Bane, The Children of Shadows

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Cleric Combo Competitive Suicide Black Theme/Gimmick WUB (Esper)

ghostfire86

Creature (32)

• 24x Shadowborn Apostle
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Shadow-Rite Priest
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Edgewalker
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic Study

Artifact (14)

• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Thrumming Stone
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Instant (10)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Ad Nauseam

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Immortal Servitude

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Land (1)

• 1x Lake of the Dead

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Echoing Return
• 1x Mana Severance

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Athreos, God of Passage was fun while it lasted but is now retired and the newest design is Bane, Lord of Darkness for an enhanced draw package.

Welcome to my sleeper deck, The Children of Shadows.

The win condition is a life drain strategy with a few avenues of approach that overlap in some optional places. The deck is relies heavily on tutoring and is the only reason I don’t play this at my LGS EDH League, as they take away points for tutoring more than once. Peoples first reaction varies depending on if they have ever seen the card Shadowborn Apostle. The most frequent question is legality since EDH caps off at 1 copy per card. Shadowborn Apostle is one of four cards that state that your deck can have any number of cards named [Insert name of card] and has the cheapest converted mana cost of all of them. This built in aspect of the card is why Thrumming Stone is so highly glorified for these decks. The other three cards that are similar to Shadowborn are Rat Colony, Persistent Petitioners, and Relentless Rats. Another thing that pops up is an assumption that you need to or are running a ton of demons in your deck. I am currently running only two demons that I consider to be nothing more than utility.

Key Cards

You’ll likely use most if not all of these cards at some point in the game:

Ripple 4

Thrumming Stone

Life Drain

Bontu's Monument

This is the preferred play of choice as it decreases cmc cost as well as drain life.

Ayara, First of Locthwain

Zulaport Cutthroat

Cruel Celebrant

Free Play

Edgewalker

This is the preferred card of choice IF you have the white mana to use (cast Bontu's Monument first to decrease the Walker’s cost if your dropping both in the same turn).

Carnival of Souls-the life drain cards will counter the negative effects while generating you lots of black mana.

Bounce

Cloudstone Curio-This is the key card to the main combo

Tutor

Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Deck Filter

Doom Whisperer

Necropotence

These are extremely important to not just dig but filter for Bolas's Citadel

The Set Up

Thrumming Stone is a powerful ignition switch for the deck. This deck maintains approximately a 90% chance that your draw will be a Shadowborn Apostle when you look at the card odds breakdown. The chances of failing to hit a single Apostle off the Ripple 4 is slim, but I have had it happen when they clump up in the deck. Try to make sure that the moment you begin this long process, that you have at least two black mana available at a minimum in order to complete this in one turn. The goal is to get at least ten Shadowborn on the field prior to tutoring for Razaketh. Use one of the two black mana to activate the Apostle’s tutor ability and grab Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Remember you have 1 floating black mana, 4 Shadowborn, and Razaketh on the battlefield at this point. Timing and board set up is everything at this point. If Bontu's Monument is in play, it will trigger off each cast from the Ripple effect. If Ayara, First of Locthwain is in play, it will trigger off each ETB after the cast. Cloudstone Curio helps keep an Apostle in hand to continue to Ripple effect if it failed an attempt.

The Takedown

With at least one floating black mana and four apostles left over after tutoring from Razaketh, you should sac one to him to grab a mana source, Songs of the Damned is the preferred card. If Cloudstone Curio and Carnival of Souls were not already on the field, sac two more shadowborns to Razaketh to tutor for them. Use your one floating black mana to cast Songs to generate approximately six to eight black mana. Cast Curio and Carnival. You now only have Razaketh and a single Shadowborn on the field with maybe one to three floating black mana, Curio and Carnival. If you had a spar Shadowborn in your hand, then cast it to Ripple 4, return the Shadowborn on the field to your hand, generate 1 black mana or more mana, lose one or more life. Keep in mind that Ripple is a MAY ability. If you didn’t have a spare Shadowborn in hand, sac the remaining on to Razaketh to tutor for another Shadowborn to hand, cast it to Ripple 4, and proceed with triggers. At this point always keep at least one Shadowborn in your hand at all times. Use your newly acquired Shadowborn’s to coax Razaketh to grant you access to Bontu's Monument and use the mana Carnival gave you to cast one of them. This will help negate the negative effect of Carnival as you’ll gain life off the cast before you lose the life from ETB. This is extremely important to remember as your life total will likely already be low. Grab and cast Ayara, First of Locthwain, followed by Zulaport Cutthroat and Cruel Celebrant.

Draw and Dropping Cards

There is a very high level of draw put into this deck, but remember that the power comes with the price of your life. Killing yourself with this deck is a real thing so be mindful of your life total and play everything to your advantage. The average CMC of this deck is very lower at 1.94, so while you’ll lose life a lot, the likelihood of death by card draw isn’t likely. So don’t be afraid to drop the card:Dak Confidant, or the Dark Tutelage early game because you’ll likely won’t feel it. Even Bolas's Citadel has been included in hopes to speed head long into completion of the combinations. To enhance the effectiveness of this card we have Necropotence, Sensei's Divining Top and Doom Whisperer to get rid of unwanted top deck cards. To further enhance the Citadel there are the tutors to get those choice pieces for quicker play.

It must be said that I have never won a game with this deck where my life total wasn’t between five to ten.

Top Ranked	Achieved #21 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #16 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Aristocrats 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 4 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 months
Exclude colors	RG
Splash colors	WU
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 32 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.80
Folders	EDH, to try, Cool decks, AAWant to try, Get this, Nice, Ideas for future Decks, Wishlist, References for Future Builds, Deck_Inspiration