In high school I played Magic at lunch with friends around the time of the Urza's block. I'll never forget those days playing Red/Green Aggro decks and getting smashed with Palinchron and other blue toys of the day. I enjoyed magic, but after High school I was busy with college and didn't see my friends who played, so I didn't think about the game for a long time.
During college, I played a few other card games, but finally got back to magic around the time Innistrad came out. So I bought a box of cards from my best friend's cousin not long after I started playing again. I was disappointed that most of these cards were older and not standard legal and stuck them in a box. I ignored the box for months while I played more standard and finally started getting into commander. One day I decided to sort through all my rares laying around and get them into a binder. Looking through a box of my old cards I stumbled on Chainer, Dementia Master. The first thing I noticed was this guy was a black legendary so I read further. I had a large stash of black cards so mono black had been on my mind for my third Commander deck. I had a combo and a ramp commander deck with Ghave, Guru of Spores and Azusa, Lost but Seeking and had been thinking of a control deck for my third deck. Immediately, I knew he was going to be my new commander once I read over his abilities two or three times. I discovered that Chainer allows you to play with creatures in all graveyards in the game and at instant speed. I was sold!!! Little did I know just how powerful Chainer is when I chose him.
So off I went to brew a control based deck with Chainer, Dementia Master as my head, obviously giving the deck a graveyard based tilt. My initial start was grabbing several of the cards I had stuck in my standard mono black control deck. Such toys as Sheoldred, Whispering One, Reaper from the Abyss and Harvester of Souls were all cards I grabbed from that deck to get this one started. Originally, I had a more aggro approach to the deck with Chainer more in a support role, but over time I found that in a multiplayer environment that the more control and the more interactions with Chainer I added the better the deck performed. Today the deck has evolved into into a full on, Stax based, graveyard control deck.
Who is Chainer?
For starters, Chainer has some of the best art every printed on a magic card; IMO, YMMV. He's one imposing dude and if you look closely his right arm is robotic and holding a chain...wonder where the name Chainer comes from.
Chainer made his debut in the Odyssey block as a pitfighter for the Cabal. He got his first and only printing in Torment and later received his own novel Chainer's Torment. For a full biography on Chainer, look at the article in the wiki: Über awesome bio of Chainer
What does Chainer do?
Chainer's second ability is the reason you want to build any deck around him: it gives you the ability to play any creature from any graveyard directly on the field at instant speed as a nightmare (yeah, they get the +1/+1 buff from his 1st ability). You can also do this as many time per turn as you like. The ramifications of this ability are huge; Chainer lets you get extra value out of almost everything. If your creature was countered by a pesky blue mage no worries, you just play it from the graveyard later when Chainer comes out. In a normal game, creatures die for every player. With Chainer you can cherry-pick the best creatures currently in all graveyards and add those to the field under your control at instant speed. Nothing is more satisfying than playing the opponent's Blazing Archon from their graveyard and then watching while they sit helpless.
What kind of deck should Chainer lead?
While Chainer could lead any number of mono black builds and still have a strong deck, he is most deadly when a deck is built around his strengths. Obviously Chainer likes creatures in the yard, so a deck that excels in getting the most creatures in the yard the quickest will get the most mileage out of his ability. This leads to push the deck heavy into a traditional mono black control route; black just loves blowing creatures up. You needs cards that A) destroy creatures on the field, B) force the opponent (and sometimes yourself) to discard cards to generate the most fuel, and C) mill your opponents when you have the chance. While this deck does like to play with graveyards, it is not and does not need to be a dredge deck. Since we can pick off the opponents creatures, we only want a few choice cards in our graveyard to keep the rest safe in our library. Its best to gain value off whatever is already in the yard, with the occasional Buried Alive to toolbox for answers to the board state.
Since Chainer's ability works only with creatures, it makes sense to use valuable creatures that act as reusable spells and enchantments. ETB creatures are great, since the can effectively act as instant speed spells. A board wipe on a creature is much better than a board wipe on a spell for instance. Creatures with strong effects will usually get at least two rodeos to wreak havoc. If you have a sac outlet handy, you can abuse an ETB creature over and over again. Creatures that can sac themselves get bonus points in this decksince they require no sac outlet to do their thing.
Chainer does have his downfalls
As great as Chainer is, he is not without weaknesses. For starters, his ability costs three life in addition to three black mana. The loss of life from activating Chainer can get out of hand in a hurry if you are not judicious in its use. Compounding this is the propensity of other black cards to eat at your life. There are games where I deal myself more damage than my opponents. Suicide Black at its finest; faint of heart need not apply.
Chainer's third ability hurts a great deal as it exiles all the creatures he has brought into play if he dies. To curb this, instant speed sac outlets are essential to keep your creatures (and those of your opponents you haven't had enough play time with) from exile. If you don't have a sac outlet out, you really have to be careful how and when you use Chainer's ability.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed - Xiahuo Dun has some nice benefits as a commander: he's basically unblockable and has general damage as a potential won condition and with his ability, he has the ability to return any black card to your hand by sacrificing himself. Xiahuo Dun is a strong card no doubt. When he sacs himself, you will need graveyard recursion or he will have to return to the commander zone so he doesn't have a built in way to pull multiple cards like Chainer. Also, he only returns his card to the hand where Chainer has the added ability of putting a creature to the field. When Chainer runs a ton of high value and/or ETB creatures, it makes up for the ability not to find instants and sorceries.
XeroxedFool as a very nice Primer for Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed that is built as a reanimator. We have shared some ideas and it is worth a look.
Geth, Lord of the Vault - Geth is the king of big mana mono black. With a ton of mana he can heavily mill your opponent while also playing cards from their graveyard. I do dislike Geth's inability to target your own graveyard though. Chainer often thrives by playing creatures from his own yard to control the board
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Sheoldred is a powerhouse; one of my favorite mono black creatures. She controls the field on your opponents turns and reanimates on yours. Just putting her on the field can make some players scoop. Unfortunately, Sheoldred is expensive and gets more so when the commander tax comes into play. As great as she is, it takes a whole turn before she does anything for you and you only get to return one creature. That's a lot of time for someone to kill her and you to lose the ability to reanimate one of your creatures.
Balthor the Defiled - Balthor has a very strong effect if you run a version that usually has a high number of creature in the yard. He can literally let you overwhelm someone when his ability is activated. Unfortunately, you have to exile him to do it, so he's back off to the commander zone. Additionally, he's a gamble. If your opponents are playing black and/or red his ability can turn from game winning to group hug.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - Shirei has a very interesting and powerful effect, but is very much a build-around-me general. Shirei gives you the potential for multiple free recursions each turn, but has two major restrictions. First, she only effects creatures in your graveyard. Secondly and more important, Shirei limits the creatures you can run profitably to those with power of one, severely limiting the card pool for the deck.
General Strategy
With Chainer, the deck obviously revolves around the graveyard. The collective graveyards in the game essentially serve as a de facto second hand for you to play from. To feed Chainer's ability you need creatures in the graveyard: your graveyard and your opponents' graveyard. For your own graveyard, Entomb, Buried Alive and Altar of Dementia allow your to get creatures you like in the yard so you can reanimate them at will. Your opponent's creatures are a bit more tricky. There are a few ways to abuse your opponent's graveyard. The best way is to play the deck is to give yourself the option to kill whatever hits the field. Kagemaro, First to Suffer, Fleshbag Marauder, and Bone Shredder give you reusable, self sacrificing, ETB creatures to put your opponent's toys in the graveyard for Chainer to play with and keep you from dieing at the same time. To further help control the field, Braids, Cabal Minion, Smokestack and Reaper from the Abyss like to stay around and blow several things up each turn, especially in tandem. You can also force your opponent to discard creatures. Mindslicer nicely empties hands, removing any counterspells or kill spells in addition to the possibility of pitching cuddly creatures for us to play with. Occasionally the best approach is to just mill your opponent. With large mana out, Geth, Lord of the Vault can throw huge numbers of cards in an opponents yard to play with.
After playing Chainer, you realize two things are very important to augment his ability. First, you need life gain to offset paying three life for each activation or you will burn through your own life total quickly. Many games I find that I do more damage to myself than my opponents do in the early game. To offset the life payment, Blood Artist and Sangromancer go a long way toward keeping the life total up. Yes, they require creatures to die, but the way this deck functions that should never be an issue. Second, you need sac outlets to make sure your creatures do not get exiled when Chainer dies. The best sac outlets are free to use, cards like Spawning Pit and Altar of Dementia make great value adding outlets for creatures you do not want exiled or creatures with nice ETB's you would like to use again.
To win with Chainer you have a few options. First, can just beat the opponent down with your guys, or better yet, you roast them with their own guys. Now, this deck is not an aggro deck nor was it ever designed to be. You will win some games by turning guys sideways, but this deck mainly serves as a nickle dimer deck that takes a few hits here and a few hits there and grinds out a win once the opponent starts running out of blockers. Luckily we have other options to kill the opponent, or at least finish them off. The deck can very easily burn the opponent for a win. Falkenrath Noble can slowly (or not so slowly) ping an opponent to death just by sitting on the field while the deck does what it does. Kokusho, the Evening Star can form a death loop with Chainer given a sac outlet and enough mana or at worse burn your opponents a few times and gain a ton of life in the process. The most used and most reliable win condition for this deck is probably Exsanguinate. With Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, if the first, or second, or third Exsanguinate doesn't get past counterspells, we have an engine to retrieve it for use later.
Notable Synergies
There are a good number of strong cards in the deck, but there are certain lines of play between two or three cards that can set you ahead.
One of the reasons people use Chainer over other mono black commanders is for the infamous death loop with Kokusho, the Evening Star. With a reusable sac outlet (a free one is preferable) you can play Kokusho for three black mana and three life with Chainer's ability, sac Kokusho, and then repeat the process. For a mere twenty-four black mana, Chainer and Kokusho can deal a full forty damage to the field while Exsanguinate would only deal twenty-two Damage with this mana. This is probably the strongest kill condition out of nowhere for the deck, but it takes three pieces to set up and can be easily disrupted. I've found its best to leave searching for Kokusho for later in the game. Early in the game you like more field control cards and having Kokusho in the graveyard prematurely can be a liability.
Chainer and Fleshbag Marauder/Slum Reaper are essentially best friends. They are his best options for nuking the field in a hurry. Since the ability allows them to sac themselves, they nicely return themselves to the graveyard to be used again. The big issue with this form of control, is you will burn life fast controlling the field this way. Enter Sangromancer. Sangromancer turns locks with Fleshbag Marauder into instances that gain loads of life instead of putting you in a huge hole. Since she gains three life, in a one on one game she nullifies the life loss and in large multiplayer games, she can potentially gain as much life as Kokusho or more.
Braids, Cabal Minion is absolutely one of my favorite cards to play, with her artifact comrade Smokestack not far behind. However, she can horribly backfire against you if you do not plan out her usage. Braids' absolute favorite play toy is Bitterblossom. With Bitterblossom out, Braids will have zero effect on you while your opponents lose their creatures, lands, and artifacts. The ability to eat artifacts and lands, especially early, makes Braids a powerful tool. There are also other tricks to not losing advantage to braids. With Sheoldred, Whispering One or Chainer out, you can sac braids to herself, or better yet, sac her to something like Spawning Pit at the end of your opponent's turn and then replay her for your opponent's turns. If reanimation is not online, Reassembling Skeleton gives a two mana reusable creature to sac every turn.
While on the subject of Reassembling Skeleton, there are some hilarious plays that he can be a part of. The most obvious use the skeleton is along with Skullclamp as a reusable three mana way to draw two cards. His utility does not stop here though. He is totally abusable with all of the sac outlets. If you are sitting around with mana and have no other use: blow up the skeleton, bring him back, rinse and repeat. With Spawning Pit, I've seen Reassembling Skeleton fuel twenty-five tokens while playing with his good buddy Pawn of Ulamog to curb his mana consumption. With the Altar of Dementia it is possible to mill out an opponent late in the game; again, Pawn of Ulamog helps effectively double the number of cards he can mill.
So Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is good, but how exactly do we use him for the most effect? Chainer can return creatures, so we generally want to get back strong sorceries or enchantments. Xiahou Dun is as good as whatever he can return, so want want to return the strongest cards we can. Targets 1 and 1A are Exsanguinate and Demonic Tutor. Exsanguinate is a game winner; if it gets countered or you needed it to gain life to survive...get it back to use again. One game I had Xiahou Dun fetch Exsanguinate three times. The first two uses were countered, the third kept me alive and the fourth killed the table. Fetching Demonic Tutor really opens the game up for you on options and lets you fetch exactly what you need. I do occasionally find more strategic uses for Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. I like returning Sheoldred to my hand with Xiahou Dun. Returning creatures with Chainer is always a liability, so when I have an opportunity to play a creature not attached to him, especially the power creatures, I take that opportunity. Sheoldred generally returns the favor and starts a loop of returning Xiahou Dun each turn and then grabbing whatever other black card I need. Another fun loop, and possible win condition, with Xiahou Dun is with Living Death. Living death lets you return all the creatures in your yard, including Xiahou Dun, to the battlefield. You can then sac Xiahou Dun to return Living Death and repeat the process as long as you have the mana to do so. If you can manage to get any of Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, or Massacre Wurm on the field or in the graveyard as you start your loop you can either win outright, or deal a significant chunk of damage to the field.
Rings of Brighthearth is one of those cards that has so many potential abuses that they just must be chronicled. EVERY activated Ability gets a replay for two mana. With a card such as Expedition Map or a fetch land such as Bloodstained Mire, the ability is cute, but not necessarily game breaking. However, most of the other cards you can use rings with can get bonkers. The two absolute strongest uses of rings, and even more so at the same time, is with Deserted Temple and Geth, Lord of the Vault. Using rings on Deserted Temple allows all kinds of bonkers plays. When Deserted Temple untaps Cabal Coffers it generates infinite mana, so long as you have enough swamps, that can be used to fuel a Kokusho Death loop, an Exsanguinate, or a huge pluck and mill fest by Geth, Lord of the Vault. Geth so nicely plays with rings due to his X ability. If there are two eligible cards with the same converted mana cost in a graveyard, you can use rings to copy the ability with the X you payed. It doesn't take too many activations with rings and Geth to generate huge advantage and possibly mill an opponent out of the game. There are other cards that like to get on the rings party as well. Chainer is quite fond of rings as he can reanimate a second creature without paying life; his enchantment version Strands of Night likes rings for the same reasons. The planeswalkers are especially fond of rings as well. Rings also turns Bloodline Keeper from a small-time token producer to an army in a can and potential win condition.
Other Possibilities
bobthefunny has another version of Chainer that you should check out. We have many similar key cards and have done some sharing, but the decks are a bit different.
This build has control elements for certain, but focuses control more on the reanimator portion with a supplement from Stax elements. Some people have issues with Braids, Cabal Minion and Smokestack's ability to destroy lands and choose not to run this package of cards. In my early testing I had more board wipes and just never found myself wanting to use them compared to running the Stax guys; I always seem to have one or two creatures I just don't want to kill. You can however push the deck into traditional black control deck without too much difficulty if you are into it or if you meta demands it. You have options such as Damnation, Mutilate, Life's Finale, Black Sun's Zenith, All is Dust, and Decree of Pain to nuke the board repetitively.
One can also push much further into hand disruption than this goes as another means of fueling Chainer. Hard for the opponent to beat you if they have no options. Do be aware however that running a high amount of hand disruption cards will generally paint a larger target on your head. This approach is probably best if you are 'that guy'. Cards such as Liliana's Specter, Painful Quandary, Mind Siphon, Sadistic Hypnotist, and Oppression all you to blow up your opponent's hands early and often and ensure they stay that way.
For the slightly less suicidal Black player, there are a few equipment that can gain life, and potentially a bunch: Loxodon Warhammer and Basilisk Collar. I'm not a fan of equipment in a control deck, but Loxodon Warhammer proved to be nice whenever I drew it. Trample is an underrated ability in Black. When you have the life gain equipment, you can explore an interesting set creatures for control / win conditions (well you can explore them otherwise, but they beg for lifelink). An creature with a Pestilence effect basically becomes an Exsanguinate when equipped with one of the lifelink equipment. Some of these creatures are Pestilence Demon, Crypt Rats and Thrashing Wumpus.
There are times when you see a creature and you just want it to die. Unfortunately, There are only a few creatures that act as targeted removal and they usually have color and artifact restrictions. So many days I think about adding spot removal to the deck just to nuke something irritating that I can't profitably remove. If you are having issues with big single targets, spot removal is a high consideration. At some point along this deck's construction I had several pieces of spot removal and they somehow managed to work themselves out. If I played more 1v1 games I'd definitely add some back in. For those spot removal junkies, Murder, Go for the Throat, Doom Blade, Snuff Out, Chill to the Bone, Rend Flesh, or Victim of the Night make great choices.
Chainer can actually function as an aggro deck of sorts if one chooses. Its a slightly different play style, but you build the deck around putting out beats and use Chainer as a backup if your army gets destroyed to put your big guys back out. I had a more aggro Chainer early on with options like Grave Titan, Lashwrithe, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade. In a duel, the aggro version was much stronger, but its strength watered down the more players that were at the table. Lashwrithe is a card I'd still like to be in the deck as its almost a win condition in itself, but its just hard to fit into the current build. If you play lots of duels or three players games, the aggro route is a fun direction.
ETB Creatures
ETB/LTB creatures are the real bread and butter of the deck. Reusable effects that give you advantage in the current board state are valuable when you can use them two, or three, or four times in a game. Creatures that can sac themselves get extra bonus points.
Fleshbag Marauder - Unless you are playing Sigarda, Host of Herons, Fleshbag Marauder is an absolute All-Star in this deck. Everyone sacs a creature, but Fleshbag Marauder will always sac itself so its nicely in the graveyard to reuse again. With Chainer out, Fleshbag Marauder can reanimate a time or two and basically clear out the field, even with hexproof and shroud. Three plus mana open with Chainer out and Fleshbag Marauder in the graveyard will effect how your opponents play.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed - This guy is amazing; he basically returns every non artifact in the deck to your hand. While that may not sound like much, using Demonic Tutor or Exsanguinate three or four times will really put you ahead. If you have good toys in your yard, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is a great addition. He also nicely can sac himself making him all the more powerful in this deck.
Mindslicer - Mindslicer is so much fun. No card is better at getting a heap of cards in the graveyard as quickly. His effect is LTB, but that is usually not a big thing to deal with considering the number of sac outlets. The best part of this card is that it removes the potential for counterspells and kill spells, if only for a turn or two. A great card to kill right before going for that kokusho death loop to hopefully keep any hate away.
Solemn Simulacrum - Good old sad robot. Land ETB and Draw LTB. Pure Card advantage with ramp on the side. I'm never Sad to see the Sad Robot.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer - Facing down an Army? This guy is a repeatable Wrath of God on stick that can kindly sac itself for for one black mana. The size of his Wrath is variable, but none-the-less his potential is lethal. He can also serve as a decent beat stick if you do not need a wrath, assuming you have a decent hand size.
Slum Reaper - This card is de facto Fleshbag Marauder number two. While it does have a bigger body, costing one more mana does make it slightly worse than Fleshbag Marauder, but not by much. Once it gets going, watch out.
Bone Shredder - Reusable targeted removal for non-black, non-artifact creatures. Against the right decks this guy can clean house, over and over again. There are also occasions he's not so hot when you do face another black deck. He does have the added benefit of sacrificing himself during the next turn so he can be reused if a sac outlet is not available.
Duplicant - Some threats just refuse to die and when they do die they shuffle themselves back into the library so we can't play with them (looking at you Ulamog, Iona, Blightsteel, et al.). For the things that have no other answer there is Duplicant. Duplicant is also the only unconditional, targeted removal so he does double duty against other black decks.
Kokusho, the Evening Star - Kokpuffs is quite a few things. With enough mana and a sac outlet, she can kill your opponent outright. Even if you play her and she just dies, you will gain a good amount of life in the process. She's one of those cards your opponents don't want to kill so she can often ping through for that five damage more often than not. Generally speaking, its best to save playing or tutoring for Kokusho until later in the game when you are closer to going for a win so it doesn't get exiled somehow. Exiled Kokopuffs makes me a sad panda.
Massacre Wurm - The deck's anti-token tech (or anti Edric weenie tech). Deals two damage to all opponents' creatures and deals direct damage when their creatures die and all in a big body. He has a very fun line of play when combined with Living Death.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Tutoring is pretty powerful in this game. I like having the answer at any time or the ability to grab it. With this guy, I get a recurrable tutor on a 6/6 flying body. Reanimating him a few times will generally put you in a very good position.
Disciple of Bolas - Disciple is the epitome of utility on a stick. He gives us a sac outlet, he gains life AND he draws us cards all on a body that Chainer can reanimate. Every time he hits the field you get high value from him.
Non-ETB Creatures
Even though a big focus is on ETB guys, All of the non ETB creatures have a high amount of value to what this deck wants to do.
Blood Artist - Blood Artist gains life when creatures die. Lots of creatures die...Awesome!!!. Lets also not forget he can send that back at someone as damage too. Some games, this guy is an MVP.
Bloodline Keeper - He poops tokens and with Rings of Brighthearth, potentially a bunch. The flying takens make great blockers if needed. Given enough time out, he can become his own win condition. I've had a wrath played by an opponent solely to stop a flipped Keeper before.
Braids, Cabal Minion - Pure madness. You will lose friends when she's out. If you correctly time putting her out, you may very well win the game though. Braids is good at killing creatures, but is also known to take out lands, etc. You do have to be careful so that she does not backfire and force you to sacrifice too much. There is definitely a right time to play her, like after dropping Bitterblossom or Crucible of Worlds
Falkenrath Noble - Blood Artist number two. He's generally inferior since he costs twice as much, but he does have a semi-relevant flying body to make up for it.
Sangromancer - Sangromancer is easily the best life gaining tool in a deck that sorely needs life gain. She gains life when the deck does what its supposed to do: kill the opponent's creatures. Consequently her three life gain helps nullify Chainer's life cost if you are cycling say Fleshbag Marauder.
Geth, Lord of the Vault - Geth is one strong hombre in the late game phase. Geth is quite mana intensive, but once he gets going, your opponent will kill him or he can bury them. He can reanimate multiple creatures per turn and in a few turns can mill an opponent out as a secondary win condition.
Pawn of Ulamog - This card serves so many uses in this deck. Its one of the few 'combo pieces' that we actually run. It can make tokens to feed to Smokestack or it can generate mana to fuel some crazy plays. Its also nice in that it drops you tokens to play with after a wrath effect if you have creatures out.
Nirkana Revenant - She is a creature that kicks butts and takes names. She doubles the mana generation from your swamps and gets +1/+1 till the end of turn for each black mana spent. She serves as both mana ramp and hard beating win condition in one nice package. I'm never sad to see her and she generally has a lower threat value than most of the other cards.
Crypt Ghast - Another mana doubler in the vain of Nirkana Revenant. It can power out some large game winning Exsanguinates or Kokusho loops. What it loses in aggro power, it gains in utility. In a four player game, one activation of Extort is enough to nullify the life loss from 1 activation of Chainer while not drawing too much ire from the rest of the table.
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Quite possibly the strongest creature in the deck. I generally go out of my way to get her online at some point during the game. She acts like a combination of Braids, Cabal Minion and Chainer, Dementia Master on one body. I've had opponents scoop the moment she hit the table on more than one occasion when they had no answer. The longer she stays out, the more value you get from her, especially if you have strong creatures in your graveyard. She wins games.
Ogre Slumlord - Creatures die often when this deck is at the table. As they do Our Slumlord is nice enough to give us a 1/1 rat token for each and every creature that dies. Unlike Pawn of Ulamog, these tokens have aggro power with an attack value, are nice and Skullclampable, and provide a great source of fuel for smokestack since it triggers on the opponent's creatures as well. Just to add icing on the cake, he gives the tokens deathtouch so they make excellent blockers.
Draw/Tutors
This deck works very much in a toolbox fashion with particular answers to certain board states. Card Draw and tutoring are crucial to having the answer you need in a timely manner.
Necropotence - Arguably the best draw card ever printed. It has a drawback, but it will get you 7 cards in your hand every turn. You do have to be careful so that it does not eat your life total away too far, but its acceleration is the best you can do in black. Using Necropotence and Chainer together requires a bit of math skills. There are times when low on life and cards that you can curse at it, but these are rare occasions.
Phyrexian Arena - One of best draw cards ever printed. Dropped on turn three, Phyrexian Arena will generally get us enough card advantage that we can keep a tight control on the board.
Entomb - In this deck, Entomb basically serves as a one mana instant speed tutor for your creature of choice. There are generally two ways to play this card. You can search for the answer of choice to help keep the field clear or search up a big creature to lay down the smack (usually Sheoldred, Whispering One.
Demonic Tutor - Pretty much the best tutor ever printed. I like to hold on to this card and search for whatever card I need to answer my opponent. I am also known to just search for Sheoldred and call it a day. This is probably my second favorite target for Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed's ability.
Buried Alive - This card is especially strong in this deck. Often times when you pick the right cards, you can easly set yourself up for a win. It costs you three mana to dump three guys in the yard!!! This guy really helps shore up your board position and find those guys you need to stop your opponent's game plan. Generally speaking I will pick either or both of Sheoldred, Whispering One and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed along with whatever the board state requires.
Diabolic Tutor - Not the cheapest mana cost for a tutor, but it is a tutor that will find any answer you need. Equally important it does not allow your opponent to see the card and puts it in your hand for potential immediate use.
Liliana Vess - Liliana 1.0 generally serves as a one or sometimes two use Vampiric Tutor that may also act as a fog effect. Her ultimate is nice...but will never (or should never) happen. If you set her first tutor up correctly and then get the second one, you very well should will the game.
Harvester of Souls - Creatures die when playing this deck. When creatures die while this guy on the field, you start gaining card advantage. If you set things up correctly, you can easily draw two to three cards at a time with Harvester of Souls. In addition to his drawing prowess, Harvester of Souls also is a good sized body with deathtouch. He's great as a second or third target for Buried Alive
Bloodgift Demon - Bloodgift Demon essentially serves as Phyrexian Arena number two on a nice 5/4 flying body. While being a creature makes it more fragile than Phyrexian Arena, it can be reanimated and being able to swing in the air makes up for it most of the time.
Graveborn Muse - This card is basically Bloodgift Demon's smaller, but cheaper, sister and serves as Phyrexian Arena number three. The 3/3 body is disappointing, but it isn't there to deal damage anyways.
Sacrifice Outlets
Sac Outlets are vital to reuse the ETB effects this deck thrives on, and more importantly to protect your guys from exile from Chainer's third ability.
Dimir House Guard - Guard is just such a versatile card. He gives us an instant speed sac outlet on a creature that we can reanimate easily if need be if our board gets destroyed with an Oblivion Stone. With his sac ability, he can also regenerate himself to survive through board wipes to sac some more. He also nicely tutors for the other sixteen four CMC cards in the deck. Several of the strongest options in the deck are in the four slot, so he's as equally valuable as a tutor as he is a sac outlet.
Altar of Dementia - Absolutely great sac outlet. Comes down cheap at two mana and lets you sac for free. On sacing a creature, lets you mill yourself or your opponent, possibly putting some juicy toys for Chainer in the graveyard in the process. Using it on yourself or an opponent is a judgement call.
Spawning Pit - This is probably my favorite sac outlet. It is cheap at two mana and lets you sac for free at instant speed. When you sac creatures, you get the ability to make tokens. I have been able to make a small army of tokens from this card before. The nice thing is, the effect is so subtle, that most players won't bother to kill it until its too late.
Phyrexian Altar - Quite possibly the best sac outlet ever printed. We can use the mana generated from Phyrexian Altar to power out more plays. Three sacs to Altar let us have another chainer activation. If you have issues going infinite, you do have to be somewhat mindful, as Phyrexian Altar makes it very easy to go 'infinite on accident', especially with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, and Living Death.
Infernal Tribute - Infernal Tribute is the most expensive sac outlet in the deck, but also expensive to use at a two mana activation cost. Infernal Tribute lets you sac any permant so you can kill a Bitterblossom or Phyrexian Arena before they kill you in addition to being able to sac creatures.
High Market - Its a land that lets you sacrifice a creature for free (well you lose the one mana it produces) and gain life. As an easy to use land sac outlet, its amazing.
Phyrexian Tower - Its a land that lets you sac your creatures to gain two black mana. This deck can be very tight on mana at times, and two mana when sacing something can open all kinds if possibilities.
Lands
This deck has several utility lands that fulfil particular roles and are very important to the inner workings of the deck.
Cabal Coffers - Arguably the best mono black card ever printed. Some people say its the real commander of any mono black deck. Coffers generates insane mana with not too many swamps out on the field. With Deserted Temple and Rings of Brightheart an infinite amount. You really have to be careful when you play it, because Coffers does not like to stay on the field for long periods of time.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - What's the absolute best way to abuse Cabal Coffers? By using this guy to turns all lands into swamps. All your utility lands, and Cabal Coffers itself now add to the total that
Cabal Coffers taps for. Just by itself, it makes it easier to get the black mana to abuse Chainer. Do be aware that Urborg does effect the opponent as well. I have inadvertently helped my opponents by dropping Urborg before.
Buried Ruin - We have very few ways to recur artifacts and Buried Ruin is one of the best at our disposal. Lets us return the ever important Crucible of Worlds to protect our coffers and Trading Post to get shenanigans on.
Vesuva - This guys is whatever land you need at the time. At worst, its a Snow-Covered Swamp in a pinch, but this guy can copy any land of yours or your opponents. Its best for copying Cabal Coffers, but it is also useful for killing Gaea's Cradle or Academy Ruins if needed.
Bojuka Bog - It may seem counterintuitive, but sometime exiling a graveyard can save you from nasty spelling getting reused against you. If your opponent has a Time Warp sitting in the graveyard and you know they have ways to return it, its best to nuke it while you have the chance, even if you lose a few good creatures.
Volrath's Stronghold - We send a lot of our creatures to the yard with high frequency. If we need, this guy can return a creature to the top of the Library so we can play it next turn. This is fun for chaining Fleshbag Marauder if chainer is not available. Another good use of this is returning Sheoldred, Whispering One in the late game so you can hard cast it and not worry about getting exiled.
Verdant Catacombs/Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats - These are 3 of the 4 fetchlands available to the black mage. These guys serve the purpose of smoothing out our land drops and thinning the deck. With Crucible of Worlds, having any one of these guys out will give continuous land drops even if we have no lands in the hand.
Thespian's Stage - Stage is a cousin of Vesuva that is both better and worse. Obviously the key reason to add this card is to copy Cabal Coffers. However, since its an activated ability and not an ETB ability like Vesuva's we have the option to attach it to say High Market when it first comes out for the extra sac outlet and then switch it to Cabal Coffers later once we drop it on the field. It does effectively cost 3 mana to activate Stage so it does have some drawbacks, but it does have the benefit that it can be dropped and used for the one colorless mana until needed.
Terrain Generator - There are often time we draw into multiple lands and have more mana than we can use that turn. In a deck where swamps matter and we need big mana for a kill, dropping two swamps a turn early, or potentially three with Rings of Brighthearth is huge.
Utility
Every good deck needs lots of utility to function in all situations and this is no different. It has mana ramp, various extra removal, and additional ways to reanimate when Chainer isn't online.
Sol Ring - On of the strongest cards in Commander for a reason. It can allow some stupid plays such as turn two Braids.
Crucible of Worlds - This guy is here to abuse the fetchlands. With Crucibler and a single fetch we have a guranteed land drop every turn, if at the cost of 1 life. The card also has a few more subtle uses. When out, he helps mitigate the effects of running Smokestack or Strands of Night, both or which can put a bite on our mana base.
Charcoal Diamond - Artifact ramp that comes down turn two that makes Black mana which can potentially help fuel Chainer. I have a love/hate relationship with this card, but it is responsible for some powerful plays on turn 3 with out 4 mana guys
Pristine Talisman - Mana ramp and life gain in 1 package. The life gain may not seem like much, but it definitely adds up over time and warrants the inclusion over other mana rocks.
Rings of Brighthearth - One of the most criminally underrated cards in the deck. It allows you to so many extra things. Activate Chainer twice but only play two for the second activation and more importantly no life...yes please. Activate Cabal Coffers twice, again yes please. Kill two critters with Liliana of the Veil or exile two with Karn Liberated. SOLD
Caged Sun - This deck can get mana hungry as you try to grind out a win. Caged Sun doubles your black manaand gives a +1/+1 boost to your creatures. At six mana, its not the cheapest mana artifact, but it is definitely the best since it does not effect your opponents.
Oblivion Stone - There are times when you need the field dead. Creatures we usually have have no issues with, but we occasionally get overrun by a token deck if we can't get Massacre Wurm online. Artifacts and enchantments prove to be the bane of this deck more often than not and OStone does a great job taking care of them for us. Oblivion Stone is the reset button for bad situations.
Exsanguinate - This card can bring you back from the brink of defeat or win you the game in one swoop depending on how much mana you have available. I probably when the highest percentage of games on the back of Exsanguinate and a mana doubler such as Nirkana Revenant.
Strands of Night - If Chainer isn't online, this is as close to another reusable, instant speed recursion engine as you will find. Early in a game, the card will seem terrible, but it's great late when losing a land or two is no big deal. It also allows for a death loop with Kokusho, the Evening Star. Its a strong card, but since you sac land, you have to be very careful with its use.
Damnation - The cheapest Wrath effect that black has access to. I'm not generally a fan of wrath effects of a spell in this deck, but if you have one, this is the one to have.
Karn Liberated - Karn Liberated is an expensive answer card at seven mana. However, he is the answer to literally everything. When he hits the field whatever card is giving you the most issues: Gone permanently. Generally its best to hold him till you need him, but you can also put him out and do his +4 ability either as a distraction or to attempt to get his ultimate. His ultimate is rare, but it most definitely wins games.
Trading Post - Post is an extremely high value card in a very non-threatening package. At first, it doesn't look like much, but it always has something relevant to add to the game; every mode does something the deck wants to accomplish. The main reason for adding post is to recur artifacts since that is not a strong suit of mono black, but drawing, discarding, and making tokens are all relevant actions in a Stax/Reanimator deck.
Yawgmoth's Will - One of the strongest cards ever printed. Its admittedly not as great in this deck as it is in others, but it still a spell with absolute game winning potential written all over it.
Dismember - I wanted a bit of spot removal to be able to get rid of some of those pesky commanders like Edric and Azusa. I love that this has a flexible casting cost between 1 mana and 4 life and 3 mana depending on the need.
Withered Wretch - There are times when we need targeted grave hate. Diluvian Primordial's printing made surgical grave hate all the more important. We own creatures in the graveyard, but instant and sorcery abuse from the yard can hurt us and this guy puts them in their place.
All is Dust - This deck severely wants cards that can nuke artifacts and enchantments and this card fits that bill admirably. Should be an auto include in any Chainer build, but in my meta there is an artifact deck that would jump for joy if I were to use the card. I may bite the bullet at some point and just run it anyways, but I dislike having dead cards.
Basalt Monolith - This card allows for infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth and would make the deck stronger. I'm not the biggest fan of infinite combos though and try to keep them to a mininum. I added Deserted Temple, which does go infinite, but it also has quite a few no infinite uses. If I were playing for Cash, this card would be an auto include.
Grave Titan - He swings for a bunch and makes tokens. In a more aggro build he would be nice, but in this deck I like creatures that do something to further my game plan: kill other creatures, draw cards, etc.
Puppeteer Clique - In a Ghave, Guru of Spores or Mikeaus, the Unhallowed deck this card is nuts. In most black decks Clique is a very strong option. However I'm just not a fan of exiling creatures from other graveyards when I can use chainer and keep them for a while
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - Black Mike is a strong card and could be busted good in this deck. However if you reanimate your opponents creature and it undies off mike it goes back to your opponent. I'm just not willing to give my opponent's creatures, so I keep mike off the list.
Black Market - Its a strong card that can generate a ton of mana in a deck like this that has creatures dieing all over the place. Its a must kill card. The problem is its very easy to kill without netting you much value and will paint a huge target on your head.
It That Betrays - I originally added itas it was the biggest creature I could reanimate in mono black. The card seems tailor fit for the Stax aspect of the deck, but it just never seems to work when I use it, mainly due to its mana cost. Its a combo piece that requires specific cards to be out to really shine.
Shriekmaw - I ran Shriekmaw for quite some time, but playtesting showed that for this deck it is inferior to Bone Shredder since it does not automatically sacrifice itself to be reused again.
Skinrender - Since he gave permanent -1/-1 counters and could target any creature, I used to think he was a great addition. After playing dozens of games with him, I came to realize three -1/-1 counters just isn't enough removal value, even with the flexibility he provides.
Loxodon Warhammer - Warhammer is a great life gain source and trample is something that black does not often get to play with. Its a strong card, but as the deck evolved, I found myself swinging much less and relying more on shenanigans with Exsanguinate and Kokusho, the Evening Star for both damage and lifegain so I removed all the equipment to augment the control focus.
Extraplanar Lens - Some people swear by this card as a mana doubler. I look it more as a way to lose a swamp once it gets blown up and swamps are kinda important to make the deck function.
Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood - The cards won me a few games when they were in, but I found myself tutoring for one if I had the other for the infinite kill and I decided to remove them so the deck didn't warp around them. I'm a fan of having few and generally nonlethal infinite combo's in the deck.
Nether Traitor - Without equipment, he's the weakest of the self-recurring creatures. I didn't find myself needing 3 tiny guys to feed to Smokestack so he made the cut.
Gravepact - I ran Butcher a Malakir for a while and I often had him sit there twiddling his thumbs not doing a while lot. Gravepact effects can be game winning in the deck, but we don't always have a creature we want to die or a way to kill him. I like Gravepact much more in token based decks that always have little fodder to throw around.
Wish List
$10 plus cards that are on the radar as I aquire funds. The deck has a ton of high value cards, but I have acquired them all over time. Feel free to suggest others.
Vampiric Tutor - A one cost tutor. Probably the best option after Demonic Tutor although I've always been on the fence about putting cards on top of the library. At least its an instant so you can cast it on the end of an opponent's turn.
Diamond Valley - The best sac outlet on a land ever printed.
Polluted Delta - The one black fetch land that I am missing.
Imperial Seal - Strictly weaker than Vampiric Tutor, but we can dream can't we. P3K cards are always awesome.
Phyrexian Altar - Its probably the best sac outlet available since it makes B and can power out more Chainer activations. Sadly non of my local shops have one. When I find it, I'll get it.
This is probably my favorite deck to play and its also quite strong. I'm not 100% happy with the build yet, but its pretty close. When I get some fundage, I'll upgrade to cards like Vampiric Tutor, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, and Demonic Tutor and Nirkana Revenant. Please let me know any suggestions to improve the deck.
This is probably my favorite deck to play and its also quite strong. I'm not 100% happy with the build yet, but its pretty close. When I get some fundage, I'll upgrade to cards like Vampiric Tutor, Xiahuo Dun, and Demonic Tutor and Nirkana Revenant. Please let me know any suggestions to improve the deck.
In addition to Nirkana Revenant, I pretty much always run Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun when I'm in mono black. They all help you considerably more than your opponents, and mana is something you're going to want to be generating by the boatload. You may prefer not to run them, but it's something to at least think about.
In addition to Nirkana Revenant, I pretty much always run Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun when I'm in mono black. They all help you considerably more than your opponents, and mana is something you're going to want to be generating by the boatload. You may prefer not to run them, but it's something to at least think about.
I looked at Extraplanar Lens in the Mirroden Binder on Saturday, but I got some other cards I was looking for instead. Its another card I should add to the list. You can never have enough mana in this deck. It's drawback isn't too bad most of the time.
Gauntlet of Power I'm not quite as sold on. I play against a ton of decks with black and I see that backfiring at some point.
Thanks for pointing that out. Reading in key, lol. Yeah, Guantlet is definitely an add as well.
I had another thought. What about Karn Liberated to help deal with problem enchantments. Any other good answers for problematic permanents?
In mono black, I tend to start with Karn Liberated, Spine of Ish Sah, Steel Hellkite, and Duplicant in the list, and adjust from there depending on how things work. Those let you deal with enchantments and planeswalkers, albeit in mana-intensive fashion.
I run or used to run a lot of the cards Kevin mentioned in my mono black list and found them to be very powerful. Exsanguinate, Bojuka Bog, and Yawgmoth's Will for example have all been very helpful in my list. Yawgwill allows you to reuse artifacts and enchantments when they have been destroyed and is generally powerful. I have to leave and I will post more later about the cards mentioned.
Well I have a Kokusho, the Evening Star in the mail, lol. I also picked up a Duplicant today. I'll have to think about replacements. Kokopuffs may replace It That Betrays, but I'll have to think about it.
Thanks for your suggestions so far guys. Still trying to process them all.
I'm really wanting to make this deck a reanimator that uses stax as an engine to fuel the reanimation portion. As such I will base many deck choices on this philosophy.
Cards I plan to get in the near future are: Oblivion Stone, Phyrexian reclaimation, and Reanimate. O-stone kills everything when I need everything killed. Phyrexian reclaimation is a great engine when chainer is not online. It just wouldn't seem right to run a reanimator deck without reanimate. While the life cost is steap, it can allow fun plays early in the game with entomb and burried alive...or braids for that matter. When the new Fleshbag Marauder from RTR comes out, he will also be an auto include.
I'll Probably get a Xiahou Dun, the One Eye soonish as a good card for returning useful instants and sorceries to me. Debating if I want Smokestack to go with Braids et al.
The big question come as what cards do I remove from the deck to make way for new additions.
The first cards that come to mind are Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. For one, with Kokopuffs, I won't need the lifegain as much. Secondly, while its a nice infinite I win combo, it really doesn't fit what the deck is trying to do for the most part. I'm not against infinite combos, but I have Ghave for those shenanigans.
Another card that seems weakish is Basilisk Collar. It just doesn't seem relevant much of the time. Loxodon Warhammer is much better at this job and it too may potentially be on the chopping block depending on the lifegain I need. That +3/+0 and trample is always lethal though.
I've been pondering on if I want to keep all 3 of Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, and Reassembling Skeleton. They are each great engines for Skullclamp and are nice recurrable foddor for braids, but they are each individually weak cards that do little by themselves.
Lashwrithe has won me games and gets huge in time, but it is another card I have to ask myself if its the right card for the slot. It doesn't effectively move along the decks strategy.
Profane Command seems the weakest of the Utility Spells and may see the axe for something more powerful or reusable. Consume Spirit will become Exsanguinate when I find one.
Dread Return and Beacon of Unrest are good cards, but do I want to look into cheaper options in place of these or in addition to these.
I really wish Pawn of Ulamog was a more reliable token manufacturer. In practice it may not be as good as it looks. Are there any other good ad chaeap black token makes to go along with Bitterblossom, Bloodline Keeper, etc.
Entomber Exarch and Reaper from the Abyss seem like the next weakest card slots. Reaper only hits 1 guy at a time and has the possibility of wrecking your board if things go wrong. I have an eye on swapping Exarch for Xiahuo Dun at some point.
I'm on the fence about It That Betrays. Its a strong card for certain, but very expensive to cast if you can't dump and reanimate it. It also has no immediate board presence but only gains value over time. I honestly may need more testing with him.
Mindslicer is another one I wonder about. On paper he looks great, but I don't always want to lose my hand and he will just sit there while I look for another threat. Everyone discarding is very strong in tis deck though.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is another card I'm on the fence about. She has the nice vampire type and with a ton of mana, she can win the game. With just a wee bit of mana she's basically an undersized flying beater.
Part of me says I can do without Grave Titan since he does't really help stax and isn't a top flight reanimation target. I do gets lots of mileage off his tokens many games, be it sacing them to braids or attrition, skullclamping them ad sacing them, or just beating face with them.
So that is my random thoughts at 1 AM. What do you guys tink about any of these ideas?
Black Market- Your opponents need to remove it or you will crush them with an absurd mana advantage generated by it. Personally, I'd run it over Sanguine Bond.
Rune-Scarred Demon seems to be a notable missing card since you don't seem to have any qualms about tutors. A solid beater and can act as an instant speed Grim Tutor seems like the deck would like it. Also has the advantage of not costing as much as grim tutor price wise.
Disciple of Griselbrand generates some life as well as being a sac outlet. The main downside is the mana cost for activation. I'd argue worth it.
As a note I love Chainer, he's a favorite deck of mine so I hope this post doesn't kill the thread like it usually does.
Edit: I also like to look on the bright side of Chainer's last ability it's better that you exile the toys to stop others from using them against you.
serously...disciple of bolas. lifegain, card draw and a sac effect to reuse CIP effects!? Y U NO PLAY!?
EDIT: reaper is no where near a weak card in the deck. it is one of the key components in some of the strongest buried alive packages the deck can make. it super good. get him online with fleshbag and you will see what i mean (especially when you throw harvester of souls in the mix)
Black Market- Your opponents need to remove it or you will crush them with an absurd mana advantage generated by it. Personally, I'd run it over Sanguine Bond.
Rune-Scarred Demon seems to be a notable missing card since you don't seem to have any qualms about tutors. A solid beater and can act as an instant speed Grim Tutor seems like the deck would like it. Also has the advantage of not costing as much as grim tutor price wise.
Disciple of Griselbrand generates some life as well as being a sac outlet. The main downside is the mana cost for activation. I'd argue worth it.
As a note I love Chainer, he's a favorite deck of mine so I hope this post doesn't kill the thread like it usually does.
Edit: I also like to look on the bright side of Chainer's last ability it's better that you exile the toys to stop others from using them against you.
Yeah, Black Market seems great, especially in this deck, but I'm not sure I have a spot for it. When it comes down to it, is High Market going to be more valuable than say Gauntlet of Power or Extraplanar Lens. In a long game, undoubtably so. As far as ramping the deck, it seems the other guys are more valuable. I may hold this guy on the back burner till I tune the deck more and reevaluate it then.
Yeah, I really do need a Rune-Scarred Demon. I need to grab one of those. In a deck like this tutors are always welcome and he is a tutor on a stick. I may try to grab one on the way home later, I traded my only one to my friend who plays Kaalia.
Disciple of Griselbrand is in the deck already. I don't like the activation cost, but his life gain is no joke.
serously...disciple of bolas. lifegain, card draw and a sac effect to reuse CIP effects!? Y U NO PLAY!?
EDIT: reaper is no where near a weak card in the deck. it is one of the key components in some of the strongest buried alive packages the deck can make. it super good. get him online with fleshbag and you will see what i mean (especially when you throw harvester of souls in the mix)
Yeah I probably should look into Disciple of Bolas. I tried to pick him up one day, but the shop didn't have one. He has tons of upside. In place of bloodflow connoseur os something else? I hate droppping a free sac outlet, but her counters have proved irrelevant so far.
Hokay, I've had a Chainer list for about 3 and a half years now, and I've been refining it over time. Some cards that I've found are worthwhile considering:
Puppeteer Clique: Being able to exile stuff from your opponents graveyards (while smacking them with it first) is extraordinarily useful. Not to mention the persist makes it a great sac creature.
Kagemaro, first to suffer: Repeatable wraths on a stick are rather good, last time I heard. Works especially well with the next card...
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: This guy is the stone cold nuts. Making all your dudes sacrifice-able twice is ridiculous.
Wurmcoil Engine: This deck needs lifegain, and he works well with both sac outlets and just swinging at people. A touch expensive, though.
My opinions on the cards you're on the fence about:
Lashwrithe: Mediocre. You want to grind them out, not try to go for their throats as quickly as possible. If your general were Xiahou Dun, then sure, but Chainer has no built-in evasion.
Mindslicer: Obscene. Wrecks so many peoples plans, and gives you an instant stockpile of creatures to abuse with Chainer. If you need to keep your hand at any given time, just hold onto Mindslicer until you've unloaded everything important.
Grave Titan: Average, again. I thought it was a sacred cow, until I dropped it a couple months ago, and have never missed it. You'd rather have any other six-drop in the deck to reanimate rather than it, I find.
Drana: Another average beater. Makes for a fine general, but otherwise, she just swings. There are better things to sink your mana into.
It that betrays: Not good enough. You want to abuse the hell out of CIP abilities, and he's big enough that it's not likely that he'll live long enough to attack. Not to mention the difficulty involved with actually casting him, assuming your opponents are intelligent enough to kill your cabal coffers on sight.
Nether traitor: Out of the three sac creatures, I've found him to be the weakest. Still in my decklist, but possibly not for long.
Basilisk collar: More mediocrity. There are better ways to gain life.
I've never been a fan of the vampire subtheme personally, but if you've had good results with it, I'm not going to attack it.
What's your upper budget when it comes to individual cards?
everything mrfortesque said is pretty much the truth. on the topic of vampires though, the RTR vamp looks so saucy.
puppeteer clique - so dirty. a core card if i have ever seen one.
kagemaro - has his pros and cons. a good inclusion, but not as consistent as mutilate. the fact he is recurred easily is a pro over mutilate though.
mikaeus - super broken. might as well get in your play time with him before he gets banned.
wurmcoil engine - lifegain is an effect the deck so desperately needs. he never really performed for me, but has yet to be replaced. i run him in tandem with kokusho and chancellor of the dross (which has been nasty. a kill on sight card).
all is dust - smoke 'em if you got 'em.
lashwrithe + nightmare lash - most of the fatties are evasive. they are fine inclusions to push damage. not really core cards, but still good inclusions, as they turn utility guys into massive threats.
mindslicer - draw locking blue players makes all of my blood rush to a certain part of my body.
grave titan - pretty boring here. he beats, and thats it. could be any other value guy really, although i never gave him a chance.
drana - she is a good beater. i like her because she laughs at torpor orb and kill things. i personally do not run her, but would not argue her inclusion.
it that betrays - add flesh bag into the mix and tings get crazy. i do not play him, but this is another card i wouldnt be opposed to.
nether traitor - i wouldnt run small sac fodder like this guy without the swamps matters equipment.
basilisk collar - i have never had any playtime with this in the deck, but it seems subpar.
black market - i would be careful about this if i were you. i personally pull a lot of threat with this deck, and this card would focus more attention on me than i have already. its powerful, yes...but is it worth all the unnecessary attacks you will get from it?
I think the biggest problem with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is that after reanimating your opponent's stuff they get it back if it dies as a part of Undying. I personally don't like that since I am almost as often getting my opponent's stuff.
I think the biggest problem with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is that after reanimating your opponent's stuff they get it back if it dies as a part of Undying. I personally don't like that since I am almost as often getting my opponent's stuff.
Yeah for this reason I haven't jumped on Mike as much as the deck seems to want one. In the long run it can hurt you when things go bad. Depends if you pay your graveyard versus your opponent's graveyard more.
Hokay, I've had a Chainer list for about 3 and a half years now, and I've been refining it over time. Some cards that I've found are worthwhile considering:
Puppeteer Clique: Being able to exile stuff from your opponents graveyards (while smacking them with it first) is extraordinarily useful. Not to mention the persist makes it a great sac creature.
Kagemaro, first to suffer: Repeatable wraths on a stick are rather good, last time I heard. Works especially well with the next card...
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: This guy is the stone cold nuts. Making all your dudes sacrifice-able twice is ridiculous.
Wurmcoil Engine: This deck needs lifegain, and he works well with both sac outlets and just swinging at people. A touch expensive, though.
My opinions on the cards you're on the fence about:
Lashwrithe: Mediocre. You want to grind them out, not try to go for their throats as quickly as possible. If your general were Xiahou Dun, then sure, but Chainer has no built-in evasion.
Mindslicer: Obscene. Wrecks so many peoples plans, and gives you an instant stockpile of creatures to abuse with Chainer. If you need to keep your hand at any given time, just hold onto Mindslicer until you've unloaded everything important.
Grave Titan: Average, again. I thought it was a sacred cow, until I dropped it a couple months ago, and have never missed it. You'd rather have any other six-drop in the deck to reanimate rather than it, I find.
Drana: Another average beater. Makes for a fine general, but otherwise, she just swings. There are better things to sink your mana into.
It that betrays: Not good enough. You want to abuse the hell out of CIP abilities, and he's big enough that it's not likely that he'll live long enough to attack. Not to mention the difficulty involved with actually casting him, assuming your opponents are intelligent enough to kill your cabal coffers on sight.
Nether traitor: Out of the three sac creatures, I've found him to be the weakest. Still in my decklist, but possibly not for long.
Basilisk collar: More mediocrity. There are better ways to gain life.
I've never been a fan of the vampire subtheme personally, but if you've had good results with it, I'm not going to attack it.
What's your upper budget when it comes to individual cards?
I have a Puppateer Clique in my Ghave deck. Yeah that card is very good. I may have to pick another up.
Kagemaro, first to suffer looks potentially good, potentially bad. I've never been a fan of hand size dependant cards, but he does sac himself so i can replay him and should be atleast -2/-2 most of the time. Whould he be good over Massacre Wurm, or in addition to Massacre Wurm?
Wurmcoil Engine is probably better than Grave titan, but probably not better enought to warrant me picking up one. As I tune the list, I don't see either making it honestly.
All in Dust is a nogo. I realize it kills enchantments and all, but I play a friend with an artifact based deck and I would never want to actually play this card versus that deck.
Lashwrithe, Drana, Nether Traitor, and basilisk collar are all definitely gone from the list as I get things to replace them. It that betrays may not make it, but I'd like to play with it a but more before I make a decision. It's a great entomb target atm.
Another card I've come to dislike is Black Sun's Zenith. I either don't want to play it, or I don't have the mana to kill what I need. Would I be better to switch to Mutilate, play spot removal like Murder here, or switch this for a creature with an ETB?
Speaking of mana...I never seem to have enough. I have gauntlet of power on order and plan to get extraplanar lens soonish. Those guys will help the deck for sure. However is 35 land and 3 mana rocks too few for this deck? Or should I keep this land total and get something like Liliana of the Dark Realms to help fetch for lands or add more mana rocks.
spot removal is pretty important in this deck. once you get going, you dont really want to sweep the board, so killing the biggest detriment to your game is usually more effective. i play like 7 spot removal spells (not counting creature based removal), and i love having them more than sweepers most of the time.
I like to supplement the deck with both Kagemaro and Massacre Wurm. Toss in blood artist and Falkenrath Noble, and token decks cry in a corner.
I've found liliana of the dark realms to be incredibly mediocre - the problem is that you usually go +1, +1, liliana dies. If you want two swamps that badly, let me introduce you to Armillary sphere. Gauntlet seems fine, extraplanar lens is very much a gamble. Nothing quite like the thrill of stone raining yourself on turn three when your opponent has some form of artifact removal.
Honestly, I use both Mutilate and Black Suns Zenith - but that's just my playstyle. I prefer to grind people into the ground with massive amounts of card advantage, then use Chainer to smash their heads in with their own creatures when they're on the defensive. As such, I don't have a single piece of spot removal in the deck. If you like spot removal, then drop the Zenith in favor of murder. phthisis is also an option if you find yourself frequently running into big creatures that zenith/mutliate can't handle.
Liliana of the Dark Realms has more of upside the the artifacts that search for lands. If you can defend her long enough her ultimate wins games. It just depends on what style of play you want to go for. Armillary Sphere is 'better' as it is more reliable and less of a target but its much less fun and has no power outside of getting lands. Lily is more flavorful and can be a sick removal spell or pump spell. I run 38 lands and its never too many or too few. I think that going to 37 wouldn't be the end of the world if I added something like Armillary Sphere.
I can agree with the power of Mutilate. If you have enough swamps nothing survives it, not even an indestructible Sigarda Host of Herons.
Speaking of mana...I never seem to have enough. I have gauntlet of power on order and plan to get extraplanar lens soonish. Those guys will help the deck for sure. However is 35 land and 3 mana rocks too few for this deck? Or should I keep this land total and get something like Liliana of the Dark Realms to help fetch for lands or add more mana rocks.
Liliana seems like a great idea in mono black. If you can somehow get her ultimate trigger you just win, and fetching 1 swamp a turn seems great even if you only get a couple of them and draw attacks away from your face.
And yeah you need more mana. If you're running ramp 1-6 (sol ring, diamond, ingot, solemn, lotus, caged sun) I'd still run 37 land minimum. If you have less rocks then I'd run even more.
I also support Liliana. I've got her out early with some of my smaller creatures backing her up and a delicious Rings of Brighthearth and it was wonderful.
I like to supplement the deck with both Kagemaro and Massacre Wurm. Toss in blood artist and Falkenrath Noble, and token decks cry in a corner.
I've found liliana of the dark realms to be incredibly mediocre - the problem is that you usually go +1, +1, liliana dies. If you want two swamps that badly, let me introduce you to Armillary sphere. Gauntlet seems fine, extraplanar lens is very much a gamble. Nothing quite like the thrill of stone raining yourself on turn three when your opponent has some form of artifact removal.
Honestly, I use both Mutilate and Black Suns Zenith - but that's just my playstyle. I prefer to grind people into the ground with massive amounts of card advantage, then use Chainer to smash their heads in with their own creatures when they're on the defensive. As such, I don't have a single piece of spot removal in the deck. If you like spot removal, then drop the Zenith in favor of murder. phthisis is also an option if you find yourself frequently running into big creatures that zenith/mutliate can't handle.
Testing over the weekend really showed mana and card draw to be the biggest factors lacking at the moment. I added armillary sphere and graveborn muse from my collection to help combat this. Graveborn was cut at some point, but the card draw is just to crucial. Necropotence and Nirkana revenant are also steps to work on these issues. Depending how armillary sphere works in the next wave of testing, I will see if I need to pursue a trade for Liliana of the Dark Realms.
I probably want 1 more mana rock if not 2 and to up the land count from 35 to 37. Coalition Relic, Thran Dynamo, and Gilded Lotus all look like nice option. Dynamo is the most efficient and ramps the best, but makes colorless mana which can potentially be useless in some situations. I'll probably favor relic over lotus due to coming down sooner and giving me options but I could very vell run both and drop say Charcoal diamond. Not sure which is the best option yet.
I will probably try replacing Kagemaro with Black Sun's Zenith and see how that works. They basically serve the same function, but Kagemaro is more easily reusable. BSZ may make it back in, but we'll see how the mana works out as the deck gets better tuned.
1 more thing. Exactly how bad does this deck want Xiahuo Dun, the One-Eyed. I am a fan of the Three Kingdom's era in China (yeah I play Dynasty Warriors) so that makes me chomp at the bit to have one, but how high of value is he actually? His role seems to be returning tutors, reanimation spells and occasionally critters to my hand to reuse. The fact that he sacs himself always adds value in this deck. Utility is always good, and he seems like a better entomber exarch If he is as useful as I think, he may my next purchase.
Graveyard Avengers
Awesome banner by the talented Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
"Home is where you can find a decent graveyard and strangers can disappear without awkward questions." - Braids, Cabal Minion.
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G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
This is probably my favorite deck to play and its also quite strong. I'm not 100% happy with the build yet, but its pretty close. When I get some fundage, I'll upgrade to cards like Vampiric Tutor, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, and Demonic Tutor and Nirkana Revenant. Please let me know any suggestions to improve the deck.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
In addition to Nirkana Revenant, I pretty much always run Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun when I'm in mono black. They all help you considerably more than your opponents, and mana is something you're going to want to be generating by the boatload. You may prefer not to run them, but it's something to at least think about.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
I looked at Extraplanar Lens in the Mirroden Binder on Saturday, but I got some other cards I was looking for instead. Its another card I should add to the list. You can never have enough mana in this deck. It's drawback isn't too bad most of the time.
Gauntlet of Power I'm not quite as sold on. I play against a ton of decks with black and I see that backfiring at some point.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Thanks for pointing that out. Reading in key, lol. Yeah, Guantlet is definitely an add as well.
I had another thought. What about Karn Liberated to help deal with problem enchantments. Any other good answers for problematic permanents?
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
In mono black, I tend to start with Karn Liberated, Spine of Ish Sah, Steel Hellkite, and Duplicant in the list, and adjust from there depending on how things work. Those let you deal with enchantments and planeswalkers, albeit in mana-intensive fashion.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Exsanguinate is a must in this deck. Gives you gobs of life and can wipe out the whole table.
I suggest Bojuka Bog, High Market, Miren the Moaning Well, Barren Moor, Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge and Polluted Mire as quality utility lands that I'd put in any deck, and especially a deck like this.
Yawgmoth's Will is a black staple.
For card draw, I'd use Syphon Mind, Ambition's Cost, and Necropotence.
I'd add Oblivion Stone to kill annoying stuff Black can't deal with like artifacts and enchantments. Consider Damnation.
Also I like Mind Stone over Charcoal Diamond, and I like Thran Dynamo as a nice 4 drop ramp artifact.
Rafiq of the Many UWG
Sedris, the Traitor King URB
Kaalia of the Vast RWB
Savra, Queen of Golgari GB
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice GW
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails EquipmentW
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Thanks for your suggestions so far guys. Still trying to process them all.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
I'm really wanting to make this deck a reanimator that uses stax as an engine to fuel the reanimation portion. As such I will base many deck choices on this philosophy.
Cards I plan to get in the near future are: Oblivion Stone, Phyrexian reclaimation, and Reanimate. O-stone kills everything when I need everything killed. Phyrexian reclaimation is a great engine when chainer is not online. It just wouldn't seem right to run a reanimator deck without reanimate. While the life cost is steap, it can allow fun plays early in the game with entomb and burried alive...or braids for that matter. When the new Fleshbag Marauder from RTR comes out, he will also be an auto include.
I'll Probably get a Xiahou Dun, the One Eye soonish as a good card for returning useful instants and sorceries to me. Debating if I want Smokestack to go with Braids et al.
The big question come as what cards do I remove from the deck to make way for new additions.
The first cards that come to mind are Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. For one, with Kokopuffs, I won't need the lifegain as much. Secondly, while its a nice infinite I win combo, it really doesn't fit what the deck is trying to do for the most part. I'm not against infinite combos, but I have Ghave for those shenanigans.
Another card that seems weakish is Basilisk Collar. It just doesn't seem relevant much of the time. Loxodon Warhammer is much better at this job and it too may potentially be on the chopping block depending on the lifegain I need. That +3/+0 and trample is always lethal though.
I've been pondering on if I want to keep all 3 of Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, and Reassembling Skeleton. They are each great engines for Skullclamp and are nice recurrable foddor for braids, but they are each individually weak cards that do little by themselves.
Lashwrithe has won me games and gets huge in time, but it is another card I have to ask myself if its the right card for the slot. It doesn't effectively move along the decks strategy.
Profane Command seems the weakest of the Utility Spells and may see the axe for something more powerful or reusable. Consume Spirit will become Exsanguinate when I find one.
Dread Return and Beacon of Unrest are good cards, but do I want to look into cheaper options in place of these or in addition to these.
I really wish Pawn of Ulamog was a more reliable token manufacturer. In practice it may not be as good as it looks. Are there any other good ad chaeap black token makes to go along with Bitterblossom, Bloodline Keeper, etc.
Entomber Exarch and Reaper from the Abyss seem like the next weakest card slots. Reaper only hits 1 guy at a time and has the possibility of wrecking your board if things go wrong. I have an eye on swapping Exarch for Xiahuo Dun at some point.
I'm on the fence about It That Betrays. Its a strong card for certain, but very expensive to cast if you can't dump and reanimate it. It also has no immediate board presence but only gains value over time. I honestly may need more testing with him.
Mindslicer is another one I wonder about. On paper he looks great, but I don't always want to lose my hand and he will just sit there while I look for another threat. Everyone discarding is very strong in tis deck though.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is another card I'm on the fence about. She has the nice vampire type and with a ton of mana, she can win the game. With just a wee bit of mana she's basically an undersized flying beater.
Part of me says I can do without Grave Titan since he does't really help stax and isn't a top flight reanimation target. I do gets lots of mileage off his tokens many games, be it sacing them to braids or attrition, skullclamping them ad sacing them, or just beating face with them.
So that is my random thoughts at 1 AM. What do you guys tink about any of these ideas?
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
Rune-Scarred Demon seems to be a notable missing card since you don't seem to have any qualms about tutors. A solid beater and can act as an instant speed Grim Tutor seems like the deck would like it. Also has the advantage of not costing as much as grim tutor price wise.
Disciple of Griselbrand generates some life as well as being a sac outlet. The main downside is the mana cost for activation. I'd argue worth it.
As a note I love Chainer, he's a favorite deck of mine so I hope this post doesn't kill the thread like it usually does.
Edit: I also like to look on the bright side of Chainer's last ability it's better that you exile the toys to stop others from using them against you.
EDIT: reaper is no where near a weak card in the deck. it is one of the key components in some of the strongest buried alive packages the deck can make. it super good. get him online with fleshbag and you will see what i mean (especially when you throw harvester of souls in the mix)
Yeah, Black Market seems great, especially in this deck, but I'm not sure I have a spot for it. When it comes down to it, is High Market going to be more valuable than say Gauntlet of Power or Extraplanar Lens. In a long game, undoubtably so. As far as ramping the deck, it seems the other guys are more valuable. I may hold this guy on the back burner till I tune the deck more and reevaluate it then.
Yeah, I really do need a Rune-Scarred Demon. I need to grab one of those. In a deck like this tutors are always welcome and he is a tutor on a stick. I may try to grab one on the way home later, I traded my only one to my friend who plays Kaalia.
Disciple of Griselbrand is in the deck already. I don't like the activation cost, but his life gain is no joke.
Yeah I probably should look into Disciple of Bolas. I tried to pick him up one day, but the shop didn't have one. He has tons of upside. In place of bloodflow connoseur os something else? I hate droppping a free sac outlet, but her counters have proved irrelevant so far.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
Puppeteer Clique: Being able to exile stuff from your opponents graveyards (while smacking them with it first) is extraordinarily useful. Not to mention the persist makes it a great sac creature.
Kagemaro, first to suffer: Repeatable wraths on a stick are rather good, last time I heard. Works especially well with the next card...
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: This guy is the stone cold nuts. Making all your dudes sacrifice-able twice is ridiculous.
Wurmcoil Engine: This deck needs lifegain, and he works well with both sac outlets and just swinging at people. A touch expensive, though.
All is dust: Enchantments are your enemy.
My opinions on the cards you're on the fence about:
Lashwrithe: Mediocre. You want to grind them out, not try to go for their throats as quickly as possible. If your general were Xiahou Dun, then sure, but Chainer has no built-in evasion.
Mindslicer: Obscene. Wrecks so many peoples plans, and gives you an instant stockpile of creatures to abuse with Chainer. If you need to keep your hand at any given time, just hold onto Mindslicer until you've unloaded everything important.
Grave Titan: Average, again. I thought it was a sacred cow, until I dropped it a couple months ago, and have never missed it. You'd rather have any other six-drop in the deck to reanimate rather than it, I find.
Drana: Another average beater. Makes for a fine general, but otherwise, she just swings. There are better things to sink your mana into.
It that betrays: Not good enough. You want to abuse the hell out of CIP abilities, and he's big enough that it's not likely that he'll live long enough to attack. Not to mention the difficulty involved with actually casting him, assuming your opponents are intelligent enough to kill your cabal coffers on sight.
Nether traitor: Out of the three sac creatures, I've found him to be the weakest. Still in my decklist, but possibly not for long.
Basilisk collar: More mediocrity. There are better ways to gain life.
I've never been a fan of the vampire subtheme personally, but if you've had good results with it, I'm not going to attack it.
What's your upper budget when it comes to individual cards?
puppeteer clique - so dirty. a core card if i have ever seen one.
kagemaro - has his pros and cons. a good inclusion, but not as consistent as mutilate. the fact he is recurred easily is a pro over mutilate though.
mikaeus - super broken. might as well get in your play time with him before he gets banned.
wurmcoil engine - lifegain is an effect the deck so desperately needs. he never really performed for me, but has yet to be replaced. i run him in tandem with kokusho and chancellor of the dross (which has been nasty. a kill on sight card).
all is dust - smoke 'em if you got 'em.
lashwrithe + nightmare lash - most of the fatties are evasive. they are fine inclusions to push damage. not really core cards, but still good inclusions, as they turn utility guys into massive threats.
mindslicer - draw locking blue players makes all of my blood rush to a certain part of my body.
grave titan - pretty boring here. he beats, and thats it. could be any other value guy really, although i never gave him a chance.
drana - she is a good beater. i like her because she laughs at torpor orb and kill things. i personally do not run her, but would not argue her inclusion.
it that betrays - add flesh bag into the mix and tings get crazy. i do not play him, but this is another card i wouldnt be opposed to.
nether traitor - i wouldnt run small sac fodder like this guy without the swamps matters equipment.
basilisk collar - i have never had any playtime with this in the deck, but it seems subpar.
black market - i would be careful about this if i were you. i personally pull a lot of threat with this deck, and this card would focus more attention on me than i have already. its powerful, yes...but is it worth all the unnecessary attacks you will get from it?
I did experiment with Oblivion Stone, Exsanguinate, Reanimate, and Rune-Scarred Demon last night. All seem like great fits for what I'm trying to do.
Yeah for this reason I haven't jumped on Mike as much as the deck seems to want one. In the long run it can hurt you when things go bad. Depends if you pay your graveyard versus your opponent's graveyard more.
I have a Puppateer Clique in my Ghave deck. Yeah that card is very good. I may have to pick another up.
Kagemaro, first to suffer looks potentially good, potentially bad. I've never been a fan of hand size dependant cards, but he does sac himself so i can replay him and should be atleast -2/-2 most of the time. Whould he be good over Massacre Wurm, or in addition to Massacre Wurm?
Wurmcoil Engine is probably better than Grave titan, but probably not better enought to warrant me picking up one. As I tune the list, I don't see either making it honestly.
All in Dust is a nogo. I realize it kills enchantments and all, but I play a friend with an artifact based deck and I would never want to actually play this card versus that deck.
Lashwrithe, Drana, Nether Traitor, and basilisk collar are all definitely gone from the list as I get things to replace them. It that betrays may not make it, but I'd like to play with it a but more before I make a decision. It's a great entomb target atm.
Another card I've come to dislike is Black Sun's Zenith. I either don't want to play it, or I don't have the mana to kill what I need. Would I be better to switch to Mutilate, play spot removal like Murder here, or switch this for a creature with an ETB?
Speaking of mana...I never seem to have enough. I have gauntlet of power on order and plan to get extraplanar lens soonish. Those guys will help the deck for sure. However is 35 land and 3 mana rocks too few for this deck? Or should I keep this land total and get something like Liliana of the Dark Realms to help fetch for lands or add more mana rocks.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh
I've found liliana of the dark realms to be incredibly mediocre - the problem is that you usually go +1, +1, liliana dies. If you want two swamps that badly, let me introduce you to Armillary sphere. Gauntlet seems fine, extraplanar lens is very much a gamble. Nothing quite like the thrill of stone raining yourself on turn three when your opponent has some form of artifact removal.
Honestly, I use both Mutilate and Black Suns Zenith - but that's just my playstyle. I prefer to grind people into the ground with massive amounts of card advantage, then use Chainer to smash their heads in with their own creatures when they're on the defensive. As such, I don't have a single piece of spot removal in the deck. If you like spot removal, then drop the Zenith in favor of murder. phthisis is also an option if you find yourself frequently running into big creatures that zenith/mutliate can't handle.
Do you have an updated decklist yet?
I can agree with the power of Mutilate. If you have enough swamps nothing survives it, not even an indestructible Sigarda Host of Herons.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
I'd add a coalition relic or darksteel ingot and gilded lotus.
Liliana seems like a great idea in mono black. If you can somehow get her ultimate trigger you just win, and fetching 1 swamp a turn seems great even if you only get a couple of them and draw attacks away from your face.
And yeah you need more mana. If you're running ramp 1-6 (sol ring, diamond, ingot, solemn, lotus, caged sun) I'd still run 37 land minimum. If you have less rocks then I'd run even more.
Rafiq of the Many UWG
Sedris, the Traitor King URB
Kaalia of the Vast RWB
Savra, Queen of Golgari GB
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice GW
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails EquipmentW
I'll try to update my list once I get home.
Still sad I have to wait till October 5th for Kokusho, evening star, Karn Liberated, Gauntlet of Power, and High Market.
I'll have to look at my deck later to see exactly what I removed, but I added: Duplicant, Graveborn Muse, Armillary Sphere, Rune-Scarred Demon, Exsanguinate, Bojuka Bog, Reanimate, and Oblivion Stone.
Today during lunch I also picked up: Nirkana Revenant, Necropotence, and Kagemaro, First to Suffer.
Testing over the weekend really showed mana and card draw to be the biggest factors lacking at the moment. I added armillary sphere and graveborn muse from my collection to help combat this. Graveborn was cut at some point, but the card draw is just to crucial. Necropotence and Nirkana revenant are also steps to work on these issues. Depending how armillary sphere works in the next wave of testing, I will see if I need to pursue a trade for Liliana of the Dark Realms.
I probably want 1 more mana rock if not 2 and to up the land count from 35 to 37. Coalition Relic, Thran Dynamo, and Gilded Lotus all look like nice option. Dynamo is the most efficient and ramps the best, but makes colorless mana which can potentially be useless in some situations. I'll probably favor relic over lotus due to coming down sooner and giving me options but I could very vell run both and drop say Charcoal diamond. Not sure which is the best option yet.
I will probably try replacing Kagemaro with Black Sun's Zenith and see how that works. They basically serve the same function, but Kagemaro is more easily reusable. BSZ may make it back in, but we'll see how the mana works out as the deck gets better tuned.
1 more thing. Exactly how bad does this deck want Xiahuo Dun, the One-Eyed. I am a fan of the Three Kingdom's era in China (yeah I play Dynasty Warriors) so that makes me chomp at the bit to have one, but how high of value is he actually? His role seems to be returning tutors, reanimation spells and occasionally critters to my hand to reuse. The fact that he sacs himself always adds value in this deck. Utility is always good, and he seems like a better entomber exarch If he is as useful as I think, he may my next purchase.
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftan WBG
B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B
RU Tibor and Lumia RU
'He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!' - Khan Noonien Singh