Cruel Ultimatum

Cruel Ultimatum Trivia

New • 27 Jul 2022 • Asked by bearking6713 • 45 Comments

Hey, Mark, today is my birthday and I was wondering if I could get some trivia on my favorite card, Cruel Ultimatum.

The idea behind the card was we did three effects where you did something negative to the opponent, and then got the positive version for yourself. We had to look at the three colors to see what could fit. Black discards and blue draws: check. Black forces discard and black reanimates: check. Black drains opponents: check. We liked the card as a whole, but the worry was it’s mostly black effects, with a little blue, and no red. Was this a problem? Well, it did a good job of feeling Grixis and Grixis is base black, so we decided it was okay.Happy Birthday!
Birthday Black Blue Colors Cruel Ultimatum Discard Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Red

Monochrome Cruel Ultimatum's Card Function

New • 09 Jul 2022 • Asked by chocolatechipmarshmallowpizza • 24 Comments

Re Cruel Ultimatum being mono-black: Are syphon mind, archon of cruelty and waste not breaks? Drawing off of someone else's discard seems to fit in black's color pie best. And invoke despair draws cards with the opponent paying the cost. Skull raid is a straight draw 2 against an empty handed opponent, so the opponent doesn't even need to lose anything.

We’ve done a few opponent discards and you draw as sort of a “drain cards” effect, but it was a mistake. Black needs to pay some cost to draw. The opponent losing cards is not a cost.
Archon Archon of Cruelty Black Color Pie Cruel Ultimatum Discard Invoke Despair Raid Skull Raid Syphon Mind Waste Not

Analysis on Cruel Ultimatum

New • 09 Jul 2022 • Asked by fromhades • 26 Comments

Could Cruel Ultimatum be printed as a mono-black card? I was looking at it the other day and realized black can make people sacrifice creatures, return creatures from GY to hand, drain opponents for life, draw cards, and make opponents discard. The only thing I think is somewhat outside of black's wheelhouse is drawing cards without some additional cost (sacrifice, life, etc.) but it can still sometimes do that if the MV is high (e.g., Archon of Cruelty). Is it Grixis just for Bolas flavor?

The draw three cards is the only part black can’t do. And no, spending more mana doesn’t get you around having to pay an additional cost.
Archon Archon of Cruelty Black Card Draw Creatures Cruel Ultimatum Discard Flavor Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Mana Mana Value Sacrifice Your Hand

Cruel Ultimatum Trivia

New • 12 Jun 2016 • Asked by grixispartytime-blog • 53 Comments

Hey Mark, could I get some Birthday trivia on cruel ultimatum?

The card both has a mirrored effect (positive effects for you that have negative opposites for your opponent) and has effects that shift up by two (1,3,5). It’s an elegant design. Happy Birthday!
Birthday Cruel Ultimatum

Nicol Bolas Trivia

New • 28 Sep 2014 • Asked by gatheringmagicalanswers • 29 Comments

Alright! Its finally my birthday! First off, thank you for working so hard on making magic great. Second, I was hoping you might share some trivia about one of my favorite cards, Cruel Ultimatum, and/or the walker commonly associated with it, Nicol Bolas :) How did you guys decide the time was right to have him return as a big villain, for example? Thanks again!

Nicol Bolas became one of Magic’s big bads very organically. He was one of the five legendary elder dragons in the expansion Legends. All the elder dragons were popular but Bolas was the most popular most likely because of the powerful effect of his card. The public popularity meant that future writers were aware of him and he just ended up in various stories gaining notoriety along the way. Then in Shards of Alara block we decided to give him a new relaunch making him a post-Mending threat. Happy Birthday!
Appreciation Birthday Cruel Ultimatum Dragon Elder Legendary Creatures Making Magic Nicol Bolas Shards of Alara The Mending Three Color

Nicol Bolas Update

New • 17 Jul 2014 • Asked by whatwhynowman • 40 Comments

Hey Mark, can you give us an update on Nicol Bolas?! We need to see the most badass planeswalker again (in a new card!) P.S. Will a card like Cruel Ultimatum ever exist again?

He’s busy plotting. We haven’t seen the last of him.
Cruel Ultimatum Nicol Bolas Planeswalkers

Comics Archive

New • 05 Dec 2013 • Asked by donkinator • 1 Comments

is there an archive for your comics? I love the "well thats a cruel ultimatum" and "Its a light read" ones!

In theory, they are on Tumblr but it’s not so good when you go back too far.
Blogatog / Tumblr Cruel Ultimatum Pop Culture Pop Culture

Ashiok's Theros Presence

New • 01 Oct 2013 • Asked by werejustcarbon • 20 Comments

Is there an expectation among players that they should be researching plot/characters themselves? I ask because Ashiok is very interesting to me, yet I have no idea why it is on Theros or what it intends to do there. No other card in the set recognizes it, where cards like Rise if the Dark Realm and Cruel Ultimatum elicit character actions.

I believe there is more info about Ashiok on our site.
Cruel Ultimatum Plot The Dark Theros

Cruel Ultimatum's Audience

New • 03 Dec 2012 • Asked by losingmusings • 5 Comments

Cruel Ultimatum: Timmy or Spike card?

Both.
Cruel Ultimatum Spike Timmy / Tammy

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