Wow I love a lot of these changes. Do you think going for a land-destruction or Contamination style land hate subtheme would help? What ways do you want to oppose the decks like The Gitrog Monster or Kess, Dissident Mage? They can survive through discard, and are black based so forcing them on black mana is okay, what do you want to try to do to stop them?

Sadly cards like Slaughter Pact don't hit them, and even my personal go-tos past that like Snuff Out and friends just happen to fail here. Do you think more graveyard hate could function well? Soul-Guide Lantern, Nihil Spellbomb, etc.?

Thanks SynergyBuild, I am trying to figure out ways to deal with the issues you brought up. I know this deck is weak to other black decks that utilize discarded cards and the graveyard. I made room for Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, and I’m also considering Relic of Progenitus and Sentinel Totem. I also like these cards because they can always draw me a card, even if the graveyard wiping isn’t necessary, unlike Tormod's Crypt.

The Gitrog Monster and a few other combo decks are tricky because they can’t be stopped once they go off. I included Bitter Ordeal, Praetor's Grasp, and Pithing Needle as ways of removing combo pieces like Dakmor Salvage before they can be played.

I think I’m getting closer. What do you y’all think?

Pithing Needle I feel is a medium card, and Bitter Ordeal I'd need to look at. I think this deck has the ability to disrupt people's early games heavily enough as long as you don't get crushed by any early engines, you should be good.

If you can disrupt their ramp plan, they might not get to stick The Gitrog Monster before you get their main pieces (discard outlets/dredge cards) already discarded/exiled.

This is the current goal I believe. I'll playtest a more strict list than this, then tune it for what I see it should aim for. I'll comment here afterwards. Love the list!

Yawgmoth's Will - Recursion and powerful

Helm of Obedience - Can be used as leyline for another infinite combo. Not great on it's own but worth considering

Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth + Coffers + Swamps = Infinite mana thats nots based on a fragile creature.

Rings can also be used with Magus and your commander for additional utility. With fetches, it can help ramp you or blow up their lands with strip mine. Draw more cards with top, draw more cards with necro in exchange for mana instead of life, and much more....

Profet93 Love this, I put both in the tester list version of this! Not the rings combo however, as it doesn't do much outside of this.

zAzen7977 Here is the untuned variant I am testing!

Tinybones, Discard-Stax-Control-Combo

Commander / EDH SynergyBuild

2 COMMENTS | 10 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Hey Profet93, great suggestions! I’ve been debating whether to include the rings combo and Yawg’s Will for a while. I had forgotten Helm of Obedience, thanks! The Helm plus Voids are a 2-piece kill combo that seem more likely to achieve than relying on Magus of the Coffers. While including the Magus for the chance of generating infinite mana is nice, if the combo is just not competitive then it’s not worth including. By the way, I am trying to approve your suggestions, but the site seems to be glitching.

SynergyBuild, thanks for putting that list together, awesome!!! I am pulling from it and refining my list. This seems like a promising archetype. Let me know how your testing goes!

"you can cast Helm of Obedience, tap it for X=0" but "Helm of Obedience Artifact (X), Tap: Target opponent puts cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard until a creature card or X cards are put into that graveyard this way, whichever comes first. If a creature card is put into that graveyard this way, sacrifice Helm of Obedience and put that card into play under your control. X can't be 0." "X can't be 0." Is this a mistake?

killerkat132 that is a mistake, just make it x=1 or more and you win. Often just 1, however there are scenarios (if you want to get value even if they blow up the Leyline in response to the activation) that it is worth adding more to the X!

Oops, good catch killerkat132 and SynergyBuild. I fixed the mistake.

zAzen7977

Planar Void doesn't combo with helm as it is a triggered ability and not a replacement effect meaning the cards still enter the graveyard and are then exiled from a triggered ability. However it is still a good piece of graveyard hate to have as the pay off far out weights its cost

XinZhao, darn it! Good catch, thanks for pointing that out.

hey zAzen7977,

Love the deck. just wanted to ask your opinion on a few cards. I read through the archive to try to make sure these cards hadn't been discussed yet, HOPEFULLY i didn't miss them. :)

1. Dismember
2. Darkness
3. Liliana's Caress / Megrim
4. Sudden Spoiling
5. Torment of Hailfire
6. Crypt Ghast

Hey LordKunai, thank you! I am happy to offer my opinion.

1. Dismember is an excellent card in general, but I think I’m running enough removal for now.

2. Darkness was in an earlier version of this build, but I found that I would rather have a discard spell then a stall spell that only lasts 1 turn. Plus I prefer using enchantments to lockdown creatures, or board wipes to remove multiple creatures at once.

3. Liliana's Caress and Megrim are good options, but I chose to exclude them because I would rather run discard spells to reduce the opponent to 0 cards in hand. This seems counter-intuitive at first, but the goal of this build is to take advantage of Tinybones’ abilities, and Caress/Megrim do not promote that objective.

4. Sudden Spoiling is interesting, I am not familiar with this card. However I would rather run Dismember or Bontu's Last Reckoning instead. I’d rather remove creatures than neutralize them.

5. Torment of Hailfire is great when you have enough mana to win in a single turn. In other situations it ends up being a dead card. It was in an earlier version of this build that also ran Crypt Ghast and had a focus on ramping.

6. In this latest version I avoid creatures (other than Dark Confidant ) to focus on my primary objectives. Plus I’m running lots of board wipes and cards like Noetic Scales , and I don’t think the Ghast is cost effective if I play it for 4 mana, then only get a few turns of use out of it before it dies.

zAzen7977

Whenever I see your name on the site I always think back to this deck. It's been a while since I commented and with my memory I forgot, how has Praeto's grasp been for you?

Same question with Snuffout. I'd much rather have dismember than snuff

Hey Profet93! Thanks for the comment. Praetor's Grasp is great. I have had the opportunity to use it a few times, and it has practically won me the game each time. Taking out your opponent’s most important combo piece can be devastating.

It’s a tough choice between Snuff Out and Dismember . I went with the former because it almost always costs 0 mana to cast, and my meta has very few other Black decks. This deck is very mana-tight and every single mana counts. But ultimately it’s a judgment call, and Dismember would work too.

Well it's practically Halloween and I only just discovered the pleasure of running a spooky Tinybones list. Better late than never I guess. I wanted to say thank you for your deck breakdown. I didn't appreciate the My Turn vs Enemy Turn discard until I took a second look at Tinybones ability and the importance of having discard effects on all turns to gain a benefit. So thank you for the clarity and the inspiration! Here is my take. Tinybones, Bladerunner

Any reason not to include Bereavement or Nezumi Shortfang  ^Flip?

What are your thoughts on Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip?

My apologies for the late response, but these comments slipped by me and I’ve been meaning to respond.

DemMeowsephs, thanks for your suggestions. Bereavement is very specific anti-green hate. I try to avoid color-specific cards so I won’t be limited if I draw a card like Bereavement and I’m not playing against a green deck. Plus it’s expensive for what it does. A green creature has to die, and then its controller discards a card. That’s too expensive for 4 mana. I get that certain green sac combo decks would be instantly shut down by this card, but I would rather not include it so I can address more general threats.

Nezumi Shortfang  ^Flip is a good option but I have excluded it for a few reasons - first, it’s discard ability is expensive, and once it flips it can very easily be removed. I run very few creatures in this build and the board is usually wiped very often in my meta. I focus on Tinybones’ abilities, rather than rack-style effects.

theindigoeffect, thanks for your suggestion of Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip. I considered including her as well, but she has pros and cons. In a cEDH setting she may be too expensive and slow to be worthy of inclusion. Plus she is removed easily. But I really like her concept tho, and I think stealing my opponents’ discarded cards is really cool and fits the punisher theme. Her other face Tergrid's Lantern is less useful in cEDH because players start at 40 life and losing 3 life is not such a big deal to avoid sac’ing or discarding. Also, the trick would be choosing what to cut for her...I am trying to keep the CMC as low as possible, and I would have to cut one of the higher CMC cards to accommodate her. I’ll keep tinkering!

Since you're only running one creature, what are your thoughts on The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale for the "creature lockdown" category?

Actually, I forgot that you were running Dark Confidant , too.

Just want to say something as far as Tergrid goes. I brewed and built Tergrid and was so excited to do so but in playtest she has done so much better in the 99 of my tinybones and my Nath then I ever expected. Didn’t really care for her as commander because people were just waiting until she came out of the command zone and dealt with. After getting setup with Tinybones, she is absolutely deviating plus harder to deal with. I am talking on a competitive level as well.

Again this is all just my testing so far but lord god it’s a wonderful piece to add to Tinybones IMO. I took gibberish out for her and it’s been fine. She seems like she might be to slow for a competitive table and that was my biggest concern. Not in a deck like this. I promise lol.

Forgot to mention that Tergrid really takes planar void out of the equation but with all the graveyard hate you have in this list, it won’t be as bad as you think. Lol hell I’d argue she is replaces that planar void hate with a new hate. Playing with other peoples cards with minimal effort in monoblack :)

MrNoodlesworth, in your opinion, what would be the best card in this deck to replace with Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip? The closest thing I can think of is Waste Not , (discard pay-off that sometimes draws cards), but it is only 2 cmc, in addition to being an enchantment. Gibbering Fiend is a bit expensive for a discard engine, but their aren't that many enchantment-based discard engines out there, and the deck needs a high density of discard options. The only other option is to remove a land, but that's a risky proposition, too.

Well you did say you'd replace Planar Void with Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip.