Bitter Ordeal

Sorcery

Search target player's library for a card and exile it. Then that player shuffles their library.

Gravestorm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each permanent put into a graveyard this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

Legality

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

Discussion (48)

Squee_Spirit_Guide on Clockwork Black

2 months ago

capwner Haha, oops, I forgot it would take out the blood artists too :) I suppose it still works here with Bastion of Remembrance, but it isn't great. Back in the day I used the combo to try and make gravestorm a thing and win with Bitter Ordeal. It kind of worked, but there are so many better things to do with the combo.

draftdump69 on Traxos Combo

7 months ago

rona, herald of invasion works with retraction helix + mox amber. more emries + rona might make playing more mox ambers make more sense. If you're playing 4 emries, having 4 Mishra's Bauble would be a no-brainer.

Urza, Lord High Artificer might also be a solid addition, allows you to generate infinite mana regardless of whether or not you have mox amber.

Generally, thassa's oracle is better than labman. other wincon considerations are Bitter Ordeal, Cut / Ribbons, Grinding Station or Grapeshot.

that being said, playing 1x emrakul is probably the best wincon. it would allow you to loot infinitely until you get an infinite mana enabler.

another direction to go is Sleep-Cursed Faerie. It might not go infinite but it can probably bounce your opponents board with retraction helix if you have an urza in play.

Basshunter on Slime Caves Minibiome from Starbound

9 months ago

Hey dude, i had the same idea - just didnt build it yet. Here's an idea i had about Slime Against Humanity: It counts towards cards in exile aswell, so there are plenty of cards to exile cards out of our library, what could be a nice interaction with slime...

i.e. Bitter Ordeal, Cranial Extraction, Lost Legacy, Memoricide could be used to make the slime-token lot stronger..

Its just an idea yet and i havnt tried any of those, but what you think about it?

BEDECK on Chattering Ordeal

1 year ago

Ah, Myr Retriever + Heartless Summoning + Bitter Ordeal. A person of culture, I see. Btw, The Meathook Massacre is tutorable with Shred Memory and can win the game through endless retrievering

Made_Compleat on Horrifying Nightmares

1 year ago

Hey! I love this deck. A few suggestions:

Runo Stromkirk  ^Flip is a bit of a nonbo with Umbris, Fear Manifest, as he isn't a horror when he ETBs and doesn't exile when he transforms. Thus, he's won't ETB as a horror to get that sweet sweet value. He also doesn't really synergize with the horror tribal theme. Likewise, the Shapeshifters in the deck like Evil Twin don't synergize, as they're not horrors and don't have changeling. Dauthi Voidwalker runs into the same issue, but it is pretty good so I wouldn't cut it.

A funny card in the deck would be Chainer, Dementia Master. He creates nightmares from your opponent's yard, which then exile more cards with your commander. However, he does come with the drawback of exiling all Nightmares when he dies. He's still totally worth it, though. Angel of Suffering do be silly. She might not be the best, but she's just kinda funny in the deck. The same goes for Bitter Ordeal, which, like all cards from Future Sight, is just kinda nifty. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver ain't a bad card in this context, nor is Ashiok, Sculptor of Fears. Nightmare weaver is better, but both are pretty good in this context. Ashiok, Dream Render is pretty deece as both a Stranglehold and a exile-based mill engine, and she also completes AshiokTron (tm). To compleat the "Not good, just funny" cycle, Chainer's Torment. Is it an absolutely awful card? Yes. Is it hilarious? YES. Phyrexian Rager is pretty nice as well.

I hope that you find these suggestions helpful!

K1ngMars on "Library.exe has stopped working" | Phenax Primer

1 year ago

Hi Syndras, thanks for the comment and sorry for the (very late) reply.

Regarding Bloodchief Ascension, I agree with you with both observations: in fact, I tend to never play that card on turn one as all my opponents will just start attacking me. However it happens sometimes that I am able to get some form of large blocker early on against aggro decks, at which point they are forced to attack else where and "gift" me one or two counters. I can rarely get the enchantment to three counters, as that generally means I immediately win/kill someone, but that speaks to its undoubted power. Moreover, it is a good lightning rod for removal, for just one {B}. Do not forget, that due to how life exchange works, Tree of Perdition's effect meets the condition of "life loss" required by Bloodchief Ascension, so long as the opponent we are targeting has at least 15 life.

As for Ruin Crab, albeit being powerful in 60 card formats, it is generally too little too late for commander, at least in my opinion, unless you start looping large amounts of lands, something probably more suited for a Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck.

Regarding Bitter Ordeal, actually the main issue is that Gravestorm counts each permanent put into a graveyard this turn, but milled cards, despite featuring permanent card types are not permanents since they do not go to the graveyard from the battlefield, and as such do not count towards Gravestorm. Moreover, as you already said, due to my playgroup's additional rules, this card is not playable as it would count as a "reverse tutor".

Captain N'ghathrod is certainly interesting, as it could provide incidental advantage to the 5 Horrors in the deck. However, the most important effect would be its last ability, which albeit powerful, would probably suffer from the same fate as Wrexial, the Risen Deep. I will keep an eye on it, I could try it out and see how it performs, thanks for the suggestion.

Syndras on "Library.exe has stopped working" | Phenax Primer

2 years ago

Sorry for the double post, what are your thoughts about Captain N'ghathrod in the 99 ? Could help to bring value or adding damage with the few horrors in the deck. As for the bane of your existence, I love Bitter Ordeal but yeah it's tutoring. Sorry for the crab recommandation from last post, I did not read your previous post.

SniperFrog on Oona

2 years ago

Alright. So there's a couple things I would change, but I don't want you to think it's better or anything, just what I would do. I'll give budget suggestions and non budget suggestions so you have a variety of choices without hurting the wallet.

I think I would go for mono blue so I can get Bruvac the Grandiloquent's effect in my command zone. It seems actually nutty to just be able to get this guy going. That being said, I like a lot of the black spells you have here, namely Mind Grind and Nightscape Familiar, so I would consider something like Phenax, God of Deception or maybe Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker to stay in dimir. Not really sure the red is helping much at all, though. Only four red cards is a bit of a bad look, though they seem cool in theory. I've never played any of them, so I don't really know how good they actually are.

So there are a few optimizations I would consider as well. Three mana rocks are a bit slow for my tastes and there are a lot of decent options at two mana, I'd recommend Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone and Arcane Signet to name a few cheaper options. There's also Sapphire Medallion, Chrome Mox and Mana Vault, though those are strictly non budget.

More optimizations for interaction seems good here as well. Maybe drop some of your three mana counterspells for some one or two mana spells. Counterspell is a mainstay and at very good price as well. I like Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse and Drown in the Loch in this slot. There are a plethora of non budget options as well, particularly free counters like Force of Will and Force of Negation or other heavy hitters like Mana Drain and Cryptic Command. Plenty of cool things to do with this, however, so you have options.

Your lands look rough. I personally will always go with untapped lands with so many options, but that can get really pricy, really fast. Of course, if you didn't have to worry about a red splash, your landbase gets A LOT better.

If you're having trouble with hitting enough lands, consider lowering the curve a bit or even adding a couple more to try to smooth things out. I generally try to have around forty-two to forty-five mana sources, though my curves are usually around 2-2.5, so you might want a little more than that, maybe. I don't know. That's something you can figure out with playtesting.

Now comes the fun part. As it stands, including the above mentioned cards, I would try to find room for these:

Into the Story for some card draw.

Leyline of the Void or something similar like Planar Void along with Helm of Obedience mills infinitely. Also pretty good to beat the eldrazi triggers if you see these things regularly.

Rhystic Study and its baby brother Mystic Remora are both excellent card draw spells with humongous upside, though they are both getting a little on the expensive side now, with Rhystic pushing forty or fifty bucks.

I like Bitter Ordeal, but I think this is kind of a pet card that I want to make work, so I might be projecting here. lol

Reanimate effects seem VERY strong here. I like the ones that target opponent's graveyards the most, so I would stick with Animate Dead and Dance with the Dead along with the aforementioned reanimate. Didn't think about this at first. Could be really sweet.

Mesmeric Orb is money in these decks. Gives mad inevitability.

Altar of the Brood and Altar of Dementia are both combo pieces, but I feel like they're more build arounds than good on their own.

Folio of Fancies. I've never seen this card before, but I love it. Seems like it would fit nicely.

Tome Scour and Brain Freeze are insane with Underworld Breach but this is another build around that pulls you more into storm than mill, I think. Still maybe worth thinking about.

Sands of Delirium seems sweet.

A few draw X spells could be just what you need. Stroke of Genius, Pull from Tomorrow, Fascination and Prosperity come to mind. Skyscribing also seems sweet, but I'm not sure how good it is.

Some cards I would just outright cut:

Gravepurge, not positive what this is doing for you, beside gumming up your draws. I guess it can get something back but not sure it's relevant. Hard to say without playing the deck.

All three mana rocks. Darksteel Ingot, Dimir Cluestone, Ur-Golem's Eye, Hedron Archive are a few. There are actually a few more than I thought, so maybe cutting all of them isn't the right thing to do unless you are cutting like for like for cheaper rocks.

Grisly Spectacle, I feel like you can get a better removal spell. I see the appeal, but I feel like it will get at most six cards milled maybe. Something like Feed the Swarm is probably just better or Drown in the Loch which hits two birds with one stone.

Countermand. Four mana counterspell seems like a really hard ask. I know it's on theme, but something cheaper is probably just better. See above for suggestions on cheap counters.

I would maybe cut some other, stuff, but I feel like I've already given you a lot to think about. Love the list. I'm excited to see it once you've had a chance to keep tuning it. Follow for sure. :)