Gonti, Lord of Luxuries | PRIMER

Commander / EDH Mono-Black Multiplayer Primer Snow

Dalektable

Artifact (25)

• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Chaos Wand
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Erratic Portal
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Greed
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

Creature (16)

• 1x Chainer, Dementia Master
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kheru Mind-Eater
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Oblivion Sower
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Sepulchral Primordial
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Skull Collector
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum

Land (35)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 25x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Commander (1)

Sorcery (15)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Command the Dreadhorde
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Instant (3)

• 1x Defile
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Snuff Out

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Thievery, Revelry and Chivalry

Step into a world of the unknown, a world with infinite possibilities and countless options. The color pie is your slave and you it's master, your will bends to no one but all bend to yours. Steal with abandon, laugh with pleasure and wreak havoc upon the table. Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a commander flexible to every table, able to hang with high powered EDH decks down to the kitchen table level. Adaptable in nearly all situations, Gonti's enter the battlefield ability will unnerve and spread distrust amongst your opponents. You could have any answer, any bomb or even their combo piece. Take joy in killing your opponents with their own threats, countering their spells and killing their creatures with their own cards. This deck is chaos and flexibility, power and balance, and immeasurably fun. Strap in, sleeve up and get ready for a commander game that will never be the same twice.

An Unreliable Master

Gonti will provide you with endlessly interesting games with boundless possibilities, yet the cruel irony within this is how he limits you. You are limited by the scope of your opponents decks, and furthermore the roll of a dice for the odds of finding something useful on top of their deck. In this way, your deck is innately balanced against your opponents because your most powerful cards are most likely going to be theirs. Personally, I love this aspect of the deck and it is a primary reason I built it. That being said, I have taken my deck in a more powerful direction with lots of built in card draw and answers. My mainboard is trying to do one of a few things; Ramp, draw cards, deal with threats, or steal my opponents cards. I try to be as efficient and powerful as I can be at these basic things, so that way I can circumvent the issue of sometimes wiffing off of Gonti. I have a few win conditions built into my deck, but most of them will rely on your opponents.

To Steal or Not to Steal

Choosing your target with Gonti's ability is perhaps the most important decision you will make each game. Take a look around the table, before you sits a blue control deck, a dedicated combo deck and a midrange deck. Who do you target? Do you go for the control deck and hope to find a counterspell to protect yourself, the combo deck and maybe find a tutor, or do you go for the midrange deck to find a threat? Each game is different, and being able to analyze the board state and decide which player is the best to target at any given time will be critical to your success.

Perfectly Balanced

My playgroup had fallen into an abyss that I suspect many playgroups have fallen victim to; power creep. One player builds a deck that is a bit stronger than everyone else, another player makes one to beat theirs, the other players also feel the need to build stronger decks. After not too long the group is unrecognizable and the game has become stale and not as fun as it used to be. This is not to say that playing strong decks isn't okay, but everyone needs to be on the same page. My group have all agreed to tone down our decks and our power level, and try to return to the fun place that we all enjoyed. This deck is tuned to my metagame, what I need to answer and what power level I am playing on. I built this deck to be balanced; the base of my deck be powerful, while playing with my opponents cards to stay equal with the others. This is how I believe Gonti to be the most fun, as a political powerhouse that throws a wrench into the game. As such, I will go into my card choices but keep in mind that these are tuned to my playgroup and some of these cards may be too cute for your group, or be too strong. Adjust to your playgroups needs.

Let's Just Calm Down

This deck functions a bit like a control deck with midrange qualities. We have lots of answers, so if anyone tries doing degenerate stuff we can stop them and do the degenerate stuff ourselves!

Board Wipes Crux of Fate Decree of Pain Dead of Winter Massacre Girl Black Sun's Zenith Mutilate All Is Dust

I play a density of board wipes so I always have access to a way to reset the board. This is a control deck, in black, so if there are problematic creatures there will not be for long.

Removal Defile Malicious Affliction Plaguecrafter Ravenous Chupacabra Snuff Out Noxious Gearhulk

See board wipes. Get those creatures outta here.

Turning the Gears

Tu be able to do all the fun, stupid stuff we want to do first we have got to be able to play our cards and find our fun cards. These are the essentials that help us ramp, draw cards, and find out pieces.

Ramp Charcoal Diamond Coldsteel Heart Everflowing Chalice Fellwar Stone Gilded Lotus Jet Medallion Mind Stone Prismatic Lens Sol Ring Solemn Simulacrum Thought Vessel Wayfarer's Bauble

I run a bit more ramp than most decks run because this deck draws lots of cards, and has quite a few mana sinks so you want to be able to deploy multiple cards a turn. I favor the cheaper mana rocks becaue I like coming out of the gates quickly, so I do not run higher costed rocks but those are also options available to you.

Card Draw Erebos, God of the Dead Greed Necropotence Phyrexian Arena Sign in Blood

This may seem like a low quantity of card draw, but this is circumvented by us playing so much with our opponents cards. All of these cards above with the exception of Sign in Blood can draw us a lot of cards, they will often be the first card you tutor for with one of our few tutors.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms