Xiahou Dun MBC
Okay, I was a heavy Drana user up until I saw how truly powerful this guy can be. I'm still fairly new to EDH by most standards, this only being my second month of playing, but I've now left standard to pursue only the best of formats. Like most people, I started with MBC. I started building GB afterwards but mono-black was just too fun to give up so I drifted right back. I always loved the rare combo deck in standard so I went with a combo-centric build. So, the decklist is as follows.
The most effective combos are as follows, though this deck combos off in so many ways, often by turn 5-6, that I'm only listing the ones that are often game changers for me.
Deserted Temple, Cabal Coffers, Rings of Brighthearth, at least 6 swamps.- This one is pretty simple as it's mostly lands and cards that are often ignored. Pay the two swamps and cabal coffers to add 5 to your mana pool, untap with deserted temple and copy the effect to untap deserted temple, rinse and repeat adding at least one to your mana pool each time. Having Urbog greatly accelerates this combo and makes exsanguinating for max easy.
Magus of the Coffers and Pili-Pala in graveyard, Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield- This one is self-explanatory, necrotic ooze causes mana to be added to the mana pool both when tapped and untapped. Another pretty simple infinite mana combo.
Xiahou Dun and Temporal Extortion- This one usually comes no sooner than turn 6, meaning you usually have at least eight mana open and at least a bit of power on the battlefield. Play temporal Extortion, if they take the hit, cool, you knocked down half of their health. Play Xiahou Dun and get it back, prep it for next turn. Eventually they stop paying and you have enough mana doublers to take infinite turns until you win or until what beaters you do have do their job. Not really a combo but fun regardless.
I'll type up more when I have time but overall, this is the best I feel my dec has been. However, I'm always looking for improvements so do feel free to offer some up.
do you find that you often get a lot of value out of Sheoldred? in my meta, she's usually blown up almost instantly, but that might be because my group runs a lot of voltron and is pretty bad at threat assessment.
anyways
super big fan of this commander and this list in particular. i'm not sure why you're running [[Subversion]] because it seems fairly weak in EDH but maybe i'm not seeing something here. i like your creature selection a hell of a lot, and any/all brighthearth combo is near and dear to my heart. is this list pretty much final, or is it evolving and are you in the process of acquiring new cards for it?
Love the Necrotic Ooze combo. My build is more focused on reanimation and recursion. How has your playgroup responded to it? When I played a more combo version my playgroup hated it lol. They still aren't quite fond of the end game this deck has though.
I was focused on recursion initially, but there's something about a turn 6 exsanguinate for infinite that just makes people cry. My meta hates it, but they hate Asuza more and my meta is Asuza heavy so I'm seldom the main target.
Sheoldred is actually suprisingly useful, I used to put her in and blink her out as Karn fodder, but now that I have so few creatures, my board presence looks minimal until I come out of nowhere with a heavy hit that drastically changes the overall board state and I seldom get below 15 health before I exsanguinate for crazy amounts and either clear the table, or at least knock myself back up. While graveyard hate exists in my meta, it's mostly in the form of a Tormod's Crypt or two. Honestly, after I bring back exsanguinate, most people just scoop. You'd think they'd learn.
The Necrotic Ooze combo is pretty amazing, it's even funnier when you Buried Alive into it.
The list is always looking, and subversion is the next card out. Honestly, it was put in there to counteract the bitterblossom/contamination combo. Something else I like tutoring into. Subversion just keeps me from taking too much damage while I'm building into something epic. In a big table, it's actually pretty comical. It doesn't hurt my opponents much, but it helps me tons. I am very open to suggestion as I've only been playing EDH for two months.
Well I really like Sangromancer, Blood Artist, and Falkenrath Noble. But my build is a lot different due to the fact that my meta is a lot more creature heavy and I'm always being attacked. I need as many early blockers as possible. I used to be the infinite exsanguinate deck so once that got boring I went to the build I'm running now. If you have time check out my decklist in the signature. I've wrote a ton of descriptions and reasoning on everything.
Read through it late last night and saw a few must haves. Scroll rack was my absolute favorite there and a lot of your stuff just makes sense. Mines still a jumbled mess, but it makes waves
Glad I could be of help. I agree on Scroll Rack. I've found that card to be very effective in a number of decks. Its great when combined with things that search up swamps. Liliana of the Dark Realms, Journeyer's Kite, Thawing Glaciers. Its also great if you hand is janky, just trade it in for a new one!
Working class is better then College Class if you ask me. I need a lot of stuff to complete my mono black deck but I gotta wait for trades or presents lol.
I've been considering Endrek Sahr in my build. He seems really powerful. I saw him used as a powerful general on Cockatrice once and it made me wanna play it. If youre interested my build is a little less combo based and I run and LOVE skullclamp in it. I also run more creatures which make Endrek better.
I used to run Demonic Collusion but I found that the buyback was less relevant then I wanted. It was super good if I was already winning and had a ton of cards in hand but it was less powerful in the early game. I cut it for Increasing Ambition which I later cut for Demonic Revelations.
First of all, this deck inspired me to build a Xiahou Dun deck myself, so thank you.
A few cards I've found particularly helpful that I've not yet seen mentioned on this thread:
Skullclamp - Equip to Xiahou Dun before using him, or as a way to generate card advantage if your opponent hits him with a removal spell.
Nezumi Graverobber - A bit fragile, but the fact that it works as graveyard removal and can recur Xiahou Dun several times in one turn makes up for that in my opinion.
Endrek Sahr - Helps to build up a board position, and becomes particularly effective if you use Dread Return too.
Demonic Collusion - This is a really underrated tutor spell, the buyback cost is somewhat less of a problem when your general is Xiahou Dun.
I actually ran skullclamp, nezumi graverobber, and graveborn muse but they lost their places largely because I run next to no creatures. The point of this deck is in part to look like you're not a threat until bam, 40 damage to all. Sounds feeble but I'm seldom knocked below 15 before I bump myself back up to 95+ even when people know what to expect from my deck. Demonic Collusion is certainly something I'll be picking up though. I suppose I'd missed that tutor but this deck is all about tutoring up the good stuff so I will take any tutor I can get that doesn't have a ridiculous price tag. I don't see Endrek Sahr doing much as I don't really play any creatures aside from the very low drops in most games. It wouldn't really even hurt this deck if I ditched Sheoldred and Ink-Eyes, but there's something funny about ninjitsuing a 1/1 fairy token into Ink-Eyes and getting something from their graveyard so he stays. Sheoldred may lose her place to Braids but against green Sheoldred is the clear winner.
I agree that XeroxedFool is quite likely the build you're looking for though neither are bad. I don't know how I missed Increasing Ambition.
Cryptborn Horror isn't technically legal in a monoblack deck unless they changed the rules on hybrids. Of course if your local group doesn't care then go right ahead. I've got mad love for the card as it helped me get 2nd in the prerelease.
Yeah bit I just want to see the ruling so I can get oona out of my friends mono black deck
From the Comp Rules:
Quote from Comp Rules »
903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).
and
Quote from Comp Rules »
903.5c A card can be included in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also found in the color identity of the deck’s commander.
The other rule that you might enjoy knowing is that if a commander is exiled from anywhere, including the GY, you can choose to send it to the command zone instead. While a recursion heavy deck like Xiahou might fear GY hate either way, you can send him to the yard without fear of losing him forever.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Okay, I was a heavy Drana user up until I saw how truly powerful this guy can be. I'm still fairly new to EDH by most standards, this only being my second month of playing, but I've now left standard to pursue only the best of formats. Like most people, I started with MBC. I started building GB afterwards but mono-black was just too fun to give up so I drifted right back. I always loved the rare combo deck in standard so I went with a combo-centric build. So, the decklist is as follows.
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Caged Sun
1 Sol Ring
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mana vault
1 Jet Medallion
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Expedition Map
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Decree of Pain
1 Damnation
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Plague Wind
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Killing Wave
1 Subversion
1 Exsanguinate
1 Consume Spirit
1 Sorin Markov
1 Painful Quandary
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Sangromancer
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Liliana Vess
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Diabolic revelation
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Exquisite blood
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Grave Pact
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Bitterblossom
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Innocent Blood
1 Contamination
1 Persecute
1 Profane Command
1 Mind Twist
1 Temporal extortion
1 Necropotence
1 Buried Alive
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Bloodghast
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Nether Traitor
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Withered Wretch
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Pili-Pala
1 Maze of Ith
1 Vesuva
1 Dark Depths
1 Deserted Temple
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Barren Moor
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Strip Mine
1 Crypt of Agadeem
24 Swamp
The most effective combos are as follows, though this deck combos off in so many ways, often by turn 5-6, that I'm only listing the ones that are often game changers for me.
anyways
super big fan of this commander and this list in particular. i'm not sure why you're running [[Subversion]] because it seems fairly weak in EDH but maybe i'm not seeing something here. i like your creature selection a hell of a lot, and any/all brighthearth combo is near and dear to my heart. is this list pretty much final, or is it evolving and are you in the process of acquiring new cards for it?
How has the Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond combo working for you?
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Sheoldred is actually suprisingly useful, I used to put her in and blink her out as Karn fodder, but now that I have so few creatures, my board presence looks minimal until I come out of nowhere with a heavy hit that drastically changes the overall board state and I seldom get below 15 health before I exsanguinate for crazy amounts and either clear the table, or at least knock myself back up. While graveyard hate exists in my meta, it's mostly in the form of a Tormod's Crypt or two. Honestly, after I bring back exsanguinate, most people just scoop. You'd think they'd learn.
The Necrotic Ooze combo is pretty amazing, it's even funnier when you Buried Alive into it.
The list is always looking, and subversion is the next card out. Honestly, it was put in there to counteract the bitterblossom/contamination combo. Something else I like tutoring into. Subversion just keeps me from taking too much damage while I'm building into something epic. In a big table, it's actually pretty comical. It doesn't hurt my opponents much, but it helps me tons. I am very open to suggestion as I've only been playing EDH for two months.
I love Diabolic Revelations. Combo decks can use that effectively.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
I used to run Demonic Collusion but I found that the buyback was less relevant then I wanted. It was super good if I was already winning and had a ton of cards in hand but it was less powerful in the early game. I cut it for Increasing Ambition which I later cut for Demonic Revelations.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
I actually ran skullclamp, nezumi graverobber, and graveborn muse but they lost their places largely because I run next to no creatures. The point of this deck is in part to look like you're not a threat until bam, 40 damage to all. Sounds feeble but I'm seldom knocked below 15 before I bump myself back up to 95+ even when people know what to expect from my deck. Demonic Collusion is certainly something I'll be picking up though. I suppose I'd missed that tutor but this deck is all about tutoring up the good stuff so I will take any tutor I can get that doesn't have a ridiculous price tag. I don't see Endrek Sahr doing much as I don't really play any creatures aside from the very low drops in most games. It wouldn't really even hurt this deck if I ditched Sheoldred and Ink-Eyes, but there's something funny about ninjitsuing a 1/1 fairy token into Ink-Eyes and getting something from their graveyard so he stays. Sheoldred may lose her place to Braids but against green Sheoldred is the clear winner.
I agree that XeroxedFool is quite likely the build you're looking for though neither are bad. I don't know how I missed Increasing Ambition.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Hybrids count as both colors in EDH and only the colors of the commander are allowed.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
From the Comp Rules: and
The other rule that you might enjoy knowing is that if a commander is exiled from anywhere, including the GY, you can choose to send it to the command zone instead. While a recursion heavy deck like Xiahou might fear GY hate either way, you can send him to the yard without fear of losing him forever.