War Cadence

Enchantment

(X)(Red): Creatures can't block this turn unless their controller pays (X) for each blocking creature he or she controls.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

legendofa on Technically still blockable

1 week ago

My other big concern with mana payments is that, theoretically, part of the combo could be spamming Oppressive Rays and Cowed by Wisdom on everything, forcing individual creatures to need any arbitrary amount of mana to block. So reconsidering, I'll accept War Cadence and abilities that require mana to be able to declare blockers in general. So Archangel of Tithes and Awesome Presence are okay, Cowed by Wisdom and Oppressive Rays aren't.

legendofa on Technically still blockable

1 week ago

For the purposes of this exercise, there's only one attacker, so Bower Passage doesn't offer anything over Skyblinder Staff. Problematic Volcano (Playtest) doesn't really affect anything in the same way Raging River does, since all the blockers could go to the same side. I don't want to focus too much on mana payments, since the defender could theoretically have/produce infinite mana on hand, so I'll take War Cadence and call that good. Battle Strain is more of a punishment than a restriction, since it doesn't stop blockers from being declared. You might die from the damage, but you still got the blockers up.

All the rest are varying degrees of niche-ness, but I think they all qualify. Thanks!

rtdfjyghc on Technically still blockable

1 week ago

legendofa, I've been thinking/researching a bit more and got a couple others. Not sure how helpful "defending creature can't be a xyz type" is, but here are some more.

Boldwyr Intimidator/Gornog, the Red Reaper, Have Archangel of Tithes also be attacking, Bothersome Quasit, probably not worth it as we would be adding green, but could replace Skyblinder Staff with Bower Passage to make our other creatures avoid flying too, Frenetic Raptor, Heat Wave, Problematic Volcano (Playtest), Spitting Dilophosaurus, Twins of Discord, Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, War Cadence Hope these help :)

clayperce on Board buffs?

5 months ago

Oooh, great call-outs SaberTech!

Roar also reminds me: War Cadence as a political piece on other player's turns = Soooooo good!

Cheers!

DreadKhan on Painful chaos

2 years ago

I have a Rakdos deck that's trying to do some similar things, I leaned into creatures that could double as removal, some games you can eliminate a player by resolving an early Dwarven Miner/Dwarven Blastminer, Tsabo Tavoc is a hilarious card in a Commander game, Olivia Voldaren and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief make very good use of late game mana and can create a whole mess of trouble, maybe War Cadence is a very political card I love to try to sneak into decks, the really sweet part is you can use it on an opponent's attack to help THEM get in, and an Archenemy is tapped out that means you only need to spend {1} to make everything unblockable... it's a real skill testing card IMHO. Rite of the Raging Storm can kill off any opponents that don't have blockers, and it survives most Wraths. It's also a sacrifice effect when it dies, so it works with Mayhem Devil without support. Even without it's combo I find Exquisite Blood can be an amazing card, it's hilarious with Protection Racket out! If you want things to get chaotic/people to have to make choices you might like some of the Dr. Who stuff, the only card I personally use is Ensnared by the Mara, which isn't too jarring IMHO, most people wouldn't realize it's Universes Beyond at a Glance IMHO. Humble Defector is a fun card even if you don't run ways to kill him off right after he changes hands, some players will agree to trade him back even! Din of the Fireherd and Fevered Suspicion are pretty chaotic effects, though some people will really get up in arms if you take away more than a couple lands! Speaking of taking a couple lands, Volcanic Offering is hilarious IMHO.

Rakdos isn't the ideal colours to make him pop but I still like Brash Taunter, he's also great with anything that gives him lifelink, but it's surprising value if you can resolve something like Scavenged Brawler on Taunter, it's worth noting that Brawler would also help turn Vial Smasher into a much better threat/life source.

Finally, have you thought about some auctions, maybe Thieves' Auction or Illicit Auction? 5 mana to maybe not get a creature isn't amazing, but in practice if you ever have the most life it's just 5 mana to steal whichever creature you want! Thieves' Auction is a good card if you have a lot of permanents that work just by being out (like symmetrical chaos effects), but it's also decent if you don't run an especially sturdy board (since you pick first!), I've had situations where nothing on my board was taken until everyone else's boards were taken, my cards were that bad! Such a great feeling to get value out of stuff like Thieves' Auction.

I like the idea of your list here, you might get a kick out of my Pavel the Mighty, Hero We Deserve list, it's a Chaos deck that overflows with pet cards!

Pheardemons on Mishra's Relentless Horde

2 years ago

Profet93

Phyrexian Reclamation was there as a way to get the token generatros back like Krenko, Mob Boss. I do understand the potential of taking it out.

War Cadence has not been tested as it is the newest addition. I liked the idea of politicing. Plus, it was a win condition giving my creatures essentially unblockable. I'll think about it.

Vedalken Orrery is one of those cards I include in almost all of my decks. It is always a good choice. However, I do understand the fact that this deck usually wins on my turn in combat, so it may not be NEEDED here.

Because I have Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair I was debating on City on Fire. It rarely wins the turn it comes down and it tells the whole table what I'm about to do on my next turn. Granted, blocking creatures still triple damage.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin was another one that has been kind of subpar. If I can get it down turn two or three it is a powerhouse. Late game it's pretty bas as it has small attack and is required to attack.

DreadKhan on BBEG Deck Ideas

2 years ago

Yeah, I find decks that have too many different pots on the stove can be prone to drawing 'the wrong half of the deck', I'll keep an eye out for synergies where some of the pieces are useless without the other parts in my Kresh list! Interesting, to me running 3 colours is (at this point) mostly a disadvantage unless you're playing really strong decks, 3 colours is way harder to get the fixing right (or perhaps I should say more expensive), and 2 colours is already extremely versatile, but I could see wanting 3 or more for your 'archenemy' deck in particular. It's too bad they didn't give us any weird 2 colour Backgrounds, I don't think having 3 colours worth of Background/Commander is really game breaking.

I think if you're fine using those Assassins mostly as blockers then Marchesa is probably a good choice, there are plenty of Goad effects in Mardu to work with, as well as stuff like Brutal Hordechief and Master Warcraft, I think I've always wanted a deck that used stuff like that effectively. Oh, if you're using Goad, I'm not sure if you'd have enough mana to make it work in Mardu, but War Cadence might do some fun stuff with Goaded attackers.

DreadKhan on Gnoll Patrol

3 years ago

I also think Gnolls are cool and approve of this premise! Here are my thoughts about the deck, hope they're helpful.

If you ever want to raise your budget a bit, Pathbreaker Ibex has huge synergy with your deck.

When I was testing out your deck I found that you seemed to be short of creatures for a deck that runs lots of creature payoffs and generally can't win without them. In a deck that's very creature centric I like to run closer to 40, if not more, Gruul has really, really good creatures to choose from. For example, you can run Wood Elves, Farhaven Elf over artifact ramp, these give you a creature body while also permanently ramping you (land ramp is much more stable than artifact ramp anyways). Creature buffs can be stapled to a creature, there are options like Thunderfoot Baloth, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma or maybe Blossoming Bogbeast or Kamahl, Heart of Krosa. You can use creatures as a great source of removal with options like Thorn Mammoth, Ulvenwald Tracker, Kogla, the Titan Ape, Gruul Ragebeast, Steelbane Hydra, Viashino Heretic, and Outland Liberator  ^Flip are all pretty decent at getting things off the table for you while also offering a physical presence. Not sure if they quite fit, but depending on your meta Silklash Spider and Squallmonger are pretty nasty surprises for decks that use Flying a lot, Squallmonger can even kill huge flyers with another player's help, or allow several players to quickly eliminate an archenemy that is lower in life.

There are a few good ways to double your power in Gruul, the new Two-Handed Axe is very interesting, the surprise Double Strike ability works well with your Commander, and the power doubling effect definitely does. Inquisitor's Flail is an incredible equipment if your Commander is either very big or has First Strike, yours can easily get big enough to justify the risk. Berserkers' Onslaught is really strong, even if it's 5 mana, Enchantments tend to stick around for awhile.

I think you should run more sources of Trample in here (there are some listed above as well), but with a budget restriction that does make it more of a challenge. Your Commander is really strong if he has Trample, but can be chumped by a 0/1 goat token without it (funny image, maybe he got hungry?). Garruk's Uprising is a really good card if you have enough creatures with power 4 and up, but the Trample is the real perk here arguably. Kessig Wolf Run might do the trick, and it's on a land. Brawn is pretty budget, but it can be hard to get it killed. War Cadence isn't exactly Trample, but it can easily let you swing with unblockable creatures if someone is tapped out, but remember this can also be used to create chaos on other people's attacks if you've got nothing better to do. It's also not Trample technically, but Siege Behemoth can bypass blockers for your attackers.

With a relatively low budget in Red, I feel like Rite of the Raging Storm is a very underrated card. Those 5/1s are never coming your way, but they will swarm anyone who can't deal with it on their opponent's turns, and yours gets the buff from your Commander fwiw. Breaker of Armies is a good way to clear out potentially a whole board worth of stuff of a vulnerable player, it can deter attacks vs you if their defenders are all going to be stomped by an Eldrazi.

If you can get your creature count high enough, you could sneak stuff like Lurking Predators in, which is pretty impressive card advantage over time in many metas. There is also Heartwood Storyteller, which is very good if you don't run many non-creatures.