Avatar of Woe

Creature — Avatar

If there are ten or more creature cards total in all graveyards, this spell costs {6} less to cast.

Fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

{T}: Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated.

Combos

• Avatar of Woe + Thornbite Staff

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	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
PreDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

TheVectornaut on King of the Skull Servants

1 week ago

As a fellow enjoyer of Grass Looking Greener (mostly Lightsworn but also some Zombie/Vampires, PK+Paleos, and Skull Servants), I do think the idea is interesting. You're always going to be in a bit of a battle between thematic consistency and power level. For instance, a grave-counting creature like Wight of Precinct Six or Nighthowler would fit the idea of King growing with more guys in the yard, but they would also be disappointingly weak right now since you don't have a lot of mass self-mill at the moment (Stitcher's Supplier and Overlord of the Balemurk are the first things that comes to my mind). On the subject of getting what you want in the GY, it probably is best to have a few more ways of getting specific targets buried at least. With Entomb off the table in modern, I could see Unmarked Grave being the best cheap option instead of or in addition to Buried Alive. This only negatively affects Maha who I already think is worse than reanimator staples like Archon of Cruelty or Sire Of Insanity. Fewer legendaries also makes Persist a great choice. There's also Lively Dirge if you want to stick to the low mana value plan and can afford to pay more mana. Finally, I'm partial to Burning-Rune Demon as a way to extend into more reanimations while being a reasonable threat in its own right. I think it would be cool to run more skeletons for the theme too, although most aren't that helpful. Cards like Reassembling Skeleton or Persistent Specimen could be sac fodder to a Victimize or Hell's Caretaker. Another one that I know can be good in black reanimator is Emperor of Bones, although he has some unfortunate anti-synergy with other cards in the deck like Twilight Diviner. Death Baron is always an option if you find the Corpses of the Lost backup plan doesn't have enough oomph.

Some final notes: It may be more consistent to focus on just the Xu-Ifit negated reanimations. That would involve going up to 4 Death's Shadow and adding in some similar options like Moonshadow or Yargle and Multani. The EDHRec page for Varolz, the Scar-Striped could be a place to start. That all said, having the more powerful effects of non-negated creatures may still be worth the inconsistency of the two plans not always meshing whan you need them to. You do want to have the best options available in either case though. My first cut suggestions would be Gloom Sower, Avatar of Woe, Inkwell Leviathan, and lastly Maha, Its Feathers Night. Finally, I second cutting some lands and would suggest Bitter Triumph as a replacement for Cast Down that comes with a Cabal Therapy option built-in.

capwner on King of the Skull Servants

1 week ago

Cool idea, maybe something like Massacre Wurm to combo with the Maha, over Avatar of Woe? Maybe also Victimize or Persist as backup means of reanimating your big threats, which Unearth can't quite do. Ripples of Undeath is another great card for reanimator that fills your yard AND draws you the spells you want.

DemonDragonJ on Unbalanced Cycles in MtG

2 months ago

The majority of cycles of cards in this games are at least somewhat balanced, but there are some cycles that are rather unbalanced, where one or two cards are noticeably (and often hilariously) over- or underpowered compared to the other cards, so I would like to discuss some of those cycles, in this thread.

One of the very first cycles in the game, the original boon cycle, was hilariously unbalanced, with Ancestral Recall being significantly more powerful than were the other cards in that cycle, Healing Salve being easily the weakest, and the other three members being between them in terms of power; Lightning Bolt remains a staple to this day, but Giant Growth and Dark Ritual are much more niche cards, today, due to power creep. Since that cycle was one of the first cycles in the game, I believe that players can forgive WotC for not being able to balance the cards in it.

Another unbalanced cycle is the avatar cycle from Prophecy, in which Avatar of Woe is clearly the most powerful, while Avatar of Will is the weakest, with the other three being between them in power.

Another great example is that the majority of the "rhystic" cards are fairly weak, but Rhystic StudyGC is extremely powerful, so I wonder what the designers were thinking when they made those cards.

One of my personal favorites is how the lieges from Eventide (i.e., Balefire Liege, Deathbringer Liege, and so forth) are blatantly superior to the lieges from Shadowmoor (i.e., Ashenmoor Liege, Boartusk Liege, and so forth), and I am very displeased at the disparity between the allied-colored and enemy-colored lieges.

What does everyone else say, about this? What are some of your favorite examples of unbalanced cycles in Magic: the Gathering? I certainly am eager to hear your thoughts, on this matter!

Exit777 on Please, let me touch YOU - Phage

4 months ago

Touching people is fun! :)

Als Vorschläge hätte ich vor allem das Deck ein bisschen "schlanker" zu machen. Avatar of Woe und Choice of Damnations aber im Regelfall echt weit weg. Peer into the Abyss kann zwar entweder jemand rausnehmen oder dir viele Karten ziehen aber hat das gleiche Problem wie Phage dass man erstmal dahin kommen muss. SElbes gilt für Profane Transfusion.

Und dann fehlt vielleicht natürlich Stunning Reversal, Nachteil ist dass es dich auf 1 setzt statt wie Lich's Mirror auf 20. Ich würde vielleicht die beiden trotzdem tauschen, weil Stunning Reversal als instant auch noch gut mit Lich's Mastery harmoniert, kauft dir also auf gewisse Art 2 nicht-sterben-Effekte für 1. Das Problem der geringen Lebenspunkte könntest du vielleicht eher mit Deathtouchern angehen, die auch Lifelink haben - Vampire Nighthawk, Qarsi Revenant, NIghthawk Scavenger. Die eignen sich dann auch gut um als backup wincon z.B. ein Vorpal Sword zu tragen, falls Phage aus irgendeinem Grund nicht mehr zum Zug kommt.

Decree of Pain und In Garruk's Wake würd ich auch durch was billigeres ersetzen, bspw. Extinction Event, einfach um besser ins late game zu kommen.

ldvatwa on Volrath: No School, like Old School

1 year ago

I love that you run all the old versions of these great cards. I remember pulling those versions of Avatar of Woe, Mutilate, and Phyrexian Reclamation out of packs. Good times!

griffstick on Indulgent Tormentor or Visara the …

1 year ago

Ok, I've used all of those cards befor and the problem with them is

• Indulgent Tormentor, it's just a bad card, if it was 4 mana to cast I'd say yea it's just another version of Loyal Subordinate and you can run it. With giving your opponents 3 options it's bad.

• Visara the Dreadful, the cost to cast this at 6 mana is really one of the biggest problems with this card. Secondly, because it doesn't have haste, you'll have to wait a turn to use it. It's tap ability to destroy is really what's the best part of the card but because it's a tap ability you can't attack with the flying 5/5. That also applies to Avatar of Woe. Although Dread doesn't do anything that you can see (like Ghostly Prison). It seems like it's a bad card. But it's not. It hits for 6 with fear. And protection from the crack back.

In my honest opinion, you'd be better off running Royal Assassin in place of Visara the Dreadful or WOE. And running Ophiomancer in place of Dread.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Indulgent Tormentor or Visara the …

1 year ago

I'd like to enter Avatar of Woe into the topic.

RockIV on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …

3 years ago

New Version of the Deck Rocks Monoblack creature removal

Changed the Deck. tried to get it cheaper and more optimal. Some cards end up in the sideboard/maybeboard: For example the Dark Ritual end didnt make the final version. I actually dont like the desicion but it might be the best. Their mission was to help me to cast the Black Sun's Zenith ( i only put two of them, maybe its just very little, maybe there have to be 4 o 3 at least) and the Phyrexian Obliterator.i knew that i was going to add more lands to the deck ( i have 22 now, maybe 1 more?), also i add the Phyrexian Arena, and in addition to the Skeletal Scrying there are 5 cards that help me to draw, so i thought that will make the Rituals not that usefull. i may be wrong. I also add some cheap creatues like the Nantuko Shade, i perefer them instead of the Vampire Nighthawk and the Geralf's Messenger. Maybe the nantuko arent the best option, but they are cheaper and they can pump up. I still need to think about that. i added the Avatar of Woe because i always like it. But i have only one, it may never appear. Maybe another land or another Nantuko Shade would be better. i added Lashwrithe because of the number of swamps i was going to have. I love Unmake but i didnt put it, because i wanted to leave the deck as cheap as possible. added Tendrils of Corruption. so i have : 22 Lands, 5 cards that help me to Draw, 4 Discard, 18 removal, 14 creatures ( 3 of them are equipments too).

So whats the opinion now about the deck? any improvement?

Thx to everyon that read this :D