A demand for sacrifice - Kuon

Commander / EDH Budget Casual Mono-Black Reanimator Stax

nyctophasm

Creature (34)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dutiful Attendant
• 1x Entomber Exarch
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Flesh-Eater Imp
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravedigger
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Nekrataal
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Ogre Slumlord
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Phyrexian Gargantua
• 1x Polluted Dead
• 1x Rakshasa Gravecaller
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Shadowborn Demon
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Skinrender
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Soul of Innistrad
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Corrupt
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Ever After
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Nightmare Incursion
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Rise from the Grave
• 1x Tempt with Immortality
• 1x Victimize

Land (38)

• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 36x Swamp

Artifact (3)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Darksteel Ingot

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Palace Siege
• 1x Underworld Connections
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Instant (3)

• 1x Empty the Pits
• 1x Grim Harvest
• 1x Grim Return

---

This is an expanded description now that the deck has undergone about seven renovations of various degrees of importance.

Kuon, Ogre Ascendant struck me as an interesting commander for two reasons. First, he isn't played often, yet has a strong theme in which to begin constructing. Second, he has the capacity to be an enchantment, one of the hardest types of things to remove from the battlefield. I thought I would give this a go.

There were three things I needed - sac outlets, reanimation, and a win condition. However, if I was to be constantly saccing stuff to Kuon and redundancies of him, I wanted to profit from it. Best way to do that is to have creatures that benefit from having something (including themselves) sacced for profit, or to have triggers that go off when creatures are sacrificed. Preferably both. So then, I realized that token producers are very useful, especially as a sac trigger. Hence the additions of Abhorrent Overlord, Ogre Slumlord, Army of the Damned, and the interesting combination of Rakshasa Gravecaller and Maalfeld Twins . These prevent me from being as likely to run out of cheap targets to sac.

Board state help is given in the form of Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Slum Reaper , Dictate of Erebos, and Butcher of Malakir. For obvious reasons. The synergy with Kuon, Ogre Ascendant is fabulous, as Fleshie is an easy way to flip him over.

Burnished Hart starts providing double value. Polluted Dead and Maalfeld Twins find a home as persons for Sidisi, Undead Vizier and others to exploit. For eight mana later on, Grim Harvest and fleshie mean that you can constantly sac stuff and prevent the board state from getting out of hand. But I think one all star here is Palace Siege, allowing sac outlets and recursion to both happen during upkeep before you even draw. The other one is Crypt Ghast, as a more reliable way than Liliana of the Dark Realms 's way of supercharging black mana without owning a Cabal Coffers.

But I still needed a win condition. I found it in Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Devotion count will never be very low, and barring graveyard hate, this deck can cycle Gary every turn until the game is over, keeping my own life total farther out of reach, while triggering stuff with every sacrifice. There is one other win-con now, Flesh-Eater Imp. As long as the way is clear and I have four creatures to sacrifice, then I have a one shot kill.

Removal is mostly saccing, with the exceptions being primarily on creatures such as Nekrataal and Shadowborn Demon. If I lose to enchantments and artifacts, then I lose. So be it. In Garruk's Wake acts as my one real board sweeper.

Card draw is found in sheer recursion, Dark Tutelage , Grim Haruspex, Smothering Abomination, Disciple of Bolas, etc.

Hope you like it. It's gone through a couple of names as well, so you may have seen me deckcycle this before. Oh well. Comments welcome!

Date added	9 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.35
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Harpy 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C, Rat 1/1 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	cheap, Love it, EDH (To Buy), Tyler's Stuff, Kuon?, Mono Black ideas, EDH