This deck basically came from an interest in two keywords I've rarely, if ever, seen played; Madness and Hellbent. I can understand why. Madness requires a deck that is comfortable with sacrificing cards in hand for an, often marginal, advantage. Hellbent takes this further; in order for any Hellbent card to be even worth running, you have to sacrifice both card advantage and options. Things that anyone who runs a single draw or recursion engine are vehemently opposed to. It also doesn't help that there aren't a great deal of playable cards in EDH with either keyword.
Still, both of the mechanics are interesting, and
Malfegor
is a powerful enabler for both. I don't really see this as being the most fun deck to play against, as it does have a lot of group slug elements, and it is more than likely to attract a fair bit of hate. The general idea is to wear down their hand and creatures so they can't really do much about it, and, failing that, to simply murder them.
Rather than being a pure Hellbent/Madness deck, this is based on the idea of forcing everyone into Hellbent mode, through the use of mass and continuous discard, preferably at random.
A preface, though; this deck has seen very little testing, so the synergies here are mostly theoretical, and will see change as the deck is playtested.
Win Conditions:
If all else fails,
Malfegor
with some combination of
Anthem of Rakdos
,
Demonspine Whip
, Fireshrieker, Anger, and/or Swiftfoot Boots should be able to close out a game fairly quickly. If the deck is doing its job, Malfegor's ETB trigger should clear away most blockers, and Anthem of Rakdos
+
Malfegor
by itself will deal 16 commander damage. It doesn't take much mana from a
Demonspine Whip
to make that lethal.
Outside of commander damage, the Rack-like effects should put a toll on opponents' life totals. While expensive,
Hollowborn Barghest
is very on-theme, though the more effective cards will be things such as Quest for the Nihil Stone, Shrieking Affliction,
Lavaborn Muse
,
Stabwhisker the Odious
, and
Hellfire Mongrel
. Once hands are empty, Painful Quandary ceases to be a quandary, and becomes a rather swift clock; 5 life per spell can add up pretty quickly.
More painfully, Gibbering Descent
+
Havoc Festival
, or even by its lonesome, will bring the game to a swift conclusion, one way or the other. Lifegain is not the most popular strategy in my meta, but halting it is a nice bonus.
For this aspect of things, cards such as Sulfuric Vortex,
Rackling
, and
Wheel of Torture
are being considered.
Anvil of Bogardan
+
Geth's Grimoire
+
Words of Waste
is a brutal combo, essentially denying opponents the ability to play whatever they draw (excluding instants, of course), for the cost of one mana a turn. With
Waste Not
, that's a fairly light investment.
Mass Hellbent:
While most decks wouldn't touch it with an eleven-foot pole,
Scandalmonger
is a potent Hellbent enabler. If nothing else, I will certainly be willing to activate its ability repeatedly, and the deck doesn't care overmuch if I become its target. Best-case scenario, it causes a circle of discarding and revenge-discarding, resulting in everyone top-decking.
Specters are arguably a little flimsy in EDH, but their early-game disruption is effective in such a format. Hypnotic Specter is especially potent, as random discard prevents mana-rich opponents from simply discarding lands, or mana-starved opponents from discarding high-CMC spells.
Blazing Specter
's haste gives it an interesting edge, and
Guul Draz Specter
can soon become a 5/5 flier, still able to cause discards from less-Hellbent opponents.
Gibbering Descent
, Necrogen Mists, and Bottomless Pit are harder to remove and are just as, if not more, annoying.
Descent into Madness
is mostly in the deck for Vorthos reasons, seeing as it doesn't have the token generation or card draw to really power through the despair counters. It'll probably get exiled after only two or three turns, but those players left with an empty hand and little land will probably be completely destroyed if forced to exile their mana sources.
Sire Of Insanity and, to a lesser extent, Mindslicer and
Myojin of Night's Reach
are incredibly annoying adversaries. If none of my other mass-Hellbent enablers have come through, Sire, left untouched for a single turn, can change the course of entire games.
Delirium Skeins is useful for emptying those last few cards from everyone's hands, and
Words of Waste
can quickly create a boardstate where no-one has anything in hand.
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
is a useful land for this, particularly in my land destruction-light meta. Before flipping,
Nezumi Shortfang
can disable players on the draw, due to its instant-speed activation.
Hellbent and Madness:
While lacking the keyword,
Null Brooch
may be the most potent card in this category. In a deck that will often not have a hand, and doesn't particularly want one most of the time, this is an effective counter to the inevitable boardwipes and removal that will be directed my way once mass-Hellbent is enforced. Dark Withering is, I am fully aware, often a simply worse Doom Blade. However, it works in the deck, and is on theme, so is not likely to be removed. Furthering the 'inverse Hellbent' theme is
Rekindled Flame
. Repeatable burn is not something to be underestimated, especially with the ability to both remove threats and simply deal damage. Call to the Netherworld and Grave Scrabbler are decent recursion engines, with the latter having the bonus of being a blocker in and of itself. As an added bonus, they can often be manipulated to function at instant speed.
Blood Scrivener
is mostly in the deck to see how it works, much like
Nihilistic Glee
. Additional draw is usually not a problem for Hellbent, due to several discard engines and mass discard effects, and it can help in rebuilding hand for
Malfegor
and
Thought Gorger
.
Graveyard Play:
Despite being a mass discard deck, reanimation is not a main theme of the deck. Still, cards like Stitch Together are useful, as they allow annoying creatures such as Mindslicer and Sire Of Insanity to recur cheaply.
Soul of Innistrad
seems to be a good way to get back creatures (or discard fodder for
Malfegor
) at instant speed, both from play and from grave. The 'Rhystic' aspect of
Carrionette
bars it from being exceptionally powerful, but I think most players will forget about him, as he lurks in the graveyard, and instant speed exile from an empty hand is nothing to scoff at; particularly as larger threats will often be tapped out for, and, given an abundance of mana, he can activated several times a turn, possibly exiling multiple creatures.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni is a means to make use of fairly useless creatures such as Liliana's Specter in the late game, as well as renanimate some choice discarded fatties. Nezumi Graverobber is primarily in the deck for targeted, instant-speed graveyard exile, but will be a potent threat if ever flipped (due to a Bojuka Bog or similar). Reanimate is relatively popular in my meta, so answers such as the Graverobber and the Bog are important. Rakdos Charm does triple duty as artifact removal, graveyard hate, and a possible finisher against token decks.
Removal
I am aware that this deck is, currently, painfully light on removal. Testing will likely see the inclusion of a Vandalblast, Into the Core and at least one non-Malfegor boardwipe. Lightning Axe is terrible, but I like it, and
Twinstrike
, despite being Hellbent, is underwhelming for the cost. This is likely the area that will see the most expansion, but I don't like playing too much removal, particularly where the commander is already a boardwipe in and of itself.
Survival and Synergy:
Cards like Sangromancer,
Waste Not
and Geth's Grimoire help me to profit from the discard and inevitable death that occurs in EDH, whereas Megrim and Liliana's Caress turn it into dead players.
Urborg Syphon-Mage
is, simply put, on the chopping block, but I want to see how he does before I remove him out of hand. Turning dead draws into life loss and life gain is far from useless.
Grotesque Hybrid
is, while I have at least one card in hand, a rattlesnake, able to block and kill most creatures in my meta without dying itself. Aggressive Aurelia, the Warleader and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight decks will think twice about swinging into me; if that's all the hybrid does, then it has done its job. With an empty hand, it still has combat-deathtouch.
Moonring Mirror
is a very odd card, but one that plays well with
Malfegor
. It's a relatively unassuming and unthreatening card; the cards aren't tutored, can't be swapped at instant speed, and are unknown to me. However, by building up a few cards in the mirror, suddenly,
Malfegor
could be causing each opponent to sacrifice six creatures, instead of one, particularly when paired with things such as
Blood Scrivener
, Geth's Grimoire,
Waste Not
and even
Nihilistic Glee
. It's a bit of a gamble, considering the cards are gone if it ever gets removed, but, knowing my meta, they'll want to see what it actually does at least once.
Closing Comments:
As you've probably noticed, this deck is quite budget; I'm not interested in getting ludicrously expensive cards, and many of the more expensive things are cards I've either traded for or won. I prefer leaving my land base mostly basic, so don't bother suggesting duals, fetches, or anything expensive. It's a two colour deck with mostly black; it shouldn't need much more fixing than one early Evolving Wilds to fetch a Mountain.
That said, I'm open to suggestions as to how to improve the deck, with suggested deletions of more help than new cards. As you can see, my maybeboard is already quite bloated.
