Bitter Ordeal

Sorcery

Search target player's library for a card and remove that card from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

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

Discussion (48)

LunchBox1211 on Card creation challenge

3 weeks ago

Breaking Point Wizard

Creature - Human Wizard

Whenever you activate an ability, that is not a mana ability, roll the planar die.

: Will of the council - Starting with you, each player votes for Incineration or Incarceration. Each player who votes Incineration looses 2 life for each player who voted Incineration. Each player who voted Incarceration taps a permanent they control at random for each player who voted Incarceration. Permanents tapped this way can not attack, block, and their activated abilities, including mana abilities, can not be activated during their controller's next turn. Then, if Incineration had the most votes, each player looses 10 life. If Incarceration had the most votes, at the beginning of each players' upkeep, that player taps 5 permanents they control at random. Until end of turn, those permanents can not attack, block, and their activated abilities, including mana abilities, can not be activated. If the vote was tied, draw 3 cards.

1/2

"Other planes exists. I can see glimpses of them. But I can't truly witness them. WHY MUST I BE CURSED THIS WAY? IS THAT ENOUGH OF A STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD?"

---

That was wordy, hope that makes sense.

Bitter Ordeal has Gravestorm. Make another card with Gravestorm.

xignited on Brian Stacks' Blood Pet C/U (E)

1 month ago

This is the creative nonsense I love! How do you feel about Grim Haruspex for card draw, Tendrils of Agony as an alternate wincon and/or Bitter Ordeal as sideboard material?

griffstick on I need help choosing another …

2 months ago

You could just exile it all together with cards like Sadistic Sacrament , Praetor's Grasp , Bitter Ordeal , Extract and Slaughter Games being my favorite ones.

BrassLord on MIll IS STILL VALID

2 months ago

Glad someone is also running this guy! I've been on the receiving end of it! Looks like a fun build!

Mind Grind , Reanimate , Sphinx's Tutelage , and Psychic Corrosion are solid possible includes to look at!

Our playgroup ran into the problem of encountering the eldrazi cards and such that dump the graveyard back into the deck when milled. Jester's Cap , Oona, Queen of the Fae , Leyline of the Void , Bitter Ordeal , Praetor's Grasp are ways around that if you start to encounter that, though a timely Eater of the Dead activation in response to the trigger could work as well!

MLS91 on Relics of Fear

3 months ago

Profet93

I'm thinking of just cutting the Glacial Chasm for a Swamp , i hasn't saved me in the one set of three games, and I don't really think that i'll truly be needing it in the future. it was there for assuming the role of archenemy, can be not paid sac'd then replayed with Crucible of Worlds creating a small lock of sorts.

My friend was the one that suggested Oblivion Sower , I like the idea of ripping lands with it, as well as it's awkward 5/8 body. I do think its a little though and reaching into the casual realm which isn't really what im looking to do.

Bitter Ordeal can technically combo with the Lotus Petal loop and exile everyones Libraries(also less color intensive), but again, i'm looking at dream land. but it sounds really nice!

After some deliberation here's what I've come to:

Minus Dreamstealer plus Opposition Agent

Why: better value, answers answers

Minus Glacial Chasm plus Swamp

Why: need access to more colored mana, land count ins fine. Chasm doesn't currently do anything and doesn't tap for mana

Minus Metalworker plus Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Why: Metalworker is a good card, the idea pf it still works for the deck, but it requires to much set up, Varragoth i'm hoping "gets us there" also makes the deck "possibly"

MLS91 on Relics of Fear

3 months ago

I really like the suggestion of " Bitter Ordeal ", I see the "gravestorm" (IM VERY INTRIGUED). I feel more more comfortable with the " Sadistic Sacrament ", I guess what I'm seeing is :

3for3/10for15 of Sadistic Sacrament VS. 3for1...maybe more? Bitter Ordeal

Profet93

I got a game in against a casually optimized Torbran.

L2 W1

What I learned

Land count good, need better access to colored mana (would have resulted in a L1 W2 record)

Memory Jar is as quoted " .....devastating, breaking my back..."

the emotions of response I hoped achieved from foes has been realized.

+ Oblivion Sower - Syr Konrad, the Grim

Why: stealing lands from exile seems great, wrks with Memory Jar (rip lands from hand), works with Soul-Guide Lantern

-TO BE DISCUSSED -

CUT - Dreamstealer ADD - Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Why: Dreamstealer felt "cute" not impactful, preforms poorly overall as there are "better things to be doing". Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire on the other hands has a good body, deathtouch, and tutors. seems like a more impactful cards overall. Maybe add Opposition Agent instead?

Profet93 on Relics of Fear

3 months ago

I completely agree with the above. Also, be sure to note Bitter Ordeal if you want an alternative option. Just be wary of your land count if you are to make your swap, given you are technically going down 1 land.

FenIsABasicSwamp on Rainbow in the Dark: Haakon Reanimator Combo

4 months ago

Hey Pheardemons yeah of course I remember you. I've been wondering how your deck ended up being for you. This is by far one of my favorite decks and the deck I've invested the most time into in the last 3 years. I'm glad you came back to the game.

1) Why Wasteland? You may have noticed that all of the cards in this are German foil for the most part. I has been nearly impossible to get either Wasteland or Strip Mine in German, or foil for that matter. I like the art on EMA Wasteland more than any of the stripmines and it felt appropriately thematic for a character like Haakon, who's epithet being "Stromgald Scourge" suggests he would leave a Wasteland behind his army. Also, rarely does an occasion arise in EDH where I want to destroy a basic over a non-basic anyways, and I recently found an opportunity to get a foil borderless German Wasteland from the new Zendikar set.

2) Emergence Zone is amazing and should be played in all monocolor decks that can sustain one more colorless nonbasic. Also, there's a minor subtheme of lands being playable from the graveyard with Crucible of Worlds in this deck to support the overall discard theme. So the Zone is not necessarily a one-off use.

3) Fetches for the same reason as emergence zone: playing lands from the graveyard and if I get it going with Crucible and Ghirapur Orrery, I can really get some deck thinning going on by pulling lots of swamps out of the library. Why the two that I have and not the others? I don't have German foils of Prismatic Vista, Bloodstained Mire, and Marsh Flats is the easy answer; also theres a point where I worry about reducing the number of overall Swamps in the deck, but maybe that's erroneous since each fetch doubles as a swamp. The other real reason is that I have all the German foil snow-covered swamps and wouldn't have any other use for them if I took them out of this deck for the other fetches.

4) I haven't really gotten to use K'rrik since I put him in the deck. Took a while to source a German one and then get it altered and Corona has severely impacted how much I actually play EDH nowadays. We'll see how impactful the life loss is, but as with all such things you have to strike a balance between your greed to play stuff out with him and putting yourself in a dangerous situation. Lifelink is generally not the way I plan to recover from things like K'rrik, rather cards like Disciple of Bolas and Disciple of Griselbrand are usually more useful for gaining relevant amounts of life back. I rarely find myself attacking unless it's to get a sword trigger.

5)Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder has been in earlier iterations of this deck but his sac trigger from making too many thrulls makes him less attractive unless you can play something like Conspiracy so that he doesn't make thrulls anymore. Abhorrent Overlord is a key piece to generating a massive number of dudes to be sac fodder to an altar to make infinite mana. Since the point is to get to a play where I can just keep sacing and replaying cards from my graveyard with Haakon and Ashes of the Fallen, Overlord does that better than any other card in monoblack.

6)Bitterblossom would serve no valuable purpose other than the Contamination lock and I prefer not to play really "mean" magic like that. Contamination is not usually in the deck but I wanted to try it out because its art seems really fitting for Haakon once again as the Scource of a place. Also, it's a good card for helping a black deck catch up that is playing from way behind "better" decks.

7) Being that this deck hovers between $2-3k, I think it's safe to say that money is not a factor. I generally don't like playing tutors and already play way more in this deck than in a normal one of my decks because it's inherently so handicapped. Razaketh has been in it before and I may put him back in, it's just very easy to win outright with him on the battlefield.

8) Ghirapur Orrery has maybe backfired once on me, it's a careful balancing act. It backfired spectacularly on Justin Parnell in SCG's CMDRVS show. His opponent got a Bojuka Bog on the extra land drop and nuked his graveyard. I never play Lifeline until I'm ready to take advantage of it, and preferably when I have Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet out so that it doesn't work for opponents. Haven't really gotten to use Tombstone Stairwell because of the pandemic.

9) Null Profusion is amazing and underplayed. Play Reliquary Tower or Anvil of Bogardan afterwards and the time stamp of the last card replaces the reduced hand size with infinite hand size and now you just draw cards for every card you play. Works great with Haakon playing cards from your graveyard and Crucible of Worlds doing the same.

10) Yawgmoth is a great extra free sac outlets. Sac outlets are always the most important thing to have in a monoblack deck, especially one's that draw you a card and can potentially be removal too. His proliferate ability lets me immediately ultimate Liliana, Defiant Necromancer often too. He's generally my favorite black creature of all time.

11) Always always dredge Stinkweed Imp. More cards in your graveyard is always the goal for Haakon. The best is dredging him, discarding him to Skirge Familiar, and then drawing again from something else to dredge him again.

12) Creature tutors like Fleshwrither are always more appealing to me in Haakon because I can replay them from the graveyard. Fleshwrither isn't a good card per se, but it is a pet card and also just fantastic and frequently reusable. I can get graveyard hate (Kalitas), ramp (Crypt Ghast), or card draw (Disciple of Bolas) with him so he's very flexible depending on what point in the game I'm at.

13) Conspiracy isn't actually in this deck and Cryptbreaker is here as a discard outlet to help me get Haakon in the graveyard as well as be a infinitely castable creature from the graveyard with Haakon/Ashes out and Phyrexian Altar. That gives me all the draws I could need or infinite Gravestorm for Bitter Ordeal when it's in the deck.

14) I have recast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger probably 5 times in a turn from the graveyard with this deck before. He's amazing and all I've needed. I prefer not to use stuff like Oblivion Stone or All is Dust that a lot of my deck wouldn't dodge as well, and since my wincon is a black enchantment Decaying Soil, I would have few options to recover from it if I was forced to use those. Scour from Existence isn't here because I don't like using over-costed one-off spells. I can tutor for Ulamog and use him repeatedly.

These were good questions and I appreciate you reading my bio and asking questions respectfully. Your manner of asking demonstrates thoughtful consideration of the deck instead of pushy insistence of a different viewpoint. Ultimately there's no "right" way to build an EDH deck, although there are objectively more optimal ways to design them. I have a passing interest in optimization, but am mostly making choices to balance synergy with flavor and a fun play experience.