Drana's Artifice

Commander / EDH Control Mono-Black Ramp Voltron

Rahvin2015

Boardwipe (6)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Carddraw (9)

• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice

Control (19)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Karn Liberated
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sorin Markov
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Tawnos's Coffin
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Fetch (1)

• 1x Solemn Simulacrum

Lands (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 22x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

ManLands (1)

• 1x Inkmoth Nexus

Ramp (21)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Temple of the False God

Recursion (7)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

SacFodder (5)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Trading Post

Tutors (6)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Utility (11)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Tawnos's Coffin
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte

Voltron (7)

• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte

Wincons (11)

• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Maga, Traitor to Mortals
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Triskelion
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Boardwipe (1)

• 1x Killing Wave

Carddraw (5)

• 1x Ancient Craving
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Control (20)

• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Helldozer
• 1x Hex Parasite
• 1x Kiku, Night's Flower
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1x Nezumi Bone-Reader
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Silence the Believers
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Fetch (5)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Polluted Delta

Lands (6)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse

Ramp (5)

• 1x Blinkmoth Urn
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Druidic Satchel

Recursion (5)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

SacFodder (5)

• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Druidic Satchel
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog

Tutors (2)

• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Utility (2)

• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip

Voltron (5)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse

Wincons (4)

• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

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Introduction

I've been wanting to make a Drana deck for quite a while, inspired by Drana's Mana Mayhem by Sc1zX. I usually don't make decks that win in the red zone, but Drana just looks so damned fun.

And, as it turns out, she's just as fun as she looks. She's a self-pumping general with evasion, so she's already very well-suited to winning through commander damage. But her pump ability also functions as instant-speed targeted removal that can even kill indestructible creatures! Removal, evasion, and pump all on the same card? Yes please!

If we can make it to the mid or late game, chances are we'll have the mana available to swing in for one-shot commander damage kills...and we can use the very same ability to clear out any flying blockers.

Deck Strategy

Ramp

Mono-black has some amazing ramp available. One of the major deviations between my list and Sc1zX's is the addition of the "broken" ramp package (Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith). These can help me pull out a turn-2 Drana, which is an immediate threat. Aside from that, we have the full suite of mana doublers: Extraplanar Lens , Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, Crypt Ghast, and Nirkana Revenant, with Liliana of the Dark Realms on the off chance we can pull off her ultimate (and the potential for additional pumping of Drana or removal, not to mention helping with land drops, is nice as well). Drana's ability doesn't require tapping (and works while she's tapped!), so as long as we have mana up, Drana can make things die. It's especially fun to murder Kaalia of the Vast in response to equipping Lightning Greaves.

Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith = Infinite colorless mana

Rings of Brighthearth + Deserted Temple + Cabal Coffers + 6 Swamps = Infinite B

Rings of Brighthearth + Deserted Temple + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx with at least 6 devotion to B = Infinite B

Win Conditions

Commander damage is Plan A, but we need to have other options as well.

Since we're generating ludicrous (potentially infinite) amounts of mana, we have Exsanguinate as a potential finisher, with Boseiju, Who Shelters All to make sure it gets through.

Dark Depths is here because...well, because it came in From the Vault: Lore, and I've wanted it for a long time, and this is a decent place to put it. It's really not hard to release Marit Lage and have a 20/20 indestructible evasive beater. The ramp here lets us remove the counters the hard way if needed, and we also have Vampire Hexmage (who'd here to kill Planeswalkers as well) and Thespian's Stage to "cheat" our eldritch horror out from its icy slumber.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is here because he's extremely hard to remove, acts as removal himself, and the mill can really disrupt opponents. Honestly either of the Ulamogs or Oldlizek would be fine in this slot. I'll be testing with all three.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion provide an infinite combo finisher if needed. I know plenty of people really hate infinite combos. This one is not terribly hard to disrupt, and sometimes you just need to finish the damned game so you can move on to the next. This isn't a fast-combo finisher, it's here as insurance in case we find ourselves in a bad situation or a grindy game with no sign of ending soon. I have Grave Titan and Mimic Vat as alternatives for these two slots if I play with a group that just really hates infinite combos.

Maga, Traitor to Mortals can easily hit for absurd (potentially arbitrarily large) amounts of damage with the ramp in this deck. What's more, his ability is an ETB dependant on the number of +1/+1 counters on him...and Tawnos's Coffin preserves the counters while providing a somewhat slow blink effect. This combo requires a lot to be going right, and might just be win-more, so it may get cut. The Coffin provides a decent amount of utility (and can get rid of Iona...) on its own and this deck wants big mana anyway, so I'm trying this out. If it does wind up just being win-more, I'll cut it in favor of more control/stax effects.

Sorin Markov doesn't outright win, but setting someone to 10 life brings them within range of an easy kill.

Geth, Lord of the Vault fits in too well with big mana to leave out. He can grab enemy manafacts, neat ETB creatures, and other handy tools from enemy graves, and can potentially mill opponents to death by himself.

Equipment/Voltron

Umezawa's Jitte is just such a swiss army knife, it's amazing. I've had people think it was safe to cast their commander because I was tapped out, only to have their commander die in response to equipping Greaves using some Jitte counters. In another case I tapped out to kill one player's commander with Drana, swung in for a Commander damage kill, and used the resulting counters on the Jitte to take out another player's Commander in the same turn. I love the Jitte. It doesn't offer protection or haste, which are the biggest things Drana needs, but the Jitte is too useful to leave out, IMO.

Sword of Feast and Famine provides protection, ramp, and a bit of control via discard. Really this is here for the ramp and protection - protection from black defends against a ton of popular removal, and untapping all of our lands means Drana has mana up for removal later.

Sword of Fire and Ice gives protection from blue and red, and draws cards. Straightforward and powerful.

Sword of Light and Shadow gives protection from black and white, eliminating the vast majority of removal. The creature recursion and lifegain are the weakest abilities for the Swords, but the protection is perhaps the strongest, which is why this gets a spot. No more Swords to Plowshares!

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots...do I really need to say anything here? Haste and protection are the most important things Drana needs, and these each provide both.

Hall of the Bandit Lord provides haste. It's really that simple. This is in over Shizo, Death's Storehouse because Drana already has evasion; what she needs is haste and protection. This provides one out of two.

Wurmcoil Engine and Nether Traitor are great options for carrying equipment if Drana is unavailable.

Deck Strengths

Lots of mana brings lots of options. If we can get off to a decent start with some acceleration, we can quickly dominate the board with Drana and quickly kill the biggest threat at the table. This is an aggressive deck with control themes as a backup; we're aiming to win as quickly as possible, with the ability to survive if Plan A fails or is delayed.

We have answers to just about everything. As long as we have good mana acceleration, we can power out Karn Liberated or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or All Is Dust to get rid or problematic permanents. The best answer, of course, is to just kill the player, and we're very good at that.

Drana's mix of targeted removal, evasion, and pump on the same card make her an extremely strong commander. She might not be T1, but that's only because T1 decks are typically consistent absurdly-fast combos. Drana can come out and swing for a kill shockingly fast.

Our redundant win conditions let us fall back on other plans if combat no longer appears to be an option.

Deck Weaknesses

We're lacking the heavier control elements that would let us delay strong fast-combo decks and keep the pressure on other control or aggro decks. Token strategies can prove overwhelming, despite the fact we have many board wipes available.

If I were to make one major change, I'd like to add more stax elements - Trinisphere, Mana Web, Defense Grid, Winter Orb, Static Orb, Torpor Orb, Contamination, Infernal Darkness , and so on. I'm just honestly not sure what to cut yet for slots. Establishing a solid board lock while Drana flies in for some kills is the ideal situation.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.58
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Marit Lage, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink
Based on	Drana's Mana Mayhem Sc1zX EDH