Tired of long grindy games? Tired of pillowfort decks ruining the very fun in linear aggro decks? Sick of Red based aggro? Tired of opponents accelerating 2-3 turns ahead of you in resources?
Welcome to my Black Weenie guide to Oathbreaker, a 60 card highlander format similar to edh, but utilizes planeswalkers as commanders along with an instant/sorcery of your choice as a commander spell. Just google it man, it’s great!
Now, after extensive brewing and budgeting, I think I’ve got a solution to all the aforementioned problems you may have have about casual(and powered as heck) formats like Commander. This here is a guide to what I deem to be a fairly budget shell of black aggro.
Please Note, The above list is my own personal list used an an example and is not the only way to build. There are some expensive pieces of cardboard included that can be substituted to make the deck actually budget that will also only slightly impact the viability of this list. Similarly, this deck has many upgrades and directions to take when building. This list serves merely as proof of concept
Gameplan (general gist of things)
Naturally, Our goal to take the table from 20-> 0 Life. Seems easy enough, but as many magic players know, multiple players mean more hitpoints to tear through, and even more threats and interactions. This is where the true genius(LOL) of this deck design comes in. We aim to utilize a theme(if you can Even call it that..) by looking for any aggressive and playable card that says “each Opponent” and deals damage to them.
The Core
Let’s get Liliana Of of the dark realms out of the way. She isn’t great, but she isn’t bad. She doesn’t synergise well with our gameplan, but when time cones to close out the game, hitting our lands to cast some fat “X” costed spells can be just what we need. She Can also Act as removal or just pumping up our creatures which dont necessarily spell powerful. So, not really core, but given I’m not trying to break the game, she should suffice.
We aim to be low to the ground to minimize interaction from our opps and establish an early lead in life total as many players will spend the first several turns setting up their enablers/board/ramping lands. Some will even utilize pillowfort or tax effects to slow the pace of the game down. So, we naturally need some aggressively costed beaters that chip in for damage.
Mardu Shadowspear
,
Vicious Conquistador
and
Thornbow Archer
are all ideal turn 1 plays, each essentially the same card. Don’t underestimate them for their low statlines, the damage adds up in a format where players start at 20.
Also in the one drop slot are flexible utility value creatures, namely
Thrull Parasite
being extremely good in our clunky hands with extra leftover mana. Visera Seer in conjunction with aristocrat effects gives the deck some reach.
Our 2 drop slot is pretty boring, but we have a good selection of beaters in
Knight of Infamy
, and resilient threats like
Nether Traitor
. If you can afford them,
Bloodghast
is just good value.
Given we’re in a 2+ Player format,
Dark Confidant
would be a wonderful fit As a value engine, but glintsleeve siphoner and
Pain Seer
are fine replacements.
Our 3 cmc creature slot is interesting.
Midnight Reaper
and
Ophiomancer
are very strong in a low-to-the-ground decks like ours, and
Mogis's Marauder
does wonders against opponents with a wall of Non-black creatures.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
is a great sack outlet and beater all in one package.
Our top end is much more streamlined. We run a handful of cards to aid us in closing out the game.
Kokusho, the Evening Star
and
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
are the very powerful cards, and
Chancellor of the Dross
can occasionally make an enemy out of the whole table.
I think the rest of the spells are fairly straight forward, and though there isn’t enough of the reanimation package to perhaps warrant
Buried Alive
and
Entomb
, we still jave janky hits/combos with them e.g. bury
Bloodghast
Nether Traitor
for value along with gary or kokusho. We also run Virtually nonexistent interaction, but you could fit some in if you feel its necessary.
Overall, the deck is surprisingly flexible, many of the cards serve purposes outside of Plan A of beat face. Some number of removal spell is worth including, but I’ve excluded then for now purely for the sake of skewing my deck towards playing proactively rather than caring so much to what our opponents are doing. If needed though, Black does have some of the best removal packages out there for creatures, planeswalkers, and hand interaction out of this workd for players needing to be targeted specifically.
Hope you like the deck design. My experience with the deck is that it’s pretty fair, with a lot of resilience and flexibilty while retaining very aggressive plays to maintain/establish a lead.
Sideboard includes cards I think definitely are worth the Inclusion, and feel free to comment or make suggestions. This will help anyone looking into a deck like this imwith more variety and ideas than just mine!
