Here it is. My mono-black control EDH deck. After a couple of weeks of research and card acquisition it is finally whole.Let me be the first to say, this deck is a BITCH! It runs some of the more broken combos available to mono-black including the dreaded Chains of Mephistopheles Anvil of Bogardan. Ill give you a run down of the control elements and then explain the win cons.
First of all Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed needs a mention. This dude is a win-con, tutor recursion machine. Having experimented with Drana, Chainer and Sheoldred in the top spot, for control I have to say Xiahou trumps them all.
Control elements:Smokestack, Braids, Cabal Minion,
The Abyss
& Bitterblossom, Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Crucible of Worlds = no more opponent permanents
Chains of Mephistopheles & Anvil of Bogardan = no more opponent draws
Contamination & Bitterblossom, Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Crucible of Worlds = Soft lock mana denial
Crucible of Worlds, Stripmine = mana destruction (better with Rings of Brighthearth)
Necropotence (gets past Chains and Anvil) +
Words of Waste
= opponent hand removal
Corpse Dance & Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed = 5 mana recursion of any black card in your GY (Demonic Tutor, Exsanguinate being my favs)
Of course the deck has access to cheap non-conditional spot removal in the forms of
Sickening Shoal
and Dismember. It also rocks a few wraths Mutilate, Damnation, All Is Dust, Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone and soon to be added will be the 3 cmc wrath from commander 2013.
There are smatterings of other control elements including discard Mindslicer Mind Twist, anti planeswalker Vampire Hexmage, non black removal Spine of Ish Sah Karn Liberated All Is Dust & targeted combo denial Sadistic Sacrament, Praetor's Grasp
To win this deck chews through a lot of juice and therefore requires BIG mana, which is achieved through Cabal Coffers, Extraplanar Lens, Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, the Basalt MonolithRings of Brighthearth infinite combo & the Cabal Coffers, Rings of Brighthearth & Deserted Temple infinite combo.
With Crucible of Worlds in play the three fetch lands Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire Marsh Flats prevent missing my land drops & helping fuel Cabal Coffers.
When the mana is online Exsanguinate, Death Cloud & Profane Command finish the job, and if they are countered they can be reclaimed with our mate Xiahou.
Another insta win is the old nasty Leyline of the Void & Helm of Obedience combo which is hilarious if you open with Leyline in hand and can accelerate into an early Helm (pure evil).
Of course all of these interactions need a sleuth of tutors to get them online hence Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, Beseech the Queen, Insidious Dreams, Expedition Map, Entomb and Praetor's Grasp. I have also tried out Rhystic Tutor and Diabolic Intent, both were too conditional for me. I would like to get my hands on Grim Tutor when i can free up some more cash. Imperial Seal just isn't going to happen.
There are a plenty of accelerators, which are necessary for the deck to be competitive against faster decks in my meta, there are also early game interactions like Hymn to Tourach, Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving. Also many of the combo pieces have a low cmc. This is important in 1v1 as an inactive board is detrimental to the longevity of the game.
If you have any recommendations please feel free to post them.
The 1v1 version of this deck can be found at Xiahou... Oh No You Don't!
