Threnody in B Major

Vintage Combo Mono-Black Reanimator

Balaam__

Sorcery (16)

• 4x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 4x Exhume
• 4x Scheming Symmetry
• 3x Unearth

Instant (8)

• 4x Dark Ritual
• 4x Entomb

Land (20)

• 2x Bazaar of Baghdad
• 4x Field of Ruin
• 4x Ghost Quarter
• 10x Swamp

Artifact (2)

• 1x Black Lotus
• 1x Mox Jet

Creature (10)

• 3x Maralen of the Mornsong
• 3x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 4x Opposition Agent

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Dance of the Dead

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Sideboard

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Thoughtseize

Instant (3)

• 3x Surgical Extraction

Artifact (4)

• 4x Wishclaw Talisman

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If you enjoy decks with interesting or otherwise uncommon Win-cons, give this one a try.

The Mana Base

A mono black deck steeped in the foul and brackish waters of the ubiquitous Swamp , we do run a handful of other lands although not primarily as mana sources. They’ll contribute the odd generic mana now and again, but their primary purpose will be detailed further below. The unusually low basic land count is offset by other mana generating spells, so no need to worry overmuch.

•The Swamp provides us with the black mana we need to cast every loathsome and abhorrent thing rising from the mire.

Extraneous Mana Sources

The Vintage format opens up a few turbocharged options to gain fast mana that this deck’s Modern counterpart just can’t compete with.

• Mox Jet is a gemstone masquerading as a land.

• Black Lotus is the face of Magic, and deservedly so. 3 mana in the palm of your hand, enough to singlehandedly cover the cost of finding, dumping and reanimating either half of our combo team of creatures.

• Dark Ritual also enables similar combination plays. Use it and abuse it, even stacking it if necessary.

Tutors

The main combo featured in this deck is comprised of two creatures, one of which boasts a hefty 6cmc, followed up by a third creature playing a support role to protect the duo. Tutoring for them in specific ways will drastically reduce the mana required to actually cast them. We have access to the best tutors on offer, and use them we will.

• Bazaar of Baghdad , while not technically a tutor, occupies a similar role here. Use it to sift through your library, dumping key creatures into the graveyard while retaining useful reanimation spells.

• Entomb is the more direct approach. It will find either half of our combo and relocate them safely to the graveyard to await resuscitation.

• Buried Alive is Entomb on steroids. Find Maralen, Ob Nixilis, and Opposition Agent for one mana apiece, all at once.

• Demonic Tutor will find any card in your library and bring it to hand, helpful for when you have the necessary creatures but that reanimation spell slipped through your fingers.

• Scheming Symmetry can technically be used to tutor some key component up, but is better used later on. Read: “In Emergency, Break Glass”; otherwise hang onto it.

Life Resurgent

Like a jigsaw puzzle, now that we’ve found the correct pieces it’s time to join them together. Use these reanimation spells to recall from the graveyard that which we’ve placed there.

• Unearth will return 2 of the 3 creatures we have to play, but it won’t work on the demon. He’ll need something less restrictive.

• Exhume will pull a creature out of the graveyard without the drawback of either of the necromantic enchantment spells. Once it’s out, it’s staying out unless removed again. The deck is fast with a very low average cmc, so there may not even be a creature in the opponent’s graveyard at this point for them to reanimate.

• Dance of the Dead over Animate Dead because adding +1/+1 to Maralen of the Mornsong is great (Boltproof!), and neither creature needs to be untapped to make use of their specific effects. Attacking or blocking isn’t really part of our strategy.

The Trio

Having Maralen of the Mornsong + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled in play simultaneously is what we’ve been working toward. Starting the very next turn the life loss starts accumulating for any opponent. Their only thought will be to search their library for some sort of removal, usually either a death by damage or an exile spell. Neither one is all that problematic for us; if they kill either creature simply reanimate it again, and if it’s exiled then tutor up another or play one of the spares sitting in the graveyard care of Buried Alive . Same goes for ‘Pongification’ or what have you.

Of course, all the aforementioned methods are really more of a last resort. There’s still one creature we have yet to talk about, namely Opposition Agent . She floated down through a pack of Commander Legends like mana from Heaven, a perfect fit for this deck and precisely what it was lacking. Once cast, she effectively neuters any and all attempts the opposing player could ever have made to thwart our main creature combo. Ideally we’d play the agent on the same turn as we set up the combo, or the one preceding it. After turn order is passed back to the opponent, Maralen will force a deck search. Only, instead of selecting a suitable removal spell, we’ll be choosing one of their very best spells to use against them, after we exile it. Unless they’re fortunate enough to have a spell already in hand, it will be rather difficult to disrupt the combo at this point.

• Opposition Agent is a tertiary support card for our key combo. Technically not required, but she can offer ironclad defense for protecting it if we can get her afield.

• Maralen of the Mornsong radically alters the very rules of the game. She caught my eye as I was examining all the expansion sets I’ve missed during a 20 year hiatus from the game, and I knew right away I wanted to design a deck around her. It was a lot of fun finding other cards that synergize well with her abilities.

• Ob Nixilis, Unshackled compliments our elf so well it’s as if they were designed around each other. A bit steep cmc-wise, but offset by robust characteristics that grant him a formidable board presence.

Terminate With Extreme Prejudice

Once the combo is assembled the opponent is immediately put on a clock. Each of their draw phases will exact a brutal toll of 10 points of life loss as they’re forced to scour their deck for potential answers. We’ve discussed how to handle those answers; now we’ll go over what we can do to proactively hasten their destruction.

• Scheming Symmetry becomes immeasurably valuable if cast once all three combo pieces are in play. Carve out a massive chunk of life for a measly one black mana. Add insult to injury by choosing something at random to float to the top of their library, knowing that if Opposition Agent is in play it won’t matter anyway.

Remember the other lands we glossed over in the first subheading? They’ve just become relevant again.

• Field of Ruin is a seemingly innocuous land that barely pays off—until you add in a stipulation like “Whenever an opponent searches [their] library, that player sacrifices a creature and loses 10 life.” All of a sudden this land is a critical threat. Use it, watch your opponent cough up blood as if they had Tuberculosis, then expand the vastness of your empire by adding another swamp to your side of the table.

• Ghost Quarter is ideally played immediately after Field of Ruin . It’s less restrictive as it can hit any land (not that you’ll have much of a hard time finding someone using a non-basic land, for the previous card) without restriction. Thematically appropriate for Black, playing this is particularly petty and vindictive due to the wording “It’s controller may search his or her library...”.

TL;DR

•Get Maralen of the Mornsong , Ob Nixilis, Unshackled and Opposition Agent into the graveyard using Bazaar of Baghdad , Entomb or Buried Alive

•Reanimate all three using Unearth , Exhume or Dance of the Dead

•Cast Scheming Symmetry and use the non-mana abilities of lands Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter in conjunction with the once-per-turn combo effect to inflict catastrophic life loss on the opponent

The Sideboard

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, and a subtle tactical adjustment is necessary. Borrowing from its Modern counterpart, Elegy in B Minor, we have some hand disruption to preemptively remove obstacles to setting up our combo.

• Thoughtseize away annoying counterspells or bounce/exile cards. Begone!

• Inquisition of Kozilek is much the same, adding yet more opportunities to bypass threats before they even happen.

• Wishclaw Talisman seemed like a good fit for this deck, but I wasn’t quite sure. I figure if we use it to conjure up Opposition Agent for play that same turn, then pass the artifact to the opponent, it’s not like they’ll be doing anything with it. And so I’ve left it, here in the sideboard for now.

• Surgical Extraction is here because graveyard/dredge decks are a thing.

“Search...for in them ye think ye have eternal life...”

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Maralen of the Mornsong + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
Legality	This deck is Vintage legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 11 Rares 19 - 4 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.10
Folders	Vintage