MTG Salvation

I recently discovered the card, Dystopia, and immediately went to my favorite bot to price check. $0.05 a piece. Nice. I added three copies to my sideboard and so far, it has been a huge help against white and green decks, especially those with annoying enchantments that black has a problem dealing with.

Dystopia is not alone. Buried within the good ol' days of Magic are the most vicious hosers ever printed. I need your help in listinv them all.

P.S.

Preferably those that are Classic-legal.

You should start with most of the Tempest color hosers. Those hosers were so brutal and oppressive that they could singlehandedly win games against the appropriate mono-color deck. The ones of note:

- Chill
- Perish
- Choke
- Dread of Night
- Boil
- Warmth
- Light of Day

Chill and Perish are the two big ones, especially since they have been ragged on by R&D members for being too harsh as color hosers. All the other hosers on the list are still incredibly powerful and have seen Constructed play at some point in Magic's history.

Gloom is also incredibly oppressive. It's like Chill+.

I remember Perish back in the day when I was playing Stompy, had to play Thran Lens in the board to even have a hope of dealing with black.

Anarchy

Good ol' Phil Foglio

Omen of Fire can be really brutal in EDH.

Gloom
And
Karma
I used those all the time back when.

In the 4 mana "destroy all" category, you have Flashfires, Boil, Boiling Seas, Tsunami, and Acid Rain. Guess Wizards figured that mountains and swamps weren't problematic enough for similar hosers. I guess Armageddon and Ravages of War works well enough. Forgot about Stench of Evil. It's a little less absolute.

Virtue's Ruin and Nature's Ruin are regeneration-allowing analogs to Perish.

can't forget Circle of Protection: Red. of all the circles its the most problematic for the color it affects. red has no enchantment removal and is almost totally reliant on straight up damage dealing to win the game.

Quote from metamorph

can't forget Circle of Protection: Red. of all the circles its the most problematic for the color it affects. red has no enchantment removal and is almost totally reliant on straight up damage dealing to win the game.

If you are mono white, story circle is probably better as it can affect any color.

Maybe I'm just sore from playing standard in the past couple years but Target Black or Red Player Loses at Instant Speed was one of my least favorite cards to see while playing B/R.

One's that haven't been mentioned as of starting this post:
Hosing Green:
Acid Rain, Breath of Dreams, Deathgrip, Flooded Woodlands, Hibernation, Leshrac's Sigil, Lifetap, Nature's Ruin, Sphere of Duty

Hosing Red:
Absolute Law , Conversion, Douse, Glaciers, Justice, Lifeblood, Renewing Dawn, Sanctimony, Sphere of Law, Volcanic Eruption, Wrath of Marit Lage

Hosing Black:
Absolute Grace, Cleanse, Drought, Elephant Grass, Karma, Lifeforce, Light of Day, Reclamation, Sphere of Grace

Hosing Blue:
Boiling Seas, Curse of Marit Lage, Heat Wave, Magnetic Mountain, Monsoon, Scald, Sphere of Reason, Thelon's Curse, Thoughtleech, Tsunami, Typhoon

Hosing White:
Anarchy, Havoc, Stench of Evil , Virtue's Ruin, Yawgmoth's Edict

Hosing more than one Color:
High Seas, Putrefaction, Tidal Control, Nature's Wrath, Royal Decree, Magistrate's Veto, Reign of Terror, Roots of Life, Omen of Fire

Relevent in today's modern and legacy meta, Choke makes blue players weep.

Quote from ColonelCoo

I didn't see my finisher back when I ran Suicide Black.

infernal darkness
Drop zombies (plural is preferred) turn 1, dark ritual a swamp a priest and then a Infernal Darkness on turn two. Generally you're hitting hard. They can't cast their colored spells and you finish them off.

Contamination does the same thing, but for 1 mana less and with a different upkeep cost.

Quote from paronomasiac

One's that haven't been mentioned as of starting this post:

The "Sphere of" cards were a cycle. You forgot the white one, Sphere of Truth. Otherwise, nice list

Kor Firewalker sure made a bunch of red players cry a year or so ago.

Contamination is the nuts combined with Nether Spirit.

Blue Elemental Blast / Hydroblast / Red Elemental Blast / Pyroblast.

Also, Guttural Response.

I'm actually working on a couple of EDH decks on Cockatrice that use these hosers and color changing/color word changing effects like Swirl the Mists. I actually got out Distorting Lens and Isochron Scepter with a Pyroblast along with a Spinal Villain and Tidal Visionary in one game, until they killed me for being a jerk

Quote from parinoid

Contamination does the same thing, but for 1 mana less and with a different upkeep cost.

I just wanted to say, Contamination and Infernal Darkness are significantly different, in a very subtle way.

Infernal Darkness only changes the color of mana produced. Contamination changes the color and amount, which hoses a lot of what Black does really well, like Cabal Coffers.

• iona shield of emeria
  
• kor firewalker
  
• mirran crusader
  
• summoning trap
  
• flashfreeze
  
• great stable stag
  
• drought
  
• justice
  

Circle of Protection: Red is actually unbeatable for most red decks.

choke looks like a pretty sweet card against blue, however, in modern, I think it's significantly less useful due to the actual amount of islands being run in decks utilizing blue. Almost all decks with islands in them are usually attached to the ravnica shock land, and the rest of their lands are generally non-island duals. Still, even having a few of their lands not untap is still pretty sweet though. Maybe I'll try it out.

Quote from manaman22

The "Sphere of" cards were a cycle. You forgot the white one, Sphere of Truth. Otherwise, nice list

Bah! I knew my search-fu would miss something! I even saw the "Sphere of" cycle and didn't think to double check for all of them >.<

I have to go with Iona....nothing hoses any monocolored deck worse than a turn one swamp, dark ritual, entomb, exhume, Iona in legacy

Quote from paronomasiac »

I just wanted to say, Contamination and Infernal Darkness are significantly different, in a very subtle way.

Infernal Darkness only changes the color of mana produced. Contamination changes the color and amount, which hoses a lot of what Black does really well, like Cabal Coffers.

This is not the case, from the rulings on Contamination (emphasis mine):

External effects that generate more mana still generate their additional mana as directed without being affected by this card. Effects which generate more mana based on what type of mana the land produces will be affected in color but not in amount.