Overview
Reading this decklist
Reading this decklist
Reading the decklist is very simple. At this point and time (10/25/15) I have not added any custom tags, so the deck is sorted by card type.
Instead, I'll use this section to describe, why we use Lilian as the general, instead of someone else. The deck started out as a tribute of sorts to Liliana, so we started with discard stuff and cards from Liliana's lore. This is no longer the case. Liliana stayed at the helm because she's the best fit for our reanimator. Liliana works best because she's a reusable reanimate effect that doesn't exile the creature returned, unlike Chainer, Dementia Master. Sheoldred, Whispering One gets hated on hard, and is more trouble than she's worth. Given our curve, Liliana's -X is used a lot more than her +2. More on this later.
Deck colors
Deck colors
The original intent of this deck was to build around Liliana, Heretical Healer
and so I didn't really have a choice in colours. Liliana is black and so is this deck. It just so happens that black is the best at reanimate strategies and has a fair amount of control, as such the deck developed a certain amount of these themes.
However, don't let that lead you to believe that I was "stuck" with mono black. Black has control elements and the ability to tutor for combo pieces, so because I enjoy these archetypes, this deck is tailored to use them.
Deck strengths
Deck strengths
The deck's strength's lie in it's resilience, specifically to wraths and stuff that normally hurt black, ie Iona, Shield of Emeria and artifacts and enchantments. I've added a couple colourless removal options in the way of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Karn Liberated and Steel Hellkite.
Another strength of this deck is its flexibility. I could combo off with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion
, or Exsanguinate for game. Not only that but being a partial reanimator deck has the perk of being kinda resourceful. My cards just keep coming back.
Another strength this deck has lies in its ability to generate a lot of mana.
Deck weaknesses
Deck weaknesses
One of the main weaknesses of this deck is it has a rather large lack of flyers. As such Rune-Scarred Demon, and Steel Hellkite.
This deck is kinda, somewhat slow, so Aggro decks hurt. If I can survive long enough, the aggro deck will run out of gas and I can take game. So to slow down aggro, I've added Maze of Ith.
The Strategy
General strategy
General strategy
The name of the game is mono-black control. Slowing everyone else early game until I hit a combo, ultimate Liliana which just increases my gas, or just win with beats. To this end, flipping Liliana on turn 3 or 4 is very important.
It has been brought to my attention that I hadn't explained Lilian's specific role. Once we flip her, we use her -X to return creatures. Over a third of our creatures can be reanimated instantly upon Liliana flipping.
Early game
Mid game
Mid game
IN PROGRESS: This deck's midgane is very varied. It's midgame is setting up combo pieces and answering opponents threats. Create a threat and when they answer it, wrath everything away. Repeat until you've deprived opponents of resources, and then combo out. Apply pressure here. If a threat sticks, don't over extend. Use your threat and start stomping. Amass resources as your opponents scramble to deal with your threat.
Late game
Contingency plan
Contingency plan
By late game, you should be wrapping up the game, Even if one of your combo pieces are missing, be it because,they were exiled or you were hit with an untimely Rest in Peace, luckily, we have a couple back up win conditions.
Life totals should be getting low and graveyards should be getting high,
so just cast Rise of the Dark Realms, or Exsanguinate.
Barring this, we're going to have to rely on less consistent methods:
Just beat face with a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, or Wurmcoil Engine to finish up.
As I said above, Strands of Night is kind of an MVP. With the amound of mana this deck generates, it can combo off, Gray Merchant of Asphodel
+
Strands of Night
+
Viscera Seer
can kill on the tip of a dime. Or say you still have pieces in your deck, Rune-Scarred Demon
+
Strands of Night
+
Viscera Seer
can grab a lot of combo pieces.
Mulligans
Mulligans
Generally you want either 3 lands or 2 lands and Expedition Map. You also want at least 1 creature that can die by turn 4. If you cant flip Liliana by turn 5, you should probably mulligan.
Update:1/18/16: I need to do more testing now that Vancouver mulligans are the "official" mulligan of commander. I find the deck preforms worse under the new rules, it's hard to unsure three lands and not have the rest of the hand be garbage. Less than pleased about that...
Matchups and sideboarding
Matchups and sideboarding
With all the Graveyard decks in my meta I just mainboard my answers, plus I believe that every deck should have a little gravehate.
This deck can deal with most deck types. The biggest issue is a control heavy esper combo deck. I have since learned a method of dealing with it. Plan a back-up plan. Plan to have each spell countered and expect permanents to be destroyed. Apply hard pressure to these players and they will eventually crumble.
Combos and synergies
Card Choices Explained
Lands
Lands
I tried to make the most inclusive landbase for a monoblack deck, however as the deck evolved the so did the landbase. It became more personalized, specialized for this deck specifically.
The main pillar of this deck comes from Cabal Coffers and eventually copying it with Thespian's Stage. To this end, I've added Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to make up for all my nonbasic, utility lands. In the pursuit of Cabal Coffersing for explosive mana, I've included the fetchlands.One of the issues with Liliana is her +2 eventually makes itself useless, so I've added Mikokoro, Center of the Sea to not only add fuel to my own hand, but provide an outlet for the +2. Ancient Tomb: This card is basically the upgraded version of Temple of the False God, another EDH staple. It can tap for mana at any time, and the investment of life is a low price for the extra mana production.Given the amount of Graveyard in my meta I run Bojuka Bog. The value it gives is worth running the tap land.Cavern of Souls is the only way to ensure Liliana hits the board. I have a fair amount of counter magic in my meta and making all my humans uncounterable is powerful.Deserted Temple is here mainly for Cabal Coffers, but can also untap Maze of Ith which is cool.Dust Bowl is my land destruction card. Cabal Coffers often gets a targeted, so being able to sacrifice it to blow up a land in response to an exile effect is why I run it over Strip Mine.Drowyard temple is a pretty cool card. When paired with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth it can be used to pull advantage out of Lake of the Dead. On its own, it can be pitched to Lilian's +2 and then returned. One of the more controversial card in the deck is Lake of the Dead. I have to sac a Swamp upon ETB, but the mana swing is provides is worth the risk.A recent addition isCommand Beacon I've noticed Lilian gets really expensive when focused on in multiplayer and this help fix that, especially with Crucible of Worlds.Volrath's Stronghold makes a pretty powerful recursion engine with Phyrexian Tower, and is generally a powerful card.
Creatures
Creatures
At this point i've already explained a lot of my creatures, but I can explain the ones who got left out here.
Arcbound Ravager can protect my artifacts from exile, and makes my artifact creatures a threat. At worst it can flip Liliana immediately.Bone Shredder made the cut over creatures such as Shriekmaw due to it's mana cost. The CMC 3 can be reanimated with -3 where Shriekmaw may cost less to put in the grave, is harder to reanimate due to it's higher CMC.Crypt Ghast is a mana doubler, pretty self explanatory.Duplicant is my only exile effect on a creature. It can deal with Iona, Shield of Emeria and other threats.Fleshbag Marauder or Merciless Executioner coupled with -3 makes for a very powerful sacrifice engine. While I may not be able to loop these effects, they are quite powerful in their own right.Gray Merchant of Asphodel's ETB ability can help close out games, or just give you the edge on life that you need. Either way, reoccurring it is a pain for your opponents.Nirkana Revenant is a mana doubler that can beat face. If left unanswered, she'll deal a shitload of damage with your excess mana.Scarecrone can sac herself for draw at worst, and if left alone, is a powerful artifact reanimate engine.Sheoldred, Whispering One couples a reanimate effects each upkeep with an edict. The definition of powerhouse.Sidisi, Undead Vizier is one of my few legendary creatures. She can't be reanimated with Liliana's -X, but a tutor stapled onto a deathtouch body is pretty good. Yes I have to sacrifice a creature, oh no.Steel Hellkite is another flier and it can take out Artifacts, enchantments, Iona, Shield of Emeria and Tokens rather easily.Thought-Knot Seer is an irritating, repeatable hand destruction, and what's better than destruction? Exile.Voldaren Pariah
is a neat sacrifice outlet that can devastate in 1v1. It's decent in Multiplayer and it's very efficient if I can trigger madness. Not to mention, Abolisher of Bloodlines is a pretty good flier. And it's pretty.Finally, Wurmcoil Engine. Can't really defend this one other than saying "did you read the card?"
Other cards
Other cards
Karn Liberated is one of my artifact and enchantment removal cards, he also happens to be able to answer Iona, Shield of EmeriaLiliana of the Dark Realms helps grab Swamps from the deck to fuel Cabal Coffers bullshit, also, ensures I hit my land drops. Her -3 can remove threats or create a threat.Liliana Vess is included because not only is her -2 a free Cruel Tutor. Plus It's the SDCC foil, so I really wanted to use her. Batterskull is a late addition. It's a good way to generate board presence when equipped to a token and if times are dire I can generate enough mana to bounce and recast for another germ.Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is another answer to Iona, Shield of Emeria and enchantments. He also wraths Tokens, so there's that.Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar allow a lot of shenanigans with the reanimate effects in the deck, or when paired with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or tokens can generate mana. Especially is you have Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's emblem. As stated above, I'm running the fetchlands, Dust Bowl and Lake of the Dead. To minimize the draw back of Lake of the Dead, and Dust Bowl and maximize the effects of Marsh Flats and the like, I've included Crucible of WorldsOblivion Stone because sometimes I need creatures to survive a wrath. Or need to deal with a trouble enchantment. Just a powerful card. Rings of Brighthearth is amazing in this deck. Being able to copy any of my Planeswalker's abilities or Burnished Hart is pure value. Also doubles the efficiency of any of the fetchlands.Sensei's Divining Top for a bit of Top deck control. Also works well with Rings of Brighthearth.Oath of Liliana is becoming one of my favourite cards in here. Not only is it an edict, but it gives me blockers for my planeswalkers in reward fo doing what I normally do; Flip Lili.I hope that Necropotence is self explanatory. It's an incredibly powerful effect that is basically black incarnate. It's probably one of the most powerful draw effects in the game. It can dig for combo pieces at an insane speed and so it's well worth the drawback with Liliana's +2, and also supplies us with cards to pitch to Liliana, if you're planning ahead.Animate Dead and Necromancy are just powerful reanimation spells that can grab combo pieces from the graveyard.One of this deck's weaknesses is the lack of fliers and early game chump blockers. Bitterblossom is a great answer to both problems.Phyrexian Arena is just solid card advantage. It speeds up the game and gets more cards in hand so that +2 hurts less.Strands of Night is insane. Probably my favourite card currently. With the amount of mana this decks makes, I can loop cards like Grey Merchant of Asphodel for game.All Is Dust is a good wrath that hits more than just creatures. It also deals with Iona, Shield of Emeria.Ashes to Ashes is a powerful card, with a minimal drawback. Sometimes killing something just isn't enough, so we'll make it disappear forever. And in EDH with 40 life, the 5 life loss is minimal.One of the more powerful card in here is Yawgmoth's Will. It's oozes advantage. It can be used as a one off to get a key combo card back, or it can be used widely to just reuse everything from my grave.Black Sun's Zenith is a reusable wrath that deals with Avacyn, Angel of Hope and the Ulamog twins.Behold the Beyond is currently replacing Diabolic Revelation. The cheap tutor at the cost of my hand is powerful for comboing. Not to mention I can reanimate all the stuff that got pitched.Exsanguinate can give you a small edge in life, or it can flat out end the game, or at least get you a hell of a lot closer.Rise of the Dark Realms is part of an old combo: Akroma's Memorial
+
Rise of the Dark Realms
, but Memorial had to get cut due to insufficient creature count, ie, it was only good in the combo. Rise stayed, because it can still win games, but in the event that it doesn't it still triggers a lot of ETB/ETG abilities. Toxic Deluge is the lowest cost wrath i'm aware of. The low cost allows me to rebuild after the wrath and it deals with Avacyn and Ulamog.Vampiric Tutor is pretty obvious. Instant speed tutor is good. For just ? Hell yeah. Works especially well with Phyrexian Arena and Sensei's Divining Top.Finally, Entomb. Again, Instant speed tutor, for . It may put it in the graveyard, but that works well with -X and Strands of Night. If all else fails, grab either Vengeful Pharaoh or Drownyard Temple.
Other Information
Building this deck
Building this deck
As I've said above the deck is supposed to revolve around Liliana, Heretical Healer
but also work separate from her.
Cards likeBurnished Hart and Bone Shredder are included over potentially better cards due to the advantage they bring upon hitting the field more than once. With Liliana's starting loyalty being 3, the CMC creatures are more useful.This deck is expensive, i'm not going to lie to you. The price, however can be brought down to a degree.
remove the foil copies of cardsSwap the fetch lands for regular Swamps.
Event record
Event record
Date Unknown: 4th at FNM multiplayer PODs
Change log
Change log
Up until this point the changelog has been in the update section. This will not be changing, but I will, from time to time put swaps that I am considering.
**03/20/16**
Testing out Behold the Beyond in place of Diabolic Revelation
I don't really know how to go about improving the deck, mainly because I'm stuck in this area of "I want the deck to be good, but also I don't want to be a dick." but by all means, keep the suggestions rolling!
This is no longer a fun little Liliana-centric lore deck, it's moved into a combo reanimator. the deck isn't focused around Lilian as much as it once was. Relying too much on your general too much is fatal. After you're deprived of your general cards become dead if you reply too much on them. As such please avoid suggesting cards that cannot work on their own, like the following:
Again, appreciate all of your suggestions, just try to make them relevant to the deck.
and Polluted Delta