How the deck plays
The way the deck works is really straightforward, and makes use a huge amount of infinite combos. Your job is to get a sacrifice outlet into play, for example Blasting Station, next you get your Mikaeus into play, then you play a creature that can manipulate counters in a manner that goes infinite with Undying, for example Tatterkite.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Blasting Station + Tatterkite = Infinite damage!
Now, while having an infinite combo like that is great, this deck doesn't go for half measures. The main focus of this deck is redundancies. If you didn't draw Blasting Station? Well, there is a whole list of other cards that can do the same job just fine...
Sac Outlets! Blasting Station Sadistic Hypnotist Devouring Swarm Fallen Angel Fallen Ideal Flesh-Eater Imp Blood Bairn Phyrexian Ghoul Bloodthrone Vampire
Sac Fodder!TriskelionChainbreakerCinderhaze WretchLingering TormentorPith DrillerSkinrenderSpincrusherTatterkiteWingrattle Scarecrow
If you pair ANY of the cards from the left and right list, you have an infinite combo with Mikaeus in play! This is how you are expected to win with this deck, although we still have a lot of cards remaining to help you achieve that goal.
I have put the remaining cards in five seperate categories. Tutors, Evasion, Value, Ramp and Disruption
Tutors
You don't always draw the cards you need to win, we are however playing black, the color of tutors! There aren't that many traditional tutors we can fit into this deck with our budget constraints, but we play those we can. These help you sculpt your hand and get the last card you needed to win.In search for budget options, I came over the transmute keyword (and transfigure). These are amazingly useful in a deck packed with redundancies such as this! Every single transmute card we run can tutor for either a Sac Outlet, Sac Fodder, or another useful card like a removal spell or a ramp. Not to mention having a situationally useful effect of its own.
Dimir House Guard is a sac outlet (although it needs another card for it to be useful) that can tutor for Flesh-Eater Imp or Lingering Tormentor
Shred Memory can tutor for removal, Bloodthrone Vampire, or a Spincrusher
Dimir Machinations can tutor for some of the best engines in the deck, Blasting Station and Tatterkite, as well as direct removal.
Netherborn Phalanx this card can kill your opponents on its own if they are flooding the board with tokens, but the real reason it is in the deck is that it can tutor for Triskelion, a card that goes for infinite damage on its own together with Mikaeus and the strongest card in this deck. It can also tutor for Mikaeus himself if he gets tucked!
Overall they are extremely good (and budget friendly) additions to the deck. The only traditional tutor that is currently run is Diabolic Tutor, tutors that cost more than 4 mana are a bit too slow for my meta, and all of the cheaper ones are too expensive. Check the list at the bottom for some alternative tutors at 5 CMC.
Evasion
One of the weakest parts of this deck is that most of the time you win by swinging an infinitely huge vanilla creature one way and hope it doesn't get blocked. That usually isn't good enough.
Cards like Dauthi Embrace, Strider Harness, Chariot of Victory and Fleetfeather Sandals help you in this situation. Being able to give your creatures haste and evasion is extremely valuable in this deck, as it gives your opponents barely any time to react to the sudden OHKO creature you put into play.
Value
Playing Gray Merchant of Asphodel with Mikaeus in play in a 4 man EDH game will restore you 30 life, assuming you do not have any other black devotion in play, the time this guy can buy you is immense and definitely worth running even though he doesn't go infinite.
Pawn of Ulamog helps you reach critical mass by giving you tokens every time something dies, while also giving you infinite mana and 0/1 tokens in the event of you getting a sac combo out. Often I use him together with undying and a sac outlet (without infinite) to generate a 3-4 mana in a turn which allows me to combo out.
Strands of Night is an AMAZING reanimator tool. For the neglilible price of sacrificing a swamp, 2 life and 2 mana, you get to put your infinite combo back into play from the graveyard! Repeatedly! Who cares if you lose a swamp when everyone else dies?
Diabolic Servitude is a new addition to the deck. It was brought to my attention that with Mikaeus in play, you can stack the undying trigger so that it resolves before the servitude exile, returning servitude to your hand and the creature to play! Simply amazing value for only $0.10.
Sign in Blood gives much needed draw during the earlygame when you have nothing in particular to do. Night's Whisper and Promise of Power saw a reprint in C14 so it is now added as well!
Ramp
One of the larger challenges in a black budget deck is ramp. You want to get the necessary mana to combo out as fast as possible, but very little passes our tight wallet. There are however still a few manarocks that pass our criterias! Charcoal Diamond, Leaden Myr, Phyrexian Totem, Basalt Monolith. Most of these are strictly inferior versions to other manarocks, lowering their prices while still giving us what we so desperately need. But black has other answers, namely single use mana rituals! Dark Ritual and Culling the Weak can give us huge bursts of mana for little cost, allowing us to cheat in our combo several turns before we normally could, catching our opponents unaware.Heartless Summoning may also allow you to play a lot of creatures quickly, but be careful, you might end up killing your own creatures.
Jeweled Amulet allows us to store one mana left over one turn and use it another and can help you ramp when you need it (Enables 3 mana turn 2!)
Sol Ring is now cheap enough to see play thanks to Commander 2014! This is the best thing ever! Now they just need to reprint Contamination and Necropotence!!... A man is allowed to dream.
Disruption and Removal
Usually this deck is fine with not interacting with the table until it kills someone, but sometimes an opponent threatens to outpace you, that is when these cards come to use. A suit of instant speed removal comes in handy for removing a threat heading your way, or that pesky blocker which would stop you from stomping their face. Doom Blade, Victim of Night and Rend Flesh should give you what you need for any situation. Mutilate is the only boardwipe cheap enough and good enough to run.
Nevinyrral's Disk: The second best thing to come out of Commander 2014 is Nevinyrral's Disk going down to only $0.6!!! Mono black REALLY needs effects like this, Oblivion Stone and Perilous Vault to deal with enchantments and artifacts. Unfortunately the other two are too expensive, but we have Disk!!!
Engineered Plague is a card you can use to slow down token based strategies, or screw over decks with 1 toughness generals. Naming Elemental against an Animar, Soul of Elements EDH deck never gets old (Currently not in the decklist due to pricing ($0.4), only play this if your meta runs 1 toughness generals or elves/goblins)
Infernal Darkness is a budget friendly version of Contamination that can completely lock out the table to buy you time for your combo. Contamination is probably the first card I would add if I was given the chance! Too bad it is $4! Just pray there aren't any other mono black decks at your table.
Dystopia is there to ensure you have answers to white enchantments (and their scary stuff). It's currently in my "sideboard" as nobody plays Nevermore or Rest in Peace at my LGS. Their loss!
On the topic of enchantments, black has NO way to deal with them. At all. Artifacts do, but those are expensive. What can we play to cover this huge weakness?
Well, there are some ways, none of them particularely awesome.Ratchet Bomb is a bit slow, but has a huge range of use. It also takes enchantments.
Eye of Doom will almost always backfire in some way (only exception is if you have an empty board really), but it works as a last ditch effort to blow up something that would otherwise kill you.
