INTRODUCTION
Hey everyone! This is my absolute FAVORITE DECK! It has the perfect balance of recursion, card draw, ramp, and answers. I have never played it in 1v1, but it has a winning record in multiplayer (not exactly sure what it is). I want to preface this by saying that my meta frowns upon infinite combos and tutoring for finishers. There are only 2 tutors in the deck. The infinite combos in the deck work well, but are never something I tutor for.
One of the main things I wanted to do in this deck was replace as many of my artifacts and enchantments with creatures that have the same or at least similar effect. For example:
Dictate of Erebos for Butcher of Malakir
Caged Sun for Nirkana Revenant
Wound Reflection for Archfiend of Despair
The reason for this is because black is great at cheating mana costs by recursion. Also if anyone removed those enchantments or artifacts, I could never get them back. Now I can!
I hope you guys enjoy. Lets get to the deck!
WIN CONDITIONS
Infinite combos:
Combo 1: Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle
Pair these 2 cards with either Weaponcraft Enthusiast or Abhorrent Overlord and you can have infinite tokens. Simply sacrifice Overlord and one of his Harpy tokens to the altar, pay that 4 mana to Nim and return Overlord to the battlefield giving you more tokens. Throw in Blood Artist and you will infinitely drain all of your opponents as well.
Combo 2: Whisper, Blood Liturgist and Thornbite Staff
This combo works exactly like the first one except you need any 1 creature already in your graveyard. You need one of those creatures that generate tokens and blood artist. Use Whisper to sacrifice Overlord and one of his Harpy tokens, the staff immediately untaps Whisper, return any creature to the battlefield, then use the untapped Whisper to sacrifice that creature and another token to bring back Overlord. Repeat.
Combo 3: Whisper, Blood Liturgist with Illusionist's Bracers and Thornbite Staff
To set this combo up, you just need 2 creatures in your graveyard and 2 on the battlefield. This is extremely easy to accomplish in this deck. With this setup, you will get infinite ETB effects and death triggers on whatever creatures you are sacrificing and recurring. It works well with all the creatures in the deck. Throw in blood artist again and you're good to go. However, as long as one of your creatures on the field or in your graveyard is either Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star you don't need blood artist at all.
Game Winning Cards/Plays:
Kokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of Asphodel are your 2 main win cons in this deck. Recurring them over and over will eventually win you the game.
If one of these are in your graveyard with a ton of other creatures, Living Death is a great way to end the game. Archfiend of Despair wouldn't hurt to have in play either.
Exsanguinate is also a good finisher. With all the creatures in this deck, Ashnod's Altar should be able to get you enough mana to dump into it.
Underrated/Over Performing Cards
Thrilling Encore
The fact that this is an instant gives this card a ton of versatility. It protects you from board wipes. You can tap your commander and use your sac outlets to go off on someone else's turn, then play this to get everything back. And finally, you can use this as a finisher if you need to get Gray or Kokusho out just one more time on your turn!
Priest of Forgotten Gods
I think the description says it all here. There is just so much value on this card. Its a SAC OUTLET, RAMP, DRAW, REMOVAL, AND DRAIN all in one.
Soldevi Adnate
This card is incredible. We can sac creatures to ramp ourselves so we can play more stuff! This card is absolutely incredible and is so underated.
Undercity Informer
Cheap sac outlet that puts A TON of cards in our graveyard? Yes please.
Gate to the Afterlife
I know what you're thinking, where's God-Pharaoh's Gift?
We don't need that card. This is exactly what we want in this deck.
Life gain, card draw, and a way to discard our creatures!
If you like this deck you'll LOVE my other mono black deck. Check it out:
Competitive Mono Black (Ghoulcaller Gisa)
