[Primer] Nightmare by Design

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Mono-Black Primer Ramp Reanimator

Cyfearix

Artifact (21)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Anvil of Bogardan
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Sunstone

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Chains of Mephistopheles
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Koskun Falls
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Revel in Riches
• 1x Waste Not

Creature (21)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Junk Diver
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Sangromancer
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Instant (7)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Suffer the Past
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Withering Boon

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Diamond Valley
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 22x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vesuva

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Toxic Deluge

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Maybeboard

Creature (11)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Dire Fleet Ravager
• 1x Disciple of Griselbrand
• 1x Fleshwrither
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Deathgrip
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Megrim
• 1x Nether Void
• 1x The Abyss

Instant (3)

• 1x Rush of Vitality
• 1x Unnatural Endurance
• 1x Without Weakness

Land (2)

• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Choice of Damnations
• 1x Death Cloud
• 1x Entreat the Dead
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Artifact (4)

• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Ward of Bones

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#1 Chainer deck on Tappedout!!! All thanks to you folks!

UPDATED THROUGH GUILDS OF RAVNICA

LOOKING AT UPDATING SOON 4/20/22

Why Chainer?

First lets look at Chainer, Dementia Master.

All Nightmares get +1/+1.

This is ok for the most part but for my build is meaningless, Ill get to why later.

{B}{B}{B}:Pay 3 Life, Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. That creature is black and is a Nightmare in addition to its other creature types.

Now this is the highlight of the man himself. This is INSTANT speed reanimation! From ANY graveyard. Because of this you can pull the best blocker or attacker or utility anytime you need!

When Chainer, Dementia Master leaves the battlefield, exile all Nightmares.

Now this is the downside, but also has a upside too! If theres a creature an opponent is using from the graveyard we can use Chainer to pull it then sac him to exile it for good. But we don't want some of our reanimated creatures being exiled, so we will be needing a sac outlet to prevent that. Now on to the boring part, some info about me!

For me Chainer, Dementia Master is what broke me out of my deck building funk. I had started playing EDH back in 2007 and during that time I threw together a Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary deck. This was before anyone in my play group knew the ban list and things were less competitive. Now I have been through a lot of commanders since then. All of them including {G}. I wanted something that wasn't just swing every turn. I found Chainer in a .50 binder about 2 years ago and decided that was going to be my next pet deck. I have a Karn, Silver Golem Deck also that started as a challenge from a friend and turned into my other pet deck but thats a story for later. So enough about me, lets get to why you are here....

Chainer is a commander that can be built a couple different ways. You want to run a heavy creature deck and keep pulling them from the yard over and over? We can do that. Want to run STAX and get around some of the more pesky effects. We can do that! OR maybe, like me, you want to abuse EVERY card in your deck and have to ability to recur EVERY card you have! Because, Baby, we can for sure do that!

You will like playing Chainer if...

You want to build around a strong Commander

You like your graveyard being a second library

You want to laugh at blue players who counter EVERYTHING

You want to blow up the whole board, alot

You've always want to kill an opponent with their creatures

You will want to stay away from Chainer if...

You want a Commander just for its colors, Chainer is best built around

You don't want to be the target for the rest of the game because you have board wiped for the 5th time

You are worried about getting your graveyard exiled

You don't like that your own creatures may get exiled

You don't like hurting yourself to get to your goal

About my take on Chainer

I have always wanted a deck I didn't need to attack with. I also wanted a deck that I could reuse all the cards in. The philosophy on my deck is simple, We can recur EVERYTHING! I didn't want to not be able to use a card again if it got destroyed, exiled is a different story, not much we can do about that. I run quite bit more artifacts then most Chainer decks I have seen. I also run a fair amount less creatures then most Chainer decks. My deck does depend on Chainer quite a bit. Now thats not saying its dead in the water if He is shut out, but it does run a lot smoother with him around. I don't run much protect for Chainer at all because he really only shows up when he is absolutely needed.

Your early game (Turn 1-4) is about gauging the table. Thats when I decide which STAX piece is going to be the best for the situation. Playing against heavy creatures Koskun Falls is your friend. Playing a storm deck? Contamination

Your mid game is all about taking the legs out from under your opponents. Again Storm players need cards to storm so loop the hell outta Mindslicer or windmill down Oppression. Creatures bringing ya down? No Mercy,Ensnaring Bridge and Koskun Falls help level that out. You playing the person that runs straight mill? Library of Leng and Anvil of Bogardan.

Late game is all about big mana. Find your wincons, Exsanguinate Kokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of Asphodel are where its at. Or you know mill everyone with Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Desecrated Tomb and another Zombie, that gives you unlimited ETB and death triggers (for a Blood Artist win) and 1/1 tokens, dash of Altar of Dementia and your cooking with gas. I know that seems like a lot but Chainer don’t gather much attentions, people usually let me do my thing and don’t see me as a threat. Then, bam, combo time, I Win. Chainer is sneaky like that.

I hope I have made a unique version of Chainer for everyone. He has been a blast to play and I have received praise from a lot of players that have faced him. I hope you enjoy this or at least find something to help you with your own version of Chainer.

Let's Go over the Cards shall we!

Creatures that give Nightmares

Blood Artist: Repeatable damage and a wincon with Gravecrawler+Phyrexian Altar

Bloodghast: Gives us a creature every turn if we hit our land drops which triggers Grave Pact every turn if its out. Or just gives us a free {C}{C} with Ashnod's Altar or {B} if we have Phyrexian Altar.

Crypt Ghast: is one of our mana doublers.

Dimir House Guard: this little guy lets us tutor for any 4 CMC card when discarded from our hand. That hits 10 different cards in the deck. Top targets include Damnation, Grave Pact and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. The only creature we don't want to not play from our hand.

Gravecrawler: Goes infinite with Phyrexian Altar, gives infinite storm count for Bitter Ordeal,kills table with Blood Artist out, Does require another zombie in play.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: a win condition and if it doesn't close out the game it gains us life in a pinch.

Junk Diver: a flyer, thats it.....or because I run a lot of artifacts and need the recur them!

Kokusho, the Evening Star: same as Gray a win condition if recurred and sacced a couple times.

Meteor Golem:3 life+{B}{B}{B} Blow shit up...repeatedly!

Mindslicer: Opponents with cards in hand are dangerous so why don't we take that away!

Myr Retriever: Another Junk Diver.

Nirkana Revenant: Another Crypt Ghast because we need a lot of mana!

Plaguecrafter: another Grave Pact effect, also hits planeswalkers and helps fill yard!

Sangromancer: Another way to gain life. Works well with Mindslicer and Grave Pact.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier: You ever wanted a reusable tutor? ME TOO! This makes Chainer read {B}{B}{B}: Pay 3 life, Tutor for a card.

Silent Arbiter: This deck doesn't attack....ever. This card prevents getting overwhelmed. Also works amazing with Maze of Ith.

Soldevi Adnate: A sac outlet that gives us {B} equal to CMC. Great for stolen creatures from opponents.

Solemn Simulacrum: A nice land fetcher and card draw.

Withered Wretch: Gets rid of anyone’s recursion. I like exiling those pesky Flashback cards.

Wurmcoil Engine: Yay tokens! : Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed: lets us sac himself to return a BLACK CARD to hand.....ridiculous to cast Damnation more then once....or anything in the deck for that matter.

Artifacts make the world go round

Altar of the Brood: Puts things into the yard when we steal something from the yard! Double burn!

Altar of Dementia: A sac outlet that mills an opponent. Great way to get Chainer more things to steal.

Anvil of Bogardan: Yes it does give everyone no max hand size. Yes it does let everyone draw 2 cards. But It also forces a discard decision EVERY turn. This really does help out a lot. I haven't had it come back to bite me yet.

Ashnod's Altar: Staple sac outlet. Nets us {C}{C} in a pinch.

Crucible of Worlds: This allows us a land drop every turn because of fetches.

Desecrated Tomb: Gives us 1/1s that turn into mana with a sac outlet. Synergy with Phyrexian Altar Blood Artist Mindcrank Altar of Dementia

Ensnaring Bridge: Because I built the deck to not have to attack I figured why should anyone get to? It limits the huge creatures from doing anything. If you combine it with Mindslicer every turn then nothing attacks. Who needs friends anyway.

Expedition Map: When you run 11 non-basics this is a godsend. Especially when you bring it back a couple times with Chainer/Junkdiver combo.

Extraplanar Lens: Doubles up our Snow-Covered Swamp. And its cheaper then Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun

Gilded Lotus: Gives us that much needed {B}{B}{B} without having to tap our lands.

Library of Leng: Now this is a card that I love. Gives us no max hand size for starters! Where it really shines is that we don't have to discard to our graveyard, it can go to the top of deck instead! Coupled with Necropotence and the possibility of a fetch land drop every turn we are shuffling all the time anyway. Coupled with all the tutor effects this is a match made in heaven.

Mana Crypt: I only run this because of the amount of artifacts I run. Its the best at its job.

Mesmeric Orb: So naturally things become untapped. This fills graveyards for doing a normal game action, thats win win. Because of the way I've built the deck we can recur anything that might end up in our yard.I am really only unwrapping 2-3 lands if things are going to plan anyway. There is really only 2 cards that I don't want to see hit that yard unless Ive already cast them.

Mindcrank: This does what we want, putting things into graveyards. Damage will happen in the game of Magic. So lets have that work for us! Plus when you Exsanguinate for 20+ thats 20 more in the yard.

Mirage Mirror This card….its a clone effect for..well anything. Need more mana? Second Cabal Coffers seems nice. Need MORE STAX?!!?? Two Grave Pact will hurt your opponents. A second Sangromancer can save you from losing.

Nevinyrral's Disk: Our #1 way of dealing with enchantments.

Phyrexian Altar: Best sac outlet for Chainer, because it gives us {B}. Also allows us to steal others creatures with activations outside of {B} and still use them.

Rings of Brighthearth: Doubles up Chainer, Dementia Master, Soldevi Adnate, Cabal Coffers, Deserted Temple which lets us have infinite Black.

Static Orb: Gives us the slow down of faster decks that we can work through with our large mana producing lands. Used and tutored for only when we need to breath.

Sol Ring: Come on you really think it wouldn't be here?

Sunstone: This is fog with the downside of saccing a Snow-Covered land. But if we are hitting out lands every turn saccing one when/if we need to survive is a worthy cost.

Give me fuel, Give me fire, Give me lands that I desire!

Bloodstained Mire: A fetch that when paired with Crucible of Worlds gets a land drop every turn.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This Gives our instants and sorceries the ablitiy to laugh at counter spells when we really just want that Damnation to go off.

Cabal Coffers: Staple mono {B} card.

Deserted Temple: Allows us to untap Cabal Coffers.

Diamond Valley: Best Land based Sac outlet ever. Nets us life based on toughness also.

Marsh Flats: Fetch #2.

Maze of Ith: Love this card. Prevents being 1 shotted. Combos with Silent Arbiter.

Polluted Delta: Fetch #3.

Snow-Covered Swamp: Run these over regular swamps so only we benefit from them.

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Makes everyone pay to keep creatures. We always have tons of mana and don't mind saccing, can't say the same for oppenents.

Thespian's Stage: Copies Cabal Coffers or Maze of Ith.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Makes all off our lands tap for {B}. Downside is everyone gets access to {B}.

Vesuva: Same goal as Thespian's Stage.

Enchantments make Everyone happy

Bloodchief Ascension:Nets us life on opponents discard! Wins with Mindcrank

Chains of Mephistopheles: Devastating after Mindslicer If you also have the Library of Leng in play along with the Chains, you may safely discard a card, put it on top of your Library, and draw it again.

Contamination: For the low cost of a sacrifice we can make all the lands tap for {B}. In fact its a single {B}. Goodbye Gaea's Cradle. A great way to control the game, especially if the only one running {B}. It shouldn't be a burden to us.

Grave Pact: Our creatures (and our opponents stolen creatures) will getting sacrificed. So we might as well make our opponents do the same. Great board controller.

Koskun Falls: I don't like being attacked. This makes it that much harder. Playing 2 more per creature to attack is pretty taxing. Coupled with Maze of Ith or Silent Arbiter makes attacking pointless.

Necropotence: Everyone's favorite draw engine. Coupled with Library of Leng means we never lose our hand.

No Mercy: To reiterate, I don't like being attacked. So let's punish anyone that does!

Oppression: I don't mind discarding cards. But then again I don't have to with Library of Leng. I've learned people don't like discarding cards very often. Especially for doing a main component of the game!

Revel in Riches: A sleeper hit for me. Ive won games because of well timed Damnation with a STAX piece out. Gives us a opps I wincon…..Plus it gives you mana, I like mana!

Waste Not: Gives sac fodder, Mana and Card draw. All 3 great things. Everyone keep telling me to run it so here it is!

Give me a Instant or Sorcery and Ill show you a fun time

Bitter Ordeal: This can be a lifesaver, if you know what youir playing against resolving this for even 2-3 can shift the game your way.

Dark Ritual: Can help make a faster start to the game or that extra push on a turn.

Entomb: With Chainer it's a tutor. We likey.

Imp's Mischief: Changing the target of spell that either benefits us or prevents an opponent from doing something is nice. It's only downside is it has to be a single target. But hey this is mono {B}, we take what we can.

Sudden Spoiling: Great way to get around any creatures that are indestructible and shroud. Thank you M14 rule changes.

Suffer the Past: Nice mana sink late game that can sneak in that last bit of damage. Or be used as targeted graveyard hate. or very rarely if you need life that bad.

Vampiric Tutor: I'm not a fan of tutoring for a card and putting it on top of my library. But this is Chainer. So if it gets milled, oh well. It's an instant though, so we like.

Withering Boon: A creature only counter spell. Because there are some creatures that I either really want in the yard right away or Generals that I just don't want to see at a certain point.

Buried Alive: Tutors for 3 creatures! Chainer loves this. Grab all the creatures!

Damnation: YAY board wipes. We like creatures in graveyards, right? So lets put a ton in there!

Demonic Tutor: Just the best tutor ever IMO.

Exsanguinate: Can end the game in the late stages. Can be used in a pinch to gain life lost.

Toxic Deluge: Board wipe that gets around the pesky indestructible and hexproof creatures.

Notable cards omitted

Sanguine Bond: I didn't include this because its boring. Its too simple of a win with Exquisite Blood. I just don't like it for personal reasons.

All Planeswalkers. This is meta decision. I personally don't like them. My play group don't use them.

Reanimate: It's a fantastic card. I just never really needed it when I did run it. Should be auto include for starters.

Sheoldred, Whispering One: Again, Great card. I just don't like the mana cost. Yes we can get around this with Chainer, but then I need to discard it. Cut to make the deck faster.

Phyrexian Arena: I used to run it. I feel like now I have enough Tutor effects that I don't need the card draw as much. Opened up room for Sign in Blood. Personal Decision.

Burnished Hart: A lot of players love this card. I don't want to pay {B}{B}{B}{B}{B}{B} and 3 life to get 2 lands. Solemn Simulacrum replaced it because of the card draw.

Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power: Because I can't cheat them in and they would be turn 4 cards usually at the earliest I cut them in favor of speed.

All the cards in the Maybeboard are fantastic options for the deck and should be rotated in as you see fit. They have all performed incredible for me and I do filter then in.Black Market is amazing in a creature heavy meta and Death Cloud is great against fast decks because it'll be easier for us the recover then most other decks. The primer is wrote to my Main list which is way it may have weird ommisions, it fits my meta the best. I hope for those that have come back for the update like the changes and anyone new to my primer find it a fun read atleast! Cheers Friends.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Treasure, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Interesting decks, Need to playtest, Interesante EDH decks, Interesting Commander Decks, that's dope, Saved Ideas, WatchList: Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), test, Neat!, commander