Cruel Reality

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Cruel Reality

Enchantment — Aura Curse

Enchant player

At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature or a planeswalker. If the player can't, he or she loses 5 life.

Icbrgr on Eriette of the Charmed Apple

2 months ago

to make room for more lands id cut Brilliant Restoration; super high mana cost and you are already running Retether. Next id cut Cruel Reality; also a high mana cost... and they will probably just sacrfice things that you have enchanted anyway. Id also cut Eagles of the North/Troll of Khazad-dum... well i guess instead of paying mana for a lans you could probably just play land?

philsonwilson on Witch's Brew

1 year ago

Chaddish it hasn't been optimised as my partner hasn't figured out what she likes/dislikes about it yet, and as it's her first EDH deck it's not going to be super competitive yet. As well as that, it's more of a social deck too.

That being said, there are a couple of wincons. The less obivous and more difficult is draining your opponents out,Cauldron Familiar doesn't target so you can start the incremental damage there. If you're smart with the curses, Trespasser's Curse, Curse of Fool's Wisdom and a flipped Accursed Witch  Flip can start to add up. Torment of Scarabs and Cruel Reality can help here too but are reliant on them not wanting to lose resources, but that can still be helpful. Leechridden Swamp can add to this total too.

The clearest would be creature beatdown, 3/3 Demons from Tasha, the Witch Queen. It relies on opponents dealing damage to other opponents usually, but our playgroup is quite creature centric anyway. The curses can help here too; Curse of the Restless Dead, and Curse of Disturbance give you (and opponents) extra Zombies to push through some damage.

The most fun but least consistent way of winning is the wincons not in your deck - taking them via Tasha or other stealing means. A particular favourite of mine was Coffin Queen resurrecting a Gray Merchant of Asphodel for a double kill.

That being said, this deck is still in the early stages and will change over time - mostly as my partner figures out the way she wants to play the deck. At the moment it's a casual flavourful start, but I'll keep updating it as it gets more competitive too.

griffstick on Saskia, The Unyielding Legend Tribal HELP WELCOME

2 years ago

This needs lots of help. I'm gonna try my best to help.

I'll start with the easy cuts.

Cards that think are good here.

Hedron-titan on Touch me, IF YOU DARE!

2 years ago

libraryjoy, I have a good majority of these cards. Thank god. But what did you mean when you mentioned the Urza's saga?

I agree with taking out the green mana, but do you think I should keep Twilight Mire because of the two swamps it can create? I've been looking for 2 or 3 mana cost creatures that go with Swarmyard, but I feel like there aren't many that can go with it. Instead of Torment of Scarabs, I was actually thinking of Cruel Reality .

Also, I definitely need help with figuring out mana :/

DemMeowsephs on Power nap

3 years ago

I most certainly can! Archelos is super cool and can really warp a landbase, as now you can include so many tap lands that normally aren't too powerful, not only giving you that sort of ability but also making the land base WAY cheaper! You also have to think about the lands BEFORE you put our Archelos though, and so I'd say a balance between better lands and tap lands are what you probably want to head towards. What you have so far looks wonderful, and certainly efficient, though again, you may want to include one cycle of a certain land, maybe Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, and Watery Grave? These guys can help get Archelos out, but after he's out you won't necessarily have to take the shock damage from them which I'd say deserves them a good spot in the deck. Other ones that aren't necessary but could be worth considering are Hinterland Harbor, Woodland Cemetery, and Drowned Catacomb, since again they can come in untapped with Archelos and still be relatively good without him, and of course the bounce lands Simic Growth Chamber, Golgari Rot Farm, and Dimir Aqueduct, since they can get pretty powerful when they come in untapped. Since you have Fabled Passage, Evolving Wilds, and Terramorphic Expanse I'd say it's worth it to slot in a Ramunap Excavator or Crucible of Worlds, since you'd then get two landfall triggers per turn guaranteed, since you can continuously play the sac lands again and again. If this trick proves to be very helpful, you may want to consider slotting in more fetch lands like Prismatic Vista, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs, Polluted Delta, etc. Speaking of landfall triggers, I think Myriad Landscape would work AMAZING with Archelos, as not only would the Myriad come in untapped, but so would what it searches for, giving you three landfall triggers just off of that one card if you have two mana to spare. So honestly, I don't have too much to say about the lands, I think it's pretty solid at the moment though you may need to playtest a lot to know for sure, however, I did find a bunch of great cards that could work well with Archelos!

  • Amulet of Vigor: If Archelos isn't out yet and you have a ton of tap lands, this guy could be of great use, especially for just a single mana.
  • Root Maze: SUPER amazing card, this guy can tax everyone but you! On your upkeep untap archelos, have everything come in untapped, then tap him before your next turn and boom now everyone's artiafcts and lands come into played tapped for one mana besides yours.
  • Coldsteel Heart: Basically a 2 mana, untapped mana rock with Archelos
  • Cryptolith Fragment  Flip: This guy can perform your goal of whittling away peoples health, as well as coming in untapped with Archelos. The flip side can also perform that whittling quite efficiently.
  • Manascape Refractor: Comes in untapped- could be pretty fun to see how that works out!
  • Arcane Signet: You should run this no matter what
  • Orb of Dreams: Similar power and ability to root maze mentioned above, this can tax everyone else except you with Archelos
  • Renegade Map: Basically 1 mana get a basic land if you have Archelos out
  • Sphere of the Suns: Great with Archelos out and coming in untapped
  • Terrarion: Seems pretty solid if it doesn't come in untapped
  • Worn Powerstone: Like the rest, pretty sweet if it doesn't come in tapped and can be immediately used.
  • Moss Diamond/Charcoal Diamond/Sky Diamond: Untapped ability again
  • Honor-Worn Shaku: Allows you to tap archelos and get something out of it
  • Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: It's amazing why not run it
  • Retreat to Hagra: Can be a great way of slowly ruining your opponent's health, especially with the extra land triggers I mentioned before
  • Stasis: If you already have the things you need to slowly remove your opponents health, this can pretty much ensure victory.
  • Verity Circle: SUPER amazing if I'm understanding it correctly, basically whenever your opponents play a creature since it comes in tapped with Archelos you draw a card, and has the second ability if you are ever in need of it
  • A great way to slowly get rid of your opponents health is with recurring triggers that happen every turn, such as curses. Here are some that I found: Trespasser's Curse, Torment of Scarabs, Cruel Reality, Curse of Thirst, and Curse of Fool's Wisdom
  • ANY COMBO WITH RETREAT TO CORALHELM. Edhrec names 1000+ combos with this card, so I'd recommend looking through it and seeing if you find anything that would work if you haven't already!

That's all I have, sorry it probably wasn't too much regarding the lands, but I hope I gave you some good stuff to think about! I honestly love the deck it has a super cool theme, and seems like it could work very well! That said though, hope this helps, and have a wonderful day!

multimedia on Tainted soil

3 years ago

Hey, looks like your going for a Zombie tribal theme.

Going to have to make some sacrifices of five drop Zombies and here's some advice. Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Gray Merchant of Asphodel and The Scarab God are the only three you need the rest could be cut. Muldrotha, Grave Titan, Rooftop Storm and Liliana, Dreadhorde General are the only six drops you need.

I have a Zombie tribal Muldrotha deck that I made last year, Zombie Grave Wave (Budget). My deck is budget, $200, but it could give you some ideas and you can replace the budget alternatives I'm using with more expensive price cards that you have. More advice to improve your deck is to include Gravecrawler infinite combos since it's a Zombie.

Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Diregraf Captain/Plague Belcher/Bontu's Monument/Blood Artist/Vengeful Dead is an infinite combo to make all your opponents lose life. Sac Gravecrawler with Altar, use the one black mana to cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard and repeat. Gravecrawler + Altar is infinite casts of Gravecrawler from your graveyard which can be used with other cards. Diregraf Colossus is infinite 2/2 Zombies. Undead Augur/Secrets of the Dead/Guardian Project can draw into a win condition. Kill all your opponents creatures with Grave Pact.


Cards to consider cutting:

To also make room for more lands and other card upgrades this is more than 13 card suggestions to consider cutting. Many of these suggestions are good cards, but are very much outclassed by other better cards in your deck already or you could add with such a high budget.

20x total lands is not enough for a functioning Commander deck. Want at least 30-36 lands depending on how high the avg. CMC of your deck is and how many additional mana sources you include. The current avg. CMC is 3.7 which is too high. What's making it this high is too many high CMC Zombies especially five drops.

I offer more advice if you would like. Good luck with your deck.

psionictemplar on GB enchantments

3 years ago

I know these don't quite fit the theme exactly, but Cruel Reality and Torment of Scarabs might give you a way to make your opponents sacrifice their creatures. They could replace Seal of Primordium and Mystic Repeal and are budget friendly at under a dollar each. Other cards that fit in the budget well is Inevitable End and Screams from Within to combat small token decks.

golgarigirl on

4 years ago

As we mentioned, I think the best thing for Thrax himself is to get him on the field a turn or two early. Mana rocks are going to be the thing, since we can't make extra land drops with green. Hopefully we can get Thrax down turn 5 or so, so rocks costing 4 or less are where it's at. My favorites are Chromatic Lantern, signets such as Izzet Signet, and others that make your off-colors since we're focusing black with our mana. Altars such as Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar might be the end goal here, given the sacrifice subtheme with the Pact effects.

Some extra card draw might help get us the mana and rocks we need on-curve. God-Eternal Bontu pairs with pact effects for a blowout, Cryptbreaker turns your bodies into cards and your useless cards into bodies, and Midnight Reaper/ Undead Augur are less dangerous to you with your sacrifice outlets to make sure they don't hurt you too much. Corpse Harvester plays triple duty as ramp, tutor, and sac outlet.

I'm going to further push the sacrifice subtheme and see if we can shore up one of the weaknesses Thrax shares with Savra...large creature armies. Archfiend of Depravity and Vona's Hunger will stop a billion saprolings from getting you down, and Butcher of Malakir seems like a good redundancy piece. And it might not be the best, but I really like Syphon Flesh in here.

Also, if you're going for stealth Liliana tribal, you're missing OG Liliana Vess :P I also like Angrath, Captain of Chaos in here (I wouldn't even make a token with him...just leave him up as a harder-to-kill enchantment)...probably better than most of your Lili options if you're not married to the 'tribe'. Last Hope and Heretical Healer would be my picks for the weak links of the planeswalkers you do play.

THERE ARE NO INSTANTS IN THIS DECK?! Let's grab some versatile ones, so I don't start thinking I can free-roll on your turn. Crosis's Charm, Soul Manipulation, Grixis Charm, Silumgar's Command, and Lazotep Plating are some of my picks for cards that can always find a use.

Other cards I'm unimpressed with: Cruel Reality, Army of the Damned, Skull Storm, Nightmare Lash, Mayhem Devil, Nekusar, the Mindrazer

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