Cousin Vito

Commander / EDH Mono-Black

Mythrilia

Land (35)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Leechridden Swamp
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Strip Mine
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Oubliette
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Revenge of Ravens
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x The Meathook Massacre
• 1x Underworld Dreams

Creature (22)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain *f-etch*
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Creeping Bloodsucker
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Diamond Mare
• 1x Dreadhound
• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Henrika Domnathi  ^Flip
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Sanctum Seeker
• 1x Sengir, the Dark Baron
• 1x Shard of the Nightbringer
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Vampire Cutthroat
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Veinwitch Coven
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Instant (9)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Darkness
• 1x Defile
• 1x Erebos's Intervention
• 1x March of Wretched Sorrow
• 1x Simulacrum
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Sorin Markov

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Cosmos Elixir
• 1x Demon's Horn
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Paradise Plume
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Zuran Orb

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blood Tribute
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Consume Spirit
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Drain Life
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Soul Burn

---

Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Basilica Screecher
• 1x Opposition Agent

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Syphon Soul

Land (2)

• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Urza's Saga

Artifact (1)

• 1x Feldon's Cane

---

Deck Description

some stuff

Card Description

Win Conditions

There are a few different ways to win with this deck that will be referenced later on, so it is important to understand how they work up front.

• "Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose combo": So this one is pretty basic and is the best win combo in the deck. Because of Exquisite Blood, whenever any of your opponents loses life, you gain that much life. If your commander (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is out on the field this turns into an infinite combo because each fuels the other. It doesn't even matter who dealt damage to that opponent, you'll still gain the life. Also, as long as you can deal one damage (or gain one life) the combo starts as the life drain basically ping-pongs back and forth. Once you finish off one opponent you can just target the next and drain them too using the last life gained from the first to target the next. If for some reason Vito isn't on the battlefield, Sanguine Bond is an equivalent substitute, so there's technically a second combo here: Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond . There are a lot of cards in the deck that can get either of these combos going, and once they do, it is certain doom for all of your opponents.

• Mindcrank + Syr Konrad, the Grim combo: This is the other combo that can potentially kill all of your opponents in one shot, but you'll need some luck. Drop Syr Konrad, the Grim and use his ability to make your opponents mill a card. As long as one of those cards was a creature card, Konrad will deal 1 damage to each opponent, which in turn triggers Mindcrank forcing each opponent to mill a card. If any of those cards is a creature card, this will cause Konrad to trigger again, which in turn could trigger Mindcrank again. This one is a little luck dependent, so it isn't an "ideal" combo, but it still gets the job done. With the amount of mana this deck can generate you can likely pump Konrad to force your opponents to mill when you hit a dry spell from the combo.

• Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank combo: This one is nasty and a little unexpected when people realize what just hit the battlefield. Bloodchief Ascension is cheap and you'll want to get it onto the battlefield as soon as you possibly can so it can start gaining quest counters. On its own, even with three quest counters, it doesn't seem that dangerous. This is why the combo is so unexpected. Once it has three or more quest counters on it drop Mindcrank and you'll either mill your opponent(s) to death from the Mindcrank side of the combo or kill them with damage from the Bloodchief side. Unlike the above combo which can be a little finicky, this one is guaranteed to kill at least one of your opponents because any damage that a player takes will be fatal.

• Blood Tribute + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose combo: So this one is just plain dirty. Casting Blood Tribute alone is pretty dirty alone, but if Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is in play tap him for the Kicker. First the Tribute takes away half of one target opponent's life, but with the Kicker you gain that much life, so Vito will finish them off. Bonus points if you have Sanguine Bond in play because you can potentially take out another opponent if they have half as much life as the original target.

• Other Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose combos: We've alread discussed how nasty Vito can be when you gain a lot of life. So how about including a few cards that gain a lot of life? Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a great card that can net you a lot of life as long as you have a decent amount of devotion to black (think of it this way, with 3 enemies and 10 devotion to black, you'll deal 10 damage to everyone, gain 30 life, and then be able to deal another 30 damage to one opponent). Exsanguinate works the same way, but instead of devotion to black you'll need to pump it with mana. Finally there's Drain Life which is limited to one opponent, but you can still drain a bunch of life this way to fuel Vito.

Land

Lets start with the "easy" stuff - land!

• Swamp: Well, you have to start somewhere right? Eleven Basic Swamps seems like the right amount here. There are 4 fetch lands in the deck that allow you to search for Swamps (more on this later) as well as a Prismatic Vista. Additionally you can grab these with Thaumatic Compass   as long as it hasn't transformed.

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: You start with 11 swamps, but why not make more? Reminder that this turns all land, including your opponents, into Swamps.

• Cabal Coffers: Why do we want Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (TSR (or Blanket of Night discussed later) so badly? Simple: it fuels Cabal Coffers. This becomes mana positive once you're above three Swamps, which is pretty easy to attain with this deck.

• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This is your "Cabal Coffers Alternative." It can scale at a faster rate than the Coffers do because it is based on your devotion to black, really increasing your mana generation.

• Thespian's Stage: Two mana to copy Cabal Coffers (TOR? Yes please! You can copy any other land that is in play too, just remember not to copy a Legendary land.

• Vesuva: While a slower version of Thespian's Stage because it comes into play tapped, having additional Cabal Coffers is always nice, and you can always copy an opponent's land if they have something better. Even so, there are still some fun tricks you can play with this. Witch's Cottage is another great target, especially because the Vesuva-copy will come into play untapped (I think). Obviously the Legend rule applies to this, so don't copy one of your legendary lands or you'll have to sacrifice it. One other note, if you copied Lake of the Dead you'll have to sacrifice a swamp when it comes into play just like the original requires you to.

• Lake of the Dead: Speaking of Lake of the Dead, let's talk about it! While you need to sacrifice a land when it comes into play, that land doesn't have to be untapped. It puts you one land behind, but there are plenty of ways to catch up with this deck. The Lake's ability to get 5x{B} by tapping and then sacrificing a Swamp is pretty awesome and can really open up your options early.

• Witch's Cottage: Why the Cottage? Well two reasons really. First, being able to put a creature card from your graveyard on top of your library is a nice bonus when playing a land. Given that there are ways to turn all of your lands into swamps (and you have a lot of basic swamps to begin with) this will almost certainly come into play untapped. Second, it is a Swamp, so you can search for it with your fetch lands as well. Basically, this is a "swamp" that you can search for that also has a bonus ability when it comes into play untapped.

• Leechridden Swamp: Like the aforementioned Witch's Cottage, the Leechridden Swamp is another "better" searchable swamp. The benefit here is that you can use it to start whittling down your opponents. This is one other way to start a few of your win combos.

• Bojuka Bog: So there's not much to say about this card that you probably don't already know. Sometimes you need to exhile your

• 1x Castle Locthwain

• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Urborg
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Date added	3 years
Last updated	11 months
Key combos	Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank Mindcrank + Syr Konrad, the Grim Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose Blood Tribute + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.92
Tokens	City's Blessing
Folders	Lifegain