Desperate Ritual

Instant — Arcane

Gain {R}{R}{R}

Splice onto Arcane {1}{R} (As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)

Combos

• Desperate Ritual + Isochron Scepter + Paradox Engine
• Desperate Ritual + Lightning Bolt + Reiterate

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
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (42)

Icbrgr on What makes a card or …

2 hours ago

Gemstone Caverns/Simian Spirit Guide/Desperate Ritual/Chancellor of the Tangle/Mox Opal there have been a lot of free win via Blood Moon decks over the years in various ban lists and formats and mulligan rules to pull off putting out the moon on turn 1.

Truthfully even fairly casting Blood Moon on turn 3 and the opponent just not having an answer or able to play afterwards just feels bad in general when I go to my local game store and it's just a non game I feel bad playing moon.... but its certainly a necessary evil to police the game in the same way Chalice of the Void does.

Azoth2099 on Kykar kicks ass (Suggestions needed!) (Budget)

6 months ago

Hey man! As someone who's brewed this one alot, I'm telling you right now you need waaay more mana rocks. Literally like 10+ rocks, plus a few rituals. The fact that they also generate a token is incredible in practice. Here's a list of the ones I'd include on top of what you already have: Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Progress, Izzet Signet, Boros Signet, Azorius Signet, Springleaf Drum, Jeweled Amulet, Lotus Petal, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Seething Song & Battle Hymn.

Also just so you know, Mystical Tutor, Personal Tutor, Enlightened Tutor & Gamble are all super cheap right now due to recent reprints! Gotta get it while the getting is good, ya know?

A great combo here is Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal, it generates infinite Spirit tokens on top of just being great individual utility pieces for the build outside of the combo!

Lots of great, cheap synergy pieces like Wild Research, Kindred Discovery, Opposition, Vicious Shadows, etc...

I'll stop rambling now, great Commander choice dude! Let me know how you feel about my mediocre suggestions lol.

Dana_in_Love845 on Imodane, The Burnbabe

7 months ago

I really like it! A tiny bit more ramp might be nice though, as it's quite land reliant right now. Arcane Signet, Commander's Sphere, Fire Diamond, Coldsteel Heart, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, or Seething Song for a few to consider. Hope this can help a little!

Azoth2099 on Sauron, The Dark Lord Commander Deck

10 months ago

Hey dude! So I've tested Sauron quite a bit, let me give you some free game.

The most critical thing about running a 6-drop commander is...having an absolutely absurd amount of mana in the deck, if you can believe that.

I would recommend running 10+ mana rocks alongside a handful of rituals, enough to drop Sauron T3 or T4 consistently. Here's a nice list:

Rocks: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Thran Dynamo, Basalt Monolith, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Indulgence, Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet, Rakdos Signet & Chromatic Lantern.

Rituals: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Culling the Weak, Burnt Offering, Sacrifice, Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual & Seething Song.

If you incorporate a good amount of mana generation, you can cut down to 30 lands and be waaay more consistent. And then once you power him out you can slap stuff like Conqueror's Flail on him and smack everybody around like a proper villain!

Azoth2099 on March of Mordor

10 months ago

Cheers m8, happy holidays!

So having tested Sauron, the Dark Lord into the dirt since his release, I think you're gonna need to get him on the board waaay faster than this list is currently doing if you really want to be mean like that. I'd recommend a few of the following "means" lol:

Rocks: Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Indulgence, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, Fellwar Stone & Springleaf Drum

Rituals: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Culling the Weak, Burnt Offering, Sacrifice, Rain of Filth, Bubbling Muck, High Tide, Rite of Flame, Infernal Plunge, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual & Seething Song.

Cost Reducers: Nightscape Familiar, Sapphire Medallion, Jet Medallion, Ruby Medallion, Cloud Key & Urza's Incubator.

And then there are other value pieces like Conqueror's Flail to go along with The Reaver Cleaver to help you get out of hand once he's summoned, & Faerie Mastermind to draw you cards while your commander builds your board from your opponents actions. Mystic Remora is also great in this sense and is still pretty cheap compared to Rhystic Study. Teferi's Ageless Insight is another banger post-commander that should be considered imo, especially since you can't run Necropotence as efficiently as other {U}{B}{R} decks can.

For more villainy, consider Dauthi Voidwalker, Opposition Agent, Praetor's Grasp, Mnemonic Betrayal, Bribery, Acquire & maybe even something like Empress Galina to really peeve your pod.

Peace!

Azoth2099 on Lathliss, the Hungry Queen

1 year ago

trey12321

You need way more ramp in this list if you want it to be consistent with it's curve. Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Seething Song & Battle Hymn are all great here. A few more rocks would do you some good as well, like Thran Dynamo & Basalt Monolith. The ones that you usually see in multicolor decks like Arcane Signet & Fellwar Stone are still pretty solid in monocolor builds that aren't {G}.

Treasonous Ogre & Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip are classic {R} bangers that can help ramp you out, with the added benefit of pseudo card-draw on Birgi's flip side.

More card draw and tutors never hurts, either. Tectonic Reformation is pretty nice here since you're running so many lands, & Gamble is one of the best tutors in the game. Fervent Mastery is worth considering, but can obviously be especially punishing for non-graveyard decks. Reckless Handling is pretty nice if you're running some dank artifacts, which you are! Imperial Recruiter is another {R} classic that I wouldn't necessarily recommend for this iteration of your list, but may come in handy later.

Other enchantments to consider here in my opinion are Molten Echoes, Sneak Attack & Mana Echoes as grease for your deck engine. Running Underworld Breach would allow you to more comfortably run {R} draw pieces like Faithless Looting, Thrill of Possibility, Cathartic Reunion, Tormenting Voice, Wheel of Fortune, Magus of the Wheel & Wheel of Misfortune. Also certain stax pieces like Blood Moon, Price of Glory & Stranglehold to help shut down whatever your opponents are trying to do.

Universal Automaton seems like great value here as well, but I could understand not including it. Wandering Archaic  ^Flip on the other hand I would 100% recommend for any & all monocolor decks.

Good luck refining your list!

Azoth2099 on [KFC] Kaalia Friended Chickens

1 year ago

jameswarlord

Hey man! Good to hear from you, nice job refining this list so far!

Yeah, Avacyn, Angel of Hope is stupid expensive lol, she probably always will be just because of how awesome she is. Proxy it in the meantime? Hell, I'd proxy an Ancient Copper Dragon too, they both win games.

Concerning Burning-Rune Demon: This card tends to get cut from a lot of decks that aren't running winning lines for it. Personally, my Kaalia of the Vast list also includes Dockside Extortionist, Corpse Dance & Disciple of the Vault, which enables Burning-Rune Demon to grab Razaketh, the Foulblooded & Reanimate to enable either a same-turn win or a next-turn win by generating infinite Treasures (and infinite Life via Children of Korlis) and nuking the board. It's also really good in Reanimator lists that are running the aforementioned pieces, as well as cards like Animate Dead, Necromancy, Buried Alive, Victimize & Karmic Guide to accelerate sheer board value if you don't want to run combos like that. If you apply it creatively, it essentially acts as an uncounterable {B} Intuition in the deck, but for no mana cost & at Sorcery speed. Not the worst...

Concerning catching Ws: the #1 thing that's going to snag you wins here is making sure that you capitalize on the Commander's value as quickly as possible, as well as making sure that your deck doesn't necessarily need it's Commander on the field to dominate. You need more ramp and card draw, simply. I'd add the following ASAP:

Ramp: Culling the Weak, Dark Ritual, Burnt Offering, Cabal Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Seething Song, Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Conviction, Fellwar Stone Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, & Deep Gnome Terramancer

Draw/Tutors: Archivist of Oghma, Moon-Blessed Cleric, Tectonic Reformation, Diabolic Intent, Gamble, Grim Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift & Sarkhan's Triumph.

Also, I know you've stated that you are trying to stay withing certain budget constraints, but Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor & Enlightened Tutor have seen recent reprints, and are cheaper right now than they will be in the future. Just something to consider.

All of these will help you get on and stay on! Let me know what you think.

Azoth2099 on The Lonely Loner (Seems to free his mind at night)

1 year ago

DatShepTho

Wuddup! Vadrik, Astral Archmage is so busted, man. Probably the best {U}{R} Commander p4p imo. I've been brewing him for a while now.

I see you're already running Seething Song, which is great. I'd highly recommend adding Desperate Ritual & Pyretic Ritual as well. Functionally having 2 copies of Dark Ritual in a {U}{R} deck is insane. Mana Geyser is pretty decent, but at Sorcery speed and at a minimum cost of {R}{R}, it's really not worth it compared to the others.

I would also recommend Mystic Retrieval & Mizzix's Mastery over Call to Mind & Finale of Promise respectively. As well as adding Past in Flames.

2 pieces of Equipment that I noticed shone very brightly with this Commander are Conqueror's Flail & Commander's Plate. The added bonus of cost reduction makes their power here difficult to overstate.

Buyback is a popular mechanic in typical Vadrik decks, but the only ones that are truly worth consideration are Capsize, Reiterate & Clockspinning. Haze of Rage & Seething Anger are obviously great, but they don't facilitate wins with the same frequency as those other ones. Sorcery speed sucks.

Never doubt that you need those Tutors, son! Solve the Equation, Reckless Handling, Merchant Scroll, Fabricate, Bribery & Acquire are all pretty much too good to pass up here. Reshape can also be great, depending on your Artifact list.

Free spells like Misdirection, Blazing Shoal & Commandeer can be pretty great here, given that they are likely still cheap to cast if you can't cast them for free.

Lastly, try to get yourself copies of Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip, Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip & Jeska's Will for this one if you can. Amazing!

Peace!