I found Maga, Traitor to Mortals one day and thought it was a great card. A while ago I had a 60 card deck based around pumping out black mana and slurping the life out of my opponents. Maga reminded me of this, and as a commander, fits that deck perfectly. So I expanded the 60 card deck into a commander deck!
In the beginning, everyone is on an even playing field. One card draw, one land play, and so on. This deck desires to gain card advantage as quickly as possible. Black has many excellent options for this: Underworld Connections and Phyrexian Arena are important and linger; however many of the cards are one-timers. Dusk Legion Zealot, Read the Bones, etc. Another aspect for card advantage are abilities that allow you to draw your top card: Twilight Prophet is the ideal card, Pain Seer, Ruin Raider, Erebos, and Dark Tutelage are the others. Since this deck will try to drain life out of an opponent, I'm very happy to use my life as a resource for gaining card advantage.
Speaking of life, the goal of the deck is to take it from others. Drain Life, Soul Burn, Consume Spirit, Exsanguinate, Bond of Agony, and so forth. There is a sub-theme of Extort in the deck, via Pontiff of Blight, Basilica Screecher, and Thrull Parasite. Additionally, Retreat to Hagra, Palace Siege, Trespasser's Curse, and a few creatures all help drain life. Life is key to survival, life is key to card advantage, and life is key to domination. There are also a few life gaining helpers, such as Staff of the Death Magus, Alhammarret's Archive, and Whip of Erebos. A minor thought which I will try to expand in the future, is Defiant Bloodlord. You gain life and hurt others even more!
The last major component of the deck is mana production. I really hate the trope of Sol Ring in every deck, but this deck actually uses it in a "better" way. It fits the theme of the deck appropriately, is a better way to put it. I'd like a Thran Dynamo in the future, as well. Otherwise, there's Urborg for mass swampage and Cabal Coffers to take advantage of that. Magus of the Coffers and Crypt Ghast also enjoy all this black mana. I'll get a Nirkana Revenant eventually. Finally, Doubling Cube rounds out the mana production for explosive growth. This means you get to guzzle someone's life force. And remember, Maga is always around if you're missing one of the X spells. Maga loves slamming into play, draining someone hard, and swinging big!
The final bit of the deck is board control. Black, of course, is excellent at killing creatures. A number of options exist, some of which were chosen because they fit the life theme of the deck. Tendrils of Corruption comes to mind. A weakness of the deck is destroying noncreature permanents. Nev's Disk can help, but it's one card. I may eventually seek out other options for this. So far no major issues have been encountered.
One notable play to date was draining someone unexpectedly with Bond of Agony for 26 and winning the game. I don't think this deck is highly competitive, but it is fun. Just the chance to blast someone is thrilling.
In the future, as mentioned above, I will acquire a Nirkana Revenant for more mana. The control cards will likely disappear if anything needs changed. I've been eyeballing putting Greed into the deck and Arguel's Blood Fast. I'm finding that card advantage is all-important for this deck to function. Since I have so many vampires, Champion of Dusk could be a great option, too. Honestly, I have not done much research for this deck, so there may be some excellent options out there that I simply do not know exist.
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