Soul-Scar Mage

Creature — Human Wizard

Prowess

If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to a creature an opponent controls, put that many -1/-1 counters on that creature instead.

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
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 (48)

Caerwyn on Activated Abilities and the Stack

3 months ago

As a note, Neotrup's addition is incorrect and not relevant to the present circumstance. Starfall Invocation "destroys" a creature--it does not do any damage. As such, even if you had Soul-Scar Mage on the battlefield, the replacement effect on Soul-Scar Mage would not be implicated. Thus, the creatures will still die with whatever toughness is printed on their card and the Phenax ability would look back in time to their toughness at the time of death.

For Soul-Scar Mage to be relevant, one would have to use an effect that does damage to the opponent's creatures, such as Blasphemous Act. However, that would be a drastic change to the hypothetical and goes beyond what OP is actually asking.

Neotrup on Activated Abilities and the Stack

3 months ago

Because the ability does look at what the toughness was when the creature was last on the battlefield, rather than when it was activated, this line would avoid having you mill if you also had a Soul-Scar Mage in play, since the creatures would receive -1/-1 counters instead of damage and die due to having 0 or less toughness.

TheoryCrafter on "Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls" EDH …

4 months ago

Welcome Back to Magic. I broke my description down to the three deck types yer seeking.

Aristocrats: Take advantage of death triggers to hurt your opponent. Examples of cards are Blood Artist, Dreadhorde Butcher and Zulaport Cutthroat. Graveyard recursion cards like Disentomb, Gravedigger, Mortuary Mire and Valgavoth's Faithful should be considered.

Burn: Spells, instants and sorceries, and abilities of permanents that deal noncombat damage. Examples include, but are not limited to, Blightning, Bonfire of the Damned and Lightning Bolt. Cards you should add to any Rakdos burn deck include, but are not limited to, Pestilent Spirit, Soul-Scar Mage and Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip.

Punisher: A Sophie's Choice in every spell. Examples include, but are not limited to, Book Burning, Dash Hopes, Killing Wave, Painful Quandary and Vexing Devil. I would also consider any creature with the Afflict ability, especially Wildfire Eternal to be punisher cards.

As for cards that will feed into your commander's static ability, I would recommend Burning Anger, Psychosis Crawler, Scrawling Crawler and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

Thank you for reading me out. I hope this helps give you a baseline of what you're looking for. Happy Hunting!

legendofa on burn deck help to refurbish

1 year ago

9-lives Off the top of my head, here are some more niche and unique cards that you might be interested in. Maybe you can push them to the next level.

Stigma Lasher is another anti-life gain option. Soul-Scar Mage sees some play in creature aggro decks and plays well with Satyr Firedancer. Searing Blood is roughly Shock + Lightning Bolt in a single card. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is more of a midrange topper at five mana, but has a decent burn deck package.

I'm not sure why they all start with S.

StygianDusk on Smart People with Pointy Hats (Wizard Tribal)

1 year ago

Looks great! I've built a similar deck and it's very good, here's some recommended upgrades or possible swaps for fun:

1) Crash Through can be traded for all/a few Expedite to work better with with Adeliz, the Cinder Wind and Harmonic Prodigy, albeit a little slower.

2) Balmor, Battlemage Captain adds to the whole prowess mechanic and buffs your board like Adeliz; I would replace some Umara Mystic with a few of him.

3) Viashino Pyromancer is a cheaper verison of Ghitu Journeymage and is better unless you're doing multi-player.

4) Step Through is a 2 mana tutor that costs almost nothing! Sadly it doesn't trigger prowess etc.

5) Soul-Scar Mage is a bit pricier but would be a nice one drop.

6) Naru Meha, Master Wizard and Docent of Perfection  ^Flip are also good lords to consider.

7) Talrand, Sky Summoner is a good budget swap for Archmage Emeritus for people who don't own any!

MusicGoat18 on UR Aggro Modern

1 year ago

Andramalech, I extremely appreciate the feedback! :) Your suggestions are nice however most of them probably won't make the cut. Other than potential synergy with Soul-Scar Mage, Adeliz is a bit slow due to it having a cmc of 3. I have Sprite Dragon in my maybeboard which has a similar effect but cheaper AND the buffs are permanent. Also, with Ingenious Prodigy, it was a good thought but it's also slow and requires a higher "X" value in its cost for effective drawing. I have DRC's which dumps my spells into the graveyard for card advantage fueling Underworld Breach. As for Stubborn Denial and Royal Treatment, I have slightly better cards in my sideboard for their type of ability: Flusterstorm, which triggers prowess with storm, and it isn't hard to "storm" it in this deck, and Veil of Summer, which prevents my stuff from being countered on top of the hexproof effect as well as the potential card draw. However, since I currently cannot afford Flusterstorms right now (lol), I will use stubborn denials or Spell Pierces in its place in my sideboard. Scale Up is a cool idea with the prowess effect, so I might consider tinkering with it, but since my mana base lacks green and my deck is more UR focused (most of my green spells have another way of casting) it probably won't make a spot in the deck.

The_Warleader on ~WIZARDS GONE WILD 2024~

1 year ago

Cool deck idea!

Here's some things I would change:
1) Most lines that play out with this archetype involve playing a payoff creature on turn 1 (and having the flexibility to play two of those creature on turn two). Playing a Young Pyromancer on turn two is fine, but in general you want to lay down your payoffs for these cheap spells as early as possible. Having 16 two mana creatures is just way too clunky. I would recommend at least including Soul-Scar Mage because it's a Wizard. Which brings me to my next point.
2) Since you're already running a Wizard-themed deck, you should at least include the good Wizard payoffs (some of which are actually played in modern). These are Flame of Anor and Wizard's Lightning, the latter of which is essentially just Lightning Bolt 5-8. But I see you only play 3 of those which brings me to my last point.
3) You need to condense your card selections down to playsets of the most important cards, if you can. The reason people play mostly 4-ofs in proactive, aggro-based strategies is because in induces consistency. If card accessibility is an issue I can absolutely understand that. But try and look at the Izzet Prowess Modern Metagame and just take all the cards that are inexpensive from that list and try and incorporate them into the shell you created - especially the instants and sorceries, minus the few you already have.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Looks like fun though =)

Siosilvar on Let's Watch Modern Burn

1 year ago

I wouldn't run 4 Shard Volley maindeck, it's just a finisher because you're running few enough lands that you can't afford to blow one up until the end of the game. 2 is the most I would run, or replace them all with Skewer - it's not win-more when literally the entire deck is built to activate Spectacle. (Stage is, to a point, since if you need the impulse draw effect you don't have the cards to turn it on in the first place).

Lavamancer is a card I've tried a few times, and I never really wanted more than 2 in the deck because he's slow and doesn't play nicely in multiples. With Orcish Bowmasters and Fury in the format, I'm not convinced he's playable at all. Sure, cards get in the graveyard pretty quick when fetches are involved so he can go off every turn, but all the other playable 1-mana creatures (like Swiftspear or Soul-Scar Mage) also represent 2 damage a turn.

Don't forget Inspiring Vantage. I would run 3 or 4.

Roast is the better removal spell if you're thinking about Fry, since it answers Sheoldred and Fry won't typically be enough for a Murktide Regent anyway.

Thunderous Wrath shouldn't even be a maybe, you're more likely to mulligan it than to topdeck it.