Ink-Eyes Voltron [V2]

Commander / EDH Equip Mono-Black Voltron

TRANScend

Ink-Eyes' Deadly Arsenal (18)

• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Commander's Plate
• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Inquisitor's Flail
• 1x Kaya's Ghostform
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Trepanation Blade
• 1x Vorpal Sword

Removal (11)

• 1x Cast Down
• 1x Defile
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Execute
• 1x Hellish Rebuke
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Mire in Misery
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Rend Flesh
• 1x Victim of Night
• 1x Vona's Hunger

Gimme that (2)

• 1x Ashen Powder
• 1x Grim Return

Press R to Recall (2)

• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Netherborn Altar

Ramp (18)

• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Boardwipe (5)

• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Life's Finale
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x Plague Wind

Just Lands (33)

• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 29x Swamp
• 1x War Room

Discard (2)

• 1x Despise
• 1x Syphon Mind

Answers (1)

• 1x Darkness

Commander (1)

Draw (16)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Execute
• 1x Greed
• 1x Keen Duelist
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Succumb to Temptation
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x War Room

Lifegain (3)

• 1x Chancellor of the Dross
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Murderous Rider

SHE'S GOT AN EXTRA TURN IN MONOBLACK?!?!? (1)

• 1x Temporal Extortion

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Background

Layer upon layer, you felt each one as the blade went down. The outer skin, the soft layer of fat beneath, then the muscles, bone, and the blood pouring out. It was fast, but not fast enough that your trained perception couldn't have appreciated every bit.

He gasped, awakened by the pain. Adrenaline surged through the body as he thrashed convulsively, but only for a split second. The damage had already been done, and his heart ceased. Just like that, the drunk Ogre that once was your abusive mentor finally met his fate. Killed by the small fragile nezumi that he had once saved.

Saved? Kidnapped would be the right way to put it, you thought. The other ones wanted you dead, but what Muzan wanted wasn't that much worse. Maybe in the higher grounds with their glistening palaces blessed by the Kami, some ladies might see it as far worse. Anyway, he's dead now. No more of his drunk yelling voice, his ridiculous towering form. The way he grabbed you by the chin and ordered you around.

"You're dead, aren't you, Muzan? Your body is cold. The shadow your body makes against the wall by the low Takenuman lights starts to change. It looks like the demon Kuro, he's here to see the end of my training. Just like that, Muzan, you got up from the ground. Your body still cold, eyes still empty. You seem pale and skinnier too, maybe the red soaked floor has something to do with that."

As your training met its end, you could hear from the shadows Kuro himself congratulating you in a whisper. You looked at him, eyes tired. All of your occult training in the silent presence of the Kami was intended for this moment. So you could finally be free.

And free you were. The wounds from this relationship could finally shut, the bleeding finally stop. The scars, the memories, the pain. Those would be with you, alongside your new necromantic powers, new demonic partner, and new title for being the most cold and dangerous individual in Takenuma. A betrayer of Kamigawa. Until the end.

A lot better than being known as his little pet, you thought.

---

Ink-Eyes' story is a tale about abuse and trauma. It's about finally escaping the hands of your abuser through hidden research and a lot, a lot of effort. No one knows how long Ink-Eyes took to end her captivity, but it finally being over denotes a story of success and empowerment. It's not the story about the birth of the most dangerous murderer of Takenuma or someone who betrayed her master, it's a story about how a Nezumi found her own way to simply be - in a cruel, very cruel world.

I am partially the main writer of Ink-Eyes' backstory in the mtg wiki website, taking the main events from her tale and placing them where everyone has easy access to. My main concern is how Wizards thought the whole thing was okay to place in a kids game. The story never explicits any form of sexual abuse, but it might as well do: Muzan's behavior is terrifyng, and he had her to his bidding in all manners including explicit physical violence. As a woman, it's tough for me to recite how much this tale means to me in a manner that everyone could feel and understand. If you're also a woman who's ever been frightened of what men are capable of, maybe no words are necessary.

Ink-Eyes to me represents a character of true strength. A symbol that trampled down the patriarchy through ruthless effort and showed to us, the readers, that no form of abuse can last if you put the most important thing in the world - you - in first place at all times.

This deck is my tribute to this tragic and truly strong character.

Gameplay

Welcome to my V2 - Ink Eyes-Control Reanimator deck, except this time it's Voltron rather than control. You see, when playing commander one of the things I keep in mind the most is keeping the game fair and enjoyable for everyone I care having around. The first version of this deck couldn't help but interfering with other's board consistently, so in this version I decided to crank that down a good notch and power up Ink-Eyes herself instead. This is a tribute to her, after all.

Wincons: Combat (commander) damage.

Weaknesses: Black is not green or blue... It's not as easy to generate value with this deck as you may think. Anything that breaks your value engines will hurt an extra lot and may directly cause you to give up on the future of the match.

Just grind value on the early-mid game, play your boardwipes if you need, get Ink-Eyes out and equip her with some evasiveness, and beat people to death. Easy enough. You can also kill things and reanimate them for yourself. In this V2 that's a bonus - not the main strategy. You don't want to rely on your opponent's graveyard to win.

As unfun as playing against mill decks can be, Trepanation Blade's presence here is exclusively due to how well it synergises with Ink-Eyes. I might remove it in the future, but for now it's a keeper.

The budget level used in this deck is directly correlated to cards I already own and cards I don't intend to own (Cabal Coffers being a good example). So feel free to change this in a way that better suits you.

Top Ranked	Achieved #41 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #26 position in Commander / EDH 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Equip 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	11 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.96
Tokens	City's Blessing, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
Folders	Decks that I currently have built, EDH Gauntlet, Favorites, Decks I like