Darth Vader, Sith Lord of $40 Budget

Commander / EDH* Aristocrats BR (Rakdos) Budget Voltron

Jaathik

Worthless Pawns (26)

• 1x Consulate Dreadnought
• 1x Immolating Souleater
• 1x Bontu the Glorified
• 1x Cosmic Larva
• 1x Egon, God of Death  ^Flip
• 1x Mighty Servant of Leuk-o
• 1x Phyrexian Soulgorger
• 1x Relic Golem
• 1x Rotting Regisaur
• 1x Wall of Blood
• 1x Abyssal Persecutor
• 1x Archfiend of the Dross
• 1x Bloodvial Purveyor
• 1x Deep-Slumber Titan
• 1x Desecration Demon
• 1x Goblin Goon
• 1x Golden Argosy
• 1x Grinning Demon
• 1x Irontread Crusher
• 1x Runaway Carriage
• 1x Scourge of Numai
• 1x Shah of Naar Isle
• 1x The Beast, Deathless Prince
• 1x Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
• 1x Waning Wurm
• 1x Moltensteel Dragon

Force Vitality (7)

• 1x Alchemist's Gift
• 1x Blessing of Belzenlok
• 1x Cruel Feeding
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Vampiric Link
• 1x Eternal Thirst
• 1x Unexpected Fangs

Galactic Realms (34)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Cryptic Caves
• 1x Desert of the Fervent
• 1x Desert of the Glorified
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 13x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Mire
• 1x Roadside Reliquary
• 1x Smoldering Crater
• 9x Swamp
• 1x The Autonomous Furnace
• 1x The Dross Pits

Relics of Power (10)

• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Infernal Idol
• 1x Letter of Acceptance
• 1x Orazca Relic
• 1x Rakdos Cluestone
• 1x Rakdos Locket
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Stonespeaker Crystal

Cybernetics (7)

• 1x Neurok Hoversail
• 1x Cobbled Wings
• 1x Prowler's Helm
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Vorrac Battlehorns
• 1x Wings of Hubris
• 1x Silent Arbiter

Deflection (4)

• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Mirror Shield
• 1x Ring of Evos Isle
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Commander (1)

Advanced Lightsaber Combat (12)

• 1x Assault Strobe
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Critical Hit
• 1x Inquisitor's Flail
• 1x Lizard Blades
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Psychotic Fury
• 1x Raking Claws
• 1x Unleash Fury
• 1x Uncaged Fury
• 1x Blood Mist
• 1x Fury of the Horde

Force Choke (8)

• 1x Font of Agonies
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Shattering Pulse
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Kari Zev's Expertise
• 1x Aftershock
• 1x Act of Aggression
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir

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Maybeboard

Sacrifice Targets (6)

• 1x Raving Oni-Slave
• 1x Deepwood Ghoul
• 1x Mischievous Poltergeist
• 1x Soul Channeling
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol
• 1x Souldrinker

Budget Boardwipes (2)

• 1x Bloodfire Infusion
• 1x Rupture

Removal (2)

• 1x Epic Downfall
• 1x Terminate

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"The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." -Sheev Palpatine

Dark Lord Vader is a cheap, powerful voltron commander that fuels his own gameplay. The deck is very straightforward: Sac creatures and beat in for damage.

Worthless Pawns

These are the primary creatures that'll be sacrificed to the dark lord. The cheapest, beefiest creatures in Rakdos colos; this is every creature with both high power and toughness under 5 mana, and going into 3 mana doesn't usually give us enough toughness to get Dark Lord Vader to 11 power (so that with double-strike we can get a one-hit kill). It doesn't matter if these creatures don't last long, because these creatures have no purpose other than to be sacrificed to Darth Vader, Sith Lord. We can dig incredibly quickly through our deck by drawing ~7 cards a turn.

Assisting In Victory

Cybernetics (evasion) and Advanced Lightsaber Combat (double-strike) let us secure victory by allowing us an easy attack and so we only need to hit an opponent once to deal lethal commander damage. I've included some lifelink cards to offset the large amounts of life we'll pay, as well as some protection cards because this deck can't win without Darth Vader, Sith Lord.

Basic Gameplan

The first few turns of the game involve playing Relics of Power (ramp cards) so we can get Darth Vader, Sith Lord out on turn 4, and then either play a Worthless Pawn on turn 3 or 5, sacrifice it, and hopefully draw into an Advanced Lightsaber Combat. If we need to get around a wall of creatures, then we have Evasion, and lifelink cards stabilize our life total so we don't get taken out too early.

Exclusions

• Lower toughness, lower CMC creatures: 3-mana and lower cards like Blistering Barrier aren't included in this list because they aren't efficient enough. The lower mana cost doesn't justify not being able to pump our commander to 11 power with just 1 creature, since we can only sacrifice 1 creature per turn.
• Recursion: Like many aristocrats builds, Greven, Predator Captain decks tend to include recursion effects. I don't think we need them in order for our deck to work properly. Rather than rely on creatures in our graveyard, I'd rather just draw into them and cast them from hand; it's much more efficient since we can easily draw ~7 cards at will.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 32 - 0 Commons
Cards	109
Avg. CMC	2.87
Tokens	Blood, City's Blessing, Morph 2/2 C
Folders	Real decks