Sinister Concoction

Enchantment

{B}, Pay 1 life, Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, Discard a card, Sacrifice Sinister Concoction: Destroy target creature.

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 (46)

Rhadamanthus on Sinister Concoction + Moonshadow

3 weeks ago

You get multiple triggers in this situation. Each one of those costs is a separate action and they get paid separately from each other, the big clue being the "in any order" notes from the rules you found (it's interesting that Sinister Concoction's text puts the mill near the front of the list while the rule seems to say you should do that after everything else).

The times when Moonshadow would only trigger once for multiple things moving would be if those things are truly moving simultaneously. Some common examples include an effect that makes you discard 2 cards, an effect that mills you for 5, an effect that destroys all artifacts, or multiple creatures dying from combat damage (probably the most common example).

capwner on Sinister Concoction + Moonshadow

1 month ago

Sinister Concoction + Moonshadow

Discard and mill both permanent cards. Does Moonshadow get 1, 2, or 3 +1/+1 counters?

My understanding is it will be 3 because the multiple costs are paid sequentially and so trigger one at a time during activation, see 601.2h (on casting spells, but the rule about casting abilities says to use the same process)

"The player pays the total cost. First, they pay all costs that don’t involve random elements or moving objects from the library to a public zone, in any order. Then they pay all remaining costs in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid."

However I was discussing this with a friend and they asked a judge, who said it triggers only once because the 3 cards changing zones are all part of the same cost so happen at the same time. I think this judge is totally wrong, lol. Can anybody else weigh in?

capwner on Grixis moonshadow

1 month ago

I only see 4 shadows here, still a cool grixis aggro pile though. Because Moonshadow trigs on perms maybe Street Wraith could be good over Consider, then again Consider is good with DRC and this doesn't have OG Death's Shadow but does want more mill for Oculus. Ok hear me out this might actually be wild... Sinister Concoction??? lol

Rhadamanthus on Muldrotha: The Graveyard is Your Oyster

3 years ago

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Sinister Concoction in my own Muldrotha deck (I haven't put it up on this site yet, otherwise I would offer a link). For a deck like this it basically has no downside.

TheVectornaut on Mono-Black Budget

3 years ago

Based on the profile name, description, and seeming inaccuracy of the price stated, I'm guessing this is an AI-based account. Still, I do like budget black decks like this. On the off chance that a human reads this, I'll offer some advice from my experience. First, there's no real reason to be running Gravecrawler here with no other zombies. Something like Dread Wanderer, Bloodsoaked Champion, or Cult Conscript could serve a similar role for much cheaper. On the draw side, Necropotence could be Phyrexian Arena or Midnight Oil, but I really like Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor for refilling from empty. For removal, cards like Sinister Concoction and Bone Shards can take advantage of creatures that return from the grave while Bone Picker offers an evasive threat and answer for cheap. For finishers, I like Mogis's Marauder or Foul-Tongue Shriek for a lot of matchups and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for others.

rdean14 on Card creation challenge

4 years ago

Somehow Geist Snatch is the only source of a blue spirit token at all, which is weird given how many blue spirits there are overall. Also, Sinister Concoction and Millikin are the only two cards which mill as part of their cost.

Yumegawa River

Legendary Land

Yumegawa River enters the battlefield tapped.

: Add .

, Mill two cards, : Create a 1/1 blue Spirit creature token with flying.

---

I'd like to see another Land set in Kamiwaga

StopShot on I need help choosing another …

4 years ago

@Raging_Squiggle, the cards you suggested removing have benefitted me countless times in cEDH though. Personally, I'd rather remove Terminate first. Holding up less mana every turn to address multiple threats is better as it gives me more flexibility. If you want to advance your boardstate it's better to hold up two 1's and a 2 than two 2's and a 3. Finding ways to do things cheaper without need for ramp is in a way card advantage as I see it and it mitigates how severe a discard cost is when you build your deck around flexibility than tempo. As I said I like playing more reactively than proactively. As for my experiences Lightning Axe 's removal capabilities in commander I find to be on par with Lightning Bolt 's capability in 60 card formats - not capable of removing everything but efficient enough to not get in the way of doing two things at once. Sinister Concoction is telegraphed removal which is incredibly undervalued in multiplayer settings as no one willingly wants to have it proc on their best card in hand, and having that kind of chilling effect on a whole table for one mana is pretty strong. And then there's Molten Vortex which is probably the best thing on earth for removing hatebear after hatebear and bypassing counter spells in blue combo decks. Losing lands to it may seem steep, but the cost is nothing when your opposition is locking you down and locking you out in the first place and if its a dead card I pitch it to the Lightning Axe or Sinister Concoction anyway.

Personally I've grown to loathe "non-black" removal spells. It's not just this combo but its also The Gitrog Monster and Kaalia of the Vast and Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Opposition Agent . I acknowledge there are a lot of non-black targets I can use it on instead, but picking between a Doom Blade and a Murder when Lightning Axe / Dismember takes out more of them for less mana sums up my approach to this. And I do run Chaos Warp , Anguished Unmaking and Generous Gift along with a slew of boardwipes for anything bigger - I just didn't mention I ran them here when the focus of my thread is on small and early game threats where the heavier removal isn't as apt at addressing these problems.

Still, even without the mana ramp the combo can come down on turn three by casting the cards on consecutive turns or on turn four by playing them all at once, and we are talking about competitive black which has plenty of tutors. In the early game holding up 2 or 3 mana for only one answer every turn I find to be a waste. It's not just this combo either as I'm in the company of decks that are looking to end or lock the game before turn six if left in a vacuum. At the same time I still want to acknowledge other non-aggressive strategies do exist and striking the balance is difficult when one set of cards is too slow for my current meta and another set don't go far enough for everything outside of that meta. Personally, I think the small spells still have some merit in all cases whereas the larger spells become an annoying liability when you're put on the clock. It's another reason why I value being reactive than proactive, to value flexibility over tempo, because I'd need to pick a different commander entirely if I want to match the speed my competitors play at. However, my opponents lose much more value than I do when they go headfirst into certain strategies only for them to be thwarted such as with the Witherbloom Apprentice + Chain of Smog combo or with the Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond combo or the Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead combo or anything that relies on Doomsday . My deck is built to address this kind of madness, but when I make card decisions I still want to keep more normal metas in mind when picking cards. Cards like Magma Spray and Fatal Push are incredibly narrow, I know that, but what I need to know is which card of that set is the best for taking on problems outside of my own meta.

Raging_Squiggle on I need help choosing another …

4 years ago

If you’re playing competitive, you need to ditch some of the removal you have for ones with fewer drawbacks/requirements or ones that straight up kill something. Namely Sinister Concoction , Lightning Axe , and Molten Vortex .

Typically 2 or less suffice fine. Free spells are most important. Snuff Out , Force of Despair , and Slaughter Pact . Heartless Act , Devour in Shadow , Victim of Night , Fatal Push , Vendetta are all solid cedh removal spells because they either go for wider range of targets at 2 mana, or only cost 1, though may not be able to hit some things. This is usually the suite I run in Bx decks.

I don’t see a problem with using 2 mana kill spells. Hell, even 3 mana ones can be good, like Anguished Unmaking , Vindicate , and arguably Hero's Downfall and Mortify .

the likelihood of this player having Chain, the creature, a green and a black land, dark ritual, or Sol Ring+Rock in their opening hand is very low.

Don’t build around something that might happen once every 20 games. And don’t restrict your removal suite to only cards that deal with a little creature like that, you want to have cards that can deal with a multitude of potential threats.