Yawgmoth, Kevorkian Physician

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Combo Mono-Black Primer

DillonTeeko

Creature (19)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Carrier Thrall
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Instant (10)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Helm of Obedience
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Ratchet Bomb
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Karn, the Great Creator
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 22x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Nest of Scarabs

---

Dying is not a crime

-Dr. Jack Kevorkian

The plan is to establish a value engine with self-recurring creatures and token generators, and using these cheap bodies to fuel our chief, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

The important thing to remember is that we play a value strategy until the shields are down or the combo presents itself. Sure, you can save that Butcher Ghoul in your hand until you can create a loop, but it also effectively doubles your Yawgmoth activations on any given turn. Our deck has a number of interchangeable parts and redundancy. Understanding when to generate value and when to go for your combo are key to piloting this deck effectively.

Notable synergies and combos follow.

Creates a token upon Entry or Death

Pawn of Ulamog

Sifter of Skulls

Desecrated Tomb

Genesis Chamber

Nether Traitor Loop

With any of the above token generators, Nether Traitor and Phyrexian Altar, we have infinite mana, unlimited ETB and dies triggers.

The loop is very simple and is as follows:

1) Sacrifice Nether Traitor to the Altar, floating a black and creating a token.

2) Sacrifice the token to the Altar to float a black and trigger Nether Traitor. One of your floating mana pays to return Nether Traitor to the field.

Rinse and repeat, netting one black mana each cycle. Notably, Genesis Chamber changes the timing of the token trigger, so be mindful.

If Nether Traitor is in the yard, any other creature can be sacrificed to the Altar to float one black mana, trigger and pay for Nether Traitor. If you have Pitiless Plunderer out with a sac outlet, Phyrexian Altar is not needed. If you have a second token generator or Pitiless Plunderer alongside Phyrexian Altar, Nether Traitor can be replaced by Reassembling Skeleton.

Your end goal is to put Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat into play, at which point you can simply resume the loop and drain the table. Skullclamp, Deathgreeter+Yawgmoth, and Liliana, Dreadhorde General provide unbounded draw. In the likely event you only have access to Yawgmoth, you only have to dig until you find one of the aforementioned infinite draw pieces, a tutor, or BloodCutthroat. Crypt Ghast's Extort can be used to buoy your life total while you dig and can act as a replacement for BloodCutthroat by infinitely casting and sac'ing Yawgmoth.

Undying

Undying is a weapon with Yawgmoth. Having an undying creature on board doubles the cards drawn with Yawgmoth on any turn. To accomplish this, your undying creature takes the place of any creature you would sacrifice to Yawgmoth's ability. After the undying ability returns the creature to the field with a +1/+1 counter, you sacrifice your non-undying creature to Yawgmoth and target your undying creature. As your undying creature will now have a +1/+1 and a -1/-1 counter, this will net to zero and result in no counters on your creature.

That brings us to the second point.

With any undying creature and one of our token generators above, you have turned on Yawgmoth's Bargain. This can also be accomplished with any two undying creatures, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and any two creatures, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and any creature that ETBs/dies with a token.

Again, this loop is very simple.

1) Sacrifice your undying creature to activate Yawgmoth's ability. Your undying creature will return with a +1/+1 counter and your token generator will pop out a token.

2) Sacrifice your token to Yawgmoth and target your undying creature to place a -1/-1 counter on it. This will net with the +1/+1 counter from undying, and result in no counters on your creature.

Alternatively, if you have a second creature with undying, you can sac them back and forth, removing the +1/+1 counter on the remaining creature.

Rinse and repeat. With Deathgreeter you can draw your deck. With Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat or Deathgreeter+Geralf's Messenger, you drain the table.

But what happens if you run out of cards?

Simply move to your end phase, discard to hand size and ensure that Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is among the discarded cards. After its ability resolves to shuffle your graveyard into your deck, you receive priority before the turn ends. At this point you can resume the loop.

Plan C and Dealing with Grave Hate

One of the most necessary parts of any graveyard deck is a way to win without the graveyard. Considering we're in mono-black, we don't have many ways to get rid of Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. You'll commonly see either Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood or Bolas's Citadel + Aetherflux Reservoir + Sensei's Divining Top in mono-black lists as an additional angle of attack. I'm not a fan of either in this list. The former is expensive and the pieces don't provide value individually. The latter is fairly expensive, and both the Citadel and the Reservoir are rarely useful in this deck. While it's a one card combo with Insidious Dreams, it's a much better fit in K'rrik builds.

I believe Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience is our best option. Leyline of the Void is a strong include in almost every mono-black list. Asymmetrical graveyard hate is incredibly powerful, and shuts many problematic decks down. Helm of Obedience provides a compact alternate win-con, takes advantage of opposing Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace, and removes the Rest in Peace player from the game. In a pinch, it can be used as a Codex Shredder to disrupt top deck tutors and pairs well with Scheming Symmetry.

That being said, it's important to play around graveyard hate, especially if it's prevalent in your meta. If it's not a problem, you'll Buried Alive for Nether Traitor, Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton. Whereas you might want to hold back on the Skeleton if you anticipate a Bojuka Bog.

Other Synergies and Notes

Our use of fetchlands in this deck is not trivial. In conjunction with Bloodghast, it grants us an extra sacrifice that can make the difference with either Phyrexian Altar or our general.

Be very careful when attempting to combo with Liliana, Dreadhorde General in play. Her draw effect is mandatory and can cause you to draw yourself out as you go for the victory. You can get her off the field with Yawgmoth's proliferate ability into her ultimate. For this reason, avoid using her abilities early in your combo turn.

Speaking of proliferating planeswalkers, we can often ultimate Liliana of the Dark Realms fairly easily and protect her with tokens.

Contamination in conjunction with Reassembling Skeleton, Bitterblossom or Dreadhorde Invasion is back-breaking. If your meta has a lot of green, it's a great answer to land based ramp while Yawgmoth deals with mana dorks.

Be sure to play Entomb purposefully, especially if your graveyard is already set up. Instead of aimlessly finding a Reanimate target, responding to an exile effect with Entombing Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre can save your game.

It's a very edge case, but with enough creatures in the grave, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed can create infinite mana by recurring Living Death with Pitiless Plunderer in the grave or Phyrexian Altar on the field.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.65
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Insect 1/1 B, Myr 1/1 C, Snake 1/1 B, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Yawgmoth