Syphon Mind

Sorcery

Each other player discards a card. You draw a card for each card discarded this way.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Crow_Umbra on I will have no friends anymore

3 months ago

Based off the name, I thought this was going to be a Tergrid deck lol. I have a few cards that might be worth considering, given your theme:

• Mind Stone or Jet Medallion - Helpful to have maybe one more rock, depending on your budget.

• Castle Locthwain and Geier Reach Sanitarium - Squeeze some more draw onto some utility lands.

• Plumb the Forbidden - Might be a bit better if you had a more creature heavy deck, but is still pretty useful, especially since Sheoldred will cancel out some of your life loss.

• Syphon Mind - Seems pretty silly with Sheoldred.

Profet93 on Liliana, Destroyer of Friendships (v5)

3 months ago

Metroid_Hybrid +1

Syphon Mind - Draw

Mind Twist - Hand hate, bait blue. I can't tell you how many times I've ramped into this turn 2-3 and just ruined someone's day

Opposition Agent - Always a solid choice for destroying friendships

Profet93 on Unwilling sacrifice *black control*

3 months ago

Syphon Mind > Cruel edict. Anything over cruel edict really. Card draw rarely hurts.

What is the primary wincon here, commander damage? Creature beatdown?

Optimator on Goblin Shenanigans (The Secret of Kiki Jiki)

3 months ago

A bunch of card-draw cards you will want to note for any future shake-ups:

Moldervine Reclamation, Dark Prophecy, Species Specialist, Skullclamp, Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, Liliana, Dreadhorde General,

Collective Unconscious, Shamanic Revelation, Ohran Frostfang, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Culling Dais

Colossal Majesty, Phyrexian Reclamation, Phyrexian Arena, Slate of Ancestry, Herald's Horn,

Greed, Erebos, God of the Dead,

Mask of Griselbrand, Fecundity, Guardian Project, Idol of Oblivion, Coveted Jewel, The Deck of Many Things

Painful Truths, Harmonize, Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, Reforge the Soul, Wheel of Misfortune,

Damnable Pact, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Syphon Mind, Minions' Murmurs, Necrologia,

Return of the Wildspeaker, Soul's Majesty, Rishkar's Expertise, Peer into the Abyss

I would skew toward permanents (for Kodama) and higher mana values (for Vial-Smasher)

Profet93 on Volrath Punch.

4 months ago

Cabal Stronghold - Budget cabal coffers. You need ramp in a deck with an expensive commander that will eventually get removed, not to mention ensuring he comes down quickly enough for you to be relevant and not outpaced by faster strategies. Moreover, ramp provides you with the ability to cast your more expensive creatures should Volrath inevitably be removed.

Mind Stone - Ramp when you need it, draw when you dont.

Defile > Disfigure

Hero's Downfall > Murder

Oversold Cemetery > Disentomb - Black has the best recursion in the game. While oversold cemetery is better than disentomb, you really should focus on bringing cards back to the field rather than your hand, especially given how expensive your creatures are. There are several cards that I can recommend at a later time, currently at work. Victimize,

Feed the Swarm - Enchantment removal

Phyrexian Arena/Syphon Mind/Read the Bones/Night's Whisper/Stinging Study- Draw, you desperately need draw

Diabolic Tutor - Tutors are black's greatest strength, be sure to utilize them to find what you need, when you need it.

Phyrexian Reclamation > raise dead - PR is reuseable while raise dead is not. Cost of life is minimal.

Dismember > Funeral charm - FC is cool, but its not impactful enough. Discard a card is alright, removal is horrible, swampwalk is not repeatable and often 2 for 1 loss. You need more removal in your deck, especially cheap to cast. It allows you to bluff interaction as well.

Supernatural Stamina/Undying Malice - Can be used to protect volrath for cheap.

Decree of Pain > Forced march - FM requires a lot of mana to use, 8 mana just to kill cmc 5 or less. I get the flexibility is nice, but the mana cost is too high. If you're going to spend 8 mana, you might as well be able to destroy everything and draw from it. Not to mention cycling at instant speed allows for a decentish floor as well. Worth considering.

Profet93 on Shauku, End-the-game-bringer

5 months ago

For cabal stronghold, you need 4 basics swamps to net you 1 extra mana and 5 basics swamps to net you 2 extra mana. Assuming you actually draw cabal stronghold and nothing but basics, its a nice little bump. But the cost of the slot in your deck vs. the actual benefit is too much IMO. How often one would reliably actually get just stronghold and nothing but swamps in the early game? Seems unlikely.

Regarding Lili, I see your point. On paper, it seems like a solid card to add. You said you got the shell down, have you had any games in your meta? Would love to know her actual impact on games, times she was clutch, a waste, something in between, etc....

Eon Hub - This was super interesting the moment I saw this card many years ago. I get the point, bypass losing 3 life. You have atleast 4 cards that are anti synergy and 1 or 2 that are direct synergy, so I'm a bit mixed.

Profane Transfusion > Soul Conduit. More cost up front but can't be telegraphed, although the token might be an issue, or a benefit depending on the situation.

Necro + Venser's journal - Nice. I do wonder if it's worth adding venser solely for that synergy alone, especially given you don't run a lot of card draw. Syphon Mind is worth considering. Cheap $ and mana for you to draw 3 cards and each opponent discard 1. Another card draw spell to consider is Peer into the Abyss. Given you are already suicide black so to speak, this might be worth considering. Even more fun to use a soul conduit or profane transfusion after.

I notice crucible of worlds and no fetchlands, I'm assuming that's due to life loss and/or $. You are playing black, so I'm surprised you don't add more big black mana. Swapping out Dust Bowl for Thespian's Stage would be helpful to copy coffers, opposing utility land, cathedral of war, deserted temple, etc... (Also unrelated note: Deserted Temple + Rings + Coffers = Infinite black mana). If you do end up removing dust bowl, crucible should go with it, thus freeing more slots. Speaking of big black mana, Bubbling Muck might be worth considering. Do be careful playing this with urborg.

Damnation - Cheaper boardwipe, is there a specific reason why your using deadly tempest and killing wave over damnation? Another board wipe that might be up your alley is The Meathook Massacre. It removes creatures, pings them and heals you.

Deliver Unto Evil - Not needed but I like it. Politics. Bring you back a combo piece, a draw spell, removal, utility, etc.... Black has many ways to recur creatures, few to return non-creature cards. Speaking of creatures, if you are interested in more recursion (aside from Yawgmoth's Will), Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed works lovely with corpse dance. Not an entirely serious suggestion but worth noting.

My apologies for the wall of text, can't wait to hear your thoughts. I love discussing deck card choices and maximizing value/efficiency when possible. Your deck seems lovely. Most people will do a double take at your commander which is nice, love playing more older, unique commanders :)

thefiresoflurve on Look Mom, No Hands!

8 months ago

Hey there!

Rogue's Passage is a good, cheap staple for decks looking to win via commander damage.

Kaya's Ghostform is awesome for providing basically an extra life to dodge removal.

I'd look at replacing some single-use, low impact discard like Mind Rot with some better stuff that affects multiple opponents like Syphon Mind.

Burglar Rat is a straight upgrade to Corrupt Court Official.

Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip is on the expensive side for the budget, but so, so good. Similarly, The Haunt of Hightower would be really good as a "backup commander".

Heartless Pillage can be replaced with Unnerve

Ill-Gotten Gains might be a good card to help pump your commander's power quickly.

Hope that helps, happy building!

Profet93 on Tergrid, God of Fright

9 months ago

Epiitaph +1

You mentioned you are getting contamination. Should you be inclined, Infernal Darkness is worth considering as well.

Deserted Temple - Untap utility land + politics

Syphon Mind - Draw 3, each opponent discards 1, for 4 mana and low $. Worth considering. I would put this in over consuming vapors as with vapors, they can usually play around it, although perhaps in this build it isn't as bad given all of your redundancy. Although, given your redundancy, you probably don't need it. If you don't want to add in syphon mind, then TheOfficialCreator's suggestion of barter in blood is definitely better IMO than consuming vapors. Another potential cut is solemn simalcrum as it is too slow, does not ramp you on curve and the draw is negligible. I understand the synergy, but 4 mana is too costly IMO. Sad robot is better suited to decks that can't ramp as hard as mono black.

Also, regarding Torment of Hailfire, the idea is that you destroy their board + hand enough so that they lose life and just, lose. Or, you can use it to decimate them and then win the following turn. I think it's better in a build that can more reliably assemble what I call "Big Black Mana," aka Coffers + Urborg. Deserted temple helps in this regard. I would also cut cabal stronghold as in my experience, it is subpar, especially for a higher powered deck like Tegrid. Usually newer players use it if they can't afford urborg + coffers.

Mind Twist - While only effecting one opponent, it can seriously ruin someone's day. Especially given how one opponent usually is able to stay ahead of the death and destruction that control decks dish out, this can help put them back in their place. Not to mention, bait counterspell, ramped into with ritual + rocks early game to effectively lock someone out of the game for several turns (as the discard is random, they usually lose land drops)

Jet Medallion > Sad Robot. You don't run too many artifacts so this seems pretty helpful.

All Is Dust/Oblivion Stone - Both act as wipes which you inevitably need for when things get out of hand. All is dust might synergize with your commander on board, although I don't know the ruling. If it's similar to Meren with a boardwipe still triggering experience counters, then giggle with glee! Dust doesn't usually get artifacts while oblivion stone does. You don't run too many artifacts yourself. Really depends on the meta. Lastly, stone can be spaced apart so you don't have to pay 8 mana in 1 turn, albeit, telegraphed.

Be sure to let me know what you think of each suggestion. Lastly, do you feel yourself struggling with artifacts and enchantments often?