Balthor the Graveyard Defiler

Commander / EDH Casual Control Devotion Mono-Black Multiplayer Reanimator

Stefouch

Creature (35)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Golgari Thug
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Coffin Queen
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Demon's Disciple
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Asmodeus the Archfiend
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Land (37)

• 1x Agadeem, the Undercrypt  ^Flip
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Diamond Valley MP
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x High Market
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Malakir Mire  ^Flip
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 17x Swamp
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vesuva

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Decree of Pain

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Instant (4)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Withering Boon

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Strands of Night

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Maybeboard

Creature (7)

• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Butcher of Malakir

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will
• 1x All is Dust

Artifact (3)

• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Ashnod's Altar

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Necromancy

Instant (1)

• 1x Sudden Spoiling

Land (1)

• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

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Balthor the Graveyard Defiler

This is my attempt to build a mono-black EDH focused on Reanimation. For this job I chose Balthor the Defiled as the Commander.

Deck: Sort cards by function

Strategy

This is a Tier 3 EDH deck.

• Most victories are achieved through a big reanimation effect ( Balthor and a full graveyard) + Gray Merchant or Kokusho .
• Phyrexian Altar & Abhorrent Overlord help to bring many mana into Balthor reanimation chains and Gray Merchant rinses and repeats.
• The deck hold a lot of big demons, they can help to seize the victory through combat damage.

Flexspots

Cards actually being tested and which don't have a permanent slot:

• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician (testing as sac-outlet): He's very very good as a sacrifice outlet. While his proliferate ability has no real use for us except for the -1/-1 counters he can place, it still allow us to discard expensive creature for a future reanimation.
• Kerrick : Testing as ramp, but the life cost might be too much for this deck.
• Phyrexian Reclamation : I own an altered version by rk post so I must play it in this deck.
• Withering Boon : A black counterspell able to shutdown a hard-cast Craterhoof.
• Konrad : Great effect, but high mana cost.
• Massacre Wurm : Great wurm is back as a high-costed removal. Could be removed for a cheaper one.
• Reanimate : Replaces Animate Dead for now.
• The "fodder" package: Nether Traitor , Reassembling Skeleton , Ophiomancer .
• The new "ramp" package: Dark Ritual , Wayfarer's Bauble and Fellwar Stone .
• The "modal lands" package: Agadeem, the Undercrypt   and Malakir Mire .

Maybeboard

Cards currently planned for a test:

• Yawgmoth's Will

Notable Exclusions & Other Considerations

These cards have been tested in the past with Balthor.

• Ashnod's Altar : I have enough altars and sacrifice outlets. Altar of Dementia is very powerful, but the other I have in my list are slightly better.

• Butcher of Malakir : Was cut for Vilis.

• Chainer, Dementia Master : Excellent "plan B" card, but needs more lifegain effects to be efficient. Was cut for more cheaper and faster reanimation cards.

• Charcoal Diamond : Budget ramp option. This deck is no more budget. Balthor also favorises creature-based ramp (see Basal Sliver , Blood Pet , etc).

• Contamination : Opponents play too many manarocks or manadorks to see a real advantage with Contamination.

• Corpse Augur : A great card advantage stick. Despite it needs a sacrifice outlet, I prefer him over Disciple of Bolas as the latter needs another creature you want to sacrifice, which is not always the case. Moreover, Corpse Augur can target any graveyard. If your life total is too low you can choose a low-filled graveyard. Or if your graveyard is empty, you can target a bigger one. Corpse Augur was cut for better card draw options, but he's still a very cheap and effective alternative.

• Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire : Not needed as I can already kill with Kokusho and Gray Merchant repeated reanimation cycles. Still, Exsanguinate can be considered a good back-up plan.

• Havoc Demon : Not good inside a full Balthor's Reanimation. Could kill our freshly reanimated board if killed by opponent.

• Liliana, Death's Majesty : Five manas are too slow for a reanimation spell, even if her other mods are also useful to the deck strategy.

• Massacre Wurm : Definitely uses it if your meta is full of tokens decks. It's a very good creature, but slots are slim in the deck.

• Mausoleum Secrets : Can't fetch Urborg/Cabal Coffers and is useless if an opponent has a grave-hate card.

• Mogis's Marauder (tested as haste-enabler): Does nothing without a big board presence. Rarely useful with a big board presence (Gray Merchant usually get the job done instead).

• Phyrexian Arena : Necropotence already takes its slot. Even then, Dark Prophecy is still better here.

• Praetor's Grasp : Not enough multicolor sources in the list to actually be polyvalent. Too expensive as a ramp.

• Rise of the Dark Realms : Great wincon, but cannot outpass what Balthor can already do from the command zone. And what usually stops Rise of the Dark Realms, stops also Balthor (graveyard-hate, counterspells).

• Sidisi, Undead Vizier : A five-mana-sacrifice-a-creature tutor is bad compared to a 6/6 Demon or other cheap spells.

• Smothering Abomination : Very very good card advantage source with tokens strategies. But it's colorless (Devoid) and thus can't be reanimated by Balthor. I've removed it from my list because I was always making the mistake to reanimate it with Balthor.

• Soldevi Adnate : A bit too slow for a sacrifice outlet.

• Spawning Pit : See Ashnod's Altar above.

• Victimize : The reanimated creatures enter the battlefield tapped. I don't like that. I would prefer any other cheap reanimation spell over this one.

• Volrath's Stronghold : Not in this list only because my copy is in another deck. But yes, you should definitively play it.

• Yawgmoth's Will : Better in eggs decks. Needs lot of mana. Still good if you need more recursion for your destroyed lands and artifacts. Could come back to the list.

Please ask!

Maybeboard

• Do you have any ideas/suggestions?
• Do you think cards from the maybe list should really be in the main ?

Don't hesitate to give me your feedbacks for improvements!

Note: Foils in the maybeboard denote cards I really want to add into the deck.

Support

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Top Ranked	Achieved #78 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #57 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 4 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Harpy 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 B, Treasure
Folders	Stefouch EDHs, EDH Ideas, EDH, Hmmm