Welcome to my page of He Who Hungers. This is my personal take on HWH and is by no way the world of god. If you are intending on a hyper competitive deck I suggest you keep looking as this is not this list. I really value feedback and hope that with the help of all of you, I can keep improving this deck and turn it into the beauty it deserves to be. So please ask questions and suggest cards, I’d love to hear them. This deck is particularly semi-spirits tribal discard based monoblack control. You might be able to take He Who Hungers in a different direction than I currently have and I’d be very interested in hearing about the different direction. Feel free to browse my lists and explanations of cards and hit me up with any questions.
Why You might like the Hungry One:
He who Hungers is a very unusual commander. It is one card that even my friends who played during Kamigawa need to ask wait who is that and then proceed to pass the card around the table so they can read He Who Hungers.
In Standard and Modern you really enjoy the card thoughtseize. With He Who Hungers you have a thoughtsieze who’s price is a spirit creature not 2 life.
You enjoy tribal base for your deck. He Who Hungers needs a tribal base to allow you to abuse his ability.
You like playing control through resource denial. Who needs blue and its counterspells when the opponent has no hand to play with or a field of creatures on the field to attack with.
Why would you might not like the Hungry One:
Being Monocolored limits card options and leads you to some more interesting card choices.
You like a more goodstuff commander. He Who Hungers tailors to a semi specific card pool and doesn’t play as well as other commanders to goodstuff.dec
You want to combo off. The deck can combo but it isn’t an infinite combo and that’s not my plan for the deck.
Alternative Options:
Erebos, God of the Dead: A powerful monoblack control commander. The fact that he is indestructible and prevents life gain allows for easier attrition. He is very powerful and I have been planning to test him in this deck as he is that powerful. The other benefit he offers than He Who Hungers does is he has a draw effect stapled onto him. However, Erebos lends himself to a more good stuff mono black control rather than discard control. Greel, Mind Raker: The closest thing to He Who Hungers with exception of the other black kamigawa spirts. This spellshaper is incredibility powerful wehn combine with enough draw power. However Greel doesn't offer the spirit base that He who Hungers offers. Toshiro Umezawa: A spellslinging Samurai that offers a very different type of control the benefits more from death of opponents creatures than your own. The deck offers more spell based control with pseudo flashback on instants. He has sparked your intrest Look at ISBPathfinder's list here. Nath of the Gilt-Leaf: So to branch out of MonoBlack we find Nath, the best discard commander out there according to most. It also has tribal support just like he who hungers but rather than spirits Nath uses Elves to further his boardstate control rather than spirits. Nath also typically relies more on mana disruption and hand disruption than the sacrifice control and hand hate that He who hungers does.
Akuta, Born of Ash: A self-recurring spirit but comes at a fairly heavy cost, a swamp. I typically let this hit the graveyard and stay there but in a pinch it can be recurred with is always nice. Balthor the Defiled: A nice little mass recursion which often onlt help me and maybe one other player. With a Karador, Ghost Chieftain that abuses the graveyard or any other reanimating decks this card can be iffy at best but I’ve found I typically get more benefit from it than they do as I remove their grave by dumign it onto the field. Blood Artist: The deck involves a lot of sacrifice effects of our own creatures and this offers us a decent life buffer as majority of our draw effects take a large chunk of our life total. It also turns opponents away from wrathing the board. Bloodghast: The number one, the All-star, ect. This little vampire spirit goes by many names in my deck but he is the real MPV as he recurs himself manalessly. The landfall triggers nearly every turn to allow me to abuse him for sacrifice effects such as He who Hungers. My praises can’t do this little guy justice.
Burnished Hart: Cheap and easy ramp for a deck that likes a lot of mana and involves a lot of mana doublers for swamps. Crypt Ghast: Speaking of mana doublers, Crypt Ghast is probably one of my favorites mana doublers for the fact he is a spirit. He also has extort stapled onto him which also allows us to slowly drain opponents of life while paying for all our draw spells. Fallen Angel: This is kind of a pet card that serves as an alternative sacrifice outlet. This gives us a quick way to aggro someone to death. It makes combat math for opponents somewhat difficult not being a symmetrical boost. Graveborn Muse: One spirit version of Phyrexian Arena please. Okay thanks. It scales nicely as Waste Not often dumps out several Zombie tokens as we force discard on opponents. Side Note/Warning: This Muse drains your life a lot. I often save a kill spell in case of too much life draining. Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Standard’s wincon becomes EDH’s Nightmare. Not that nightmare but more of Nightmare It is basically Coco Puffs but scales harder and finishes more games. Iname, Death Aspect: The other commander I thought about for this deck. Iname dumps all our spirits in the yard which allows Balthor the Defiled to pump them all on to the field. He also is a nice size to block random beaters. Kagemaro, First to Suffer: My resident boardwipe. He is a spirit which is also a very nice benefit. This deck keeps our hand fairly full and allows us to keep opponents wary of when we are going to wipe the field. I find that he wipes only was a last resort or early on before things become threating as often our creatures come right back being spirits and stuff. Kokusho, the Evening Star: Coco Puffs, nightmare of kamigawa block and of most EDHer’s dreams. The fact that we typically play in pods of 3 other opponetns makes use gain 15 life while dropping everyone an eighth of their starting life, Like I Mentioned before this deck is very life hungry and what better to satisfy that life than some good ol’ Cocopuffs. I mean Im Cuckoo for coco puffs. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Dark Mike, our lonely dead priest that allows us to give our spirits undying, something that they should already have, ya know, being spirits and all. But furthermore he also adds 3 devotion which is always a good thing. Normally this card is more of a power card in monoblack but in our deck he takes a more supporting role. Nether Traitor: With bloodghast our superhero of the deck, nether traitor is his sidekick. Nether traitor actually with Bloodghast can chain death triggers. By just paying one you can return this little guy after the death of bloodghast so I often see both of them 2 times each. Nether Shadow: Of the 3, 2 Converted Mana Costed spirits this guy is the dork of the trio. He is the reason we can’t reorganize our graveyard and but the most costless of the returning however infrequently he does show up. Patron of the Nezumi: This guys is kind of a filler card in most matches but against self-mill decks he ruins their day. He is a very high CMC Spirit but he hurts like a truck when mill decks are involved. Pawn of Ulamog: This may just be a pet card but this guy allows us to get a bunch of tokens that can be sacked for mana. The best part is he sees everything lose in effect like Wrath of god. Rune-Scarred Demon: Our demonic tutor on a stick. He is fun with any reanimation spell or effect that you may have and I’ve never been upset to draw hiom unless its in the first 3 turns and I needed land. He is a universal tutor with an overlylarge body, what is not to love? Sadistic Hypnotist: He who Hungers 2.0 He is less specific on what creature he sacrifices to use his effect but is also less specific on what cards he takes out of opponent’s hands. Undercity Informer: Our secondary wincon. He enables us to use milling as a win condition which helps as atleast I have a mill deck in my regular playgroup. Even if you don’t have a mill deck in your group you can become that mill deck everyone hates/loves out of nowhere.
Caged Sun: Caged sun is a contained mana doubler. The +1/+1 doesn’t help us as much as other decks like that little boost as we prefer our creatures skullclampable. The mana doubling however helps us more than clamping as we can sacrifice our clampables to our loving commander. Extraplanar Lens: My least favorite of my mana doublers but it also comes out first on the curve. I still play it as sure it may exile a swamp but enables us the ability to have 6 mana on turn 4 which typically means you drop another mana doubler. Gauntlet of Power: And the most balanced mana doubler in my honest opinion. This card is the whole reason I don’t run urborg, tomb of yawgmoth in my deck. I don’t need others being able to tap for double black or double colorless. Now I will talk aobut this more in the lands section but I also avoided snow-covered swamps as half my regular playgroup uses them and I don’t need to give the players who have their decks more balanced and tuned to have more advantage than the little guy. Geth's Grimoire: Our main draw engine that doesn’t require life for use to draw cards. We normally have everyone discard a decent amount of cards every few turns typically when this or waste not is out to give us more advantage over every opponent. Typically this receives less hate than waste not and I feel that my opponents don’t often understand that This is more powerful as it draws us everytime rather than every 1/3 rd time. Illusionist's Bracers: Allows us to two for one each of our spirits sacrificed. It often is a win more card but when behind it can churn us a lot of advantage which allows us to come back into the race. Jet Medallion: One of our like 3 mana rocks. I often feel like I should be running more mana rocks but this one rock if we land it makes it so I normally don’t need any mana rocks. The 1 mana off all our spells sans artifacts helps this deck curve better. Nothing better than a turn one [c ]Sol ring[/c] into this. Lashwrithe: our one card that is abused with the fact He who hungers flies. This one card allows us to make He into the flying nightmare that he deserves to be. Often this gives He a +7 to +9 boost boost enabling him to 2 hit most oppoents for commander damage. Lightning Greaves: Our better boots are in the deck to enable a bit of haste when needed. These typically are normally never used but once in a while the boots make the difference between life and death for us and I have cut them before and been sad when I don’t have them. Noetic Scales: our static boardwiper. As we limit opponents’ hands they often will only have 1 – 2 powered creatures out which we easily fight off. However this does allow them to reuse ETB effect which can play against us at times but normally we are able to force enough discard to limit their options. Skullclamp: With bloodghast, nether traitor, and nether shadow in the deck Skullclamp becomes just a Divination and who doesn’t love that? Sol Ring: arguably the best man rock in the game so why not included it? It often enables a broken turn 3 or turn 4 play that cripples opponents drastically so what’s not to love?
I have now updated He Who Hungers and I love this deck. It started off as a budget Spirits tribal in Monoblack and has become of my groups least favorite decks to play against as it is Monoblack stax and discard. The deck has evolved away from the spirits tribal but still remains it at the core as I love He who Hungers so much I had him altered into a Hungry Hungry Hippo (the pink one). I personally love this deck to the end of the earth and was interested in what People thought I should change/add in to make it better. I really don't care how hated it is as it only comes out every once in a while when I get tired of playing my other decks.
I actually don't run the Black myojin due to my playgroup hates it and if you cast it, no matter the who's the biggest threat, you become public enemy #1. I really do appreciate the suggestion thought.
I dropped: Grave Titan: It was a very fun card that still is one of my favorites but Was very lack luster in the deck. The zombies almost never helped and more often hurt me due to Graveborn Muse. I replaced it with Exquisite Blood because I am often the reason I die often. The deck takes a lot of life to pilot and I need more life gain. Soot Imp: Wasn't pulling its weight. It often would make the one storm player hurt but never really helped me as much as I wanted. I cut it for Rune-Scarred Demon as I could always use another tutoring effect and a beater is always welcome with the Exquisite Blood I mentioned I added. Krovikan Horror: This guy made it to my hand a lot but never made more of an effect. I decided with my mana issues I've had recently with the deck I'd add in a swamp in place to offset my issues. Cruel Deceiver: Artifact decks have become an issue for me recently and with blacks limited removal for artifacts I figured I'd pick up the permanent version to remove artifacts Gate to Phyrexia. Deciever was removed as it was really weak but was foily so it survived longer than most cuts. Mimic Vat: Never really drew it and another deck wanted it. So i tossed in Boseiju, Who Shelters All because I don't like getting countered.
More recently I decided I might as well start typing up the text to apply for primership on this deck as it is has been one of my favorite decks to play in recent times. I am still really looking for improvement ideas for the deck as it could always improve. Stay tuned for my nice block of text on how to play the deck and individual card decsions that I plan to have typed up tonight or in reality by end of week.
Bummer about the lack of ideas for the deck hut I really appreciate the thoughts on my alter. Once I built the deck I realized the pun I could make and couldn't hold back.
If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
So I've been mulling ovea coiple cards for testingnand would love some feed back on people's thoughts on them.
rain of filth: I have been eyeing this card as a finisher for a while. I'm unsure if I'd want to run it but it would ina finishing postion make for me up to 12 mana which has been the diffrence before of finishing the game or killing all but one person.
exsanguinate: the classic big black finishing peice. I think I might add it back in not as a finish card but rather as another life buffer.
erebos, god of the dead: the precention of lifegain seems like mm it could make a huge diffrence when it comes to controling people. I'm not sure why I don't have one in here now. Gotta find one now.
no Mercy: Im not sure if this would help me or not. With my playgroup being either combo or battle cruiser Im not 100% sure if this would make a ton of difference as with the battlecrusiser they normally wait to swing to kill you at once. It seems liek it would help a lot but Im not sure. I really want people's opinions on this card in particular.
Anyother card suggestions are extremely welcomed and I am continueing to write about the individual card inclusions and about how to play the deck. If you guys want me to write more about aomething or clarify it in greater detaol let me know.
Fallen Angel has always been a pet card. It serves as a interesting way to mess with players heads during combat as it changes how much damage I can get throughout at times but I have been thinking of replacing him with something else as I have found its a personal card not a particularity great card. Dimir House guard is a a card I always forget about.... yeah I'm thinking I m going to swap the two as that would probably be the better card.
Necropotence is in the deck.... yet not on my list..... hmmmmmm I'll fix that... as you the smaller draw spells I use to run sign in blood but found I prefered more permanent sources of draw but I think i might toss ambition's cost back in as it was the balance of a permanent source in card amount while giving me the imedate help.
as for conspiracy that was actually one of the first cards I considered when making it a sprits tribal deck. It worked occasionally but lacked the synergy and flavor that the actual spirits lend. Typically I have enough spirits to trigger He who hungers's ability as I have the 3stooges.
I'd definitely suggest giving the 2 CMC draw spells another chance - I actually moved away from Phyrexian Arena and co. with my deck and kept the small draw spells as they generate card advantage a lot more quickly and with much less investment in terms of mana and time.
I'll look into this with tonight's game. I have been feeling phyrexian arena has been underwhelming recently in comparison to Geth's Grimoire and waste not. I will pick up a Night's whisper and then test the two in the deck. I have a feeling that you are correct in that they will help me quicker and overall that should be more powerful. As I noted earlier I ran Sign in blood in the earliest draft of this deck but then I realized after I posted that, When I ran the early draft if was more of a good stuff tribal deck than the control I have been aiming the deck toward in more recent times.
As for pet cards, I love Nether shadow and yeah he is kind of a pet card also in addition to the angel but I think Im going to drop my pet card for the fact I am thinking I might try for primer status after I finish typing everything up.
I'd definitely suggest giving the 2 CMC draw spells another chance - I actually moved away from Phyrexian Arena and co. with my deck and kept the small draw spells as they generate card advantage a lot more quickly and with much less investment in terms of mana and time.
So last Night I played 3 games with He who hungers. I managed fairly well the first 2 games but lost and the 3rd game I had a nice blowout as I landed a turn three ill-gotten gains with a waste not out. Over the course of my games, I realized that your advice of small draw spells really helped. I took out my Phyrexian arena man did wonders happen. Sure the devotion that arena adds was missed when I dropped Gary but otherwise the immediate draw spells did wonders.
The other card that I tested last night was Erebos, god of the dead. So I need to just drop the 5 dollars on him now as holy hippos did he do work... I had a friend cast sphinx's revelation with X= 20. Had he gained the life I wouldn't have been able to beat him. Sadly I often have the devotion to him which makes him a tad more fragile in a format of path to exile and swords to plowshares but the prevention of life loss was great last night.
I just added mindslicer, howltooth hollow, and Sangromancer into a cart to test out as they seem fairly effective at helping me keep control of the board. I am curious to see what others think about them and also about read the bones and disciple of bolas in the deck. I feel that they all could be added in but I need to do some testing but am curious to see how others have felt about them in similar black control decks.
Its a change list time! Testing is over and I have settled on my list a bit more. The list above is up to date and once I finish with card choices for enchantments I will Update the rest of the card choices to the new cards. But without further adu here is the changes and rational behind them:
Change Log Entry 2/26
Removed: Illusionist's Bracers: The card was only ever good with He Who Hungers and often I already have each opponent with no hand so it lost its effectiveness and was very dispensable. Lashwrithe: With a rash increase of Maze of ith in my meta to account for the rise of voltron decks lashwirthe has lost its effectiveness. Lightning Greaves: Was needed in other decks and didn't offer a ton to the deck. Profane Command: It had a lot of utility but never wowed me. I majority of the time used it for the reanimate effect so i replaced with with dread return as that is often better. Syphon Mind: Replaced for smaller draw effects Infernal Darkness: wasn't ever played so replaced for smaller draw effects Shrieking Affliction: This damage almost never got through to was cut. Phyrexian Arena: Replaced for Necropotence for immediate impact Fallen Angel: Replaced for smaller CMC sac creature Undercity Informer: Mill never really helped.
3xSwamp: Was getting flooded/ Never needed that much land.
So I picked up a Karn liberated and am looking for cards to cut. Anyone have any ideas?
EDIT: I also realized I forgot to mention I am interested in Hellfire as a substitute for damnation as it is too expensive. What are poeple's reaction to hellfire?
Added: Karn liberated: Karn offers a lot of removal opportunities especially for enchantments. Sacrifice: Allows for once I start comboing to continue the combo as the deck is really mana hungry. Ashnod's Altar: For similar reasons as above. Expedition map: Tutors up nykthos or coffers giving us more mana.
Removed: dark prophecy: Often didnt help long term espically since I added the smaller draw spells. Megrim: expensive for what it does. Bloodchief ascension: Often got targeted once people saw this card. It wasnt worth the stigma it carries Crypt of Agadeem: was just a weak card. I wanted to see if it could be decent. It wasnt.
I would run a couple more nonbasics, expecially now that you have the map to tutor them. I know that they don't combo well with Coffers, but you can add a lot of useful stuff like Bojuka Bog, Volrath Stronghold, Urborg, etc.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Diabolic Intent are useful tutors. You have enough spare bodies to sac it seems. I also run Shred Memory in my Sygg deck and it's doing some serious work there; it can fetch waste not, the recurring spirits, exsanguinate or a piece of removal (you can maybe add Black Sun's Zenith or Profane Command for some extra targets). Sometimes it also "counters" a reanimation spell or some recursion trick, which is a nice bonus.
Snuff Out is free removal and can be fetched by the house guard.
Okay so in editing my last update, I realized I never replied to your post but did type something up for it so I apologize greatly.
Midnight Banshee and Morkrut Banshee both were in my list at some point but I never got physical cards of them and they just disappeared out of my mind due to that. I am picking them up as we speak.
Snuff Out was a card I use to run in here but cut in my 1st draft back a year ago when I realized I was going through too much life to cast spells and abilities. Im going to retest it now that i have more lifegain effects so thanks for reminding me of this too!
Volrath Stronghold and Diabolic Intent are ones that I have been trying to pick up on Pucatrade recently so hopefully someone will send me them soon but until then I will forgo dropping cash on them.
Okay so I have been playing this deck like nuts recently and man I have changed the list quite a bit. The OP is updated with the new list but I am currently working on adjusting my lands back to the right ratio of 34-36 lands so bear with me while I do that. But the chnages to the deck were the following:
Basically the deck got a bit of an overhaul in attempting to keep pace with my increasingly speedy meta. I still can hose combo fair well especially with the re-inclusion of Toxic Deluge on top of the addition to more target removal on top of Control elements with Midnight Banshee to help combat the token strategies that have been popping up in my meta.
I am not going to talk about every card in this update because half of the changes were just that was what seemed fun when I was putting the list back together. I may have more details on the cards added when I get to typing up their individual inclusion. But the Notable Cards have been:
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: This allows for many of our spirits to get sacked for value and then they autorecur. This allows us to play more aggressive at stripping our opponents hand while maintaining our board presence.
Asylum Visitor: The Lone include from the Shadows block but its not hard to have opponents hellbent so why not get advantage from it?
Hey Ulka, just dropping in to say that I like your list a lot; your input in the Akuta thread helped me find some powerful options for a discard-centric EDH deck. I do have a couple of questions for you:
-What would you say is your most common way of winning? Grind down your opponents' answers and set up a table-killing Gray Merchant of Asphodel? A well-timed Living Death? Do you just lose all the time?
-Do you ever find yourself struggling to establish an engine with your recursive creatures (Bloodghast, Nether Whatevers, Akuta)? I ask this one because I'm still having this problem with Akuta. Was curious as to how you go about setting it up - it may give me ideas.
Hey Ulka, just dropping in to say that I like your list a lot; your input in the Akuta thread helped me find some powerful options for a discard-centric EDH deck. I do have a couple of questions for you:
-What would you say is your most common way of winning? Grind down your opponents' answers and set up a table-killing Gray Merchant of Asphodel? A well-timed Living Death? Do you just lose all the time?
-Do you ever find yourself struggling to establish an engine with your recursive creatures (Bloodghast, Nether Whatevers, Akuta)? I ask this one because I'm still having this problem with Akuta. Was curious as to how you go about setting it up - it may give me ideas.
Keep up the good work.
Aww thanks!
Typically I win via Large amounts of Black Mana and either a Grey Merchant after a Balthor the defiled or Living Death but recently I've also started to win from just overwhelming people with value from my 3 Stooges Bloodghast, Nether Shadow, and Nether Traitor but they aren't the only ones providing value anymore since I added Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker which allows other creatures to help me set up a sacrifice engine. I have been finding it hard at times to get the engine online and that it can be disrupted easily with a well placed Bojuka Bog but thats half the fun. The deck can play around the hate effects and while its challenging to win through hate at times, it is possible.
To set up my engine typically I will keep any hand that involves one of the stooges, Waste Not, Entomb, Buried Alive or Dark Deal so that I can get one of the stoogies in the yard early game (up to turn 5) and then I focus on making as much value out of the bodies as I go. Note: when I Buried Alive I only grab Nether Shadow and Bloodghast of the stoogies as Nether Traitor is more effective on his own and I don't want to risk all 3 to a grave hate effect. Other cards the help establish an engine are Banshee of the Dread Choir and Iname, Death Aspect. Again with Inname only ever grab the 2 as we need some sort of backup plan unless you can Gray Merchant that turn for lethal.
I have found that a card I have wanted back in is Hatred as it allows for a surprise kill with He who Hungers but I will try to add that once I get my lands situated.
Im looking at each card to address the fact I have needed more awnsers and wincons. I feel the deck loses steam to quickly at times and needed a correct for this. I am also looking at uping my land count to 33 as my curve is getting higher and higher. Im currently looking at adding:
Anicent Tomb: I have had a copy for a long time but realised I never ran it in the list. Ash Barrens: the land cycling seems nice but also the fact it doesnt come into play tapped.
Welcome to my page of He Who Hungers. This is my personal take on HWH and is by no way the world of god. If you are intending on a hyper competitive deck I suggest you keep looking as this is not this list. I really value feedback and hope that with the help of all of you, I can keep improving this deck and turn it into the beauty it deserves to be. So please ask questions and suggest cards, I’d love to hear them. This deck is particularly semi-spirits tribal discard based monoblack control. You might be able to take He Who Hungers in a different direction than I currently have and I’d be very interested in hearing about the different direction. Feel free to browse my lists and explanations of cards and hit me up with any questions.
Why You might like the Hungry One:
Alternative Options:
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Caged Sun
1 Expedition Map
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Geth's Grimoire
1 Jet Medallion
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Noetic Scales
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
Spirit Creatures (14)
1 Akuta, Born of Ash
1 Ashen-Skin Zubera
1 Banshee of the Dread Choir
1 Bloodghast
1 Chilling Apparition
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Iname, Death Aspect
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Midnight Banshee
1 Nether Shadow
1 Nether Traitor
1 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
1 Asylum Visitor
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Blood Artist
1 Burnished Hart
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Mindslicer
1 Pawn of Ulamog
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Sangromancer
Enchantment (8)
1 Animate Dead
1 Black Market
1 Grave Pact
1 Gate to Phyrexia
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Liliana's Caress
1 Necropotence
1 Waste Not
Instant (5)
1 Dismember
1 Entomb
1 Murderous Cut
1 Victim of Night
1 Wake the Dead
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
Sorcery (16)
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Buried Alive
1 Dark Deal
1 Death Cloud
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Dread Return
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Living Death
1 Mutilate
1 Night's Whisper
1 Patriarch's Bidding
1 Read the Bones
1 Sign in Blood
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Victimize
Land (31)
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 High Market
1 Howltooth Hollow
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 Swamp
1 He Who Hungers
Individual Card Choices
Balthor the Defiled: A nice little mass recursion which often onlt help me and maybe one other player. With a Karador, Ghost Chieftain that abuses the graveyard or any other reanimating decks this card can be iffy at best but I’ve found I typically get more benefit from it than they do as I remove their grave by dumign it onto the field.
Blood Artist: The deck involves a lot of sacrifice effects of our own creatures and this offers us a decent life buffer as majority of our draw effects take a large chunk of our life total. It also turns opponents away from wrathing the board.
Bloodghast: The number one, the All-star, ect. This little vampire spirit goes by many names in my deck but he is the real MPV as he recurs himself manalessly. The landfall triggers nearly every turn to allow me to abuse him for sacrifice effects such as He who Hungers. My praises can’t do this little guy justice.
Burnished Hart: Cheap and easy ramp for a deck that likes a lot of mana and involves a lot of mana doublers for swamps.
Crypt Ghast: Speaking of mana doublers, Crypt Ghast is probably one of my favorites mana doublers for the fact he is a spirit. He also has extort stapled onto him which also allows us to slowly drain opponents of life while paying for all our draw spells.
Fallen Angel: This is kind of a pet card that serves as an alternative sacrifice outlet. This gives us a quick way to aggro someone to death. It makes combat math for opponents somewhat difficult not being a symmetrical boost.
Graveborn Muse: One spirit version of Phyrexian Arena please. Okay thanks. It scales nicely as Waste Not often dumps out several Zombie tokens as we force discard on opponents. Side Note/Warning: This Muse drains your life a lot. I often save a kill spell in case of too much life draining.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Standard’s wincon becomes EDH’s Nightmare. Not that nightmare but more of Nightmare It is basically Coco Puffs but scales harder and finishes more games.
Iname, Death Aspect: The other commander I thought about for this deck. Iname dumps all our spirits in the yard which allows Balthor the Defiled to pump them all on to the field. He also is a nice size to block random beaters.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer: My resident boardwipe. He is a spirit which is also a very nice benefit. This deck keeps our hand fairly full and allows us to keep opponents wary of when we are going to wipe the field. I find that he wipes only was a last resort or early on before things become threating as often our creatures come right back being spirits and stuff.
Kokusho, the Evening Star: Coco Puffs, nightmare of kamigawa block and of most EDHer’s dreams. The fact that we typically play in pods of 3 other opponetns makes use gain 15 life while dropping everyone an eighth of their starting life, Like I Mentioned before this deck is very life hungry and what better to satisfy that life than some good ol’ Cocopuffs. I mean Im Cuckoo for coco puffs.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Dark Mike, our lonely dead priest that allows us to give our spirits undying, something that they should already have, ya know, being spirits and all. But furthermore he also adds 3 devotion which is always a good thing. Normally this card is more of a power card in monoblack but in our deck he takes a more supporting role.
Nether Traitor: With bloodghast our superhero of the deck, nether traitor is his sidekick. Nether traitor actually with Bloodghast can chain death triggers. By just paying one you can return this little guy after the death of bloodghast so I often see both of them 2 times each.
Nether Shadow: Of the 3, 2 Converted Mana Costed spirits this guy is the dork of the trio. He is the reason we can’t reorganize our graveyard and but the most costless of the returning however infrequently he does show up.
Patron of the Nezumi: This guys is kind of a filler card in most matches but against self-mill decks he ruins their day. He is a very high CMC Spirit but he hurts like a truck when mill decks are involved.
Pawn of Ulamog: This may just be a pet card but this guy allows us to get a bunch of tokens that can be sacked for mana. The best part is he sees everything lose in effect like Wrath of god.
Rune-Scarred Demon: Our demonic tutor on a stick. He is fun with any reanimation spell or effect that you may have and I’ve never been upset to draw hiom unless its in the first 3 turns and I needed land. He is a universal tutor with an overlylarge body, what is not to love?
Sadistic Hypnotist: He who Hungers 2.0 He is less specific on what creature he sacrifices to use his effect but is also less specific on what cards he takes out of opponent’s hands.
Undercity Informer: Our secondary wincon. He enables us to use milling as a win condition which helps as atleast I have a mill deck in my regular playgroup. Even if you don’t have a mill deck in your group you can become that mill deck everyone hates/loves out of nowhere.
Extraplanar Lens: My least favorite of my mana doublers but it also comes out first on the curve. I still play it as sure it may exile a swamp but enables us the ability to have 6 mana on turn 4 which typically means you drop another mana doubler.
Gauntlet of Power: And the most balanced mana doubler in my honest opinion. This card is the whole reason I don’t run urborg, tomb of yawgmoth in my deck. I don’t need others being able to tap for double black or double colorless. Now I will talk aobut this more in the lands section but I also avoided snow-covered swamps as half my regular playgroup uses them and I don’t need to give the players who have their decks more balanced and tuned to have more advantage than the little guy.
Geth's Grimoire: Our main draw engine that doesn’t require life for use to draw cards. We normally have everyone discard a decent amount of cards every few turns typically when this or waste not is out to give us more advantage over every opponent. Typically this receives less hate than waste not and I feel that my opponents don’t often understand that This is more powerful as it draws us everytime rather than every 1/3 rd time.
Illusionist's Bracers: Allows us to two for one each of our spirits sacrificed. It often is a win more card but when behind it can churn us a lot of advantage which allows us to come back into the race.
Jet Medallion: One of our like 3 mana rocks. I often feel like I should be running more mana rocks but this one rock if we land it makes it so I normally don’t need any mana rocks. The 1 mana off all our spells sans artifacts helps this deck curve better. Nothing better than a turn one [c ]Sol ring[/c] into this.
Lashwrithe: our one card that is abused with the fact He who hungers flies. This one card allows us to make He into the flying nightmare that he deserves to be. Often this gives He a +7 to +9 boost boost enabling him to 2 hit most oppoents for commander damage.
Lightning Greaves: Our better boots are in the deck to enable a bit of haste when needed. These typically are normally never used but once in a while the boots make the difference between life and death for us and I have cut them before and been sad when I don’t have them.
Noetic Scales: our static boardwiper. As we limit opponents’ hands they often will only have 1 – 2 powered creatures out which we easily fight off. However this does allow them to reuse ETB effect which can play against us at times but normally we are able to force enough discard to limit their options.
Skullclamp: With bloodghast, nether traitor, and nether shadow in the deck Skullclamp becomes just a Divination and who doesn’t love that?
Sol Ring: arguably the best man rock in the game so why not included it? It often enables a broken turn 3 or turn 4 play that cripples opponents drastically so what’s not to love?
I have now updated He Who Hungers and I love this deck. It started off as a budget Spirits tribal in Monoblack and has become of my groups least favorite decks to play against as it is Monoblack stax and discard. The deck has evolved away from the spirits tribal but still remains it at the core as I love He who Hungers so much I had him altered into a Hungry Hungry Hippo (the pink one). I personally love this deck to the end of the earth and was interested in what People thought I should change/add in to make it better. I really don't care how hated it is as it only comes out every once in a while when I get tired of playing my other decks.
Change Log Entry 8/03
Cuts
Patron of the Nezumi
Dark Prophecy
Bloodchief Ascension
Megrim
Toxic Deluge
Crypt of Agadeem
Adds
Entomb
Patriarch's bidding
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
Expedition map
Ashnod's Altar
Change Log Entry 2/26
Removed:
Illusionist's Bracers
Lashwrithe
Lightning Greaves
Profane Command
Syphon Mind
Infernal Darkness
Shrieking Affliction
Phyrexian Arena
Fallen Angel
Undercity Informer
3xSwamp
Added:
Unstable obelisk
Mutilate
Dread return
Night's Whisper
Sign in Blood
Dark Deal
Necropotence
Disciple of Bolas
Sangromancer
Mindslicer
Erebos, God of the Dead
Dimir House Guard
Howltooth Hollow
I dropped:
Grave Titan: It was a very fun card that still is one of my favorites but Was very lack luster in the deck. The zombies almost never helped and more often hurt me due to Graveborn Muse. I replaced it with Exquisite Blood because I am often the reason I die often. The deck takes a lot of life to pilot and I need more life gain.
Soot Imp: Wasn't pulling its weight. It often would make the one storm player hurt but never really helped me as much as I wanted. I cut it for Rune-Scarred Demon as I could always use another tutoring effect and a beater is always welcome with the Exquisite Blood I mentioned I added.
Krovikan Horror: This guy made it to my hand a lot but never made more of an effect. I decided with my mana issues I've had recently with the deck I'd add in a swamp in place to offset my issues.
Cruel Deceiver: Artifact decks have become an issue for me recently and with blacks limited removal for artifacts I figured I'd pick up the permanent version to remove artifacts Gate to Phyrexia. Deciever was removed as it was really weak but was foily so it survived longer than most cuts.
Mimic Vat: Never really drew it and another deck wanted it. So i tossed in Boseiju, Who Shelters All because I don't like getting countered.
More recently I decided I might as well start typing up the text to apply for primership on this deck as it is has been one of my favorite decks to play in recent times. I am still really looking for improvement ideas for the deck as it could always improve. Stay tuned for my nice block of text on how to play the deck and individual card decsions that I plan to have typed up tonight or in reality by end of week.
If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
rain of filth: I have been eyeing this card as a finisher for a while. I'm unsure if I'd want to run it but it would ina finishing postion make for me up to 12 mana which has been the diffrence before of finishing the game or killing all but one person.
exsanguinate: the classic big black finishing peice. I think I might add it back in not as a finish card but rather as another life buffer.
erebos, god of the dead: the precention of lifegain seems like mm it could make a huge diffrence when it comes to controling people. I'm not sure why I don't have one in here now. Gotta find one now.
no Mercy: Im not sure if this would help me or not. With my playgroup being either combo or battle cruiser Im not 100% sure if this would make a ton of difference as with the battlecrusiser they normally wait to swing to kill you at once. It seems liek it would help a lot but Im not sure. I really want people's opinions on this card in particular.
Anyother card suggestions are extremely welcomed and I am continueing to write about the individual card inclusions and about how to play the deck. If you guys want me to write more about aomething or clarify it in greater detaol let me know.
Necropotence is in the deck.... yet not on my list..... hmmmmmm I'll fix that... as you the smaller draw spells I use to run sign in blood but found I prefered more permanent sources of draw but I think i might toss ambition's cost back in as it was the balance of a permanent source in card amount while giving me the imedate help.
as for conspiracy that was actually one of the first cards I considered when making it a sprits tribal deck. It worked occasionally but lacked the synergy and flavor that the actual spirits lend. Typically I have enough spirits to trigger He who hungers's ability as I have the 3 stooges.
I'll look into this with tonight's game. I have been feeling phyrexian arena has been underwhelming recently in comparison to Geth's Grimoire and waste not. I will pick up a Night's whisper and then test the two in the deck. I have a feeling that you are correct in that they will help me quicker and overall that should be more powerful. As I noted earlier I ran Sign in blood in the earliest draft of this deck but then I realized after I posted that, When I ran the early draft if was more of a good stuff tribal deck than the control I have been aiming the deck toward in more recent times.
As for pet cards, I love Nether shadow and yeah he is kind of a pet card also in addition to the angel but I think Im going to drop my pet card for the fact I am thinking I might try for primer status after I finish typing everything up.
So last Night I played 3 games with He who hungers. I managed fairly well the first 2 games but lost and the 3rd game I had a nice blowout as I landed a turn three ill-gotten gains with a waste not out. Over the course of my games, I realized that your advice of small draw spells really helped. I took out my Phyrexian arena man did wonders happen. Sure the devotion that arena adds was missed when I dropped Gary but otherwise the immediate draw spells did wonders.
The other card that I tested last night was Erebos, god of the dead. So I need to just drop the 5 dollars on him now as holy hippos did he do work... I had a friend cast sphinx's revelation with X= 20. Had he gained the life I wouldn't have been able to beat him. Sadly I often have the devotion to him which makes him a tad more fragile in a format of path to exile and swords to plowshares but the prevention of life loss was great last night.
I just added mindslicer, howltooth hollow, and Sangromancer into a cart to test out as they seem fairly effective at helping me keep control of the board. I am curious to see what others think about them and also about read the bones and disciple of bolas in the deck. I feel that they all could be added in but I need to do some testing but am curious to see how others have felt about them in similar black control decks.
Change Log Entry 2/26
Removed:
Illusionist's Bracers: The card was only ever good with He Who Hungers and often I already have each opponent with no hand so it lost its effectiveness and was very dispensable.
Lashwrithe: With a rash increase of Maze of ith in my meta to account for the rise of voltron decks lashwirthe has lost its effectiveness.
Lightning Greaves: Was needed in other decks and didn't offer a ton to the deck.
Profane Command: It had a lot of utility but never wowed me. I majority of the time used it for the reanimate effect so i replaced with with dread return as that is often better.
Syphon Mind: Replaced for smaller draw effects
Infernal Darkness: wasn't ever played so replaced for smaller draw effects
Shrieking Affliction: This damage almost never got through to was cut.
Phyrexian Arena: Replaced for Necropotence for immediate impact
Fallen Angel: Replaced for smaller CMC sac creature
Undercity Informer: Mill never really helped.
3xSwamp: Was getting flooded/ Never needed that much land.
Added:
Unstable obelisk: Enchantment removal
Mutilate: Needed another Boardwipe
Dread return: Better reanimation especially with the 3 recurring spirits.
Night's Whisper: Smaller drawing effect
Sign in Blood:Smaller drawing effect
Dark Deal: My savior. This triggers all my discard triggers which is amazing and often is the reason I win games.
Necropotence: Better than Phyrexian Arena
Disciple of Bolas: Life gain and draw... 2 things I needed.
Sangromancer: yay more discard triggers and life gain which helps like none other.
Mindslicer: another mass discard triggerer.
Erebos, God of the Dead: shuts down lifegain so I can attrition people down.
Dimir House Guard: smaller sac outlet but also can transmute for Ill-gotten gains, and many utility peices.
Howltooth Hollow: Replaced a swamp as I often get opponents to no hand easily.
Again like always I am interested in people's feedback.
EDIT: I also realized I forgot to mention I am interested in Hellfire as a substitute for damnation as it is too expensive. What are poeple's reaction to hellfire?
Added:
Karn liberated: Karn offers a lot of removal opportunities especially for enchantments.
Sacrifice: Allows for once I start comboing to continue the combo as the deck is really mana hungry.
Ashnod's Altar: For similar reasons as above.
Expedition map: Tutors up nykthos or coffers giving us more mana.
Removed:
dark prophecy: Often didnt help long term espically since I added the smaller draw spells.
Megrim: expensive for what it does.
Bloodchief ascension: Often got targeted once people saw this card. It wasnt worth the stigma it carries
Crypt of Agadeem: was just a weak card. I wanted to see if it could be decent. It wasnt.
Okay so in editing my last update, I realized I never replied to your post but did type something up for it so I apologize greatly.
Midnight Banshee and Morkrut Banshee both were in my list at some point but I never got physical cards of them and they just disappeared out of my mind due to that. I am picking them up as we speak.
Snuff Out was a card I use to run in here but cut in my 1st draft back a year ago when I realized I was going through too much life to cast spells and abilities. Im going to retest it now that i have more lifegain effects so thanks for reminding me of this too!
Volrath Stronghold and Diabolic Intent are ones that I have been trying to pick up on Pucatrade recently so hopefully someone will send me them soon but until then I will forgo dropping cash on them.
Change Log Entry 8/03
Cuts
Patron of the Nezumi
Toxic Deluge: was needed in another deck
Sacrifice
Adds
Entomb
Patriarch's bidding
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
But actually I put the deck back together and I'm hoping for some cool spirits in Shadows
Cuts: (21)
Add (20)
Basically the deck got a bit of an overhaul in attempting to keep pace with my increasingly speedy meta. I still can hose combo fair well especially with the re-inclusion of Toxic Deluge on top of the addition to more target removal on top of Control elements with Midnight Banshee to help combat the token strategies that have been popping up in my meta.
I am not going to talk about every card in this update because half of the changes were just that was what seemed fun when I was putting the list back together. I may have more details on the cards added when I get to typing up their individual inclusion. But the Notable Cards have been:
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: This allows for many of our spirits to get sacked for value and then they autorecur. This allows us to play more aggressive at stripping our opponents hand while maintaining our board presence.
Asylum Visitor: The Lone include from the Shadows block but its not hard to have opponents hellbent so why not get advantage from it?
-What would you say is your most common way of winning? Grind down your opponents' answers and set up a table-killing Gray Merchant of Asphodel? A well-timed Living Death?
Do you just lose all the time?-Do you ever find yourself struggling to establish an engine with your recursive creatures (Bloodghast, Nether Whatevers, Akuta)? I ask this one because I'm still having this problem with Akuta. Was curious as to how you go about setting it up - it may give me ideas.
Keep up the good work.
Aww thanks!
Typically I win via Large amounts of Black Mana and either a Grey Merchant after a Balthor the defiled or Living Death but recently I've also started to win from just overwhelming people with value from my 3 Stooges Bloodghast, Nether Shadow, and Nether Traitor but they aren't the only ones providing value anymore since I added Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker which allows other creatures to help me set up a sacrifice engine. I have been finding it hard at times to get the engine online and that it can be disrupted easily with a well placed Bojuka Bog but thats half the fun. The deck can play around the hate effects and while its challenging to win through hate at times, it is possible.
To set up my engine typically I will keep any hand that involves one of the stooges, Waste Not, Entomb, Buried Alive or Dark Deal so that I can get one of the stoogies in the yard early game (up to turn 5) and then I focus on making as much value out of the bodies as I go. Note: when I Buried Alive I only grab Nether Shadow and Bloodghast of the stoogies as Nether Traitor is more effective on his own and I don't want to risk all 3 to a grave hate effect. Other cards the help establish an engine are Banshee of the Dread Choir and Iname, Death Aspect. Again with Inname only ever grab the 2 as we need some sort of backup plan unless you can Gray Merchant that turn for lethal.
I have found that a card I have wanted back in is Hatred as it allows for a surprise kill with He who Hungers but I will try to add that once I get my lands situated.
Otherwise Other cards I'm considering currently for alternative wincons are Geth, Lord of the Vault to have a mana-sink wincon and Spirit of the Night as half of a spirit tribal Akroma.
But I'm glad this has helped you and I am currently typing up parts of it to make it into a primer eventually so I will have more info coming soon.
Crypt Rats
Death Match
Beseech the Queen
Malicious Affliction
Kalitas, Traitor of Mortals
Im looking at each card to address the fact I have needed more awnsers and wincons. I feel the deck loses steam to quickly at times and needed a correct for this. I am also looking at uping my land count to 33 as my curve is getting higher and higher. Im currently looking at adding:
Anicent Tomb: I have had a copy for a long time but realised I never ran it in the list.
Ash Barrens: the land cycling seems nice but also the fact it doesnt come into play tapped.
I would love if anyone has any feedback.