A Thing of Nightmares (RETIRED)

Commander / EDH Combo Mono-Black Reanimator

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor

Ramp (15)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

CardSelection (8)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Viscera Seer

Recursion (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Finishers (6)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

CardDraw (13)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Greed
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Utility (9)

• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Withered Wretch

SingleRemoval (7)

• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Unstable Obelisk

BoardWipe (3)

• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mutilate

Commander (1)

Lands (37)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x High Market
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 27x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Witch's Cottage

SacOutlets (8)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x High Market
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Viscera Seer

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Maybeboard

Other (12)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Balthor the Defiled
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Scrying Sheets
• 1x Succumb to Temptation
• 1x Sunstone

SacOultlets (2)

• 1x Spawning Pit
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Recursion (1)

• 1x Necromancy

CardDraw (1)

• 1x Ancient Craving

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I recently realized that although my Chainer EDH deck is my second longest tenured deck, I never actually really created a polished deck tech for it. The deck breakdown shown here will follow the various categories listed.

Chainer, Dementia Master

Chainer, Dementia Master is an often overlooked mono-black commander as he is less flashy or explosive as his contemporaries. Furthermore, a lot of folks see his third clause and are scared away. However, Chainer is actually an extremely resilient commander who is excellent at grinding out opponents.

The main way to use Chainer is to keep bringing back relevant pieces from the graveyard. Note that his ability can target any graveyard. This means that you can return a relevant creature from an opponent's graveyard as well, or in some cases, use his ability as a form of graveyard hate.

Ramp

This deck is extremely mana hungry, so I have included a large ramp package.

Fast Mana

Chainer takes some time to get going which makes him susceptible to falling behind faster decks. Therefore I have opted to include a large quantity of low CMC mana producers:

Dark Ritual - I am not a huge fan of one-off ritual effects, but Dark Ritual provides a nice burst of mana when needed.

Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Mind Stone, & Charcoal Diamond - Two or less CMC mana rocks are crucial for any non-green deck. If I had access to Mana Crypt it would most certainly be in this deck.

Wayfarer's Bauble - Simply just a good, quick ramp spell

Soldevi Adnate - Can turn early creatures (or even itself) into mana to pump out late game cards. Later on it can recycle high CMC creatures or artifacts for a huge mana boost.

Slow Ramp

Any ramp spell that costs three or more CMC I consider to be slow ramp.

Commander's Sphere - Just another great ramp spell that can be cashed in for a card later in the game.

Burnished Hart & Solemn Simulacrum - More lands!

Crypt Ghast & Nirkana Revenant - Doubles the mana output

Thaumatic Compass   - A criminally underplayed card. Who doesn't want a ramp spell that turns into a strictly better Maze of Ith later on?

Gilded Lotus - I went back and forth on this card quite a bit. At five mana it is a bit slow, but the fact that it single-handedly pays for an activation of Chainer is why I ultimately included it.

Unstable Obelisk - Another card that I have had to give a lot of thought, but the fact that I can use it to ramp early and then take out a problem permanent later on is quite nice. Plus, mono-black struggles mightily with problem artifacts and enchantments. This is one of the few ways for mono-black to deal with those.

Card Selection & Card Draw

Card Draw

I have steadily increased the amount of card draw over time in this deck as early on I found it to run out of gas in the mid-game.

Ayara, First of Locthwain - Such a great addition to this deck. She contributes in so many key areas, which is why you will see her show up multiple times in this deck tech. Here, she simply turns creatures into cards.

Some of the included ramp package also can be cashed in for extra cards: Solemn Simulacrum, Mind Stone, and Commander's Sphere

Grim Haruspex - Nets cards off of dying creatures, which will happen a lot in this deck.

Cryptbreaker - This may seem a tad out of place in a non-zombie deck, but I assure you that this card is quite strong here. Firstly, the deck runs a small zombie package (7), but Cryptbreaker can usually provide its own supply of zombies. Furthermore, it can discard high CMC creatures to the graveyard so that they can be reanimated.

Dread Presence - I am still on the fence as to whether this is better than either Phyrexian Arena or Ancient Craving, but it has a relevant creature type and Chainer can reanimate it. Also, the life gain option is relevant in this deck.

Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, and Sign in Blood - All cheap, efficient card draw spells. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you are not running Read the Bones in your mono-black deck, you are doing something wrong! This card is still one of the best black card draw spells ever made.

Greed - Hopefully this will someday be turned into Erebos, God of the Dead, but it is still a great card draw spell for the time being.

Vilis, Broker of Blood - Oh boy is this guy great. He greatly increases the potency of most of this deck's card draw spells. He nets 3 cards off of each Chainer activation. Oh, and he is an 8/8 flying trampler to boot.

Card Selection

Each of these cards help find the pieces needed to finish the game

Buried Alive & Entomb - Place important pieces into the graveyard for reanimation

Demonic Tutor & Vampiric Tutor - Still the best tutors around

Sidisi, Undead Vizier - A versatile creature which can be continuously reanimated for more tutors

Expedition Map - Primarily used to go find either Cabal Coffers or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Viscera Seer - Allows us to sculpt the top of the deck

Razaketh, the Foulblooded - A repeatable tutor as long as I have another creature, and he is another 8/8 flying trampler.

Removal

Spot Removal

Fleshbag Marauder & Plaguecrafter - Great edict effects tacked onto creatures which can be reanimated. Plaguecrafter has the added bonus of being able to hit planeswalkers or hands.

Noxious Gearhulk - Excellent creature removal that also helps gain some life.

Hero's Downfall - Good clean creature removal that can also hit the occasional planeswalker

Dictate of Erebos - Great for keeping the board clear. I had originally had both this and Grave Pact in the deck, but I should have enough combined/incidental removal among my other cards that only Dictate of Erebos should be needed.

Meteor Golem (and Unstable Obelisk) - A catch all removal spell that can constantly be reanimated.

Board Wipes

Currently the deck runs three board wipes, but I may need to increase this number to four. Other board wipes under consideration are Black Sun's Zenith and Damnation (if I could ever get another one). High CMC board wipes like Decree of Pain and In Garruk's Wake are fantastic, but I tend to prefer the lower CMC ones.

Mutilate - Takes down anything smaller than our swamp total

Dead of Winter - What's not to like about this card? It is a three mana board wipe, it has great art, and it's name is a fantastic pun.

Massacre Wurm - Takes down small creatures and drains opponents life along the way. He can also be reanimated/sac'ed for additional triggers.

Sac Outlets

Cheap, repeatable sac outlets are crucial to this deck's success. Chainer is a great reanimator commander, but he does have a downside. Without good sac outlets, this deck will fail.

Carrion Feeder - One of the OG creature sac outlets. He is also a zombie for Cryptbreaker.

Viscera Seer - Another 1 mana sac outlet that also contributes some card selection.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded - One of the best sac outlets in the deck

Ayara, First of Locthwain - Here she is again. She can only sac one creature at a time, but that is often enough.

High Market - Having a sac outlet on a land is quite nice since lands are pretty resilient and rarely removed.

Ashnod's Altar - Yup, still good!

Phyrexian Altar - Probably the most important sac outlet (and card) in the deck. Getting mana off each creature is sooooooooo good.

Recursion

While Chainer is the primary recursion engine in the deck, I run a few other options as back up in case he is dealt with.

Reanimate & Animate Dead - Low CMC reanimation spells with both early game and late game uses.

Buried Ruin - In case Phyrexian Altar is dealt with, this can bring it back

Witch's Cottage - Another new addition from Throne of Eldraine. Not only does it bring back a creature, but it counts as a Swamp for Cabal Coffers.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - Removal and recursion in one creepy package.

Living Death - This card is a powerhouse in this deck that often results in my victory shortly after it resolves. It can also serve as a board wipe in a pinch.

Tortured Existence - I love this card. It's artwork is super creepy. It only costs one to cast and to activate. Plus, using it to swap Solemn Simulacrum with Vilis, Broker of Blood in the graveyard while holding Animate Dead in hand is just beautiful magic.

Utility

This spot is for cards that are strong inclusions within the deck, but don't fit into any particular category. This category also houses cards that are part of a combo, but not the actual win-con.

Grave Titan - Still one of the best black creatures around

Mindslicer - A pet card of mine. It's also pretty evil when you reanimate and sac it over and over.

Lightning Greaves - Protect Chainer at all costs

Desecrated Tomb & Pawn of Ulamog - Both create creature tokens when creatures leave/enter the graveyard. Both are combo pieces

Nether Traitor & Reassembling Skeleton - Both easily come back from the graveyard. Both are combo pieces. Bloodghast might be another option, but it's difficult to find room.

Withered Wretch - Another underplayed card. This card is extremely efficient graveyard hate. Plus it's another zombie, and it can be reanimated.

Finishing the Fight

Finally we have the deck's win conditions. Rarely does this deck win through combat damage (although it has happened before).

Most of these game ending combos involve Phyrexian Altar

Combo 1: Phyrexian Altar + Desecrated Tomb + Reassembling Skeleton or Nether Traitor + Zulaport Cutthroat or Ayara, First of Locthwain or Blood Artist = Infinite ETB/death triggers

Combo 2: Phyrexian Altar + Pawn of Ulamog + Reassembling Skeleton or Nether Traitor + Zulaport Cutthroat or Ayara, First of Locthwain or Blood Artist = Infinite ETB/death triggers

Combo 3: Living Death + Gray Merchant of Asphodel = Usually enough devotion to black to kill the table

Combo 4: Chainer, Dementia Master + Kokusho, the Evening Star or Gray Merchant of Asphodel + a sac outlet = Multiple triggers off Kokusho or Gary to drain the table

Torment of Hailfire is an alternate finisher.

Because I want this to be a strong deck I am considering the Mike+Trike combo, but I haven't decided if I want to include it yet.

So that's my Chainer deck. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please provide a +1! Also, I am always open to suggestions for improvements, though I would ask that you also provide potential cuts.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.21
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Morph 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B