Painful Truths

Sorcery

Converge — You draw X cards and you lose X life, where X is the number of colours of mana spent to cast Painful Truths.

Discussion (51)

Morgenstein on First Dragon Commander Deck

1 week ago

Thank you multimedia, I have been working on it for a while. Taking inspiration from other 5 color decks I found, while also keeping a keen eye on the fact that 100 cards do stack up in price.

I also made a giant mistake because I searched for viable commanders by their mana COST only, so I had no idea Jodah was even an option. I did find the versatility Garth offered useful but...I do not think it really compares to being able to cast dragons for 5 instead of 6-7, and since I made the deck to be able to cast Garth, paying that 5 rainbow cost will not be much of a problem. (Also does casting Painful Truths through Jodah make me draw/lose 5?)

Now for the cards, Temur Ascendancy and Arcane Signet were actually supposed to be in the deck, but I could not get them before EDH night, they will be added soon.

As for everything else, those are very good cards that I will put in my deck as soon as I can. Considering possible cuts, there are some cards in this deck simply because I had them already, looking at you Mana Geode my replacement for the missing Arcane Signet hah.

I am open to more advice of course, I am fairly new to magic, and even newer to EDH since this is the first deck I made for it. I am sure I have barely scratched the surface with my first attempt, and I am looking forward to finding out how to make my deck better, and of course, add more dragons.

MTGBurgeoning on Edgar & Eminence: A Love Story

3 weeks ago

Thank you for reviewing my build and thank you for your comment! I enjoyed perusing your list and admire the strengths and overt power of your deck. There are some cards in your build that I have wanted to include here (Mana Crypt, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Sensei's Divining Top). I am waiting for some copies to become available. Regarding your suggestions:

1) In a vacuum, I absolutely agree with your preference for building Edgar Markov with a vision of tempo and super-aggressiveness. If I were playing an Edgar Markov deck at an LGS, then this is the path I would select as well. However, the 99 of this deck has been shaped to fit the play-conditions of my meta-game. Too often, an early-game overly-aggressive combat directive ended, predictably, with a board wipe, Cyclonic Rift or mass-exiling effect. Even with a high number of protection spells in the deck (Teferi's Protection, Unbreakable Formation, Akroma's Will, Boros Charm), sometimes it's difficult to be resilient. This tendency of my meta helps to explain the deck's somewhat dichotomous structure: I usually had very few options for interacting with my opponents after board wipes. They were able to re-establish their board states with bigger threats than I could produce. I'm creating Vampire creature tokens while they're casting Dragons or Eldrazis. I needed to lean a little bit more into interaction in order to prevail in the mid-to-late game. Leading to...

2) My meta is not prone to use tax or Propaganda effects, so mass-enchantment removal has never been a concern. The majority of removal spells in this build are spot-removal spells, generally with the ability to target various permanent types. These spells have been very beneficial in subduing my opponents' potential threats or barriers to combat. This has allowed me to persevere through the mid-to-late game.

3) As for cantrips spells, I prefer to include spells that have a more controlled effect secondary to life-loss. Cards like Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena allow for less randomized returns and investments. For me, historically, with spells like Pact of the Serpent and Minions' Murmurs on the stack, an opponent will respond to them with instant-speed mass-removal. Unfortunately, this leaves me with a fizzled investment and dreams of what could have been. Also, the potential to lose a high amount of life can be too detrimental. I have died NUMEROUS times to an opponent's Living Death or other mass-recursion spell while Champion of Dusk and a slew of other Vampire creature cards are in my graveyard. It feels bad. It feels really bad. So I decided to cap the potential loss of life by specifically including spells like Read the Bones, Painful Truths and Plumb the Forbidden. Plumb the Forbidden also has been a great way to benefit from imminent board wipes, especially mass-exiling effects. Perhaps if the deck slanted a bit more toward a life-drain theme, then I definitely could reconsider your suggestions of Pact of the Serpent and Minions' Murmurs. However, I just don't think I can ever include Champion of Dusk. It hurts. It hurts a lot.

I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions! Edgar Marvok is uber-powerful and I look forward to continuing our discussions about him! Which brings me to this question:

Are there any cards from Crimson Vow that you are considering for inclusion in the 99?

VampRamped on Edgar & Eminence: A Love Story

4 weeks ago

Glad to see another Edgar Markov deck join the fray. I do not have much to say for the quality of cards for the Edgar Markov here besides that Painful Truths, Plumb the Forbidden and Read the Bones are kind of weak cards for what you can play in Edgar Markov and would recommend Pact of the Serpent, Minions' Murmurs, and Champion of Dusk as they are significantly more powerful card draw.

Besides that, the biggest challenge I can see this deck facing is that the deck looks a little torn between the midrange element of the plentiful removal suite, and the aggressive speed element of the deck. In my experience, the only removal that an aggressive Edgar Markov needs is cards that prevent Edgar Markov from being able to win through attacks ie propaganda effects, and tabernacle-type effects which are mostly contained in enchantments so mass enchantment removal is very valuable to an aggressive Edgar Markov deck. The issue with a large removal suite is that removal can clog up your hand in addition to the fact utilizing removal slows down your deck by spending your mana to interact with their cards rather than using your mana to play cards that kill your opponent. An aggressive Edgar Markov's decks biggest strength is its ability to put on significant kill pressure and build rapid tempo quickly. By playing a large removal suite you slow your deck down and allow your opponents to get into the game as most commander decks are built around utilizing the early turns of the game to ramp to enable them to make haymaker plays in the mid to late game. By playing a large removal suite you allow most other commander decks to play on their terms which are usually the terms unfavorable for Edgar Markov.

Check out my deck A Vampire Storm *Primer*, and let me know what you think.

plakjekaas on How Good is Greed in …

1 month ago

Guys, the worry described is not enough black sources to reliably draw cards with Greed. How dare you suggest the Necropotence :p

Try Painful Truths, in widely spread 3color decks, that's as reliable as it gets for black carddraw.

multimedia on Sliver Beats

1 month ago

Hey, well done budget version of Silvers, nice Sliver Legion. You forgot Sol Ring.

Manaweft Sliver is another two drop mana Sliver. Shifting Sliver makes all your Slivers unblockable. Venom Sliver gives all deathtouch. These three Slivers could replace three of the higher CMC Slivers that have redundant effects. Blasphemous Act wrecks your opponents with Hivelord as Commander.

• Sol Ring --> Universal Automaton
• Manaweft Sliver --> Groundshaker Sliver
• Shifting Sliver --> First Sliver's Chosen
• Venom Sliver --> Fury Sliver
• Blasphemous Act --> Lymph Sliver

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Consider more draw?

• Reconnaissance Mission
• Elemental Bond: if you control an anthem effect, that effect counts to increase the power of a Silver who ETB. Many Slivers only need one anthem effect to have 3 power.
• Return of the Wildspeaker
• Brainstorm
• Pact of the Serpent
• Distant Melody
• Painful Truths

Wild Pair and Pyre of Heroes are powerful budget repeatable effects to tutor for and cheat Silvers on the battlefield.

Consider cutting a few of the lesser Slivers for more draw?

• Reconnaissance Mission --> Fungus Sliver
• Wild Pair --> Watcher Sliver
• Pyre of Heroes --> Talon Sliver
• Elemental Bond --> Steelform Sliver
• Return of the Wildspeaker --> Evolution Charm

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Nice Shock lands. On a budget you can do better than the Gain lands such as Blossoming Sands and Cycle lands such as Sheltered Thicket. Consider the Tango lands? Since there's 14 basic lands here.

• Cinder Glade --> Sheltered Thicket
• Canopy Vista --> Blossoming Sands
• Sunken Hollow --> Temple of Mystery
• Prairie Stream --> Wind-Scarred Crag
• Smoldering Marsh --> Canyon Slough

Good luck with your deck.

enpc on Phyrexian Arena

5 months ago

I didn't realise that Phyrexian Arena got enough hype for it to be over-hyped. Though your comment would indicate that you're moving from a pretty casual form of EDH (where Arena does work becuase games are soe drawn out) into a more competitive more tuned version of EDH.

As others have mentioned, when you get into this space then you're correct that the card does less work, due to either more removal or shorter games. As you start looking for more draw efficiency then you're either looking into cards which are super cheap ( Mystic Remora , Esper Sentinel , Dark Confidant , Sylvan Library , etc) or cards that will get you multiple draws per turn (some of hte aforementioned cards, Runic Armasaur , etc.). The other thing is that due to its double black, it makes the card a lot more clunky to cast in early games, when typically most decks are going for double blue or double green (because let's face it, these two colours dominate the competitive meta).

You also have your cantrips (as other comments have mentioned) - Sign in Blood is decent but Night's Whisper is generally preferred as the casting cost is easier. There's also Painful Truths which needs a 3+ colour deck to work but costs the same amount of mana as Arena with the upside of getting the three cards immediately.

Generally though, the more competitive decks use black primarily for its tutor ability rather than its draw ability (with the obvious exception of Necropotence ).

TheShadowNite on king-saproling

6 months ago

Hmm, this is strange. As far as I can tell, the endpanel and endaccordion lines are in the code, but it's not showing up in the description. I put the code for the description in a code box if you want to glance over it. Thanks for your help dude!

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===accordion
===panel: Background
I started playing Magic the Gathering back when Guilds of Ravnica was released. I bought 2 fat packs, and promptly built a Dimir surveil "standard" deck that was a steaming pile of hot poo. I then tried to "fix" it by adding in green, making it a sultai deck. This did nothing. However, ever since then, graveyard decks as well as the colors Black/Green/X have always had a special place in my heart. While I was assessing my commander decks, I realized I had never built a deck revolving around the graveyard, and I knew what I had to do. 
===endpanel
===panel: Building the Deck
To the Interwebs! I rushed to the computer to look on EDHRec to see what graveyard commanders there were. I already had a decent idea of what I was searching for. I had heard of [[Muldrotha, the Gravetide]], [[Meren of Clan Nel Toth]], as well as [[card:Karador, Ghost Chieftain]], but none of these seemed to speak to me. Going strictly Golgari seemed limiting, as there were many cards I wanted to play in blue. However, when I add blue to my decks, I always somehow turn it into a control deck, and I wanted this to be fun for the whole table. So, that idea sadly had to be thrown in the trash. I looked back over my options, and realized that I liked the idea of [[card:Karador, Ghost Chieftain]], I just didn't like how it limited you to one card per turn from the graveyard. So, I looked more into the Abzan colors, and found [[Nethroi, Apex of Death]]. It was exactly what I was looking for.
===endpanel
===panel: Gameplan
With [[Nethroi, Apex of Death]], I would be able to fill my graveyard to my hearts content, then at the opportune moment cast my commander, reanimating most of my graveyard and turning the tide of the game. Ideally, I would win on the spot once I cast my commander, but since that is not always guaranteed, I added in some "stax" (not sure if that is the right word). Essentially just cards that would slow down my opponents until I can fill up my graveyard with the combo, then reanimate it again with Nethroi. 
===endpanel
===panel: Winning the Game
The main way this deck wins is through a combo involving [[Reveillark]], [[Karmic Guide]], a sac outlet such as [[Viscera Seer]], and a pinger, such as [[Blood Artist]]. Assuming all the pieces are on the battlefield, you can sacrifice the Karmic Guide to the sac outlet. Now, there is a [[Reveillark]], [[Viscera Seer]], and a [[Blood Artist]] on the battlefield, with a [[Karmic Guide]] in the graveyard. Then, you can sacrifice the [[Reveillark]] to the [[Viscera Seer]] to bring back the [[Karmic Guide]]. When the Karmic Guide enters the battlefield, it's ability will trigger, allowing you to bring back the [[Reveillark]], so you can repeat the process as many times as you need, until every opponent dies from [[Blood Artist]] triggers. 
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While this deck may win through a combo, I don't want it to be as competitive as possible, as most of my playgroup is limited to a tight budget (College will do that to ya).  
===endpanel
===panel: Budget
In regards to budget, I'm trying to only buy <$100 worth of cards. I already own most of the cards in the deck, but any I don't I'll put in the acquire section.
===endpanel
===panel: Things I've Noticed/Help Needed
A few things I've noticed when I goldfished a couple hands with this deck is that it's very mana hungry, and its early game presence is quite lackluster. I tried cutting cards to add in more ramp, but it's to the point where I love every card in the deck, and I can't bring myself to cut more (it was originally a quite hefty 148 card deck when I first drew up a rough draft). What do you think I could cut/replace to keep the core idea of the deck, while getting it down to 100 cards? It seems to be a little all over the place, and I keep noticing I don't have the right cards I need in my hand at the right time. Since this is my first Commander/EDH graveyard focused deck, what are your thoughts? What are things I can improve (besides the atrocious mana curve)?
===endpanel
===panel: Upgrades/Cards I'm Considering
This is a list of potential upgrades for down the road, as they're too expensive for the deck at the moment:<br>
[[Hermit Druid]]<br>
[[Birds of Paradise]]<br>
[[Protean Hulk]]<br>
[[Fauna Shaman]]<br><br>
This is the list of cards I'm considering putting in the deck: <br> [[Ancient Craving]] <br> [[Dakmor Salvage]] <br> [[Drownyard Temple]] <br> [[Night's Whisper]] <br> [[Painful Truths]] <br> [[Plumb the Forbidden]] <br> [[Sign in Blood]] <br> [[Village Rites]] <br> [[Brainspoil]] (can grab [[Karmic Guide]] or [[Reveillark]]) <br> [[Skullwinder]] <br> 
===endpanel
===panel: Changelog
This is just a spot for me to know what I took out for what, in the case that some cards I add underperform, or some are overperformers :)<br><br> 05/07/21 <br> -[[Fiend Hunter]] OUT for [[Leonin Relic-Warder]]. While Relic-Warder does not target creatures, it combos with [[Animate Dead]] and a [[Blood Artist]] effect.<br> -[[Morality Shift]] OUT for [[Skullclamp]]. Mortality Shift's 7 cmc is pretty high, and by the time I can cast it there are probably better things to do. Skullclamp allows me to draw cards, one thing that this deck is lacking, for a very low cost. <br> -[[Drannith Magistrate]] and [[Sun Titan]] are OUT. Magistrate was only in as a friend has several scary [[Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]] decks, and it shuts him down until he removes it. I'm still on the fence about Sun Titan. It IS a nice effect, but I'm struggling to justify the mana cost, and if I decide to reanimate it, there are generally better targets to reanimate. <be> -[[Fertilid]] OUT for [[Cultivate]]. While Fertilid is a pretty fun target for Nethroi's reanimate ability, I've found I'm struggling to cast Nethroi in the first place. 
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BrassLord on Dead Men Tell (some) Tales

6 months ago

Nethroi is a good boi! Just some minor suggestions. Avacyn's Pilgrim out for Birds of Paradise . 0 attack means free body later on, can produce all colors of mana and flying makes it a great target for mutate!

It really depends on the direction you'd like to go. A lot of Nethroi decks go all in on the self milling 0 cost creatures, which is effective but kinda plays the same way every game. This shell looks like you have a lot of different options and recursion redundancies at the cost of some of the turbo self mill cards. something like Hermit Druid outside of a combo could get in a lot of work if you slim down the mana base.

An observation, the deck itself seems like you have a solid basis, but I think it's a little lacking in card draw. Something like Skullclamp with all your mana dorks, The Great Henge , Painful Truths Deathreap Ritual could help keep the gas going, especially in the early game.

Just some ideas, hope it helps!