Chainer: Resource Domination

Commander / EDH* Competitive Pox Stax

LabManiac_cobblepott

Artifact (24)

• 1x Astral Cornucopia
• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Claws of Gix
• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Voltaic Key
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (6)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (19)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Lodestone Myr
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Chains of Mephistopheles
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Deathgrip
• 1x Leshrac's Sigil
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Waste Not

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Pox
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Smallpox
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 21x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Hymn to Tourach
• 1x Mind Twist
• 1x Sanguimancy

Artifact (2)

• 1x Memory Jar
• 1x Trinisphere

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Painful Quandary

Creature (1)

• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist

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Lots of changes. Updated description to come.

Resource Denial build.

The instant nature of Chainer's activated ability is key to this deck's success. Many of the ETB effects on your creatures were designed around the assumption that they could only happen during your main phase. Breaking that assumption opens up all kinds of degenerate plays. Chainer's ability also doesn't cast anything so you don't care about counterspells, tax effects, Rule of Law effects, etc. Thus, you can persevere through more poisonous environments than most opponents can. Honestly under Chainer, you can play Draw Go in monoblack.

• Someone casts Swords to Plowshares on Chainer? Respond with an activation to put Sidisi, Undead Vizier into play finding Imp's Mischief to redirect.

• Someone casts Food Chain? Respond with an activation to put Corpse Connoisseur into play entombing Phyrexian Revoker which can be put into play naming Food Chain.

• Someone sacrifices Protean Hulk? Respond to the hulk trigger by putting him directly into play on your side of the Battlefield.

• Someone tutored a wincon to their hand? Respond with an activation to put Mesmeric Fiend into play, and while the enters trigger is on the stack, sac him to resolve the leaves trigger first, permanently exiling the chosen card.

• Someone resolved an Ad Nauseam or activated Necropotence for 30? Activate for Mindslicer and immediately sac it. Now no one has a hand, but your stocked yard is just as good.

Even though you can play Draw Go doesn't mean you should though. It's mana intensive and the proactive Deny All Resources plan is more effective in the long run. Just keep in mind that you have interactive options available if you need them.

The Deny All Resources plan boils down to attacking opponent resources in the following order of priority:

1. Cards in Hand - An opponent with an empty hand is very easy to predict. And defeat. The majority of the deck is designed around keeping your opponent grips empty. The earlier you can land Chains of Mephistopheles, Oppression, Painful Quandary, Mindslicer, Possessed Portal, Words of Waste, etc the better. Under Chains / Portal, you'll want to grab Necropotence to break parity. With the others, just having Waste Not or Geth's Grimoire will put you leagues ahead.

2. Mana - Contamination. Better than Blood Moon and Back to Basics because it doesn't care whether lands are basic or not. Everyone is screwed until you run out of creatures (which is never). The next bullet also dovetails with this line.

3. Everything Else - Pox, Death Cloud, and Possessed Portal. These are especially devastating after resolving anything from point 1. Or if you have It That Betrays on the field. Don't forget that our commander and Crucible of Worlds make this plan much more tenable.

Wincons abound.

• Obviously Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat get there with almost everything in the list.

• Gravecrawler and Phyrexian Altar go infinite with many combinations of pieces (consider Carnival of Souls, Genesis Chamber, the aristocrats above, etc).

• Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed can recur infinitely in many contexts as well leveraging things like Sacrifice or Songs of the Damned to perpetuate sequences of tutors, draw, and Pox effects.

• Bitter Ordeal is absurd in recursive lists. Don't forget that gravestorm works just like storm. Counterspells are not going to be too much trouble. Also, don't wait till you can exile your opponents' entire libraries. Even exiling something like 3 or 4 pieces from each opponent library will have an enormous effect on the game.

Nuggets:

• Waste Not and Geth's Grimoire trigger off of opponent Necropotence/Ad Nauseam discards. An opponent drawing 30 is much less threatening if you also get 23 triggers out of the deal. There are also a number of satisfying interactions with things like Words of Waste where you replace a draw with three more draws, stringing them together to form an effect very similar to Notion Thief with wheels.

• Carnival of Souls is high risk, high reward. Make sure to have Chainer in play before getting this out so you can capitalize on the mana your opponents will generate for you on their turns. Having an aristocrat in play generally keeps you at equilibrium. Having two actually nets you life as long as you can generate death triggers.

• Obviously It That Betrays and Kothophed, Soul Hoarder like to hang out with Possessed Portal or Desolation, but don't neglect the interactions with Sacrifice and Disciple of Bolas as well.

• Claws of Gix wind up being exceptionally useful. Sure, a little extra life in a pinch goes a long way in many circumstances, but we include this for business reasons. First, we run several noncreature permanents that can be exploited against us (Carnival of Souls, Dark Prophecy, etc), so an escape hatch to get us out of potential bad situations is crucial. Even more so, there are lots of pieces for which fine grained control allows degenerate lines. For example, Oppression, Chains of Mephistopheles, Desolation, Tangle Wire, etc really do well clogging up everyone's game plans. Having the flexibility to surgically remove them on a whim affords tremendous flexibility. Or maybe you have Necropotence and some important things you want to get into your yard. Having an out to activate Necro for 20, sac it, and then fill your yard instead of exile is tremendous.

• Myr Retriever and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed allow you to reinstate any important things that you sacked to Claws of Gix. Thus the pressure is maintained on your opponents, while you've got it made in the shade.

• Rest in Peace and friends. Yeah those are brutal. If something like this resolves, we've got some hard work to do, but chances are other people will be annoyed without their yards too. Either way, being proactive with Bitter Ordeal, Phyrexian Revoker, and discard effects is the best path to victory in that regard.

Top Ranked	Achieved #66 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.11
Tokens	Morph 2/2 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH, To Build, Others' decks, Saved Decks, 8) Fresh Spice Friday Decks, Take Note, New decks, Fun Ideas, Chainer Ideas, EDH