Blood Man

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Reanimator WB (Orzhov)

princessrobot

Land (38)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 7x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Strip Mine
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath

Instant (8)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Miraculous Recovery
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tithe
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Obzedat's Aid
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Unburial Rites
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Artifact (13)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lotus Bloom
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Commander (1)

Creature (15)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Exquisite Archangel
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1x Loxodon Gatekeeper
• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Su-Chi
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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This is my combo deck. It is capable of dispatching anything that hits the board, drawing an enormous number of cards, then using ones of my infinite combos or swinging with my commander for the win.

Starting the Game

What do I look for in an opening hand? I like to be able to cast a draw engine by turn two or three. So I want some combination of lands, mana rocks, and a draw engine, such as Dark Confidant , Phyrexian Arena , or Necropotence (or a tutor that allows me to fetch one of the three.) These cards will refuel my hand and allow me to answer threats, maintain card advantage, generally do anything I want and do all the stuff black does best ;). Once I have my Phyrexian Arena out, I'll set up some disruptive effects like Ghostly Prison , Grand Abolisher , and Vampire Nighthawk to dissuade people from attacking me. This allows me to lie in wait until I start accumulating combo pieces, a massive army of tokens, or just big creatures and go for the win.

Tutors and Card Draw

Vampiric Tutor - The best tutor in the game. Instant speed, 1 cmc, and paying 1/20th of your life is hardly much of a cost for greatness. You can cast it on your upkeep if you need to draw the card the same turn you play the tutor as well.

Demonic Tutor - Tutors for anything to your hand, but is slow. Early on, I usually use Demonic to look for a draw engine or ramp (whichever I'm missing currently). Later into the game, I'll search for a combo piece to win the game, or a removal spell for a pressing threat. I try to not be greedy with my tutors. I don't want them to become card disadvantage, so I like to search for something that draws me more cards if I don't already have a draw engine out.

Enlightened Tutor - I almost always use this to get Necropotence or Phyrexian Arena . Sometimes I want a sac outlet, so I'll grab Ashnod's Altar . A couple of my combo pieces are artifacts, so there are times I search for Nim Deathmantle or Su-Chi to win the game.

Idyllic Tutor - Similar to Enlightened Tutor , but it's slower, costs more mana, and it ca't get artifacts. It puts the card in your hand, but I don't like this card nearly as much as Enlightened because the extra mana AND sorcery can often mean tapping out on mana on my own turn, which means people don't need to fear the excellent removal suite that Orzhov has to offer.

Necropotence - This is my absolute favorite card of all time. It ensures that my hand is always full. When I feel like I need to be conservative with my life total, I use Necropotence to refill my hand on each of my turns. If I have out Reliquary Tower , I have no problem paying huge amounts to dig for win conditions. This deck has so many creatures with Lifelink (including the commander), so I tend to gain back the life I spent to draw cards.

When I think about Necropotence , I conclude that it is card advantage incarnate. Think about it. Cast one card, pay , draw as many cards as possible. What more could you want? I try to get black mana out as soon as possible, so that I can start drawin' them cards.

The only time I've found Necropotence to be problematic is after I've paid a bajillion life to draw half my library, then someone at the table wheels my hand, which then gets exiled. Or when I have a massive value creature or win in my hand and someone forces me to discard. I err on the side of caution if someone's playing a commander which tends to wheel a lot like Leovold, Emissary of Trest , Nekusar, the Mindrazer , or Nicol Bolas . I'm also weary of anyone who casts Waste Not , since that person will (obviously) force you to discard a lot, and since Necropotence's exile clause is a trigger, NOT a replacement effect, your opponent will still get all of his or her Waste Not triggers. I will also note that for this same reason, if someone uses Windfall , your hand is still counted for how many cards everyone will draw.

Phyrexian Arena - The much lesser, much less potent babby nephew of Necropotence . As bad as that sounds, Phyrexian Arena is still an extremely powerful card. Drawing 2 cards per turn at the cost of 1/40th of my life total? Sounds good. Something nice about Phyrexian Arena is that it doesn't draw as much of a target on my head as Necropotence does, so I can draw 10+ cards off of it before the end of a game, since it tends to not get removed.

Dark Confidant - Yet another life paying card draw engine. Dark Confidant is more easily recurred from a graveyard than Necropotence or Phyrexian Arena because it's a creature. It's also nice that when I'm in dire straits, I can sacrifice Confidant to one of the many sac outlets in my deck.

Recursion

Reanimate - Allows me to bring a creature from any graveyard to the battlefield under my control. As I've mentioned before, paying life is not as problematic in this deck as it can be in others because of the number of creatures I have with Lifelink. Even though Reanimate can give me a creature from an opponent's graveyard, I usually get my own things back because my creatures are top notch.

Dread Return - Another Reanimate , which doubles as and effective target for Entomb due to its flashback cost which allows me to sacrifice creatures.

Unburial Rites - Another reanimation spell with Flashback.

Obzedat's Aid - I use this one to get back important cards like Necropotence , Phyrexian Arena , or Sorin Markov if they've been sent to the graveyard. The mana cost is high, but it's nice to be able to recur noncreatures.

Volrath's Stronghold - This card is very useful when I want to get back something like Rune-Scarred Demon or Dark Confidant if I've been somehow locked out of the game and don't have out a draw engine. I also use it to protect things in my graveyard from cards like Bojuka Bog and Tormod's Crypt .

Sun Titan - This Giant recurs any permanent cmc 3 or less. That means he hits mana rocks, draw engines, AND lands. If Sun Titan makes it through multiple combat phases, I can reanimate fetch lands over and over, giving me a lot of ramp and thinning my deck out.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - She is an extremely powerful creature and I have used her to piss off many opponents. Even so, I find that Sheoldred tends to make card number 101-105 in my deck. She is very useful when it comes to forcing hard to remove commanders like Zur the Enchanter and Uril, the Miststalker off the table for good. Her Swampwalk is enabled when I have out Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth . The only thing I don't like about Sheoldred is that I have to wait a few turns after I cast her for her to really turn into card advantage. I like my creatures to do something as soon as they enter the battlefield in case one of my opponents has an answer ready.

Removal

Vindicate - Get rid of anything. It's really helpful that it hits lands, so I'm able to destroy annoying things like Kor Haven or Maze of Ith . Sometimes I use an early Vindicate to cut someone off from one of their colors if they only have one source producing it.

Path to Exile - Instant speed exile for any creature. This means people need to think twice about making enemies with me as long as I have available.

Swords to Plowshares - Same as Path to Exile . The life gain I send my opponent's way doesn't mean much, since I win with commander damage or an infinite combo.

Unmake - Another instant speed creature exile spell. I don't like having to save that much mana for removal, I haven't had Unmake in my deck for a while, but it's definitely an option.

Mortify - Mortify offers great versatility since it hits a creature or an enchantment at instant speed.

Austere Command - This is my favorite white spell in the game. It is an incredibly versatile board wipe. This deck has so much recursion that blowing up my own creatures often a benefit, so that I can get their enter the battlefield triggers again. Unlike other Wrath of God effects, Austere Command not only levels the board, but it is capable of swinging it in my favor. If I'm playing a game against an artifact deck and a token deck and I have out a big creature, card:Vish Kal, the Blood Arbiter, for example, I can choose the "destroy all aftifacts and creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less," leaving my Vish Kal to wreak havoc and murder everyone.

Damnation and Wrath of God - The reason it's called a "wrath effect." Wrath can generate a lot of card advantage when my opponents overload the board. Casting a removal spell to destroy ten cards for the price of 4 mana is my definition of "value."

Toxic Deluge - Toxic Deluge can surpass even the Wrath of God since it costs less mana and can kill indestructible creatures. Again, paying life is hardly an issue for me in this deck, since it boasts so many gigantic Lifelinkers who will gain it back.

Black Sun's Zenith - Like Toxic Deluge, BSZ helps me get rid of indestructible creatures. Since Black Sun leaves -1/-1 counters on creatures, I don't always need to dump all of my mana into it. I will note that putting -1/-1 counters on a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, removes that many counters until they are all absent and visa versa.

Sac Outlet

Ashnod's Altar - I use this mostly as a combo piece to go infinite with Su-Chi and Nim Deathmantle . It's also very useful for ramping with Bitterblossom .

Phyrexian Altar - Mostly similar to Ashnod's Altar , except this one makes colored mana. I also use sac outlets to kill my own creatures in response to something that would put them in exile, like Path to Exile .

Phyrexian Tower - This one requires as part of its activation cost, I find it really useful to put creatures in my graveyard, and sometimes tossing a creature to its death is just what I need to start up a combo.

Enters or Leaves the Battlefield Triggers

Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat - The blood brothers here add some periodic life gain during the game. They also turn many of the infinite mana or token combos into kill the board combos. See the combo section for more info.

Wurmcoil Engine - Incredibly mana-efficient creature. Helps gain life back that I've paid to Necropotence . He also creates 6 power in tokens when he dies, which adds up to 12 power when sacrificed to mighty Vish Kal, and allows me to stagger Vish Kal's second activated ability. See the combo section for more info.

Ashen Rider - His trigger happens when he enters OR leaves the battlefield. Use him to get rid of anything in my way. I like using him to get rid of lands.

Angel of Despair - Worse version of Ashen Rider , but it's still a good card.

Mana Fixing and Ramp

Tithe - Tithe can fetch nonbasic lands as well, so I grab Misteveil Plains, Godless Shrine and Scrubland before resorting to basic Plains .

Land Tax - An early Land Tax can assure that I have no mana fixing issues for the rest of the game, as well as thinning out my deck, so I have fewer useless top decks later into a game. Land Tax is part of the reason I run so many basics. If I already have an even distribution of lands, I tend to fetch Swamps before Plains because of how many -heavy spells I have, and because I want to get as much value out of Cabal Coffers as possible, even without Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth .

Expedition Map - I usually tutor for Cabal Coffers or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , but sometimes I use it for color fixing, and occasionally I get Reliquary Tower .

Mana Crypt - I can't imagine a reason to not put this in an EDH deck unless it gets banned.

Sol Ring - Pretty self-explanatory. This goes in most EDH decks.

Orzhov Signet - Most decks will run any signets available to them.

Solemn Simulacrum - Solemn is even better in this deck than many others since I have ways of bringing him back to life over and over to put all of my basic lands onto the battlefield.

Lotus Petal - Excellent ramping, but comes at the price of card disadvantage. I think of it this way; I lose a card when I sac Lotus Petal to put myself a turn ahead of everyone. This can definitely be worth it since I often have Necropotence to draw many cards per turn.

Lotus Bloom - Same as Lotus Petal . Advances me a few turns at the cost of card disadvantage. Makes more mana, but takes 3 turns to come into play.

Other

Grand Abolisher - This guy gives me peace of mind when I want to tutor for the last piece of a combo to win the game, since I don't have to worry about counterspells if Abolisher is on the board.

Ghostly Prison - The tax on attacking me has kept me in more games than I can count. I tend to spend the early game tutoring for threatening creatures or paying life to draw cards, so I like having something to stop my opponents from killing me early on before I hit critical mass.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - She doesn't have an ETB trigger, but still puts massive presence on my side of the board once I cast her. She makes it extremely difficult for my enemies to face me in combat. She stops generation of all small tokens. The extra 2 power on my commander is extremely relevant, since it speeds up the commander damage clock from 5 turns to 3, and gains me back more life from Vish Kal's Lifelink. Bottom line: She is evil and I love it.

Debt to the Deathless and Exsanguinate - The spells that I use to gain life back after all the health-spending costs that I pay. I'm not afraid to have a small card:Exanguinate where is = , because that still gains 6 life in a 4 player game (which is usually what I play in). That can be about 3 turns of life for Necropotence , or 6 turns when it comes to Phyrexian Arena .

When it comes to deciding whether Debt to the Deathless or Exsanguinate is better, the answer is almost always Debt. If I spend its minimal casting cost that puts = , that means each opponent loses 2 life and I gain 6 for total mana. If I spend on Exsanguinate, that makes = , which drains the table for 3 and I gain 9. The two spells break even once mana is spent; both deal 4 to each opponent and I gain 12. Once mana is spent, Debt outshines Exsanguinate and the gap gets larger with each extra mana spent on . (Note: both spells lose the same amount of effectiveness as more and more of my opponents die.)

Lands

Marsh Flats - The fetch land. Grabs anything with Plains or Swamp in its subtype, which includes nonbasic lands as well.

Godless Shrine - The shock land.

Scrubland - The dual land.

Tainted Field - Land that produces ,, and , and comes into play untapped.

Temple of Silence - The scry land. I don't like this one because it comes into play tapped, but it's a great budget option.

Cabal Coffers - Makes some huge mana with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the board. I try to run as many basic swamps as possible to accommodate Coffers when I don't have Urborg out or it gets destroyed.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - (See Cabal Coffers ). Also enables Swampwalk on cards like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Filth .

Combos

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter . If all you have out is these two creatures, you can sacrifice Vish Kal to himself, he comes back with a +1/+1 counter from Undying that Mikaeus grants him, then you can remove the counter to give target creature -1/-1 until end of turn, then repeat. This will allow you to kill all of your opponents creatures.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter + Blood Artist (or another ETB/LTB trigger) will win the game. Even if your opponents have no other creatures to target with Vish Kal's second ability, you can simply target himself.

Su-Chi + Nim Deathmantle + a sac outlet allows you to reanimate Su-Chi infinite times. This will give you infinite ETB/LTB triggers, so you can win with; (infinite life drain) Blood Artist , or Zulaport Cutthroat .

Knight-Captain of Eos + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle . Sac the Captain + a token to the Altar, giving you 4 colorless mana. Spend that mana on Deathmantle's second ability, bringing back the Captain, who ETB with two more soldier tokens. You have netted one soldier token. Repeat ad nauseam, and you will have infinite soldier tokens. This will allow you to kill opponents with either; Blood Artist -type effects, combat damage, or sacrifice the infinite tokens to Ashnod's Altar for infinite colorless mana, then dump it into an spell (such as Exsanguinate ).

Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood = infinite life drain once either effect triggers, since they will continuously trigger off each other.

EDIT LOG 9/4/2016: I have made some major changes, taking out the aforementioned combos in favor of a reanimator theme. I will post more on the changes soon.

EDIT LOG 12/13/2016: I took a break from Vish Kal to experiment with other decks. But, since I have acquired a Nether Void , I have returned to spill some blood :)

Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	URG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink