Rowan, Scion of War

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

Menace

{T}: Spells you cast this turn that are black and/or red cost {X} less to cast, where X is the amount of life you lost this turn. Activate this ability only as a sorcery.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (7)

legendofa on

2 months ago

Welcome to the club, Kershin36!

I'm not a Commander expert, but there's a couple of cards here I'd like to poke at.

You don't have a lot of self-damaging effects to take advantage of Rowan, Scion of War--in fact, I only really see Blood Crypt and Bloodgift Demon that would reliably hit you. There are plenty of "damage target player" effects, but I assume you would want to use those on your opponents. There's also not really enough instants to use her ability on opponents' turns, either. I would cut her, or at least add more self-damage effects. Depending on budget and focus, Sulfuric Vortex, Phyrexian Arena, or Black Market Connections are all very good options, and Raphael, Fiendish Savior lets you recover the life loss easily enough.

Everlasting Torment is a very good card, but here it directly clashes with Raphael. I would simply cut it, unless you don't mind losing the lifelink or are willing to use a different commander.

There's no way to spread +1/+1 counters for Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, and less than five creatures that use them at all. A 4/4 hasty first striker is pretty good as an attacker, but you're usually going to want more utility than that.

Here, I'm going to get into my personal tastes, so if these suggestions aren't what you're looking for with this deck, feel free to skip over them. I would add more sacrifice effects to control when your creatures die and help ensure you gain some advantage from it. Mayhem Devil will thank you. I would also add more mass removal and destroy effects. A lot of your removal options are single target and based on damage or toughness reduction, which isn't bad in moderation but won't help much against a token deck going off or a creature with double digit power/toughness, both of which happen pretty regularly. I'm a fan of discard, but choose your targets well.

And above all, have fun!

DemonDragonJ on Why Are So Many Recent …

5 months ago

Gidgetimer, can you name any specific examples of activated abilities that were too powerful?

plakjekaas, I have no problem with that ability being restricted, because of how powerful it is, but I see no reason to restrict the abilities of Stormclaw Rager, Rowan, Scion of War, Will, Scion of Peace, or Xavier Sal, infested captain.

Azoth2099 on The Price of Power | Rowan EDH

7 months ago

SithDragon33

Hey man, just a heads up - Bond of Agony doesn't quite work here. For example let's say you pay 20 life with Blood Celebrant, activate Rowan, Scion of War's ability and cast Bond of Agony where X = 20. You'll still have to pay another 20 life as an additional cost. Not very good at all.

Also, have you considered Plunge into Darkness or Spoils of the Vault here? With cards like Torment of Hailfire & Crackle with Power in the mix, they're 1-card wincons here. Vampiric Tutor, Grim Tutor & Cruel Tutor also have some serious added benefit with this one.

legendofa on How does Rowan, Scion of …

7 months ago

Rowan, Scion of War's activated ability doesn't add mana; it only reduces generic costs. Let's say you activate Necropotence five times, so you pay and lose 5 life. You want to cast Breath of Malfegor, so you activate Rowan, Scion's ability. No mana is added to your mana pool, but Breath of Malfegor now costs {5} less. This only reduces the generic cost, so you still have to pay {B}{R}.

You can tap the Chromatic Orrery to pay for the {B}{R}, but there is no effect here that can reduce or ignore colored mana costs. Those still have to be paid normally.

SirFowler on How does Rowan, Scion of …

7 months ago

Let's say I have a Rowan, Scion of War and a Chromatic Orrery on the battlefield. I pay a bunch of life to Necropotence, then activate Rowan, Scion of War. Will I be able to cast red and black spells for free as long as I have the Chromatic Orrery on the field? From my understanding, since it doesn't say that all spells are colorless like Mycosynth Lattice, but says that you may spend mana as though it were any color, that you would be able to cast them for free. But on the other hand, since it's a replacement effect for spending your mana and not making your spells colorless, you wouldn't be able to because Rowan specifically reduces cost to red/black spells. I have a feeling it's the latter, but I just wanna make sure.

Sorry if the wording is confusing, my ADD brain thinks ahead too far sometimes and forgets filler in order to make my ramblings comprehensible.

wallisface on Can this Rowan crackle?

7 months ago

No, Rowan, Scion of War is reducing each individual spells cost by an amount of colourless mana - the X in the spells you then cast are irrelevant towards calculating that reduction.

For example, if you lose 3 life in a turn, and then tap Rowan, Scion of War for its ability, your black and/or red spells will now all cost {3} less to cast. In the case of Crackle with Power that would mean you could pay {R}{R} and have X=1. Or pay {R}{R}{R}{R}{R} and have X=2.

As an additional note, pinging yourself with Necropotence definitely doesn't do what you think it does - though I'm not entirely sure how you think it works. The ability of Necropotence to pay 1 life is entirely irrelevant to whether you take damage from other sources. So if you target yourself with Crackle with Power, Necropotence doesn't do anything (as you're not paying its ability cost, you're just burning yourself for no reason)

Quickspell on Can this Rowan crackle?

7 months ago

Does Rowan, Scion of War count for each of the three {X} in Crackle with Power? Can I ping myself with Necropotence and kill the table with the other two?