Yawgmoth, Search for Perfection

Commander / EDH Combo Mono-Black Reanimator Suicide Black

j_corvin

Creature (24)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Street Wraith
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Treacherous Pit-Dweller
• 1x Twilight Prophet *f-pre*
• 1x Vindictive Vampire
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Unearth

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x High Market
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 18x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Instant (11)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Corpse Dance
• 1x Costly Plunder
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Scarab Feast
• 1x Shallow Grave
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Surgical Extraction
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Desecrated Tomb *f-pre*
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Urza's Bauble
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Bridge from Below
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Nest of Scarabs
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Mind Swords
• 1x Tasigur's Cruelty

Instant (1)

• 1x Cremate

Artifact (1)

• 1x Lotus Petal

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A Yawgmoth, Thran Physician build designed primarily around recurrent reanimation value until we can get one of our combos online. We focus on the value of recurring our own creatures, as they're the only sure resource each game will have available, yet are happy to squeeze value out of our opponents' graveyards if they happen to leave some useful tidbits laying around for us.


Our most common win conditions are:
1. Cycling either Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star through Corpse Dance and/or other available reanimation spells after building up a very high mana count. As mana is commonly the limiting factor for us being able to cycle our winning creatures frequently enough to close out the game, our ideal sacrifice outlet is Phyrexian Altar. The additional single mana each reanimation cycle can significantly change the winning success rate for us.
2. Aetherflux Reservoir/Bolas's Citadel/Sensei's Divining Top comes together to allow you to cast and/or draw your whole deck. This combo can either function to draw in to another combo or to build your life total high enough to Aetherflux Reservoir cannon everyone down.
3. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician sacrificial combo, utilizing 2 undying creatures for an unlimited loop. We can use creatures who naturally have undying, such as Geralf's Messenger, or we can use Mikaeus, the Unhallowed to allow any two non-human creatures to complete the loop.


The prime struggles of the deck I'm in the process of working on currently is speeding it up without losing the resiliency which allows it to reach further in to the late game than many mono-black combo decks are able to. Any advice you'd like to offer up in this direction is quite appreciated!

One design choice of note is my choice to primarily focus on draw spells which cost 2 or less mana; ones such as Sign in Blood. This is due to the ability of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician drawing us cards if our creatures are flowing, meaning the majority of the time when we have 3+ available mana, there's at least one creature in play which we're willing to toss in to the Yawgmoth grinder. If we have excess mana after sacrifices/reanimations (or are too early in the game to have them built up), that's when our smaller draw spells are designed to fill in the resource space.

Another design choice is fetch lands in a mono-colored deck. They're present in prime to assist in gaining threshold on time for Cabal Ritual to be online. In my experience with the deck thus far, it is sometimes difficult to have threshold as quickly as the rest of the deck is ready to power out a combo turn. A couple extra cards in the grave in the form of fetch lands can help assure we get the extra from our ritual. In mono black, life for mana is almost always worthwhile. They also have obvious value if I already have Sensei's Divining Top or Bloodghast out.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.73
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, City's Blessing, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Insect 1/1 B, Myr 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B