Does EDH have a Home for Killing Wave?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Oct. 29, 2015, 4:34 p.m. by CuteSnail
I know life loss isnt powerful in EDH unless its like Sorin Markov or Exsanguinate, but I really like Killing Wave, and im wondering if there is a deck that it fits in.
Any deck where is actually worth running.
If you have a big mana deck that runs black (and you don't care too much about your own creatures), it seems viable. There are better options, but it can work, especially against token or similar strategies.
October 29, 2015 4:42 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #4
I had it in my Mikaeus, the Unhallowed deck for a time, seemed like a perfect fit since I could wrath out everything but my commander and double up ETB triggers and leave my board intact. Problem is your opponents get the same choice, so they'll keep the creatures you actually care about. Even if you dump as much as a Decree of Pain into it Killing Wave still won't destroy value targets, and if you're only pitching in Toxic Deluge mana you aren't gonna kill anything.
October 29, 2015 5:21 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #5
I love running this card is a Grixis or B/R shell because it is quite powerful.
October 29, 2015 5:44 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #6
Works pretty well in a deck set to build around Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble and other "dies" effects.
October 29, 2015 7:17 p.m.
The issue with killing eave is that you give your opponents a choice. Not only are you put out mana wise in that you need to pay th initial 
but then have to pay another on top of that for each creature you want to save i.e. Your opponents get 2 creatures for the same mana as one you want to save, but ultimately the wrath will kill everything but the thing you want it to.
October 29, 2015 7:43 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #8
That's why you slap it into a deck that makes use of that, not one that loses as much/more than your opponent from it.
October 29, 2015 7:47 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #9
Well you don't spend mana to save creatures, you spend life, and dies triggers that cause loss of life are actually counter-intuitive because it makes the choice easier and your weenies cost you in card efficiency. If I lose 2 life to dies triggers per creature or lose 5 life to keep them alive you're offering even less incentive to let valuable creatures die.
You kill three soldier tokens and two other random big threats and deal 15 damage with a 3 card combo, Avacyn, Angel of Hope is still beating your face in. At least you're lucky it isn't Sigarda, Host of Herons. Whatever it is you want to die, Killing Wave won't kill.
When you play a sweeper you want it to sweep. Killing Wave gives your opponents the option to selectively neuter the impact of the spell, the mana it takes to make the choice prohibitive in a 40 life format is miles north of efficient, for the cost you have options like In Garruk's Wake and Dread Cacodemon.
Killing Wave's a poor sweeper and is too dependent on your opponent's board-state to be a reliable damage dealer. You can do more damage for less mana just from dropping Gray Merchant of Asphodel in most cases, or Kokusho, the Evening Star.
October 29, 2015 8:19 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #10
Yeah, as a board wipe it's not worth it, as a way to kill off your whole board for one mana, it works.
October 29, 2015 9:08 p.m.
Sorry about that, I completely misread the card. Ignore the whole spending mana part of my comment.
October 29, 2015 9:32 p.m.
Got a buddy of mine that uses it in his Thraximundar deck against tokens and other creature heavy decks (his deck runs very few) and I've run it as a 1 mana "sac my entire board, don't care what you are doing, whatever" kinda card as well.
When I was running Kresh the Bloodbraided I ran it as well, not as a sweeper, but as an amusing choice that resulted in a very large commander to the face either way. (It also worked for politics sometimes. Dude with lots of tiny but useless dudes that couldn't get through feeding Kresh who has fear and trample and deathtouch.)
October 31, 2015 2:46 a.m.
i run it in my Erebos, God of the Dead deck, and someone enchanted my commander with Pariah and i used it to get rid of just enough of my own devotion creatures to start beating his face again.
October 31, 2015 3:28 p.m.
I currently use it in my Kaervek the Merciless deck and, while it is underwhelming as a boardwipe, some strategic planning can make it cause massive life loss. I have cast it for 3 before, making my opponents lose about 12-15 life apiece, and then cast Wound Reflection to chunk them again, with Kaervek the Merciless lording over their pittance of life afterwards.
November 1, 2015 4 a.m.
JamesAzimuthPHD says... #15
I run it in pretty much every black deck I've ever made. Just make sure you are careful when you cast it; it's a much more tactical card than your typical Wrath of God. No matter the situation, you usually want to cast it for at least X=5, if not more.
I dunno, I personally love the card. It just requires a really observant mind to analyze the board state in order to get the most out of casting it.
November 5, 2015 8:12 p.m.
I think at the least you should be able to take advantage it like others have mentioned they do with Kresh.
If you play any form of Jund besides Kresh you should/could play Living Death along with cards like Necrogenesis so that you can exile the opponent's graveyard, sacrifice your field, and then cast Living Death (over the span of 2 turns of course unless it's midgame and you have been doing well with acceleration).
Also works really nice with Dictate of Erebos in play because you can pay a hell of a lot less than Shattergang Brothers cost to effectively cause board wide sacrifice.
...I am probably going to run this along with Dictate of Erebos for my C2015 League. We get to add $10.00 worth of cards each week so I might try this.
November 10, 2015 7:35 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #17
You'd be better off running proper wipes to use as wipes, and proper sac support to use as sac support. This card tries to do both, but not very well.
julianjmoss says... #2
I used to run it because of a token deck in my playgroup and it's super effective. It's just a meta call.
October 29, 2015 4:35 p.m.