MTG Salvation

Caretaker Combo is a casual mono black EDH that is budget friendly (~$60) designed for kitchen table versus and multiplayer games. The deck wins by abusing creature enter and leave the battlefield abilities that disrupt our opponents' hand and creatures on the board. While the deck features several creatures and can win through combat damage it is not the main focus of the deck. Because the deck is casual, Caretaker Combo features no infinites, and no card valued at more than $5 dollars unless it is absolutely fundamental (i.e. Grave Pact). This means no infinite mana sheninigans, no Demonic Tutor or Grim Tutor and no expensive mana rocks.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is a 5 drop with no offensive power and is hardly a defensive threat. We almost never will be attacking or blocking with him. So why Shirei? His ability allows us to revive creatures EVERY turn, this is amazing when paired with enter and leave the battlefield effects. The possibilities are endless, creatures that gain us life when they enter, creatures that deal damage when they leave, creatures that force discard when they enter, etc. Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker has excellent synergy with many cards and is a true combo king. While at times he may be a lightning rod for removal, he is very powerful.

You should play Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker if:
You like playing combos
You like seeing creatures die
You enjoy consistency, drawing cards and tutoring answers
You like having options and making decisions

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker might not be for you if:
You like attacking frequently
You enjoy winning via commander damage
You enjoy playing with multiple colors
Your play circle runs a lot of graveyard hate

Card Advantage

Night's Whisper is classic, 2 life for 2 cards, an obvious choice, especially in the format.

Read the Bones is a new friend from Theros that scrys and draws us cards.

Sign in Blood functions as a second Night's Whisper.

Phyrexian Arena is one of the best draw engines in Magic. Being able to draw an extra card every turn fundamentally breaks the rules of Magic, and being able to do so for a measly 1 life a turn is a bargin.

Caretaker's Friends (Creatures with power 1 or less)

Abyssal Gatekeeper functions as a rattlesnake card, but also as a card we can sacrifice to trigger other leave the battlefield effects we have while removing our opponents creatures from the board.

Ashen-Skin Zubera forces an opponent to discard each time he dies. With a sacrifice outlet and Shirei on the board, in a 4 person game we can make a player discard 3 cards before our next turn begins.

Big Game Hunter is removal for larger creatures. Very effective at removing commanders, and very powerful we reused.

Bile Urchin pings an opponent for 1 damage when sacrificed, this doesn't seem like a huge deal, but with Shirei on board, we can do this every turn dozens of turns.

Black Cat is a rattlesnake card that forces random discard, very underrated.

Blood Artist gains us life and pings an opponent every time a creature dies. With all of the sacrificing, Blood Artist is an all star.

Blood Pet can be sacrificed to add B to our mana pool, solid even if used only once, good ramping tool.

Bone Shredder functions as a Terror on a stick that we can use every turn. Very powerful.

Bottle Gnomes gains us a lot of life. It's really just absurd, in a 4 person game with Shirei on board, he gains us 12 life each time every player takes their turn. Having life is always important, especially with a deck that runs many cards that force us to pay life. This guy is an all star.

Brain Weevil functions as a reusable Mind Rot, because it can only be sacrificed at sorcery speed, we can only use it on our turn, but Mind Rot every turn is still very powerful.

Chimney Imp will make players want to tear your eyes out, whenever it dies, it creatures major card disadvantage. With the proper sacrifice outlet, Chimney Imp is very scary.

Death Cultist functions as a strictly better Bile Urchin.

Deathgreeter brings us more life gain, in some instances more than Bottled Gnomes. He doesn't seem like much, but he's one of out best one drops

Fume Spitter spreads -1/-1 counters around the board, making creatures weaker or killing them in the process.

Heap Doll is a niche card that exiles cards from libraries, very crucial against reanimator decks and the mirror match. Not mandatory and more of a meta call.

Infectious Host is twice as scary as Bile Urchin but needs another sacrifice outlet to work.

Kiku, Night's Flower forces other creatures to fight themselves and is very difficult to remove once Shirei hits the board. Excellent for getting rid of generals and a great rattlesnake card as well.

Leaden Myr is similar to Blood Pet, solid ramp.

Liliana's Shade fetches us Swamps from our library, with a sacrifice outlet and Shirei, she thins out the deck very well and gives us more Swamps than we can handle.

Mindless Automaton may be Shirei's best friend. It draws us a card every turn. Repeat, Mindless Automation draws us a card every turn with Shirei on board. A clear all star that is much better than Phyrexian Arena.

Perilous Myr is very good, because the 2 is damage rather than life loss, Perilous Myr functions as creature and planeswalker removal in additional to being able to hurt players.

Pilgrim's Eye essentially focuses as a second

Liliana's Shade. Very solid.

Ravenous Rats makes an opponent discard every time he enters. Very good.

Royal Assassin is a classic rattlesnake card and allows us to play politics "You should attack John instead of me, or I'll Royal Assassin that thing so fast."

Thieving Sprite functions as a second Ravenous Rats. Also very good.

Thoughtpicker Witch is a sacrifice outlet also works as a poor man's fateseal. Very brutal against control players.

Viscera Seer is a sacrifice outlet that scrys us cards. Another very solid one drop.

Other Creatures

Dimir House Guard is a versatile card that works not only as a sacrifice outlet, but also as a tutor (more on both of those later). This is a card you will love to draw.

Harvester of Souls draws us a lot of cards, sometimes more than Mindless Automation, and he's a beater. Definitely an all star.

Magus of the Abyss brings so much chaos to the board. He forces our opponents to make very difficult decisions, while he works as a sacrifice outlet for us and a beater. Very scary.

Massacre Wurm is an absolute powerhouse. He comes in as a one way Infest, that also punishes our opponents whenever their creatures die. Also very scary.

Pawn of Ulamog works so well with all the sacrificing we do. He brings us numerous bodies that can chump block and ramp. These bodies have great synergy with creatures like Blood Artist.

Scavenger Drake is an underrated bomb. This thing gets silly huge and it has evasion. Scavenger Drake will win games.

It's clear that Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker can do a lot. He can dish out a lot of hate to our opponents, and bring amazing advantages to us. For these reasons, he often is a lightning rod for out opponents' removal, protecting him is essential.

Lightning Greaves is probably my favorite card to draw in my opening hand. This spell protects Shirei from everything that isn't mass removal and costs 0 to equip.

Mask of Avacyn essentially acts as a second Lightning Greaves, it costs more to cast and equip, but is also pumps and grants hexproof instead of shroud.

Swiftfoot Boots are probably the best spell for protecting Shirei aside from Lightning Greaves. They get the job done without spending a lot of mana.

Whispersilk Cloak is pretty similar to Mask of Avacyn, more mana, but you get what you pay for, in this case we can make a creature unblockable. Usually this is irrelevant for Shirei, but it can help out creatures we have.

Cabal Coffers is nuts. Mid to late game is will double our mana pool and then some. One of the best lands ever printed, especially for the format. Not a budget friendly card, don't worry though, it's not essential.

Ghost Quarter functions as land destruction. It can hit nonbasics like other Cabal Coffers.

Reliquary Tower gets rid of our maximum hand size. With cards like Mindless Automation and Harvester of Souls, this land is necessary.

Swamp needs no explanation, we run 34 (and a total of 38 lands) which is fine because our curve is not very high.

Temple of the False God functions as solid ramp. A solid casual EDH staple.

Disentomb brings us back creatures that Shirei is unable to save.

Enslave functions as black Mind Control with the added benefit of pinging our opponent. Great for snagging that general or utility creature.

Exsanguinate is a classic mono black finisher in EDH. It hits everyone equally, gains us a lot of life, and can end games. Very good with Cabal Coffers.

Grave Pact forces other players to sacrifice creatures whenever our creatures die. In this deck, Grave Pact is absurd if not border line broken. In many scenarios it functions as a one way Plague Wind that gets around hexproof and indestructibility. This is an essential combo piece that may be the best card in the deck.

Lightning Coils takes advantage of all the recursion we use to bring some offense to the table.

Liliana of the Dark Realms ensures we hit all of our lands. We very seldom minus with her, and if her ultimate is achieved it fundamentally changes everything.

Meekstone is an anti aggro pillow fort card that forces major offensive threats to stay tapped. Great for keeping the scary generals from untapping. Be aware that we do run a few creatures with power 3 of greater.

Noetic Scales is similar to Meekstone in that it hoses big creatures. Most of our creatures are small enough for it to seldom affect us, not to mention the solid card draw we have.

Praetor's Grasp is a deck extraction spell that allows us to play the card we steal. Great targets are mana rocks like Sol Ring, and powerful lands like Cabal Coffers. Praetor's Grasp is really great because we don't have to reveal the card we still until we choose to play it.

Sorin Markov is another nonbudget card that is not mandatory but very helpful. His minus ability is very good in the format, especially against players that abuse life gain abilities. His plus functions as removal that also gains us life. We rarely use his ultimate unless we are close to eliminating a player or desperate.

Tragic Slip is a great removal spell, especially in a deck where so many things die. Tragic Slip can get rid of almost anything, even Blightsteel Colossus

Unearth is more recursion that in rare instances we will cycle. Usually strictly better than Disentomb.

Tutoring is a very powerful tool in Magic, especially in EDH because it provides consistency in a format that discourages it. Black is amazing at tutoring, because unlike other colors, black tutors generally can find any card rather than a specific type (and in many cases we don't have to reveal the card). Making the right decisions when tutoring isn't always easy, but when mastered it really brings this deck to the next level. Early game, tutoring a card to protect Shirei is generally a safe bet (usually Lightning Greaves). Other common choices include card advantage engines like Mindless Automation and Phyrexian Arena, sacrifice outlets (more on those later) or crucial combo pieces like Grave Pact. Here are the tutors of Caretaker Combo:

Beseech the Queen finds any card for 3 mana provided you have enough lands to play the card (you almost always will). While you do have to reveal the card, this is an excellent tutor because it can find any card for only 3 mana.

Diabolic Tutor searches for any card without having to reveal the card. This is one of the best budget tutors in the format.

Increasing Ambition costs a little more than Diabolic Tutor, but when casted from the graveyard, it allows us to find two cards. Another great tutor.

Citanul Flute is a reusable tutor that can only find creatures. It is still a very good tutor because it can be used at instant speed. Solid choices include Blood Artist, Mindless Automation and Bottled Gnomes.

Dimir House Guard can find cards with a CMC of 4. Usually he will find us Grave Pact, but he can also find us Liliana of the Dark Realms and Scavenger Drake.

Expedition Map is a tutor for lands. Usually we will find Cabal Coffers with it, but in some instances we may grab Reliquary Tower instead.

Sacrificing is very important for Caretaker Combo. Being able to do so ensure we can constantly abuse the enter the battlefield and leave the battlefield effects of our creatures. I've already covered the sacrifice outlets that are creatures (Thoughtpicker Witch and Viscera Seer) but there are many other noncreature sacrifice outlets.

Ashnod's Altar allows us to sacrifice creatures as much as we want for free and give us mana. It also can be used at instant speed. Ashnod's Altar is one of out best sacrifice outlets.

Spawning Pit also brings us free instant sacrifices with the added ability of being able to provide bodies. Very solid.

Attrition lets us B to sacrifice a creature and Doom Blade. This sacrifice outlet is very powerful, repeatable removal shuts down many decks.

Mind Slash is similar to Attrition in that is costs B to sacrifice a creature, but instead of removing creatures, it functions as a (strictly better) Thoughtseize. Although it can only be used at sorcery speed, it is very powerful, because is gives us a lot of information, and gets rid of cards black otherwise would have trouble removing like enchantments.

Combos and Interactions

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + Bottled Gnomes = Crap ton of life.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + Bone Shredder = Terror every turn.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + Grave Pact + Sacrificing creature with power 1 or less = Repeatable Diabolic Edict

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + Pawn of Ulamog + Sacrificing creature with power 1 or less = Crap token of eldrazi spawn tokens.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + Mindless Automaton = Draw a card every turn.

Win Conditions

Exsanguinate + Cabal Coffers/Liliana of the Dark Realms Ultimate = You Win The Game

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker + sacrificing several creatures each turn + Blood Artist = You Win the Game

After establishing a board position Scavenger Drake can win games single handily. Massacre Wurm and Harvester of Souls are other beaters that can win us the game.

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