Echoing what the others have said, mono red is fine for EDH. Just be prepared to sit there when there's an annoying enchantment in play, as there's really not much you can do to it apart from Chaos Warp or one of the colorless sweepers.
A forewarning about going with Obzedat and possibly an extort/taxing theme - there are about a million triggered abilities that you're going to have to pay attention to if you go this route. Friend of mine built this deck and loves it, but he's always complaining about how many triggers he has to pay attention to.
I don't think I've a set number of removals in each of my decks, but it's usually in the range of 5-15 slots dedicated to removal. Mind you, I'm talking about removal for artifacts, enchantments, lands, etc. and not just creatures. It honestly depends on your playstyle and your playgroup's dynamics, though personally, I like being able to get rid of troublesome permanents.
My rule of thumb is to run at least one removal spell to deal with each type of permanent I might see my opponents play, but then again, I'm known in my playgroup for packing tons of removal in my EDH decks (I think at one point, my bant control deck had something in the range of 20 counters/tucks/sweepers/exile effects).
Honestly, the deck/playstyle matter as much as the generals themselves. For awhile, I had an EDH deck for each shard - Zur (douchey aggro/control), Mayael (fat beats), Kresh (midrange aggro), Angus (blink), and Nicol Bolas (group slug). I had fun, but found Kresh too slow and Zur too douchey.
As an aside, try Thromok the Insatiable for Gruul instead of going with Borbor. To date, I have the most fun with him because it's so explosive.
You can build a Mayael the Anima EDH deck fairly easily, as all the deck really needs is ramp and fatties along with a handful of utility spells. Most ramp spells outside of Sol Ring (i.e. Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Ranger's Path, etc.) are cheap commons and uncommons, and the fatties you cheat in using Mayael can be whatever you want, as long as they've got 5+ power. Apart from the Sol Ring, the most expensive part of a Mayael deck early on is probably going to be the removal/draw/utility spells, though you could also get away with cheap substitutes like Aftershock, Beast Within, Naturalize, Hull Breach, Reforge the Soul, etc.
Incorrect. It's more challenging construct, but the sheer number of chaos, wheel and mass destruction effects exclusive to mono red offers a really solid package to build off of. Mono red is NOT weak, not at all.
Don't get me wrong, I only meant in how it's perceived. I'm a red player at heart and most of my EDH decks (and really, decks in general) have some amount of red in them. But as a new player trying to get into EDH, red has a number of weaknesses (i.e. no real way outside of Chaos Warp and Warp World to get rid of enchantments, little removal that isn't damage-based, and a lack of card draw outside of its Wheel of Fortune -type effects).
Now, I wanted to talk about how I feel about revised duals.
I know that they're staples. Believe me, I do. However even when I was playing before, I didn't have but maybe two? And truth be told, I rarely missed them. I looked at Card Kingdom and Starcitygames, and some of those duals reach into the $120 range I've found.
If I was to buy one of each, that would be a substantial portion of what I have to spend. And in this instance I'm wondering if it would still be worth it. I'm a great trader, and have a track record of trading up pretty consistently. I'm sure that if I was able to establish some sort of collection I could probably trade for the ones that I needed.
Thoughts?
If the revised duals (and possibly even the Onslaught/Zendikar fetchlands) are something you don't feel comfortable investing in, at least pick up 1-2 copies of each shockland (Breeding Pool, Watery Grave, etc.) along with the Mirage/Visions fetchlands (e.g. Bad River, etc.) and filterlands (Odyssey ones are way cheaper than the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor ones). Common options for rebuilding a pool of lands from which you can build your decks include the new guildgates, shard-lands (e.g. Crumbling Necropolis, Savage Lands, etc.), and the M10/Innistrad tap-lands.
Also, mono black seems like an odd choice for a "less threatening deck," though compared to Zur/Uril/Sigarda/Jhoira, I suppose it would be. If you really want to get some laughs, build a group hug deck around Phelddagrif; you might not win much, but you get to basically play kingmaker and warp the game state by giving people cards/lands/stuff.
Elves and goblins are fun, but if you want to get into big, swingy things, try making a dragon tribal deck with Zirilian of the Claw as your general. Mono red is kinda weak, but it's fairly easy to ramp out with artifact mana and kill people with dragons using Zirilian's ability.
Harmonize and Reforge the Soul are good, cheap options for drawing cards in red-green, and Wheel of Fortune does similar things if you can afford it. If nothing else, you can add Temple Bell and make some [temporary] friends with it.
As for your deck, Thromok is fun because it can switch between killing people with a giant general or with a swarm of tokens. For awhile, I was running Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak to make sure Thromok got through. Giving him trample with things like Rancor and Brawn (in your graveyard) as well as haste via Anger and Lightning Greaves are good as well.
TempestShadow basically covered it with the list of token generators and I don't have much to add to it, though you could use add Conjurer's Closet to make more tokens with your "army in a can" guys and generally get more mileage out of your ETB creatures.
Are there any other cards besides Torpor Orb that shut down "enters the battlefield" abilities? I'm thinking of including an "anti-ETB" component in my next deck and ideally, it won't just be Torpor Orb and a bunch of tutors to get it.
I'm open to any/all cards regardless of color/type.
A forewarning about going with Obzedat and possibly an extort/taxing theme - there are about a million triggered abilities that you're going to have to pay attention to if you go this route. Friend of mine built this deck and loves it, but he's always complaining about how many triggers he has to pay attention to.
My rule of thumb is to run at least one removal spell to deal with each type of permanent I might see my opponents play, but then again, I'm known in my playgroup for packing tons of removal in my EDH decks (I think at one point, my bant control deck had something in the range of 20 counters/tucks/sweepers/exile effects).
Naya - Mayael, the Anima
Esper - Zur the Enchanter or Sen Triplets if you want to be douchey, Halfdane or Mereike ri Berit if you don't
Grixis - Nicol Bolas or Sedris, the Traitor King
Jund - Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Kresh the Bloodbraided, or Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Bant - Rafiq of the Many for voltron aggro, Phelddagrif for hug/shenanigans, or Angus MacKenzie for control
Honestly, the deck/playstyle matter as much as the generals themselves. For awhile, I had an EDH deck for each shard - Zur (douchey aggro/control), Mayael (fat beats), Kresh (midrange aggro), Angus (blink), and Nicol Bolas (group slug). I had fun, but found Kresh too slow and Zur too douchey.
As an aside, try Thromok the Insatiable for Gruul instead of going with Borbor. To date, I have the most fun with him because it's so explosive.
This.
If you like playing weenie rush decks, try making a sliver deck around Sliver Overlord (I'd suggest Sliver Queen, but she's still fairly pricey whereas Sliver Legion just doesn't do enough by himself), goblins with Wort, the Raidmother, Wort, Boggart Auntie, or Krenko, Mob Boss, or elves with Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.
If a Voltron-style deck is more your flavor, try Rafiq of the Many, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Godo, Bandit Warlord, or Sigarda, Host of Herons.
Other ideas/generals you might want to consider include:
In the end though, pick your general and/or theme before moving on from there to figure out your deck and tweak it as you go.
A side note on the fatties - you can start with less expensive fatties that are just big bodies such as Spearbreaker Behemoth and Shivan Dragon before slowly upgrading to better things like Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Bogardan Hellkite, and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. The deck works fine with lower quality fatties, as they still hit people fairly hard regardless.
Don't get me wrong, I only meant in how it's perceived. I'm a red player at heart and most of my EDH decks (and really, decks in general) have some amount of red in them. But as a new player trying to get into EDH, red has a number of weaknesses (i.e. no real way outside of Chaos Warp and Warp World to get rid of enchantments, little removal that isn't damage-based, and a lack of card draw outside of its Wheel of Fortune -type effects).
If the revised duals (and possibly even the Onslaught/Zendikar fetchlands) are something you don't feel comfortable investing in, at least pick up 1-2 copies of each shockland (Breeding Pool, Watery Grave, etc.) along with the Mirage/Visions fetchlands (e.g. Bad River, etc.) and filterlands (Odyssey ones are way cheaper than the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor ones). Common options for rebuilding a pool of lands from which you can build your decks include the new guildgates, shard-lands (e.g. Crumbling Necropolis, Savage Lands, etc.), and the M10/Innistrad tap-lands.
Also, mono black seems like an odd choice for a "less threatening deck," though compared to Zur/Uril/Sigarda/Jhoira, I suppose it would be. If you really want to get some laughs, build a group hug deck around Phelddagrif; you might not win much, but you get to basically play kingmaker and warp the game state by giving people cards/lands/stuff.
Auto-suspension for proxy discussion. -bobthefunny
As for your deck, Thromok is fun because it can switch between killing people with a giant general or with a swarm of tokens. For awhile, I was running Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak to make sure Thromok got through. Giving him trample with things like Rancor and Brawn (in your graveyard) as well as haste via Anger and Lightning Greaves are good as well.
TempestShadow basically covered it with the list of token generators and I don't have much to add to it, though you could use add Conjurer's Closet to make more tokens with your "army in a can" guys and generally get more mileage out of your ETB creatures.
One last suggestion from me would be to run creature ramp like Wood Elves, Farhaven Elf, Solemn Simulacrum, and Seedguide Ash so you can feed them to Thromok after you've used them to ramp. Personally, I run these guys in addition to Explosive Vegetation and Cultivate, as my Thromok build just wants to ramp early game.
I'm open to any/all cards regardless of color/type.