Vivisection

Sorcery

As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.

Draw three cards.

Combos

• Act of Treason + Vivisection

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	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
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (10)

Yesterday on Does Living Lore work with …

2 years ago

You cannot, soz.

Casting a spell with Living Lore's ability gives you the option of casting it without paying its mana cost. This is paying an alternate casting cost for the spell. Overload is another mechanic that lets you pay an alternate casting cost for a spell for a different result. You can not pay more than one alternate casting cost for a spell when you cast it.

Conversely you can still pay optional additional costs (and must pay mandatory additional costs) for spells even if you're paying an alternate cost for them, including no cost like with Living Lore. So if you cast Blink of an Eye, you have the option to pay the additional {1}{U} to draw a card, and if cast Vivisection then you still must sacrifice a creature.

OrsettoMorbido on List of Color Pie Breaks/Bends

3 years ago

Some of these might not actually be breaks or bends, but i'll put them here anyway, since they're worth discussing. Thanks for this list btw, i wanted to create a pentacolor break/bend edh list in forever! Ephemeron, Phyrexian Tribute, Broken Visage, Artifact Possession, Curse Artifact, Catacomb Dragon, Grave Robbers, Burden of Greed, Guardian Beast, Haunting Wind, Phyrexian Gremlins, Priest of Yawgmoth, Relic Bane, Soldevi Adnate, Spoils of Evil, Warp Artifact, Xenic Poltergeist, Presence of the Master, Mudslide, Soulflayer, Rishadan Cutpurse, Rishadan Footpad, Rishadan Brigand, Sea Drake, True-Name Nemesis, Serendib Djinn, Parallax Tide, Uktabi Drake, Propaganda, Mirri's Guile, Sylvan Library, Drop of Honey, Elvish Spirit Guide, Jabari's Influence, Barbed Foliage, Storm Front, Recycle, Storm Seeker, Null Profusion, Illusionist's Gambit, Overtaker, Reins of Power, Ray of Command, Prodigal Sorcerer, Instill Energy, Fire and Brimstone, Pallid Mycoderm, Mycologist, Orcish Spy, Killer Bees, Visions, Emerald Dragonfly, Arboria, Demonic Torment, Shade of Trokair, Vivisection, Slith Strider, Midnight Charm, Keen Sense, Simoon, Goblin Spy.

Optimator on Human Fly

4 years ago

I know you're looking for non-wheel card draw. I don't love cantrips in EDH unless there is a number-of-spells-matters effect in play but they can smooth out a deck a bit. Ponder , Preordain , Portent , Sleight of Hand , Serum Visions , etc. The sweet spot in around 3-5 CMC for me, ideally drawing CMC -1 but there aren't a ton of spells that efficient. I don't love Divination in EDH (2 for 3) but it's the gold-standard in 60-card decks for a quickie hand refill. There are tons of efficient cards like Divination too.

There are a ton of "draw 3, discard 1" for 4 or 5 mana, which are okay. Sift , Trial of Knowledge , and Amass the Components , for example. Many are costed for being commons, which isn't where you wanna be in EDH. There should be plenty of good, efficient cards to draw from though. At the same time, you have a lot of great high-CMC draw, like Consecrated Sphinx and Thought Reflection, so having a few Divination effects might smooth out your draws.

Some suggestions: Concentrate , Windfall , Cathartic Reunion , Plea for Power , Tidings , Nin, the Pain Artist , Finale of Revelation , Mind Spring , Braingeyser , Stroke of Genius , Blue Sun's Zenith , Fact or Fiction , Chart a Course , Ugin's Insight , Treasure Cruise , Dig Through Time , Kumena's Awakening , Fevered Visions , Honden of Seeing Winds , Reverse Engineer , Read the Runes , Precognitive Perception , Distant Memories , Arcane Encyclopedia , Endless Atlas , Trail of Evidence , Theft of Dreams , Borrowing 100,000 Arrows , Nezahal, Primal Tide , Kefnet the Mindful , Cavalier of Gales , Combustible Gearhulk , Thassa, God of the Sea , Shared Discovery , Secrets of the Golden City , Vivisection , Weight of Memory , Recurring Insight , Breakthrough , Niv-Mizzet, Parun , Deep Analysis , Gush , Invoke the Firemind , Expansion / Explosion , Chandra, Flamecaller , Dragon Mage , Wild Guess , Tormenting Voice , Arch of Orazca , Runehorn Hellkite , Conqueror's Galleon  ^Flip, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus , Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist , Commune with Lava .

Tyrant-Thanatos on Reactions on the Stack

6 years ago

Okay so that sort of scenario gets hairy real fast.

In addition to APNAP order, if a player controls multiple triggered abilities that trigger off of the same event, that player choses what order their triggers go on the stack in, relative to one another.

If Player A (the active player) has: Psychosis Crawler, Consecrated Sphinx, and Jace's Erasure

And Player N (the non-active player) has: Consecrated Sphinx, and Jace's Erasure

Player A casts Vivisection

It resolves and Player A draws three cards.

A's Crawler triggers, A's Erasure triggers, and N's Sphinx triggers three times at the same time. A chooses what order their Crawler and Erasure land on the stack, then they are followed by sphinx

Sphinx resolves. N draws two cards. (keep in mind, this is optional. the Sphinx very specifically says that you MAY draw two cards)

At this point, Crawler and Erasure are still on the stack, as well as two more instances of N's Sphinx, and A's Sphinx triggers twice at the same time N's Erasure triggers. Sphinxs go on the stack first, followed by Erasure.

So the stack looks like this:

N's Erasure

A's Sphinx

A's Sphinx

N's Sphinx

N's Sphinx

A's Crawler/A's Erasure (in the order of A's choosing)

Then n's erasure resolves, A mills 2.

A's Sphinx resolves, A draws 2 cards. At this point, A's Crawler triggers again and A's Erasure triggers again, as well as N's Sphinx. At this point we find ourselves more or less in the same state as before, except with another instance of A's Crawler/Erasure and sphinx stacks at the bottom.

The Stack is so:

N's Sphinx

N's Sphinx

A's Sphinx

N's Sphinx

N's Sphinx

A's Crawler and Erasure in the order of their choice

A's Crawler and Erasure in the order of their choice

Basically, so long as both players choose to draw off of their sphinx triggers that are triggering off of the other player's sphinx, this will continue until someone runs out of cards. If a player cuts the loop off by choosing not to draw cards, the stack will finally collapse and all of A's Crawlers and Erasures will finally resolve.

Again this is a really messy situation and I'm not even 100% sure I got everything correct here, I had to revise this post like twice lol.

Edit: and something I covered here that I missed in previous posts, Consecrated Sphinx triggers for each card the opponent drew, not just once for each instance of card draw effect. so Vivisection will trigger the enemy Sphinx 3 times.

Duiliath on Reactions on the Stack

6 years ago

Okay, to see if I have this in my head right could you verify or refute this stack order if in addition to Psychosis Crawler I also had a Consecrated Sphinx and Jace's Erasure and my opponent has Consecrated Sphinx and Jace's Erasure when I draw cards:

(Assuming whenever applicable players pass priority)

I cast Vivisection.

Vivisection resolves and I draw 3 cards.

Psychosis Crawler and opponent's Consecrated Sphinx trigger simultaneously and Psychosis Crawler is on the stack first.

Opponent's Consecrated Sphinx resolves and my Consecrated Sphinx and the opponents Jace's Erasure trigger simultaneously.

My Consecrated Sphinx is put on the stack first then my opponent's Jace's Erasure is put on the stack and resolves.

Then my Consecrated Sphinx resolves and triggers my Jace's Erasure which then resolves.

Then after everything Psychosis Crawler deals damage to the opponent.

Is this the right idea or am I missing something?

Tyrant-Thanatos on Reactions on the Stack

6 years ago

APNAP. When more than one trigger from more than one player is put on the stack, it goes in turn order, starting with the Active Player. Assuming this whole thing happened on your turn (you casted a sorcery to kick this whole thing off so I think that's a safe assumption assuming no Hypersonic Dragons were involved), you triggers will always go on the stack before your opponents when triggering off the same event, and therefor your opponents triggers will resolve first.

So:

You cast Vivisection

Each player passes priority

Vivisection Resolves

Psychosis Crawler and Consecrated Sphinx trigger simultaneously

Crawler's ability is put on the stack first, then Sphinx's.

Assuming both players pass priority, Sphinx resolves

Jace's Erasures trigger and are put on the stack

The Erasures resolve, then the Crawler Resolves, assuming no responses.

TL;DR, your opponent is correct. but as MWorl91 pointed out, you don't lose for having an empty library, you lose for attempting to draw from an empty library.

Duiliath on Reactions on the Stack

6 years ago

I have Psychosis Crawler in play and my opponent has Consecrated Sphinx and 2 Jace's Erasures in play. I draw 3 cards during my turn, from Vivisection ability. I think the order of actions is:

I draw 3 cards. Then Consecrated Sphinx makes my opponent draw 2x3 cards. Then they lose 3 life from Psychosis Crawler. Then their Jace's Erasures trigger and I mill 2x6 cards

My Opponent thinks that the order is:

I draw 3 cards Then their Consecrated Sphinx makes them draw 2x3 cards. Then Their Jace's Erasures make me mill 4x3 cards. Then they lose 3 life

I was in a situation where this determined who won since I had 10 cards left in my deck and she had 3 life. We want to know who was right or if there is a different order we didn't realize.

VincentVonVeltschmerz on

6 years ago

+Gravitational Shift: comeon dood

+Favorable Winds: prevents comboing out with Skullclamp but I still think its worth

Vivisection => Time Reversal: A lot of things can replace Vivisection, why play a bad Harmonize?

Dragonrage => something else (idk Arcane Denial?): Okay it's cute that you can cast x-cost instant draws with it, though you can't attack with those 1/1s, or kill someone with Cmdr dmg, but being a bad Trumpet Blast on the baseline I don't think this will make the cut. Could be wrong though

Think you might need one more Elixir of Immortality effect. Maybe one of Day's Undoing, Diminishing Returns, Learn from the Past, or Psychic Spiral for dat nostalgia

I also think you need at least one more Spellbook effect. One of Library of Leng, Venser's Journal, or Spellbook itself

Lastly I think more acceleration is probably need. 6cmc is up there and I imagine people will be hesitant to let you untap with him. Not to mention the number of X-cost draws that will reward you for having lots of mana

Sidenote, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Curiosity is going to anger me. A lot.