Ayara, Black Purphoros

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Burn Group Slug Mono-Black

NickyBolas

1. Combo A (4)

• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer

10. Drainer (5)

• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Pontiff of Blight
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

11. Utility (2)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Expedition Map

2. Combo B (6)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Sling-Gang Lieutenant

3. Combo C (1)

• 1x Plague of Vermin

4. Combo D (3)

• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Mortuary
• 1x Thornbite Staff

5. Ramp (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring

6. Removal (10)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Tragic Slip

7. Draw (10)

• 1x Costly Plunder
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x God-Eternal Bontu
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Skullclamp

8. Sac Engine (5)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Chittering Witch
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Whisper, Blood Liturgist

9. Sac Fodder (11)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Dark Salvation
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Ogre Slumlord
• 1x Open the Graves
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Sifter of Skulls

Other (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x High Market
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Strip Mine
• 26x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Commander (1)

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Ayara, the Black Purphoros

Rather hear me talk about this list, rather than read it? Check out the deck tech video here!

Or just check out his deck in action in Ayara vs Emry vs Grumgully vs Torbran.

Concept

Using a few tricks, the same creature can enter the battlefield an infinite number of times, resulting in infinite lifedrain!

How It Wins

There's four different combos that can be used to trigger Ayara, First of Locthwain enough times to drain our opponents dry:

• Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + any other zombie. Sacrificing Gravecrawler with Phyrexian Altar generates a which is exactly the amount needed to recast Gravecrawler from our graveyard. If our commander is in play, this results in lethal lifedrain!
• Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + any creature that creates a token on ETB/death = Turns any creature into a Gravecrawler - allowing them to return to the battlefield for . Ashnod's Altar allows us to sacrifice a token and then the creature we'd like to recur, giving us the mana needed to pay for the Nim Deathmantle's reanimation trigger.
• Plague of Vermin is less of a combo and more of a one-shot synergy. Pay 39 life into this sorcery to trigger Ayara 39 times, draining opponents of 39 life and gaining us back our investment with interest: 39 rats.
• Mortuary + Bolas's Citadel + Sac outlet = Play the same creature over and over again paying life instead of its mana cost, and triggering Ayara to drain out opponents. If the creature is 1 cmc, like Carrion Feeder, then we gain back the life from Ayara's trigger that we lose casting it via Bolas's Citadel. Meanhwile, Ayara is draining our opponents to death in this infinite loop. Bolas's Citadel can be replaced by Thornbite Staff equipped to Ayara, since she taps to sacrifice a creature to draw a card. Now she can draw the same creature infinitely, so if we have a way to generate extra mana, maybe because the creature is Priest of Gix or we have a Carnival of Souls in play and the creature only costs , we can play that creature, sacrifice it to draw a card, and Mortuary will put the sacrificed creature on top of our library so that it is the card we draw.

Card Selection

Sac Engines

• Carrion Feeder is great in the Mortuary + Bolas's Citadel combo because it can sacrifice itself to be placed on top of our library via Mortuary, only costs us 1 life to replay from citadel, and is a zombie to help Gravecrawler combo.
• Chittering Witch generates 3 extra bodies on average, and can convert bodies into Disfigures.
• Ghoulcaller Gisa can convert various creatures into extra zombies, enabling the Gravecrawler combo or generating extra Ayara triggers.
• Viscera Seer is a classic sac engine, helping us filter out dead draws.
• Whisper, Blood Liturgist gives us the ability to recur valuable creatures so we're less reluctant to sacrifice them when necessary, and another great wielder of Thornbite Staff.

Sac Fodder

Here's some cards that generate extra flesh for us to sacrifice.

• Bitteblossom creates a steady stream of 1/1 fliers that we can sac. Losing 1 life each turn is a minor downside, but when Ayara is in play, your opponents start paying the life for this enchantment as Ayara's trigger drains them for the 1 when the Faerie comes into play and gives you the 1 life to pay off Bitterblossom's cost.
• Bloodsoaked Champion & Reassembling Skeleton is similar to Gravecrawler, albeit at worse rates for recursion. But they still perform great being easy sacrifice fodder, and able to trigger Ayara several times a turn especially when Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx generates tons of extra mana, or we can turn them into black mana with Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar.
• Pawn of Ulamog, Sifter of Skulls, Open the Graves and Ogre Slumlord all generate an extra body when we sacrifice a creature, giving us the extra body we need to fuel Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar combos. Otherwise, we get aother lifedrain trigger out of Ayara everytime we cash in a body for value.
• Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Ophiomancer, Dark Salvation, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are extra generators of creatures giving us plenty of flesh to work with.

Drainers

Since we're planning on grinding out our opponents 1 life at a time, some additional lifedraining cards seem apt.

• Bontu's Monument helps keep the costs of our creatures down, while replacing Ayara in the case of the Mortuary + Bolas's Citadel combo if needed.
• Crypt Ghast + Pontiff of Blight grant us Extort triggers, the former giving us extra mana to be used to extort, while the latter gives all of our creatures the opportunity to extort.
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel can steal huge amounts of life with the large amount of devotion our boardstate generates. A commander and piles of hard-to-kill enchantments help ensure that Gary is a bomb everytime we draw/recur him.
• Zulaport Cutthroat is a classic Aristocrats-style win condition, but is less necessary in this build since we have one in our command zone.

Ramp

Ramping into a is a tough feat, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still try and resolve other costly cards earlier in the match. This deck has a decent number of equipment and requires some pieces be deployed early to setup our combos, so colorless ramp is still on the menu.

• Dark Ritual does allow us to get Ayara out on turn 1.
• Arcane Signet and Charcoal Diamond guarantees a Turn 3 Ayara.
• Mana Crypt and Sol Ring are less useful at resolving an early Ayara, but help cast combo pieces like Nim Deathmantle, Thornbite Staff, Ashnod's Altar, and Phyrexian Altar.

Removal

Knowing I'll be playing this deck on an episode of the Trinisphere against a Torbran, Thane of Red Fell deck, I'm going to be packing a little extra removal so I'm not completely dead to Pyrohemia or AEther Flash amplified by his ability.

• Attrition is a matchup-consideration. I generally do not like spells that can't hit black creatures, but I know in our upcoming episode against Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Emry, Lurker in the Loch, and Grumgully, the Generous that none of my opponents will be playing black and this will be a useful sac outlet and control piece.
• Gate to Phyrexia and Meteor Golem fill in the weak spots allowing me to deal with non-creature threats.
• Go for the Throat, Ravenous Chupucabra, Plaguecrafter, Toxic Deluge, and Damnation give us a variety of ways to clear the board of threats. Since we're graveyard centric, global boardwipes are easier to cast even if we lose a few bodies in the process. They'll be back.
• Malicious Affliction and Tragic Slip both gain upside when following a sacrifice.

Draw

With a variety of combos, we're challenging ourselves to draw into the combo pieces rather than simply tutor them up as necessary.

• Costly Plunder, Skullclamp and God-Eternal Bontu double as sac sources.
• Dark Prophecy, Midnight Reaper, Grim Haruspex, and Liliana, Dreadhorde General serve as consistent draw engines as we start sacrificing our creatures for value.
• Sign in Blood and Read the Bones give us a few ways to draw extra cards without needing bodies. Consider this an insurance policy in case we get board-wiped.
• Dusk Legion Zealot gives us an early cantrip'ing body that we won't hesitate to sacrifice for value.

Utility

Two cards added to help smooth out the deck's performance.

• Demonic Tutor to help assemble our combos.
• Expedition Map can look for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cabal Coffers, or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as necessary.

Postmortem

The deck does feel strong in its ability to gain life while draining opponents. And Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx proves to be a powerhouse with the number of black pips we have on board on the regular. This leads to some non-infinite, but big-swings in life totals when we're able to recur a Reassembling Skeleton 10 times a turn. I think Syr Konrad, the Grim has more interesting interactions, but Ayara, First of Locthwain has that extra Sac-to-Draw ability built-in, cheaper cost, and higher devotion lead to her being the more stable of the two.

Competitive

Optimized

>Focused<

Casual

Jank

Gameplay

Coming Soon!

Top Ranked	Achieved #63 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #50 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.13
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goblin 1/1 R, Harpy 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C, Rat 1/1 B, Snake 1/1 B, Thrull 1/1 B, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	cEDH, General, Deck Inspiration, may build, $100, Liked decks