Risk Factor

Instant

Target opponent may have Risk Factor deal 4 damage to them. If that player doesn't, you draw three cards.

Jump-start (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile this card.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

DreadKhan on How Did WotC Allow Combustion …

2 weeks ago

Forgive me if this is too repetitive:

Red has long gotten what are sometimes called 'Choice' cards, sometimes called 'Punisher' cards depending on who you're talking to, and Combustion Man is one of them. They're normally pie breaks that Red would LOVE to have, such as Skullscorch, Browbeat, Risk Factor, Breaking Point, and Vexing Devil (playable ones I can think of). It's mostly a Red identity at this point, and it still gets support. FWIW most of these are also below normal cost for the effect, at least for the period of play they were in Standard. They are often Timmy type cards, but I have found if you mix them in with the best Burn effects you can find they play better, if people can't afford to lose the life then you can get some pretty sweet upsides. Fortunately none of them are THAT good, and IMHO this isn't changing anything at 5 Mana that Chaos Warp didn't probably do better for only 3, and Wild Magic Surge for only 2. Both have downsides, but this can be ignored for some life, and as Vexing Devil and Browbeat suggest, paying life for a counter is a good deal most of the time (those cards are bad without support IMHO).

Hope this clears things up a bit!

plakjekaas on How Did WotC Allow Combustion …

2 weeks ago

Enchanter's Bane is a very similar effect.

Browbeat as well as Risk Factor show that trading the choice of either damage or a traditionally non-red effect has been part of Red's identity for years.

VladMarkov on First

6 months ago

I reckon, what the deck really needs, is lots of cheap spells that can be cast on every player's turn, to get the most value out of the flurry mechanic. The game plan should be to cast Shiko and Narset, Unified on turn 4, prepare the board beforehand, and then spam small, damage-dealing spells that can easily be brought back with tricks like Underworld BreachGC, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, or by recasting copies with Narset, Enlightened Exile. You could then replace draw-discard effects with more "pure" card draw options like Treasure Cruise (if you have a lot of cards in your graveyard), Quick Study or flexible draw like Flame of Anor. The main gameplay should revolve around cheap, repeatable spells, but there can also be some utility from the Magecraft mechanic. Most importantly, the deck should keep continuous pressure on opponents by dealing large amounts of damage through copying small spells.

Must have: Path to Exile, Cyclonic RiftGC

Useful: Cori Mountain Stalwart, Devoted Duelist, Monk of the Open Hand, Ashling, Flame Dancer, Jori En, Ruin Diver, Ledger Shredder, Smoldering Egg  ^Flip, Burst Lightning, Electrolyze, Virtue of Courage, Fire / Ice, Galvanic Blast, Heartflame Duelist, Ionize, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, Parch, Play with Fire, Punishing Fire, Risk Factor, Sacred Fire, Searing Spear, Shock, Skullcrack, Thunderbolt, Wild Slash

Possible: Taigam, Master Opportunist, Breeches, the Blastmaker, Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy, Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield, Storm of Saruman, Turn / Burn, Price of Progress, Finale of Promise, Increasing Vengeance, Frolicking Familiar, Molten Influence, Slaying Fire, Wizard's Lightning,

Bookrook on Valeyard voting

1 year ago

GoldberserkerdragonTouché. I play it just because it goes towards the whole opponents making choices theme. Risk Factor would probably be a better choice.

9-lives on burn deck help to refurbish

1 year ago

I replaced Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, and Deflecting Palm. Switched them out with Atarka's Command, and Play with Fire. Removed Risk Factor and Light Up the Stage. Put into play Yavimaya Iconoclast and Black Market Tycoon. Got rid of Satyr Firedancer. I'm not asking if it looks fun, haha. I'm wondering if it's so-called competitive.

wallisface on burn deck help to refurbish

1 year ago

9-lives modern is a format with fetchlands - your opponent will be effectively starting on 17-18 life even if they're trying to be conservative as possible with how they fetch lands.

I know very well how burn works, I've played it many times before, and played against it incredibly frequently. I've won a bunch of tournaments so have a pretty-good idea of what i'm talking about here.

There is a reason that no competitive burn deck is playing either Risk Factor or Light Up the Stage - and it's not because every-other burn player has been lobotomized. You're suggesting that your barely-played homebrew is more justified than the collective efforts of every-other competitive burn player on the planet - and that is an absurd call to make.

9-lives on burn deck help to refurbish

1 year ago

Wow. wallisface You are not familiar with the playstyle of burn decks, then. Usually it goes like this:

draw lands, draw burn spells, play burn spell #1 taking 3 damage to the opponent. Your opponent does something on his turn. Do the same thing again, playing 2 burn spells. Opponent has at least 9 life missing. Repeat. Play at most 3 burn spells. 18 life missing. Run out of cards. Wonder why you aren't drawing burn spells. Need burn spells! NEED BURN SPELLS!

This is why Risk Factor and Light Up the Stage are so useful. There's no doubt that, logically, you're going to run out of cards in hand faster than your ability to keep them at-hand. There's no way anyone is going faster than this, unless there is ramping or something.

9-lives on burn deck help to refurbish

1 year ago

The point of going over 60 is that I can afford to have more space in my deck so long as I keep the number of burn spells a certain ratio. This is one of the few decks that actually benefit from having a large number of cards, so long as I keep the same ratios. For instance, I have 32 burn cards, and the deck you showed me had 28, where 32/70 is similar to 28/60, the former being 0.457 and the latter being 0.466. I've tried games with Monastery Swiftspear. It's really not that great of a card, and completely depends on drawing it in the first turn. Satyr Firedancer is really a great card, and helps me keep the opponent from casting any creatures too damaging throughout the game. I really don't know what you mean by 'too midrange and not enough aggro'; the most expensive spell mana-wise is Risk Factor which is 3 mana total, really being an outlier in my deck with regard to mana value. Like I said, I usually run out of cards in hand whenever the opponent is around 12-7 life.