Kalitas's Mono-Black Zombie Control

Commander / EDH Control Mono-Black Multiplayer Tokens Zombie

FineCashew9

Creature (23)

• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nekrataal
• 1x Pontiff of Blight
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Withered Wretch

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Land (38)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Everglades
• 1x Leechridden Swamp
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Strip Mine
• 27x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation

Artifact (14)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Instant (4)

• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Hellfire
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victimize

Commander (1)

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This is my mono-black Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet EDH deck. It controls the board with removal, wipes, and creatures that generate value. Comments, suggestions, and upvotes are welcome!

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So first, let's take a look at what Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet brings to the table. First, he is a respectable 3/4 lifelink for 4. Not amazing, but certainly not bad.

Second, he has an ability that exiles opponent's creatures when they would normally die, and gives us a token. This is where Kalitas gets interesting. He randomly hoses things like persist and undying (and other graveyard abilities, notably Grave Pact effects), and entire decks like aristocrats or value sacrifice (Meren) by denying them their death triggers.

This also provides us with an incentive to run lots of wraths to generate full value from the tokens he generates. Even if he dies in the wrath, we still replace our opponent's death triggers, and we end up with the only creatures on the board.

His third ability is also useful. He can sacrifice tokens to buff himself. This has a couple uses. If our opponent isn't paying attention, we can surprise them and kill their creature through combat. It also allows Kalitas to survive things like Toxic Deluge. It also gives us a way to abuse Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos.

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The deck has 7 wipes (counting Attrition/Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos/Butcher of Malakir + Kalitas as one wrath), four of them one-sided.

As is necessary in Commander, there is a fair amount of ramp to speed us along the way, including many cards that double the mana our swamps produce.

Furthermore, to help our controlling strategy, almost every creature this deck plays generates card advantage in some way, from removing a creature to drawing cards to reanimating creatures.

It has a Zombie subtheme, with such cards as Graveborn Muse, Undead Warchief, and Death Baron. The lords are great to drop the turn after a wrath to swing for a ton of damage.

The deck also has a package of utility lands such as Volrath's Stronghold and Arcane Lighthouse to make sure our opponents can't get out from under our removal and creatures.

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We should be able to grind out value in most multiplayer games, and we will be able to slide under the radar compared to more obviously powerful decks like Kaliaa or Narset, while not presenting an easy kill. That is, until we wrath the assembled armies and swarm in with zombies.

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A few cards I would like to mention:

Hellfire - An often overlooked wrath that does a lot for the deck for relatively little mana.

Snuff Out - A Slaughter Pact that costs life instead of mana. Both this card and Hellfire are not as painful as they seem, due to Kalitas having Lifelink.

Leechridden Swamp - a land that counts as a swamp for our swamps-matter cards that drains our opponents in the late game. A mana sink and a way to close out grindy games.

Vampiric Rites - another way to get value from the zombie tokens that the deck creates, mostly for the card draw.

Gauntlet of Power + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Politics. Everyone gets tons of mana. Hopefully, people will power out their hands using the extra mana, and then we can wrath it all away.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet + Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos/Butcher of Malakir - Kalitas provides us the sac outlet we need to abuse the on-death effect, and if we time it right, we will get more zombies to use as fodder to continue the cycle. This can be done in the main phase to wipe the board and put counters on Kalitas so he can swing in for damage.

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NOTE - This list is not final and is still evolving. The current iteration has many expensive spells, and I will likely be messing with the curve and wrath package.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Key combos	Gauntlet of Power + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Zombie 2/2 B