Inistrad era was when I took a serious leap into MTG even though I had collected cards since around Onslaught block when I was younger. Most people who played standard at the time will remember two serious aristocrat style decks. A B/R/W and a Junk version both of which were very good at the time. I borrowed a friends aristocrats deck at one of my first FNMs and was immediately hooked to the archetype. Saccing my creatures for value, the insane synergy, and the complex gameplay/lines was so intriguing to me. This eventually led to me picking up Zombardment in legacy and building my first commander deck [Lyzolda, The Blood Witch]. The deck was basically a bunch of value engines in the form of skullclamp and recurring creatures with a bunch of altar esque combos. It was ridiculously fun but I shifted over to a glass cannon worldgorger build eventually. I eventually built Teysa at some point and it just degenerated into another glass cannon darkest hour build. While I love combo those decks kind of lost the initial vision that I had for them which was an aristocrats build with combo mixed in. When Elenda was spoiled I had an incredible urge to build the deck even though I knew Teysa is just a better general.This put me off for a while because I had no interest in returning to Teysa. But Ive always had a thing for underplayed generals/color combos so here we are.
This deck is not meant to be a cedh deck or anything (obviously :P). I simply wanted to build a decent B/W aristocrats deck with some fun and fast combos built in. Anyone who has built a deck like this could probably guess most of the cards in here. I am simply going to talk about the combos in the deck even though they are pretty common.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
+
Walking Ballista
Everyone knows about Mikaeus combos. just insanely easy to pull off quickly but I think I should maybe run Triskelion. Ballista requires a sac outlet because of the anthem effect which usually doesn't matter all to much but who knows.
Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar
+ other zombie
infinite death triggers (and storm :p). Of course you need a blood artist effect to actually win.
Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder
More infinite death triggers. Works exactly like worldgorger combo. Animate him, Exile the animate dead, he dies, it enters and you keep looping. This generates a draw if you have no other target for animate or don't have a blood artist effect.
Karmic Guide + Reveillark
+ sac outlet
Infinite of what the outlet generates and infinite death triggers. Pretty classic combo.
Nether Traitor + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa, Orzhov Scion
I just wanted Teysa in the deck so this kind of just happened. Infinite mana and death triggers.
Doomsday -
I am kind of running this as a meme because its not really efficient at all but in general heres how you can combo. In reality theres a ton of ways to stack your deck but most are going to involve having top on the field to draw a cruel bargain or a nights whisper into an infinite combo.
Pile 1 - Cruel Bargain, Entomb, Animate Dead, Blood Artist, Leonin Relic-Warder
You need top on the field to make this work. You can also just draw somehow but this is least mana intensive.
Tap top to draw - Cast cruel bargain - Cast entomb for Relic Warder - Cast Artist - Cast Animate
In total this costs 11 in one turn so very memetastic.
Pile 2 - Night's whisper, Victimize, Buried Alive, Ballista/Triskelion, Mikaeus
Again need Top or some way to draw. Also need a creature on the field for this one.
Tap top to draw - play nights whisper - replay top and draw - now cast buried alive - victimize for the combo
this one costs 12 total and requires a creature and a sac outlet if you use ballista instead of triskelion. Still fun to pull off
Pile 3 - cruel bargain, reanimate, entomb, Ballista, Mikaeus
Basically the above pile but more cost effective.
Requires top and a sac outlet.
tap top to draw - cast bargain - cast entomb - reanimate - cast ballista - sac him as much as you want
this one only costs 8 total if you have top and an outlet. This is the most efficient of the bunch manawise.
If you have specific questions on cards feel free to ask. I am taking liberties with this list. I do not intend to replace cards like bloodghast and such even though a pure combo build may be better. I own all of these cards except an imperial seal atm which I sold recently.
