Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Sacrifice Value Engine

MajorHammer

Creature (46)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Demon's Disciple
• 1x Dross Hopper
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x False Prophet
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Somberwald Sage
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x World Shaper
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (36)

• 1x Agadeem, the Undercrypt  ^Flip
• 1x Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 2x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 2x Plains
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 2x Snow-Covered Forest
• 2x Snow-Covered Plains
• 2x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Commander (1)

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Incarnation Technique
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Victimize

Instant (2)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Stinging Study

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Karador, Ghost Chiefton: The Man, The Myth, The Primer

So, Tell Me About The Deck

I bet you hate dumping your hand into a boardwipe. Or when your commander tax is at 8. Or you can't seem to find any draw, any way to crawl back into the game. You watch everyone around you at the table still playing magic and being relevant, and you are not. I have been there. Some of my first commander experiences were with a Gishath, Sun's Avatar deck that was often less than relevant, unable to cast the spells in its hand and watching dinosaur after good dinosaur die to removal and boardwipes when the mana was finally available.

If you play this deck, not only will you never feel this way again, but you can watch with glee as you grind your opponents' hands into dust. This deck is a mean, green, land playing, creature sacrificing machine. There is innate glory from truly not caring when your spells get countered or when your stuff gets removed because all of their puny attempts to stop you only delay your plans and make you angry. Sure, you may not always win first, but, left unchecked, you will always be the most frightening, inevitable deck at the table.

This deck has been through an astounding number of iterations, but I feel that with this version, I have created the most satisfying way to play Abzan in commander. If you don't feel the same, please let me know how I can improve. I am always looking for more suggestions to make this deck the best it can be.

What Are We Trying To Do?

Ultimately, the deck aims to lock out your opponent's resources with extensive removal and some well-placed late-game stax, using recursion and creature looping to generate an unstoppable engine of destruction. Though this is not a stax deck in the traditional sense, it does employ cards like Yosei, the Morning Star to close out the game, so make sure to have a conversation with your table about what is or isn't acceptable to bring.

What Kind of Table Was This Deck Built For?

I think addressing the meta is an important aspect for every deck primer, as different decks are built for very different play groups, speeds, etc. Knowing what your deck is supposed to be doing and with what efficiency is an important aspect of deckbuilding and one that should be addressed whenever you are building a new deck. Some decks have more hate, less hate, etc. All of that is dictated by your table, so please have a conversation before dumping money into a deck you found on the internet.

This deck was built at a table with no budget limit, but we collectively discourage running more expensive pieces like mana crypt so as to keep the decks to a 5-8 range. The table discourages random early wins and combos because many people in the group like longer, drawn out, grindier games. Almost every deck runs blue and the table never has less than one control or theft deck. Finally, bear in mind that meta that created this deck is creature-light and usually instant speed.

Mr. The Ghost Chieftain Himself

A question you may be asking yourself: why Karador, Ghost Chieftain ? Karador seems like a worse version of Kenrith, the Returned King , as Kenrith gives you way more color pie options and allows you to reanimate at instant speed and more than once per turn. The answer is simple: Kenrith, the Returned King can die, and that would suck. Command tax is gross and icky. Karador is more akin to the philosophy of the deck in that it is very hard to permanently remove him. The cost reduction on his first line can make it to where you never pay anything more than . Essentially, hat he lacks in power he makes up for in his work ethic. As a result, I rarely cast Karador in games that are going well. He is a great backup plan and a solid reanimation piece in the late game.

Another commander that could potentially work for a similar list is Muldrotha, the Gravetide . I ultimately decided on Karador because the white pieces are some of my favorites. Where Sultai is great at generating a graveyard and protecting itself, Abzan is much more focused on ETBs and death triggers while retaining a much less extensive board state.

Playing The Deck

How to Win

There are technically two "combos" in the deck that would theoretically win the game instantly if they combined. That said, the deck makes no attempt to actively seek the combo to win, and is designed to win without either of these options.

Saffi Eriksdotter + Sun Titan / Karmic Guide + Zulaport Cutthroat + Sac Outlet Show

1. Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter to her ability, targeting Sun Titan . 2. Sacrifice Sun Titan to the sacrifice outlet. 3. Sun Titan reenters with the triggered ability from Saffi Eriksdotter . 4. Target Saffi Eriksdotter with Sun Titan's ETB trigger to reanimate her. 5. If Zulaport Cutthroat is on the field, he will see both creatures die and drain 2 from each opponent. 6. Rinse and repeat.

Saffi Eriksdotter + Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Sac outlet + Any creature with an ETB or death trigger Show

1. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to the sac outlet. 2. Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter to her ability, targeting Reveillark . 3. Sacrifice Reveillark to the sac outlet. 4. On the death of Reveillark , target Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide 5. On Karmic Guide 's ETB target any value piece in your graveyard with an ETB or death trigger. 6. Start again from the beginning.

The primary way in which I have won is through accumulated drain via Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Zulaport Cutthroat , or Vindictive Lich . With enough death and reanimation triggers, the table will eventually fall.

Important Pieces

The deck includes 7 sacrifice outlets that essentially read "Sacrifice a creature: do something meaningless." The point of these is to be able to sacrifice for 0 mana and at instant speed. The deck used to include sacrifice outlets with huge payoffs such as Perilous Forays , but they were too mana intensive and vulnerable to be worth it oftentimes. The deck just needs to make sure creatures can end up dead if need to be. Since your graveyard becomes similar to your second hand while piloting, putting things in the graveyard rarely feels bad.

The primary ways to slow the table down are with Yosei, the Morning Star and Hokori, Dust Drinker . Both of these are for the late game and have very little use when jammed early, so I wouldn't tutor for them right away. Yosei, the Morning Star can be played a little bit earlier to slow down a player doing well, but his best use is with Gift of Immortality . Target Yosei with the enchantment, then sacrifice him and target the player immediately to your left with his ability. At end step, Gift of Immortality comes back. You can repeat this and tap down every player in turn order, then swing with Yosei each turn to win. Another way to lock out the table is by keeping out Hokori, Dust Drinker and sacrificing him on the end step before your turn. Many players say they don't mind the presence of the stax pieces because they are never jammed early and usually result in an instant scoop from the table.

To attack permanets, use Bane of Progress to artifact and enchantment wipe and use False Prophet or Dictate of Erebos / Grave Pact to wiipe creatures. Plaguecrafter , Demon's Disciple , card:Ravenous Chupecabra, Reclamation Sage , Knight of Autumn all have fantastic ETBs and can generally be jammed when you have the mana. Fiend Hunter works in a couple of great ways: you can sac him with his ETB on the stack to permanently exile a creature or you can use him in place of Saffi Eriksdotter for the combos. Mindslicer is a house and I fully recommend trying this card out if you have never done so in a deck before.

MVP of the deck is most likely Luminous Broodmoth . The amount of value generated by this card alone is insane, and a lot of the table locks I have generated have come from this effect. A priority target for tutors, especially early.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.12
Tokens	Experience Token, Goat 0/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B