This is the most Cronenbergian list I've ever seen

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx would be a good land card to add since this is a mono color deck and the card allows quick mana in exchange for tapping two lands with nykthos

XxBullockxX I actually cut nykthos after the first draft. It was too slow and I needed to up my swamp count for Lake of the Dead.

Seems like a fun list to play. I would recommend Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, but you already explained why you don't run it. I don't know what you would swap for it, but maybe swap Nantuko Husk?

EyelessStarfish I really wouldn’t cut a sac outlet, which is pretty much what the husk is, so the only option is a land. I think Ancient Tomb or Lake of the Dead are the weakest links here, but the speed sacrificed probably wouldn’t outweigh the “more winning” feel of nykthos. If I can find a way to fit it in without disrupting the decks main goal, I will test it, but as of now, I can’t see a clear cut path to including it. I appreciate you making me think about it more though.

Plaguecrafter is a better fleshbag at this point, even tho I love fleshbag

Yea it is. I may try to run them both, and plaguecrafter is cool when I want to discard too. Just sac it beforehand. Either way it’s going in.

I feel like there are a couple of nice combos that you already have most of the pieces for but are just missing one or two cards that would work well in the deck as non-combo pieces anyway.

Adding Nim Deathmantle would give you:

• Infinite sacs, recursion: Phyrexian Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Priest of Gix
• Infinite sacs, recursion, black mana: Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Priest of Gix

Further adding Geralf's Messenger and/or Abhorrent Overlord/Wurmcoil Engine would then also give you:

• Infinite sacs, recursion, life drain: Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Geralf's Messenger
• Infinite sacs, recursion, tokens and colorless mana: Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Abhorrent Overlord/Wurmcoil Engine

Abhorrent Overlord/Wurmcoil Engine comes with the bonus:

• Infinite sacs, recursion, life drain/gain: Chainer, Dementia Master + Phyrexian Altar + Abhorrent Overlord/Wurmcoil Engine + Blood Artist

Of course for any of these sac/recursion loops, adding your already included Blood Artist gives you life drain/gain, Altar of the Brood will mill your opponents, and Grave Pact clears the board

BurtReynolds:

1. Nice name.

2. Overlord is too expensive for the value but Wurmcoil used to be in an iteration of the deck for the life gain. It could probably be re-added, but I’m concerned about raising the cmc of the deck.

3. Deathmantle has always seemed clunky and slow to me and it’s never worked out. Messenger would be neat. It’s a card I really like and I like throwing sub-par edh cards in decks and dominating with them.

The problem with these suggestions is always what to cut. The list feels pretty tight to me, and finding slots is not an easy task in a deck like this. What would you suggest cutting for Wurmcoil and Messenger?

Hmmm, as always it's easier to deal out the recommendations than suggesting actual cuts. As you say, all the current cards are looking pretty tight, but if I had to nominate some:

• Phyrexian Delver: You've already got Chainer, Dementia Master to handle your reanimation, as well as Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and Reanimate
• Thoughtpicker Witch/Disciple of Griselbrand: Yes they are cheap sac outlets, but I don't like how they always costs one mana, unlike Viscera Seer/Sadistic Hypnotist, so if you end up with a bunch of tokens and someone drops a Massacre Wurm you can't easily clear your board.
• Carrion Feeder/Nantuko Husk: Better sac outlets because of no mana cost, but I find that it's so obvious how quickly they can be pumped that opponents are always ready to spot remove them before they can do anything.
• Contamination: Maybe an odd recommendation as it can be very powerful, but again I've found that unless you really commit to the stax line of play it's too easy for opponents to be on the look out for this one card and just ping it as soon as it drops.

BurtReynolds: Contamination is way too good to cut. With all the recursion, Gravecrawler, Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton it’s just too powerful in my meta. It locks people out while dedicating very few resources to do so. 10/10 would bang. Also, cutting a card based on potential target or hate value is not always a valid reasoning when making cuts, and I think that’s probably the case here.

Thoughtpicker Witch is actually a pet card of mine. It’s not super high value just because of variance, but it’s so sweet to exile combo pieces and stack draws while I’m building a win. This is the second time people have mentioned Nantuko Husk though as a potential cut. And I think I like Wurmcoil Engine more than Disciple of Griselbrand.

So I think final cuts would be Disciple for Wurmcoil and the Husk for Messenger. I’m not sure cutting the Husk is a good idea because it’s more of just a sac outlet than a beatstick, but I want to try Messenger. Disciple for Wurmcoil is good value though and I think in the long run, Wurmcoil will prove the better card.

Gotta grab that Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun.

ZendikariWol: they are too expensive and slow for the deck. After lots of play, they were just wasting turns, even if they stuck. They don’t bring enough value for the speed of the deck already. If they could be cheated I’d probably run them but mono black kinda sucks for artifact cheating.

Now that you mention it all I think they would do is give you a bunch of Chainer activations anyway.

no Cabal Stronghold...? In some aspects it's better than Cabal Coffers, don't see why you're not running it considering it's another cheap ramp spell.

eatmygender: it’s not a good card for this deck, and it doesn’t come close to the power of coffers. When the card first came out, I slammed it in thinking that it would be another great addition to the mana base, and I was very wrong about that.

The problem with stronghold is you have to have basic swamps for it to shine, and while this deck runs many, you don’t see a benefit until turn 5 (assuming no ramp, no nonbasics, and stronghold as the fifth land). With coffers, you see a benefit by turn 5 as well (assuming 4 basics and coffers), but Urborg doesn’t turn stronghold on like it does coffers, so Stronghold is very weak compared to urborg/coffers in that respect. If it produced black instead of colorless by itself, I would run it, but having stronghold in a deck that typically doesn’t want colorless mana has backfired on me and cost me some games. Having cabal coffers has not, and typically wins me the game.

Seeing how much slower and clunky stronghold was actually made me realize how slow nykthos was for Chainer, although I’m reconsidering nykthos again based on the last few games I played recently and feedback from the community here. And I appreciate your suggestion.

I really like the zombie subtheme in here. what do you think about Relentless Dead ? Fleshbag Marauder i liked too because of Gravecrawler interactions

el_mao: fleshbag just got cut for plaguecrafter actually. It’s less of a zombie deck or even a theme deck than it is a combo deck.