Commander Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief => Oona, Queen of the Fae
I lose easy spot removal and commander damage one shots in exchange for instant wins with infinite mana and creatures to chump with and abuse. Also access to the blue mana symbol.
I'd also like to find room for Attrition and Gate to Phyrexia to utilize the new available tokens but am having a very hard time deciding what to cut for it! Also maybe Bloodgift Demon... Any ideas?
Swamp => Thespian's Stage - More Coffers! Wit's End => Mind Twist - For the same mana Mind Twist can get rid of 6 cards at random and you can use it a lot earlier if needed.
Myojin of Night's Reach
Sudden Death
Black Sun's Zenith
No Mercy
Wound Reflection
Vedalken Orrery
Memory Jar
Mind's Eye
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Now, most of these cards, at some point, were in my deck. I understand Myojin and why people say he is good, but you already have mind sludge and mind twist. I mean, I never really need those type of cards due to the fact that contamination and Infernal darkness tend to give you a similar effect.
Now, while spot removal is important, I have never found sudden death to be particularly useful. I guess it depends on your metagame. I just don't see it being better than doom blade.
Now, I have played black sun's zenith. I think the card is interesting. I cut it a while ago because it didn't really do anything that useful for the deck. There are better sweepers out there in my opinion.
I don't understand what No Mercy is for. I always found these effects rather under whelming. How does it fair for you?
I remember playing wound reflection to "combo" with sorin and to make it more enticing to attack others. I found that the combo is really weak, and it does a poor job of the aimed goal.
Vedalken orrery is a card I don't know how I feel about. I always want to add it, but I can never find the cards to cut for it. The same thing goes for Memory Jar.
Mind's eye is not needed. In black you have draw spells that make this card not needed. I could just rum ancient craving. The mana investment for this card is not worth it from what I have seen. Unless you have a red deck that is.
Have you tried buried ruin at all? I have been playing with it for a few weeks not and find it wonderful. I would say cut Boseiju, Who Shelters All and try Buried Ruin. Buried Ruin. Boseiju, Who Shelters All never was a land that I was happy to see. It is too slow. I wish I could want to play it, but I already know that it isn't going to work out.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Mind Sludge, Mind Twist are all my ways of fighting draw go blue mages who just want to counter my combos or Exsanguinate and then combo off themselves. It makes me very happy to make blue mages discard.
Vedalken Orrery is amazing and opens up an extremely powerful draw go play style especially since so much of this deck is sorcery speed.
No Mercy and Wound Reflection could probably go. At one point Wound Reflection + Sorin or infinite mana exsanguinate were my only instant kills. No Mercy has stuck around forever and always seemed like a nice card to make it unfavorable to attack me while I set up.
Mind's Eye & Memory Jar could probably go too. Mind's Eye can be huge if no one has answers and you just keep drawing into something but that is rare.
I haven't tried Buried Ruin yet. What do you usually recur with it?
How quick does your Oona deck usually go off? You have some nice things like Candelabra, Mana Crypt, Fetch Lands, and the more expensive tutors.
Also as an aside... Necropotence... I might be insane but I didn't like it much when I ran it. I'd lose a lot of life and couldn't draw regularly anymore. Plus people would Acquire my Mindslaver and then tutor for my Necropotence and kill me. My deck is a lot stronger now so I could try it again but wondering how you use it when you get it.
My deck can go off pretty fast if I tried. I normally don't try to go off as fast as possible, just so the game can go longer.
Buried ruin normally gets back any one of the artifacts my deck relies on that gets destroyed. It also doubles as a piece of the mindslaver lock my deck has with crucible of worlds.
You are right to say that necro can kill you if your opponents do something like that. If you used that logic a lot of cards would need to be cut from almost any deck. You should probably stop running Ill-gotten gains then. If they mindslaver you they can make it so you don't have a hand anymore. The benefits of the card outweigh the risks. That is why I run the card.
Now how I use necro? It depends on the situation. I usually pay so I go up to 8 cards and then discard a land. If I have reliquary tower out then I just go down to 10 or 20 (depends on the people I am playing) and I should have enough there to pull out a win.
For blue mages I have the cards that make it so there is only black mana. That seems to be enough for a multiplayer game. Everyone is always throwing a haymaker that needs to be countered and the blue decks here normally don't run 60 counter spells and 40 land.
Out: Swamp - Making room for Buried Ruin Memory Jar - Switching for other draw, sometimes fueled opponents recursion Mind's Eye - Switching for other draw, I do really like this card though, might find a way back in. No Mercy - Not needed with Oona and token defenders. Mind Twist - Can cripple one player but taking advice and going to try and rely on the black mana enchantments instead. Also sucks when it gets redirected at me. Mind Sludge - As above Bubbling Muck - One turn mana doubler... its nice but making room for more persistent cards. Sudden Death - Can be nice with split second but doesn't kill everything.
Why would you run night's whisper over sign in blood? I just saw that. Isn't Sign in Blood just better in this deck? The double black means nothing here. It gives you more options.
Sign in Blood lets you target other players. Very rarely you might be able to kill someone with that loss of two life which does give it more flexibility.
In my meta a guy plays a blue red redirect spells deck so I chose Night's Whisper since it is "you" instead of "target player." At one point I had both in this deck and when deciding which one to remove that was my reasoning.
Probably could go either way. Regardless I'll probably change it to Ambition's Cost at some point.
I needed my one copy of Night's Whisper for another deck so took the advice and slotted in Sign in Blood. Took out Wound Reflection because it didn't advance my plan much and for 6 mana there was usually a lot of other things I was wanting to do. I lose the Sorin combo but oh well.
Swamp => Dark Depths - Another monstrosity to add to my Eldrazi. I can "combo" it with Thespian's Stage post M14 and use Hex Parasite to easily remove the counters. Crucible of Worlds lets you bring it back if it gets destroyed. Plus worst case this deck can easily make more than 30 mana to hard cast it.
Helm of Obedience: I honestly feel like this is a cheap win con. I know its a single target version of going infinite with my commander but I just don't like using it. I know removing it would weaken the deck but I can always add it at a tournament.
Extraplanar Lens: I don't like that it helps my opponents and I don't like that it exiles my swamp. I haven't splurged for the Snow-Covered Swamps which would usually eliminate the first problem. When I play this sits in my hand a lot. Honestly with up to three cabal coffers I don't know if I need so many mana doublers. Maybe Gauntlet of Power could go too?
Possible adds: Rise of the Dark Realms: This looks like it could be fun just for getting all the ETB triggers. If you get to untap you will definitely be causing a lot of damage but a single wrath or mass GY removal can easily counter this card.
Skullclamp: The draw power with the tokens should be amazing. This is most likely going to come in for something.
Grave Pact: I don't have a lot of sacrifice outlets but could be a way to get great value out of my chump blocks.
Attrition: Similar to Gravepact, offensively use my tokens to take out nonblack problems. Might be too narrow.
Any other ideas from fellow mono-black players? I'm really hoping the black god from Theros will be a good addition to the Eldrazi I already run.
I agree with the removal of the Helm/Leyline combo. Killing a single player in Multiplayer EDH just isn't worth it a lot of the time. It's better to control everyone or be faster at killing the table in my opinion.
Sign in Blood => Skullclamp - Sign in Blood is really nice early game but Skullclamp should eclipse it once I get some faeries to sacrifice.
Extraplanar Lens => Braids, Cabal Minion - As I explained above I don't like the Lens exiling my swamp and helping my opponents. Braids is a nice stax option. Was also debating Sheoldred, Whispering One or Attrition but I like that Braids works by herself and is a sacrifice effect.
Swamp => Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Trying out the new mini Cabal Coffers. With the commander alone you break even. With a few other black permanents it should be better than a swamp. Swamps are nice though for Cabal Coffers and mana doublers. I'll see how it does in my games. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth fixes all the potential downsides.
Basalt Monolith => Hero's Downfall - I'm intentionally taking out the infinite combos. I haven't taken them all out but I'm just taking the ones that serve no purpose other than going infinite. I know it makes the deck weaker but I have more fun playing it big mana rather than infinite mana. Trading for really great single target removal.
Temporal Extortion => Basalt Monolith - I missed the monolith in the games I was playing. Plus I love the new art in the commander product. I never drew Temopral Extortion but the choice probably makes it bad. Looked fun though!
Leyline of the Void => Toxic Deluge - Another wrath that can kill anything. The life loss might hurt still seems really good. Leyline was good grave hate but without the Helm it wasn't as lethal.
Possible adds: Rise of the Dark Realms: This looks like it could be fun just for getting all the ETB triggers. If you get to untap you will definitely be causing a lot of damage but a single wrath or mass GY removal can easily counter this card.
Any other ideas from fellow mono-black players? I'm really hoping the black god from Theros will be a good addition to the Eldrazi I already run.
I've been experimenting with Rise of the Dark Realms a bit and my experiences aren't that great. Yes, every time I have had it resolve it's been a back breaker. At the same time, every time I've had it get forked; well it's been just as back breaking :-/.
It's just a difficult card to navigate, and like the Titanic it can leave you gasping for breath. You have to work around Relic of Progenitus and similar graveyard hate, counters, and forks. Even if it lands, you'll probably attract a board wipe of some flavor (or Insurrection). It doesn't help that its a huge mana investment, but it isn't one that benefits from being raced out with big mana; it kinda wants to wait and let the discard pile fill a bit before pulling the trigger.
It's a big capital ship card, but like aircraft carriers it wants to have a fleet protecting and supporting it as well. Just my $0.02.
I don't really have a way to abuse Gray Merchant but he is a nice life swing and I have been having life problems with the deck lately. I kind of miss my old Drain Life & Consume Spirit cards too but I usually dump a lot of mana into them and then they get countered.
Mostly it comes down much earlier which can provide chump blockers and sac outlets for Skullclamp. Once Oona gets going she is much better at making tokens usually. Sometimes I'm playing against all Tricolor decks and her ability can whiff a lot if I am unlucky.
Honestly? I'd replace Beseech the Queen and Diabolic Tutor for Kokusho, the Evening Star, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Im all for running a tutor package, but these two are just mediocre. Putting in those creatures would really help with your threat density as well. I'd replace go for the throat with Diabolic Edict; its a great way to trip up a voltron'd general and diversifies your removal.
Braids, Cabal Minion => Sheoldred, Whispering One - Braids is nice because she comes down early and works well with my general but I like the idea of the non-symmetrical effect and creature recursion which my deck is really light on. CMC is much higher though.
Diabolic Edict => Silence the Believers - I feel this is an upgrade in every way other than trying to hit something that has hexproof. Regardless with the amount of mana this deck can make I can potentially exile opponent's boards.
It started as Korlash, Heir to Blackblade, then Maga, Traitor to Mortals took over for a very long time. I tried Kiku, Night's Flower for a few weeks and then Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief took her place at the helm for even longer than Maga. Most recently Oona, Queen of the Fae replaced Drana and the deck changed to accommodate the new general's tokens. I feel Oona has been the most powerful commander this deck has had thus far.
6 Oona, Queen of the Fae
Creatures (21)
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Burnished Hart
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
5 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Sadistic Hypnotist
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 The Scarab God
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Geth, Lord of the Vault
6 Grave Titan
6 Massacre Wurm
6 Nirkana Revenant
6 Oblivion Sower
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Instants (8)
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Arcane Denial
2 Counterspell
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Mana Drain
2 Negate
3 Hero's Downfall
4 Memory Plunder
1 Imperial Seal
2 Demonic Tutor
3 Beseech the Queen
3 Grim Tutor
3 Mnemonic Betrayal
3 Toxic Deluge
3 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Damnation
4 Mutilate
7 All Is Dust
2x Exsanguinate
Equipment (2)
1 Skullclamp
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
Artifacts (13)
0 Mana Crypt
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Sol Ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Dimir Signet
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Dominance
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Mirage Mirror
3 Rings of Brighthearth
3 Oblivion Stone
6 Caged Sun
Enchantments (7)
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
2 Bitterblossom
3 Attrition
3 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Rhystic Study
5 Dire Undercurrents
4 Liliana of the Dark Realms
7 Karn Liberated
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Lands (34)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Deserted Temple
1 Fetid Pools
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sunken Hollow
15 Swamp
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Watery Grave
1 Hex Parasite
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Dark Impostor
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Magus of the Will
4 Notion Thief
4 Twilight Prophet
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Chainer, Dementia Master
5 Magus of the Coffers
6 Helldozer
6 Kokusho, the Evening Star
8 Myojin of Night's Reach
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
10 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Instants
0 Pact of Negation
1 Dark Ritual
1 Dispel
1 Flusterstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stifle
1 Swan Song
2 Cabal Ritual
2 Countersquall
2 Delay
2 Dramatic Reversal
2 Imp's Mischief
2 Reset
2 Trickbind
3 Disallow
3 Dismember
3 Sudden Spoiling
4 Silence the Believers
1 Bubbling Muck
2 Diabolic Intent
3 Praetor's Grasp
4 Notorious Throng
5 Dark Petition
2x Torment of Hailfire
5x Diabolic Revelation
Artifacts
0 Chrome Mox
0 Mox Diamond
1 Expedition Map
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Mana Vault
2 Charcoal Diamond
2 Doubling Cube
2 Grim Monolith
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Jet Medallion
2 Sky Diamond
2 Thought Vessel
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Extraplanar Lens
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Smokestack
4 Thran Dynamo
5 Coat of Arms
5 Eldrazi Monument
5 Gilded Lotus
6 Mindslaver
2 Power Artifact
3 Contamination
4 Grave Pact
4 Leyline of the Void
4 The Abyss
5 Larceny
5 Painful Quandry
Planeswalkers
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lands
1 Dark Depths
2 Metallic Mimic
2 Oona's Blackguard
2 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Adaptive Automaton
3 Corrosive Mentor
3 Grand Architect
3 Scion of Oona
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Glen Elendra Liege
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Paragon of Gathering Mists
4 Paragon of Open Graves
4 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
5 Nezumi Graverobber
5 Puppeteer Clique
6 Ascendant Evincar
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
2 Konda's Banner
3 Hall of Triumph
Enchantments
2 Bad Moon
2 Favorable Winds
7 Memnarch
Creatures
2 Aphetto Alchemist
2 Gilded Drake
2 Pili-Pala
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Grand Architect
3 Trinket Mage
4 Arcum Dagsson
4 Master Transmuter
4 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
6 Consecrated Sphinx
Instants
0 Pact of Negation
2 Mana Drain
2 Counterspell
2 Cyclonic Rift
5 Force of Will
3x Whir of Invention
Sorceries
1 Preordain
2 Reshape
2 Transmute Artifact
3 Fabricate
5 Bribery
6 Recurring Insight
7 All is Dust
0 Mox Opal
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Voltaic Key
2 Azor's Gateway
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Sky Diamond
2 Grim Monolith
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Illusionist’s Bracers
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Aetherflux Reservoir
5 Gilded Lotus
5 Paradox Engine
6 Caged Sun
6 Mycosynth Lattice
9 Darksteel Forge
3 Rhystic Study
5 Future Sight
Planeswalkers
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Inventors' Fair
23 Island
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Seat of the Synod
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Commander
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief => Oona, Queen of the Fae
I lose easy spot removal and commander damage one shots in exchange for instant wins with infinite mana and creatures to chump with and abuse. Also access to the blue mana symbol.
Swamp => Reliquary Tower
Bane of the Living => Rune-Scarred Demon - Another tutor
Steel Hellkite => Dark Impostor - Exile removal
Pestilence Demon => Hex Parasite - Planeswalker removal plus demon doesn't play well with my tokens.
Praetor's Grasp => Diabolic Intent - Rather search for my cards
Tainted Aether => Trading Post - Not token friendly for versatility
Spreading Plague => Spine of Ish Sah - Removal and interaction with post
Skeletal Scrying => Helm of Obedience - Combo Win
Tendrils of Corruption => Leyline of the Void - Combo and Grave Hate
Sadistic Sacrament => Contamination - Sacrement great against combo, contamination great against everything except mono black
Suffer the Past => Sever the Bloodline - I never had good luck with suffer, trading it for exile and mass token removal.
Wayfarer's Bauble => Phyrexian Metamorph - One time ramp for versatility and commander removal.
Syphon Mind => Bitterblossom - more tokens!
I'd also like to find room for Attrition and Gate to Phyrexia to utilize the new available tokens but am having a very hard time deciding what to cut for it! Also maybe Bloodgift Demon... Any ideas?
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Swamp => Thespian's Stage - More Coffers!
Wit's End => Mind Twist - For the same mana Mind Twist can get rid of 6 cards at random and you can use it a lot earlier if needed.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Sudden Death
Black Sun's Zenith
No Mercy
Wound Reflection
Vedalken Orrery
Memory Jar
Mind's Eye
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Now, most of these cards, at some point, were in my deck. I understand Myojin and why people say he is good, but you already have mind sludge and mind twist. I mean, I never really need those type of cards due to the fact that contamination and Infernal darkness tend to give you a similar effect.
Now, while spot removal is important, I have never found sudden death to be particularly useful. I guess it depends on your metagame. I just don't see it being better than doom blade.
Now, I have played black sun's zenith. I think the card is interesting. I cut it a while ago because it didn't really do anything that useful for the deck. There are better sweepers out there in my opinion.
I don't understand what No Mercy is for. I always found these effects rather under whelming. How does it fair for you?
I remember playing wound reflection to "combo" with sorin and to make it more enticing to attack others. I found that the combo is really weak, and it does a poor job of the aimed goal.
Vedalken orrery is a card I don't know how I feel about. I always want to add it, but I can never find the cards to cut for it. The same thing goes for Memory Jar.
Mind's eye is not needed. In black you have draw spells that make this card not needed. I could just rum ancient craving. The mana investment for this card is not worth it from what I have seen. Unless you have a red deck that is.
Have you tried buried ruin at all? I have been playing with it for a few weeks not and find it wonderful. I would say cut Boseiju, Who Shelters All and try Buried Ruin. Buried Ruin. Boseiju, Who Shelters All never was a land that I was happy to see. It is too slow. I wish I could want to play it, but I already know that it isn't going to work out.
Mono-Black Oona, Queen of the Fae
Athreos, God of Passage
Vedalken Orrery is amazing and opens up an extremely powerful draw go play style especially since so much of this deck is sorcery speed.
No Mercy and Wound Reflection could probably go. At one point Wound Reflection + Sorin or infinite mana exsanguinate were my only instant kills. No Mercy has stuck around forever and always seemed like a nice card to make it unfavorable to attack me while I set up.
Mind's Eye & Memory Jar could probably go too. Mind's Eye can be huge if no one has answers and you just keep drawing into something but that is rare.
I haven't tried Buried Ruin yet. What do you usually recur with it?
How quick does your Oona deck usually go off? You have some nice things like Candelabra, Mana Crypt, Fetch Lands, and the more expensive tutors.
Also as an aside... Necropotence... I might be insane but I didn't like it much when I ran it. I'd lose a lot of life and couldn't draw regularly anymore. Plus people would Acquire my Mindslaver and then tutor for my Necropotence and kill me. My deck is a lot stronger now so I could try it again but wondering how you use it when you get it.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Buried ruin normally gets back any one of the artifacts my deck relies on that gets destroyed. It also doubles as a piece of the mindslaver lock my deck has with crucible of worlds.
You are right to say that necro can kill you if your opponents do something like that. If you used that logic a lot of cards would need to be cut from almost any deck. You should probably stop running Ill-gotten gains then. If they mindslaver you they can make it so you don't have a hand anymore. The benefits of the card outweigh the risks. That is why I run the card.
Now how I use necro? It depends on the situation. I usually pay so I go up to 8 cards and then discard a land. If I have reliquary tower out then I just go down to 10 or 20 (depends on the people I am playing) and I should have enough there to pull out a win.
For blue mages I have the cards that make it so there is only black mana. That seems to be enough for a multiplayer game. Everyone is always throwing a haymaker that needs to be countered and the blue decks here normally don't run 60 counter spells and 40 land.
Mono-Black Oona, Queen of the Fae
Athreos, God of Passage
Out:
Swamp - Making room for Buried Ruin
Memory Jar - Switching for other draw, sometimes fueled opponents recursion
Mind's Eye - Switching for other draw, I do really like this card though, might find a way back in.
No Mercy - Not needed with Oona and token defenders.
Mind Twist - Can cripple one player but taking advice and going to try and rely on the black mana enchantments instead. Also sucks when it gets redirected at me.
Mind Sludge - As above
Bubbling Muck - One turn mana doubler... its nice but making room for more persistent cards.
Sudden Death - Can be nice with split second but doesn't kill everything.
In:
Gate to Phyrexia - Answer for Artifacts
Necropotence - Ultimate Draw Power
Magus of the Coffers - Inifinite Mana
Staff of Domination - Infinite Mana & Life
Buried Ruin - Mindslaver Lock & Recursion
Crypt Ghast - Doubling and minor life drain
Bloodgift Demon - Draw
Basalt Monolith - Infinite Mana
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Mono-Black Oona, Queen of the Fae
Athreos, God of Passage
In my meta a guy plays a blue red redirect spells deck so I chose Night's Whisper since it is "you" instead of "target player." At one point I had both in this deck and when deciding which one to remove that was my reasoning.
Probably could go either way. Regardless I'll probably change it to Ambition's Cost at some point.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Night's Whisper
Wound Reflection
In:
Sign in Blood
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
I needed my one copy of Night's Whisper for another deck so took the advice and slotted in Sign in Blood. Took out Wound Reflection because it didn't advance my plan much and for 6 mana there was usually a lot of other things I was wanting to do. I lose the Sorin combo but oh well.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Helm of Obedience: I honestly feel like this is a cheap win con. I know its a single target version of going infinite with my commander but I just don't like using it. I know removing it would weaken the deck but I can always add it at a tournament.
Extraplanar Lens: I don't like that it helps my opponents and I don't like that it exiles my swamp. I haven't splurged for the Snow-Covered Swamps which would usually eliminate the first problem. When I play this sits in my hand a lot. Honestly with up to three cabal coffers I don't know if I need so many mana doublers. Maybe Gauntlet of Power could go too?
Possible adds:
Rise of the Dark Realms: This looks like it could be fun just for getting all the ETB triggers. If you get to untap you will definitely be causing a lot of damage but a single wrath or mass GY removal can easily counter this card.
Skullclamp: The draw power with the tokens should be amazing. This is most likely going to come in for something.
Grave Pact: I don't have a lot of sacrifice outlets but could be a way to get great value out of my chump blocks.
Attrition: Similar to Gravepact, offensively use my tokens to take out nonblack problems. Might be too narrow.
Any other ideas from fellow mono-black players? I'm really hoping the black god from Theros will be a good addition to the Eldrazi I already run.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Sign in Blood => Skullclamp - Sign in Blood is really nice early game but Skullclamp should eclipse it once I get some faeries to sacrifice.
Extraplanar Lens => Braids, Cabal Minion - As I explained above I don't like the Lens exiling my swamp and helping my opponents. Braids is a nice stax option. Was also debating Sheoldred, Whispering One or Attrition but I like that Braids works by herself and is a sacrifice effect.
Helm of Obedience => Temporal Extortion - Helm does nothing by itself and the combo only kills one player a turn. I was flipping through my binder and saw Extortion and thought it could be fun. Other candidates were Imp's Mischief and Praetor's Grasp.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Swamp => Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Trying out the new mini Cabal Coffers. With the commander alone you break even. With a few other black permanents it should be better than a swamp. Swamps are nice though for Cabal Coffers and mana doublers. I'll see how it does in my games. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth fixes all the potential downsides.
Basalt Monolith => Hero's Downfall - I'm intentionally taking out the infinite combos. I haven't taken them all out but I'm just taking the ones that serve no purpose other than going infinite. I know it makes the deck weaker but I have more fun playing it big mana rather than infinite mana. Trading for really great single target removal.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Temporal Extortion => Basalt Monolith - I missed the monolith in the games I was playing. Plus I love the new art in the commander product. I never drew Temopral Extortion but the choice probably makes it bad. Looked fun though!
Leyline of the Void => Toxic Deluge - Another wrath that can kill anything. The life loss might hurt still seems really good. Leyline was good grave hate but without the Helm it wasn't as lethal.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
I've been experimenting with Rise of the Dark Realms a bit and my experiences aren't that great. Yes, every time I have had it resolve it's been a back breaker. At the same time, every time I've had it get forked; well it's been just as back breaking :-/.
It's just a difficult card to navigate, and like the Titanic it can leave you gasping for breath. You have to work around Relic of Progenitus and similar graveyard hate, counters, and forks. Even if it lands, you'll probably attract a board wipe of some flavor (or Insurrection). It doesn't help that its a huge mana investment, but it isn't one that benefits from being raced out with big mana; it kinda wants to wait and let the discard pile fill a bit before pulling the trigger.
It's a big capital ship card, but like aircraft carriers it wants to have a fleet protecting and supporting it as well. Just my $0.02.
I don't really have a way to abuse Gray Merchant but he is a nice life swing and I have been having life problems with the deck lately. I kind of miss my old Drain Life & Consume Spirit cards too but I usually dump a lot of mana into them and then they get countered.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Braids, Cabal Minion => Sheoldred, Whispering One - Braids is nice because she comes down early and works well with my general but I like the idea of the non-symmetrical effect and creature recursion which my deck is really light on. CMC is much higher though.
Diabolic Tutor => Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Trading weakest tutor for some nice life gain / life loss.
Go For the Throat => Diabolic Edict - Switching up some single target removal to be more versatile.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats