Last minute changes:

+Toxic Deluge, -Damnation: Definitively better.

+Grim Monolith, -Overeager Apprentice: More phyrexian flavor.

+Mana Crypt, -Pristine Talisman: New addition from EMA

+Rune-Scarred Demon, -Massacre Wurm: The Demon is coming back!

Last minute change for EMN:

+Havoc Demon, -Imp's Mischief: Imp's Mischief is too frequently a dead card in my hand. Redirecting a counterpsell or a killing spell is very powerful, but too situational. Now testing Havoc Demon in place of it. The Demon is a wrath-like effect reusable thanks to Balthor.

• I am also testing the new Tree of Perdition that seems insane with Disciple of Griselbrand and Diamond Valley.

• Planning on testing more "graveyard-filler" effect in the future, like Altar of Dementia, Mesmeric Orb and Stinkweed Imp.

New changes for KLD:

+Altar of Dementia, -Vampiric Rites: I see now more value by milling myself or an opponent. Bonus: It is a "free" sac-outlet, no need to pay mana.

+Tree of Perdition, -Grim Haruspex: I dislike the "nontoken" & "you control" clauses of Grim Haruspex. The Tree of Perdition is taking its place because it's a fucking frightening tree.

Other changes with Kaladesh (KLD) that I forgot :

+Swamp, -Temple of the False God: The deck needs more swamps, and Temple is not a reliable mana source. This upgrade is linked to the addition of a Mana Vault in place of a Charcoal Diamond. It is for a more stable mana base.

+Mana Vault, -Charcoal Diamond: New addition. Mana Vault is taking the slot of a weaker manarock. (I am still sad to remove Charcoal Diamond because I love it.)

+Bitterblossom, -Dark Prophecy: I changed a card-drawing enchantment for a token-generator one. Seems better with Skullclamp and provides chump blockers. But Dark Prophecy is very good with token generators, dilemma Pawn of Ulamog will be tested too.

Minor changes:

+Charcoal Diamond, -Mana Crypt: I need my Mana Crypt in another deck.

+Swamp, -Volrath's Stronghold: I need my Stronghold in another deck.

On the watchlist to be removed (flexspot):

• Liliana, Heretical Healer: Intended as a reanimation spell that could be reanimated itself by Balthor, but proved itself to be too limitative. The new Liliana, Death's Majesty seems better.
• Chainer, Dementia Master: Intended as a Plan B to Balthor. But I'm not satisfied with this guy.
• Yawgmoth's Will: Not as much as effective as I wished in this deck. It's more intended for combo decks.

Other:

I have the feeling the deck needs more Creatures and Mesmeric Orb.

New spoiled card from GRN: Doom Whisperer !

Scan → Show

<3 love it!

Faithless Looting? Is it not good enough? Figured it should at least be an exclusion.

Looks like we have really similar balthor decks, i've just updated the description with more info on the strategy I'm going for if you wanted to have a look? - link here: Gimli, Son of Gloin

How is Nether Traitor in your deck? I've been looking at it for mine since it makes infinite black mana with Phyrexian Altar and Pawn of Ulamog.

Have you looked at creature-based reanimate effects like Apprentice Necromancer, Doomed Necromancer? I see you've got a few but still non-creature effetcs like Reanimate/Necromancy.

Also, since you already have Mesmeric Orb, it goes infinite with Basalt Monolith to mill your whole deck for a big reanimate and basalt is half-decent ramp anyway.

Hi roastchicken !

• My own iteration of Balthor is indeed more controllish. My meta evolved with lots of grave-hate, and I had to adapt with less graveyard-dependency. But I have a low creature count and sometimes nothing to reanimate.

• Nether Traitor is my slowest "sacrifice fodder", among Reassembling Skeleton, Ophiomancer, Bloodghast and Bitterblossom. Their purpose is to feed Skullclamp for extra draws, Sword of the Animist suicide attacks and extra land triggers, Gate to Phyrexia's cleansing, Helm of Possession's stealing, and some tutoring effects with Diabolic Intent and Razaketh. I was going to remove it but I didn't think about the infinite mana combo with Pawn of Ulamog and I will probably change my list accordingly to add this one. But it produces only colorless mana.

• I'm hesitating to play creature-based reanimation with Apprentice Necromancer and Doomed Necromancer. I've always considered them too slow due to the summoning sickness. On the other side, Reanimate is really strong because it can find a piece of meat from any graveyard. Necromancy also and is there instead of Animate Dead because of the "instant speed" option.

• I will replace Grim Monolith with the Basalt one. I forgot about this infinite combo. Good catch!

With Nether Traitor combo, you can sac the token Pawn of Ulamog makes to the Phyrexian Altar as opposed to it's own colorless mana effect for black mana to make infinite black.

I agree with the creature-based reanimation being too slow and have removed them from my own list too.

If you're finding you get stuck with nothing to reanimate sometimes I would start by replacing the noncreature cards with the same effects you can find on creatures:

• Ashes to Ashes for Shriekmaw or Plaguecrafter. Although you lose the exile part.
• Toxic Deluge for Kagemaro, First to Suffer

Although you might want to run more hand discard effects so you don't have to hardcast your bombs. Things like Bog Witch, Overeager Apprentice, Skirge Familiar.

Cool deck! If I may ask, why Balthor the Defiled over Chainer, Dementia Master for a deck like this?

Also, you might consider Black Market for more ramp. That card is bonkers in such a heavy sacrifice themed deck. I am a big fan of Noxious Gearhulk and Marionette Master as well.

@Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor

My Balthor deck was initially a zombie-themed deck until I was tired of it and changed the strategy into a reanimator deck. At first it was just a big mana control deck, with Balthor as a support when your hand was empty and you needed more gas. Slowly it turned into a more combo-control deck with dredge elements.

Chainer needs a more dedicated deck, with more cards to protect him (Lightning Greaves), more sacrifice outlets, and more life gain effects like Sangromancer, Dross Harvester, Disciple of Griselbrand, Pristine Talisman, etc. That means less available card slots, less fun with big demons. Chainer is also more slower. You need a sacrifice outlet and 8 manas to be effective the turn you play him.

Over Balthor, Chainer is better in some way: he can target any graveyard, and you don't have problem if your opponents play black and/or red. He can be fast too with more Dark Ritual-like cards, which are more-or-less dead cards if you don't play combo.

So I prefer Balthor because it fits more what I'm looking for this deck: big reanimation turns with a high creature count.

For many years, Chainer was in my Balthor deck as a backup plan. He was finally cut for more faster reanimation options.

I've tested Black Market. For me, it's a 5-manas do-nothing the turn it comes into play. Too slow. It also attracts hate from your opponents. I suggest it if you play Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire. I don't because I try to increase my creature count for more Balthor efficiency.

Noxious Gearhulk: I like it too, but can't find a free slot for it at the moment.

Marionette Master: It better fits in an artifact deck. If it's played for its token, there are more effective ways to produce tokens in black.

Balthor and Chainer have also different strategies.

Balthor wants to kill in a single big reanimation turn, or at least reanimate a big board to be back in the game if behind.

Chainer is more control. Less sensible to graveyard hate (because you can target enemies' graveyards) but more to creature removals (because you lose everything if Chainer dies). Chainer can reanimate good artifact creatures like Meteor Golem, Duplicant, Wurmcoil Engine and Solemn Simulacrum.. which Balthor can't.

I appreciate the descriptive response. Your conclusion was similar to what I came to after making that post. Chainer is more of a slow grind, while Balthor is more explosive. I just haven't seen many Balthor decks before, but am pretty familiar with Chainer, so I was curious.

That makes sense on the Marionette Master.

One more card that I thought of which might be useful in your list: Rise of the Dark Realms. It's basically another Balthor the Defiled, but if Balthor becomes too much to recast (I believe Rise costs the same as a second casting + activation of Balthor), or something like Song of the Dryads happens, Rise could provide a bit of redundancy to keep your big reanimation strategy going.

@Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor

Rise of the Dark Realms (RotDR) is a great wincon card and alternative to Balthor.

I never cast Balthor if I don't have 3 manas to activate him (Song of the Dryads doesn't apply, but Stifle still does). I'm on the verge of winning when I cast him. Usually, I cast him once or twice during a game to initiate a reanimation loop. The 9-manas casting cost of RotDR competes hardly with Balthor. The only advantage I see with RotDR is its ability to reanimate all graveyards to your battlefield.

I never felt the urge to test RotDR. What RotDR does, Balthor does it too, from the command zone. What usually stops Balthor (counterspells, graveyard-hate), stops also RotDR. It's not a good backup plan. (My best backup plans are beatdown with my hard-cast demons or a well-placed Decree of Pain.)

I think RotDR is better in other reanimation/dredge/mill decks. E.g. Chainer could find use of both RotDR and Balthor in its list.

A fun way to take the game with Balthor the Defiled is to run Morality Shift . It's a 10 mana exchange but we make plenty of black mana so no big deal. The library becomes the graveyard and then activate Balthor. Just make sure to have Gray Merchant of Asphodel ETB last for the win!

Hey! I’m thinking about building Balthor for Commander League games and I like your list! I want explosive reanimation turns but also to not be completely left in the lurch if that plan goes south. How do you like Balthor? Would you consider this a casual deck or is this as tuned as you think Balthor can get, or somewhere in between? It looks like great fun and I’m curious if you reccomend him! :D

@Olive_pdx:
Morality Shift is a "classic" spell for Balthor. But 14 mana is too much for my list. (4 or more for Balthor + 7 for Morality Shift + 3 for Balthor's activation / I wouldn't risk casting Balthor without being able to activate it the turn it arrives). The spell seems too much risky for my taste. But I agree it's a powerhouse.

@Tappyy:
Balthor is my second favorite EDH, out of 10+ tuned decks. I like it because I can either win with a semi-combo reanimation cycle with Balthor, or by attrition with my creatures. It's mean to be a control deck, so victory is achieved after several turns. Usually Balthor is cast when my hand is empty and I need more gas, or when a good combination of creatures are in my graveyard. My decklist is far from cEDH, but can compete with strong Commanders. My meta is: Meren, Narset, Ramos, Rashmi, Vial Smasher, Atraxa, Azami, Ezuri, Karlov, Lord Windgrace, Mayael, Muldrotha, Nekusar, Oloro, Omnath, Marchesa, Rasputin, etc..etc..
If you're looking for a more competitive EDH list, I suggest you take a look at this list: Balthor Ad Naus from user flyinglemu. I like his list.

Stefouch I agree it's not a cheap transaction but making lots of Mana is not too difficult so it keeps the options open for a win. That and it's often a surprise for players to discover Morality Shift ! Newer players don't know it and older players are happy to see it again...