Gonti - Night Market Shenanigans

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Guerte
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Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

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Introduction

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Gonti is an Aetherborn crime lord from the plane of Kaladesh, and what better way to showcase his criminal antics than by stealing other people's cards?!

The premise of this deck is simple: cast Gonti and steal things. We utilize an array of reanimation spells in order to continually trigger Gonti and gain value by being able to play powerful spells outside of our Mono Black color identity. That is the main goal of the deck. A sub-theme of the deck is being able to use other "enter the battlefield", or ETB, effects to continuously gain value and help control the board.

We can win by out-valuing the other players, or simply by biding our time and going for a Nim Deathmantle/Ashnod's Altar combo kill.
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Why Play Gonti?

Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a pretty unique card in that it does something mono black doesn't do very often, if at all: it allows you to play other people's cards. Let's take a closer look at the card itself:

Cost:
Gonti costs 2BB to cast. That's a pretty fair price considering what he can do. With the right hand, you can get him out as early as turn two. This can help us get a slight edge over our opponents, especially if we can steal a counter spell.

Power/Toughness:
Gonti has a 2/3 body. Let's be really honest: it isn't the best. He can die to all sorts of damage spells that deal 3 damage, like Lightning Bolt, for instance. However, he does have Deathtouch, which helps in dealing with creatures, except for ones with Indestructible.

Ability:
His ability is the sole reason why this deck was built. When he enters the battlefield, we get to look at the top four cards of a target opponent's library, exile one of them face down so only we know what it is, and put the rest on the bottom of their library in any order. At any time during the game, we can look at it, and as long as we have priority and the timing is right, we can cast it and spend mana as though it were of any type. Yes, type, and not color. We get to use colorless mana to cast a Counterspell if we so choose to. What makes the ability even better is that we can cast it for as long as it remains exiled, even if Gonti is no longer on the battlefield. Talk about value!

Do remember this: you cast the card you exiled. You cannot play lands if you choose them. However, if there is a land that can be problematic, such as Gaea's Cradle or even Dark Depths, don't hesitate to exile them.

You might like Gonti if:
1) You like mono black.
2) You like having a unique and flavorful general.
3) You want to play mono black, but also cast spells of other colors.
4) You like reanimating creatures.

You might dislike Gonti if:
1) You dislilke mono color decks.
2) You would rather play anything besides black.
3) You enjoy your deck so much you don't want to play anyone else's.
4) You don't like having fun and having some wacky games.
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Other Possible Commanders:
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There are many other choices as far as mono black commanders go, as well as many other types of strategies such as combo or aggro. Here are a few examples of such commanders:
Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Sidisi is probably the best choice for a general if you are going the combo route. She's a tutor in the command zone that can be recast time and time again in order to find all of your combo pieces, or whatever else you may need at the time.

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed: Another general that can be used as a combo general as he can sack himself to return a black card from your graveyard to your hand, such as a tutor. He also has the Horsemanship ability, so he is essentially unblockable and can be put into a Voltron-style deck.

Chainer, Dementia Master: Chainer is a pretty good general if you are going a more reanimator style deck. BBB and three life can really start to add up over time, so having a way to generate a lot of mana and life gain will be essential for the deck.

Sheoldred, Whispering One: She's a pretty good reanimator general that also doubles as removal. Getting a creature back for free during your upkeep is really nice, as well as your opponents losing one during there upkeep. However, she costs 5BB the first time you cast her from the command zone, and only continues to increase with each cast, so she may not be the best choice as far as a reanimator/control general goes.
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Deck History

When Gonti first came out, I knew I wanted to build him. I've always been a mono black player at heart, and have built a few mono black decks in my time as a commander player. What really drew me to him was his unique ability of being able to play cards outside of his color identity.

I didn't build him right away. I did research first. I looked at various deck lists and watched deck techs/gameplay footage of him to get a feel for what he could do. I took ideas from a few different lists and created a mash up of them for my first deck. While it was fun, I still thought he could do better.

The second iteration of the deck took out a lot of the more fun cards and went for a more cutthroat style of deck, with multiples combos such as Bitterblossom/Contamination and Necrotic Ooze combos. I piloted the deck for quite a while and it was putting up some pretty decent results. But I didn't really want to play him like this. I missed the old version where I would focus on having fun and not trying to win all of the time.

The third iteration is what I bring to you today. I took out the combos that made the deck more brutal (still have a couple I win combos, but they have more purpose than being just a combo piece) and put in some of the older cards I loved like Lifeline.

Never have I had more fun playing a deck than I have with this one. You can make ridiculous plays, have fun, and still win.
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The Deck List

List by Type

//Commander (1)

//Planeswalkers (1):

Approximate Total Cost:

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Card Analysis

While there are many options for cards that could be included in a deck, there are only room for 100. In the spoiler below, I will give a card-by-card explanation as to why I specifically chose to have a certain card in in the deck.
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Creatures

Viscera Seer: Early game sac outlet. We like our sac outlets to be free to activate, and Seer does that. He comes out early enough, and helps set up our draws by scrying away cards we don't want.

Dusk Legion Zealot/Phyrexian Rager: Early card draw on ETB creatures. We don't do much in the earlier turns, so these will help us to dig deeper into our deck for things to do later on.

Mesmeric Fiend: A new addition to the deck. I wanted to have a more proactive approach to removal, so what better way to do that than take it straight from the hand. Fiend also exiles the card, so it's permanent removal, for the most part, and hits any nonland card. Much like Faceless Butcher, its two effects are separate, so after it enters and triggers, you sacrifice it, its LTB effect will trigger, returning nothing, and then the ETB effect resolves and exiles the card indefinitely.

Soldevi Adnate: Sac outlet that generates an amount of b equal to the CMC of the sacrificed creature. This will basically pay Gonti's printed cost, and all we need to pay for is the commander tax. Otherwise, we sac another creature to pay for other spells.

Yarok's Fenlurker: The deck has quite a bit of reactive removal on creatures, but we definitely want more proactive removal. The best way to do that is to attack the hand before spells are cast. This little critter does that, and it attacks all opponents, not just one. Granted, we don't get to select what is exiled, but if we can continuously reuse his ability, we can strip everyone of their hands.

Crypt Ghast: Staple card in any mono black deck. Doubles the amount of mana your Swamps produce. Has the added effect of draining each opponent and you gaining that much life at the cost of B each time you cast a spell. With Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth out, tapping your nonbasic lands for B will net you BB

Dimir House Guard: Mainly used as a tutor. There are 14 cards with a CMC of 4, meaning there is no end to what this guy can grab such as removal, card draw, or utility. Can also use him as a body with a built-in sac outlet.

Dread Presence: Card draw/removal whenever a swamp enters. In testing, it's done fairly well so far, but it doesn't necessarily fit the theme of the deck.

Entomber Exarch: Recursion and proactive removal on an ETB creature. Allows us to pull creatures from the graveyard to reuse, or it gets problematic noncreature spells from an opponent. The versatility on this creature is very nice.

Erebos, God of the Dead: A source of indestructible card draw. Prevents opponent's from using any lifegain shenanigans. When we have enough devotion, we get ourselves a 5/7 indestructible beater.

Faceless Butcher/Ravenous Chupacabra: Removal on a stick for any creature an opponent controls. Another ETB effect to abuse with Panharmonicon/Conjurer's Closet. Butcher can also be used in conjunction with a sac outlet to permanently exile a creature due to the separated clause in its effect.

Solemn Simulacrum: Sad Robot! On ETB, he allows us to search up a land. On death, he lets us draw a card . Both effects we love in this deck.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Big Daddy Gary! This guy gets to be bonkers if our devotion is high and we have Panharmonicon on the field. Even better when Conjurer's Closet is also out. Gains us life and drains our opponents. One of our win conditions in the deck.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Tutor on a stick. Doubles as a sac outlet for a creature so we can reanimate it to get more use out of an ETB effect. 4/6 with Deathtouch is nothing to scoff at either.

Duplicant: Colorless removal that exiles so it gets around indestructible creatures. Do note that he only copies P/T and Creature Type and not any abilities. If you go to exile a commander, and they choose to put it into the Command Zone instead, Duplicant will not copy the values as it is a replacement effect, so will enter as a 2/4 Shapeshifter. No worries though, as we can just sac him and reuse him later.

Grave Titan: 10 power across 3 three bodies for 4BB is pretty good, especially when one of those bodies is a 6/6 with deathtouch. Can be used to generate infinite zombies and mana, and is a part of a win condition for the deck.

Kokusho, the Evening Star: One of the Legendary Kamigawa dragons, and the best one if you ask me. Keep sacrificing him and bringing him back will eventually kill our opponents, so he is another win condition in the deck.

Noxious Gearhulk: Another piece of our removal package. Repeatable use as it is an ETB effect creature so it can be blinked or recurred. Can also hit our creatures if we want to bring them back from the graveyard.

Wurmcoil Engine: Wurmcoil helps alleviate the loss of life that mono black is known for. It is also part of an infinite mana engine that gets passed Torpor Orb-like effects, as it is a death trigger instead of an ETB trigger. Not only helps create infinite mana, but can also create infinite tokens as well.

Meteor Golem: Black has a hard time dealing with noncreatures. Oblivion Stone and Nevinyrral's Disk were used as ways of getting rid of these things. However, they hurt us as much as the opponent, if not more. Enter Meteor Golem. Our saving grace. He can destroy any nonland permanent. It's an ETB effect so it's abusable with Panharmonicon/Conjurer's Closet/Lifeline. He's a creature so he can be reanimated for multiple uses. By far the best card M19 has brought to this deck.

Rune-Scarred Demon: Another tutor on a stick. 5BB for a 6/6 flyer is still kinda hefty, but since it has an ETB effect of tutoring any card, he makes the cut in the deck as we can flicker with Conjurer's Closet and bring him back from the graveyard.

Sepulchral Primordial: Recursion for opponents' creatures. Not the most powerful effects for cost, as some opponents may not even run creatures, but it can bring back up to three creatures (six if Panharmonicon is out).

Sheoldred, Whispering One: The big boss lady herself. Removal and recursion in one creature. She tends to paint a big target on her head, but if she sticks around, she can give you some pretty good value.

Artifacts

Mana Crypt/Sol Ring/Jet Medallion: The mana rocks. Helps accelerate us into playing more spells each turn, or bigger spells. Invaluable to have in EDH.

Expedition Map: Land tutor. It mostly tutors up Cabal Coffers, but will also grab Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Ancient Tomb, or even the new Cabal Stronghold. Can also grab one of the other utility lands depending on what we need at the time.

Nim Deathmantle: Artifact that lets us return a creature when it dies for only 4. Also gives the creature +2/+2 and intimidate for a little evasion. Main combo piece alongside Ashnod's Altar.

Ashnod's Altar: Sac outlet that gives us CC for every creature sacrificed. Use it to power out a bigger spell, gives us another target to reanimate, and is a combo piece alongside Nim Deathmantle.

Phyrexian Altar: Another sac outlet that gives us mana. This Altar allows us to generate mana of any color, so if we steal something with an activated ability that requires mana, we can pay its cost. It does not go infinite like Ashnod's Altar, but can do so if you also have a Panharmonicon out to double up on the tokens produced by Grave Titan.

Panharmonicon: This is what the deck is built around. This card is SO GOOD! Doubles all of our ETB triggers so we can get double exile, double life drain, double sacrifices, double trouble! This card usually paints a big target on itself when you play it, but if it sticks around, you will not be disappointed. Can get multiple uses out of it with Beacon of Unrest.

Lifeline: This artifact can be a double-edged sword. It makes all of our removal null (minus board wipes/exile effects) as it also works on our opponent's creatures as well. However, the advantage we have with all of our ETB effects should outweigh the negativity it has. With a sac outlet, we can sac and bring back every turn, and gain insane value in the process.

Conjurer's Closet: Another of Gonti's favorite toys to play with. Allows us to get more use out of our ETB creatures that are already on the battlefield. If we control an opponent's creature, we can use Closet to exile it and it will return under our control. If we somehow gain control of their commander, we can use Closet to exile it, they can then choose to put their commander in the command zone, but it will still return under our control since Closet says to "return that card" to the battlefield and not "return the exiled card," as it doesn't reference the exile zone.

Sorceries

Reanimate: The best reanimate spell. Returns any creature at the price of its CMC being deducted from your life.

Black Sun's Zenith/Toxic Deluge/Damnation/Mutilate: Board wipes. Not much to be said about these except these are probably the best ones you can use. BSZ, Deluge, and Mutilate get past indestructible creatures as well.

Demonic Tutor: Black staple card. Hands down the best tutor available. 1B to bring any card from your library to your hand is insane. Search up an answer if you need it or a fun card if you want it.

Diabolic Intent:Sac outlet and tutor. Having another low-cost tutor will help us grab a card we need, and it gives us another creature to reanimate for value.

Night's Whisper/Sign in Blood/Morbid Curiosity/Read the Bones: Card draw. Black is pretty good at drawing cards in exchange for life, and these cards are great examples. Sign in Blood can also be used to kill an opponent if they are at 2 or less life.

Yawgmoth's Will: One of the best black spells ever printed. Allows us to replay any card from our graveyard. Use caution with this spell, however, as any card that goes to the graveyard the same turn this is played will be exiled.

Beacon of Unrest: Reanimates any creature or artifact from any graveyard, then will get shuffled back into your library for future use, if it resolves. Really useful if someone gets rid of Panharmonicon/Conjurer's Closet or any other good card.

Living Death: This card doubles as removal and recursion. Gets around indestructible creatures since they are sacrificed and not destroyed.

Instants

Entomb: Mainly used to get a creature into the graveyard for later reanimation. Could also be used to put an artifact in the graveyard to be brought back with Beacon of Unrest.

Supernatural Stamina/Undying Evil: Our surprise reanimate spells. Only works if our creature is going to die; they cannot return something that is already dead.

Vampiric Tutor: Instant speed tutor. Grabs a card and sticks it on top of our library for two life. If I start the game with it, I will usually grab Mana Crypt in order to get a turn two Gonti or something else early on. Otherwise, it will grab whatever we need at the time.

Wake the Dead: Another instant speed reanimation spell. Can only be used during an opponent's combat step, but has the ability to reanimate more than one creature for some surprise shenanigans.

Corpse Dance: Instant speed reanimate spell. This one is a bit limited as it can only grab the top most creature in your graveyard, and it exiles at end step. A sac outlet is useful in conjunction with it if you want to bring the creature back at a later time.

Enchantments

Kaya's Ghostform: A new toy from WAR. It is functionally identical to Undying Evil/Supernatural Stamina in the sense that when the creature dies, it will be returned to the battlefield. This card, however, does more, as it also functions when it gets exiled AND also works on planeswalkers as well!

Phyrexian Reclamation: Cheap way to bring back creatures from the graveyard so we can use them again.

Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy: Reanimation enchantments. Can be used to grab any creature from any graveyard. Necromancy can also be played at instant speed for surprise shenanigans, but the creature will be sacrificed at end step.

Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena: More card draw that sticks around after it's cast. These two are probably the best card draw spells that black has to offer.

Planeswalkers

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Liliana of the Dark Realms: Mainly used to grab a Swamp. Can also act as spot removal when in a pinch, and if we can get to her ultimate, we will have plenty of mana for our shenanigans.

Lands

Ancient Tomb: Great EDH land. Allows us to play our spells a turn earlier than normal at the cost of two life.

Arcane Lighthouse: Sometimes we need to get rid of a creature that has shroud/hexproof while leaving our creatures intact, so this utility land gives us that ability to do so with targeted removal.

Cabal Coffers: My favorite land of all time. Can net so much mana, especially with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. Without Urborg, however, you need to have 4 Swamps before you can start to net mana.

Cabal Stronghold: Cabal Coffers, Jr. The nice thing about this land is that it produces mana itself. However, in order to net mana, you need to have 5 Swamps out, and they have to be basic, since that's what it counts. It will not work with Urborg, since it doesn't make them basic Swamps.

Deserted Temple: Allows us to make a bunch more mana with Cabal Coffers/ Cabal Stronghold/ Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Can also get second uses out of other utility lands.

High Market: The life gain is fairly insignificant compared to what we will lose over the course of the game, but it is a sac outlet regardless.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Another big-mana producing land. Needs our devotion to be at least BBBB in order to net any mana.

Petrified Field: Since we don't run, or even have use for, Crucible of Worlds, this is the next best option we have to reuse Coffers/Stronghold/Nykthos if they get destroyed.

Phyrexian Tower: Sac outlet land that produces BB to cast spells or activate abilities.

Sanctum of Eternity: This land will let us keep reusing Gonti every turn, and can keep his cost at 4BB as long as we keep using it.

Swamp: The lifeblood of the deck. No Swamps means no playing our black cards. Not much to say about these, except make sure they match!

Thespian's Stage: Used to copy our non-legendary lands, or can copy an opposing land if we need it to.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Makes all lands into Swamps. Allows Crypt Ghast to create a lot of mana, and works wonders with Cabal Coffers.

Vesuva: Another copy land. Gives us another Coffers/Stronghold to use, or we can even copy someone else's land as well.

Volrath's Stronghold: Utility land that lets us reuse our creatures by putting one on top of our library. Will also keep us from decking out, as long as we have a creature in our graveyard.
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Gonti's Treasure Vault

This section is reserved for cards that didn't make the cut, or will be kept in reserve as a "toolbox" of sorts for things I can swap out when I feel like changing the deck up.
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Gonti's Treasure Vault

[b]//Planeswalkers:[/b]

Approximate Total Cost:

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Strategy

The strategy to playing this deck is simple: play lands, cast spells, steal opponent's cards. We want to use and abuse our ETB effects as much as possible, and win through sheer value or a simple combo. In order to do that, we need to make sure we start the game out right.

1) Mulligans:
We want to have a minimum of two Swamps in our opening hand, just in case we can get a turn two or three Gonti. Any card draw or tutor in the hand is a keep, as long as we can cast them on curve. If our hand has a high CMC, we will need to send it back. Any kind of mana rock (Sol Ring/Mana Crypt/Jet Medallion) will usually mean a keep, as we can cast higher CMC cards a lot sooner than just hitting land drops.

Example Hands:
Damnation, Ancient Tomb, Swamp, Faceless Butcher, Sol Ring, Duplicant, Volrath's Stronghold: This hand is borderline. We have three lands, but only one of them being a Swamp. We also have Sol Ring, which will power out our higher CMC spells. Plenty of removal to keep the board clear, it just all depends on who we are playing against, and if we feel we can draw into a Swamp within the first couple of turns.

Necromancy, Swamp, Swamp, Fellwar Stone, Ancient Tomb, Animate Dead, Swamp: This hand is a keep. We are on curve for hitting a turn three Gonti, possibly turn two if an opponent plays out a Swamp of their own. We also have a couple pieces of recursion in case Gonti gets removed and we can get him out cheaper by bringing him back from the graveyard instead of having to recast him.


2) Early Game:
The first part of the early game (when commanders are revealed) is spent assessing our opponent(s). If there is more than one opponent, determine who may have the best options for us to steal from. Blue can give us access to counters, green for ramp, red for burn or artifact destruction, white for creature removal, and black for more recursion or creature removal. Of course, it all depends on what Commander they are playing, as they may not have those things and are going with an entirely different strategy. We want to try to get Gonti out as quickly as possible to begin creating our toolbox of tricks to help us achieve victory. Getting out mana rocks or even Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers will enable quick and possibly multiple castings of Gonti in order to begin picking away at libraries.

3) Mid Game:
We really want to be abusing Gonti's and other creatures ETB abilities by this point, so if we haven't drawn into Panharmonicon or Conjurer's Closet, we will hopefully be able to tutor for it. Being able to double up on ETBs will enable us to gain more value out of our creatures when they enter, or at the end of turn in Closet's case. Once you have an established board presence, you want to establish a game plan of how you want to win. You will want to out-value your opponents through card advantage and board control, and then win through damage, draining their life, or go for a combo kill. Once you have this established, utilize your tutors and card draw to dig for your pieces to win.

4) Late Game:
By the time you enter the late game, you should have your avenue of victory in hand or a way to get it from the graveyard/deck, or have it on the field. If one of our combo pieces (Ashnod's Altar/Nim Deathmantle) gets destroyed, we can bring them back with Beacon of Unrest. However, if they were to be exiled, we have no way of getting them back, and must utilize another way to win. We want to make sure the path is clear before going in for the kill, whether that is everyone else being tapped out, or possibly having some counters in our toolbox. If the latter is the case, be sure you have enough mana available to support the counters and your win condition. We can utilize Ashnod's Altar/Nim Deathmantle in various ways to secure a combo kill using infinite mana engine and going for infinite drain with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star, or steal everyone's entire library with Gonti. Otherwise, we make a horde of tokens and swing in for lethal. If a mass token swarm is the way you want to finish the game, do so at the end of your opponent's turn before yours; doing so will allow them to attack on your turn without having to wait.
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Weaknesses of Gonti

1) Graveyard Hate:This is a reanimator-style deck, so we heavily rely on the graveyard as a second library of sorts. Therefore, any card that prevents interaction with the graveyard will hinder us severely. The following cards are a few examples of very problematic cards:
These are only a few of the many graveyard hate cards in the game. Any of them are bad for us so if we can get rid of them, we should prioritize that.

2) ETB Hate Cards: The second theme of the deck is Enters the Battlefield (ETB) effects. Most of our creatures have an ETB effect that helps us in some way, so if those get shut off, we have a hard time of winning. Even parts of our combo rely on our creatures entering the battlefield. So, some of the cards we need to look out for are:
3) Hexproof/Shroud: Another problem we will run into is anything that has or can grant Hexproof/Shroud. A lot of our ETB creatures interact by targeting. If we can't target our opponent's stuff, then we may end up targeting ours if they are legal targets, and we don't want that happening. That is why we have added in Arcane Lighthouse to interact with these creatures. Be mindful of these effects and play wisely.
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Infinite Recursion Engine

One of the most powerful cards in this deck is Nim Deathmantle. Why is it so powerful? Well, when combined with Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar and select creatures found in this deck (there are even more not in here), we are able to generate infinite mana and/or tokens. We can then use the infinite mana to end the game via non-combat, or make enough tokens to swing for lethal. Let's look at the various ways we can accomplish that.

*While this deck list may or may not contain some of the cards in these combos, I felt like leaving them in there for those that do run them. It is a lot of information, and I'd rather not have to retype it all in case I add these cards back in the future.
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The Ashnod Engine


This engine utilizes Ashnod's Altar with Nim Deathmantle and one of these creatures:
  • Grave Titan: With Grave Titan and two Zombie tokens on the battlefield, sacrifice all three to generate cccccc. Use cccc to bring back Grave Titan and create two more Zombie tokens. Repeat for infinite c. You can also sacrifice Grave Titan and one Zombie token to generate cccc, bring back Grave Titan and create two zombie tokens. Repeat for infinite Zombie tokens.
  • Wurmcoil Engine: With Wurmcoil Engine on the battlefield, sacrifice it to generate cc and put the Nim Deathmantle's trigger on the stack first, followed by the Engine's. Create the two tokens, then sacrifice both for cccc and use the mana to bring back Engine, netting cc in the process. Repeat for infinite c. You can also sacrifice only one token to bring back Engine, and repeat again for infinite Lifelink/Deathtouch Wurm tokens.
You can also use any of these creatures to complete the combo:

The Phyrexian Engine


This engine utilizes Phyrexian Altar in place of Ashnod's Altar, but is only compatible with a few creatures:
*This engine is more or less obsolete as we don't run the main creatures anymore.
**You can also use Grave Titan in this engine if Panharmonicon is out on the battlefield.

The Win Conditions


Now that we have generated infinite mana, we can use one of the following cards to close out the game:
  • Gonti, Lord of Luxury: With Gonti on the battlefield, sacrifice it and send to the graveyard, triggering Nim Deathmantle. Bring Gonti back with the infinite mana and exile one card from an opponent's library. Repeat to exile all cards in all libraries. Pass the turn and when they try to draw, they lose the game.
  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel: With Gray Merchant on the battlefield, sacrifice it and send to the graveyard, triggering Nim Deathmantle. Bring him back with the infinite mana and drain your opponent's life equal to your devotion to black and gain that much life. Repeat to drain all opponents.
  • Kokusho, the Evening Star: With Kokusho on the battlefield, sacrifice it and send to the graveyard, triggering Nim Deathmantle and Kokusho, draining each opponent for five life and you gaining that much. Bring back Kokusho with the infinite mana, and repeat to infinitely drain all opponents.
*Marionette Master is also a win condition if you so choose to run her.

The Torpor Orb-Proof Engine


One thing to keep in mind is that if there is a Torpor Orb-like effect on the battlefield, it will shut off our ETB creatures, nullifying part of our engine. However, we do have two ways of still generating infinite mana through these effects, and also a win condition that is not an ETB effect: *Su-Chi can replace or be ran alongside Wurmcoil Engine in conjunction Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar to facilitate this combo.
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Changelog


Changelog
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4/27/18
Approximate Total Cost:





Finalized writing primer, and got final deck list together.




The main theme of these changes is effectiveness. Fleshbag/Merciless, while they are removal and abusable ETB creatures, don't let us select what creatures we want to remove, which can be a devastating thing. Xiahou Dun was just too slow as his ability has a timing restriction, so no surprise shenanigans. Our creatures cost too much to be able to abuse with Curio, and Mimc Vat has the potential of permanently losing one of our creatures, even our commander. Ritual was too narrow, as a lot of the time we would like to steal a black or artifact creature. Entomb is a sort of narrow tutor card, and almost useless unless we can reanimate right away. Dead Man's Chest is bad if the only creatures out are commanders, so we get no value, and even if there are creatures out, we have to have a way of killing it and sending it to the graveyard. Gate also has a timing restriction, and we can only use once per turn.

Abhorrent and Wurmcoil can replace Grave Titan in our mana engine, and can create a ton of bodies for attacking/blocking/sacrificing. Intent is another cheap and efficient tutor. Lifeline, Wake, and Makeshift are great cards for reanimating creatures and abusing things. Oblivion Stone is another mass removal that can hit artifacts, enchantments, and even planeswalkers. Sign in Blood and Morbid Curiosity for more card draw to get to our good cards.




After testing these changes, I've decided to make all of them final for the deck. Oblivion Stone and Nevinyrral's Disk were put in here as more efficient ways of dealing with artifacts and enchantments over Gate to Phyrexia. However, when we have an established board presence with our artifacts, they tend to hurt us just as much as the opponent(s). Geth, Lord of the Vault isn't a very efficient reanimator. Yes, he can bring back artifacts, but if no opponent has a legal target in their graveyard, he does nothing. Nirkana Revenant is an overcosted Crypt Ghast and hurts us more if it gets removed. Ob Nixilis Reignited is still a great card, but I needed to make another cut, and he seemed to have the least impact over other choices. Yawgmoth's Will was definitely a hard choice, and one I'm not sure of keeping out of the deck. It can be easily brought back in.

I'm bringing in Meteor Golem to repalce Stone/Disk. He hits any nonland permanent, can be reanimated since he's a creature and it's an ETB effect. He is easily abused with Panharmonicon/Conjurer's Closet/Lifeline. Phyrexian Altar is in as another sac outlet. Has a harder time going infinite than Ashnod's Altar, but it is possible with Panharmonicon. Abnormal Endurance is another surprise reanimation spell, although a bit higher costing thatn Supernatural Stamina/Undying Evil. Helm of the Host is coming back in as it is a great card to have. Yes, it will most likely see removal the first chance someone gets, but it's too good with all of our ETB creatures. Sandstone Oracle is in here to fill our hand back up. It's an ETB effect so easily recurrable in here. We tend to run out of gas fairly quickly, and this has the means of filling our hand back to full. Sengir Autocrat was added for redundancy for our infinite mana combo. Comes down earlier than the others as well.



12/24/18
Approximate Total Cost:

Sengir Autocrat is a bad enabler for the infinite mana combo, as the tokens are only good for making the mana or being blockers. Sandstone Oracle didn't draw as many cards as I had hoped it would. Same goes for Arch of Orazca. Abnormal Endurance was good for what it did, but Undying Evil and Supernatural Stamina did it cheaper.

I'm putting in Entreat the Dead as another reanimation spell that can get back multiple creatures, and Insidious Dreams to help set it up. Oblivion Strike is added for more exile removal and also because of the devoid ability, and Arcane Lighthouse to help deal with shroud/hexproof creatures.




After playing the deck with the last changes, I have found out something: Insidious Dreams is only really good when Entreat the Dead is still in the deck, and we have creatures in our hand to help set it up. Otherwise, it's a sub-par tutor card. I wanted to make the deck more resilient to board wipes, so I decided to up the reanimation spells to include Dance of the Dead, Goryo's Vengeance, Rescue from the Underworld, and Yawgmoth's Will (which allows us to play even more cards). I also added in other combo creatures in Su-Chi, to help against ETB hate, and Marionette Master, which can win games on her own.

I took out Abhorrent Overlord so we don't have too many combo creatures, Massacre Wurm got cut simply because Demon of Dark Schemes also reanimates, Oblivion Strike so we don't take a turn off to remove a creature, and Makeshift Mannequin since the creature can be easily removed by just targeting it. Probably the most controversial cut I made was to remove Sheoldred, Whispering One. She was definitely a hard cut, but she does paint a significant target on her head when she comes out. We mainly used her to reanimate our creatures, and there was a good chance she would be taken care of before it got back to our turn. I opted to remove her for more one-shot reanimation spells in order to hopefully get the curve lowered and give us more shots with other spells.




As you can tell, it's quite the big update! I've been back and forth with what I wanted to do with the deck, and finally I decided to pull the trigger and go back to what this deck originally was: a goodstuff reanimator deck. I took out quite a bit of the combo pieces (Marionette Master,Su-Chi,Wurmcoil Engine), as I don't want to necessarily focus on getting those out and winning the same way every time. I'd rather just play a value reanimator deck and have fun. I still have the main Deathmantle/Ashnod/Grave Titan loop in there, and may put back in Wurmcoil just in case of Torpor Orb, but for now, this is what I want to run.

I took out some of the bulkier/underperforming cards, and added in a couple more sac outlets, ETB creatures, creature tutor and reanimation spells.

Some notable cards I took out were some spot removal spells. There are quite a few creatures with ETBs that remove creatures, but didn't have anything to remove noncreatures. That is why I have included Mesmeric Fiend and Thought-Knot Seer. There is plenty of reactive removal, but not enough proactive removal. What's really great with these two is they have separated enters and leaves play effects, so we can permanently exile cards from hands if we have a sac outlet out, and can continually repeat this with Lifeline.

Vesuva/Petrified Field were added in order to recur or copy a Coffers in case ours gets removed, or we just want way more mana to pump into Torment of Hailfire.

Overall, I am very happy with how the deck is playing, and will continue to play and update regularly.




I took out Disciple of Bolas and Vulturous Aven and put in Dusk Legion Zealot and Phyrexian Rager. Having the ability to unconditionally draw earlier in the game is more important than later in the game. Demon of Dark Schemes was replaced with Black Sun's Zenith due to it being a better boardwipe, as it can kill more creatures than Demon. Soldevi Adnate replaces Yahenni, Undying Partisan as a sac outlet (although limited to once per turn), but it can generate mana to cast other spells. Victimize, Chainer, Dementia Master, and Torment of Hailfire were replaced with Entomber Exarch, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Sepulchral Primordial. Exarch is recursion and disruption in one, Sheoldred is recursion and removal, and Primordial can get up to 3 creatures just upon entering.



7/25/19
Approximate Total Cost:

I wasn't the biggest fan of TKS's colorless requirement and the fact that it gave an opponent a card as well. Fenlurker is cheaper and easier to cast, still exiles, but also exiles from all opponents. This will help spread the love all around and not just single one person out at a time.



9/24/19
Approximate Total Cost:

Made a quick swap for another utility land that allows us to continuously recast Gonti for 4BB. I took Buried Alive out as I often found myself not really needing to tutor three creatures into the bin, and this card is better suited for a more combo/all-in reanimation deck. I replaced it with Dread Presence as another source of card draw, as well as removal/planeswalker control.
Last edited by Guerte 4 years ago, edited 28 times in total.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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Henlock
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Post by Henlock » 4 years ago

Looks really nice, What has been your experience regarding off-color cards with off-color activations? I guess you're covered with the copylands, but it looks like you still can allow yourself to include some off-color producing lands.
I played Gonti and Dead man's Chest in Kambal Brawl and having treasures at my disposal was very useful in some cases.

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Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

Henlock wrote:
4 years ago
Looks really nice, What has been your experience regarding off-color cards with off-color activations? I guess you're covered with the copylands, but it looks like you still can allow yourself to include some off-color producing lands.
I played Gonti and Dead man's Chest in Kambal Brawl and having treasures at my disposal was very useful in some cases.
Thanks for commenting!

As far as off-color activation costs, I don't necessarily let that hinder my choices when selecting what to exile with Gonti. If the card I choose has one, it's usually good enough just to exile so the opponent can't play it.

I do have Phyrexian Altar in the deck in order to produce other colors, but utilizing lands or other artifacts to produce them takes up slots in the deck I'd rather not lose.
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Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

Well done Sir, we will get you your primer tag as soon as a moderator is online.

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Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Well done Sir, we will get you your primer tag as soon as a moderator is online.
Oh boy! I wasn’t even planning on applying just yet. Will all former primers be automatically added without reapplying?
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

Guerte wrote:
4 years ago
darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Well done Sir, we will get you your primer tag as soon as a moderator is online.
Oh boy! I wasn’t even planning on applying just yet. Will all former primers be automatically added without reapplying?
Yes. Basically we are just doing a scan of them to make sure the formatting isn't too messed up, and we will just comment on the thread if there is something that can be done to approve it.
The only thing I can see is that image with the deck list is too big now, as decklists are naturally wider. You can probably just remove it,

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Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Guerte wrote:
4 years ago
darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Well done Sir, we will get you your primer tag as soon as a moderator is online.
Oh boy! I wasn’t even planning on applying just yet. Will all former primers be automatically added without reapplying?
Yes. Basically we are just doing a scan of them to make sure the formatting isn't too messed up, and we will just comment on the thread if there is something that can be done to approve it.
The only thing I can see is that image with the deck list is too big now, as decklists are naturally wider. You can probably just remove it,
Cool beans; I’ll have to port over my Daretti and Omnath lists soon!

I removed the image, so hopefully it looks better now.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

7/25/19:
OUT:
Thought-Knot Seer

IN:
Yarok's Fenlurker

I wasn't the biggest fan of TKS's colorless requirement and the fact that it gave an opponent a card as well. Fenlurker is cheaper and easier to cast, still exiles, but also exiles from all opponents. This will help spread the love all around and not just single one person out at a time.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

User avatar
Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

Commander 2019 Review:

Well, we didn't get much from C19, but we did get a pretty cool land:

Sanctum of Eternity

This beauty will help as continuously cast Gonti for 4BB (not counting the times he will inevitably return to the command zone).

I'm not sure what land to replace yet; Swamp is definitely the easiest, but I'm not sure I want to go down more.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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Guerte
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Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

9/24/19
Approximate Total Cost:

Made a quick swap for another utility land that allows us to continuously recast Gonti for 4BB. I took Buried Alive out as I often found myself not really needing to tutor three creatures into the bin, and this card is better suited for a more combo/all-in reanimation deck. I replaced it with Dread Presence as another source of card draw, as well as removal/planeswalker control.



Throne of Eldraine Review
Approximate Total Cost:

Doesn't look like we are getting many goodies from the new set. From what I've seen, it's only a couple of lands. Castle Locthwain let's us draw cards and take damage, which isn't always the best, but we are mono black and that's what we do. It's nice that it doesn't take up a spell slot. Witch's Cottage is a little bit on-theme, as it will give us a creature on top of our deck if it enters untapped. It's also a Swamp, which helps with Cabal Coffers.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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