Painful Quandary

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player loses 5 life unless he or she discards a card.

Discussion (51)

RiotRunner789 on Negan - PeePee Pants City

4 hours ago

Painful Quandary is powerful and definetly on theme. The name is perfect. Though this is a bit less budget friendly.

SimicVisionRy on Crazy Cards to add

1 week ago

Red is, well at least, on the color pie, the color of hate effects that have to deal with either damage, or permanent control. Each of the colors has their own way of being a dick on the table, such as Blue with Stasis, white with Blind Obedience and black with cards like Oppression and Painful Quandary. (Black is my fav, btw. Can't play cards if you don't have them in play, lol)

Monomanamaniac on Brain Getting Too Big

1 week ago

Cards to play: Psychosis Crawler which will reward you for drawing by dealing damage. Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted is the better ob nixilis for this deck. Whispering Madness, Dark Deal, Reforge the Soul, Magus of the Wheel, Incendiary Command, Wheel of Fate, Time Reversal, Echo of Eons are all wheel effects that make your opponents suddenly draw a ton of cards that will then let you deal damage to everyone. Prosperity Will have everyone drawing equally. Izzet Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Arcane Signet are decent mana rocks you're missing. Arcane Denial counters a spell and lets them draw and replaces itself. Stormfist Crusader howling mine effect but punishes at the same time.

Cards to take out. Pillage Very inefficient. Quest for Ancient Secrets Very slow. Sadistic Sacrament not really what this deck is truly wanting to do. Shrieking Affliction 99/100 games your opponents will have more than 1 card in hand. Darksteel Plate just too expensive to be good for this deck. Ob Nixilis Reignited not as good as the other ob nixilis. Cerebral Vortex not usually going to deal massive damage and only damages 1 opponent. Painful Quandary I like this card and probably wouldn't get rid of it, but your opponents will usually have the card to discard. Crawlspace not really going with your overall game plan, it does slow your opponents down,but not by enough. Nin, the Pain Artist it's a lot of mana to sink into an effect like this. Curse of Fool's Wisdom only targets 1 player, it's really too limited. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell a lot of your debate sources are black, this is decent with your commander but not much else. Reverberate I didn't see a huge number of decent targets forthis spell and it doesn't do a whole lot of good. Darksteel Ingot I don't personally like seeing 3 cost mana ramp, I'd suggest replacing it with a signet.

I would like to say that I really like your deck, it's an interesting take on an interesting commander. This is meant to be constructive and all with the best intentions.

Santiago1011 on Kambal, Crooked Consul

1 week ago

Thanks for the suggestions Peoni. I added Sanguine Bond in place of Kismet because I already have other tap effects and I've noticed I needed the extra damage. As a personal rule though I don't run infinite combos, so I'm not adding Exquisite Blood.

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GalaxyCat, I'm glad to hear you liked the deck :) I used an old pillowfort Kambal list I made a while back in conjunction with EDHREC's creature suggestions so I could have a bit more aggressive approach to it. I did add some pet cards like Koskun Falls, Archangel of Thune, and Painful Quandary that I've been trying to find a deck to play to utilize in. I also probably have a bit more spot removal/ exile than the average build.

Optimator on Yahenni Aristocrats

3 weeks ago

You don't have a ton of card-draw, and I also recommend at least eight pieces for almost any deck. Graveyard recursion, especially the good ones, definitely count as card advantage in my book, so Phyrexian Reclamation is great here, as is Whisper.

Grim Haruspex and Disciple of Bolas are on-theme. Thorn of the Black Rose and Custodi Lich are fun creature-based choices too. Some other classic choices are Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Promise of Power, Liliana's Contract, Syphon Mind, Castle Locthwain, and Read the Bones. Palace Siege is okay, especially if you feel you need more recursion. Diabolic Servitude is nice and repeatable. Victimize and Blood for Bones are a great rate. Oversold Cemetery is nice too, though pricey.

Greed, Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip, Skullclamp and Erebos, God of the Dead are really good but not cheap. Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and God-Eternal Bontu would be decent as well. Bonus points for some being threats/blockers.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury is an interesting choice for card advantage--especially if you can recur him out of the graveyard over and over.

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Dreadhorde Invasion is a great source of sacrifice fodder. So are Grave Titan and Bitterblossom but they're expensive. High Market is good in case your commander get's Arrested or turned into an elk or frog or the moon. Rogue's Passage could help end games once Yahenni is huge.

If you find you can't close out games between all the groupslug aristocrat cards and Yahenni's damage, perhaps a few auxiliary groupslug cards could tip games in your favor. Most of the good ones are very expensive though. Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, Polluted Bonds, Wound Reflection, and Palace Siege et al. Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are classic finishers too.

As far as cuts go... I don't love some of the creature-based removal. I know it's good because you can sacrifice them later but perhaps Morkrut Banshee, Skinrender, and Anowon the Ruin Sage could be cut. I don't love Devour in Shadow and Drag to the Underworld. You should be set on removal even with those five cuts. Feed the Swarm is worth noting! Mortician Beetle is a bit win-more but is uniquely suited to the deck and worth keeping for now. Probably makes a good blocker. Geralf's Messenger is a bit weaker than some of the token generators and recurring threats too.

Also, I don't know if you care (few do) but if you want an accurate price calculation for your deck you should put the cards in the Sideboard into the Maybeboard so they aren't added.

RiotRunner789 on K'rrik Tournament Deck

3 weeks ago

Painful Quandary is perfect for life drain, as is Bloodchief Ascension (which also gives you life).

I would also caution against Helm of Awakening. I know it is there to help you storm off but it will help the izzit players or other storm players more.

Expedition Map would be good here to grab your coffers.

kpres on Card creation challenge

2 months ago

Eternal Librarian

Creature - Avatar

Eternal Librarian's power and toughness are equal to the number of cards in your library.

If you would lose life, exile that many cards from the top of your library instead.

If you would gain life, draw that many cards instead.

When Eternal Librarian leaves the battlefield, exile your library.

X/X

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It's a blue Lich!

Green, white, and blue have hexproof and shroud. Red has Grip of Chaos. Black has Painful Quandary. What could black and red do to prevent spells from affecting your creatures, but as a static ability? Make a card that demonstrates a new static ability for black and/or red.

mrdehring on Sygg Rogue Tribal

3 months ago

Welcome to EDH. This looks like a great tribal deck and rogues are a lot of fun. It looks like you have figured out that you can't play red. The rule of EDH require that you can only have the mana symbols that are in your commander. Noggle Bandit is technically red so you will have to cut that card as well.

I had a Sygg, River Cutthroat deck back in the day and I had a lot of fun effects that caused people to take a few points of life loss so I draw cards on their turn. Not sure where your budget is but Contaminated Bond and Revenge of Ravens are some ways to get a few extra cards; Revenge of Ravens also works as a deterrent to people attacking you. Other cards to think about are Bloodchief Ascension and Painful Quandary.

Happy brewing.