How To Be An MTG Mafioso (Budget Kambal EDH)

Commander / EDH Budget Combo Group Slug Lifegain Vampires WB (Orzhov)

Sargeras

Creature (22)

• 1x Ajani's Pridemate
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Blood Seeker
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Divinity of Pride
• 1x Fate Unraveler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x High Priest of Penance
• 1x Intrepid Hero
• 1x Magister of Worth
• 1x Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 1x Pontiff of Blight
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
• 1x Treasury Thrull
• 1x Windborn Muse

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Terashi's Grasp

Land (37)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Forsaken Sanctuary
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 11x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 12x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple of Silence

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Angelic Accord
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Greed
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Palace Siege
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Polluted Bonds
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Sphere of Safety

Commander (1)

Artifact (15)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Sisay's Ring
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (4)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

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WELCOME TO THE GUIDE TO BEING AN MTG MAFIOSO!

EXTORTION IS THE NAME, WELCOME TO THE GAME!

While he might not look his best, Kambal, Consul of Allocation is one of the most destructive forces that one can play in a game of commander, as while people are playing tutors, drawing cards, or ramping,Kambal makes them pay for it all.

The main strategy behind this deck is to take advantage of Kambal and creatures with extort in order to gain tons of life and secure our position as a threat very quickly. Now obviously, this will cause some problems between you and the other players, because once they figure out that every spell you cast can drain them for 4 life, and gain you 12, they might just decide that enough is enough and attempt to kill you. This is where the hard part comes in, as you need to prepare your board to withstand a lot of pressure once it gets going.

The Manabase

The manabase for this deck is very cheap (because budget) and can easily be built upon.

Scoured Barrens, Orzhov Guildgate, Orzhov Basilica, Forsaken Sanctuary, Command Tower, Caves of Koilos, Temple of Silence, Tainted Field : All cheap budget dual lands.

Ghost Quarter: With the exception of being able to mana-screw an opponent, quarter serves as a cheap version of Strip Mine, allowing you to deal with troublesmome lands like Academy Ruins.

Bojuka Bog: Gravehate in the manabase.

Homeward Path: This card should honestly be in every deck, Homeward path defeats cards like Scrambleverse, Reins of Power, Insurrection, Mind Control, Mob Rule the list goes on, this card is very overpowered.

Mortuary Mire: This card is equivalent to playing a swamp and then tapping it to play Raise Dead. This gices you some free recursion of your dead creatures.

Temple of the False God: Mana Acceleration for when you hit 5 lands.

Reliquary Tower: With some of the card draw we have, it can be nice to have no limits on it.

Swamp and Plains: We've got plenty of basics.

1 Drops

Authority of the Consuls: This card contributes to lifegain and slows your opponent's down, and at 1 cmc, what's not to like?

Phyrexian Reclamation: Did your Divinity of Pride get killed? Just pay to life to do it all over again! Reclamation is ridiculously good at making sure you keep the creatures you want to keep.

Sol Ring: The EDH mana-ramp staple that ensures explosive turns earlier.

Wayfarer's Bauble: Missing a land you need? Bauble is a colorless Rampant Growth that is great for color fixing.

Swords to Plowshares: Hands down the best removal spell ever printed in MTG, swords is great removal for any creature that is being annoying.

2 Drops

Blind Obedience: The bigger brother of Authority of the Consuls, Obedience ensures that your opponent's don't just play super quickly to kill you, and has extort for extra fun!

Ajani's Pridemate: This deck gains quite a bit of life from different sources which can Pridemate huge very quickly.

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: Removal and lifegain on a stick, Ayli can easily become an Utter End, and is great at dealing with silly cards like Sylvan Library.

Blood Artist: Bringing on more mafia flavor, the blood artist gains when your opponent's lose things, all the while contributing to our game plan, artist gives synergy for days.

Exsanguinate: One of the easiest ways to gain tons of life in a single turn, this card drains all opponents. It is quite possible to gain 20 or more life with this card alone.

High Priest of Penance: Just in case someone gets the nerve to try and bust your balls, you just have to introduce them to this guy. The politics with this card can be pretty nuts, and becomes destructive wih recursion.

Mind Stone: Mana ramp with added draw if needed.

Orzhov Signet: Mana ramp with color fixing in our colors.

Suture Priest & Blood Seeker: Your opponents might think twice before they decide to spam tokens with Tempt with Vengeance as that kind of card could be VERY costly.

Swiftfoot Boots: Cheap protection for Kambal and our other creatures.

3 Drops

Burnished Hart: This card is reccurable mana ramp that allows us to get ahead pretty quick.

Darksteel Ingot: Indestructible mana ramp for 3 cmc.

Intrepid Hero: This creature deals with almost every scary creature you could think of, and all you have to do is tap him.

Pristine Talisman: 3cmc mana ramp that gives you life for your efforts.

Oblivion Ring: Removes everything from Garruk, Primal Hunter to Darksteel Forge

Phyrexian Arena: Extra draws for the small price of one life a turn, what;s not to love?

Mortify: An easy way to destroy cards like No Mercy controlled by an opponent.

Crawlspace: One of the most effective ways to curb decks that go wide, Crawlspace is sure to decrease the amount of hits.

Ghostly Prison: Played for the same reason as Crawlspace.

Terashi's Grasp: noncreature destruction with added lifegain to get rid of cards like Witch Hunt.

Anguished Unmaking: Get rid of anything you need forever, at the price of 3 life.

4 Drops

Angelic Accord: With cards like Kambal, you can get triggers on turns that aren't your own and make plenty of angels.

Cliffhaven Vampire: With so many extort triggers and effects like it, it's easy to drain away our opponents faster. This card also has an infinite combo with Exquisite Blood.

Crypt Ghast: A 4cmc extorter that comes with mana doubling for our swamps.

Fate Unraveler: A real easy way to punish control decks that like card draw as well as wheel decks,

Greed: Outstanding card advantage that comes for the measly price of a mana and 2 life.

Hedron Archive & Sisay's Ring: 4 cmc mana rocks that tap for 2 mana each.

Utter End: An easy way to remove a troublesome permanent for the entire game.

Well of Lost Dreams: In case you haven't noticed, we like gaining a lot of life, Well provides us an insane ammount of card advantage for simply doing what our deck does.

Whip of Erebos: This card enables further lifegain as well as creature recursion, and does so for just 4 mana.

Windborn Muse: A ghostly prison on a stick.

Diabolic Tutor: A way get fetch up combo pieces and anything else you need.

Debt to the Deathless: This card can drain for quite a lot once we have the mana.

Aetherflux Reservoir: We get to gain life for all the spells we cast, and can eventually use all that life to kill someone. We can also use this card in conjunction with Exquisite Blood and kill everyone at the table should we not be disrupted.

5 Drops

Bloodgift Demon: A Phyrexian Arena on a stick that is a 5/4 with flying.

Dictate of Erebos: Our opponent's want to destroy our creatures, so let's return the favor.

Divinity of Pride: This card is basically an 8/8 Flying Lifelink for 5 mana.

Mind's Eye: This card turns your opponent's draws into your draws! Mind's eye allows you to draw tons of card should you not not be tapping out.

Exquisite Blood: Outstanding with all the cards we play, blood also has an infinite combo with Sanguine Bond and a few other cards to win the game.

Fumigate: A wrath with bonus lifegain.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Combos with all our permanents for a ton of drain and lifegain.

Increasing Ambition: A tutor we can use twice, Increasing Ambition can get us anything from a wrath to a combo piece for the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood combo.

Norn's Annex: In many cases Annex can be even better then Ghostly Prison, since some decks can simply untap and then hit you with beaters, however annex allows us to make our opponent pay with either white mana or life, making the idea of attacking seem very bad to our opponents. (You can also cast it for 3 and 4 life should you choose)

Obzedat, Ghost Council: A 5/5 that disappears and reappears to drain life, Obzedat is a great creature that not only works with the other spells we play, but can recur to ensure we have a beatdown option (should such an opportunity arise.)

Palace Siege: Depending on the situation, you could either choose to get a free Raise Dead every upkeep, however in most situations you will end up choosing the drain effect.

Polluted Bonds: This card makes all players pay to play their lands, and is likely to net you a decent amount of life, however once you play this card, players are going to be talking about taking you out.

Sanguine Bond: We have so much lifegain in this deck, it is not uncommon for us to kill someone with Gary or our other mass drain effects.

Sphere of Safety: Since we play a decent amount of enchantments, Sphere gives us another prison effect to ensure that we don't just get run over once we cast our group slug cards.

6 Drops

Treasury Thrull: Treasury Thrull can bring back cards like Ghostly Prison that do a lot of work in this deck, and with Extort to boot, this card is an outstanding six-drop.

Sun Titan: Being able to bring back a card like Crawlspace can have a huge effect on the rest of the game, and Sun Titan can do it every turn.

Merciless Eviction: We have the ability to exile any and all problems we have with the board.

Magister of Worth: A political piece that can either get a Day of Judgment or a Twilight's Call depending on how the game is going.

Pontiff of Blight: While extort might not seem like a great ability, since all your creatures have it, you can easily drain for 4-5 per spell, which means you can net upwards of 15 life sometimes, which is pretty crazy.

7 Drops

Defiant Bloodlord: A Sanguine Bond on a big stick, bloodlord combos with Exquisite Blood and is a decent creature just by itself.

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: Teysa is a great way to stop getting attacked, as nobody wants to lose thier bug creatures AND give us chump blockers for later.

Upgrades & Options

When looking to build upon this deck, we have plenty of options available to us, and there are many routes we can take. This is what I've thought up.

1. Unbudgeting the manabase, some options for this are Godless Shrine, Vault of the Archangel, Shambling Vent, Westvale Abbey  , Strip Mine, Maze of Ith, Emeria, The Sky Ruin, the list goes on.

2. Karlov of the Ghost Council over Ajani's Pridemate.

3. Rhox Faithmender and/or Alhammarret's Archive should have a place somewhere, likely over Blood Tithe and/or Debt to the Deathless.

4. Athreos, God of Passage, likely over Souls of the Faultless.

5. Serra Ascendant could easily find a place in this build.

6. Replacing Sisay's Ring and other higher cost mana rocks for cards like Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, etc.

7. Consulate Crackdown is a great option if you play against artifact decks.

8. Other options that I don't know what to replace with are Ravos, Soultender, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Noxious Gearhulk, Enlightened Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Debtors' Knell, Sorin Markov, Necropotence, and Liliana Vess.

Feedback & Miscellaneous

If you like this list, please give it a comment or upvote, I'm always looking for constructive feedback on my decks!

If you want to see more budget builds make sure to check me out @Sargeras

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.70
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Spirit 1/1 WB
Folders	EDH Decks, interesting decks, Check Out, Favorites (EDH), EDH, White/Black, interesting, Commander / EDH, EDH, Commander