Athreos, Demon Boss

Commander / EDH* Casual Combo Demons Theme/Gimmick WB (Orzhov)

Aaerys

Creature (48)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Edgewalker
• 1x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Lord of the Void
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 1x Nightmare Shepherd
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 30x Shadowborn Apostle
• 1x Teysa Karlov
• 1x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Immortal Servitude

Land (33)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 5x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 17x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Artifact (6)

• 1x Deathrender
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thrumming Stone

Commander (1)

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Demotion
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Liliana's Contract
• 1x Remembrance

Instant (4)

• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Utter End

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Bounty Agent

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Victimize

Instant (1)

• 1x Fatal Push

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Athreos, God of Passage + Shadowborn Apostle

The primary focus in this deck is to exploit the creature Shadowborn Apostle into pulling out powerful demons from my deck and working together with the abilities of Athreos, God of Passage.

The Strategies:

"Creature Dies" Abilities

With my sacrificing of my Shadowborn Apostles, creatures on my board will often be heading to the graveyard. Here are the cards I've picked to benefit from this effect:

• Athreos, God of Passage is my commander. When it is up on the battlefield, a creature dying will allow me to pick a player for one of two options. Either that player decides to lose three life, or returns the killed creature back into my hand. With potentially six creatures dying at once with my Shadowborns, this becomes a very effective ability. It can deal up to 18 life directly to a player of my choosing, or gets me the Shadowborns back into my hand to be cast again once their demon is summoned.

• Teysa, Orzhov Scion allows me to gain a 1/1 flyer every time a creature of mine dies. This is in to provide more flying coverage to my board, as these tokens are fairly disposable blockers.

• Black Market will cumulatively ramp up my mana for either playing the annoying demons I get into my hand, or for big mana cards like Torment of Hailfire.

• Ob Nixilis, Unshackled gains a +1/+1 each time a creature anywhere dies (meaning a +6/+6 per Shadowborn sacrifice). His other abilities are very useful as well.

• Zulaport Cutthroat lets me steal a life from a player each creature of mine dying.

• Reaper from the Abyss is great removal, as it triggers at anyone's end step if any non-demon creature has died.

• Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact essentially do the same thing; when one of my creatures dies, each opponent sacrifices another creature of theirs. If both are up on my board at once and I activate my Shadowborns, that's a total of 12 creatures each opponent must sacrifice!

• Pitiless Plunderer makes a Treasure each time one of my creatures die.

Mana Gain

Large amounts of mana can be generated using cards like:

• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, ideally if I have heaps of Shadowborns out via the Thrumming Stone,

• Crypt Ghast, essentially doubling mana output from tapping swamps,

• Black Market for a cumulative black mana each turn every time anyone's creature dies, and

• Pitiless Plunderer again.

Searching My Deck

With a high amount of dependence on a few cards in my deck, it's important that I have the ability to bring them out quickly.

• Enlightened Tutor for artifacts or enchantments,

• Razaketh, the Foulblooded for repeatable searching,

• Rune-Scarred Demon as an enter-the-battlefield ability,

In the early-to-mid game, I would mostly be looking for Skullclamp for the drawing ability, Thrumming Stone to bring as many Shadowborns out as possible and the cards that force opponents to sacrifice creatures if mine die. In the late game, usually anything depending on my situation. For example, if I've set up the board so I'm getting heaps of mana, cards like Torment of Hailfire can quickly take care of opponents at once.

Returning Shadowborns

With quite a large amount of Shadowborns heading into my graveyard, it would be great if I could return them back into my hand or back to the board to sacrifice again. I may do this using:

• Athreos, God of Passage, if I target a friend or someone with very low life,

• Remembrance, which takes a new Shadowborn from my deck for each that dies, and

• Immortal Servitude, where I can pay 4 mana to retrieve all CMC 1 creatures from the graveyard back onto the battlefield.

Miscellaneous Strategies

• The creature Edgewalker is great when using Shadowborns, as it effectively reduces their casting CMC to zero. If i get heaps back into my hand via Athreos or other means, I can just place them right back onto the battlefield and use their abilities once more.

• Deathrender is amazing to get demons out of my hand which would otherwise be troubling to cast with mana. I would equip a Shadowborn with it, and when it dies I get to place a creature from my hand directly onto the battlefield with Deathrender equipped to it. Later, I would switch Deathrender to a second Shadowborn to continue this pattern.

• The Gray Merchant of Asphodel works wonders when entering the battlefield when there are a large amount of my Shadowborns (after a Thrumming Stone cast) and/or high demons in play.

• If I control 4 or more demons, Liliana's Contract wins me the game.

• Choosing Cleric for Herald's Horn can get me some extra draws when there is a Shadowborn or other cleric on top of my library, or I could choose Demon to make it easier to cast some which may end up in my hand.

I've still got a few undecided cards in my maybeboard, so any help or suggestions are much appreciated!!! :D

Top Ranked	Achieved #48 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 34 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.52
Tokens	Companion Zone, Copy Clone, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W
Folders	1. Commander Decks, Commander Decks