Braids - Nightmare Unending

[Ruiner]

Braids, Arisen Nightmare

Braids, Arisen Nightmare

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare

Creatures

1 Greedy Freebooter

1 Shambling Ghast

1 Spiteful Hexmage

1 Persistent Specimen

1 Nether Traitor

1 Bloodghast

1 Reassembling Skeleton

1 Withered Wretch

1 Ophiomancer

1 Twilight Prophet

1 Bloodletter of Aclazotz

1 Phyrexian Obliterator

1 Dire Fleet Ravager

1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

1 Psychosis Crawler

1 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures

1 Grave Titan

1 Massacre Wurm

Pox & Edict Effects

1 Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher

1 Liliana's Triumph

1 Sheoldred's Edict

1 Smallpox

1 Oath of Liliana

1 Pox

1 Fraying Omnipotence

1 Death Cloud

Misc Removal

1 Toxic Deluge

1 Deadly Rollick

1 Snuff Out

1 Damnation

1 The Meathook Massacre

Draw & Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Necropotence

Misc Artifacts

1 Sword of the Animist

1 Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus

1 Engineered Explosives

Misc Enchantments

1 Sarcomancy

1 Kaya's Ghostform

1 Hopeless Nightmare

1 Phyrexian Reclamation

1 Bloodchief Ascension

1 Case of the Stashed Skeleton

1 Bitterblossom

1 Dreadhorde Invasion

1 Black Market Connections

1 Oubliette

Misc Instants & Sorceries

1 Reanimate

1 Not Dead After All

1 Imp's Mischief

1 Exsanguinate

Planeswalkers

1 Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

1 Liliana of the Veil

1 Liliana, Waker of the Dead

1 Liliana, Death's Majesty

Ramp & Acceleration

1 Lotus Petal

1 Jeweled Lotus

1 Chrome Mox

1 Mox Diamond

1 Dark Ritual

1 Expedition Map

1 Sol Ring

1 Arcane Signet

Land

1 Dakmor Salvage

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Cabal Coffers

1 Thespian's Stage

1 Strip Mine

1 Wasteland

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Scavenger Grounds

1 War Room

25 Swamp

Approximate Total Cost:

About the Deck

Braids at her core is a great card advantage engine. I tried to lean into the idea of trying to sacrifice permanents opponents probably either don't have in play or don't want to sacrifice as much as I can, which ultimately are non-creature permanents. Obviously sacrificing creatures is an option and does happen fairly frequently as well. I've concentrated on a fairly low converted mana cost as much as possible. If you can sacrifice something that costs or to draw 2 or 3 cards, that tends to be a good deal, and even a 3 drop for 3 cards is pretty great.

Braids is a sacrifice outlet and does a bit of chip damage herself, but I feel like there are other monoblack commanders that can do the aristocrats strategy better. In my build, I go for big sweeping pox type effects to drop everyone's life total significantly, which can make the pressure from the lifeloss on Braid's trigger a bit more threatening.

There is a very low amount of card draw in the deck. I've found that Braids herself is good enough card advantage, and even when removed she isn't gone for long since I don't tend to miss land drops often at all.

Bloodchief Ascension and Massacre Wurm can deal a lot of life loss with the Pox type effects depending on opponent's board states. Bloodletter of Aclazotz also combines very well with these cards.

Grave Titan is "just a beater/token generator" but with life totals dropping as quick as they tend to, I find it pulls its weight fairly well.

Torment of Hailfire is a classic monoblack finisher, and it may be a bit more "damage efficient" compared to Exsanguinate, but I've found the life gain to be pretty helpful due to the symmetrical life loss effects I'm running and enchantments that tick down my life total during upkeep. There probably could be room for Torment, but I haven't been missing it much.

I've been tinkering with this deck for the past few months, it definitely is not in any sort of final state (my decks pretty much never are) but I'm happy with how it is working so far.

[cheonice]

Your list looks great. How much does your playgroup hate you for playing Pox? I'm hestitant to go down that rabbit hole, because it dies not sound like a fun game for everyone else. How did this work for you?

I like your inclusion of weird old cards like [card]Sarcomancy[card]. Nice find!

How do the Lilianas wirk for you? I see myself cutting more and more walkers from my decks.

[Ruiner]

Your list looks great. How much does your playgroup hate you for playing Pox? I'm hestitant to go down that rabbit hole, because it dies not sound like a fun game for everyone else. How did this work for you?

Nobody really cares in my usual playgroup, but we do have kind of an anything goes attitude. However, we also have the attitude of "if you play "mean" stuff, you have to accept people gunning for you" as well.

Pox isn't really too terrible, it doesn't reset the game so much, you still have most of your resources usually. It just turns the clock back a few turns while also dramatically cutting life totals.

Death Cloud is the really mean card that can just make eveyone have nothing, but it's there to end games (haven't actually had it in hand in that situation yet though).

I like your inclusion of weird old cards like Sarcomancy. Nice find!

Yeah, I like using some weird stuff when possible and I've liked that card since the days of monoblack aggro running 4 copies and stuff like Carnophage. Never expected to run it in commander but this was the perfect deck for it.

How do the Lilianas wirk for you? I see myself cutting more and more walkers from my decks.

I find they do well enough. All of the ones I've included have useful effects and can be Braids fodder if they aren't currently useful. They probably aren't "vital" but they don't catch damage from any of my symmetrical effects, and if people want to swing on them rather than my life total I totally welcome that.

[Ruiner]

A small update to the deck based on the recent set release:

Added Cards
+1 Case of the Stashed Skeleton - For two mana you get a creature and enchantment to sacrifice to Braids, at bare minimum. Solving this case is absolutely trivial for the deck. Playing and solving the case gives is basically the cost of a Diabolic Tutor, which isn't the most efficient but spread over two turns it's much easier to deal with that cost (and Diabolic Tutor is a perfectly playable card, just a little slower than some of the other black tutors if you are going for efficiency). I think this is an easy include in the deck.

Removed Cards
-1 Tarrian's Soulcleaver - I never got this in play in any of my games so far, but I needed to cut something and I think this particular build doesn't go all in on taking advantage of it.

I did consider adding Toxin Analysis from the most recent set. For one mana, it is a decent little combat trick and generates a clue that you can sacrifice to Braids to potentially draw up to 3 or sacrifice in the traditional manner and draw 1. I have a copy set aside, maybe it will make it into a future deck update.


In other news, I had a recent game with an online Bloodchief Ascension and dropped Bloodletter of Aclazotz followed by Pox on the same turn. That was a pretty brutal way to end the game. Definitely glad to have included Bloodletter of Aclazotz in the deck, I don't see myself dropping that any time soon.