Damnable Pact

Sorcery

Target player draws X cards and loses X life.

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
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
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Optimator on

3 months ago

If you like Rakdos dragons, which is a very fun color pair for them, you may want to check out Rivaz of the Claw as a commander. Comes out a lot earlier and can get you to your dragons sooner, along with some recursion. The mass Haste of your current commander is super convenient for dragon decks, though. If you switched commanders, you might want another effect or two that give haste. Lightning Greaves is classic. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind is cute and could be an upgrade over another mana rock. Even the humble Fervor is playable in big-creature decks.

You have a great amount of ramp, but you may still want two more lands or two cheap (1 or 2 mana) draw spells, with such a high average CMC for the deck. For versatility, you could do two MDFCs like Shatterskull Smashing and Agadeem's Awakening for instance. Fell the Profane is good, Malakir Rebirth is good, Boggart Trawler could sneak in some graveyard hate, Kazuul's Fury could be cute and steal a game, Bloodsoaked Insight is decent in big-mana decks. Lands like Bonders' Enclave aren't amazing but can be nice in big-creature decks that make good mana (in a pinch).

Howling Mine could be upgraded to Palantir of Orthanc for safer card-draw. {B} has no shortage of good draw spells these days; cheap stuff like Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood can get you your earlier land drops for more consistency. I kind of like stuff like Ancient Craving and Damnable Pact in decks that get a lot of mana. Later in the game, stuff like Ambition's Cost or Seize the Spotlight or Syphon Mind could allow you a partial refill along with playing a second spell played from the new cards. "draw three/draw four" spells are underrated IMO. Depends on the deck.

Some people swear by lots of cheap draw cards, some prefer big-time hand-refillers, and some only like incremental draw like Phyrexian Arena and Outpost Siege. It depends on a lot of deck-building factors as well as personal taste. I kind of like effects like Phyrexian Arena because it could come out early, before all the big dragons. Then again, Phyrexian Arena feels way worse on turn 12 than Ancient Craving. They all have their place.

Big scary dragons tempt boardwipes a lot. It's the psychology of Commander. In big-creature decks that can't prevent wraths (An Offer You Can't Refuse) or make all your creatures resist them (Heroic Intervention/Dawn's Truce), I am a big fan of mass-reanimation effects like Haunting Voyage, Rise of the Dark Realms, Behold the Sinister Six!, and Bloodline Bidding. Could be worth considering running a silver-bullet copy of one of those. Makes mass-haste effects real nice.

Personally, I don't love Planeswalkers in big-creature decks. I feel like I always want to attack with the big guys so it's hard to defend the Planeswalkers. I have a Saheeli, the Gifted deck (Junk in the Trunk) and it's pretty easy to protect her with all the thopters and servos. In my experience, opponents like to attack open Planeswalkers for the value, even if they aren't huge threats.

In big-mana decks, I actually still really like In Garruk's Wake. Big shout-out for you running Cut / Ribbons. Love that card. All is Dust could be nice since you have so many strong artifacts. It's nice to punish a boardwipe with another, bigger boardwipe. Bedevil is a potential upgrade over some of your other removal. Be sure to note Baleful Mastery too. Soul Shatter is better than things like Murder. Untimely Malfunction does double-duty as removal. No Mercy is nice in big-creature decks as well. Mudslide is cute in dragon decks.

hyalopterouslemur on Competitive card Draw in Mono …

8 months ago

NecropotenceGC probably costs too much (It's around $20.), but if you have one, play it. As long as you're drawing at least 2 cards per turn (and a rat deck should be playing at least that many cards per turn), you're getting an advantage. (That said, I don't typically play Necro on turn 3. I typically play it later.)

Skullclamp is another obvious recommendation for typal decks. You're essentially sacrificing a creature to draw two cards.

Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones...those are some of my favorite "draw X cards". You can throw in Damnable Pact for big plays. I also like Stinging Study, but it's kind of expensive.

Erebos, God of the Dead (a bit expensive) or Greed is useful as well.

Now, a word about Phyrexian Arena: I'm not sure you want it in an aggro strategy. It's great for controlling strategies, especially Stax (decks which essentially make it impossible for most decks to do anything and then do a point or two of damage every turn) and landfall, but aggro? It's still good, but not insanely overpowered. There's also Dark Confidant, which is Phyrexian Arena #2.

Saturn999 on Competitive card Draw in Mono …

8 months ago

Damnable Pact?

Apoptosis on Wheel in the Sky

1 year ago

Updated!

Out are cards that help opponents or don't have ideal synergy or add to the major mechanics: Anvil of Bogardan, Horn of Greed, Dictate of Kruphix, Howling Mine, Temporal Mastery, Time Warp, Smoke, Sign in Blood, Mystic Retrieval, Dismal Backwater, Doom Blade, Damnable Pact.

In (reanimation theme and some targets for reanimation): Exhume (not 100% on this one), Soul Exchange (idealy would want one that could target all graveyards), Dance of the Dead, Animate Dead, Liliana of the Veil, Necromancy, Sire Of Insanity (bomb that minimizes opponent's ability to profit from the wheel), Mangara's Tome (I love this as a way to stack all of my reanimation cards, or anything else that I want to protect from my own wheel effects. Curious to see how it plays. The sceptor is included for the same reason), Sepulchral Primordial, Diluvian Primordial, and Molten Primordial.

Need to get an Academy Ruins.

Optimator on Goblin Shenanigans (The Secret of Kiki Jiki)

3 years ago

A bunch of card-draw cards you will want to note for any future shake-ups:

Moldervine Reclamation, Dark Prophecy, Species Specialist, Skullclamp, Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, Liliana, Dreadhorde General,

Collective Unconscious, Shamanic Revelation, Ohran Frostfang, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Culling Dais

Colossal Majesty, Phyrexian Reclamation, Phyrexian Arena, Slate of Ancestry, Herald's Horn,

Greed, Erebos, God of the Dead,

Mask of Griselbrand, Fecundity, Guardian Project, Idol of Oblivion, Coveted Jewel, The Deck of Many Things

Painful Truths, Harmonize, Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, Reforge the Soul, Wheel of Misfortune,

Damnable Pact, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Syphon Mind, Minions' Murmurs, Necrologia,

Return of the Wildspeaker, Soul's Majesty, Rishkar's Expertise, Peer into the Abyss

I would skew toward permanents (for Kodama) and higher mana values (for Vial-Smasher)

jarncards on hasteland

3 years ago

For global haste you can use Fires of Yavimaya, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Urabrask the Hidden who will also conveniently turn off other people's haste. Anger and Barbarian Class also give haste after more effort.

Ant Queen, Artifact Mutation, Battle Hymn, Circle of Dreams Druid, Dragon Broodmother, Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, Tempt with Vengeance, Sylvan Offering, Termagant Swarm are all useful if you can give haste to all of them.

Birds of Paradise is just the best mana dork.

You have green, so you might as well use the standard ramp package with Cultivate , Kodama's Reach, Explore , Farseek, , Rampant Growth, Three Visits and Nature's Lore. Probably ignore most mana rocks, because people are going to want to vandalblast you just because of the treasures.

Relentless Assault, Scourge of the Throne, Combat Celebrant, Hexplate Wallbreaker, World at War grant extra combats, with Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault potentially going infinite.

Vandalblast goes in every red deck. Even though youll have a ton of treasures i'd still run Brotherhood's End too

For draw spells consider Scroll Rack, Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond, Soul's Majesty, Furious Rise, Rishkar's Expertise, Beast Whisperer, Shamanic Revelation, Disciple of Bolas, Pact of the Serpent, Painful Truths, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, Lifeblood Hydra, or maybe Necropotence although the color restricion on necro is tough, treasures should take care of it.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer , The Reaver Cleaver , Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge , Ancient Copper Dragon , Old Gnawbone Ziatora, the Incinerator for more treasure makers. Pyrohemia and Pestilence could be fun with the extra mana. Awaken the Woods is an amazing x spell too, but wont appreciate the two aforementioned cards.

If you're using magda the deck will benefit from dragons and expensive artifacts. throw in Imperial Recruiter and Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all go in your colors. so you can get her more consistently. Darksteel Forge and Gate to Phyrexia can be tutored into play with her for five treasure.

If you use dragons, you could add Dragonstorm, but you should carefully consider how many cheap spells you expect to be able to cast if you arent building specifically towards this card. Chatterstorm, Empty the Warrens, Yawgmoth's Will, Jeska's Will, Mana Geyser, and Manamorphose, Past in Flames are all good on their own and would add synergy.

If it ends up dragon tribal, cards like Crippling Fear , Kindred Dominance, Crux of Fate

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire is a very good payoff for using treasures if you dont use certain other nightmarish dragons like Atarka, World Render, Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Terror of Mount Velus, Thrakkus the Butcher

amarthaler on EDH Vampiric Bloodlust (C17 Precon Upgrade)

3 years ago

Updates!

In: Phyrexian Tower… Skullclamp… Scapegoat… Visions of Phyrexia… Read the Bones

Out: Drana, the Last Bloodchief… Damnable Pact… Plateau… Stinging Study… Kindred Boon

Phyrexian Tower will pair well with Phyrexian Reclamation for recursion. Skullclamp and Read the Bones are amazing card draw and part of the pre-con's original 99. Visions of Phyrexia comes out 18 Nov and looks awesome.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Card creation challenge

3 years ago

Essence Watch {G}

Enchantment

Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.

---

Soul Warden has a dozen variations in white, so why not give green another soul sister besides Essence Warden? At uncommon, I'd give it an additional activated ability, something such as "{1}{G}, sacrifice ~: You may play an additional land this turn."

---

Ok, draw spells is the topic. {G} has Return of the Wildspeaker and its predecessors. {R} has a wide variety of wheels. {B} has Damnable Pact and other "draw big, lose life" spells. {U} is {U}, I don't have to explain this. Each of these big draw spells has its very own drawback. {G} needs a big creature, {R} has its usual issue with the concept of delayed gratification, {B} has the typical recklessness-issues, and blue...just tends to be a little too good with drawing too much.

What could {W} have?

So the challenge is: Create a {W} card draw spell with MV 5 or greater that is powerful but has a typical {W} drawback. (And don't even dare just making the draw symmetrical!)