Commander Collection: Swamp Thing

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Combo Control Goodstuff Mono-Black

Jurrane

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb PGC
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 23x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Cave
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x War Room
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Card Draw (10)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Black Market Connections P
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x The One Ring PGC

Non-Combo Finishers (3)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Recursion (2)

• 1x Victimize
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will P

Ramp (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chrome Mox PGC
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Thought Vessel

Other Value Pieces (11)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Bolas's CitadelGC
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x NIghthawk Scavenger
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters PGC
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse P
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Weaponcraft Enthusiast
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Tutors (3)

• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Imperial SealGC
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Commander (1)

Removal & Boardwipes (12)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victim of Night
• 1x Withering Torment

Combo Pieces (7)

• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Chain of Smog
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Professor Onyx
• 1x Sorin Markov
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Triskelion

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{B}{B}{B} Introduction: Back in Black {B}{B}{B}

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“Swamp Thing” is one of the very first EDH decks I made. It was originally built a few years ago for a five-colour mono deck challenge, where five players each created a mono deck from one of the five colours. I was the black player, as black’s my favourite colour in Magic. We then played a five player Commander game in the private library at Mox Boarding House in Seattle, where the objective was to win by eliminating your two opponents in enemy colours. (True to form, I think the blue player won.)

This deck has evolved steadily over the years, becoming more competitive and efficient. It's now strong enough to compete at higher powered tables after the addition of fast mana and combo win conditions. Unlike most of my other EDH decks, it’s not really built around a particular mechanic or theme: I’d mostly describe it as a ‘goodstuff’ deck which does some degenerate things with a lot of Swamps and some of my favourite black cards. I suppose it sits somewhere between midrange and control, as it gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

This is one of my three current Tier 1 decks (the other two are here and here). It features numerous sources of fast mana, some free spells, and runs a suite of infinite combos together with a range of different tutors to find its combo pieces. Sidisi, Undead Vizier is particularly potent as she's a tutor herself and can be cast repeatedly from the command zone to find combo elements if needed. It currently has a 67% win rate and is intended to be played at high powered casual or more competitive tables.

In terms of WotC's new EDH power brackets, I think this list fits into Bracket 4. It has access to several infinite combos that can be executed at various points through the game and not just in the late turns. It also runs seven game changer cards: Ancient TombGC, Mana VaultGC, Chrome MoxGC, Bolas's CitadelGC, Demonic TutorGC, Imperial SealGC and Vampiric TutorGC.

Budget

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The average price for this deck on Card Kingdom is nearly $1000. It runs some old Reserved List cards like Lake of the Dead, Volrath's Stronghold and Gate to Phyrexia. Because it's one of my oldest decks, I've had a lot of time to trade for the more expensive cards, or have had them in my collection from years gone by. At its heart, it's still a mono-black goodstuff deck though and they can be built for a much cheaper price if you're willing to forego the expensive mana rocks and Reserved List cards. Fortunately some of the big mana staples like Cabal Coffers have come down in price recently and can be picked up for a fraction of what they once were.

Objective

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When playing the deck, our goal is to control the game as much as possible, using a host of removal and mass destruction effects to keep the board clear of opposing threats. It wins by generating very large amounts of black mana using any combination of Black Market, Extraplanar Lens, Crypt Ghast, Lake of the Dead, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Magus of the Coffers to power big game-ending cards like Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire.

Alternatively, we can go down the infinite combo route and use its various tutor effects to find any of our instant kill combo pieces. There are as follows.

Combos

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We have access to three different combo lines that can instantly remove one or more opponents from the game. Each of these is listed below.

Combo Line 1: Triskelion + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

This is an infinite damage interaction.
Prerequisites:

- Triskelion and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed both on the battlefield.
- Triskelion has at least two counters on it.

Steps:

• If Triskelion has at least three +1/+1 counters on it, activate Triskelion by removing a +1/+1 counter from it, dealing one damage to any target;
• Repeat step 1 until there are two +1/+1 counters remaining on Triskelion;
• Activate Triskelion by removing a +1/+1 counter from Triskelion, dealing one damage to itself;
• Repeat step 3 an additional time;
• Triskelion dies;
• Triskelion's undying ability triggers, returning it to the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it;
• Repeat ad infititum.

Combo Line 2: Sorin Markov + Bloodletter of Aclazotz

Our second combo is a nasty one and is enabled by our new toy from Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Bloodletter of Aclazotz. Bloodletter's static damage doubling ability affects any life lost by Tree of Perdition's activited ability or Sorin Markov's second loyalty ability, effectively doubling any life loss and therefore potentially enabling an insta-kill for the targetted player.

Here's the ruling in question for Bloodletter of Aclazotz (the same is true for Sorin Markov's -3 ability:

"When the ability resolves, Tree of Perdition’s toughness becomes the targeted opponent’s former life total and that player gains or loses an amount of life necessary so that their life total equals Tree of Perdition’s former toughness. Other effects that interact with life gain or life loss will interact with this effect accordingly."

For both Tree of Perdition and Sorin Markov, the exchange counts as life loss. So losing more than 13+ life (or 10 life for Sorin) in the exchanges means that the doubling effect would, rather than just make them lose (life total minus 13) life, cause them to lose (life total minus 13)x2 life instead.

Combo Line 3: Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx

To execute this combo, all we need is for Professor Onyx to be in play and then to cast Chain of Smog targetting ourself, over and over. Each time we cast or copy Chain of Smog, Professor Onyx deals 2 damage to each opponent and gains us 2 life. Repeat until all our opponents are dead. Just watch out for targetted removal for Professor Onyx from other players once we've discarded all the cards in our hand from Chain of Smog.

Strengths

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We play mono black because of its key strengths that help us control the game. These are:

- Big Mana: We’re second only to green in our ability to generate large amounts of mana. Many of our powerful ramp cards are listed above and we use these to power out must-answer threats and fuel our game-ending spells. Soldevi Adnate’s an older card that’s often slept on, which offers a nice ritual effect for unwanted creatures (or those that are about to die anyway). We have lots of mana rocks for the early game, including Jet Medallion, Mana Crypt, Mana VaultGC, Chrome MoxGC etc.

- Tutors: With Sidisi, Undead Vizier as our commander, we have a repeatable tutor to find any card that’s needed at the right time, including our combo pieces. We rarely have a problem paying her commander tax because of all the mana generation effects we have. Token generators such as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Sengir Autocrat, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Foundry of the Consuls and Spawning Bed (plus any other creature in a pinch) means we usually have warm bodies to exploit for her tutor ability. We also run Demonic TutorGC, Imperial SealGC and Vampiric TutorGC as additional search effects.

- Card Draw: We rarely run out of resources, thanks to card draw effects like NecropotenceGC, Bloodgift Demon, Bolas's CitadelGC and The One RingGC. Alongside these, we have a host of extra tools to help us draw more cards, including creatures like Dread Presence, Ayara, First of Locthwain, Erebos, God of the Dead and Morbid Opportunist; alongside low-costed spells like Black Market Connections, Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood. Because we’re black mages and we’ve made all sorts of pacts with the underworld, our draw effects usually cost us life, but that’s the price we pay and we can often gain it back with our lifelinking creatures (or Gray Merchant of Asphodel).

- Removal: We’re the best colour for creature removal and it’s not particularly close. Enemy creatures will rarely be a problem for us with spot removal spells like Go for the Throat, Malicious Affliction, Slaughter Pact and Victim of Night. We have plenty of mass removal too: Damnation, Toxic Deluge and Living Death offer efficient ways of keeping the board clear, ready for us to land threats of our own.

- Recursion: We run some nasty creatures that are capable of ruining anyone’s day and, even if they're removed, they rarely stay dead for long. Spot land destruction is still seems to be relatively rare at most EDH tables so Volrath's Stronghold is an all-star here, supported by Victimize, Living Death and Yawgmoth's Will. Even if our recursion (or tutor) effects rely on us sacrificing creatures, we have plenty of ways of generating sacrifice fodder with cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Bitterblossom, Orcish BowmastersGC, Sengir Autocrat, Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Westvale Abbey  

Weaknesses

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We might aspire for greatness at any cost but unfortunately we’re not perfect. We’re weak to opposing enchantments and artifacts, and although we have a few tools to help, they’re pretty limited. We run Feed the Swarm and Gate to Phyrexia, and we have Nevinyrral's Disk in a pinch, but that’s about it.

Also, despite the fast mana we run, we’re not the fastest deck out of the blocks. Very aggressive opponents can outpace us easily as if we’re don’t find our mass removal quickly, we can be in a tight spot. I’ve done a lot of work to lower the mana curve by including as many lower-costed mana rocks and draw spells as possible, but because many of our threats have high CMCs, we run the risk of being outclassed in the early game. But if we can hang in there, we get stronger and stronger with each passing turn, and the longer the game goes, the more we’re favoured.

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Land Sacrifice

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{U}{B} Lord of the Nazgul {U}{B}
The Black Gate Opens: Dimir Spellslinger

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{W}{B} Eriette of the Charmed Apple {W}{B}
Flight of the Wicked Witch: Orzhov Auras

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.05
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Orc Army, Serf 0/1 B, Servo 1/1 C, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Want to Build