One, Two, Chainer's Coming for You

Commander / EDH Aggro Control Mono-Black Reanimator

mhackett324

Creature (24)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nantuko Husk
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Triskelion
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Instant (5)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Killing Wave
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mastermind's Acquisition
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Ruinous Path
• 1x Sever the Bloodline
• 1x Tendrils of Agony
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victimize

Artifact (8)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Onyx Talisman
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited

Commander (1)

Land (35)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Peat Bog
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 26x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Tortured Existence

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Disclaimer Show

This deck is a paper deck. As such, the list will reflect what I have currently. Your suggestions will be posted in the acquireboard and the substitutions will be marked below.

Welcome to the Nightmare! Chainer, Dementia Master has been a very fun deck to build for me personally. It started as my first commander deck from the mono-Black precon from Commander 2014 and then morphed into a Liliana control deck/demon tribal when Liliana, Heretical Healer   came about. Since then, I started playing Legacy Dredge and fell in love with reanimation. So I found Chainer in a binder and started to get to work. I like Chainer solely for the instant speed reanimation he gets. However, the deck is not built around him. Instead, Chainer is to be used as a tool to either close out the game or to keep other opponents in check.

The goal of this deck is to control the game with discard, removal, and suppression and win via incrimental value. The main combo win condition is to repeatedly reanimate Gray Merchant of Asphodel to drain your opponents to zero. You generally want to execute this late game when you've built up enough devotion to black to a point where it's worth your mana.

Reanimation

Here are the main spells that bring on the night terrors:

• Chainer, Dementia Master: Very useful as a constant recurring reanimation spell. When he dies, all creatures reanimated with him are removed from the game, so be sure to not overextend without having a sacrifice outlet

• Animate Dead: Can bring back any target creature from any graveyard into play with -1/-0 and Animate Dead attached. If this is removed before the creature, the creature dies.

• Beacon of Unrest: Reanimates a creature or artifact from any graveyard and shuffles away to be tutored up later. Useful now that Breya, Etherium Shaper decks are increasing in popularity since some artifacts may be up for grabs in certain graveyards.

• Liliana, Heretical Healer  : Liliana is helpful in this deck since she's essentially a reanimating planeswalker. Her flip is easy to trigger in a deck with plenty of sacrifice outlets and her reanimation ability comes useful. Her emblem makes edict/wrath effects game winning.

• Necromancy: Similar to Animate Dead, but can be played at instant speed to reanimate something like Gray Merchant of Asphodel in a last ditch effort to end the game.

• Nim Deathmantle: Very powerful combo piece with Ashnod's Altar and Grave Titan or Wurmcoil Engine, I've elected to steer clear of including too many combos in the deck and instead use it for extra value when Chainer can't come out. May include combos when meta gets faster, but I see no need at the present time.

• Reanimate: Cheapest reanimation spell we have. for one creature. Only downside is we lose life equal to the converted mana cost, but that's what happens when you play black.

• Sheoldred, Whispering One: Passive edict with a passive reanimate. Opponents will think twice when playing their best creatures.

• Victimize: Sacrifice two of my creatures that want to die to get one of my haymakers.

Graveyard Makers

• Altar of Dementia: Serves as both a sacrifice outlet for my creatures and mills my opponent's/my own library for more reanimation targets. Mainly here for the sacrifice outlet, but mill is a great upside.

• Buried Alive: Entomb for creatures. Mainly used to create two kinds of piles: combo or control. Combo normally contains what I need for the Gray Merchant of Asphodel combo. Control will normally contain Butcher of Malakir or Void Winnower to keep my opponent's creatures or spells out of the game.

• Cryptbreaker: Practically a 1 mana planeswalker. Pay to discard a card and make a 2/2 zombie. Have a load of zombies? Tap three of them at end of turn to draw a card and lose 1 life. Sounds like value to me!

• Entomb: Stick a creature in the grave to reanimate. Instant speed allows you to bury it either end of turn or in response to a spell or ability entering the stack. Pairs well with Dark Ritual and Reanimate to get an insane turn one combo that makes you feel like you're playing Legacy.

• Geier Reach Sanitarium: Amazing card advantage and group hug enabler. Plenty of decks don't mind looting through to get a playable and this card lets them do it. You fill everyone's graveyards with nice reanimation targets while you look for your own silver bullets and combo pieces.

• Haunted Dead: This card puts in some serious work. Great as an early game blocker/discard outlet and the spirit token it creates makes for a great surprise blocker vs flyers.

• Life's Finale: Sweeper with a Buried Alive for our opponents as a bonus? Yes please! Excellent vs other graveyard decks since you can steal their fatties and opens up the opportunity for our other opponents to identify them as the main threat. Good vs some combo decks since you can get rid of some of their pieces.

• Sheoldred, the Whispering One: Puts pesky creatures into the grave for me.

Ramp

- Cabal Coffers: Adds mana equal to the number of swamps you control. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth helps maximize the output made by this card. Jokingly referred to as the 'real' commander in mono-black.

• Cabal Ritual: If you can meet threshold, this card makes the mana math game a little easier. Surprise opponents who think you can't activate Chainer with 2 mana or cheat on the mana curve.

• Dark Ritual: Turn 1 Liliana of the Veil or Entomb into Reanimate into Void Winnower seems really good.

• Expedition Map: Tutors for Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Nykthos, Shrine of Nyx to get close to finishing the game.

• Hedron Archive: Only mana rock I'd justify playing here. Serves as a late game draw and buffers against commander tax.

• Jet Medallion: Coupon for all your black spells. Makes the math a bit easier.

• Liliana of the Dark Realms: Mainly tutors for Swamps. Never really use the minus ability. Ultimate wins games.

• Myriad Landscape: Fetches 2 Swamps. Great deck thinning.

• Nirkana Revenant: Doubles your mana. Shade ability can win games if she can get through.

• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Helps ramp pretty easily. Most of our creatures have 2 devotion or more.

• Peat Bog: Budget Lake of the Dead.

• Solemn Simulacrum: Fetches a Swamp and draws you a card. If you can sacrifice it consistently, can grab you boatloads of card advantage.

• Sword of the Animist: A staple in my opinion. Hit with a weenie to thin your deck and ramp your mana for a beefy Coffers activation.

The Fiend Club

Ghoulcaller Gisa: Accumulates large armies of zombies really fast and doubles as a sacrifice outlet.

Grave Titan: 6 mana for 10 power and a 6/6 deathtoucher is the best. If you want to go the combo heavy route, works really well with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Virtually blink this guy by sacrificing it and reanimating ad nauseum for a huge advantage over the table if not a win.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Gets extra value out of our reanimated guys. Chainer's death trigger becomes irrelevant if you can sacrifice your dudes and get them back forever.

Nirkana Revenant: See ramp. Tons of mana + no blockers makes for a great hit.

Sheoldred, the Whispering One: Helps us so much while keeping our opponent on the back foot. Early enough, she can suppress the game to the point where people will start tutoring for permanent answers.

Void Winnower: Stops 50.8% of all cards in the game. By color, it stops white at 50.2%, blue at 50.5%, black at 48.3%, red at 48.4%, green at 49.0% and colorless at 51.1% (Source: The Gatherer). Stops 45% of the 100 most played cards according to EDHRec and stops 67 common cards from Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, 76 common cards in Breya, Etherium Shaper, 68 common cards in Meren of Clan Nel Toth, and 63 common cards in Vial Smasher the Fierce.

Wurmcoil Engine:

Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.63
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Mono Black Liliana Commander