Tales from the Bullshit Crypt

Commander / EDH Mono-Black

chriswalt

Creature (37)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Impostor
• 1x Dogged Detective
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Dread
• 1x Eerie Soultender
• 1x Faerie Dreamthief
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x He Who Hungers
• 1x Horobi, Death's Wail
• 1x Iname, Death Aspect
• 1x Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Kuro, Pitlord
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Midnight Banshee
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mogis's Marauder
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Starving Revenant
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Vile Entomber
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Imperial SealGC
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Ransack the Lab
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Artifact (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Sol Ring

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x The Meathook Massacre

Commander (1)

Land (33)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 25x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Instant (5)

• 1x Entomb
• 1x Pile On
• 1x Plumb the Forbidden
• 1x Price of Fame
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

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Tales from the Bullshit Crypt

This deck has been my personal magnum opus over the years. It has seen many revisions, and continues to evolve as time moves along. When I began my journey in EDH, I wanted to commander that was underrated, an underdog of the format. Who better than Balthor the Defiled? Not only did I want to build him for his grave recursion, I wanted to push it to the limit.

----- The Spirit Engine -----

This deck runs the Iname, Death Aspect engine. You want to dump them into the grave (or cast) as soon as possible, then revive them with Balthor the Defiled. From there, you can dump a lot of spirits into the grave with some notable synergies: Crypt Ghast for mana ramp, Kuro, Pitlord + Horobi, Death's Wail for targeted removal, and Starving Revenant/Eerie Soultender for card draw/mill.

----- The {B} Ramp -----

Black has access to a variety of great ramp cards to help get the mana you need. Black Market Connections, Sol Ring, Ashnod's Altar, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Crypt of Agadeem, Pitiless Plunderer, Nirkana Revenant, Magus of the Coffers, Pawn of Ulamog and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth.

----- Library Manipulators -----

You need plenty of cards to help mill, scry, surveil, draw, and search your library: Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, Diabolic Intent, Demonic Tutor, Plumb the Forbidden, Pile On, Sign in Blood, Ransack the Lab, Night's Whisper, Phyrexian Arena, Grim Haruspex, Black Market Connections, Perpetual Timepiece, Altar of Dementia, Starving Revenant, Stinkweed Imp, Faerie Dreamthief, Eerie Soultender, Doom Whisperer and Dogged Detective!

More notable cards are those that send from your library directly to your graveyard. These are the cards you're most likely going to tutor for first: Entomb, Buried Alive, Vile Entomber, and Iname, Death Aspect if you can hard cast it.

----- Sac Outlets, Triggers, and Fodder ----- You may have noticed that this list includes a solid sacrifice engine to keep up the pressure. This ensures our deck can still function despite being denied our Iname trigger. Our primary sac outlets include: Ashnod's Altar, Altar of Dementia, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Viscera Seer, He Who Hungers, and Carrion Feeder. These can go infinite with the Puppeteer Clique + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo. Other cards exist in the list that provide temporary/slower sacrifices if necessary.

We then have a few of cards that benefit from our creatures dying, including: Zulaport Cutthroat, Pitiless Plunderer, Blood Artist, Pawn of Ulamog, Butcher of Malakir, and Grim Haruspex. These also can go infinite with the Puppeteer Clique + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo.

Finally we need creatures to sacrifice. Most creatures are fine, but these especially benefit the most: Puppeteer Clique, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Junji, the Midnight Sky, Faerie Dreamthief, Stinkweed Imp, Eerie Soultender, and Bloodghast.

----- Removal and Interactions -----

This deck is limited to some rather unorthodox ways to interact and remove threats. Your average removal in this list consists of: Price of Fame, Pile On, Bojuka Bog, The Meathook Massacre (Wipe), Gate to Phyrexia (Artifacts), Living Death (Wipe/Revival), Damnation (Wipe), Orcish Bowmasters, Midnight Banshee, Dark Impostor, Butcher of Malakir (With Sac Engine), and Archfiend of Depravity. You also have the infamous Kuro, Pitlord + Horobi, Death's Wail combo for targeted removal.

You also have a little bit of control in this deck. Contamination can lock a lot of players out from playing for a few turns. With good ramp, He Who Hungers can keep your opponent's hand dry. Finally Dread discourages players from attacking you.

If Balthor the Defiled becomes too expensive to cast, you do have a few backups for interacting with the graveyard: Yawgmoth's Will, Victimize, Reanimate, Living Death, and Sheoldred, Whispering One.

----- Combos and Finishers ----- This deck isn't heavily reliant on hitting the combos/finishers to win the game, however they are sincerely powerful and should be sought out when possible. Prioritizing synergy with sac engines and going aggro with spirits is the usual method towards success. That being said, the strongest game enders are as follows:

1. Puppeteer Clique + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Infinite death triggers, revive enemy creatures.
2. Kuro, Pitlord + Horobi, Death's Wail: Targeted removal.
3. Mogis's Marauder: Haste and Intimidate all your creatures. Sac/revive every turn.
4. Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Deal massive damage and gain massive life. Sac/revive ASAP.

Final Notes:

This is definitely not a tier 0 deck or strategy, as it has some blatant weaknesses that can't be ignored:

1. Graveyard hate/removal is a death sentence for this deck. Gate to Phyrexia along with other removal might help remove graveyard hate. The most optimal play here is to avoid dumping ALL of your spirits into your graveyard with Iname, Death Aspect, and prioritize getting your Crypt Ghast at the very least. Minimize your losses as much as you can.

2. Commander Hate/Counters can hurt, especially since you rely heavily on Balthor the Defiled as your revival on a stick. If you know you're up against players with heavy spot removal, wait to cast until you can afford both your commander's cost, and his ability. If a player targets it for removal, you can activate Balthor's ability on the stack to circumvent the removal and get your revives. If you're playing against a blue player who plays a lot of counter magic, consider playing Balthor early before your graveyard is established.

3. This deck can suffer from a slow early game. Remember that this deck excels towards the midgame, and play your table politics accordingly. Play into the fact that you are not ramping as fast as some other decks can, and try to be small but helpful while you set up your strategy. Once you manage that, this deck goes from 0 to 100 really quick, and can even face up against some of the most competitive decks.

I hope this information helps anyone looking to pilot this deck, or whoever may be considering building their own Balthor list. Balthor is hands down my favorite commander for how explosive he can be if left unchecked. You can also experiment around with this list by swapping Balthor out with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, or even Iname, Death Aspect if you add a few more spells that can revive creatures. Best of luck!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Morph 2/2 C, Orc Army, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure
Based on	Tales from the Bullshit Crypt OLD chriswalt EDH