Bitter Feud - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Magic: the Gathering has many cards that do similar things, and Bitter Feud is one such card that acts as a sort of redundancy for existing cards. To be fair, Bitter Feud is one exclusive card from the Commander 2014: Built from Scratch deck that took time to find some love love. Its effect is essentially the same as Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods, doubling damage done to players and permanents.

The difference with Bitter Feud is that it designates two players, so that in a multiplayer environment, it would only affect two players. The cool thing about this, obviously, is that in a multiplayer setting, you need not be affected by the effects of the doubled damage.

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You could make the argument that Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods are enough for this sort of effect. In EDH, however, having redundancy is important when you only have one copy of each card that isn't a basic land. In a one-on-one setting, it's understandable that Bitter Feud would indeed be a bit too redundant, as if you have all three of these on the board, you're increasing damage by eight whole times, which is a bit much perhaps.

As far as decks that actually have played Bitter Feud with any regularity, unsurprisingly Heartless Hidetsugu tops the list. Since his ability deals damage equal to half of each player's life total (rounded down), his deck absolutely loves any damage-doubling effect. Queen Marchesa decks have begun to include this card, too. Mathas, Fiend Seeker is another Commander that's taken this Enchantment into his arsenal, as well.

Bitter Feud is definitely a fun card in that it essentially puts two players into a life-and-death struggle. In 1v1 Commander, this is a particularly interesting card to consider, as long as the deck playing it can deal damage very quickly. It's a well-designed card for multiplayer Commander politics, and can be a deadly weapon in 1v1 Commander when deployed correctly.

While aggressive burn lists aren't extremely popular in the Commander format, they do exist. If ending games quickly by doubling damage is something you want to do, then Bitter Feud is definitely worth a look to play alongside other damage-doublers such as Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and the like.