Death and Death: The Cycle of Horobi

Commander / EDH Budget Control Jank Mono-Black

TildeGunderson

Creature (23)

• 1x Accursed Witch  ^Flip
• 1x Cadaver Imp
• 1x Consumptive Goo
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Desecration Demon
• 1x Dross Harvester
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Guul Draz Overseer
• 1x Indulgent Tormentor
• 1x Kuro, Pitlord
• 1x Lim-Dul the Necromancer
• 1x Mirri the Cursed
• 1x Nefashu
• 1x Phyrexian Rager
• 1x Priest of the Blood Rite
• 1x Rathi Trapper
• 1x Scuttlemutt
• 1x Sorceress Queen
• 1x Thrull Parasite
• 1x Tooth Collector
• 1x Treasure Keeper
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Xathrid Gorgon

Land (38)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Oasis
• 35x Swamp
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Artifact (14)

• 1x Ballista Charger
• 1x Bomat Bazaar Barge
• 1x Boompile
• 1x Cauldron of Souls
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Garrison
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Glaring Spotlight
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Puppet Strings
• 1x Sacred Armory
• 1x Scale of Chiss-Goria
• 1x Seer's Lantern
• 1x Tooth of Chiss-Goria

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Bad Moon
• 1x Demonic Rising
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Fevered Convulsions
• 1x Retreat to Hagra
• 1x Retribution of the Ancients
• 1x Shadows of the Past
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited

Commander (1)

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Ghastly Conscription
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Rise from the Grave
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Urborg Uprising

Instant (7)

• 1x Consume the Meek
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Death Denied
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Succumb to Temptation
• 1x Touch of Darkness
• 1x Tragic Slip

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Maybeboard

Land (4)

• 1x Desert
• 1x Ice Floe
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Rath's Edge

Instant (1)

• 1x Scour from Existence

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Horobi, Death's Wail is one of my favourite EDH spells in Magic, since it manipulates how a multiplayer game operates. Voltron decks are made relatively obsolete; certain cards that people wouldn't give a second thought are made powerful. It basically changes the rules of how the game works, creating a weird, yet unique multiplayer experience.

This deck is effectively a budget control deck in its simplest terms.

One possible disadvantage to Horobi is that the ability also affects your creatures. However, many decks rely on non-targeted removal to avoid having to deal with Hexproof or Shroud; two very common keywords that show up in EDH. Because of that, many decks don't have the tools to turn the deck around as well as your deck can.

This deck focuses on Horobi's "kill targeted things" ability and builds around it with cards that can target creatures. Many of these cards are outdated, obscure or otherwise unusable spells that are made useful through Horobi. It also has a few power-plays and big creatures to allow you actually win a couple games as well, as well as a relatively generic base for mono-black decks (minus some of the more infamous cards, like Cabal Coffers and/or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth).

In case you want to build this deck yourself, here's some Pros and Cons for you to consider!:

PROS:

• Inexpensive: There are a lot of odd and weird spells that are only good with Horobi. Because of their particularly niche usage, this allows many of the spells in this deck to stay cheap.

• Room for Improvement/Very Open Win-Conditions: I purposely made this list as inexpensively as I possibly could, which also led to a relatively underwhelming list of janky win conditions. If you're considering building this deck, there are a lot of cards that you could not get and include your own win conditions if you so choose.

• A Counter to Voltron: Most Voltron decks rely on putting things onto one or two creatures. Horobi decimates most Voltron strategies, negating any Equip or Enchant Creature effects.

• Good in 1v1: This deck has performed significantly better than I thought in single-player games, since Horobi can probably more easily win through Commander damage and it counters Voltron decks. 1v1 also works in your favour because there are fewer opponents who might have cards that work unusually well with Horobi

• Can be Played Without Horobi Around: I've removed a few cards that'd work with Horobi's ability in favour of including some decent mono-black spells that work with or without Horobi, in case it becomes far too expensive to continue paying for.

CONS:

• Has Difficulty Dealing with Enchantments/Artifacts: Like any mono-black deck, this deck has trouble destroying artifacts/enchantments. This can be alleviated by throwing in some colourless permanent removal (like Spine of Ish Sah or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger).

• Countered by Token Decks: Horobi likes it when your opponents focus on one or two creatures, making it easy pickings for your deck to deal with. When there's a big pile of creatures on the field, Horobi has a bit more trouble dealing with them.

• Horobi can work against it: As mentioned above, Horobi's ability is a global effect, so if your opponents have the means to consistently target your own creatures, you may find the abyss gazing back.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 23 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.45
Tokens	Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Manifest 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B