MTG Salvation

Quote from XeroxedFool

Are you running 34 lands? It seems like a really low number to me. I've been really comfortable with 38. Even 37 felt a little low to me when I tried that. Of course, if you have had sucess with 34, or your playgroup does partial paris mulligans, that might change things.

I'm not really a fan of 'Traditional Xiahou Dun.' Very few creatures, lots of tutors, and board wipes. Most consider him the mono-black control commander. I will admit and agree that he is the best commander for this role/archetype. The only problem I have with it is that black cannot truly be a control deck in this format. Artifacts and Enchantments pose a huge problem. The early ones that come down and build card advantage are the worst. Here is a perfect example. You're running Gate to Phyrexia to kill artifacts but you're not running any creatures to feed it like Bloodghast or Reassembling Skeleton. So your control card isn't really doing anything, at least in my opinion.

I feel like people assume you can't run creatures in XHD because Chainer, Dementia Master is a card. This is far from true. Black interacts best with creatures, and they provide the best synergy. They're also the most powerful card type in the format, as they can provide card advantage and protect your life total. Also, running creatures and putting them on the board creates the illusion that you have some stake in the board. If you run no creatures and board wipe constantly, then your opponents will assume you're going to kill everything and start attacking you.

Running a lot of creatures is a great little trick though. Truly, you're a black mage. The only reason you have minions is to torture them for fun and profit. Wiping the board is almost always in your favor. That is why I run Blood Artist, Sangromancer, and Harvester of Souls. Imagine what Damnation does for you if you have those creatures on the board. Gain 4x life and draw x cards where x is the number of creatures in play? Pretty sweet. This synergy is gained from creatures.

Chainer and His Merry Band of...
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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Table of Contents

1. History of the deck: Why is jmdt playing Chainer?
2. What is this Chainer dude all about?
• Who is Chainer?
• What does Chainer do?
• What kind of deck should Chainer lead?
• Chainer does have his downfalls
• What other mono black options are there for graveyard control and why does Chainer kick all their derrieres?
• You will enjoy playing Chainer if:
• You will not enjoy playing Chainer if:
3. Deck List
4. Deck Strategy
• General Strategy
• Notable Synergies
• Other Posibilities
5. Breakdown of Card Choices
• ETB Creatures
• Non-ETB Creatures
• Draw/Tutor
• Sacrafice Outlets
• Utility
6. Notable Omissions
• Omitted for Meta Reasons
• Intentionally Omitted
• Wish List
7. Change Log

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History of the deck: Why is jmdt playing Chainer?

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.

What is this Chainer dude all about?

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.

What other mono black options are there for graveyard control and why does Chainer kick all their derrieres?

• 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.

You will enjoy playing Chainer if:

• You want to build around a strong Commander.
• You like graveyard themed decks.
• You laugh as counterspells on your creatures just delay them hitting the field.
• You like watching as your opponents creatures helplessly die over and over.
• You get your giggles using your opponent's creatures against them.
• You enjoy occasionally winning the game while never attacking your opponents!

You will not enjoy playing Chainer if:

• You want a Commander just for its colors.
• You have issues if the game becomes Archenemy after you mercilessly slaughter everyone's board state, repetatively.
• You have any issues at all paying life or sacrificing your own creatures; this deck is definitely suicide black.
• You dislike your own creatures getting exiled by your commander.
• You are worried that the game will be over if your graveyard is exiled.

Deck List

Average CMC = 3.645; SCG Value = $561.50

Link to Detailed deck statistics.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
COMMANDER - 1 5 Chainer, Dementia Master CREATURES - 30 2 Blood Artist 2 Bloodghast 2 Reassembling Skeleton 2 Withered Wretch 3 Bone Shredder 3 Fleshbag Marauder 3 Pawn of Ulamog 4 Bloodline Keeper 4 Braids, Cabal Minion 4 Crypt Chast 4 Dimir House Guard 4 Disciple of Bolas 4 Falkenrath Noble 4 Graveborn Muse 4 Mindslicer 4 Sangromancer 4 Slum Reaper 4 Solemn Simulacrum 4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed 5 Bloodgift Demon 5 Kagemaro, First to Suffer 5 Ogre Slumlord 6 Duplicant 6 Geth, Lord of the Vault 6 Harvester of Souls 6 Kokusho, the Evening Star 6 Nirkana Revenant 6 Massacre Wurm 7 Rune-Scarred Demon 7 Sheoldred, Whispering One	ARTIFACTS - 15 1 Expedition Map 1 Skullclamp 1 Sol Ring 1 Wayfarer's Bauble 2 Altar of Dementia 2 Mind Stone 2 Phyrexian Altar 2 Spawning Pit 3 Crucible of Worlds 3 Oblivion Stone 3 Pristine Talisman 3 Rings of Brighthearth 4 Smokestack 4 Trading Post 6 Caged Sun ENCHANTMENTS - 5 2 Bitterblossom 3 Infernal Tribute 3 Necropotence 3 Phyrexian Arena 4 Strands of Night INSTANTS - 2 1 Entomb 3 Dismember SORCERIES - 7 2 Demonic Tutor 2x Exsanguinate 3 Buried Alive 3 Yawgmoth's Will 4 Damnation 4 Diabolic Tutor 5 Living Death	PLANESWALKERS - 2 5 Liliana Vess 7 Karn Liberated LAND - 38 0 Bloodstained Mire 0 Bojuka Bog 0 Buried Ruin 0 Cabal Coffers 0 Deserted Temple 0 High Market 0 Marsh Flats 0 Phyrexian Tower 0 Snow-Covered Swamp - x24 0 Terrain Generator 0 Thespian's Stage 0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 0 Verdant Catacombs 0 Vesuva 0 Volrath's Stronghold

Deck Strategy

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.

When I first started the deck, I tried a vampire tribal build to abuse Malakir Bloodwitch as a win condition before Kokusho, the Evening Starwas unbanned. Malakir Bloodwitch is not as good as Kokusho, the Evening Star by a mile, but if one were looking for a budget build for Chainer, a vampire tribal deck around Anowon, the Ruin Sage , Butcher of Malakir and Malakir Bloodwitch can make some noise.

Breakdown of Card Choices

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.
• Bloodghast/Reassembling Skeleton - These guys are all cheap self-reusable creatures that can be sacked to Skullclamp or in a pinch sacked to Braids, Cabal Minion.
• 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.

• Expedition Map - This artifact was inserted in the deck for one purpose...Find Cabal Coffers!!! If Cabal Coffers has already been found, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, High Market or Deserted Temple are also great targets. Worst case, you can fetch yourself a Swamp. All in all a high value land tutor
• Skullclamp - One of the most broken equipment ever printed makes a showing here. Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton are here mainly as cheap self-recurring dudes who insta-die to the clamp. Its also nice to equip the Skullclamp on Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed before using his ability or Bitterblossom tokens.
• 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.

• Deserted Temple - How do you make Cabal Coffers better? you make it so that you can use it again for even more mana! Temple has a few more uses than even making infinite mana with Coffers and Rings of Brighthearth. You can get value by untapping Volrath's Stronghold, High Market and Scrying Sheets.
• 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
• Star Compass - Essentially the same mana rock as Charcoal Diamond
• 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.
• Living Death - The card has several uses. It is a wrath, but not in the traditional sense. Since we pack Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble and Massacre Wurm, we can make this card do a lot of heavy lifting for us and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed can bring it back for shenanigans so we can repeat over and over.
• 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.

Notable Omissions
Omitted for Meta Reasons

• 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.

Intentionally Omitted

• 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.

Change Log

4/6/2013

In: Dimir House Guard, Phyrexian Altar, Yawgmoth's Will, Dismember, Withered Wretch, Swamp, Buried Ruin, Wayfarer's Bauble, Mind Stone.

Out: Sadistic Hypnotist, Attrition, Sepulchral Primordial, Spine of Ish Sah, Gauntlet of Power, Miren, the Moaning Well, Petrified Field, Charcoal Diamond, Star Compass.

2/4/2013

In: Disciple of Bolas, Trading Post, Spine of Ish Sah, Crypt Ghast, Ogre Slumlord, Sepulchral Primordial, Thespian's Stage, Terrain Generator

Out: Moonlight Bargain, Reanimate, Beacon of Unrest, Liliana of the Veil, Mimic Vat, Reaper from the Abyss, Winding Canyons, Scrying Sheets

12/4/2012

In: Deserted Temple, Winding Canyons

Out: Swamp, Armillary Sphere

10/26/2012

In: Damnation, Moonlight Bargain, Living Death, Smokestack, Crucible of Worlds, Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Bloodstained Mire, Volrath's Stronghold, Vesuva, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Phyrexian Tower, Scrying Sheets, 23 Snow-Covered Swamp.

Out: Life's Finale, Promise of Power, Exhume, Butcher of Malakir, Lightning Greaves, 31 Swamp

10/8/2012

In: Demonic Tutor, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, Geth, Lord of the Vault, Slum Reaper, Altar of Dementia, Strands of Night, Petrified Field.

Out: Beseech the Queen, Entomber Exarch, Anowon, the Ruin Sage, Malakir Bloodwitch, Disciple of Griselbrand, Dread Return, Swamp.

9/26/2012

In: Pristine Talisman, Oblivion Stone, Armillary Sphere, Rune-Scarred Demon, Kagemaro, First to Suffer, Duplicant, Graveborn Muse, Nirkana Revenant, Reanimate, Exsanguinate, Necropotence, Miren, the Moaning Well, Bojuka Bog.

Out: Basilisk Collar, Lashwrithe, Loxodon Warhammer, Exquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Bloodflow Connoisseur, Nether Traitor, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, It That Betrays, Consume Spirit, Profane Command, Black Sun's Zenith, Increasing Ambition.

Quote from Slippy_J

The issue with azusa is that she folds to spot removal and counterspells. All my decks contain a healthy amount of both, plus a mix of artifact and land ramp to sufficiently ready myself for an early azusa. You ever spell crumble an azusa? Good times.

She's terrible in multiplayer unless you're by far the best deckbuilder there. You draw aggro like a mother****er, and 9/10 times get blown out.

Quote from Giodante

Would you mind explaining this statement a little more? I've tried all different kinds of Azusa builds, from 35-55 lands, aggro, combo, stax, tokens, doublers, fatties, Eldrazi, hybrids, and all the rest. My current build has 46 lands and I've found that to be a near-perfect mix of explosiveness and gas. I'd really appreciate a list for a 33-36 land build that you think is better than this. Azusa's one of my favorite Commanders, so I'm willing to try anything out.

Quote from Hallow36

That's just us though. This topic leads back to the subjective, "whats fun/not fun/casual/competitive" opinion. Everyone's playgroup is different though obviously.

Quote from SuperSalsa

I love Azusa, but the reason i suggested Animar instead is that Azusa is a pretty infamous commander, while Animar is slightly less-so. Reading his first post it seems like if he brought an Azusa deck out he would just start getting hated again. In my opinion both are a total blast to play, you'll be happy with either one.

Quote from Ryujin

Saying that Prime Time is worse than Emrakul is hilarious. Griselbrand isn't that terrible, Enter the Infinite isn't killing the format. The only thing really against Griselbrand is that he is easier to "cheat" into play.

Nom Nom Numot: The Hungry Devastator




_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents

1. History of the Deck
2. Lets talk Numot
• What is Numot about
• What other options are there in WRU (American) colors
• You will enjoy playing Numot if
• You will not enjoy playing Numot if
3. Deck List
4. Deck Strategy
• Early Game Strategy
• Mid Game Strategy
• Late Game Strategy
• Notable Synergies
5. Breakdown of Card Choices
• Walkers in the House
• Blinkers
• Blinkables
• Sunforger Package
• Tax Package
• Control Package
• Card Draw
• Mana Fixing
• Other Stuffs
6. Change Log

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

History of the Deck

I got into Magic about the time Innistrad came out. At the time I played standard with UW Delver and RB Vampire decks. My friend jmdt bought a commander precon and wanted me to get into commander with him. At first I was hesitant as there was no FNM for Commander, but I finally gave in after he convinced my Nephew to make Kaalia of the Vast. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make at first. jmdt sent me several ideas and I slowly started narrowing down what I wanted. I knew I wanted blue for counterspells and I knew I wanted white to play some of the big legends I had like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I'd looked at several commanders including Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but I liked the idea of Numot as big dragon also gave me access to a few red cards I had been wanting to run.

Lets talk Numot

What is Numot about?
Numot, the Devastator is the American dragon first debuting in Planar Chaos and making a return visit in the Commander precon decks. He is majestic, he is regal, and by the way he has an insatiable craving for lands. As awesome as Numot is, a large factor in his choosing was his WRU colors. He is hands down the best general in these colors. Numot eats lands, although slowly. This naturally led to making a tax package for the deck to make his land eating ability have more 'bite'. Somewhere along the way, I added Venser, the Sojourner and then the deck filled out as a blink/stax control deck in American colors.

What other options are there in WRU (American) colors?

• Zedruu the Greathearted - Zedruu is a complete build around me general. Zerduu plays a psuedo group hug effect and plays a very unique game with unique cards. He can be somewhat fun to play, but does not allow you to play many strong cards and isn't all that strong compared to Numot's 6/6 flying body.
• Dechs Kaison has a primer for Zedruu located here: Pristaxcontrombmodruu! Because Zedruu is her own Archetype.
• Ruhan of the Fomori - Ruhan is an efficient body. Sure, a 7/7 body for CMC 4 is nothing to sneeze at, but it's otherwise too plain. No flying, no trample, no intimidate, no hexproof. You get the idea... Did I mention his attacks are random? Ruhan is best kept for the Duel Commander scene.

You will enjoy playing Numot if:

• You like the patriotic American colors.
• You like blowing up your opponent's lands.
• You like sitting there while no one can afford to attack you.
• You have fun playing Captain Blinky (Venser, the Sojourner) along side other walkers.
• You like playing your spells over and over again.

You will not enjoy playing Numot if:

• You want to rush out to a fast start and relentlessly smash your opponent's face in.
• You don't like slow-paced decks.
• You have any issues at all about nuking people's lands

Deck List

Detailed Deck Statistics

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COMMANDER 6 Numot, the Devastator CREATURES - 19 2 Mistmeadow Witch 2 Walking Atlas 3 Fiend Hunter 4 Archaeomancer 4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 4 Sakishima's Student 4 Solemn Simulacrum 4 Venser, Shaper Savant 5 Izzet Chronarch 5 Mnemonic Wall 5 Mulldrifter 5 Zealous Conscripts 6 Deadeye Navigator 6 Frost Titan 7 Diluvian Primordial 7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 7 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight 7 Sphinx of Uthuun 8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope INSTANTS - 18 1 Brainstorm 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Path to Exile 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Tithe 3 Absorb 3 Chaos Warp 3 Counterflux 3 Double Negative 3 Ghostway 3 Oblation 3 Orim's Thunder 3 Reiterate

4 Fact or Fiction 4 Return to Dust 4 Suffocating Blast 4 Wild Ricochet SORCERIES - 5 3XX Entreat the Angels 4 Supreme Verdict 5 Time Warp 6 Jokulhaups 6 Terminus ENCHANTMENTS - 6 3 Ghostly Prison 3 Propaganda 3 Rhystic Study 4 Dissipation Field 5 Assemble the Legion 10 Omniscience ARTIFACTS - 6 1 Sol Ring 3 Chromatic Lantern 3 Sunforger 5 Conjurer's Closet 5 Gilded Lotus 5 Norn's Annex PLANESWALKERS - 8 4 Ajani Vengeant 4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 4 Jace, Architect of Thought 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 5 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage 5 Tezzeret the Seeker 5 Venser, the Sojourner 7 Karn Liberated LAND - 37 0 Adarkar Wastes 0 Ancient Den 0 Arid Mesa 0 Battlefield Forge 0 Cascade Bluffs 0 Clifftop Retreat 0 Command Tower 0 Darksteel Citadel 0 Glacial Fortress 0 Great Furnace 0 Hallowed Fountain 0 Mistveil Plains 0 Mystic Gate 0 Reliquary Tower 0 Rugged Prairie 0 Scalding Tarn 0 Seachrome Coast 0 Seat of the Synod 0 Shivan Reef 0 Skycloud Expanse 0 Steam Vents 0 Sulfur Falls 0 Tectonic Edge 0 Temple of the False God 0 Terrain Generator 0 Mountain (x4) 0 Plains (x4) 0 Island (x4)

Deck Strategy

Early Game Stratregy
During the early stages of the game this deck wants to sit back, counter spells we don't like, wipe the board if it gets out of hand, and lay out Propaganda effects in an effort to point attacks in another direction. This is the phase we very much want to play the table politics, pointing everyone towards who ever got the hottest start and trying to keep the heat off ourselves. We want to get out enough tax effects to keep the heat off, but not too many to draw excess attention to ourselves. We very much want to take the pillow fort route during the this phase of the game; we have strong mid and late game plays, but we need time to develop our mana base to accommodate some of our more expensive cards. If the heat does pick up, we have access to several Wrath effects and generous spot removal to neutralize the board position in our favor. In order to help with our control and damage dealing in the early portion of the game, we have access to the powerful Sunforger. We can give a cheap beater +4/+0 to either push early damage through, or sit as a more effective blocker. While you can push great damage through with Sunforger, its strength lies in its second ability. Instead of using valuable cards in our hand, we can pay RW at instant speed to search out library for a card from our Sunforger package and use it to the control the field to our benefit. We have forks for copying ramp and tutors, removal for all kinds of permanents, and counters for cards we just don;t want to see the light of day. By using sunforger, we can play politics and play fewer creatures to keep our threat level down.

Mid Game Stratregy
Once we get five to six mana out, we can start moving toward our midgame plan. During the midgame, we have a few lines of play that develop for us. For one, putting Numot on line is usually a good option, especially if you are in dire need of an attacker/blocker. During the middle part of the game, we also are able to set up one of the must fun parts of the deck. Captain Blinkies Recursion Engine of Doom. In the early game we used counter spells and board wipes liberally to keep the game at the pace we want. We can start using Archaeomancer and Izzet Chronarch to return these spells to get additional value from them. Once we play Venser the Sojourner or Deadeye Navigator we can start returning one or multiple spells every turn. We also have a host of other ETB cards to abuse such as Solemn Simulacrum for mana ramp and Venser, Shaper Savant the get rid of problem permanents. During this stage I also like to get a few planeswalkers online. Since I have have a number of wraths and ways to keep heat off myself, two or three planeswalkers out can generate me a bunch of advantage. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage can help lock down the top opponent to help with table politics, and if she is abler to go ultimate, the deck likely wins.

Late Game Stratregy
Here's where the deck really starts to get abusive. This deck has a high number of 7-10 drops that each carries a high value and many continue taxing or controlling the opponent's options. Avacyn Angel of Hope is a very strong option hat makes your guys better and is quite difficult to get rid of. The big play for the deck is landing Omniscience and the dumping the hand. The absolute most bonkers play is a combo of Omniscience, followed by Avacyn Angel of Hope, followed by Jokulhaups.

Notable Synergies
This deck has a potential game winning infinite turn combo with Time Warp, a creature with an ETB ability to return instants and sorceries from the graveyard such as Archaeomancer, and a card that can blink it such as Captain Blinky. This combo is definitely a late game combo. You need the mana to cast Time Warp every turn, plus if you are using Deadeye Navigator you will need two additional mana. That's potentially seven mana total just to take multiple turns. It will help immensely if you have a favorable board state and ten plus mana when you start an infinite turn loop to help speed up the inevitable. You'll win eventually as long as there are no instant speed halts to your plan.

Another virtual win lock is Omniscience followed by Jokulhaups. Omniscience is essentially a win condition anywhere, but if we don't end the game immediately, we give the opponents time to counteract. The best way to ensure you win is to play Jokulhaups. You lose your land, but you don't need it any more and have a clear field to tear up. Most players will all just scoop at the point when you play Jokulhaups after dropping Omniscience. For and extra awesome play you can drop Avacyn, Angel of Hope and watch the ire and despair from the table while you have a pristine board position and they have...none. Omniscience does lead to a few other power plays. If you have huge mana when you play Omniscience, Blue Sun's Zenith or other X draw spells lead to completely silly board states.

Another potential, but somewhat more complex synergy is using Brainstorm(or Jace, the Mind Sculptor) to set up a miracle on Entreat the Angels. With Archaeomancer and a blink engine, you can set up the ability to miracle Entreat the Angels every other turn and potentially every turn. With repetitive miracles of Entreat the Angels the sheer firepower can devastate your opponents' life totals.

Breakdown of Card Choices

Walkers in the House

• Ajani Vengeant - A reusable way to keep troublesome permanents tapped down. He's equally happy stopping an Eldrazi as he is keeping Cabal Coffers from firing. His -2 is useless most of the time but it can kill several popular commanders such as Azusa, Zur and Edric. If he's allowed to ultimate, Numot will have a pile of land to Nom Nom.
• Elspeth, Knight-Errant - her +1 gives you a constant stream of blockers to hold off attacks and help you build up to your ultimate where your field becomes indestructible for the rest of the game. When she is out with another walker, it gives you opponents a very tough time; she makes blockers for the both and if they don't target her they'll have a bad day.
• Jace, Architect of Thought - With Jace AoT, you want to use his -2 ability to dig 3 cards and find a crucial piece you need.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor - If he was just a reusable brainstorm, he would be worth inclusion. He also lets you mess with you opponents draws, Unsummon, or basically take out a player with his ultimate. If you keep him alive, good things will happen.
• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Her +1 is identical to Ajani Vengeant, but that's where the similarities end. Her other two abilities are much more valuable than those of Ajani. Her ultimate will win you the game with this deck, especially if you get Omniscience out and drawing cards is never bad.
• Tezzeret the Seeker - Tezzeret adds effective ramp to the deck with the ability to do -0 fetching artifact lands. Once he has artifacts lands and/or mana rocks out, he can untap them to generate more mana. He can untap walking atlas, to put out two additional lands per turn.
• Venser, the Sojourner - Captain Blinky is one of the all-Star's of this deck. Whenever he hits the field good things start happening. His main use is his +2 ability, but if his ultimate goes off, that emblem is game-winning. The ability to become unblockable isn't a big deal for this deck, but its something to be mindful of.
• Karn Liberated[/c] - Big Karn is a beast. If you need permanents removed, he sends them away, if not you can blow away hands and make himself larger. Always something relevant for Karn to do.

Blinkers

• Mistmeadow Witch - Gives a nice reusable blink engine for creatures that comes down early. Its a bit costly to activate, but it comes down early and gets the job done.
• Deadeye Navigator - Deadeye Navigator is an expensive card to use; however, he is pure awesome. He loses the ability to bounce non creatures from Captain Blinky, but gains the ability to bounce a creature as many times as you want (assuming you have mana). With some of the creatures in this deck, that can prove lethal for your opponent.
• Conjurer's Closet - Closet generally draws much less hate that the other two blink engines since its neither a planeswalker nor reusable. This is nice for us, because it can still fuel a ton of card advantage.

Blinkables

• Fiend Hunter - At first glance he doesn't look so great, but thanks to the working of his ability if he is blinked, his target is permanently exiled. Over the course of a game, this little guy can exile several creatures if he can stick around. Most fun when Eldrazi are intruding in Numot's territory.
• Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, Mnemonic Wall - Nice spell in the yard, you want to use again? Call Archaeomancer to make all your dreams true. Useful for an endless barrage of counter spells or lots of turns.
• Sakishima's Student - He can copy the largest critter on the board, and we can blink him to copy another or abuse an opponent's ETB creature. He has the added bonus of a ninjitsu combat trick that potentially lets us reuse one of our ETB guys and come out cheaper.
• Solemn Simulacrum - The man, the legend, Jens, Sad Robot. He ramps and draws. When Captain Blinkey is involved, he can empty out your basics in a hurry and give a huge mana advantage.
• Venser, Shaper Savant - The only thing better than one Venser is two Venser's. Attached to Deadeye Navigator, he can completely nuke a players board position and act as a reusable to the hand counter spell.
• Mulldrifter
• Zealous Conscripts - Similar to Venser, Shaper Savant, when he's attached to Deadeye Navigator you just start saying 'Mine' to eyerything on the field.
• Frost Titan - This cold guy likes to shut down your opponent's permanents. Great for tapping down huge creatures and problematic lands alike. He's also a big beater and kinda hard to remove
• Diluvian Primordial - This guy can be a mixed bag, and somewhat random, but he still lets us play free instants and sorceries from our opponent's graveyards. Yes FREE!!!
• Sphinx of Uthuun - when he comes into play, we get our choice of the most important of two piles of five total cards. with spell recursion, discarding those is no biggie

Sunforger Package

• Sunforger - Hard to have a Sunforger package without a Sunforger. +4/+0 can provide some nice beats, be we don't have Sunforger in with attacking in mind. When its equipped its basically RW, tutor for and play whatever answer we need.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares - Both cards permanently remove a problem creature. They each have drawbacks, but in EDH they are minimal
• Tithe - Lets us fetch one or more plains to our hand at instant speed.
• Absorb/Double Negative/Suffocating Blast - All hard counterspells that can be searched up with sunforger
• Chaos Warp/Oblation - We can tuck irritating permanents with these spells. Great for making commanders go away. Oblation can double as a draw two spell if we have something out we don't need.
• Ghostway - It can save our position from a Wrath of God effect and at the same time activates all our creatures with an ETB ability.
• Orim's Thunder/Return to Dust - Removal for artifacts and enchantments.
• Reiterate/Wild Ricochet - Fork effects. These let us copy fun things like green ramp and black tutors. Both have extra effects, we can buyback Reiterate and Wild Ricochet gives us our opponent's copy as well serving as a de facto counterspell.

Tax Package

• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Make most of my spells cheaper while making the opponent pay more. Yes, please!
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This can be a board wipe against smaller decks or at worst let me take less damage, plus the buff I get is pretty sweet.
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Elesh Norn's much more attractive cousin (she looks like Scarlett Johansson). She cuts the damage you receive in half and half and gives you double damage when you do get your army set up.
• Stormtide Leviathan - He is an unblockable creature that also serves as a Moat effect. Since this deck is built his a high concentration of fliers it has little effect, while it can completely cripple some opponents.
• Propaganda - The original card for taxing your opponent for attacking you. It's just innocuous enough that it will rarely get destroyed, but it will have a huge effect in pushing attacks in a different direction.
• Ghostly Prison - Exactly like Propaganda, but shifted to white.
• Dissipation Field - Really makes someone think twice about attacking if their creatures get bounced afterwards. It doesn't prevent attacks per se, but it hurts their tempo dramatically when they do.
• Norn's Annex - By itself, its not that great of an attack deterrent, who wouldn't pay a few life to win the game, but combined with Propaganda it really makes attacks against you burn.

Control Package

• Supreme Verdict - Reset button for this deck. Since it can not be countered, you WILL wipe the board when you want to.
• Terminus - In Commander the graveyard is a second hand for some decks (looking at you Chainer, Dementia Master). Terminus is often stronger than a traditional board wipe since it does not feed the graveyard and makes finding some creatures again exceedingly hard. Great when we have a field of walkers.
• Jokulhups - Some times you just want to watch the world burn...if you have Omniscience out...so what.

Card Draw

• Brainstorm - A great draw spell that digs three cards in. A great target for Archaeomancer, especially if you can return a miracle spell and stick it at the top of the library.
• Mystical Tutor - Need a particular instant or sorcery? This gal has the hookup for you.
• Sphinx's Revelation - Draws cards, cards and more cards oh, and by the way, you gain a chunk of life while you are at it..
• Preordain - Similar, but not quite as good as Brainstorm. Still a top flight draw card.
• Rhystic Study - Some people just don't get this card. I love those people because they let me draw one or two cards every turn.

Mana Fixing

• Sol Ring - You wanna go fast? This is your card.
• Chromatic Lantern - Mana Rock that makes colors of land basically irrelevant.
• Gilded Lotus - 3 colored mana. Good for that last push to get Omniscience on line.
• Walking Atlas - taps to let us play an additional land each turn.
• Omniscience - When this comes out, the only variable is how many cards I can draw.

Other Stuffs

• Avacyn, Angel of Hope - When Avacyn comes out this deck usually wins. She is very difficult to get rid of, and protects the board position.
• Assemble the Legion - makers great blockers. If it stays around a while, it can just plain turn lethal.
• Time Warp - Yes, that guy. If we get a blink engine, we can take multiple turns, and its nice to get the loyalty up on those walkers.

Change Log

12/25/2012

In: Island, Mountain, Plains, Skycloud Expanse, Mistmeadow Witch, Frost Titan, Sakishima's Student.

Out: Cloudcrest Lake, Izzet Boilerworks, New Benalia, Rupture Spire, Archon of Justice, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Niv Mizzet, The Firemind.

11/9/2012

In: Cascade Bluffs, Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Out: Glimmerpost, Archon of the Triumvirate.

11/3/2012

In: Sphinx's Revelation, Sun Titan.

Out: Blue Sun's Zenith, Konda, Lord of Eiganjo.

10/27/2012

In: Mountain, Island, Conjurer's Closet, Plains, Scalding Tarn, Wrath of God, Armageddon.

Out: Terramorphic Expanse, Everflowing Chalice, Soaring Seacliff, Boros Signet, Stalking Stones, Secluded Steppe, Exclude.

10/23/2012

In: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Gilded Lotus.

Out: Staff of Nin, Ur-Eye Golem.