Endrek Sahr, master bleeder

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Mono-Black Multiplayer Tokens

jiebie

Creature (33)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hedron Crawler
• 1x Kagemaro, First to Suffer
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Phyrexian Plaguelord
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Plague Myr
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stronghold Assassin
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Weaponcraft Enthusiast
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 26x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation

Artifact (9)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

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Endrek Sahr was a wizard affiliated with the Order of the Ebon Hand in Dominarian Sarpadia. Styling himself “Creator of Life and Race Architect”, Sahr was responsible for creating the first thrulls as servants and objects of sacrifice for the Order. (Quoting MTG wiki)

Hello dear reader,

There’s no better introduction to Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder than quoting the first lines of the MTG wiki article. Endrek Sahr is a master token maker and he utilizes the pawns he created to fuel black magic.

This deck is designed as a control deck with a combo finish. During the first turns of the game, it will try to develop resources, draw cards and drop lands. When Endrek enters play, the sacrifice shenanigans will really start. At first, you will try to stabilize and control the development of your opponents. When the time is right, your mana and card draw engines should start snowballing and you will win the game with bleeder effects.

The deck is quite focused on its general but also leaves a prominent role to Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker . He's Endrek's side kick, able to take over if anything would happen to our dear master Thrullmaker.

Below you will find information about the strengths and weaknesses of our general and a breakdown of the deck. I value your comments and ideas highly. If you like the deck or the explanations, feel free to scroll up and press the green button.

The general

Endrek is obviously a mono general. Typical for mono are the swamp-focused mana production engines ( Cabal Coffers ), great card draw ( Necropotence ), tutor spells ( Demonic Tutor ), creature removal spells ( Toxic Deluge ) and its inability to deal with with artifacts and enchantments (with one exception!).

Endrek is a 2/2 for , so don’t expect him to go into combat or to be available during the early game. Given these stats, the deck should contain some ramp and early-game spells, in order not to waste the first few turns.

The strength of Endrek comes from its rules text: Whenever you cast a creature spell, create X 1/1 black Thrull creature tokens, where X is that spell’s converted mana cost.

Yes, this means Endrek does nothing at all when he enters the battlefield as a meaningless 2/2. Playing Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is only an investment to improve your future plays. Couple a relatively high mana cost and a less than stellar immediate impact on the game, and you know why Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder will never be the most oppressive competitive general in existence.

However, what Endrek does when the ball starts rolling, he does it quite well. Endrek can make a LOT of tokens. He probably is one of the best token spawning engines in the whole game. The only thing you have to do, is to put some creatures in your deck, cast them and the tokens will come for free. This ability is borderline broken! Free creatures! … wait, there’s more text … When you control seven or more Thrulls, sacrifice Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.

Now, this is unfortunate! Too many Thrulls and Endrek stops working! There are basically two ways around this: change the nature of the tokens you create through cards like Conspiracy or use the Thrulls to fuel sacrifice engines like Phyrexian Altar .

In summary, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder has an ability that is potentially pretty powerful, but carries quite some restrictions due to the nature of the ability and the restriction to mono . Endrek is not a top tier general, but from my experience it is a lot of fun to play and build… and an uncommon general choice too.

For those who are interested in a competitive general with similar deck building ideas (token/sacrifice), I would recommend Prossh, Skyraider of Kher . For one additional mana, you get a flying win condition with built-in sac engine, token generation and two additional colors… hard to beat that! Teysa, Orzhov Scion as well as Krav and Regna are also generals with abilities that are extremely close to Endrek’s abilities.

Win conditions

The bleeders

The primary win conditions of this deck are Blood Artist , Zulaport Cutthroat and Falkenrath Noble . One life might not seem much, unless you start to snowball and to sacrifice hundred tokens in one turn.

To snowball, you need (endless) mana production and card draw. Your main card draw engines are Dark Prophecy , Smothering Abomination and Skullclamp . Skullclamp is more limited because it requires mana to trigger card draw.

Your main mana engines are Carnival of Souls , Phyrexian Altar and Pitiless Plunderer . Phyrexian altar is the best of all, because it does not require an additional sacrifice outlet to get the ball rolling.

When you have Endrek in play, together with a mana engine, a draw engine and a sacrifice outlet, every creature you play will yield n+1 black mana and n+1 cards, where n is the converted mana cost of the creature you cast. You can then use the black mana and cards to play a new creature and keep the sacrifice loop going.

Coupled to a bleeder like Zulaport Cutthroat , you should be able to drain all your opponents to zero life. You do not need a bleeder start going through the loops, as you will eventually draw into them. However, pending on the engine you managed to assemble on the battlefield, you might have to find a bleeder quickly, in order not to drain your own life before you kill your opponents (ever tried Carnival of Souls + Dark Prophecy ?)

With Reassembling Skeleton , you need two mana engines and a bleeder, but no draw engine, to create an infinite loop.

Shirei

The deck contains numerous creatures that can be recurred with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker . If you have 4 creatures with low power, Zulaport Cutthroat and a sac outlet on the battlefield, using Shirei’s recursion will drain your opponents for 5 life every single turn (+whatever effects might be triggered by the creatures dying or entering the battlefield). In most games, this is a very quick clock and a legitimate win condition.

Exsanguinate

This deck is perfectly able to generate high amounts of mana, like most mono decks. Exsanguinate is a solid back-up plan, in case loops and shenanigans don’t work as intended. When one Exsanguinate is not enough, you can recur the spell with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to finish the job.

Beatsticks

It is possible to win the game by controlling the battlefield with Grave Pact and attack with whatever creatures you have available. The deck is not geared towards aggro, but never forget this option or to attack into an open board. If available, Ormendahl, Profane Prince can speed up the process quite significantly.

The cards that made the deck

Sacrifice fodder Show

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is not the only token producer in the deck. For the sake of consistency, and to keep some pressure off our general while trying to abuse sacrifice effects, we need some additional token producers or recursive creatures.

Bitterblossom : comes into play turn two, and produces a token for the low cost of one life. Bitterblossom is to token production what Phyrexian Arena is to card draw: not spectacular, but solid and reliable.

Reassembling Skeleton : Similar to Endless Cockroaches in that Bloodghast is probably a better card in a vacuum. However, this is the only card in the list that can produce infinite sacrifices and infinite mana without having Endrek in play. It is therefore a better choice for this particular list.

Ophiomancer : produces a deathtouch token EVERY turn. This is a great rattlesnake, very useful to slow down attacks from opponents and to fuel some small sacrifice shenanigans before the late game.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker : Shirei is a very potent odd-ball commander by itself and there are quite some cards in this list that can be recurred with him. Shirei should be seen as a back-up plan, should Endrek become unavailable (too high casting cost, stolen by a blue player …). With Shirei’s recursion, it is quite possible to start draining your opponents for 4 or 5 life every turn. This adds up quickly and can become a decent win condition.

Sacrifice engines Show

The most powerful sacrifice engines, are the ones that allow you to sacrifice several tokens every turn, and that cost no mana. Having to pay no additional mana is what truly differentiates good sacrifice engines from the others.

Phyrexian Altar : Creates black mana by simply sacrificing one token. Works at instant speed and cannot be interrupted because it’s a mana-producing ability. Extremely powerful, fuels most of the wins of the deck when coupled to sacrifice-based card draw.

Ashnod's Altar : Powerful, but much less than Phyrexian altar in this list. The fact that it produces colorless mana prevents it from being used in combos. Mostly used as a powerful ramp engine or to produce enough mana for a lethal Exsanguinate .

Phyrexian Plaguelord : free, instant speed and repetitive ability that is a nightmare for decks containing a high amount of smaller (utility) creatures (think hatebears, tribal elves, tokens …) or generals with a low thoughness (this includes a LOT of good an popular generals like Azami, Lady of Scrolls , Azusa, Lost but Seeking , Captain Sisay , Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Rhys the Redeemed and Tymna the Weaver , to name a few).

Razaketh, the Foulblooded : True, this card has a high mana cost that kills Endrek when it is cast. But, while it kills Endrek, it also produces 8 tokens necessary to fuel its ability. Pending on your board state and the amount of mana that you are able to produce, you should win the game on the turn you play Razaketh.

Sadistic Hypnotist : If you had Endrek in play when casting the hypnotist, you just played a 10 for 1 effect. True, the card is limited by its sorcery speed, but in exchange you get a game-changing effect.

Skullclamp : Technically not a sacrifice effect, but for sure one of the most broken cards in the list. Repetitive draw two for one mana is bonkers.

Viscera Seer : Cheap, instant speed, with a useful ability, can self-sacrifice in Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker loops or to “dodge” removal that would exile it. Amazing card in this list.

There are also sacrifice engines that are a bit more restrictive.

Gate to Phyrexia : Slow, a bit clunky to use due to its timing restriction, but black’s only cheap way to deal with artifacts. Decent card, but could be changed for something else.

Phyrexian Tower : Double black mana from sacrificing a creature is a very useful ramp ability. Like high market, can be used at instant speed to trigger other cards.

Stronghold Assassin : instant speed rattlesnake effect. Slow due to summoning sickness and limited in use by its non-black clause. Decent card, but could be changed for something else.

Westvale Abbey  : Sometimes, big flying lifelinking indestructible demons win games. This is a decent card, but not an essential one. I don’t think I’ve ever used it to make a token, as they are very expensive (6 mana and one life for a 1/1 is not my kind of bargain).

Ramp Show

Mono has several options for ramp: artifacts (“rocks”), mana doublers, land-based ramp or cards like Dark Ritual .

To start with, sorcery based mana generation is not my cup of tea. It can be powerful in spell-slinger decks or lists that want to play really fast, but I don’t think that this is the right deck for rituals.

Originally, I had mostly traditional artifact mana rocks in the list but over time some artifact-creatures entered the list. The issue I faced was that, if the creature density in the deck gets too low, the deck is not be able to function properly and is inconsistent during combo turns.

Mana creatures are a more fragile and slower than artifacts but they still help to speed up the game while also being useful when going off, and they can be used as sacrifice fodder or in Shirei loops. Therefore, I believe they are a better choice than some of the more traditional mana rocks.

Artifact-creatures: Leaden Myr , Plague Myr , Hedron Crawler , Palladium Myr

Mana rocks: Thought Vessel , because having an unlimited hand is bonkers with Necropotence . Jet Medallion speeds up the deck considerably. Sol Ring because it is sol ring.

Mana doublers: Crypt Ghast and Extraplanar Lens . I like that they carry a reasonable mana cost. You could play more doublers, but the average cmc of this list is not too high and I don’t think they are absolutely necessary. This is not a pure mono black big mana deck. Nirkana Revenant could be a good alternative to Extraplanar Lens . It is much more expensive, but being a creature is a real advantage.

Land-based ramp: Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold , thee trademark of mono black, and one of the reasons why you should be very careful when you replace a swamp by a utility land. The best games are the ones where you are able to drop a swamp every single turn. Don’t leave home without these. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is often as good as the two cabal lands, but is a bit less consistent because it relies on having a board presence.

More swamps: You can never have too much swamps in play. Wayfarer's Bauble , Liliana of the Dark Realms , Solemn Simulacrum , Myriad Landscape , Pilgrim's Eye will keep the swamps flowing to the battlefield.

Card advantage Show

Recursion, tutoring and drawing cards are the main card advantage mechanics available in this deck.

Tutoring

Beseech the Queen , Demonic Tutor , Diabolic Intent should not come as a surprise. These are some of the most efficient tutors in the game, putting the cards right in your hand.

Expedition Map : because we all really like Cabal Coffers with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Deserted Temple

Sidisi, Undead Vizier : More often than not, you will sacrifice Sidisi to herself, in order to recur her from your graveyard and start tutoring once again. When facing trouble, she’s quite a decent blocker too.

Card draw

Sign in Blood , Read the Bones , Night's Whisper : I think very highly of these cards. They are always useful, especially during the early game to keep a full grip and make sure you hit your land drops.

Phyrexian Arena , Graveborn Muse , Twilight Prophet : There are numerous black cards that will draw one additional card a turn. Phyrexian arena is the most efficient one and graveborn muse does usually the same job but can get silly if you manage to drop a few zombies into play. Getting the city’s blessing is usually a formality with twilight prophet, and the life gain is usually much appreciated. This deck can drain you quite fast.

Necropotence : This card is nuts, even more so with Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower .

Midnight Reaper , Harvester of Souls : not my preferred card draw engines. The non-token clause is a real downside. Included in the deck because they are creatures and you need to keep the creature-count high. These cards become much stronger when Shirei is available. But still, these are not the most powerful cards in the deck and could be replaced by something else.

Dark Prophecy , Smothering Abomination , Skullclamp : See win conditions. In the right circumstances, these cards can become better than necropotence, which should say enough.

Recursion

Unlike some other black decks, this version of Endrek does not fold to all graveyard hate. There is some recursion in the deck but the main card advantage comes from card draw, not recursion. This is why grave hate that only exiles the graveyard (eg: Tormod's Crypt ) is not such a big issue.

The worst version of graveyard hate for this deck, is grave hate that prevents death triggers, like Rest in Peace and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet . These cards are must-kills. Rest in Peace, being an enchantment and therefore very difficult to remove, is probably the best card against you.

Phyrexian Reclamation and Sheoldred, Whispering One : Sheoldred has the disadvantage of killing Endrek when being cast. Otherwise, it’s a beast. Juicy recursion targets for him include Plaguecrafter , Sidisi, Undead Vizier , Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed or Kagemaro, First to Suffer . Phyrexian reclamation is simply very efficient and difficult to destroy.

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed : recursion for any black card in your graveyard, not just creatures, attached to a self-sacrificing creature is real strong value in this deck.

Cadaver Imp : included for the synergy with Shirei. This could be replaced by something else.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker : see win cons. Shirei loops can generate a high amount of death triggers which is exactly what the deck wants.

Control Show

Damnation , Toxic Deluge : creature removal in its most efficient form. I really value the low cmc of these cards.

Kagemaro, First to Suffer : coupled to recursion (like Phyrexian Reclamation , this card is a nightmare for aggro decks. Would be a fine general on it’s own, I’m surprised he doesn’t see more play.

All Is Dust , Nevinyrral's Disk : remove everything you don’t like. All is dust gets around indestructibility, which is great. It does no remove artifacts, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage when you have one of your key artifacts in play.

Dictate of Erebos , Grave Pact : we generate and kill a lot of tokens, which can make these cards really oppressive. If you manage to keep this on the battlefield, only other token decks will be able to keep a creature in play. Non-token decks will face an empty board. Must-haves in any black sacrifice-based deck.

card: plague crafter, Fleshbag Marauder : great early game, a bit less so late game unless you manage to recur them with Sheoldred. Worst case, they leave three tokens behind while killing several low-impact creatures. That’s still a good deal.

card: Kalitas, traitor of Geth, Scavenger Grounds : don’t leave home without graveyard hate. I’m not 100% sure about Kalitas, because he does not affect an existing graveyard and can only exile creatures. However, being a creature himself and being able to make tokens is a nice plus. He could be changed for another card.

Cards that did not make the cut

High Market : The least powerful of lands that can sacrifice creatures. Useful when trying to manage the amount of Thrulls and no other sac outlet is available. Can be used at instant speed to trigger Grave Pact . Decent card, but not better than a basic swamp in my opinion

With Endless Cockroaches , you only need to have a mana engine and a bleeder to kill all your opponents in an infinite sacrifice loop. The draw engine is not required. However, the cockroaches are quite bad outside of combo. I've been unhappy to draw the card several times, which is usually a bad sign.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	City's Blessing, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Servo 1/1 C, Snake 1/1 B, Thrull 1/1 B, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B