Chainer: Dream Crusher Extraordinaire $60 [Primer]

Commander / EDH Budget Control Cruel Control Mono-Black Reanimator

Grunyarth

Reanimateables (18)

• 1x Anowon, the Ruin Sage
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dross Harvester
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kagemaro, First to Suffer
• 1x Magus of the Abyss
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Mesmeric Fiend
• 1x Ogre Slumlord
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Slum Reaper

Death Synergies (7)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Sangromancer
• 1x Smothering Abomination

Utility (11)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Boon of Erebos
• 1x Dawn of the Dead
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Strands of Night
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Unnatural Endurance

Tutors/Draw (8)

• 1x Brainspoil
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Fleshwrither
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Lands (38)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Memorial to Folly
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 32x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God

Commander (1)

Ramp/Big Mana (10)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Sac Outlets (7)

• 1x Claws of Gix
• 1x Dark Privilege
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Disciple of Griselbrand
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Spawning Pit *list*
• 1x Vampiric Rites

---

Maybeboard

Maybe (16)

• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Braids, Cabal Minion
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Magus of the Will
• 1x Mogis's Marauder
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Sepulchral Primordial
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Spine of Ish Sah
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Undying Evil
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Pricier (9)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Collusion
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Victimize

---

Twas the night before christmas,

And in the game store,

Players grabbed their decks,

Ready to fight a war.

Then sat down Animar,

On Meren, on Zur,

And finally a new player,

Who would bring quite the bummer.

All were quite confidant,

With a new player to crush,

How they never imagined,

How much they'd turn flush.

The new guy's plan was simple,

It would be quite the show,

And you can learn all about it,

If you read down below!

.

Now this deck is not nice,

Nor is it stax,

It's creature-based control,

That wins but never attacks.

Now you start with some creatures,

Some draw and sac outlet,

Then you bring in Chainer,

And start to make a racket.

Now you opponents may play creatures,

But Fleshbag will sac it,

While Kagemaro and Rune-Scarred

Will start to wreak havoc.

You bring in your Gary

He'll be Chainer's chainee,

You loop him to steal life,

And that's a GG!

Deck Strengths

• Good against creature based decks that play only 1-2 creatures a turn.
• Very good against combo decks that need creatures to go off (which is nearly all in EDH).
• Doesn't care about counterspells, your graveyard's your new hand.
• Doesn't rely on combat to win (Yay Gary!!!)

Deck Weaknesses

• Some amount of graveyard hate can be avoided thanks to his instant-speed ability, but if there's too much he can't function.
• Way worse if you can't stick the commander (although some decks are worse).
• Hard control with plenty of boardwipes can be an issue.
• Black has almost no answers to artifacts and enchantments.

Gameplan

Early Game

Ramp is king, there isn't too much else the deck wants to be doing early on. The few draw spells in the deck (Sign in Blood, Night's Whispers, and Read the Bones) are just there so you have some more stuff to do if you don't draw your ramp.

Getting out a sac outlet is also a high priority, as looping the creatures is much stronger than reanimating them once. Creatures don't hurt, namely Crypt Ghast and Magus of the Coffers can help a lot, and don't be afraid to use a Fleshbag Marauder (or one of his friends), as you'll be recurring it anyways.

Midgame

This is where you want to get Chainer, Dementia Master online. If you didn't draw a Fleshbag Marauder or similar creature, you will need a sac outlet, both to repeatedly recur creatures and to protect them from being exiled when Chainer bites removal.

Once you get Chainer, a sac outlet, and a well-stocked graveyard, you want to play passively: try to keep mana up to bring back removal creatures, and remember his ability is an instant, so you should be doing everything on your opoonent's endstep.

Late Game

This is when the creature-based decks will be running out of resources, and you want to bring in either a big Exsanguinate or a Grey Merchant of Asphodel|Gary loop to close out the game. Other combos are included in the deck, they do not however win the game, just help stall until you can some other way (I don't like infinite combos, although I have listed some that you can check out in the "Combos" section).

C-C-C-Combos!

Now this deck isn't a combo deck, but it does utilize combos to stall and eventually close out the game (although none of them are infinite)

Combos in the Deck

Chainer, Dementia Master + Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Kokusho, the Evening Star + Sac Outlet - This is our main way of closing out the game, a very solid win-condition.

Chainer, Dementia Master + Magus of the Coffers + Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots and Sac Outlet - Tap magus for a bunch of mana, sacrifice him, bring him back with some of that mana and a little life, equip greaves or boots to give him haste, tap again for even more mana, rinse and repeat. Not infinite mana (It can be if you manage to gain 3 life each cycle), but it is more than enough and can be funneled into a huge Exsanguinate.

Nevinyrral's Disk + Soul of New Phyrexia - This doesn't itself win you the game, but when your opponents' permanents are getting blown up each turn while yours have indestructible it's hard to lose. Mostly just here as a way to win without Chainer.

Other Combo Options

Chainer, Dementia Master + Ashnod's Altar + Gemstone Array/Bog Initiate + Sengir Autocrat/Abhorrent Overlord + Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Falkenrath Noble = Infinite mana, life, and damage to players. Basically you reanimate the token-generating creature, sac it and the tokens to Ashnod's Altar (while gaining a bit of life and dealing a bit of damage off of the drain effect), turn that mana into black mana, reanimate it again, and so on until everyone else is dead.

Living Death + sac outlet - This isn't a combo, just a very strong synergy. Sac all your creatures, then use Living Death to wipe the board and bring them back. Only reason this isn't in the deck is because of other graveyard decks in my meta.

Ashnod's Altar + Reassembling Skeleton/Bloodsoaked Champion + Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls + Bog Initiate - Keep sacrificing to the altar, each time making an extra dude to sac for mana, do this forever to make infinite mana, add a Blood Artist effect to make it lethal. (with Gemstone Array instead of Bog Initiate you can still win with a Blood Artist effect, just no infinite mana) Nice because it doesn't require Chainer.

Chainer, Dementia Master + Ashnod's Altar + Priest of Gix - Basically gives you "Pay 3 life: add to your mana pool" Doesn't win the game on it's own, but is great with Exsanguinate. This is risky as you'll being paying a lot of life, so don't over-commit into a counterspell.

Card Choices

Reanimateables!

The creatures that you want to be reanimating often for value, removal, or winning the game.

Corpse Augur - Draws some cards when he dies, not too powerful but a solid include.

Demon of Dark Schemes - Backup Chainer. Much harder to use due to his energy requirements, though still plenty fine for recurring your Fleshbag Marauder.

Disciple of Bolas - OK this guy is awesome! He draws cards, gains life, and lets us sacrifice creatures? Of course he's going in the deck!

Dross Harvester - Can gain quite a bit of life. Many people complain that he can cost more life than he gives though, so only play him if you think it'll be benefiting you (it's totally a meta call).

Fleshbag Marauder - Once you recur this guy with Chainer several times a turn you will understand how essential it is to making this deck work.

Merciless Executioner - Fleshbag Marauder #2, for consistency.

Slum Reaper - Fleshbag #3, he costs more, but he can be tutored with Dimir House Guard or Fleshwrither to make up for it.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Gary is the best kill condition in the deck. Combine him with Chainer and a sac outlet and the games practically won.

Kagemaro, First to Suffer - Every deck should have a reset button for when shit goes south. This deck has one that can be recurred every turn. He does require a large hand, which can kinda be an issue, but he is still solid and has no trouble wiping out X/2's and X/3's.

Bone Shredder - This dude and Shriekmaw are more or less interchangable. The upside to this dude is that he comes with a built-in sac that works with reanimation, while shriekmaw's is only when you cast it.

Faceless Butcher - This guy is pretty bad when you let the creature come back, but if you sacrifice him in response to the ETB ability, then the LTB ability resolves first, and then the creature gets exiled permanently.

Ravenous Chupacabra - Probably the best of the ETB removal creatures, an easily repeatable unconditional spot removal.

Mesmeric Fiend - Same thing as Faceless Butcher where you sacrifice it in response to the ETB to permanently exile the card. Great to have a discard option somewhere in the deck just to ensure that you can keep people locked down. (Play Mindslicer if you can. I have one and it's superb, but it isn't in the list because it's ~$6.) Fun fact: Mesmeric Fiend is a nightmare on it's own, so it can be exiled by Chainer even when it isn't reanimated.

Ogre Slumlord - Things will be dying, and free 1/1 deathtouchers are great deterrents to would-be attackers. Do remember that they only have deathtouch while the slumlord himself in alive.

Butcher of Malakir - This is an amazing stax-esque card. When your Fleshbag Marauders trigger twice it makes it much easier to control the battlefield.

Magus of the Abyss - Greatly helps with keeping the board under control. Sadly he doesn't get around indestructible, but we have plenty of other sacrificing effects to deal with that.

Anowon, the Ruin Sage - Basically another Magus of the Abyss. He does get around indestructible however, and be careful about the non-vampire clause, as we are running quite a few vampires and don't want to be sacrificing Chainer.

Archfiend of Depravity - He often doesn't do too much, as we can mostly keep the board under control, but it's always nice to have the option of reanimating him before an opponent's endstep if they have too explosive of a turn.

Sac Outlets

Chainer has this nasty habit of exiling all his nightmares when he dies, so we need some sac outlets to make sure we don't lose our key cards permanently. Also they let you repeatedly sacrifice and bring back creatures, so that's a plus.

Claws of Gix - I don't know if this card is good, currently in testing. I'm really not a fan of sac outlets that cost mana, but creature based ones are worse. I would run Ashnod's Altar if it didn't get immediatly removed so much.

Dark Privilege - Put this on Chainer as protection, and you get a sac outlet as a plus. Does tend to feel less good when Chainer gets killed with exile removal and you lose your sac outlet though.

Dimir House Guard - Tutor for one of the 15 4-drops in the deck and then reanimate it as a sac outlet. This card is great.

Disciple of Griselbrand - As much as I hate sac outlets that are on creatures or cost mana (of which this is both), the life gain on this guy can be a life saver, literally.

Mind Slash - This is one sac outlet that is in the deck for the effect rather than exile protection. Ripping apart your opponents' hands with this and some Ogre Slumlord tokens is great though. I recommend pairing with an instant speed sac outlet though for the exile protection.

Spawning Pit - Hands down the best sac outlet in the deck. Instant speed with no mana, and it can give you some 2/2 bodies.

Vampiric Rites - Yowch! It costs 2 mana per sacrifice! I haven't gotten around to testing this yet (I keep delaying because I like free sac outlets), but with how happy people have been with Infernal Tribute I do have to admit that it's probably good.

Death Synergies

Blood Artist - Deals some damage drains some life. Doesn't seem too powerful at first but it adds up.

Dark Prophecy - Draw cards whenever one of my creatures dies? Well that's going to be happening a lot...

Grim Haruspex - Cheap version of Harvester of Souls. I might want to run harvester too, as reanimating him in response to a boardwipe...

Falkenrath Noble - A more expensive Blood Artist, but the more the merrier!

Pawn of Ulamog - Gives some spawn tokens when your creatures die, which can be sacced for mana or used as chump blockers.

Sangromancer - This guy can gain tons of life. Returning him in response to a boardwipe can easily net 20-40 life, often more. Also a great combo with Mindslicer, but this version's more budget than that.

Smothering Abomination - This guy's kind of mediocre. He draws cards and let's you sac a creature every upkeep, but sometimes that can be restrictive. Mostly here as card advantage that can be tutored with Dimir House Guard or Fleshwrither.

Ramp/Big Mana

Ramp

Wayfarer's Bauble - Play turn 1, pop turn 2. fetches a land which is more durable than a rock, as well as giving even more mana with one of the effects that cares about swamps.

Charcoal Diamond - 2 cost mana rock, not much to say here.

Darksteel Ingot - it doesn't accidently die to a Nev's Disk or the like.

Burnished Hart - Ramps for 2, kind of slow but that isn't a problem considering the mana it provides. Can be a good target for reanimation too.

Sol Ring - It's the most played card for a reason. Sometimes it practically sets you two turns ahead.

Big Mana

This deck runs some big mana spells, they are mainly to help with going off on one turn or fueling a huge Exsanguinate.

Bubbling Muck - This card is experimental, but it can give a huge kick in mana on the turn you need it.

Dark Ritual - Not much to say here. I haven't got to test it as much as I want in this deck, but it seems like it could be a solid inclusion.

Magus of the Coffers - This guy is kind of slow, as it is a tap ability, but he can give a ton of extra mana.

Crypt Ghast - This card is amazing and should go in every mono black deck. It doubles your mana and gives you life gain for only 4 mana.

Black Market - Lots of creatures will be dying, so this can grant huge amounts of mana. It does take a turn to come online, which is definitely a downside, but it can easily be giving us an extra 10-15 mana if it goes unanswered.

Tutors/Draw

Tutors

Diabolic Tutor - 4 cmc isn't ideal, but with budget decks you take what you can get. This deck needs tutors to find combo pieces (mostly just Gary), so you run what you can.

Increasing Ambition - 5 cmc is painfully expensive, but when you get a mana doubler and you flash it back it makes up for it.

Final Parting - 5 cmc is high, but it tutors 2 cards, so it's nice.

Rune-Scarred Demon - Tutor on a stick. Expensive the first time, but once you can recur him several times a turn it's all worth it. Similar to Sidisi, Undead Vizier (who I would totally run if I was willing to spend $8 bucks on a card).

Corpse Connoisseur - I don't totally know how I feel about this guy, he is expensive, but he can also be recurred with Chainer. Basically just a worse Rune-Scarred Demon

Fleshwrither - This guy is cool. He can be reanimated to tutor dudes directly onto the field. We are playing 10 other 4 cmc creatures with a myriad of abilities, so he can get what the situation calls for.

Brainspoil - I love the transmute tutors, you can definitely cut this. Only run it cuz it fetches Gary.

Draw

I just play a few draw spells as something to dump excess mana on. I wouldn't recommend running many card draw spells, as the deck gets lots of card advantage from sacrificing synergies and Chainer's ability. Currently I'm runnning Read the Bones, Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper.

Utility

Protection

We kind of fail without Chainer, so running some protection for him is always worthwhile. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are both solid. Boon of Erebos, Unnatural Endurance, and Undying Evil I'm testing right now. They have been ok the few times I've drawn them, but using them or not it is much more of a meta call than anything I can tell you. (EDIT: Undying still makes triggers Chainers LTB effect, so it was cut)

Reanimation

Strands of Night - Chainer #2, in case something happens to him. Be careful about using it early or mid game, losing swamps hurts.

Animate Dead - Not too good, not too bad. Doesn't help when you have Chainer out, but it is useful if he keeps dying.

Dawn of the Dead - This reanimates one creature a turn, what's not to like? It does have an exile clause, but that only triggers if the creature sticks around till the end of the turn, so a sac outlet can prevent the exile.

Other

Exsanguinate - it's a great win condition, especially when paired with a mana doubler or a little attacking.

Mutilate - It's a budget Damnation with the benefit of hitting indestructibles. This can be cut, as the deck doesn't need boardwipes to function, more just a meta call.

Nevinyrral's Disk - We can do almost nothing to stop artifacts and enchantments, so this is in the list. If more artifact/enchantment removal is needed, Steel Hellkite, Spine of Ish Sah, and Scour from Existence are all solid (albeit slow) removal.

Soul of New Phyrexia - He protects our board from most stuff. Also is amazing when paired with Nevinyrral's Disk.

Lands

Not much to see here, it is a budget deck and all the good utility lands are $$$

Barren Moor - Can cycle if you don't need it. Can definitely be cut if you'd rather have a swamp that works with the mana doublers. Can also add Desert of the Glorified if more cycle-lands are desired.

Cabal Stronghold - This is our budget Cabal Coffers, and is absolutely vital to the decks functionality. Not as good as coffers for the lack of synergy with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, but the extra mana hardly matters.

Memorial to Folly/Mortuary Mire - They can return creatures from the yard, often better that a swamp.

Myriad Landscape - A land that ramps? Sign me up!

Temple of the False God - Don't know how a feel about this one. It gives 2 mana which is nice, but they are colorless soooo... I'm probably going to cut it, just for testing right now.

Swamp - Best card in the deck, it literally couldn't do anything without them.

Not in List

Crypt of Agadeem - I haven't gotten to testing it yet, but it seems it could be potent (we normally end up with 4-5 creatures in the yard).

+1 Upvote If you enjoyed the deck, poem, or primer. Also please comment below with any thoughts/feedback on the deck!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 22 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.42
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Energy Reserve, Morph 2/2 C, Rat 1/1 B
Folders	Commander, Deck ideas