[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Scourge of Valkas

[Lifeless]

My gut reaction is that this is easily broken, no?

[yeti1069]

I played with this a little when it was first printed a decade and a half ago. It felt too expensive and clunky then. I can't imagine it feels better now.

[FoxHybrid]

I haven't played with Death's Presence before but it's always looked like a fun, splashy precon type card to me, and looking at it's EDHREC page, that seems to be the case, with the three of the top five of its commanders based on inclusion percent being commanders from precons where it was reprinted (The Swarmlord, Leinore, Autumn Sovereign and Kyler, Sigardian Emissary).

One commander I didn't see on its page that I had expected to was Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, but thinking more about it, Death's Presence is probably not worth it there compared to what six mana gets you nowadays.

[materpillar]

Awkward thing about Death's Presence is that all your counters get gone if someone wraths.

6 mana do nothing into getting wrecked by wraths isn't fantastic.

Fun Timmy card though.

[Moxnix]

Seems like an awkward high cost combo card like you could do ashnods trisk + this for a loop or something but thats an awkward combo with 2 mostly useless pieces and its nto even cheap and as always the sac outlet is doing the hard work for the loop. Like just seems so awkward over costed i cant imagine a good line like minsc and boo sac fat things but they dont always have anotehr body out yet to eat the counters and 6 mana jesus. Like i often think the card lurking predators is way overhyped and normally does nothign and dies or gets outpaced this is like that without the Christmas's land upside or something. might be better than flowstone shambler but its making the cut in about the same number of decks for me i think.

[ISBPathfinder]

I honestly haven't really seen or considered Death's Presence in a good bit. Some of the issue is that while green can do death trigger stuff it doesn't tend to do wide sac it ususally does like.... one sac and then its done. This card wants you to like, have some decent sized things and chain sac the power onto one or something??? I am not really even sure what the ideal situation for this is if I am being honest.

[materpillar]

I honestly haven't really seen or considered Death's Presence in a good bit. Some of the issue is that while green can do death trigger stuff it doesn't tend to do wide sac it ususally does like.... one sac and then its done. This card wants you to like, have some decent sized things and chain sac the power onto one or something??? I am not really even sure what the ideal situation for this is if I am being honest.

I think the ideal is you're playing random large Timmy green stuff and it mostly blanks your opponents' removal because you have more stuff than they have Doom Blades.

Killing Gigantosaurus feels pretty bad with one of these on board.

[ISBPathfinder]

Yea, I think I could make it work in some decks, I am not sure it would be optimal. Its probably fine but it also takes a lot of set up needing sac outlets and board presence before you slam it in. I was thinking like maybe Reyhan, Last of the Abzan or like maybe Varolz, the Scar-Striped. Again though, the setup needed to make it function makes me think probably not though.

[MAGUSZANIN]

Death's Presence is probably fine in any Bracket 2 deck that could play Greater Good.

Those decks definitely exist, and so I can't really call the card unplayable, or even bad per se. I do think it is really slow, being a 6 Mana spell that does nothing without multiple other cards in play.

[3drinks]

I see two homes for this.

1) it's the most awkward persist combo enabler ever.
2) it's a casual Meren plant that lets you sac one thing, grow something huge, and bring the thing back.

I guess 3) it's yet-another-Ghave-card.

[folding_music]

imho it's ridiculous in Colfenor, the Last Yew but that might be the single slowest deck in the world

[onering]

It used to be really good, but the format is generally too fast now. Bracket 2 is its home, there you can ramp into it on turn 4 or 5 and still have like 4 turns before the game is supposed to end, so it will have time to do something. Otherwise, I could see a slowed down Goreclaw deck that operates at a B3 pace being able to use it.

[3drinks]

Saturday, September 19th 2026; Scourge of Valkas|SLD

The lynchpin of the time I shifted Kaalia into a Dragonstorm|SCG combo deck. Good, honest draconic Magic.

[Dragonlover]

Funnily enough, a key player in Lathliss. Killed many a table with this and Cloudstone Curio along with some extra mana generation.

Dragonlover

[materpillar]

Kill it. Kill it with fire or you're gonna die fast.

[Ruiner]

I've been on thr receiving end of this and Ancient Gold Dragon with a high roll in my friend's The Ur-Dragon deck. Definitely a kill it if at all possible card.

[onering]

It's a pile of hurt.

[ISBPathfinder]

Scourge of Valkas is generally a worse Terror of the Peaks. They can function similarly but it requires more setup and being tribal dragon to be more impressive than Terror. It can and will out perform it in niche situations but most of the time the setup required is so intense and tribal that I generally consider Terror of the Peaks the superior card being same color and cmc. There are some decks where running both is valid though but I would usually start with Terror first assuming you are ignoring the money differences to obtain them.

Still, kill it with fire if you ever see it in play.

[MAGUSZANIN]

"kill it with fire"

But it is a dragon, guys. Probably resistant to fire.

But yeah, strong card in the one deck that plays this. If you see it, it probably needs to die ASAP.

[3drinks]

Scourge of Valkas is generally a worse Terror of the Peaks. They can function similarly but it requires more setup and being tribal dragon to be more impressive than Terror. It can and will out perform it in niche situations but most of the time the setup required is so intense and tribal that I generally consider Terror of the Peaks the superior card being same color and cmc. There are some decks where running both is valid though but I would usually start with Terror first assuming you are ignoring the money differences to obtain them.

Still, kill it with fire if you ever see it in play.

It's more Dragon Tempest than Terror of the Peaks. Different style of threat, but same must-answer quality.