MTG Salvation

This looks amazing, it really does what black players want to do!

But you do have a creature with the zombie type: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

And lovely list! I want to build Yawgmoth so bad!

I was wondering if Ichor Rats may be another win con. Sure, you'd need 10 prolifs, but the card comes with several upsides.
You can sac it to your commanders activated ability, ditch it to proliferate and then reanimate it.
Liliana, Heretical Healer and Liliana, Death's Majesty can get it back and with a Mikaeus, the Unhallowed loop you'll only need a single prolif to stay that one poison counter behind the rest of the table.

Archfiend of Ifnir seems like a huge oversight, since it will generate 2 -1/-1 counters when you activate Yawg's ability (since discarding a card is part of the cost of Yawgmoth's Proliferate ability, the Archfiend's ability goes on the stack last, resolves, and then Yawg's Proliferate ability resolves, spreading the -1/-1 counters to all your opponent's creatures).

Thanks Hyrkh and Kedvesem for the positive comments.

NoNeedToBragoBoutIt, Ichor Rats does seem pretty evil as a win condition really on it's own. Nine Yawgmoth activation's isn't the hardest probably. Eight mana each turn, over two turns can easily be achieved in the later stages of the game.
You could back this up with Inkmoth Nexus in your land base.

benjameenbear, Archfiend of Ifnir does look to be a serious bomb with Yawgmoth discard ability. I can't really see opponents creatures lasting after a few sacrificed creatures, and mixed in with a few discard/proliferates. A must for sure, thanks.

So because Yawgmoth is one of my top 3 characters from the MTG Lore (the others being Urza and Bolas), I feel a compulsion to draft a Yawgmoth Commander deck so that I have my three favorite characters represented as EDH decks.

This is the list that I've settled on. It has a ton of Vorthos flavor, features an Infect win condition (because he's freaking Yawgmoth the Ineffable, God of Phyrexia!), and some of the most awesome cards available to mono-Black. This is the deck that I've always wanted to build for Mono-Black and it's finally happened.



EDIT: I cut the Plaguelord and Krav to add in [CARD}Yawgmoth's Will[/CARD] and Yawgmoth's Vile Offering. Flavor Win and two actually decent cards added in as well.

Quote from benjameenbear »

So because Yawgmoth is one of my top 3 characters from the MTG Lore (the others being Urza and Bolas), I feel a compulsion to draft a Yawgmoth Commander deck so that I have my three favorite characters represented as EDH decks.

This is the list that I've settled on. It has a ton of Vorthos flavor, features an Infect win condition (because he's freaking Yawgmoth the Ineffable, God of Phyrexia!), and some of the most awesome cards available to mono-Black. This is the deck that I've always wanted to build for Mono-Black and it's finally happened.

Nice one brother, I'm always in for a Vorthos build.

Actually that Glistening Oil seems pretty strong with Yawgmoth as you can use it to also kill off opponents creatures more quickly if necessary. It allows to get the ball rolling with -1/-1 counters on an opponents creatures, if you don't want to sacrifice a creature. Then it returns to hand once dead, so you can then use it proactively for your own offence infect push later on.
Obviously you wouldn't put it on opponents creatures if you felt that they could push through some sort of lethal infect.

For Vorthos flavor Yawgmoth's Will and Yawgmoth's Vile Offering?

Yeah, trying to find room for YawgWin and Vile Offering is really tough. I'm thinking that I'll probably cut Phyrexian Plaguelord and Krav, the Unredeemed to get Yawgmoth's signature cards into the deck.

Sad to see this site go away, but I'm keenly looking forward to the new site that will be coming out!

I feel like Karn, Scion of Urza is really good here (outside of Flavor) due to just making sac fodder and coming down early.

I wish I was more excited about Yawg but there are 3 other Mono-B Commanders who hold my interest so much more, and one that does creature sacrificing in such a splashier bigger way.

The Ineffable shall find you, Taleran, and purge you of your weak ideals. The Great Synthesis shall not be stopped by naysayers and unbelievers!

Also, adding in Karn would be anti-flavor to Yawgmoth as Karn was a necessary piece of The Legacy Weapon that eradicated Yawgmoth from existence. Your blasphemy is noted!

In all seriousness, I'm not a fan of Karn, Scion of Urza because PW's are such a liability generally in Commander. Karn is even more of a liability since his plus ability exiles a card from your deck permanently if he dies. Black has a lot more ways to recur PW's, true, but I'd rather not expose my deck to that particular weakness. Additionally, he only adds 2 tokens, and it takes 2 turns to even see those 2 tokens hit your side of the field. I think that's a bit too slow for what the deck wants to do.

You HAVE to find a spot for Caress of Phyrexia! Three poison counters on an opponent is no joke and it offsets the card draw drawback. Also, flavortext.

I can not wait to get my grubby paws on Yawgmoth!!

I've been thinking about the creature sacrifice value engines a bit more, and I'm going to make a few changes.

Bridge from Below, although I don't expect it to stay in the graveyard for long, but it's a zero cost advantage card. With Yawgmoth ability to discard it in the first place, you can get immediate value from it.

Bitterblossom and Dreadhorde Invasion in theory should be a cheaper Phyrexian Arena but with the additional upgrade of creating a creature for blocking or pressuring opposing planeswalkers.

From Under the Floorboards with the ability to use the madness cost means that you can use an x spell early to late game to scale up, and the gain life is relevant.

Added
+ Bridge from Below
+ Bitterblossom
+ Dreadhorde Invasion
+ From Under the Floorboards

Removed
- Sengir Autocrat
- Abhorrent Overlord
- Snake Basket
- Krav, the Unredeemed

Alright Modern Horizons is now on Magic Online so I got a bunch of games in today. All-in-all it was pretty damn cool. Very much a mid to late game deck, but has some really fun elements and requires some thought on tricky interactions.

So more changes based on play testing, I tried out further undying creatures with Butcher Ghoul and Geralf's Messenger and the are simply musts. You can get so much value from them with the trick of putting -1/-1 on them after they get the +1/+1. Used them a lot during games.
I also wanted one big spell to help out with top decking and with so much mana possible Army of the Damned is a nice way to do this. You can just discard it with Yawgmoth ability during the earlier stages and cast the flashback when you are ready.

The aristocrats with Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat were not all that useful as the life gain and loss isn't the most important factor I found. Sure you get on low life, but you normally have some way to close the game with planeswalker ultimates/emblems.
Zulaport Cutthroat and Magus of the Coffers are humans and you really want to avoid humans with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

Added
+ Butcher Ghoul
+ Geralf's Messenger
+ Army of the Damned

Removed
- Zulaport Cutthroat
- Dark Ritual
- Magus of the Coffers

Since you've actually had a chance to test out Yawgmoth, did you find that you were light on card draw or removal? I know that Yawgmoth functions as both, and I want to make sure that my own decklist isn't super dependent on Yawgmoth being in play.

Quote from benjameenbear »

Since you've actually had a chance to test out Yawgmoth, did you find that you were light on card draw or removal? I know that Yawgmoth functions as both, and I want to make sure that my own decklist isn't super dependent on Yawgmoth being in play.

As long as you have some big token generators, then you'll have the engine for card draw. It requires a setup however. So you just got to be in for longer games. With that said is it light on removal? Probably. I have used tutors a lot to get a Toxic Deluge in the early game where things have gotten out-of-control, where using Yawgmoth ability is just going to be way too slow to handle the board. So you could easily play something further like Damnation and be pretty happy.

Well after another full couple of days of playing Yawgmoth I've been trying a few different cards.

First of all the colorless lands have to be PREMIUM given the Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold and the non-swamp lands will come back to haunt you, often and early.
However hexproof/shroud creatures have proven to be a bug-bear for Yawgmoth targeting, so I have added Arcane Lighthouse but removed a bunch of the other colorless lands.

As I'm often tutoring for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Cabal Coffers, I decided I might as well add Beseech the Queen as this can always get those.

I was playing against an opponents Horobi, Death's Wail and it was just a machine gun with Yawgmoth ability.
Cards that just proved to be too slow or hard to make work were Crumbling Ashes and Necroskitter.
I literally spent a game trying to set up a good Necroskitter and the hoops were just not worth the reward. The other downside is that you don't get commanders either with this ability.
So I've gone with Horobi, Death's Wail and it has proven to be really good. But it must be noted that if a creature dies before you get to actually put a -1/-1 counter on a creature, the draw part will fizzle. So you can't use it to draw as well.
Keep this in mind with any interactions. If an opponent sacrifices a creature that you target with the -1/-1, you won't get the draw.

The sorts of cards that I mix and match to test are the token generators.
I've been playing Ghoulcaller Gisa, but haven't drawn/played it yet.
I was looking at Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker for recursive use. The thing is that you can turn greater power creatures of yours into power 1 with using the -1/-1 counters to target your own creatures. Probably not quite enough targets yet.

I'm going to give Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet a try, but my only reservation is that I actually want creatures in the graveyard for the Liliana Vess ultimate.

About the only thing I'd really like for the deck is more planewalkers with really good ultimates. So far it really has been the Liliana, Dreadhorde General show as far as winning games with ultimates. I just wished there were more better ones is all.
I have restarted a game with Karn Liberated proliferating from 1 loyalty (yes 1) at the start of turn. But that was more out of fun than serious winning.
The thing is that Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ultimate isn't even that good compared with how much big draw you can do in the deck and play stuff out. I mean it's still fine, but it's not as satisfying as you'd hope one of the biggest characters in the game would be.
So I'm looking forward to checking out future mono-black/colorless planeswalkers in the future.

Added
+ Beseech the Queen
+ Horobi, Death's Wail
+ Arcane Lighthouse
+ 2 x Swamp

Removed
- Crumbling Ashes
- Necroskitter
- Lake of the Dead
- Volrath's Stronghold
- Emergence Zone

Protection from Humans

Not something I really thought about with Yawgmoth, but played against Breya, Etherium Shaper and was like..oh snap he is Breya proof.

So not something too common, but I did a quick look up of commanders who are Human who have relevant abilities that Yawgmoth is actually protected from.

Can't target;
Breya, Etherium Shaper, Merieke Ri Berit, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Kaervek the Merciless, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, Venser, Shaper Savant, Yasova Dragonclaw, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed.
And yes against mirror matches with Yawgmoth It was quite relevant.

Good at blocking these;
Rafiq of the Many, Samut, Voice of Dissent, Queen Marchesa, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Surrak Dragonclaw.

The Ineffable won't be bothered by uncompleated organisms that haven't tasted of The Grand Evolution!

That's a surprisingly relevant list. Thanks for sharing your feedback about [CARD]Necroskitter[/CARD}. I thought it was a win-more card when people were including it in their lists, and I'm glad that it's justified.

Quote from benjameenbear »

The Ineffable won't be bothered by uncompleated organisms that haven't tasted of The Grand Evolution!

That's a surprisingly relevant list. Thanks for sharing your feedback about Necroskitter. I thought it was a win-more card when people were including it in their lists, and I'm glad that it's justified.

Have to try these things.

The other cards that have turned out to be less than average were Coalition Relic and Astral Cornucopia. The thing is that you are only using the proliferate when you have a massive turn lined up, so there is no incremental value in these cards. I mean they are fine cards on their own, but it's not like Atraxa where you get to do token adds at end of turn for incremental value. Once you've done the big proliferate turn it's normally done.

Added
+ Nether Traitor
+ Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
+ Solemn Simulacrum

Removed
- Coalition Relic
- Astral Cornucopia
- Pitiless Plunderer

Just simply missed Nether Traitor in my research as graveyard recursion, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet turned out to be really good. The lifelink is even nice, because you do eat through your life total.
I had out Grave Pact with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and just got to gun down all the creatures on sight, as you create a new Zombie token that you can sacrifice.
Pitiless Plunderer was also pretty average, so just going with solid land ramp with Solemn Simulacrum for the cabal packages, and it's nice to have a creature you are happy to sacrifice.

You miss few important creatures for Yawgmoth's free sac ability. I'm talking about Cathodion, Su-chi and even Myr Moonvessel. They are basicaly free dorks which can also store mana for later "big-plays".

Quote from Artaud »

You miss few important creatures for Yawgmoth's free sac ability. I'm talking about Cathodion, Su-chi and even Myr Moonvessel. They are basicaly free dorks which can also store mana for later "big-plays".

Interesting. You could look at Cathodion as a sort of budget replacement for Grim Monolith. Sure they are different, Cathodion only really works with Yawgmoth in play and it costs 1 more, but it has a similar mana acceleration under these circumstances.

---

I've often cast an early Demonic Tutor type effect and wondered what to go for, and honestly something like a Reassembling Skeleton is a just a really solid bet for the Yawgmoth engine. So it dawned on me that Entomb is as good as a one mana tutor in this deck.

Also another token generator I thought of is Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Liliana brother. With Army of the Damned turning out to be an all-star in the deck, 9 creatures from Josu Vess is perfect for a one shot card that can do everything for you once you get 10 mana, and you can even play him early for the non-kicker as a solid blocker for a planeswalker.

Added
+ Entomb
+ Josu Vess, Lich Knight

Removed
- Black Market
- Archfiend of Ifnir

Unfortunately Black Market although it looks like a signature card, has honestly been the most under played card for me. Taking the time to cast it out for long term goals, has happened once in about 50 games. It's just a bit too much of a set up.
Archfiend of Ifnir has also been a bit excessive, I've found creature control to be absolutely fine just with Yawgmoth and some value engines. The thing is that you are never using the discard proliferate, until you have your big turn win with planeswalker ultimate's, so the discard is not being used anyway.
So both Black Market and Archfiend of Ifnir just ended up being win-more cards.

Quote from darrenhabib »

Just simply missed Nether Traitor in my research as graveyard recursion, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet turned out to be really good. The lifelink is even nice, because you do eat through your life total.
I had out Grave Pact with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and just got to gun down all the creatures on sight, as you create a new Zombie token that you can sacrifice.
Pitiless Plunderer was also pretty average, so just going with solid land ramp with Solemn Simulacrum for the cabal packages, and it's nice to have a creature you are happy to sacrifice.

Wouldn't Grave Pact and Kalitas be a nonbo, as they aren't put in the graveyard to create the Zombie token in the first place due to Kalitas's replacement efffect of exiling them instead? Asking for my own benefit haha I thought they didn't work together like that, and I packed a YawgDaddy like I was hoping to, so I will be building a deck like this as well, just want to understand how it works.

Quote from Axurial »

Quote from darrenhabib »

Just simply missed Nether Traitor in my research as graveyard recursion, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet turned out to be really good. The lifelink is even nice, because you do eat through your life total.
I had out Grave Pact with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and just got to gun down all the creatures on sight, as you create a new Zombie token that you can sacrifice.
Pitiless Plunderer was also pretty average, so just going with solid land ramp with Solemn Simulacrum for the cabal packages, and it's nice to have a creature you are happy to sacrifice.

Wouldn't Grave Pact and Kalitas be a nonbo, as they aren't put in the graveyard to create the Zombie token in the first place due to Kalitas's replacement efffect of exiling them instead? Asking for my own benefit haha I thought they didn't work together like that, and I packed a YawgDaddy like I was hoping to, so I will be building a deck like this as well, just want to understand how it works.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet only effects opponents creatures, so your creatures still go to graveyard

But then how do you create tokens off of Kalitas to sacrifice? I’m sorry I’m just having a hard time understanding