MTG Salvation

Well, hello and welcome to my first attempt at a mono-black Drana decklist. I'm trying to get into a more competitive playgroup and sadly two of them are playing Azusa, Lost but seeking so it'd be awesome to speed the huge/infinite mana combos up. My budget is pretty big but it does exist (I'm not skipping out on my son's school supplies to get a Candelabra for one) so any suggestions are much appreciated.



Considered cards:

Skullclamp: Nice card draw and I have the recurrable creatures to keep bouncing in, if I got it in there though, I'd also want...

Bitterblossom: Nice fodder for many cards, SkullClamp, Contamination, etc.

Wurmcoil Engine: Infinite fun with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle. I could do the same with Grave Titan

So, let me know what you think, I just want to be competitive in my local meta.

Geth, Lord of the Vault should find a way in there (could probably cut Ink-Eyes, since Geth doesn't need to do damage and can get artifacts), and I would make room for Bitterblossom, it is worth a spot. I'd also make room for Karn Liberated, as he can deal with things that you typically have difficulty with. I'm also not a fan of Dark Ritual in EDH, I think a cheap mana rock of some sort would be better as it can be reused. You could probably run a few more utility lands like Vesuva (great in general, but copying Coffers is epic), Thawing Glaciers, Volrath's Stronghold, Bojuka Bog, High Market, Wasteland (or a budget version like Dust Bowl or Tectonic Edge), etc. Some of those lands are expensive, though, so I understand if you aren't running them for budget reasons. But Volrath's Stronghold is pretty much a staple, really try to at least get that if you can. Also, find a place for Praetor's Grasp, it's amazing.

If you run Rings of Brighthearth and Deserted Temple it makes infinite mana with Cabal Coffers. Activate Deserted Temple target Coffers. Rings triggers, pay to to copy the untap ability, this time targeting Deserted Temple. You end up with an untapped Coffers and Temple and then you can float more mana off coffers.

Harvester of Souls is crazy good in any deck with as much removal as yours.

Spine of Ish Sah and All Is Dust are necessary evils in mono-black. You have to run any card that can handle artifacts and enchantments.

Massacre Wurm is another great card. Wipes out token decks completely. Wurm plus board wipe can give you another win con in the event of stalemate.

Batterskull is pretty good in decks that can generate the mana to use it properly. Also acts as an (expensive) token generator.

Quote from EnemyWithin

Geth, Lord of the Vault should find a way in there (could probably cut Ink-Eyes, since Geth doesn't need to do damage and can get artifacts), and I would make room for Bitterblossom, it is worth a spot. I'd also make room for Karn Liberated, as he can deal with things that you typically have difficulty with. I'm also not a fan of Dark Ritual in EDH, I think a cheap mana rock of some sort would be better as it can be reused. You could probably run a few more utility lands like Vesuva (great in general, but copying Coffers is epic), Thawing Glaciers, Volrath's Stronghold, Bojuka Bog, High Market, Wasteland (or a budget version like Dust Bowl or Tectonic Edge), etc. Some of those lands are expensive, though, so I understand if you aren't running them for budget reasons. But Volrath's Stronghold is pretty much a staple, really try to at least get that if you can. Also, find a place for Praetor's Grasp, it's amazing.

In testing, Geth has actually come off slower in most instances, he's not bad by any means but I haven't had any instances in which he just completely shifted the power of the game like I have with Ink-Eyes, Ninjitsu paired with recurrable creatures is pretty beastly. As for the utility lands, I love being told the ones I need as there are sets I certainly missed out on. Wasteland might be something I reserve for a bit later but the rest are doable pretty much right away so I appreciate that.

Praetor's Grasp has received mix feelings from me as usually I end up having to steal one of their mana artifacts and nothing else since my meta is extremely green heavy. Azusa is a dick.

Quote from XeroxedFool

If you run Rings of Brighthearth and Deserted Temple it makes infinite mana with Cabal Coffers. Activate Deserted Temple target Coffers. Rings triggers, pay to to copy the untap ability, this time targeting Deserted Temple. You end up with an untapped Coffers and Temple and then you can float more mana off coffers.

I didn't even realize that, definitely picking that one up, thanks for the assist and prompt replies.

Quote from v0rac10u5

Harvester of Souls is crazy good in any deck with as much removal as yours.

Spine of Ish Sah and All Is Dust are necessary evils in mono-black. You have to run any card that can handle artifacts and enchantments.

Massacre Wurm is another great card. Wipes out token decks completely. Wurm plus board wipe can give you another win con in the event of stalemate.

Batterskull is pretty good in decks that can generate the mana to use it properly. Also acts as an (expensive) token generator.

I actually have all of those except Batterskull in a sideboard of sorts as I never see any token decks (I've literally never played one)
Harvester of Souls might be pretty good in my deck as it is extremely elf heavy so the creatures are there, I just couldn't find a slot for it.

Spine of Ish Sah and All is Dust, honestly, Balthor seems to be the only way my deck could bounce back from All is Dust and he's not there. Spine of Ish Sah is some pretty pricy removal and I don't know exactly what to remove for it.

Wurmcoil, well I never see token decks and by the time it rears it's ugly head they've got enough Elf Captains to +1 them out of harms way.

You might want Gauntlet of Power. Did you exclude that for a reason? I see you have the other mana doublers for black. There is also Extraplanar Lense. It can double all swamps and if you run Snow-Covered Swamp it will double only your swamps.

If you find room for them then Geth will look a little stronger. I've lived in the dream of Gething people, having them mill stronger stuff, and then Gething them again lol.

I don't run Extraplanar lens because I never seem to have an excess of land in my hand, usually I'm struggling to get the ones I have. Gauntlet of Power was in the original build, but in so many cases it helped my opponent out more than myself because the next turn they hae a big shiny mana doubler that they don't have to pay for.

I definitely see Geth's value, but he seems to work much better in the mono black Oona I'm working on.

Extraplanar Lense exiles a land in play not a land in hand. If you have trouble making land drops have you considered Liliana of the Dark Realms, Journeyer's Kite, or Armilliary Sphere?

With Liliana, if you have urborg out can you search for any land?

putting an Umbral Mantle on Magus of the Coffers with 5 swamps in play can also provide infinite mana and a really big Magus.

Quote from Poecifer

With Liliana, if you have urborg out can you search for any land?

I feel like it won't work that way, because your non-swamp lands in your library will not be swamps until they hit the battlefield.

I ran Drana for a while and enjoyed it. All three of the artifact mana doublers made it into the deck because it can never hurt with Drana. A) It's more Removal, B) It makes her bigger, C) it's more removal. The only thing I didn't have for that was the Zendikar Shade that also doubles mana.

Spine of Ish Sah is a very underrated card. Yes, it costs 7 mana, but it's a recurring colorless Vindicate. Phyrexia's Core only makes it better.