Neat Idea, I would add No Mercy .

Fun idea!!

Cauldron of Souls doesn't target so will not kill the creature

I play in a monthly EDH/Commander league and am quite knowledgeable on the format.If you or your friends ever need help building a EDH/Commander deck just contact me and i will be glad to help!

with all your tap-to-kill effects, a Thornbite Staff would probably come in handy. Just make sure you equip before you play your general. Also, you'll need ways of protecting your general, since things like equipments and such "target" and thus blow him up. Can't think of anything in black off the top of my head. Also, for use against Sigarda, Host of Herons and other hexproof generals such as Lazav, Dimir Mastermind . a Glaring Spotlight would help you stay ahead. it also cuts right through common protection like Swiftfoot Boots . Those are my 2 cents. If you've got the time, mind giving me some advice on one of my EDH decks? Perverted Thoughts

@Mysphyt: Thanks, I'll test No Mercy out this week and see if it makes a noticeable difference. Any suggestion on what to take out though?

@nicolbolased: Cauldron of Souls does target. "Choose any number of TARGET creatures." And thanks for the offer, I'm sure I'll post at least questions about land because I tend to have mana fixing issues when doing a multi-color deck.

@Jace the Firebrand: Thornbite Staff would really only be helpful with Dauthi Trapper and Sorceress Queen . Plus, I don't like running equipment when they become useless half the time and I can't guarantee a creature because my general doesn't like them. I can take care of Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves with Xenic Poltergeist . However the hexproof is a pain. I just don't like running Glaring Spotlight for that sole purpose. I normally would just get out an Eldrazi Monument and keep blocking them (I can fuel the monument with goats if needed), or find a board wipe.

Thanks for the comments. I really appreciate them.

Rathi Trapper I feel would do good in this; he's good at slowing down an opponent even without your commander out. :)

(I have a grixis deck built around this guy; I love how my little pingers become instakills with this guy. :D)

Also, Blood Artist . Can never go wrong with that guy!

Check out my mono black deck for ideas.

Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief would be a complete animal in this deck.

blood artist and falkenrath noble

Thinking of removing Nether Traitor , Midnight Banshee , Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse , and Infernal Kirin for Gild , Fated Return , Phylactery Lich , and Phyrexian Obliterator . Thoughts?

you cant play Crypt Ghast w black only general

Yes you can. You are probably thinking this because of the hybrid mana symbol in the reminder text of the extort ability. However, reminder text is omitted when checking the color conditions of a card for EDH.

rule 207.2
The Text box may also contain italicized text that has no game function.

"EXTORTWith the release of Gatecrash, we'd like to clarify our stance on extort by confirming that, as always, reminder text has no effect on color identity. Extort adds no colored mana symbols to a card outside of its reminder text, and therefore is legal for play in Commander decks of any color or colors (as long as the card it appears on is otherwise legal, of course). There will be no updates to the rules in the foreseeable future that affect how extort works in Commander." source

I can keep going, but I'm sure you get the picture.

well, thanks a lot for the insight, thats good news :)

I like this deck, simple premise and looks effective. I would move Karn, Silver Golem to the maindeck, as it gives you the ability to remove non-creatures (which black has trouble doing). Also, a fun combo with Karn is Mycosynth Lattice to pay 1 and blow up their land if you like combo EDH. Also, Dark Impostor or Karn Liberated would be a good backup plan in case they have something indestructible out there.

I would also think your deck would benefit from some ways to gain card advantage by drawing cards, as well as making your opponent discard. Some good ones are Necropotence , Phyrexian Arena , Disciple of Bolas and Greed .

I can kill lands with Liquimetal Coating and Xenic Poltergeist . I don't really have any other need for Mycosynth Lattice so I prefer this combo as they each have their benefits alone. Karn Liberated would be good except that my playgroup insta-targets whoever plays it.

The deck can draw cards from Staff of Nin and Harvester of Souls . However, it has some other forms of card advantage from Liliana of the Dark Realms , Phyrexian Reclamation , Trading Post , Volrath's Stronghold , and Grave Betrayal

Very fun deck to play-test, comes online fast and is pretty resilient to a lot of removal. Most mono colored EDH decks can be a pain to pilot, but this one has so many options available while playing its hard to get bored with it. This deck has been a go-to for helping me fine tune my own decks and its always a challenge to go against, great job with it.

Thank you so much for those kind words. Currently I'm trying to find suitable a replacement for Nether Traitor and maybe Dauthi Trapper and Consume the Meek just because they have been under-performing lately. The Consume the Meek will most likely stay in for tokens and elves, but the other 2 are a little more restrictive with their uses.

If you like affects like Consume the Meek ; Spreading Plague and Lethal Vapors are also very good against tokens and multicolored decks effectively allowing your board to build until your general has the pieces in place to come online. I personally have a problem with token decks and those 2 cards stop them cold. However the mana cost on both is a little high so it'll be based upon your play group if you could make use of them or not.

I noticed that you are running Exquisite Blood without using Sanguine Bond

I'm not running Sanguine Bond for a two reasons. 1) This is a "fair" deck that restrains itself from using infinite combos. and 2) I don't have enough ways to gain life to make Sanguine Bond a good enough card on its own (I have Trading Post , Exquisite Blood and Sorin Markov for lifegain sources).

Glad to have upvoted it to 20 - this is a rad deck. Also, respect the "no infinite combo" decision re: Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood .

"Thinking of removing Nether Traitor , Midnight Banshee ,Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse , and Infernal Kirin for Gild , Fated Return , Phylactery Lich , and Phyrexian Obliterator . Thoughts?"

Without any ninjas, swords, Quietus Spike etc, Nether Traitor is sort of lackluster, in my experience, so it can def go. Midnight Banshee is a house if you play a lot of non-black (I do, and that card is straight up HATED). Keep that.

The two Kamigawa cards seem a little lame, so I'd drop those for Gild and Phyrexian Obliterator , both of which are Value City, USA. Gild can drop a stupid indestructible creature, and give a little mana to boot (not bad). Phyrexian Obliterator is an absolute pain in the ass to deal with.

Fated Return is kind of a giant disappointment when it resolves, unless you are facing a The Mimeoplasm deck full of absolute monsters. Mostly it's like "great, I now have a seven mana indestructible Lotus Cobra or something.

Also, Grave Pact is legit, and whoever suggested Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is definitely correct. She puts down any of the dumb indestructible creatures you may face (I hate indestructible creatures).

Finally, consider Glaring Spotlight so that you can target your opponents' dudes, and Black Sun's Zenith to mop up the board when it gets too hairy.

Cool deck!

Some updates:
took out: Dauthi Trapper , Nether Traitor , Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse , and Infernal Kirin
and added: Duplicant , Gild , Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief , and Erebos, God of the Dead

Now the question remains if I want to keep Cavern of Souls in there for the six remaining spirits (Kokusho, the Evening Star , Crypt Ghast , Midnight Banshee , Myojin of Night's Reach , Xenic Poltergeist , and my general, Horobi, Death's Wail ) or just make it another swamp.

I'm not sure why Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx isn't in here. It's generally a shoo-in for my mono-colored Commander decks, and black has a pretty generous amount of mana symbols per card. Liliana Vess is really strong in Commander since she's a reusable tutor.

Virulent Swipe could be fun with the Commander out and still potentially useful without it,

Can you explain how Liquimetal Coating is killing lands, please?

Liquimetal Coating makes a land into an artifact with a CMC of 0, Xenic Poltergeist then makes it a 0/0 creature. Due to having 0 toughness, the land "dies".

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was a debatable land for this deck as it runs more like a control deck. It doesn't focus on keeping a board, but making sure the board doesn't get out of hand. So more times than not, it's not that helpful.

Virulent Swipe isn't really worth the slot for the type of utility it provides when other things provide the same utility but repeatedly and more efficiently.