Welcome to mono black where the real king is Cabal Coffers. This is my own personal take on Toshiro Umezawa, I value feedback and hope that with the assistance of other users we might be able to make the deck stronger overall so dont worry about asking questions about cards. This particular deck takes the direction of a spell-slinger re-animator mono black control list. Its possible to take Toshiro in other directions, but this will be the direction of this particular list. Feel free to browse and feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have.
*NOTICE* This list is designed as a non combo mid-range style of deck. If you are looking for something high end competitive you will need to make adjustments. This list as it sits is designed for most things short of combo and mass land destruction.
~ ~ ~ Why Play Toshiro? ~ ~ ~
Why you might like Toshiro:
Toshiro is a very UNIQUE commander. It is easy to argue that there are lots of strong mono black commanders but part of the attraction to Toshiro is that he is not seen nearly as often as many other mono black control commanders.
Toshiro's ability really puts a different light on a lot of utility based instants. When Cremate becomes a Think Twice a lot of smaller utility effects become much more powerful. Instant speed kill spells also gain the opportunity to cascade into second targets.
Toshiro kills Simulacrums all day. Its sort of funny but killing 2/2s attacking you is a relevant thing now and then as it just keeps the random pokes off of your back.
In the middle of a wrath, Toshiro still sees all of the death triggers so even if you are just playing him into a wrath, you can still get a lot of value from the pick up of spells in your bin.
Mono color means that you will be running some.... interesting card choices at times.
You want a goodstuff commander. Toshiro's abilities are such that they are synergistic with a specific type of build. He doesn't do a goodstuff build very well.
You want to win all of the games. Toshiro is a good commander but he is not the sort of commander that is going to try to win every game. I think its a little unrealistic to expect regardless though for multiplayer.
You dont like utilizing your graveyard. Regardless of your build this should be a central focus for any Toshiro build.
You want to combo off. There are some brutal interactions that will kill people but infinities and locks are not my goal nor plan.
Alternative Options:
Chainer, Dementia Master I use him in my deck and he is absolutely backbreaking. Chainer tends to take more of the angle of MBC goodstuff re-animator though. He is a popular and strong commander but I find him to be more popular and slightly less interesting in general. He is a very strong pick and a great re-animator commander though. While Toshiro is sort of an off the beaten path choice I consider chainer a mainstream style of mono black control / re-animator commander.
Geth, Lord of the Vault similar to chainer in some ways but generally speaking even more of a goodstuff commander than chainer due to the fact that he can only rez off of opponents graveyards. He is a very strong choice as well and I run him in my list as well. He tends to be very goodstuff driven as a commander and operate heavily on big mana from things like Cabal Coffers. He is also a very strong choice but I feel he suffers in the flavor standpoint due to how well he just runs on his own.
Balthor the Defiled he tends to be similar to other mono black re-animator decks except for the fact that he operates more on a mass scale than rezing one or two things. He is more dependent on his own graveyard but he packs far more punch than most other mono black re-animator commanders. He tends to have more large turns as well and functions very strongly with sacrifice effects and ETB / Leaves Play sort of triggers. Cool points but he definitely has a very heavy reliance on his graveyard and needs to fill it to the brim.
Dralnu, Lich Lord he branches out of the mono black control realm but he has an ability set that looks very similar to Toshiro's. He is tend to be known for being a combo commander though and most stories of him I have heard tend to involve him being an infinite turn commander. He is also very flavorful to play around and comes with a steep downside that will hurt if he ever gets caught up in a red wrath. Make sure to pack counters and or sac outlets for this guy and expect him to draw a lot of hate. One of the things I like about Toshiro in comparison to him is that I feel like Toshiro tends to draw a lot less hate in relation.
In the end, I built Toshiro because I find his flavor incredibly unique and I find his combination of abilities extremely fun to play with. When I sit down at a table where I dont know anyone and everyone needs to read my commander, I feel like I am introducing people to new cards and a new style of play. He is flavor wise one of the coolest commanders in my arsenal and he holds his own quite well. You can customize Tosiro in a lot of ways to fit your own meta game. I initially sort of forced Toshiro and tried pushing like 30+ instants. I think there is a happy medium to be had but I still seem to always find relevant things to bring back with him. It is sort of fun looking at new funky black instant from a standpoint of how good it is being able to cast it twice.
When I first approached Toshiro, I tried doing a creature light approach that win via a few tricks like Hatred or via spells like Exsanguinate. The biggest problem with this plan was that people dont let me play keep away control so the deck didnt have much for ways to take out all of the opponents assuming I was getting focused and since I had little in terms of creatures in play I often did get targeted. I guess the best way to really describe that first list was sort of pillow fort in nature. I loved the flavor of the list but ended up putting it away because it wasn't working quite how it needed to be for my own needs. I put it down for almost two years before picking it back up with my current approach.
In that downtime, I didn't play much for mono black. I think Balthor the Defiled was the one mono black deck I played in the downtime. I enjoyed balthor but he played more as a combo commander than I really cared for.
Coming back to recent, I picked Toshiro back up as a re-animator commander. I think it was in part the introduction of Grim Return that made me realize the possible option of utilizing Toshiro as a re-animator commander. Black has long played re-animator well and with the introduction of a few new toys like Undying Evil it seemed far more plausible. It's sort of funny while white and blue control cards seem like they go back and forth but seem to be getting worse over time black seems to get better instant speed effects as time goes on. Look at back in the day when they used to have to use Dark Banishing. It feels like black's instant speed options have really opened up in the last few years giving new and interesting effects.
Toshiro has quite a bit of story behind him as he was one of the main characters at the time in his block. I will just redirect you to the wikki link if you would like to know more of the history of Toshiro himself. It was sort of an odd story really but interesting to know more about.
My name is Brian, I am 27 years old, I am a spike player who loves to win and tweak his lists. I live out in South Dakota sort of in the middle of nowhere. I got into playing EDH back in the summer of 2010. Our playgroup started sort of small and we went on and off on EDH play but eventually it took off and most of us sort of started dying off from other formats and only playing EDH. We would get Tuesday Nights where we would get 8-12 guys together down at the shop and just play 4+ hours of EDH every week. I got to be sort of one of the big shot players in my group where a lot of times people would just swing things at me because that's the player I am regardless of what deck I bring to the table. I try to build decks with the mentality that everyone might be attacking me and I might have to fend off more than one opponent. While I love perfecting my decks, I don't particularly like utilizing combos so if I have a combo in my deck it is usually because it has multi purposes that can be utilized to go infinite if it is drawn in that way. I am a spike player and I love getting my cards worth so I play plenty of card advantage style cards and I love comes into play effects.
I have played on and off magic for like 10-15 years now. I do toy a bit with other formats but I inevitably dislike the deckbuilding and options available in other formats so I prefer EDH where wacky and cool decks work just fine. I normally have a longer spiel but I figured I would just cut it short this time.
Deckstats for this list can be found here. (Last updated 12/31/15)
~ ~ ~ Going Budget Friendly ~ ~ ~
This section will identify some of the ways in which you can specifically lighten up the burden of obtaining and building this list. The list itself probably runs somewhere in the $1,500 range a the moment due to a few expensive cards that I have more recently added. It is very reasonable to obtain more or less my own working list for more arround $300.00 or less and its possible to build as low as $150.00 or so while maintaining much of the working list and functionality.
The Landbase - There is a lot of money that I have put into the landbase for this deck. To be honest, while its nice to have the deckstats numbers total the landbase that I have in here currently to be around $800.00+ mostly due to the fact that I have a Tabernacle in the list at the moment. When going to a budget list I think you can cut more or less all of the nonbasic lands and just go with basics. If you want to minimize things I personally still suggest still going forward with spending the $10.00 or so on a Cabal Coffers even if you are going to ignore everything else but if you want to cut as deeply as you can I feel like the landbase is the first place to save money in this list.
Bob - Dark Confidant (aka bob) is a relatively newer addition to my list. I honestly cannot suggest that anyone who is building on a budget consider him. He is still more or less a test card in my list but I think he is easily something that you immediately cut from your list if you intend to be on a budget. I have not really gotten much game time with him in the list at this point but I think he is one of the last things you consider getting for your list assuming you want to try him.
Karn - Karn Liberated has been going up in price due to modern as a format where he sees play in tron decks. Its possible to shave another $50.00 (or whatever he is going for right now) off of the list by replacing him with a Spine of Ish Sah. I do strongly like Karn in my list but the truth is there isn't a ton of difference between them and when trying to save a few bucks this is an easy place to stop to save some cash.
Command - Word of Command is a cool looking card but I think its for tuned decks. Its cool and fun but its not worth the money you would sink into it for a budget list. It has a cool factor to it but its not something I would put as a high priority for a new list.
Jitte - Umezawa's Jitte I think its flavorful as this is Umezawa's deck and its a solid card but don't go blowing your budget trying to get a copy for this deck. Its far from a necessity in here as its not really a big role player so much as an on theme card that happens to be powerful and versatile.
Batterskull - its a good card but its been going up due to modern. Its solid but not worth the money that could go to other things if you are trying to save some cash.
Entomb - its a good card but when you really break down things and are pinching for pennies its not something that has to be in here. Its a good card and I like it but its not a necessity. Don't bother trying to come up with a replacement because there really isn't another card that does what this does for us. Just replace it with whatever and you can save another $20.00 on your list.
If you cut these cards from your list you should be down to the $250.00 mark approximately. Its possible to cut further if you want to abandon the tutors as well but I happen to think that Vampiric Tutor is worth its weight in gold since its also an instant. Luckily a lot of the core of this deck is just cheap cards. I think its possible to cut this list down to $200.00 or less if you cut the above stuff and the tutors. Beyond that, I think to some degree you need to start just running whatever is handy if you need to cut further because the cost of the cards that are left after that are really about the cost of any other card.
~ ~ ~ Strategy ~ ~ ~
It is always important to talk about the strategy of a deck. Priorities and objectives should always be something you think about when you sit down with your decks. Especially if you have a variety of deck designs its important to sort of give yourself an objective as to what you should be trying to do at each stage of the game. I will outline some of the strategy that I utilize in this section which can help if you are new to the concept of toshiro. As you get to know your own list better, I suggest that you take your own approach and evaluate a situation on your own but this section will help those who are new to the deck concept with some deck decisions that can be made.
In a nutshell, this deck is a mono black control deck that focuses heavily on instant speed spells as well as reanimation. There is a lot more to that but to sum things up that is what the objective of this primer and list will be. There will be sub elements that I will address as well but first and foremost this is a black control deck. This list plays ideally (as is currently) in a meta that does not run mass land destruction, stax decks, and or combo as their primary tactics. That is not to say that this commander could not be adapted in some ways to play around those tactics but it will not be the focus of this list and any advice I have against these tactics for regular play is primarily theorycrafting. This primer will be able to give you detailed information on various tactics and how you might be able to fight against them and gear your own list for your own meta. Since many of the black instant speed spells out there are a little bit situational, it will be up to each individual to gear their own list for their own needs.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_Mindsets of this List_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
You should really have some strategic plans for how you pilot a deck to use it to its maximum. I will hit on some of the mindsets you should consider while playing a deck like this but most of these will be sort of vague considerations more than anything. Its not as if this deck wont do fine if you dont take these into consideration but they are more or less some advanced things to consider while playing a deck of similar nature.
Pillowfort
I will start off by explaining traditional pillowfort a bit first and foremost. The term comes from the idea of building a fort out of pillows, no real surprise there, but the idea behind it is that you can still be attacked but it acts as a deterrant to others to do so knowing that it will cost them resources and or not be profitable. Pillow fort at its best does not attampt to achieve a status of unkillable or invulnerable as part of the mentality behind it is that you still want opponents to be gunning for each other but to just overlook you because it would be inconvenient to deal with you right now. Some elements that you generally need to consider when attempting to do a pillowfort strategy are:
How are you deterring threats? Traditional pillowfort relies on effects like Propaganda and such where it just costs resources to go that direction so you have to choose between advancing your board state and having mana for answers and attacking that player. This is not the only means to achieve a pillowfort state as it can be achieved with large blockers, deathtouch blockers, disposable irrelevant creatures such as tokens or ETB creatures, or having mana up with the assumption that there will be removal or some other such answer that follows an attack.
What is your plan of winning the game? If you are playing an explosive combo deck for instance using pillowfort tactics dont tend to work as well because part of the concept of playing pillowfort is that it will be slow to kill opponents. The more explosive your deck is and the more often you tend to win with it the harder it tends to be to play the pillowfort because opponents dont want to ignore you. To a degree your wins need to be sort of slow and gradual over time for most traditional pillowfort decks that work due to this because if the first thing that happens every game is you combo off people wont want to ignore you.
How diplomatic are you? It might feel like a funny question to ask but if you can convince someone else that they should not attack you and or your board state and attack someone else that is pillowforting 101. The better a player you are and the more often you win the more you will need to rely on diplomacy as part of your pillowforting tactics. Players who often win will often see situations where they are being auto attacked by other players regardless of the board state. I strongly suggest that you try to use some diplomacy to talk them out of this tactic as while if everyone 3v1s you every game its true that you often will not win it often just throws the game away to someone else because they were being completely ignored for no reason.
If you are following a basic mold that I am using for my list then you will need to resort on blockers, deathtouchers, and mana up as your primary pillowfort deterrents. When resorting on mana up with cards in hand you really need to work on your mind games as well (section below will address this). Playing a pillowfort strategy is in my opinion at its best when opponents do not realize that you are attempting to achieve this status. The idea behind pillowfort is essentially an act to not appear to be the most powerful and or an attempt to show that attacking you would be futile.
The Mind Games
It seems like its a bit awkward to really address but when you are playing a control deck there are a lot of mind games that you should really work on. Playing EDH can be a little bit like poker at times where a good bluff is all it takes. Playing a control player can be similar in nature at times. You need to bluff your opponent into thinking that what they really want to do is to just turn sideways at someone else. This deck has tons of spot removal because it gets more than a 1 for 1 value so the last thing someone really wants to do is swing two solid threat creatures at you because one kill spell can chain to both of them and get you additional value off of another flashback.
One big question that you have to sort of figure out for yourself is how much does mana up with cards in hand matter to people in my meta? Some players will respond to the expectation of a kill spell by trying to continuously harass and try to wear you out of kill spells. Others might be more willing to hit the player they expect to connect to and receive progress where they can. If players refuse to respond to potential threats in hand, you may need to rely on visible defenses and utilize some defensive creatures or prioritize getting some larger or robust blockers out in their way. The mentality of the player will dictate what tactics are going to work against them. Some people you can scare into going elsewhere with a strong force because they would rather kill someone than nobody and sometimes you have to just wear them out and they might make you repeatedly answer them. I would say you need to feel out your playgroup a little and see how well perceived answers work against them. Bluffing answers can sometimes be extremely strong as well so play some mind games and see how things go.
My advice for any control player is to play the bluff game, the better you are at convincing people that you have things when you dont the better you will do as a player. I can think of several people who have very big tells and I do too at times. Sometimes you just need to sit there at the end of your opponents turns looking at your mana available and staring at your opponents creatures, then go rummaging through your graveyard. The best times to do ***** like this is when you have jack ***** to do at instant speed but it will screw with people because they will feel like you have things you are considering doing. The worst time to try to make a bluff that you have kill spells in hand is when you actually need them. The best time to bluff that you have these is when you dont really need them when you feel like you can pretend that what you have in your bin just isn't worth giving up a kill spell for right then and there.
Getting the Value
With any strategy that heavily utilizes the graveyard, you really have to consider if you are over committing to your graveyard or not. I routinely utilize a variety of means of gaining advantage in my list because it is impossible to tell when you are going to loose you graveyard. There are a handful of tactics that I feel should be addressed when using a graveyard dependent deck and they are good to keep in mind:
How much graveyard hate do you expect to see in an average game? This is a question that each player needs to assess for themselves. Each meta is different and I have heard a wide variety of answers between answers like little to non to it being very normal to see Rest in Peace every game. The amount of graveyard hate and the type of graveyard hate that you experience will need to have a big impact on how you play your deck and what you choose to include in your list. The more graveyard hate you see on average the faster you want to use up your graveyard abuse effects and the smaller you will want to stack your graveyard in general. Consider as well how you are generating card advantage because Toshiro will become less useful in these situations and you will need to rely more on ways to replenish graveyards as well as means to draw more cards in general.
How big do you stack your graveyard? there are some cards in the deck such as Stinkweed Imp and Altar of Dementia that can stack your graveyard deep. There are plenty of other options for self milling and milling opponents as well if you so choose to utilize them. Try to use up your graveyard more when it starts stacking deep because that tends to be when people want to gun it down more.
Can a graveyard dependent card affect an opponent? Whenever possible try to get graveyard cards that dont rely solely on your own graveyard as well because if you can make someone use a Nihil Spellbomb / Bojuka Bog / Tormod's Crypt on someone else's graveyard to stop your abuse effect it will help and in general it makes it harder to hate you out.
Prioritize elimination of graveyard hate tactics. It might seem like a no brainer but its definitely worth a kill spell or a tutor to be done with a graveyard hate effect. If someone sticks a Rest in Peace you need to kill that ASAP so you can move on and have a graveyard again. I have seen people hold Relic of Progenitus over my head all game though so get a bit creative and try to force them to pop it. This deck has enough instant speed responses that its not out of the question to attempt a rez effect and then cast a second one when they go to pop it off.
In general what I am trying to say is dont be greedy and assume that your graveyard will always be there. Differentiate your card advantage over multiple tactics so you aren't like a stock market crashing when someone hits your bin. Try to pick up the value on your flashbacks when possible because they can always blink out and be done at any moment someone happens to find or tutor for that grave hate. The lesson here is to not be overly greedy and to try to overcome and move on from grave hate as soon as possible.
Toshiro is a utility style of commander. His basic function is to generate additional value out of our spells. This can be as small as forking a kill spell to a second target or picking up value on a random creature's death. There are a few things to keep in mind while piloting Toshiro though:
If you have no graveyard, you cant really abuse Toshiro. This means that playing him out as soon as possible is generally not a great plan. Bring Toshiro out in the early game if you have nothing else to do or randomly need to block 2/2s. He however is not a high priority in the early game though since his value tends to come later. Early game play tends to expose him to wrath removal which can be difficult to take advantage from in the early game.
Utilizing Toshiro means having mana available to cast spells. Tapping out on your turn is generally a bad tactic especially when Toshiro is in play as it keeps you from faking options and it keeps you from having the option to pick up value from spells in the graveyard. Sometimes it can be very random as to how long opponents will go without killing any of their creatures. Its good to keep the option of picking up value in a flashback when possible.
Don't be afraid to chain your kill spells. You get the flashback right after something dies so if you cast a Doom Blade into an attacking creature, by the time Toshiro can cast a spell off of that creature kill you can target that Doom Blade as the flashback target. This means that you can literally cascade your kill spells as needed. I once remember casting a Victim of Night on a Glen Elendra Archmage just to get flashback on a Hero's Downfall to hit an Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Sometimes your kill spells are just a means to gain access to another card.
When playing Toshiro, sometimes you just have to spin him out there and see what comes your way. It is hard to set up a set plan of attack because in general the deck operates by just trying to pick up free value and take away opponents tempo and advantage. It can be classified as many things such as an attrition style of deck and possibly a pillowfort deck in some ways. It is really sort of up to the pilot as to what tactics to embrace.
You should really try to outline some goals you have at different stages of the game. This can help you with sort of what your objectives should be as far as card choices go. This should ideally be a rough outline more than something rigid because you really need to flow with the game rather than have a hard outline. Having some goals though should help you with things such as tutor targets, what to keep in an opening hand, and what you can discard if you happen to be drawing lots of cards.
Opening Hands: generally speaking, I am sort of aggressive in my mulligans. I think the ideal opening hand has lands, ramp, and card draw. By no means will that be what you always see though. Toshiro tends to be a deck with a lot of silver bullets for specific situations so be ready to partial Paris off cards as needed. I almost always mulligan off the reanimation and kill spells unless I am given a reason to believe that I will need the early kill such as facing an Kaalia deck or something of that sort. Good hands for me tend to have a means of generating card advantage and lands.
Early Game: focus on hitting your land drops and getting any card advantage you can. Deal with opponents card advantage as you can and defend yourself from threats as needed. Sometimes its better to take some small punches and save the removal for later but that's going to be your call. If your list looks like mine you should prioritize positive advantage in the early game and hold onto the negative opponent advantage for the mid game if possible or to remove card advantage outlets of opponents.
Mid Game: shift a little away from the ramp game and focus more on the drawing game here if possible. You still want to be hitting your lands but hitting ramp specific should be less of a priority now. Focus on getting some relevant targets in graveyards that will be worthy of reanimating as well. Try to keep mana up whenever possible to have access to answers and or to bluff answers. You should find that opponents should notice when you tap out so dont do it even if you have nothing in hand. Tapping out entirely even one turn can give away that your hand has nothing. You always want opponents to be wondering what is in your hand, especially when the answer is nothing. Focus on your mind games here especially when you dont intend to do anything.
Late Game: keep up the mind games and shift focus to how you are going to win the game. Late game tends to turn into some large access to mana which can turn into large turns with some of the mana dump card advantage outlets such as Chainer, Geth, and Corpse Dance.
This is sort of my own rough outline that I find myself using. You can make your own obviously but I think having one tends to help you get into the correct mindset. When changing back and forth between decks or using a deck you are not familiar with, I think it is even more important to have a game plan for when you play a deck.
Being that we are mono black I dont think there is a ton of room for optional packages with Toshiro. I will try to run through a few optional packages that could be considered though and would appreciate any assistance if you think of something that I do not mention.
Stax considering how Toshiro is designed, I think one of the things that could be attempted would be a stax style of build. There are a lot of cheap instants that could play very strongly when considering the option of getting two uses of them and a stax style of deck naturally triggers a lot of extra creature deaths which would be good for Toshiro. There is also the possibility of being able to chain some removal spells and take out creatures that opponents happen to land with him allowing for things like Braids to hit them all the harder. This issue with this though is that mono colored is very limiting especially for a tactic like stax where there are a lot of powerful effects scattered over the other colors so giving up multi colored does hurt quite a bit in this perspective. Be aware though that many frown on this style of play so I would suggest weighing how your meta might take this style of deck before attempting it in your meta.
Self Recursion I dont run a lot of the self recurring creatures in my list in part because most of the time they simply act as fuel for sac outlets. It is possible to take a heavier direction towards this including creatures like Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodghast in your list and abusing them in various ways. These sort of tactics tend to work well with things like Grave pact and Skullclamp as well as optional cards if you would like to build in this direction. Due to the amount of graveyard dependance and the still relatively low creature count I found it hard to find room for a package of the size I would want to include these sort of tactics. They also put a heavy burden on graveyards as well especially since Toshiro already has so much dependance on them.
Voltron there are quite a few effects that can make a creature punch for lots of damage in black. Things like Lashwrithe, Nightmare Lash, and Hatred can turn into absolute beating machines. Toshiro is also relatively good at removing creatures through spot removal so its possible to try to bring him or another creature up to size and start the beats. I actually suggest a smaller package for this if you choose to do it. I ran both of the swamp based equipments for a while and while they were fun, I often didn't find them that relevant because I did not want to spend spot removal to connect to players. These tactics tend to work less good as well if you play against lots of creature tactics as the control decks tend to be geared to deal with creatures well.
Combo with most any deck there is the option to pack some combo. I feel like the combos available to mono black control are a little boring but there are a few that we have access to that are sort of unique and cool with Toshiro. One hard part about packing combo is that mono black has sort of a dice roll as to if they even can interact with opposing combos. Black cant interact with instant speed combos and artifact enchantment combos well so there are lots that will give you problems regularly if this is you intended way of playing the deck. I will mention one unique combo I have found for this deck which is Toshiro + Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho + Ashnod's Altar + Blood Artist which can result in infinite life siphoning. It is a 4 card combo using very specific cards though so its more of just cool factor that I mention that one than any actual assumption that anyone would use it. For everything else, I am just going to point to the Infinite Combo Resource that HansonWK maintains as I am by no means a combo expert.
These are just optional things to consider though. There isn't a ton of optional packages that really go well into this sort of deck as Toshiro wants instants to really work as a commander so in a lot of ways it limits how he can be built based on that.
There are a lot of decks out there like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight who focus on dropping life totals. These decks often opperate through putting pressure directly on opponents life totals and having explosive outputs. This deck tends to do well against these sort of decks due to the selective spot removal that we pack enabling us to pinpoint remove their threats as they try to move on us. The lifegain that is supplied from creatures like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star also help a lot against these sort of tactics. The fact that we have so much spot removal means that we can also occasionally funnel them around us by threatening to spot remove their threats if they come our way.
This matchup tends to already be fairly strong for us since we can utilize spot removal when they come our direction or put up passive blockers like Stinkweed Imp and just random blockers. There is also the fact that these decks tend to utilize strong creatures as their attacking force which we can potentially reanimate if we get our hands on them.
Tokens
Tokens can have an incredibly hard matchup against us because of the number of instant speed sweepers available. You should try to tune your own list based on how much you see token decks as they tend to be very difficult to use traditional kill spells on. More than anything it just requires you to tweak your list for your local meta and to try to always keep mana up and bluff the answer. Some cards that you might find useful against these decks would be:
These are just a handful of cards but some of the ones I feel like would fit the direction of the deck a bit more and help answer tokens in your meta.
Control Decks
So long as you aren't the guy in your meta that gets the automatic targeting when you sit down, toshiro doesn't tend to draw a lot of hate himself so you can actually bank off of other control decks to do some of your dirty work for you sometimes. Opposing control decks will sometimes hit a wrath button for you enabling you to just run with toshiro's triggers and spin off reanimation. When sitting at the table with other control decks try to maintain a low profile whenever possible and keep your spot removal up as a deterrent. There are plenty of other control decks that cannot defend themselves from creatures at instant speed so they might have to resort to wraths and counters which mostly just help you since we can wait until later to respond to things. The big key here is to try not to be the big target more often than necessary. Play this one defensively and just take card advantage and ramp when you can.
Every deck has weaknesses. This can be part of meta game choices as well as situational building choices or even just a natural weakness. I will outline some of the general weaknesses that this sort of list will experience and let those who have issues with this sort of thing make tweeks based upon them.
Combo
Being that we are playing mono black, we have access to hate on hands as well as to kill creatures as sort of our main two ways to hate on combo decks. If you play in an area where the primary wincondition is players hitting the combo button then I generally speaking dont know if I can really suggest mono black in general as a normal tactic. The means to interact with these tactics is going to be to pick up more hand hate and instant speed interactions and try to hit the combo button first. I dont know if I could suggest Toshiro against combo decks though as I feel like he is a little slow to interact with them.
Some cards that might help you against this matchup:
I will start out by saying that I do not play in a meta where mass LD is really accepted. Due to that, you will see a lot of my decisions that reflect that sort of an environment. I personally feel that Toshiro could be adapted to work just fine in a mass LD meta but I think a lot of the deck decisions would need to be adjusted. Run a lower curve in general with less mana intensive abilities. It can be done but adjustments definitely need to be made if you want to regularly play in this sort of environment with Toshiro.
Yawgmoth's Will (replay lands from grave and pick up mana stones / random value)
More importantly are the tactics that you utilize and what not to run in this situation. Cutting mana costs down and using less mana dump type of cards is important if you are going to regularly play in a meta like this. Utilization of mana rocks will also help to diversify your resources. Whenever possible, try to keep one to two lands in hand just in case you need to start playing recovery as it will be absolutely game breaking in this sort of matchup. Consistent extra draw such as Phyrexian Arena will also make a HUGE difference in your rate of recovery assuming someone is going to blow things up. Mana double effects such as Caged Sun / Crypt Ghast should be more of a focus as well over cards like Cabal Coffers who require lots of lands in play and tend to not perform as well in regular mass LD situations.
Hexproof Voltron
I dont encounter a lot of commanders who fall into this category so I play plenty of targeting removal effects. If this becomes an option, edict effects will become more powerful assuming we aren't talking about Sigarda, Host of Herons. Playing defensively and using things like Stinkweed Imp can also help a lot as most players will not want to trade their hexproof commander with an imp unless it would kill you. Make yourself a bad target is a good way to buy time and add more edict effects as needed based on meta issues.
If you are more specifically having issues with Sigarda you will need to pick and choose what you can actually use against them. Her ability to dodge edicts is unfortunate which means you may have to rely more on traditional Wraths and bad blockers such as Stinkweed Imp to dissuade her.
~ ~ ~ Card Options ~ ~ ~
I will try my best to keep this section up to date as far as what I run and what is available. It tends to be one of the areas that I postpone maintenance to the most though so it will be likely that every now and then I will do maintenance but not with every set release or deck change. I will try to keep the cards that are in the list as bolded cards in the card options section.
Carrion Feeder he acts as a free sacrifice outlet but the problem here is that a beater creature isn't that useful in EDH. He is cheap to get into play and his ability to sacrifice creatures is free but he doesn't really give much beyond that.
Viscera Seer he is cheap to get into play and his sacrifice outlet is free. Scry 1 is actually a very relevant pickup on a free sac outlet so I would say he is not to be ignored. He isn't extremely strong but he isn't weak either. The only downside here is that creatures are sort of frail. He often wont draw spot removal but its likely that he will get swept in a wrath. On the upside though in that case you can scry to a decent card usually.
Apprentice Necromancer so this guy is ok but sort of slow. The big problem is there is the question of why use him really that needs to be addressed. He is slow to use as he needs to tap to use. He can only target creatures in your own graveyard and you only get them for a turn. Animate Dead on the flip side is much faster to take effect and not bound by a turn duration. Its interesting but outside of given a reason to run it I dont see why to run him.
Blood Artist its a small ping for damage but it adds up if you play with or against more swarm style of tactics. Having this guy in play and then taking out a token wave adds up fast. I feel like he is a bit situational to run in this deck though as I tend to prefer using him in decks that can enable him more off of its own deck. I think he is ok as an add but I think you want to be running more token and recursive creature tactics for him to be stronger and not as conditional on opponents decks.
Bloodghast its a fun card especially if you want to pair him with things like Skullclamp and sacrifice outlets for some value. I decided against him in part because of how much dependency I already have on my graveyard.
Carrionette its an interesting exile effect really. In a deck like this one we tend to try to keep mana up so I could see it as a fun way to try to harass opponents mana availability since they have to have half as much mana up to counter his ability and you could attempt to use him when you want so long as he is in your graveyard. I think he is cool but I dont know if he would be all that strong really and it hits on our graveyard dependency again as for where he needs to be. I think he could be a cool target for a Buried Alive or similar effect though.
Nezumi Graverobber he can be graveyard hate and reanimation which is nice. His versatility is good but sometimes he draws as much hate as Chainer especially when you are having trouble flipping him. Not to mention the issue that we often want to keep graveyards around so eating through a bin with him could be difficult as well.
Reassembling Skeleton he works well with sacrifice things and stax effects. I chose not to run these guys because I didnt feel like I had enough abuse for them in my list as it stood and I already have a heavy graveyard dependance.
Withered Wretch its good cheap removal. It would be a huge pain though if someone were to steal or clone it from you though. I would say its a meta call as to how much graveyard abuse you see and how much hate you need to pack. I personally like the instant speed variants more as they are surprising and many of them draw you cards.
Big Game Hunter he gives a decent kill effect but I find him a bit conditional still. We dont really have a lot of means to discard things from our hand so his madness option doesn't seem too relevant. I feel like his situational kill effect is a bit narrow which is why I dont run him but there are plenty of big things that I would want to kill out there. Still, sorcery speed kill effects are usually bad and I cant really see enough value in the stick he comes in on to validate his inclusion. He is a lot stronger in a GBX deck where you can Survival of the Fittest him off and still use him. If you want to include him the big question to answer is why is having a stick worth the inclusion of a situational sorcery speed removal effect.
Burnished Hart he gets TWO lands into play. This is huge for a black deck who by default wants to abuse Cabal Coffers. This deck is also good at abusing creatures so the chance to abuse him seems like fun too. Early in the game I find that many people do not want to keep spot removal and or do not want to blow it on him and later in the game you can tend to drop and pop him before he becomes a casualty.
Coffin Queen so she is a little bit of a must answer creature but she is good in a lot of ways as she can rez from any graveyard on demand. She is a little slow due to the fact that her ability is a tap one but I still really like her as she demands to be answered. She rezes well with things like Corpse Dance as well since it gives haste you can rez someone else's creature and then just exile it in the untap and rez another creature as well. She is a little fragile but her versatility and powerful ability keeps her in my list.
Crypt Rats this gives another on demand wrath effect that happens to harass life totals and can scale as needed to whatever size you want. I love deterring token decks with these type of effects as they tend to find them hard to attack into. The fact that its a creature and thus can be rezed is strong as well. Crypt Rats is specifically a little more versatile than the other Pestilence effects as you can put in 6 mana into a single activation and then Undying Evil the crypt rats to make it return or you can activate him 6 seperate times for one each. The versatility of this card is just great. This card has dual purpose as it can attack life totals directly as well as wrath the board. This deck tends to do a lot of life displacement as its means of winning so reducing all life totals is a useful thing at times.
Dark Impostor he can serve as exile removal to deal with indestructible creatures such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre who can be very devistating when left alone. You also have access to edict effects as well for this but sometimes a reusable exile stick is nice to have. I ended up cutting him because he was just too mana intensive on average for me to really justify him. Black's exile removal has also been expanding in more recent editions. Overall the mana intensity to use him is just a little high.
Doomed Necromancer its a decent reanimation effect but his value is the best when looking at mass reanimation such as Balthor the Defiled / Living End where you get splash rezing and can cycle a creature a few times through an ETB effect. Overall, he is just a little slow in the fact that he is a tap ability and he is limited to your graveyard only as a one time rez. I tend to favor Coffin Queen quite a bit more since she can be used multiple times and reanimates from any graveyard.
Fleshbag Marauder It is an edict effect to everyone and it provides you with a creature to sacrifice to the edit itself. Being that we are a reanimator based deck I feel like this is stronger than a one time sorcery or instant speed edict because it hits all players, provides you with the creature to sacrifice, is cheap to cast, and is a great reanimation target vs voltron decks.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant it could be a bit tricky to get this guy to flip in a list similar to mine but with Toshiro's cascading doom blades it seems like it shouldnt be too much work to achieve his flip. I think ideally he is designed in a way where you want to use a few more sac outlets, creatures, and self recurring creatures to use this guy.
Pawn of Ulamog he works well with the self recurring creatures and sac based tactics. The tokens also work very well with sacrifice outlets and skullclamp. I have had some very good solid play with this guy in the past but he takes the right deck. My list as it stands is not built quite how I would normally want to be for this guy to be at his best.
Phyrexian Rager similar to Elvish Visionary in a lot of ways but slightly bigger and more expensive. He works well with sacrifice and stax style of decks as it gives you a body and cycles you a card to hand afterwards. I think he fits the stax style of build a bit more than my own build.
Royal Assassin this guy enables Toshiro very well in that he gives creature kills at no card / mana cost and discourages players from turning sideways while he is in play. He is sort of fragile but on the upside some of the things that clean up fragile creatures are things like Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte he can deal with the creature wielding them assuming he beats them into play.
Stinkweed Imp this guy works on a few angles. 1) Dredge is great for this deck as cards in graveyard are still very useable resources so dredge 5 is sort of like drawing a few cards. 2) As a blocker, he discourages voltron commanders and random beats. This guy is a strong value engine and multipurpose.
Stronghold Assassin it acts as a sacrifice outlet and a means to enable Toshiro. The downsides here are that it is very fragile and that the creature it targets must be nonblack. Its still a cool card but it depends on how well you can stick fragile creatures really.
Vampire Nighthawk this makes for a good card to add if you see a lot of voltron commanders in your meta. It works well on defense but in general it doesn't punch hard enough and our spot removal is generally superior unless encountering lots of hexproof / shroud specifically. I like this guy but outside of given a reason to run him I dont think I would.
Balthor the Defiled You really want to be pushing a higher creature count to run Balthor. I think he offers a lot of value though which is great and he is a great rez target (assuming you milled him as he self exiles on his ability).
Braids, Cabal Minion she is a strong effect that can really hurt opponents depending on what sort of deck they are running. You can always sacrifice her to her own ability on your turn assuming you dont have something you want less than her as well. I like her a little more in a deck with more recursive creatures as well but she has a very strong ability regardless so I could see her seeing play outside of that.
Crypt Ghast Mana double effect with extort to it. I like this guy but REALLY wish he was on an enchantment or something. We can rez creatures though so its possible to just push through the hate and make him happen. His mana doubling works well with his extort as well as it enables you to cast more spells and drain a little life while you are at it.
Dimir House Guard he functions as a tutor effect and or a sac outlet. I honestly like him in decks with mass rez in them like Balthor the Defiled / Living Death more because you get a creature that functions as a sac outlet out of it too later. His value depends a little on how much you value a 3 mana tutor for a 4 mana effect that you have to show. I think he is all right but I dont think I would really rez him much in this deck so its generally easier to just use a real black tutor that gives me anything than a selective one like this guy.
Disciple of Bolas card draw + sac outlet + lifegain all in one. The only downside is I dont run a ton of creatures so sometimes I have to sit on this guy for a while and or use him on some suspicious targets like simulacrums.
Erebos, God of the Dead he functions as a card draw outlet and hates on opponents lifegain. Honestly I despise seeing him across the table from me but honestly I haven't really run into much of an issue as far as opponents getting their hands on my copy. I normally like Greed more but the fact that he is a creature means that I can mill into him / Entomb or whatever and then go and rez him later.
Faceless Butcher he can serve as permanent creature exile if you sacrifice him while his exile ability is on the stack or use him as an ETB trigger reset. I love using him to hide a Rune-Scarred Demon and then just proceed to not sacrifice him as it screws with people and nobody really likes to wrath a Rune-Scarred Demon back into play. I like him a lot more in an ETB creature based deck and decks with more consistent sac outlets.
Falkenrath Noble for most general purposes its a bad Blood Artist. Refer to that card and if you are already running it and like it then consider this guy as a second.
Graveborn Muse its a decent card advantage stick and having more than one zombie at a time actually isn't that hard to have happen. Its good draw but if you constantly have it get blown up then you might consider one time draw effects over it as it takes time to generate value. Its really a meta call as to how long you can stick this sort of effect as if you get 3+ cards it totally pays for itself.
Guardian Beast depending on how much you value your artifacts this guy can be really cool. The idea of flash rezing him in the middle of an Austere Command seems like it would be epic. It totally depends on how many artifacts you run and how important they are to you though. Most of the time I feel like he is a do nothing sort of creature that is easy to play around.
Hell's Caretaker its a reusable creature cycle ability. Its not bad but its limited to upkeep which really sucks. Its not the worst thing ever but I dont run him because I feel that there are better.
Magus of the Abyss its sort of like Braids except that he hits non artifact creatures only and has to target so he cant work on hexproof / shroud commanders. I think he is decent in some stax sort of decks but I think you need to be a ways into that style of build before you consider adding this guy.
Mindslicer hand kill isn't that bad for this deck since the instants can be recovered by Toshiro. It is honestly a bit harder for me to find sac outlets generally than for me to be that worried about the quality of what I am discarding.
Skinrender it kills a lot of utility guys and makes a lot of things that live through this very marginal and manageable. That said, its sorcery speed removal and situational removal at that. It depends on how much you value the stick it comes in on but with toshiro's pickup on instants I just dont see it making the cut.
Slum Reaper its a slightly worse Fleshbag Marauder as it costs one more mana and the bodies on both are more or less irrelevant. I would say use it if you feel you need more copies of Fleshbag Marauder and or play against a lot of hexproof and or voltron decks.
Solemn Simulacrum he is a good value generator. We have creature rez too and he is a great target for that stuff. I almost always want to abuse this guy regardless of the game state when playing this deck.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed He can recover black cards but we already have good abuse on instants and creatures so it sort of comes down to how relivant sorceries and enchantments are to you. He is fairly versatile in a mono color deck but is essentially a 4 mana regrowth that cant hit lands, artifacts, and Karn Liberated. One of my biggest issues with his inclusion is that this deck is already fairly good at recurring a large portion of the deck and the things we cant recur as easily we dont run a lot of.
Bloodgift Demon this guy is an arena on legs. He has a decent size to him plus flying so he can do some beating in. Its useful to mention that he can work on other players so if you are playing 2 Headed Giant or something you can give the draw to your ally. His mana to drop in is a little high so the question is does the increase in size plus flying make him more relevant than Graveborn Muse who costs less and tends to draw less attention?
Chainer, Dementia Master chainer is one of those MUST ANSWER sort of creatures. He is online as soon as he is in play and can be abused as many times in a turn as you have mana to activate him. He works best with a free sac outlet so that you can cycle one creature several times as well. Looping a Gray Merchant several times is essentially living the dream with this guy. Expect him to be killed on sight so I generally try to drop him in when you can activate his ability 2+ times still and get plenty of value off of that. He is a very strong reanimation engine and I tend to prioritize reanimating him when given a chance.
Corpse Connoisseur its sort of a budget friendly graveyard setup card. Since it only gets a single creature card and it costs so much I have to say its mostly just worse than Buried Alive as it costs more mana and gets less targets. Its ok but I think these sort of effects get stronger when running self recurring creatures like Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton in deck as well since it sort of spreads out what you can do with them.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief drana is a fun beater that also serves as a removal stick. Her ability to punch things out for the cost of mana only makes her stronger in lists that want to prioritize mana doubler effects. I had an issue where too often her ability was too mana intensive for me to use profitably. I like her versatility but she eats a lot of mana in using her ability.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel this guy has become one of my bread and butter creatures for this deck. Looping Kokusho used to be living the dream but this guy can punch so much harder than Kokusho. To date, my highest hit with this guy was for 19 devotion and it literally just buried the game in my favor. I dont think I would cast him for less than a devotion 5 (outside of dying badly) and usually I shoot for a devotion 7+ when trying to cast him.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer Kagemaro is great because he is cheap to use his ability. If you have 6 mana in a turn you can drop him in and hold his ability ready to use. He is a good deterrent as you can sit behind him with little mana left over and still be difficult to attack. I keep him in my list because he is a reanimate target wrath effect that can potentially deal with indestructible creatures. Most indestructible targets are sort of large but there is also the option of using and reanimating him in the same turn thus using his ability twice to take them out. Still, he serves as a form of pillowfort where we can allow the game to continue or if someone pressures us we can remove their threats.
Karn, Silver Golem one of the weaknesses that black has is access to non creature artifacts. Karn opens up access in some ways because you can animate the artifacts and make them susceptible to removal. I feel that this is still far from an amazing solution but I feel its worth mentioning that it is one. Karn also hates on equipment very well because if an artifact becomes a creature it can no longer be equipped to another creature so you can fight off equipment utilizing Karn as well. The fact that Karn is a creature also fills the goals of the re-animator aspect of this deck.
Phyrexian Delver this guy resembles Karmic Guide in a lot of ways but there are a lot of cons to him as well. As a creature, he is far less significant. He has a small non evasive body to him so the stick you get out of this is not that great. When looking at chaining rez, this guy makes a lot less sense to chain into. The life that is also lost hurts and there is not a lot of availability to gain additional value with him either. Black just seems to have better reanimation in general than this guy and with his downside of life loss and not really having a relevant body on him he just doesn't make a lot of sense to add as he stands.
Phyrexian Plaguelord he can serve as a sac outlet but more importantly his ability matters. He works at his best when pushing tokens and or recursive creatures. He can give Toshiro triggers to flashback spells on demand which is a huge asset but has the downside that he doesnt work well with lower quantities of creatures. He is at his best when using heavy recursive, token, and sacrifice based tactics.
Puppeteer Clique Clique gives multiple rez effects per entry, he gives access to creature exile if needed but more importantly he just gives a LOT of value for a single card. He makes for a great rez target but is at his best with access to sac outlets. Sac outlets give you can control over the exile portion of his ability and can give you access to your second rez on demand of when you need it. The biggest thing I can say about Clique is that he has just so much value generation given his cost.
Sadistic Hypnotist the hypnotist needs several sacrifices to really make himself worthwhile. Some people like this sort of effect but the sorcery speed activation is an issue and he is at his best with a token or recursive based creature build. I feel that I am too creature light to really utilize this guy correctly in my build but that isnt to say that he is bad or doesn't fit other build options.
Shadowborn Demon I like him due to how narrow his list of things he cant kill are but given the strength of instants in this particular list I prefer not to run creature ETB removal effects. I think he is good but more in decks that focus more on creatures and less on instants.
Shriekmaw similar to Shadowborn Demon but with the option of evoke and a worse targeting option. I prefer not to run creature ETB removal effects in this deck though since I get more value and better timing from instants though. I think he is good but more in decks that focus more on creatures and less on instants.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon there is some options to running infect based wincons. The advantage of Skithiryx is that he can come out with haste and evasion and is a robust creature. I will admit that I dont know how viable building infect as a wincon can be but its something that could be toyed with. He will rez well and there are always the options of Tainted Strike on other creatures or Hatred on Skithiryx or even Inkmoth Nexus.
Thrashing Wumpus more expensive to drop than Crypt Rats but sometimes you just want more copies. I generally recommend using the rats before the Wumpus but I can see potential for running both. Pestilence Demon is also an option with the advantage that it will live through more of its own ability where as the wumpus isnt really big enough to take much punishment more than killing tokens or ETB creatures and living.
Darksteel Sentinel this guy is a bit of a pet card of mine but the advantage here is that he still has flash and that he can poke while staying back. He is just in general fairly robust vs a lot of incidental removal and isnt enough of a target to generally draw removal like Swords to Plowshares and such. I like the idea of running him a lot more in decks that push less creature counts as I feel like those are the lists where he finds more value in.
Duplicant he can be useful when looking for exile removal. Exile removal can be a pain as it removes our option to reanimate it but against indestructible targets its well worth having. He is slow and sorcery speed which I am not too fond of on my removal in this deck but a valid option for sure.
Geth, Lord of the Vault geth is what I generally consider to be a must answer threat. The best part about him though is that he is a fast effect creature that scales well with time. You generally want to drop him in when you have surplus mana and good targets to rez. He is a huge target for opponents but also a huge target for reanimation. Try to keep pushing him into play and see if you cant run your opponents out of removal on threats like him.
Grave Titan he swarms the battlefield decently. He gives a little bit more of an aggressive approach to the list as well but also works well with stax, sac based tactics, and token tactics. I happen to prefer a little more of a control based build but I can see him being a solid threat that can really fit the list depending on what your own preferences happen to be. I dont think its wrong by any means if you include him as he is a solid threat still.
Harvester of Souls there are pros and cons to a threat like this, he generates value over time but can be incredibly difficult to really assess how much value and how the value will be generated. I think he honestly works best against aggro decks and much less effective against control and combo based decks. The problem with this is that we already have a generally good matchup against aggro and his value generation can be totally nothing. He needs a follow up and isn't that cheap to get into play on his own.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni Ink Eyes is a cool creature and a nice combat trick. The biggest issue I have with Ink Eyes is that it almost never connects twice. It has no evasion outside of its Ninjutsu and while its a good creature, it tends to need assistance to connect. I also had some issues with just having creatures that could attack in and I would want to put back in my hand. Its sort of annoying to bounce Toshiro back to hand so its better to do it on a creature with an ETB or a leaves play trigger. Ink Eyes is fairly robust though thanks to the regenerate though.
Kokusho, the Evening Star this guy is a nice recycling life syphon. This deck re-animates creatures well and this guy gives us a life cushion while attacking opponents life totals. He works very well at defending as well because nobody really wants to set him off. He is strong because of the fact that he tends to not be a good target to kill for opponents unless they happen to catch us with our pants down with a graveyard hate or creature exile with no sac outlet. Try not to play him out without a sacrifice outlet handy.
Massacre Wurm its possible to utilize him as an anti token measure. The biggest issue I have seen with him is that he can be very hit and miss as to how relevant he is.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed he gives pickup value to ETB creatures and can combo with Triskelion if you want to build a combo deck. He works best with a strong number of creatures as well as with sacrifice outlets. I dont run him because I feel like a higher creature count and more of an emphasis on creature ETB / abuse is needed to run him well.
Nirkana Revenant she is a mana doubler and a huge shade beater. I like her a lot as a creature but have a hard time really including her in lists. She is a cool creature but expensive to drop into play and easy to chump block. Due to these reasons I have to wonder if other mana doubler effects might be more effective.
Pontiff of Blight it lets you sort of snowball extort your spells but there is this problem that it gets rather difficult to chain spells and mass extort still. Extort is a thing that is useful but when you try adding multiple activations per spell it gets fairly expensive quite quickly. I like the idea behind this be its sort of expensive to drop this creature in and then you need several more creatures to make it more than just extort on its own. Its interesting but its slow and clunky and I think that multi extort doesn't really scale all that well.
Steel Hellkite its a good option to deal with a lot of things that black normally has troubles with. There is the downside that its an artifact creature which is one of the most fragile things out there plus it lacks haste so its slow to get going but the fact that we are a rez based deck makes it a little better. Its an option out there but I am a little uncertain as to how I feel about it.
Visara the Dreadful its a removal stick. The problem being it lacks haste and tends to draw a lot of hate for how little it actually really even gets done. Its honestly a better option in aggro heavy metas where they might have issues removing threats themselves allowing you to have a repeat removal stick as you need it.
Wurmcoil Engine its a robust threat that splits on death. Its fairly durable and it has some lifegain. I think its a stronger beater with the more aggro and pressure decks you see though. Against control decks there is just better value to be had than something that splits on death.
Rune-Scarred Demon its a tutor on an impressive stick. We are a res based deck too so I love abusing this guy. He is really strong but sort of annoying at times because the blue decks love cloneing and getting him with bribery effects.
Sheoldred, Whispering One she has a ton of value attached to her but also tends to draw a lot of hate in general. She works well against aggro and voltron decks due to her edict every turn and assuming you can stick her to play she is very strong. She is weaker against heavy control and combo metas in general. Her biggest weakness in my mind is just that she isn't cheap and her value is completely unknown while being a large target.
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Baleful Force he is a really big stick and he draws cards every turn for us. He has a bit of a target on his face but he gets some value up and going relatively quickly. He is also on a stick so it gives options for rezing.
Myojin of Night's Reach he gives a really strong punch to take away opponents card advantage. He has the potential to generate a lot of value for you but he is hard to abuse because we really cant rez him all that well if he gets countered or milled. He is sort of in an awkward position due to that.
Pestilence Demon he is pestilence on a big stick. The advantage here is that he has a big enough back end to take out most small guys without hurting himself. Generally speaking I prefer the less mana versions like Crypt Rats though where they are a one shot and done effect but come in for much less mana.
Everflowing Chalice its a very versatile mana stone which is why I bothered identifying it. You can really scale into it in a lot of different ways depending on your situation and when you get it. Its a very respectable mana stone due to its scalability based on what you want it to be.
Mana Crypt some will advocate to use it everywhere. If you have one and like using it everywhere then power to you. I think its probably fine to add it here since we have lifegain but I feel like we are a little slow to try to push for the win for this type of card here personally. I tend to prefer this type of stone in a deck that pushes for fast games and quick kills.
Candelabra of Tawnos this card is strong and interacts well with things like Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, and mana doublers like Caged Sun. There are sort of two requirements for this card to be good though and they are 1) You want to have a ton of mana doubling effects or utility lands that really matter and 2) It costs an arm and a leg to buy in real life. Its a good card but out of reach of many. Its a solid card but you need a way for specific lands to really matter a lot or for double or more mana per land tap.
Elixir of Immortality some people like to "protect" their graveyard with this sort of effect. Personally, shuffled into my library and or exiled are about the same to me. If you run lots of tutors then shuffled in might be a little stronger for you but my chances of seeing a key card again are low enough in library so I personally dont find it to be an improvement over exiled. Its sort of up to you if you want to run this sort of thing but personally I dont feel its worth the slot.
Expedition MapCabal Coffers is amazing and tutors for it are solid. The only downside of a tutor like this is that there are several black tutors in the 3-4 mana range so you limit your targeting for minimal mana saved is my only concern with something like this. If you have more ways to interact with artifacts this becomes better though but that is sort of up to you. My own list has little to no ways of abusing artifacts. I tend to prefer something like this with access to things like Trinket Mage and or Academy Ruins.
Mana Vault I view it as temporary mana. Its a hassle to untap it each turn especially since its limited to the upkeep on its untap but it provides a good chunk of mana.
Nihil Spellbomb it is good graveyard hate but since I use graveyards so much in my build I prioritize pinpoint removal where I can respond to grave abuse and try to disrupt things.
Pithing Needle I consider this a meta call. Run this if someone is giving you regular problems with an activated ability commander. I tend to feel that its a bit of a narrow answer and dont prefer to use it unless given a reason to.
Relic of Progenitus I would strongly advise against the inclusion of this card in a Toshiro Umezawa build unless your deck does not resemble my own build. Exiling all graveyards hurts a lot so you are much better off running pinpoint graveyard hate to respond with rather than taking out all graveyards in one shot. The tap ability on relic is also difficult to utilize well in this sort of deck because you care about opponents graveyards selectively so I would just advise against including it here.
Sensei's Divining Top some people feel that top is a staple that you put in every deck. Personally I feel like the full power of top is utilized with regular shuffle effects. In mono color I tend to not run fetchlands and so I tend to have less shuffling than I care for to make top more effective. Due to this, I personally choose not to run it but there are many who still enjoy this effect. In my own viewpoint of it you tend to get stagnant topdecks without the ability to regularly shuffle things away where you just keep pushing two cards you dont want at the moment down.
Skullclamp its a great draw engine. I felt that my creature count was a little low at times for it. I might have to give it another shot and see how it goes though. You ideally want a lot of ETB creatures that have low toughness and or sac outlets to pair with it. Its a great card but you need to keep the creatures rotating for it to be at its best.
Sol Ring unfair ramp with no real downside. I suggest running it until you are given a reason not to.
Wayfarer's Bauble it ramps lands and its cheap to use. It has good synergy with Coffers and doesnt leave you with a target for things like Austere Command. I tend to favor land ramp over mana stones until someone in your meta starts running regular mass land destruction at which point you need to shift to some stones.
Altar of Dementia Keeping a graveyard and having targets in opponents graveyards are always something to think about. Sac outlets are good to have access to and this one happens to have a very strong ability that we want to have access to to boot. Keep in mind who is most likely to abuse their own graveyards though and try not to mill them outside of trying to mill them out. I often find myself targeting myself for the pickup value in my own grave with this card but dont go overboard on that front. Its also viable to mill some toolbox decks as it will screw with their tutor targets but that's dependent on how much grave abuse they have.
Distorting Lens this is a little bit tech but it would allow you to ignore some of the kill a nonblack creature sort of things. It is also useful because you can turn swords into a color that they protect from to drop them off. Its a bit of a tech card but since adding it to my Rebels deck it has been a ton of fun for me and I really enjoy it. I think its a bit of a weak add here offhand but not out of the realm of possibilities.
Grim Monolith its a solid stone and it taps for a bit of mana. The fact that its untap can be activated at instant speed makes it much stronger as well. It is unfortunate that it requires untapping but its far superior than something like Mana Vault for this list since getting it a turn faster into play doesn't matter much but the untap at instant speed makes a world of difference.
Helm of Awakening being that we chain spells this could be useful. Granted though we mostly run black spells so its more likely that you run Jet Medallion and consider this assuming you find it to be a high priority.
Isochron Scepter being that we are an instant heavy sort of deck, adding the scepter is an option. Counting on my current list though I only have 10 instants that fit the requirements for the imprint at the time of writing this though. To me that sort of means its likely that I will have little to no options of what to put on it assuming I have a spell to put on it at all. I personally like seeing a higher count of imprint targets as well as more diversity in what I can put on it. There is also the issue that people tend to sort of panic and kill repeat value effects like this and it would be difficult to recover it. We also already get two uses from spells generally speaking so I just feel like its not as strong as it could be potentially before I would feel like I need to add it into a list.
Jet Medallion its potentially a rather strong mana stone given that it can work very well with spell chaining. It cant cheapen the costs of spells that dont have colorless mana in them nor can it be used on creature abilities but we tend to be more of a spell singer style of deck so I think its relatively a strong stone.
Lightning Greaves good card but the big question here is how much do you value haste. As a protection means, I feel like boots are not very strong as there is some protection level involved in their hexproof but in general if the target needs to die it will die in response to the equip or to a wrath anyways. There are very few sorcery speed targeting creature removal used in this format.
Mask of Memory discard is potentially a strong mechanic in this deck so a repeatable draw two is solid for sure. The big question is if you can consistantly connect to opponents to make this work. Toshiro can occasionally do it but thats more because he doesnt matter much if he connects or not so people will often just let him through rather than blocking with a 1/1 or 2/2 to use that creature to block something bigger. Its potentially worth testing though.
Mesmeric Orb filling up your graveyard is a type of card advantage in a graveyard abuse style of deck. This card tends to draw attention for odd reasons as well so beware the random casual players who feel like you are choking them to death by making them mill 6 even once and they might rage smash it because they are afraid you will mill them out or something.... I just dont even understand that mentality but whatever. Mill is good and this one has some reach and filling opponents graveyards up also gives some additional access.
Mind Stone I use it because its cheap and it cycles. The hard part with this stone is you want to use it last so you keep the cycle option up which is sort of annoying. Still, its a solid stone if you expect to see a decent number of artifact sweepers due to the cycling.
Nim Deathmantle this card can be used as a value engine potentially. There are many good ETB / leaves play / Death based creatures that are used in EDH and being able to cycle them is potentially strong. The hard part about this card is that it generally takes a specific setup to be good and tends to die quickly when played. You generally want a good creature in play already with a repeat sac outlet and tons of mana then drop this into play and just machine gun that creature several times. The issue I have with it is that I dont run that many sac outlets so its actually a bit hard for me to cycle the creatures and it tends to be a card you want to drop in with a bunch of mana. It isnt an instant and it isnt a creature either so abusing it is difficult for what ends up usually being a bad Chainer since it costs more mana and is more restrictive as to how it works. Its still a solid consideration sort of card but I have some issues with it still.
Null Rod its potential to hate on artifacts. We dont really specifically need artifacts for most of the core of what the list does. I think its good to build arround to some degree though as well. You have tutors and its possible to pick up some recursion for it still as well through things like Yawgmoth's Will, Buried Ruin, and even potentially things like Junk Diver. The hardest part about this type of card is that you generally need to build around it to some degree. It is also possible to run Dampening Matrix to give additional effects like this and Guardian Beast could help keep them in play. This sort of a package is sort of one you want to focus on quite a bit or generally not bother with though. I like these effects but they are difficult to pull off and even more difficult to keep in play because people tend to hate on them a lot.
Ratchet Bomb its good at taking out tokens and can be pushed up to remove artifacts and enchantments but its very vulnerable and slow when utilized in that way. I think using it as an anti token measure is the strongest use for it but it lacks synergy with the deck other than giving activations to Toshiro to flash things back. I guess I would suggest it as a meta issue answer for tokens potentially.
Runechanter's Pike being that we are a graveyard dependent deck and one that likes instants this could be an option. The big problem is that Toshiro still lacks evasion and while this makes him huge, things like Lashwrite and Nightmare Lash dont give the graveyard dependance which I think is superior as it diversifies our threats better.
Scroll Rack some people will swear by the value of scroll rack as a means to get extra hands. I think its at its best when utilized with a heavy amount of shuffle enablers as it allows you to ditch a hand you dont like. I think running fetchlands is a strong thing to consider if you are going to run the this card.
Umezawa's Jitte its very flavorful for the commander since it is a weapon of Toshiro's. It helps enable flashback triggers by giving us tokens that we can expend to kill utility creatures and tokens as well. It has a lot of versatility to what it can do which is nice. Its annoying if it just blows up immediately though but given we aren't playing it for its voltron option it shouldn't be a huge target normally.
Arena of the Ancients we dont use a lot of legends and if you happen to see a lot of voltron this can be a decent choice to add to the list. We dont use Toshiro a lot for actual combat so it seems like it could make an alright inclusion but seems like a bit of a personal call or a meta call as to how useful it would be.
Ashnod's Altar sac outlets are good as they get creatures out of play when needed and allow us to set up loops and control some of our recursion as needed. As for the two mana it generates, its decent but not that amazing on its own.
Basalt Monolith its an ok mana stone as it gives three mana and costs three mana but the fact that it takes three to untap and is only one mana less to drop than Thran Dynamo makes me sort of assume I would rather just pay the one more mana for the Dynamo. Its in sort of an awkward place where its not super cheap to drop and it has a downside that for one more mana to cast goes away. I think the cheaper to drop Grim Monolith or Thran Dynamo make more sense to me.
Bösium Strip its sort of a replacement option for Toshiro that you have slightly more control over the timing but less control over what it targets. It has pros and cons but it seems like one of those cards to consider and look at while playing a spellslinger deck. I like Toshiro more personally but it could serve as a backup especially if you are relying heavier on spellslinging.
Cloudstone Curio its possible to use ETB creatures as a theme at which point this becomes a decent card. My issue with it has always been that you need to be playing ETB creatures.deck and then this is still incredibly expensive to cycle cards with. Its in my opinion stronger in a deck where card draw is light and you want to recycle cards as a replacement for drawing more cards. Its ok but super mana intensive generally speaking.
Crucible of Worlds its a good backup plan for if people are smashing up your Cabal Coffers. Personally I like including fetchlands if you are going to include this card just to expand what you can do with it. If you dont want to include fetchlands but still want backup for Cabal Coffers I suggest running Yawgmoth's Will instead.
Damping Matrix its decent for hurting artifact heavy and some creature based builds. The hardest part about this card is how many limitations it puts on you as well so it definitely has to be put into the right build. I think its possible to include in a heavier spellslinger type build but its a challange for sure. It doesnt hate on mana stones so you can still run them which has pros and cons over Null Rod.
Darksteel Ingot I run this mana stone for one simple reason, its dang robust. I see plenty of sweepers and while it doesn't produce a ton of mana it's resilient.
Darksteel Plate it can serve as good protection for Toshiro. The more tuck and exile removal and sweepers you see in your meta the worse it is though. Generally speaking Toshiro wont draw spot removal for me though so its mostly the incidental sweepers that it protects from. It comes down to how many wraths you see in your meta as well as what kind of wraths they are.
Extraplanar Lens this card is nice for a few reasons which are generally that its the cheapest costing mana doubler you can play. This is useful because you can drop it and have a large net mana generation due to this generally speaking but it comes with the downside that generally speaking you want to utilize Snow-Covered Swamps with this package and that it eats a land to imprint. It can be a huge pain if someone spot removes it immediately as it puts you back a land too but has the positive side of giving lots of mana right away which Caged Sun tends to not do very well due to its expensive cost to drop into play.
Forcefield I apologize for even bothering to mention this card due to its price tag which is not very reasonable. The upside though is that this thing is a champ at shrugging off voltron style of decks but its also generally speaking not that difficult for most voltron commanders to remove as it seems like most voltron / hexproof commanders tend to be W, G, and or WGX.
Kill Switch it can lock up mana stones which is amusing. It doesn't really affect equipment though but its got its uses I suppose. It might be another consideration if you run Null Rod already.
Mimic Vat its a decent card at just getting the value. The hardest part I have with it is that there is this timeframe before it goes active which seems to vary wildly. In this deck I dont necessarily have a ton of creatures so sometimes it can be hard to get a creature on it myself. If you look at using other people's creatures its sort of a meta call as to how good it tends to be there. I like it the most in a sacrifice based deck to be honest.
Oathkeeper, Takeno's DaishoToshiro Umezawa is a samurai so this is more or less a flavorful card than anything. When I first read this card I thought the samurai came back with this equipped but since it does not it would take Ashnod's Altar to try to go infinite and then you would need something that cares about creatures ETB / Death / leaving play to make profit from it. Still, it seems like a really flavorful card and potentially a means to use Toshiro aggressively in combat since he would take out X/6 creatures in combat with this.
Oblivion Stone being this is a mono black deck we have a very hard time interacting with artifacts and enchantments. Having a few reset options is a very needed option. We dont have a ton of artifacts / enchantments that matter if they die either so its sort of nice to have this reset option.
Phyrexian Altar another free sac outlet that gives a little bit of value. Its sort of up to you as to how much you want to value free sac outlets but they are incredibly nice to have. The hard part is balancing the numbers as having two of them generally doesnt matter at all so I would rather do a few light than a few heavy but thats just my own personal decision.
Staff of Domination its a nice mana sink but to be honest, its mostly creature control and a little bit of lifegain. I personally feel that there are just decks that can just use this sort of versatile mana sink better than a mono black deck. Its true that we could fuel it with coffers but I sort of feel like there are probably better things to be getting done with coffers mana.
Sword of Feast and Famine it can be useful as an extra jump in mana sort of an effect. The problem I have is that people tend to gang up to stop sword triggers in my experience. There is also the problem of needing to be able to punch through still too with this one. Its a good effect for sure but I dont see a ton of synergy with it in the deck necessarily other than just trying to get a jump in mana.
Sword of Fire and Ice another good sword. Its sort of up to the individual on if they want to run these. Its good utility but it gives other problems such as people potentially trying to kill your creatures and or toshiro if he is the one running it in which is a pain.
Sword of Light and Shadow its sort of a pain to use this sword of the swords. Personally I think black just has access to better things.
Worn Powerstone its a decent stone. We dont need a ton of colorless mana and it comes in relatively early still. Its not bad but not amazing either.
Cold Storage its nice because short of a few pesky split second effects, its a fairly reliable means to store away creatures that would die or otherwise not be needed at the moment to re-trigger ETB effects. It also works well with temporary rez like Corpse Dance as when you return from the storage it will have forgotten the exile clause.
Erratic Portal its possible to harass opponents creatures as well as loop ETB triggers and save your own creatures from dying. It can be a little mana intensive but it allows you to generate a lot of value off of just a few cards.
Eye of Doom it gives an out to problematic cards. Its fun because I dont run a lot of artifacts / enchantments in the list and most of the creatures are expendable. This is a great card to drop when someone else has just gone crazy with artifacts / enchantments and needs to be taken down a peg or two because you just get to take out several good things in one shot.
Helm of Possession it can serve as a sac outlet as well as a means to theft things. The problem I have had with it is that generally you want another sacrifice outlet to go with it and it tends to be targeted quite a bit with removal.
Lashwrithe it works well for trying to punch in with some power. One of my favorite things to do with this equipment is to pair it with Alter of Dementia and start power milling opponents. That said, too often I have had a hard time making just a big round Toshiro roll in to connect on opponents. The objective of this deck is not to utilize spot removal to try to connect for commander damage on the ground. I like these equipment as they add a lot of power but they also require some evasion as well if you need to go on the beat down path.
Nightmare Lash about the same as Lashwrite above except it doesnt come with a body on it already. That said, pack Lashwrite and if you like it then consider this one in addition.
Silent Arbiter he hates on token strategies by disallowing them to attack. The hard part is that artifact creatures are probably the most fragile permenant type in the game. Its likely that the green token decks have means to shoot this guy down so take that into consideration as well.
Smokestack this card fits into the stax style of play. This is not something I would reccomend adding to the current build as it needs an entirely different style of play but its incredibly strong in that style of build. Look into the strategy section for alternate packages for more info.
Thran Dynamo its a good mana stone that gives a very large amount of mana for its cost. Its relatively strong in general. Its a good choice of stones if you need more and or want more ramp.
Trading Post it doesnt fit the current build very well but I could see it being very productive in a recursive creature or stax style of build. The more important artifacts are for your build and the more useful a sacrifice outlet and or tokens are the better it gets.
Vedalken Orrery it gives a little different spin on playing draw / go. The big question is how much hate it brings down on you. I would say this is a meta and player based sort of thing as I know in a lot of cases just having this thing out has drawn people down on me regardless of what my hand actually is. Its a great card but its hard to predict how people will act arround it and with as much instant speed things as we already have its hard to say how relevant it is.
Whip of Erebos the mass lifelink can be useful I guess. Its rez is sort of like Corpse Dance but its a lot more narrow as to how you get out exiling since corpse dance just needs to loose track of the creature but with this one we have to use something like Cold Storage or Conjurer's Closet to not nuke them for good afterwards.
Batterskull its a good versatile blocker / pump / source of lifegain. My issue is that people seem to dogpile it if you ever tap out which is annoying. It is effective against pressure decks and fun for if you want to voltron Toshiro up as he turns into a 6/6 with bushido so he beats up titans and such while being vigilant with lifelink. Its a good card for a control player but you really do need to keep those three mana up like always for it.
Conjurer's Closet it can work decently with ETB based creatures. I have had mixed feelings with it though in my own experience as it generally feels a little clunky and slow. Its... ok but I just dont really get excited for it.
Gauntlet of Power its a strong mana doubler but giving out double mana to opponents can be rough. Its worth considering though if you are looking for more means to get massive mana going.
Gilded Lotus its a solid stone that gives colored mana. It's sort of expensive as far as mana stones go though to be honest.
Lifeline its a card that could be useful but you really need to push hard on the number of creatures you run and run hard on the death triggers. Its a dangerous card since opponents get it as well so you need to make sure that you are abusing it a lot harder than your opponents combined really.
Memory Jar its a draw 7 that happens to also mill opponents and yourself. Its a good effect but its got some issues such as encouraging you to just sort of throw away some toolbox cards. Still, drawing a new hand for a turn and milling everyone is still a strong effect for this deck.
Mind's Eye its reliable card draw. It has a lot of power and its startup time is relatively low. Expect it to get targeted and die relatively fast.
Mirari its a spellslinger enabler card. It adds a lot of mana costs into the mix but the idea of quad casting spells has a bit of appeal. I dont run it mostly just because its sort of a slow rolling card that you have to cast out ahead of time and it eats up a lot of mana. You also might want to be pushing the spellslinger a bit harder to make it more valuable.
Caged Sun its a good mana doubler but its expensive. Its one of those type of cards where it often eats up most of your turn to cast and then you need to see if its still in play next turn.
Keening Stone if you want to go with the mill plan this is one of the bigger mill pushes but its super mana intensive. I dont really see it working but it does mill hard.
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Akroma's Memorial its a lot of good abilities all one one big artifact. Its a huge target but its also brutal to deal with assuming it doesnt get answered immediately. It has some good synergy with the Pestilence creatures as well as it protects them and your forces from their own ability.
Sphinx-Bone Wand this could be a really fun wincon for a spellslinger list. Its a little slow to get going but it starts machine gunning people down once it gets up and running. This deck is built to chain kill spells so its possible to hit this in and chain down instants.
Spine of Ish Sah mono black has a hard time dealing with some things like artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers so this can be a budget friendly option. I personally like Karn Liberated more due to the exile effect he gives plus there is a slight chance he might live through the turn. This is still an option for removal though.
Phyrexian Reclamation its fantastic recursion. Its activation cost is low and its reusable. I suggest waiting until you can recover a few creatures in one shot because this has a bit of a target on itself. Its a good card though.
Animate Dead cheap recursion with few requirements. The downside is we dont really have any additional synergy with it and its sorcery speed. Its versatile though.
Bitterblossom it could fit well into a token / stax style of list. If you see a lot of aggro decks it could also be worthwhile and or if you want to play spellslinger it could give you the option of cheap chump blockers. Its a nice card but it doesn't quite fit my current build.
Attrition its a sac outlet plus being removal. It has times where its the most amazing thing ever and then it has times where everything is black and you hate it. I guess its a love / hate relationship but it gives me cheap activation kill effect as well as setting Toshiro's flashbakcs up for little mana.
Bottomless Pit this card is a bit rough in nature. I sort of suggest it for a stax and or defense vs combo decks. It will not make friends by any means but the fact that its a random card really puts combo decks on a clock to get things into play or take their chances.
Contamination this is a lock based card. Only run this card if you have intentions to play higher competitive as your objective. Its not completely game over as people can still get mana from stones but most people just sort of roll to this. You generally want tokens and or recursive creatures to back this up as well.
Dark Prophecy this works well for token / recursive creature decks. Its not good for my current list but if you want to take a swing at a slightly different approach I see it being decent.
Infernal Tribute card draw plus sac outlet all in one. The real issue with it though is the cost to activate though as its not cheap at all.
Mind Slash another token / recursive creature type of card. I like it more in combo based metas as well as it gives a good harassing power.
Necromancy its instant speed rez with no limitations on when I can use it or where I can use it. Its one of my favorite rez effects due to this. Its hard to abuse beyond what it does on the card but what it does is fantastic.
Necropotence its good power draw. Its one of the most broken draw cards in the game and extremely powerful. If you have not played with this card before I strongly suggest giving it a shot as its just an absolute power house. It gives you the option to have a whole new hand essentially every turn and its difficult to stop outside of a straight up counterspell.
Oppression this is another card you will not make friends with. Its sort of a rough ability but its going to hit your opponents before you. We also happen to take advantage of our graveyard so its a strong card at just eating up opponents resources especially if they are not playing draw heavy decks. It has some issues if someone is playing powerdraw.deck but in general I think it sort of fits a stax approach mentality so if you are playing stax already its going to be hard for opponents to be power drawing anyways.
Phyrexian Arena its a reliable and powerful draw engine. You should not under estimate it on your board or when played against you. Its cheap, and not that fragile in general.
Grave Pact this is another good token / recursive creature style of card. I wouldn't put it in the current build as our total creatures aren't that high but its a good card to consider for trying some alternative tactics.
Greed its good cheap draw. Its more powerful than Erebos, God of the Dead as a draw engine but I run him over it due to the fact that he can be rezed if I mill into him and he is harder to remove / animating him isnt half bad especially with sac outlets up. I think Greed is a fantastic card in general though.
Nether Void this is a great stax effect but sadly carries a bit of a price tag. Its a great card but it fits a very specific sort of playstyle. I would suggest trying stax in general without it or while proxying it before you go to purchase this card just to ensure that you want to be going down the stax plan.
No Mercy I have mixed feelings towards this card as there are plenty of situations where a wave of tokens or big voltron commander just outright kills in one shot so it doesn't dissuade all that well in my opinion. It can be used as a potential defense against voltron commanders though but like I said, it has its weak points too.
The Abyss another good stax effect. It isn't cheap to buy though so I suggest testing stax first before you commit to buying a copy but its good.
Dictate of Erebos its a more expensive Grave Pact but with flash. It is sort of up to the individual for how useful flash is going to be on it. This version gives a little more to combat tricks with it and is a fun with a responsive style of deck like this but costing one more might cut into what you can do for your turn yet afterwards.
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Grave Betrayal I have always had an issue with this card that its an expensive card that does nothing immediately and demands to be answered. The last time I saw someone cast this against me I just untapped and fetched an Acidic Slime and killed it. This card is cool but its slow to get going and usually dies on sight.
Null Profusion yay for black Recycle. This card is great as it encourages just chaining through cards nonstop. When I get this card out I just burn spells to rotate into new spells. Its great for just shotgunning through your deck but has the downside that you will waste things a lot of the time.
Price of Knowledge this thing can pack a huge punch. I know a lot of people who regularly sit with full hands from a turn to turn basis. It doesn't really have a lot of synergy with anything but it can add up fast.
Cremate its sort of funny but I think of this card as my Think Twice of the deck. It cantrips which is great as it means it gives me card advantage while still dealing with individual problems in graves. There is nothing more satisfying than paying a single mana to exile an Anger, draw a card, and have access to draw another card later with it. We abuse graveyards so I try to stick to spot exile when I need it rather than relying on sweeping out entire graveyards.
Dark Ritual its hard for me to say much here really. Its fast mana and I guess we have options to reuse it potentially. I feel like it would belong more in a stax build where you might need to try to assemble much faster.
Darkblast its small spot removal with dredge attached. Its not a big dredge effect sadly or I might run it so I guess its up to you as to how useful the small scale removal is. Its possibly a flashback enabler as you can just poke off a token or something to get the ball rolling.
Entomb it gets ANY card into grave. You can get an instant or a creature so I really like this card for its versatility. It tends to be surprising when you fetch an instant into graveyard mid combat to flash it back off of [carToshiro Umezawa]Toshiro[/card].
Ghastly Demise situational kill. It has two conditions and I am not too fond of either one of them but its cheap removal I guess.
Skeletal Scrying this is a good draw card that pairs well with mill. The problem is that you need to exile cards from your own graveyard and still pay X mana to do this one. Still, exiling artifacts, enchantments, and lands to draw a few cards seems decent. It just seems like it has a lot of situations where you dont have much you would want to exile in my mind though.
Surgical Extraction a graveyard removal + hand peek at instant speed that can be cast for 2 life seems good. I would say it seems a little dependent on your opponents and meta though as well. I think its a great addition to the deck if you encounter a lot of graveyard abuse but in general it has some issues with the fact that its narrow in what it does and when you would want it.
Tainted Strike it has potential to just take someone out via infect. Its sort of a surprise card but its also amusing as you could easily save yourself 6-7 life with it too if someone is attacking you with a fatty you want to just sort of ignore you can just push some poison your way and ignore it (hoping they dont randomly have pump).
Tragic Slip its good removal but it needs something to have died already the turn. Its possible to just cast it to kill an ETB or Token and then flash it back as removal for something bigger. Due to its situations though I have some issues with the card but I think it has potential to be amazing like if you pay BB to kill two big things.
Undying Evil this is a great rez spell because of how cheap it is to cast. With minimal mana up and potentially a sac outlet you can cycle a creature to get its ETB to happen again. For one mana cycling a Solemn Simulacrum or Burnished Hart is like one of the most satisfying things you can do in the early game. Casting this on a Rune-Scarred Demon is an example of one of the powerful things that can be done with this guy.
Vampiric Tutor vamp tutor is a great tutor and the fact that we can use it twice in this deck is just the gravy on top. Its a strong card that just gets stronger in here.
Vendetta its a bit situational based on nonblack and it packs a bit of a bite afterwards but when looking at one mana removal I think you have to accept there will be some downsides.
Bile Blight its a little situational as to what it can kill but it chains to clones and spreads through tokens really well. This is a good utility and token removal option and its relatively cheap to cast. Echoing Decay is similar but its smaller removal but with the advantage of being 1B rather than BB to cast.
Devour Flesh its an edict with a mostly irrelivant drawback. That being said though, Diabolic Edict is the same thing with no drawback and Geth's Verdict is possibly stronger than both with a downside of being BB instead of 1B. If you have issues with voltron commanders (not Sigarda because it doesn't work on her) all of these might be worth taking a look at.
Devour in Shadow no limitations on targeting but a little drawback in some life loss. Its not too concerning but if you are chaining this it will probably add up quick.
Diabolic Edict its a good edict effect but its only one player and only one creature. These work well against voltron commanders but I sort of avoid them outside of metagaming for that just because I see too many ETB creatures and token decks.
Doom Blade its a situational removal option. I really sort of dislike nonblack removal though to be honest but its ok so long as you can live with that limitation. Its one of the more annoying restrictions in my mind for this format though where everyone is trying to smash three colored legends though.
Echoing Decay similar to Bile Blight but with a colorless mana in its cost instead of BB. Its slightly less powerful but honestly how many 3/3s do you see in this format? Personally I think it kills about everything the same but the slight cost of more black mana intensive isn't that much of a drawback for a mono black deck.
False Cure its really fun to smash in response to someone trying to Debt to the Deathless and watch them die lol. Still, it seems super situational and generally speaking you have to sit on it all game to find a use for it.
Geth's Verdict its another edict effect and one of the stronger options. Focus on using these a bit more when you encounter regular issues with hexproof voltron commanders.
Go for the Throat its effective and its limitation is very small. I feel that its probably the best two mana black instant speed removal effect. What it cant hit is extremely limited and most often irrelevant.
Headstone its a slightly worse Cremate but it still draws a card just a little slower to do so. I find it to still be a very effective card in general.
Imp's Mischief its a situational card but its potentially the counter to the counterspell or a redirect for that Swords to Plowshares or Time Warp. It has some very powerful options but its also limited in what it can really do as redirects tend to be narrow use cards. It is cool though because for the most part this is not a black effect.
Shallow Grave its a cheap rez effect with little controlling ability. I think its ok but Corpse Dance only costs one more for the same thing but has a lot more versatility due to the buyback on it.
Shred Memory spot grave removal or a tutor. Its a nice option if you need to expand your graveyard hate package but want some versatility.
Tainted Pact its a really odd card draw like mechanic. It exiles cards though and only draws a single card. It also has challenges in the fact that it can hit basic lands and screw up. Its sort of a tricky card to get to work to be honest. I am not really sold that it is that profitable of a card really but could see splitting a landbase between snow and non snow lands to make this work better.
Ultimate Price its a different flavor of doom blade. It still has a restriction which generally will interfere with killing commanders too. Its sort of annoying too that this wont kill an eldrazi as they have no color...
Victim of Night it has a restriction but its restrictions are generally not seen in this format. Of the things that this cannot kill it seems like Olivia Voldaren and Thraximundar are two of the more noticable things that it cannot kill. Still, of the things I want to burn spot removal on, the things that this cannot kill is an extremely narrow list. I really like this removal due to that.
Withering Boon honestly, I enjoy this card more for just the randomness of countering something than anything. There arent a ton of things that I really feel like outright countering is that neccesary for but its nice to have now and then. Its useful for some of the persisting ETB guys like Glen Elendra Archmage and Puppeteer Clique and in general it does still deprive ETB value stuff so stopping things like Terastodon from happening are always good. The key here is to hold onto this one for the right moment. There are a lot of ETB guys that you need to ignore and wait for a big moment where someone is just going to unload on you or needs something to survive and deprive them of that.
Word of Command its sort of an odd effect but what I really do like it for is just taking a peek at the counter player and or the draw go player and seeing what they have up. Its good to do leading into a big play on your behalf because it screws with them and often provokes them to tap and use the counterspell to stop it. Its sort of an odd sort of thing and not cheap to purchase but interesting for sure.
Corpse Dance reusable rez engine. Its really a strong card and while it does have the exile clause on it you can really do a lot of things to escape that. Sacrificing the creatures will get around it and due to how it rezes a little bit uncontrollably I will often use the exile clause to burn through things that aren't as profitable to return.
Dismember its actually really good removal and I love the versatility to use life instead of mana but the big killer for me is that so many beaters are X/6 in EDH. This kills a lot of things and has some good versatility but at the same time I dont like being limited when possible on what I am killing. I think this gets much more powerful with the faster games are going and the more combo and stax you see though as big creatures see a lot less play there.
Grim Return instant speed rez from any death is really cool. I love using this on Solemn Simulacrums. This is one of those spells that if you have it in hand you just want to keep up three mana like all the time just in case.
Hero's Downfall versatile removal. I love the option to hit walkers or any creature. Three mana isn't super cheap but its nice to have the versatility here. Its mostly just a glorified Murder but its still fairly good.
Krovikan Rot its interesting due to the fact that its a kill spell that self recovers but its really a huge pain dealing with recover since you MUST do it when it happens or it is exiled. Still, it seems like something that could be useful.
Murder no conditions three mana removal. Three to kill a creature isn't cheap so you need to evaluate how much you dislike situational kill effects as the 1-2 mana removal all have some sort of conditions. Its decent but not amazing. You should also pack Hero's Downfall before this due to it being more versatile.
Reaping the Graves it has potential to just unload your grave creatures back to hand. This deck chains spells nicely too so it seems like a good one to chain into on a flashback too.
Reckless Spite nonblack removal but it hits two targets. This is also a fun one to chain down as a mini wrath but loosing 10 life to do it twice hurts too. I stopped running it because it was too selective needing nonblack targets and two of them at that. I think its a cool effect but nonblack targeting with a multiple target requirement was just too difficult to pull off.
Slay its very narrow as to how it works but it draws a card as well which I really like. You really need a meta to be heavy green to get away with this but it works well in metas that love three color decks.
Spoils of Evil situational lifegain and mana production. Its an interesting card but extremely dependent on opponents decks and if you are milling them or not really.
Sudden Death split second spot removal with sort of some situational issues to it. Still, I guess it depends how much you value opponents not being able to respond. It gets better in control and combo based metas.
Sudden Spoiling its more or less a fog for a turn in most situations is my issue with this card. You might catch someone as they are attacking and kill a few things but in my experience its a bit hit and miss as to if it stops what you need it to.
Wail of the Nim it answers a lot of tokens and it regens as well. It can be good vs opponents wraths and opposing token decks. Its an interesting effect.
Hideous Laughter its another option against tokens. This one unfortunately also kills Tohshiro which is sort of annoying but it clears out a lot of things in one shot. You can always flash it back too assuming you have that sort of mana available as Toshiro's ability will still proc when he is going out. Its really mana intensive though which is unfortunate.
Insidious Dreams its sort of an odd tutor but since we can abuse things in our graveyard it can be used as a means to set up recursion and or we can bank on some flashback effects. The tutor is just to topdeck but I often just to it for one or two cards. This is a great effect to hold onto and do in response to someone hitting a wheel effect as its hilarious to just go get a hand of your choosing and stack it into hand. Watch out for counterspells if you are going to go deep with it though.
Makeshift Mannequin its one of my favorite rez effects in the deck just because it doesn't have a restriction as to when I cast it. Sadly though its only from my own graveyard but its a great rez. The fact that the creature dies to the next target is usually not an issue either since most things that would target a creature would kill it anyways.
Shriveling Rot it has potential to absolutely blow some people out during wrath effects. Its also fun to do if two creature decks happen to be clashing in combat. I have an issue with this effect though due to the fact that it usually does nothing but make opponents loose some life which generally is difficult to give up cards for especially with how conditional this effect is.
Silence the Believers its sort of an instant speed wrath effect. It can branch and remove more than one creature which is nice. It unfortunately exile removes which is not exactly what this deck wants to do usually but it has its moments where that is necessary. This is a good answer for creatures like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Slaughter its reusable but not cheap and still has the nonblack targeting which tends to sort of irritate me on removal. Still, its not a bad drawback for keeping it in hand and toshiro allows you to buyback with flashback due to how he reads as its not true flashback.
Snuff Out its instant speed removal with the optional no cost which is nice. Still, its nonblack removal which irritates me and when flashing it back I dont believe you can use the alt cost. Still, its a good surprise spot removal but its much more important in hand than it is in grave.
Tendrils of Corruption spot removal with some lifegain attached. Its not cheap to cast and you really want this one to land so you get the lifegain but I like to use it to fuel the multiple draw effects in deck that pull from lifetotals.
Ad Nauseam its a powerful card draw effect but I think my average mana per card was somewhere over 3 so the expectation should be that there will be three life lost per card as the average. It adds up real fast but its possible to be used still. I think its a little stronger in a combo oriented list though.
Consume the Meek it nukes out tokens and utility creatures fairly well. The problem I had with it is that it doesn't have a lot of diversity in how it can be used but its a good means to just instant speed say no to tokens.
Hatred it has the option to just super up and kill someone. You can cast this on someone else's creature and or commander as well which makes for some funny situations or use it with lifelink for a nice effect. Overall though, it seems very conditional in general on it working which is why I dont run it.
Moonlight Bargain it digs deep and draws cards at instant speed. It flashes back nicely as well so I like it because I can abuse it and do it when I want.
Necrologia its a one shot Necropotence hit. Its unfortunate as to when it has to be cast but its a strong draw effect and for the most part about the same as Promise of Power but with the option to flash it back later (you generally have to burn a kill spell at your end of turn to flash it back).
Rescue from the Underworld its an interesting rez effect but the part that really killed it for me was the timing as to when it would rez as well as the fact that it self exiled when you resolve it. Its interesting but it was awkward in a lot of ways.
Treacherous Urge its a really cool effect but a lot of times you have to blindly cast it just based on who has cards in hand and tends to run creatures. I have had it turn into a hand peek with no targets and its super unfortunate when that happens for 5 mana.
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Betrayal of Flesh rez effect or kill effect. The problem I have with this is that the rez is just from our grave and the kill effect is super expensive to pay that for a single kill. Still, it has some versatility but I just cant really justify it myself for what it costs.
Fated Return its an instant speed indestructible rez from anywhere. It's sort of like Beacon of Unrest but at instant speed.
Murderous Spoils its situational as to when its useful but it would be sort of epic to steal a few equipment with this card. Possibly a meta call style of card as it would be cool to pull off.
Nemesis Trap the fun part here is the fact that you get a token copy for a turn of the creature so it works well against ETB guys but it sort of costs a lot of mana and is a little iffy overall.
Tsabo's Decree instant speed wrath for a creature type. I love this against hexproof commanders and tokens. It works well against tribal decks as well. People just sort of look at you odd when you kill their hexproof guy with this.
Duress useful for fighting against combo decks. It unfortunately needs to be used against them before the fact of them utilizing the combo and doesn't scale that well for multiplayer. It is better suited for 1v1 games due to this.
Imperial Seal its an expensive bad Vampiric Tutor. That said its still a strong card but it is literally a bad Vampiric Tutor that costs hundreds of dollars. For those who can afford it its a good card.
Mind Twist useful against control and combo players. The fact that it only hits one person is its biggest downside but its a very strong card if you play in a combo meta.
Thoughtseize useful against combo players. Poke in and take out their combo piece or force them to burn their counterspell on you. Its much better suited for 1v1 games though as it doesn't scale for multiplayer well. Still, its very strong at what it does for the mana.
Demonic Tutor its the strongest tutor in the game. It gets anything you want with no drawback for two mana.
Diabolic Intent its similar to Demonic Tutor with the downside of sacrificing a creature. Its still very strong but not as strong as demonic.
Exsanguinate its a siphoning effect that scales well with big mana from coffers and such. The biggest problem I have with it is that we cant really abuse it and it does nothing to the board state.
Hymn to Tourach useful against control and combo decks but better suited for 1v1 games.
Mind Shatter its a slightly less effective Mind Twist. Run that first and if you like its effect consider this in addition.
Sinkhole sort of a heads up tempo style of card. Its good for sure but much more suited to heads up.
Smallpox a stax style of card. Combined with other stax effects this can be very brutal as its cheap for the mana and can catch opponents very early.
Ashes to Ashes sorcery speed exile removal. Its limitation on targets is easy to manage though. Sadly this is a sorcery speed spot removal.
Beseech the Queen its a cheap tutor. Its selective in what it can get but that usually doesn't matter in my experience. I use it because its cheap to use making it easy to multi task with other things in a turn.
Buried Alive its a card that can be used in recursive type creature decks. It is limited to creature tutoring which is why I am not a huge fan of it but it gets a lot stronger when you go and get Reassembling Skeleton / Bloodghast type creatures.
Death Cloud it hits players on a lot of different elements. Its a strong stax like effect that can be powerful to utilize even when not playing a stax style of deck. This is one of the harder effects to recover from in my opinion since it hits on so many levels.
Pox sort of an odd card due to how it works. It hits the ramp players the hardest but leaves them with the most resource still. I personally feel like this card is better in a 60 card heads up style of deck as its sort of hard to build around for this format in my opinion.
Praetor's Grasp its a fun card and you can remove key pieces of opponents decks or get ramp / draw effects. My issue with it seems to mostly be that its very dependent on what your opponents are running as to what you have available as targets. I can think of a few times where my only targets were like Simulacrum and Oblivion Stone which make it a little awkward.
Sadistic Sacrament its useful for taking apart opponents combos. I know of a lot of decks that aren't "combo" that rely on a handful of select cards as well so it can also be useful against toolbox decks too.
Toxic Deluge its a solid wrath for cheap. Its nice as well that you get to control the size of the wrath so you can potentially keep something alive through it. Its a pain to kill eldrazi though I suppose with it. Still, its something that's very viable that you should consider if you feel like you need more wraths.
Yawgmoth's Will its a good mass recovery style of card. There is already a lot of graveyard dependence in this deck though which makes me hesitant but its good for recovering Coffers and artifacts / enchantments with. It really depends on how much you want to have backup for that stuff so while I think its a fantastic card, I actually dont much care for it in this list.
Barter in Blood its useful for chewing up shroud creatures. In general though since Toshiro is the commander its almost easier to utilize instant speed edicts though as you can control when you flash them back and use them at instant speed. This is still an option but I prefer the instant speed ones due to their synergy with Toshiro.
Damnation this is a bread and butter wrath effect. These are useful but I prefer to stick to instant speed and creatures when I can. Creatures like Kagemaro, First to Suffer can be executed on demand and recurred as needed which I really like.
Evincar's Justice its a buyback possible token wrath. Annoyingly it deals with Toshiro as well which is sort of annoying but if you need to just repeatedly punish a token deck its ok.
Mutilate its a nice budget solution to those who want a Damnation effect. I personally dont run much for sorcery speed wraths in here but its definitely an option for those looking.
Persecute its a hand hate effect that can tear someone's hand apart for reasonably low mana. It is more suited for 1v1 due to the fact that it only hits one person but it can still be quite potent.
Sever the Bloodline its good token removal its sorcery speed though which is unfortunate but it gets all copies and flashes back on its own. It can be useful against indestructible targets as well but I think we have gotten a lot more options against them of late anyways.
Syphon Mind its good card advantage as it hurts all your opponents and draws a bunch of cards. Its definitely a card that gets better with the more opponents you have.
Beacon of Unrest its a solid rez card especially with the option of hitting artifacts and it can hit any graveyard. Its a solid card for sure when considering rez options.
Diabolic Revelation its a big mana type of tutor. My issue is I dont like spending a whole turn tutoring for cards and doing nothing else. This card tends to tap you deep and then everyone puts up their defenses like getting ready to wheel you or make you discard your hand / holds up all their counters for you. I prefer my tutors to be cheap and easy to multi task due to this.
Dregs of Sorrow removal plus draw. Its annoying that its sorcery speed to me though and it resembles Decree of Pain on a lot of levels to me. Its ok but sorcery speed limited targeting removal is a little sketchy to me.
Increasing Ambition the big draw to me is actually its flashback option which allows me to mill into this and still get tutors from it. Its an interesting tutor but its just so much to cast in the first place. I really wish they had made it 4 to cast instead of 5. I dislike expensive tutors that dont put anything on the table.
Living Death its a great effect and it works well with self milling as well as sac effects. I just feel like I dont run enough creatures to profit enough from running it.
Mind Sludge another sandbag discard effect. Its lower on the totem poll but ok overall.
Promise of Power its a strong draw effect that I really like. Sadly I just dont have a lot of synergy with sorcery effects in this deck so other than it just being a strong card I have nothing to really add to its power. Its still a great goodstuff black draw effect though.
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All is Dust its an incredibly useful wrath for us since it deals with indestructible, enchantments, and the very difficult to answer gods for this deck. Its a bit unfortunate that it doesn't answer artifacts and colorless as I wish they would for this deck's sake but still, this effect is very needed for this deck.
Army of the Damned tons of dudes and it flashes back. It works well with the self milling but the biggest bummer is that the tokens come in tapped so you might just get mauled as you wait to use those tokens. Its hard to deal with these guys though since there is the flashback yet to follow assuming it gets wrathed. I like this effect but its expensive.
Cabal Conditioning hand hate that gets all your opponents. The big downside being that it is dependent on your board state when it resolves so if someone bounces your one expensive thing it starts to suck fast. We also have essentially no way to abuse this effect.
Decree of Pain its cool due to its options. It can function as a power draw / wrath or be cycled as token defense. Its a great wrath effect to consider in here since we tend to deal with one or two threats easily so it deals with those pesky tokens in a few optional ways.
Life's Finale a wrath effect plus it allows you to set up some rez with some targets. Its decent but sort of expensive as far as wraths go.
Rise of the Dark Realms mass rez and not bad at that. The biggest issues with this card is that its super expensive, its weak against creature light opponents, homeward path, and graveyard hate. It reminds me a lot of Praetor's Counsel where it costs like 100000 mana and is always questionable as an addition to decks.
Liliana of the Dark Realms she gets lands, removes threats, and if she ults its crazy useful. I actually like everything she does as a walker for this list. Its a pain to defend walkers though. I think of the actual black planeswalkers though, I think she is my favorite option for this type of deck where all of her abilities seem very relevant. She is a value over time sort of walker though and they dont tend to work as well for this format though so it will take timing and defending to make her work. Still, she is a decent option to consider.
Liliana Vess her tutors to topdeck are ok but you really need to get 2+ tutors from her reliably to justify adding her. Paying 5 mana at sorcery speed to topdeck tutor once does not cut it. She almost needs to be getting to 3 tutors reliably to justify her in my mind.
Sorin Markov he is a huge kick in the teeth. I hate this guy soooooooo much as a card but he is strong and worth mentioning. He can put someone on full defense very easily making it hard to have room to play the game really. I absolutely hate this style of effect but its not to be ignored.
Karn Liberated he is one of the few means to deal with opposing gods for this deck. Erebos, God of the Dead is extremely aggravating to play against with this deck since it does do a lot of life siphoning so I strongly suggest removing these pesky things as fast as possible.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All I would say that this is a meta call sort of land. When you really need a spell to land its worth using something like this but you really need to be in a counter heavy meta to consider this in my mind. I dont run many big splashy instants / sorceries for this to protect so I would say wait to run this until you are having consistent issues with the counter heavy decks.
Buried Ruin it recovers artifacts which is one thing that this deck does not do very easily. Its only real drawback is that it taps for colorless mana and isnt a swamp for the purposes of Cabal Coffers.
Cabal Coffers the bread and butter of most mono black decks. This will provide you with large sums of mana to run away with games with. It is one of my more tutored mid game cards and its absolutely fantastic. Kill opposing copies whenever you see them and go and get / recover yours whenever you can.
Cavern of Souls another sort of situational meta call option. I cant imagine people burning tuck counters on Toshiro to be honest but if you are having issues with it then I guess consider adding it.
Deserted Temple its another land that can abuse Cabal Coffers. I dont much like colorless lands though that depend on other specific lands though so I dont bother but I know some who love it.
High Market its a cheap sac outlet!!!! It works wonders in this deck so go ahead and run it and love it.
Inkmoth Nexus its optional to add some infect wincons. This guy works well for surprise blocking flyers as well or randomly killing someone with Hatred.
Miren, the Moaning Well another sac outlet. I dont love it but I still run it as another means to sac out my creatures. Its not great but I guess its still ok.
Mystifying Maze it taps for mana and has the option of removing creatures from combat. This deck mostly doesn't need maze effects but the big time where they come in handy is against protection from black creatures. I was also once killed by Kaldra equipment and this could have saved me if I had realized it sooner.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx its usually much less powerful than Cabal Coffers but still very good in this deck. It always taps for mana and sometimes it taps for a bunch of mana.
Phyrexian Tower its a great sac outlet and generally one of top lands of the deck that I want in play. It acts as a sac outlet and sometimes as ramp.
Rogue's Passage its another handy land if you want to suit up and go voltron with your commander. Toshiro with Lashwrithe + unblockable makes for some sad opponents.
Springjack Pasture its a low commitment means to block creatures and just spend mana at end of turn.
Strip Mine it taps for mana and it answers opponents lands very easily. Its a great card to run a few variants of in each deck. Its strong and its cheap to buy which are a great combination.
Tectonic Edge its a slightly less powerful Strip Mine. Its mostly what Wasteland accomplishes but for a lot less money. Its a good card to use assuming you dont want to put the money of wastelands into your deck.
Tower of the Magistrate it helps against opponents swords and equipment. It doesn't have much drawback and its cheap to activate. Its a great card really.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth it more or less just enables the hell out of Cabal Coffers. I have some colorless mana producing lands which it makes a bit stronger but its real purpose is to abuse the heck out of Cabal Coffers. It is also worth noting that if you want to run some lands that dont normally tap for mana this helps them as well.
Vesuva another means to get extra Cabal Coffers! Yes I am beating the horse to death but a lot of my landbase is all about how much can I abuse Cabal Coffers.
Volrath's Stronghold it recovers creatures to topdeck and it doesn't take up much room as it still taps for colorless mana. Its a great utility land but in general I dont use it that often due to how much rez I already pack in deck. Still, it doesn't take up much space and gives you options.
Winding Canyons allows you to do more things with flash which is nice. It adds a bit of extra mana to the cost of things but it also allows for some gross turns where you might set up to do something and then execute it in the next turn. It is also very powerful with some of the mana to active type of creatures like Geth, Lord of the Vault where you get to just chain through your mana twice (essentially since its your opponents end of turn when he would come in).
~ ~ ~ Change Log ~ ~ ~
7/25/13
Nemesis Trap -> Insidious Dreams I guess I sort of forgot that this deck reanimates creatures and instants lol. Discarding cards could be useful and while it is still to topdeck I want to play with it a little. Nemesis Trap feels like it costs too much for what it does and while I like that I get this cool token to play with its going to just cost too much for what it does.
Shallow Grave -> Corpse Dance Yea, this should probably happen lol. I originally thought I got to pick which creature went to play with the Shallow Grave. I still love the effect but it wasn't going to work for what I wanted.
Death Denied -> Darksteel Plate I realized I don't actually run that many creatures myself so I should probably cut this card for something else. I wanted to squeeze the plate in anyways so it seems like a good way to get it in.
Swamp -> Phyrexian Tower I originally took a very conservative approach to my landbase to maximize coffers but its not like I can get coffers every game and or stick it. The benefits of a having more utility lands outweigh the downsides here.
Swamp -> High Market I originally took a very conservative approach to my landbase to maximize coffers but its not like I can get coffers every game and or stick it. The benefits of a having more utility lands outweigh the downsides here.
8/15/2013
Massacre Wurm -> Lashwrithe generally speaking my experience with Massacre Wurm has been a mostly fail relationship. I think he is great in theory but I can never get him to hit how I really want him to. Ideally, yes he would be amazing against a Rhys deck but thats usually not the situation I draw him in. I like the idea of Lashwrithe offhand. I like that it comes with a body and I can put it on my commander and beat face.
Exsanguinate -> Hatred we will see how this goes... I have my concerns but I like that I can interact with Hatred potentially better than I can Exanguinate.
Suffer the Past -> Headstone expensive grave hate for cheap grave hate. I like drawing cards as it seems like something good to burn off when I have a spare trigger.
Promise of Power -> Null Profusion mana wise these land at about the same so I figure I will try out the Profusion as it does some interesting things and they hit at like the same about mana cost. Profusion is interesting with the graveyard flashback effects too so I will give it a shot and see where it gets me to.
Syphon Mind -> Memory Jar making opponents discard fills graveyards with potential rez targets. That seems like enough of a reason to try out the Jar.
10/6/2013
Dimir House Guard -> Mindslicer its really hard to abuse the house guard as rez to play isnt so impressive with him. I had on several occasions though had good setups but people holding big hands of answers screws with me. Blowing up hands gives me targets and removes shinanigans from happening.
Slum Reaper -> Burnished Hart I had a lot of roundabout ways of dealing with creatures and I dont see much voltron in all. I also ran away with someone else's Burnished Hart this weekend. I was surprised at how ridiculous he can get when you reanimate it a few times.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed -> Gray Merchant of Asphodel Xiahou Dun has been sort of awkward with how much reanimation this deck already runs. To be honest, I already abuse a lot of my things so of the things I cant abuse with my commander or reanimation is mostly artifacts, walkers, and land of which he cant recover. So.... really.... he covers enchantments and its just too narrow. Gray Merchant has been nice in my testing in other decks and I stole one several times in a turn with Chainer in my testing and ended up killing everyone.
Mutilate -> Kokusho, the Evening Star I haven't really needed my sorcery speed wraths as much due to all of the instant shenanigans I have. I have also wanted more wincons and just high impact creatures.
Maze of Ith -> Altar of Dementia it isnt that I dont like maze but I have found that this deck actually defends itself quite decently with all the creatures in this version. I have on the other hand needed more sac outlets and it seems like mill + free sac would tie together quite nicely for this deck.
Bojuka Bog -> Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx I realized I dont really like taking out entire graveyards all that much with all my rez. On the other hand, I love me some big ramp
Crypt Incursion -> Rescue from the Underworld I realized I dont really need to and dont like to take out entire graveyards that much. If someone else runs a big grave abuse deck it could come back in but for now I think I might cut it. I am interested to see how the new theros reanimation might work but so far I tried it once and it was less impressive when I had to drop a creature in my main and my grave got swept before my next turn. I will keep testing though and see how it goes.
Hatred -> Exanguinate I...... haven't liked Hatred... On the other hand this deck can get ridiculous mana really easily.
Swamp -> Tectonic Edge never know when you need to remove a land. I would run Strip Mine.... but I have spare tech edges.
Swamp -> Miren, the Moaning Well another sac outlet. It isn't cheap but it taps for mana which is nice. Its useful to have access to in an instant based deck.
10/15/2013
Snuff Out -> Hero's Downfall I thought I was going to like Snuff Out more than I did. I tend to have mana to spare when I need it for spot removal though so I would rather have some better removal. I like the idea of walker or creature removal with the downfall. I will probably just proxy play it for now though as it seems to be at sort of its peak price at the moment.
Treacherous Urge -> Sudden Spoiling I had been a little under impressed by the Urge in general. I like seeing hands and screwing with them but this just wasn't enough. I had been sort of reluctant to add the spoiling but I like it as a potential answer to indestructible and it can possibly fog if the conditions are right.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni -> Nightmare Lash Ink-Eyes had been underwhelming in general. Of my reanimation creatures, it just wasn't one of the better ones. I have however, been really impressed by Lashwrithe so far so I thought I would test a second one even if it doesn't get a body by default.
Skullclamp -> Mesmeric Orb clamp has been a little hit and miss considering I dont run a ton of creatures of my own. I like it in general but I felt too pressured to rotate the creatures I had when I would get it and I just dont seem to run enough of them and dont like burning my reanimation just to rotate cards more. Mesmeric Orb can be a wincon against the big mana decks but what I am looking at is just putting resources in graveyards both my own and opponents so I can potentially abuse them. It had been one of my more impressive mill options back when I ran my UB mill deck so I am willing to test it as a potential resource generation outlet.
10/17/2013
Damnation -> Mutilate generally, it will accomplish about the same but there are some indestructible creatures out there that just really need to die. I am hoping that swapping to mutilate is an increase in my ability to kill those creatures.
Mimic Vat -> Nim Deathmantle generally, I am abusing my own creatures anyways. I am going to try out the deathmantle instead as if I have big mana and a free sac (I probably need more of these too), it could end up being more abusive. The vat can be sort of a trap though in the fact that I can end up exiling something I really want to abuse with it and then I am without that card. Due to that, I think I would rather test something else. I just wasn't really getting an opponent's sweet value creature often enough with the vat.
Worn Powerstone -> Praetor's Grasp I had been less impressed by the powerstone in general. It gets blown up on me and the grasp can get me some of the creatures from opponents decks that ramp hard and then I can abuse them more. Plus it gives me more access to Oblivion Stone if I need it. We will see though, it seems like grasp never pans out as well as I would hope for it to. It could always be an Exsanguinate / Necro / Coffers or something though.... I will keep hoping and put it in for some playtesting.
Swamp -> Buried Ruin I have added some really nice artifacts to the list. Enough that I think running the ruin is worthwhile.
Nirkana Revenant -> False Cure I happen to see quite a bit of lifegain / life siphoning in my meta. I would love to see the situation where someone hits a Debt to the Deathless and I False Cure + an opponent sacs a creature and I do it a second time or something lol. People are running a lot of lifegain in my meta though to deal with siphoning decks and it would be fun to deal with an opposing siphon deck or just in response to a big Sphinx's Revelation or whatever with a kick to the groin. Nirkana Revenant.... I keep hoping for good things from but continue to not really see them.
10/22/2013
Altar's Reap -> Erebos, God of the Dead I think that Altar's Reap is a cool card and occasionally its really good, but generally speaking I want repeatable sac outlets or card draw that hits harder. It fits the theme of the deck, but I was looking for a little more continued use draw. Erebos is interesting in the fact that it stops opposing lifegain, draws me cards, and might animate for some beats. Being heavy on rez, it seems like I could potentially mill into it and then rez it back into play. I didn't have good results with my testing it earlier but being that I am delving into some mill, sacrifice, and reanimation it seems like it could fit the bill of what I am looking for here.
Swamp -> Volrath's Stronghold It seems like a great bit of utility to pick up on. I dont know really why I didn't have it in here earlier. Coffers have still been really solid even with adding more utility lands to the deck so until its a problem, I will just add a few more utility lands. Plus, hurting one land's efficiency to give myself more utility seems worthwhile.
10/30/2013
Mutiliate -> All is Dust apparently hitting non-creature indestructible targets is big too (was trolled by opposing gods)
12/2/2013
Reckless Spite -> Slaughter it seems like both of these cards have sort of similar issues but I have had enough of reckless and the issues I have had with it so far. The other day, someone cast a Kozilek and all of the other creatures were black and I couldn't use reckless due to that and we sort of all died to it due to that due to the haste boots equip that followed it. They seem like similar sort of cards but I have had enough of reckless at the moment and its not working. I might end up trying to find another cheap spot removal that doesn't have the no nonblack to it but for now I just wanted a change and test something else. Slaughter has some potential to be sort of an engine for triggering toshiro triggers which is nice.
12/27/2014
Nightmare Lash -> Pontiff of Blight I still sort of like the Lash but considering it doesn't actually come with a token attached like the Lashwrithe its been less impressive overall. I still like it but it seems like I am trying to hard to mash it together with Altar of Dementia to be honest. Artifacts dont really have a lot of synergy with the rest of the deck here so I am trying to push for higher synergy. I like the idea of Pontiff with the instants in this deck as well as with a reanimator style of build.
Rescue from the Underworld -> Sheoldred, Whispering One Rescue has just been too odd of a card really. The fact that it has a delay in its rez has been awkward more than once and I didn't realize it exiled itself on resolution making it again really awkward. Sheoldred also has some slowness to her but it seems like she could be really solid with the rez based build of this deck. She does a lot of things that I should be trying to do and she picks up triggers for Toshiro fairly nicely just by making opponents sacrifice. She has a huge target on her face but that's not all bad in a rez based deck.
Nim Deathmantle -> Bile Blight the deathmantle has been shakey for a while now as I dont pack a lot of sac outlets. I have been sort of thinking about including more cheap removal as well so I can trigger toshiro and move spells a bit better (sometimes people just dont kill stuff).
2/18/2014
Sheoldred, Whispering One -> Myojin of Night's Reach I have always enjoyed what Myojin does to my opponents since I play in sort of a control based meta. Too many people draw too many cards as a regular strategy. I get the feeling that Sheoldred is just too slow at getting her value which has always been sort of my fear with her. Myojin is a very fast turnaround style of value card as it really slows opponents way down making him a good means to lean into like a Chainer abuse loop or something of that sort or even just a means to set myself up with some rez targets.
2/21/2014
Darksteel Plate -> Attrition honestly, I have been less in love with the plate of late. Its an ok card but I really dont have an issue recasting toshiro since he is so cheap to start. The plate was more from my prior builds where I didn't have a lot of creatures and so I needed to be able to chump block better. I want to see how Attrition plays for me since it offers me another sac outlet as well as a means to trigger flashback. I suspect, it will draw a lot of hatred but whatever. Sometimes I just have to roll out a change and see what happens.
Praetor's Grasp -> Mimic Vat I have had some ok results with the grasp but overall its been sort of shakey a little more often than I care for. Generally speaking, I can get away with Oblivion Stone or Simulacrum fairly regularly but I dont think its something regular enough for me to feel it worthy of a slot. If I played against more mono black I would love to use it as an additional coffers but essentially nobody else is playing mono black in my meta. Mimic Vat I pulled out a while back but I have added more removal since then so I sort of want to get it more testing. I like how its a little harder to hate on it with graveyard removal.
2/10/2014
Expedition Map -> Beseech the Queen these cards cost me the same amount of mana but Beseech can get a wider variety of cards so I feel like it might just open this tutor up rather than keeping it to just the landbase. If I had more things that interacted with the map then I think its likely that it would be more powerful but I dont really run artifact recursion or Trinket Mage type stuff to make artifacts stronger than a sorcery. They both take three mana total to go off so I guess the upside to the map is if is in my opening hand I can spin it off and move on sooner. There is also the extremely small advantage of Map being a permanent for things like Chaos Warp / Warp World.
Exsanguinate -> Death Cloud I usually get just way too greedy with Exsanguinate and it usually ends up getting wheeled it seems lol. I feel like Death Cloud is something I really need to test and it feels like I could try replacing Exsanguinate for it. What I like about the cloud is that it acts as an answer to hands and boards in one shot. If I manage to ramp well it could also deal with opponents landbases or at least bring them back into check. Its something that I enjoyed when someone else cast one in the 3-4 range the other day and so I felt like I might enjoy testing it for a bit.
4/3/2014
Lashwrithe -> Mind's Eye too often the Lashwrithe just hasn't mattered enough. I have however on occasion wished for more draw so it seems like a reasonable exchange to drop the situational Lashwrithe for more draw. I did enjoy pairing Lashwrithe with Altar of Dementia to mill people to death but that has been sort of scarce to happen of late and more often I have been disappointed to see the Lashwrithe when drawn.
5/6/2014
Slaughter -> Silence the Believers Slaughter has some issues with it and I really hate nonblack targeting limitations as they can be really pesky. I really want to get some testing in with silence as well and see how that pans out. It exiles which can be unfortunate but I like that it scales in its targeting in a single cast.
5/21/2014
Dark Impostor -> Crypt Rats I really like the rats as another wrath + life extort on opponents. The fact that its on a one time use stick is interesting here since I have so much rez. I dont know if this will turn out better or worse than just adding Pestilence though. I have had a lot of success with these type of tactics in my Obzedat deck and while I am borrowing some similar tactics I just want to dabble for now and see how things go. The imposter has felt less necessary since adding All is Dust and the new Silence the Believers has further made me feel like the imposter is just a big mana hog. With more exile in the list these days I feel like I can put the Imposter behind me for a while and try other things.
Sudden Spoiling -> Diabolic Intent spoiling while being a cool card has been sort of a blank too often for me. Its usually a fog in a lot of situations but I haven't found myself wanting it often enough. I am going to cut it for now and see how my removal is sitting without it. I was a little hesitant to add the Intent but my ability to have a creature to sacrifice to it seems a bit more reliable than I had originally thought. I am going to bring it in here and see how things go with more testing. I managed to get a Japanese or Chinese (I cant quite tell) foil copy so I am sort of dying to play with that one.
Consume the Meek -> Baleful Force consume is a very expensive and very situational card. It is great against token tactics but too often I have drawn it and had it matter too little. I like the card but its situational nature kind of kills it a bit. I am sort of surprised that I haven't tried the baleful force in here (or really at all) before. It seems like a good solid creature that should get some testing in. Its going to draw some attention but this deck has enough rez that its probably fine.
6/1/2014
Mimic Vat -> Umezawa's Jitte mimic vat just keeps looking to be a trap to me. I prefer it the most in creature heavy sacrifice based decks and the time to go active is just still a bit too high for my likes here. My creature count is also not stellar so in general I just haven't had the luck I want with it. Umezawa's Jitte is coming in for two big reasons 1) The flavor police called and demanded I add Umezawa's weapon to my Toshiro Umezawa deck and 2) it seems like it should be a nice setup for triggering Toshiro's abilities without spending cards to do so. The fact that I could just remove a counter or two to kill something insignificant gives me on demand removal to the deck to get the flashbacks rolling. It seems like it should be a really cool card for enabling without requiring me to drop resources sometimes to trigger the flashbacks at the times I need and want them to execute. There are a lot of spells that can be executed just whenever needed but there are also a lot that need to be timed specifically and it seems like this card should help me on that front and the fact that I dont even have to tap mana in to use the charges to get things rolling seems really solid to me.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief -> Eye of Doom Drana just doesnt work that often. The situations where I have been ok with her have been mostly situations where I have tons of mana but nothing to do with it. She is also a bit frail and I think people tend to over-react to her. Eye of Doom I have seen played exactly once now by someone playing a mostly stock commander deck but it was somehow amazing lol. I looked at this list and we dont have that many things that would be big targets. Most of the list is lands, instants, and creatures. It gives that extra out to deal with artifacts / enchantments and I like that it gives the option to just nuke someone who is running away with the game.
False Cure -> Tainted Strike I like false cure but in a lot of means it felt like a heavy meta choice and some games I was in it was absolutely a blank card to draw. It reminds me a bit of a Fog effect in that you have to sit on it forever until exactly the right time occurs. I think its really cool but I just dont see it working often enough for me. I had heard others trying out Tainted Strike so I want to try my luck with it. I feel like this is mostly just moving one narrow situational kill effect for another but I want to do it in part just for testing purposes. I want to see how often I can surprise kill people and it seems like a means to try to do that.
6/10/2014
Mindslicer -> Crypt Ghast I had been having a much harder time with the mindslicer than I had originally expected to. I do have some good solid value engines but it was too difficult to get him into play with a good value engine and execute hands. I love the slicer but for now I am going to try to move past him and test some other things. Crypt Ghast I earlier dismissed because of how frail he is but I think I am even more of a reanimator deck now than I had been in the past. I think the extort that he gives will be very good with toshiro's spell chaining as it gives me some life siphoning and access to tons of mana.
Myojin of Night's Reach -> Sheoldred, Whispering One I have this love and hate relationship with myojin. The problem is that I cannot reanimate to bring it back well. I could regret this but I want to just make a change in the list and try something else. I have been interested in trying to bring Sheoldred back into the list for a while for more testing and it seems like as good a time as any to give her another shot.
Mind Stone -> Jet Medallion just trying out a different stone. I see some potential to get a lot of mana gain from the Medallion which I really like. I like that the Mind Stone has the ability to cycle itself in play but I think there is room for more value out of the Medallion.
Eye of Doom -> Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho ok yes I am being a little silly with this change but I just think its cool and flavorful and sometimes thats all you need in EDH to do something wacky. I like that I can put this on Toshiro and start beating in for 5 or defend myself with a creature that takes out X/6 creatures. Its a means to go offensive with Toshiro as well as a means to protect him to some degree as well. Its wacky and I might regret it but it just looks soooooo cool that I have to put it in at least for some testing.
Tainted Strike -> Batterskull this deck really just wants to drag things out and survive and I think this card goes a long ways in a lot of cases to do that. Having just this on Toshiro gives me a combat monster on the ground. I generally dont even care if I am hitting players with him either because he still defends me and gains life in this case. The biggest pain is just keeping three mana up at like all times but having the batterskull in play seems like a means to just slow roll things at times.
Death Cloud -> Phyrexian Reclamation I have gotten the cloud a few times and its mostly been more awkward than I had expected it to be. I think the Reclamation is a very strong effect in general and it has both quick uses and long term effects which is solid.
6/20/14
Miren, the Moaning Well -> Strip Mine Miren was a little more expensive to activate than I ever really wanted it to be. I might need to pick up another sac outlet just sort of in general but Miren wasn't working that well for me. As of right now I think that the next sac outlet I am considering with be either Diamond Valley or one of the two mana alters. For right now though, I think I need the extra land removal outlet in deck.
6/25/14
Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho -> Phyrexian Altar I have seen the Oathkeeper several times and most of the time I end up ditching it to a wheel or too big of a hand. Its too much mana to manage getting it into play and I have been hurting on sac outlets which is sort of the other side of what you want with it anyways. I need the sac outlets for other things as well though. I considered between Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian and I think I like the idea of colored mana more than the colorless but we will see with some testing.
6/30/14
Baleful Force -> Echoing Decay I have been running Bile Blight for a while and it has been really good for me so far. I like that the decay still works just fine against non token decks whereas some things like Consume the Meek cost a lot of mana and can be very bad when you aren't up against the tokens. I want to give it a spin and see how things go for me. Baleful Force has been sort of clunky and I haven't really wanted to tutor for or cast him really when I see him.
8/18/2014
Disciple of Bolas -> Graveborn Muse I really do like the Disciple but my issue has constantly been just the number of creatures in this list makes it incredibly difficult to execute it well too often. I also wanted to put some testing into the Muse while running bob just to get the feel of the difference between the two.
Phyrexian Reclamation -> Animate Dead I like the Reclamation but I am just moving things around and seeing how I like Animate Dead in its place. Reclamation is great as a value engine but Animate Dead is fast and cheap which also has its advantages.
Withering Boon -> Word of Command I have constantly had issues with Boon in that its very narrow. I often find myself wanting the spot removal instead of the counter here. I want to see how the word works out as I think its a very interesting card but its hard to really assess what sort of value I expect from it other than just screwing with someone and getting to see their hand.
Necrologia -> Ad Nauseam with trying bob I felt I would likewise try Ad Nauseam. The big difference here is timing as well as how much life is lost. I have had Necrologia backfire on me fairly hard in the past though as I have to tap down on my turn and then discard as well. It will be interesting to see how it performs in its place as in an ideal world it will work similarly with better timing.
Fated Return -> The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale just too often the return felt like it was impossible to cast. The 7 mana for a rez is just really expensive and while I can abuse instants I just cant keep running it. I have been lightly testing Tabernacle for a while but need more testing really to have any feedback on it. So far it hasn't been huge but I haven't seen it much either. I want to get back to testing Bazaar of Baghdad in here again as well but for now just feel like testing Tabernacle further. Tabernacle often kills off surplus creatures and or tokens which can spin up Toshiro's flashback which is very relevant. I think I need to be a bit more careful as to when I drop it in this list though as if I just drop it into an empty board too often people gun it down.
8/25/2014
Echoing Decay -> Sudden Spoiling I brought the spoil back into the list as while it is worse against tokens its a bit more versatile in general. I ended up with a very nice one sided block due to it the other day and after the game my opponent told me he had an Imp's Mischif in hand when I did it which amused me. Even against tokens though a lot of the time the spoiling will still put them off of their attack phase and it can still fog against a craterhoof pump so in general its versatility is still good enough that I see myself wanting it over the decay.
9/15/2014
Buried Ruin -> Reliquary Tower I haven't found myself wanting to recover artifacts much of ever to be honest. I think the altars are probably the most relevant target but its just too rare that I use the Ruin where as I could see myself dropping a tower with some power behind it. It is always a battle of how many nonbasic lands and lands that don't tap for colored mana you want to run in these type of decks and every nonbasic hurts Cabal Coffers as well so pair down the lands you don't see yourself using.
Graveborn Muse -> Necrologia it occurred to me that the ideal situation for Graveborn Muse is for it to hit play and draw 4+ cards. It seems sort of silly to pay 4 mana at sorcery speed and see if it lives for that long when I can pay 5 mana at my end step to just straight draw as much as I want. I could not justify keeping it in the list over Necrologia when I really don't have a zombie setup to get away with the muse.
Batterskull -> Sensei's Divining Top Batterskull has the issue that its so expensive to drop and so expensive to equip and so expensive to bounce back to hand I just find it a little overwhelming. I want to see what top does in this deck in general as well as see if I cant pair it up with Bob / Ad N and see how that does. In general having top in a control deck like this is nice but there is a big question as to how often I can shuffle and get my topdeck renewed. It still gives good info such as drawing into what and such but we will see how it does just offhand. There is a chance that I perhaps add the 4 fetchlands to the deck as well to just give me more shuffles for this to work better but once I do that I feel like the next logical step is to possibly add Crucible of Worlds so its sort of a rabbit hole that I am holding off on for the moment. We will see how that goes though.
Tendrils of Corruption -> Empty the Pits I find my 4 mana spot removal to be sort of awkward right now. I want to test Empty the Pits as well right now so I will just rotate Tendrils out for now as its been very hit and miss in its use of late. The pits is an interesting card since it is sort of not what we normally want to be doing with our graveyard but you can just consume the parts of your graveyard you don't really need or intend to use so its nice that it has that delve on it.
11/3/2014
Undying Evil -> Wake the Dead both of these effects are a bit limited in how they work. What I love about both is just how cheap they really are to use. Both of these effects have some concerns as to how many creatures I run and neither one of them work for stolen creatures. With the Undying Evil you run the risk that someone will kill it in response and you have to have the reanimation effect in hand as the creature would be dying with the mana up to save it. With Wake the Dead you need to prioritize creature quantity as well as some ETB / immediate effects. There are different uses for both but I want to give the new effect some game time and see how I feel about it in contrast.
Animate Dead -> Malicious Affliction I have quite a bit of reanimation in the list and unfortunately I have synergy with the instants and creatures in this list. This is still a good animation effect but I really need to watch how heavy I get in the artifacts, enchantments, and sorcery effects for this list. It could come back in but for now I am making room and I feel like I can live with one less animation effect.
Darksteel Ingot -> Unstable Obelisk functionally, they do about the same thing in the early game but instead of having a robust mana stone in the later stages I get access to an instant speed Desert Twister effect. I like the idea of it I suppose.
Tectonic Edge -> Arcane Lighthouse I considered a few options as to how I was going to try to get the new lighthouse into my list. In the end, the only real options I felt I had were Tectonic Edge, Reliquary Tower, or cutting into my swamp count. Right now, the lands that I tend to want to hit with removal tend to be Cabal Coffers and Homeward Path (situationally). Outside of these having land removal tends to be more useful against opponents land removal effects so I can hit my big mana lands. Overall, I just feel like I can move back down to a single Strip Mine effect.
2/3/2015
Malicious Affliction -> Yawgmoth's Will Malicious Affliction has been very hit and miss for me. I always hate "kill nonblack" clauses and this one has proven to be difficult to make work. Most of the time I have drawn it it seems that I want to kill a black commander so its sort of annoying. Yawgmoth is part of me bringing in some land support. I have a lot of big target lands so will lets me try to recover them. It also gives me access to recover artifacts and enchantments not to mention creatures so we will see how bringing it in does. I was hesitant in the past because of my ability to recover instants and creatures already but its a good versatile effect.
Empty the Pits -> Bazaar of Baghdad Empty the Pits has always been a bit of a what if pipedream. Its one of those cards that cant really defend you and you need to be doing fairly good to make it work. Bazaar is a strong card that in most any situation can make things work for me by moving my hand. It has card disadvantage to it but with so many instants in deck there tend to be some that are situational.
Isochron Scepter -> Crucible of Worlds Isochron is such a fun card I just had to try bringing it in. I never got to assemble the dream of putting a Word of Command on it but even then, it was... decent without ever being amazing. Crucible is coming in to support the amazing lands I run in my list. I am also bringing in a fetchland setup. I can also see situations where Crucible would work amazingly with Bazaar of Baghdad as I could discard the lands I draw and just play them from my grave.
Nihil Spellbomb -> Crypt Incursion someone suggested crypt incursion and now I am interested to see how it plays. I like the potential lifegain not to mention its a counter to opposing reanimator decks. I have some concerns involving how much mana it is to cast. I could also see possibly trying out Shred Memory in situations where someone is not playing reanimator it can transmute off. For now I want to try Crypt Incursion and see how it does though.
Wayfarer's Bauble -> Expedition Map moving from ramp to value on my land tutors. I have Nykthos and Coffers in deck so it can still be ramp in its own way.
Sheoldred, Whispering One -> Sepulchral Primordial Sheoldred has been less impressive to me of late. If people were running more hexproof voltron commanders I think I would be more impressed by her but it seems to rarely be the situation.
Swamp -> Bloodstained Mire supporting the Crucible of Worlds. In the long run I want to try to get Sensei's Divining Top back in here since I am adding the fetchlands I felt I needed to make top work better. For right now though I have a lot of things I am trying to get in the list so its on the backburner.
Sepulchral Primordial -> Wurmcoil Engine Sepulchral just wasn't doing what I wanted him to do often enough. I like the idea of the Wurmcoil Engine because its just a robust beater that reanimates well. It dies well and it could steal me some life which I could use to fuel draw. It seems like it could be a bit more interactive with the deck than Batterskull was when I ran it due to being a creature. I also really like the idea of using it with Wake the Dead, Necromancy, or Corpse Dance as a surprise blocker.
All is Dust -> Pontiff of Blight I have fealt a little heavy on wraths of late. I figure this one is one of the ones that is harder to interact with for the deck as well. Ugin sort of came in from a spot that should have replaced this spell likely so I wanted to try to bring my instant / creature count back up where I can. I very briefly in the past tested Pontiff so I wanted to give him a second shot as last time was too brief to really do any solid testing.
Thrashing Wumpus -> Sidisi, Undead Vizier Sidisi seems so amazing it was just a question of what was going out for her. I like Wumpus but its not Crypt Rats. There is some concern about Sidisi and my overall creature count which will need to be watched closely. In a pinch I can sac her to her own ability or Toshiro but the preference is going to generally be an ETB / Leaves play sort of creature instead.
Entomb -> Animate Dead I started realizing I sort of never wanted to draw Entomb... I don't run enough unconditional rez to make it all that viable offhand. On the flip side, I felt like I didnt have enough unconditional reanimation so I figured I would bring Animate Dead back from the dead.
Ad Nauseam -> Skeletal Scrying for some reason I haven't ever tried the scrying in this deck. With grave hate on the rise in my meta it seems like a decent one as it consumes my own bin as a cost so they cant really respond by eating my bin. It can also be utilized as a means to fight off rez targeting my own graveyard. Ad Nauseam had felt like it was hitting me too hard for the cards I was drawing of late.
7/17/15
Pontiff of Blight -> Kothophed, Soul Hoarder I like the idea behind Pontiff but in execution I seem to usually be less excited. Kothophed is really nice because I can drop him into a situation that needs to be wrathed soon and he should generate really nice value. This deck syphons life and draws cards as sort of its go to tactics so I look forward to seeing what this fatty flyer can do for me. I love the size for the mana and he even flies which is all really ridiculous.
Beseech the Queen -> Dark Petition just moving tutors around to see how they perform differently. The petition has some downsides especially with how many instants we run but it just sort of means that we need to prioritize a little differently with it. I am interested to see how it performs but I don't think its really a big deal which I run.
9/20/15
Insidious Dreams -> Grave Birthing I have honestly had some issues with Insidious Dreams in that it is card disadvantage. Its still sort of an expensive to cast tutor and it seems more useful for setting up infinite combos. I love all of the things that Grave Birthing does and its positive card advantage instead of negative.
Karn Liberated -> Scour from Existence I have had a lot of issues with Karn and he doesn't interact with the deck that well. Scour gives me the same effect but gives me better timing and the ability to flash it back off of Toshiro.
Wurmcoil Engine -> Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger so far, I haven't been too impressed with the Wurmcoil Engine. Too often I find it to not really deal with issues that come up. Eldrazi, flyers, Erebos, and so many other things can really be a pain while playing this deck so it feels like its been a bit of a situation where the Wurmcoil Engine is decent but not really amazing. Ulamog on the other hand gives me more reach to removing problem threats that black often has a hard time with.
12/31/2015 Null Profusion -> Wretched Confluence Null Profusion is a great card but it has a number of issues which is that it forces you to stop being reactive and just cycle your hand. It also leaves you in a bit of an odd spot if it gets answered quickly or if you get it with other card draw as its a good one for if you haven't been drawing but less good if you are seeing your draw. I like essentially all of the modes on this instant and it fits the theme of the deck. The idea of flashing it back or enabling other flashbacks with it just sounds so good. I have had it in deck for a while now I just cant ever seem to find it unfortunately. In the end, I felt that the confluence was more on theme with the instants side of toshiro and had more versatility. It in a vacuum is a weaker draw mechanic but its not only draw and its more synergistic with the commander.
Ah, Toshi... once upon a time that was the cornerstone of my Varchild's War-riders/Brand deck, but alas... anyway, I'll take this opportunity to promote one of my favorite Magic articles of all time: The Toshi Challenge
While most of this tech is irrelevant because of the color identity limitations in EDH, most of that article is irrelevant. It doesn't make it any less awesome though. Anyway, on to the more useful suggestions:
Buyback is great with a Toshi trigger. You can play a spell without buyback first, and then replay it with Toshi and opt-in on the buyback. This'll net you 1 card in your hand. You're already running Corpse Dance (though I'm not sure you were aware of this interaction), but you're not running Slaughter. Running crap cards and doing obscene things with them is what makes EDH tick, so go ahead. Another fun card mentioned in the article but that doesn't seem to be worth it in your deck: Tombstone Stairwell. Large number of Toshi triggers is large.
Another fun fact: the first part of Toshi's ability is exactly the same as the first part of my favorite general, Glissa the Traitor. I found this funny enough to build my deck around the theme of "lines of rules text".
Two random card suggestions:
-Shriveling Rot: it's like Dingus Staff, but as an instant
-Sudden Spoiling: sometimes you need a little more Fog (or more appropriate, Darkness), and playing it twice could save your bum at exactly the right moment
Slaughter I really do like the spell, but I really dislike removal with the restriction of non-black creatures. To be honest, I think the removal I am already running is superior to it because they are much cheaper to cast. With Toshiro I can potentially use them twice each as well. Buyback is nice but it really doesn't interact with him either and I don't like paying 4 mana + 4 life to kill non-black only creatures.
Tombstone Stairwell it worries me because I don't feel like I am personally going to be the one getting the most zombies out of this. It also starts by giving zombies to all the other players first and giving them to me last. The only real interaction I could see from this would be to have things like Shriveling Rot / Massacre Wurm to follow through with hurting my opponents. It just doesn't feel like it has natural flow with what the deck is currently doing.
Sudden Spoiling it has been suggested and considered. I might change my mind on it yet but I generally dislike how it works. It generally requires a follow up card or a bunch of blockers to make it worthwhile. In addition, I see a lot of big buff stuff in my meta so trying to drop this to stop a Craterhoof Behemoth army isn't going to work (as far as I know at least.... it doesn't stop temp buffs does it?). I think its interesting but I have my own concerns about trying to use it as a fog or removal.
What I love about this deck so far is that A) the commander is really cool and unique. B) its just seems like it will play very differently than most other commanders out there. I still haven't sleeved it up yet but hope to do so next time I get around to heading back home where my collection is.
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On Tombstone Stairwell: everyone gets the tokens at the same time. That doesn't make it much better here though because you have a fairly low creature count.
Mostly came here to post that I'm in love with the artwork on Toshiro. Shocked that I've never seen it before. Also it's a really cool card.
On Tombstone Stairwell: everyone gets the tokens at the same time. That doesn't make it much better here though because you have a fairly low creature count.
Mostly came here to post that I'm in love with the artwork on Toshiro. Shocked that I've never seen it before. Also it's a really cool card.
That does mean that everything does escalate to crazier things much faster, I don't think thats necessarily a good thing for me though. I am pushing fairly hard on creatures at 18 as instants are so important as is in this deck. I think it would be difficult to really make the card a linchpin of the deck as it is.
I know, his art is crazy cool. And his abilities are fairly unique as is. I think it makes for a very unique feel of a deck.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Are you going to put Grim Return into this deck? Seems like it was made for this deck.
Yes, it is in the list already. I also agree that this is one of the ideal sort of decks for this fun little rez effect. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes when I finally get it pushed together.
Sadly, my collection of spare cards is not with me at the moment so its something I am hoping to push together at the end of the month when I go and move my stuff out of storage. I have always been very interested in Toshiro though so I really want to make him work for me.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I run Hatred and Tainted Strike with great effect. Also Tainted Pact has never been a bad draw for me but, I run less basic swamps than you do.
Hatred my problem here is that I am not running a commander that can easily attack out. This means I will likely need to clear the way with removal and probably need to drop 19 life into this and hope nobody disrupts it. I am a lot more willing to run something like this in the case of a voltron commander or at the least having access to blue. I love the card but it seems to me like it would have a hard time being well implemented in this type of deck. I think the closest way that I could use something like this would be to assist in killing someone by ramping up someone else's creature. Even then though, it seems a little bit winmore to me as if I am the one being focused it doesn't help me much. I love the card, I just dont really feel like it fits here.
Tainted Strike its interesting but there are very very few creatures out there that can kill in one shot with this. I would feel like I would need to run Skittles too to run this and even then it feels like it needs to be cast and flashed back to work. I cant think of a lot of situations where a single creature with this would usually kill.
Tainted Pact its an interesting card for sure. I actually had to read it like 4 times to figure out exactly how it worked lol. It does work better with a lower swamp count as well... I could still see myself playing it but I dont really know what I would cut offhand to include it. I think I would have to play with the idea a bit more or playtest with it to really say more though. I might see what I can do to putting some play in with it.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Just wanted to chime in since I run a similar deck. Tainted Strike is not about you attacking and winning a game, its often about removing someone who is battling another person. You can take an attack they would normally just eat, and make it lethal instead. I have forced many people out of games this way because I played Tainted Strike to boost an opponents creature and let the infect finish off another opponent.
As for Hatred, it really depends on your group. Toshiro normally doesn't get blocked thanks to the fact that the deck is not an aggro deck, and also because of Bushido, unless they are out powering me, so Hatred can often seal a game, its better later after 1-2 people are gone already obviously.
I guess the biggest distinction however is that I run a considerably large suite of kill spells, so keeping a clean board is easy, and even easier to dump a hand to push an attack through. I have had amazing fun with Null Profusion over Necropotence, but I do often run both, however my CMC is quite low as well and I run ExtraPlanar lens as well, so it might work better for me and my snow-covered swamps then it would be for you.
Love seeing more people running Toshiro, he is definitely a great general.
I figure I might as well post my list. I'm still fleshing out a sideboard for Death Wish but my playgroup runs a lot of RFG effects so it often gets me back what I need anyways. Also, I can't seem to get my deck to not be one long, dumb column so sorry about that.
9spheres - you look to be running too light on your land count and I am concerned with how little you seem to be interacting with your commander. I would honestly want to run more instants to make use of him if I were you or possibly consider a different commander.
Looking over things a bit I decided to make a few changes.
Massacre Wurm -> Lashwrithe generally speaking my experience with Massacre Wurm has been a mostly fail relationship. I think he is great in theory but I can never get him to hit how I really want him to. Ideally, yes he would be amazing against a Rhys deck but thats usually not the situation I draw him in. I like the idea of Lashwrithe offhand. I like that it comes with a body and I can put it on my commander and beat face.
Exsanguinate -> Hatred we will see how this goes... I have my concerns but I like that I can interact with Hatred potentially better than I can Exanguinate.
Suffer the Past -> Headstone expensive grave hate for cheap grave hate. I like drawing cards as it seems like something good to burn off when I have a spare trigger.
Promise of Power -> Null Profusion mana wise these land at about the same so I figure I will try out the Profusion as it does some interesting things and they hit at like the same about mana cost. Profusion is interesting with the graveyard flashback effects too so I will give it a shot and see where it gets me to.
Syphon Mind -> Memory Jar making opponents discard fills graveyards with potential rez targets. That seems like enough of a reason to try out the Jar.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I just wanted to share a story of playing toshi for the first time. I was playing kingmaker, and helped a player get all the way to the end. He was playing mayael and had Godsire, 3 godsire tokens, admonition angel, iona, woodfall primus and a few other beaters and mayael. I was dead in the water, so I swung with toshi (he had 30 or so life I had 20) I proceeded to say "hahaha, wooo swinging with my 2/1 so scary!" "It goes through." WINDMILL SLAM HATRED FOR 19 PUTTING ME AT 1 GG! Favorite edh moment of all time.
also death wish can't get rfg cards anymore since the wish change.
I've no idea what your playgroup looks like; I've had good luck with a few gems:
Sudden Death: While it won't kill 5/5's which is a huge knock against it in my book, it does interrupt combo's like nobody's business. Kills Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and a few others.
Sudden Spoiling: Loss of abilities can be a pretty big deal. That's actually how I usually cast it, turning off activated and non-ETB effects.
Tragic Slip: Sometimes things are indestructible. For awhile I was seeing lots of Darksteel Plates, Shield of the Oversoul, and such. Occasionally the 0/0 is also useful.
I never liked Hatred: I found I could just kill people randomly while they were under developed... which isn't how i like to play my Commander games.
Liliana of the Dark Realms: She's removal, she gets lands, and she can beat down. Her ultimate is fun. She replaced Hatred for me.
Necrotic Plague + Forbidden Orchard: Sometimes you have an empty board, and other people have a few things. This is one of the most satisfying plays ever. Everyone groans, but there's lots of interaction and politics every time this gets played. Encourages new players to learn about stack effects... so FUN.
I've no idea what your playgroup looks like; I've had good luck with a few gems:
Sudden Death: While it won't kill 5/5's which is a huge knock against it in my book, it does interrupt combo's like nobody's business. Kills Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and a few others.
Sudden Spoiling: Loss of abilities can be a pretty big deal. That's actually how I usually cast it, turning off activated and non-ETB effects.
Tragic Slip: Sometimes things are indestructible. For awhile I was seeing lots of Darksteel Plates, Shield of the Oversoul, and such. Occasionally the 0/0 is also useful.
I never liked Hatred: I found I could just kill people randomly while they were under developed... which isn't how i like to play my Commander games.
Liliana of the Dark Realms: She's removal, she gets lands, and she can beat down. Her ultimate is fun. She replaced Hatred for me.
Necrotic Plague + Forbidden Orchard: Sometimes you have an empty board, and other people have a few things. This is one of the most satisfying plays ever. Everyone groans, but there's lots of interaction and politics every time this gets played. Encourages new players to learn about stack effects... so FUN.
Sudden Death its ok... I don't know I just don't see that many creatures that this can kill that I really care that much about the fact that it has split second. In my opinion split second is more useful against combo and counterspell type of decks and its just my concern at the moment. My meta doesn't run a lot of counterspells and most commanders / utility creatures that I would want to kill I couldn't care less about split second. So for me this one comes down to the fact that its sort of situational in what it can kill which I dont care for. Also, when flashing it back I have to target it with toshiro so things can still be done in response to that targeting making it a little less reliable.
Sudden Spoiling my problem is that most of the time when I would want to fog with something like this it wont work because usually the thigns I actually want to fog are things like a Craterhoof Behemoth hitting play or something terrifying. As a fog, I am not impressed by it. As a wrath, it needs additional support. I sort of like it because Toshiro himself can be used potentially as the blocker / attacker to kill off of this. Still, I find split second usually overrated outside of combo and counter heavy metas. Neither of those are my concerns.
Tragic Slip its possible still. I like the idea of it I guess but I am not completely sold yet. I don't like that it essentially needs to be used as the second kill of the turn I guess... I go back and forth. I see some potential but also some issues.
Hatred I likewise am not sold on it yet. I figured I would give it a chance though and we will see how it works. I am not sold that it will make it yet though.
Liliana of the Dark Realms I have seen her tutor a single swamp once and die too often. People done like allowing you to generate card value in multiplayer formats. Walkers tend to be an obvious value generator that needs to be defended. Being that I am not running super heavy on creatures it means I might need to use spot removal on ETB value creatures to protect a walker... I dont like that.
Necrotic Plague it lacks synergy with the deck and is too easily dodged around. In my meta people run a lot of sac outlets so the chance of them just dropping the creature to a sac outlet is too high for me.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
also death wish can't get rfg cards anymore since the wish change.
That's what I get for not checking errata as often as I should.
After getting one shotted by Kaalia and Master of Cruelties last Sunday, I don't feel so bad about running Hatred.
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I've got a fever and the only prescription is more Kobolds. 5-color Eggs
Tokens are still a problem for this type of deck so what I love about them is that they sweep all the annoying tokens out at instant speed so I can wait for someone to slam their giant overrun on me and then I can still strip them out.
Its also really funny because one of the big overrun type of decks is a Kamahl and I would love him to animate a bunch of lands and slam overruns.
This is of course hoping he doesn't keep mana up to animate my lands but who knows lol.
Tsabo's Decree at its worst is still an instant speed spot removal plus hand peek. I like it in a lot of cases like playing against tribal or tokens as well.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
You will love hatred. I can't play mono black and not play hatred.
I always played a way to gain back the life though ... Disciple of bolas after hatred killing someone is really funny . It's better the more lifelink dudes you have but the card is so awesome give it a chance or two! If your deck ends up not wanting to play any cards that can gain you life then I guess it's not the best card ever but IRS one of my personal favorites.
Sudden Death & Sudden Spoiling - These really shine in metas where there is combo decks, since both shut them off immediately and at least allow you a move. Like a Mike and Trike combo going off, or some sort of other infinite combo that requires a creature, or even just a creature of power 4 or less. I wish I played in a combo and counter light group.
Liliana of the Dark Realms - This is a lot better of a card if you can control the board more, you don't run as many kill spells as other variants, so protecting her could be a real pain.
How has the deck been running so far? I noticed you run a bunch more board wipes, are you getting to use Toshiro's ability often?
How has the deck been running so far? I noticed you run a bunch more board wipes, are you getting to use Toshiro's ability often?
Unfortunately I have been living out of a motel for the summer so most of my EDH decks I can play at the moment are the ones I went into the summer with. I have been stalling on pushing together my mono blue, mono black, and bant enchantress decks until I can make a trip back home (4hr drive) where all my bulk cards are.
I have played Toshiro before in the past which is where I base a lot of my own experience on but I haven't gotten to sleeve the deck up yet. Most changes I make to my decks these last few months have been proxy changes because of my collection not being with me. Proxying whole decks is too much of a pain in the ass though.
I run board wipes though because tokens are somewhat popular in my meta. I might end up cutting back on my board clears though after I can get more testing with the new list but even then, I did then and always do have issues sticking utility commanders to the board. People love to tuck commanders in my meta. Graveyard hate varies a lot in my meta too which has me a little worried. There is one UB deck that runs like 6 dedicated grave hate effects in his list.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Just want to say that your Toshiro deck really inspired me to try to rebuild him. Using your decklist, with a few adjustments, I have had some amazing games with him and the deck in both 1v1 and Multiplayer 3's and 4's. Like, really, this deck is just too fun once all the right cards are in the deck.
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Welcome to mono black where the real king is Cabal Coffers. This is my own personal take on Toshiro Umezawa, I value feedback and hope that with the assistance of other users we might be able to make the deck stronger overall so dont worry about asking questions about cards. This particular deck takes the direction of a spell-slinger re-animator mono black control list. Its possible to take Toshiro in other directions, but this will be the direction of this particular list. Feel free to browse and feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have.
*NOTICE* This list is designed as a non combo mid-range style of deck. If you are looking for something high end competitive you will need to make adjustments. This list as it sits is designed for most things short of combo and mass land destruction.
Why you might like Toshiro:
Why you might not like Toshiro:
Alternative Options:
In the end, I built Toshiro because I find his flavor incredibly unique and I find his combination of abilities extremely fun to play with. When I sit down at a table where I dont know anyone and everyone needs to read my commander, I feel like I am introducing people to new cards and a new style of play. He is flavor wise one of the coolest commanders in my arsenal and he holds his own quite well. You can customize Tosiro in a lot of ways to fit your own meta game. I initially sort of forced Toshiro and tried pushing like 30+ instants. I think there is a happy medium to be had but I still seem to always find relevant things to bring back with him. It is sort of fun looking at new funky black instant from a standpoint of how good it is being able to cast it twice.
When I first approached Toshiro, I tried doing a creature light approach that win via a few tricks like Hatred or via spells like Exsanguinate. The biggest problem with this plan was that people dont let me play keep away control so the deck didnt have much for ways to take out all of the opponents assuming I was getting focused and since I had little in terms of creatures in play I often did get targeted. I guess the best way to really describe that first list was sort of pillow fort in nature. I loved the flavor of the list but ended up putting it away because it wasn't working quite how it needed to be for my own needs. I put it down for almost two years before picking it back up with my current approach.
In that downtime, I didn't play much for mono black. I think Balthor the Defiled was the one mono black deck I played in the downtime. I enjoyed balthor but he played more as a combo commander than I really cared for.
Coming back to recent, I picked Toshiro back up as a re-animator commander. I think it was in part the introduction of Grim Return that made me realize the possible option of utilizing Toshiro as a re-animator commander. Black has long played re-animator well and with the introduction of a few new toys like Undying Evil it seemed far more plausible. It's sort of funny while white and blue control cards seem like they go back and forth but seem to be getting worse over time black seems to get better instant speed effects as time goes on. Look at back in the day when they used to have to use Dark Banishing. It feels like black's instant speed options have really opened up in the last few years giving new and interesting effects.
Toshiro has quite a bit of story behind him as he was one of the main characters at the time in his block. I will just redirect you to the wikki link if you would like to know more of the history of Toshiro himself. It was sort of an odd story really but interesting to know more about.
My name is Brian, I am 27 years old, I am a spike player who loves to win and tweak his lists. I live out in South Dakota sort of in the middle of nowhere. I got into playing EDH back in the summer of 2010. Our playgroup started sort of small and we went on and off on EDH play but eventually it took off and most of us sort of started dying off from other formats and only playing EDH. We would get Tuesday Nights where we would get 8-12 guys together down at the shop and just play 4+ hours of EDH every week. I got to be sort of one of the big shot players in my group where a lot of times people would just swing things at me because that's the player I am regardless of what deck I bring to the table. I try to build decks with the mentality that everyone might be attacking me and I might have to fend off more than one opponent. While I love perfecting my decks, I don't particularly like utilizing combos so if I have a combo in my deck it is usually because it has multi purposes that can be utilized to go infinite if it is drawn in that way. I am a spike player and I love getting my cards worth so I play plenty of card advantage style cards and I love comes into play effects.
I have played on and off magic for like 10-15 years now. I do toy a bit with other formats but I inevitably dislike the deckbuilding and options available in other formats so I prefer EDH where wacky and cool decks work just fine. I normally have a longer spiel but I figured I would just cut it short this time.
1 Toshiro Umezawa
CREATURES (19)
1 Blood Artist
1 Burnished Hart
1 Coffin Queen
1 Crypt Rats
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Golden Guardian
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Demonlord Belzenlok
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
ARTIFACT (10)
1 Expedition Map
1 Sol Ring
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Jet Medallion
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Primal Amulet
1 Mind's Eye
1 Necromancy
1 Necropotence
INSTANT (24)
1 Cremate
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Bile Blight
1 Go for the Throat
1 Headstone
1 Victim of Night
1 Wake the Dead
1 Word of Command
1 Corpse Dance
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Grim Return
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Succumb to Temptation
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Vona's Hunger
1 Dark Bargain
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Silence the Believers
1 Moonlight Bargain
1 Necrologia
1 Thrilling Encore
1 Wretched Confluence
1 Tsabo's Decree
1 Scour from Existence
SORCERY (3)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
LAND (40)
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Cabal Stronghold
1 High Market
1 Marsh Flats
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Strip Mine
20 Swamp
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Deckstats for this list can be found here. (Last updated 12/31/15)
This section will identify some of the ways in which you can specifically lighten up the burden of obtaining and building this list. The list itself probably runs somewhere in the $1,500 range a the moment due to a few expensive cards that I have more recently added. It is very reasonable to obtain more or less my own working list for more arround $300.00 or less and its possible to build as low as $150.00 or so while maintaining much of the working list and functionality.
If you cut these cards from your list you should be down to the $250.00 mark approximately. Its possible to cut further if you want to abandon the tutors as well but I happen to think that Vampiric Tutor is worth its weight in gold since its also an instant. Luckily a lot of the core of this deck is just cheap cards. I think its possible to cut this list down to $200.00 or less if you cut the above stuff and the tutors. Beyond that, I think to some degree you need to start just running whatever is handy if you need to cut further because the cost of the cards that are left after that are really about the cost of any other card.
It is always important to talk about the strategy of a deck. Priorities and objectives should always be something you think about when you sit down with your decks. Especially if you have a variety of deck designs its important to sort of give yourself an objective as to what you should be trying to do at each stage of the game. I will outline some of the strategy that I utilize in this section which can help if you are new to the concept of toshiro. As you get to know your own list better, I suggest that you take your own approach and evaluate a situation on your own but this section will help those who are new to the deck concept with some deck decisions that can be made.
In a nutshell, this deck is a mono black control deck that focuses heavily on instant speed spells as well as reanimation. There is a lot more to that but to sum things up that is what the objective of this primer and list will be. There will be sub elements that I will address as well but first and foremost this is a black control deck. This list plays ideally (as is currently) in a meta that does not run mass land destruction, stax decks, and or combo as their primary tactics. That is not to say that this commander could not be adapted in some ways to play around those tactics but it will not be the focus of this list and any advice I have against these tactics for regular play is primarily theorycrafting. This primer will be able to give you detailed information on various tactics and how you might be able to fight against them and gear your own list for your own meta. Since many of the black instant speed spells out there are a little bit situational, it will be up to each individual to gear their own list for their own needs.
You should really have some strategic plans for how you pilot a deck to use it to its maximum. I will hit on some of the mindsets you should consider while playing a deck like this but most of these will be sort of vague considerations more than anything. Its not as if this deck wont do fine if you dont take these into consideration but they are more or less some advanced things to consider while playing a deck of similar nature.
Pillowfort
I will start off by explaining traditional pillowfort a bit first and foremost. The term comes from the idea of building a fort out of pillows, no real surprise there, but the idea behind it is that you can still be attacked but it acts as a deterrant to others to do so knowing that it will cost them resources and or not be profitable. Pillow fort at its best does not attampt to achieve a status of unkillable or invulnerable as part of the mentality behind it is that you still want opponents to be gunning for each other but to just overlook you because it would be inconvenient to deal with you right now. Some elements that you generally need to consider when attempting to do a pillowfort strategy are:
If you are following a basic mold that I am using for my list then you will need to resort on blockers, deathtouchers, and mana up as your primary pillowfort deterrents. When resorting on mana up with cards in hand you really need to work on your mind games as well (section below will address this). Playing a pillowfort strategy is in my opinion at its best when opponents do not realize that you are attempting to achieve this status. The idea behind pillowfort is essentially an act to not appear to be the most powerful and or an attempt to show that attacking you would be futile.
The Mind Games
It seems like its a bit awkward to really address but when you are playing a control deck there are a lot of mind games that you should really work on. Playing EDH can be a little bit like poker at times where a good bluff is all it takes. Playing a control player can be similar in nature at times. You need to bluff your opponent into thinking that what they really want to do is to just turn sideways at someone else. This deck has tons of spot removal because it gets more than a 1 for 1 value so the last thing someone really wants to do is swing two solid threat creatures at you because one kill spell can chain to both of them and get you additional value off of another flashback.
One big question that you have to sort of figure out for yourself is how much does mana up with cards in hand matter to people in my meta? Some players will respond to the expectation of a kill spell by trying to continuously harass and try to wear you out of kill spells. Others might be more willing to hit the player they expect to connect to and receive progress where they can. If players refuse to respond to potential threats in hand, you may need to rely on visible defenses and utilize some defensive creatures or prioritize getting some larger or robust blockers out in their way. The mentality of the player will dictate what tactics are going to work against them. Some people you can scare into going elsewhere with a strong force because they would rather kill someone than nobody and sometimes you have to just wear them out and they might make you repeatedly answer them. I would say you need to feel out your playgroup a little and see how well perceived answers work against them. Bluffing answers can sometimes be extremely strong as well so play some mind games and see how things go.
My advice for any control player is to play the bluff game, the better you are at convincing people that you have things when you dont the better you will do as a player. I can think of several people who have very big tells and I do too at times. Sometimes you just need to sit there at the end of your opponents turns looking at your mana available and staring at your opponents creatures, then go rummaging through your graveyard. The best times to do ***** like this is when you have jack ***** to do at instant speed but it will screw with people because they will feel like you have things you are considering doing. The worst time to try to make a bluff that you have kill spells in hand is when you actually need them. The best time to bluff that you have these is when you dont really need them when you feel like you can pretend that what you have in your bin just isn't worth giving up a kill spell for right then and there.
Getting the Value
With any strategy that heavily utilizes the graveyard, you really have to consider if you are over committing to your graveyard or not. I routinely utilize a variety of means of gaining advantage in my list because it is impossible to tell when you are going to loose you graveyard. There are a handful of tactics that I feel should be addressed when using a graveyard dependent deck and they are good to keep in mind:
In general what I am trying to say is dont be greedy and assume that your graveyard will always be there. Differentiate your card advantage over multiple tactics so you aren't like a stock market crashing when someone hits your bin. Try to pick up the value on your flashbacks when possible because they can always blink out and be done at any moment someone happens to find or tutor for that grave hate. The lesson here is to not be overly greedy and to try to overcome and move on from grave hate as soon as possible.
Toshiro is a utility style of commander. His basic function is to generate additional value out of our spells. This can be as small as forking a kill spell to a second target or picking up value on a random creature's death. There are a few things to keep in mind while piloting Toshiro though:
When playing Toshiro, sometimes you just have to spin him out there and see what comes your way. It is hard to set up a set plan of attack because in general the deck operates by just trying to pick up free value and take away opponents tempo and advantage. It can be classified as many things such as an attrition style of deck and possibly a pillowfort deck in some ways. It is really sort of up to the pilot as to what tactics to embrace.
You should really try to outline some goals you have at different stages of the game. This can help you with sort of what your objectives should be as far as card choices go. This should ideally be a rough outline more than something rigid because you really need to flow with the game rather than have a hard outline. Having some goals though should help you with things such as tutor targets, what to keep in an opening hand, and what you can discard if you happen to be drawing lots of cards.
This is sort of my own rough outline that I find myself using. You can make your own obviously but I think having one tends to help you get into the correct mindset. When changing back and forth between decks or using a deck you are not familiar with, I think it is even more important to have a game plan for when you play a deck.
Being that we are mono black I dont think there is a ton of room for optional packages with Toshiro. I will try to run through a few optional packages that could be considered though and would appreciate any assistance if you think of something that I do not mention.
These are just optional things to consider though. There isn't a ton of optional packages that really go well into this sort of deck as Toshiro wants instants to really work as a commander so in a lot of ways it limits how he can be built based on that.
Pressure / Aggro
There are a lot of decks out there like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight who focus on dropping life totals. These decks often opperate through putting pressure directly on opponents life totals and having explosive outputs. This deck tends to do well against these sort of decks due to the selective spot removal that we pack enabling us to pinpoint remove their threats as they try to move on us. The lifegain that is supplied from creatures like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star also help a lot against these sort of tactics. The fact that we have so much spot removal means that we can also occasionally funnel them around us by threatening to spot remove their threats if they come our way.
This matchup tends to already be fairly strong for us since we can utilize spot removal when they come our direction or put up passive blockers like Stinkweed Imp and just random blockers. There is also the fact that these decks tend to utilize strong creatures as their attacking force which we can potentially reanimate if we get our hands on them.
Tokens
Tokens can have an incredibly hard matchup against us because of the number of instant speed sweepers available. You should try to tune your own list based on how much you see token decks as they tend to be very difficult to use traditional kill spells on. More than anything it just requires you to tweak your list for your local meta and to try to always keep mana up and bluff the answer. Some cards that you might find useful against these decks would be:
These are just a handful of cards but some of the ones I feel like would fit the direction of the deck a bit more and help answer tokens in your meta.
Control Decks
So long as you aren't the guy in your meta that gets the automatic targeting when you sit down, toshiro doesn't tend to draw a lot of hate himself so you can actually bank off of other control decks to do some of your dirty work for you sometimes. Opposing control decks will sometimes hit a wrath button for you enabling you to just run with toshiro's triggers and spin off reanimation. When sitting at the table with other control decks try to maintain a low profile whenever possible and keep your spot removal up as a deterrent. There are plenty of other control decks that cannot defend themselves from creatures at instant speed so they might have to resort to wraths and counters which mostly just help you since we can wait until later to respond to things. The big key here is to try not to be the big target more often than necessary. Play this one defensively and just take card advantage and ramp when you can.
Every deck has weaknesses. This can be part of meta game choices as well as situational building choices or even just a natural weakness. I will outline some of the general weaknesses that this sort of list will experience and let those who have issues with this sort of thing make tweeks based upon them.
Combo
Being that we are playing mono black, we have access to hate on hands as well as to kill creatures as sort of our main two ways to hate on combo decks. If you play in an area where the primary wincondition is players hitting the combo button then I generally speaking dont know if I can really suggest mono black in general as a normal tactic. The means to interact with these tactics is going to be to pick up more hand hate and instant speed interactions and try to hit the combo button first. I dont know if I could suggest Toshiro against combo decks though as I feel like he is a little slow to interact with them.
Some cards that might help you against this matchup:
Mass Land Destruction
I will start out by saying that I do not play in a meta where mass LD is really accepted. Due to that, you will see a lot of my decisions that reflect that sort of an environment. I personally feel that Toshiro could be adapted to work just fine in a mass LD meta but I think a lot of the deck decisions would need to be adjusted. Run a lower curve in general with less mana intensive abilities. It can be done but adjustments definitely need to be made if you want to regularly play in this sort of environment with Toshiro.
Some Cards to Consider in this Matchup:
More importantly are the tactics that you utilize and what not to run in this situation. Cutting mana costs down and using less mana dump type of cards is important if you are going to regularly play in a meta like this. Utilization of mana rocks will also help to diversify your resources. Whenever possible, try to keep one to two lands in hand just in case you need to start playing recovery as it will be absolutely game breaking in this sort of matchup. Consistent extra draw such as Phyrexian Arena will also make a HUGE difference in your rate of recovery assuming someone is going to blow things up. Mana double effects such as Caged Sun / Crypt Ghast should be more of a focus as well over cards like Cabal Coffers who require lots of lands in play and tend to not perform as well in regular mass LD situations.
Hexproof Voltron
I dont encounter a lot of commanders who fall into this category so I play plenty of targeting removal effects. If this becomes an option, edict effects will become more powerful assuming we aren't talking about Sigarda, Host of Herons. Playing defensively and using things like Stinkweed Imp can also help a lot as most players will not want to trade their hexproof commander with an imp unless it would kill you. Make yourself a bad target is a good way to buy time and add more edict effects as needed based on meta issues.
Some Suggested Cards to Consider:
If you are more specifically having issues with Sigarda you will need to pick and choose what you can actually use against them. Her ability to dodge edicts is unfortunate which means you may have to rely more on traditional Wraths and bad blockers such as Stinkweed Imp to dissuade her.
I will try my best to keep this section up to date as far as what I run and what is available. It tends to be one of the areas that I postpone maintenance to the most though so it will be likely that every now and then I will do maintenance but not with every set release or deck change. I will try to keep the cards that are in the list as bolded cards in the card options section.
Carrion Feeder he acts as a free sacrifice outlet but the problem here is that a beater creature isn't that useful in EDH. He is cheap to get into play and his ability to sacrifice creatures is free but he doesn't really give much beyond that.
Viscera Seer he is cheap to get into play and his sacrifice outlet is free. Scry 1 is actually a very relevant pickup on a free sac outlet so I would say he is not to be ignored. He isn't extremely strong but he isn't weak either. The only downside here is that creatures are sort of frail. He often wont draw spot removal but its likely that he will get swept in a wrath. On the upside though in that case you can scry to a decent card usually.
Apprentice Necromancer so this guy is ok but sort of slow. The big problem is there is the question of why use him really that needs to be addressed. He is slow to use as he needs to tap to use. He can only target creatures in your own graveyard and you only get them for a turn. Animate Dead on the flip side is much faster to take effect and not bound by a turn duration. Its interesting but outside of given a reason to run it I dont see why to run him.
Blood Artist its a small ping for damage but it adds up if you play with or against more swarm style of tactics. Having this guy in play and then taking out a token wave adds up fast. I feel like he is a bit situational to run in this deck though as I tend to prefer using him in decks that can enable him more off of its own deck. I think he is ok as an add but I think you want to be running more token and recursive creature tactics for him to be stronger and not as conditional on opponents decks.
Bloodghast its a fun card especially if you want to pair him with things like Skullclamp and sacrifice outlets for some value. I decided against him in part because of how much dependency I already have on my graveyard.
Carrionette its an interesting exile effect really. In a deck like this one we tend to try to keep mana up so I could see it as a fun way to try to harass opponents mana availability since they have to have half as much mana up to counter his ability and you could attempt to use him when you want so long as he is in your graveyard. I think he is cool but I dont know if he would be all that strong really and it hits on our graveyard dependency again as for where he needs to be. I think he could be a cool target for a Buried Alive or similar effect though.
Nezumi Graverobber he can be graveyard hate and reanimation which is nice. His versatility is good but sometimes he draws as much hate as Chainer especially when you are having trouble flipping him. Not to mention the issue that we often want to keep graveyards around so eating through a bin with him could be difficult as well.
Reassembling Skeleton he works well with sacrifice things and stax effects. I chose not to run these guys because I didnt feel like I had enough abuse for them in my list as it stood and I already have a heavy graveyard dependance.
Withered Wretch its good cheap removal. It would be a huge pain though if someone were to steal or clone it from you though. I would say its a meta call as to how much graveyard abuse you see and how much hate you need to pack. I personally like the instant speed variants more as they are surprising and many of them draw you cards.
Big Game Hunter he gives a decent kill effect but I find him a bit conditional still. We dont really have a lot of means to discard things from our hand so his madness option doesn't seem too relevant. I feel like his situational kill effect is a bit narrow which is why I dont run him but there are plenty of big things that I would want to kill out there. Still, sorcery speed kill effects are usually bad and I cant really see enough value in the stick he comes in on to validate his inclusion. He is a lot stronger in a GBX deck where you can Survival of the Fittest him off and still use him. If you want to include him the big question to answer is why is having a stick worth the inclusion of a situational sorcery speed removal effect.
Burnished Hart he gets TWO lands into play. This is huge for a black deck who by default wants to abuse Cabal Coffers. This deck is also good at abusing creatures so the chance to abuse him seems like fun too. Early in the game I find that many people do not want to keep spot removal and or do not want to blow it on him and later in the game you can tend to drop and pop him before he becomes a casualty.
Coffin Queen so she is a little bit of a must answer creature but she is good in a lot of ways as she can rez from any graveyard on demand. She is a little slow due to the fact that her ability is a tap one but I still really like her as she demands to be answered. She rezes well with things like Corpse Dance as well since it gives haste you can rez someone else's creature and then just exile it in the untap and rez another creature as well. She is a little fragile but her versatility and powerful ability keeps her in my list.
Crypt Rats this gives another on demand wrath effect that happens to harass life totals and can scale as needed to whatever size you want. I love deterring token decks with these type of effects as they tend to find them hard to attack into. The fact that its a creature and thus can be rezed is strong as well. Crypt Rats is specifically a little more versatile than the other Pestilence effects as you can put in 6 mana into a single activation and then Undying Evil the crypt rats to make it return or you can activate him 6 seperate times for one each. The versatility of this card is just great. This card has dual purpose as it can attack life totals directly as well as wrath the board. This deck tends to do a lot of life displacement as its means of winning so reducing all life totals is a useful thing at times.
Dark Impostor he can serve as exile removal to deal with indestructible creatures such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre who can be very devistating when left alone. You also have access to edict effects as well for this but sometimes a reusable exile stick is nice to have. I ended up cutting him because he was just too mana intensive on average for me to really justify him. Black's exile removal has also been expanding in more recent editions. Overall the mana intensity to use him is just a little high.
Doomed Necromancer its a decent reanimation effect but his value is the best when looking at mass reanimation such as Balthor the Defiled / Living End where you get splash rezing and can cycle a creature a few times through an ETB effect. Overall, he is just a little slow in the fact that he is a tap ability and he is limited to your graveyard only as a one time rez. I tend to favor Coffin Queen quite a bit more since she can be used multiple times and reanimates from any graveyard.
Fleshbag Marauder It is an edict effect to everyone and it provides you with a creature to sacrifice to the edit itself. Being that we are a reanimator based deck I feel like this is stronger than a one time sorcery or instant speed edict because it hits all players, provides you with the creature to sacrifice, is cheap to cast, and is a great reanimation target vs voltron decks.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant it could be a bit tricky to get this guy to flip in a list similar to mine but with Toshiro's cascading doom blades it seems like it shouldnt be too much work to achieve his flip. I think ideally he is designed in a way where you want to use a few more sac outlets, creatures, and self recurring creatures to use this guy.
Pawn of Ulamog he works well with the self recurring creatures and sac based tactics. The tokens also work very well with sacrifice outlets and skullclamp. I have had some very good solid play with this guy in the past but he takes the right deck. My list as it stands is not built quite how I would normally want to be for this guy to be at his best.
Phyrexian Rager similar to Elvish Visionary in a lot of ways but slightly bigger and more expensive. He works well with sacrifice and stax style of decks as it gives you a body and cycles you a card to hand afterwards. I think he fits the stax style of build a bit more than my own build.
Royal Assassin this guy enables Toshiro very well in that he gives creature kills at no card / mana cost and discourages players from turning sideways while he is in play. He is sort of fragile but on the upside some of the things that clean up fragile creatures are things like Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte he can deal with the creature wielding them assuming he beats them into play.
Stinkweed Imp this guy works on a few angles. 1) Dredge is great for this deck as cards in graveyard are still very useable resources so dredge 5 is sort of like drawing a few cards. 2) As a blocker, he discourages voltron commanders and random beats. This guy is a strong value engine and multipurpose.
Stronghold Assassin it acts as a sacrifice outlet and a means to enable Toshiro. The downsides here are that it is very fragile and that the creature it targets must be nonblack. Its still a cool card but it depends on how well you can stick fragile creatures really.
Vampire Nighthawk this makes for a good card to add if you see a lot of voltron commanders in your meta. It works well on defense but in general it doesn't punch hard enough and our spot removal is generally superior unless encountering lots of hexproof / shroud specifically. I like this guy but outside of given a reason to run him I dont think I would.
Balthor the Defiled You really want to be pushing a higher creature count to run Balthor. I think he offers a lot of value though which is great and he is a great rez target (assuming you milled him as he self exiles on his ability).
Braids, Cabal Minion she is a strong effect that can really hurt opponents depending on what sort of deck they are running. You can always sacrifice her to her own ability on your turn assuming you dont have something you want less than her as well. I like her a little more in a deck with more recursive creatures as well but she has a very strong ability regardless so I could see her seeing play outside of that.
Crypt Ghast Mana double effect with extort to it. I like this guy but REALLY wish he was on an enchantment or something. We can rez creatures though so its possible to just push through the hate and make him happen. His mana doubling works well with his extort as well as it enables you to cast more spells and drain a little life while you are at it.
Dimir House Guard he functions as a tutor effect and or a sac outlet. I honestly like him in decks with mass rez in them like Balthor the Defiled / Living Death more because you get a creature that functions as a sac outlet out of it too later. His value depends a little on how much you value a 3 mana tutor for a 4 mana effect that you have to show. I think he is all right but I dont think I would really rez him much in this deck so its generally easier to just use a real black tutor that gives me anything than a selective one like this guy.
Disciple of Bolas card draw + sac outlet + lifegain all in one. The only downside is I dont run a ton of creatures so sometimes I have to sit on this guy for a while and or use him on some suspicious targets like simulacrums.
Erebos, God of the Dead he functions as a card draw outlet and hates on opponents lifegain. Honestly I despise seeing him across the table from me but honestly I haven't really run into much of an issue as far as opponents getting their hands on my copy. I normally like Greed more but the fact that he is a creature means that I can mill into him / Entomb or whatever and then go and rez him later.
Faceless Butcher he can serve as permanent creature exile if you sacrifice him while his exile ability is on the stack or use him as an ETB trigger reset. I love using him to hide a Rune-Scarred Demon and then just proceed to not sacrifice him as it screws with people and nobody really likes to wrath a Rune-Scarred Demon back into play. I like him a lot more in an ETB creature based deck and decks with more consistent sac outlets.
Falkenrath Noble for most general purposes its a bad Blood Artist. Refer to that card and if you are already running it and like it then consider this guy as a second.
Graveborn Muse its a decent card advantage stick and having more than one zombie at a time actually isn't that hard to have happen. Its good draw but if you constantly have it get blown up then you might consider one time draw effects over it as it takes time to generate value. Its really a meta call as to how long you can stick this sort of effect as if you get 3+ cards it totally pays for itself.
Guardian Beast depending on how much you value your artifacts this guy can be really cool. The idea of flash rezing him in the middle of an Austere Command seems like it would be epic. It totally depends on how many artifacts you run and how important they are to you though. Most of the time I feel like he is a do nothing sort of creature that is easy to play around.
Hell's Caretaker its a reusable creature cycle ability. Its not bad but its limited to upkeep which really sucks. Its not the worst thing ever but I dont run him because I feel that there are better.
Magus of the Abyss its sort of like Braids except that he hits non artifact creatures only and has to target so he cant work on hexproof / shroud commanders. I think he is decent in some stax sort of decks but I think you need to be a ways into that style of build before you consider adding this guy.
Mindslicer hand kill isn't that bad for this deck since the instants can be recovered by Toshiro. It is honestly a bit harder for me to find sac outlets generally than for me to be that worried about the quality of what I am discarding.
Skinrender it kills a lot of utility guys and makes a lot of things that live through this very marginal and manageable. That said, its sorcery speed removal and situational removal at that. It depends on how much you value the stick it comes in on but with toshiro's pickup on instants I just dont see it making the cut.
Slum Reaper its a slightly worse Fleshbag Marauder as it costs one more mana and the bodies on both are more or less irrelevant. I would say use it if you feel you need more copies of Fleshbag Marauder and or play against a lot of hexproof and or voltron decks.
Solemn Simulacrum he is a good value generator. We have creature rez too and he is a great target for that stuff. I almost always want to abuse this guy regardless of the game state when playing this deck.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed He can recover black cards but we already have good abuse on instants and creatures so it sort of comes down to how relivant sorceries and enchantments are to you. He is fairly versatile in a mono color deck but is essentially a 4 mana regrowth that cant hit lands, artifacts, and Karn Liberated. One of my biggest issues with his inclusion is that this deck is already fairly good at recurring a large portion of the deck and the things we cant recur as easily we dont run a lot of.
Bloodgift Demon this guy is an arena on legs. He has a decent size to him plus flying so he can do some beating in. Its useful to mention that he can work on other players so if you are playing 2 Headed Giant or something you can give the draw to your ally. His mana to drop in is a little high so the question is does the increase in size plus flying make him more relevant than Graveborn Muse who costs less and tends to draw less attention?
Chainer, Dementia Master chainer is one of those MUST ANSWER sort of creatures. He is online as soon as he is in play and can be abused as many times in a turn as you have mana to activate him. He works best with a free sac outlet so that you can cycle one creature several times as well. Looping a Gray Merchant several times is essentially living the dream with this guy. Expect him to be killed on sight so I generally try to drop him in when you can activate his ability 2+ times still and get plenty of value off of that. He is a very strong reanimation engine and I tend to prioritize reanimating him when given a chance.
Corpse Connoisseur its sort of a budget friendly graveyard setup card. Since it only gets a single creature card and it costs so much I have to say its mostly just worse than Buried Alive as it costs more mana and gets less targets. Its ok but I think these sort of effects get stronger when running self recurring creatures like Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton in deck as well since it sort of spreads out what you can do with them.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief drana is a fun beater that also serves as a removal stick. Her ability to punch things out for the cost of mana only makes her stronger in lists that want to prioritize mana doubler effects. I had an issue where too often her ability was too mana intensive for me to use profitably. I like her versatility but she eats a lot of mana in using her ability.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel this guy has become one of my bread and butter creatures for this deck. Looping Kokusho used to be living the dream but this guy can punch so much harder than Kokusho. To date, my highest hit with this guy was for 19 devotion and it literally just buried the game in my favor. I dont think I would cast him for less than a devotion 5 (outside of dying badly) and usually I shoot for a devotion 7+ when trying to cast him.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer Kagemaro is great because he is cheap to use his ability. If you have 6 mana in a turn you can drop him in and hold his ability ready to use. He is a good deterrent as you can sit behind him with little mana left over and still be difficult to attack. I keep him in my list because he is a reanimate target wrath effect that can potentially deal with indestructible creatures. Most indestructible targets are sort of large but there is also the option of using and reanimating him in the same turn thus using his ability twice to take them out. Still, he serves as a form of pillowfort where we can allow the game to continue or if someone pressures us we can remove their threats.
Karn, Silver Golem one of the weaknesses that black has is access to non creature artifacts. Karn opens up access in some ways because you can animate the artifacts and make them susceptible to removal. I feel that this is still far from an amazing solution but I feel its worth mentioning that it is one. Karn also hates on equipment very well because if an artifact becomes a creature it can no longer be equipped to another creature so you can fight off equipment utilizing Karn as well. The fact that Karn is a creature also fills the goals of the re-animator aspect of this deck.
Phyrexian Delver this guy resembles Karmic Guide in a lot of ways but there are a lot of cons to him as well. As a creature, he is far less significant. He has a small non evasive body to him so the stick you get out of this is not that great. When looking at chaining rez, this guy makes a lot less sense to chain into. The life that is also lost hurts and there is not a lot of availability to gain additional value with him either. Black just seems to have better reanimation in general than this guy and with his downside of life loss and not really having a relevant body on him he just doesn't make a lot of sense to add as he stands.
Phyrexian Plaguelord he can serve as a sac outlet but more importantly his ability matters. He works at his best when pushing tokens and or recursive creatures. He can give Toshiro triggers to flashback spells on demand which is a huge asset but has the downside that he doesnt work well with lower quantities of creatures. He is at his best when using heavy recursive, token, and sacrifice based tactics.
Puppeteer Clique Clique gives multiple rez effects per entry, he gives access to creature exile if needed but more importantly he just gives a LOT of value for a single card. He makes for a great rez target but is at his best with access to sac outlets. Sac outlets give you can control over the exile portion of his ability and can give you access to your second rez on demand of when you need it. The biggest thing I can say about Clique is that he has just so much value generation given his cost.
Sadistic Hypnotist the hypnotist needs several sacrifices to really make himself worthwhile. Some people like this sort of effect but the sorcery speed activation is an issue and he is at his best with a token or recursive based creature build. I feel that I am too creature light to really utilize this guy correctly in my build but that isnt to say that he is bad or doesn't fit other build options.
Shadowborn Demon I like him due to how narrow his list of things he cant kill are but given the strength of instants in this particular list I prefer not to run creature ETB removal effects. I think he is good but more in decks that focus more on creatures and less on instants.
Shriekmaw similar to Shadowborn Demon but with the option of evoke and a worse targeting option. I prefer not to run creature ETB removal effects in this deck though since I get more value and better timing from instants though. I think he is good but more in decks that focus more on creatures and less on instants.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon there is some options to running infect based wincons. The advantage of Skithiryx is that he can come out with haste and evasion and is a robust creature. I will admit that I dont know how viable building infect as a wincon can be but its something that could be toyed with. He will rez well and there are always the options of Tainted Strike on other creatures or Hatred on Skithiryx or even Inkmoth Nexus.
Thrashing Wumpus more expensive to drop than Crypt Rats but sometimes you just want more copies. I generally recommend using the rats before the Wumpus but I can see potential for running both. Pestilence Demon is also an option with the advantage that it will live through more of its own ability where as the wumpus isnt really big enough to take much punishment more than killing tokens or ETB creatures and living.
Darksteel Sentinel this guy is a bit of a pet card of mine but the advantage here is that he still has flash and that he can poke while staying back. He is just in general fairly robust vs a lot of incidental removal and isnt enough of a target to generally draw removal like Swords to Plowshares and such. I like the idea of running him a lot more in decks that push less creature counts as I feel like those are the lists where he finds more value in.
Duplicant he can be useful when looking for exile removal. Exile removal can be a pain as it removes our option to reanimate it but against indestructible targets its well worth having. He is slow and sorcery speed which I am not too fond of on my removal in this deck but a valid option for sure.
Geth, Lord of the Vault geth is what I generally consider to be a must answer threat. The best part about him though is that he is a fast effect creature that scales well with time. You generally want to drop him in when you have surplus mana and good targets to rez. He is a huge target for opponents but also a huge target for reanimation. Try to keep pushing him into play and see if you cant run your opponents out of removal on threats like him.
Grave Titan he swarms the battlefield decently. He gives a little bit more of an aggressive approach to the list as well but also works well with stax, sac based tactics, and token tactics. I happen to prefer a little more of a control based build but I can see him being a solid threat that can really fit the list depending on what your own preferences happen to be. I dont think its wrong by any means if you include him as he is a solid threat still.
Harvester of Souls there are pros and cons to a threat like this, he generates value over time but can be incredibly difficult to really assess how much value and how the value will be generated. I think he honestly works best against aggro decks and much less effective against control and combo based decks. The problem with this is that we already have a generally good matchup against aggro and his value generation can be totally nothing. He needs a follow up and isn't that cheap to get into play on his own.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni Ink Eyes is a cool creature and a nice combat trick. The biggest issue I have with Ink Eyes is that it almost never connects twice. It has no evasion outside of its Ninjutsu and while its a good creature, it tends to need assistance to connect. I also had some issues with just having creatures that could attack in and I would want to put back in my hand. Its sort of annoying to bounce Toshiro back to hand so its better to do it on a creature with an ETB or a leaves play trigger. Ink Eyes is fairly robust though thanks to the regenerate though.
Kokusho, the Evening Star this guy is a nice recycling life syphon. This deck re-animates creatures well and this guy gives us a life cushion while attacking opponents life totals. He works very well at defending as well because nobody really wants to set him off. He is strong because of the fact that he tends to not be a good target to kill for opponents unless they happen to catch us with our pants down with a graveyard hate or creature exile with no sac outlet. Try not to play him out without a sacrifice outlet handy.
Massacre Wurm its possible to utilize him as an anti token measure. The biggest issue I have seen with him is that he can be very hit and miss as to how relevant he is.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed he gives pickup value to ETB creatures and can combo with Triskelion if you want to build a combo deck. He works best with a strong number of creatures as well as with sacrifice outlets. I dont run him because I feel like a higher creature count and more of an emphasis on creature ETB / abuse is needed to run him well.
Nirkana Revenant she is a mana doubler and a huge shade beater. I like her a lot as a creature but have a hard time really including her in lists. She is a cool creature but expensive to drop into play and easy to chump block. Due to these reasons I have to wonder if other mana doubler effects might be more effective.
Pontiff of Blight it lets you sort of snowball extort your spells but there is this problem that it gets rather difficult to chain spells and mass extort still. Extort is a thing that is useful but when you try adding multiple activations per spell it gets fairly expensive quite quickly. I like the idea behind this be its sort of expensive to drop this creature in and then you need several more creatures to make it more than just extort on its own. Its interesting but its slow and clunky and I think that multi extort doesn't really scale all that well.
Steel Hellkite its a good option to deal with a lot of things that black normally has troubles with. There is the downside that its an artifact creature which is one of the most fragile things out there plus it lacks haste so its slow to get going but the fact that we are a rez based deck makes it a little better. Its an option out there but I am a little uncertain as to how I feel about it.
Visara the Dreadful its a removal stick. The problem being it lacks haste and tends to draw a lot of hate for how little it actually really even gets done. Its honestly a better option in aggro heavy metas where they might have issues removing threats themselves allowing you to have a repeat removal stick as you need it.
Wurmcoil Engine its a robust threat that splits on death. Its fairly durable and it has some lifegain. I think its a stronger beater with the more aggro and pressure decks you see though. Against control decks there is just better value to be had than something that splits on death.
Rune-Scarred Demon its a tutor on an impressive stick. We are a res based deck too so I love abusing this guy. He is really strong but sort of annoying at times because the blue decks love cloneing and getting him with bribery effects.
Sheoldred, Whispering One she has a ton of value attached to her but also tends to draw a lot of hate in general. She works well against aggro and voltron decks due to her edict every turn and assuming you can stick her to play she is very strong. She is weaker against heavy control and combo metas in general. Her biggest weakness in my mind is just that she isn't cheap and her value is completely unknown while being a large target.
Baleful Force he is a really big stick and he draws cards every turn for us. He has a bit of a target on his face but he gets some value up and going relatively quickly. He is also on a stick so it gives options for rezing.
Myojin of Night's Reach he gives a really strong punch to take away opponents card advantage. He has the potential to generate a lot of value for you but he is hard to abuse because we really cant rez him all that well if he gets countered or milled. He is sort of in an awkward position due to that.
Pestilence Demon he is pestilence on a big stick. The advantage here is that he has a big enough back end to take out most small guys without hurting himself. Generally speaking I prefer the less mana versions like Crypt Rats though where they are a one shot and done effect but come in for much less mana.
Everflowing Chalice its a very versatile mana stone which is why I bothered identifying it. You can really scale into it in a lot of different ways depending on your situation and when you get it. Its a very respectable mana stone due to its scalability based on what you want it to be.
Mana Crypt some will advocate to use it everywhere. If you have one and like using it everywhere then power to you. I think its probably fine to add it here since we have lifegain but I feel like we are a little slow to try to push for the win for this type of card here personally. I tend to prefer this type of stone in a deck that pushes for fast games and quick kills.
Candelabra of Tawnos this card is strong and interacts well with things like Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, and mana doublers like Caged Sun. There are sort of two requirements for this card to be good though and they are 1) You want to have a ton of mana doubling effects or utility lands that really matter and 2) It costs an arm and a leg to buy in real life. Its a good card but out of reach of many. Its a solid card but you need a way for specific lands to really matter a lot or for double or more mana per land tap.
Elixir of Immortality some people like to "protect" their graveyard with this sort of effect. Personally, shuffled into my library and or exiled are about the same to me. If you run lots of tutors then shuffled in might be a little stronger for you but my chances of seeing a key card again are low enough in library so I personally dont find it to be an improvement over exiled. Its sort of up to you if you want to run this sort of thing but personally I dont feel its worth the slot.
Expedition Map Cabal Coffers is amazing and tutors for it are solid. The only downside of a tutor like this is that there are several black tutors in the 3-4 mana range so you limit your targeting for minimal mana saved is my only concern with something like this. If you have more ways to interact with artifacts this becomes better though but that is sort of up to you. My own list has little to no ways of abusing artifacts. I tend to prefer something like this with access to things like Trinket Mage and or Academy Ruins.
Mana Vault I view it as temporary mana. Its a hassle to untap it each turn especially since its limited to the upkeep on its untap but it provides a good chunk of mana.
Nihil Spellbomb it is good graveyard hate but since I use graveyards so much in my build I prioritize pinpoint removal where I can respond to grave abuse and try to disrupt things.
Pithing Needle I consider this a meta call. Run this if someone is giving you regular problems with an activated ability commander. I tend to feel that its a bit of a narrow answer and dont prefer to use it unless given a reason to.
Relic of Progenitus I would strongly advise against the inclusion of this card in a Toshiro Umezawa build unless your deck does not resemble my own build. Exiling all graveyards hurts a lot so you are much better off running pinpoint graveyard hate to respond with rather than taking out all graveyards in one shot. The tap ability on relic is also difficult to utilize well in this sort of deck because you care about opponents graveyards selectively so I would just advise against including it here.
Sensei's Divining Top some people feel that top is a staple that you put in every deck. Personally I feel like the full power of top is utilized with regular shuffle effects. In mono color I tend to not run fetchlands and so I tend to have less shuffling than I care for to make top more effective. Due to this, I personally choose not to run it but there are many who still enjoy this effect. In my own viewpoint of it you tend to get stagnant topdecks without the ability to regularly shuffle things away where you just keep pushing two cards you dont want at the moment down.
Skullclamp its a great draw engine. I felt that my creature count was a little low at times for it. I might have to give it another shot and see how it goes though. You ideally want a lot of ETB creatures that have low toughness and or sac outlets to pair with it. Its a great card but you need to keep the creatures rotating for it to be at its best.
Sol Ring unfair ramp with no real downside. I suggest running it until you are given a reason not to.
Wayfarer's Bauble it ramps lands and its cheap to use. It has good synergy with Coffers and doesnt leave you with a target for things like Austere Command. I tend to favor land ramp over mana stones until someone in your meta starts running regular mass land destruction at which point you need to shift to some stones.
Altar of Dementia Keeping a graveyard and having targets in opponents graveyards are always something to think about. Sac outlets are good to have access to and this one happens to have a very strong ability that we want to have access to to boot. Keep in mind who is most likely to abuse their own graveyards though and try not to mill them outside of trying to mill them out. I often find myself targeting myself for the pickup value in my own grave with this card but dont go overboard on that front. Its also viable to mill some toolbox decks as it will screw with their tutor targets but that's dependent on how much grave abuse they have.
Distorting Lens this is a little bit tech but it would allow you to ignore some of the kill a nonblack creature sort of things. It is also useful because you can turn swords into a color that they protect from to drop them off. Its a bit of a tech card but since adding it to my Rebels deck it has been a ton of fun for me and I really enjoy it. I think its a bit of a weak add here offhand but not out of the realm of possibilities.
Grim Monolith its a solid stone and it taps for a bit of mana. The fact that its untap can be activated at instant speed makes it much stronger as well. It is unfortunate that it requires untapping but its far superior than something like Mana Vault for this list since getting it a turn faster into play doesn't matter much but the untap at instant speed makes a world of difference.
Helm of Awakening being that we chain spells this could be useful. Granted though we mostly run black spells so its more likely that you run Jet Medallion and consider this assuming you find it to be a high priority.
Isochron Scepter being that we are an instant heavy sort of deck, adding the scepter is an option. Counting on my current list though I only have 10 instants that fit the requirements for the imprint at the time of writing this though. To me that sort of means its likely that I will have little to no options of what to put on it assuming I have a spell to put on it at all. I personally like seeing a higher count of imprint targets as well as more diversity in what I can put on it. There is also the issue that people tend to sort of panic and kill repeat value effects like this and it would be difficult to recover it. We also already get two uses from spells generally speaking so I just feel like its not as strong as it could be potentially before I would feel like I need to add it into a list.
Jet Medallion its potentially a rather strong mana stone given that it can work very well with spell chaining. It cant cheapen the costs of spells that dont have colorless mana in them nor can it be used on creature abilities but we tend to be more of a spell singer style of deck so I think its relatively a strong stone.
Lightning Greaves good card but the big question here is how much do you value haste. As a protection means, I feel like boots are not very strong as there is some protection level involved in their hexproof but in general if the target needs to die it will die in response to the equip or to a wrath anyways. There are very few sorcery speed targeting creature removal used in this format.
Mask of Memory discard is potentially a strong mechanic in this deck so a repeatable draw two is solid for sure. The big question is if you can consistantly connect to opponents to make this work. Toshiro can occasionally do it but thats more because he doesnt matter much if he connects or not so people will often just let him through rather than blocking with a 1/1 or 2/2 to use that creature to block something bigger. Its potentially worth testing though.
Mesmeric Orb filling up your graveyard is a type of card advantage in a graveyard abuse style of deck. This card tends to draw attention for odd reasons as well so beware the random casual players who feel like you are choking them to death by making them mill 6 even once and they might rage smash it because they are afraid you will mill them out or something.... I just dont even understand that mentality but whatever. Mill is good and this one has some reach and filling opponents graveyards up also gives some additional access.
Mind Stone I use it because its cheap and it cycles. The hard part with this stone is you want to use it last so you keep the cycle option up which is sort of annoying. Still, its a solid stone if you expect to see a decent number of artifact sweepers due to the cycling.
Nim Deathmantle this card can be used as a value engine potentially. There are many good ETB / leaves play / Death based creatures that are used in EDH and being able to cycle them is potentially strong. The hard part about this card is that it generally takes a specific setup to be good and tends to die quickly when played. You generally want a good creature in play already with a repeat sac outlet and tons of mana then drop this into play and just machine gun that creature several times. The issue I have with it is that I dont run that many sac outlets so its actually a bit hard for me to cycle the creatures and it tends to be a card you want to drop in with a bunch of mana. It isnt an instant and it isnt a creature either so abusing it is difficult for what ends up usually being a bad Chainer since it costs more mana and is more restrictive as to how it works. Its still a solid consideration sort of card but I have some issues with it still.
Null Rod its potential to hate on artifacts. We dont really specifically need artifacts for most of the core of what the list does. I think its good to build arround to some degree though as well. You have tutors and its possible to pick up some recursion for it still as well through things like Yawgmoth's Will, Buried Ruin, and even potentially things like Junk Diver. The hardest part about this type of card is that you generally need to build around it to some degree. It is also possible to run Dampening Matrix to give additional effects like this and Guardian Beast could help keep them in play. This sort of a package is sort of one you want to focus on quite a bit or generally not bother with though. I like these effects but they are difficult to pull off and even more difficult to keep in play because people tend to hate on them a lot.
Ratchet Bomb its good at taking out tokens and can be pushed up to remove artifacts and enchantments but its very vulnerable and slow when utilized in that way. I think using it as an anti token measure is the strongest use for it but it lacks synergy with the deck other than giving activations to Toshiro to flash things back. I guess I would suggest it as a meta issue answer for tokens potentially.
Runechanter's Pike being that we are a graveyard dependent deck and one that likes instants this could be an option. The big problem is that Toshiro still lacks evasion and while this makes him huge, things like Lashwrite and Nightmare Lash dont give the graveyard dependance which I think is superior as it diversifies our threats better.
Scroll Rack some people will swear by the value of scroll rack as a means to get extra hands. I think its at its best when utilized with a heavy amount of shuffle enablers as it allows you to ditch a hand you dont like. I think running fetchlands is a strong thing to consider if you are going to run the this card.
Umezawa's Jitte its very flavorful for the commander since it is a weapon of Toshiro's. It helps enable flashback triggers by giving us tokens that we can expend to kill utility creatures and tokens as well. It has a lot of versatility to what it can do which is nice. Its annoying if it just blows up immediately though but given we aren't playing it for its voltron option it shouldn't be a huge target normally.
Arena of the Ancients we dont use a lot of legends and if you happen to see a lot of voltron this can be a decent choice to add to the list. We dont use Toshiro a lot for actual combat so it seems like it could make an alright inclusion but seems like a bit of a personal call or a meta call as to how useful it would be.
Ashnod's Altar sac outlets are good as they get creatures out of play when needed and allow us to set up loops and control some of our recursion as needed. As for the two mana it generates, its decent but not that amazing on its own.
Basalt Monolith its an ok mana stone as it gives three mana and costs three mana but the fact that it takes three to untap and is only one mana less to drop than Thran Dynamo makes me sort of assume I would rather just pay the one more mana for the Dynamo. Its in sort of an awkward place where its not super cheap to drop and it has a downside that for one more mana to cast goes away. I think the cheaper to drop Grim Monolith or Thran Dynamo make more sense to me.
Bösium Strip its sort of a replacement option for Toshiro that you have slightly more control over the timing but less control over what it targets. It has pros and cons but it seems like one of those cards to consider and look at while playing a spellslinger deck. I like Toshiro more personally but it could serve as a backup especially if you are relying heavier on spellslinging.
Cloudstone Curio its possible to use ETB creatures as a theme at which point this becomes a decent card. My issue with it has always been that you need to be playing ETB creatures.deck and then this is still incredibly expensive to cycle cards with. Its in my opinion stronger in a deck where card draw is light and you want to recycle cards as a replacement for drawing more cards. Its ok but super mana intensive generally speaking.
Crucible of Worlds its a good backup plan for if people are smashing up your Cabal Coffers. Personally I like including fetchlands if you are going to include this card just to expand what you can do with it. If you dont want to include fetchlands but still want backup for Cabal Coffers I suggest running Yawgmoth's Will instead.
Damping Matrix its decent for hurting artifact heavy and some creature based builds. The hardest part about this card is how many limitations it puts on you as well so it definitely has to be put into the right build. I think its possible to include in a heavier spellslinger type build but its a challange for sure. It doesnt hate on mana stones so you can still run them which has pros and cons over Null Rod.
Darksteel Ingot I run this mana stone for one simple reason, its dang robust. I see plenty of sweepers and while it doesn't produce a ton of mana it's resilient.
Darksteel Plate it can serve as good protection for Toshiro. The more tuck and exile removal and sweepers you see in your meta the worse it is though. Generally speaking Toshiro wont draw spot removal for me though so its mostly the incidental sweepers that it protects from. It comes down to how many wraths you see in your meta as well as what kind of wraths they are.
Extraplanar Lens this card is nice for a few reasons which are generally that its the cheapest costing mana doubler you can play. This is useful because you can drop it and have a large net mana generation due to this generally speaking but it comes with the downside that generally speaking you want to utilize Snow-Covered Swamps with this package and that it eats a land to imprint. It can be a huge pain if someone spot removes it immediately as it puts you back a land too but has the positive side of giving lots of mana right away which Caged Sun tends to not do very well due to its expensive cost to drop into play.
Forcefield I apologize for even bothering to mention this card due to its price tag which is not very reasonable. The upside though is that this thing is a champ at shrugging off voltron style of decks but its also generally speaking not that difficult for most voltron commanders to remove as it seems like most voltron / hexproof commanders tend to be W, G, and or WGX.
Kill Switch it can lock up mana stones which is amusing. It doesn't really affect equipment though but its got its uses I suppose. It might be another consideration if you run Null Rod already.
Mimic Vat its a decent card at just getting the value. The hardest part I have with it is that there is this timeframe before it goes active which seems to vary wildly. In this deck I dont necessarily have a ton of creatures so sometimes it can be hard to get a creature on it myself. If you look at using other people's creatures its sort of a meta call as to how good it tends to be there. I like it the most in a sacrifice based deck to be honest.
Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho Toshiro Umezawa is a samurai so this is more or less a flavorful card than anything. When I first read this card I thought the samurai came back with this equipped but since it does not it would take Ashnod's Altar to try to go infinite and then you would need something that cares about creatures ETB / Death / leaving play to make profit from it. Still, it seems like a really flavorful card and potentially a means to use Toshiro aggressively in combat since he would take out X/6 creatures in combat with this.
Oblivion Stone being this is a mono black deck we have a very hard time interacting with artifacts and enchantments. Having a few reset options is a very needed option. We dont have a ton of artifacts / enchantments that matter if they die either so its sort of nice to have this reset option.
Phyrexian Altar another free sac outlet that gives a little bit of value. Its sort of up to you as to how much you want to value free sac outlets but they are incredibly nice to have. The hard part is balancing the numbers as having two of them generally doesnt matter at all so I would rather do a few light than a few heavy but thats just my own personal decision.
Rings of Brighthearth useful if you want to go with the fetchland plan. Using this card you can turn a fetchland into ramp.
Staff of Domination its a nice mana sink but to be honest, its mostly creature control and a little bit of lifegain. I personally feel that there are just decks that can just use this sort of versatile mana sink better than a mono black deck. Its true that we could fuel it with coffers but I sort of feel like there are probably better things to be getting done with coffers mana.
Sword of Feast and Famine it can be useful as an extra jump in mana sort of an effect. The problem I have is that people tend to gang up to stop sword triggers in my experience. There is also the problem of needing to be able to punch through still too with this one. Its a good effect for sure but I dont see a ton of synergy with it in the deck necessarily other than just trying to get a jump in mana.
Sword of Fire and Ice another good sword. Its sort of up to the individual on if they want to run these. Its good utility but it gives other problems such as people potentially trying to kill your creatures and or toshiro if he is the one running it in which is a pain.
Sword of Light and Shadow its sort of a pain to use this sword of the swords. Personally I think black just has access to better things.
Worn Powerstone its a decent stone. We dont need a ton of colorless mana and it comes in relatively early still. Its not bad but not amazing either.
Cold Storage its nice because short of a few pesky split second effects, its a fairly reliable means to store away creatures that would die or otherwise not be needed at the moment to re-trigger ETB effects. It also works well with temporary rez like Corpse Dance as when you return from the storage it will have forgotten the exile clause.
Erratic Portal its possible to harass opponents creatures as well as loop ETB triggers and save your own creatures from dying. It can be a little mana intensive but it allows you to generate a lot of value off of just a few cards.
Eye of Doom it gives an out to problematic cards. Its fun because I dont run a lot of artifacts / enchantments in the list and most of the creatures are expendable. This is a great card to drop when someone else has just gone crazy with artifacts / enchantments and needs to be taken down a peg or two because you just get to take out several good things in one shot.
Helm of Possession it can serve as a sac outlet as well as a means to theft things. The problem I have had with it is that generally you want another sacrifice outlet to go with it and it tends to be targeted quite a bit with removal.
Lashwrithe it works well for trying to punch in with some power. One of my favorite things to do with this equipment is to pair it with Alter of Dementia and start power milling opponents. That said, too often I have had a hard time making just a big round Toshiro roll in to connect on opponents. The objective of this deck is not to utilize spot removal to try to connect for commander damage on the ground. I like these equipment as they add a lot of power but they also require some evasion as well if you need to go on the beat down path.
Nightmare Lash about the same as Lashwrite above except it doesnt come with a body on it already. That said, pack Lashwrite and if you like it then consider this one in addition.
Silent Arbiter he hates on token strategies by disallowing them to attack. The hard part is that artifact creatures are probably the most fragile permenant type in the game. Its likely that the green token decks have means to shoot this guy down so take that into consideration as well.
Smokestack this card fits into the stax style of play. This is not something I would reccomend adding to the current build as it needs an entirely different style of play but its incredibly strong in that style of build. Look into the strategy section for alternate packages for more info.
Thran Dynamo its a good mana stone that gives a very large amount of mana for its cost. Its relatively strong in general. Its a good choice of stones if you need more and or want more ramp.
Trading Post it doesnt fit the current build very well but I could see it being very productive in a recursive creature or stax style of build. The more important artifacts are for your build and the more useful a sacrifice outlet and or tokens are the better it gets.
Vedalken Orrery it gives a little different spin on playing draw / go. The big question is how much hate it brings down on you. I would say this is a meta and player based sort of thing as I know in a lot of cases just having this thing out has drawn people down on me regardless of what my hand actually is. Its a great card but its hard to predict how people will act arround it and with as much instant speed things as we already have its hard to say how relevant it is.
Whip of Erebos the mass lifelink can be useful I guess. Its rez is sort of like Corpse Dance but its a lot more narrow as to how you get out exiling since corpse dance just needs to loose track of the creature but with this one we have to use something like Cold Storage or Conjurer's Closet to not nuke them for good afterwards.
Batterskull its a good versatile blocker / pump / source of lifegain. My issue is that people seem to dogpile it if you ever tap out which is annoying. It is effective against pressure decks and fun for if you want to voltron Toshiro up as he turns into a 6/6 with bushido so he beats up titans and such while being vigilant with lifelink. Its a good card for a control player but you really do need to keep those three mana up like always for it.
Conjurer's Closet it can work decently with ETB based creatures. I have had mixed feelings with it though in my own experience as it generally feels a little clunky and slow. Its... ok but I just dont really get excited for it.
Gauntlet of Power its a strong mana doubler but giving out double mana to opponents can be rough. Its worth considering though if you are looking for more means to get massive mana going.
Gilded Lotus its a solid stone that gives colored mana. It's sort of expensive as far as mana stones go though to be honest.
Lifeline its a card that could be useful but you really need to push hard on the number of creatures you run and run hard on the death triggers. Its a dangerous card since opponents get it as well so you need to make sure that you are abusing it a lot harder than your opponents combined really.
Memory Jar its a draw 7 that happens to also mill opponents and yourself. Its a good effect but its got some issues such as encouraging you to just sort of throw away some toolbox cards. Still, drawing a new hand for a turn and milling everyone is still a strong effect for this deck.
Mind's Eye its reliable card draw. It has a lot of power and its startup time is relatively low. Expect it to get targeted and die relatively fast.
Mirari its a spellslinger enabler card. It adds a lot of mana costs into the mix but the idea of quad casting spells has a bit of appeal. I dont run it mostly just because its sort of a slow rolling card that you have to cast out ahead of time and it eats up a lot of mana. You also might want to be pushing the spellslinger a bit harder to make it more valuable.
Caged Sun its a good mana doubler but its expensive. Its one of those type of cards where it often eats up most of your turn to cast and then you need to see if its still in play next turn.
Keening Stone if you want to go with the mill plan this is one of the bigger mill pushes but its super mana intensive. I dont really see it working but it does mill hard.
Akroma's Memorial its a lot of good abilities all one one big artifact. Its a huge target but its also brutal to deal with assuming it doesnt get answered immediately. It has some good synergy with the Pestilence creatures as well as it protects them and your forces from their own ability.
Sphinx-Bone Wand this could be a really fun wincon for a spellslinger list. Its a little slow to get going but it starts machine gunning people down once it gets up and running. This deck is built to chain kill spells so its possible to hit this in and chain down instants.
Spine of Ish Sah mono black has a hard time dealing with some things like artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers so this can be a budget friendly option. I personally like Karn Liberated more due to the exile effect he gives plus there is a slight chance he might live through the turn. This is still an option for removal though.
Phyrexian Reclamation its fantastic recursion. Its activation cost is low and its reusable. I suggest waiting until you can recover a few creatures in one shot because this has a bit of a target on itself. Its a good card though.
Animate Dead cheap recursion with few requirements. The downside is we dont really have any additional synergy with it and its sorcery speed. Its versatile though.
Bitterblossom it could fit well into a token / stax style of list. If you see a lot of aggro decks it could also be worthwhile and or if you want to play spellslinger it could give you the option of cheap chump blockers. Its a nice card but it doesn't quite fit my current build.
Attrition its a sac outlet plus being removal. It has times where its the most amazing thing ever and then it has times where everything is black and you hate it. I guess its a love / hate relationship but it gives me cheap activation kill effect as well as setting Toshiro's flashbakcs up for little mana.
Bottomless Pit this card is a bit rough in nature. I sort of suggest it for a stax and or defense vs combo decks. It will not make friends by any means but the fact that its a random card really puts combo decks on a clock to get things into play or take their chances.
Contamination this is a lock based card. Only run this card if you have intentions to play higher competitive as your objective. Its not completely game over as people can still get mana from stones but most people just sort of roll to this. You generally want tokens and or recursive creatures to back this up as well.
Dark Prophecy this works well for token / recursive creature decks. Its not good for my current list but if you want to take a swing at a slightly different approach I see it being decent.
Infernal Tribute card draw plus sac outlet all in one. The real issue with it though is the cost to activate though as its not cheap at all.
Mind Slash another token / recursive creature type of card. I like it more in combo based metas as well as it gives a good harassing power.
Necromancy its instant speed rez with no limitations on when I can use it or where I can use it. Its one of my favorite rez effects due to this. Its hard to abuse beyond what it does on the card but what it does is fantastic.
Necropotence its good power draw. Its one of the most broken draw cards in the game and extremely powerful. If you have not played with this card before I strongly suggest giving it a shot as its just an absolute power house. It gives you the option to have a whole new hand essentially every turn and its difficult to stop outside of a straight up counterspell.
Oppression this is another card you will not make friends with. Its sort of a rough ability but its going to hit your opponents before you. We also happen to take advantage of our graveyard so its a strong card at just eating up opponents resources especially if they are not playing draw heavy decks. It has some issues if someone is playing powerdraw.deck but in general I think it sort of fits a stax approach mentality so if you are playing stax already its going to be hard for opponents to be power drawing anyways.
Phyrexian Arena its a reliable and powerful draw engine. You should not under estimate it on your board or when played against you. Its cheap, and not that fragile in general.
Grave Pact this is another good token / recursive creature style of card. I wouldn't put it in the current build as our total creatures aren't that high but its a good card to consider for trying some alternative tactics.
Greed its good cheap draw. Its more powerful than Erebos, God of the Dead as a draw engine but I run him over it due to the fact that he can be rezed if I mill into him and he is harder to remove / animating him isnt half bad especially with sac outlets up. I think Greed is a fantastic card in general though.
Nether Void this is a great stax effect but sadly carries a bit of a price tag. Its a great card but it fits a very specific sort of playstyle. I would suggest trying stax in general without it or while proxying it before you go to purchase this card just to ensure that you want to be going down the stax plan.
No Mercy I have mixed feelings towards this card as there are plenty of situations where a wave of tokens or big voltron commander just outright kills in one shot so it doesn't dissuade all that well in my opinion. It can be used as a potential defense against voltron commanders though but like I said, it has its weak points too.
The Abyss another good stax effect. It isn't cheap to buy though so I suggest testing stax first before you commit to buying a copy but its good.
Dictate of Erebos its a more expensive Grave Pact but with flash. It is sort of up to the individual for how useful flash is going to be on it. This version gives a little more to combat tricks with it and is a fun with a responsive style of deck like this but costing one more might cut into what you can do for your turn yet afterwards.
Grave Betrayal I have always had an issue with this card that its an expensive card that does nothing immediately and demands to be answered. The last time I saw someone cast this against me I just untapped and fetched an Acidic Slime and killed it. This card is cool but its slow to get going and usually dies on sight.
Null Profusion yay for black Recycle. This card is great as it encourages just chaining through cards nonstop. When I get this card out I just burn spells to rotate into new spells. Its great for just shotgunning through your deck but has the downside that you will waste things a lot of the time.
Price of Knowledge this thing can pack a huge punch. I know a lot of people who regularly sit with full hands from a turn to turn basis. It doesn't really have a lot of synergy with anything but it can add up fast.
Cremate its sort of funny but I think of this card as my Think Twice of the deck. It cantrips which is great as it means it gives me card advantage while still dealing with individual problems in graves. There is nothing more satisfying than paying a single mana to exile an Anger, draw a card, and have access to draw another card later with it. We abuse graveyards so I try to stick to spot exile when I need it rather than relying on sweeping out entire graveyards.
Dark Ritual its hard for me to say much here really. Its fast mana and I guess we have options to reuse it potentially. I feel like it would belong more in a stax build where you might need to try to assemble much faster.
Darkblast its small spot removal with dredge attached. Its not a big dredge effect sadly or I might run it so I guess its up to you as to how useful the small scale removal is. Its possibly a flashback enabler as you can just poke off a token or something to get the ball rolling.
Entomb it gets ANY card into grave. You can get an instant or a creature so I really like this card for its versatility. It tends to be surprising when you fetch an instant into graveyard mid combat to flash it back off of [carToshiro Umezawa]Toshiro[/card].
Ghastly Demise situational kill. It has two conditions and I am not too fond of either one of them but its cheap removal I guess.
Skeletal Scrying this is a good draw card that pairs well with mill. The problem is that you need to exile cards from your own graveyard and still pay X mana to do this one. Still, exiling artifacts, enchantments, and lands to draw a few cards seems decent. It just seems like it has a lot of situations where you dont have much you would want to exile in my mind though.
Surgical Extraction a graveyard removal + hand peek at instant speed that can be cast for 2 life seems good. I would say it seems a little dependent on your opponents and meta though as well. I think its a great addition to the deck if you encounter a lot of graveyard abuse but in general it has some issues with the fact that its narrow in what it does and when you would want it.
Tainted Strike it has potential to just take someone out via infect. Its sort of a surprise card but its also amusing as you could easily save yourself 6-7 life with it too if someone is attacking you with a fatty you want to just sort of ignore you can just push some poison your way and ignore it (hoping they dont randomly have pump).
Tragic Slip its good removal but it needs something to have died already the turn. Its possible to just cast it to kill an ETB or Token and then flash it back as removal for something bigger. Due to its situations though I have some issues with the card but I think it has potential to be amazing like if you pay BB to kill two big things.
Undying Evil this is a great rez spell because of how cheap it is to cast. With minimal mana up and potentially a sac outlet you can cycle a creature to get its ETB to happen again. For one mana cycling a Solemn Simulacrum or Burnished Hart is like one of the most satisfying things you can do in the early game. Casting this on a Rune-Scarred Demon is an example of one of the powerful things that can be done with this guy.
Vampiric Tutor vamp tutor is a great tutor and the fact that we can use it twice in this deck is just the gravy on top. Its a strong card that just gets stronger in here.
Vendetta its a bit situational based on nonblack and it packs a bit of a bite afterwards but when looking at one mana removal I think you have to accept there will be some downsides.
Bile Blight its a little situational as to what it can kill but it chains to clones and spreads through tokens really well. This is a good utility and token removal option and its relatively cheap to cast. Echoing Decay is similar but its smaller removal but with the advantage of being 1B rather than BB to cast.
Devour Flesh its an edict with a mostly irrelivant drawback. That being said though, Diabolic Edict is the same thing with no drawback and Geth's Verdict is possibly stronger than both with a downside of being BB instead of 1B. If you have issues with voltron commanders (not Sigarda because it doesn't work on her) all of these might be worth taking a look at.
Devour in Shadow no limitations on targeting but a little drawback in some life loss. Its not too concerning but if you are chaining this it will probably add up quick.
Diabolic Edict its a good edict effect but its only one player and only one creature. These work well against voltron commanders but I sort of avoid them outside of metagaming for that just because I see too many ETB creatures and token decks.
Doom Blade its a situational removal option. I really sort of dislike nonblack removal though to be honest but its ok so long as you can live with that limitation. Its one of the more annoying restrictions in my mind for this format though where everyone is trying to smash three colored legends though.
Echoing Decay similar to Bile Blight but with a colorless mana in its cost instead of BB. Its slightly less powerful but honestly how many 3/3s do you see in this format? Personally I think it kills about everything the same but the slight cost of more black mana intensive isn't that much of a drawback for a mono black deck.
False Cure its really fun to smash in response to someone trying to Debt to the Deathless and watch them die lol. Still, it seems super situational and generally speaking you have to sit on it all game to find a use for it.
Geth's Verdict its another edict effect and one of the stronger options. Focus on using these a bit more when you encounter regular issues with hexproof voltron commanders.
Go for the Throat its effective and its limitation is very small. I feel that its probably the best two mana black instant speed removal effect. What it cant hit is extremely limited and most often irrelevant.
Headstone its a slightly worse Cremate but it still draws a card just a little slower to do so. I find it to still be a very effective card in general.
Imp's Mischief its a situational card but its potentially the counter to the counterspell or a redirect for that Swords to Plowshares or Time Warp. It has some very powerful options but its also limited in what it can really do as redirects tend to be narrow use cards. It is cool though because for the most part this is not a black effect.
Shallow Grave its a cheap rez effect with little controlling ability. I think its ok but Corpse Dance only costs one more for the same thing but has a lot more versatility due to the buyback on it.
Shred Memory spot grave removal or a tutor. Its a nice option if you need to expand your graveyard hate package but want some versatility.
Tainted Pact its a really odd card draw like mechanic. It exiles cards though and only draws a single card. It also has challenges in the fact that it can hit basic lands and screw up. Its sort of a tricky card to get to work to be honest. I am not really sold that it is that profitable of a card really but could see splitting a landbase between snow and non snow lands to make this work better.
Ultimate Price its a different flavor of doom blade. It still has a restriction which generally will interfere with killing commanders too. Its sort of annoying too that this wont kill an eldrazi as they have no color...
Victim of Night it has a restriction but its restrictions are generally not seen in this format. Of the things that this cannot kill it seems like Olivia Voldaren and Thraximundar are two of the more noticable things that it cannot kill. Still, of the things I want to burn spot removal on, the things that this cannot kill is an extremely narrow list. I really like this removal due to that.
Withering Boon honestly, I enjoy this card more for just the randomness of countering something than anything. There arent a ton of things that I really feel like outright countering is that neccesary for but its nice to have now and then. Its useful for some of the persisting ETB guys like Glen Elendra Archmage and Puppeteer Clique and in general it does still deprive ETB value stuff so stopping things like Terastodon from happening are always good. The key here is to hold onto this one for the right moment. There are a lot of ETB guys that you need to ignore and wait for a big moment where someone is just going to unload on you or needs something to survive and deprive them of that.
Word of Command its sort of an odd effect but what I really do like it for is just taking a peek at the counter player and or the draw go player and seeing what they have up. Its good to do leading into a big play on your behalf because it screws with them and often provokes them to tap and use the counterspell to stop it. Its sort of an odd sort of thing and not cheap to purchase but interesting for sure.
Corpse Dance reusable rez engine. Its really a strong card and while it does have the exile clause on it you can really do a lot of things to escape that. Sacrificing the creatures will get around it and due to how it rezes a little bit uncontrollably I will often use the exile clause to burn through things that aren't as profitable to return.
Dismember its actually really good removal and I love the versatility to use life instead of mana but the big killer for me is that so many beaters are X/6 in EDH. This kills a lot of things and has some good versatility but at the same time I dont like being limited when possible on what I am killing. I think this gets much more powerful with the faster games are going and the more combo and stax you see though as big creatures see a lot less play there.
Grim Return instant speed rez from any death is really cool. I love using this on Solemn Simulacrums. This is one of those spells that if you have it in hand you just want to keep up three mana like all the time just in case.
Hero's Downfall versatile removal. I love the option to hit walkers or any creature. Three mana isn't super cheap but its nice to have the versatility here. Its mostly just a glorified Murder but its still fairly good.
Krovikan Rot its interesting due to the fact that its a kill spell that self recovers but its really a huge pain dealing with recover since you MUST do it when it happens or it is exiled. Still, it seems like something that could be useful.
Murder no conditions three mana removal. Three to kill a creature isn't cheap so you need to evaluate how much you dislike situational kill effects as the 1-2 mana removal all have some sort of conditions. Its decent but not amazing. You should also pack Hero's Downfall before this due to it being more versatile.
Reaping the Graves it has potential to just unload your grave creatures back to hand. This deck chains spells nicely too so it seems like a good one to chain into on a flashback too.
Reckless Spite nonblack removal but it hits two targets. This is also a fun one to chain down as a mini wrath but loosing 10 life to do it twice hurts too. I stopped running it because it was too selective needing nonblack targets and two of them at that. I think its a cool effect but nonblack targeting with a multiple target requirement was just too difficult to pull off.
Slay its very narrow as to how it works but it draws a card as well which I really like. You really need a meta to be heavy green to get away with this but it works well in metas that love three color decks.
Spoils of Evil situational lifegain and mana production. Its an interesting card but extremely dependent on opponents decks and if you are milling them or not really.
Sudden Death split second spot removal with sort of some situational issues to it. Still, I guess it depends how much you value opponents not being able to respond. It gets better in control and combo based metas.
Sudden Spoiling its more or less a fog for a turn in most situations is my issue with this card. You might catch someone as they are attacking and kill a few things but in my experience its a bit hit and miss as to if it stops what you need it to.
Wail of the Nim it answers a lot of tokens and it regens as well. It can be good vs opponents wraths and opposing token decks. Its an interesting effect.
Hideous Laughter its another option against tokens. This one unfortunately also kills Tohshiro which is sort of annoying but it clears out a lot of things in one shot. You can always flash it back too assuming you have that sort of mana available as Toshiro's ability will still proc when he is going out. Its really mana intensive though which is unfortunate.
Insidious Dreams its sort of an odd tutor but since we can abuse things in our graveyard it can be used as a means to set up recursion and or we can bank on some flashback effects. The tutor is just to topdeck but I often just to it for one or two cards. This is a great effect to hold onto and do in response to someone hitting a wheel effect as its hilarious to just go get a hand of your choosing and stack it into hand. Watch out for counterspells if you are going to go deep with it though.
Makeshift Mannequin its one of my favorite rez effects in the deck just because it doesn't have a restriction as to when I cast it. Sadly though its only from my own graveyard but its a great rez. The fact that the creature dies to the next target is usually not an issue either since most things that would target a creature would kill it anyways.
Shriveling Rot it has potential to absolutely blow some people out during wrath effects. Its also fun to do if two creature decks happen to be clashing in combat. I have an issue with this effect though due to the fact that it usually does nothing but make opponents loose some life which generally is difficult to give up cards for especially with how conditional this effect is.
Silence the Believers its sort of an instant speed wrath effect. It can branch and remove more than one creature which is nice. It unfortunately exile removes which is not exactly what this deck wants to do usually but it has its moments where that is necessary. This is a good answer for creatures like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Slaughter its reusable but not cheap and still has the nonblack targeting which tends to sort of irritate me on removal. Still, its not a bad drawback for keeping it in hand and toshiro allows you to buyback with flashback due to how he reads as its not true flashback.
Snuff Out its instant speed removal with the optional no cost which is nice. Still, its nonblack removal which irritates me and when flashing it back I dont believe you can use the alt cost. Still, its a good surprise spot removal but its much more important in hand than it is in grave.
Tendrils of Corruption spot removal with some lifegain attached. Its not cheap to cast and you really want this one to land so you get the lifegain but I like to use it to fuel the multiple draw effects in deck that pull from lifetotals.
Ad Nauseam its a powerful card draw effect but I think my average mana per card was somewhere over 3 so the expectation should be that there will be three life lost per card as the average. It adds up real fast but its possible to be used still. I think its a little stronger in a combo oriented list though.
Consume the Meek it nukes out tokens and utility creatures fairly well. The problem I had with it is that it doesn't have a lot of diversity in how it can be used but its a good means to just instant speed say no to tokens.
Hatred it has the option to just super up and kill someone. You can cast this on someone else's creature and or commander as well which makes for some funny situations or use it with lifelink for a nice effect. Overall though, it seems very conditional in general on it working which is why I dont run it.
Moonlight Bargain it digs deep and draws cards at instant speed. It flashes back nicely as well so I like it because I can abuse it and do it when I want.
Necrologia its a one shot Necropotence hit. Its unfortunate as to when it has to be cast but its a strong draw effect and for the most part about the same as Promise of Power but with the option to flash it back later (you generally have to burn a kill spell at your end of turn to flash it back).
Rescue from the Underworld its an interesting rez effect but the part that really killed it for me was the timing as to when it would rez as well as the fact that it self exiled when you resolve it. Its interesting but it was awkward in a lot of ways.
Treacherous Urge its a really cool effect but a lot of times you have to blindly cast it just based on who has cards in hand and tends to run creatures. I have had it turn into a hand peek with no targets and its super unfortunate when that happens for 5 mana.
Betrayal of Flesh rez effect or kill effect. The problem I have with this is that the rez is just from our grave and the kill effect is super expensive to pay that for a single kill. Still, it has some versatility but I just cant really justify it myself for what it costs.
Fated Return its an instant speed indestructible rez from anywhere. It's sort of like Beacon of Unrest but at instant speed.
Murderous Spoils its situational as to when its useful but it would be sort of epic to steal a few equipment with this card. Possibly a meta call style of card as it would be cool to pull off.
Nemesis Trap the fun part here is the fact that you get a token copy for a turn of the creature so it works well against ETB guys but it sort of costs a lot of mana and is a little iffy overall.
Tsabo's Decree instant speed wrath for a creature type. I love this against hexproof commanders and tokens. It works well against tribal decks as well. People just sort of look at you odd when you kill their hexproof guy with this.
Duress useful for fighting against combo decks. It unfortunately needs to be used against them before the fact of them utilizing the combo and doesn't scale that well for multiplayer. It is better suited for 1v1 games due to this.
Imperial Seal its an expensive bad Vampiric Tutor. That said its still a strong card but it is literally a bad Vampiric Tutor that costs hundreds of dollars. For those who can afford it its a good card.
Mind Twist useful against control and combo players. The fact that it only hits one person is its biggest downside but its a very strong card if you play in a combo meta.
Thoughtseize useful against combo players. Poke in and take out their combo piece or force them to burn their counterspell on you. Its much better suited for 1v1 games though as it doesn't scale for multiplayer well. Still, its very strong at what it does for the mana.
Demonic Tutor its the strongest tutor in the game. It gets anything you want with no drawback for two mana.
Diabolic Intent its similar to Demonic Tutor with the downside of sacrificing a creature. Its still very strong but not as strong as demonic.
Exsanguinate its a siphoning effect that scales well with big mana from coffers and such. The biggest problem I have with it is that we cant really abuse it and it does nothing to the board state.
Hymn to Tourach useful against control and combo decks but better suited for 1v1 games.
Mind Shatter its a slightly less effective Mind Twist. Run that first and if you like its effect consider this in addition.
Sinkhole sort of a heads up tempo style of card. Its good for sure but much more suited to heads up.
Smallpox a stax style of card. Combined with other stax effects this can be very brutal as its cheap for the mana and can catch opponents very early.
Ashes to Ashes sorcery speed exile removal. Its limitation on targets is easy to manage though. Sadly this is a sorcery speed spot removal.
Beseech the Queen its a cheap tutor. Its selective in what it can get but that usually doesn't matter in my experience. I use it because its cheap to use making it easy to multi task with other things in a turn.
Buried Alive its a card that can be used in recursive type creature decks. It is limited to creature tutoring which is why I am not a huge fan of it but it gets a lot stronger when you go and get Reassembling Skeleton / Bloodghast type creatures.
Death Cloud it hits players on a lot of different elements. Its a strong stax like effect that can be powerful to utilize even when not playing a stax style of deck. This is one of the harder effects to recover from in my opinion since it hits on so many levels.
Pox sort of an odd card due to how it works. It hits the ramp players the hardest but leaves them with the most resource still. I personally feel like this card is better in a 60 card heads up style of deck as its sort of hard to build around for this format in my opinion.
Praetor's Grasp its a fun card and you can remove key pieces of opponents decks or get ramp / draw effects. My issue with it seems to mostly be that its very dependent on what your opponents are running as to what you have available as targets. I can think of a few times where my only targets were like Simulacrum and Oblivion Stone which make it a little awkward.
Rain of Tears another tempo style of 1v1 card. Run Sinkhole first assuming you can.
Sadistic Sacrament its useful for taking apart opponents combos. I know of a lot of decks that aren't "combo" that rely on a handful of select cards as well so it can also be useful against toolbox decks too.
Toxic Deluge its a solid wrath for cheap. Its nice as well that you get to control the size of the wrath so you can potentially keep something alive through it. Its a pain to kill eldrazi though I suppose with it. Still, its something that's very viable that you should consider if you feel like you need more wraths.
Yawgmoth's Will its a good mass recovery style of card. There is already a lot of graveyard dependence in this deck though which makes me hesitant but its good for recovering Coffers and artifacts / enchantments with. It really depends on how much you want to have backup for that stuff so while I think its a fantastic card, I actually dont much care for it in this list.
Barter in Blood its useful for chewing up shroud creatures. In general though since Toshiro is the commander its almost easier to utilize instant speed edicts though as you can control when you flash them back and use them at instant speed. This is still an option but I prefer the instant speed ones due to their synergy with Toshiro.
Damnation this is a bread and butter wrath effect. These are useful but I prefer to stick to instant speed and creatures when I can. Creatures like Kagemaro, First to Suffer can be executed on demand and recurred as needed which I really like.
Evincar's Justice its a buyback possible token wrath. Annoyingly it deals with Toshiro as well which is sort of annoying but if you need to just repeatedly punish a token deck its ok.
Mutilate its a nice budget solution to those who want a Damnation effect. I personally dont run much for sorcery speed wraths in here but its definitely an option for those looking.
Persecute its a hand hate effect that can tear someone's hand apart for reasonably low mana. It is more suited for 1v1 due to the fact that it only hits one person but it can still be quite potent.
Sever the Bloodline its good token removal its sorcery speed though which is unfortunate but it gets all copies and flashes back on its own. It can be useful against indestructible targets as well but I think we have gotten a lot more options against them of late anyways.
Syphon Mind its good card advantage as it hurts all your opponents and draws a bunch of cards. Its definitely a card that gets better with the more opponents you have.
Beacon of Unrest its a solid rez card especially with the option of hitting artifacts and it can hit any graveyard. Its a solid card for sure when considering rez options.
Diabolic Revelation its a big mana type of tutor. My issue is I dont like spending a whole turn tutoring for cards and doing nothing else. This card tends to tap you deep and then everyone puts up their defenses like getting ready to wheel you or make you discard your hand / holds up all their counters for you. I prefer my tutors to be cheap and easy to multi task due to this.
Dregs of Sorrow removal plus draw. Its annoying that its sorcery speed to me though and it resembles Decree of Pain on a lot of levels to me. Its ok but sorcery speed limited targeting removal is a little sketchy to me.
Increasing Ambition the big draw to me is actually its flashback option which allows me to mill into this and still get tutors from it. Its an interesting tutor but its just so much to cast in the first place. I really wish they had made it 4 to cast instead of 5. I dislike expensive tutors that dont put anything on the table.
Living Death its a great effect and it works well with self milling as well as sac effects. I just feel like I dont run enough creatures to profit enough from running it.
Mind Sludge another sandbag discard effect. Its lower on the totem poll but ok overall.
Promise of Power its a strong draw effect that I really like. Sadly I just dont have a lot of synergy with sorcery effects in this deck so other than it just being a strong card I have nothing to really add to its power. Its still a great goodstuff black draw effect though.
All is Dust its an incredibly useful wrath for us since it deals with indestructible, enchantments, and the very difficult to answer gods for this deck. Its a bit unfortunate that it doesn't answer artifacts and colorless as I wish they would for this deck's sake but still, this effect is very needed for this deck.
Army of the Damned tons of dudes and it flashes back. It works well with the self milling but the biggest bummer is that the tokens come in tapped so you might just get mauled as you wait to use those tokens. Its hard to deal with these guys though since there is the flashback yet to follow assuming it gets wrathed. I like this effect but its expensive.
Cabal Conditioning hand hate that gets all your opponents. The big downside being that it is dependent on your board state when it resolves so if someone bounces your one expensive thing it starts to suck fast. We also have essentially no way to abuse this effect.
Decree of Pain its cool due to its options. It can function as a power draw / wrath or be cycled as token defense. Its a great wrath effect to consider in here since we tend to deal with one or two threats easily so it deals with those pesky tokens in a few optional ways.
Life's Finale a wrath effect plus it allows you to set up some rez with some targets. Its decent but sort of expensive as far as wraths go.
Rise of the Dark Realms mass rez and not bad at that. The biggest issues with this card is that its super expensive, its weak against creature light opponents, homeward path, and graveyard hate. It reminds me a lot of Praetor's Counsel where it costs like 100000 mana and is always questionable as an addition to decks.
Liliana of the Dark Realms she gets lands, removes threats, and if she ults its crazy useful. I actually like everything she does as a walker for this list. Its a pain to defend walkers though. I think of the actual black planeswalkers though, I think she is my favorite option for this type of deck where all of her abilities seem very relevant. She is a value over time sort of walker though and they dont tend to work as well for this format though so it will take timing and defending to make her work. Still, she is a decent option to consider.
Liliana Vess her tutors to topdeck are ok but you really need to get 2+ tutors from her reliably to justify adding her. Paying 5 mana at sorcery speed to topdeck tutor once does not cut it. She almost needs to be getting to 3 tutors reliably to justify her in my mind.
Sorin Markov he is a huge kick in the teeth. I hate this guy soooooooo much as a card but he is strong and worth mentioning. He can put someone on full defense very easily making it hard to have room to play the game really. I absolutely hate this style of effect but its not to be ignored.
Karn Liberated he is one of the few means to deal with opposing gods for this deck. Erebos, God of the Dead is extremely aggravating to play against with this deck since it does do a lot of life siphoning so I strongly suggest removing these pesky things as fast as possible.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All I would say that this is a meta call sort of land. When you really need a spell to land its worth using something like this but you really need to be in a counter heavy meta to consider this in my mind. I dont run many big splashy instants / sorceries for this to protect so I would say wait to run this until you are having consistent issues with the counter heavy decks.
Buried Ruin it recovers artifacts which is one thing that this deck does not do very easily. Its only real drawback is that it taps for colorless mana and isnt a swamp for the purposes of Cabal Coffers.
Cabal Coffers the bread and butter of most mono black decks. This will provide you with large sums of mana to run away with games with. It is one of my more tutored mid game cards and its absolutely fantastic. Kill opposing copies whenever you see them and go and get / recover yours whenever you can.
Cavern of Souls another sort of situational meta call option. I cant imagine people burning tuck counters on Toshiro to be honest but if you are having issues with it then I guess consider adding it.
Deserted Temple its another land that can abuse Cabal Coffers. I dont much like colorless lands though that depend on other specific lands though so I dont bother but I know some who love it.
Dust Bowl its a solid option for hitting opposing lands. It costs a little more mana to utilize it than Strip Mine / Techtonic Edge / Wasteland but its repeatable use.
High Market its a cheap sac outlet!!!! It works wonders in this deck so go ahead and run it and love it.
Inkmoth Nexus its optional to add some infect wincons. This guy works well for surprise blocking flyers as well or randomly killing someone with Hatred.
Miren, the Moaning Well another sac outlet. I dont love it but I still run it as another means to sac out my creatures. Its not great but I guess its still ok.
Mystifying Maze it taps for mana and has the option of removing creatures from combat. This deck mostly doesn't need maze effects but the big time where they come in handy is against protection from black creatures. I was also once killed by Kaldra equipment and this could have saved me if I had realized it sooner.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx its usually much less powerful than Cabal Coffers but still very good in this deck. It always taps for mana and sometimes it taps for a bunch of mana.
Phyrexian Tower its a great sac outlet and generally one of top lands of the deck that I want in play. It acts as a sac outlet and sometimes as ramp.
Rogue's Passage its another handy land if you want to suit up and go voltron with your commander. Toshiro with Lashwrithe + unblockable makes for some sad opponents.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse its possible to use this to make Toshiro more difficult to block making a voltron tactic more viable.
Springjack Pasture its a low commitment means to block creatures and just spend mana at end of turn.
Strip Mine it taps for mana and it answers opponents lands very easily. Its a great card to run a few variants of in each deck. Its strong and its cheap to buy which are a great combination.
Tectonic Edge its a slightly less powerful Strip Mine. Its mostly what Wasteland accomplishes but for a lot less money. Its a good card to use assuming you dont want to put the money of wastelands into your deck.
Thespian's Stage its another means to get more copies of Cabal Coffers. Of course I want to run it.
Tower of the Magistrate it helps against opponents swords and equipment. It doesn't have much drawback and its cheap to activate. Its a great card really.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth it more or less just enables the hell out of Cabal Coffers. I have some colorless mana producing lands which it makes a bit stronger but its real purpose is to abuse the heck out of Cabal Coffers. It is also worth noting that if you want to run some lands that dont normally tap for mana this helps them as well.
Vesuva another means to get extra Cabal Coffers! Yes I am beating the horse to death but a lot of my landbase is all about how much can I abuse Cabal Coffers.
Volrath's Stronghold it recovers creatures to topdeck and it doesn't take up much room as it still taps for colorless mana. Its a great utility land but in general I dont use it that often due to how much rez I already pack in deck. Still, it doesn't take up much space and gives you options.
Winding Canyons allows you to do more things with flash which is nice. It adds a bit of extra mana to the cost of things but it also allows for some gross turns where you might set up to do something and then execute it in the next turn. It is also very powerful with some of the mana to active type of creatures like Geth, Lord of the Vault where you get to just chain through your mana twice (essentially since its your opponents end of turn when he would come in).
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Null Profusion -> Wretched Confluence Null Profusion is a great card but it has a number of issues which is that it forces you to stop being reactive and just cycle your hand. It also leaves you in a bit of an odd spot if it gets answered quickly or if you get it with other card draw as its a good one for if you haven't been drawing but less good if you are seeing your draw. I like essentially all of the modes on this instant and it fits the theme of the deck. The idea of flashing it back or enabling other flashbacks with it just sounds so good. I have had it in deck for a while now I just cant ever seem to find it unfortunately. In the end, I felt that the confluence was more on theme with the instants side of toshiro and had more versatility. It in a vacuum is a weaker draw mechanic but its not only draw and its more synergistic with the commander.
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[Modern] Allies
While most of this tech is irrelevant because of the color identity limitations in EDH, most of that article is irrelevant. It doesn't make it any less awesome though. Anyway, on to the more useful suggestions:
Buyback is great with a Toshi trigger. You can play a spell without buyback first, and then replay it with Toshi and opt-in on the buyback. This'll net you 1 card in your hand. You're already running Corpse Dance (though I'm not sure you were aware of this interaction), but you're not running Slaughter. Running crap cards and doing obscene things with them is what makes EDH tick, so go ahead. Another fun card mentioned in the article but that doesn't seem to be worth it in your deck: Tombstone Stairwell. Large number of Toshi triggers is large.
Another fun fact: the first part of Toshi's ability is exactly the same as the first part of my favorite general, Glissa the Traitor. I found this funny enough to build my deck around the theme of "lines of rules text".
Two random card suggestions:
-Shriveling Rot: it's like Dingus Staff, but as an instant
-Sudden Spoiling: sometimes you need a little more Fog (or more appropriate, Darkness), and playing it twice could save your bum at exactly the right moment
Have fun with the article, and with your deck!
Tombstone Stairwell it worries me because I don't feel like I am personally going to be the one getting the most zombies out of this. It also starts by giving zombies to all the other players first and giving them to me last. The only real interaction I could see from this would be to have things like Shriveling Rot / Massacre Wurm to follow through with hurting my opponents. It just doesn't feel like it has natural flow with what the deck is currently doing.
Sudden Spoiling it has been suggested and considered. I might change my mind on it yet but I generally dislike how it works. It generally requires a follow up card or a bunch of blockers to make it worthwhile. In addition, I see a lot of big buff stuff in my meta so trying to drop this to stop a Craterhoof Behemoth army isn't going to work (as far as I know at least.... it doesn't stop temp buffs does it?). I think its interesting but I have my own concerns about trying to use it as a fog or removal.
What I love about this deck so far is that A) the commander is really cool and unique. B) its just seems like it will play very differently than most other commanders out there. I still haven't sleeved it up yet but hope to do so next time I get around to heading back home where my collection is.
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[Modern] Allies
Mostly came here to post that I'm in love with the artwork on Toshiro. Shocked that I've never seen it before. Also it's a really cool card.
UBRThraximundar, Tribal ZombiesUBR
WURZedruu's Great TradesWUR
That does mean that everything does escalate to crazier things much faster, I don't think thats necessarily a good thing for me though. I am pushing fairly hard on creatures at 18 as instants are so important as is in this deck. I think it would be difficult to really make the card a linchpin of the deck as it is.
I know, his art is crazy cool. And his abilities are fairly unique as is. I think it makes for a very unique feel of a deck.
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[Modern] Allies
Rafiq | Jeleva | Zedruu
Brion | Vela
Talrand | Erebos
Otherworld Atlas Collection
4 Foil/ 17 Normal/ 0 Signed
My avatar is Disappointing!
Yes, it is in the list already. I also agree that this is one of the ideal sort of decks for this fun little rez effect. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes when I finally get it pushed together.
Sadly, my collection of spare cards is not with me at the moment so its something I am hoping to push together at the end of the month when I go and move my stuff out of storage. I have always been very interested in Toshiro though so I really want to make him work for me.
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[Modern] Allies
5-color Eggs
Hatred my problem here is that I am not running a commander that can easily attack out. This means I will likely need to clear the way with removal and probably need to drop 19 life into this and hope nobody disrupts it. I am a lot more willing to run something like this in the case of a voltron commander or at the least having access to blue. I love the card but it seems to me like it would have a hard time being well implemented in this type of deck. I think the closest way that I could use something like this would be to assist in killing someone by ramping up someone else's creature. Even then though, it seems a little bit winmore to me as if I am the one being focused it doesn't help me much. I love the card, I just dont really feel like it fits here.
Tainted Strike its interesting but there are very very few creatures out there that can kill in one shot with this. I would feel like I would need to run Skittles too to run this and even then it feels like it needs to be cast and flashed back to work. I cant think of a lot of situations where a single creature with this would usually kill.
Tainted Pact its an interesting card for sure. I actually had to read it like 4 times to figure out exactly how it worked lol. It does work better with a lower swamp count as well... I could still see myself playing it but I dont really know what I would cut offhand to include it. I think I would have to play with the idea a bit more or playtest with it to really say more though. I might see what I can do to putting some play in with it.
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[Modern] Allies
5-color Eggs
As for Hatred, it really depends on your group. Toshiro normally doesn't get blocked thanks to the fact that the deck is not an aggro deck, and also because of Bushido, unless they are out powering me, so Hatred can often seal a game, its better later after 1-2 people are gone already obviously.
I guess the biggest distinction however is that I run a considerably large suite of kill spells, so keeping a clean board is easy, and even easier to dump a hand to push an attack through. I have had amazing fun with Null Profusion over Necropotence, but I do often run both, however my CMC is quite low as well and I run ExtraPlanar lens as well, so it might work better for me and my snow-covered swamps then it would be for you.
Love seeing more people running Toshiro, he is definitely a great general.
EDH Decks:
B Toshiro Umezawa B
W Mikaeus, the Lunarch W
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born BU
BGU The Mimeoplasm UGB
GUW Rubinia Soulsinger WUG
GRB Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper BRG
COMMANDER (1)
1 Toshiro Umezawa
1 Blood Ghast
1 Dark Confidant
1 Duplicant
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Filth
1 Geralf's Messenger
1 Nether Traitor
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Skithryx, the Blight Dragon
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Soot Imp
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Caged Sun
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Lashwrithe
1 Library of Leng
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mimic Vat
1 Nightmare Lash
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sensei's Diving Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Animate Dead
1 Bitterblossom
1 Contamination
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Necropotence
1 Phyresis
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Entomb
1 False Cure
1 Hatred
1 Sewers of Estark
1 Shallow Grave
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Tainted Pact
1 Tainted Strike
1 Vampiric Tutor
SORCERY (20)
1 All is Dust
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Buried Alive
1 Cruel Tutor
1 Damnnation
1 Death Cloud
1 Death Wish
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Exhume
1 Exsanguinate
1 Living Death
1 Mutilate
1 Profane Command
1 Reanimate
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 High Market
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Maze of Ith
25 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
I figure I might as well post my list. I'm still fleshing out a sideboard for Death Wish but my playgroup runs a lot of RFG effects so it often gets me back what I need anyways. Also, I can't seem to get my deck to not be one long, dumb column so sorry about that.
5-color Eggs
EDH Decks:
B Toshiro Umezawa B
W Mikaeus, the Lunarch W
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born BU
BGU The Mimeoplasm UGB
GUW Rubinia Soulsinger WUG
GRB Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper BRG
Looking over things a bit I decided to make a few changes.
Massacre Wurm -> Lashwrithe generally speaking my experience with Massacre Wurm has been a mostly fail relationship. I think he is great in theory but I can never get him to hit how I really want him to. Ideally, yes he would be amazing against a Rhys deck but thats usually not the situation I draw him in. I like the idea of Lashwrithe offhand. I like that it comes with a body and I can put it on my commander and beat face.
Exsanguinate -> Hatred we will see how this goes... I have my concerns but I like that I can interact with Hatred potentially better than I can Exanguinate.
Suffer the Past -> Headstone expensive grave hate for cheap grave hate. I like drawing cards as it seems like something good to burn off when I have a spare trigger.
Promise of Power -> Null Profusion mana wise these land at about the same so I figure I will try out the Profusion as it does some interesting things and they hit at like the same about mana cost. Profusion is interesting with the graveyard flashback effects too so I will give it a shot and see where it gets me to.
Syphon Mind -> Memory Jar making opponents discard fills graveyards with potential rez targets. That seems like enough of a reason to try out the Jar.
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[Modern] Allies
I just wanted to share a story of playing toshi for the first time. I was playing kingmaker, and helped a player get all the way to the end. He was playing mayael and had Godsire, 3 godsire tokens, admonition angel, iona, woodfall primus and a few other beaters and mayael. I was dead in the water, so I swung with toshi (he had 30 or so life I had 20) I proceeded to say "hahaha, wooo swinging with my 2/1 so scary!" "It goes through." WINDMILL SLAM HATRED FOR 19 PUTTING ME AT 1 GG! Favorite edh moment of all time.
also death wish can't get rfg cards anymore since the wish change.
Sig and Avatar Credit: Heroes of the Plane Studios
Sudden Death: While it won't kill 5/5's which is a huge knock against it in my book, it does interrupt combo's like nobody's business. Kills Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and a few others.
Sudden Spoiling: Loss of abilities can be a pretty big deal. That's actually how I usually cast it, turning off activated and non-ETB effects.
Tragic Slip: Sometimes things are indestructible. For awhile I was seeing lots of Darksteel Plates, Shield of the Oversoul, and such. Occasionally the 0/0 is also useful.
I never liked Hatred: I found I could just kill people randomly while they were under developed... which isn't how i like to play my Commander games.
Liliana of the Dark Realms: She's removal, she gets lands, and she can beat down. Her ultimate is fun. She replaced Hatred for me.
Necrotic Plague + Forbidden Orchard: Sometimes you have an empty board, and other people have a few things. This is one of the most satisfying plays ever. Everyone groans, but there's lots of interaction and politics every time this gets played. Encourages new players to learn about stack effects... so FUN.
My Trades
Sudden Death its ok... I don't know I just don't see that many creatures that this can kill that I really care that much about the fact that it has split second. In my opinion split second is more useful against combo and counterspell type of decks and its just my concern at the moment. My meta doesn't run a lot of counterspells and most commanders / utility creatures that I would want to kill I couldn't care less about split second. So for me this one comes down to the fact that its sort of situational in what it can kill which I dont care for. Also, when flashing it back I have to target it with toshiro so things can still be done in response to that targeting making it a little less reliable.
Sudden Spoiling my problem is that most of the time when I would want to fog with something like this it wont work because usually the thigns I actually want to fog are things like a Craterhoof Behemoth hitting play or something terrifying. As a fog, I am not impressed by it. As a wrath, it needs additional support. I sort of like it because Toshiro himself can be used potentially as the blocker / attacker to kill off of this. Still, I find split second usually overrated outside of combo and counter heavy metas. Neither of those are my concerns.
Tragic Slip its possible still. I like the idea of it I guess but I am not completely sold yet. I don't like that it essentially needs to be used as the second kill of the turn I guess... I go back and forth. I see some potential but also some issues.
Hatred I likewise am not sold on it yet. I figured I would give it a chance though and we will see how it works. I am not sold that it will make it yet though.
Liliana of the Dark Realms I have seen her tutor a single swamp once and die too often. People done like allowing you to generate card value in multiplayer formats. Walkers tend to be an obvious value generator that needs to be defended. Being that I am not running super heavy on creatures it means I might need to use spot removal on ETB value creatures to protect a walker... I dont like that.
Necrotic Plague it lacks synergy with the deck and is too easily dodged around. In my meta people run a lot of sac outlets so the chance of them just dropping the creature to a sac outlet is too high for me.
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[Modern] Allies
My Trades
That's what I get for not checking errata as often as I should.
After getting one shotted by Kaalia and Master of Cruelties last Sunday, I don't feel so bad about running Hatred.
5-color Eggs
Tokens are still a problem for this type of deck so what I love about them is that they sweep all the annoying tokens out at instant speed so I can wait for someone to slam their giant overrun on me and then I can still strip them out.
Its also really funny because one of the big overrun type of decks is a Kamahl and I would love him to animate a bunch of lands and slam overruns.
This is of course hoping he doesn't keep mana up to animate my lands but who knows lol.
Tsabo's Decree at its worst is still an instant speed spot removal plus hand peek. I like it in a lot of cases like playing against tribal or tokens as well.
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[Modern] Allies
I always played a way to gain back the life though ... Disciple of bolas after hatred killing someone is really funny . It's better the more lifelink dudes you have but the card is so awesome give it a chance or two! If your deck ends up not wanting to play any cards that can gain you life then I guess it's not the best card ever but IRS one of my personal favorites.
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Liliana of the Dark Realms - This is a lot better of a card if you can control the board more, you don't run as many kill spells as other variants, so protecting her could be a real pain.
How has the deck been running so far? I noticed you run a bunch more board wipes, are you getting to use Toshiro's ability often?
EDH Decks:
B Toshiro Umezawa B
W Mikaeus, the Lunarch W
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born BU
BGU The Mimeoplasm UGB
GUW Rubinia Soulsinger WUG
GRB Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper BRG
Unfortunately I have been living out of a motel for the summer so most of my EDH decks I can play at the moment are the ones I went into the summer with. I have been stalling on pushing together my mono blue, mono black, and bant enchantress decks until I can make a trip back home (4hr drive) where all my bulk cards are.
I have played Toshiro before in the past which is where I base a lot of my own experience on but I haven't gotten to sleeve the deck up yet. Most changes I make to my decks these last few months have been proxy changes because of my collection not being with me. Proxying whole decks is too much of a pain in the ass though.
I run board wipes though because tokens are somewhat popular in my meta. I might end up cutting back on my board clears though after I can get more testing with the new list but even then, I did then and always do have issues sticking utility commanders to the board. People love to tuck commanders in my meta. Graveyard hate varies a lot in my meta too which has me a little worried. There is one UB deck that runs like 6 dedicated grave hate effects in his list.
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[Modern] Allies