Ambition's Cost

Sorcery

You draw three cards and you lose 3 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

TypicalTimmy on Atraxa, Phyrexia's Champion

1 month 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

TheOfficialCreator on

1 month ago

Black Market Connections is a very strong ramp/draw/fodder shell for your deck.

Ob Nixilis's Cruelty, Ambition's Cost, Deadly Dispute, Village Rites, and Cabal Ritual are some good additions you could look into as well.

DuneEcho on Ascendant Evincar '02 (ONS)

1 month ago

And Ambition's Cost! Yeah, I definitely need to revisit this list.

bushido_man96 on Abzan Graveyard Recursion Help

2 months ago

Lots of good suggestions above. I'd consider cleaning up some of your card draw options. Dawn of Hope seems to mana-intensive and relies on life-gain. Pact Weapon doesn't seem like reliable card draw, either. For 4 mana, you could play something like Ambition's Cost that will guarantee you 3 cards on the spot. In a deck like this where you want to fill the graveyard with creatures, cards like Recycle and Null Profusion can really fill up the graveyard.

I play a Kathril deck that likes to have creatures in the graveyard, too. I run some cards that help mill, and I also run sac outlets to get creatures I play into the graveyard. You've got one nice sac-draw outlet, and I'd consider running a few more. Plumb the Forbidden is a good one, letting you hit multiple targets. Village Rites is also solid. Greater Good draws you card and gives you selection to fill up the graveyard, too.

I see a smattering of a life-gain subtheme to the deck. Personally, I'd cut that entirely. Some incidental life-gain is nice, but I think the cards you have here aren't doing anything but pulling you away from what your deck wants to do.

Also, Nethroi triggers every time it mutates. Running some more mutate cards could be helpful.

I hope this was helpful information.

bushido_man96 on Zombie help

3 months ago

Tainted Adversary seems a bit mana intensive to really get good results from. How many tokens do you usually get when you cast it? And is the effect worth that much mana investment? I don't like Stitchwing Skaab, either, especially when you talk about running out of gas. It will only contribute to that problem if you don't have cards to discard, and you don't want to discard better cards to play that one.

I'd consider cutting Spell Swindle for a cheaper CMC counterspell, or a straight removal spell. I think you want to be pretty aggressive with how you spend your mana in this deck, and holding up 5 mana to counter a spell is counterintuitive to that strategy.

I'd drop the mill theme: Dread Summons, Drown in Dreams, Maddening Cacophony, Peer into the Abyss, Psychic Corrosion maybe even Telemin Performance. I would add card draw spells in those spots. Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, and Sign in Blood will always draw you cards, regardless of board state. Altar's Reap, Village Rites, and Vampiric Rites are good draw sources when you have a board state. I'd recommend pushing your ramp to 10 spells, and then you should be off an running.

Good luck going forward with this deck.

bushido_man96 on How Can I Put Mindless …

3 months ago

At first glance, I agree with TheOfficialCreator. Why provide everyone else card draw, especially if you're not playing a group hug deck.

Then I checked the decklist. You have 40 lands, at it appears you do not have very many card draw spells. I'd swap out some lands for more card draw. I'd feel comfortable running 37 lands, but if you only want to cut two to get to 38, you'd probably still feel comfortable about it. I'd still drop Otherworld Atlas, as it's just a bad card, and you don't want to tie all of your card draw effects to Atraxa's proliferation ability. If you run that up to where everyone at the table is drawing 4 cards per turn, then you are just filling your opponents' hands with answers to your problems. Some simple card draw spells like Night's Whisper, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, and Ambition's Cost are all very reliable card draw spells that don't require a board state or your commander doing it's thing to draw some gas. Sometimes after a board wipe, you just need to draw a few cards to get things rolling again.

I'd say the same for your ramp package, too. It seems a bit light, especially with such a commander that is 4 CMC of 4 different colors. You're not running any colored ramp, save Chromatic Lantern, which kind of counts. Personally, I'd run more of a green land ramp package and replace it with Arcane Signet, and then stick with the few colorless rocks you have that you can proliferate counters onto.

Sorry, got a bit long there, but I hope you find some of this information helpful.

bushido_man96 on Pointy Hat Squad

3 months ago

Yawgmoth's Bargain is a banned card in EDH, so you should consider replacing it. One life for one card is pretty broken in EDH.

I'm not sure I'd run Ponder in here. I think a straight draw spell like Night's Whisper or Ambition's Cost would be better, or any other straight draw spell of your choosing.

Does High Tide do much for you here? Being in a three color deck, it doesn't seem like you'll have many Islands on the table at a given time to make much out of it. You could probably find a more consistent ramp spell.

Overall, looks fun!

kamarupa on Shadowy Shadows

6 months ago

Sign in Blood is better MV than Ambition's Cost. Spoils of the Vault will get you down in life FAST.

Dismember for added removal.

Noxious Revival might be worth considering as a sideboard.

I suggest cutting Oni Possession and Blood Mist.