Choose Your Demise MTG Card


Choose Your Demise - Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Schemes
RarityCommon
TypeScheme
Released2017-06-16
Set symbol
Set nameArchenemy: Nicol Bolas Schemes
Set codeOE01
Number4★
Frame2015
Layoutscheme
Borderblack
Illustred byNils Hamm

Key Takeaways

  1. Deck-thinning and targeted card fetches provide strategic card advantage for players using Choose Your Demise.
  2. This card’s instant speed grants flexibility and tactical surprise, countering threats effectively during play.
  3. It requires careful play due to its discard condition and specific mana cost, affecting its deck compatibility.

Text of card

When you set this scheme in motion, look at the top four cards of your library and separate them into a face-down pile and a face-up pile. An opponent chooses one of those piles. Put the cards in that pile into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Choose Your Demise, players can strategically thin their decks, removing unwanted cards while simultaneously fetching specific answers to in-game situations. This tactical selection keeps your hand consistently equipped with relevant plays.

Resource Acceleration: While Choose Your Demise isn’t a direct source of mana, playing this card can expedite your access to critical resources. By filtering your deck, you increase the likelihood of drawing into your game-accelerating elements faster, giving you an edge over your opponent.

Instant Speed: The versatility of an instant-speed spell cannot be overstated. Choose Your Demise can be cast in response to an opponent’s threats or actions, allowing for reactive play that can pivot the tide of battle in your favor without telegraphing your strategy beforehand.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the setbacks of Choose Your Demise is the necessity to discard a card upon playing. This can significantly impact your hand, especially if your deck is tuned towards maintaining card advantage or if you find yourself in a situation where every card is vital for your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a very precise mana alignment (two black and one red), which might not gel with more flexible or multi-colored mana bases. Players running decks with a broader color palette may find it difficult to consistently meet these requirements without compromising their deck’s structural integrity.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: At three mana, Choose Your Demise might be a bit steep for the effect it provides. When considering its place in a deck, players will have to weigh its cost against other available options, which may provide similar or more impactful board presence or effects for a similar, if not lower, investment.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Choose Your Demise offers adaptability across a multitude of deck strategies, serving as an intriguing choice for players who enjoy dictating the flow of the game and making crucial decisions.

Combo Potential: This card opens up novel combo avenues, providing players with the ability to devise game-changing plays that can turn the tide of battle in their favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a shifting meta that rewards cunning and tactical foresight, Choose Your Demise stands out by offering strategic depth that can counter prevalent deck archetypes.


How to beat Choose Your Demise

Choose Your Demise presents a unique challenge on the MTG battlefield with its branching choices that can put opponents in a tight spot. While it can seem daunting, understanding the nature of the card is key to countering its effects. Similar to other modal spells in MTG, Choose Your Demise allows the caster to select an outcome, often putting the opponent at a strategic disadvantage. Navigating around its impact requires preemptive measures and a well-thought-out response.

One effective strategy against Choose Your Demise is maintaining a diversified board state. Since the card can penalize for having singularly powerful creatures or a particular type in abundance, spreading out your threat across different types and maintaining a balanced board can minimize its impact. Moreover, having counter spells ready or capabilities that grant you hexproof can ensure that when Choose Your Demise is on the stack, you have the tools to deny it from resolving and disrupting your setup.

Overall, dealing with Choose Your Demise in MTG demands foresight and versatility in your playstyle. The card tests your ability to anticipate your opponent’s moves and adjust accordingly, making it a testament to strategic play and adaptable tactics in the game.


Cards like Choose Your Demise

Choose Your Demise stands out in Magic: The Gathering as an interactive and potentially game-altering card. Like the notorious removal spell Doom Blade, it offers players a mechanism for eliminating threats. Yet, Choose Your Demise gives the opponent a choice, a twist that can lead to psychological mind games and strategic depth that Doom Blade doesn’t offer.

Another card to consider is Bile Blight, which provides a different form of removal. Although Bile Blight can target multiple creatures that share a name, Choose Your Demise could potentially be more devastating by allowing you to tailor the removal to the situation at hand. In direct comparison, Bile Blight excels in certain scenarios but lacks the versatility provided by Choose Your Demise.

When pitted against Go for the Throat, which also destroys a creature, Choose Your Demise again introduces the element of choice, making it a more dynamic option. Go for the Throat is restricted by not being able to target artifact creatures, a limitation that Choose Your Demise circumvents with its broader reach.

Going through the motions of card selection reveals Choose Your Demise as a unique contender within the realm of Magic: The Gathering cards, with its ability to influence decisions and control the flow of the game.

Doom Blade - MTG Card versions
Bile Blight - MTG Card versions
Go for the Throat - MTG Card versions
Doom Blade - Magic 2010 (M10)
Bile Blight - Born of the Gods (BNG)
Go for the Throat - Mirrodin Besieged (MBS)

Cards similar to Choose Your Demise by color, type and mana cost

Perhaps You've Met My Cohort - MTG Card versions
Imprison This Insolent Wretch - MTG Card versions
Your Inescapable Doom - MTG Card versions
All in Good Time - MTG Card versions
The Dead Shall Serve - MTG Card versions
Surrender Your Thoughts - MTG Card versions
Mortal Flesh Is Weak - MTG Card versions
The Iron Guardian Stirs - MTG Card versions
Ignite the Cloneforge! - MTG Card versions
I Bask in Your Silent Awe - MTG Card versions
Nature Demands an Offering - MTG Card versions
Which of You Burns Brightest? - MTG Card versions
Look Skyward and Despair - MTG Card versions
Nothing Can Stop Me Now - MTG Card versions
Plots That Span Centuries - MTG Card versions
I Know All, I See All - MTG Card versions
Rotted Ones, Lay Siege - MTG Card versions
A Display of My Dark Power - MTG Card versions
Behold the Power of Destruction - MTG Card versions
My Genius Knows No Bounds - MTG Card versions
Perhaps You've Met My Cohort - Promotional Schemes (PARC)
Imprison This Insolent Wretch - Promotional Schemes (PARC)
Your Inescapable Doom - Promotional Schemes (PARC)
All in Good Time - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
The Dead Shall Serve - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Surrender Your Thoughts - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Mortal Flesh Is Weak - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
The Iron Guardian Stirs - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Ignite the Cloneforge! - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
I Bask in Your Silent Awe - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Nature Demands an Offering - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Which of You Burns Brightest? - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Look Skyward and Despair - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Nothing Can Stop Me Now - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Plots That Span Centuries - DCI Promos (PDCI)
I Know All, I See All - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Rotted Ones, Lay Siege - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
A Display of My Dark Power - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
Behold the Power of Destruction - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)
My Genius Knows No Bounds - Archenemy Schemes (OARC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Choose Your Demise MTG card by a specific set like Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Schemes, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Choose Your Demise and other MTG cards:

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Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Choose Your Demise card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2017-06-13 The split doesn’t have to be even. The piles can be split with a single card in one pile and three cards in another. A pile can even have zero cards in it—in this case, an opponent chooses whether to put all the cards into your hand or into your library.
2017-06-13 You choose one opponent to make the final choice of which pile is put into your hand, but all players may discuss and advise this choice.
2017-06-13 You don’t have to reveal the cards in the face-down pile, no matter which zone they’re put into. Resist the urge to gloat at the heroes if their decision serves your master plan.

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