Skip to content
Moxonomy

A-Deal Gone Bad

Instant3 generic manaBlack mana

Three effects stapled together, none of them priced to lead a deck: a -3/-3 shrink that answers small-to-medium creatures but whiffs on anything with four toughness, a three-card mill pointed at any player, and a flat three life back for the caster. The mill is incidental rather than a clock, the lifegain is a cushion rather than a swing, and the removal is middling on its own. What separates this from a straight kill spell is that the two targets are chosen independently: the creature you shrink and the player you mill need not sit in the same seat, so the card can point its removal at one opponent and its mill at another rather than committing everything to a single interaction. That split is the whole reason it survives as a rebalanced digital variant (the "A-" prefix marks a card retuned after ladder data found the original wanting): each clause is deliberately below rate, and the sum only earns four mana when a board state lets two or three of them matter at once. It is value-oriented removal for grindy black decks that want their answers to do a little bookkeeping on the side, not a premium interaction slot.

A-Deal Gone Bad (snc)
SNC · #A-74common
Oracle Text

Rules text

Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. Target player mills three cards. You gain 3 life.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
N/A
Legacy
N/A
Vintage
N/A
Commander
N/A
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
N/A
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
N/A
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
N/A
Quick navigation
move selectesc close