Overall
The strategy here is pretty simple: you'll be comboing your opponents out of the game. There are many combos this deck can use, I'll be listening all of them below. In addition to all the combo kills, this deck also tries to win with commander damage or infect damage, if something is stopping your combos. For that reason,
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
is your general. She's the best black general for commander damage, as she has evasion and can pump herself, acting as spot removal at the same time.
Combos
-
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
+
Altar of Dementia
+
Puppeteer Clique
= Infinite mill.
-
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
+
Triskelion
= Infinite damage.
-
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
+
Puppeteer Clique
+
Blood Artist
/
Falkenrath Noble
+ sac. outlet = Infinite damage.
-
Triskelion
+
Mephidross Vampire
= One-sided wrath effect.
-
Necrotic Ooze
+
Triskelion
(graveyard) +
Phyrexian Devourer
(graveyard) +
Vector Asp
(graveyard) = Infinite damage or infinite poison.
-
Sanguine Bond
+
Exquisite Blood
+ damage/lifegain = You win the game.
-
Sanguine Bond
+
Blood Tribute
= Target opponent loses the game.
-
Wound Reflection
+
Blood Tribute
= Target opponent loses the game.
-
Necrotic Ooze
+
Pili-Pala
(graveyard) +
Palladium Myr
(graveyard) = Infinite mana of any color.
-
Cabal Coffers
+
Deserted Temple
+
Rings of Brighthearth
= Infinite black mana.
-
Ashnod's Altar
+
Grave Titan
/
Wurmcoil Engine
+
Nim Deathmantle
= Infinite tokens and infinite colorless mana. Infinite damage with
Blood Artist
or
Falkenrath Noble
. Infinite draws with
Grim Haruspex
.
-
Ashnod's Altar
+
Nim Deathmantle
+ persist/undying creature = infinite sacrifices. You win the game if the creature is
Geralf's Messenger
. Infinite damage with
Blood Artist
or
Falkenrath Noble
. Infinite draws with
Grim Haruspex
.
-
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
+ infinite mana = Target player loses the game. You can take out a second player with
Rite of Consumption
or gain infinite life with
Exquisite Blood
-
Exsanguinate
/torment-of-heilfire + infinite mana = You win the game.
-
Dark Depths
+
Thespian's Stage
= a 20/20 indestructible flying creature. Not an auto win, but a 20/20 beater with evasion for two lands is nice.
Tutors
Every combo deck wants to get their combos going on as fast as possible. In this deck, I'm using
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
,
Beseech the Queen
,
Increasing Ambition
,
Demonic Tutor
,
Vampiric Tutor
,
Buried Alive
and
Dimir House Guard
.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
,
Beseech the Queen
,
Increasing Ambition
,
Demonic Tutor
and vampiric-turor are pretty simple: take a card from your library, put it into your hand (
Increasing Ambition
tutoring for two cards, if you used the flashback cost).
Diabolic Revelation
costs a lot, but it's well worth it, as you can tutor for any number of combo pieces.
Buried Alive
is a different kind of tutor, as it will only search creatures. And even worse, put them in your graveyard instead of your hand. Why would you want that? For one, it enables combo 9 by itself, and also gives you a lot of lines with
Victimize
.
Dimir House Guard
can tutor for any 4 drop in the deck, and you have many utility cards and combo pieces that cost 4.
Other utility cards
Spot Removal -
Murderous Cut
: Destroy any creature for, usually, 1 mana.
Hero's Downfall
: Because planeswalkers are a thing.
Silence the Believers
: Because indestructible is a thing.
Go for the Throat
: Because
Spellskite
is a thing.
Mass Removal -
Damnation
,
Black Sun's Zenith
,
Decree of Pain
,
Crux of Fate
and
Mutilate
. These are your panic buttons.
Mutilate
and
Black Sun's Zenith
especially, as they can deal with the indestructible stuff.
Commander damage support -
Nightmare Lash
helps you to make
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
bigger and get those 21 points of Commander Damage.
Swiftfoot Boots
and lightning-graves make her harder to deal with and give her haste.
Infect damage - If you have any creature with 10 or more power that can easily deal damage,
Tainted Strike
,
Grafted Exoskeleton
or
Glistening Oil
will win you the game.
Mana acceleration - As a Mono-black commander deck, you get access to the
Cabal Coffers
+
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
land combo, giving you lots of mana to work with. In addition to that,
Deserted Temple
,
Thespian's Stage
and
Vesuva
are pretty much three extra copies of the Coffers once you have the original one out.
Expedition Map
and the other tutors can help you get these lands consistently.
Heartless Summoning
and
Jet Medallion
will make some cards cost less, so you can combo early in the game.
Liliana of the Dark Realms
and
Terrain Generator
also work extremely well together, as
Liliana of the Dark Realms
will tutor for basic Swamps and
Terrain Generator
will put them into play directly, basically giving you an extra land drop.
Finally, you have
Crypt Ghast
,
Mana Crypt
,
Sol Ring
,
Chrome Mox
and
Mox Diamond
as your regular mana accelerators.
Why would you play this deck?
This deck is great for you if you like combos, quick matches and playing mono-black. This deck is pretty aggressive with its combos, and you will probably become the target if your opponents know what you're using. But most combos in the deck can take out multiple players, so, as long as you got one of them going on, you'll be fine.
