[PRIMER|DUEL] Yawgmoth's party

Duel Commander Counters Mono-Black Zombie

Ultrakill

Creature (32)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Carrier Thrall
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Doomed Dissenter
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Dread Wanderer
• 1x Festering Mummy
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Mortician Beetle
• 1x Orzhov Enforcer
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Plague Engineer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Scrapheap Scrounger
• 1x Sultai Emissary
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (38)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 24x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland

Instant (10)

• 1x Contagion
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Defile
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Undying Evil

Artifact (3)

• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte

Commander (1)

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Collective Brutality
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Duress
• 1x Hymn to Tourach
• 1x Innocent Blood
• 1x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Unearth

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Nest of Scarabs

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil

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With the release of the new Core Set 2020 came new possibilities as form as commanders, although Urza, Lord High Artificer took all the attention (Now all knows why...), another card went by unnoticed, and that is the topic today, a potentially good mono-black commander Yawgmoth, Thran Physician .

Let's analize the full set of abilities of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician :

ABILITIES

1. Protection from Humans:

This could be the ability that goes most unnoticed, but it's good to block card that are in the meta actually, like Tajic, Legion's Edge and a good part of his crew.

2. Sacrifice, -1/-1 and draw:

This is the most usefull ability on the card, leting you destroy the opponent's board meanwhile getting card advantage (as long as you have the resources to do that of course).

3. Proliferate:

This ability hasn't seen the light since the times of Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and now is even better, letting us use it whenever we want. You can also convine this one with the second ability proliferating the -1/-1 counters.

But not all is a piece of cake, let's see the PROS and CONS of Yawgmoth:

PROS and CONS

1. Pros:

-High synergy with every kind of counters. -Good creature removal. -Card advantage. -Depending on the match could discard dead cards to gain advantage of proliferate.

2. Cons:

-The first ability takes your life resource, the problem is that in mono-black there isn't many cards to gain that life back, depending on the match it could be a factor (ex. vs hard aggro). -Lack of good revomal for artifacts/enchantments.

Now that we've seen all that matters of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician let's see how to win with it, for that we have to review all the other 99 cards which let us interact with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or between themselves.

MANA BASE:

Because it's a mono-black deck, the most lands we need are Swamp or Snow-Covered Swamp but there is few more cards that are usefull here:

1. Cabal Coffers is a good example, along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth generate insane amounts of mana, another way to go crazy is Lake of the Dead .
2. Fetchlands, we need them to filter our deck and also to abuse a bit of Bloodghast and it's interaction with our commander and with Skullclamp .
3. As said there is a lack of removal for artifacts / enchantments in our colors, for that we carry Blast Zone to deal with them.

CARD ADVANTAGE:

1. We carry the set of Gravecrawler , Bloodsoaked Champion , Bloodghast and Dread Wanderer , those cards are able to be sacrificed then get back to the battlefield, not mention that those are good against removal and counter.

2. Cards like Dark Confidant , Cryptbreaker or Undead Augur let us keep drawing for answers or resources.

3. Don't forget Skullclamp

COMBO:

There is some ways for us to combo out our opponent, just keep in mind that we pay life to sacrifice creatures, so we need some sort of cards to keep our life above 0, let's see:

WINNING COMBO:

1. Geralf's Messenger + Butcher Ghoul + Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat + Sac Outlet

2. Geralf's Messenger / Butcher Ghoul + Nest of Scarabs + Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat + Sac Outlet

3. Geralf's Messenger / Butcher Ghoul + Pawn of Ulamog + Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat + Sac Outlet

INFINITE LIFE:

Any of the WIN COMBO combination but using Deathgreeter instead.

--NOTE-- There is another considered but not used (by the moment) combo to win, it would be Putrid Goblin + Metallic Mimic + Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat + Sac Outlet, but still thinking if i will use it or not (the Mimic).

LOCK:

We can achieve this against non mono-black players:

1. Contamination + Dreadhorde Invasion / Bitterblossom or in case we have the tools to get them back we can use Gravecrawler , Bloodsoaked Champion , Bloodghast or Dread Wanderer .

--NOTE-- I've been thinking about to add Tangle Wire to lock along with proliferate ability, may add it in the future :) .

SYNERGY:

By using cards like Drana, Liberator of Malakir , Dreadhorde Invasion or Mortician Beetle we could get +1/+1 counters which we can proliferate anytime we want.

HAND DEALER

We carry some cards to deal with some cards that we're not able to deal with into the battlefield, those are Thoughtseize , Inquisition of Kozilek , Duress and Hymn to Tourach . You can also consider to use Mind Twist , Kitesail Freebooter , Brain Maggot or Mesmeric Fiend but by the time i didn't find a place for those.

CONCLUSION

Most of time we win by keeping opponent's battlefield in control with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and getting cards draw in the process, those things keep us with resources and/or answers in our hands. So here is deck, enjoy it and do not be afraid to suggest any change you would do, i will be glad to read your comments.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Duel Commander legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.08
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Insect 1/1 B, Manifest 2/2 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Thopter 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B