Dismember

Instant

({BP} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.)

Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.

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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

IXALAN_Crazy on Some Kind of Murktide Deck

5 days ago

4 Archmage's Charm seems a little high, it might be worth cutting 2 to go up to 3 Murktide Regent and adding a one of of Dismember

buglofer on Indestructible Keyword w Damage & …

2 weeks ago

If you deal damage to an indestructible creature, let's say three damage to an 8/8, and then cast Dismember on that creature effectively setting its toughness to 0 for the turn, does that creature die? Thank you!

lespaul977 on I’m looking for a one …

2 months ago

Balaam__, sorry for the confusion in my question. I was focused on cards that could be played in my mono-white deck, but I completely forgot about playing cards with Phyrexian mana. Good call on that. Dismember could take out a good sized creature.

nuperokaso on Ninjas and Rogues

3 months ago

Remember that you are an aggro deck. As such, you want to lower your mana curve. You don't want to give up on card advantage, but you are willing to ignore life gain and pay some life instead.

• Bone Splinters. March of Wretched Sorrow These are card disadvantage. Try Dismember and Fatal Push. Notice that it mentions "permanent left the battlefield". This works well with your ninjutsu.
• Soul Transfer. You have no chance to control both an artifact and enchantment. If you want to destroy planeswalkers, go with Hero's Downfall.
• Assimilate Essence and Scatter Ray. Playing counterspells that hit just creatures is bad if you are playing black. Either play an universal counterspell such as Mana Leak, or play direct removal which can hit creatures that are already on the battlefield.
• Battle-Rage Blessing and Return to Action. Search for a 1 mana alternative with an unside, such as Feign Death, Undying Evil or Slip Out the Back
• Collective Nightmare, Anoint with Affliction and You Are Already Dead. These are garbage. Play any of the good 2 mana black instant removals, such as Cast Down, Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Infernal Grasp, Ultimate Price, Power Word Kill, Heartless Act
• Ertai's Scorn, Extinguish the Light, Debt to the Kami. These are somewhat a little too expensive. You are an aggro deck, so play more tempo oriented cards. Try something from Remand, Memory Lapse, Undermine, Clawing Torment.

Profet93 on Volrath Punch.

4 months ago

Cabal Stronghold - Budget cabal coffers. You need ramp in a deck with an expensive commander that will eventually get removed, not to mention ensuring he comes down quickly enough for you to be relevant and not outpaced by faster strategies. Moreover, ramp provides you with the ability to cast your more expensive creatures should Volrath inevitably be removed.

Mind Stone - Ramp when you need it, draw when you dont.

Defile > Disfigure

Hero's Downfall > Murder

Oversold Cemetery > Disentomb - Black has the best recursion in the game. While oversold cemetery is better than disentomb, you really should focus on bringing cards back to the field rather than your hand, especially given how expensive your creatures are. There are several cards that I can recommend at a later time, currently at work. Victimize,

Feed the Swarm - Enchantment removal

Phyrexian Arena/Syphon Mind/Read the Bones/Night's Whisper/Stinging Study- Draw, you desperately need draw

Diabolic Tutor - Tutors are black's greatest strength, be sure to utilize them to find what you need, when you need it.

Phyrexian Reclamation > raise dead - PR is reuseable while raise dead is not. Cost of life is minimal.

Dismember > Funeral charm - FC is cool, but its not impactful enough. Discard a card is alright, removal is horrible, swampwalk is not repeatable and often 2 for 1 loss. You need more removal in your deck, especially cheap to cast. It allows you to bluff interaction as well.

Supernatural Stamina/Undying Malice - Can be used to protect volrath for cheap.

Decree of Pain > Forced march - FM requires a lot of mana to use, 8 mana just to kill cmc 5 or less. I get the flexibility is nice, but the mana cost is too high. If you're going to spend 8 mana, you might as well be able to destroy everything and draw from it. Not to mention cycling at instant speed allows for a decentish floor as well. Worth considering.

nbarry223 on Viga-BOOM!

4 months ago

I don't know, 3 Azusa's is a bit much, you'd be surprised how often that legendary rule comes up. Even with 2, I saw the second copy more often than I wanted to. Dead / Gone also seems a bit strange instead of Dismember. Relying on an early red so much seems odd, especially since the 3 CMC of the split isn't even permanent removal. You're weakening your position against a multitude of decks to have a slightly better edge against things like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines that are unable to be removed otherwise. If you are going for an off-color answer anyway, there's definitely better options. Sure you can still answer Magus of the Moon with it's front, but almost any form of creature removal kills that.

Anyway, Altered Ego sees play in quite a few top 8 decks already, just in their sideboards. It is a fetchable answer to Archon of Cruelty and an uncounterable threat you can dump excess mana into (you can also copy an opponent's hexproof/shroud creature if that ever comes up). However, I like it mainly because you can copy your own Primeval Titan to chain into 2 titans with a singular amulet (can still usually only haste 1) or pretty often 3+ titans with double amulet. Being able to make a second titan so easily is really nice, and it happens to help with 2 of the deck's weaknesses. In fact, it is so powerful, that it devalues Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion quite a bit, essentially making it unnecessary in a lot of situations you would lean on it otherwise - to the point where I cut the win-more card.

It is possible to play into removal with the clone, but you shouldn't be playing that aggressive against an unknown deck, decks where you suspect Solitude or an opponent with open mana for removal. Always play for an actual second Primeval Titan first before trying to copy against those types of decks. Playing into something you shouldn't is what I would call a misplay, not a bad card.

Atraxa, Grand Unifier is a bit situational, but it is similar to Cultivator Colossus in what it does for the deck. It's recently seen top 8 play (which is what inspired the recent changes), albeit alongside Dramatic Entrance to cheat it into play. Instead of that, I am playing Timeless Lotus which I feel has arguably more synergy with the deck and the way I want to play it (as more of a midrange deck). It is capable of fixing our mana to cast Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and we also have Eldritch Evolution or Scapeshift to bring it or the land dependant Cultivator Colossus into play, depending on which is best.

Elvish Reclaimer is admittedly a bit slow, but it does almost everything you could possibly want (albeit slightly worse than other options). If you are capable of paying an extra mana at some point in the game, it is worth it as turns go on, being a psuedo-extra land card, mana fixing, better Expedition Map which puts the target into play, or a decent sized body (can even threaten pumping it and never actually investing mana into it to deter attacks). Hell, you can even pact for it when missing a bounce and unable to pay for pact, using its ability in response, returning that bounce to hand) provided you can actually pay for the pact AFTER the ability resolves).

The inclusions make the deck far less linear and complicate the lines a lot more (because amulet titan isn't complicated enough already...) I'm not saying they are a strictly better upgrade, as I am trading a little bit of consistency for resilience/explosiveness.

That being said, I think just dismissing all of the changes as "bad" because it "isn't what the pros are doing" is a little laughable. Am I stretching the limits of the deck a little right now? Absolutely. Is every new card you've never seen in an amulet shell automatically bad? Absolutely not. We'd still be playing with Hive Mind if that was the case (never liked the concept of combo pieces which do nothing on their own - so glad people moved away from that archetype).

CD-ROM on Mono-Black 0 Mana Cost

6 months ago

SufferFromEDHD I appreciate it, man. Scale of Chiss-Goria is useful to protect Barricade Breaker from cards like Dismember. Lotus Petal and Mox Opal can't help cast my creatures with Improvise through their abilities. If I wanted to add both of them, I should probably swap Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, Scale of Chiss-Goria and/or Shield Sphere for Bone Saw, Paradise Mantle, Signal Pest and/or Springleaf Drum.

wallisface on Sideboard Tech vs. Scam

7 months ago

Surely Ragavan isn’t that big of a problem? I can’t imagine it’s ever casting your topdeck cards, so it just providing them some ramp and incidental damage. If you are worried about their creatures, perhaps run some Dismember?

Haywire Mite could be good for Blood Moon.