[SCD] Tortured Existence

[monovfox]

Tortured Existene (B)
(B), Discard a creature card: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Basically I want to do the same stuff with tortured existence that people did with survival. I just wanna play with my 4x vengevines with Wonder.

It probably does other stuff.

There's this midrange deck in pauper that uses tortured existence to do some kind of dirty stuff. Sample list of this deck: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11549&d=265717&f=PAU

Card seems powerful IF you can make it consistent. Good in the same deck as Fauna Shaman (can do stuff like discard a vengevine with Shaman or tortured existence, grab a rootwalla, discard the rootwalla to existence to get another rootwalla, discard rootwalla to get a sac outlet/shriekmaw). The mana needed to do broken shit means the deck that would theorhetically run tortured existence would not leave home without 4x Deathrite Shaman, and maybe a birds of paradise. Part of me really wants to play blue, but in a deck like this why not just play Cabal therapy? I think the big problem with the deck is that it has to run dredgers so you end up with something that wants to play good cards in the slots where dredgers are, and unlike survival this deck is significantly weak to graveyard hate.

Theorhetical shell for the deck looks something like:
Core
4x Tortured Existence
2-3x Fauna Shaman
4x DRs
1x Birds of Paradise
3-4x Vengevine
3x Rootwalla
1x Wonder
________

4x Stinkweed imp
or
1x stinkweed imp
3x intuition

[Finn]

There are a lot of problems with this. The major problem with Tortured Existence is that you have to get stuff in the grave first. That means that you do not have the same toolbox potential that Survival has nor do you have the same speed because of this.

I betcha it is far too clunky.

[barcode]

Just play good cards instead. Why waste so many slots on a clunky enchantment?

[Firefraise]

You may wanna check "The Nightmare effect" thread on salvation. It's an old deck that abuses the card's synergy with krovikan horror and ETB effect creatures. It's quite fun, you can steal a few wins on FNM with it.

[dakkon]

This "combo'd" back in the day with Volrath's Shapeshifter, allowing you to reset it at instant speed. Hence, I would be more inclined to stick it in a reanimator shell with DRS and Shapeshifters.

[MaximumC]

This "combo'd" back in the day with Volrath's Shapeshifter, allowing you to reset it at instant speed. Hence, I would be more inclined to stick it in a reanimator shell with DRS and Shapeshifters.

This card seems sweet, and I've brewed with it a million times. And they all sucked.

"Why?" You may ask. Well, the answer is, "I have no freakin' idea," but it just never did what I wanted with it. I've had better luck with Oath of Ghouls for this kind of effect.

[joven]

I have a neat casual graveyard deck where I use Tortured Existence to exchange Golgari Grave-Troll with One-Mana-Cyclers like Architects of Will: Two mana for putting 6 cards into my graveyard repeatably.

I think Tortured Existence is a great card that has some potential, but it cannot do what Survival does. Survival is a repeatable tutor, in my opinion it is no wonder why it is on the ban list.

[MaximumC]

I have a neat casual graveyard deck where I use Tortured Existence to exchange Golgari Grave-Troll with One-Mana-Cyclers like Architects of Will: Two mana for putting 6 cards into my graveyard repeatably.

I think Tortured Existence is a great card that has some potential, but it cannot do what Survival does. Survival is a repeatable tutor, in my opinion it is no wonder why it is on the ban list.

It's not just Survival that beats it. If you want discard outlets, Zombie Infestation or even Necromancer's Stockpile works better. If you want recursion, Oath of Ghouls is probably superior. Tourtured Existence doesn't do anything particularly well.

Of course, the minute they print a card where the mere act of moving between your graveyard and hand is meaningful, then they break this card and make it totally bonkers.

You could break a symmetrical effect:

Tortured Creature
If this is in a graveyard, spells cost 2 more to cast.

Or you could have a trigger, like Zodiac Dragon:

Zodiac Creature
When this is put into the graveyard from anywhere, ... (do virtually anything useful).

EDIT: I went mining on the Gatherer, and here's what I found that works currently. Each one relies on you having a creature or two around to swap, though.

Centaur Vinecrasher/Countryside Crusher + Dryad Arbor + Tortured Existence = Give your Vinecrasher +1/+1 counters for B each.
Dread + Tortured Existence = Shuffle your library for BB! (You can pull Dread back out of the yard in response to the trigger).
Emrakul + Tortured Existence = Shuffle your yard into your library for BB! (Same trick)
Pulmonic Sliver + Tortured Existence = You can put your Slivers on top of your library to regrow others. Okay...?
Measure of Wickedness + Tortured Existence = Make sure they lose the 8?

[Michael Keller]

The cards that fuel Tortured Existence are Faerie Macabre, Street Wraith and Circling Vultures. They're enablers that put a card into the graveyard quickly. These are, at least in my experience, the cards I start TE lists with when tinkering.