Grief

Creature — Elemental Incarnation

Menace

When this enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.

Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand. (You may cast this for its evoke cost. If you do, this is sacrificed when it enters the battlefield.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

Icbrgr on Colorshift Land Control

1 week ago

I am wondering what people think about the concept and effectiveness of Changing an opponents land type as a means of control.

The two big examples That I can think of that have seen play In the format is Blood Moon and Spreading Seas; but there are other cards that also serve the same function.

• Sea's Claim

• Convincing Mirage

• Evil Presence

• Contaminated Ground

Is there a deck that these cards have a home in? Or do these cards have potential to be revisited for a homebrew?

I'm currently fantasizing about some sort of Grixis {U}{B}{R} Pile with some sort of combination of the above cards combined with some removal and or the Grief/Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip package.

Ender666666 on 0Rack

1 month ago

A 1st turn {W} source + Evoked Grief, Ephemerate in response to Sacrifice trigger is a turn 1 3/2 blocker and a total of 3 cards discarded by our Opponent by the beginning of our 2nd turn's Upkeep, 2 of which happen on the 1st turn.

It's apparently one of the most vicious combos in Modern at the moment. I just learned about it. It works with Solitude as well.

Malakir Rebirth does the same trick twice instead of 3 times, and doubles as extra mana when we're desperate.

Lycheex on Lycheex

1 month ago

Hi beebles_elbow, thanks for the comment.

I completely agree with your take that the strength of the deck is the turn 1 win likelihood, however I don't want to be content with defeating non-blue players. The fact that the deck doesn't do numbers is because the "typical" lists don't work in the current Legacy meta. Most (all?) storm decks forgo some explosiveness to run some protection. I hope to find the right build that allows The Spanish Inquisition to do so as well. It's obviously easier said than done.

I think that I would've agreed with your take before, but the inclusion of Grief really changed my perspective. It's an incredible card for the deck as it provides a ton of mana in combination with Culling the Weak and Burnt Offering and you also happen to be able to discard a card from your opponents hand. If we could run 2-4 extra interactive cards, it could really elevate the deck. Again, finding the right build is proving to be a challenge.

I do partially agree with your take that Aeve, Progenitor Ooze is not good. While I don't think it's actively bad, it falls into a category of cards that I've tried before that are serviceable tech cards. And I would label Aeve as the best of these tech cards. I would include Skullwinder in the category as well. These cards are only good in certain situations, but mostly tend to be dead draws. I would like to replace these cards and run better cards, but I haven't been able to find.

I've actually recently built a new version of the deck called The Burning Inquition in which I tried to alleviate this exact problem. I feel that it has potential, here's a link if you're interested: The Burning Inquisition.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. I just want to try and make the best as it can be, but I could be completely wrong about my takes.

Icbrgr on No Country for old Johnnys …

1 month ago

I am also butthurt over Modern horizons/universes beyond introducing cards that never touch standard... Modern is becoming the new legacy we have without the prestige of owning original magic we will simply have to accomidate spin-off products now apparently.

Modern was never a perfect format and was pleaged with problematic cards for YEARS like Simian Spirit Guide/Mox Opal/Faithless Looting.... people say competitive magic was 2 ships passing in the night well... yeah there was a lot of unfair uniteractive nonsense (that were well known kinda like how The One Ring is a known issue but the banlist says otherwise)... those cards got banned with modern horizons though... then people say "thank god we have interaction like Force of Negation now"... yeah it feels really good when used in the context of Violent Outburst and Crashing Footfalls... or getting hit with Grief with hiw that's being used... gross.

As much as I share your frustration though and absolutely hate Modern being a soft rotating format... it really isn't all bad news... I also brew my own decks and have taken them to the LGS and yes I lose... but I still felt like I had a chance (if that makes any sense).

I'd be a liar if I said I was forever done with Modern. Despite the frustration it really is the best 60 card format imo... just as before modern horizons it is not without its flaws but I do think that it could be time to shift focuse into Pioneer for me anyway.

Well cheers until Modern Horizons 3/Dr. WHO/Songebob/Diablo 5 sets release!

nbarry223 on Ban list day!

1 month ago

I'm disappointed, but not surprised by the announcement.

They had a lot of opportunity to make the format healthier in my opinion, and definitely missed on it. Clearly the replaying of The One Ring is the "unforeseen loophole" that makes the card too powerful and unfun to play against. It was a huge missed opportunity to make it the first restricted card of the format (yes, it's unprecedented I know, but I think it would make sense, since the opportunity to die to your ring instantly becomes very real).

I also feel like they could have hurt the MH2 elementals a bit by limiting them to 2 copies, removing the unhealthy consistency of a turn 1 overpowered beater that decimates your opponents resources in the process. Anything under 7 copies is a little difficult to reliably get in an opener, especially if it's only half of the combo. 3 colored elemental decks like that aren't super viable, since you need the correct colored card to exile for them.

A semi-restriction like this would eliminate the abuse of the MH2 elementals, while keeping them as powerful tools, instead of just outright banning them. I think it would help to keep the cards' initial intent while removing the consistency of what many (including myself) see as the degenerate side of them. Pitching 2 cards for the effect is fair enough to me, but then getting a beater for an extra mana is just absurd value. This turn one play often ends games, especially with a card like Grief which trades 2 cards (their worst card) for 2 (your 2 best cards) and gives a 4 power beater with evasion for 1 mana. In that context, the card sounds insanely broken, and it really is, that's why Scam is the #1 played deck.

As far as unbans go, lots of missed opportunities there I think. I feel that the artifact lands could be safely removed if we had a "restricted" slot, since having access to 20, enough to make your entire manabase artifacts was the problem. 5 total would be fine, and a fair trade-off to being more susceptible to hate cards.

If the goal is to really move to a more interactive format, why not unban Deathrite Shaman? the "1 CMC Planeswalker" would definitely help in making the format more interactive, giving those midrange control type of decks a much needed tool.

Punishing Fire is another slower toolbox card that could probably be unbanned. The modern of today is far too fast, and giving some tools back to control players may actually shift us away from the Aggro/Combo meta to a bit of a slower format with a more equal spread between Aggro/Combo/Control.

Splinter Twin is potentially safe enough to unban in today's modern. Modern has become such a removal heavy format, that Splinter Twin could probably be policed well enough to not completely dominate the format. There are cards like Force of Negation that keep me hesitant of unbanning it though, so not sure if I would actually unban this particular option, but it is getting close to a reasonable power level in today's meta. If Force of Negation wasn't a card, I think this would be able to be unbanned, but with Force of Negation + Subtlety existing, I just can't get completely behind it. If they were limited down to less than 4 copies, I think it would be reasonable to unban.

Umezawa's Jitte is another option that could potentially be unbanned, but I'm also not sure about it. There's not too much it brings to the metagame, so it may be better to just leave it banned. It may give the smaller creature decks too much of a toolbox that it becomes a jitte vs. jitte format, that pushes other creatures out of the format. There's already enough aggro decks running around, so I don't think we need to give them more tools currently.

DreadKhan on Power Word Death

1 month ago

Phyrexian Totem isn't the easiest card to use, but most deck don't use a lot of instant speed burn spells or Flash creatures so as long as you've killed off their blockers it's a solid attacker. It can also force the opponent to keep blockers home. In practice, since it swings for 5 it can be fine to lose a few things to it in my experience (provided you're already ahead that game), and in situations where you can't use it to attack it's still a mana source that helps you cast your Obliterators.

Haha, yeah, I don't know if there is anywhere local I can buy cards, it's such a niche interest here, but online stores can make it easy to find cheaper versions of cards, though you have to do online shopping (which I wasn't eager to do). I know of a few European and North American companies who sell tons of stuff, and I think TCGPlayer.com has sellers from all over, and you can set the site to restrict sellers to ones that will ship to your area (it used to be pretty buggy, I have less trouble with it now).

The nice thing about 1 drops is that they allow you to start pressuring the board early, and some of them have useful abilities like Deathtouch, which let them trade with your opponent's better creatures. If you're not sure that Deathtouch creatures are good enough (or evasive lifelink creatures, like Cutthroat and Vault Skirge), you can also try out cards like Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, or Ostracize, since you get to pick what they discard these can be incredibly useful for only B mana. The best of these is probably Thoughtseize, followed by Grief and Unmask, but Inquisition usually works well in a format where people hate using cards with MV higher than 3. Some more 1 drops you can consider are Cryptbreaker, which is a zombie tribal card that can make tokens and draw cards eventually, and Foulmire Knight, this has Adventure and can draw a card if you draw it later in the game, and a 1/1 Deathtouch can block fairly well.

Dark Ritual isn't quite an auto-include in every deck, but it's one of the best cards that's legal in Legacy, it's especially useful if you can use all 3 mana and can play it turn 1. In your deck as is, if you have Ritual you can play a Gatekeeper or Messenger turn 1, either of those is a fair bit of value that early, and Vampire Nighthawk is really good with Dark Ritual since you can start gaining life turn 2. It turns a Grave Titan in a turn 4 play, at which point it's a very strong creature when you're sneaking it out so early, and while it's unlikely, you can end up with 2 Rituals in your opening hand and play Titan turn 2. If you use 1 mana discard spells as well as Hymn to Tourach, you can cast both (for the record you should cast the Duress type effect before Hymn) turn 1 which should decide most games on turn 1. Dark Ritual is a key card in decks that are trying to be fairly competitive, so if you want to make your deck stronger it's a great card to consider.

With all your removal (and the discard you've got), have you thought about x1 or x2 Sangromancer? It's a 3/3 flyer for 4, which isn't terrible, but it can gain quite a bit of life while still threatening your opponent. I guess it'd be a creature version of your Incursion, it won't gain as much life but it'll deal more damage.

If you want something to accelerate your games there is Phyrexian Arena, which was printed into Standard again, so it's extremely cheap compared to a few years back. It's not the best draw effect out there, but drawing a card each upkeep is pretty good value if you're not playing the fastest games, this card is also good with Dark Ritual, but it will cost a bit of life over time.

wallisface on The One Ring

1 month ago

Back to the original ban talk, for the pro tour they’ve listed the total number of cards being run in the tourney, with the One Ring being top-dog.

Numbers are (total/main/side):

The One Ring: 450/415/35

Orcish Bowmasters: 413/406/7

Fury: 376/290/86

Chalice of the Void: 355/2/353

Misty Rainforest: 328/328/0

Thoughtseize: 303:230:73

Force of Negation: 302/276/26

Boseiju, Who Endures: 287/172/115

Swamp: 285/285/0

Endurance: 272/27/245

Subtlety: 271/233/38

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: 270/266/4

Grief: 266/264/4

Leyline Binding: 258/258/0

Flooded Strand: 255/255/0

Lightning Bolt: 253/248/5

Island: 251/251/0

Bloodstained Mire: 236/236/0

These stats surely don’t help the Rings odds of staying legal.

wallisface on Bow Down to Sheoldred

3 months ago

idfkgabe decent creatures in white and/or black are aplenty, but might depend on your budget. Some options include Giver of Runes, Esper Sentinel, Solitude, Dauthi Voidwalker, Orcish Bowmasters, Leonin Arbiter, Skyclave Apparition, Grief, Dark Confidant, Thraben Inspector, and Archon of Emeria