Painful Quandary

Enchantment

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

Discussion (50)

B33lz3bub on Kaervek, the Merciless

2 days ago

Taking something out of a deck is the most headache inducing activity ever with which I'll probably be of little help, however I can point you to some additions that you can make. (although, I would probably take out the spellbombs as well as stalking vengeance and nettlevine blight, because of their big mana cost) I have created a Kaervek deck of my own recently, and although I'm still in the process of perfecting it, it seems that a healthy diversity of creatures and enchantments is the way to go. Damage doubling creatures such as Angrath's Marauders and Sower of Discord are a must, as well as small but efficient pingers like Immolation Shaman and Scab-Clan Berserker, but arguably the most leg work goes to enchantments such as Furnace of Rath, Manabarbs, Citadel of Pain, Spellshock, Pestilence and most especially Havoc Festival. If you have the budget Master of Cruelties, Wound Reflection and Painful Quandary completely lock the game, with or without Kaervek being on the board. Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip would be great addition as well. Hope this helps

DawnsRayofLight on ULTRA REACTIVE MONO BLACK

1 month ago

I've been playing monoblack in EDH for a while! So, I have some advice I can offer that I hope will help you out!

Land base: 35 should be enough, consider some utility lands: Maze of Ith Cabal Coffers (get it while it is cheap!) maybe some land destruction like Field of Ruin, Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, etc. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx Temple of the False God Cabal Stronghold Castle Locthwain Rogue's Passage

Equipment to boost your general:

Sword of War and Peace, life gain and protection Sword of Light and Shadow, recursion and protection Sword of Hearth and Home, protection, blink your ETB kill a guy creatures, ramp Sword of Feast and Famine, expensive, but super good Lashwrithe: ouch Vorpal Sword: haha double ouch Blackblade Reforged Sword of Truth and Justice Sword of the Animist

I might try to add a few more win cons in your creature base

Vilis, Broker of Blood, draw and beat stick Razaketh, the Foulblooded, search and beat stick K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth ramp and can get big Archon of Cruelty been debating adding it to chainer

Ramp and utility suggestions

Bolas's Citadel: super good but can be rough if you aren't gaining a lot of life Caged Sun: super good ramp and works when your opponents tap Skyclave Relic: better than darksteel ingot Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools: good for draw and blockers Grief: hand control Thought-Knot Seer: hand control Ob Nixilis Reignited: stayed in my chainer deck for a while until Tevesh came along

Grim Tutor and Mastermind's Acquisition over diabolic tutor (depends on you play group if they allow a "wish board," some don't, I run acquisition but may pick up a grim tutor for groups not okay with it)

I might lose some of the instant speed removal for:

Hero's Downfall: which you are running Deadly Rollick Eat to Extinction Vraska's Contempt

Some general removal as monoblack suffers from inability to handle certain types like enchant and artifact:

Karn Liberated Ugin, the Ineffable Steel Hellkite Nevinyrral's Disk

Suggested drops:

Tattered Mummy: Not that good, more consistent ways of grinding out damage Skyclave Shade: Bloodghast is better 1x Skeletal Grimace: I get the point, but there are better cards 1x Underworld Dreams: I am iffy on this one, Painful Quandary and Polluted Bonds may be better or good additions to complement it. The entire instant pool save hero's downfall and malicious affliction, there are better killspells Expedition Map: really only useful for setting up tron or land combos Liliana, Waker of the Dead: Liliana Vess works better

The True Meaning of Death and Taxes: this is my chainer death and taxes reanimator list, check it out for suggestions, I have a lot of cards in the maybeboard I have considered and even used at one point that may spark some ideas.

Chutney_Shining on Top of the Deck To Ya

2 months ago

Hello stranger, whom I have never met! Awesome concept! Some ideas that come to mind for refining this:

I think your mana curve is super high compared to the number of lands you're running. Since mono-black doesn't access to a lot of ramp, I'd suggest switching out some of your higher costs sorceries, such as Gruesome Discovery , with something like Duress . Similarly, I think that life gain cards like Increasing Ambition are too high costed, and don't really support your overall strategy. I'd suggest replacing with things like Raven's Crime , which you can retrace, or Dying Wail which offer better timing and utility.

Similarly, I think Headhunter and Hypnotic Specter probably have better synergies than your rogues. I really like [card:Black Cat], but think we could do more to trigger it on our terms. Carrion Feeder could be a cool addition, as could Legion Vanguard or Malevolent Noble .

Fiend Artisan is spendy, but would be such a powerful tutor and likely game ender in this build. Hell's Caretaker and Golgari Guildmage are significantly less powerful, but still allow you to exploit repeated triggers of your cats and Sangromancers. If you preferr an enchantment approach, Malevolent Awakening also works well.

I would definitely suggest upping the number of Painful Quandary , and definitely increasing the number of lands you're running to 20-22. I also think 4-8 removal spells, such as Murder , Doom Blade , or Poison the Cup would help respond to enemy threats and interruptions. I'd reduce the number of sorceries to make room - the looping creature threats have more of a long term board presence.

If budget weren't a consideration, a couple of copies of either Massacre Wurm or Sheoldred, Whispering One would make great finishers.

I hope this helps!

KibaAlpha on Pay The Man

2 months ago

You might want to look at Ankh of Mishra , Nightshade Harvester , Polluted Bonds , Underworld Dreams , Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted , Fate Unraveler , Seizan, Perverter of Truth , Price of Knowledge and Painful Quandary .

Vallaris on Commander Challenge! Build A Block …

2 months ago

TheMeadiator I dunno, that's the block that has lots of spicy infect and proliferate cards in black and colourless that would go oh so nicely with Skithiryx! Darksteel Plate to make him indestructable, Swords to give him protection from other colours, and so on hahaha. This block also has some fan favourites such as Painful Quandary , Blightsteel Colossus , and Mindslaver too!

For sure I am tempted to build this, but the real question is whether or not this deck will ever be allowed to be played more than once by any given playgroup...

DemonDragonJ on The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Raze

3 months ago

I have replaced Exquisite Blood with Bloodchief Ascension , which reduced the average converted mana cost of this deck from 3.70 to 3.63, which is very nice, and my primary reason for making that replacement was that EB is very expensive in terms of money, but BA is, as well; I also contemplated Painful Quandary , but that card is also expensive, so, no matter which card I choose, I will need to spend a great amount of money.

zAzen7977 on TINY PUNISHER - Discard/Stax [cEDH Primer MH2]

4 months ago

Hey DrValium! Glad you like the deck, thanks!!

No I hadn’t considered Illusionist's Bracers or Wound Reflection , but these are interesting suggestions!

The Bracers can potentially double Tinybone’s damage potential. My only complaint is that it’s expensive at 5 total mana to get it going. I could have used that mana to get a shot in with Tinybones before he’s removed. But at least the Bracers stick around if I lose Tinybones and I can re-attach it.

Reflection is interesting too, but it’s also expensive mana-wise and hurts me with Ad Nauseam and Dark Confidant . It would double my damage output with Tinybones and other cards like Painful Quandary and Professor Onyx .

I’ll do some testing and see if they are worth the mana investment. Do you have any suggestions for cards to swap for the above, or any further insight? :)

zAzen7977 on TINY PUNISHER - Discard/Stax [cEDH Primer MH2]

4 months ago

Hey MrNoodlesworth, I just picked up a Professor Onyx , I’m going to give her a shot. Instead of dropping Soul-Guide Lantern , I was contemplating dropping Painful Quandary because lately I’ve drawn it and been unable to cast it, but it has helped in the past. I’m hesitant to add Onyx (6CMC) without dropping another high CMC card (like you said, it’s a big hit with Ad Naus). The Lantern is a cheap one-sided 2-for-1 graveyard hater/card-drawer and brings down CMC, so I don’t really want to cut it. What are your thoughts about that?

Anyone else have any experience with Onyx?