I'm on the same page as most people here, with being disappointed with Teysa and Emmara.
Teysa I don't think is playable as a general, but I can see applications for her as one of the 99. Emmara, I don't see any use for her ever that isn't handled way better than other cards. Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument off the top of my head accomplish what she is trying to do more effectively and for easier mana costs (either by lower cc or colorless).
I think where I differ with most people here is I up-voted Mirko. I had a Wrexial deck that I turned into Lazav, and Mirko is a great source of mill to power my generals as one of the 99 in those decks. However, I would even occasionally use him as my commander in the same deck because he is good at mill, and the same cards that are good with full graveyards still work well with him. I also play with play groups of various skill and deck power-levels so I like having multiple options for commanders in my decks. Mirko will be a lower power-level general I can use in Lazav without having to change any other cards in the deck.
Overall, I figure if I there are only two legends I strongly dislike from a set of 10, I am pretty happy so good job Wizards.
As previously stated, Kalia is heavily played and builds almost the same way every time.
Tariel looks really cool and has an interesting ability but in actual games takes way too long to cast because you don't have green to help you ramp to him, and if he dies once you will probably never cast him again. I thought he seemed really cool and even convinced a friend to build him, and now I feel bad because that friend's deck always under performs at our table.
Oros, The Avenger has a built-in board wipe option and can win with general damage, all while giving you access to the three colors you want to play. As long as the small creatures in your deck are white, his ability will not negatively affect you.
Have fun and good luck with whatever you choose
Edit: I re-read your post and saw that you want an agro beats deck, Oros can certainly be built that way, but perhaps you would enjoy Kalia more for your purposes after all.
You might also consider building a swarm deck with Ulasht, the Hate Seed at the helm.
He is very good at token/swarm strategies and doesn't limit you to tribal. A lot of the better goblins are very monetarily costly because they are popular in various formats. Avoiding tribal means that when you take apart your EDH deck if you enjoy the format, many of the cards you purchased and traded for will still be usable in other decks.
Krenko is very powerful and can be fun, but he can have trouble regrouping from board-wipes in multiplayer games. Mono-red also cannot deal with enchantments (they can be very strong in this format) very well.
These are just some things to consider that may not be obvious to someone new to EDH .Whatever general and build you choose to go with, I hope you have fun and enjoy the format as much as I do
Out of your 3 remaining choices, I vote Toshiro Umezawa , because he is much less played as someone already stated, and has a very unique ability for that color. Drana is also great, but you will probably run into other people playing her from time to time since she was printed recently. XHD is aesome, but I wouldn't suggest him due to his high monetary cost.
All are great choices, have fun building and playing!
OP, Black is my favorite color to play in Magic so I am glad you are giving it a chance.
I understand you don't want a zombie general, but if Vampires don't bother you, consider trying Ascendant Evincar He is one of the earlier mono-black generals I tried out for EDH, and I really enjoyed playing him during that time. He will not boost your own creatures very often as mono-black usually has stronger spells than creatures, however, he hoses token armies and even many utility creatures you may encounter. I also like the flavor of him strengthening your army off the life-force of others. He even has evasion if you have a couple of strong equipments in your deck such as Lashwrithe or Bonehoard
Another strong general that happens to be a vampire is Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief , who many people have already suggested. She has a built in way to kill creatures (even if they're indestructible), and can even be used as a voltron commander if necessary.
My best advice is to consider picking a general that is not all in on one strategy since this is your first time playing mono-black, and you may enjoy the color but want to adjust your build and play-style as time goes on. Good luck and have fun!
Uh...that's not exactly possible unless you had the Phyrexian Metamorph in play not copying anything alongside something giving it +1/+1 to keep it from being dead.
Crap, my bad, I guess that win was not legit then. I'm not always good with the more technical stuff. I still enjoy the general though and recommend him to people looking for a fun deck.
I have been playing this general for a couple of weeks now, and like some have already says he has mixed results.
My deck has a theme of copying/stealing my opponents spells and creatures. The deck is designed to adjust to the power level of my opponents because I play with a very casual group and one that is fairly competitive. There is a minor mill theme b/c it used to be a Wrexial deck, and the additions of Mind Grind and Consuming Aberration have surprisingly increased the power level of the deck significantly.
There were several games where I came in second place and came very close to winning. In the most recent game I played with him, I was able to end a 4-player stalemate by kicking a Rite of Replication on a Metamorph targeting Gilded Lotus, and cast Mind Grind with x=29 milling 2 opponents and leaving the last with only 2 cards left in his library.
The general isn't very consistent, but I think his lack of predictability makes him very fun to play.
It used to be hard for me to get more than one or two of my friends to play EDH with me at a time, but recently I have had the opportunity to play in larger groups of 4 people or more. I think my preference for game size is between 3-4 people so we can have time to play a second game. What is your favorite number (or numbers) of people to play games with and why?
I used to run 5-color allies with Reaper King as the general and I ran most of the changelings so every time I played a changeling I got to destroy target permanent from the Reaper's trigger as well as trigger all my allies.
My playgroup was less competitive back then, but the deck quickly annoyed all of my friends because my turns took a long time with so many triggers and I could deal with any permanent type too easily. I found it very fun to play, but it apparently wasn't fun to play against. Hope that helps.
If you are not dead-set on using Bladewing as your general, you might have more fun with Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. For the same CC, you get a 7/7 flyer that gives your whole tribe (including himself) haste, as well as giving you access to green for ramp and color fixing.
That was my experience though. Bladewing has really cool flavor and you may not way to include green, so Karrthus may not be what you're looking for. Good luck with the deck, hope it's fun!
Looks like a fun deck. I used to play Kresh and often found that if I could give him trample, I could knock at least one player out. Consider Brawn for this purpose. Good luck and hope you enjoy playing him as much as I used to.
Have been using Cockatrice to test and just did a huge overhaul of the deck. Thoughts on what to cut for Doomed Necromancer and Sun Titan would be appreciated, as well as anything else folks think would be helpful.
Teysa I don't think is playable as a general, but I can see applications for her as one of the 99. Emmara, I don't see any use for her ever that isn't handled way better than other cards. Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument off the top of my head accomplish what she is trying to do more effectively and for easier mana costs (either by lower cc or colorless).
I think where I differ with most people here is I up-voted Mirko. I had a Wrexial deck that I turned into Lazav, and Mirko is a great source of mill to power my generals as one of the 99 in those decks. However, I would even occasionally use him as my commander in the same deck because he is good at mill, and the same cards that are good with full graveyards still work well with him. I also play with play groups of various skill and deck power-levels so I like having multiple options for commanders in my decks. Mirko will be a lower power-level general I can use in Lazav without having to change any other cards in the deck.
Overall, I figure if I there are only two legends I strongly dislike from a set of 10, I am pretty happy so good job Wizards.
As previously stated, Kalia is heavily played and builds almost the same way every time.
Tariel looks really cool and has an interesting ability but in actual games takes way too long to cast because you don't have green to help you ramp to him, and if he dies once you will probably never cast him again. I thought he seemed really cool and even convinced a friend to build him, and now I feel bad because that friend's deck always under performs at our table.
Oros, The Avenger has a built-in board wipe option and can win with general damage, all while giving you access to the three colors you want to play. As long as the small creatures in your deck are white, his ability will not negatively affect you.
Have fun and good luck with whatever you choose
Edit: I re-read your post and saw that you want an agro beats deck, Oros can certainly be built that way, but perhaps you would enjoy Kalia more for your purposes after all.
He is very good at token/swarm strategies and doesn't limit you to tribal. A lot of the better goblins are very monetarily costly because they are popular in various formats. Avoiding tribal means that when you take apart your EDH deck if you enjoy the format, many of the cards you purchased and traded for will still be usable in other decks.
Krenko is very powerful and can be fun, but he can have trouble regrouping from board-wipes in multiplayer games. Mono-red also cannot deal with enchantments (they can be very strong in this format) very well.
These are just some things to consider that may not be obvious to someone new to EDH .Whatever general and build you choose to go with, I hope you have fun and enjoy the format as much as I do
All are great choices, have fun building and playing!
I understand you don't want a zombie general, but if Vampires don't bother you, consider trying Ascendant Evincar He is one of the earlier mono-black generals I tried out for EDH, and I really enjoyed playing him during that time. He will not boost your own creatures very often as mono-black usually has stronger spells than creatures, however, he hoses token armies and even many utility creatures you may encounter. I also like the flavor of him strengthening your army off the life-force of others. He even has evasion if you have a couple of strong equipments in your deck such as Lashwrithe or Bonehoard
Another strong general that happens to be a vampire is Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief , who many people have already suggested. She has a built in way to kill creatures (even if they're indestructible), and can even be used as a voltron commander if necessary.
My best advice is to consider picking a general that is not all in on one strategy since this is your first time playing mono-black, and you may enjoy the color but want to adjust your build and play-style as time goes on. Good luck and have fun!
Crap, my bad, I guess that win was not legit then. I'm not always good with the more technical stuff. I still enjoy the general though and recommend him to people looking for a fun deck.
My deck has a theme of copying/stealing my opponents spells and creatures. The deck is designed to adjust to the power level of my opponents because I play with a very casual group and one that is fairly competitive. There is a minor mill theme b/c it used to be a Wrexial deck, and the additions of Mind Grind and Consuming Aberration have surprisingly increased the power level of the deck significantly.
There were several games where I came in second place and came very close to winning. In the most recent game I played with him, I was able to end a 4-player stalemate by kicking a Rite of Replication on a Metamorph targeting Gilded Lotus, and cast Mind Grind with x=29 milling 2 opponents and leaving the last with only 2 cards left in his library.
The general isn't very consistent, but I think his lack of predictability makes him very fun to play.
My playgroup was less competitive back then, but the deck quickly annoyed all of my friends because my turns took a long time with so many triggers and I could deal with any permanent type too easily. I found it very fun to play, but it apparently wasn't fun to play against. Hope that helps.
Wrexial, The Risen Deep
Sedris, The Traitor King
Rhys the Redeemed
Thromok the Insatiable
Olivia Voldaren
Animate Dead
Grave Pact
Beast Within
Phyrexian Metamorph
Living Death
I used to use him as general in a reanimator tribal dragon deck and used spells like Insidious Dreams and Demonic Collusion that let me tutor for Patriarch's Bidding or Living Death, while discarding my dragons to my graveyard at the same time.
That was my experience though. Bladewing has really cool flavor and you may not way to include green, so Karrthus may not be what you're looking for. Good luck with the deck, hope it's fun!