Pit Spawn

Creature — Demon

First strike

At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Pit Spawn unless you pay (Black)(Black).

Whenever Pit Spawn deals damage to a creature, remove that creature from the game.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (4)

DeeLight on Night of the Demon

2 years ago

Sweet flavor! Demon tribal was one of my very first decks in commander, although I added red in my final build.

Have you considered Pit Spawn? It's a demon under errata, and it has True-Deathtouch with an small downside. My favorite is to stick things like Nemesis Mask on it to eat a field away.

I also imagine you have enough creatures to make Whip of Erebos a good pick, or maybe even Mask of Griselbrand, for a little more flavor as well.

Black_Dawg on Old School Black Deck

3 years ago

Mold Demon

Spirit of the Night

Pit Spawn

Lord of the Pit

rob_shifflett on Horobi's Wild Ride

6 years ago

Pit Spawn is a Monster.

I use the black ninjas in my Horobi. Ninjutsu is a great way to get Death's Wail off the field when the effect is less beneficial for you. Each of the abilities lend themselves to your overall strategy. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni Okiba-Gang Shinobi Throat Slitter Skullsnatcher.

Nim Deathmantle is an all-star in a deck like this.

ChiefBell on The only thing that will remain is Demons

8 years ago

Some of these suggestions are pricey. Some are not.

I'd always start with Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, and Ancient Tomb.

Then if we're in black I'd always add Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Grim Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent and perhaps Beseech the Queen. Buried Alive and Entomb are great in reanimator.

Then I'd add a few value pieces such as Liliana Vess, Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip, Liliana of the Veil, Liliana of the Dark Realms, Sorin Markov, Ob Nixilis Reignited and Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath. Which you choose to include is up to you but they all offer immense value in their own way.

Then I'd choose a generic strategy.

You could focus on "good stuff" - a deck made up of cards that are just strong. Things like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

Or you could go tribal and just add lots of good demons.

That's up to you really but some amount of "good stuff" is always advisable.

Your early game is going to be weak in mono-black. The options you have to accelerate your mana are very limited. You have the artifacts I suggested, Crypt Ghast and maybe a few others. Examples like Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart are fine but not amazing. I'll have to have a loot to find solid ramp but I don't know if it's there.

I think your saving grace is the volume of removal you can include. Damnation, Go for the Throat, Murder, Victim of Night, Tragic Slip, Drown in Sorrow, Attrition isn't bad in a recursion strategy. You have options here. Remember that 1-for-1 removal is pretty poor in EDH because it's a multiplayer format - board clear is inherently better value. Just keep that in mind with your picks.

Another generic tip is that graveyard recursion to hand is fairly inefficient, you really want to go from graveyard to play. There are a few cards that do this but I can't remember their names. Dance of the Dead is one. Enslaved Horror is great if your creatures are better. Patriarch's Bidding is good in tribal. Bone Dancer is stupid. But note that you have to play with the old rules where players cant shuffle their graveyards. Tempt with Immortality, that kind of thing.

But yeah you can create really nasty board states in black if you have like Grave Pact, Attrition, Sheoldred, Whispering One and stuff in your graveyard. Every turn you you can bring a creature back with Sheoldred, sacrifice it to kill something, which forces everyone else to sacrifice, and then reanimate it again next turn.

Then you want to choose creatures that are hard to deal with. Pit Spawn with first strike is stupid. Also when pit spawn does damage you exile that creature. Even if its not dead. Rune-Scarred Demon is a must. Tombstalker is a 2 mana 5/5. Ob Nixilis, the Fallen isn't bad. Hellcarver Demon can be really funny, but also super bad for you. Indulgent Tormentor is nice. Havoc Demon is really nice. Harvester of Souls also gives card draw. Stronghold Overseer is basically unblockable, and can nerf creatures attack power at instant speed. In the opponents turn you can pay a fair amount of mana to just make all their creatures puny and then block in a favourable way. Lord of the Void is fun.

Essentially shoot for value over raw power. A 9/9 flier is nice but if it doesn't help you in any way apart from attacking it's probably worth skipping favour of the 6/7 flier that also draws cards.