What others cards do you think might be good alternatives for others?
1. Depends, Personally if I couldn't get Maelstrom Pulses and I was trying to stay on color I would go with Pernicious Deed.
2. Yes
3. See #1, but substitute Path to exile or Swords to Plowshares for Pernicious Deed.
4. No not really. Reason being you often need much more than 4 lands for Mutilate to be viable as a creature destruction spell. For the investment mana wise you will end up having to make for Mutilate you are better off just getting something like Decree of Pain.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -- Varsuvius, Order of the Stick
- Duress vs thoughtseize -- Decks that pack one or the other often pack both; duress is cool, acceptable replacement.
-- mortify vs vindicate -- unacceptable. If I can't afford vindicate, I won't play black-white AT ALL. Mortify supplements vindicate, but can't replace it. This is like asking to play blue control in the eternal formats and asking if foil is an acceptable substitute to force of will.
-- Mutilate vs Damanation -- I consider mutilate to be absolute crap. I'd sooner use infest or nev's disk or splash green for pernicious deed than settle for mutilate.
What others cards do you think might be good alternatives for others?
1: Pulse is pretty much better, but if not, Putrefy is good, but I'd say Pernicious Deed is probably better.
2: Yes, Duress over Thoughtseize is fine. Some people do for personal choice anyways.
3: Vindicate is nice and is great, Mortify is only nice. Vindicate i better, but if you don't have a choice, go for it.
4: That honestly depends. If your playing mono black, such as MBC, I'd rather have Mutilate honestly. It helps against pesky indestructibility...not that its a huge problem. Damnation is probably better for 2 colors, such as GB or UB.
guys hes asking for replacements for priciness .. pernicious deed is a solid 10 dollar card compared to 1-2 dollars for putrefy
i think putrefy is a better replacement for the pulse instead of mortify for vindicate.. i dunno why but i always catch myself hitting crucial lands with vindicate first and foremost :S
and like said already, mutilate can sometimes be better than damnation in MBC, but why not use disk to get rid of enchantments as well? (blacks main weakness)
It also depends on the format. like it sounds like straight up casual legacy.
In which case, you could do a lot worse then Oblivion Stone or Disc.
I like mutilate for damnation. depending on who you play against obviously, but taking out 4 toughness dudes is nothing to scoff at.
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I just want people who redraft to admit this:
"I can't draft objectively unless I am able to guarantee that I receive at least 3 rares. I am also better than most average/new players so I want to make sure that I get the best rares and they end up with worse ones. I care more about the monetary value of cards than actually playing the game for decent prizes."
as to the last one...depends where you're playing. for casual matches, most of the time people won't have a creature with toughness greater than the number of lands they have, which should be able the same as the number of lands you have. so if you're playing mono-black with all basics, it should be fine. of course, both have different loopholes...damnation won't destroy indestructibles, so if you've got a lot of those, that's pretty fun. whereas mutilate won't kill disproportionately tough creatures, so if you've got a lot of those, then that can be useful. but if you do, i'd consider running pestilence instead, since it's reusable.
for competitive play, though, mutilate is junk. you'll never have enough swamps to kill a goyf. not to mention it's out of extended, so it's competing with much better removal.
Cards with the post 8th Edition, color shifted and future shifted templates as well as the timeshifted and Coldsnap reprint ones tastes a little sweeter. Any gold cards with the old faces are a little saltier. European foreign (except Russian) cards with the mentioned templates above are not as sweet as their English counterparts and has a wierd after taste. All taste tests were done from fresh packs and all cards tasted are not foil cards. I have yet to taste Asian and Russian cards.
Eh, depending on what format and meta you're playing in, I might go with Distress rather than Duress, especially if you play casually.
It might be a little slower, but Duress can be a dead draw against creature-based decks, whereas Distress gets rid of them.
Eh, depending on what format and meta you're playing in, I might go with Distress rather than Duress, especially if you play casually.
It might be a little slower, but Duress can be a dead draw against creature-based decks, whereas Distress gets rid of them.
in casual, maybe. for competitive duress is 100% better. there aren't any good competitive decks that i'm aware of that use ONLY creatures and lands. and if nothing else, you get to see their hand on turn 1.
Is there a black card that is a good alternative to soulmender?
This is a pretty old thread. So it's probably best to create a new one. People will read this and get confused, like I did, about the relevancy of some of these cards.
To answer your question. There are no direct drop in replacements. Black isn't really about life gain, it's more about self sacrifice (in a bad way, like killing your own dog to get what you want kind of thing) than life gain. That said, there are a few non-artifact ways to gain life that are pretty close.
Edit: Aaagh... forgot Scryfall search string URLs don't work. Can I try a TinyURL? I promise, it goes to Scryfall.
Is Putrefy a good alternative to Maelstrom Pulse?
Duress for Thoughtseize?
Mortify for Vindicate?
Mutilate for Damnation?
What others cards do you think might be good alternatives for others?
"The world is an endless abyss and tomorrow
draws you deeper into the darkness."
1. Depends, Personally if I couldn't get Maelstrom Pulses and I was trying to stay on color I would go with Pernicious Deed.
2. Yes
3. See #1, but substitute Path to exile or Swords to Plowshares for Pernicious Deed.
4. No not really. Reason being you often need much more than 4 lands for Mutilate to be viable as a creature destruction spell. For the investment mana wise you will end up having to make for Mutilate you are better off just getting something like Decree of Pain.
Trade Thread
Modern
RWGBurnGWR
GUInfectUG
GRTronRG
UWGifts TronWU
URBGrixis DelverBRU
RGWZooWGR
Legacy
BUWTinFinsWUB
UROmniTellRU
BURTESRUB
GElves!G
GBPSIBG
RGBelcherGR
UBRGWDredgeWGRBU
UBAffinityBU
RBurnR
Vintage
UBGDoomsdayGBU
0Martello Shops0
GElves!G
UBTPSBU
UBelcherU
0Dredge0
-- mortify vs vindicate -- unacceptable. If I can't afford vindicate, I won't play black-white AT ALL. Mortify supplements vindicate, but can't replace it. This is like asking to play blue control in the eternal formats and asking if foil is an acceptable substitute to force of will.
-- Mutilate vs Damanation -- I consider mutilate to be absolute crap. I'd sooner use infest or nev's disk or splash green for pernicious deed than settle for mutilate.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
1: Pulse is pretty much better, but if not, Putrefy is good, but I'd say Pernicious Deed is probably better.
2: Yes, Duress over Thoughtseize is fine. Some people do for personal choice anyways.
3: Vindicate is nice and is great, Mortify is only nice. Vindicate i better, but if you don't have a choice, go for it.
4: That honestly depends. If your playing mono black, such as MBC, I'd rather have Mutilate honestly. It helps against pesky indestructibility...not that its a huge problem. Damnation is probably better for 2 colors, such as GB or UB.
i think putrefy is a better replacement for the pulse instead of mortify for vindicate.. i dunno why but i always catch myself hitting crucial lands with vindicate first and foremost :S
and like said already, mutilate can sometimes be better than damnation in MBC, but why not use disk to get rid of enchantments as well? (blacks main weakness)
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=291220
In which case, you could do a lot worse then Oblivion Stone or Disc.
I like mutilate for damnation. depending on who you play against obviously, but taking out 4 toughness dudes is nothing to scoff at.
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for competitive play, though, mutilate is junk. you'll never have enough swamps to kill a goyf. not to mention it's out of extended, so it's competing with much better removal.
It might be a little slower, but Duress can be a dead draw against creature-based decks, whereas Distress gets rid of them.
in casual, maybe. for competitive duress is 100% better. there aren't any good competitive decks that i'm aware of that use ONLY creatures and lands. and if nothing else, you get to see their hand on turn 1.
This is a pretty old thread. So it's probably best to create a new one. People will read this and get confused, like I did, about the relevancy of some of these cards.
To answer your question. There are no direct drop in replacements. Black isn't really about life gain, it's more about self sacrifice (in a bad way, like killing your own dog to get what you want kind of thing) than life gain. That said, there are a few non-artifact ways to gain life that are pretty close.
Edit: Aaagh... forgot Scryfall search string URLs don't work. Can I try a TinyURL? I promise, it goes to Scryfall.
1 drops that also gain life? Yes. Deathgreeter Vampire Neonate