Painful Quandary

Enchantment

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

Discussion (51)

mmartak on Kaptain K'rrik

1 week ago

Notes from game on 09/08/2019:

Rock Stars:

• Bloodchief Ascension
• Exsanguinate - took out 3 players simultaneously
• Hex Parasite - OMG belongs in almost any black deck
• Lake of the Dead
• Overwhelming Forces
• Painful Quandary
• Phyrexian Obliterator
• Staff of the Death Magus
• Sword of Light and Shadow

Worth Considering for Removal:

• Arcane Lighthouse - unlikely to need / redundant with Detection Tower
• Lich's Mirror - I made a dumb mistake not paying enough attention to the win condition
• Maralen of the Mornsong (sigh) this was originally her deck
• Ob Nixilis, Unshackled - keep for at least one more round
• Platinum Emperion - belongs in another deck, redundant with Platinum Angel
• Soldevi Digger - very unlikely to need
• The Haunt of Hightower - I want to make this a better card than it really is, but I have to face it.

Replacements:

• Ancient Tomb
• Expedition Map
• Jet Medallion
• Liliana of the Veil
• Liliana Vess
• Sorin Markov

GhostChieftain on Would like help for selecting ...

2 weeks ago

Massacre is low key one of the best board wipes vs my cEDH deck. It doesn't kill your anje, you cast it for free(fairly often), you clear up all dorks and hatebears, and best of all it is a budget card.

Blood Moon and Contamination both shut down 3+ colored decks.

Pithing Needle , Damping Sphere , Cursed Totem and Nihil Spellbomb are all good for karn if you can't play lattice (not enough mana or lattice has already been countered ect.) They each also stop a different strat than one another.

I disagree with a few of your choices simply based off the fact that some of the ones you chose to stop relevant things my deck does, don't fully stop my deck andare usually too high of mana cost to be relevant in time. The one I am comparing to again is cEDH, so take my suggestions knowing the speed of your current meta and decide if my points are relevant in your playgroup.

Ob Nixilis, Unshackled - I will willingly pay 30 life to tutor my combo for the win.

Painful Quandary - is a high mana cost to try and stop combo imo. Many combos can go off before this hits board, through only casting a couple spells, or using this cards discard as an outlet for reanimation. My deck happens to do all of these things.

In Garruk's Wake - is an absurdly high mana cost for a board wipe. Sure, your stuff lives, but at what cost sometimes? It is better to have a cheap way to nuke the board when you absolutely need such as Blasphemous Act , Toxic Deluge , or Massacre .

Whip of Erebos - I don't hate this card by any means, I just feel like the sideboard should be more for toolboxing to prevent another player's win con than for something like lifegain. This is 100% a meta call though, because if your group is very aggro this makes more sense to me.

Hopefully this helps in some way and is not just a wall of text.

supergen777 on Would like help for selecting ...

2 weeks ago

I'm in the process of brewing a new EDH deck around the recently released Anje Falkenrath precon deck. I would like to somewhat keep the Madness theme but I would like to try my hand at using cards like Karn, the Great Creator , Mastermind's Acquisition , and Burning Wish that can retrieve cards from the little known 10 card sideboard you have for commander. I have some ideas but I still wanted to see if this list I have could be improved upon. Anyway, here's the 10 sideboard cards I was leaning toward right now.

Ruination bomb against multi-colored decks

Leyline of the Void anti-recursion

The Immortal Sun anti-superfriends

Painful Quandary Control and infinite combo hate

Thought Distortion My favorite counter control card

Mob Rule A game winner with creature heavy decks

In Garruk's Wake A potential win con

Ob Nixilis, Unshackled anti-tutor card

Whip of Erebos Best black lifegain card

Mycosynth Lattice Known game ender with Karn, the Great Creator

Anyway, that's the 10 I'm leaning toward right now. I think you see that I'm looking for the best "bomb" cards in red, black, and colorless that will shutdown certain commander archetypes but in the mainboard, they would just sacrifice versatility and consistency. Those are the kind of suggestions I'm looking for if that makes sense.

ic0n67 on My almost cEDH Nekusar

1 month ago

A few cards I'd expect to see in Nekusar that I don't see here: Prosperity , Howling Mine , Magus of the Jar , Master of the Feast , The Haunt of Hightower , Expansion / Explosion , Seizan, Perverter of Truth . Also maybe things to consider: The Locust God , Blue Sun's Zenith , Jace Beleren , Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted , Manabarbs , Painful Quandary

griffstick on Help trying to find specific ...

1 month ago

Netherborn Phalanx is kinda like what you are looking for, Poisonbelly Ogre isn't great but it does that thing. There's Massacre Wurm for some creature pain. That all I found in black. But if you are just trying to hurt your opponents for playing creatures? There's Kaervek the Merciless , he is really good at that. There's other ways to hurt you opponents. Like Polluted Bonds or Painful Quandary . There is lots of ways to create the pain train, if you need help building that deck , I'm your guy. Just tag me in the deck you start to build or are already building and I'll lend my hand.

DeadTheArtist on D I S C A R D

1 month ago

ShadowTech909 me too. especially when paired with Painful Quandary or Geth's Grimoire

[email protected]_only on You have been freed of weakness and made compleat.

1 month ago

oh good, your are running the all important Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - swampwalking over with your general is too much fun.

personal taste - lots of high cost end spells, and a bit light on creatures. might consider Hecatomb for removal / sac fodder / control

Bloodchief Ascension is a must in most black decks I've found - gains life, hurts opponents, and keeps the pressure on.

if your are looking at keeping pressure on opponents as opposed to building up to a burst, Painful Quandary and Polluted Bonds are good also.

Leeco on Commander 2019 early hopes and ...

2 months ago

Madcookie Don't try to find reprints within the mechanics!

The reason they print these mechanics is that(with the exception of Flashback which is an all-star) they are all fun to play in all formats but they need support in commander!

All they need to reprint Oracle of Mul Daya or Mana Reflection is a green deck! They can print Doubling Season in the populate deck if they want or they can print a similar card in black which will immediately cost as much if the populate deck is abzan as many suggest! Bloodchief Ascension , Painful Quandary and Kolaghan's Command are excellent with madness while Wound Reflection , Exquisite Blood and Phyrexian Arena would also fit in any black deck! Mesmeric Orb would work wonders in a dimir Flashback deck focused on self Mill Morph could have Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument

There is value in the themes! Let's hope they put it in the decks!