Magnify the Pain

[Limited]

Okay, so there's this Rakdos card, called Pain Magnification. Its an enchantment which says that when an opponent is dealt three or more damage by a single source, he or she must discard a card.

Not something to get really excited about, until I saw one in play during a multiplayer game.

Having an enchantment in play that makes attacking your opponents just a bit more attractive, sure does deflect a lot of attention. Why deal three damage to you, when you can just as easily let another opponent take three and discard a card, right?

So, I need to build a deck around this..

First thought was to go for an Ogre / Demon tribal deck, because Demons and Ogres usually have three or more power. So..

Creatures (24)
4x Blood Speaker
4x Gutwrencher Oni
4x Jagged Poppet
4x Ogre Marauder
4x Scourge of Numai
4x Takenuma's Bleeder
Spells (16)
4x Cackling Flames
4x Pain Management
4x Rakdos Signet
4x Wayfarer's Bauble
Lands (20)
7x Mountain
4x Rakdos Carnarium
9x Swamp

There you have it: a nice, rare-free, first version.

As you can see, I've put plenty of mana-accel in there to get some big beats on the table fast. Ogres are represented by the Blood Speaker (which is always an easy discard), Jagged Poppet (despite the Blood Speakers, I think this deck can bo hellbent pretty fast), Ogre Marauder (because its difficult to block him) and Takenuma Bleeder (a personal favorite). Demons are just the Gutwrencher Oni (discard cards is not really a problem, and the trample makes sure that chumpblocking will probably still trigger Pain Magnification) and Scourge of Numai (which is just a very efficient 4/4).

This left little room for removal, so I put in four Cackling Flames, which can always be used to burn a opponent for three (or five) and make them discard a card. This leaves the deck without any way to deal with artifacts or enchantments..

Does anyone have any suggestions on which cards I should add? Which ones I should take out? If I should just give up trying to make a deck with Pain Magnification?

 

[dwarven_anarchist]

Furnace of Rath and Megrim might work. If you can get Furnace, Megrim and Pain Magnification into play and deal at least two damage to an opponent, they lose their entire hand, and take a lot of damage. Just an idea.

 

[DarthFerret]

I am assuming you are going type 2 on this. If not, my suggestions are as follows:

#1. Furnace of Rath
#2. Lightning Bolt
#3. Detonate

With the Furnace in play, your detonate should trigger the Pain Magnification.

If you are looking for some critters, (and this will take a lot of rearranging here), try a Dwarven Warrior coupled with Dragon Whelps. You can make the whelps unblockable with the dwarves, then pump them up to trigger the PM.

This would work with any pumpable critter, however, I personally love blowing up a whelp for the win. (Just cause the whelp dies if you pump him more than 3 times does not mean you cannot pump him by 10.....just a little unexpected by most opponents!)

If you are sticking with type 2, well, not sure how much help I can be.

 

[hrothmar]

i'd totally combine pain magnification with chain of plasma.. If I could only convince other players to continue the chain...

(then call the deck chain magnification // pain of plasma)

 

[Limited]

Furnace of Rath, Megrim and Chain of Plasma are great suggestions..

Version 2 of the deck will be up soon!

 

[Limited]

I really like the idea of adding Furnace of Rath, mostly because I have recently acquired four but also because both Scourge of Numai and Takenuma Bleeder deal damage, but make you lose life (which isn't doubled) as a drawback. I'm a bit hesitant to put in four, because they don't do anything on their own.. Three seems like a good option.

Because of the combo with Pain Management, I can't resist putting at least one Megrim in the deck.. perhaps two?

Lastly, the Cackling Flames are being replaced by Chain of Plasma... This means dropping a couple of cards. Right now, I am dropping a the Blood Speakers because they don't work well with Hellbent and I play four copies of both Demons I play.

I might actually have to consider playing with Villainous Ogre, who is clearly not as good as either the Bleeder or the Marauder (because it can't block) but the regenerate (if you control a demon) might turn him into a great attacker with a Furnace in play.
Thoughts?


Version 2:

Creatures (20)
4x Gutwrencher Oni
4x Jagged Poppet
4x Ogre Marauder
4x Scourge of Numai
4x Takenuma's Bleeder
Spells (20)
3x Chain of Plasma
3x Furnace of Rath
2x Megrim
4x Pain Management
4x Rakdos Signet
4x Wayfarer's Bauble
Lands (20)
8x Mountain
4x Rakdos Carnarium
8x Swamp

Keep the help coming!
(Unfortunately, I won't play this deck until some time next week (probably) so I won't have any results until then)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

wait a minute.... if you had furnace of wrath in play... and a megrim and you dealt them 2 damage.. they'd discard their entire hand and lose the game correct?

 

[Limited]

Nice. Very nice.

20 mana sources and 4 baubles and 4 signets seems a bit much, tough. I'd drop a few for an additional Chain of Plasma and some more burn. But more mana accel maybe better.

So when are you going to playtest this?

*EDIT: limited you visited this forum on my pc, now I'm logged in as you, LOL. Greetz, JORAEL *

 

[Force of Will Smith]

yea ordinarily if you're running signets you only need around 16 land and 20 becomes overkill.. i'd drop baubles entirely.. maybe run magma jet so you can get the built in scrye??

 

[jorael]

Too bad Magma Jet doesn't trigger Pain Magnification.

I'd be tempted to add Blazing Salvo. Not a very good card, but it looks very playable in this deck.

 

[hrothmar]

browbeat?

 

[Limited]

Browbeat is very nice, but in some cases I want to be hellbent and I'd really like some instant removal to force a Jagged Poppet through.

Maybe it should just be 4x Lightning Bolt

(Very funny Jorael. For a moment, I thought I was posting in my sleep again)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

i was thinking magma jet to actually FIND your pain magnification.. you can't run 4 of a card that the deck is focused around with no way to get it..

maybe black carddraw or tutors.

 

[Tabasco]

Is this supposed to be extended legal or is it just T1 casual...cause there are lots of options you can have if it is not limited to a non T1 format...

think

4 Dark Ritual (there is no reason not to run these)
Avatar of Discord...(5/3 flyer!!)
Jagged Poppet is decent
Rakdos Augermage...(3/2 first striker with an awesome ability!!!) Note: his ability still works if you are withhhout cards in hand
Lyzola Blood Witch (a 3/1 with ability to kick oink!

 

[Limited]

i was thinking magma jet to actually FIND your pain magnification.. you can't run 4 of a card that the deck is focused around with no way to get it..

maybe black carddraw or tutors.

Hmmm.. now that I'm playing Furnace of Rath, Magma Jet probably will deal more than two damage. And I shouldn't underestimate Scry

I'll have to play it to make sure

 

[Limited]

Its just Casual, so not really restricted to any format..

4 Dark Ritual (there is no reason not to run these)
Avatar of Discord...(5/3 flyer!!)
Jagged Poppet is decent
Rakdos Augermage...(3/2 first striker with an awesome ability!!!) Note: his ability still works if you are withhhout cards in hand
Lyzola Blood Witch (a 3/1 with ability to kick oink!

A reason not to run Dark Ritual
I usually play multiplayer games (almost exclusively) and I have found that in five player games tempo is a lot less important than cardadvantage. I could play Dark Ritual and get a turn one Takenuma Bleeder or a turn three Gutwrencher Oni, but that'll only allow me to do a little more damage, which isn't very viable with so much damage that needs to be dealt.
Another reason is that I believe a deck should contain enough threats: a deck with 4x Dark Ritual and 4x Lotus Petal etcetera has to make room for these cards. That probably means less creature cards in your deck, which means you have less creatures to waste. This is just a personal philosophy, which of course might be totally wrong

The other creatures you mention are great cards, but seeing that I'm playing Takenuma Bleeder, Scourge of Numai and Gutwrencher Oni, I think I want my creatures to be either Ogres or Demons. Jagged Poppet is an Ogre, thats why the deck already has four.

(btw, Lyzolda is great, but this deck doesn't really have creatures to spare, doesn't have a lot of multicolored creatures and focusses on doing three or more damage, in which case her ability is just one damage short.)

 

[Force of Will Smith]

i disagree, i think a turn 1 avatar would be best... cause no one would counter it.. and you could keep him at bay and beat down the first person who messed with you..

plus who's going to counter something with that much drawback?

I want to run a avatar discord with victimize/exhume...
i think that would be brutal..

and magma jet i thought was awful, but it saved me a few games..

 

[hrothmar]

fo...sizzle !

 

[Limited]

i disagree, i think a turn 1 avatar would be best... cause no one would counter it.. and you could keep him at bay and beat down the first person who messed with you..

So, I'd play a turn one threat to save it for the first person to mess with me?

I want to run a avatar discord with victimize/exhume...
i think that would be brutal..

and magma jet i thought was awful, but it saved me a few games..

Magma Jet has proven to be really great; two damage doesn't trigger Pain Magnification, but there are always creatures that need a little burn . And stacking your draws when your hand is empty is great.
The interaction between Megrim, Pain Magnification and Chain of Plasma is just insane. Unfortunately, although I've drawn the Furnace and had the mana, I've never be able to play it. Multiplayer is just not the place for the Furnace I think...

I'll have to rethink the deck entirely

 

[Force of Will Smith]

I dont think you have to rethink it entirely, just be aware of the politics of multiplayer..

just run pain magnification as an enhancement to your deck, not a requirement.. just run burn that averages about about 3.. like flames of the blood hand, bolt, chain lightning, etc..

furnace is REALLY dangerous though... you may need to run seething song to put it in play.. although, how amazing would it be to have a furnace in play, a mag pain in play, and a megrim... and you cast delirium? skeins to make everyone discard 2 cards..

killing all hands and doing a CRAP load of damage..

opponents take 6 damage for each card in their hand and they discard their entire hand as well.

maybe only run 3 magpain and 2 furnaces..

and avatar of discord could be really good, but when and if you run it, make sure you have a backup plan..

one thing to make any black deck good is run 12 cards of creature kill.. especially the edicts... in multi you will be able to have enough time to hold multiples and when your opponent attacks you play 1, they counter it... you let it resolve, then cast a 2nd to basically win.. if you're running discord (or as i call it avatar of discard ) then run some reanimation, which couples with creature kill..

furnace may not have a place in the deck however.. the problem with magpain is this... if you run it as an afterthought, then you may not always hit the 3 damage mark, if you run it as a core, then you need tutors and you may not have the cheap burn you need..

id recommend using magpain as free discard while beating opponents to death with creatures with evasion.. you could use the nice hellbent creature aura's that give them +4/+whateva..

you could also run discord with fiery temper.. a turn 2 avatar + 3 damage..
if you're running ritual, discord is definately tempting... but you still need some reanimation.. cause nothing would be funnier than a..

opp turn1: island
t1: swamp, ritual, discord, discard avatar of woe and visara. (opponent laughs)
oppturn2: island, bounce avatar
t2: swamp, exhume for visara

at this point your opponent can:

keep untapped land for a counter (which theyll take insane damage from visara),
wait another turn to bounce once you attack (which leaves you a turn to cast another threat such as poppet to murder their control in hand)
play a blocker while they wait for a counter or bounce

at worst: you get visara back in your hand, you have one creature in your graveyard, and you lost a ritual.

plus blue doesnt really do much damage to creatures outright.. and against red it would just be annoying, but you'd eventually brutalize them with red/black.

especially with cards like void or blazing spectre and terminate...
i've still been trying to make a r/b that stomps the other houses, its tough...

red blue is insane... ill have to post my type 1 izzet.. it can take out boros/elves/goblins/urzatron/tooth/psychatog/ its winning streak is pretty ridiculous..
ive done a black white which is annoyingly slow, but never compares to it.. and a blackgreen that is based on cumulative creature sac effects that can fully control a 9 player game..

dunno what it is about red/black... so tough