EDITED 9/27:
So I'm a returning Magic player who loves playing mono-B. When C14 dropped, I picked up Ob Nix immediately. I've gone back and forth a lot on what I want to do. I've toyed with a board control type (see spoiler below on "Death v1") but that didn't work because the deck didn't do much other than kill things. I've tried making demons a tribe (see spoiler below on "Demon Tribal") and while it was quite interesting to play, it felt too slow and it didn't really need Ob Nix as its commander. Like, I would go through some games without ever having to summon Ob Nix.
So thus, I arrived at my third main iteration. A deck I call... Demon Gods.
How I arrived at this concept is pretty simple. I loved the demon tribal concept from my second build, but it just wasn't working. So in tweaking it, I tried a different take on what having a "Demon deck" means. I thought maybe, instead of having a ton of one type of creatures like you would normally see in other tribal decks, a demon deck is all about having these "demon gods" who would have minions doing their bidding until they finally arrive.
So I asked myself, thematically, what do demons stand for? I came up with two things: Knowledge and Death. And thus, I chose my Demon Gods accordingly: Knowledge:
> Bloodgift Demon: gives you an extra card on your turn, at the cost of life
> Rune-Scarred Demon: gives you the card you need, at the cost of nothing Death:
> Reaper from the Abyss: Kills something almost every turn
> Pestilence Demon: Wrath-like effect but hits your own creatures as well
> Reiver Demon: One-sided wrath
Then, for completeness sake, I added one last wrinkle: Life (or reanimation). I just generally enjoy playing with this mechanic and it complements the death-aspect of the deck, so I made it a subtheme. I sort of gave it its own demon in Abhorrent Overlord too.
With the stage set comes the final question: How does Ob Nix, the planeswalker, fit into all of this? Well, what does he do? Pooping out 5/5 flyers is great in 1v1, but in multiplayer, leaving him at 1 loyalty makes him way too easy to ping. In multiplayer though, his +2 gains you a ton of life and his emblem is ridiculous. Thus, a bunch of the spells I chose to fill out the deck tend to use life as a resource. This way, Ob Nix becomes a more essential piece as he can offset all the life I end up paying.
So after that long intro, here's the decklist. As always, I would appreciate feedback on this new build. But first, some caveats:
1. I'm a casual player and I always play in a 3+ player setting
2. I don't have an unlimited budget (no, I cannot afford super expensive cards like Damnation If I have one of those, it's coz I already had it)
3. I love flavor (and Black has flavor in spades!)
PLAYSTYLE:
The way this deck plays is by constantly drawing cards, constantly killing creatures, and finishing your opponents off using your featured demons (or Ob Nix's 5/5's). And while I didn't want to put too much focus on reanimation, it's still there as back up plan in case of a well-timed board sweep. I think it has a pretty solid curve for a Demon deck at 3.79.
On the Bubble:
1. Spine of Ish Sah: for noncreature removal.
2. Underworld Connections: I don't own one yet but it would be useful, methinks
3. Gate to Phyrexia: I don't own one either, but it helps dealing with artifacts
4. Cabal Coffers: obvious reasons
5. Sorin Markov: Normally out of my price range but I was lucky enough to find one for cheap!!! I'm gonna get it next week. I don't know how to slot Sorin in though and I don't know which card I'll cut.
Changes from original Demon Gods decklist:
1.(+)Elbrus the Binding Blade / (-)Kothophed, Soul Hoarder: in the few games I've played, I was never really happy that Kothophed was in my hand or board and he's not a super reliable engine, really. I cut him for another flavorful card in Elbrus.
2.(+)Rise of the Dark Realms / (-)In Garruk's Wake: Traded one big splashy spell for another with the same CMC. RotDR is more impactful though and gives me another wincon.
3.(+)Phyrexian Totem / (-)Dark Ritual: decided to go for a more permanent mana rock
4.(+)Mutilate / (-)Shimian Specter: planning on cutting out the specters because it doesn't fit in with the flavor/theme. Mutilate works similar to a Damnation mid-late game and gets around protection and indestructible
5.(+)Bone Shredder / (-)Reckless Spite: traded one of my creature destruction spells from an instant to on a stick. Would rather have a Fleshbag Marauder to circumvent shroud/hexproof/indes but I don't have one yet.
6.(+)Phyrexian Reclamation / (-)Grim Return: decided to go with a more permanent type of recursion, even if it means giving up the ability to recur creatures that aren't mine.
7.(+)Charcoal Diamond / (-)Dark Prophecy: despite this being a demon deck, sacrifice isn't much of a central theme here and Dark Prophecy didn't do much. Decided to go with a mana rock to speed up my ramp
8.(+)Swamp / (-)Ebon Stronghold: doesn't come into play tapped.
PLAYSTYLE:
PROs: The primary way this deck finds wins is via overwhelming board presence with huge demonic flyers. Even just having a couple of demons out can change the complexity of the game and this deck tries to pump as many of them out as possible. Pestilence really pulls its weight since usually, your creatures are bigger than your opponents. There are some token producers, although these cards are mainly there to be food or work as chump blockers.
CONs: The biggest problem of the deck is the curve (4.19). If you don't luck into a Medallion or Ritual early, it's extremely slow out the gate and takes a while to set up. And I don't know if this is good or not (although I'm guessing it's not) but this deck can win without its commander ever hitting the board. The reason I think that's bad is because it just means I'm wasting a (pretty important!) slot.
Overall, I scrapped this concept because while it's pretty satisfying when you win, the deck feels clunky overall. I really want to use Ob Nix as a commander and this deck doesn't really need him. It's interesting in concept, I'll give it that. Since demons aren't really synergistic, it's a challenge game-on-game to figure out how to win, which means each game ends up being its own unique story.
PLAYSTYLE:
What this deck mainly does right now is watch things die lol. Aside from the obvious mass removals like O-Stone, cards like Pestilence, Ascendant Evincar, Midnight Banshee, Plaguebearer, No Mercy, etc. really seek to crowd control and prevent weenies from picking up too much steam. A few targeted removals like Terror take care of the creatures too big to be dealt with this way.
Win conditions are either swing with some big flyers when you have board advantage, or overrun with harpies and zombies when there are Bad Moon effects in play. There are some other shenanigans like Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Chainer, Dementia Master, or letting Pestilence go nuclear with a Magus of the Coffers, but those are situational more than anything.
Well, when I look at the deck, I see a lot of removal. I Also see a lot of fuel to do things such as the card draw, ramp, and removal. The thing is that it looks like there is nothing to pump that into.
When you have a mono colored commander, it is extremely hard not to fork out a bunch of cash to bump up the power and "flow."
There is also not really a theme to the deck. I would suggest looking around at other decks to see how people play with the new Ob nix.
If I were to build around him, I would focus it on a sacrifice creatures to profit kind of deck.
thanks all for the feedback and suggestions! admittedly, i've only played with this version once. I won that game but i felt like it might have been a fluke win lol. I'll edit the OP, and use the [*deck] tags as well. I do have some comments and questions though:
I do think Cabal Coffers is a must add. Thanks for the suggestion, Hawk7915. But since it's mono-black anyway, not sure if I'll need Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (which would be way more relevant in a multi-colored deck).
I didn't know the Talisman was illegal. I figured the blue it could produce would just be treated as colorless? Oh well. Not a big fan of Cabal Ritual though. Is there a permanent I can replace it with? Like, a Charcoal Diamond clone? Or do I really need to dip to 3-mana zone like a Darksteel Ingot or Commander's Sphere?
Last Laugh looks like an absolute blast to play with! I didn't even know this card existed! Pestilence has generally been one of my favorite cards of all time and it's cool seeing a similar card like it. It sounds like a must-add.
Is Necropotence even legal? I mean, I have a Kokusho, the Evening Star but it's not in the deck because it's banned in EDH, and coz well, in retrospect, it does seem pretty cheap with reanimation effects.
Lastly, regarding theme, well, what this deck mainly does right now is watch things die lol. Especially little weenies. Then either win by swinging with some big flyers, or overrun underneath a bad moon with harpies and zombies. But yeah, that's not really a theme I suppose.
The Demon tribal idea is indeed intriguing. Demons are stylish and are usually oozing with flavor. I'm actually leaning towards this build the more I think about it. I'll have to hunt for Cover of Darkness and Urza's Incubator. Probably Heartless Summoning as well? Then I'll see what kind of nutty demons I can add to the mix (Reiver Demon maybe?). Gotta keep the curve in mind though, unless I add more mana sources. Can this sort of deck win though? Or is it just mainly for style and I'll probably end up getting mauled 80% of the time?
The Sac-for-Profit looks pretty fun too, actually. I guess my concern with sac-for-profit is if I will be able to have enough creatures to sac for the strategy to be effective. Or if some of my creatures have hit the board, would I be willing to sac them? Generally, what happens in my playgroup is that the board becomes filled with an absolute mess of tokens (thanks to Soldier decks and Elf decks). Which is why in my experience, cards like Dictate of Erebos and the Butcher of Malakir have had minimal impact on the games I drew and played (which is why they eventually got cut). Plus, wouldn't it make more sense to have Ghoulcaller Gisa as my commander if i was running sac-for-profit instead of Obie?
A Lifegain/Extort deck seems like a really unsatisfying way to win. And hitting Obie's +2 to make Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood go infinite doesn't seem very fun for me either. Lol sorry
Urborg doesn't have a ton of downsides (at least to your deck) and turns your non-Swamps into Swamps.
Also it triggers Swampwalk on your opponents. Get Filth in the graveyard for some extra fun. Hell, if you get Sheoldred, you can swing decently with her each turn.
Necropotence is legal as well.
I'd also consider Nykthos and Sorin Markov. Nykthos is the closest thing you get to a second Cabal Coffers and Sorin is just a lot of goodstuff on one card. His +2 can take out smaller trouble creatures, his -3 can easily win a game, and his -7 (if you even bother using it) makes for some great group shenanigans.
EDIT: Sorin might be a bit out of your price range but Nykthos is only like $2 now.
Also Kukusho is banned only as the commander of your deck, but you can play him legally anywhere else.
Kokusho is 100% legal now, both in deck and as general. They cleaned up the banned list by removing the "banned as general list" and moving most of them to the completely banned list. Only Kokopuffs survived the purge.
As for other cards, Ive found that Necropotence while amazing, lead to about as many death by Mindslavers as wins by a million cards.
UPDATE: I haven't bought the new cards yet but I did manage to get a game in yesterday. 3-player game vs Nahiri and Daretti. I ended up losing the game but here were some highlights.
Reason I Lost:
Nahiri deck had a protect-black equipment in Sword of Feast and Famine in play (and then later on, Masterwork of Ingenuity which copied the sword). Plus, the lifelink ability from Loxodon Warhammer had me eating 16 every turn while he gained a cool 11 life or something. Still, I felt like I could've won it.
How I Could've Won:
I held out pretty long despite eating so much damage per turn, thanks mostly to multiple Gray Merchant appearances. If I could've held a life lead (with Erebos, God of the Dead) though, I think I could've gone nuclear with Pestilence to close it out. Ob Nix got tucked but had he gone emblem, I think it would've changed the game as well.
I'd suggest you pick up a Rings of Brighthearth... It's pretty nuts with the planeswalker commanders, and gets even better if and when you acquire fetches for the deck.
so... Rings of Brighthearth is currently out of my budget lol. i checked it out and i currently can't afford it.
Anyway, in the games i've had recently, I've won and lost here and there and that's cool and all, but one thing i can't stand is protection from black!
I can take losing from being overrun by giant weenies or being blasted to the face or even by being "control"-ed out by blue decks. But pro-black? That to me is the most annoying way to go because there was just this one creature you couldn't block. It's even more of a pain to deal with when it's in equipment form (Sword of Feast and Famine), and your opponent is running a Nahiri, the Lithomancer who reanimates equipment. So even if I nev's disk or O-stone the sword, it'll come back pretty much the next turn.
so how do you guys think I could deal with pro-black? I mean, honestly, pro-black creatures (like Akroma), while they are a problem, are not even that bad because it's possible to get rid of them with mass removals. It's really the equipment and the reanimation of it that is the biggest problem.
One thought I've had is going with Fear effects (Dirge of Dread or Cover of Darkness, if I find one) so that it becomes a race of "who can kill whom fsster", but is there another way? A black tuck spell I don't know about? A "remove artifact/permanent from the game" type card?
I run Karn Liberated in my monoblack EDH deck but it's probably out of your price range if Rings of Brighthearth is. I'd then suggest Spine of Ish Sah as a suitable replacement.
Also if you're having issue with artifacts like SoFaF, then I'd suggest Gate to Phyrexia. It's a bit old, a little on the pricier side (under $10 but usually around $7) but it's the only source of black artifact removal and it can be punishing.
The other option is running a lot of Duress effects and picking out problem cards. However this requires a little bit of luck and a little bit of metagame knowledge of your playgroup.
@krichaiushii: Tower of the Magistrate looks pretty sick! I should look for that card. it also gives fear creatures an extra layer of unblockability will also look into distorting lens since it looks like a cheaper option.
@Guild McCommunist: I would love to have a Karn Liberated (and rings for that matter) but yeah, it's out of my price range. I do have a Spine of Ish Sah. Will look to include it in the deck. I have a question though, how do you get some run out of its 2nd ability from a mono-B deck? Or is that ability really more for situational purposes (aka after a boardwipe or something)?
I have a question though, how do you get some run out of its 2nd ability from a mono-B deck? Or is that ability really more for situational purposes (aka after a boardwipe or something)?
As osieorb said, Phyrexia's Core is a good option, but if you do consider adding Gate to Phyrexia, it's a small little combo. Sac a creature each turn to kill the Spine, recast the Spine to blow up another permanent. Works great with Ophiomancer (which I'd include in every black deck honestly, the card does amazing work) or other token producers (Ghoulcaller Gisa, Bloodline Keeper, etc).
I really suggest Gate to Phyrexia, even if it's a little bit pricey. It covers one of black's weaknesses and pretty well at that.
Updated the OP! It features a new decklist and a longer writeup, talking about how I arrived at this new decklist. Origins has sparked my interest in Magic again, which is why I've included Kothophed
(tl;dr of OP - basically, i made a demon deck using less demons)
Consume the Meek doesn't look very good to me. I'd rather have Mutilate, Crux of Fate, Life's Finale or something like that. They are no Damnation but they get the job done just as well most of the time.
I agree on Mutilate, but not actually on the others, at least not all the time.
Palace Siege is a dirt cheap underappreciated EDH gem you could try out. It's doing great work in my Liliana EDH, fetching back a creature each turn. You can even swap some of your removal spells to Merciless Executioners, Fleshbag Marauders and Bone Shredders for added synergy. They play nicely with Dictate of Erebos, which is also dirt cheap and very powerful.
I like the removal dudes, but 5 mana enchantments that don't pull their weight without significant support are a no-no in my book.
pfewwwww! That's a lot of Ob nixilis in two lines!
Yo dawg, I heard you like Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis with your Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis, so I put Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis with your Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis, so you can Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis while you Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis.
So I'm a returning Magic player who loves playing mono-B. When C14 dropped, I picked up Ob Nix immediately. I've gone back and forth a lot on what I want to do. I've toyed with a board control type (see spoiler below on "Death v1") but that didn't work because the deck didn't do much other than kill things. I've tried making demons a tribe (see spoiler below on "Demon Tribal") and while it was quite interesting to play, it felt too slow and it didn't really need Ob Nix as its commander. Like, I would go through some games without ever having to summon Ob Nix.
So thus, I arrived at my third main iteration. A deck I call...
Demon Gods.
How I arrived at this concept is pretty simple. I loved the demon tribal concept from my second build, but it just wasn't working. So in tweaking it, I tried a different take on what having a "Demon deck" means. I thought maybe, instead of having a ton of one type of creatures like you would normally see in other tribal decks, a demon deck is all about having these "demon gods" who would have minions doing their bidding until they finally arrive.
So I asked myself, thematically, what do demons stand for? I came up with two things: Knowledge and Death. And thus, I chose my Demon Gods accordingly:
Knowledge:
> Bloodgift Demon: gives you an extra card on your turn, at the cost of life
> Rune-Scarred Demon: gives you the card you need, at the cost of nothing
Death:
> Reaper from the Abyss: Kills something almost every turn
> Pestilence Demon: Wrath-like effect but hits your own creatures as well
> Reiver Demon: One-sided wrath
Then, for completeness sake, I added one last wrinkle: Life (or reanimation). I just generally enjoy playing with this mechanic and it complements the death-aspect of the deck, so I made it a subtheme. I sort of gave it its own demon in Abhorrent Overlord too.
With the stage set comes the final question: How does Ob Nix, the planeswalker, fit into all of this? Well, what does he do? Pooping out 5/5 flyers is great in 1v1, but in multiplayer, leaving him at 1 loyalty makes him way too easy to ping. In multiplayer though, his +2 gains you a ton of life and his emblem is ridiculous. Thus, a bunch of the spells I chose to fill out the deck tend to use life as a resource. This way, Ob Nix becomes a more essential piece as he can offset all the life I end up paying.
So after that long intro, here's the decklist. As always, I would appreciate feedback on this new build. But first, some caveats:
1. I'm a casual player and I always play in a 3+ player setting
2. I don't have an unlimited budget (no, I cannot afford super expensive cards like Damnation
3. I love flavor (and Black has flavor in spades!)
5 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Lands (37)
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Temple of the False God
31 Swamp
Creatures (26)
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Soldevi Adnate
2 Vampire Hexmage
3 Bog Witch
3 Bone Shredder
3 Burnished Hart
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Ophiomancer
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Hell's Caretaker
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Chainer, Dementia Master
5 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Magus of the Coffers
5 Shriekmaw
6 Dread
6 Grave Titan
6 Reaper from the Abyss
7 Abhorrent Overlord
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
8 Pestilence Demon
8 Reiver Demon
1 Sol Ring
2 Charcoal Diamond
2 Jet Medallion
2 Mind Stone
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Phyrexian Totem
3 Unstable Obelisk
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Lashwrithe
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
7 Elbrus, the Binding Blade
Sorceries (12)
1 Reanimate
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Profane Command
2 Sign in Blood
3 Ashes to Ashes
3 Read the Bones
3 Victimize
4 Dread Return
4 Mutilate
4 Syphon Mind
5 Promise of Power
9 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Tragic Slip
2 Malicious Affliction
2 Withering Boon
4 Tendrils of Corruption
5 Consume the Meek
5 Necrologia
Enchantments (4)
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Pestilence
4 Strands of Night
Planeswalkers (1)
5 Liliana Vess
PLAYSTYLE:
The way this deck plays is by constantly drawing cards, constantly killing creatures, and finishing your opponents off using your featured demons (or Ob Nix's 5/5's). And while I didn't want to put too much focus on reanimation, it's still there as back up plan in case of a well-timed board sweep. I think it has a pretty solid curve for a Demon deck at 3.79.
On the Bubble:
1. Spine of Ish Sah: for noncreature removal.
2. Underworld Connections: I don't own one yet but it would be useful, methinks
3. Gate to Phyrexia: I don't own one either, but it helps dealing with artifacts
4. Cabal Coffers: obvious reasons
5. Sorin Markov: Normally out of my price range but I was lucky enough to find one for cheap!!! I'm gonna get it next week. I don't know how to slot Sorin in though and I don't know which card I'll cut.
Changes from original Demon Gods decklist:
1.(+)Elbrus the Binding Blade / (-)Kothophed, Soul Hoarder: in the few games I've played, I was never really happy that Kothophed was in my hand or board and he's not a super reliable engine, really. I cut him for another flavorful card in Elbrus.
2.(+)Rise of the Dark Realms / (-)In Garruk's Wake: Traded one big splashy spell for another with the same CMC. RotDR is more impactful though and gives me another wincon.
3.(+)Phyrexian Totem / (-)Dark Ritual: decided to go for a more permanent mana rock
4.(+)Mutilate / (-)Shimian Specter: planning on cutting out the specters because it doesn't fit in with the flavor/theme. Mutilate works similar to a Damnation mid-late game and gets around protection and indestructible
5.(+)Bone Shredder / (-)Reckless Spite: traded one of my creature destruction spells from an instant to on a stick. Would rather have a Fleshbag Marauder to circumvent shroud/hexproof/indes but I don't have one yet.
6.(+)Phyrexian Reclamation / (-)Grim Return: decided to go with a more permanent type of recursion, even if it means giving up the ability to recur creatures that aren't mine.
7.(+)Charcoal Diamond / (-)Dark Prophecy: despite this being a demon deck, sacrifice isn't much of a central theme here and Dark Prophecy didn't do much. Decided to go with a mana rock to speed up my ramp
8.(+)Swamp / (-)Ebon Stronghold: doesn't come into play tapped.
5 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Lands (37)
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Everglades
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Temple of the False God
29 Swamp
Creatures (36)
1 Bloodsoaked Champion
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Soldevi Adnate
3 Bog Witch
3 Burnished Hart
3 Herald of Torment
3 Ophiomancer
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Demonlord of Ashmouth
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Chainer, Dementia Master
5 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
5 Ghoulcaller Gisa
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Indulgent Tormentor
5 Magus of the Coffers
5 Shadowborn Demon
5 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
6 Grave Titan
6 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
6 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
6 Reaper from the Abyss
6 Stronghold Overseer
6 Xathrid Demon
7 Abhorrent Overlord
7 Butcher of Malakir
7 Minion of Leshrac
7 Overseer of the Damned
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
8 Pestilence Demon
8 Reiver Demon
1 Sol Ring
2 Charcoal Diamond
2 Jet Medallion
2 Mind Stone
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Unstable Obelisk
3 Urza’s Incubator
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
7 Spine of Ish Sah
Sorceries (8)
1 Reanimate
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Profane Command
2 Sign in Blood
3 Read the Bones
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Dread Return
5 Promise of Power
Instants (2)
1 Dark Ritual
7 Fated Return
Enchantments (4)
3 Dark Prophecy
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Pestilence
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Liliana Vess
PLAYSTYLE:
PROs: The primary way this deck finds wins is via overwhelming board presence with huge demonic flyers. Even just having a couple of demons out can change the complexity of the game and this deck tries to pump as many of them out as possible. Pestilence really pulls its weight since usually, your creatures are bigger than your opponents. There are some token producers, although these cards are mainly there to be food or work as chump blockers.
CONs: The biggest problem of the deck is the curve (4.19). If you don't luck into a Medallion or Ritual early, it's extremely slow out the gate and takes a while to set up. And I don't know if this is good or not (although I'm guessing it's not) but this deck can win without its commander ever hitting the board. The reason I think that's bad is because it just means I'm wasting a (pretty important!) slot.
Overall, I scrapped this concept because while it's pretty satisfying when you win, the deck feels clunky overall. I really want to use Ob Nix as a commander and this deck doesn't really need him. It's interesting in concept, I'll give it that. Since demons aren't really synergistic, it's a challenge game-on-game to figure out how to win, which means each game ends up being its own unique story.
5 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Lands (37)
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Everglades
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Temple of the False God
29 Swamp
Mana Sources (11)
1 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
2 Charcoal Diamond
2 Jet Medallion
2 Talisman of Dominance
3 Bog Witch
3 Burnished Hart
3 Unstable Obelisk
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Crypt Ghast
5 Magus of the Coffers
Mass Removal (10)
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Mutilate
4 Pestilence
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
5 Aether Snap
5 Consume the Meek
5 Festering March
6 Midnight Banshee
8 Decree of Pain
8 Pestilence Demon
2 Doom Blade
2 Malicious Affliction
2 Plaguebearer
2 Terror
2 Vampire Hexmage
4 Nekrataal
4 No Mercy
5 Shriekmaw
6 Dread
6 Reaper from the Abyss
7 Overseer of the Damned
Reanimate (6)
1 Reanimate
3 Necromancy
3 Victimize
4 Dread Return
5 Chainer, Dementia Master
6 Soul of Innistrad
Draw (6)
3 Dark Prophecy
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Read the Bones
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Syphon Mind
5 Bloodgift Demon
Tutor (6)
1 Entomb
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Shred Memory
4 Dimir House Guard
5 Liliana Vess
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
2 Bad Moon
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Sudden Spoiling
4 Lashwrithe
4 Paragon of Open Graves
5 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
5 Ghoulcaller Gisa
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 Ascendant Evincar
6 Grave Titan
6 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
7 Abhorrent Overlord
PLAYSTYLE:
What this deck mainly does right now is watch things die lol. Aside from the obvious mass removals like O-Stone, cards like Pestilence, Ascendant Evincar, Midnight Banshee, Plaguebearer, No Mercy, etc. really seek to crowd control and prevent weenies from picking up too much steam. A few targeted removals like Terror take care of the creatures too big to be dealt with this way.
Win conditions are either swing with some big flyers when you have board advantage, or overrun with harpies and zombies when there are Bad Moon effects in play. There are some other shenanigans like Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Chainer, Dementia Master, or letting Pestilence go nuclear with a Magus of the Coffers, but those are situational more than anything.
When you have a mono colored commander, it is extremely hard not to fork out a bunch of cash to bump up the power and "flow."
There is also not really a theme to the deck. I would suggest looking around at other decks to see how people play with the new Ob nix.
If I were to build around him, I would focus it on a sacrifice creatures to profit kind of deck.
Hope I helped a little.
First big money priority: Cabal Coffers. It's an absolute champion in monoblack although it's much better with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
I'll second that your list needs more mana sinks. Black has a few staples in the form of Exsanguinate, Profane Command, and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. Most are very cheap, and highly recommended.
The big thing is to pick a focus. With Obi, you have a few options:
- Demon tribal with Obelisk of Urd, Cover of Darkness, Urza's Incubator, Bloodthirsty Ogre, Mark of the Oni, Bloodspeaker, and as many demons as you can find.
- Sacrifice for fun and profit, with sac outlets like Attrition, Viscera Seer, Skullclamp and Ashnod's Altar, punisher effects like Dictate of Erebos, Blood Artist, Massacre Wurm, and Grave Pact, and cheap fodder like Reassembling Skeleton and Grave Crawler.
- A "life-stealer" deck, with Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Urborg Syphon-Mage, and the previously listed drain effects.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
From your list, Talisman of Dominance is illegal, due to its blue mana symbol. Cabal Ritual or Bubbling Muck, perhaps?
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
The Sac-for-Profit looks pretty fun too, actually. I guess my concern with sac-for-profit is if I will be able to have enough creatures to sac for the strategy to be effective. Or if some of my creatures have hit the board, would I be willing to sac them? Generally, what happens in my playgroup is that the board becomes filled with an absolute mess of tokens (thanks to Soldier decks and Elf decks). Which is why in my experience, cards like Dictate of Erebos and the Butcher of Malakir have had minimal impact on the games I drew and played (which is why they eventually got cut). Plus, wouldn't it make more sense to have Ghoulcaller Gisa as my commander if i was running sac-for-profit instead of Obie?
A Lifegain/Extort deck seems like a really unsatisfying way to win. And hitting Obie's +2 to make Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood go infinite doesn't seem very fun for me either. Lol sorry
Also it triggers Swampwalk on your opponents. Get Filth in the graveyard for some extra fun. Hell, if you get Sheoldred, you can swing decently with her each turn.
Necropotence is legal as well.
I'd also consider Nykthos and Sorin Markov. Nykthos is the closest thing you get to a second Cabal Coffers and Sorin is just a lot of goodstuff on one card. His +2 can take out smaller trouble creatures, his -3 can easily win a game, and his -7 (if you even bother using it) makes for some great group shenanigans.
EDIT: Sorin might be a bit out of your price range but Nykthos is only like $2 now.
Also Kukusho is banned only as the commander of your deck, but you can play him legally anywhere else.
As for other cards, Ive found that Necropotence while amazing, lead to about as many death by Mindslavers as wins by a million cards.
Underworld Connections and Erebos, God of the Dead are very good card drawers. Dont over-look Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood as early plays.
My MVPs of the Game:
Pestilence and Gray Merchant of Asphodel really pulled their weight. Runner-up was Crypt Ghast which really helped get me going until it got destroyed.
Reason I Lost:
Nahiri deck had a protect-black equipment in Sword of Feast and Famine in play (and then later on, Masterwork of Ingenuity which copied the sword). Plus, the lifelink ability from Loxodon Warhammer had me eating 16 every turn while he gained a cool 11 life or something. Still, I felt like I could've won it.
How I Could've Won:
I held out pretty long despite eating so much damage per turn, thanks mostly to multiple Gray Merchant appearances. If I could've held a life lead (with Erebos, God of the Dead) though, I think I could've gone nuclear with Pestilence to close it out. Ob Nix got tucked but had he gone emblem, I think it would've changed the game as well.
Plaguebearer, Festering March, and Midnight Banshee seem lackluster, despite the Banshee feeding devotion nicely.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
I also got a couple of games in with the current Demon Tribal version. I can give a quick recap of those games a little later on as well
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Everglades
I'd suggest you pick up a Rings of Brighthearth... It's pretty nuts with the planeswalker commanders, and gets even better if and when you acquire fetches for the deck.
Anyway, in the games i've had recently, I've won and lost here and there and that's cool and all, but one thing i can't stand is protection from black!
I can take losing from being overrun by giant weenies or being blasted to the face or even by being "control"-ed out by blue decks. But pro-black? That to me is the most annoying way to go because there was just this one creature you couldn't block. It's even more of a pain to deal with when it's in equipment form (Sword of Feast and Famine), and your opponent is running a Nahiri, the Lithomancer who reanimates equipment. So even if I nev's disk or O-stone the sword, it'll come back pretty much the next turn.
so how do you guys think I could deal with pro-black? I mean, honestly, pro-black creatures (like Akroma), while they are a problem, are not even that bad because it's possible to get rid of them with mass removals. It's really the equipment and the reanimation of it that is the biggest problem.
One thought I've had is going with Fear effects (Dirge of Dread or Cover of Darkness, if I find one) so that it becomes a race of "who can kill whom fsster", but is there another way? A black tuck spell I don't know about? A "remove artifact/permanent from the game" type card?
Tower of the Magistrate grants protection to any creature, like the one swinging at you, so the equipment drops off.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
Also if you're having issue with artifacts like SoFaF, then I'd suggest Gate to Phyrexia. It's a bit old, a little on the pricier side (under $10 but usually around $7) but it's the only source of black artifact removal and it can be punishing.
The other option is running a lot of Duress effects and picking out problem cards. However this requires a little bit of luck and a little bit of metagame knowledge of your playgroup.
@Guild McCommunist: I would love to have a Karn Liberated (and rings for that matter) but yeah, it's out of my price range. I do have a Spine of Ish Sah. Will look to include it in the deck. I have a question though, how do you get some run out of its 2nd ability from a mono-B deck? Or is that ability really more for situational purposes (aka after a boardwipe or something)?
Phyrexia's Core, for one.
I really suggest Gate to Phyrexia, even if it's a little bit pricey. It covers one of black's weaknesses and pretty well at that.
(tl;dr of OP - basically, i made a demon deck using less demons)
I agree on Mutilate, but not actually on the others, at least not all the time.
While I agree on the synergy/flavor aspect, I disagree on the card being weak.
I like the removal dudes, but 5 mana enchantments that don't pull their weight without significant support are a no-no in my book.
pfewwwww! That's a lot of Ob nixilis in two lines!
Yo dawg, I heard you like Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis with your Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis, so I put Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis with your Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis, so you can Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis while you Ob Nixilis and Ob Nixilis.
Thanks! Glad I could help out