Terror of Mount Velus, Thrakkus the Butcher

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Phyrexia: All Will Be One …

2 years ago

Ohhhhh baby! That is a spicy tribal commander if real...that's all I am going to say until it is confirmed.

Anyways, onto officially released cards:

New Atraxa is kind of disappointing. I mean, she is strong and the Battle mechanic is interesting and all, but really she is just a blink-value commander. Yawns

Feed the Infection is just a strictly better Ambition's Cost and I am here for it.

Monument of Perfection looks really cool, but unless we get more spheres or loci, it currently can't be activated in standard. Also....suuuuuuupper bad card to pull in limited.

Mirran Safehouse looks really interesting. I am already seeing comments about Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx lines in those weird 60 card formats :P Could be fun in graveyard based lands decks or to have a second copy of Cabal Coffers type lands. Also, play Petrified Field folks....

I was originally a bit down on our latest Sword of X-and-Y, but then I re-read it and realized that you exile the cards before the "play and extra land" trigger. This sword is really good. I don't think anything can usurp Sword of Feast and Famine, but this is definitely in the next tier below.

bushido_man96 on Atraxa's Private Guarden

2 years ago

I like what I see here for the most part, but I've got some ideas for you.

Mana base: Since you're in four colors, lose as many lands that produce only colorless mana as possible. Keep Karn's Bastion, but consider cutting Gavony Township, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, Opal Palace, Reliquary Tower (unless you draw a metric ton of cards here, which I don't see), and Temple of the False God. Possibly cut Unclaimed Territory, too. I see why you have it, but it can't help you cast your commander. Replace all of these with either basics or some other dual-type lands, preferably those that don't come into play tapped. Basics would probably work fine.

I don't think I like Door of Destinies here. You probably have to choose Fungus as your creature type, which doesn't help your saprolings. And you can't choose saprolings, because you don't "play" the saprolings. Cut it for another ramp spell, which you sorely need.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not sure I like Resourceful Defense either. I do understand why you've included it, but it just doesn't seem to me that you'll get much use out of it, and it's activated ability is pretty costly. But if you like it, and it does a lot of work for you, then ignore my advice.

You are sorely lacking in card draw, too. You need to look at some slots to open up for more card draw spells. Black offers lots of great one-off spells, like Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, and others.

That's all I got for now. I'll compare our lists more closely and let you know if I think of anything else.

TypicalTimmy on Atraxa, Phyrexia's Champion

2 years ago

So your very first upkeep that she's out, you draw 5 cards and lose 5 life? That seems pretty unbalanced. Yes it is on par with cards such as Sign in Blood which trades 1 life per card (2 life, 2 cards). Other examples are Funeral Rites, Night's Whisper and Read the Bones. There's also the theme of 1 life per card when you move up into Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Demonic Offering and Harrowing Journey.

So to suddenly shift it back to 5-for-5, then 6-for-6, then 7-for-7, then 8-for-8... that's where the overpowered nature comes from.

Add on lifelink, and there threat of losing the game is essentially nullified. Even if she is chump blocked, you still get 100% of your life back. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that this trend breaks with Infernal Contract and Cruel Bargain.

Worse still is that with having vigilance, you can get the life even on blocking. With flying, the evasion makes her largely unstoppable in most games, and with the advent of deathtouch, suddenly she's nearly impossible to really handle in terms of just combat.

Add onto that 4 colors, you have a toolbox bigger than most decks.

I apologize if I sound like I am insulting the design and being mean about it. I understand my tone can come off as stern. I'm truly not meaning to; I am simply explaining where the unbalance exists.

What if, as a solution, you Scry X and lose X life where X is her power, then you draw 2 cards? Now you are basically filtering the top half of your library and grabbing exactly what you want, when you want it <3