Drana's Emissary

Creature — Vampire Cleric Ally

Flying

At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

Discussion (49)

TheVectornaut on Black and White - please help!

2 months ago

To stay more in black, I would consider some sort of vampire sacrifice, counters, and/or lifedrain strategy. Your black cards that could work well in such a deck would be Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim , Embodiment of Agonies , Kambal, Consul of Allocation , Knight of the Ebon Legion , Mortician Beetle , Souls of the Faultless , Castigate , Disentomb , Gerrard's Verdict , Revival / Revenge , Despark , and Grim Return . Most of the other black cards are at least playable as well. The only two I'd cut in most circumstances are Underworld Dreams and In Garruk's Wake . The former needs more build-around while the latter just costs too much to be a consistent boardwipe.

Cards I'd look at adding for such a build might be Gatekeeper of Malakir , Anowon, the Ruin Sage , Sangromancer , Dictate of Erebos , Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet , Victim of Night , Indulgent Aristocrat , Pawn of Ulamog , Grim Haruspex , Silversmote Ghoul , Yahenni, Undying Partisan , Vampire Nighthawk , Vampire of the Dire Moon , Malakir Cullblade , Blood Artist , Urge to Feed , Feast of Blood , Heliod, Sun-Crowned , Archangel of Thune , Cruel Celebrant , Drana's Emissary , Indulging Patrician , Malakir Bloodwitch , Marauding Blight-Priest , Sanctum Seeker , Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose , and Pious Evangel  ^Flip.

As a side note, to go infinite with Sanguine Bond , Vizkopa Guildmage , or Vito, the card you need is actually Exquisite Blood which is unfortunately quite expensive.

Tyrant-Thanatos on A question about triggered abilities

6 months ago

i'm curious what sources you read that said it wouldn't work that way. since you're the active player and all the triggers happen simultaneously, you determine how to order them.

Incorrect,

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the player seated to the active player’s left) makes any choices required, followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the “Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order” rule.

If all of the triggers were controlled by the same player, that player would determine how to order them. Otherwise they are ordered per 603.3b. In this instance, Drana's Emissary would go onto the stack first, as it is controlled by the active player, then Shrieking Affliction would go onto the stack. Affliction would resolve first and kill OP, assuming they were unable to respond with a life gaining effect or some other means of survival.

Azeworai on A question about triggered abilities

6 months ago

A most splendid enquiry!

Whenever multiple triggered abilities are put onto the stack, they are ordered depending upon the turn and the player. 'Tis your turn in this circumstance, thus the Drana's Emissary (your trigger) would be put onto the stack first, but Shrieking Affliction (your opponent's trigger) is put onto the stack directly afterwards. The opponent's triggers resolve first.

As within this ensample. the Shrieking Afflictions would resolve first due to being put upon the stack second.

Merely to note, priority is not passed between each of these triggering, but is passed between them resolving.

My apologies for being overly specific, but I wish for this to be clear.

Zinon on A question about triggered abilities

6 months ago

Ok, so yesterday we got a little confused on what order the triggered abilities go on the stack, my opponent had 2 Shrieking Affliction and I had a Drana's Emissary and I was at 2 life, we believed that I could put the shrieking affliction triggers on the stack, then my drana's emissary, then activate other abilities to gain the life I needed, we asked an L2 judge later on that day and he said that would work, but after reading various things online it seems that it wouldn't work that way.

So what would be right, can I put the opponent's shrieking affliction trigger on the stack then my drana's emissary trigger, or does it have to happen the other way around? (and yes, I only had one card in hand for the shrieking affliction to deal damage)

Defied-27 on Callous Clerics (Budget)

7 months ago

Hey Saccox, thank you for your ideas! I feel like unfortunately there is no good slot to cut for Drana's Emissary. Etchings of the Chosen is a nice addition one could consider for Giver of Runes. A lord is always nice to have, although it pushes the manacurve. And Radiant Fountain is a nice call!

Saccox on Callous Clerics (Budget)

7 months ago

Hi Defied_27, Drana's Emissary , Etchings of the Chosen and Radiant Fountain ? Are good budget cards for this deck

TheVectornaut on Blue/White Life and Defenders

8 months ago

I think a good place to start would be to evaluate what goals are the most important for your deck while making sure you don't have too many ideas that compete against each other. When I look at the deck now, I can see the general idea of a U/W control list that takes advantage of freeze and lifegain to prolong the fight until you can win. However, I see some major problems with the plan as it is now.

First, the deck lacks a clear win condition at the end of all the control. You'll either need to chip away over the course of a slow game with your smaller creatures or hope you have enough freeze effects to get your big guys in late-game. Control deck usually opt for some type of haymaker that can reliably close the game. Some like AEtherling and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are designed to protect themselves, some like Celestial Colonnade and Shark Typhoon place emphasis on evasion, some like Torrential Gearhulk and Snapcaster Mage give you as much value as possible, and some like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Time Raveler deny your opponents of counterplay. There's a lot of overlap within those categories and not all of these cards will be played as a wincon, but having a clear plan to win is better than only playing to not lose. The closest cards you have are probably Serpent of Yawning Depths and Archipelagore. Sea monsters are certainly a fine casual deck but slotting them into something else can be awkward at best and ineffectual at worst.

The second problem I see is the missed potential of your chosen colors combined with your chosen tribe. Right now, you have very few ways to take advantage of the clerics in the deck. Clerics are intended to be W/B since you get access to powerful new tools like Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Taborax, Hope's Demise, and Cleric of Life's Bond along with classics like Sin Collector, High Priest of Penance, and Skirsdag High Priest. The lifegain/drain synergy in clerics also benefits from orzhov colors to play threats like Angel of Destiny, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest, Speaker of the Heavens, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Twilight Prophet, Pious Evangel  ^Flip, Drana's Emissary, and Cruel Celebrant.

Incidentally, black also synergizes quite well with tapdown effects because of Assassinate cards like Royal Assassin, Deathbringer Liege, and Murderous Compulsion, although white does have its share of Vengeance with Sunblast Angel, Deadeye Harpooner, and Swift Response. Anyway, now that I'm on this tangent, it's worth mentioning that including strong freeze effects is important if you want to make such an underused mechanic work. I'm partial to Dungeon Geists and Icefall Regent as permanent taps, but there's also Guardian of Tazeem, Niblis of Frost, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Time of Ice, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Frost Titan, and Hands of Binding. Alternatively you can use cheaper cards that can retap a creature each turn like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blinding Souleater, Fatestitcher, Hidden Strings, and Minister of Impediments. The final category I'll mention are other cards that take advantage of tapping enemy creatures like Palliation Accord and Verity Circle, except I'd only ever recommend the latter.

In summary, I think you should decide whether you're more interested in clerics or in freeze since they don't synergize with each other that well. For clerics, switching to black and taking advantage of lifedrain and sacrifice is advisable. For freeze control, find ways to abuse tapping, implement a strong win condition, and generally include more card draw and countermagic. If you are dead set on combining these styles, I'd at least invest in some tribal support cards to give the clerics more impact than just weakly contributing to the party mechanic. Adaptive Automaton, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd, and Coat of Arms are some popular options. Finally, if your budget doesn't allow you to purchase many new cards, prioritizing the acquisition of additional copies of your strongest but cheapest cards is a good way to upgrade. For this deck, I think those cards are Attended Healer, Cleric of Chill Depths, Hypnotic Sprite, Kor Celebrant, Luminarch Aspirant, Queen of Ice, Shepherd of Heroes, Skyclave Cleric  ^Flip, Concerted Defense, Dovin's Veto, Negate, Inscription of Insight, Staggering Insight, Trapped in the Tower, and maybe Silundi Vision  ^Flip. Good luck with your build and let me know if you have any questions!

Santiago1011 on Liesa, Mother of Monsters and Masochism [PRIMER]

8 months ago

Goldbranner, thanks for the praise :)

I agree with you about Drana's Emissary being underwhelming. I'll make the suggested change right now.

And I'll never undervalue Magic's goodest boi(s)