Painful Quandary

Enchantment

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

Discussion (50)

ObIviom on Endrekh Sahr

2 weeks ago

Well, a good classic card for storm decks is Aetherflux Reservoir and you aren't running a Bolas's Citadel which imo is too good to pass up. Also some bombs in this deck is Endless Cockroaches , Cloudstone Curio , Ayara, First of Locthwain and Priest of Gix . Demon's Disciple and Plaguecrafter are also good cards, can't have too many Fleshbag Marauder effects.

I also enjoyed playing Painful Quandary , Smokestack , Descent into Madness Bitterblossom and Contamination when I built Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder and Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip would probably fit here too.

This commander I used as a sac stax deck with a storm win con, Exsanguinate is another win con you can use for this deck.

Good luck, hope your play group keeps playing with you haha

king-saproling on Oloro Chair Bears

1 month ago

You might like these: Marauding Blight-Priest , Cliffhaven Vampire , Epicure of Blood , Shabraz, the Skyshark , Drogskol Reaver , Psychosis Crawler , Suture Priest , Polluted Bonds , Painful Quandary , Soul Warden , Soul's Attendant , Carnival of Souls , Curse of Fool's Wisdom , Bontu's Monument , Thran Turbine , Nyx-Fleece Ram

MalGaming on Tergrid Discard

1 month ago

Painful Quandary has been in the deck for a while, I just forgot to change the decklist.
Vindictive Lich or Mindslicer may be a good add to go with the sacrifice outlets I do have.
Chains of Mephistopheles is already on the maybe board but I'm not too sure about adding it.
Mastermind's Acquisition will be added to the maybe board though its just another 4cmc tutor.
The rest are good suggestions but I think they may lean to heavily into sacrifice. I would probably have to give up other win combos to put them in the deck.
Thanks for the good suggestions DawnsRayofLight

DawnsRayofLight on Tergrid Discard

1 month ago

Vindictive Lich : I mean, enough said, same for Mindslicer

Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip: another discarding Lily that can reanimate

Mastermind's Acquisition : I think every EDH list running black should have this card. you now have a 15 card board open to you.

I run Oppression and Painful Quandary in my Death Taxes list. If you can swing it (I am only guessing you can because of imperial seal) Chains of Mephistopheles

Killing Wave is another good sac spell, Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos as well

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Tergrid, Goddess of Salt

1 month ago

Holy Broly, this is even more terrible than I had imagined. Some other cards to consider:

Painful Quandary is simply beyond obnoxious here. The Eldest Reborn is similarly nasty. Might I suggest Grave Betrayal for when Tegrid isn't around? Merciless Executioner and Syphon Flesh are more sac-effects. What's more, maybe Grave Pact , Dictate of Erebos and maybe Butcher of Malakir . Oh, and in case you want to play the nastiest boardwipe ever: Torment of Hailfire .

plakjekaas on Arch of Orazca

3 months ago

Do you guys only play games that end with your hand still full of cards? I've used this one in many decks, especially decks that run out their hand fast. Once you have the 10 permanents out, you can never lose the city's blessing. Paying 6 mana for an additional card is fine when it's turn 13 and everyone ran everything in each others' boardwipes and are now topdecking. And in that stage of the game, I was glad I had this card out, because even when topdecking a land, my lands draw me cards to keep going.

It is priceless to have those effects on utility lands. Even if you never draw a card with them, they still pay for your spells and you lost nothing by running them.

Unlike things like Maze of Ith or Temple of the False God that can do literally nothing depending on your boardstate, the carddraw lands are still Wastes with upside and no opportunity cost to help you beat your opponents who play Painful Quandary or every single version of Planar Cleansing.

If my commander doesn't draw cards, I'll have at least one of these in the deck because not every deck curves out perfectly and is able to spend all mana every turn. Sometimes all you draw is lands and this is the difference between playing the game, or being bored while others play the game. Don't overload on lands like these, obviously, there's a downside to colorless lands in colored decks, and every color has more efficient cards to help you with card advantage, but actually calling them unplayable? I would only be able to say that with a straight face if RNG in Magic was always on my side.

RiotRunner789 on Free Contest: Ring in the …

3 months ago

Well my favorite mtg color is black by far and my favorite strategy are non-blue control that bleeds the table dry. Essentially a ton of Painful Quandary effects.

Though if I win, I'd prefer something not black and a strategy I don't use. I'm thinking Grual. I steer away from creature heavy decks, go-wide aggro, chaos, and landfall / land strategies.

MrKillStar on Syr Konrad EDH

4 months ago

Lhurgyof - I would personally keep those cards away from Syr Konrad and use them in deck with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth , Vilis, Broker of Blood , etc... also from the new set: Profane Transfusion (I know this is few months old comment, so you probably know about it already).

nieds - I see you already got a lot of really good cards, I'll just type some of them that I cut out since they're kinda meh in this kind of deck below. Anyway, you can check my Syr Konrad's deck here: For the Void. Im still switching few cards, explaining why I chose every card in the deck description, etc. I decided to go with mix of reanimator+aristocrats with several infinite combos. So I would welcome any feedback aswell and you might get some inspiration right there! :)

Some cards I would cut and why:

1) Loxodon Warhammer - is good in voltron / attack based decks, but here it looks like a random card that can gives you some life back (which black/other artifacts can do just better than lifelink artifact), but for 6 mana its meh. You could replace it with Shadowspear , which is three times mana cheaper and provides you with another utility ability. Or simply Bontu's Monument as another pseudo mana rock that also gives you a bit of life.
2) Sensei's Divining Top - I know SDT is amazing on its own, but I wouldnt personally bother with it, unless you would go for the Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top combo. I would switch it for either Viscera Seer (as another free sac outlet), or my choice for my deck was Shadows of the Past (with any infinite creature generator+sac and Bolas's Citadel, you can just "tutor" and cast whatever you want from top of your deck - think I explained it in my deck's description already or I add it sometime later).
3) Painful Quandary - Again, good card, just doesnt fit that well in my opinion. Goes well with Mindcrank and Archfiend of Despair but thats probably about it. I would rather put it in some discard focused deck. Instead of this, card like Morality Shift would be really cool for sure. Or cards like Forever Young / Gravepurge / Death Denied to proc Syr Konrad's ability and recast them with Bolas's Citadel + another card draw sources. Or you could also stick to enchantments liie Mortuary / Haunted Crossroads (parts of my infinite combos).
4) From planeswalkers I would personally keep only Liliana of the Dark Realms (to help with land drops and deck thining) and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools (creates more tokens than Lilianas, decent card-draw and punish opponents for letting you -10 him). Other Lilianas are not bad for sure, just either slow or not that fascinating as they seems to be. Karns are just out of place.

Cards I would put in for sure:

1) Tortured Existence - even on its own, it triggers Syr Konrad's ability twice and only for everytime! As you might already know, I use it with Phyrexian Altar and Desecrated Tomb to make infinite etb/die/sac triggers.
2) Bog Witch - discarding (creature) cards to trigger Syr Konrad's ability; is basically Dark Ritual on a stick which you could use to Reanimate / Animate Dead / Victimize right after. Also is 1/1, so another target for your Skullclamp .
3) Doom Whisperer - big good stuff with ability to filter your deck and put creatures directly from your library into the graveyard.
4) Haunted Crossroads - even on its own, its great way to get your creatures back (on top of library for Bolas's Citadel), next to Phyrexian Reclamation .
5) Emergence Zone - simply to give your spells Flash when you would need them, really nice utility land (similar is Winding Canyons but only for creatures, so eh).
6) Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - cheap way to "protect" your creature, triggering Syr Konrad's ability or another land if needed.
7) Tainted Strike - absolute game winning beast card with Syr Konrad and either any creature/sac generator, boardwipe with 10+ creatures on board, or discard/mill cards.
8) Diabolic Intent - you got plenty of token generators, so this is just mana-cheap tutor.
9) Feed the Swarm - more ways to deal with enchantments and creatures.

I hope some of this will help and you like some of those cards! :)