[Primer] Chainer's Dark Gift to a Darker Soul...
Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Stax Suicide Black
Instant (4)
Sorcery (9)
- 1x Buried Alive
- 1x Damnation
- 1x Demonic Tutor
- 1x Diabolic Intent
- 1x Diabolic Revelation
- 1x Grim Tutor
- 1x Imperial Seal
- 1x Living Death
- 1x Toxic Deluge
Enchantment (10)
Artifact (14)
- 1x Ashnod's Altar
- 1x Caged Sun
- 1x Crucible of Worlds
- 1x Expedition Map
- 1x Gilded Lotus
- 1x Illusionist's Bracers
- 1x Mana Web
- 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
- 1x Phyrexian Altar
- 1x Rings of Brighthearth
- 1x Skullclamp
- 1x Smokestack
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x Venser's Journal
Planeswalker (1)
Creature (31)
- 1x Blood Artist
- 1x Bloodghast
-
1x
Bloodline Keeper
Flip
- 1x Burnished Hart
- 1x Crypt Ghast
- 1x Disciple of Bolas
- 1x Duplicant
- 1x Fleshbag Marauder
- 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- 1x Harvester of Souls
- 1x Junk Diver
- 1x Kagemaro, First to Suffer
- 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
- 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip
- 1x Massacre Wurm
- 1x Merciless Executioner
- 1x Mindslicer
- 1x Nether Traitor
- 1x Nirkana Revenant
- 1x Ophiomancer
- 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
- 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
- 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
- 1x Smothering Abomination
- 1x Solemn Simulacrum
- 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
- 1x Vampire Hexmage
- 1x Viscera Seer
- 1x Withered Wretch
- 1x Wurmcoil Engine
- 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
Land (30)
- 1x Ancient Tomb
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Cabal Coffers
- 1x Dark Depths
- 1x Deserted Temple
- 1x Diamond Valley
- 1x High Market
- 1x Lake of the Dead
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Miren, the Moaning Well
- 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
- 1x Phyrexian Tower
- 1x Polluted Delta
- 11x Snow-Covered Swamp
- 1x Strip Mine
- 1x Thespian's Stage
- 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- 1x Verdant Catacombs
- 1x Vesuva
- 1x Volrath's Stronghold
Commander (1)
Have you ever thought about crushing your opponents hopes of winning, rather than just simply winning the game? Well, I have and here is the result of my evil plans.
Still asking yourself how will you win? Certainly you have read what I said before. What matters here is not winning... This is all about OBLITERATING your opponents!
Every card in here has a purpose, meaning that not all of them will be useful in every single game you play. Yet, also meaning that you will always have an answer for whatever kind of deck or strategy you are playing against.
I've made several Commander decks' experiences - from Uril, the Miststalker to Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. With none of them was I feeling satisfied enough when I defeated an opponent nor when I needed to have a prompt answer to whatever opposing strategy I was dealing with. So, one day I decided to make an attempt at the Ultimate Atypical Commander Deck. That was the day I came across Chainer, Dementia Master.
After reading this single comment on Chainer, Dementia Master's story, the decision became clear - "Dementia is soon to be part of my opponents' lives!".
Chainer, Dementia Master has a cost of ; I must admit that there are mono-black commander's with lower CMC, yet none of them has the ability to Reanimate any creature from any graveyard at a mere cost of and 3 life. Yes, those 3 life loss might become a bit of a nuissance but nothing compared to the despair your opponents will feel when you beat them with own creatures!
- You want to build around a strong and not-so-used Commander.
- You like graveyard and reanimator themed decks.
- You laugh as counterspells have no particular effect in your strategy.
- You like watching as your opponents start raging after you make them feel the pain of their own creatures.
- You like smirking at your opponent's desperate choices.
- You enjoy having the possibility of winning the game without attacking your opponents one single time.
- And, most important of all, if you simply like to obliterate every single one of your enemies without leaving them space to breathe!
- You want a Commander just for its colors.
- You have problems with being the most hatted player in the table.
- You dislike paying life or sacrificing your own creatures; after all this is suicide black.
- You regret any of your creatures getting exiled due to your own cards.
- You are worried about your graveyard being exiled, rendering you unable to be efficient.
- Being able to destroy creatures on the battlefield.
- Being ready to make your opponent discard his hand along with yours.
- Being prompt to milling any and every deck you can (including yours).
Chainer, Dementia Master excels in yard lovers' decks, especially in those built around his reanimating abiliy; he can insta-reanimate whatever creature hits the grave, being it a Squire or the infamous Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. With his ability, Chainer likes to abuse of creatures with ETB and LTB effects, such as Fleshbag Marauder. You can even add some sacrifice outlets to the mix to make him go on a reanimation rampage.
A correct build when you have Chainer as your commander needs to accomplish 3 major objectives:
No matter how great one might be, everyone has its flaws; and Chainer is no exception. The first problem one might seem in his kite is his ability's life cost; although 3 life is not that much of a loss, if you keep on using it without having a backup plan it will rapidly backfire you.
Furthermore, another of his flaws is his third ability which exiles all creatures he reanimated when he dies. Of course, this can be easily countered if you use a sacrifice outlet as an answer to his death.
Lastly, the most problematic downside, is how grave removal can easily affect the sturdiness of our Chainer build. Being cards like Tormod's Crypt your greatest enemies!
This guy is a beast! He is able to return any black card from your grave back to your hand; obviously this enables him to make some nasty combos. The one problem I see in having him as a commander is that to return a single card to your hand you need to sacrifice him, meaning that you either have a way to reanimate him or you'll have to pay more to play it again. Therefore, I prefer using him in my mainboard and not really as a commander.
I like to call him - "Geth, the Wannabe Chainer". It's a fact that he's able to recur artifacts apart from creatures while milling them at the same time however he can hit your opponent's yards. To me, that's a major downside.
A powerhouse? No doubt! Better than Chainer? Not in this build. Although she has a better board control than Chainer, she lacks the ability to hit your opponents yard.
Indeed he is a massive yard summoner. And yes, your opponents don't play neither black nor red, he can produce a devastating army in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, did you notice the underlined "if"? Glad you have because Balthor can switch from a winner reanimator to a group hugger. Therefore, even if Chainer is slower, his flaws are fewer.
Shirei has a strong ability, yet she needs to have a deck built with the only purpose of supporting her. Moreso, she has a huge limiter on what type of creatures you can use on your mainboard since her ability revolves around creatures with power 1 or less.
Having Chainer as your commander means having to play with your graveyard; is that a good or a bad thing? Well, it is up for you to decide! If you have the same opinion as me, you know graveyards can be our best allies. Have no more fear of playing against control decks, they will be thorougly wrecked after realising their control is meaningless when playing against the mighty Chainer.
To play with this bad boy you will need to have a few ways to feed both yours and your opponents' graves. One way is to beat their creatures with your own creatures; in this aspect Wurmcoil Engine will be one of your biggest threats. You can also feed graves via discard; being Mindslicer your best discard engine. Last, you have the stax method with Smokestackand Sheoldred, Whispering One , which feed graves on a turn-basis.
Something we can't forget is the life loss provoked by Chainer's recursion. Trust me when I tell you that most of the games you'll be suffering more damage from yourself than from your opponents. To fight it back, creatures like Blood Artist and Exquisite Blood enter in action. Although they need creatures to die or opponents to lose life in order to have any in-game effect, that won't be a problem when you're playing with Chainer, since you'll most definitely have loads of sacrifice outlets and fodder at your disposal when you need.
We could say that was all, however this deck is not only a reanimator deck, but also a stax controler one. Cards like Smokestack, Painful Quandary and nethervoid are just the tip of the iceberg. The objective is to completely lockdown your opponent rendering him unable to riposte; being it by making them pay a tax whenever they play a spell or attack you, or even by surpressing their lands with Contamination and Mana Web. The possibilities are innumerous you just need to choose how much annoying you actually want to be.
In the early game, you want to start building your board with some mana-rampers such as Sol Ring, Lake of the Dead and Crypt Ghast or Solemn Simulacrum. You are not likely to cast Chainer this early in the game, since you won't have much reward from doing so. The best combo you might hit in this phase would be Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into Cabal Coffers; the low-mana tutors are really important in this phase, as they allow you to decide on at least two different ways of you leading the game.
In this phase, I suppose we already have a stable board with a decent mana ramp and enough creatures in the graves for Chainer, Dementia Master to enter the battlefield as a threat.
We want to have a good board control. If you're able to land some of our stax cards like Painful Quandary and No Mercy, so that your opponents think twice before doing anything against you. If possible save a board wiper in your hand as things may tend to go sideways if you're dealing against heavy-mid-game-creature-casters.
You might think about getting your Sidisi, Undead Vizier out of the library and start abusing of her tutoring. Or, if you're playing against heavy control decks, this would be the perfect time to grab that Mindslicer.
If the game reaches this point, you will most likely be at an advantage (when not playing against graveyard control decks) since graveyards must be full of good stuff for you to confiscate. By this time you should already have at least two or three ways of winning, either by stealing their life away with Kokusho, the Evening Star or Gray Merchant of Asphodel, by going for the Blood Artist combo or even by concrete damage with Wurmcoil Engine or any other beater you might get.
Board control and prompt answers are needed in this phase. You must be ready to wipe all the board at instant speed if one of your opponents goes on a crazy combo. You need to be able to be in control of what's happening in the table. Nothing can enter the battlefield without you doing nothing. Don't forget to make them pay each and every single spell they use.
- Having the necessary resources to cast the spells in hand; meaning lands and artifacts such as Sol Ring and Expedition Map. You should only consider mulliganing away mana sources if you have more than three. In that vein, if I have three lands that can be used to cast all four other cards in my starting 7 card hand, I generally can keep that entire hand.
- Having at least one tutor or draw spell.
- Keeping 2 solid cards (higher than 3 CMC) if my hand is 6 or 7 cards. In case of only having 5 cards in hand, never keep more than 1.
- Keeping spells with 2 CMC or less.
- Keeping spells with 3 CMC may define what sort of game this is going to be.
- Mulligan spells with CMC 4 or higher. Unless it's a Crypt Ghast.
What can be considered a good opening hand?
Coming Soon!
- Bitterblossom + Contamination or Ophiomancer = Mana Control;
- Bitterblossom + Smokestack or Ophiomancer = Board Control;
- Living Death + Sacrifice Outlet = "Blink" your creatures while board wiping your opponents;
- Skullclamp + Bitterblossom = 2 additional draws each turn;
- Smothering Abomination + Contamination/Smokestack + Ophiomancer = Draw 2 additional cards while maintaining pressure.
- Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth = infinite mana if Coffers produce more than 4 mana;
- Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage = Instant Indestructible 20/20 creature with evasion;
- Buried Alive + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed = feed your grave.
- Chainer, Dementia Master + Phyrexian Altar + Wurmcoil Engine = Loss of Life
- Above + Blood Artist = Neither Loss nor Gain of Life
- Above + Exquisite Blood = Gain of Life
- Core Combo + Smothering Abomination = Infinite Draw;
- Core Combo + Illusionist's Bracers + Any Creature = Infinite Mana;
- Core Combo + Illusionist's Bracers + Any Creature = Infinite Tokens;
- Core Combo + Illusionist's Bracers + Kokusho, the Evening Star = Infinite Lifesteal;
- Core Combo + Illusionist's Bracers + Sidisi, Undead Vizier = Infinite Tutoring;
- Core Combo + Illusionist's Bracers + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed = Infinite Grave Retrieval.
Via Wurmcoil Engine and Illusionist's Bracers
For this combo let's suppose we have Chainer, Dementia Master, equipped with Illusionist's Bracers, another creature and Phyrexian Altar on the battlefield. First, cast Wurmcoil Engine. Then, sacrifice Wurmcoil Engine and the other creature with Phyrexian Altar, you will produce . Due to Wurmcoil Engine's passive, puut 2 tokens on the battlefield. Then, sacrifice both tokens with Phyrexian Altar producing again. Now, you have in your mana pool. Use of that mana on Chainer, Dementia Master's ability targeting Wurmcoil Engine and the other creature (you may revive two creature's due to Illusionist's Bracers mimicking). Redo all the steps mentioned above and you'll have infinite mana.
Let's suppose we want to go on infinite mana; you have at least 2 ways:
Don't forget to add Blood Artist to the combo, if you're not willing to lose "infinite" life.
A rather good sacrifice outlet, a good life gainer and, if that wasn't enough, an excellent drawing mechanism. Everytime he hits the battlefield you get high value from him.
The "I remove what I want" creature. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Blightsteel Colossus? With this littly boy, no matter what might threaten you, you're sure you'll have an answer.
Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner
Also known as The Meat Slicer. Marauder is one of your best friends in this deck. He can, together with Chainer, Dementia Master, clear entire boards.
A Dragon which brings the Sun down whenever he wants. Stealing tons of life whenever he hits the grave apart from being a 5/5 Flying creature...
The Token Spammers' Wrecker. No more hiding away from token decks, this guy will clear the way.
I have no words to describe this card. He can totally shutdown control decks.
He's more like an utility card which can be recurred with Chainer. With him you can bring back any artifact that your opponents might have destroyed or countered.
A tutor with a big body at a low cost. In addition, he's a sacrifice outlet... What more could we ask for?
he gives us value both by entering the field and by leaving it. In a Chainer deck this guy is a must.
The "Planeswalkers' Eater". He can nullify every single threat with counters on it. Additionally, she combos with Dark Depths.
I am in love with this card. A big body that can heal you and destroy any creature. Furthermore, when he dies he summons his underlings to keep doing his job for him. Amazing!
The "One-Eyed Bastard". He can bring back any black spell you might have tried to play before and ended up being countered. He can bring almost your entire deck back to your hand.
Recovering the life you lose while using Chainer's ability.
Both are used as sacrifice fodder, since they can easily return to the battlefield.
He makes tokens and with Rings of Brighthearth even more come out. The tokens have flying making them great blockers if needed.
Excellent draw engine.
The "Lady in Black". She is a field wrecker. She puts pressure on the battlefield due to imposing your opponents to sacrifice a creature every turn and help you ressurect one of your creatures every turn.
There are times when we need targeted grave hate.
If you have more than 4 swamps, this card is amazing.
Mana doubler!
More mana doublers with bodies.
A huge buff in your mana pool.
Although it has a big price, this gives you loads of mana.
Great sacrifice outlet that gives you black mana in return.
I think every EDH deck runs this...
The "Faerie Pooper". It will give you a solid turn sacrifice fodder. Great combo with Contamination .
Fetches and Lake of the Dead are made more useful alongside land recursion. Then there's the completely overvalued Strip Mine interaction...
Cheap and strong boardwiper! A must in a black edh deck.
A solid way for you to regain life.
Illusionist's Bracers/Rings of Brighthearth
Both can be used to double the reanimating ability of Chainer. They can duplicate several abilities of our creatures.
The card has several uses. It is a wrath, but not in the traditional sense. Since we pack Blood Artistand Massacre Wurm, we can make this card do a lot of heavy lifting for us and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed can bring it back for shenanigans so we can repeat over and over.
The best drawing mechanism in black. You will have your hand full every single turn!
A boardwiper. This thing can clear your worst enemies: enchantments and artifacts. Makes a great combo with Soul of New Phyrexia.
Can completely change the path of a game.
Mutilate 's big brother. A better wiper than his younger brother while accomplishing the same purpose - destroying indestructibile creatures.
This is a triple Entomb. It's an amazing creature tutor spell, since you put the creatures into your graveyard being able to summon them with Chainer or with Victimize .
The best overall tutors you have in black.
A great tutor that can be played on your first turn. Yet, it is vulnerable to mill.
This is a late game tutor, when you have lots of mana and you just want to grab the final pieces of your strategy.
An out of the blue response to anything your opponents may do.They won't expect you to answer their Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo to be answered with a Kagemaro, First to Suffer which wasn't on your grave.
Pretty much the same as Demonic Tutor although it has the inconience of having to sacrifice a creature. Though that's not a problem in this deck.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier/ Rune-Scarred Demon
Two great tutors on solid bodies.
An improved Imperial Seal that works on instant speed.
This was the most recent addition to the build. It completely wrecks strategies with loads of card drawing mechanisms. The best part is the fact that it synergizes well with Necropotence .
Probably the second reason why I decided to build a mono-black deck. This card will become the nightmare of all your opponents. Add to it a Bitterblossom and there will be no drawbacks to it; you can even add an additional Black Market to make the combo even better. Awesome!
Since all our strategy is based on creatures' sacrifice, we can abuse of this card and be sure that the board is clear of threats.
A true tax card. No more free spells. Makes people pay additional mana to cast any spell. It is a fact that it also affects you, yet using Chainer's ability will have no incremental costs, meaning that it won't have such a big impact on our strategy.
If you want to attack me, you might as well be ready to pay the shipping costs.
The true pay tax card. Trust me when I tell you your opponents will hate this one single card...
As referred before, this lady is a game changer. She obliges your opponents to sacrifice a creature every turn while letting you reanimate one creature every upkeep without any cost.
A lovely card to put into a stax deck. This single card can help you get total control over the table. Even more if you have It That Betrays on the field. Just take care how and when you use it. Be always ready to remove all the counters from it with Vampire Hexmage if a boardwipe appears or if you're not able to make profit from having it on the battlefield.
Great control card. Since it only affects our opponents making them choose between casting stuff on their turn or being able to answer on other turns. Together with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth each time a land is tapped, all other lands they control will also be tapped.
Gives us a free sacrifice everyturn while giving us an upper advantage.
Gives us a sacrifice ability that also gives us life and cards. What else could we ask for?
The best of its kind. It's like an improved Miren, the Moaning Well. Only problem is that it doesn't produce mana, but an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to the mixture and the problem is gone.
In addition to producing mana gives us the option to sacrifice a creature and gain 1 life back? I like it!
For we can sacrifice a creature and gain life in return. All this in addition to producing mana. Great!
Gives you insane card advantage while having a solid body and evasion.
A must-have in this deck. This single card can make you go on infinite combos. You can repeatedly sacrifice your creatures and return them to the battlefield. Whenever you're lacking one mana, just sacrifice one Faerie from Bitterblossom and you'll have the mana you're lacking.
Probably my most loved land card in this deck. Lets us sacrifice a creature to add to our mana pool? I say YES!
I think this one is pretty evident. The more turns it is on the battlefield, the more creatures it lets you sacrifice.
Let's you scry each time you sacrifice a creature while having a body of its own. Meaning you can reanimate it with Chainer.
That one mana difference can be huge, though the cost for it is also pretty significant.
Bloodstained Mire/ Marsh Flats / Polluted Delta / Verdant Catacombs
Great to shorten the number of cards on your library. Even greater when combined with Rings of Brighthearth or Crucible of Worlds
Cabal Coffers/Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Cabal Coffers is amazing with just four Swamps out. With any more, it quickly becomes terrifying. Similar can be said about Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, though the mana production if anything increases faster. That these combo with Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth is also of note.
This land is here just 'cause I own Vampire Hexmage. So, yes... Pretty amazing combo!
Besides combos with Cabal Coffers and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Deserted Temple is also quite useful with Volrath's Stronghold , and even just for mana fixing every once in a while.
Diamond Valley /Miren, the Moaning Well/ High Market
Their purpose is being able to sacrifice my creatures while receiving some perks with it.
One should be careful not to underestimate Lake of the Dead as either its controller or their opponent.
Useful land to have. May be useful in some matches.
Great sacrifice outlet and mana ramper!
Plenty of problematic lands exist in the format to run this card in a lot of decks. The fact that it synergizes with Rings of Brighthearth is an added bonus.
Able to copy several lands as Cabal Coffers. In addition, Thespian's Stage combos with Dark Depths.
Making all your lands swamps so that you can proc Cabal Coffers even better!
Getting something for free on a land is wonderful. Volrath's Stronghold recurs Chainer, Dementia Master himself, if his ever put there; as well as helping coordinate set-up for many other interactions in the deck.
Although being an interesting card with great potential, Geth proved to be a dead card most of the games. He may find a place in different builds though.
Only reason why this card was in was to convert the mana produced by Ashnod's Altar, being its only purpose to go on infinite mana.
Despite having an incredible potential in this deck, I ended losing more life than gaining or hoping to have a better card in hand.
I decided to take this card, even though I know it has a solid body which spams tokens, because it wasn't making such a big difference. I would use it most of the times to combo but I prefer Wurmcoil Engine on that role.
Won me some games. Yet, not enough games when compared to the number of times it was a dead draw.
Junk Diver proved to be better, although having a higher CMC, due to being able to block flying threats.
Gauntlets of Power
While having only 11 basics in this build, I wasn't able to use its full potential.
Amazing potential, but too dependent on other people's graves.
When together with Buried Alive this card does miracles, other than that not worth the slot.
Still testing this card. The only problem is that it takes time to feed it and ends up being an easy target.
I simply gave up on the milling combos. Still, great sacrifice outlet!
Coming Soon!
11-Aug-2015 - insertion of Primer in the description.
26-Oct-2015 - made the deck more solid and more responsive. Also, less combo oriented.
From here on, I think you know what you have to do... Collect Taxes!
And please remember to never have fear of unleashing your full evilness. Be merciless!
Hope you enjoyed the idea of the deck. Leave your comment below and let me know how I can improve it.
Also, if you feel like it has some potential, click here and you'll upvote: +1 . Thank you ;)
Suggestion: For a budget version of this deck, visit:
[Budget] Chainer's Dark Gift to a Darker Soul...
Commander / EDH
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 15 - 0 Mythic Rares 58 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.63 |
| Tokens | Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Marit Lage, Snake 1/1 B, Vampire 2/2 B, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B |
| Folders | EDH Tournament 2015, EDH, Chainer Tuning, edh ideas, Deck ideas, EDH Mono Black, Decks, Black |
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