Pain for All: Flavor Text as a Bridge Between MTG and Ancient Myth

Red mana is often the color of impulse, courage, and the raw edge of force. Pain for All sits squarely in that tradition, a rare Aura from the Edge of Eternities set that asks you to ride the line between glory and danger. Its flavor text—“The agony that consumed him also gave him clarity of purpose.”—reads like a myth told in scorch marks and sparks. You can almost hear the crackle of a forge or the roar of a battlefield as the words settle into your memory 🧙‍♂️🔥. In myers-bright terms, the line channels the oldest storytelling beat: suffering as the crucible that reveals what a hero is truly willing to fight for.

When we pull back from the card’s surface and gaze at it through the lens of real-world myth, the resonance grows. We’re not just watching a spell flicker across a tabletop; we’re watching a mythic arc unfold in real time. The agony that shapes a hero’s destiny—Prometheus defying the heavens, Odysseus steering by stubborn will, or Perseus slaying monsters to claim his place—finds a correlative in Pain for All. The aura’s power-scale metaphor, where a creature’s own vitality becomes a tool of explosive consequence, mirrors the way mythic figures convert pain into purpose. The art and flavor text together invite players to consider: what would you do, if your own pain could fuel a battlefield reckoning? 🗺️🎨

Design that speaks across time

Pain for All is a clean, purposeful design: an Enchantment — Aura with a clear condition and a dramatic payoff. It enchants a creature you control, so you’re not playing a protective shield so much as a pressure valve—when the aura snaps into place, it turns your creature into a damage-delivery engine. On entry, the enchanted creature deals damage equal to its power to any other target. Then, as soon as that damage lands and the creature is dealt damage, it retaliates in full: it deals that same amount of damage to each opponent. It’s a loop of risk and reward, red through and through, a reminder that red’s most memorable moments often come from embracing consequences to seize tempo and/or victory 🔥⚔️.

Myth, meet constraint: how the flavor text informs the play

The flavor text doesn’t just flavor the card; it informs the experience. The agony referred to in the line can be read as the cost of taking decisive action. In mythic terms, great deeds are rarely free—noble ignition is paid for in pain, and Pain for All literalizes that ledger. This is not a passive buff; it’s a conditional, self-consuming spark. It encourages players to lean into risk: you want your creature to be big enough to deal meaningful damage on entry, and you must be prepared for the subsequent cascade—when that creature is damaged, the aura’s power becomes a public liability and a public weapon. In a Commander game, where big swings define the table image, Pain for All helps red stress-test the idea that big results require big courage—and a little recoil 🔥💎.

Strategy Spotlight: Maximizing Pain for All in Your Red Deck

First, respect the power curve. The mana cost is a manageable {2}{R}, with a power-to-pain ratio that scales dramatically with a higher-power creature. If you can put a 4- to 6-power creature under this aura, the entry-damage becomes a sizable one-shot ping, and the aftermath—damage dealt to each opponent when your creature is hit—can accelerate burn timelines or close out games when opponents are at the brink. The key is to protect the enchanted creature long enough for the aura to “live” and to leverage red’s propensity for temporary chaos to create decisive turns 🧙‍♂️🎲.

• Target synergy: Pair Pain for All with a beater that has staying power or evasion. A resilient 5/5 or 6/6 creature gives you a reliable engine to push through computed damage, turning a single big swing into a multi-turn pressure plan.
• Volatile tempo: Use direct damage spells to force damage onto your own enchanted creature from opposing effects—yes, you’re inviting risk, but you’re also priming the “that much damage to each opponent” payoff. Red loves bold plays; Pain for All asks you to dare boldly ⚡.
• Protection and recurrences: Recur or reattach the aura with spell tutors or recursion effects so you don’t stall on a single enchantment. If your opponent destroys the aura, your plan loses steam—plan for redundancy and speed.
• Commander readiness: In EDH, Pain for All shines when you’ve got a robust red strategy—commander-dependent combos with high-power beaters or multi-target damage lines can create memorable late-game moments, embodying red’s chaos with a mythic twist 🧙‍♂️.

Artist Dmitry Burmak brings the story to life with a palette and composition that feels like a myth-sculpted moment frozen in time. The set, Edge of Eternities, nods toward a timeless horizon—the idea that mortal pain can be a doorway to enduring purpose. The synergy between the card’s mechanical brutality and its mythic narrative is a reminder that MTG’s best cards are not just about numbers; they’re about a story you’re compelled to tell on the battlefield 🎨.

A Moment of Practice: The Aura in Action

Imagine you’ve attached Pain for All to a mighty 5-power creature. When it enters, that creature deals 5 damage to a chosen target—perhaps a troublesome planeswalker or a problematic creature. If that damage lands on an opposing god, a planeswalker, or a bulky critter, you’ll then watch as your enchanted ally is dealt damage, and—because it’s now a 5-power deal—the aura makes that 5 damage radiate to each opponent. The result can swing a board state in a flash, flipping the day from “we’re behind” to “we’re cooking now.” It’s not a guaranteed win, but it’s a dramatic, memorable moment that embodies red’s appetite for high-risk, high-reward decisions 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Of course, the risk is real. If your opponent shatters the aura or turns your enchanted creature aside, you’ll feel the sting, and the board presence may swing away from you. Pain for All rewards bold action and careful timing—the kind of decision tree that makes a red commander game feel like a high-stakes duel in the shadow of myth and legend ⚔️.

Product Spotlight: Desk Ready for Battle-Ready Play

Need a reliable desk companion for long sessions mastering red’s chaotic tempo? Check out the Neon Gaming Mouse Pad—Neon vibes, stitched edges, and a smooth neoprene surface built to withstand the heat of late-night matches. It’s the perfect accessory to accompany the thrill of a Pain for All moment and keep you comfortable as you navigate the Edge of Eternities with style.

Neon Gaming Mouse Pad (9x7 Neoprene, stitched edges)

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