Retro Frame Chainer

Commander / EDH Mono-Black Nightmare

Jkchunt

Creature (27)

• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Ascendant Evincar
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Body Snatcher
• 1x Bog Witch
• 1x Coffin Queen
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Dauthi Trapper
• 1x Doomed Necromancer
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Hypnox
• 1x Nightmare
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Scion of Darkness
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Spirit of the Night
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Vile Entomber
• 1x Vindictive Vampire
• 1x Visara the Dreadful
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Instant (1)

• 1x Dark Ritual

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Ancient Craving
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Corrupt
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Drain Life
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Plague Wind
• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Stitch Together
• 1x Victimize

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Dauthi Embrace
• 1x Diabolic Servitude
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Subversion
• 1x Tortured Existence

Commander (1)

Land (38)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 30x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Artifact (7)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thran Dynamo

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In both premodern and the very new "old frame" format, mono-black decks still have a huge advantage by virtue of the selection of available cards. Like many of my other old frame decks, this one essentially modifies a premodern mono-black staple using old frame reprints of newer cards. If you can manage your life properly and not overindulge in Chainer's signature ability, you can very quickly overwhelm multiple opponents by stacking your graveyard via tutoring for Buried Alive and exploiting cards like Visara, Avatar of Woe, and Noxious Gearhulk when the situation calls for it. The deck has a lot of versatility in general; depending on your opponents, you can tailor your preparations in the early game to respond to a lot of different situations.

Notes:

• Subversion, Pristine Talisman, Zulaport Cutthroat, Drain Life, Corrupt, Vindictive Vampire, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Aetherflux Reservoir mitigate the life lost from Chainer. Throne of Bone and Soul Net used to be in this deck, but I subbed them out; there are other cards that could be used in this way too.
• The deck has a few other "pay life" cards, like Ancient Craving, that can accelerate the player's slow "un-aliving" if misused. For this reason, I didn't include Greed in the deck, although it might be worth subbing in.
• Having too few creatures to protect you from attacks can become a problem also. The deck's emphasis on reanimation should mitigate this, in theory, but the lack of other cards like Buried Alive makes stacking the grave dependant on discarding or sacrificing after blocking (using cards like Soldevi Adnate)
• Some creatures could be subbed out to make room for more instants

Date added	7 months
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.93
Tokens	Serf 0/1 B