Pointed Discussion

I traded a sengir vampire for this back in the day. kinda wish i still had that vampire :(
I wish i had 4, for my deck

great trade, sengir vampire suck ass ;D

This card was extremely hard to deal with back in the day due to its land nuking ability and the fact that the only real removal was terror and swords to plowshares; obviously terror doesn't work, and STP is giving you 5 life. Instill Energy and Dark Ritual were also both legal, the former letting you nuke multiple lands or nuke one and still attack, and the latter letting it come out as soon as you have enough swampage to pay the upkeep.

It's the only demon I ever liked or played. I ran it in a deck with instill energy for serious control and won countless games with it back in the day. Amazing artwork too, especially for the era. Jesper was really good at creeping you out, and these demons still gives me the heebie-jeebies after all these years.

When I was around 14 or 15 my most common Magic: the Gathering opponent was... my mom. Yup, that's right. My mom. I had friends at school who played casually, and I could occasionally get my brother and next door neighbor to play, but my mom was ol' Faithful. Whenever I needed a game, my mom would play. My mom's favorite card was Demonic Hordes. For the longest time, though, only I owned a copy. She would get very mad whenever I'd bring them into play. Like most players, my mom was very much against land destruction (especially since it was hers that were getting blasted). One time, however, she was ready for me. Or at least, she thought she was. When I played my Demonic Hordes triumphantly, my mom kinda smirked a little. That was uncharacteristic, I thought. Usually she pitched a fit when I brought the Hordes into play. Next turn, I found out why. Control Magic. My mom stole my Demonic Hordes! For a few painful moments, I was quite distraught. Then I remembered something. My mom had no way to pay their upkeep! I didn't mention it until her next upkeep, and she had to read the card closely about twelve times before it finally sank of just how bad a play she had made. But my mom is anything but a poor sport, and she didn't ask for backsies or quit the game. She just suffered the consequences of the upkeep until she was dead. Don't feel bad for her, though. My mom later got some Demonic Hordes of her own and proceeded to kick my butt with them on many occasions later.

Eppek, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I wish my mom was as cool as yours.

This card looks pretty awesome, three mana a turn for your choice of swinging with a 5/5 or destroying a land.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can tap it in response to the upkeep trigger to destroy an opponent's land even if you can't pay, right? So even at worst, it's just an even trade. Seems pretty nice!

@yesnomu You're not wrong..but it only works once :/ cuz every other time, it'll already be tapped, and even then, you still lose a land. So it works, but it's kind of a bad idea.

I just rated Minion of Leshrac . . Random button leads me to another black land destroyer.
6 for 5/5 body that can destroy land continuously . . enough said.
4/5

I've punished many with this card back in the day.. The game has changed but even today it would cause a decent amount of disturbance to warrant it's existence.. Don't sleep on this card.. You'll bend it.

Much too expensive for my tastes, and with a heavy penalty.

The silhouette demons make me want to laugh more than cower.

I checked, and I wasn't surprised to find this artist is the one also responsible for Word of Command's illustration. He wouldn't have had to give up using only a flat black background had he not made the demons so flat and black.

yeah achilleselbow! thats one cool mom!

This card makes me crash into slumber

@voyager1: Jasper Myrfors also drew Elves of Deep Shadow from The Dark. You know, the good-looking ones.

So it's a stylistic choice, rather than an inability to draw.

This card led to the first time I felt the urge to flip a table.

Turn 1: Opp drops swamp, Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter

Turn 2: Swamp, Mox Jet, Dark Ritual x2, This effing thing.

I came here specifically to put up yesnomu's comment, but he already did! (You can tap in response to the ability), so instead I'll put ideas that create interesting "combos"

Rain of Filth, Hellcarver Demon, Rakdos, Devastating Summons, or any other cards that might incidentally kill your lands happen to accidentally work with this guy as you'll run out of things to lose.

yesnomu.

Heheh, that could be fun - play a game, win the dice toss or whatever and go first, get Demonic Hordes out T1, and watch as the game goes on infinitely, with nothing actually being done since you're destroying each others only lands each turn. .

Obviously not foolproof against some decks, but hilarious nonetheless where it can be done.

@yesnomu:
Yes, that's how it works these days.
But a long time ago, cards with upkeep costs couldn't be activated until the cost was paid.