Painful Quandary

Enchantment

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

Combos

• Painful Quandary + Quest for the Nihil Stone

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	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
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Monomanamaniac on Who Hurt You (WHY!?)

2 months ago

Icbrgr thank you. I also like Oppression and necrogenic mists, but tbh I've never really been impressed by them. If nobody answers Tergrid in a turn or 2 nobody else is going to have a hand anyways and in top deck mode those effects are actually not great. Even Painful Quandary hasn't really been impressive.

Kret on Blackness EDH

5 months ago

Hello from a covert discard enjoyer. My suggestion is that the discard itself won't win you the game and If I were you I'd cut some discard spells that target only a single player like Duress or Invoke Despair because they are quite inefficient in a 4 player game as well as some discard spells that only discard one card like Burglar Rat because again they are quite inefficient. Bad Deal isn't what you want to be doing for 6 mana. Instead, I'd add Painful Quandary because it has a static effect and in a low resource environment your opponents will have to start paying 5 life to do anything and that feels really miserable. Discard goes well with reanimation, I'd add all 3 versions of Animate Dead -> Dance of the Dead and Necromancy. Unfortunately discard players often get focused by the table so I like to add something like Gray Merchant of Asphodel to keep life total high. Consider also Bone Miser, Soul Shatter, Sign in Blood, Rankle, Master of Pranks, Bottomless Pit, all versions of Plaguecrafter, Asylum Visitor and Containment Construct. In general I'd prioritise static discard effects (like discard one card every upkeep etc) over single dicard effects.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Brother's War Spoilers

6 months ago

Coward_Token - Yeah I think it's the face. Kind of gives me Frylock vibes

Gleeock - Definitely some great adds for casual Glissa decks. So far only Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter and maybe the today spoiled Gruesome Realization have a chance of making it into my list. Liberator is a better Shimmer Myr and having a second option in the deck is quite nice. Yes Vedalken Orrery exists but the difference between 3 and 4 mana is huge. With that being said, my more casual Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter deck has a lot of new toys to try out.

I wasn't expecting for so much Titania, Protector of Argoth support in this set, but Awaken the Woods and Persistent Behemoth definitely warrant consideration.

Seeing Fauna Shaman and Painful Quandary reprints are quite nice.

Union of the Third path seems like a big deal for White. This is, to my knowledge, one of the first straight draw effects in White that doesn't have a symmetrical or additional requirement clause.

Gixian Puppeteer is pretty cool. Possibly a shoe-in for new Sheoldred, new Braids, Seizan, or Nekusar style decks

Somedutch on Obosh the Oddball

11 months ago

This deck looks mean with how much damage it can pump out in a hurry with that commander. One thought that immediately comes to mind that could be worth considering is Bloodchief Ascension Since it would benefit from your commander and would very quickly end games. One other could be Painful Quandary if you're looking to really shut things down with your commander. Both pretty expensive and pretty mean though, so up to you on if you think they might be worth it.

Flagellum on Need help deciding on a …

1 year ago

TheoryCrafter Yeah I see the point about Mogis. It opens the doors for more draw as well as more pain. Specifically draw pain like Underworld Dreams, Spiteful Visions, Fate Unraveler etc. which will work wonders with Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul and Dark Deal which I would run anyways or just against any slap happy blue deck. Just sucks that Painful Quandary, Polluted Bonds and Bloodchief Ascension have risen. Even my good ole friend from my Nekusaur days Kederekt Parasite is up to $8ish now lol.

As far as Dina goes, I originally built her with an incremental life gain build but I started retooling it more towards the aristocrat support build after realizing that 4 mana for a 1 life every upkeep trigger is not worth the spot. I see the value of pests/creature death triggers especially in the event of a board wipe.

Guerric on Honey, Listen, I Can Explain

1 year ago

This deck looks fun. I love decks built around tribes and permanent types, and I love the flavorful concepts throughout. It's also fun to see cards that aren't technically cures but play like them included (ex. Painful Quandary.

ajensen6 on Ebb and Flow (Seizan EDH)

1 year ago

Suggestions Punish people for playing spells: Painful Quandary,

Lifegain: Noticed you'll be paying lots of life for card draw and some other effects. Having a few ways to recoup the life might extend your mid-long game. Shadowspear, Whip of Erebos

Ramp: Crypt Ghast (will go in every black deck you make, worth the $10)

Graveyard Hate: Especially important in control decks where you'll be blowing up the board and wheeling people's hands. Leyline of the Void, Tymaret, Chosen from Death, Withered Wretch, Soul-Guide Lantern

Generic removal: Feed the Swarm, Oubliette If you want to be really mean: Infernal Darkness

Waste Not

BlackGtitan on Horror Creeping in the Shadows

1 year ago

Thanks for the suggestion Brian-123 ! All fantastic suggestions and all cards I have in my binders/ collection and most that I cut, or had out when building, with reasoning.

So this is what I'm thinking:

1. Both Traumatize and Fleet Swallower are both brutal cards but due to mana cost I held off on them for cheaper options to have more access to spells like Fractured Sanity and Tasha's Hideous Laughter Mill was always more of a way to fill the graveyard while still having mana to play other cards at the same time, mainly just to speed up.

2. I only have one copy of Painful Quandary and it's currently being used in another deck, but I agree would work in here ... but what to swap for it?

3. Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are glorious cards, that I use in many decks and have copies to play for this deck but what I feel is the mana production and deck is just not optimized to take full advantage of them correctly at this time, thus they sit for the time being, which leads me to my next point...

4. Nyx Lotus sat on my table and I stared at it.... stared hard at it, thinking if I could a. Take full advantage of it and b. Want to spend 4 mana to have it come in tapped and risk having a board wipe that makes it a dead rock.

5. Clone Legion and Trailblazer's Boots are definitely on the radar!

6. Finally, I have to agree with Grimoire of the Dead being good, but slow and I worry as I work closer to graveyard hate that it might not be as effective.

Wow! Lmao thanks again for everything and for making my brain work.