Archfiend of Despair

Creature — Demon

Flying

Your opponents can't gain life.

At the beginning of each end step, each opponent loses life equal to the life that player lost this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

Discussion (49)

BrassLord on kill murder kill kill

3 weeks ago

Looks like mean ol' Torgaar is back at it again!

Unfortunately, the ruling on Wound Reflection only activates if the opponent lost life. With the wording on Torgaar, the life total of the target player simply becomes half, not actually dealing damage or any loss of life.

HOWEVER, Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair DO combo with cards like Peer into the Abyss , Blood Tribute , and Virtus the Veiled because they specifically state loss of life or loses.

Another mean card to look into is Raving Dead , does the same kind of thing as Virtus the Veiled . I run it in a mutate deck and I can say giving either of those creatures a power bump and trample is mean! So something like Loxodon Warhammer or Shadowspear .

Another route to look at Torgaar, Famine Incarnate is to consistently stabilize yourself at 20 with his ability. So things like Conjurer's Closet are an interesting option to keep at 20 in the late game.

A different way to go about this is to go with some instant speed or enchantment abilities that trigger when your creature dies. You already have Kaya's Ghostform in the deck, some other cards could be Supernatural Stamina , and Abnormal Endurance . These also can double up on some of your other creature ETBs if you play these in response to the creatures activation of self sacrifice or a board wipe.

While a little pricy Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools also seems to want to do what the deck wants, creating tokens, sacrificing them, and getting out your commander from the command zone!

Squirrel_of_War on SAPROLING_ARMY!!!

2 months ago

Well since you are doing thallids with spore counters I would recommend leaning into Proliferate. Cards like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Evolution Sage, and Plaguemaw Beast can help you continue to proliferate all your spore counters or wahtever other counters you have every turn.

• Karn's Bastion
• Contagion Engine
• Contagion Clasp
• Grim Affliction

You might even consider adding Umezawa's Jitte.

Sac outlets that can benefit you are always good. Greater Good

Ways to beef up your saps. Muraganda Petroglyphs, Triumph of the Hordes

Ways to double up on the lifeloss from all the dying saps. Wound Reflection, Archfiend of Despair

Am I heading in the right direction here? Let me know if you like those suggestions.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Hit me Belbe one more time | Belbe EDH

4 months ago

Gorgeous, beautifil. Very cool deck. I might play Belbe one day. I adored your Neheb, but the minotaur is just so expensive. Maybe this would work.

Two cards you could consider:

Archfiend of Despair: You're basically pinging each opponent. This would double the efficiency of your pinging while also preventing opponents from healing.

Vilis, Broker of Blood: There will be players who try to damage you to benefit from Belbe as well. Vilis will make you benefits from these players by turning their damage into more haymakers.

Daedalus19876 on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

4 months ago

sam171z: I did test him, actually! You get the maximum total damage from "linking" each pair of opponents, and basically each opponent loses 18 life (6 from combat, 12 from damage dealt to your other opponents). The issue was that he doesn't really synergize with anything except for Araumi, and Archfiend of Despair is generally better (and he got cut for being unnecessary).

Davinoth on Liesa, Gains, Drains, and Taxes

4 months ago

Cool deck, +1 =)

Tainted Remedy and Archfiend of Despair would both have a nice home here!

exatin on Liesa leeches

4 months ago

Dropped

• Parhelion II
• Primevals' Glorious Rebirth
• Syndicate Enforcer
• Mox Amber

Things I like

• Archfiend of Despair - I like. high cost
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose - good include
• Mangara, the Diplomat - I saw, I liked, I forgot

Considering

• Evra, Halcyon Witness - will consider
• Exquisite Blood - good wincon but could also lock game since not "may"
• Witch of the Moors - like, a little high for a non-closer. I like the control aspect.
• Forsaken Wastes - I like, similar to Sanctum of Stone Fangs
• Axis of Mortality - will consider long-term
• Near-Death Experience - interesting "combo" with axis and evra
• Phyrexian Altar - not planning to run unless a few more things to abuse

Probably not...

• Sorin Markov - considered but don't have at the moment
• Bolas's Citadel - always fun
• Dark Ritual - good ramp, can't abuse atm
• Doom Whisperer - with Witch of the Moors it helps but otherwise, the return from bin in the deck is a bit weak
• Necropotence - I don't like to always include
• Gravecrawler && Mutavault are no's
• Pox && Death Cloud - possible as finisher but does impact each player. iirc, active player goes first, not last. So if I need to sac the pieces that trigger on loss of opponent life, it'll whiff

I've played a small set of games with the deck now. It had impact on the game. Majority of creatures cast in the deck didn't feel of consequence when standing alone. I'm investigating more ways to gain life but also add "target player gains life" to abuse Tainted Remedy against non-life gain decks that just ignore it when it hits the field. Spells like Swords to Plowshares.

Queso_Fresco on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

4 months ago

This is awesome, and I will totally be stealing ideas from here! My only question is on that Archfiend of Despair combo. Where is that 42 damage coming from? You encore with Araumi to make a copy for each opponent and swing for 6, and then they each lose another 6 at the end step (unless you dealt more damage with something else, obvi. Where does all that doubling come from?

MrKillStar on Syr Konrad EDH

4 months ago

Lhurgyof - I would personally keep those cards away from Syr Konrad and use them in deck with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth , Vilis, Broker of Blood , etc... also from the new set: Profane Transfusion (I know this is few months old comment, so you probably know about it already).

nieds - I see you already got a lot of really good cards, I'll just type some of them that I cut out since they're kinda meh in this kind of deck below. Anyway, you can check my Syr Konrad's deck here: For the Void. Im still switching few cards, explaining why I chose every card in the deck description, etc. I decided to go with mix of reanimator+aristocrats with several infinite combos. So I would welcome any feedback aswell and you might get some inspiration right there! :)

Some cards I would cut and why:

1) Loxodon Warhammer - is good in voltron / attack based decks, but here it looks like a random card that can gives you some life back (which black/other artifacts can do just better than lifelink artifact), but for 6 mana its meh. You could replace it with Shadowspear , which is three times mana cheaper and provides you with another utility ability. Or simply Bontu's Monument as another pseudo mana rock that also gives you a bit of life.
2) Sensei's Divining Top - I know SDT is amazing on its own, but I wouldnt personally bother with it, unless you would go for the Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top combo. I would switch it for either Viscera Seer (as another free sac outlet), or my choice for my deck was Shadows of the Past (with any infinite creature generator+sac and Bolas's Citadel, you can just "tutor" and cast whatever you want from top of your deck - think I explained it in my deck's description already or I add it sometime later).
3) Painful Quandary - Again, good card, just doesnt fit that well in my opinion. Goes well with Mindcrank and Archfiend of Despair but thats probably about it. I would rather put it in some discard focused deck. Instead of this, card like Morality Shift would be really cool for sure. Or cards like Forever Young / Gravepurge / Death Denied to proc Syr Konrad's ability and recast them with Bolas's Citadel + another card draw sources. Or you could also stick to enchantments liie Mortuary / Haunted Crossroads (parts of my infinite combos).
4) From planeswalkers I would personally keep only Liliana of the Dark Realms (to help with land drops and deck thining) and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools (creates more tokens than Lilianas, decent card-draw and punish opponents for letting you -10 him). Other Lilianas are not bad for sure, just either slow or not that fascinating as they seems to be. Karns are just out of place.

Cards I would put in for sure:

1) Tortured Existence - even on its own, it triggers Syr Konrad's ability twice and only for everytime! As you might already know, I use it with Phyrexian Altar and Desecrated Tomb to make infinite etb/die/sac triggers.
2) Bog Witch - discarding (creature) cards to trigger Syr Konrad's ability; is basically Dark Ritual on a stick which you could use to Reanimate / Animate Dead / Victimize right after. Also is 1/1, so another target for your Skullclamp .
3) Doom Whisperer - big good stuff with ability to filter your deck and put creatures directly from your library into the graveyard.
4) Haunted Crossroads - even on its own, its great way to get your creatures back (on top of library for Bolas's Citadel), next to Phyrexian Reclamation .
5) Emergence Zone - simply to give your spells Flash when you would need them, really nice utility land (similar is Winding Canyons but only for creatures, so eh).
6) Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - cheap way to "protect" your creature, triggering Syr Konrad's ability or another land if needed.
7) Tainted Strike - absolute game winning beast card with Syr Konrad and either any creature/sac generator, boardwipe with 10+ creatures on board, or discard/mill cards.
8) Diabolic Intent - you got plenty of token generators, so this is just mana-cheap tutor.
9) Feed the Swarm - more ways to deal with enchantments and creatures.

I hope some of this will help and you like some of those cards! :)