[Primer] Yawgmoth, Lord of the Wastes

Commander / EDH Counters Mono-Black

Poly_raptor

Lands (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Grasping Dunes
• 1x Ifnir Deadlands
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 20x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sacrifice targets (8)

• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Lesser Masticore
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Oathsworn Vampire
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton

Reanimation (6)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Yawgmoth's Vile Offering

Utility (12)

• 1x Awaken the Erstwhile
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Thrilling Encore

Ramp (9)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Counter Synergy (7)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blowfly Infestation
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Midnight Banshee
• 1x Necroskitter
• 1x Nest of Scarabs
• 1x Soul Snuffers

Commander (1)

When Dies (10)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Open the Graves
• 1x Warteye Witch
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Discard synergies (6)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Call to the Netherworld
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Grave Scrabbler
• 1x Ruthless Sniper

Tutors (6)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Scheming Symmetry

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Maybeboard

Other (17)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
• 1x Brittle Effigy
• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Ugin, the Ineffable
• 1x Underworld Dreams
• 1x Woe Strider

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Yawgmoth, the Ineffable

In the deck, we’re going to aim to win by keeping our opponent’s resources to a minimum. We want to be killing their creatures, emptying their hand, whilst keeping our resources plentiful through the card advantage machine that is Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

In this description I will outline the avenues in which this deck can control the board and eventually close at them game:

Yawgmoth’s first ability.

pay 1 life, sacrifice another creature: put a -1/-1 counter on target creature and draw a card

Sacrifice a creature

When we sacrifice a creature using Yawgmoth’s first ability, we want this to do more than just draw us a card, like any mono black deck we want our sacrifices to having a big impact on the board. The likes of Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact will help keep our opponent’s board states low, stopping them from swinging creatures our way. They also offer protection for Yawgmoth, as they are heavy targets for removal themselves, meaning they’ll use up resources to be destroyed. We’re also running Blood Artist & Zulaport Cutthroat to help drain our opponents life totals whilst keeping our up so that we can keep activating Yawgmoth’s first ability.

-1 / -1 counters

This is a massive part of our game plan, it allows us to keep big threats at bay, the more counters we put on things the more damage we can do with our -1/-1 counter synergies. One of the most important combo pieces in this deck is Nest of Scarabs. Giving us a body to sacrifice every time we put a counter on a creature. We can combo off with Nest of Scarabs in a few ways to win the game on the spot. Blowfly Infestation + Nest of Scarabs lets us create an infinite death loop, to trigger our “when dies” synergies detailed above. It can draw is into a lot of answers with Liliana, Dreadhorde General and can create infinite mana with Pitiless Plunderer

Yawgmoth’s second ability

, discard a card: Proliferate

Discarding

The fact that the discards card is part of the activation cost of this ability means that it triggers our discard synergies before the proliferate ability resolves. Using Archfiend of Ifnir & Ruthless Sniper we can place more counters on creatures before proliferating. Which means we can board wipe a lot of smaller creatures for and keep big threats to a minimum. Paired with Nest of Scarabs (again) would allow us to then create enough scarabs to sacrifice to Phyrexian Altar for the mana needed to activate this ability over and over again.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Blowfly Infestation + Nest of Scarabs
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Insect 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	commander, Commander Considerations