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
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

DreadKhan on See You, Space Cowboy

1 week ago

I built a discard deck of my own awhile back, though mine is Dimir (I went with Sygg, River Cutthroat for the card draw) there might be a few cards that are worth a look!

It might get you killed since you're not running hard Stax like Static Orb in here, but Bloodchief Ascension is a really strong card in a discard deck. If you get this out early, it can easily take over a game.

Since you have Creeping Dread in here, maybe Stronghold Rats? Maybe Necrogoyf? Painful Quandary is a lot of mana for a reasonably strong effect, especially if you have any additional effects out with it. I threw in a bunch of racks that hit each opponent (stuff like Wheel of Torture, Rackling, and Shrieking Affliction), I found these helped speed things up.

I'm not sure if you are interested in stuff like Crawlspace, Ensnaring Bridge, or Koskun Falls? They are handy in a discard deck because people often want you dead as soon as they realize your going to make them discard all the fun stuff they're holding up, protection type Stax can be very helpful in my experience. I have a few more, mostly weirder ones, if you want to lean into the area, but it's not THAT deep unless you throw in hard Stax (like Static Orb and Meekstone).

I don't use them in my own discard list, but I also like Shizo, Death's Storehouse for the Fear. Maybe Access Tunnel and/or The Black Gate?

austintayshus on Daxos the Enchanted

2 months ago

Painful Quandary is a tough stax piece you could use.

Smothering Tithe is strong ramp for your deck

looks fun!

Profet93 on [Primer] Mogis' Slaughter House: Murder Made Tasty

6 months ago

ShibaWiz

Solid description, +1

Have you thought of swapping polluted bonds out for Painful Quandary? Unless you have a lot of land decks, they can usually play around bonds and 2 life is not as much as 5. While they can discard to avoid lifeloss, they are damned if they do and damned if they dont.

DarkKiridon on B/R Waste Not Discard

10 months ago

You could play test Painful Quandary also.

Monomanamaniac on Who Hurt You (WHY!?)

1 year 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

1 year 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

1 year 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

2 years 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.