Dark Ritual
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Dark Ritual

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rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

1 week ago

Sometimes when I'm deckbuilding, I focus less on the commander and more on an interesting concept/combo that I want to use or exploit. This is the case with one of my favorite decks in my profile and actually one of the first commander decks I ever built. This deck began years ago when Magic finally started caring about the EDH format. It was a more simple time then, Rhystic study was $1.27 (exactly the price I paid for mine over 10 years ago), Cyclonic Rift was a bulk rare, and demonic tutor could be found for $10.

The combo that I was interested in was Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator. The latter was my favorite card at the time and is still one of my favorites. It was a great tool and with all the ETB effects that were out around then it was an underrated and uber powerful card. In fact, the entire blink mechanic was and is a very powerful strategy.

When I built this deck, I played a few times in shops and was quickly told that edh is a casual format and interaction of any kind is not fair (was told this by a land destruction deck...) So this deck is definitely more on the competitive side, but it would be the distant fringe of cedh. Alright with that let's get into it.

Initial thoughts

So we have a combo that we like Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator, but we don't even have a commander yet and going mono-blue seems not great, so we want to figure out what color(s) to add and what commander to choose. In a combo deck, there are generally three things that I like to make sure I include beyond the normal ramp, and card draw. That is redundancy, the ability to tutor up my combo pieces, and ways to protect my combo. So when thinking about tutoring up my combo pieces, I generally like to have the best tutors. Those are in black. So things like Wishclaw Talisman, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal (if you have money to burn or your playgroup is fine with you proxying the best cards so you can obliterate their precons j/k I proxy all my expensive cards and put them in a binder in case someone has an issue).

So we have Blue and Black and we can certainly add another color if we wanted to, but at the time I liked Dralnu, Lich Lord because Snapcaster Mage was in standard and flashback was cool. So I stuck with it when I revamped it, but decided that I wanted something that could ensure I can protect my combo from any threat and then also use it to win if I wanted to. The answer came in the form of Ertai Resurrected. He can counter basically anything from spells to activated abilities (which will come in handy) or he can take a threat on the field at the cost of letting your opponent draw a card.

So now that we have our commander, how to build the deck?

Redundancy

Combo decks need redundancy. If you don't get your two cards or one of them gets exiled, you need a backup plan, or scooping is your only option. Fortunately, there are some great redundancies here. We have Ghostly Flicker and Displace. Both of these will blink your creatures (ghostly flicker will also blink artifacts). Displacer Kitten can be helpful too, but I don't own it and it is a little more chaotic than I need it to be. Palinchron is great because you can return it to your hand and potentially play it again and create infinite mana through the use of High Tide, but a similar combo that has added benefits is Peregrine Drake, Archaeomancer, and Ghostly Flicker. This bounces both the drake and the archaeomancer untapping 5 lands, and returning ghostly flicker to your hand. Rinse and repeat for infinite mana. Archaeomancer also will help in returning key counterspells and tutors to your hand. Nothing like doing double duty. Mnemonic Wall and Great Whale also fit here. The great thing about this combo is that each component is useful in and of itself. Bring out your Great Whale early untap some lands and do some other stuff or play out the rest of your combo with the untapped lands. Cast Archaeomancer to grab a used tutor for another combo piece.

One note here, if you get Peregrine Drake (or one of the other two) paired with Deadeye Navigator and you generate infinite mana you can now draw your deck with Ertai as commander: Step 1: Bounce Deadeye, when he enters don't soulbond with anyone.
Step 2: Cast Ertai, don't choose anything or if you want kill one of your opponent's creatures. It doesn't matter.
Step 3: Soulbond ertai and deadeye. Step 4: Bounce Deadeye and while that is on the stack bounce Ertai. Step 5: Ertai enters the battlefield counter the Deadeye bounce on the stack Draw a card Step 6: Soulbond ertai and deadeye again rinse and repeat. Draw as many cards as you need. Which means draw until you find your wincon.

Wincon

Since this is an infinite mana combo we need something to use all that mana. Obviously the activated ability on deadeye is great, but we need something to actually win with. I went with Commander's Insight and Blue Sun's Zenith. Both of these cards are useful even when they aren't being used to force your opponents to draw their cards. Blue Sun's Zenith works nicely because once you cast it goes back into your deck, which I showed above you can draw as many cards as you need so you cast it once, put it in your library draw again until you find it, cast it again on the next opponent, then again. You can also tutor them up or bring them back from the graveyard with the tutors or the archaeomancer/mnemonic wall from earlier. I like this more than straight damage, because if you don't have infinite mana these cards will still draw you cards.

Tutors

This is a fairly simple step, we need some good tutors. There are a number of good choices in black so I won't belabor that too much. I don't have some of the standard ones and feel like the deck performs fine with the ones it currently has. I do have a Tribute Mage in the deck because nearly all my mana rocks are 2 mana and so is Wishclaw Talisman. I found that the consistency with the deck is vastly improved by being able to tutor up my ramp. Also with deadeye I can bounce it multiple times and get more rocks or the talisman.

Protecting the combo

So I needed to figure out how to protect my combo and do so in a way that is flexible or can be used as needed. So Counterspell. Honestly, this part was fairly simple, most blue counter magic is here. Only reason Fierce Guardianship isn't here is because I don't have it. Other than that we have the typical cards here Force of Will, Mana Drain, Cyclonic Rift, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, etc.

I also have a couple other standouts. Venser, Shaper Savant is great here as it can be bounced with Deadeye Navigator to essentially boomerang my opponent's board and all their spells. Ertai Resurrected also protects the combo and with deadeye becomes a nice repeatable counter/removal spell.

glen_elandra_archmage can be bounced when she has her -1/-1 counter allowing her to be used again and again to counter noncreature spells.

Typical stuff

There is a lot of ramp in the deck, so Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, and other mana rocks including some larger ones like Gilded Lotus and Basalt Monolith to really get the ramp going, the sooner you can get to 7-8 mana the sooner you can combo out.

For card draw some key performers here are Rhystic Study, Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, The One Ring. Mystic Remora. In my initial hand I want to have 3 lands, and one of these/tutor to find one or I typically mulligan.

Special notes

A couple other cards deserve mention here. Time Stretch and Time Warp. These are both repeatable with Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall and I can honestly say that if I'm able to resolve either of these, it is unlikely that I'm going to lose, especially Time Stretch. With the ramp in the deck or a well timed Dark Ritual/High Tide I can play this fairly early and get a huge advantage.

Lands

Since this deck tends to be fast, you don't want lands that come into play tapped, so this deck uses fetch lands, shock lands, and duals that have the ability to come in untapped. (there are a couple that come into play tapped, but they are fetchable so I fetch them only when I know that I'm not going to be able to use the mana and only on an opponent's turn.)

I've had this deck for a while and it performs far better than any of my other decks. It always presents interesting lines that if followed will lead to surprising victories. As always let me know what you think in the comments and if you have a commander in mind that you want to see me build put it in the chat.

Here is the final decklist: Unlimited Power!

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 weeks ago

The OG Fetches are very good cards in almost any deck, and as I mentioned in my first post, I don't know if it would be easy to improve this deck without either adding Fetchlands or increasing the power level.

The easiest way to increase the power level a deck like yours is to add a combo, but your present power level is high enough that you'd need to add a fairly efficient combo, something like Protean Hulk to find a complete combo (ideally via a single pile), this would leave you at a strong 8, not quite cEDH but it's fairly hard to make Meren a cEDH deck at this point, her ability is too slow/grindy for cEDH games. cEDH Meren lists are likely to make use of something like Razaketh, or possibly a Phyrexian Devourer combo. Razaketh uses something like Life / Death to turn your lands into creatures so you can keep tutoring until you find both your combo of choice as well as the mana to play it. Razaketh decks love stuff like Lion's Eye Diamond, which is extremely pricey and does very little other than combo off. You'd also want Dark Ritual type cards, and possibly things like Lotus Petal and Elvish Spirit Guide. The main problem with Razaketh is getting him out early, but something like Final Parting can get you there by putting Razaketh in the bin and a Reanimate into hand. Similarly, you can reanimate a Protean Hulk (which you then sacrifice) to tutor up a game ending combo, the advantage of Protean Hulk is that it's easier to cast when you're desperate, but the upside of Razaketh is that you can tutor up any cards you want, Razaketh just gives you a new hand in exchange for a few creatures. I think Protean Hulk is the best of the lot, but Phyrexian Devourer isn't a bad option, you use Triskelion with it by getting both into your graveyard, with a Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield, you then just exile cards to put counters on your Devourer, and the only real drawbacks are your limit on individual MV (Devourer dies if it gets too big), and you'll need enough total MV to actually kill everyone (this isn't too hard if you go off fairly early, but it can suck if you take all game to get into position and can't kill everyone because you don't have enough cards left. Another upside to Devourer is that Triskelion also wins the game with Mikaeus (you ping Triskelion with the last counter so it dies (without any counters left) and has Undying). Oh, with Protean Hulk the 'smallest' pile I am familiar with involves Disciple of the Vault, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Lesser Masticore, and Carrion Feeder/Viscera Seer, with that pile you don't even need Activated Sleeper to nab a second Protean Hulk (with only 3 MV after you account for the Sleeper). The main drawback of this pile is that the cards are individually bad IMHO (I would run Feeder and Seer, but none of the others fit in a generic Meren deck), and the lack of redundancy (Melira and Masticore aren't used in a lot of other combos in Meren decks afaik) makes it less stable than some lists. The final one I feel is worth mention is Demon of Dark Schemes, Mitotic Slime, and Phyrexian Altar nets you infinite mana, ETBs, death triggers, Energy, and all the creatures in each graveyard can be reanimated by you. The nice thing about the Demon is that it's only 6 mana (so technically Hulk can find him), and it can do a lot of work in certain situations since it can wipe small creatures as well as reanimate cards from anyone's graveyard. It's one of the better generic reanimation effects that can go infinite, and it's sheer range of utility makes it worth looking at even if you didn't use Mitotic Slime. The Slime btw is very good in most Meren decks since it offers a plethora of tokens for only 5 mana, while Phyrexian Altar (or Pitiless Plunderer) are both amazing cards in a deck like this.

If you feel like adding a combo, I wouldn't have more than ~2 trees/paths to work with, unless the cards are shared between multiple lists.

I can go into more detail if it would be helpful, I have a Meren deck on here you could take a look at, it's a lot more combo oriented than your list, but it's combos aren't optimal, they're all made with stuff I already had.

Profet93 on Kill, Kill and Kill some more.

1 month ago

Hypersayia9001

Cabal Stronghold/Cabal Coffers - Former budget, latter not. Big black mana producing lands. Contamination does shut them off though. Should that be an issue, note Infernal Darkness as a potential alternative.

Crypt of Agadeem - Ramp

Bojuka Bog - Personally, not a huge fan of tapped lands. But with fetches, you can use at instant speed. Not needed but worth considering depending on amount of GY decks in the meta.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse > Rogue's passage - Once budget opens, this is an upgrade. Not needed but worth considering.

Contamination - Sacrifice synergy. High synergy with bitterblossom, reassembling skeleton and any other creature that can return to field.

Syphon Mind > Dark Tutelage - While you have a relatively low avg cmc of 3.00, black has better draw that doesn't hurt you as badly. Not to mention it's steady draw, which can be good, but sometimes burst draw is preferred. Syphon mind is draw 3, each opponent discard 1. Budget friendly too.

Skullclamp - Speaking of draw, this goes well with all your sac synergies.

Murderous Rider > Murder - Can hit Walkers, is versatile as a creature with lifelink that can recoup your lifeloss. Almost a strict upgrade.

Feed the Swarm - Removal that hits enchantments. Black has difficult with artifacts and enchantments. I can provide you with some potential artifact removal should you wish depending on your meta. But this might be worth considering given that a Rest in Peace can mess u up.

Maybe Corpse Dance - With your sac outlets, you can ignore the negative aspect of the card. Also do note that after a wipe, you can choose the order in which your creatures enter the GY if they go together simultaneously.

Dark Ritual - Simple ritual ramp

Mind Stone - Ramp when you need it, draw when you don't.

Oubliette - Commander hate

At the risk of being too risky and pricey, Hatred - Do note life loss is additional cost to cast but it can be fun with use with your commander, either with it's ability or commander damage. Not to mention the political aspect of using it on your opponents attacking each other (Bonus points if you use it on their commander).

Profet93 on millipede succer

1 month ago

Joslay131

Cut Voltaic Key - There are only like 4 rocks that go positive with it, you don't get much value of out it.

Cut Gravestorm - Nice repetitive draw but often times player's gy's are filled and this won't help mid-late game.

Cut Soul Stair Expedition and Epicure of Blood - There are much better cards to add

Cut Lotus Field + Lotus Vale - Anti synergy to coffers, one of the lotuses can be strip mined against. No synergy benefit for the deck. Swap them with either a Deserted Temple, Thespian's Stage, or more swamps. Should you wish, including a fetchland or 2 is a nice instant speed way to bring out bojuka bog. Moreover, Urborg allows you to keep your lands as swamps and then shuffle the deck with top should you not like your upcoming draws

Introduction to Annihilation - I know you need artifact/enchantment removal. Add in a Feed the Swarm and/or a Karn Liberated if it's really given you issues.

Bolas's Citadel + Aetherflux Reservoir + Sensei's Divining Top = Good times!

Some lower costed ramp to get your commander out more quickly such as Dark Ritual and Mind Stone are helpful

Imp's Mischief - "Counter" counterspells while redirecting targeted removal, draw and extra turns! Given your deck is commander reliant + Your lich enchantment, this can serve you very well.

HeavenlyAxe on

1 month ago

Hey Indie,

First off I really like the lands you have assembled and the suggestions from SufferFromEDHD are all good.

You are definitely going to want an artifact ramp package.

Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo

Special Mention to Nyx Lotus, it could be good being in mono black. and Jeweled Lotus, pays for your commander for free on turn 1 even.

Sword of the Animist is not bad ramp at all and buffs yours rats

Commander's Plate might be cute.

Liliana of the Dark Realms, makes sure you always get a land drop and could make your swamps tap for four.

Chittering Witch if your playing with more opponents.

Crypt Ghast is sort of ramp, but doubles your swamps. Very good in mono black.

Dauthi Voidwalker is not on theme at all but is just sooo much value in a two cost card I have to recommend it.

God-Eternal Bontu is excellent draw power in the right situation.

Dont forget you can run any number of Relentless Rats

Gray Merchant of Asphodel will heal you up a lot and hurt your opponents

Krav, the Unredeemed is also great card draw.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, has card draw, removal, and proliferate all on one card

Deadly Rollick, potentially free removal

Defile, cheap good removal

Thrilling Encore saves you from a board wipe or lets you bring everything back after sacrificing it all to like God-Eternal Bontu

Phyrexian Arena some ok card draw.

Bojuka Bog if you are worried about graveyards

Mutilate, a good board wipe in mono black

Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, are a great draw package for mono black

Toxic Deluge a great board wipe for when things need resetting, and you could follow with Thrilling Encore and get it all back

Syphon Mind is great draw if your playing with more players

Victimize - is really really strong, get rid of one weak thing for two of your best things

Yawgmoth's Will - lets you treat your graveyard like your hand for a turn

Lord Skitter, Sewer King makes rats

Marrow-Gnawer - lets you make lots of rats

Infectious Inquiry - good draw and gives poison

Ogre Slumlord - makes rats when your creatures or your opponents creatures die.

Tangled Colony - if your opponent has to block it or it dies to like Blasphemous Act will make you rats

Vraska's Fall removal and poison counter

Drown in Ichor removal and poison

Bontu's Monument all your creatures cost less

Rat Colony can have any number and they buff themselves, and cost less mana than Relentless Rats

Typhoid Rats deathtouch rat opponents wont want to block

Crypt Rats can board wipe but can also win the game if you give it infect, doesnt work with your commander because toxic specifies combat damage but does work if you give it infect and deal damage with it's ability.

Ratcatcher tutors rats, and gives you card advantage

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm - buffs your rats and lets you get rats back

Wave of Rats has blitz and reanimates itself

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni rat that steals opponents stuff

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion rat that steals opponents stuff

Adaptive Automaton is a rat and buffs rats

Okiba-Gang Shinobi rat makes opponents discard and has ninjutsu

Filth gives all your rats swampwalk pairs well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Dark Ritual lets your get a head start or some extra mana a turn you need it

Tainted Strike instant speed infect, funny in multiplayer because you can use it on anyone's creatures.

Phyresis Outbreak gives poison and might kill opponents creatures

Feed the Swarm enchantment removal in black

Vat Emergence gets a creature back and proliferates

Spread the Sickness destroys a creatures and proliferates

Pact of the Serpent strong tribal card draw

Living Death swap graveyards with battlefields, great after sacrificing your whole board to draw cards

Skullclamp sack small rats for card draw

Thrumming Stone if you go the Relentless Rats or Rat Colony route

Coat of Arms your rats will be huge

Bolas's Citadel this card is dumb lol, lots of casting power and then you hit Gray Merchant of Asphodel and keep going lol

Icon of Ancestry kinda draw buffs rats...is ok

Contagion Engine proliferate twice each time you activate

Eldrazi Monument gives creatures flying indestructible and +1/+1

Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature infect, great with Crypt Rats

Sword of Truth and Justice proliferate sword

Bad Moon buff all black creatures, opponents too

Phyresis gives infect again good with Crypt Rats

Greed card draw

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting proliferate planes walker

I know that's a lot but hopefully gave you some ideas to work with!

ViscountVonSausageRoll on Temporary Graveyard

2 months ago

I can tell when you played xD

And hey, don't sell yourself short, casual 60 card is the epitome of magic.

Budget Suggestions (≤ $10): Griselbrand because he's awesome, Dark Ritual because speed, Go for the Throat or alternatively: I see you're running Bone Shredder. Perhaps considering replacing with Shriekmaw? He's less hardcastable, but he does throw himself into your graveyard in a hurry. Consider Buried Alive to fill the GY? Vampire Nighthawk has been replaced with Nighthawk Scavenger I know, the powercreeper has been powercrept.

Non-Budget Suggestions ($10+): Archon of Cruelty. I mean, read what it does. Right? That's ridiculous.
Recurring Nightmare It's pricey, but it's absolutely busted. (It sacs a dude and bounces to your hand as an additional cost) It never goes away.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier Honestly not my cup of tea, but she's very powerful. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Only because: It's just good in this deck. You're already running Liliana of the Dark Realms x2 and Coffers. Maybe find some heavily played ones?

Make Room: The most unfun part of coming back to any old deck. Well, Liliana Vess is just too expensive now days (even back then she was kinda pricey), but most of the time she ends up being a 5 CMC vampiric tutor at sorcery speed anyways. She never lives long.

Sorin Markov kind of falls under the same boat, at least in this deck imo. Usually by the time you can cast him, opponents aren't at 20 life anymore, so the appeal of "10 dmg" can be somewhat deceptive.

Anyways, welcome back, and I hope you enjoy yourself

Profet93 on Tergrid removal pants

2 months ago

Chainedbygod567

I wasn't sure what your budget per card is but this should hopefully not break the bank. I can recommend cuts should you wish

Feed the Swarm - Enchantment removal

Mind Twist - Note it states random, especially effective if ramped into in the early game. Also useful as counterspell bait.

Night's Whisper - Draw

Nightmare Unmaking - Versatile wipe

Sheoldred's Edict/Hero's Downfall - PW Removal

Bubbling Muck - Ramp! Highly recommended. Especially because you're not running urborg

Ill-Gotten Gains - Up to you, could be useful, could backfire.

Barter in Blood - Mass sacrifice

legendofa on The Baron's Coterie

2 months ago

Welcome to the club, Barone_di_Morti!

Mono-black Vampires are one of my favorite major tribes. Let's see what's going on here.

First thought is that you should put this either as the Casual format, or add the Casual hub in the deck editor. Vintage is the most powerful format in the game, and leaving it as Vintage with no other details carries certain expectations that you're willing to buy and use the most powerful cards. Legacy + Casual would also work, unless you have Black Lotus and Mox Jet lying around.

What's the intent of Buried Alive? I see the Bloodghasts as returnable creatures, but those are easy enough to play and bring back normally, and there's not mich else pointing to a reanimator or graveyard theme here.

There's a lot of 2x and 3x cards, which means the deck is going to be a little less consistent and reliable. Try to get the full four copies of the cards you most want to play.

Also, 20 lands seems a little low, especially with some key cards being at 4-5 mana and X-cost. The Dark Rituals help, but there's no real reason to be using Polluted Delta and Bloodstained Mire. All your Swamps are basic lands (Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth only affects lands in play, not in your deck), so you might as well just replace those with more basic Swamps, or other utility lands. 22 lands would be my starting point.

I see the core of a sacrifice theme in your creatures, with Bloodghast and a few "whenever a creature dies" effects. If you wanted to, you could lean into that aspect a little harder by adding some sacrifice outlets, like Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar, or Yahenni, Undying Partisan.

Above all, have fun!

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