MTG Salvation

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is my favorite legendary creature. I think he's the perfect storm of form and function, putting lore into mechanics. I want to break him. I had been playing Endrek as a rather mundane token sacrificing deck - Grave Pact, Phyrexian Altar, Sadistic Hypnotist, Attrition, etc, and it got the job done, for what I thought it was - a D-rank commander trying to be a C-rank deck. Then, in the course of two games, I came upon a revelation. It's probably not a revelation to any of you, but I'm always the last to get a joke, so to speak. I think Endrek is a combo deck that storms out, Ad Nauseaum style.

Endrek plus Phyrexian Altar means you can always sack the resulting thrulls to cast another creature of equal or lesser converted mana cost. It never clicked, because I wasn't thinking of Endrek that way. Then, one day, it did. I emptied my hand. A prior game had me having practically drawn my entire deck with a sac outlet and Smothering Abomination. I only put two and two together yesterday. I need to consistently land Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Phyrexian Altar, and Smothering Abomination to cast a creature, get my mana back, refill my hand, and repeat till I get an unlucky draw. Any ideas for really honing in on this more focused Endrek concept? A friend suggested Ad Nauseam, which would certainly require accommodations to not be suicidal.

You will need all the cheap mana rocks, all the good tutors. You could also use Altar of the Brood as an additional wincon. Viscera Seer for topdeck fixing? I don't know..

You may also want to consider Winding Canyons so that you can take advantage of higher CMC dudes, and still cast stuff on the stack before you lose Endrek. Further, I would add Ashnod's Altar, because that nets you even more mana. I'd also put in lots of good colorless creatures, like maybe some Eldrazi, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.

Cloudstone Curio to bounce creatures to replay them. Dark Prophecy makes for a lot of draw. Null Profusion makes for a powerful draw engine, but is very risky.

You could always include Assault Suit to turn the game into a draw if you happen to run out of gas when you're going off.

Ad Nauseam is a must include. You can be cavalier with your life total on the opponent's turn before you go off and drawing 10+ cards would definitely help fuel your engine. In fact, including the strong black draw/lose life cards if you include Kokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of Asphodel help refuel your life total to draw more cards and would also double as pseudo-win conditions.

Win conditions could include the typical Aristocrats drainers, like Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, Zulaport Cutthroat, but I would think relying solely upon them would make winning a little difficult. Tendrils of Agony would help, but you might also want to include Ashnod's Altar to fuel a huge Exsanguinate. Ashnod's Altar would be going in anyway, I assume.

I like this deck concept.

I would also consider token makers like Marionette Master, Grave Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, Rakshasa Gravecaller, Noosegraf Mob, Ghoulcaller Gisa, etc.

Shadows of the Past would vastly improve Smothering Abomination's draw. And Conspiracy (naming anything other than Thrull) would help out in general.

One card that I haven't seen mentioned yet that's undoubtedly invaluable in a strategy like this is Skullclamp, especially with altars.

Tsk tsk tsk. all these typical cards mentioned and no mention of how to break this guy? You want to break him with a bunch of creature tokens, you're going to need mana. You're running a bunch of bleeder cards for life and card draw, that's fine. they're going to die, that's what you want. How about growing a pair and running one of the riskiest cards ever printed...and one with possible they most payoff. I suggest Carnival of souls. With the kind of mana this card will generate (and you'd better have a bleeder outlet/sac outlet available or it will absolutely kill you), you can even conceivably run repay in kind as a kill.

There's also Bitter Ordeal as an alternative win condition if you wanted to go the Endless Cockroaches route. Jet Medallion can make it a lot easier to generate large amounts of mana from loops.

Of course, if you really want to break it (and win via a ridiculously large Exsanguinate), there's always the Paradox Engine + mana rocks route.

I really really like this idea. Mono-B creature-based "storm" combo? Sign me up! Phyrexian Tower looks great here, and Harvester of Souls could be worthwhile, too.

I couldn't resist whipping up a deck based on the suggestions in this thread: A few notes and cute things I've found before Gatherer went down for maintenance:
* This is, obviously, a pure combo build.
* Sadly this deck, like many similar mono-black decks, rolls over to graveyard hate and effects like Leyline of the Void. It still looks like it could be a lot of fun on paper though.
* The mono-black restriction means that the deck can't compete with combo commanders like Ghave, Guru of Spores when it comes to versatility.
* Relentless Dead is functionally almost the same as Endless Cockroaches with Phyrexian Altar in play, although the fact that it doesn't involve generic mana makes it a bit clunkier for anything other than generating (grave)storm.
* There are, sadly, very few cards in mono-black that recur anything other than creature cards from your graveyard from your hand.
* Reaping the Graves looks like it could bring combo turns that are at the risk of petering out back from the brink.

another few abusive cards:

Hecatomb and contamination are both very fun cards that are abusive.

Are you still tinkering with a build? Would like to see a list of yours.

I just toyed with it myself, and been goldfishing a bit. It can definitely be consistent. My earliest win was turn 4, but I'm sure it can be faster. My build is more combo-oriented then what @Skios came up with. I've added the rituals for explosiveness, also as a mean to circumvent gravehate and not relying on a broadpresence. There are few mono-black spells that recur everything, as Skios says, but he missed the best one: Yawgmoth's Will

The list I've got so far doesn't expect to win races, and plays a control game until it can combo off one of several ways.

i love this idea, and endrek sahr, master breeder is obviously awesome

just wondering - why no grim haruspex or harvester of souls? i know they don't draw from the thrulls, but they will still pull a draw from each time you run through the cycle, assuming you sac the creature you cast as well. also gravecrawler seems like an obvious inclusion, as long as you can reliably have a zombie in play, since he'll go infinite with altar and win right there if you have win-con. last, why not run some more tutors like vampiric, demonic, and maybe even diabolic?

Perhaps I'm thinking of the deck as more of a combo deck where you're going more for a control style, but the tutors and the grim haruspex seem solid in both versions as generators of consistency and card advantage.

Yesterday, I replaced Nether Traitor with Lightning Greaves. Nether Traitor was a mistaken inclusion because I don't benefit from the oft superior "to the battlefield" recursion. I need to cast the spells. Lightning Greaves offers me yet another two card combo with Blightsteel Colossus. While the goal is to surprisingly combo out with Sahr, a bleeder and a mana generator, either under the radar, or because the pieces are so bad to want to take care of individually, I find I've done so much better being able to threaten a handful of unarguably lame 1st grade Magic combos. It's more important that everyone in the meta knows they're in the deck than actually using them. I've only lost one multiplayer match (my first with the deck). Most wins are (surprisingly to me) with the terribly lame Sanguine-Exquisite combo. A handful were with Sahr-centric combos. No wins have come from Mike and Trike. One win came from Blightsteel, but the real winner was a Contamination lock fueled by Sahr.

Quote from rogerandover »

There are few mono-black spells that recur everything, as Skios says, but he missed the best one: Yawgmoth's Will

I excluded that because the exile clause makes it completely unsuitable for a combo turn and very risky in general. I'd hate to cast it, only to have someone Shatter my Phyrexian Altar in response. That's on top of its sorcery speed, which means that unless you run Vedalken Orrery, after casting it you'll have to wait for the game to go around the table for a full turn cycle before you can combo off.

Quote from Skios »

I excluded that because the exile clause makes it completely unsuitable for a combo turn and very risky in general. I'd hate to cast it, only to have someone Shatter my Phyrexian Altar in response. That's on top of its sorcery speed, which means that unless you run Vedalken Orrery, after casting it you'll have to wait for the game to go around the table for a full turn cycle before you can combo off.

That's fair, but in my experience Yawgmoth's Will is one of the best black cards and fits perfectly for a combo-deck. Sure, stuff goes to exile, but when YW resolves you shouldn't worry too much about that. It recurs everything, building up storm, can net mana from rituals/artifacts. I don't know why you should wait a turn?

Anyway, here's my list. It's not in the league of cEDH (lacking the best rocks and expensive tutors) but it can combo off pretty quickly. (Goldfished a turn 4 win).

I like Marsh Flitter, Sengir Autocrat and Weaponcraft Enthusiast in your list - they're everything I'd cast Grave Titan for, but for much less mana. In unrelated news, I grabbed a Cavern of Souls off TCG today for only $35. I can't imagine it's going to stay cheap long. Seems like a shoe-in for Endrek Sahr, and moreso for a Sahr running Conspiracy.

Yeah, those are great creatures that gives you bodies for cheap.

Congrats with the Cavern. Lovely card, and yeah goes well with your Conspiracy

Ancestral Statue wants in on the action, it works with either altar. Ghoulraiser is also worth a mention in that it can go infinite if you have no other zombies in your grave. Eternal Scourge is kind of fascinating in that it can combo out under Rest in Peace, but more interestingly, it works well with Yawgmoth's Will and some of the more aggressive black tutors like Doomsday and Demonic Consultation.

Ad Nauseam with Army of the Damned, Behold the Beyond and a few of the other cards in that deck is... spicy, for a lack of better phrase.

Quote from Mown »

Ancestral Statue wants in on the action, it works with either altar. Ghoulraiser is also worth a mention in that it can go infinite if you have no other zombies in your grave. Eternal Scourge is kind of fascinating in that it can combo out under Rest in Peace, but more interestingly, it works well with Yawgmoth's Will and some of the more aggressive black tutors like Doomsday and Demonic Consultation.

Ad Nauseam with Army of the Damned, Behold the Beyond and a few of the other cards in that deck is... spicy, for a lack of better phrase.

Ancestral Statue is a perfect fit, thanks! Eternal Scourge looks interesting too, but it would take some reliable source to bring to exile for it to work.
Im not sure how Ghoulraiser can go infinite. Maybe you misread the card - it triggers when it enters, not going to grave. Else, please enlighten me!

You sacrifice it (to an Altar) in response to its own ETB trigger. Assuming no other zombies in your graveyard, it returns itself to your hand when the ability resolves.

Hate to necro such an old thread, but this deck has had a lot of new toys printed in the last year or so, and it could be pretty fun to start brewing again

I feel like Pawn of Ulamog would be good here, since it generates mana and creatures to sac.

Hate to necro such an old thread, but this deck has had a lot of new toys printed in the last year or so, and it could be pretty fun to start brewing again

Plaguecrafter is an upgrade to Fleshbag Marauder, though you lose zombie synergy.

What else is there from the last year?