Painful Quandary

Enchantment

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

Discussion (51)

mrdehring on Sygg Rogue Tribal

3 days ago

Welcome to EDH. This looks like a great tribal deck and rogues are a lot of fun. It looks like you have figured out that you can't play red. The rule of EDH require that you can only have the mana symbols that are in your commander. Noggle Bandit is technically red so you will have to cut that card as well.

I had a Sygg, River Cutthroat deck back in the day and I had a lot of fun effects that caused people to take a few points of life loss so I draw cards on their turn. Not sure where your budget is but Contaminated Bond and Revenge of Ravens are some ways to get a few extra cards; Revenge of Ravens also works as a deterrent to people attacking you. Other cards to think about are Bloodchief Ascension and Painful Quandary.

Happy brewing.

griffstick on What is your favorite card ...

1 week ago

SynergyBuild, at first I just read the title and replied.

I just read the rest of it and I do have a different card. My card is Vampire Nighthawk.

That card amazed me. I knew very lil about magic at this time. Lifelink and deathtouch were awesome to me and spawned a frenzy in me. Wanting to know all the best creatures with deathtouch and lifelink. This was before I started playing edh. The first edh deck I built was Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet. I had built it with vampire tribal in mind (inspired by the vampire nighthawk), it was so much fun. My first combo was Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood, and everyone hated it so much. At this time infinite combos in my group were frowned upon very much so. Another cool card I really liked in that deck was Painful Quandary they also really hated this card alot lol. At this time my group was new to cmdr and didn't understand the importance of card draw and removal, including myself. The next combos I assembled in this deck before I took it apart was Bloodchief Ascension and Mindcrank, then Sanguine Bond and Blood Tribute. The deck also contained Rise of the Dark Realms and Army of The Dammed . Again at the time was very reliable win condition cards.

[email protected]_only on 'Tis Tinybones' Trinket Taking Time Tonight

2 weeks ago

love the deck - I have a similar concept (less self discard, more bounce) Mind crusher, Dream Breaker

possible includes:

Okiba-Gang Shinobi - heavy hitting discard, and resets Burglar Rat & its ilk

Nezumi Shortfang  ^Flip - instant speed discard, and once hand is empty acts as another The Rack effect

Words of Waste - pairs stupidly well with Geth's Grimoire. all the cards!

Painful Quandary - makes every spell hurt

Oppression - painful quandary's smaller, more angry brother

Paupers' Cage - aoe rack effect is good

Wheel of Torture - aoe rack effect, with the best flavortext pun ever

Bottomless Pit yet another aoe discard

Rackling - rack with legs

lambbikini on Kambal EDH

2 weeks ago

I've had my own Kambal deck for years and he's a great commander for sitting back. You've definitely done your research for finding cards like Painful Quandary so good job on that front. You're also nowhere near as greedy as I am in terms of how much good removal you're running which is a definite positive

As for a few recommendations:

• You seem to be fairly creature focused so I would definitely be running Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant / Rune-Tail's Essence That card can be pretty brutal even with minimal creatures
• Doom Whisperer is a great way to dig into your deck to look for an answer and it generally doesn't hurt too much since you will have built up so much extra life
• If you want to take advantage of lots of small lifegain triggers I would suggest Alhammarret's Archive and/or Rhox Faithmender
• Another effect similar to Painful Quandary is Polluted Bonds sometimes it can be a dud draw in the late game but if you're ever against a lands deck or happen to get it early it can be pretty fun

The most recent addition I've made myself is Righteous Aura. It's simple and it's cheap (both to cast and to buy) but I've been really happy with it so far. I'm never sad to see this. Kambal himself shuts down spell decks and you can often stock up on enough life to stop token decks but I've Kambal to be particularly vulnerable to voltron decks. This can completely mitigate that concern

My final suggestion is the only one that I would say you need to do and that is to bring your own life counter for everyone at the table. If you're playing a deck like this often everyone else will start tuning out the little triggers that you have and by keeping track of it yourself you can ensure that you don't miss any. Have fun and enjoy playing with my favourite commander :)

king-saproling on I've got a very tiny bone to pick with you

3 weeks ago

Looks great. You might like these: Painful Quandary, Archfiend of Ifnir, Bag of Holding, Nezumi Shortfang  ^Flip, Liliana's Triumph, Rankle, Master of Pranks, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Alhammarret's Archive, Psychosis Crawler, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Bubbling Muck, Memory Jar, Library of Leng, Skirge Familiar, Bottled Cloister (so you don't discard anything to your own "upkeep = discard" effects. and it's pretty cheap for an extra draw each turn)

mckayeaston on Princess Bride Tribute [HELP ME!]

1 month ago

The poison that Wesley was immune to could either be Moonglove Extract or Vial of Poison.

Dread pirate Roberts: Fathom Fleet Cutthroat or Fathom Fleet Captain or Hostage Taker and Dire Fleet Poisoner could represent the time Wesley spent as the pirate.

The boat Wesley uses might be Fell Flagship or Sleek Schooner or Shadowed Caravel. The boat the princess is kidnapped in could be Smuggler's Copter or Dusk Legion Dreadnought.

Shrieking eel: Shriekmaw or a Slipstream Eel equipped with Fireshrieker.

Dying Wish could represent the scene where Buttercup pushes Wesley down the hill and he yells "as you wish!"

Their battle "to the pain" could be Pain's Reward or Painful Quandary or Decree of Pain.

shadow63 on JLK's Obosh | The Command Zone #330

1 month ago

three000gt Painful Quandary doesn't do damage

Optimator on Mermaider

1 month ago

Exsanguinate, Torment of Hailfire, Painful Quandary, Breathstealer's Crypt (love this one!! Like, a lot), Forsaken Wastes, Vile Consumption, Sovereign's Bite, Profane Command, Phthisis, Famine, Undermine (love this one!), Clutch of the Undercity, Twilight Prophet, Netherborn Phalanx, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Erebos, God of the Dead, Duskmantle Seer, Dire Fleet Ravager, Urza's Guilt, Laquatus's Champion, Howling Banshee, Pierce Strider