EDH/Commander general

>I really need to get filled up
Wait what the fuck

Speaking of, is this a terrible general? Traded for her the other day and I like her just costing two mana, but no idea how to build with her.

Tell me about your mono black deck /edh/. Who's your general, the over all strategy, how consistant is it, what are its weaknesses, and what are the Allstars that aren't the usual staples like demo tutor or Cabal Coffers?

You're such a slut user, holy shit.

I know, but it feels so good I can't stop.

Big black decks getting shoved into a slightly too small deck box just makes me so horny.

Well just go undying and split for green if you can. Don't know if you can use colors not in your commander's color identity.

Phage the Untouchable

There's a ton of removal and tutors, with a splash of hand destruction. The idea is to build up massive mana, dump all your opponents' hands so they have no responses, play a way to get Phage out without losing, then equip her up and start killing. Used to run Assault Suit too but opponents are a bunch of pussies who won't turn on each other and kill each other despite being handed a loaded gun.

Diabolic Revelation is probably the strongest card. Generating 8+ mana gives you a near unbeatable hand with that. Other than that, Xiahou Dun to recur your removal and tutors and the Phage casting package (Torpor Orb, Sundial of the Infinite, Platinum Angel, and Command Beacon).

It's fun occasionally but my playgroup is getting more cutthroat so I may take it apart for either Xiahou Dun monoblack goodstuff/combo or Selenia, Dark Angel one-shot kill.

Suicide black with Sidisi at the helm. Play cheapos that trigger when they die, get Sidisi out, tutor for Bitterblossom and start playing sac outlets

Sometimes I tutor Kuro if I feel like being really dumb

She's an alright commander in a mono-black control shell.

No matter what, Cabal Coffers is the real mono black general, so run Kiku to your hearts content.

>Assault Suit on Phage
Oh that's delicious

>mfw superior terrible mono-black general

I FUCKED UP. PIC RELATED.

Tap to Kill is powerful. I mean, she's no Visara the Dreadful but on the other hand she'll come out way sooner and is pretty hard to kill enough to turn her off. You could do worse for a monocolored general; I have a feeling she'd really infuriate someone with an expensive general she can off. Add in all the standard MBC tricks...

Monoblack artifacts with King Macar

Artifacts that either gives me lots of mana like Blinkmoth urn or lets me untap him whenever I want such as Clock of Omens + Transmogrifying Licid.
No clear wincons except exsanguinate or commander damage. I still win pretty often

You can't, that's the whole point.

But if you cast Phage from your command zone, you lose.

Torpor Orb
Sundial
Bring her to your hand with Command Tower

There's ways around the trigger

Any way to pass control of the spell to an opponent for instant win?

Not in mono-black

Oh well. A warning, though. My deck can and will one shot that specific deck on turn 8 or so. As in, that's a great deck, and mine isn't exactly OP, but due to mechanics, it's basically the worst possible matchup.

Are you running enough Horsemanship/board wipes?

What, against Phage? I don't play her, I just know there's ways around the trigger

If you were in Dimir it would possibly work, but it would be a really strange combo that I'm not even sure would work the way I'd want it to

I run Endless Whispers for the kill. If you got Phage out in a non-Torpor Orb way, you can sac her and put her into play under an opponent's control and they instantly lose.

That's fucking radical

I run Sisay, and the reason that my deck is the worst possible matchup is that Mindslaver is legendary. At some point, I will very suddenly take any Phage player out of the game with it.

To be fair Phage is the not exactly common metagame and the deck loses a lot, often to itself. It runs ways to protect itself, like just enough removal and hand disruption to try and put you in a good position to cast Phage, but more often than not the deck dies to a Krosan Grip.

It's a casual deck for casual fun, if you want something competitive in monoblack then you can play Chainer, Xiahou Dun, or Mikaeus.

All this Phage talk has me thinking:

>be in Dimir
>get Phage out
>play Gather Specimens, Redirect the Gather to opponent
>some kind of flicker effect for Phage

Would that work? Obviously it takes a fair amount of setup but I don't even know if Gather Specimens would work with Redirect that way

I forgot to mention in my reply that that is the dankest fucking wincon. That probably feels better than Oops! All Spells to pull off.

My deck is Sisay, do you really think I'm at all competitive? I just realized that Phage is my ideal matchup, that's all.

I think they just autolose since they didn't cast Phage from their hand, it just entered under their control.

I'll usually slam her in any monoblack deck just because she can steal a game at times and makes for a ton of fun interactions. Like pitching her to the graveyard in response to a Rise of the Dark Realms is awesome.

If Rhox Faithmender And Alhammarret's Archive are on the field I'm assuming that the double life gain they both give are redundant and I only gain double life? Not double double life? Or do I multiply three times because doubling season is also on the field?

You would gain 4x life.

It doubles the amount twice. So if you gain 5 life, it'll double twice to twenty (5x2=10, 10x2=20).

So for your situation, you have your lifegain pieces, Trostani, Doubling Season, and a 5/5 token. You populate the token twice, so you gain 40 life (each token will net you 5 life doubled twice).

Ohhhhhhh FUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK

Thanks for clarifying, I thought it was redundant like some other abilities are

You get 4x life and there is absolutely no way Doubling Season has anything to do with anything.
Unless you mean when a token enters and it gets doubled by the season meaning trostani triggers twice, in which case a 2/2 token gives you two 2/2 tokens which means four times 4 life giving you 16 life.

Korlash Zombie Tribal

Urborg + Lord of the Undead for commander damage, or black ramp into swarming with zombie tokens. Everyone is going to be busy worrying about your */* unblockable Commander that they won't see the tokens coming.

My brother! I have converted my deck to him after playing with Sidisi for a good minute. Do you have a deck list to share?

Sidisi combo or stax is also very good. My playgroup mostly whined until I changed it...

Smiter would trigger Trostani.
Traigger wants to give you 4 life, but there are 2 replacement abilities that you have to use. You can use them in any order, but it doesn't matter(outcome is the same).
So you use Rhox ability first. Trigger wants to gain you 8 life instead of 4.
But you are still gaining life and you have 1 more replacement effect(non optional) so you have to use it.
Now trigger gains you 16 life instead of 8.

Now if you have an effect that gives you a 3/3 beast token. You get a trigger for doubling season and a trigger for Troistani. Troistani then has the two life gain triggers. When doubling season resolves another trigger for Troistani and two more double triggers.

Giving you 24 life. (3->6->12)*2

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. I guess you could call it a good stuff deck. It has the requisite big mana producers including Lake if the Dead, a boat load of card draw, a full suite of removal and sweepers - many of which require some sort of life payment, creatures that have been pruned to only include the most essential (draw cards, replace themselves, generate mana/ board presence, or beat harder than the mana cost would imply), walkers including three versions of lili, sorin, Ob nix, Karn and Ugin, and a dash of reanimation but nothing that can't target the opponents graveyard. Despite the life gain Oloro affords me, I generally do more damage to myself than anyone at the table. Weaknesses include creature light decks, any deal capable of generating more card advantage than me, and my brothers Teferi deck 1v1.

Had a game recently where I had to mull down to five. Took a hand with no land but a chrome mox, sol ring and a mana crypt. I played draw go with the esper deck across the table and missed land drops for the first three or four turns. Eventually I drew into a single Swamp and I decided to drop everything. I untapped and passed it, he drops a sorin and activates his neg ability to drop my life to 10. I respond with Ad Nauseam and flip 15 cards or more, eating my life total down to 11. Sorin ability resolves and I lose 1 life. From their I proceed to grind him out. Felt pretty good. Ad Nauseam is a real life saver some games.

Is Seizan a good choice for going absolute balls-out suicide black?

Yes. Phage is even better.

>>What's the worst general you've ever built for?
Ramses Overdark.

>>Have you ever intentionally built around a subpar or outright bad general just to see what it would be like?
Yes. They generally made terrible decks.

Seizan just looks bonkers

What are some suicide monoblack staples? I know of Hatred and Soul Conduit (not black but still decent)

>Oloro
Kill yourself.

Endrek.
I cast fatties and attack. It's a terrible deck that is very casual and folds to everything.

It's fun with assault suit or Conspiracy.
Minions' Murmurs is neat tech.

She is really good for her mana cost. Having her out makes players evaluate the creatures they play. I run her in a mono-black control deck. Like others have said, Cabal Coffers is the real commander, but Kiku is cheap and affects the board.

Gather Specimens doesn't target, and redirect doesn't exchange control of spells.

Kiku, Nights Flower. Its my Girlfriends deck and has some sub-optimal cards (Black Cat), but its pretty fun. Subthemes include: Swamps Matter, Purple Art Tribal, Big Mana, Board Wipes.

Its weak to combo, artifacts, and enchantments.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kiku-test/

"Purple art tribal?"

Does she (also) have all purple-cubes swamps?

She has been running a few of these flower swamps, but its not her main deck so we are still working on it.

I mean the swamps from Rise of the Eldrazi, which all depicted floating purple cubes.

yeah I gotchu. I think we have 2 of them in there, foil.

How's this look for a Karn deck? Understandably, it's just artifact/colorless goodstuff, but I'm trying to work out the land to spells balance.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-05-16-karn-silver-golem/

Bitterblossom is both a life-loss token generator and a sac outlet

Unspeakable Symbol

Indulgent Tormentor is also incredibly underrated for some staxy stuff/lowering dem life totals

M15 Ob Nix fucks over fetches and tutors

>tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-05-16-karn-silver-golem/
I don't think tron lands is where you want to be, I would recommend for replacements magistrates Tower though, it hoses a lot of voltron with swords.

>magistrates Tower
Jesus that card is evil. Completely fucks over my Godo deck

What's wrong with oloro?

Seems reasonable, but I still want to include tron lands since they're not too different from basic wastes.

I'll probably switch out scorched ruins for tower; it reduces the cost of the deck and it's less of hindrance.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/chainer-dementia-master-of-dementia-master/

(The list is outdated since I can't be assed to update it, but the major changes are Rings of Brighthearth and Lashwrithe going out for Ad Nauseam and Dark Petition.)

I think Chainer lends himself to a relatively straight forward big mana MBC deck. I've seen a lot of builds that try to focus on his ability and try to do monoblack reanimator, but in my opinion this is misguided. His ability is just insanely powerful. Using your opponent's Felidar Sovereign to win the game is pure bliss.

Being a monoblack deck with tons of tutors and a plethora of card draw, along with redundancies like multiple mana doublers, win conditions, and disruption, the deck is incredibly consistent. So much so that I feel spoiled and have to adjust to other, more inconsistent decks I have.

While you would think it has trouble with graveyard hate, it doesn't. Sure, it's kind of annoying, but by playing the most powerful cards black has to offer rather than going all in on a reanimation strategy that weakness is largely null. What does give the deck trouble though are non-creature based combo decks and things like Maelstrom Wanderer or Prossh that generate even more insane value than we do.

The #1 all star that I don't see people running a lot for some reason is Yawgmoth's Will. It SHOULD be a staple in big mana monoblack, but I guess people don't know about one of the most notoriously overpowered cards ever printed? Beyond that I really enjoy the versatile cards in the deck like the planeswalkers, Wretched Confluence, and Dimir House Guard. There's also Scour from Existence, which would be terrible anywhere else but is great in this list. Try it out. You might be surprised.

Unlike every other general, you can just let him sit in the command zone the entire game and gain a whole bunch of value. Draw, lifegain, make people lose life, et cetera. He's just a pain and kind of a bore to play against

Purple.dec

>don't see yawgmoth's will much
It's a $30 card, user.

Wretched confluence is fucking based, tho.

Crovax the accursed at the helm
Bunch of life drain effects and token generators, black devotion sub theme, a few wrath effects. Black sun's etc. Bunch of black sympbols. Wins fairly often but I need to make a Selenia deck to have them fight eachother. That death stroke.....

For starters, he's the only commander where you don't even have to cast him to get value out of him. Most Oloro players don't even cast him. Just let him sit in the CZ, and that borderline defeats the point of playing EDH.

Then there's the fact that with him as commander, you literally gain life for free. I've never seen an Oloro deck that wasn't pillow fort/durdling until they cheese out a win.

Unless you're playing mill, infect or voltron, it's both boring and obnoxious to play against.

It was $15 a year ago. Oh, Magic, you so cray cray.

What does it matter who heads up the deck? I feel just as bored with everyone else's general but I don't judge them for it. Who would you recommend I use anyway?

Literally any other commander. Same colors if you want.

I have a Nefarox deck. It is exalted plus specters for no real reason. It is pretty bad. Its weakness is antisynergy and deliberately low power level.

No real All-Stars, but I love winning a game with Spirit of the Night.

are you suggesting that oloro is worse than zur?

It is suddenly your "GF"''s deck? Embarrassed or something?

Joking, she probably just posts here too.

Yes, what's your point?

You know, I rarely get any positive feedback when I post here. I don't think my deck is pillow fort. I usually play pretty aggressively. How's this look:

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-04-16-big-black-deck/

could you explain why you think this? Most people hate degenerate combos more than do nothing lifegain

But I couldn't eat my life total with abandon if I did that.

Oh, you're a moron. Okay, that explains your opinions.

Point and laugh at this man.

>You know, I rarely get any positive feedback when I post here.
Part of that is wheredoyouthinkweare.jpg, but I've noticed that a lot of shitters get REALLY bent out of shape about Oloro. It's become the new boogeyman of bad players.

>Oloro is worse than Zur

>Voltron
>Boring and obnoxious

Fuck you, building a Voltron Kaseto deck was the best and most fun thing I ever did. I have fun and most others I play against have fun with him too.

Rings of brighthearth will be your best friend.

I finally found a Toshiro to build a deck with, but man, looking through all the black instants I'm not very impressed. Might be better in my removal heavy jund deck where it can fetch some more powerful stuff

Zur can die. Oloro doesn't even need to be alive. Also, the fact that Zur is generally accepted as dickish and Oloro is still played by a number of players. What, can your decks not handle combos?

>most of the deck is drawing, durdling and answers
>only win conditions are exsanguinate, grey merchant and a 2 piece infinite combo

I simply cannot imagine why you don't get any positive feedback.

Can you not handle a little life gain?

I can handle Zur fine, but he's way more threatening than oloro who if he's lucky will gain about 20 life in a game which is pretty meaningless in a format with innumerable infinite combos

I meant Oloro is boring and obnoxious to play against UNLESS you're playing voltron, infect or mill. Because with those strategies, life gain isn't worth diddily.

But user, having a substantial board presence offends me.