Go for the Throat

Instant

Destroy target nonartifact creature.

Discussion (51)

PorygonDust on Mmm Chrome

6 days ago

I would remove Cancel for Dovin's Veto, Crux of Fate for Torment of Hailfire, Diabolic Tutor for Beseech the Queen, Diabolic Edict for Go for the Throat, Personal Tutor for Lim-Dul's Vault, Laboratory Maniac for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Graceful Adept for Archon of Emeria, Blood Seeker for Judge's Familiar, Strionic Resonator for Isochron Scepter, Baleful Strix for Windfall, Nadier's Nightblade for Dramatic Reversal, and Revel in Riches for Basalt Monolith

Mcat1999 on Top 10 red cards at …

2 weeks ago

Going onto Gatherer, it appears the LD options were 3 - 4 CMC.

I think I used 2cmc kill spells to bide my time. Terminate, Dreadbore, Go for the Throat, etc. If I recall I also ran some Rakdos Signet to help get mana out a little bit faster.

Then it was land destruction spells such as Rain of Tears and Stone Rain, along with some others.

It was a budget deck (less than $100) so no Snapcaster Mage or anything that'd really spice it up.

StopShot on why hasn't this card blown …

2 weeks ago

Personally, sorcery speed is pretty bad and I’d rather dedicate that slot for Go for the Throat or Heartless Act unless your commander is Mono-black.

Even though the card doesn’t meet my standards I am running it in my competitive deck, because it’s the best answer to straight up removing Contamination and at the very least its cheap removal. I’m hoping better black enchantment removal will be printed in time.

Apollo_Paladin on Escape From Markov

1 month ago

Neat Build! +1

I use Urge to Feed as a pseudo-destroy in the Vampire Deck I built alongside a friend for a special Halloween competition a few years back (it's called Sorin's Lifelink Legions on my profile if you want to take a look).

This could be an alternative to not using Go for the Throat as you mention in the description; plus it's a counter on any number of creatures you want in a Vampire build which can be used very strategically; particularly if you have any Vampire token-generation (which I see a little of, maybe could add some more with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad or something).

Nice to see some of those other recommendations from your other deck make this list though! Very solid choices and I see a lot of similarities in our builds even though the theme is somewhat different.

jaymc1130 on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

StopShot

The single best piece of removal to find it's way into lists in the coming months is Path to Exile as this deals with the offending threat pretty permanently. It also combos very nicely with OP Agent itself to net a land to ensure a land drop when you miss a land draw to keep up the pace of tempo. Path is going to be the single most added card to deck lists in the next 6 months for these reasons. Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are the next two most effective removal pieces that will see additions to lists. Eliminate (and maybe Smother/Fatal Push) will be run in the 2 cmc removal slots more so than any card similar to Go for the Throat because it's restriction is usually slightly less problematic plus it can hit some of the very important complementary pieces (Narset, Ashiok, Maralen, Mindcensor, etc). Both Dark Betrayal and Human Frailty are fringe option considerations and while Snuff Out is no good but Deadly Rollick should be excellent for some deck archetypes (such as Yuriko).

The problem with most removal spells is that they tend to "destroy" the Agent and this doesn't really solve the problem. In my Maralen deck, for example, I'm already running Reanimate, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, Animate Dead and have at times included for testing Unearth, Oversold Cemetery, plus a few other recursive elements. Just destroying the Agent is not a good way to deal with it, it's just going to come back (Noxious Revival, Regrowth, etc). You need to exile it. Swords and Path are the best bets, Winds of Abandon isn't terrible but it's also not instant speed. But the point here is that you want to exile the dude or find some sort of more permanent solution to the problem a la Gilded Drake/Oko than just spending some spot removal on a card that's going to make a return from the yard (Underworld Breach just to replay an Agent is a totally valid line to take in competitive settings, you'll just steal some one else's Breach to combo off). Can't stress this enough, you'll want to exile the Agent, not destroy it.

StopShot on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

People keep posting that you should run Lightning Bolt in your deck. As far as cheap removal goes there are plenty removal spells I’d rather run before I pick up Lightning Bolt. My picks include Dismember, Lightning Axe, Sinister Concoction, Weight of Spires, Go for the Throat, Terminate, Molten Vortex, and Heartless Act

Apollo_Paladin on Death Deck

4 months ago

You've got way, way too many high mana drops in there.

You should focus more on early drops to set up your board rather than being stuck waiting on mana. There's not a single card in this deck you can play on Turn 1, and all of your 2-mana options for Turn 2 are control things like Go for the Throat -- meaning if your opponent doesn't play the right cards, even those can't do anything that turn.

What if they play an enchantment? An artifact? A lot of early plays in decks are along these lines because they help set up the board state for more dramatic combos.

I would look long and hard at your list of big creatures and then find maybe 2 of them who work especially well together and scrap the rest. Fill the rest of the deck out with low-mana cost support cards to help feed into whichever one(s) you opt to keep. That'd help you get a lot more consistent hand draws overall and not leave you so vulnerable.

sleeper_agent007 on The Unwilling Betrayal (Ihsan's Shade)

4 months ago

Hey man, thanks for the mention. I will be back with comments on your list soon, but very happy that you're having fun with big bad Ihsan. As you noted, my deck opted for some suboptimal card choices based on the fact that I wanted to run an old border theme + some iconic black cards like Black Knight. Luckily, black has had access to some very powerful cards throughout the history of magic. Now if I were to break my theme and go more for power? Hmm... I wouldn't change too much because all the ramp, board wipes and card draw are really objectively just powerful and are the backbone of this deck.That's why we could get away with running some more flavor cards cause they don't really matter so long as your backbone of control, ramp and draw is in there.

That said, we can look into the creature section and switch that up. As for instant speed targeted removal, Victim of Night, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, Doom Blade for flavor. Personally, I would run only Go For the Throat and Victim of Night. And Innocent Blood (not instant and not targeted but 1 mana 3 for 1 in the early game + brutal after everyone replays their commanders after one of your board wipes). Also currently testing Pharika's Libation and it does work.

You may also like Praetor's Grasp to steal Sol Ring or kill a combo and Sadistic Sacrament to pretty much watch someone scoop.