Syphon Life

Sorcery

Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Kjartan on 101% Mono Black Burn

6 months ago

Balaam__ When things go well, you should absolutely be ahead on life, but not ahead on mana. You need to have a lot of lands in play for Bond of Agony to compare on power-level with your cheaper burn spells. You need 4 lands for it to just rival Sovereign's Bite, and that's with the life-gain reversed. You need 5 lands in play for it to do something your other cards can't.

That said, even with Syphon Life to discard excess lands, I do get that there are scenarios on rare occasions where you end up with 5-6 or 7 lands on the battlefield, and a healthy life-total to boot.

If you want specifically an X spell for this scenario, may I instead suggest Profane Command. It's even more budget friendly than Bond of Agony and it's a much safer path to victory. It causes 1 less point of life loss under normal circumstances, but with a Death Cultist in your graveyard, it can have the exact same effect but without paying any life cast it. On top of that, it's just extremely flexible. You can play it for three mana just to ping for one and get a Serrated Scorpion back, or use it to alpha-strike through a board of blockers.

Kjartan on 101% Mono Black Burn

6 months ago

Even though you probably have one of the best shells for it, Bond of Agony looks pretty bad.

Red burn decks usually don't play Fireball or any of its superior versions, even though they are way better than Bond of Agony

You have 18 lands, meaning you scale very slowly into a range where Bond can deal any more damage than your other spells, and once you get there, 5 mana + pay 4 life to cause a 4 point life loss? That seems just awful. And it's especially bad since you have Syphon Life which means you'll just be discarding additional lands when you hit your curve stopper unless you're sitting with Bond of Agony in hand.

If you want some late-game potential, I would look into adding a single B/R source to flashback Bump in the Night because the opportunity cost of doing to is so low. Alternatively, consider Sword-Point Diplomacy as a card that can pull you ahead in stale-mate against another deck that didn't quite manage to do its thing.

forneyt on Pauper Lands

1 year ago

If you're looking for a finisher, there are a couple cards that seem like they are on theme and also might get the job done. Syphon Life drains your opponent for 2, and then you can recast it by discarding lands into your graveyard. Dreadwurm is a decent beater that gains indestructible whenever you play a land, so you can swing with impunity. You can go wide with Sporemound, or go a little more vanilla beaters with Kazandu Stomper or Excavating Anurid. To make sure you can cast these guys, Skola Grovedancer, Kazandu Nectarpot, Grazing Gladehart, and Jaddi Offshoot all help you gain life to stay alive. Retreat to Kazandu can gain you life or make your little guys formidable beaters too.

Dead_Blue_ on Monoblack Burn [Budget/Casual/Jank]

2 years ago

The Value in Vicious Rumors is that it is a great precursor to Smallpox it attacks the opponents hand and pings for life. I know it doesn’t read impressive but it’s great in practice

So the main thing about Syphon Life is that it’s a great late game wincon. You turn all those late game land top decks into burn spells

I think the main thing holding this deck back is that it needs to hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge prison effect for you to win without being aggro’d to death first. Bridge isn’t budget but you could run Norn's Annex instead

Kazierts on Monoblack Burn [Budget/Casual/Jank]

2 years ago

Sorry for not saying anything for a long while, Dead_Blue_ and Squee_Spirit_Guide. Life has been a bit complicated. I'll answer both of you in order.

Squee_Spirit_Guide, trying to build things in colors different from the usual has been something I consider when planning a new deck. I remember seeing in someone's profile a Jeskai Zombies deck and I still have that ideia on my mind.

About your suggestions, Soul Reap is interesting, maybe I can find a spot for it in the sideboard. Leechridden Swamp and Syphon Life seem a bit too slow for the deck, especially the Syphon Life as it's {1}{B}{B} for just 2 damage.

Dead_Blue_, thanks for the suggestions, but none of them seem useful for the deck. If look at other comments here, you'll see Fruit of Tizerus is a debatable inclusion, so I feel Vicious Rumors isn't worth. The other two however... Aren't very budget, and the idea of this list is exactly to be a budget fun deck.

Squee_Spirit_Guide on Monoblack Burn [Budget/Casual/Jank]

2 years ago

I think learning things the janky way is the best way to learn :) And I love decks that do things their colours aren't inherently meant to! What do you think about Syphon Life and maybe Leechridden Swamp? Also, Soul Reap might be decent in the sideboard.

Chasmolinker on 101% Mono Black Burn

3 years ago

How about Dread Presence. You could cut 1-2 Syphon Life for it. Cool build! +1

KoRnF3wzed on BW Blink Rack

3 years ago

Honestly I wouldn't run Syphon Life in the side unless you're running at least 4x Raven's Crime and 1x Dakmor Salvage in the main as being able to lock your opponent into discarding a card per turn is very strong in rack races, but the ability to turn that into Gaining 2 life against, say, burn, is very powerful. When I ran Smallpox 8-Rack MonoBlack, I ran 22 lands, and still found not enough, Flagstones of Trokair definitely helps a lot of that, but if you're needing lifegain, run Kaya, Orzhov Usurper , (with Rest in Peace , her Ult basically wins you the game).