Freezing Point: 4/32 - Black
Hello everyone, and welcome to the fourth installment of Freezing Point! In this series I'm going to brew a 75% EDH deck of each color combination from the ground up. The intended meta for these will be a casual meta, though while not built competitively they will be spiked as hard as possible. You may be confused seeing some pricier cards in here like Imperial Seal and Mishra's Workshop but if those help the particular deck they're in then so be it. Really expensive cards supporting really bad strategies. It's like getting blue-balled.
Yup.
The title of the series is good and all, but what does it mean or stand for? Well, if you look at the number of possible color identities for decks in Magic then you will notice that there are 32 (one colorless, five single-color, ten two-color, ten three-color, five four-color, and one five-color). I wanted a title that could represent that idea. I wanted to go with calling the series 25 but some websites wouldn't display the superscript properly. Instead of that, I chose Freezing Point as the name as water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems to fit well.
While I haven't really ever wanted to be one of those people that had one of each color combination of EDH decks I did get inspired to brew them. I've looked at a lot of lists in my time and I usually enjoy seeing other people's established works and then working off that, either by improving it or making it suit my own style. I've learned a lot about EDH in recent history and decided that I would at least like to make each color combination of deck so that I have one that I can say is my deck and is not just 'the one that I play.'
With that being said, let's get into the deck. (complete list at end of the article)
I had a few different ideas for what I wanted to make with mono-black. Shirei- and Phage-respective
shenanigans both crossed my mind but were too commander-reliant for me and it's difficult for me to think more realistically about that (people don't always have removal). Flip Lili was an idea I expanded upon for a while; the idea there was to cast her and flip her as early as I could and play board control from there and reanimate dudes. I even brewed up ways with Gonti to get infinite ETBs with him, though it came out like a mono-black version of my Jund deck. (stay tuned for the article on that one in the near distant future!) Endrek Sahr even crossed my mind for a while, getting and leveraging an abundance of thrulls for various reasons, though it too ended up too commander-dependent.
Kuon is one of the four legendary flip creatures from Saviors legal in commander (RIP Erayo). While not as good as Braids he does a decent-enough impression. To get him to flip, three creatures need to die in one turn. What's good to note about that is that he doesn't need to be out to see them die; the game remembers and will inform him upon his late arrival. (see what I did there?) The easiest way to do this, conveniently is both a 3- and 4-player game, is to cast either Fleshbag Marauder (colloquially called Flashbang Marauder by me) or Merciless Executioner. They each kill themselves and one creature from each opponent. Another way is to cast Innocent Blood with enough creatures out and then cast Kuon, thereby completing the ritual. The earliest this is possible is turn two, assuming your opponents have dudes out to feed Kuon. Depending on the decks in your pod, it might be okay to go last with this deck. It is also good to note that because of a recent rules change if Kuon is flipped to his enchantment state then you still get three devotion to black with him. Nykthos looks great here!
We have our standard fast mana suite in the form of cheap mana rocks, Jet Medallion, Caged Sun,
and Extraplanar Lens. We could probably use Crypt Ghast but with how often I expect creatures to be dying I opted out this time. We have some hate that can always be tuned to what you expect to play against, though currently I have Cursed Totem, Torpor Orb, Null Rod, Defense Grid since we're playing on mostly our own turns despite the triggers, and Mana Web because of Urborg. Mimic Vat is especially spicy here whether we put our own Flashbang on it or an opposing creature that dies at any point. Depending on your meta, Crystal Chimes might be a card you want to include in your sideboard.
Remember Kuon's Essence? Remember It That Betrays? Well, he fills out that Assault Suit really well. It makes him unable to be sacrificed even if our board is loaded with junk, we get stuff when people do sacrifice their anythings on upkeep or Grave Pact triggers when he's under our control, and we don't have to give him away with the Suit if we don't want to. How evil is that?!
Lots of attrition here! Bottomless Pit, Necrogen Mists, Polluted Bonds, and Subversion all slowly
pick away at our opponents. Black Market and Grave Betrayal are wonderful to have around when we're trying to keep the board clear. Bitterblossom, along with some aforementioned creatures, helps to keep Contamination around. Endless Whispers is nearly endlessly perpetual with the Flashbang brothers! Finally worth mentioning here I've included the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo; both of these cards are good with other things in the deck and of course they can end the game if out together.
I do need to point out that there's a bit of a non-bo here with Tainted AEther. Any perpetual creature system like Reassembling Skeleton, Bitterblossom, or Ophiomancer with Tainted AEther only sort of sucks for us because we may have to sac a land if we're trying to sustain something like Contamination, though isn't so bad with Grave Pact out. Beware though, because Flashbang Bros. + Endless Whispers + Tainted AEther could be bad for you!
As you can see from this section as well as the artifact section we are heavily into the creature control plan. My meta, as are most casual metas, is full of creature-based strategies. Please change the deck list based on your meta. If there are more spellslinger-based decks then by all means add things like Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, and Chains of Mephistopheles to this deck. If you want to be really evil you could include Kormus Bell to make opponents start saccing lands!
A bit of removal and ramp here with Snuff Out and Dark Ritual. Vampiric Tutor is a must, and Shred Memory could either be used as hate or a tutor for various things in this deck. Grim Return, while probably more narrow, is pretty sweet here. With how many creatures that we expect to be dying, especially the high amount that could die on another player's turn, you can get something pretty nice.
I chose to include Liliana of the Dark Realms in this deck as all of her modes are relevant. Her plus ability guarantees a land drop every turn (until we run out of basics) as well as thinning our deck a bit, her minus is a single target Mutilate and can deal with pesky indestructible creatures, and her ultimate gives us more mana than we can ever hope to use. Plus she should be able to stick around through all of the board control that we're doing.
Yup.
The title of the series is good and all, but what does it mean or stand for? Well, if you look at the number of possible color identities for decks in Magic then you will notice that there are 32 (one colorless, five single-color, ten two-color, ten three-color, five four-color, and one five-color). I wanted a title that could represent that idea. I wanted to go with calling the series 25 but some websites wouldn't display the superscript properly. Instead of that, I chose Freezing Point as the name as water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems to fit well.
While I haven't really ever wanted to be one of those people that had one of each color combination of EDH decks I did get inspired to brew them. I've looked at a lot of lists in my time and I usually enjoy seeing other people's established works and then working off that, either by improving it or making it suit my own style. I've learned a lot about EDH in recent history and decided that I would at least like to make each color combination of deck so that I have one that I can say is my deck and is not just 'the one that I play.'
With that being said, let's get into the deck. (complete list at end of the article)
Overview
I had a few different ideas for what I wanted to make with mono-black. Shirei- and Phage-respective shenanigans both crossed my mind but were too commander-reliant for me and it's difficult for me to think more realistically about that (people don't always have removal). Flip Lili was an idea I expanded upon for a while; the idea there was to cast her and flip her as early as I could and play board control from there and reanimate dudes. I even brewed up ways with Gonti to get infinite ETBs with him, though it came out like a mono-black version of my Jund deck. (stay tuned for the article on that one in the near distant future!) Endrek Sahr even crossed my mind for a while, getting and leveraging an abundance of thrulls for various reasons, though it too ended up too commander-dependent.
It was thanks to a technical glitch in gatherer that I originally strayed away from who I eventually settled upon; Kuon. For a few days it showed a handful of legendary creatures being errata'd to not be legendary, including Visara. I still don't know what happened.
Kuon is unlike the other decks so far in its game plan. Where the other decks tend to have a win they're working towards whether slowly or quickly, Kuon is attempting to slowly dig an inescapable and worsening grave of misery for the opponents through attrition. While it's very helpful to flip Kuon early it's not necessary.
This deck is more or less a network of synergies with things that still pop up every now and then that I didn't intend for. With that, it was very difficult for me to categorize things like I have in the past and will in the future. There are some clear themes among cards, but they interact with so many other pieces so well that it's almost unnecessary to lump cards into custom categories. I'll go top down and point out interactions along the way. As such, I may restate a handful of points doing things this way. This deck is incredibly grindy so don't necessarily expect to win quickly, though if you happen to draw into a combo and you think you can get away with it then by all means do so. Go into games with this deck expecting it to take time.
Commander
 |
| "At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature." I got you, fam |
Creatures
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| Errata: Flashbang Marauder |
So what else can Flashbang and Executioner be used for?
Liliana, Heretic Healer! Cast her, cast a group killer, flip her and you're off to the races! Well what if you don't want to lose your group killer? Endless Cockroaches, Reassembling Skeleton, and Ophiomancer all have you covered! Blood Artist will have plenty of commissions to do with all of these creatures dying. Mindslicer is something that you secretly hope people use their Swords to Plowshares on but we're also okay with it dying in one way or another.
Liliana, Heretic Healer! Cast her, cast a group killer, flip her and you're off to the races! Well what if you don't want to lose your group killer? Endless Cockroaches, Reassembling Skeleton, and Ophiomancer all have you covered! Blood Artist will have plenty of commissions to do with all of these creatures dying. Mindslicer is something that you secretly hope people use their Swords to Plowshares on but we're also okay with it dying in one way or another.
Sheoldred is another, bigger Kuon with the upside of bringing back our own dudes to do any amount of stupid stuff. Secretly though still not entirely our end-game is getting out It That Betrays because of all of the sacrificing going on, but more on that shortly.
Artifacts
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| Take something of someone else's, or get around that Iona on black with a Flashbang Brother! |
and Extraplanar Lens. We could probably use Crypt Ghast but with how often I expect creatures to be dying I opted out this time. We have some hate that can always be tuned to what you expect to play against, though currently I have Cursed Totem, Torpor Orb, Null Rod, Defense Grid since we're playing on mostly our own turns despite the triggers, and Mana Web because of Urborg. Mimic Vat is especially spicy here whether we put our own Flashbang on it or an opposing creature that dies at any point. Depending on your meta, Crystal Chimes might be a card you want to include in your sideboard.
Remember Kuon's Essence? Remember It That Betrays? Well, he fills out that Assault Suit really well. It makes him unable to be sacrificed even if our board is loaded with junk, we get stuff when people do sacrifice their anythings on upkeep or Grave Pact triggers when he's under our control, and we don't have to give him away with the Suit if we don't want to. How evil is that?!
Enchantments
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| If you're playing black in EDH you most likely should be playing this card. |
pick away at our opponents. Black Market and Grave Betrayal are wonderful to have around when we're trying to keep the board clear. Bitterblossom, along with some aforementioned creatures, helps to keep Contamination around. Endless Whispers is nearly endlessly perpetual with the Flashbang brothers! Finally worth mentioning here I've included the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo; both of these cards are good with other things in the deck and of course they can end the game if out together.
I do need to point out that there's a bit of a non-bo here with Tainted AEther. Any perpetual creature system like Reassembling Skeleton, Bitterblossom, or Ophiomancer with Tainted AEther only sort of sucks for us because we may have to sac a land if we're trying to sustain something like Contamination, though isn't so bad with Grave Pact out. Beware though, because Flashbang Bros. + Endless Whispers + Tainted AEther could be bad for you!
As you can see from this section as well as the artifact section we are heavily into the creature control plan. My meta, as are most casual metas, is full of creature-based strategies. Please change the deck list based on your meta. If there are more spellslinger-based decks then by all means add things like Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, and Chains of Mephistopheles to this deck. If you want to be really evil you could include Kormus Bell to make opponents start saccing lands!
Instant
 |
| That's a nice Iona that you can't have anymore. |
Sorcery
 |
| Need disruption and a new hand? No problem! |
We have the usual good tutors with Imperial Seal, Demonic Tutor, and Diabolic Intent somewhat ironically (though it will trigger Grave Pact), and the usual good board wipes in Damnation and Toxic Deluge. Mutilate is also good here since we're running only swamps (and honorary swamps thanks to Urborg). Smallpox and Death Cloud are nasty even at smaller values of sacrificing things and can trigger things like Exquisite Blood, Kuon, and It That Betrays. Beacon of Unrest is a pseudo-recurring reanimation spell that has a bit more reach than the usual ones since this one hits artifacts as well. Exsanguinate is our second game-ending spell. If we cast it late enough then we should be swimming in mana, so draining for starting life totals should be no issue. Even if it only puts you way ahead on life than anyone else then it can still trigger both halves of the Exquisite Bond combo.
Planeswalker
I chose to include Liliana of the Dark Realms in this deck as all of her modes are relevant. Her plus ability guarantees a land drop every turn (until we run out of basics) as well as thinning our deck a bit, her minus is a single target Mutilate and can deal with pesky indestructible creatures, and her ultimate gives us more mana than we can ever hope to use. Plus she should be able to stick around through all of the board control that we're doing.Land
I'm running the full four fetch suite, and have opted for Snow-Covered Swamps because I'm a try-hard (has that been obvious the whole time?) I've included some recursion and hate with Volrath's Stronghold and Bojuka Bog, both very useful almost regardless of who you're playing against. Stronghold also gets back our commander even if he happens to be Naturalized! Nykthos and Cabal Coffers should both give us tons of mana though more starting closer to the middle of the game.
Wrap-up
For starters, here is the link to the complete list. As I mentioned before, the deck in it's current state is definitely more tuned to a creature-heavy meta. Please feel free to include some storm/spellslinger hate in here. Also remember that this deck is super grindy so go into piloting it expecting a long game. The sideboard contains only a few cards that were all cut for various reasons though they may work out wonderfully for you in your meta. If you have any questions or would like clarification on anything, please feel free to ask. Thank you for taking the time to read this! Be sure to stay tuned for the next installment of Freezing Point!
All cards owned and all rights reserved by Wizards of the Coast. I'm just some nerd who spent too much time staring at them.
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