Chainer, Combo Master

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Creature Cheat Mono-Black Sacrifice Toolbox

sensibruh

Creatures (13)

• 1x Archon of Cruelty
• 1x Burning-Rune Demon
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Cavalier of Night
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Sacrifice Outlets (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Disciple of Griselbrand
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Viscera Seer

Sacrifice Payoff (5)

• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim

Card Advantage (3)

• 1x Moonlight Bargain
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sign in Blood

Ramp Win (2)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Ramp (11)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Heraldic Banner
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Cabal Ritual

Tutors (8)

• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Oriq Loremage
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Buried Alive

Removal (6)

• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Defile
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Mutilate

Artifacts (2)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Commander (1)

Land (36)

• 27x Swamp
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Witch's Cottage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Reanimators (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Victimize

Discard (2)

• 1x Bog Witch
• 1x Skirge Familiar

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Maybeboard

Wishlist (24)

• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Baleful Mastery
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Swap-outs (16)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Necrogoyf
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Dark Privilege
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Heartless Act
• 1x Whip of Erebos
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Diabolic Tutor

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This is my unfinished Chainer pile.

This casual deck revolves around Chainer's activated ability, which lets us bring back any creature from any graveyard under our control. We can do this at instant speed, for the low cost of 3 black and 3 life. This ability generates lots of value during the game, and even opens us up to various combos.

Sacrifice

Chainer relies on big creatures with big ETB effects ( Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Kokusho, the Evening Star , Rune-Scarred Demon , Meteor Golem ) that we can constantly recur for value. It is critical to always have an instant-speed sacrifice outlet ( Viscera Seer , Ashnod's Altar ) to get around Chainer's third ability, which will exile all of the creatures we've reanimated (just the ones on the battlefield) once he leaves the battlefield in any way. Opponents can easily exploit this weakness with instant speed removal targeting Chainer. There isn't a need for too much sacrifice payoff, as the creatures we are recurring are only valuable for their ETB effects and body, but we're running with Grim Haruspex and Skullclamp for the extra cards.

Tutors

To support the toolbox strategy and to help us find our combo pieces, we are running a lot of tutors. Entomb is great because it's an instant. With Chainer and 4 black, we can cheat any creature from our library onto the battlefield at instant speed. This can be used to interact with an opponent's combo with Meteor Golem , tutor that clutch boardwipe with Rune-Scarred Demon , or even just end the game with gray merchant. Buried Alive is a great combo tool, but it is a sorcery. Oriq Loremage is great if you can untap with him a couple of times, Razaketh, the Foulblooded is... Razaketh, and Corpse Connoisseur has unearth, so he can be discarded, sacrificed or milled for value and still be useful. Our targets for these tutors vary depending on the situation. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth , Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Caged Sun , Meteor Golem , and Exsanguinate are some good go-to targets. Living Death is also great if your graveyard is full of ETBs

Life Gain

A common problem is your life total. We're running Bolas's Citadel and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth , and Chainer's ability starts to hurt after a while. Disciple of Griselbrand , Noxious Gearhulk , and Exsanguinate are some of the cards we are running to counteract this problem.

Land

My mana base is pitiful right now, but look to the maybeboard to see what I'm planning on adding once I find a job. All pretty standard mono-black stuff.

Combos

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Viscera Seer + Chainer, Dementia Master is the easiest combo to pull off as you can find all the pieces with Buried Alive . Kokusho, the Evening Star works in place of Gray Merchant of Asphodel , and you can use any sac outlet. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth allows us to pay 9 life to activate Chainer's ability, instead of the normal 3 black and 3 life. This makes K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth one of the strongest cards in our deck, even if he's not being used as a combo piece.

Pitiless Plunderer + Ashnod's Altar + Reassembling Skeleton + Zulaport Cutthroat is harder to get all the pieces for, but it doesn't require a lot of mana.

A lot of the cards I didn't mention are insignificant and will be cut once I get cards from my wish list, which is listed in the maybeboard.

I'm looking for any criticism or ideas, so feel free to comment your thoughts

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #6 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.69
Tokens	Morph 2/2 C, Treasure
Folders	Combo Decks, decks i like