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"Instant Tribal" - Toshiro Umezawa - EDH PRIMER

Commander / EDH* Budget Casual Control Mono-Black Primer

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Removal (27)

Land (34)

Wincon (6)

Creature (25)

Recursion (11)

Tutor (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: Toshiro Umezawa

Ramp (12)

Card Advantage (11)

Equipment (5)

If anyone runs into this, any feedback or recommendations are always appreciated, especially on the presentation of this Primer!

Use removal to dissuade your opponents from attacking you, then win with a big finisher like Torment of Hailfire or through attrition with high-value Creatures and recursion.

This was my first EDH deck. I'm mainly playing it 1v1 against my GFs Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck while we're in lockdown, which seems to be the antithesis of this deck...

I'm trying to keep this deck semi-budget at around $150usd, so not tooo many cards over the $5 mark.

Gameplan:

Use Instant removal to control the board and to disuade attacks, then once my graveyard has some good Instants, play Toshiro to get value from Flashing Back some Removal, Resurrection and Card Draw spells. I have found it's best to only play Toshiro later in the game once I'm sure I'll be able to use his ability, which is usually once I have 3+ cheap Instants in my graveyard. It feels GREAT to cast him when you have tons of spare mana, then chain a few cheap kill spells from my graveyard, finishing with a card draw spell!... Playing him the moment you get to 3 mana is a really good way to lose the game.

I really value effects that let me use my opponents cards (Gonti, Mimic Vat, Chainer etc...) to make up for the inherent weakness of Mono-Black (a lack of Artifact and Enchantment removal). Using Mimic Vat to copy something like an Acidic Slime or Reclamation Sage is ideal, but failing that, I do run a fair few ways to remove Artifacts and Enchantments myself.

Artifacts and Enchantments:

Mono-Black has an inherent weakness against Artifacts and Enchantments as it has very few ways to remove them. In a 4v4 game, you may be able to strike deals with opponents to have them take out these kinds of threats ("I'll kill that Flyer if you remove that Smothering Tithe"), but that's not consistent or reliable.

The ways this deck can interact with Artifacts and Enchantments itself are: Sword of Sinew and Steel, Steel Hellkite and the new Feed the Swarm. There is also the option of using an opponents cards, through 'steal' effects from Gonti, Lord of Luxury, or resurrection effects from Chainer, Dementia Master, Grim Return, Sepulchral Primordial or Mimic Vat.

There are also some cards I don't run (usually due to their high CMC) that can deal with Artifacts and Enchantments, including: Unstable Obelisk, Pharika's Libation, Karn, Silver Golem, Scour from Existence, Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone and Meteor Golem.

WotC is slowly adding Enchantment removal to Black's color-pie. Feed the Swarm from Zendikar Rising is some decent targeted Enchantment removal that I've added to the decklist. Soon it's only weakness will be Artifacts, which are usually enablers rather than game-winning payoffs.

Noncreature Spells:

Mono-Black also has very few ways to interact with decks that are not Creature-based. One way to deal with spells you can't otherwise interact with is by forcing your opponents to discard them. Duress, Distress Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize and Sadistic Sacrament are ways to remove threatening cards before your opponents get the chance to cast them, however they lose a lot of value in a multiplayer setting, so I would only consider running them in very specific Metas.

Another option is the card Imp's Mischief, which can effectively counter a Counterspell by redirecting the counter to itself, as well as act as Creature protection by redirecting targeted removal to another Creature. I would absolutely run this card... if it wasn't so bloody expensive!

Planeswalkers:

My meta has 0 Planeswalkers, however Black does have some good options if faced with Superfriends decks, or just the odd Planeswalker. Hooded Blightfang is a nice way to take out Planeswalkers using Deathtouch Creatures (which this deck runs plenty of) and Sword of Sinew and Steel lets you hit someone's face and deal with a Planeswalker at the same time!

Cards I don't run, but are excellent at taking out Planswalkers include: Hero's Downfall, AEther Snap, Vampire Hexmage, Eat to Extinction, Eliminate, Finishing Blow, Murderous Rider, Vraska's Contempt, Hex Parasite and, of course The Elderspell. The Instants that remove Planeswalkers are going to be the best as Toshiro can flash them back. It is important to note that Toshiro does not trigger when a Creature is Exiled, only when it is Dies, so cards like Vraska's Contempt aren't nearly as good as Hero's Downfall in this deck.

SINGLE CARD DISCUSSION:

Comments on each card in the deck, including unusual interactions and how well I've felt they play out! I keep this regularly updated whenever I make a change to the deck, discover a new interaction or have a new opinion of a card!

-Corpse Churn: Fills my graveyard for Toshiro and resurrection fuel and occasionally returns a key Creature! If I don't have anything to do in my first few turns, I usually play it out anyway, just to fill my graveyard. Even without any Creatures in my grave, there's about a 24% chance I'll hit one in the mill anyway!

-Cremate: Awesome little card. Usually ends up being ", Exile 2 cards from graveyards, Draw 2 cards", which is excellent. Perfect target for a Toshiro trigger when you have nothing else to do with it.

-Dark Bargain: Great card draw for this deck as it's an Instant that Toshiro can flash back. If I hit a 1-2CMC removal spell, I usually put it into my graveyard as fuel for Toshiro.

-Defile: Excellent cheap removal that scales with the game and can take out Indestructible/Regenerating Creatures. Having really cheap removal spells is invaluable with Toshiro as you can use them to trigger his ability, while keeping enough mana to flash back a more expensive Instant from your graveyard. They are also great to recast from the graveyard as you don't need to hold up much mana.

-Dismember: Another excellent removal spell. The ability to kill all but the biggest Creatures for 1 COLORLESS mana (I run quite a few colorless lands) is great. It also gets around Indestructible and Regenerate. Also, it has a mini combo with Gravebreaker Lamia, which lets you cast it from the graveyard using Toshiro's ability for just 4 life and no mana! Build your own Pact!

-Drag to the Underworld: One of a handful of "2CMC" Instant removal spells I run. I almost always have at least 2 Black Devotion, so it's a nice budget removal spell, and it always casts 2CMC to flash back with Toshiro as he provides 2 Black Devotion by himself!

-Erebos's Intervention: A very flexible removal or graveyard hate card. Often I'll use it as removal early on, then flash it back with Toshiro as graveyard hate. The lifegain can also be quite handy, especially if you have lots of excess mana, you can overkill a Creature and gain a ton of life!

-Force of Despair: This card can just end people, especially in 1v1 matches. It works really really well with Toshiro, as you can cast it for 0 mana from your hand OR GRAVEYARD by discarding a Black card, and if that card was an Instant, you can use the Toshiro trigger/s from Force of Despair to flash it back! Also... the art is just fantastic! Seb McKinnon is amazing!

-Go for the Throat: Another excellent, 2CMC Instant removal spell. Its targeting restriction is one of the easiest to work around, compared to cards like Doom Blade

-Grasp of Darkness: Another excellent cheap removal spell that can take out Indestructible and Regenerating Creatures! Its mana cost is usually easy to pay twice in a turn as I run plenty of Swamps.

-Grim Return: A cheap (repeatable with Toshiro) way to steal a good Creature of an opponents when it dies! The drawback of only targeting Creatures that died that turn is also partially negated when flashing it back.

-Hagra Mauling  : I'm not completely sold on this card, it's an overcosted removal spell, however the option to play it as a Land increases the consistence in the deck slightly. If it's in your opening hand and you don't have many other Lands, I believe it's best to play it as a Land on turn 1, rather than keep it as an expensive removal spell. I may replace this with another Instant or Land at some point if I find it to be too slow or expensive.... The art is great though!

-Malakir Rebirth  : Early in the game play it as a land, late in the game when you have all the mana you need, save it as a protection spell for one of your high-value Creatures. It also works VERY well with ETB effects on your Creatures, top targets include Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Overseer of the Damned and Sepulchral Primordial. It's counted as an Instant in the graveyard, so Toshiro can flash it back.... although to cast it in response to removal/combat, you need an Instant way to kill an opponent's Creature to give you a Toshiro trigger.

-Moonlight Bargain: A great card-draw spell. 5 mana and 10 life to draw 5 cards is ok... but not great. The real power is that the excess cards go to your graveyard, and this deck is built around casting Instant spells from your graveyard. Usually the only cards I'll pay life to keep are Creatures that I want to play the next turn or Lands I need to play more expensive cards in my hand. Another option for this "slot" is Necrologia, which plays better in 1v1 matches and allows you to draw 20 cards for 5 Mana (although you will take 20 damage and have to discard to 7 cards almost immediately as you can only cast the card in your "end of turn" phase), this means you can basically setup a perfect hand, and fill your graveyard in preparation for an explosive next turn.

-Price of Fame: Great removal. Often the best targets are Legendary, which makes this ", Destroy target Creature, Surveil 2". Surveil is really really strong in this deck as putting an Instant into your graveyard is almost as good as putting it into your hand. Most Instants that I see will be put into my graveyard, unless I need them ASAP.

-Shred Memory: is an excellent budget tutor for 2CMC cards, which are some of my best targets for tutors anyway! It can fetch Creature removal (Grasp of Darkness and Go for the Throat), Enchantment removal (Feed the Swarm), Graveyard Hate (Tymaret, Chosen from Death), Recursion (Nullpriest of Oblivion and Corpse Churn), Creature protection (Lightning Greaves), Wincons (Runechanter's Pike and Torment of Hailfire) and Profane Command, which is incredibly versatile in its own right! It can't be Transmuted from the graveyard using Toshiro, but he can recast it as graveyard hate!

-Silence the Believers: This might be one of single the cards that's stopped me from losing the most. First, Toshiro does not trigger when a creature is Exiled, only when it dies. This is one way to deal with annoying Aura Enchantments, especially things like Rancor or Journey to Eternity... The ability to Exile Indestructible/Regenerating/Undying/Persisting/Escaping creatures is very handy, and this can take out a few in one go!. I usually cast it for 7 in 1v1 games, but if you have enough mana from things like Crypt Ghast, it can act as a one-sided Board-Wipe.

-Soul Shatter: A new "all opponent" edict effect from Zendikar Rising. It should avoid the usual downside of edict effects bricking on a useless token or cheap utility creature, and should be the perfect way to deal with Indestructible/Hexproof Voltron commanders sitting behind a horde of chump blockers/sac fodder. Also, the card looks Fantastic as a foil! The dragon's eye glows :)

-Succumb to Temptation: One of the few Instant card draw spells. Never outstanding, but is well worth running.

-Tendrils of Corruption: A decent removal spell that can give you a nice health boost later in the game. Not outstanding as it costs quite a lot, but scales well in the late game.

-Thrilling Encore: A suped-up version of Grim Return that is absolutely lethal when played immediately after a boardwipe, and can still be worth it if your only target is a single Bomb Creature that you've just taken out with targeted removal.

-Tragic Slip: Great removal in this deck. Great early on to take out a mana dork, great later on to kill basically any creature. It's always a -13/-13 for when cast from the graveyard with Toshiro.

-Victim of Night: Another nice 2CMC Instant removal spell. This deck really relies on having a critical mass of cheap Instants to flash back with Toshiro. It's pretty easy to cast a spell like this twice in a turn using Toshiro, it's much harder with high CMC spells like Tendrils of Corruption.

-Vona's Hunger: The City's Blessing is really easy to activate in EDH, and when you have it, this reads ", each opponent sacrifices half the creatures he or she controls, rounded up", which is devastating, and probably gives you all the Toshiro triggers you could need.

-Wretched Confluence: A really versatile spell that's just perfect in this deck. Card draw, raise dead effect and/or removal all in one... and Toshiro can flash it back! I often use every mode in one go, killing a small utility creature to trigger Toshiro, returning a good creature to my hand and drawing a card!

-Archfiend of Depravity: A new addition to the deck, the few times i've played it it's been very impactful, stopping my opponants from doing much and giving me time to build my field. It also works quite well as (if it survives) it forces your opponents to sacrifice all their worst Creatures, allowing you to use your targeted removal spells on their better ones (maybe even using the Toshiro triggers provided by the sacrifices). It's also a pretty decent body, 5/4 Fliers can get in for serious damage, and wear Equipment very well!

-Bloodgift Demon: Phyrexian Arena on a big thicc flying stick! Great consistent card draw (if he doesn't get killed) and another good 5/4 Flying body to attack/block with.

-Chainer, Dementia Master: A new addition that I'm also using as an occasional alternative commander... when I'm feeling a bit spicy :) While he is fragile, he has some insane potential when you have enough mana and life to spare! I run plenty of Creatures with good ETB effects, so even if he gets killed (Exiling all resurrected Creatures along with him) I can usually get some value! Some great targets in the deck include Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Noxious Gearhulk, Overseer of the Damned and Sepulchral Primordial!

He can also be used as pseudo Graveyard Hate, as when Chainer dies, all Creatures he resurrected get Exiled!... although this can also be a downside if you wanted to bring back those Creatures again yourself.

-Crypt Ghast: One of the most powerful cards in the deck. Essentially doubling my mana potential, and giving me a way to use it with Extort. If it sticks around it can allow Toshiro to flashback an entire graveyard of Instants, or fuel a game-winning Torment of Hailfire.

-Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief: Drana is great! the floor of a 4/4 Flier for 5CMC is ok, but her ability acts as a fantastic Mana Sink that takes out key Creatures (even Indestructible/Regenerating ones) while pumping herself, and giving you a way to trigger Toshiro so you can recast Instants from your Graveyard without spending a card.

PRO TIP: Even if there are no other Creatures in play, for 5 Mana she can use her own ability on herself to turn into a 7/1 Flier, which hits pretty hard, but can leave her vulnerable...

-Dread Presence: An awesome cheap Creature. He just does everything. Card draw or removal of small Creatures whenever you play a Swamp is fantastic. I'll usually try to play him followed up by a Swamp in the same turn, so I can trigger him at least once before anyone has a chance to remove him. Most of the time I'll use his trigger to draw, unless there's a really good target for the damage, or I'm running dangerously low on life.

PRO TIP: Wayfarer's Bauble and Myriad Landscape are ways to put multiple Swamps into play on a single turn, allowing you to use Dread Presence to kill larger creatures by repeatedly hitting them with 2 damage! You can also wait to crack them until Dead Presence is in play, so you get a lot of value out of him before anyone has much of a chance to kill him off!

-Gonti, Lord of Luxury: Just a great value card. For 4 mana, it gives you a 2/3 Deathtouch Creature, which really dissuades attacks, along with the choice of a card from an opponents deck! This is a great way to get access to effects that Mono-Black usually can't, like Artifact and Enchantment Removal. He's also an excellent target for Mimic Vat, 3 mana to draw the best of top 4 cards of an opponents deck, plus a 2/3 Deathtouch chump blocker or attacker!

-Gravebreaker Lamia: Another card that just seems to do it all! A big Lifelink Creature that makes it cheaper to flash spells back with Toshiro, who also puts a spell into your graveyard! The best targets for her "tutor" ability in my deck are Dismember (which she lets you flashback for 0 mana using Toshiro), Stinkweed Imp (lets you fill your graveyard even more by Dredging it with your next draw) or really any other Instant spell!

-Gray Merchant of Asphodel: A great source of lifegain that can potentially act as a Wincon if you have enough Black devotion, or ways to repeatedly recur him. I run lots of Creatures with in their CMC, so he often drains for 6 or 8 when he hits the board. A great Mimic Vat target as the token that the Vat produces has the Mana Cost of the copied card, so the token copy of Gary will always drain for a minimum of 2 for each opponent!

-Mindwrack Demon: A cheap creature with fantastic stats that has good Black Devotion and wears Equipment really really well! He also fills my graveyard with Instants I can flash back with Toshiro, and Creatures I can recur!... So what's the downside?...well...he punches you in the face each turn if you don't have Delirium.

STATS:By himself, on average, he puts around 3 card types into my graveyard, because I have a balance of Lands/Instants/Creatures/Artifacts/Enchantments/Sorceries, and I do have a few Artifact/Enchantment Creatures, which count as 2 types when in the graveyard. Creatures, Instants and Sorceries tend to make their way to the graveyard naturally, so if he mills a land, Artifact or Enchantment, you'll probably be fine. You can also hold off on playing him until you already have a few card types in your graveyard, if you're health is under pressure.

-Harvester of Souls: I love and hate this card. He usually either draws me 0 cards, or like... 20... IF I remember his trigger, which I often don't... He's a great Creature that, if left alive, can essentially close out games by giving you insane card advantage. He also works as Board-Wipe insurance because he still "sees" every other Creature die during a Board-Wipe, and subsequently draws you a huge amount of cards, which usually lets you recover easily!

-Hooded Blightfang: A really nice cheap, tough Creature that holds back early attackers from just chipping in. He acts as "removal bait" as people don't usualllly want to have to trade him for a Creature with 4+ Power! He also plays well with quite a few of my other Creatures as they also have Deathtouch!

-Isareth the Awakener: An interesting Creature that works as a good attacker/blocker in the early game due to her good stats, but also works well in the late game as Deathtouch means she's usually going to trade up. Her second ability also works well late in the game as she usually trades for a bigger Creature, while giving me the opportunity to recast another Creature from my graveyard. That... or she eats a good removal spell before I get to attack with her, which is also a pretty good fail case for 3 mana!

-Leaden Myr: A nice little Black mana dork that can chump block and wear equipment! Also, being colorless means he can block Creatures with protection from Black!

-Nightmare Shepherd: This guy is awesome. First off, 4/4 Flying for 4CMC is perfectly fine! This deck runs plenty of Creatures that are still really strong as 1/1 tokens, or have great ETB effects. It's a shame that he exiles the Creatures he turns into tokens, because we often want to resurrect Creatures from our grave, but I usually find that he acts as "removal bait" because nobody wants to have to kill your other Creatures twice...

PRO TIP: Nightmare Shepherd works very well with Commanders, especially Toshiro. If your Commander dies while he is in play, you can choose to Exile the Commander to make a 1/1 token copy, then just send your commander back to the command zone, keeping a 1/1 token copy with the same abilities, and even CMC, so it counts towards Devotion!

-Nullpriest of Oblivion: A really nice versatile Creature from Zendikar Rising. A good turn 2 play as it's likely to get in for a lot of hits with Menace, and the Lifelink means it's going to have a decent impact on life totals. In the late game, it's a fine 6 mana play that can get you back a Creature from your graveyard, and this deck has plenty of good Creatures. It wears Equipment like Lashwrithe or Runechanter's Pike quite well, gaining you a bunch of life and forcing double blocks. Also a great late-game target for Shred Memory, if you don't have enough Mana to fire off a lethal Torment of Hailfire...

-Noxious Gearhulk: Removal and lifegain on a big evasive stick! A new addition that just seems to do everything for a pretty reasonable cost. It also wears Equipment quite well, demanding double blocks, which are likely much harder as it kills something with its ETB. Another fantastic Mimic Vat and Chainer, Dementia Master target!

-Overseer of the Damned: More removal on a big evasive stick... that brings an army of zombies with it! It is pretty expensive at 7 mana, but it can really turn a game around. It also works as Board-Wipe insurance, as it will "see" every other Creature die, leaving you with an army of zombies after everything else dies! The perfect Mimic Vat target!

-Palladium Myr: Worn Powerstone on a stick. Like Leaden Myr, a good mana-dork that can chump block, wear equipment and block Creatures with Protection from Black. Works well in this deck as I have plenty of good 5 and 6CMC spells, so getting to play one on turn 4 is excellent!

-Sepulchral Primordial: In 1v1, it's ok, in 4v4, I would think it could be muuuuuch better. It does what it says on the tin, 5/4 Intimidate + a Creature from each opponents graveyard is very strong, and depending on the Creatures you get, can win you games on the spot. Another fantastic Mimic Vat target!

-Sidisi, Undead Vizier: A new addition I'm hoping will give the deck some more consistency. She can target herself with her exploit ability, essentially turning herself into a 5CMC Diabolic Tutor, however if she (or whatever you target with Exploit) is killed at Instant speed while the exploit ability is on the stack, you won't get the tutor effect, so be careful! She can also be used to "trade" a weaker creature for a tutor effect (Solemn Simulacrum is a perfect target), and a 4/6 Deathtouch body is pretty good defensively, and great offensivly when equipped with Runechanter's Pike or Shadowspear!

PRO TIP?: She has a kind of "combo" with Chainer, Dementia Master. Target Sidisi with her own Exploit ability, then tutor for Chainer, who can be used to repeatedly reanimate Sidisi for and 3 life, giving you a repeatable tutor effect. It's not the most efficient combo, and it can be ground to a halt if someone kills Chainer with instant speed removal in response to Sidisi exploiting herself. It's only really viable in a stalled game, where you need a few cards to get a win, otherwise just using Sidisi to tutor for a finisher like Torment of Hailfire is usually the way to go!

-Solemn Simulacrum: A new addition, I'm hoping he will help bring some more consistency to the deck. Also a decent Mimic Vat target, acting as repeatable Ramp, and Card Draw if you find a way to have the token die!

-Steel Hellkite: A pet card of mine that also fits into Mono-Black really well as it's a way to destroy Artifacts and Enchantments. It also totally hoses Tokens as they usually have a CMC of 0. It also makes good use of the huge amounts of mana this deck can produce, the colorless "fire-breathing" effect it has can easily finish someone off.

-Tymaret, Chosen from Death: Excellent repeated graveyard hate, that also gives a nice bit of lifegain. He's great in my meta, but if nobody else is doing anything with their graveyard in yours (which is VERY unlikely), then he's actually actively bad in this deck.

-Dead of Winter: A fantastic budget-friendly sweeper that's essentially Mutilate for 3CMC! I don't run many sweepers, but this one is one of my favorites and I'm running Snow-Covered Swamp specifically for it!

-Feed the Swarm: New targeted Creature or Enchantment removal from Zendikar Rising. The downfall of Mono-Black are Enchantments (and to a lesser extent Artifacts), because Black just hasn't had good ways to remove them. Now that's changed with Feed the Swarm. The life loss isn't much of an issue in EDH, and it's even fetchable with the budget Tutor Shred Memory. Even if this only destroyed Enchantments, I'd run it. The ability to take out Creatures as well is the cherry on top! You can't flash it back with Toshiro, so don't intentionally Mill it.

-Profane Command: I love the command cards, and even though it's a Sorcery, it's versatile and powerful enough to be well worth running. Most often I play this as ", Destroy an X/4 Creature, Resurrect a 4CMC Creature" which is great. it can also be used to finish off a player if you have enough Mana to fuel it. I haven't used the "fear" option yet... because Black is a big part of my Meta, but I could see that being very strong as a finisher effect against someone who isn't playing Black or Artifact Creatures.

-Torment of Hailfire: One of the best Wincons in the deck. Pretty simple, play it with 10+ mana late in the game and it's likely to either kill your opponents, or clear their boards and hands enough that they'll have a hard time recovering. Works best immediately after a Board-Wipe effect that someone else cast!

-Expedition Map: A great little tutor that fetches Cabal Stronghold for extra mana in the late game, Myriad Landscape if I already have Cabal Stronghold and need extra Swamps, or Bojuka Bog as some great graveyard hate, which is really necessary in my Meta!

-Everflowing Chalice: A fantastic budget mana rock that scales with the game nicely. Play it on turn 2 to ramp you early on, or wait until you have 4 mana to ramp to 6 and get some big demons out, orrrrr do what I often do and spend 12 mana late in the game to get a mana rock that taps for 6, then use it to fuel a game winning Torment of Hailfire!

-Lashwrithe: A fantastic "Creature" that scales with the game. I run so many Swamps that it usually starts as a 4/4 for 4CMC, that can easily become an 8/8 towards the end of the game. When the Germ Token it comes with finally dies, it still threatens to turn any other Creature into a massive threat. It works particularly well on Creatures with good Keywords like Lifelink, Flying or Menace, and it can be a 1-card Win Condition if Equipped to Toshiro!

-Lightning Greaves: A great way to protect Toshiro or another valuable Creature! I don't often target my own Creatures (except with other Equipment), so Shroud is almost as good as Hexproof. The haste ability on these is surprisingly useful, leading to plenty of openings to chip in for some damage the turn you play a Creature! The 0CMC Equip cost is really great, Being able to Equip it to a Creature when you have 0 Mana is fantastic!

-Mimic Vat: The only bad thing about this card is that it's so stupidly powerful it rarely lasts long before attracting some Artifact removal. I run plenty of Creatures that work well with it, but it's real power comes in "imprinting" an opponents Creature that has an ETB effect that destroys Artifacts and/or Enchantments... because Mono-Black has veryyyy few ways to deal with them any other way! The only issue is you need to play Mimic vat after that type of Creature has been played, but before it dies... which can be tricky!

-Coldsteel Heart: A nice 2CMC Mana rock that produces Black mana, which this deck often requires lots of when recasting spells with in their cost. It's also a Snow permanent, increasing the count for Dead of Winter. If you're not running a Snow subtheme, you can substitute Mind Stone or Charcoal Diamond instead!

-Runechanter's Pike: Works great in this deck as you often have more Instants in your graveyard than you can recast, so this can easily give +5/+0 First Strike. Also works really well when equipped to a Creature with Deathtouch, which I run plenty of! It's also a nice "backup plan" to make use of all the Instants this deck runs, if Torhiro gets killed off to many times or even if you draw it early enough to make it your primary wincon!

-Shadowspear: A new addition to the deck. I was considering adding the card Nighthawk Scavenger as a decent, low CMC "goodstuff" Creature that could get me a lot of life to balance out the lifeloss from some of my cards, but I settled on Shadowspear instead because I already run a lot of great evasive Creatures without Lifelink, so a cheap repeatable way to give them Lifelink seems like it will help with attrition matches. It also has a "Lighthouse" effect of being able to turn off Hexproof and Indestructible, this is really really useful in this deck as it relies heavily on Targeted "Destroy Creature" Removal.

-Sol Ring: It's Sol Ring... Almost every commander deck runs one, for good reason. Even in Power 9 Cube it's one of the top 2 most powerful cards. In 1v1, a turn 1 Sol Ring is just stupidly good, in 4v4, it can put a BIG target on your head. One reason I personally don't mind playing some of the "less powerful" mana rocks is that they're unassuming, people love blowing up Sol Rings, but are less into blowing up an Everflowing Chalice, even if it's tapping for 2 mana!

-Sword of Sinew and Steel: It Slices, It Dices, It Juliennes! A fantastic new addition that's really helping me take care of troublesome Artifacts that Mono-Black has a hard time with. My meta also has a lot of Black in it, so this can also protect my Creatures from removal, and let them slip in for serious damage! The +2/+2 buff is no joke, especially when paired with a Menace, Lifelink or Flying Creature!

PRO TIP: The owner of the Artifact/Planeswalker doesn't have to be the person you hit, so you can make deals with someone not to block your equipped Creature, so you can blow up someone else's stuff!

-Wayfarer's Bauble: A really nice Land-Ramp option for Mono-Black. This deck has a bit of a "Swamps Matter" subtheme, with cards like Dread Presence, Tendrils of Corruption and Defile caring about the number of Swamps you have in play, and Cabal Stronghold caring about Basic Swamps in particular! Lands also tend to be less fragile than Artifacts in EDH, so Land-Ramp is preferable, and this is one of the only options outside of Green.

-Mind Stone: Another fantastic 2CMC mana rock that can fit into almost any deck. The ability to effectively 'Cycle' itself for 3 mana late in the game when it's no longer that useful is really really great, and stops it from being a dead draw in later turns.

-Phyrexian Arena: A new addition that's replacing Palace Siege, which was a bit too slow an unreliable. Phyrexian Arena can be a pretty bad late-game topdeck as it takes a few turns to really start generating value, but this deck tends to drag games out with all its removal, so I predict this card will perform quite well. It also provides 2 Black devotion early in the game, making cards like Drag to the Underworld cheaper, and allowing Gray Merchant of Asphodel to drain for more!

-Revel in Riches: A new addition to the deck recommended by a commenter. This deck tends to kill a LOT of your opponents Creatures, so having ways to further benefit from it is great. I mainly play 1v1 where it's ... ok ... but in a 4v4 there's so many Creatures dying it gets much much better! Either use it as Ramp to fuel a storm of Instant Removal, or bank up the Treasure to fuel a lethal Torment of Hailfire... or just get 10 and win the boring way ;)

-Snow-Covered Swamp: I'm running Snow-Covered Swamps to fuel Dead of Winter, a really nice cheap sweeper. There are other Snow-Payoffs out there like Mouth of Ronom, Extraplanar Lens and Scrying Sheets. The upcoming set Kaldheim in 2021 seems like it will likely have a Snow theme, so there may be more payoffs in the future!

-Blighted Fen: A nice utility land. I usually use it late in the game (when I don't have other removal spells) to trigger Toshiro's ability. Also, sacrifice effects are really nice against indestructible/hexproof/shroud Creatures that I can't take out with my usual targeted removal.

-Bojuka Bog: Fantastic graveyard hate, which is really relevant in my local meta. Can be a double edged sword as I tend to want to steal Creatures from my opponents graveyards, but still necessary to run.

-Cabal Stronghold: Budget Cabal Coffers. Even with my handful of nonbasic lands, it usually gives me 4+ extra mana in the late game, which is really useful when chaining kill spells with Toshiro or kicking the hell out of a Torment of Hailfire

-Memorial to Folly: A nice late game mana sink option to get back a game-winning Creature. I do have quite a few ways to get Creatures back from my Graveyard, so I may remove it at some point if I find that it's redundant.

-Myriad Landscape: A way to ramp on a turn where you have nothing to do with your mana, which happens a lot if you're holding mana up to cast an Instant answer to a potential threat. Like Wayfarer's Bauble, it also fetches Swamps for my many "Swamps Matter" cards

-Aphotic Wisps: A nice cheap spell (with awesome art) that I mainly used for card draw. I ended up cutting it because the Fear ability was totally useless in my Meta, and I didn't have many Creatures that I really needed to attack with.

It does have some potential as a political tool in a 4v4 game. The effect of making a Creature become Black for a turn can effectively counter a lot of targeted Black removal spells, which have "nonblack" targeting restrictions. Use it to save a nonblack Creature an opponent controls from a Doom Blade , or just one of your own colorless Creatures. The effect overrides all other colors the Creature had, so it can also be used to turn a blocking Creature Black, then attack past it with a Creature that has Protection from Black (maybe granted by a Sword of Feast and Famine )

-Ashling, the Extinguisher: Just too many hoops to jump though to make her worth running. She ended up essentially being a 4/4 Creature for 4CMC that Must be Blocked, which isn't that good. She also can't be used politically as the Creature you destroy MUST be controlled by the player you hit... so no "let me hit YOU so I can make HIM sacrifice his Creature" nonsense

-Blast Zone: A decent utility land, but I found it too expensive to get going, and further reducing my Swamp count wasn't worth it. It also can't take out 0CMC tokens. The main targets for it were Enchantments, but Mono-Black is getting targeted Enchantment removal now!

-Dark Ritual: It works well with Toshiro as he can flash it back, however I found that it just isn't worth a card slot. Spending a card to ramp one thing out early just puts a target on your head and opens you up for an easy 2 for 1. It would be ok in a more combo-focused deck that aims to win by assembling combo-pieces together quickly in a single turn, but this deck tends to play better as a slow controlling deck. It's also an awful late-game topdeck.

-Deathbringer Regent: Honestly, a pretty good Creature, and I might add him back into the deck if I start playing 4v4 rather than 1v1. A 7CMC Board-Wipe on a big flying stick is ok, but he's only good when you're behind, otherwise he's an overcosted beater that might wipe your board if you're in the lead. When you're behind, he's pretty good, but still expensive.

-Detection Tower: Useful to get around Hexproof on Creatures, but there isn't enough in my Meta to warrant this over a Swamp. Arcane Lighthouse is a better version as it also gets around Shroud (looking at you Lightning Greaves), but costs quite a lot more. I would run this card against a meta with any Voltron decks that rely on hexproof.

-Fated Return: Ended up being too expensive and situational. When used on a Bomb target it's great... but you're not always guaranteed a good target, and 7CMC is a LOT. I replaced it with Thrilling Encore which has much higher potential (especially immediately after a board-wipe), and is more easily flashed back with Toshiro!

-Mutilate: A good budget Board-Wipe for Mono-Black that can take out Indestructible and Regenerating Creatures. It does struggle with really big Creatures, but that's what targeted removal is for. I now run Dead of Winter fueled by snow-covered swamps, which usually works out as a 3CMC version of Mutilate!

-Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho: I have found this to be a bit of a double-edged sword :) No denying that it's bloody awesome when it stops Toshiro from getting killed... but it's awful when someone gets a 2-for-1 when they destroy it while it's equipped to him... I found that it just wasn't worth playing. Every.Single.Time I played it, it got destroyed, and whatever I had it equipped to (usually Toshiro) gets exiled. The potential upside just hasn't outweighed the likely downside. It may be much better in 4v4 games, where there are going to be more powerful Artifacts that demand removal, however, in 1v1, it's the perfect target for any Artifact hate.

-Palace Siege: A nice late-game value engine that works quite well with Creatures with powerful ETB effects. I found that I chose the "Khans" mode ~90% of the time, however it often felt dead as I didn't have any/enough viable targets in my graveyard, and it didn't seem worth paying 5Mana for a "Drain 2" each turn cycle. It was also a pretty bad draw early in the game. I've replaced it with Phyrexian Arena, which I think will be more consistent at every stage of the game, and viable early-game play!

-Pharika's Libation: Before Feed the Swarm, this was one of the only ways Mono-Black could destroy Enchantments. I cut this card because it's pretty expensive and was never very good, it was just a necessary evil. I also found myself often just using it as bad creature removal, rather than holding onto it for an Enchantment. Feed the Swarm is also fetchable with Shred Memory, so I still have a few ways in the deck to destroy Enchantments, or fetch the removal when I need it!

-Rogue's Passage: I had this in as a "free" alternative win condition, however I found that I really don't have enough good targets for it to be worth running over a swamp. The best target was a Creature equipped with Lashwrithe, or Ashling, the Extinguisher, which I also cut.

-Scour from Existence: I only ran this because Mono-Black has very few ways of removing Artifacts and Enchantments. It was just too expensive to be worth running, even with the ability to flash it back with Toshiro. The situations where I needed it to stop something, tapping out for a turn to cast it was also a death sentence. The main targets were Enchantments, but Mono-Black now has some good targeted Enchantment removal with Feed the Swarm.

-Skeleton Key: This does have a cute interaction with Toshiro. Because he has Bushido 1, and this gives him Skulk, he can't be blocked by anything with more than 2 Power (if nothing is altering his stats), and if he IS blocked, he goes up to a 3/3... so it makes him pretty hard to kill in combat unless they double block with more than one 2/X Creature. Apart from that, it was just too much mana just to get to Loot on a successful attack. When it worked, it was good because you ended up increasing the overall card quality in your hand, while also filling up your Graveyard with Instant/Creature to recur. I may add it back in someday as it's a bit of a pet card, but it didn't really do enough to justify a slot.

-Undying Evil, Unnatural Endurance and Supernatural Stamina: I cut these because they were too situational and I have plenty of ways to recur Creatures after they die. I am running Malakir Rebirth   for this effect, but as it's also a Land, it doesn't cost much to run!

-Unstable Obelisk: Cut for the same reason as Scour from Existence, It's a really bad Mana rock that you can (theoretically) sac later in the game to act as a universal removal spell. However the 7 mana cost was just too much, and I'd much rather run a 2CMC rock in its place... which is why I swapped it for Mind Stone. I had an excess of 3CMC spells, so swapping it for a 2CMC rock that ramps me into my 3 or 4CMC cards is way better.

-Malicious Affliction: Doom Blade on steroids! I had this in my deck, and I would put it back in, if 90% of the Creatures I end up facing weren't Black... It's pretty great, against nonblack Creatures, if you have Toshiro out, you can kill 4 Creatures for just , which is a good rate even in EDH!

-Imp's Mischief: A very unique card that has a ton of uses. It can "counter" a Counterspell by redirecting it at itself. It can redirect targeted removal to your opponents Creature. It can also redirect a burn spell aimed at your face back at the opponent, although that's pretty unlikely. It's usually only a 1-for-1 or a 2-for-1 at best, but it does things people won't think you're capable of doing. I would replace one of my "Protection" spells with it, but it's pretty expensive, and I don't run into too many Counterspells.

-Slaughter Pact: I was running this, but 90% of the targets in my current meta had Black in them. In any meta where Back isn't so dominant, this is going to be a fantastic card in the deck! The ability to trigger Toshiro for 0 mana is really handy when you need to flash back an Instant from your graveyard when you're low on mana. It's also a great way to have some interaction available while tapped out. Passing your turn with mana open is very threatening in this deck with all its Instant effects, so passing while tapped out can bait your opponents into going for Creature based wins... which you can still stop with Slaughter Pact or Force of Despair.

Ideal Opening Hands:

A perfect opening hand would include 3-4 Lands, 1-2 early interaction spells (low CMC Removal or Creatures), 1 source of Ramp and 1 source of Card Draw.

From a calculation, and analasys of over 100 sample opening hands, the average number of lands in an opening hand with this deck is 2.4 (which is a little low, i'd like to increase my land count) and the percentage of opening hands that I considered "keepable" was around 74%.

I'll mulligan any hand with 1 or less lands, and keep one with up to 6 lands, depending on if the 7th card can help me draw more cards, or protect myself in the first few turns. This deck makes quite good use of excess mana, from big expensive Creatures with mana-sink abilities to card draw spells, I almost always have something to do with spare mana. The bigger issue is not having enough lands, and this deck doesn't run very many (mainly because I hate cutting cool cards for lands :) which is why I'll keep a hand with 5-6 lands almost all the time.

Top Wincons:

-Torment of Hailfire with X=10+, using Crypt Ghast, Cabal Stronghold and Everflowing Chalice to generate tons of mana

-Getting 10 Treasure tokens with Revel in Riches

-Commander damage by equipping Toshiro with Lashwrithe and/or Runechanter's Pike

-Profane Command or Gray Merchant draining for 10+

-Mimic Vat spewing out copies of a Creature with a powerful ETB effect (Gray Merchant, Sepulchral Primordial etc...)

-Good old fashioned beatdown with big evasive Creatures and Recursion effects!

UPDATE: I have reworked this deck to have Chainer, Dementia Master as the commander. Check out the new list here: "Bring Out Ya Dead!!" - Chainer - PRIMER. I'm still playing this build occationally, so i'll try to keep this Primer updated!

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99% Casual

Competitive