Syr Konrad, the Grim [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Burn Combo Infect Mono-Black Primer Sacrifice

MattouWolf

Creature (37)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Initiates of the Ebon Hand
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Millikin
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Tormod, the Desecrator
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x High Market
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 12x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Morality Shift
• 1x Peer into the Abyss

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Vampiric Link
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Exquisite Blood

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Instant (7)

• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Ad Nauseam

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

Instant (2)

• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Insidious Dreams

Artifact (1)

• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty

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Introduction

Syr Konrad, the Grim is fun and unique mono commander that plays on burning your opponents as a win condition and has some quite specific combo wins mostly unique to him.

Key features that differentiate him from your usual aristocrat stuff
like Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat / Ayara, First of Locthwain are his trigger abilities.

• Whenever a creature card is put into graveyard from anywhere,
• or a creature card leaves YOUR graveyard,
• Syr Konrad the Grim deals 1 damage to each opponent.

Which gives us some very interesting combos unique to this commander like Morality Shift or Mindcrank.

Key Cards

1. Morality Shift
2. Mindcrank / Bloodchief Ascension
3. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre / Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4. Doom Whisperer + lifegain / lifesteal
5. Poison counters on Konrad (Phyresis, Tainted Strike, etc.)
6. Phyrexian Altar + Gravecrawler / Nether Traitor / Reassembling Skeleton package

Other strong combos and cards

• Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
• Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• Necropotence
• Ad Nauseam
• Peer into the Abyss
• Grindstone + Painter's Servant
• Bolas's Citadel
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• Black Market
• Skullclamp
• Altar of the Brood
• Ashnod's Altar
• Tortured Existence
• Desecrated Tomb
• Vilis, Broker of Blood
• Living Death
• other aristocrats: Zulaport Cutthroat,Ayara, First of Locthwain

Combos

1.Syr Konrad, the Grim + Morality Shift

SETUP:

1. Syr Konrad, the Grim on the field
2. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in our library
3. Cast Morality Shift

With Syr Konrad, the Grim on the field and by successfully casting Morality Shift, we flip our graveyard and library making all the creatures that were in the library enter the graveyard and all the creatures that were in our graveyard, leave it back to library.
For each creature that went into graveyard or leaves grave to go back into library, all opponents lose one life.
We are runnning in this build 39 creatures, excluding those that end up being on our field or in our hand, this is not yet a guaranteed win since some players might still have 40 or more life total.
That's where Eldrazi overlords come in.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth are crucial to our combo to activate Konrad's trigger ability one additional time when creatures come from our library into the graveyard.
Due to Kozilek, Butcher of Truth / Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre ETG (enter the graveyard) trigger ability effect, all cards leave the graveyard again pinging our opponents for each creature that left it.
So basically,Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre double the damage Syr Konrad, the Grim + Morality Shift would do on their own.

2. Mesmeric orb + Basalt Monolith

SETUP:

1. Syr Konrad, the Grim, Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monolith on the field
2. either Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in our library
3. Basalt Monolith giving us mana
4. use to Basalt Monolith again
5. repeat step 2-3 infinitely until everyone dies to Syr Konrad, the Grim's trigger ability

Mesmeric Orb is a good card on its own in this deck since we want to mill ourselves and our opponents in hope for creatures to enter the graveyard from library and ping opponents for damage with Konrad's trigger ability.
But combined with Basalt Monolith we can / it to trigger Mesmeric Orb each time we do it giving us infinite loop of self-mill.
Again Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth are crucial here so we accidentally don't lose by milling our whole library before killing our opponents with Syr Konrad, the Grim's trigger damage.
If you have Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith without Syr Konrad, the Grim on the field, but you have Songs of the Damned in your hand (or enough mana and tutor to get it in your hand) and mana to cast it, you also won.
Mill yourself to get enough creatures in your graveyard to pay for Syr Konrad, the Grim casting cost with Songs of the Damned.

3. Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension

Having both Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension with three "Quest Counters" on the field also gives us infinite loop win even without Konrad on the field that just needs to be activated by either damaging or milling at least one of your opponent.

Those cards are very potent even when not combined.

Mindcrank - once opponent takes damage, it will mill them for that many cards continuing the loop until no one mills a creature and takes damage. Potentially high damage card, not infinite in any way but low health opponents could suffer greatly.

Bloodchief Ascension - easy to activate in our deck, once activated for each card entering opponent's graveyard they lose 2 life and we gain 2 life, very easy to achieve with Konrad's mill ability.

Altar of the Brood and/or Tortured Existence work amazingly well with both of those cards, giving them some serious fuel and keeping the damage loop going on, quite possibly burning to death one or all of our enemies.

4. Syr Konrad + Doom Whisperer + Vampiric Link / Basilisk Collar

Doom Whisperer is a godlike creature card in our deck, he has a very potent self-mill ability that only costs life. Paired with lifegain or lifesteal cards like Exquisite Blood,Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose,Vampiric Link or Basilisk Collar we will regain our life for each creature we mill and therefore have more gas to continue our mill loop until we win.

Interesting thing to note - Vampiric Link paired with your usual lifelink ability will gain you double life since Vampiric Link's lifegain ability rules are separated from lifelink.

5. Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Sanguine Bond

Another infinite loop win combining Exquisite Blood with either Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Sanguine Bond.
I decided to run only Vito, since creatures are so much more important in our deck, he can give us lifelink ability to our creatures and I have no place to run Sanguine Bond in deck.

Combo is simple, once you have both cards on the field you win the moment you gain life or opponent loses a life in any way possible and no commander is required on the field.

6. Gravecrawler + sacrifice outlet

Gravecrawler is our best grave returning friend we could ask for and easiest creature to combo off with Phyrexian Altar
which is also the most crucial altar and sacrifice outlet in our deck, as it gives us mana we need so much more than neutral mana or any other effects from sac outlets.

6.1 Phyrexian Altar + Gravecrawler

set the combo with:

1. Phyrexian Altar
2. Gravecrawler
3. another zombie on our side of the field
4. Syr Konrad, the Grim/Ayara, First of Lochtwain/Zulaport Cutthroat/Blood Artist

Sacrifice Gravecrawler with Phyrexian Altar for mana,
use that mana to cast Gravecrawler back from graveyard. For each repeat, our aristocrat on the field pings all opponents for damage.

6.2 Ashnod's Altar + Gravecrawler

Now, if we have Ashnod's Altar instead Phyrexian Altar we can work it out with one additional combo piece. set the combo with:

1. Ashnod's Altar
2. Gravecrawler
3. another zombie on our side of the field
4. Aristocrat available on our field
5. Initiates of the Ebon Hand or Pitiless Plunderer

Our final combo pieces for this to work in either Initiates of the Ebon Hand or Pitiless Plunderer
both work to give a way to gain mana we need to keep recasting Gravecrawler.

Initiates of the Ebon Hand transforms neutral mana we get from Ashnod's Altar into , while
Pitiless Plunderer creates treasure token each time Gravecrawler dies, which we can sacrifice for mana.

6.3 Pitiless Plunderer + Gravecrawler

Pitiless Plunderer + Gravecrawler work together with any sacrifice outlet, we don't need mana producing altars because Plunderer is creating all the mana we need when we sacrifice Gravecrawler.

1. Gravecrawler
2. another zombie on our side of the field
3. Pitiless Plunderer
4. aristocrat available on our field
5. any sac outlet, Carrion Feeder / Woe Strider / Altar of Dementia / Viscera Seer

6.4 Gravecrawler + Pawn of Ulamog / Sifter of Skulls

Ok, and our dear friend Initiates of the Ebon Hand will make sure this last Gravecrawler combo
works without mana generating altar sacrifices and Pitiless Plunderer.

1. Gravecrawler
2. another zombie on our side of the field
3. Aristocrat available on our field
4. Initiates of the Ebon Hand
5. Pawn of Ulamog / Sifter of Skulls
6. any non mana generating sacrifice outlet Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider....

Our new allies Pawn of Ulamog or Sifter of Skulls joined the combo,
and they provide us with mana each time Gravecrawler is being sack'd
which will be colored to delicious by our dear Initiates of the Ebon Hand.

NOTICE:
Carrion Feeder is amazing zombie friend to Gravecrawler providing both requirements: 1. zombie on the field 2. sacrifice outlet needed.

7. NETHER TRAITOR

Nether Traitor is a bit different animal than our main grave returner Gravecrawler
and requires other creature to die so he can return from graveyard for mana.

That's why we need some creature token creation loop.
which we can get in these cards:

• Pawn of Ulamog
• Sifter of Skulls
• Tormod, the Desecrator
• Desecrated Tomb

7.1 Nether Traitor + Phyrexian Altar / Pitiless Plunderer

8. REASSEMBLING SKELETON

Reassembling Skeleton

9. TORTURED EXISTENCE + TORMOD / DESECRATED TOMB

10. WALKING BALLISTA + MIKAEUS THE UNHALLOWED

11. SYR KONRAD THE GRIM & POISON COUNTERS

Phyresis / Tainted Strike / any other card that replaces damage with poison counters

Instead of damage, Konrad will now place poison counters on our opponents, if we have enough mana it is easy to reach 10 poison counters and kill all of our opponents.

Cards like Necropotence / Ad Nauseam / Peer into the Abyss plays a huge role in combo with poison counters since we can draw many creatures that we will discard in our end phase.

Having Ulamog Infinite Gyre / Kozilek, Butcher of Truth being discarded or sent from library to graveyard makes this way easier and again proves that eldrazi titans are essential in this deck.

12. SYR KONRAD THE GRIM + NECROPOTENCE / AD NAUSEAM / PEER INTO THE ABYSS

And finally, I'll just mention simple combo we stumbled upon previously but it is still worth mentioning
because sometimes we actually don't even need poison counters to win if we don't have the card or mana to activate it.

Any card that gives us huge draw power like:

1. Necropotence
2. Ad Nauseam
3. Peer into the Abyss
4. Vilis, Broker of Blood

5. Skullclamp

6. Syr Konrad, the Grim on the field,
   win us the game while we discard cards in the ending phase as we play a lot of creatures and both
   Ulamog Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth that can double our damage.
   Necropotence doubles the damage on its own anyway.

We run quite a few lifesteal / Lifegain cards so cards like these that draw us tons of cards in exchange of our life, pretty much become very deadly for our enemies.

NIM DEATHMANTLE COMBO

soon...

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.97
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Construct 0/0 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Energy Reserve, Goat 0/1 W, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	BLACK, EDH Decks