Arguel's Blood Fast

Legendary Enchantment

, Pay 2 life: Draw a card.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 5 or less life, you may transform Arguel's Blood Fast.

Discussion (47)

TriusMalarky on Mono Black

1 month ago

You have an average CMC of 4(2.6 if you include lands). That's pretty high, and you have one low mana rock. You definitely have ways to get tons of mana, but they tend to be 4 or more mana, often they're 6 mana.

Personally, I'd want to ramp hard into things like Caged Sun and Crypt Ghast , and then use the huge amount of mana with card draw spells to draw extreme amounts of cards.

So I'd recommend the cards Dark Ritual , Cabal Ritual , Sol Ring , Mind Stone , Songs of the Damned , Charcoal Diamond , Worn Powerstone , Thran Dynamo , and Culling the Weak . You could have lines like turn one Dark Ritual, Worn Powerstone, and then cast Crypt Ghast turn two. You'd have 8 mana on turn three if all your lands were basic swamps. Of course that's a nut draw, though, so don't expect it every game.

You can then wield one-shot draw effects like Read the Bones , Sign in Blood , Night's Whisper , etc. and add to your repeatable card draw effects with Greed and Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip.

Also, I'd really recommend Tendrils of Agony , because after casting several spells in one turn with all your mana, you can cast it and do a bunch of draining. It is possible to oneshot the table with this, but it's difficult unless you're explicitly trying to.

You'll also want ways to fill your graveyard for Agadeem and such effects, but I don't have suggestions on that right now.

Chats on When Hel freezes over

2 months ago

Phion,

To your point, I definitely appreciate that you're going "budget" with it. That's the very reason why I built it. Our playgroup is trying to stay with $200-400 deck prices.

So this deck was a perfect starting point that I could buff up just a bit (it was already really strong and overhwhelming with tokens!).

Honestly, I just dont know what I would take out and replace.

So far I'm cutting: Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip , Embalmer's Tools , Discovery / Dispersal , Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Forbidden Alchemy

The additions: Dictate of Erebos , Winter Orb , Cryptic Command , Vampiric Tutor , Demonic Tutor , Thoughseize, Feast of Dreams , Hymn to Tourach

Any ideas on what else I could cut to make room for the last few additions? Thanks!

multimedia on League Angels

2 months ago

Hey, well done on a $50 budget. You have good card sense if you're new on such a low budget.

I will try to match my suggestions with cards to consider cutting that are close to or equal in price. Some changes to consider:

• Sol Ring --> Swords to Plowshares
• Arcane Signet --> Syphon Mind
• Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip --> Succumb to Temptation
• Sephara, Sky's Blade --> Seraph of the Scales
• Righteous Valkyrie --> Deathpact Angel
• Angelic Accord --> Promise of Bunrei
• Firja, Judge of Valor --> Luminous Angel
• Soul Warden --> Imperious Oligarch
• Victimize --> Defy Death
• Make a Stand --> Doom Blade
• Emerge Unscathed --> Cast Down
• Command Tower --> 1x Plains
• Caves of Koilos --> Temple of Silence
• Path of Ancestry --> 1x Plains
• Tainted Field --> 1x Plains
• Orzhov Basilica --> 1x Plains
• Opal Palace --> 1x Plains

Swords to Plowshares is the most expensive card here and you have many other removal spells to make up for not having it. Sol Ring is a staple mana rock in Commander and it's more ramp that can help to cast high CMC Angels. With Angels repeatable low mana cost ramp is more important then a single creature removal spell.

Good luck with your deck.

Spirits on Undying Persistence

2 months ago

Here is an interesting article on lands (CMC0 Artifacts are lands) https://edhrec.com/articles/superior-numbers-land-counts/

Topic: Card Advantage! (There's lots of discussion on this if you search it, it can be a bit complicated, but ultimately, it means playing more cards than your opponent, in this deck, bringing multiple creatures back again and again is a way, draw is key, you don't ever want an empty hand)

Staying on theme with draw:

Skullclamp is going to be a necessity with your afterlife mechanic and hopefully a Teysa Karlov . Turn creature advantage into card advantage (yes Teysa Karlov make 2x spirits for afterlife 1, and then draws 4! cards when it dies).

Grim Haruspex is a common way to get some draw in and very well suited.

Viscera Seer is another way to get advantage, protect creatures from being exiled or stolen, as well as turn creature advantage into scry and hopefully draw with another ability on-board. This also means if you have recursion in hand but nothing to target, you can make a target.

Village Rites can be ok, if you're holding recursion to, or in response to someone unfavorably blocking your creature or if you just need to dig for an answer. It's not my favorite because its one-shot though.

Midnight Reaper is another way to utilize your deathtouch to remove opponents creatures and refill your hand.

Harvester of Souls is deathtouch! and card advantage. Also, he draws whenever ANY non-token creature dies, not just yours! Pair him with a Butcher of Malakir for some serious draw.

There are some other guys, maybe not within your deathtouch theme, so maybe not right for you Reassembling Skeleton , Bloodghast (kind of like a Soul Stair Expedition effect but on a creature. Check out this deck for more guys like this, Yawgmoth Thran Physician EDH, if interested.

There's also some ways to utilize your life total to draw, Bolas's Citadel is amazing (can win games or get you back in them), Necropotence (it's really good if you've never used it, Greed or Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip (crappy greed). You have some draw, Eg. Priest of Forgotten Gods , but I would get at minimum 8 draw mechanics into the deck, staying on theme, up to 12 is even good.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General does this pretty good too, and has a nice ultimate but is pricey ($20?), Phyrexian Arena is a classic ($12), Avoid anything with an activation costs on a triggered ability like Mentor of the Meek (static like Greed is ok).

Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord really fits your recursion theme, think he like $2 now, he doesn't draw cards, but gives all your guys lifelink and allows you to recur multiple creatures, and has lifelink himself for the +2 pinging ability.

This sort of led into another Topic: Winning

Bolas's Citadel , Liliana, Dreadhorde General are good at that.

The most common way for to win is Gray Merchant of Asphodel and recurring him, multiple times. Torment of Hailfire is nice, but you need much more land/ramp. Command the Dreadhorde is really strong too, if you can get a little bit extra life and have protected your life with your deathtouch, can get a bunch of strong/deathtouch back for relatively low life, even hits opponents graveyard.

Your Ashen Rider is really bad payoff at CMC8, go with Anguished Unmaking or Utter End if you need some key permanent removal.

Not sure i like the payoff for God-Pharaoh's Statue by the time you get there, your opponents will have ramped ( especially) enough mana to pay it.

Archetype of Finality is also not a great payoff for the mana cost, I would rather Command the Dreadhorde or Bolas's Citadel anytime. Plus many of your creatures have or can get deathtouch by themselves.

Just replace some key payoffs and you'll find your high CMC spell require a response from other players. Lots of ways to get there, whatever you like based on the theme.

I'll do one more post tomorrow with some other specific card evals, but quite a bit there. Trying to recommend some cuts as well as I go, I know it can be just as difficult deciding what to cut as it is for what to play.

Staying Low-Mid (battlecruiser/low) means you probably dont need a tutor package, but I'll give some ideas on the interaction package which you'll still need to answer some things your opponents are doing. Check back later. Happy reading :)

multimedia on Orzhov token life drain

3 months ago

Hey, nice budget version with some creative strategies. You forgot Sol Ring :)

Consider more repeatable draw from effects you don't have to cast since you have a lot of cards to assemble for the combos and then you don't lose life from Liesa.

• Dawn of Hope
• Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip
• Mask of Memory
• Skullclamp
• Court of Grace
• Palace Jailer

Dawn of Hope is nice with Liesa because she has lifelink thus when she does damage pay 2 mana to draw. Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip uses life to draw. Liesa has flying and there's quite a few other fliers here who can more easily do combat damage to a player for Mask of Memory .

Court of Grace and Palace Jailer can be repeatable draw with the monarch and Grace can be repeatable 4/4 Angels or 1/1 Spirits. Cards that create tokens are good with Skullclamp especially 1/1 tokens such as from Keeper of the Accord and Leonin Warleader .

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Some cards to consider cutting:

• Harmless Assault
• Mishra's Self-Replicator
• Withercrown
• Rally the Ranks
• Demon of Loathing
• Bloodline Pretender
• Replicating Ring

Cards to consider cutting are Harmless Assault since four mana for this effect is too much. Mishra's Self-Replicator there's much better five drops here to cast. Withercrown subpar for a removal spell since your opponent can just ignore it until they find a way to remove it because losing 1 life is not much to worry about. Rally the Ranks since +1/+1 anthem effect is not really worth it.

Demon of Loathing is not as good as the other high CMC creatures. Bloodline Pretender only good when you have Nexus or Conspiracy on the battlefield because you have to choose a creature type. Instead play a card that can help to setup Nexus or Conspiracy? Sol Ring could replace Replicating Ring .

Good luck with your deck.

VayraTheGatherer on Teysa, Orzhov Scion (Tier 3)

4 months ago

Additionally, if you have the lifegain support you can also go deeper into pay life for token sources and sac outlets: Bitterblossom ; Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip (pay pay pay, transform, sac sac sac); Erebos, Bleak-Hearted are some pretty nice draw sources that keep on giving.

mrdehring on From Dusk 'til Dawn

4 months ago

I like the lifegain/lifedrain aspects of this deck. But I think you are missing an important extort card in Crypt Ghast

With the up and down changes to your life total you may want to look at cards like Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip, Reverse the Sands, and Axis of Mortality

Mass removal and reanimation seems like a good sub theme, but where are your big heavy hitters to reanimate? Sepulchral Primordial seems like an auto include in this style of deck. Due to your creatures being more value engines than big hitters Single Combat might not be the wrath you want.

X-Factor11105 on I Am Fire, I Am Death

5 months ago

Fuzzlewuzzle How has Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip performed for you? In recent playtesting of my build it's clear this deck needs repeatable card draw to try and compete with so many of the low-cost, flexible Commanders currently en vogue.

Also, I think I was sleeping on Mutavault as a perfect cantrip for a bunch of the Dragon ETBs - have you ever tested this?