MTG Salvation

Through the last years this has always been my favorite deck. Although it can still be tweaked here and there, I believe it is a strong list that certainly provides you with big plays. The thing is... everyone in my group knows that by now

Here is my most recent list (13-7-2014):



So this deck aims at winning by generating BIG amounts (or infinite amounts) of B mana and killing your opponents through Commander damage or a large Exsanguinate or Consume spirit. Maybe with the help of old planeswalking vampire Sorin. In the meantime I want to kill creatures that threaten my life total. Sadly, this deck has the weakness every mono black deck has it can't interact with the stack too well, and it can't deal with enchantments and artifacts consistently. However, I play multiplayer and rely on the other players to deal with threats to the whole table and I can blow some permanents up with things like O'stone and Hellkite.

Now I'll tell you something about my card choices:

Mana Doubling:
Cabal Coffers - The #1 All-Star of the deck ofcourse. Tutor it, play it and recur it.


Coffers untapping and recursion:
Deserted Temple - Untap Coffers
Petrified Field - Get Coffers back
Grim Discovery - Get Coffers back and maybe even a nice creature!

Tutors:
Expedition Map - Search Coffers, Deserted Temple or any other utility land
Rune-Scarred Demon - with the mana this deck generates you can play a threat and tutor a threat all at the same time
Shred Memory - sometimes you can suprise someone with the instant removal of their recursion target, other times you chain it with demonic tutor for what you really want.
Insidious Dreams - although the discard seems kinda meh, imagine end of opponents turn I.D. putting ambition's cost on top and 3 cards you need below that. You get your combo/answers/threats next turn with 4 mana and 3 life, which is pretty nice. And you might have even dropped a recursion target in the grave.

Draw:
Skullclamp - Nice with the recurring creatures like Nether Traitor, Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodghast.
Bloodgift Demon -I really like to have creatures with useful abilities like this on them

Sweepers:
Nevinyrral's Disk - Blacks answer to enchantments/artifacts
Oblivion Stone - Blacks directly usable answer to enchantments/artifacts
Steel Hellkite - Usefull for killing pesky enchantments, planeswalkers and artifacts.

Spot removal:
Sudden Death and Rend Flesh. Only these two as Drana should be able to deal with most creatures in conjunction with all our sweepers.

Recursion:
Buried Ruin - Bring back O'stone or the Disk
Chainer, Dementia Master - Pretty good with Kokusho!

Combos:
Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + Rings of Brighthearth = infinite black mana
Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith = infinite colorless mana

Use this mana for Exsanginate or Profane Command or Consume Spirit. Other alternatives are Drana and Geth.

Bitterblossom + Contamination = all players have to stick to black mana, which locks mane players out.

Misc:
Praetor's Grasp - grasping another player's deck provides you with some information and permits you to remove a card you can't deal with, or a card you can use at that time
Sudden Spoiling - Surprise! Your creatures suck and die!
Vedalken Orrery - It seems innocent enough, but this card is really powerful. Black has a lot of strong sorceries, when these can be played at instant speed, it suddenly enables you to play a more control style.

Notable Exclusions:
Extraplanar Lens, I still need Snow-covered Swamps
Damnation: costs a bit too much, might trade for it or buy it later.
Wasteland: same as Damnation.
Karn Liberated: pretty expensive..

In consideration for adding:



I want to thank all players that put up their Drana lists before me and all players that have commented. You guys were very helpfull! That's about it so: fire away!

It's got everything I look for in Big Black:
Coffers with a high swamp count except for key utility lands.
Ways to fetch and recur coffers.
A few ways to deal with enchants/artifacts (Spine of Ish Sah and Karn Liberated are other possibles)
Evergreen creatures for sac and Skullclamp to put on them.
Nightmare Lash for Nether Traitor or whomever (Lashwrithe is another possible)
Early ramp & big mana boosters
Recursion
Rings to double Drana, Dozer, Hellkite, Sorin, etc
Basalt Monolith and Deserted Temple to go infinite with rings
Big Finishers - primarily Profane, Exsanguinate
Sweepers - Don't sweat the Damnation, you don't need it. Black Sun's Zenith is better. More flexibility, gets around indestructibles, and can effectively neuter a voltron general without killing him to be re-cast at full power next turn. Plague Wind is another good option too.

I would consider one more utility land. Reliquary Tower. With all the possible card draw, it's very often worth the non-swamp count.

The only thing I would change is more of a personal choice and meta call. I personally like to go with some instant spot removal and a few utility cards rather than the discard package, it seems to serve me better in a multiplayer environment. That, and Necropotence makes me nervous as a Mindslaver will kill you. You might consider Promise of Power as a replacement if that's a concern in your group. With big mana it's consistently entwined and very big.

Solid deck. I like it.

Thanks Blackjack! I forgot about Reliquary Tower a sec., it's in there.

I haven't seen any Mindslavers around yet so I might try it with the Necropotence until I run into it or something like Faith's Fetters... I might try Promise of Power out as a replacement pre-emptively.

Karn Liberated is a bit over the budget and I hate the fact I have no way of saccing the Spine of Ish Sah. I would have to include Claws of Gix or something for that, so I don't really know about that card.

Phyrexia's Core is also one way to nuke the Spine.

That could work as well, but those could be pretty 'dead' cards otherwise (especially Phyrexia's Core because you can't sacc your commander or other creatures to it).

About spot removal I'm in a bit of doubt. I might remove some of the hand dsiruption and add a bit of this. I want something with the least amount of restriction, but cheap and at instant speed as well. I found the following spells that could work:

Eyeblight's Ending
Rend Flesh
Go for the Throat
Reckless Spite
Snuff Out
Vendetta

What do you guys think?

Quote from Grinning Demon

What do you guys think?

For all those I always go to Rend Flesh and Eyeblights first. At least in my meta, I find far fewer Elves/Spirits that I need to kill where I very often need to kill Black or Artifact creatures.

Definitely like a lot of what's going on here but I have a few suggestions

Doubling Cube is great for added mana. With all your sac outlets, Black Market can make tons mana. Tower of the Magistrate helps to get around pesky pro-black swords, which can be a major weakness if the people you play with run them. Helm of Possession is also great with sac effects. Sac bloodghast, get Akroma. Get back bloodghast.

Imp's Mischief, Withering Boon, and Sudden Spoiling are flexible/powerful cards that most people won't expect.

I've seen discard done well in mutiplayer, but only when it's the main focus of the deck. If you only have a few cards, it's probably better to drop it. Seizan gives your opponents a huge advantage. You could drop this for Graveborn Muse. You draw one card less, but you are the only one drawing the extra card.

Quote from Grinning Demon »

About spot removal I'm in a bit of doubt. I might remove some of the hand dsiruption and add a bit of this. I want something with the least amount of restriction, but cheap and at instant speed as well.

I'd say don't put in any "non-black" ones. Playing mono black myself, I can tell you that it's amazing when someone tries a hallowed burial/spin into myth/whatever that you can just nuke your own general instead of seeing it get tucked away for the rest of the game. Same thing when someone tries to steal it. Dismember, Go for the Throat, and Sudden Death are good adds.

For hand disruption I really like Myojin Of Night's Reach. Eight mana, but if the ability resolves, it can win games. Syphon Mind is also something to consider.

sword of the paruns for added inifinite mana with Magus of the Coffers.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Added a bit of spot removal and removed the discard suite, because so many of you felt it was a little underwhelming in multiplayer and I can see that. I also intend to use Drana as spot removal ofcourse and with all the sweepers I feel this could be enough already. I don't really know which cards I should cut to open up more slots for it.

I got the point about Seizan and think I'll go with Bloodgift Demon once it's out.

I don't know if I need more ways to go infinite and double my mana. I'll find that out during playtesting probably.

I'll also try to find some time to put some explanations about the deck in spoilers below the decklist.

One of the main strengths of going monocolor is being able to maximize the many mana doublers. For this you need to run a lot of Swamps and lots of mana doublers, even the suboptimal ones. Extraplanar Lens is great because you can generally drop it for either no mana or no mana and it ramps you. This is well worth the drawback of getting 2 for 1'd if it gets destroyed. Late game it also allows for some very explosive turns. I'm also a fan of Doubling Cube. It's pretty crappy by itself but paired with a mana doubler it's quite strong. To aid in upping your Swamp count to maximize the mana doublers I would drop the following non-basics:

High Market/Phyrexian Tower - The main reason to run these cards is to protect against tuck effects. They are not needed for a couple of reasons. You have lots of tutors to get your general back if she gets tucked and you don't need your general to win the game.

Tower of the Magistrate - Just doesn't do enough to make the cut over Swamp.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Your general already has evasion so this is simply not needed.

Reliquary Tower - Blackjack doesn't run this in his monoblack and I don't run it in mine. It has some good synergy with the card draw you run but the synergy Swamp has with mana doublers is better.

Boseiju - This is the only one that might be good enough to make the cut but your meta would need to be very counter heavy. If it's so counter heavy you need to run this then you should run some discard like Mind Twist and Mind Sludge because they're good against blue control.

There are a couple non-basics you aren't running that I think are good enough.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - It passes the "is this a Swamp?" test making it very good. It also helps other lands pass this test.

Thawing Glaciers - Not a Swamp but it gets Swamps so that's good. It has synergy with Rings of Brighthearth and Deserted Temple and that's good too. I tutor for this card in the early game a lot because it helps make sure I'm not missing land drops which is very important. It's kind of expensive but it makes a nice addition to your collection because it is playable in many decks and should hold or increase in value.

Thanks Donald!

I removed the discard package because I haven't played much against mono blue or very counter heavy decks yet, so I figured I could do without it for now. I think I can also remove Boseiju as you suggested so I did.

I like Phyrexian Tower with one of the recurrable creatures (preferably Reassembling Skeleton) and Grave Pact out as well as the extra sacc outlet for my general and the option of ramping with it. I took out High Market though, because 1 life is of no real use.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse: I assume you are right, so let'skeep it simple, as much Swamps as possible!

Urborg and Thawing Glaciers are both very good, but I will have to see if I can get my hands on them for a fair price.

I think that now I removed some other utility lands I might leave Reliquary Tower in for now, just because I can draw some more cards that way. You might be proven right tho, so I'll definitely watch if this card is worth it's slot.

I'm still not sure about Doubling Cube. I don't have it and never played with it or against it, but it just seems so crappy. And the fact it needs another mana doubler to be good just doesn't make it attractive to me. I figure most mana doublers won't stay on the board that very long so if it can't hold it's own I don't know if it's worth running it.. I could always proxy/playtest it first.

Edited the deck to incorporate these changes and added explanations.

Don't underestimate Doubling Cube. It's phenomenal mid-to-late game, and can mean the difference between a large Exsanguinate and a game-winning one.

If you're playing Extraplanar Lense, you should be playing snow-covered swamps. It limits how often opponents will also benefit from the card.

I've been very underwhelmed by Innocent Blood. I put Ashes to Ashes in its place, and never looked back.

Sadistic Sacrament, while a great card in 1vs1, is kinda pointless in mutliplayer. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to hit one opponent with...but at that mana cost (kicked) a card should be game-breaking.

Finally, Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension are a nice combo...but way to hard to establish/maintain. Play the Midcrank first and nobody will let you establish the combo. Play Bloodchief first and the entire table will turn on you. A two-card combo should be an instant win, and this isn't.

Quote from Grinning Demon

I think that now I removed some other utility lands I might leave Reliquary Tower in for now, just because I can draw some more cards that way. You might be proven right tho, so I'll definitely watch if this card is worth it's slot.

I'm still not sure about Doubling Cube. I don't have it and never played with it or against it, but it just seems so crappy. And the fact it needs another mana doubler to be good just doesn't make it attractive to me. I figure most mana doublers won't stay on the board that very long so if it can't hold it's own I don't know if it's worth running it.. I could always proxy/playtest it first.

Edited the deck to incorporate these changes and added explanations.

Reliquary Tower certainly isn't bad here but I just found it wasn't quite good enough for me. It has interacts really well with Necropotence and you have a good amount of card draw so maybe it will work better for you. You also make a good point on Phyrexian Tower, it might be good enough for your list since it is more creature based and has some good interactions.

I agree with everything Mithrao posted except I still like Sadistic Sacrament. It can be useful to have a Jester's Cap effect as a tutor target against combo decks and lots of non-combo decks can really on certain specific cards to help them. When you get it late game and you have ubermana then you just wreck someone. Ashes to Ashes might not be the best removal for you, depends on what your group is like. In mine I really like Sudden Death but Eyeblight's Ending, Go for the Throat and Chill to the Bone are other options.

Quote from Mithrao

Don't underestimate Doubling Cube. It's phenomenal mid-to-late game, and can mean the difference between a large Exsanguinate and a game-winning one.

If you're playing Extraplanar Lense, you should be playing snow-covered swamps. It limits how often opponents will also benefit from the card.

I've been very underwhelmed by Innocent Blood. I put Ashes to Ashes in its place, and never looked back.

Sadistic Sacrament, while a great card in 1vs1, is kinda pointless in mutliplayer. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to hit one opponent with...but at that mana cost (kicked) a card should be game-breaking.

Finally, Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension are a nice combo...but way to hard to establish/maintain. Play the Midcrank first and nobody will let you establish the combo. Play Bloodchief first and the entire table will turn on you. A two-card combo should be an instant win, and this isn't.

I think Mindcrank + Bloodchief ascension is a cute combo, and I'm hoping both cards can hold their own in the deck. Ascension as some lifedrain early game before I get the big spells online and Mindcrank as a way to get enough recursion targets. But I will possibly take Mindcrank out after a few games because it will probably be underwhelming.

Get your point on Innocent Blood and decided to cut if for Sudden Death because I lacked spot removal.

Also added Doubling cube so I can see for myself

I'm not sure about Sadistic Sacrement because as Donald suggested it can remove some pretty annoying spells from my opponents decks early game or just break them in half when kicked. Bare in mind my multiplayer matches are 3 or 4 player most of the time. It's out for now, but may come back in later.

Also got an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, so that's in obviously and replaces Reliquary Tower because I decided to run Promise of Power instead of Necropotence. It's more powerfull, but also more risky with things like Mindslaver and Faith's Fetters and my playgroup might be a bit bummed if I run it because it can be quite degenerate.

Also got a Necrotic Ooze which replaces Avatar of Woe which is a bit slow.

So, updated the list. What could be improved according ot you guys?

I also have been playing Drana for a while, I like your decklist a lot, but maybe you could play some equipment to make your Drana a bigger wincon, she's a great Voltron with stuff like Lashwrithe or Nigthmare Lash. And playing a poison critter like Skithriyx can be great too. Venser's Journal + Necropotence have won me a fair amount of games.

Thanks Mravenrocks!

Nightmare Lash is in there! Might include it's brother later in as well. They work on critters like Nether Traitor too.Venser's Journal is cute but I just cut Necropotence and it's not that usefull without the potence.

I like the list. I noticed you like combos Where's the Leyline of the void and helm of obedience? I would cinsider better than crank/bloodchief combo and I have won games with that combo, that for all intents and purposes I was going lose. Also no Diabolic tutor? Do you feel lite on draw?

My Kagemaro deck was originally Drana but I wanted to try something new.I have some interesting combos in there like Inkmoth nexus and lashwrithe which has won games,contamination and bitterblossom etc.It's demon themed but still very good.

Thanks for your reply!

Quote from nutterbutter

I like the list. I noticed you like combos Where's the Leyline of the void and helm of obedience? I would cinsider better than crank/bloodchief combo and I have won games with that combo, that for all intents and purposes I was going lose.

I like combo's but think the Helm of Obedience one is pretty lame. I run mindcrank and bloodchief because I think it's cute. Just to surprise people when they don't know the combo and/or let the Bloodchief get some counters. I think they both hold their own, Mindcrank gives me targets for recursion and Bloodchief gives me some more life to draw cards with.

Quote from nutterbutter

Also no Diabolic tutor?

Thinking about adding both Insidious Dreams and Diabolic Tutor.

Quote from nutterbutter

Do you feel lite on draw?

I just played my first few games with this deck in an altered form. I don't own half the mana doublers in the list yet (Nirkana Revenant, Gauntlet of Power, Doubling Cube and Extraplanar Lens), and didn't proxy them, but was able to get decent amounts of mana nevertheless without going infinite. Those few games I did feel a bit light on draw, so I might make some room for Ancient Cravings or Syphon Mind.

Quote from nutterbutter

My Kagemaro deck was originally Drana but I wanted to try something new.I have some interesting combos in there like Inkmoth nexus and lashwrithe which has won games,contamination and bitterblossom etc.It's demon themed but still very good.

I don't really like Infect and the Inkmoth is still pretty expensive to obtain so I don't think I will run that. I do have both Contamination and Infernal Darkness and I'm just going to try them out in this deck.Don't own a Bitterblossom but think it would be very good with Contamination and Skullclamp.

Infernal darkness is good with hex parasite and contamination works with reassembling skeleton and bunch of other cards. Insidious dreams is really good with cards like sign in blood. EOT cast it then put sign in blood on top and draw your whole combo on your turn.

Made some changes and edited my decklist.

-Phyrexian Reclamation: think I have enough (better) recursion already
-Braids, Cabal Minion: pet creature, but just didn't do enough
-Decree of Pain: don't own the card yet and have a lot of other sweepers so want to try playing without it, also adding more tutors will make this less of an issue.

+Diabolic Tutor
+Insidious Dreams
+Lashwrithe

Wanted more tutoring to get more redundancy. Added Lashwrithe because it just makes every creature an enormous beatstick. Best used on Nether Traitor, but also nice on Drana or Geth for instance.

Any more suggestions for cuts? Still thinking about adding Spine of Ish Sah to have another way to deal with troublesome enchantments and artifacts like Mimic Vat besides blowing everything up with O'stone or Disk.

I updated my decklist. Still thinking about Erebos, God of the Dead. Do you guys think it should go in? Any other recent cards that should be included?

Quote from Grinning Demon

I updated my decklist. Still thinking about Erebos, God of the Dead. Do you guys think it should go in? Any other recent cards that should be included?

i say do it. the god creatures are all ridiculously powerful and he has relevant abilities

The indestructibility really appeals to me. I already have some draw, but of course I can use an enchantment/creature like this. What to cut though?