The Lord of Pain

Legendary Creature — Human Assassin

Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

Your opponents can't gain life.

Whenever a player casts their first spell each turn, choose another target player. This deals damage equal to that spell's converted mana cost/mana value to the chosen player.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (3)

Crow_Umbra on Best color for this type …

3 months ago

My main play group runs various flavors of Goad, or combat manipulation (we love swinging at each other). Why swing at other people, when you can force them to hit each other? A few suggestions off the top of my head:

• Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant/Kardur, Doomscourge - Either of these could be the commander of the deck. Karazikar simultaneously incentivizes and punishes your opponents for smacking each other. Playing in Red/Black also opens up access to all the direct burn stuff in Red, as well as attack trigger group slug like Hellrider, Vicious Conquistador, or Far Fortune, End Boss.

• Breena, the Demagogue - Help your opponents draw cards from hitting each other. The access to white also gives you plenty of options for the Ghostly Prison effects in white, plus its suite of removal.

• Gonti, Night Minister is a new option that could also slot into the 99 of some of the other commanders mentioned above. The theft aspects will likely draw the ire of the table, but if everyone is stealing from everyone...

• Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos or Slicer, Hired Muscle  ^Flip- You could donate a big Voltron threat around the table and make the table kill each other for you. One of my friends runs Alexios, and it feels like a game of hot potato with Voltron damage. Technically, you're not the one hitting people.

• Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser can Goad your opponents creatures, but also rewards your opponents for hitting each other. You can Goad everyone while hiding behind the Ghostly Prison/Propaganda effects.

• Isshin, Two Heavens as One can be built as a combat control deck, since he checks the attack triggers on most stuff I previously mentioned, and house those all in his 99. Additionally you can run stuff like Lightmine Field and Caltrops.

• The Lord of Pain is a lot of fun to play as a commander, and to play against. Maybe my friends and I are just masochists. A couple of my friends run the Lord of Pain as a commander, and typically play it very politically, where they "donate" the option to target the damage. You don't have to swing, and can run all the burn and damage multipliers to your heart's content.

_Kane_ on Valgavoth, Harrower of souls (HF-1)

6 months ago

Hey, welcome to TappedOut.net! I would recommend listing you basic lands under one art image so the counts are more accurate. We can chat about the mana base another time.

Here are a few quick suggestions;

Sulfurous Springs - Replace Ash Barrens

Basilisk Collar - Lifelink to keep your HP at a healthy amount and deathtouch for a decent chump-blocker.

Razorkin Needlehead - Ping dmg on opp turns.

Blasphemous Edict - Board wipes are needed along with targeted removal.

Stormfist Crusader - Card draw

Roiling Vortex - This reads, "Yes, yes, and more please."

Scrawling Crawler - Yes, you have your opps drawing more cards, but they will pay for it with their life. You will also draw more cards. Taking advantage of the "symmetric" card draw by making it weighted in your favor.

Florian, Voldaren Scion - Card selection and Card draw.

Underworld Dreams - Ping dmg on opp turns.

Withering Torment - Enchantment removal is extremely rare in Rakdos Colors.

Ankh of Mishra - Ping dmg on opp turns.

Rug of Smothering - Ping dmg on opp turns.

Nightshade Harvester - Ping dmg on opp turns.

Magebane Lizard - Ping dmg on opp turns and keeps spell decks in check.

Cemetery Gatekeeper - Exile someone's fetch land from a GY. Then, whenever a player play a land you ping for 2 dmg.

Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - A tapped land with a great spell on the backside.

Reanimate - Any graveyard...

I believe you opened a Bloodthirsty Conqueror!!

Expensive:

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Bloodchief Ascension

Orcish Bowmasters

Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin

Deflecting Swat

Jeska's Will

Deadly Rollick

Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Zo-Zu the Punisher - I may have one of these for trade. I'll check.

Dauthi Voidwalker

Opposition Agent

As far a cuts:

Vile Entomber - Easy cut.

Olivia, Crimson Bride I would lose the graveyard reanimator subtheme.

Valgavoth's Lair - With your deck only being in two colors and with no add value for the land being an enchantment (the extra card type becomes more of a risk than reward), I would cut this land.

Enchanter's Bane - Just not strong enough and the damage isn't on your opponents turns.

Mask of Griselbrand - Too expensive to cast/equip and requires the creature to die for the card draw to trigger.

Temple of the False God - Easy cut. The pay off isn't there and the number of times you won't be able to tap this land for mana isn't worth the upside.

Light Up the Stage - There is better card draw.

Braids, Arisen Nightmare - The group slug effect is nice, but a potential cut due to being non-targeted removal/group sacrifice.

Massacre Girl - Black has better board wipes that can't miss.

Ash Barrens - Easy cut for a land more suited to your deck build.

Bloodfell Caves - Easy cut for a land more suited to your deck build.

Crow_Umbra on Thought I Was Dead? [Primer]

6 months ago

New Elenda seems like a lot of fun. Voltron/Lifegain seems like a fun mix that can also build you a decent buffer to crack backs, even without some of the other bells and whistles, or Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond shenanigans.

One of my friends in my main group recently started adding more lifegain to his decks as a means of buffering against the group slug and aggro heavy shenanigans of our group. So in turn, the rest of us added to existing decks or built The Lord of Pain lol. Playing with Lord of Pain in the 99, and against it this past weekend were a blast.

Totally understandable! Big life moves take priority over hobby stuff until you're both more settled in. Doesn't hurt to keep getting test reps in until you think you could put it together.