Here is my own version of an old favorite, inspired by a few in the community. I've cherry-picked a few things and put them into this bag of tricks, each of which has decided a game here and there.
When you've got a massive Infect Dragon sitting in the Command Zone, earlier Mana means more attacks, and more attacks means dead opponents who otherwise would've drawn out and survived. It also gives you an earlier opportunity to keep up that BB for his regeneration ability. Even for those pesky no-regens like Wrath of God also, the more mana you have on the board in the late stages, the more Skittles can get destroyed. Having Haste negates a lot of the value of Sorcery speed answers against you, provided you have enough mana to pay the tax.
Dark Ritual - The Ritual is an often neglected card in the format. When powering out a threat though, 2 extra mana can lead to 2 extra attacks in the early game. Basal Thrull - Same as Ritual, more clunky, worse draw late, but otherwise quite serviceable in the opener. Soldevi Adnate - Is at worst another Basal Thrull, but late it also serves as a sacrifice outlet to prevent Skittles from being stolen or tucked. Palladium Myr - Powers out a Turn 4 Skittles like the others, but hangs around until it dies to pay some equipment costs. Plague Myr - A very important mana source, since obviously it doubles as a very threatening attacker. Sol Ring - Format Staple, superb here. Mana Crypt - Is quite pricey $$, but the deck really isn't the same without it. Mana Vault - Because Turn 3 hastey Skittles is even better than a Turn 4 Skittles. Grim Monolith - Same as Mana Vault, one more expensive. Basalt Monolith - Even 3 mana is worth it for this effect. Worn Powerstone - Does its job of getting Skittles out on Turn 4, and keeps on pumping the mana thereafter. Coalition Relic - Better than a lot of the others, since it guarantees you enough Black for what you need. Thran Dynamo - Sometimes it's exactly what you need, other times it leads to awkward draws. In here mainly to pay the general tax for Skittles. Gauntlet of Power - Like Dynamo, sometimes it's overly awkward in the early turns, other times it's smooth as silk. For example, 3 Swamps and a Mana Crypt gives you a 5/5 hastey Skittles on Turn 3. Of particular interest there, a +1/+1 out of the gate shortens the Dragon's clock by a full turn.
Pump
The Blight Dragon is an odd bird in how to best suit him up. By itself, he's got the same 3-turn clock as a Thraximundar or a naked Rafiq. That can get there, but taking 9-turns to attack down a 4-player table is just too long for most places. Fortunately he's only a couple points away from shaving a turn off that, but not so fast. Weighing heavily on him is that he has haste and he often comes out off rituals. That means not only that you rarely get in for more than 4 on the first attack, but the speed means that you're pressed to get an equipment out prior to that, and you don't always have the same 3BBB you used to cast him available the next turn either. If that weren't enough, he has an enticing but costly Regeneration ability that begs to be used against conventional removal. With all that summed up, it is very important in Skithiryx that the pumps be very inexpensive on mana. Anything that gives 1 power for free such as Gauntlet of Power, Shuko or Bad Moon are going to get you there one turn sooner, but even better is anything that gives 2 power with a cheap enough cost. That one extra point gives you the luxury of being able to pay up to a few mana on the next turn, or even forego the equip cost for another spell, attack another player naked, and leave two opponents dead to an equipped attack. Here are a few candidates that I've settled on:
Bonesplitter - The essence of cheap. Your problems are solved as long as you've got this in play. Darksteel Axe - Similar cost to Bonesplitter, it has you paying 1 more on equip for the indestructibility. In this format, that's more than worth the price. O-Naginata - Same costs as Darksteeel, and you get evasion and a little extra power on top. You can also put this on a 1/1 like Inkmoth if you have just one of the +2 power equips. Champion’s Helm - I wish it costed one less to cast, but off a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt draw you are easily getting this out on time. Unspeakable Symbol - Same out of pocket cost as the Helm, slightly harder to play. What keeps justifying this card is that it just wins games in a lot of places. Raw-dogging it for 18 life against 3 untapped White opponents is never the right move, but if you know you have the game you can pay that. Elsewhere, 3 or 6 life is easily payable out of the gate. Where it picks up games is in the ability to turn 27 life into 10 poison from an Inkmoth Nexus against that last opponent, all after blockers are declared. Hatred - Unlike the above, this generally only enters use against the last one or two players at a table. In that role though, it will pick up a lot of games through blockers, just like Symbol. Fireshrieker - This also doesn't adhere to the axiom of cheapness, but it will shave a turn off your clock against opponents 2 and 3. Inquisitor’s Flail - Essentially same as above, losing combat triggers rarely matters here and the Blight Dragon's regeneration cares little about damage to it being doubled. Nim Deathmantle - The first of the utility equipments, it couples with a sacrifice outlet to save you from theft or pinpoint tuck. It also gives you much needed evasion against a lot of problem blockers. Sword of Light and Shadow - The Dragon needs protection from Black somewhere in the deck for two reasons - Clone's and Bitterblossom - It needs protection from White for a whole list of reasons, the greatest of which is Condemn. Feast and Famine can be played in addition, but instead is rarely correct because of the pro-White and the smattering of utility creatures and other Infect creatures that make the Raise Dead worth it. The life gain also saves you unexpectedly at times. Loxodon Warhammer - Probably one of the better equipments to take into a completely unknown area or a public game. With enough foreknowlege of opposing decks, it can easily come out for something like FaF , but provided you still have Hatred and Symbol, trample is one of the most universal forms of evasion, which you greatly need. This deck also demands life from you at times. Shade’s Form - I'm still not sold on this one, but I have often been on enough mana to cast it and pump 6 into it to kill a player on the same turn. Ratcheting up power is also extremely useful toward making Trample an irresistible form of evasion. It does't stick around like the equips, but what it does is give you Skittles back for free.
Infect Creatures
Another oddity about Skithiryx is that he never tallies Commander damage. Read that again. You're not using Commander damage. (In b4 the contrarian brings up Melira, Sylvok Outcast) What that means is that, unlike in Voltron, other creatures are going to be of great use to you on the attack step. Your equipments and particularly your Instant-speed pumps can be called upon to do a lot of work with other candidates to carry them. A lot of Voltron decks that fear losing their commander will use alternate win conditions, whether correctly or incorrectly, but the feasibility of alternate routes to victory is one of Skithiryx's greatest strengths. Even if the Dragon himself is not tucked, stolen, or pacified, additional creatures are advantageous over enhancing the general because they present two candidates that an opponent may have to block to survive. So within the following candidates, I've prioritized evasion, cost, utility, and finally synergy with Skithiryx.
Hand of the Praetors - This guy can get out of control on some draws, particularly when he comes out Turn 2 preceding the Dragon. He not only helps the big guy shave a turn off his clock, but he's putting down poison against the other opponents while doing so. This deck's fastest possible goldfishes most likely all involve this guy. Phyrexian Crusader - A very resilient creature for his size. The protections save you often, and even if he is blockable, the First Strike makes it very hard for him to die when he's equipped big enough. Plague Stinger - Cheapest Flying Infect in the game. Reduces the Dragon's clock more effectively than equal-costed Bad Moon, while toting pumps himself and dodging blockers like a boss. Whispering Specter - This guy seems awkward, and I assume that's the main reason a lot of other lists don't run him. But it's like the read option in Football, take the easiest route. If you can swing in on a dangerous control opponent with him and the Dragon first combat, you just dump that player's hand and hopefully you can forget about that player in favor of other targets. If you can just swing for lethal with him as well, that's what you do. At worst, it's a more expensive Plague Stinger or Inkmoth. At his best though, he's hooking up with a Sword of Light and Shadow and running the game. Flesh-Eater Imp - Pretty expensive for the body at first glance, but the threat of tuck and theft has you running all the mana-less sacrifice outlets you can justify fitting in. And a Flying Infect is very easy to fit in here.
Reanimation
At first glance, it looks strange to have so much reanimation in a deck with mainly small creatures. The key piece of understanding is that you can put Skithiryx into the graveyard at your option when he's killed. Putting that into the perspective of a Turn 4 Dragon with Haste off of a Dark Ritual, meeting a cheap piece of removal or a Wrath can put you out of the game. You'll be trying to piece together 7-8 mana starting from 4, when you may not even have your 5th land drop in hand. With a reanimation spell like Reanimate or Dance of the Dead though, 4-5 mana is enough to bring Skittles back, give him Haste, and even leave mana up for regeneration. Essentially, you are using the spell to net the 7 mana needed for a recast. Otherwise, the ability to target any graveyard can pick up some utility for you now and then. Targets like Godo, Bandit Warlord and Sun Titan are prizes that you can use to get you there in a major way.
Reanimate - The top dog of his class. Must run. Dance of the Dead - It has you paying an inconvenient upkeep, but in exchange the clock on Skittles is slimmed down by a turn. I run over Animate Dead because this is one of the very rare cases where the -1 power attached to that card makes a lot of difference, whether on Skittles or any of the other Infect creatures. Necromancy - Standard reanimation piece, a little more expensive than I would like but better than alternatives. When it's used as grave-hate on an ETB though, the Instant speed has value all over it. Coffin Queen - Being reusable is tons of value in a lot of games. Can also double as much needed graveyard hate. Strands of Night - This one is expensive on the front-end, but it ends up saving you tons of mana in a deck whose main use of mana is to recast one creature in the first place. It can also give you the game when used on any Infect creature in the bin while you have a pump spell.
Discard
Better than recasting your Commander, in most games the ideal plan is to just make sure no one has an answer for him. A few of these cards show up particularly for the reason that you're looking mostly for answers. Two in particular, Thoughtseize and Duress are often considered inefficient in the format, and even Mind Twist is often passed in favor of discard to the whole table. In aggro though, and particularly in Skithiryx, you have a different idea of value. Say you take the typical holdings of each opponent in a given game. Typically there are a few ramp spells, draw spells, a few early utility creatures, and a bomb or two. Somewhere in those 21 cards between 3 opponents though is maybe one answer card like Condemn or Hinder. If the goal is to run all opponents out of answers and threats, each of the opponents' cards are very close in value against you. Here though, you care close to nothing about a lot of the cards, since they're either too slow at killing you or don't stop you, but that one single answer card absolutely soul crushes you. It's worth the entire game to you, while the others are worth close to nothing. Single target discard used correctly finds that one card. Once it does, value isn't the metric for the game anymore. You'll kill the most controlling player and run the table with one unanswered creature. Here are my chosen candidates for that job:
Thoughtseize - Cheap and efficient, the standard in point discard. Duress - Same cost as Thoughtseize for essentially the same effect. Mind Twist - This will usually consume your early mana to wipe out a whole hand, though it doesn't have to. A lot of the time it's disappointing that this card often sets you back a turn before you can cast Skithiryx, but calling Mind Twist disappointing tells you something about the power of discard in this deck. Mind Shatter - Same as Mind Twist, one card less or one mana more expensive. Mind Sludge - I'm not sold on this one, since it's often hitting an opponent with a full grip for 3 or 4. Can be great Turn 6 or so against that second or third player though. Mindslicer - Better than sniping answer cards is just dumping entire hands. Will either prompt that Hinder or eat it on its own. Noxious Vapors - This card is great both for value and for information. If they keep that tuck or theft spell, you know about it, and you can try to find an answer instead of running blindly into a loss. Ill-Gotten Gains - This card can be a bit awkward on mana, but early enough in the game it works similarly to Noxious Vapors. The value is in the information it gives. Just remember with this one that you can tutor for it with something like Vampiric Tutor, then get the tutor back instead of what you pitched. This is particularly good for hands where you've already got mana and a bit of action. Liliana of the Veil - The value is good enough for those games where you're landing other discard, and it's one power piece that the deck can hit to get by a blocker. Raven’s Crime - When you have a lot of information about your opponents hands, or just when they're low on card count, this spell does a lot of work. I'd be lying though if I said it wasn't a blank at least some of the time.
Other Countermeasures
This category is mainly reserved for things that help you get by blockers against that third player, and it also contains some miscellaneous things that I've found to be good in that kind of spot. On getting by blockers, it helps to understand what you're facing. There are White flyers here and there, Sphinx of Uthuun, Sylvan Primordial and Rune Scarred Demon outside of White, multicolor Commanders with Flying, but a lot of what you'll see with these new rules are clones of your own Commander. It's important to remember that Skithiryx can regenerate, stack counters, and eventually punch through conventional blockers, but against your own general, Infect poses a problem for that. Still, it's important to remember that beyond being a good combat ability and counter to conventional removal, regeneration serves for your own wipes as well. A cloning player outside of Black won't be able to regenerate it, and even in color will often forget to leave mana open, but you always can. So when facing the wide assortment of blockers you can potentially see, take advantage of the fact that the real Skeleton Dragons don't die and just nuke the site from orbit. Nevvinyral's Disk is the perfect example on how to abuse this. Run it out early, watch people squirm under the threat of discard, then wait for the position to develop. At the EOT of the player to your right, pop Disk for1, Regenerate for BB, then untap and swing into an empty field.
Nevinyyal’s Disk - See the example above. An all-purpose sweep that allows for regeneration, and at instant speed for an easy 1 mana. Every Skittles deck should have one. Oblivion Stone - Roughly the same as the Disk, it's only a pity that the activation is so expensive in comparison. Life's Finale - Like the others, it's chosen over Damnation because it allows regen. The pain is that the mana cost is the most expensive of the three, and also being Sorcery takes a combat away. A bonus here though is putting creatures into an opponent's grave, which may help you out if you've drawn some reanimation. Time will teach which are the best targets, but I've found nearly every Red deck runs Godo, Bandit Warlord, while many have little recursion for him. Elesh Norn can also be clutch for token blockers, and there are other stupidly good reanimation targets. Slaughter - Basically, I hate Rite of Replication and repeatable recursion at around the Turn 7 mark. Protection can serve just as well, but other things happen with creatures being targeted or cloned all the time for whatever reason, and just generally, being able to pop off problem flyers in non-Black can be enough to get you there without having to run a Sword of each color. Winter Orb - Almost criminally good in any deck that frontloads mana like this one. Untap with the Blight Dragon in play, put this out, win in short order. Stromgald Cabal - This is one Knight I'm particularly proud of. Counter White spells. Think about that one. Aside from the tuck counters, Terminus, Hallowed Burial, Condemn, Bant Charm, Prison Term, Oblation, Spin into Myth and Chaos Warp is a short list of things that this deck hates to see and has to answer. What do most of those spells have in common? Take a look at the point removal that gets by regeneration as well. Of the targeted Black removal, basically only Putrefy, Damnation, Avatar of Woe, Sever, and Terror get by regeneration, and Terror can't target you anyway. Red and Green removal cause damage, or in one or two cases destroy allowing regen. Otherwise there is a list of impossibly robust Bounce effects in Blue, and finally the impossibly efficient White stuff in the vein of Swords to Plowshares. Sure, it's a total blank if you're at a table without White, but remember the same principle of point discard. There's the stuff you don't care about at all, and the stuff that crushes your soul. Honestly, stopping anything White lets you answer 90% of it. Not to mention the all-around headaches this Black Knight can cause any White player you get down to a 1v1 with. Just an all-star performer in this deck.
Tutors
One of the largest differences you'll see between Blight Dragon decks is their density of tutors. On the one hand, it's hard to argue against the idea that more is better. They're one of the best tools against tuck, and well, anything else you want to do with your deck either. The main point of difference is probably cash. A card like Imperial Seal is basically only for online smurf clients and kinkos proxies, and same goes with Grim Tutor and Cruel Tutor. Even if I had them, I would put some other card in this list because I'd like it to be useful. Accordingly, the tutors this deck does include can be pricey, but they're at least commonly found. After the tutors of 3cmc or less, the only remaining question is whether you think it's worthwhile to run tutors that you'll never use to grab Mana rocks. This deck takes the position that it's not. Trying to draw a tutor like Diabolic Revelation or Increasing Ambition is never an ideal response in lieu of a countermeasure that just allows you to avoid tuck. A repeated theme with this deck is that the goal is to win winnable games, not to give you things to do and cards to hope for off the top. Drawing a tutor won't win you any games if it takes 3 turns to do, then another to telegraph that you fetched out your General on Turn 9. But building your deck to be proactive and robust will make sure you can claim those games that are yours to win. So with that in mind, the tutors this deck does include are designed to be able to get you a Mana Crypt or other high-power mana rock on time to cast the ideal Turn 4 Blight Dragon. In 3 out of 4 games, that's the correct play with these in the opener, and in the 1 of 4 you're generally going for the Ill-Gotten Gains that gives you your tutor back. Drawn later, the situation dictates.
Vampiric Tutor - Cheap and easy, get the game plan on. Demonic Tutor - Format staple, must include in nearly every Black deck. Beseech the Queen - Serviceable for going after the Mana Rocks that you need, since Turn 3 it puts you on 6 mana after fetching Crypt and making your land drop. Praetor's Grasp - An on the fence call, it's usually no worse than a Skyshroud Claim when it fetches Sol Ring, and it can give you a useful equipment now and then. I have used it to fetch the correct land before quite often. If you're going into a public game, it can give you early information about the kind of deck that opponent has. And if you're really confident in your familiarity with your group, you can use it do pinpoint that opponent's hand also. All very useful things for this deck. Diabolic Tutor - Gettting a little on the expensive side, I decided to include it because of combination tutor-mana draws that usually end up in Gauntlet of Power, a Turn 5 Skittles with a 2 Turn clock, and a generally resolved mana situation for the rest of the game. Expedition Map - Grab your Cavern of Souls, Cathedral of War or Homeward Path as the situation dictates.
Draw
This is a deck that wants certain things to happen by turn 4. So the draw here isn't all pretty or high volume, but it's cheap and quick. Anything that's neither of those two, I wouldn't include. Also however, this is a deck that wants its first 4 lands and isn't left craving for many more, so the land count goes down a little bit in favor of these cards that smooth early draws. Not the flashiest component of the deck, but they make it subtly better.
Night’s Whisper - Two for two mana. Solid card. Sign in Blood - Same as above, stiffer color requirements. Sensei’s Divining Top - If two mana for two cards is a good deal, two mana in increments for effectively three cards is great. I don't need to extol the virtues of top, really. Read the Bones - A newcomer, its ability to dig through four cards prior to that critical turn 4 earns a spot. Dark Confidant - Easily included in a deck with this curve, it's well worth it even if it only sticks around for 2 turns. Necropotence - The battleship of draw. Let me think about whether ripping it for ~15 is the correct play. Hmm. Yes, it is.
Tech Lands
Reponses to common problems and a little bit of extra reach are gladly received from your lands whenever they can give them. Still, this deck has a lot of colorless accel from mana rocks, so it's not a good idea to go overboard on the colorless utility.
Cathedral of War - When Skithiryx is this close to clipping a turn off his clock, a land like this is superb. Cavern of Souls - Really unfair sometimes, feel no shame in tutoring for this. Homeward Path - Same as above, different set of problems. Theft seems to be on the decline though, so you can take it out for a Swamp when desired. Inkmoth Nexus - Awesome creature Ancient Tomb - This is a really great land that can solve Gauntlet of Power awkwardness and turn weak Plague Myr acceleration into a Turn 4 Skittles on time. Phyrexian Tower - Sacrificing your creature is 100x better than having it tucked. High Market - Same thing, no occasional bump in mana production. Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Fear was top notch under the old legend rules, but it's still really good, and it's at virtually no opportunity cost versus a Swamp. Strip Mine - This, Champion's Helm and potentially Praetor's Grasp are this deck's only answers to Maze of Ith. Sad, but that's the way it is. If your group starts slamming Maze into their decks, and it's not unlikely that they will, start running more of these effects on lands. As far as public games, this should be fine.
Well, that is the deck. Hopefully a strategy section will follow.
"The distance between genius and insanity... Is measured only by success."
-Elliot Carver, Tomorrow Never Dies
"If violence isn't solving it, you're obviously not using enough!"
-Me
A kid at my local gameshop wanted to break a twenty.
"You got 2 tens?" he asked me.
"No, but I probably got 3 fives." I replied.
"Perfect!"
"You might want to check your math there."
Looks pretty good. I like the inclusion of Cathedral of War, completely missed that one in my version.
I think that Phyrexian Reclamation may be more worthwhile than Strands of Night. It's cheaper, and you don't have to sacrifice lands to it. Of course, you could do both if you want. With the amount of mass discard you're running you might be able to use it.
I think Reclamation versus Strands of Night is a question of game length. If Skittles has died 3-4 times that game, Strands may get to the point where it's nearly unusable and Reclamation starts to outperform it, even on raw mana. But down the stretch around the Turn 5 mark, you're often caught on 4-5 mana and sometimes don't get enough until Turn 8'ish. It becomes really hard in that window to stick Skittles with enough mana for him to regenerate against conventional removal, or leave utility lands like High Market untapped to avoid tuck. There's also the ability of Strands to stick your small infect creatures at Instant speed on the EOT to your right to avoid wipes, which lets you attack right away and take games with the equips and pumps. Reclamation is good in this deck, it's just that I think Strands is better in most games. I'd consider running both though if I'm facing lots of flying commanders like Jenara, or I expect little conventional removal.
On Dark Tutelage and Phyrexian Arena, I've found that it's a little tough to cast them on those slower draws when they compete with Palladium Myr, Worn Powerstone and Coalition Relic, and on the faster Sol Ring'ish draws they were being out-competed by action cards and discard. The reason is that they're putting me down one card and only giving me back one card before the point where I want to cast Skithiryx. So their utility is later game, and I've got Diabolic Tutor and similar for that. The Arena particularly is an obvious format staple in more long-term controllish decks, but the draw is just very delayed for this deck. I will cast Necropotence Turn 3 whenever possible, since I can rip it for up to around 20 and be all but guaranteed to have what I need for a good game. And on the other end, anything 2cmc is good because it's cheap and quick. I think if the deck does include more draw for post-Dragon use it would be more along the lines of Necrologia or even Ad Nauseum, just because the value would be more upfront.
Urborg and Coffers is basically the same principle, early game versus late game utility. I'd have to up the land count definitely for Coffers, and I'd still have to mulligan hands with 2 or fewer lands and no draw even when I've got Coffers. It's just too difficult to go without mana for turns 1-3 as the deck is trying to play out rocks, equips and discard. Turn 5 and on though, Coffers definitely starts getting to the point where it's solving all my mana problems and enabling multiple recasts. But even then, it's competing for my tutors against lands like Cavern of Souls, Cathedral of War and Homeward Path. So I can see either putting it in or keeping it out. Also, I think for the same slot I would consider Caged Sun as well, and I'm not sure which edges out which.
The land sacrificing aspect of Strands of Night just scares the crap out of me, especially since you're not running Crucible. If you had Crucible and a bunch of fetches I could see running it. It's also a much bigger mana committement than Phyrexian Reclamation. On top of that, Reclamation can be dropped much earlier. Then when you Noxious Vapors on turn 4 or whatever, you can immediately start getting stuff back without ruining your mana base. I'm probably just much more conservative than you I guess.
Necrologia is awesome, you should run it. Get the Stronghold version if you can, it looks cooler.
Yeah, I am not going to lie, I can remember 2 games where Strands came through for me and in each I had about 4-5 lands on Turn 9. I remember winning both games, but I did have 4-5 lands when the rest of the field had up to a dozen mana each. The one guy had cast Decree of Pain, which is why my Skittles was in the bin in the first place. But the idea is scary, yeah. Kind of like Lake of the Dead, which I have also considered running in here. It helps if you can cast 80% of the deck with the 5 lands you're left with, while keeping enough mana up to regenerate. It just seems like committing suicide.
On suicide, Necro and Ad Naus are sweet. Ad Naus is easier to have mana for without foregoing regenerate and you end up using more cards, but it does cost a lot of life. More on suicide actually, the comment on the discard makes me realize that a lot of the stuff this deck does hurts itself. It's never comfortable to play Mindslicer or to Disk/O-Stone into all your mana rocks either. But most of the time the deck does stuff like that, it seems to either win or it's too late for it to matter anyway.
Bad Moon is a card that I tried out for a while, and I was kind of sad to cut it. I was juggling Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, and Bad Moon, then I started to value the +1's a little less as I started playing with more of the cheap +2's, and all except Gauntlet got cut. If I were seeing a lot of artifact removal or Austere Command type option cards I would run Bad Moon over some of the more expensive equips, but mainly I see stuff like Disk, Viridian Zealot and Abrupt Decay which doesn't care.
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The list:
1 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Bonesplitter
1 Darksteel Axe
1 O-Naginata
1 Reanimate
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Expedition Map
1 Mind Twist
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Soldevi Adnate
2 Basal Thrull
2 Plague Myr
2 Grim Monolith
2 Nim Deathmantle
2 Inquisitor’s Flail
2 Plague Stinger
2 Dance of the Dead
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Winter Orb
2 Mind Shatter
2 Sign in Blood
2 Night’s Whisper
2 Dark Confidant
3 Palladium Myr
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Worn Powerstone
3 Coalition Relic
3 Unspeakable Symbol
3 Champion’s Helm
3 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Fireshrieker
3 Shade’s Form
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Whispering Specter
3 Necromancy
3 Coffin Queen
3 Beseech the Queen
3 Stromgald Cabal
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Noxious Vapors
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Read the Bones
3 Necropotence
3 Praetor's Grasp
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Hand of the Praetors
4 Flesh-Eater Imp
4 Strands of Night
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Nevinyrral’s Disk
4 Slaughter
4 Mindslicer
4 Ill-Gotten Gains
5 Gauntlet of Power
5 Hatred
5 Mind Sludge
6 Life's Finale
1 Soldevi Adnate
1 Palladium Myr
1 Plague Myr
1 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Coalition Relic
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Hatred
1 Unspeakable Symbol
1 Champion’s Helm
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Fireshrieker
1 Inquisitor’s Flail
1 Shade’s Form
1 Bonesplitter
1 Darksteel Axe
1 O-Naginata
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Phyrexian Crusader
1 Plague Stinger
1 Whispering Specter
1 Flesh-Eater Imp
1 Necromancy
1 Reanimate
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Coffin Queen
1 Strands of Night
1 Stromgald Cabal
1 Winter Orb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nevinyyral’s Disk
1 Life's Finale
1 Slaughter
1 Mind Twist
1 Mind Shatter
1 Mind Sludge
1 Mindslicer
1 Noxious Vapors
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Praetor's Grasp
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Expedition Map
1 Sign in Blood
1 Night’s Whisper
1 Read the Bones
1 Dark Confidant
1 Necropotence
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
Land (35)
26 Swamp
1 Cathedral of War
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Homeward Path
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 High Market
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Strip Mine
Mana
When you've got a massive Infect Dragon sitting in the Command Zone, earlier Mana means more attacks, and more attacks means dead opponents who otherwise would've drawn out and survived. It also gives you an earlier opportunity to keep up that BB for his regeneration ability. Even for those pesky no-regens like Wrath of God also, the more mana you have on the board in the late stages, the more Skittles can get destroyed. Having Haste negates a lot of the value of Sorcery speed answers against you, provided you have enough mana to pay the tax.
Dark Ritual - The Ritual is an often neglected card in the format. When powering out a threat though, 2 extra mana can lead to 2 extra attacks in the early game.
Basal Thrull - Same as Ritual, more clunky, worse draw late, but otherwise quite serviceable in the opener.
Soldevi Adnate - Is at worst another Basal Thrull, but late it also serves as a sacrifice outlet to prevent Skittles from being stolen or tucked.
Palladium Myr - Powers out a Turn 4 Skittles like the others, but hangs around until it dies to pay some equipment costs.
Plague Myr - A very important mana source, since obviously it doubles as a very threatening attacker.
Sol Ring - Format Staple, superb here.
Mana Crypt - Is quite pricey $$, but the deck really isn't the same without it.
Mana Vault - Because Turn 3 hastey Skittles is even better than a Turn 4 Skittles.
Grim Monolith - Same as Mana Vault, one more expensive.
Basalt Monolith - Even 3 mana is worth it for this effect.
Worn Powerstone - Does its job of getting Skittles out on Turn 4, and keeps on pumping the mana thereafter.
Coalition Relic - Better than a lot of the others, since it guarantees you enough Black for what you need.
Thran Dynamo - Sometimes it's exactly what you need, other times it leads to awkward draws. In here mainly to pay the general tax for Skittles.
Gauntlet of Power - Like Dynamo, sometimes it's overly awkward in the early turns, other times it's smooth as silk. For example, 3 Swamps and a Mana Crypt gives you a 5/5 hastey Skittles on Turn 3. Of particular interest there, a +1/+1 out of the gate shortens the Dragon's clock by a full turn.
Pump
The Blight Dragon is an odd bird in how to best suit him up. By itself, he's got the same 3-turn clock as a Thraximundar or a naked Rafiq. That can get there, but taking 9-turns to attack down a 4-player table is just too long for most places. Fortunately he's only a couple points away from shaving a turn off that, but not so fast. Weighing heavily on him is that he has haste and he often comes out off rituals. That means not only that you rarely get in for more than 4 on the first attack, but the speed means that you're pressed to get an equipment out prior to that, and you don't always have the same 3BBB you used to cast him available the next turn either. If that weren't enough, he has an enticing but costly Regeneration ability that begs to be used against conventional removal. With all that summed up, it is very important in Skithiryx that the pumps be very inexpensive on mana. Anything that gives 1 power for free such as Gauntlet of Power, Shuko or Bad Moon are going to get you there one turn sooner, but even better is anything that gives 2 power with a cheap enough cost. That one extra point gives you the luxury of being able to pay up to a few mana on the next turn, or even forego the equip cost for another spell, attack another player naked, and leave two opponents dead to an equipped attack. Here are a few candidates that I've settled on:
Bonesplitter - The essence of cheap. Your problems are solved as long as you've got this in play.
Darksteel Axe - Similar cost to Bonesplitter, it has you paying 1 more on equip for the indestructibility. In this format, that's more than worth the price.
O-Naginata - Same costs as Darksteeel, and you get evasion and a little extra power on top. You can also put this on a 1/1 like Inkmoth if you have just one of the +2 power equips.
Champion’s Helm - I wish it costed one less to cast, but off a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt draw you are easily getting this out on time.
Unspeakable Symbol - Same out of pocket cost as the Helm, slightly harder to play. What keeps justifying this card is that it just wins games in a lot of places. Raw-dogging it for 18 life against 3 untapped White opponents is never the right move, but if you know you have the game you can pay that. Elsewhere, 3 or 6 life is easily payable out of the gate. Where it picks up games is in the ability to turn 27 life into 10 poison from an Inkmoth Nexus against that last opponent, all after blockers are declared.
Hatred - Unlike the above, this generally only enters use against the last one or two players at a table. In that role though, it will pick up a lot of games through blockers, just like Symbol.
Fireshrieker - This also doesn't adhere to the axiom of cheapness, but it will shave a turn off your clock against opponents 2 and 3.
Inquisitor’s Flail - Essentially same as above, losing combat triggers rarely matters here and the Blight Dragon's regeneration cares little about damage to it being doubled.
Nim Deathmantle - The first of the utility equipments, it couples with a sacrifice outlet to save you from theft or pinpoint tuck. It also gives you much needed evasion against a lot of problem blockers.
Sword of Light and Shadow - The Dragon needs protection from Black somewhere in the deck for two reasons - Clone's and Bitterblossom - It needs protection from White for a whole list of reasons, the greatest of which is Condemn. Feast and Famine can be played in addition, but instead is rarely correct because of the pro-White and the smattering of utility creatures and other Infect creatures that make the Raise Dead worth it. The life gain also saves you unexpectedly at times.
Loxodon Warhammer - Probably one of the better equipments to take into a completely unknown area or a public game. With enough foreknowlege of opposing decks, it can easily come out for something like FaF , but provided you still have Hatred and Symbol, trample is one of the most universal forms of evasion, which you greatly need. This deck also demands life from you at times.
Shade’s Form - I'm still not sold on this one, but I have often been on enough mana to cast it and pump 6 into it to kill a player on the same turn. Ratcheting up power is also extremely useful toward making Trample an irresistible form of evasion. It does't stick around like the equips, but what it does is give you Skittles back for free.
Infect Creatures
Another oddity about Skithiryx is that he never tallies Commander damage. Read that again. You're not using Commander damage. (In b4 the contrarian brings up Melira, Sylvok Outcast) What that means is that, unlike in Voltron, other creatures are going to be of great use to you on the attack step. Your equipments and particularly your Instant-speed pumps can be called upon to do a lot of work with other candidates to carry them. A lot of Voltron decks that fear losing their commander will use alternate win conditions, whether correctly or incorrectly, but the feasibility of alternate routes to victory is one of Skithiryx's greatest strengths. Even if the Dragon himself is not tucked, stolen, or pacified, additional creatures are advantageous over enhancing the general because they present two candidates that an opponent may have to block to survive. So within the following candidates, I've prioritized evasion, cost, utility, and finally synergy with Skithiryx.
Hand of the Praetors - This guy can get out of control on some draws, particularly when he comes out Turn 2 preceding the Dragon. He not only helps the big guy shave a turn off his clock, but he's putting down poison against the other opponents while doing so. This deck's fastest possible goldfishes most likely all involve this guy.
Phyrexian Crusader - A very resilient creature for his size. The protections save you often, and even if he is blockable, the First Strike makes it very hard for him to die when he's equipped big enough.
Plague Stinger - Cheapest Flying Infect in the game. Reduces the Dragon's clock more effectively than equal-costed Bad Moon, while toting pumps himself and dodging blockers like a boss.
Whispering Specter - This guy seems awkward, and I assume that's the main reason a lot of other lists don't run him. But it's like the read option in Football, take the easiest route. If you can swing in on a dangerous control opponent with him and the Dragon first combat, you just dump that player's hand and hopefully you can forget about that player in favor of other targets. If you can just swing for lethal with him as well, that's what you do. At worst, it's a more expensive Plague Stinger or Inkmoth. At his best though, he's hooking up with a Sword of Light and Shadow and running the game.
Flesh-Eater Imp - Pretty expensive for the body at first glance, but the threat of tuck and theft has you running all the mana-less sacrifice outlets you can justify fitting in. And a Flying Infect is very easy to fit in here.
Reanimation
At first glance, it looks strange to have so much reanimation in a deck with mainly small creatures. The key piece of understanding is that you can put Skithiryx into the graveyard at your option when he's killed. Putting that into the perspective of a Turn 4 Dragon with Haste off of a Dark Ritual, meeting a cheap piece of removal or a Wrath can put you out of the game. You'll be trying to piece together 7-8 mana starting from 4, when you may not even have your 5th land drop in hand. With a reanimation spell like Reanimate or Dance of the Dead though, 4-5 mana is enough to bring Skittles back, give him Haste, and even leave mana up for regeneration. Essentially, you are using the spell to net the 7 mana needed for a recast. Otherwise, the ability to target any graveyard can pick up some utility for you now and then. Targets like Godo, Bandit Warlord and Sun Titan are prizes that you can use to get you there in a major way.
Reanimate - The top dog of his class. Must run.
Dance of the Dead - It has you paying an inconvenient upkeep, but in exchange the clock on Skittles is slimmed down by a turn. I run over Animate Dead because this is one of the very rare cases where the -1 power attached to that card makes a lot of difference, whether on Skittles or any of the other Infect creatures.
Necromancy - Standard reanimation piece, a little more expensive than I would like but better than alternatives. When it's used as grave-hate on an ETB though, the Instant speed has value all over it.
Coffin Queen - Being reusable is tons of value in a lot of games. Can also double as much needed graveyard hate.
Strands of Night - This one is expensive on the front-end, but it ends up saving you tons of mana in a deck whose main use of mana is to recast one creature in the first place. It can also give you the game when used on any Infect creature in the bin while you have a pump spell.
Discard
Better than recasting your Commander, in most games the ideal plan is to just make sure no one has an answer for him. A few of these cards show up particularly for the reason that you're looking mostly for answers. Two in particular, Thoughtseize and Duress are often considered inefficient in the format, and even Mind Twist is often passed in favor of discard to the whole table. In aggro though, and particularly in Skithiryx, you have a different idea of value. Say you take the typical holdings of each opponent in a given game. Typically there are a few ramp spells, draw spells, a few early utility creatures, and a bomb or two. Somewhere in those 21 cards between 3 opponents though is maybe one answer card like Condemn or Hinder. If the goal is to run all opponents out of answers and threats, each of the opponents' cards are very close in value against you. Here though, you care close to nothing about a lot of the cards, since they're either too slow at killing you or don't stop you, but that one single answer card absolutely soul crushes you. It's worth the entire game to you, while the others are worth close to nothing. Single target discard used correctly finds that one card. Once it does, value isn't the metric for the game anymore. You'll kill the most controlling player and run the table with one unanswered creature. Here are my chosen candidates for that job:
Thoughtseize - Cheap and efficient, the standard in point discard.
Duress - Same cost as Thoughtseize for essentially the same effect.
Mind Twist - This will usually consume your early mana to wipe out a whole hand, though it doesn't have to. A lot of the time it's disappointing that this card often sets you back a turn before you can cast Skithiryx, but calling Mind Twist disappointing tells you something about the power of discard in this deck.
Mind Shatter - Same as Mind Twist, one card less or one mana more expensive.
Mind Sludge - I'm not sold on this one, since it's often hitting an opponent with a full grip for 3 or 4. Can be great Turn 6 or so against that second or third player though.
Mindslicer - Better than sniping answer cards is just dumping entire hands. Will either prompt that Hinder or eat it on its own.
Noxious Vapors - This card is great both for value and for information. If they keep that tuck or theft spell, you know about it, and you can try to find an answer instead of running blindly into a loss.
Ill-Gotten Gains - This card can be a bit awkward on mana, but early enough in the game it works similarly to Noxious Vapors. The value is in the information it gives. Just remember with this one that you can tutor for it with something like Vampiric Tutor, then get the tutor back instead of what you pitched. This is particularly good for hands where you've already got mana and a bit of action.
Liliana of the Veil - The value is good enough for those games where you're landing other discard, and it's one power piece that the deck can hit to get by a blocker.
Raven’s Crime - When you have a lot of information about your opponents hands, or just when they're low on card count, this spell does a lot of work. I'd be lying though if I said it wasn't a blank at least some of the time.
Other Countermeasures
This category is mainly reserved for things that help you get by blockers against that third player, and it also contains some miscellaneous things that I've found to be good in that kind of spot. On getting by blockers, it helps to understand what you're facing. There are White flyers here and there, Sphinx of Uthuun, Sylvan Primordial and Rune Scarred Demon outside of White, multicolor Commanders with Flying, but a lot of what you'll see with these new rules are clones of your own Commander. It's important to remember that Skithiryx can regenerate, stack counters, and eventually punch through conventional blockers, but against your own general, Infect poses a problem for that. Still, it's important to remember that beyond being a good combat ability and counter to conventional removal, regeneration serves for your own wipes as well. A cloning player outside of Black won't be able to regenerate it, and even in color will often forget to leave mana open, but you always can. So when facing the wide assortment of blockers you can potentially see, take advantage of the fact that the real Skeleton Dragons don't die and just nuke the site from orbit. Nevvinyral's Disk is the perfect example on how to abuse this. Run it out early, watch people squirm under the threat of discard, then wait for the position to develop. At the EOT of the player to your right, pop Disk for1, Regenerate for BB, then untap and swing into an empty field.
Nevinyyal’s Disk - See the example above. An all-purpose sweep that allows for regeneration, and at instant speed for an easy 1 mana. Every Skittles deck should have one.
Oblivion Stone - Roughly the same as the Disk, it's only a pity that the activation is so expensive in comparison.
Life's Finale - Like the others, it's chosen over Damnation because it allows regen. The pain is that the mana cost is the most expensive of the three, and also being Sorcery takes a combat away. A bonus here though is putting creatures into an opponent's grave, which may help you out if you've drawn some reanimation. Time will teach which are the best targets, but I've found nearly every Red deck runs Godo, Bandit Warlord, while many have little recursion for him. Elesh Norn can also be clutch for token blockers, and there are other stupidly good reanimation targets.
Slaughter - Basically, I hate Rite of Replication and repeatable recursion at around the Turn 7 mark. Protection can serve just as well, but other things happen with creatures being targeted or cloned all the time for whatever reason, and just generally, being able to pop off problem flyers in non-Black can be enough to get you there without having to run a Sword of each color.
Winter Orb - Almost criminally good in any deck that frontloads mana like this one. Untap with the Blight Dragon in play, put this out, win in short order.
Stromgald Cabal - This is one Knight I'm particularly proud of. Counter White spells. Think about that one. Aside from the tuck counters, Terminus, Hallowed Burial, Condemn, Bant Charm, Prison Term, Oblation, Spin into Myth and Chaos Warp is a short list of things that this deck hates to see and has to answer. What do most of those spells have in common? Take a look at the point removal that gets by regeneration as well. Of the targeted Black removal, basically only Putrefy, Damnation, Avatar of Woe, Sever, and Terror get by regeneration, and Terror can't target you anyway. Red and Green removal cause damage, or in one or two cases destroy allowing regen. Otherwise there is a list of impossibly robust Bounce effects in Blue, and finally the impossibly efficient White stuff in the vein of Swords to Plowshares. Sure, it's a total blank if you're at a table without White, but remember the same principle of point discard. There's the stuff you don't care about at all, and the stuff that crushes your soul. Honestly, stopping anything White lets you answer 90% of it. Not to mention the all-around headaches this Black Knight can cause any White player you get down to a 1v1 with. Just an all-star performer in this deck.
Tutors
One of the largest differences you'll see between Blight Dragon decks is their density of tutors. On the one hand, it's hard to argue against the idea that more is better. They're one of the best tools against tuck, and well, anything else you want to do with your deck either. The main point of difference is probably cash. A card like Imperial Seal is basically only for online smurf clients and kinkos proxies, and same goes with Grim Tutor and Cruel Tutor. Even if I had them, I would put some other card in this list because I'd like it to be useful. Accordingly, the tutors this deck does include can be pricey, but they're at least commonly found. After the tutors of 3cmc or less, the only remaining question is whether you think it's worthwhile to run tutors that you'll never use to grab Mana rocks. This deck takes the position that it's not. Trying to draw a tutor like Diabolic Revelation or Increasing Ambition is never an ideal response in lieu of a countermeasure that just allows you to avoid tuck. A repeated theme with this deck is that the goal is to win winnable games, not to give you things to do and cards to hope for off the top. Drawing a tutor won't win you any games if it takes 3 turns to do, then another to telegraph that you fetched out your General on Turn 9. But building your deck to be proactive and robust will make sure you can claim those games that are yours to win. So with that in mind, the tutors this deck does include are designed to be able to get you a Mana Crypt or other high-power mana rock on time to cast the ideal Turn 4 Blight Dragon. In 3 out of 4 games, that's the correct play with these in the opener, and in the 1 of 4 you're generally going for the Ill-Gotten Gains that gives you your tutor back. Drawn later, the situation dictates.
Vampiric Tutor - Cheap and easy, get the game plan on.
Demonic Tutor - Format staple, must include in nearly every Black deck.
Beseech the Queen - Serviceable for going after the Mana Rocks that you need, since Turn 3 it puts you on 6 mana after fetching Crypt and making your land drop.
Praetor's Grasp - An on the fence call, it's usually no worse than a Skyshroud Claim when it fetches Sol Ring, and it can give you a useful equipment now and then. I have used it to fetch the correct land before quite often. If you're going into a public game, it can give you early information about the kind of deck that opponent has. And if you're really confident in your familiarity with your group, you can use it do pinpoint that opponent's hand also. All very useful things for this deck.
Diabolic Tutor - Gettting a little on the expensive side, I decided to include it because of combination tutor-mana draws that usually end up in Gauntlet of Power, a Turn 5 Skittles with a 2 Turn clock, and a generally resolved mana situation for the rest of the game.
Expedition Map - Grab your Cavern of Souls, Cathedral of War or Homeward Path as the situation dictates.
Draw
This is a deck that wants certain things to happen by turn 4. So the draw here isn't all pretty or high volume, but it's cheap and quick. Anything that's neither of those two, I wouldn't include. Also however, this is a deck that wants its first 4 lands and isn't left craving for many more, so the land count goes down a little bit in favor of these cards that smooth early draws. Not the flashiest component of the deck, but they make it subtly better.
Night’s Whisper - Two for two mana. Solid card.
Sign in Blood - Same as above, stiffer color requirements.
Sensei’s Divining Top - If two mana for two cards is a good deal, two mana in increments for effectively three cards is great. I don't need to extol the virtues of top, really.
Read the Bones - A newcomer, its ability to dig through four cards prior to that critical turn 4 earns a spot.
Dark Confidant - Easily included in a deck with this curve, it's well worth it even if it only sticks around for 2 turns.
Necropotence - The battleship of draw. Let me think about whether ripping it for ~15 is the correct play. Hmm. Yes, it is.
Tech Lands
Reponses to common problems and a little bit of extra reach are gladly received from your lands whenever they can give them. Still, this deck has a lot of colorless accel from mana rocks, so it's not a good idea to go overboard on the colorless utility.
Cathedral of War - When Skithiryx is this close to clipping a turn off his clock, a land like this is superb.
Cavern of Souls - Really unfair sometimes, feel no shame in tutoring for this.
Homeward Path - Same as above, different set of problems. Theft seems to be on the decline though, so you can take it out for a Swamp when desired.
Inkmoth Nexus - Awesome creature
Ancient Tomb - This is a really great land that can solve Gauntlet of Power awkwardness and turn weak Plague Myr acceleration into a Turn 4 Skittles on time.
Phyrexian Tower - Sacrificing your creature is 100x better than having it tucked.
High Market - Same thing, no occasional bump in mana production.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Fear was top notch under the old legend rules, but it's still really good, and it's at virtually no opportunity cost versus a Swamp.
Strip Mine - This, Champion's Helm and potentially Praetor's Grasp are this deck's only answers to Maze of Ith. Sad, but that's the way it is. If your group starts slamming Maze into their decks, and it's not unlikely that they will, start running more of these effects on lands. As far as public games, this should be fine.
Well, that is the deck. Hopefully a strategy section will follow.
Karona, Warden of AlcatrazWUBRG
The EPIC EDHWUBRG
Sun Quan Aggro1U
Animar GoodstuffRUG
Horobi MBCB
Medomai NerfWU
Saffi EriksdotterGW
Zur (CF)WUB
-Elliot Carver, Tomorrow Never Dies
"If violence isn't solving it, you're obviously not using enough!"
-Me
A kid at my local gameshop wanted to break a twenty.
"You got 2 tens?" he asked me.
"No, but I probably got 3 fives." I replied.
"Perfect!"
"You might want to check your math there."
I think that Phyrexian Reclamation may be more worthwhile than Strands of Night. It's cheaper, and you don't have to sacrifice lands to it. Of course, you could do both if you want. With the amount of mass discard you're running you might be able to use it.
Stromgald Cabal is tech. Dark Tutelage is another piece of card draw for you to consider.
You gotta find a way to get Coffers and Urborg into the deck. It'll help out with stuff like Shade's Form, and more mana is always good.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
On Dark Tutelage and Phyrexian Arena, I've found that it's a little tough to cast them on those slower draws when they compete with Palladium Myr, Worn Powerstone and Coalition Relic, and on the faster Sol Ring'ish draws they were being out-competed by action cards and discard. The reason is that they're putting me down one card and only giving me back one card before the point where I want to cast Skithiryx. So their utility is later game, and I've got Diabolic Tutor and similar for that. The Arena particularly is an obvious format staple in more long-term controllish decks, but the draw is just very delayed for this deck. I will cast Necropotence Turn 3 whenever possible, since I can rip it for up to around 20 and be all but guaranteed to have what I need for a good game. And on the other end, anything 2cmc is good because it's cheap and quick. I think if the deck does include more draw for post-Dragon use it would be more along the lines of Necrologia or even Ad Nauseum, just because the value would be more upfront.
Urborg and Coffers is basically the same principle, early game versus late game utility. I'd have to up the land count definitely for Coffers, and I'd still have to mulligan hands with 2 or fewer lands and no draw even when I've got Coffers. It's just too difficult to go without mana for turns 1-3 as the deck is trying to play out rocks, equips and discard. Turn 5 and on though, Coffers definitely starts getting to the point where it's solving all my mana problems and enabling multiple recasts. But even then, it's competing for my tutors against lands like Cavern of Souls, Cathedral of War and Homeward Path. So I can see either putting it in or keeping it out. Also, I think for the same slot I would consider Caged Sun as well, and I'm not sure which edges out which.
Necrologia is awesome, you should run it. Get the Stronghold version if you can, it looks cooler.
Bad Moon a possibility?
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
On suicide, Necro and Ad Naus are sweet. Ad Naus is easier to have mana for without foregoing regenerate and you end up using more cards, but it does cost a lot of life. More on suicide actually, the comment on the discard makes me realize that a lot of the stuff this deck does hurts itself. It's never comfortable to play Mindslicer or to Disk/O-Stone into all your mana rocks either. But most of the time the deck does stuff like that, it seems to either win or it's too late for it to matter anyway.
Bad Moon is a card that I tried out for a while, and I was kind of sad to cut it. I was juggling Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, and Bad Moon, then I started to value the +1's a little less as I started playing with more of the cheap +2's, and all except Gauntlet got cut. If I were seeing a lot of artifact removal or Austere Command type option cards I would run Bad Moon over some of the more expensive equips, but mainly I see stuff like Disk, Viridian Zealot and Abrupt Decay which doesn't care.