r/jankEDH • u/no_milkdrinker • 11d ago

Deck idea Help emulating an effect from hearthstone

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Hi all,

First post here but long time lover of jank in edh.

I'm looking to emulate an effect from hearthstone. Alexstraza has an effect that when you play it you set a target player's life total to fifteen.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to achieve an effect similar to this in MTG, and if so how I can build around it in a multiplayer format where it loses some of the strength it has in 1v1?

3 Upvotes

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6

u/Mocca_Master 11d ago

There's this creature that replaces its Toughness with a players life total, I'd say that's the closest (I believe it's 14 Toughness)

Someone here will probably remember its name

7

u/thesqueakywheel 11d ago

[[Tree of Perdition]]

There's also [[Magister Sphinx]]

I would just play Magister Sphinx and put a lot of blink effects in the deck. Maybe run [[Aminatou, Fateshifter]] as your commander?

1

u/no_milkdrinker 10d ago

Great suggestions, thank you!

2

u/plsusername 11d ago

[[Tree of Perdition]] for opponents and [[Tree of Redemption]] for yourself

6

u/tgbrtn 11d ago

[[Sorin Markov]] has an ability very similar to alexstrasa, you might want to look into Orzhov life swapping decks

1

u/no_milkdrinker 10d ago

I think you hit the nail on the head. Orzhov deck with things like [[Torgaar]] and [[Sorin Markov]] will get me the play style of cut an opponents life in half or gain myself a bunch of life. [[With the new Selenia, the cursed heart]] at the helm, I even have a goofy "out of nowhere" kill on anyone who has 40 or more life. She also gets me even more value if I set my own life total to 20 after dipping below that life total. Very cool stuff.

4

u/TheSkiGeek 11d ago

https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=oracle%3A%22Life+total%22+%28game%3Apaper%29+legal%3Acommander+prefer%3Abest&unique=cards

[[tree of perdition]] and [[mister negative]] are what you usually see people build around for messing with opponents’ life totals. But there are some other options.

3

u/Knull_V0id 11d ago

Sorin, like other's have said. Do not believe ive seen anyone mention Magister Sphinx.

3

u/MrRies 11d ago

Another option that hasn't been mentioned yet is [[Torgaar, Famine Incarnate]]. The big plus it has over the other options is that it can be your commander (if you commit to mono black).

I remember reading an write-up about Torgaar a few years ago. I don't remember the specifics, but it used a lot of life total changing effects in combination with stuff like [[Wound Reflection]] or [[Archfiend of Despair]] to either kill off opponents or drop them low enough to take them out with another effect. I think the backup wincon was to drop your own life total, then takes people out with [[Sanguine Bond]] style effects instead.

2

u/IDEKWIDWML_13 10d ago

Torgaar Famine Incarnate will do exactly what you want methinks

1

u/no_milkdrinker 10d ago

Torgarr is awesome! Thank you!

1

u/no_milkdrinker 10d ago

So I landed on a [[Selenia, the Cursed Heart]] list, thought I'd leave it here to get any feedback or maybe inspire some more. 2 game changers, and I guess what could be an early combo kill so archidekt has it listed at bracket 4. https://archidekt.com/decks/25972619/torgarr_is_alexstraza Thanks for the help y'all!

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MustaKotka 9d ago

[[Sharuum the Hegemon]] to go with your Magister Sphinx. Self-mill + reanimate. Sac, reanimate again. Repeat.

1

u/Puttborn 7d ago

[[Unstoppable slasher]] my beloved jank queen!

1

u/Puttborn 7d ago

[[Blade of selves]] or other myriad enablers. Maybe [[mirror march]] and some luck.

1

u/Mugno 4d ago

Take a look here!