Drana's Artifice +stax

Commander / EDH* Control Mono-Black Ramp Voltron

Rahvin2015

Artifact (27)

• 1x Armillary Sphere
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Web
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Karn Liberated
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Creature (14)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land (34)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 24x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Wasteland

Instant (3)

• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Sorcery (12)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Infernal Darkness
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Maybeboard

Artifact (16)

• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Crystal Ball
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Helm of Possession
• 1x Journeyer's Kite
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Tawnos's Coffin
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak
• 1x Witchbane Orb

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1x Sorin Markov

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Ancient Craving
• 1x Cruel Tutor
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Killing Wave
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Temporal Extortion
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Instant (3)

• 1x Extirpate
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Skeletal Scrying

Creature (9)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Armory Automaton
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Land (5)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Dictate of Erebos

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Big Mana Drana with Voltron and a small stax subtheme. Ideally we want to ramp into Drana quickly to start punching people in the face. We include lots of sacrifice fodder to support stax/sacrifice based abilities like Grave Pact and Contamination, as well as to be easy, reliable targets for Drana's ability even when opponents have no creatures.

Ironically, while we can smash one player super fast, we're not going to be the fastest deck on the table to hit an actual win. This is just the consequence of trying to win through combat/commander damage, instead of a board-killing combo.

We need to use stax effects to slow down the other players. Contamination supported by Bitterblossom is the dream here - without an immediate answer, many decks just get shut down totally.

We do have some possible combo finishes for games that are going too long, or where the board is just not looking favorable for combat. All of the big mana acceleration (and infinite mana combos) allow us to not only murder creatures (even indestructible ones) using Drana, it also lets us power a giant Exsanguinate to kill the table. The infinite mana combos include Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth and Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth .

The combos are backups, not the main goal of the deck - we're looking to smash face with our commander as quickly and as frequently and as hard as possible.

We don't mind board wipes as much as other decks, since we mostly just need a single creature on the board, and she's in the command zone. Artifact hate hurts us the most, because it can potentially take out a lot of our ramp and equipment.

We pay life often; do so liberally, because we have Exsanguinate and Batterskull and Basilisk Collar to help if needed. Ideally the game will be over quickly enough that this shouldn't be an issue anyway. I'm considering increasing the amount of lifederain effects by adding Drain Life and similar, but these are all single-target spells that are typically suboptimal in EDH.

"Defense" against other creatures should be managed via Drana just killing anything that hits the table. Keeping mana up for instant removal is a very good idea; typically, pump Drana no more than it takes to cut down the number of attacks to kill a player, and never tap out entirely unless you're going to actually kill someone. Remember that opponents are just waiting for an opportunity to get a creature equipped with boots/greaves, so we need to be ready to murder in response.

I'm currently looking for suggestions, as I'm having some difficulty balancing the control/stax elements with support for the Voltron win. For some reason 100 cards never seems like enough. I'm considering more tutors, more draw effects, more stax and control pieces...see the Maybeboard for things I'm thinking about. My big challenges right now are not getting Drana out quickly enough with the ability to keep opponents' creatures off the board, dealing with counterspells, and non-creature permanents that Black has issues removing. Despite a large amount of draw, my playtesting has also started to run out of gas after a few turns. My meta is scaling up the threat level (5-color Gods Enchantress, Breya combo, Nekusar wheels and Doomsday, Ayli sacrifice and pillowfort, Oona counterspells.dec, etc), and the reduction in creature-centric strategies has reduced Drana's effectiveness.

This deck is very straightforward, and has been a blast to play.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.65
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
Based on	Drana's Artifice Rahvin2015 EDH