Demonlord of Value

Commander / EDH Combo Demons Midrange Mono-Black Ramp

NeverTheTwelve

Mana & Land Ramp (19)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Deal with the Devil (7)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Blood Speaker
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Night Dealings
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Removals (16)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Corrupt
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Dread Cacodemon
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Pestilence Demon
• 1x Reiver Demon
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Win Conditions (8)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Lord of the Void
• 1x Revel in Riches
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

The 37 Lands, not 33 (33)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Petrified Field
• 30x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Commander (1)

Draw & Loot Engine (8)

• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Ancient Craving
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip

Spicy Features (5)

• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Whip of Erebos

No Limits Fun (cit.) (3)

• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Venser's Journal

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Maybeboard

Currently Tesing... (7)

• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Helm of Obedience
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Mark of the Oni
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Outs! (1)

• 1x Cavern of Souls

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Do you remember the beautiful times when older people screamed at you because "Stop playing those magical cards, they are evil!"? They were right, with this deck at least. Come, my friend, and be embraced and charmed by the power of an ancient unforgiving darkness! This is Demonlord of Value and you are the new adept of the cult...

The Commander

Let's start talking about our Commander, shiny and brand new from Dominaria: Demonlord Belzenlok. Out of the 4 legendary Demons out there, this ancient evil is the closest to the Griselbrand unbanning dream (and I'll tell you a secret, this is not happening). Having a Yawgmoth's Bargain stitched on a creature, which is also a Commander, in a format with 40 life is pretty broken, but we can replicate his effect in a more reasonable way. Let's analyze it.

• He's a 6/6 for 6 cmc. These numbers are pretty flavourwise on their own for an Elder Demon, don't you think? Moreover he has a big body, which is good.
• Subtypes are not that relevant in this build, but having Demon friends join the party is always a good thing (or not?).
• Flying and Trample. Evasive and can beat faces very well. Good again.
• Lastly, from the oracle "When Demonlord Belzenlok enters the battlefield, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card, then put that card into your hand. If the card's converted mana cost is 4 or greater, repeat this process. Demonlord Belzenlok deals 1 damage to you for each card put into your hand this way.". This means that not only he repleaces himself with the first nonland card of our library, but you can even draw multiple cards generating a massive card advantage that none of your opponent can stop! The loss of life is acceptable because, again, you start with 40 life.

So the main focus of this deck is to abuse that trigger, making him the most Griselbrandish creature out there, running high cmc cards and a great package of ramp spells and mana acceleration. Once he touches the board, you will gain so much value from it that you will be able to cast huge spells with no effort. Beware that he doesn't let you draw lands (they get exiled too). Oh, and don't be sad if your favorite Demon gets killed, it's free value for you, again!

Mana & Land Ramp

Let's start talking about the multiple ways in this deck to get flooded. We have a weird mana curve, with plenity of 4+ mana spells, so we have to support our action in some sort of way. is one of the best color to get multiple mana from a single source and we run:

• With 30 swamps, cards that can add mana based on the number of them are usually are a real problem for your opponents. That kind of "we have to get rid of it now" problems. Nice synergies with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
  • Cabal Coffers: Doesn't grant mana on its own, but it starts to generate free mana with 4 swamps.
  • Cabal Stronghold: Beware that it only cares about BASIC swamps you control, but it is still valuable in a mono black deck. 5 is the magic number.
  • Magus of the Coffers: He has legs and, out of the three, is the only one you can tutor for with Night Dealings.
• There are also cards that basically grants (slightly less than) a +100% buyout on your mana produced from lands. These effects obviously stacks for each one on the board at the same time.
  • Caged Sun: Pumps out your Demons too!
  • Crypt Ghast and Nirkana Revenant: They can extort some life from opponents or smash faces.
• Mana rocks are not missing here:
  • Gilded Lotus: The only one that can grant colored mana.
  • Hedron Archive, Mana Vault, Mind Stone, Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo.
• Jet Medallion gives you a discount on your spells.

Additionally, we have some ways to fetch lands out of our library...

• ... directly on the battlefield with Burnished Hart, Myriad Landscape, Solemn Simulacrum and Wayfarer's Bauble.
• ... in your hand with Expedition Map and Thaumatic Compass  .

Draw & Loot Engine

If the Commander doesn't work, we have a few more ways to draw a good number of cards...

• Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving: Functional reprints and good effect. Preferred over similar cards for their high cmc (I know it still sounds stupid tho).
• Bloodgift Demon and Phyrexian Arena: One more draw per turn, one with legs and wings.
• Erebos, God of the Dead: We do lots of mana and this is a mana sink. Moreover stops your opponents from gaining life and he's a decent beater.
• Harvester of Souls: It's only incidental draw, but after a wrath it feels so good.
• Other cards we already seen in other categories can draw you some cards too: Hedron Archive, Mind Stone and Solemn Simulacrum.

... or loothing.

• Azor's Gateway: Aka THE TARGET. If you can run untill it flips, it's game over.
• Treasure Map: When it flips it grants free mana and some draws too.

No Limits Fun (cit.)

It's ok to draw cards, but not that much to discard them, so let's it not happen!

• Reliquary Tower: It's a land, so it's not counterable.
• Thought Vessel: It's a mana rock too!
• Venser's Journal: Lets you gain some (or a lot) life every turn. Very valuable.

Deals with the Devil

Do you want only the best cards? So draw them from the middle.

• Beseech the Queen: Super synergistic tutor with this build. You'll pay basically always for this, we hit more land drops than turns and its cmc is 6, so it's a free draw with our Commander!
• Blood Speaker: He lets you tutor for a Demon basically every turn, but only if you comment "Sacrifice well, puppy Ogre" in the comments below.
• Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Tutor and Increasing Ambition: I don't think I have to explain these.
• Night Dealings: Super spicy tutor, we have a 6/6 flyer trampler and we can search for mutiple cards at instant speed every turn. But no lands unfortunately.
• Rune-Scarred Demon: Demonic Tutor on a guy.

Removals

Before we talk about winning the game, we have to destroy everything we don't like and, for the love of demons, IT'S MASSACRE TIME!

• We have multiple mass removal that fit different roles too:
  • Archfiend of Depravity, Demon of Dark Schemes, Dread Cacodemon, Pestilence Demon and Reiver Demon: Mass removals on a bud... No wait really?
  • Black Sun's Zenith and Mutilate: They can cripple down huge creatures, dodging regeneration and indestructible.
  • Damnation and Decree of Pain: Best mass removals on the market. The second is more valuable in terms of drawing cards or taking care only of the little threats.
  • Living Death: Reverses the world for you. You can do nice tricks with this card.
• And we don't forget the spot removals:
  • Corrupt and Tendrils of Corruption: Life drain from most targets.
  • Hero's Downfall and Vraska's Contempt: The take care of Planeswalkers too.
  • Noxious Gearhulk ad Overseer of the Damned: They destroy a creature, with added effects.

Win Conditions

We have multiple ways to win the game and two different strategies: Aggro and Combo.

• The aggro plan is basically smash the faces of who have seen their creatures die in agony the turn before.
  • Commander damage is a classic, and pretty easy to achieve with a 6/6 evasive creature.
  • We have a lot of big evasive creatures with multiple effects that can attack and deal damage, but note that there are way more creatures than the ones listed in this category hidden in the others.
• The combo plan is setted around powerful cards, each one with different effects.
  • Exsanguinate: Generating a lot of mana is fine, use it to make the opponent lose a bunch of life is better. Also you gain three times the life lost.
  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Similar to the one before, he cares about the devotion to , so it's a good idea to land him after 2 or three Demons.
  • Revel in Riches: Who also likes to win on the spot after a wrath?
  • Torment of Hailfire: The best black win condition ever printed. Even if your opponents don't lose on the spot, they are set so far behind that is impossible to regain the position in the game.

Spicy Features

There are some cards that can do super cool things that helps you win the game or have nice interactions.

• Conjurer's Closet: The best of the best. With this you can reiterate your ETB effects every turn, meaning you can draw a bunch of cards every turn with your Commander, kill everything everytime with most of the demons, slowly drain everyone with Gray Merchant of Asphodel!
• Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots: Grant protection and speed up the clock giving Haste to your big Demons.
• Vedalken Orrery: All your spells have Flash. You can cast whenever you want. All your sorceries are instants. This is one of the best artifacts ever printed for EDH, run it now!
• Whip of Erebos: You can recycle your creatures with this, do again the ETBs ad attack to drain your opponents. Beware that you still have to cast cards like Dread Cacodemon and Reiver Demon to do some kind of effect.

The 37 Lands, not 33

Only a few lands here do tricks are real powerhouses or have nice synergies with other cards, so most of them are basic swamps.

• 30 Swamp.
• Bojuka Bog: Some uncounterable graveyard hate.
• Petrified Field: Did you just Strip Mined my precious lands? Oh well...
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: You already know hot it works.

Other than these we have lands that are in other categories...

• Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold.
• Myriad Landscape: Basically 2 swamps for 1 card.
• Reliquary Tower.

... and fliplands from our artifacts.

• Sanctum of the Sun.
• Spires of Orazca.
• Treasure Cove.

Non-Listed Categories

In this panel two more "hidden" (but still very important to the gameplan) categories are described:

• Since we are drawing cards with black spells, we have to offer our life in return and a long term lifegain strategy is very valuable to keep it sustainable.
  • Corrupt, Noxious Gearhulk, Tendrils of Corruption and Vraska's Contempt: They are spot life-gainers.
  • Crypt Ghast, Venser's Journal and Whip of Erebos: They can gain a bit of life every turn.
  • Exsanguinate and Gray Merchant of Asphodel: They can deal huge swings to win the game, or gain you so much life back.
• Sometimes our big Demons would be banned from the battle, but fear not! They can return stronger! But beware that you still have to cast cards like Dread Cacodemon and Reiver Demon to do some kind of effect.
  • Living Death: This is a mass reanimation, so beware of what your opponents can do with this opportunity, but it is so colossal that you can easily win on the spot.
  • Sheoldred, Whispering One: This cute lady can resurrect one of your dead boys every turn, while slowly killing your opponents' creatures.
  • Whip of Erebos.

Currently Testing...

• Gate to Phyrexia: The only black card that can deal with artifacts.
• Mark of the Oni: Weirder and cheaper Mind Control.
• Panharmonicon: Dobling your ETBs means more draws with your Commander, for example! But is it really worth a spot in the list for this?
• Promise of Power: Additional card draw and/or token generation for huge swings.
• Yawgmoth's Will: With this you can recycle all the things in your graveyard for extra value.

A new combo:

• Helm of Obedience + Leyline of the Void: Graveyard hate is always useful, so why not adding this?

In the list of cards that felt not enough useful we have:

• Cavern of Souls: Makes our cute Demons uncounterable, but I didn't even used it once.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WURG
Splash colors	B
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.30
Tokens	Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B