Fire Covenant or Reckless Assault?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 25, 2024, 7:54 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have a copy of Fire Covenant in my Tariel, Reckoner of Souls EDH deck, as that deck can afford to pay the life that that spells requires, but I am considering replacing that card with Reckless Assault, since I feel that the enchantment is overall a superior card; it does require a greater investment of both life and mana, but that fact that it can target anything and can be used repeatedly makes it worth that higher cost, in my mind.
What does everyone else say about this subject? Should I replace Fire Covenant with Reckless Assault? I certainly am eager to receive your responses.
plakjekaas says... #3
It's worse, you need to pay for the enchantment too.
If all three opponents have a 3/3 you'd like to get rid of, Fire Covenant will cost you 3 mana and 9 life to get rid of them all, at instant speed.
Reckless Assault would cost you 4 mana at sorcery speed, and then 9 mana and 18 life at instant speed for the exact same result of killing three 3/3s.
433% more mana, 200% more life, gets worse in scaling the more you want to target. And you think it's superior, because it can target players? Would you play Pestilence over Toxic Deluge as well, for the sole purpose of wiping the board? Or does the deck need a wincon so badly you'd want to pay 240 life and 120 mana to kill your opponents?
Reckless Assault is the opposite of efficient, keep the Fire Covenant, that might be one of the best cards in the deck.
August 26, 2024 1:52 a.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #4
I'd say Pestilence or Pyrohemia since your commander has 7 toughness. Repeatable board wipe for commander's ability and it also drains the board (which is good since you said life loss isn't a big issue).
August 26, 2024 1:11 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
Caerwyn, plakjekaas, Fire Covenant is a one-time effect, while Reckless Assault can be used over many turns; what if I use the instant, and then an opponent later summons a creature that I wish to destroy? Also, I certainly do not intend to defeat my opponents with the enchantment, but one never knows when even a single point of damage shall make a difference, and it also would be useful for dealing with annoying planeswalkers, as well.
RiotRunner789, I previously had a Pestilence Demon in this deck, but I removed it, because of how expansive it is.
August 26, 2024 9:09 p.m.
A cheap kill spell when it matters is better than a very expensive kill spell that you have to set up. Being repeatable does not make the card good - it just means it sits around and can repeatedly drain your resources.
The right answer is not “run a bad spell” - it is “run great removal, so when they draw into a new creature you have another way to deal with it.”
August 26, 2024 11:58 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Caerwyn, yes, that makes sense, and I even asked several of my friends about this, and they all agreed that Fire Covenant was the preferable card, so I shall keep it, in this deck, and hope that WotC eventually prints a strictly better version of Reckless Assault, since I like that card's concept.
August 27, 2024 8:48 p.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #8
You could consider Attrition
. It's not damage but it's 3 instead of 4, and it destroys for 1 mana. The downside can also act as a sac outlet in your deck.
August 28, 2024 6:33 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
RiotRunner789, yes, I have Attrition in another deck, but it definitely would be a nice card for this deck, as well, since it would destroy my opponents' creatures, so that I could then reanimate them with Tariel.
Caerwyn says... #2
I would firmly put Reckless Assault in the "bad card" category. To kill a 3/3, you have to pay 3 mana and 6 life--and the price only gets worse the larger the creature is. Consider this, would you play a spell that cost 3 mana and 6 life, but had a "only target creatures with less than 3 toughness" rider? Of course not - three mana is already expensive for removal, and the only time you really should be paying three mana for a removal spell is something like Anguished Unmaking or Void Rend, which give you huge degrees of flexibility in what you can target.
As a note, your deck is missing both Swords to Plowshares
and Path to Exile, both of which are great cards your deck could benefit from.
August 25, 2024 10:03 p.m.