Let Me Flaunti My Gonti
I love black in EDH. To me, it has always felt like the color that is a jack of all trades, master of none. Of all the mono black commanders, I think that Gonti, Lord of Luxury is far and away the most interesting. The first time I saw him played, I knew that I wanted to make a deck around abusing his ETB ability. More so, I wanted to make a deck that took away my opponents' options, and made use of them for myself in every way possible. With that in mind, I made Your Deck is My Deck. Its goal is twofold: to steal my opponents' threats for my own use, and to look through their decks at every available opportunity, hopefully exiling their best options. I hope that I can convince you that Gonti theft is the best way to play mono black.
This approach is fun for a few reasons, in my opinion:
- Stealing threats from your opponents scales very will well with their deck strength. If your opponents are running very powerful cards like Omniscience or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, or general good-stuffs decks, each take-away is a huge swing in power. Similarly, opponents can never get too mad at you for stealing their degenerate cards, since they were the person running them in the first place.
- Stealing cards from weaker decks will not give as much advantage, but it makes the game more even, which I consider more fun. Stealing cards from opponents, rather than playing a ton of your own threats helps keep parity in games, regardless of their decks' power level.
- Looking through your opponents' decks gives an enormous advantage when you are playing against unfamiliar decks. Seeing something like Primal Surge or Deepglow Skate immediately gives you an idea of how your opponent plans on winning the game. You can also use this advantage as a political tool, both when you are choosing which opponent to target with searches, and when deciding which information you want to disclose to the whole table.
- Taking away super powerful cards from your opponents can make the game more interesting because it makes everyone play will their sub-optimal win conditions. Taking away an easy combo piece or a game ending bomb forces your opponents to think on their feet and make interesting plays, which I always find fun.
- Killing an opponent with their own creature always feels great.
I will say right now that this deck will not do well in any cEDH type setting; if you are looking for a competitive deck, this is not the deck for you. That said, if you want to make powerful 'traditional' EDH plays and your meta is casual or play-to-win casual, then Your Deck is My Deck may be a good option.
So let's dig into what the deck does.
Mana production
In general, black is an excellent color for ramping mana, the main catch is that it only works well with producing . This can be a bit of an issue in multi color decks, but in mono black it is no problem at all.
Cabal Coffers: The workhorse of the deck. 3/4 times that I tutor, it is for this card. In many ways this is the best card in the deck. This breaks even (in terms of per land) with Swamps at 4 lands (3 Swamps + Cabal), with fewer Swamps you will net less mana, and with any more you will net positive mana. When you are deciding to keep your opening hand, keep this ratio in mind, it can be tempting to keep 2 Swamps + Cabal, but alone this only has the possibility of producing 2 mana.
Vesuva
and Thespian's Stage: These are 2 more copies of Cabal Coffers
Magus of the Coffers: Cabal Coffers on a stick. Hopefully you are starting to see a theme here.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Another great tutor target; Urborg is an amazing enabler of Cabal Coffers, since it turns all of your nonbasics into Swamps, often significantly increasing mana production of Cabal Coffers, or any of its above mentioned doppelgangers.
Crypt Ghast and
Nirkana Revenant
, and Caged Sun: These cards make your Swamps tap for an additional mana. It is worth noting that when there is an Urborg in play, these creatures add an additional mana to any of your nonbasic lands as well, since they specifically mention tapping Swamps for mana.
Caged Sun: Very similar to Crypt Ghast and
Nirkana Revenant
, but does not specifically require lands to be Swamps. Also, gives a nice anthem effect to all your black creatures.
Sword of Feast and Famine: The discard effect on this is nice, but the real value comes from being able to untap all lands after combat damage is dealt, possibly resulting in an enormous amount of mana generation in a turn. It is worth noting that this is one of only two cards in the deck that require you to deal combat damage to your opponent; I often go entire games without swinging at my opponents for combat damage.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Another land that can end up tapping for an absurd amount of mana, given the correct circumstances. Nykthos is a little more vulnerable than Cabal Coffers, since devotion is often more vulnerable to board wipes/spot removal. Additionally, since it is legendary, Nykthos cannot be copied by
Vesuva
or Thespian's Stage.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse: Normally, this used just as a source of , however when stealing creatures from opponents, it is often the case that I end up with powerful legends under my control. Giving them some evasion is often helpful if they are combat-focused creatures. Also, this is one of the best ways in the deck of enabling safe attacks with either Sword of Feast and Famine or Blade of Selves on Gonti.
Black Market: This particular piece of tech eats a LOT of hate, but if you can keep it around it potentially will produce 10+ mana every turn. It works particularly well when combined with a board wipe.
Liliana of the Dark Realms: This planeswalker is a great way to consistently make land drops, and if you manage to use her ultimate ability, your opponents probably don't have any way of keeping up with your mana production (imagine having Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Mirari's Wake, and Zendikar Resurgent on the board simultaneously). She is one of the only 4-drops that I often prioritize over Gonti.
Mana rocks: In addition to the above sources, I run
Charcoal Diamond
, Gilded Lotus,
Jet Medallion
(I know, it isn't exactly a mana rock), Mana Vault, Sol Ring, and Thran Dynamo.
Along with 27 swamps, this results in 46 cards that I consider mana sources/ramp cards.
Exclusions:
It is worth noting that I have chosen not to run the Extraplanar Lens + Snow-Covered Swamp
combination. This is partially a budgetary choice, and partially because a lot of people in my local meta run snow-covered lands, so I would not get as much marginal benefit for my money.
Card Advantage
Necropotence: One of the best sources of card advantage in the game. Fill your hand at the end of your turn for next to no cost. As a bonus, if you get milled, Necropotence will allow you to avoid losing the game to drawing from an empty library.
Phyrexian Arena:
To be continued... Sorry, kids, I have a job.
