Forced Adaptation

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

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

Discussion (48)

legendofa on Dances with Bears

1 week ago

Thanks for the link!

This deck looks solid--have you used it in live play yet? What sort of Horde do you use?

I have to ask about Forced Adaptation, since it only affects one creature. May I suggest something like Fight Rigging, Ivy Lane Denizen, or maybe Dormant Grove  ^Flip? These all have higher mana costs, but you need something to stick the Adaptation onto anyway, and these options means you're not putting all eggs in one basket. If you have some on hand or are willing to put a little more money into this, Rancor would work as well, using Ayula, Queen Among Bears to fuel Branching Evolution.

wallisface on

5 months ago

Some thoughts:

• you’re only at 58 cards - you need 60 for a legal deck.

• I’d suggest going up to 20 lands (and also ditching the mana dork).

• you currently have no other warriors in your deck, making Bramblewood Paragon pretty useless as you’ll almost never be gaining counters off it.

• you’ll never be gaining counters from Scute Mob either - with only 18 lands you won’t have 5 in play until around turn 9-10… no game is lasting that long.

• both Forced Adaptation and Hydra's Growth are super risky/unideal cards to run as your opponent only has to use one killspell to remove both the creature & enchantment (costing you 2 cards for their 1).

• your deck currently feels very rag-tag/clumsy as far as being very slow to look threatening (Avatar of the Resolute and Rancor are the only cards that look strong in your deck currently. The rest feel weak/awkward/slow). Cards i’d suggest considering include Pelt Collector, Experiment One, Strangleroot Geist, Aspect of Hydra, Quirion Beastcaller, and maybe Servant of the Scale.

wallisface on

9 months ago

I think you need more 1-mana ramp cards. At the moment you only have Llanowar Elves as a mana-dork, which means in a lot of games you're going to be missing that card and starting the game really slowly. Almost all of your ramp-cards should cost 1 mana, as this will help you very-quickly be able to cast your higher-mana cards. At the moment you have too many of your mana-creating cards costing 2-or-more mana, which is going to reaaally slow you down.

I'm also not sure what Forced Adaptation is doing here. If the goal is to ramp quickly into something big, then this enchantment serves no purpose imo. Same goes for Tajuru Blightblade.

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

11 months ago

Hello, everyone!

I thought I would try my hand at creating an article series centering around the beauty of different card designs, as each card truly is unique in its own way, and I wanted to make my appreciation of that into a tangible form so that everyone could experience it.

A general outline of how this article series will go is this: a basic introduction (similar to what you’re reading now), cost versus effect, the flavor of the card, how the card interacts with its limited environment, cards that are similar to it and a short little blurb on what makes them different, a custom card inspired by the analyzed card and a short explanation of the process used to create it, the legacy of the card, and finally, a conclusion to round it all out.

That being said, let’s begin!

---

The card of today’s analysis is Dreadhorde Invasion, a card I chose to kick off the series with not only because War of the Spark is my favorite set, but also because it will give us a good platform to walk through the steps of this article series.

Dreadhorde Invasion is an oft-overlooked card that provides its user with a Zombie Army (a mechanic introduced and incredibly localized to War of the Spark, excluding a few exceptions such as Lazotep Chancellor) at the cost of a single life each turn. Obviously this adds up quickly, and the Army that is produced is rather clunky, as it is easier to remove (a la Fading Hope), non-evasive, and rather small even in its beginning stages. For {1}{B} it gives you a 1/1 creature on turn 3. That’s not a great payoff, especially for more advanced formats.

This is where the second clause comes in. If your Army can make it to six power, then Dreadhorde Invasion rewards you handsomely with an added lifelink, allowing you to gain back all that lost life and quickly breaking symmetry with your life versus your opponents. It’s not incredibly cost-effective (heck, a Forced Adaptation is more cost-effective in general), but it’s very fun to play with and can provide a lot more when juxtaposed with the rest of the game. But we’ll get into that later.

---

The flavor of Dreadhorde Invasion is perhaps my favorite part of the card. The Eternals are probably one of the most unique MTG villains (I mean, come on, they’re blue metal zombies that can cross between worlds and steal planeswalker sparks), and definitely one of my personal favorites. The idea of Dreadhorde Invasion is that Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is executing his plan to become Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, invading the plane of Ravnica with his army of Eternals empowered by The Elderspell in order to steal the sparks of the planeswalkers, trapped there by The Immortal Sun and invited there by the Interplanar Beacon. The invasion is eventually quelled by a joint effort by Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Gideon Blackblade, Ugin, the Ineffable, God-Eternal Oketra, and God-Eternal Bontu, with the defeat of Bolas wrapped up in the brilliant card Despark. Dreadhorde Invasion more than anything flavor-wise represents the whole of War of the Spark, perhaps better than any other individual card in the set (except maybe Enter the God-Eternals). And that is why I love it so much; it is a testament to my favorite set of all time.

---

As far as Dreadhorde Invasion’s performance in Limited goes, I must say that it has quite an unitive feel to how it operates in multiple deck strategies, similar to how it unites the flavor of the set. It has the keyword amass on it, which is the new ability introduced in the set, and which synergizes well with proliferate. Zombie Armies themselves receive gracious tribal support in the form of Gleaming Overseer, Eternal Skylord, Widespread Brutality, and the like. Beyond this fairly obvious synergy, however, there are many more options for how Dreadhorde Invasion can function in this set. For example, the creation of a creature every turn lends itself very well to sacrifice strategies revolving around Spark Reaper, Ahn-Crop Invader, and Spark Harvest, or even Liliana, Dreadhorde General and God-Eternal Bontu. In addition, the lifelink that can be attained on later turns goes well with Ajani's Pridemate and fits into a subtheme of life gain that the set has.

---

Dreadhorde Invasion-style effects are somewhat rare, but there is precedence for their existence. The most obvious example is Bitterblossom, an enchantment well-known for its splashes in Modern and which creates small flying threats every turn at the cost of some life. However, there is also Ophiomancer and Endless Ranks of the Dead, or more recently Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. The thing that sets Dreadhorde Invasion apart from these other cards is its unique combination of losing life and gaining life alongside its ability to make a token larger versus just creating a new token.

---

Here is a custom card that I made that was inspired by Dreadhorde Invasion.

The process I went through to design this card went something like this.

1) Look at Dreadhorde Invasion and think about what the card is wanting you to do. What's the general theme of the card?

2) Build a general shell around the idea of losing life to gain life, pulling in inspiration from cards like Bloodghast.

3) Adding a tribal element to make it feel like a Dreadhorde card.

4) Adding a fitting name. "Vowmage" gives a feel of some kind of sacrifice to fufill an obligation, especially to a being like Bolas.

5) Adding flavor text that is both quippy and fits the situation. In this case, I chose to show who the Vowmage's vow is to.

6) Finding some art from DeviantArt that fit the theme. This art is from user Ryushadow, and is the only Eternal art I could find.

---

Dreadhorde Invasion, like most of its amass kin, is largely forgotten especially in competitive play where it is not a contending strategy. Zombie Armies are incredibly weak to removal and usually aren’t very cost-effective, so their weakness of being a single lone creature that just gets bigger and can be chump-blocked can’t really be ignored. War of the Spark as a whole is a largely forgotten story arc, and despite its misgivings it’s still a shame. Dreadhorde Invasion does not truly have a legacy, though it was reprinted in the Midnight Hunt commander set as a part of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver’s commander deck. Hopefully, one day, we will see Amass return in a future set with greater support so that Dreadhorde Invasion may one day be viable.

---

Alright, everyone! That is the end of my article for today. Please let me know what worked for you and what didn’t so that I can sculpt this new article series to your feedback!

Speaking of user feedback, I would like to have every tenth card be voted upon by the community. If you want to submit an idea for what card we will go over, just let me know in your comment. The comment with the highest number of upvotes will have their card in the tenth article of the series.

Thank you all for the wonderful community we’ve made together! See you soon.

thefiresoflurve on Cheapo Super Skullbriar

1 year ago

Looks overall okay. There are also a couple good Trample sources I see missing: Rancor - great because it comes back to your hand Cartouche of Strength - doubles as sorcery speed creature removal

Forced Adaptation feels too slow for me in a deck like this. Compare to Hydra's Growth - you're not going to be casting either til turn 3 at least anyway (as you have no targetable 1-drops). On turn 3 with Hydra, you'll swing +1 counters, then turn 4 you'll swing with +2, then +4.... I know the point of Forced Adaptation is that no one can ever take those counters away from Skullbriar, I just would prefer running some form of graveyard recursion akin to Phyrexian Delver, rather than simply turning your commander into an even bigger removal magnet.

The deck also looks a bit lacking in mana ramp, which you'll very much need since you're going to be racking up commander tax. A few good budget options - Arcane Signet Rampant Growth Coldsteel Heart is an upgrade over Moss Diamond Golgari Signet Talisman of Resilience Gyre Sage

As far as draw goes... I love the Colossal Majesty type effects. Garruk's Uprising, however, seems like a weak choice to me. There are only 5 creatures (6 if you buff your commander a little) that will trigger its third ability, and likewise its first ability has a decent chance of being unusable when you draw the card. Its trample ability is great, but I think there are probably better ways of accomplishing that in the deck already. I would honestly cut this for something like Deeproot Champion, which would be awesome with how many non-creature spells you have.

ClockworkSwordfish on Slippery Bogle pauper EDH

1 year ago

Interesting idea for a deck - it's good to have a voltron commander who isn't easy to pick off - but I feel like a number of your auras are a little... lacking! Awesome Presence, Feral Invocation, Petrified Plating, Reins of the Vinesteed and Way of the Thief all feel like fairly weak cards, some even with good alternatives available.

You might consider running Aqueous Form over Awesome Presence and Tricks of the Trade in place of Way of the Thief, since that guaranteed unblockability is important. Ancestral Mask should provide an absolutely enormous buff, much bigger than Feral Invocation or Oakenform, and Forced Adaptation should likewise result in huge size since your commander should always come down turn one and won't be picked off by removal. Otherwise I'd recommend Cartouche of Knowledge in place of Stratus Walk and One With the Wind over Treetop Bracers.

Past that, I'm surprised you aren't running Favor of the Overbeing, which is pretty custom-made for the Bogle! Cartouche of Strength is also great as a bit of potential removal which helps pump your guy up. I'd also try to find room for Gladecover Scout, since it might pay to have backup targets for your auras if the Bogle is having trouble staying on the board!

RealLifeBear on Oozing with Potential (?)

2 years ago

Looks fun! here are some ideas I have, take and leave them as you wish (especially if its out of budget):

since there isn't really any in tribal synergy (compared to another tribe like elves or spirits), it looks like you are going for a 1/1 counter subtheme. In that case I feel Hardened Scales could easily take the place of Forced Adaptation

I would probably remove the Slime Molding (probably for lands, 20 is really low, especially with no dorks) if you are trying to use it to add storm for Aeve. more lands that produce dual colors in general might help, consider pauper all star Golgari Rot Farm the bounce land perhaps?

I would remove Necrotic Ooze for something else (perhaps The Ozolith to continue the counter theme). right now its basically impossible (unless you draw into two jungle hollows and play behind two mana) to cast Predator Ooze on turn 3 and Necrotic Ooze on turn 4

every time ive played with Bioshift its felt a bit underwhelming, but I definitly encourage you to try it out and decide for yourself.

delirium might be really hard to trigger (if you do remove the sorcery it might be nearly impossible). my last recommendation would be the following oozes: Gluttonous Slime , if your opponent tries to kill one of your creatures, flash it in to make it whiff AND get a bigger creature. Oran-Rief Ooze , this card just looks SO good, and Mitotic Slime is basically un-killable. replacing Predator Ooze with one of these may also allow you to play Necrotic Ooze without suffering. Feel free to experiment!

( Corrosive Ooze for sideboard.)

Hope this helped in some way or another.

Oran-Rief Ooze makes me want to make a competitive version of this deck :p

TheVectornaut on Black Green (?)

2 years ago

It looks like your main goal is to stick a creature and then buff it as much as possible with +1/+1 counters. To improve the strength and consistency of the deck, I recommend cutting anything that isn't working towards that end (unless it's very efficient.) I'd identify those cards as Druid's Deliverance, Sundering Growth, Bountiful Harvest, Bump in the Night, Lair Delve, Blood Reckoning, Tablet of the Guilds, Primal Clay, Trestle Troll, and maybe Phylactery Lich (depending on how many artifacts you end up running in the end.) I'd also suggest swapping out Intimidation to stay modern legal, possibly with something like Bellowing Tanglewurm if you really really want the evasion. Your strongest cards that I'd want additional copies of are Abrupt Decay (budget permitting), Ring of Xathrid, Undying Evil, Slitherhead, and Death's Presence (assuming your meta is slow enough to run it.) It also looks like Tormented Soul is a critical piece that benefits the most from growing big, so having redundancy for it seems like a good idea. Changeling Outcast, Gingerbrute, and Silhana Ledgewalker could all be fine targets. For +1/+1 synergy, you have scavenge staples like Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Corpsejack Menace, and Lotleth Troll along with more general options like Polukranos, Unchained, Winding Constrictor, Hardened Scales, Hydra's Growth, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Scavenging Ooze (which is particularly good in a sideboard), Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Hunger of the Howlpack, Forced Adaptation, and Llanowar Reborn. Finally, some cards I've had success with in graveyard-focused decks include Tragic Slip, Satyr Wayfinder, Grisly Salvage, Splinterfright, and Fauna Shaman. Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with your build!