X Gon Give It To Ya (Xiahou-Dun Stax Primer)

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive Control Mono-Black Multiplayer

Sicohippy

Sorcery (25)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Barter in Blood
• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Consuming Vapors
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Death Cloud
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Innocent Blood
• 1x Life's Finale
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Instant (5)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (2)

• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Vampire Hexmage

Artifact (23)

• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lux Cannon
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Null Brooch
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Possessed Portal
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Soul Conduit
• 1x Sunstone
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trading Post

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Lethal Vapors
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Spreading Plague
• 1x The Abyss

Commander (1)

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 18x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Karn Liberated

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Sideboard

Land (2)

• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Instant (2)

• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Demonic Consultation

Enchantment (1)

• 1x The Meathook Massacre

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Maybeboard

Artifact (6)

• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mirror Universe
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Creature (4)

• 1x Arcbound Reclaimer
• 1x Magus of the Mirror
• 1x Toymaker
• 1x Xenic Poltergeist

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Dawn of the Dead
• 1x Greed
• 1x Relic Putrescence

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Profane Transfusion
• 1x Read the Bones

Instant (1)

• 1x Hero's Downfall

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Combo off early game to destroy an entire table in the late game with one anticipated turn.

This is an original deck by myself, though heavily influenced by the user olbuddyolpal, whom I appreciate greatly on his original Tier 1: Xiahou Dun deck. This deck at its heart is similar in terms of brutality, and contains many of the same combos, however, I've taken the liberty of editing the deck and updating it myself to what is a more versatile EDH deck in the modern development of the format. I've spent a lot of time researching and editing it until it’s been as perfect as it is now. Regardless of how happy I am with the deck as it is, I am always open to suggestions, because no deck it perfect right? Right???

Some of the following combos are combos I discovered from olbuddyolpal, and one of them is even an original combo by himself from his deck as mentioned before. I have them organized a little neater and have documented all of my changes from his deck to this one. I hope you guys enjoy it and appreciate how absolutely disgusting this deck is from the reverse side of the table.

Why and how I play this deck. Show

Mono is my absolute favorite archetype in EDH, and probably the entire game. I find it to be ludicrously fun, and this deck is a mono players wet dream. Its chock full of crazy combos, it’s got an absurd amount of versatility for a monocolored deck, and it can be highly effective in (just about) any meta. It really causes you to think things through 9 times before making a move, because there are so many options available on how to respond to a situation. This deck in itself has made me a far better magic player, as well as deck builder.

The reason it has made me better at playing the game itself is because it allows you to see the vast range of options you have in terms of responses. It forces you to be extremely creative. It pushes you to understand the entire situation of the board’s layout, and allows you to see the potential you have with such limited resources and combos. I cannot tell you how many times I have used pieces of a combo on the board for a completely different purpose. The wide array of plays in this deck are difficult to explain, so I have taken the liberty to carefully word all of them as thoroughly as I can. I almost always win games with this deck at a total of under 10 life. Mono 's ability to use life and creatures as a resource has always fascinated me and proven to be extremely effective. The flavor of the archetype is fantastic, with an underlying theme of "anything standing in my way will be eliminated". The reason I often end games with such little resources is because the deck forces you to figure out ways to keep afloat until you are able to fully combo off and win. You usually struggle to stay in the game until- well until you don't. Once you combo off its usually game over that turn. This deck has so many utilities and tutors to access whatever you need that it can sincerely be difficult to run out of responses. If you do run out of responses and you can’t tutor them, just recur the ones you have used before with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed.

Why would you play this deck? Show

Because you enjoy comboing off in the mid-game into a sickening lock down. As soon as everybody gets nice and comfortable, and the board starts to develop, BAM there you are, imprisoning everyone into the next 30 minutes of a now hellish game where you kick back, relax, wait for you turn, and combo off for the win in late game.

Why wouldn't you play this deck? Show

Because every deck has its weakness, and this deck’s biggest fault happens to be that our commander, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, only recurs cards from our graveyard. That being said, there isn’t much that a person can do when playing this deck if they are playing against mass artifact removal. This is why I have taken some small measures to prevent this from happening, by adding in cards like:

Trading Post

Buried Ruin

Beacon of Unrest

Yawgmoth's Will

It would go without saying, however, that our ability to recur artifacts is extraordinarily limited in mono , and this deck will do poorly against mass artifact removal and artifact hate.

The second reason you wouldn't play this deck should be obvious, but _sigh_ I'll say it anyway... If your playgroup hasn't got the stones to endure a puzzling game that denies them of resources and staxes them into oblivion, well... This deck may be for you, but maybe not your candy land playgroup of Phelddagrif Timmy group hugs and Angus Mackenzie feel-good collector's decks.

Artifact Recursion Show

Other measures you can take in order to bring artifacts back to the table that you have lost include, but are not limited to:

1. Use Thespian's Stage to copy Buried Ruin before sacrificing it.

2. Use Crucible of Worlds to recur Buried Ruin and gain an artifact back each turn.

If Crucible of Worlds does happen to get popped, it is wise to keep a copy of Buried Ruin on the battlefield using Thespian's Stage. This way, you can recur Crucible of Worlds using Thespian's Stage’s copied ability of Buried Ruin, and then you may continue to recur artifacts from your graveyard.

1. You can use Rings of Brighthearth to copy the abilities of Buried Ruin, Arcbound Reclaimer, Trading Post, or even Thespian's Stage.

There are probably many other ways to recur artifacts in this deck that I haven’t found yet, even after 8 months of development, I still am finding new things to do in this deck, and strange combos and plays still keep coming up, depending on the situation I find myself in.

The biggest flaw with all of these artifact recursion abilities is that almost all of them are dependent on other artifacts. You can keep trying and trying to recur artifacts as much as you want to, but often times it can be a wiser move to just ignore the combo that you had failed to put in place and move on to the next. No matter how much you feel like you need the combo that rests in your graveyard, sometimes you’re only hurting yourself further by destroying all of your recursion techniques early on before you even play or consider other combos. So, once again, artifact hate is one of the strongest responses to this deck, and it doesn’t function as well in meta’s that focus on keeping the board void of them.

Another reason you wouldn’t want to play this deck is because it’s just plain old evil. EDH is a format where everybody can casually socialize, become friends, and observe the totally wicked plays that can potentially take place in a multiplayer 40 life format. If you happen to lock everybody out of doing anything in the game early on (which is very possible in this deck), the only thing you’ll do is dominate and spread hate into your meta.

How to play this deck strategically in a multiplayer setting. Show

Let it be noted that although this deck does do well in 1v1 games, 4+ player games are where its true element is revealed. People often don’t see the combos coming, and they are all too often caught up in the strangeness of this boards development to see the pieces of a combo sneaking up on them. For this reason, it is often times better to play certain halves of combos before playing their second half. This way nobody will know what you are up to in a multi-player game. Remember, multiplayer Magic is a game that relies heavily on psychologically bluffing your opponents into believing that you’re the smallest threat on the board. If somebody happens to see you play a Contamination, they’ll be able to assume that you might play Reassembling Skeleton or Bitterblossom next. Because of this raise in awareness that your opponents might be subject to, the best way to play a combo like this is by playing Bitterblossom first. Why? Let me just give this answer a context:

-You play Bitterblossom at the beginning of your Main Phase.

Any player playing mono will take this as FAR less threatening than they would Contamination. Bitterblossom gives you a 1/1 faerie token at the beginning of each combat, where as Contamination locks every single player on the board who isn't playing mono out of their decks.

So, let's just say that the person playing decides to use a Counterspell on Bitterblossom. Because of this counter, nobody knows that your true intentions were to lock every player on the board out of using their lands to tap for mana. Nobody is suspicious. The play did not resolve and nobody takes you for as large of a threat as a person who can recur Contamination from their graveyard using Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. They don’t even know that Contamination is in your hand!

With Bitterblossom already on the field, half of your combo is in place, so even considering that Contamination does get countered or destroyed immediately by a Krosan Grip, there is less effort involved in setting the combo back up when we only have to recur a single card and play it again. Remember, the ideology here is conservatism until we're able to lock the game out of interfering with our plans.

So, in short, you (almost) always want to play the less threatening piece of the combo first, or you might want to play the piece of the combo to strategically bait a Counterspell. This way, you can spend next turn to recur that card into your hand, and cast it next turn. At this point, whoever did happen to counter the spell you played last turn will be less likely to do so again this turn, because last turn they used one of the counters that was in their hand.

An original combo by olbuddyolpal Show

Necropotence + Soul Conduit + Rings of Brighthearth

This combo can be a little tricky, and I’ve got to say, if Soul Conduit does happen to get popped, you could end up having damned yourself for trying this method.

The first step in the process is to use Necropotence to drop yourself down to 1 life.

You’ll exile a number of cards face down equal to your life total minus 1, this will leave you at 1 life. While your opponents might still be in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, or even higher life totals, you can use Soul Conduit to swap your own health with theirs. This will leave your opponents at 1 life, giving you the opportunity to finish them off with an Exsanguinate, Sign in Blood, or even Death Cloud you could also swing with one of your few creatures to finish them off, or even let your opponents take the liberty of doing so themselves.

Of Course, as with any activated ability, you could use Rings of Brighthearth to copy this combo, and kill multiple opponents at once by copying Soul Conduit’s ability of swapping life totals.

Here’s how that would look on the stack:

1. Activate Necropotence’s ability to drop your life total down to 1

2. Tap to activate Soul Conduit, swapping you and a target opponent’s life totals

3. Copy Soul Conduit’s activated ability using Rings of Brighthearth

4. Respond to Rings of Brighthearth’s copy ability by drawing a number of cards equal to your life total minus 1 with Necropotence, this will, once again, leave you at a total of 1 life.

5. Allow the second resolution of Soul Conduit to take place, this will allow you to once again swap life totals with an opponent, dropping a SECOND target player down to 1 health.

6. Use Exsanguinate, Sign in Blood, Death Cloud, or swing with creatures appropriately to finish your opponents off. You could also leave this up to the leisure of other opponents to kill off the other players as well.

Unlimited (or ) Mana, Plus a Win Con. Show

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth

1. Tap Basalt Monolith to add to your mana pool.

2. Spend that to untap Basalt Monolith

3. Upon untapping Basalt Monolith, tap to use Rings of Brighthearth’s ability to copy the untap ability of Basalt Monolith.

4. In response to spending to copy Basalt Monolith’s untap ability, tap Basalt Monolith again to add to your mana pool, and then allow Basalt Monolith to be untapped by Rings of Brighthearth. This will leave you with a total of mana left in your mana pool, which you can use of to copy the ability of untapping Basalt Monolith. The result of this is that you can add to your mana pool, and only have to spend to do it again. This will net you mana each time you repeat, giving you literally, INFINITE colorless mana.

5. Combine this combo with Exsanguinate or Sensei's Divining Top to win the game.

Infinite mana, with a catch... Show

Now, how do we acquire infinite mana? Its as easy as 1,2, Mycosynth Lattice.

Cast Mycosynth Lattice for free with your now infinite mana to attain the ability to spend mana as if it were mana of any color (obviously being ).

BUT BE CAREFUL!

If we do end up casting Mycosynth Lattice, we may have infinite mana, but the biggest problem with this is that ALL OF THE CARDS IN YOUR GRAVEYARD ARE NOW COLORLESS.

Why would that matter? Its very simple... Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed only lets us recur cards from the grave. This means that once we achieve infinite mana using THIS method, we can not recur any more cards from out graveyard until Mycosynth Lattice is popped.

Why Mycosynth Lattice then? Show

Mycosynth Lattice is a very useful card in terms of control, not only does it give us the potential to acquire infinite mana, but it also gives us the potential to deny triggered/activated abilites from occuring that are activated/triggered from playing coloured spells. Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is a great example. Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is a VERY powerful Tier 2 general, and with absoloute reason to be feared. I have sat across the table many times from him as a commander, and I can say that if his ability is exploited, he quickly becomes a pest, as infinite combos are not hard to achieve in his color range of , and tutoring out creatures and responding by drawing them is definitely fodder to pull out combos quickly.

Mycosynth Lattice would make essentially make all spells colorless, making Momir Vig, Simic Visionary's ability flop, and it would make him essentially useless. I can also verify that Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is only ONE of MANY examples where activated abilities like this would become useless.

Another valid reason for having Mycosynth Lattice in this deck is if you DO happen to activate this method of infinite mana, you will often times end up tapping yourself out. Now, if you happen to have Mycosynth Lattice in your hand, you will have access to the mana that you NEED to combo off and win the game. It's usually best to do this when a player is tapped out as well during your turn, but sometimes, it may just be a final resource or stretch of desperation that can VERY OFTEN times win you games sitting at large tables. If you happen to have an Exsanguinate and a Demonic Tutor in your hand, but only 1 Swamp untapped, you'll be SO close to having won this game on this turn. Using that mana to cast Demonic Tutor and search out Mycosynth Lattice and cast it for free will allow you to have the mana you need to potentially win 1 turn sooner, which VERY often decides games in this deck. Mycosynth Lattice is here to stay in this deck for me, because of the ability it has to often times narrowly win games. It can completely change the nature of the board as a whole, and is an enchantment that truly changes every player's perspective. Including our own.

True Infinite Mana Show

Deserted Temple+Cabal Coffers+Rings of Brighthearth

This combo was wisely reccomended to me by Profet93 after pointing out to me that Mycosynth Lattice can not be used to infinitely recur cards using our general, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed.

It's actually quite simple, really, you only need to begin the combo with a minimum of 6 Swamps, which can easily be achieved considering you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field.

Heres how it works:

1. to Cabal Coffers, this will add to your mana pool.

2. Spend to Deserted Temple, using its ability to Cabal Coffers. This will leave you with a total of , a Cabal Coffers and a Deserted Temple

3. spend to copy Deserted Temple's ability using Rings of Brighthearth, this will leave you with a total of , and both Cabal Coffers and Deserted Temple will be .

4. spend of your to Cabal Coffers, this will restart the entire process, only this time, you will net at the beginning of the process. Everytime you rinse and repeat you will net , repeat infinite times to recieve infinite mana. No strings attached!

Infinite recursion Show

Considering we did end up being able to play the full three-piece infinite mana combo, we could have the ability to recur ANY of our spells INFINITE times using our general. This means, even if our spells happen to be countered, we can immediately cast Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and play them once again. We have infinite mana, so we don’t need to worry about the cost of the card we are casting, or the cost of Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, despite how many times he has died this game. Some of these Infinite recursion combos include:

1. Sadistic Sacrament- Mill ALL of your opponent's entire decks, 15 cards at a time until they are completely void of a library to draw from. Go ahead, let them respond; you’ll only recur the spell from the grave again and again.

2. Army of the Damned- Infinity Zombies, recur this spell to add infinite 2/2 zombies to your battlefield, 13 zombies at a time

3. Hero's Downfall, Go for the Throat or any kill spell to destroy all creatures one at a time.

4. Use Demonic Tutor or ANY tutor to fish out the pieces for any combo you need to finish this game. Remember, you can recur ANY SPELL infinite times at this point, so make sure you happen to have a ball with infinite mana.

Another True Infinite Mana Combo Show

Rings of Brighthearth+Basalt Monolith+Deserted Temple+Swamp

Draw your whole deck Show

Sensei's Divining Top+Rings of Brighthearth+Basalt Monolith

OR

Sensei's Divining Top+Cabal Coffers+Deserted Temple

The method of using Sensei's Divining Top to draw your whole deck can be a little tricky, so I’ll explain it as simply as I can…

1. After activing one of the two infinite mana combos, Sensei's Divining Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library.

2. Use Rings of Brighthearth to copy Sensei's Divining Top’s draw ability.

3. Put Sensei's Divining Top on top of your library, and then allow the copy of its draw ability to resolve.

4. Draw Sensei's Divining Top

5. Play Sensei's Divining Top

6. Repeat infinite times with infinite mana using one of the infinite mana combos as stated above

This is essentially a Mono version of the Enter the Infinite + Omniscience combo, because it not only allows us to draw our entire deck, but also allows us to cast Mycosynth Lattice for infinite mana.

We can now not only play ALL of our spells, but considering that we have activated the Cabal Coffers+Deserted Temple+Rings of Brighthearth infinite mana combo, and have not casted Mycosynth Lattice we can recur them from the graveyard and play EVERY CARD IN OUR DECK INFINITE TIMES using Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed.

Infinite Tutoring/Draw your whole deck Show

Demonic Tutor (or ANY tutor, really)+Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed alongside the Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth combo, + Mycosynth Lattice, +Reliquary Tower

1. Play Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth to activate the unlimited colorless mana combo as described above.

2. Play Demonic Tutor (or ANY tutor) to search for Mycosynth Lattice.

3. Use unlimited colorless mana to play Mycosynth Lattice, You may now use your unlimited colorless mana as if it were black mana to play Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

4.Sacrifice Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to return Demonic Tutor to your hand.

5.Repeat infinite times, as you can now summon Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed as many times as you want now that you have unlimited mana, and continually sacrifice him to search for a win con. This will work with any tutor, really.

**Play Reliquary Tower to keep your entire deck in your hand, BUT BE CAREFUL; If for some crazy reason this turn doesn't end the game, be sure to leave a few lands in your deck so that you don't mill yourself next turn and are able to draw at the beginning of your turn.

Lock your opponents out of drawing cards Show

Necropotence + Possessed Portal

If you didn't know this already, Necropotence doesn't allow you to draw cards, it PUTS them into your hand from exile. Because Possessed Portal disallows all other players from drawing cards, with Necropotence on the board, we will be able to put cards in our hand each turn without suffering the effects of losing card advantage.

by playing Necropotence I'm able to draw at least 1 card per turn, playing that alongside Possessed Portal, I'm able to deny my opponents from drawing cards at the mere cost of 1 life per turn (as is Necropotence's cost for its ability). It puts me in the position where I have an extreme plus on my end of the field in terms of card draw, and allows me to control every new card being drawn and or put onto the field each turn.

We will basically be drawing cards while everybody else can’t, and we will also have the fodder to discard a card from our hand each turn, which will not destroy our board. It’s a very simple but extremely powerful combo, and typically wins the game within 3 turns at any sized board.

Mana Denial Show

Contamination + Bitterblossom OR Reassembling Skeleton

Contamination allows us to block all of our opponents out of spending their mana freely (unless they are playing , obviously) and because we need to pay with 1 creature each upkeep, we can easily use either Bitterblossom or Reassembling Skeleton.

I’ve added both Bitterblossom and Reassembling Skeleton for a number of reasons…

The first being that there are times when Reassembling Skeleton is a better option for this combo than Bitterblossom. This deck often times forces you to play at VERY dangerously low levels of life (as in 10 or less), in which case, considering we have other cards like Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Phyrexian Arena, or any other permanents that force us to lose life each turn, losing 1 life each turn can decide the game entirely. It might just take us surviving one extra upkeep to finally combo off and take the win, even if our opponents happen to have infinite life or creatures, we can still combo off and win a game with just one extra turn. In this case, where life is a very precious resource, Reassembling Skeleton is a better choice to recur the cost of a creature each upkeep as per Contamination.

Sometimes, however, an extra can be a deciding factor in the game as well, and we might be short of being able to play our Vampire Hexmage to bring out our 20/20 Marit Lage token with Dark Depths. We may be mana short of playing Karn Liberated which could be used to exile an opponent’s Craterhoof Behemoth that is hanging over our heads, waiting to swing for game next turn. You get the idea that sometimes we just need mana more than life to win the game as quickly as possible.

Another reason would be that Bitterblossom might be the only protection we are able to use against a nasty flying creature. We could essentially spend 1 life each turn to block ourselves from 20 flying damage each turn. The same goes for Reassembling Skeleton, with the exception that he doesn’t exactly fly… The point is, because we have such a gross lack of creatures in this deck, we may need to build a small wall of defense in order to block us from taking monumental damage from opponent’s creatures until we can tutor for or draw out a board wipe/kill spell like Damnation or Hero's Downfall.

Creature Denial Show

Lethal Vapors + Pithing Needle

This is by FAR the most powerful creature lock in this deck. When you use Pithing Needle to name Lethal Vapors you no longer have the option to : Destroy Lethal Vapors. You skip your next turn. Any player may activate this ability.

Since Lethal Vapors can only be destroyed by using its activated ability for , playing Pithing Needle will lock it onto the board, and any creatures that are played by anbody will immedately die upon making contact with the board.

HOWEVER, this does not affect our ability to use our general, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed’s ability to recur cards from our graveyard. Because Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed dies when it comes into play, he DOES resolve, this means that we can sacrifice him to return a card from our graveyard to our hand BEFORE the interaction of destroying him takes place with Lethal Vapors. So, in response to him being destroyed by Lethal Vapors, we can immediately sacrifice him to activate his ability to recursion.

Lock your opponents out of attacking you. Show

Null Brooch + Ensnaring Bridge

Null Brooch is great, and I've decided to remove it for some of my draw con. The reason I did this is because I mostly want to see how effective it can be at countering cards like Counterspell when I'm playing against mostly and . Not only is it good for countering these spells, but it has a fun interaction with Ensnaring Bridge

No cards in hand? No problem.

But I understand this might have a drawback to it considering that I am removing a draw con (like Read the Bones) just to add this into my deck. It doesn't help the fact of the matter that the cost of the ability is to discard my hand, which is why we want to avoid using Null Brooch when I have combo pieces in my hand.

This reminds us that we should really need to use Null Brooch, we should try to play the pieces of a combo before the . If the colourless card is sent to the graveyard from our hand, it'll be a lot harder to recurr it becuase our general wont recurr artifacts. If we discard our hand and toss in the piece of the spell, we still stand a chance at getting the combo off by exploiting Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed's ability.

This is only experimental, and it may change.

Handling Combo Decks Show

Sadistic Sacrament

This is an important addition to the deck. It gives us the ability to break apart the pieces needed to activate combo decks; essentially this card is Jester's Cap, only we have the option to kick it for and search for 15 cards. Which is absolutely insane. If we can do this early enough in the game, we could KILL a player’s mana base, and leave them mana scraped for the rest of the game. We can also use Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to hit multiple opponents by recurring it. Remember, if we happen to activate our infinite mana combo aswell, we can recur this spell infinite times using Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Sunstone Show

This deck THRIVES in a multiplayer setting, but as a result, it often times brings a great deal of hate to the table, and you happen to end up being the one who gets targeted sometimes. To prevent this from being a major obstruction from your objectives, to annihilate your opponent's every chances at winning, I've added Sunstone, which I feel deserved its own description because this deck often times relies on it. Its a card that can NOT be overlooked, because in many situations, I've been able to search out a land and its saved my skin FAR more times than I can count.

I used to use Glacial Chasm for this effect. It worked out pretty well for me a lot of times, but the cumulative upkeep made it a clear act of desperation, and every time I pulled it out, I was typically dead in 3 or 4 turns from the damage it was dealing me. I'm trying out Sunstone for now, but we will see how it works in the meantime.

Another Win Con Show

Life's Finale + Rise of the Dark Realms

This gives you the ability to wipe the board, pull out your opponent's creature combo pieces then recur them later on with Rise of the Dark Realms. They fit perfectly together, and allows us to use our opponents combo force against themselves. Typically after casting this late game, People scoop.

Ahhh Zombies!! Show

After a long struggle from your opponents to stay alive...A horde of Zombies will end the game quick. Army of the Damned seems to be a "More or less if all else fails wincon" card. It's one of my favorite ways to win and it’s just a plain old fun card. I happen to have a soft spot for it aswell, but not from playing it in standard, but rather because it was an important edition to my first EDH and my first Vintage decks. I LOVE zombies and Ghoulcaller Gisa actually happens to be my favourite EDH general of all time. Also, Don't rush to recast it for its flashback cost. If you can, Use Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to get it back (considering the mana cost isn’t too high), that way it allows us to cast it 3 times or more..."Since twice isn't enough."

Remember, if we happen to activate our infinite mana combo aswell, we can recur this spell infinite times using Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

No maximum hand size + massive card advantage Show

Necropotence + Reliquary Tower

Card advantage wins games...Out resourcing and outplaying your opponents creates the ability to have a wider range of responses, which plusses our amount of control and aids us in winning by means of constriction.

Destroy all creatures each turn Show

Bitterblossom will trigger Spreading Plague every turn that it is used, to destroy all black creatures each turn, aside from the faerie rogue, that is.

Dealing with permanents Show

All Is Dust, Karn Liberated, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Lux Cannon. Unfortunately, is pretty weak in terms of handling permanents. If permanents are giving you trouble in your meta, you could also add:

Spine of Ish Sah

Dystopia

Unstable Obelisk

Ratchet Bomb

Oblivion Stone

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Recurring Our General Every Turn for Show

Crucible of Worlds + Command Beacon

Thanks to Raging_Squiggle for making this suggestion and pointing this out to me.

I've decided to remove a Snow-Covered Swamp and add in Command Beacon. The reason for this should be obvious, but I'll spell it out anyway...

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is a VERY expensive general to cast, even using him even just 3 times makes him costs us , and this happens very quickly in a deck where out general is meant to hit the battlefield and immediately be sacrificed. I think Command Beacon has been a long time coming for this deck, but I'd like to point out the interaction it has with Crucible of Worlds...

By simply playing Crucible of Worlds, we can put Command Beacon into play and sacrifice Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed every turn for his recursion ability for just .

But be careful! Every time we use Command Beacon, we are still removing our general from the command zone, which means he will cost an extra to cast for each time we do this. This runs a big risk because if Crucible of Worlds ends up getting popped, it will be so expensive to recur our general that we might as well throw in the towel.

Double your Fetchland’s and Planeswalker's abilities Show

Rings of Brighthearth allows you to copy the abilities of Karn Liberated or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, however, paying will not add or remove additional loyalty counters, as this is the COST of activating those abilities. It’s like a mana cost sort of, which won’t be copied by Rings of Brighthearth.

Rings of Brighthearth also allows you to copy your fetchlands abilities for double land drops. You can pay to search out an additional land using cards like Bloodstained Mire, which is GREAT for early game mana ramp, especially considering is weak in this aspect.

Death and fetches Show

Crucible of Worlds + Death Cloud

Death Cloud Is like a “super sudden death” card in many cases. It resets the game and forces opponents to have a very low amount of life, having saved high CMC cards in the late game, but not being able to play them due to lack of lands. Our general allows us to recur whatever essential win cons we may lose in this game, giving us a MASSIVE advantage over them in this case. With Crucible of Worlds we can also very quickly rebuild our manabase and once again out-resource our opponents.

Use the fetch lands (such as Bloodstained Mire) for consistent land drops with Crucible of Worlds and to thin out your lands in your deck, allowing you to draw more spells, yet keep the mana base to cast them effectively. Also, Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine or Wasteland go together nicely, you have the ability to destroy 1 land every turn.

Maybe Board Show

Corpse Augur

Strong Maybe Corpse Dance

Cruel Tutor

Dark Depths

Dark Petition

Deathlace

Strong MaybeDefense Grid

Demonic Collusion

Dismember

Doomsday

Strong MaybeExpedition Map

Glacial Chasm

Greed

Grim Monolith

Guardian Beast

Increasing Ambition

Liliana Vess

Memory Jar

Mind's Eye

Murder

Mutilate

Myr Retriever

Nether Void

Night's Whisper

Platinum Emperion

Profane Command

Read the Bones

Ring of Three Wishes

Ruinous Path

Scroll Rack

Tainted AEther

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Torpor Orb

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Victim of Night

Changes Show

-Removed The Abyss, Grim Tutor, and Imperial Seal. They are all WAY too expensive.

-Added Increasing Ambition

-Added Dark Petition and Ring of Three Wishes

-AddedGlacial Chasm

-Removed 1 Snow-Covered Swamp for Thespian's Stage. It'll help me copy Cabal Coffers and Dark Depths if I decide on putting it in.

-Removed Trading Post for Dark Depths

-removed 4x Snow-Covered Swamps for

Bloodstained Mire

Marsh Flats

Polluted Delta and Verdant Catacombs

-Added The Abyss

-Added Trading Post. I realize now after having played many games that are multi-way, that I need to have the ability to recur artifacts, this deck relies SO heavily on graveyard recursion, but Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed only allows me to recur cards. I need the ability to recur cards from the grave that are artifacts, because there is too much artifact hate in some metas, and I feel like Arcbound Reclaimer simply isn't enough alone to protect me from this. I am sorry I broke the 100 card limit with this card, but it’s just too important, and I can’t afford to take anything out right now, I feel like my mana base is strong enough to allow me to put one single extra drop into this deck and make an exception this time.

-Removed Ring of Three Wishes for Demonic Collusion, as per @metalevolence's reccomendation. I truthfully feel like Ring of Three Wishes is a very useful artefact, as it can be used on multiple turns, works well with my infinite colorless mana combo, and can be easily copied by Ring of Three Wishes but for a total cost of across a timeframe of 2 turns, I might as well just spend the on Demonic Collusion to end the game faster by getting my combos out ASAP. I can also recurr it by itself if need be, and that can compensate for Ring of Three Wishes reuse ability.

-added Painter's Servant This is only a temporary addition for now, in order for me to play test an infinite recursion combo

-Removed Painter's Servant, it's illegal...

-Added Deserted Temple For the infinite mana combo that it offers with card:Rings of britghthearth and Cabal Coffers

Removed Demonic Collusion for Grim Tutor I think the collusion is a good tutor, so it'll stay on my maybe board, but its time to move on to bigger and better things. I am in love with this deck, I've had it long enough for me to say I want this to be the strongest it can be, and I think Demonic Collusion is my weakest tutor, so I'm tossing in the Grim Tutor at long last.

Removed Increasing Ambition for Imperial Seal I can't ignore the seals drop in price, I have to take advantage of it becuase its just way too good for me to ignore at this point. Increasing Ambition is another one of my weakest tutors, I'd say 2nd weakest to Demonic Collusion. Imperial seal for the price is worth it to me in this deck. It'll remain on my maybeboard regardless, becuase its still a good tutor as far as tutors go, I suppose.

4/26/17

Removed Dark Petition

Also removed Dark Depths. This is a permanent removal, as the combo with Vampire Hexmage is simply too weak to hold its own in multi-player. It is definitely a combo that is better suited for 1v1 magic rather than group play, as this deck's intentions are.

Removed 2x Snow-Covered Swamps for Command Beacon and Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Removed Night's Whisper for Skullclamp

Removed Glacial Chasm for Sunstone

Removed Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for Lux Cannon

Removed Read the Bones for Null Brooch

12/25/2020

Removed Mycosynth Lattice for Chromatic Orrery

Mycosynth Lattice has a huge, and undeniable drawback of making all of our cards artifacts in the graveyard. It disallows us the ability to respond when we are going infinite, which is the only time that Mycosynth Lattice would be cast anyway. The added benefit of tapping for makes Chromatic Orrery well worth the CMC.

Removed Worn Powerstone for Grim Monolith. Monolith just gives me more immediate value and can be used the turn it's cast. I may revert this change, but I feel as though Worn Powerstone is a weak link that needs to be handled, and the same goes for Thran Dynamo. They simply aren't efficient enough.

Changes I may Make Show

May remove Mana Vault for Grim Monolith, simply because Grim Monolith does not deal any damage to me when it is untapped. HOWEVER, Mana Vault is only a drop, which means it can be played on turn 1, which can make all of difference in a deck like this one, so it’s really up in the air for me.

4/26/17

I may actually end up removing Dark Petition... Apparently I need to meet a limit of 100 cards including my commander. With the addition of more powerful tutors (Grim Tutor and Imperial Seal), I am thinking that the deck will retain a certain level of speed that it hasn't before, especially becuase I'll be in less need of mana due to that removal. 9 tutors is a lot, I think I can suffice with using only 1 less, especially considering the power shift with these new additional tutors. In the meantime, I am also considering removing just another land. I really cant sacrafice another swamp right now because the shift in black mana will be at too great of an imbalance. I think I just want to work on one card at a time right now, and removing my current weakest tutor may just be the right decision to make here. CHANGE MADE!

May remove Glacial Chasm for Sunstone CHANGE MADE!

May remove Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for Lux Cannon CHANGE MADE!

May remove Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, OR Read the Bones for Skullclamp CHANGE MADE!

I may add Null Brooch, just for how well it combos with Ensnaring Bridge CHANGE MADE!

May remove Decree of Pain for Deadly Tempest

May remove Vampire Hexmage for Corpse Dance

Notes Show

removed mind stone, and 2 swamps

removed Arcbound Reclaimer for Beacon of Unrest

added deserted temple, glacial chasm, thespian's stage

removed Smokestack for card:card:feed the swarm I cant really see a way that I can get ahead with Smokestack. How are we gaining advantage over our opponents with it if we aren't able to generate enough of an outlet to sacrifice with it? The enchantment removal is a RARE ability we ever see in monoblack, and Feed the Swarm is too good to be true. It has to be added for its value.

Top Ranked	Achieved #31 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WURG
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 1 Mythic Rares 45 - 3 Rares 18 - 1 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.42
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	New Commander, Mono-Black, Decks I Like, Commander, Refferences, Liked Decks, Decks that I like and I want to look at again sometime, Fun Decks, Cool.decks, EDH