Pestilence

Enchantment

At the beginning of the end step, if no creatures are on the battlefield, sacrifice Pestilence.

: Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and each player.

Discussion (48)

Talismancer on Mono-Black Control

1 month ago

A few more cards have been found wandering loose in my collection. So updates have been had.

+3 Pestilence

+4 Sign in Blood

-4 Crypt Rats

-2 Oubliette

-1 Cuombajj Witches

griffstick on [Pedh] - Dina wooden aristocrat

2 months ago

In my experience pEDH players dont just blow up mana ramp. They save the removal for things that can kill them. Things like Whispersilk Cloak or in this decks case the cards to save for artifact or enchantment removal for are Ashnod's Altar , Pestilence , Bonder's Ornament , Presence of Gond , and Tortured Existence . RNR_Gaming did I miss any?

Tzefick on None

2 months ago

While the effect in essence is powerful, especially for white. I don't think this is a good route to achieve it for white. It becomes too mana intensive to achieve card draw, and the worst part would be to cast this, only to have another player nuke it with a Reclamation Sage or well... a Counterspell .

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Personally I always found it a bit puzzling, seeing as white is bad at card draw and mana acceleration, the "solution" is often to pair card draw with high mana costs - either through straight cost ( Staff of Nin , Mind's Eye ) or through activations - like Dawn of Hope .

Red gets their impulse draw on a 4-mana enchantment Outpost Siege with no additional investment and red is the second worst color in Magic to draw cards.

If WotC had made Dawn of Hope with a 1 mana activation, I think it would have been an interesting card. As it is, it's pretty poor. And yes it can create tokens at a very poor rate as well, but that is unrealistic to matter in constructed formats, so that isn't much of a positive.

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I believe it would be more interesting to attempt to craft a better solution for white's lack of card draw than simply putting high costs and drawbacks on it.

White has always been a combat focused color and I think it would be appropriate to create at least some kind of synergy that results in card advantage. We have cards like Sun Titan and Bishop of Rebirth that directly reanimates smaller permanents/creatures whenever they attack. However this is bound behind there being anything in your graveyard and seeing how white doesn't deal in discarding, or selfmilling, or having an oversized hand the only way they get cards into their graveyard is by casting them and having them destroyed - or utilize a small array of artifacts like Key to the City .

What if we made other mechanics that combines with White's strengths and ideology?

Now we're just entering brainstorm mode

brainstorm Show

One time combat-trigger

Conquer X (This creature enters the battlefield with a Conquer counter on it. Whenever it deals combat damage to a player, you may remove a Conquer counter from it. If you do, Scry X then draw a card.)

Building up to benefit

Whenever a creature you control attacks, put a Scout counter on X.

Remove three Scout counters: Draw a card.

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This plays well into white board wide strategies and plays fairly well with their ability to protect their creatures through indestructible and with Reconnaissance .

Protect the king / Luminarch Ascension

White has a taste for combat, but also for defending themselves - having the highest amount of Vigilance creatures and enablers.

At the beginning of each opponent's end step, if you didn't lose life this turn, put a counter on WhatsHisFace.

Then either

Remove X counters: gain card advantage (draw, scry , self-mill)

--Or--

At the beginning of your turn, if there are X counters on WhatsHisFace, do A. If there are Y counters, do B (instead or in addition).

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It could be

Lawmaking

Enchantment

At the beginning of each opponent's end step, if you didn't lose life this turn, put a counter on Lawmaking.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Lawmaking has at least 2 counters on it, you may have each player mill three cards. Then if it has at least 5 counters on it, you may draw a card. Then if it has at least 10 counters on it, you may return a permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

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There's some milling to enable white's reanimation tools, there's straight card draw for a moderate amount of effort, there's a large payoff for having it stick around for a long time that also ties in with the self-milling.

It would be better to restrict the condition to only count combat damage dealt to you, so you cannot just be kept out with a Pestilence or afflict or any kind of non-combat damage that white has limited means to counter. But then again it would require the opponents to play white's game of creature combat to counter this enchantment. That is not necessarily a bad thing, having a card that "forces" the opponent to play at a game white is already pretty good at, and if they don't you reap some benefits.

symmetrical draw

We have already seen Secret Rendezvous as a way for white to get card draw by giving a similar benefit to an opponent - which in a multiplayer format is not as bad as it is in a 1v1 scenario. However this card is giving more advantage to that opponent than it does you. The white player is down 3 mana and a card and then both players draw 3, leaving the white player at net +2 and the other at +3 cards with no payment.

It could be more interesting if the opponent had to do something to get their benefit.

Picture

New rendezvous

Sorcery

You draw two cards and target opponent draws a card.

That opponent may pay or have you create a Treasure. If they do, you and that opponent each draw three cards instead.

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This means if they want the goodies, they'll have to pay up or grant you some additional benefits to get their part - both prosper the most when they are willing to give fair compensation.

The catch-all with the Treasure could be removed so the White player can choose to just draw 2 and have an opponent who can't or wont pay the draw 1. Pretty similar to Divination but that card is already seen as poor in blue - at least in the Commander format.

However the Treasure token does present itself as a possibility for white early mana ramp in addition to the card draw, if you target someone who cannot pay the mana. The choice between giving the caster a Treasure and netting two cards for yourself is a deal that most players would take.

Anyhow, that's just a brainstorm on ideas how to give white some card draw/advantage mechanics that ain't just plastering high costs on a card draw engine. I would love to see some more creativity in that direction.

Not to discredit your suggestion Mcat1999, it is a strong card for multiplayer formats, but I also feel like it is a trap. Both in terms of gameplay and in design. The latter mostly because simply gating card draw behind mana requirements is just attempting to fix one of white's issues by forcing them to do something else they are poor at performing.

carpecanum on Sygg's Labour Union

2 months ago

I would have suggested Pestilence but you have too many 1 toughness creatures.

Unnatural Hunger , Festering Wound . Maybe Helm of the Ghastlord and Ghastlord of Fugue

Illusionist's Gambit

Tzefick on None

2 months ago

Kulrath Knight says hello.

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On another note: I think the card should either be as it is, high CMC with repeated wipe and no drawbacks.

-- Or --

You could make it an active with the same drawbacks as Pestilence - you have to feed it to keep it around (creatures on the field) and it will also damage everyone (incl. players), so your life total can be a containing measure. You are unlikely to activate it if you're low on life, thus it has counter play options available to all colors. Since it applies -1/-1 counters I would say that just is not enough for the activation and it would have to be at minimum.

It could be considered to use -1/-1 until end of turn instead - ala Dead of Winter . It bypasses indestructibility, protections, and it allows you to utilize it defensively rather than just to kill. The activation could then be a for -X/-X until end of turn.

legendofa on Which Magic card's art would …

3 months ago

My (almost) full list:

1 The Fool: Far Wanderings

2 The Magician: Barrin, Tolarian Archmage

3 The High Priestess: Sanctimony

4 The Empress: Karametra, God of Harvests

5 The Emperor: Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter

6 The Hierophant: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

7 The Lovers: Pia and Kiran Nalaar

8 The Chariot: Anafenza, the Foremost

9 Justice: Dawnbreak Reclaimer

10 The Hermit: Enlightened Ascetic

11 Wheel of Fortune: Wheel of Sun and Moon

12 Strength: Lion's Eye Diamond

13 The Hanged Man: not much for this one

14 Death: Pestilence

15 Temperance: Tonic Peddler

16 The Devil: Chains of Mephistopheles

17 The Tower: Sentinel Tower

18 The Star: nothing I'm really happy with

19 The Moon: Full Moon's Rise

20 The Sun: Not much here, either

21 Judgement: Angel's Trumpet

22 The World: nothing here, either

seshiro_of_the_orochi on None

3 months ago

Btw, how about turning it into something like a supercharged Pestilence ?

bignickenergy7 on Welcome to Hellbe

3 months ago

carpecanum I’ll definitely go through all of the black creatures with shadow to see if it fits. I’m not a fan of Pestilence potentially destroying itself. I would put Lim-Dul's Hex in, but most of my playgroup runs black in most decks. I actually did find a lot of stuff in Rakdos, Lord of Riots that could fit. Thank you very much for the advice