Chainer, Dementia Master [EDH/Old-Border]

Commander / EDH Horror Mono-Black Nightmare Sacrifice

meister_kai

Creature (28)

• 1x Ascendant Evincar
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Coffin Queen
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hypnox
• 1x Junk Diver
• 1x Karn, Silver Golem
• 1x Laquatus's Champion
• 1x Mesmeric Fiend
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Scion of Darkness
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spirit of the Night
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Vile Entomber
• 1x Visara the Dreadful
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Artifact (13)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Snake Basket
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x High Market
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Strip Mine
• 28x Swamp
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Instant (4)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Withering Boon

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Bone Shards
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Victimize

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Bane of the Living
• 1x Minion of Leshrac

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Contamination
• 1x Oppression

Artifact (1)

• 1x Smokestack

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This deck originally started out as a strictly Premodern EDH build, however I've come to realize that it's not really the design of the older cards that speaks to me the most, it's the aesthetic. It doesn't hurt that many powerful cards that work great in this style of deck have been printed in "retro-frame” over the last few years.

The recipe here is getting creatures into the graveyard (either your own or your opponent's) and recurring them to control the board, draw cards, drain life, or just pummel other players into the dust. Also features some of that sweet sacrifice payoff sauce. Read on below for an in-depth discussion which covers my background, individual card choices, sideboarding, a playing/combo guide and even a little treat for all the diehard Premodern players out there.

"They appreciate my handiwork. I hear their joy in every scream." - Chainer, Dementia Master

{B} BACKGROUND

Stay while and listen...

Besides starring in the highly regarded Magic: The Gathering novel and new-fangled "Saga" card Chainer's Torment, Chainer, Dementia Master was also present in the first Magic deck I ever played way back in the hallowed halls of 8th grade homeroom. The year was 2002, Onslaught block had just debuted and my friends were already throwing down slivers, elves, Defense of the Hearts and other assorted fan favorites like crazy. The dirty sliver player was nice enough to loan me a mono-black starter deck full of Invasion-Onslaught era cards, featuring superstars like Grotesque Hybrid, Terror, and of course, Chainer. This event birthed a long lasting love of all things mono-black, creature/hand desecration, and "suicide" strategies.

Thus this deck pays homage to the most successful disciple of Master Skellum and the cards I grew up playing with in the early 2000s while staying in the confines of my preferences: pre-8th edition and "retro-framed" cards only. It's not as powerful as more modern-focused Chainer decks with a million copies of Fleshbag Marauder, Cabal Coffers clones, and large flying demons that do pretty much everything, but you'll see that it can still deliver one hell of a punch at most tables.

{B} CREATURES

Dirty dudes to do your dirty deeds with.

Ascendant Evincar Show

- Fat cat Crovax the Cursed can do a number on weenie and token strategies and buffs 99% of your team, just be mindful of the nombo' with Snake Basket.

Avatar of Woe Show

- May not command as much respect on the table as it did in 2002 when it was a top contender for best creature alongside Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Verdant Force in my circle but its ability to scare other creatures into letting it sink its sickle into an opponents life force or rip out said creature's soul is as relevant today as it was then.

Coffin Queen Show

- Can pass as a Chainer imitation by grabbing either your own creatures back from the graveyard or stealing your opponents to use as you see fit. Works well with Soldevi Adnate for a pseudo-ritual effect with more expensive creatures or to bring back friends like Sengir Autocrat to provide fuel for various other engines.

Crypt Rats Show

- Your repeatable wrath on legs, a little mana intensive and hits your life total as well as others so be careful of overdoing it without a source of life gain around. Huge source of frustration for any table.

Faceless Butcher Show

- Besides having great art, this card was the bane of many FNM goers on its release due to the way its abilities are written and ordered on the card. Essentially, when it comes into play its first ability goes on the stack, but if you respond to that ability by holding priority and sacrificing or destroying it somehow, its second ability will trigger and go off before the first. The second ability fizzles as the first ability hasn't gone off yet, but then the first ability triggers and the targeted creature is removed from play...forever. If your friends haven't been on the receiving end of this before I recommend having an explanation already pulled up on your phone beforehand.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel Show

- An incredible source of power for the deck and is generally one of your top win conditions, not much more to be said so check the combo section for details.

Harvester of Souls Show

- Another great retro-frame include which pairs nicely with cards like Mutilate, Crypt Rats, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or really any non-token creature who happens to kick the bucket. A 5/5 Deathtouch is never a bad thing to have around either.

Hypnox Show

- Mainly here for nostalgia (my jaw hit the floor when this was first played against me) and for flavor as it's a nightmare, most of the time it will likely just be a big dumb flyer you can cheat into play for the hell of it. However, if you are able to cast it, well - remember what we said about Faceless Butcher? An opponent most dear to you can kiss their entire hand of cards goodbye forever if it pleases you.

Junk Diver Show

- Here for utility, getting back Snake Basket, Nevinyrral's Disk, Solemn Simulacrum or even Mind Stone for some super-jank pseudo-cycling. Might as well call it Jank Diver, now there's an Unglued card for you.

Karn, Silver Golem Show

- Forget jank like Gate to Phyrexia, Karn enables the best means of artifact destruction you have access to in Premodern mono black. Turning their 0 cost artifacts into creatures kills them outright and turning their equipment into creatures immediately unequips them, allowing you to kill them with ease. You can quickly turn every artifact that doesn't belong to you to dust in a hurry if the table is unprepared. He may be above hurting others, but he won't think twice about letting you smash their shit.

Laquatus's Champion Show

- When Ambassador Laquatus's champion Turg met his end at the finale of Odyssey, Chainer was ordered by The First (aka Cabal Patriarch) to fashion him a fearsome new right hand man, the result was the creation of Laquatus's Champion aka Burke. This was featured in a block deck of the era with multiple copies of the card along with Buried Alive and various reanimation effects to cause your opponent to lose up to 24 life in one go. You can somewhat recreate this (combo incoming later), otherwise, a 6/3 regen can get some work done in the red zone.

Mesmeric Fiend Show

- Serves as cheap blocking/sac'ing fodder, or can play Baby-Hypnox and permanently remove a card from an opponent's hand from the game if you want to be snazzy. Beware of abusing this trick as the salt will flow heavy and steady if you regularly target the same person.

Mindslicer Show

- The text on this card can either add a lot of fun tension to the game or be used rather oppressively depending on your need. I like using it as a bargaining chip with someone at the table who may have some wicked-sick combo in hand they want to use to stunt on some haters. On the other hand; you can use it to protect a combo win by sacrificing it at the end of the turn preceding yours, clearing the path to resolve Chainer etc without having to worry about Counterspells or the like.

Priest of Gix Show

- Alternate way to combo off if you lack Phyrexian Altar as it gives you {B}{B}{B} on EBT, see combo section for more. I remember being young/dumb and thinking this WAS Gix.

Sadistic Hypnotist Show

- I have a lot of found memories of playing this card in legacy Dredge builds circa the late 2000s. Strips plenty of cards from player's hands with ease, just don't forget you can't do this at instant speed. Features sick Paolo Parente art to boot.

Scion of Darkness Show

- Like Chainer, this was also in the first deck I ever played (which unfortunately didn't also feature multiple clerics or Dark Supplicant) and is a huge flavor win/beatstick. SoD, aka Kuberr, the reincarnated god of the Cabal, can steal opponent's creatures from them and is easy to get into the graveyard thanks to cycling. A cool feature is that per rulings on Gatherer, if you kill a creature in combat and also damage the owner with it's trample damage, you'll be able to steal the freshly slain creature immediately.

Sengir Autocrat Show

- One of the lynchpins of the deck, it enables combos both value driven and game ending. You're pretty much never sad to see this card, and you'll frequently tutor for it ASAP granted you have any way to abuse it at the present. See more about this in the combo section.

Shriekmaw Show

- Early game point and click creature removal spell that is repeatable with reanimation effects and combos nicely with Grave Pact, a decent upgrade from Bone Shredder.

Soldevi Adnate Show

- A pure old/retro-border EDH deck is going to lack many of the great enablers and mana generators of recent years such as Crypt Ghast, but Soldevi Adnate does a serviceable job turning your present trash into usable black mana treasure at instant speed. Almost always at least on rate with Bog Witch, you can kick things into gear very quickly with this and a card like Victimize + some fatties in the yard.

Solemn Simulacrum Show

- Aka Jens Thoren, does you multiple favors by being a solid source of ramp and value. Frequent target of the aforementioned Soldevi Adnate and regularly pulled out of bed by Junk Diver. Great early game card that is rarely ever dead.

Spirit of the Night Show

- Akroma before Akroma, Angel of Wrath was Akroma. Bonus points if you yell out loud "THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF THE NIGHT" (ala the song The Rhythm of the Night by Corona) when it comes into play like I did in high school. Did I mention I was really cool in high school? No? Goes without saying honestly. Anyways, just a fun big generic beatstick, not much more to say.

Vampire Hexmage Show

- Outside of recurring Bone Shards with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed this is the best we got when it comes to Planeswalker destruction. Required gear when facing any Superfriends deck.

Vile Entomber Show

- Goes well with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to tutor up any black card you want into your hand, or can help fuel Coffin Queen, Victimize, or any other recursion engine you may have going. Having deathtouch is cool, and makes a great 'Adnate target once it's done its thing.

Visara the Dreadful Show

- Her strongest feature is her eyes. That's the joke folks; not her ability to fly, or to be beefy, or destroying creatures, or having juicy black pips for Gray Merchant. Nope. just the big, full, soft, milky, tantalizing eyes.

Withered Wretch Show

- Helps out by hosing opposing graveyard strategies, helps turn all Living Deaths into one-sided affairs, and saves us from running Bojuka Bog.

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed Show

- A great commander in his own right, allowing you to recur any black card you want back into your hand. The ability reads sort of awkwardly, but the oracle text makes it clear that you can activate it without limit granted you have the mana, black cards to get back, and you haven't attacked yet. Especially noteworthy is that it's the only way to recur your instants, sorceries, and enchantments in the event they get wiped or milled.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Show

- A huge upgrade over Phyrexian Plaguelord, The Father of Machines provides a ton of card draw and can help you get around indestructibility with his -1/-1 counters. Be careful activating his proliferate ability when you have Necropotence in play as you will lose the discarded card forever. My only gripe is his appearance in the art, I know he's supposed to be handsome and all but did they really have to make him a goth Matthew Mercer?

Zulaport Cutthroat Show

- Another astonishingly good retro-frame present which can either be part of a win condition or a force multiplier, rewarding you for things you're already doing and helping to fuel Chainer activations or Necropotence draws. The only cards with this kind of effect in the true Premodern era are Syphon Soul and Subversion... not great.

{C} ARTIFACTS

Profane constructions used to spread terror and woe.

Altar of Dementia Show

- Can be used to mill your opponents by sac'ing/recurring big creatures or yourself to "tutor" some cards into your graveyard. Possible alternative win condition vs those who have gained infinite life.

Arcane Signet Show

- Gorgeous Dan Frazier art, pretty self explanatory include.

Ashnod's Altar Show

- Probably the worst of the three altars in the deck, but still has its use as a way to power out big fatties. Works especially well with token generators like Autocrat and Basket.

Charcoal Diamond Show

- Due to the limited selection afforded to us we are pretty much forced to play all 2 mana on-color rocks, not that this one is particularly bad.

Fellwar Stone Show

- A bit of a gamble in monocolor decks, sometimes it's a copy of Arcane Signet, sometimes it's just a worse Mind Stone. With your typical pod of 4 players at least 1 of them is generally playing black to some capacity, so it's live for you more often than not.

Jet Medallion Show

- Both pretty to look at and self-explanatory, makes expensive stuff cheaper and cheap stuff less expensive.

Mana Crypt Show

- Mandatory in pretty much every EDH deck that can afford it (to buy, not cast) for good reason. While we don't have a huge need for powering out large spells as we tend to cheat ours into play, every bit helps when you're trying to get all the various engine pieces online before someone Chulanes the game away.

Mind Stone Show

- So-so ramp that can cycle in a pinch and be recurred with Junk Diver, could be considered a flex spot if you want to try something different.

Nevinyrral's Disk Show

- Slow, clunky, telegraphed, but unfortunately your only out to bothersome enchantments and pre-sideboard, artifacts. Can be recurred which is something to keep in mind.

Phyrexian Altar Show

- Without doubt the most powerful of the three altars, used in many combos and virtually always has some use case while in play.

Snake Basket Show

- I wouldn't rate it as highly as Autocrat in the hierarchy of token makers, but a nostalgia pick for me as I included it in one of the first ever decks I built myself. Resist the urge to hold onto it forever and pop it when you can safely get 4 or so snakes into play as you can recur it without much trouble later on if you want to "go off" with it. The exception to this rule is when you have Black Market in hand, which apparently is very hungry for snakeskin and serfpelt.

Sol Ring Show

- Auto-include in every EDH deck since the format's genesis and for good reason, a lot of my friends had one hanging out in their casual 60 piles back in the day too.

Worn Powerstone Show

- Serviceable ramp that doesn't hurt you. The power level of mana rocks available to us with these restrictions leave a lot to be desired, but if this is "scrapping the bottom of the barrel" we still aren't doing half bad.

{B} SORCERY

Dark arts that harm, search, swell, or return that which belongs to you.

Bone Shards Show

- A great new addition since all our other removal is from the era where you only played as a Planeswalker, not with them. Either additional cost can be a boon depending on the situation, a great multi-use card that is hardly ever dead.

Bubbling Muck Show

- Helps with ramping mana when you need a big turn, especially before you have Cabal Coffers online. I use this card pretty liberally, don't be afraid to use it to power out tons of snake tokens or a fatty early game, you'll surely have uses for either.

Buried Alive Show

- A very powerful tutor for reanimation based strategies, anyone familiar with how decks like this work probably knows their way around this card. Good for playing the long game or used immediately with Victimize etc.

Decree of Pain Show

- Either mode is great, however make sure you have a plan for all the cards you might draw: at 8 mana you may not have any left to cast what you drew by end of turn, which is dangerous with Necropotence in play.

Demonic Tutor Show

- Self-explanatory, played in pretty much every deck it's legal in that plays black cards and for good reason.

Diabolic Intent Show

- Not seen as often as its older brother, but its additional cost is easily met in this deck and can even be used to trigger cards such as Grave Pact in a pinch.

Living Death Show

- The copy I had growing up was from the Battle Box Royal Set, I remember thinking it was counterfeit for the longest time lol. Extremely powerful in any deck that can reasonably abuse it and abuse it we can. Just be mindful about what's in your opponent's graveyard before casting if you don't plan on using it to win on the spot. Can be very powerful early game off the back of Buried Alive or Altar of Dementia.

Mutilate Show

- Superstar in standard during its heyday, has a quote from my boy featured so you know it had to be included. Can get around indestructible/protection from black and the like. It's no Toxic Deluge, but it's all we got.

Reanimate Show

- Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures and you need to reanimate something right quick. This is a classic go-to necro spell for good reason, gets you what you need, when you need it for cheap.

Victimize Show

- One of the better reanimate spells, I like it more than Reanimate, Stitch Together, and Exhume in this specific deck. Not hard to get virtual card advantage by using a token as a catalyst, getting two fatties into play early game will surely put the fear of The Cabal into people.

{B} ENCHANTMENT

Bewitching hexes for pain and profit.

Animate Dead Show

- Easy to cast, easy to find targets (just not pro black creatures), and the "drawback" of -1/-0 is pretty negligible. The gold standard for a reason.

Attrition Show

- Great sac outlet for tokens and the like, goes great with Grave Pact and Zulaport Cutthroat. Allows you a lot of control at the table and is great for making political moves.

Black Market Show

- Straight $MONEY$, literally and figuratively. This is the single greatest source of ramp in the deck, even eclipsing Coffers. If you can set it up it will take over the game and power out a win very quickly. I wish they would bring the REAL Cabal back (none of that total death cult Belzenlok stuff) so I can get a retro-frame Kuberr card that grants me treasure tokens. Maybe someday...

Grave Pact Show

- Huge force multiplier that tends to dictate the games that it's a part of, due to this I would play it with caution and would even advise cutting it if your pod is, how we say, full of wusses. Very easy to abuse in this deck and can totally shut down any strategy that relies on having a lot of creatures in play, which happens to be a lot of the kind you see around this deck's power level.

Necromancy Show

- I like it more than Dance of the Dead as I don't have to squint as hard to read it, pay mana to use the target, or explain it to people as often. Both modes of this card are good; playing it at instant speed can sometimes be of use.

Necropotence Show

- Undoubtedly one of the most famous black cards ever made, volumes have been written about THE SKULL since the decades after its debut in Ice Age so I won't go into why it's excellent in any deck that can support it. You obviously want to be careful with any effect that causes you to discard cards with this in play, which sadly makes favorites of mine like Tortured Existence and Greel, Mind Raker no-goes in this deck, but it's a price I'm more than willing to pay in order to have an effect this powerful. Really not sure why this card is perfectly fine and legal but Yawgmoth's Bargain is deemed too good, the power difference never seemed that great to me.

Phyrexian Arena Show

- Oldie but a goodie, has been popular with the casual crowd since it's inception and never disappoints.

Phyrexian Reclamation Show

- Probably the slot I'm having the most trouble finalizing in the entire deck. It's a tossup between this, Dawn of the Dead and Oversold Cemetery. While I'm not totally sure which one is the best, the casting cost and activation costs make it the most favorable to me at the moment. Cemetery looks great on paper, but in practice you'll be surprised by how often you just don't have 4 or more creatures in your yard. George Romero Riff may be the best of the bunch, but it costs the most and necessitates having a sac outlet on hand to not have it exile a creature on every use. Only time and testing will tell.

{C} LANDS

Who knew rotten swamps and derelict tombs could be prime real estate?

Ancient Tomb Show

- Not as thrilled about using this frequently when Arena or THE SKULL are in play, but otherwise it's a great way to pump out mana rocks early. While double colorless isn't the best in this deck, there are enough powerful 4 drops I like having in play early that I'm consistently happy when this shows up in the starting grip.

Cabal Coffers Show

- Another card that needs no introduction, I remember having 4 in my super Timmy "Kill all creatures all the time" deck freshman year of high school which featured bangers such as Dregs of Sorrow, Reiver Demon, Bone Shredder and the like. Has a huge target on it and will almost certainly make the table begin to conspire against you once played so don't throw it out there unless you're actually getting a tangible benefit from it. Powerful enough to still be a bit of a build around and every land that isn't a swamp better have a damn good reason to be in the deck, especially when we lack any of the recent imitations.

Deserted Temple Show

- Mostly here to untap Coffers but also works well with Market, Tower, or Stronghold depending on your needs.

High Market Show

- Serves as an instant speed sac outlet with marginal life gain attached, not the best but this deck really hates getting it's cards exiled. Anything you can do to avoid that is appreciated.

Petrified Field Show

- While the deck is good at recurring most things the one thing it cannot do outside of this one card is recur lands. Generally used to recur Coffers only, I tend to sandbag it in my hand unless I need the mana early game. Great to hang onto incase of an Armageddon effect.

Phyrexian Tower Show

- Good, honest, double black mana production for the low-low price of helping you do something you already wanted to be doing. S'good.

Strip Mine Show

- Plenty of decks just fall apart if you hit their precious, precious lands. May as well be called Salt Mine, now there's a kickass alter just waiting to happen.

Swamp Show

- You want as many of these as you can fit in due to being a Coffers deck, you're generally always happy to see them and any hand with 2 in the starting 7 is probably keepable. I will never be convinced that all original Unglued isn't best but I would respect the all Swamp, the all Swamp and for the person whose aesthetic desire knows no monetary bounds, the all Swamp.

Volrath's Stronghold Show

- Another avenue for creature recursion, all my homies love stopping by V's Crib on their way back from the 'yard.

{B} INSTANT

There's a f**king black counterspell?!?

Dark Ritual Show

- The first, the OG, the classic mana ramp spell. Shouldn't this either be green, or cost life or something? Oh the good old days when blue and black where just way better than everything else. Make sure to yell "THE DREAM!" loudly every time you slam a turn 1 Necropotence or Phyrexian Arena off the back of this spell. All the arts are good but the flavor text on the Saga version wins it for me with a runner-up award to the "Crazy Jesus" Ice Age version.

Entomb Show

- On par with Demonic Tutor in any deck you would play this in, while this deck doesn't do the famous turn 1 Swamp, Ritual, Entomb/Exhume a fatty trick, Animate Dead as a stand in works a treat.

Vampiric Tutor Show

- Another great tutor, use at instant speed right before your turn so people know they're dealing with a super serious unwashed elite pro player.

Withering Boon Show

- Wins the award for "card most likely to blindside the unfamiliar". Yes, an honest to God Remove Soul in black, who even remembers this card? This was not something that I actively knew of back in the day, I found it while trolling through TC Deck Premodern sideboards. You'll really "get" some people with this the first time around and in the Timmy creaturefest that is mid tier EDH games, it will likely never be dead.

{B} SIDEBOARD

Aka "cheating bullshit" if you play with assholes

Bane of the Living Show

- When you anticipate a lot of indestructible or pro black creatures this is better than Crypt Rats, just mind that you cannot choose to reanimate it face down, it can only enter play face down if played from your hand so make sure to have plenty of mana ready to kill whatever it is you need to in one shot.

Contamination Show

- A very mean card for when you're playing against very mean people. Too mean for regular inclusion in my opinion, like Moat it can totally dictate games and shut people out in a most unfun way, only used when I'm attempting to play with the big boys (decks with power scale 8+). I remove Necromancy for this.

Minion of Leshrac Show

- A Nostalgia grab that plays double duty, killing both creatures and even more importantly troublesome lands. This ability can really hamper some decks and is great at lowering shields brought up by cards like Glacial Chasm or Maze of Ith. Make sure to have a plan in play regarding what fodder you'll use to feed it as it cannot either sacrifice itself to itself, or destroy itself with its own ability. Interesting enough, you can respond to the forced tap trigger by activating its ability in response, you'll still take 5 but at least you'll get use out of it. Like Delraich this guy always reminds me of The Graveyard Shift.

Oppression + Smokestack Show

- Lumped together because they always go in together alongside Contamination. Any deck that isn't constantly making tokens will soon be overwhelmed by the Stack, while Oppression helps keep them in the grip of the soot by limiting their ability to ever hold cards in hand. Assuming you are already subbing in Contamination, I would cut Attrition and any of the big beaters to fit these in, the ability to destroy creatures by sac'ing permanents is less attractive when your opponent's can't play any in the first place and you're constantly choking your own out. I like to have Stack set to 2-3, then reanimate a Sengir Autocrat every turn to pay for the upkeep on Stack and Contamination.

{B} HOW TO PLAY

So what the hell do I do with this pile?

Playing Chainer, Dementia Master in general requires a bit more finesse than many EDH decks that simply want to jam their commander as often as possible. Due to the "remove all nightmares from the game" clause that triggers when he leaves play, you have to plan Chainers entrance carefully to avoid getting gotcha'ed too hard. Generally this isn't too difficult, just make sure you have some sort of instant speed sacrifice outlet such as Phyrexian Altar in play beforehand. I may be a little more gun shy than most, but if my instant speed outlets get wiped I tend to just sacrifice all my nightmares as well as Chainer in response, however this mostly depends on whether or not the nightmares in play are my own creatures that matter to the gameplan, or stolen ones.

The deck has a pretty heavy sacrifice theme, it doesn't take a lot of work to get payoffs from cards like Grave Pact or Zulaport Cutthroat in this deck. The main card that helps enable this whole line of play is Sengir Autocrat, who is often among my first tutoring targets due to the synergy he has with the rest of the deck.

Since the deck has such a strong mid to late game you can generally afford to play it cool early on, just ramp and search up Coffers or Mutilate if the table starts getting a bit too froggy in your direction. There's nothing stopping you from being cheeky and going for an early reanimated fatty though.

Generally, if you have some combination of a recursion engine like Coffin Queen, Phyrexian Reclamation, or even just Volrath's Stronghold plus some form of sacrifice payoff like Phyrexian Altar or Attrition and Sengir Autocrat or a large Snake Basket you're firing on all cylinders.

If you need one of your sweepers like Decree of Pain back or if someone plays FBI and blows up your Black Market, don't forget that Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed can be recurred to tutor up anything you want from the graveyard.

I typically just play the deck in a laissez-faire manner, just sort of durdling around and trying to get in the red zone with my dirty boys. You can of course go the combo route if it suites you. Speaking of....

{B} COMBOS

Cool story but I want to kill people NOW

Chainer, Dementia Master + Sengir Autocrat + Zulaport Cutthroat + Phyrexian Altar Show

- Altar allows you to sacrifice Autocrat and his Serfs for {B}{B}{B}{B} while Cutthroat drains the table. You can repeat this ad infinitum for infinite drain/mana with Chainer since you're always life/mana positive.

Chainer, Dementia Master + Priest of Gix + Zulaport Cutthroat + Any Free Sac Outlet Show

- With Chainer and Cutthroat in play, reanimate Priest with Chainer netting you {B}{B}{B}. Sac Priest to anything that doesn't cost mana and use the {B}{B}{B} to reanimate him again via Chainer. Since the life you gain with this loop varies with how many opponents you have (positive with 4+, neutral at 3, negative with 2 or less) be sure to carefully gauge if going for this is worth it. I generally go for this if someone is cheeky and Return to Dusts my Phyrexian Altar.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Priest of Gix + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed + Ashnod's Altar + Living Death Show

- With Altar in play and these creatures either in play or in the graveyard, cast Living Death. If Priest is in play, sac him to Altar before casting Living Death. Gray Merchant drains everyone, Priest gives you {B}{B}{B}, sac Xiahou using his ability to recur Living Death then sac the other creatures to Altar and repeat. This is just one form of this combo, there are multiple versions of it depending on who you have around: for example, with Vile Entomber you can tutor whatever cards you want into your graveyard, with more creatures on the field you gain infinite mana - or with Junk Diver you can recur all your artifacts - or with Harvester of Souls you can draw however many cards you want - or with Altar of Dementia in play you can deck all your opponents. Note that Jet Medallion makes this combo easier to pull off.

Chainer, Dementia Master + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + 30 {B} Mana Show

- Before you say "that 'combo' sucks balls" just remember that this example assumes that Chainer and Gray Merchant are the only sources of devotion to black you have in play and that your opponents are at full life, neither of which are incredibly likely. Obviously the more devotion to black you have and the lower the life totals of your opponents, the less resource intensive this combo is.

Chainer, Dementia Master + Laquatus's Champion + Any Sacrifice Outlet + However Much {B} Mana Show

- Only included because I hinted at it earlier. No, I haven't ever pulled this off in a game (YET) but as soon as I combo someone like it's 2002 again I'll let everyone know.

{B} BUT MEISTER_KAI, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PREMODERN DECK?

For when you want to go pure oldschool

As I said above, this deck originally started as a pure Premodern EDH build. If you are looking to go the full retro route, here's how you get there:

Remove: Show

- Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Zulaport Cutthroat, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Shriekmaw, Vile Entomber, Solemn Simulacrum, Harvester of Souls, Bone Shards, Strip Mine, Arcane Signet, Soul Ring, Demonic Tutor

Add: Show

- Highway Robber, Subversion, Phyrexian Plaguelord, Bone Shredder, Krovikan Horror, Karn, Silver Golem, Guiltfeeder, Drain Life, Wasteland, Fellwar Stone, Skull of Ramos, Diabolic Tutor

Even though only 12 cards get changed out, the deck takes a hit in the power department. Cutthroat, Entomber, and Yawgmoth in particular can do some serious heavy lifting which can't really be matched by anything in the premodern era pound for pound. You are thus even more sensitive to life loss with no real way to mitigate an early Necropotence without lucking into an early Subversion. Most of our combo potential is gone, but we do have some slight variation(s) of one of the aforementioned combos at our disposal:

Highway Robber + Priest of Gix + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed + Ashnod's Altar + Living Death Show

- Priest comes into play and gives you {B}{B}{B}, sac Priest and Robber to Ashnod's for {4}, play Living Death, recurr Living Death with Xiahou, rinse and repeat. If you don't have access to Robber, you can also just try for infinite mana (as the above combo generates an extra {1}{B} per cycle) and eventually hit someone with a lethal Drain Life, after which you can build up to infinite mana again, cast Chainer, use Xiahou to recur the Drain Life and then start the combo over again. Sloppy, but gets the job done. You could use Tendrils of Agony over Drain Life if you wanted, but sometimes I use Drain to hit someone/something pestering me for a life boost, especially if I have Necro' in play.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	37 - 5 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.50
Tokens	Morph 2/2 C, Serf 0/1 B, Snake 1/1 G
Folders	Inspiration, Old School