Crackling Doom

Instant

Crackling Doom deals 2 damage to each opponent. Each opponent sacrifices a creature with the greatest power among creatures he or she controls.

Discussion (49)

MaltOMeal on Absolute Theocracy

1 month ago

Sup lobsternips!

As a baseline, you'll need to add lands, which I'm sure you know. Since you're making Treasure and Gold tokens in this deck you'd probably be good with roughly 34-36 lands, leaning more to the most mana color you'll need, say like a 25/25/50 split if thats what you're going for.

Creatures

- We'll cover your cards to include by type, so lets start with creatures. I like the Angels, Demons, and Dragons subtheme, if you were considering it I'd try and include Kaalia of the Vast if you can get your hands on one, otherwise just slim down on the tribal stuff, reaching too far into each different theme could result in inconsistencies and clunky play. I've been there, it sucks a lot. (Unfortunately, you can't run Shalai, Voice of Plenty since she has a Selesnya color identity)

• Key Angels you may wanna keep: Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Angel of Destiny , Angel of Serenity , Sunblast Angel , Lyra Dawnbringer , Eradicator Valkyrie .

• While I do like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Tariel, Reckoner of Souls they have a high mana cost as most good Angels do, while Tariel synergizes well with your strategy she does have that randomness factor and would advise a more reliable and consistent option. Gisela speeds up the game. As a player this is good and accelerates the game, but as an opponent my first priority would be to get rid of Gisela and that paints an even bigger target on your back.

• Restoration Angel is fantastic for your edict effects, at face value. You'd need to run flicker effects to really make it shine. Basandra, Battle Seraph seems really good, forcing people to attack is nice and it prevents players from casting anything in combat, however it means instant speed removal will be used before the combat step. This also stops you from casting spells in combat.

• As for Human synergy, I really like Teysa Karlov , Thalisse, Reverent Medium , Queen Marchesa , General's Enforcer and Fain, the Broker . All of them work very well with the token strategy, especially Teysa and Thalisse

• Things I wouldn't necessarily include are cards like Juri, Master of the Revue (as good as she is with Fling ), General Kudro of Drannith (incidental unless you go all in on the Human tribal strategy), Devout Chaplain (same reason for Kudro), or Dire Fleet Hoarder (basically a one time effect unless you jump through the Teysa hoop, yes it does give you a Treasure token, but at a cost of 2 mana and the creature dying).

• Things like Ruthless Knave , Pitiless Plunderer , and Impulsive Pilferer perform outstandingly well in terms of more bang for your buck in this case.

• As for Demons I really like the Archfiend of Depravity and Rakdos, the Showstopper , their mass sacrifice effects are wonderful, however Rakdos does effect your board heavily unless you play to his synergies, you wouldn't want Negan to die to his effect would you?

-When it comes to your Dragons, I think you hit the nail on the head, nothing I would really change or take out. Allows for Magda, Brazen Outlaw to have a decent outlet if you don't want an artifact.

-Finally, the other things you've got going. Dockside should just be an auto-include, albeit a heavy price tag, but if you can get one you should definitely include it.

• Dark Impostor , while mana intensive is still a decent mana sink that can function effectively as targeted removal. Definitely keep your edict creatures, they are super useful and trigger Negan, and thats what you want.

• Starnheim Aspirant is useful if you go super heavy into the Angel theme, but if you skimp on the Angel theme this could very often be a dead card.

• Storm-Kiln Artist , I like this a lot for this deck, can be a beater, and generates value.

• Vault Robber , seems bad, and bad to do. Synergizes with Magda and makes Treasure tokens, but thats really it... PLUS it requires you to have a creature in YOUR grave. I'd cut this, but if you have a reason to play it I'm not seeing immediately play it in your deck.

• Viscera Seer , good card, good sac outlet, not much else to say.

• Creatures I'd include based on what I've seen: Solemn Simulacrum , Burnished Hart and Mayhem Devil . Some good ramp and a decent damage dealer if you'd like to play a cheap one. Plus the Devil is great at just 3 mana.

Enchantments

First thing I wanna point out is the abundance of them, its good, but its quite a few. I like the variety of them though, from token generation to mana value, all of them are GOOD in a sense.

Angelic Renewal is basically a one time effect. While good, there are better recursion spells out there, but this one does fit the Angel theme so thats really cool. :D

Land Tax : Definitely play this if you want more inclusions in your deck and want to play less lands, but don't forget to have a focus on more basic lands for the landbase.

Luminarch Ascension is subject to removal by other players, and somewhat makes you a target, but with Divine Visitation and your non-Treasure generators make this super useful.

Aside from that, I think that's a decent spread of enchantments. Nothing to add really, love the inclusion of the Sagas and Revel in Riches .

• You could also put Martyr's Bond in for shenanigans, Hidden Stockpile for utility, or Flameshadow Conjuring for more token synergy.

• Flickerform is also a unique enchantment, but makes it doubly effective with edict creatures like Plaguecrafter .

• Shiny Impetus is good for token generation, but don't play a sacrifice creature to have that player just get rid of it, deceptively good and bad.

• The Eldest Reborn is also another good saga to include if you want another edict type effect, and when it does go off you can get what you want from players' graveyards.

Artifacts

I'm sure you'll add more later, but here are some I'd DEFINITELY include:

The three signets for your colors, Arcane Signet as well.

Goldvein Pick : hidden tRAESurES!!!

Inspiring Statuary for a low mana investment, you can effectively keep your Treasures around, or use your Gold tokens twice(tap it for colorless, then sac it for colored mana).

Panharmonicon to double up on edict effects.

Instants

Not much in this category outside of removal or token generation.

Wouldn't run Secure the Wastes strictly because it doesn't put Humans into play, play the sorcery option Martial Coup instead if you want a token creator with some OOMPH.

I'd recommend more removal, but with everything else considered I think you're pretty much good here. Really like the Crackling Doom and Vona's Hunger inclusions.

Sorceries

OOOOkay, lots to look at here.

• Approach of the Second Sun : Does provide you an effective way to win, very good card for a deck like this especially if the game goes long.
• Brass's Bounty . Love it, not much else to say.
• Contract Killing fits the theme and the flavor. Love it.
• Damnable Pact is good card draw for you, and useful against someone who flies too close to the sun.
• Debt to the Deathless / Entreat the Angels . While both good, is not something you want to draw into early game or open with. I would highly suggest playing less finisher cards like these, but if you wanna play em don't let me stop you.
• Killing Wave . Love it, super good.
• Necrotic Hex . Expensive, but great effect.
• Excavation Technique is actually a really good spell. Synergizes with Magecraft like WoTC intended and is deceptive for your opponents.
• Increasing Devotion / Finale of Glory . One of these is better than the other. I'll let you decide which is which.
• Heartless Pillage / Seize the Spoils . I really like both of these cards as spells and thematically. They work well for Negan and as spells for you to Pillage and Loot with as you please.
• Ruinous Ultimatum / Tragic Arrogance : Both are fantastic, especially as finisher spells. I'd make a point to include both so you have an option when you're ready to win(IE: Revel in Riches in play with a ton of creatures on board, its akin to vandalblasting with a lettuce on board).

Notable Lands

Mortuary Mire : Get that creature back in play!

High Market : Useful when Dictate of Erebos is in play.

Sanctum of Eternity / Command Beacon : You never know when you might need to use them. Negan can get expensive real fast.

That basically does it for my brief review, hope I was of some help!

SquishyIsMe on Extus and the blood avatar

2 months ago

Thought more about this and there's still tons of options for this deck really. In my previous comment I mention how you may want to double up on Extus's effect with stuff like Ravos, Soultender but there's also enchantment options that may be a little harder for your opponents to get rid of. Stuff like Debtors' Knell and Palace Siege can also be useful enchantments to help you bring useful stuff back to cast multiple times. Crackling Doom is also a pretty good card that you could add as a substitute for any of the kill spells. A possibility for this deck could also be to reanimate some troublesome creatures for your opponents like Master of Cruelties Raving Dead Virtus the Veiled or Dire Fleet Ravager to help make killing your opponents with the sorcery easier. More boardwipes that only affect your opponents would also be good so something like Ruinous Ultimatum can help make the job a little easier. Other boardwipes such as Slash the Ranks Austere Command Merciless Eviction and Martial Coup give you some more options and not only target creatures but other pesky permanents as well.

Xianling69 on I tried building a lockdown …

5 months ago

WizardOfTheNorthernCoast one thing to note though is that Crackling Doom and Soul Shatter can both remove Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, while the latter can also hit Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Wrath of God hits neither, so they could be useful if his local meta has tron players.

aholder7 on

5 months ago

okay so a few things of note here.

first. i'd suggest running 4-ofs for your best cards. there isn't any clear reason why you'd want 3 ofs in this scenario except mogis who is legendary in which case it's fine.

second. Lightning Bolt. it's one of the best red cards in the game and it's cost effective way of solving problems cannot be understated. i think it's important that it gets a slot in this deck.

third. your win con appears to be Mogis/burn. Mogis is a very slow way to win. normally for a control deck you are controlling them until you can drop some threat that you can protect that will win the game shortly after that or at least create such a lock as to make getting out of it futile. mogis will never turn on in your deck so at most it's going to be 2 damage a turn from mogis assuming they aren't doing a wide strategy. perhaps a planeswalker like Liliana, the Last Hope who you can +1 to help remove creatures and win off of her ult.

fourth. your mix of control spells is heavily weighted towards destroying creatures after they hit the field. thats something you want to respond to but people play other cards that you'll need to deal with. enchantments like Wilderness Reclamation, artifacts like Amulet of Vigor and non-permanents of all kinds. you also will lose pace with decks that use creature that have ETBs such as Omnath, Locus of Creation and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath which yes you can kill but you'll be losing card advantage. you need a few more proactive responses and ways to gain incremental advantage over your opponent. discard spells like Thoughtseize or at least multipurpose cards like Kolaghan's Command and Collective Brutality can help. other proactive cards such as Blood Moon and Ghostly Prison can shut down or at least slow opposing decks to keep them from racing ahead of you.

with the above things in mind i'd suggest something along the following changes.

cards to remove:

-3 Crackling Doom: soul shatter and other remove should be sufficient

-3 Lightning Helix: lifegain is great for stabilizing but the power removal comes from it's mana efficiency. on turn 2 being able to play a discard spell and hold up a Lightning Bolt for their creature is much more powerful than the life gain from helix. still a great card for sideboard to bring in against lightning fast agro decks like burn or zoo.

-1 Soul Shatter: i'm not sure you need any of these in the mainboard. you have Anguished Unmaking to get around indestructible should it come up. Dreadbore and Anguished Unmaking can kill planeswalkers. That leaves hexproof is the only thing that this gets around that you don't have an answer for already. hexproof is uncommon enough that i'd personally put this in the sideboard, but considering how many of this effect you have in your deck i'm assuming your meta has enough hexproof to warrant 2 mainboard slots.

-4 Divine Gambit: 1 for 1 at best, 1 for 0 at worst. the ability to exile most types of permanents is powerful but the downside seems too risky and likely to set you behind.

-3 Anger the gods: you don't need 7 soft sweeps. with the amount of removal you have a board wide damage spell is likely for hitting tokens or other wide strategies. for most of these scenarios 2 damage should be enough. in the scenarios where 2 isn't enough, 3 likely isn't either. Wrath of God or similar would be a better bet for those situations.

-1 Pyroclasm: you probably don't even need 4 soft sweeps in the main unless you are expecting a dearth of going wide strategies in your meta.

-3 Mogis, God of Slaughter: without a way to turn him on or a way to create a true lock outs like teferi-pool you aren't going to get as much value out of mogis as you need to make him your win con.

cards to add:

+4 Lightning Bolt: this is solid removal or a damage to face if you don't need to use it as such.

+2-4: Thoughtseize: considered one of the best discard spells in the game because it hits basically everything at the cost of 2 life.

+2-4: Duress: you can choose Inquisition of Kozilek or Raven's Crime or another discard spell of your choice. i'd suggest at least 6 discard spells and you can decide the split between your discard spells depending on how aggressive your meta is.

+2 Kolaghan's Command: small creature removal, artifact removal, discard spell. very versatile.

+4 Liliana, the Last Hope, a strong contender for win con. i went with 4 copies because it doesn't have innate protection and you want it early if you can as it provides good value.

+1 Path to Exile: to make it a 4 of.

+1 Fatal Push: to make it a 4 of.

??? Tibalt's Trickery: I don't know if this is a good idea in control. you are giving up a card to change what card your opponent is casting. but they are still getting something. so you are 1 for 0ing them in a way. if they are casting a spell like Scapeshift for the win then obviously this will help but the risk of them flipping an equally scary threat off the top is very real. but your choices in counterspell are pretty limited.

if you are willing to mess around with your mana base you can probably make good use of Blood Moon as well but that would require some careful maneuvering in a 3 color deck.

WizardOfTheNorthernCoast on I tried building a lockdown …

5 months ago

I don't think Mardu are the worst colors for lockdown decks. However, as Xianling69 said, Mogis is way. Too. Slow.

Tibalt's Trickery is bad unless you use it for a cheeky combo of some sort (I'll let you Google how it can be abused but it then requires you to build the whole deck around it).

Divine Gambit is awful aswell. Modern isn't fair. Removing a pesky creature to let your opponent play a bigger threat (Teferi, Emrakul, you name it) for free is just not a deal you want in this format.

Crackling Doom and Soul Shatter are okayish vs decks that play few creatures but again I would rather run Wrath of God or something in the sideboard.

Anger of the Gods and Pyroclasm are good spells vs aggro decks but again, dead cards vs any superfriends or midrange deck. Plus, you already have Patk and Push to get rid of early threats.

All in all you lack wincons. Remove specific removals for mass removals and add in tough-to-answer threats like planeswalkers or built-in protections (Baneslayer Angel or Stormbreath Dragon) or card-advantage creating cards like Seasoned Pyromancer or Glorybringer.

abby315 on Markov Estate

6 months ago

I have some thoughts about the overall gameplay, but I'll make some easy suggestions first:

Painful Truths > Read the Bones in a 3-color deck. Similarly, Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a great way to turn all of your removal into 2-for-1s, or can even draw you cards without spending any cards because it incentivizes your other player to remove things for you.

I agree with King_marchesa about cutting some vanilla vampires for ramp and removal. I noticed you said one of your players really likes hexproof creatures; spells like Soul Shatter and Crackling Doom will probably be better than spot removal like Utter End in that case. Anowon, the Ruin Sage is good for that, too, and Patron of the Vein is removal on a big-ol' Vampire stick!

Nighthawk Scavenger and Nullpriest of Oblivion will be good includes that are aggressive but also good in the lategame (this will be a theme in this comment). Olivia Voldaren is cheap and a good mana-sink to use the extra ramp you're putting in.

Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip is a little on the expensive side at $9 but if you can get a copy, it'll be a great way to upgrade your army from 1/1s to evasive 2/2s, or 4/4s if he flips. Vampire Nocturnus is another good Lord in this vein. (Pun intended!) Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose can function as a damage-doubler using his activated ability.

Finally, Forerunner of the Legion is a great tutor that also gives +2/+2 to an attacker whenever you play a vampire, thanks to Eminence.

You'll notice that all of these suggestions will raise your curve. I think that's necessary to address the problems you're having. I started EDH running a Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury Elfball deck that had a similar goal: Make a lot of small Elves and run down one opponent. Ran into the same problems you have: You get outscaled. The changes I outlined above are also similar to what I did to turn Freyalise into a more streamlined Ezuri deck. You have to add a lategame. This is also why I recommend adding ramp to more reliably cast Edgar; he's an extremely powerful finisher with a board full of small vampires, and the deck relies on him for more than just 1/1s!

That's why most of my changes encourage you to add more removal and ways to buff your board with stronger creatures. This is the great thing about Edgar: you don't need to focus on making an army of small vampires, because he does that for you! Instead, you can play vampires that buff and help your other vampire tokens.

So, I'd recommend making swaps for the following low-drop creatures that aren't evasive/strong and don't do anything for your board besides being a vampire to trigger Edgar (which most of the above suggestions also do):

Bloodthrone Vampire
Guul Draz Assassin
Guul Draz Vampire
Pulse Tracker
Quag Vampires
Vampire of the Dire Moon
Duskborne Skymarcher
Ruthless Cullblade
Vampire Interloper

And also Goblin Bombardment, which I don't think is a good rate for what it does.

Add some more Vampire lords where you can get them (many of the above are just $1-2), removal, and ramp. You should find that instead of getting a hand with 2-3 lands and all 1-2 drops, you'll start finding a hand with something to do on every turn as you work up towards Edgar. I hope that helps!

StopShot on Should I not run Negan, …

8 months ago

Hello, I don't watch the Walking Dead and I honestly think the Secret Lair: Walking Dead product is a very bad decision on Wizard's part. That being said, one of the cards being released provides a silver bullet to a problem I often encounter in certain games.

Card: Negan, The Cold-Blooded

I'm not planning to make him my commander, but I want to use him in the 99, because he is practically the best removal spell ever made when dealing with creatures that have both hexproof and indestructible.

Seriously, the next best cards are Council's Judgment, Crackling Doom Soul Shatter, Mythos of Snapdax, Slaughter the Strong, etc. These cards all have conditions where they can fail to remove the creature I want gone, but Negan has none of those same problems making him the most effective piece of spot removal printed to this date, effectively costing only 4 mana given the treasure token.

I know I could just run other sure-fire answers like Descend upon the Sinful or Apocalypse instead, but those cards can massively hurt my side of the table too which makes them not worth running and they can also make the rest of the table unhappy with me for playing exile-wipes.

Another thing to note is that Negan is a creature which means I can make him uncounterable with a Cavern of Souls rather than Boseiju, Who Shelters All, a land that's much more inflexible to play with than Cavern. I can also reanimate his effect too with Volrath's Stronghold and other reanimation effects which would make him so good at keeping commanders with hexproof and indestructible repeatedly in check unlike a lot of the other one-time use instants and sorceries I have available.

The only issue is I think most play-groups will tell me that their play group will have this card banned given all the controversy surrounding it which is a shame. My question is, do you think its worth the trouble acquiring this card? If I'm going to spend a lot of money to buy a single only for most people to tell me I can't play it then I don't want to spend that kind of money, but for now I'm unsure. Would you advise for or against buying it? Thanks!

StopShot on Counteracting large hexproof creatures.

9 months ago

The subject of this thread revolves around dealing with and counteracting against the commanders: Uril, the Miststalker, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Dragonlord Ojutai, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Thrun, the Last Troll as well as commanders that consistently or typically give themselves hexproof through various equipments/auras.

While it may not be the most prevalent strategy these types of commanders can be annoying to deal with. I'd like to create a discussion on what are the best ways to deal with these commanders. Given how niche these commanders can be, running cards that exclusively dedicate themselves to their removal may be detrimental to draw into when playing a game where none of your opponents run them. Therefore cards that can both combat massive hexproof creatures as well as still being useful to have if none of your opponents are playing with big hexproof creatures should be taken into consideration when deciding what is the "best" or "most practical" solution to combating hexproof strategies.

The first cards that come to mind are Arcane Lighthouse, Detection Tower, Bonds of Mortality, Shadowspear and Glaring Spotlight. These cards entirely dedicate themselves to combating hexproof strategies, and while this may be a detriment when used against non-hexproof strategies, these cards do lend themselves some extra utility. Arcane Lighthouse and Detection Tower can be seeded into your manabase so at worst they're just a Wastes however they can be more inefficient in comparison. Given that both are lands, tapping them costs you an extra mana resource effectively making their abilities cost to activate. Not only that, but they have no effect at stripping indestructible which can be a common keyboard which may be used alongside most hexproof strategies. Cards like Bonds of Mortality and Shadowspear cost only one to activate and they can bypass indestructible, however given they're not lands you have to dedicate a nonland slot in your deck to accommodate either of them which means taking out a card that may better synergize with your deck's main strategy in their place. They also lend themselves targets for counter spells and given hexproof decks contain white and/or green, artifact/enchantment removal will pose a high potential risk. This is all not to mention you still need to provide a removal spell in tandem with these cards in order to remove the threat.

Another solution is board wipes. Cards such as Wrath of God, Damnation, Day of Judgment, Supreme Verdict, Blasphemous Act, etc. Mass creature removal is incredibly strong given that its always relevant in most metas making it a highly flexible solution that isn't too narrow to rely upon. It's biggest drawback however is if the massive hexproof creature that needs to be dealt with has indestructible, totem armor or Gift of Immortality. Even a card such as Toxic Deluge can be a risk as you may have to pay a huge amount of life if the creature is incredibly big. Cyclonic Rift is another effective card. One thing to note about boardwipes are they affect the whole table which makes them also more likelier to be countered than by effects that impact a single individual.

A more narrow solution would be through damage prevention effects such as Story Circle, Forcefield, Runed Halo, Rune of Protection: White, etc. Given each card never "targets" they can be used to infinitely "Fog" a problem creature that you can't put up with. These effects are more narrow than boardwipes but broader than hexproof removal. Cards like these still run into problems with artifact/enchantment removal and they don't run enticing side effects such as drawing a card upon entering the battlefield like Bonds of Mortality or giving a creature lifelink and trample like Shadowspear, however you won't need to exhaust your removal spells to keep the large creature(s) either. In more broader metas such as combo, stax and prison, these effects may not be as useful however. More broader variants of these protection cards exist as Ensnaring Bridge, Divine Presence, Peacekeeper and Meekstone though these cards may make multiple opponents unhappy enough to remove them than the more narrower options.

The last effect used to combat large hexproof creatures is sacrifice effects such as: Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Vona's Hunger, Liliana's Triumph, Doomfall etc. These effects can bypass not only hexproof but also indestructible, regenerate and totem armor. Their drawback lies in if the player with the large hexproof creature has any other creatures to sacrifice in their place. Because of this caveat this effect isn't too strong unless ran in multiples which can be difficult to commit to in a 100-card format. Instead selective sacrifice effects may be the best way to devote to this solution with cards like: Crackling Doom, Soul Shatter, Slaughter the Strong, Council's Judgment, Renounce the Guilds and Wing Shards. While these cards won't always guarantee the large hexproof creature will be removed, they provide a stronger case than not compared to most traditional sacrifice removal.

Lastly there are counter spells to remove hexproof creatures. While they may be the best all purpose solution they can be rendered ineffective if a Cavern of Souls or some other can not be countered effect is in place. With exception to Withering Boon, the biggest downside to counter spells are they are entirely exclusive to blue meaning other color combinations without blue do not have this option available.

Which method do you rely on to stop massive hexproof creatures? Is there a card or solution set not listed here that you use? If you happen to play EDH decks with big massive hexproof creatures, which effects annoy/counter you the most?