Sacrificial Pain

Commander / EDH Cruel Control Demons UBR (Grixis)

SpiderMikeH

Instant (13)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crypt Incursion
• 1x Devour Flesh
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Far / Away
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Magmaquake
• 1x Negate
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Sarkhan's Triumph
• 1x Steam Augury
• 1x Tribute to Hunger
• 1x Turn / Burn

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Whispering Madness

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Havoc Festival
• 1x Madcap Skills

Artifact (11)

• 1x Armillary Sphere
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Gem of Becoming
• 1x Manalith
• 1x MImic Vat
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Whip of Erebos
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Creature (26)

• 1x Aetherplasm
• 1x AEthersnipe
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Blood Speaker
• 1x Clone
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Crosis, the Purger
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Elgaud Shieldmate
• 1x Flameblast Dragon
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hypersonic Dragon
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Mercurial Chemister
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Tenacious Dead
• 1x Torch Fiend

Land (40)

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 8x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Malice

Commander (1)

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I started playing EDH against a friend of mine who almost always plays Animar, Soul of the Elements, and decided to build a deck that could compete with him fairly well. This is my first ever EDH decklist, and currently it's on version 2.0. The only real addition from my first list are the Theros and Khans cards you'll find in the deck, and the subtraction of a proxy Sword of Feast and Famine.

As a quick note, I try to avoid building decks with infinite combos/control locks; hence the sacrifice heavy control theme. I'm a budget player, so i try very hard to not pay more than 1.00-1.25/card. So for me, swords and all of the devastating creatures aren't really an option. Any cards you see in this list that are over that price; I was able to obtain via-trade, or from the commander 2013 Esper deck. Also, my trade pool is limited to only about five people.

Anyways the sacrifice heavy theme of this deck came from me attempting to find ways to get rid of my friends commander, Animar, without targeting him. At the time, most of my collection was black cards, and black removal. Since I lean a bit more in that direction, I decided that sacrifice would be an easy way to get rid of him, considering that he has protection from my preferred source of targeted removal.

My default strategy is to utilize sacrifice spells/creatures early game to get rid of faster commanders like Animar, Ruhan, and Doran, who appear often in my playgroup. I try very hard to make the game grindy by keeping the board state relatively empty. To clear room for thraxi I tend to play threats like Master of Cruelties, Archfiend, and Steel Hellkite to bait removal and counterspells, while continuing to hit each opponent with sacrifice effects. By the time thrax hits the board it's basically empty, and my opponent's hand is as well, making a finishing blow relatively easy. If things aren't as clean as i'd like them to be, I usually drop some evasion via cloak, or madcap skills to make thraxi unblockable (my opponents rarely, if ever, have more than two creatures on the board.)

At this point I'm finished building the deck, but any comments are appreciated.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.88
Tokens	Boar 2/2 G, Copy Clone
Folders	Commander Decks