- Commander: Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
- Deck Themes: Mono, Devotion, Life-drain, Combo
- Rotation: Zendikar Rising
Introduction
This is primarily a life-drain combo deck, using Vito’s static ability to convert life points we gain, into life points we drain from our opponents. It can make sudden, dramatic assaults, even eliminating multiple players in the same turn. It’s all very Black.
Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life.
{3}{B}{B}: Creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn
Handily, Vito’s own activated ability grants lifelink to all your creatures and can fuel the lifegain half of the equations. But he’s not going to be attacking, so you should look to casting it and use the ability on the same turn.
This is very strong, but true black-heartedness calls for despair-inducing combos, and there are a couple of cards that work really nicely with Vito.
Gary’s Back
The first is Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which was originally printed in 2013’s Theros, which had a well-developed gods and heroes theme.
When Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.
Back then, the card’s drain/gain effect was strong that it catapulted Mono Black from obscurity to domination in Pro Tour Standard. Now reprinted in Theros: Beyond Death, it is completely bonkers for multiplayer Brawl, where multiple players multiplies the effect.
If Vito’s on the battlefield when ‘Merchant resolves you can easily gain more than 20 life, putting yourself out of reach of the others, and if another player is faltering, it can be enough to knock them out of the match. The key is Devotion and timing is everything.
Each {B} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.
You really want maximum Devotion to increase the effect, and maximum opponents to multiply the effect. So ideally, Merchant is played on to a battlefield late enough that it has Vito and other creatures, but also early enough that you still have maximum opponents.
It usually works best around early to mid-game before your creatures get whittled down, but if in doubt, and even if Vito’s not there to add to do the direct damage, play it early and take what you can get.
Plus, depending on how you build this deck, you might be able to bring him back later when the effect can be lethal.
Interventionist
The other big combo card in this deck is Erebos’s Intervention, which in the right situation can take out two opponents for the price of one.
You want to dump as much mana as possible into the additional X cost to destroy a big blocking creature with overkill, then convert the X expended to life gain, which Vito in turn converts to direct damage.
If removing a big blocker lets your creatures through the gap, then you can get a double-kill for a properly evil Just As Planned moment.
This might all sound a bit tortured, but torture’s on-theme, and rather than wishing they were dead, your opponents will actually be dead, which is just how we like them.
Mana and Artifacts
Black lacks fast mana, so mana rocks – artifacts that create mana, are essential. ‘Signet is auto-included; Altar works with your Devotion, and Nyx Lotus is sensational.
If you’re ahead, it will let you dump insane quantities of mana into Erebos’ Intervention for the combo above. When you’re behind, it can help you rebuild board state quickly.
However, Nyx Lotus is very strong and your opponents are going to want to nuke it as soon as they can. Since artifact removal is unfortunately cheap, its life expectancy is correspondingly short.
Skyclave Relic meanwhile is a more modest mana source, but with Indestructible also considerably more robust. You really want this card with Kicker for the extra copies, and if its not in hand by that 6th turn, we want to search it up.
Plan B
Evil geniuses are usually thwarted by their own desire to be wicked above all else, and since our Evil Combos are quite easily foiled, we need a more mundane Plan B.
This is to use smaller, defensive creatures to run interference while we develop our ‘field, and have several larger creatures to provide their own threat as backup, with both maximising Devotion.
The Henchmen
We want Grimdancer’s Deathtouch, plus Menace when we’re ahead, and Lifelink when we’re behind. If in doubt, take the Menace.
Hunted Nightmare is also great in a 4 player game when the Deathtouch counters can often be given to an opponent with no creatures – mocking is also nicely on-theme.
The Villains
Massacre Wurm has a triple-black cost, can protect against tokens, and if someone’s gone wide with Scute Swarm or Phylath, the triggered ability can really hurt them.
Demon of Loathing is very strong, and can swing a game that’s gone stagnant, forcing them to sacrifice their creatures. Bloodchief works the other way around, bringing back your own.
Card Draw
In my experience of multi-Brawl in the last couple of years, it’s card-draw that you need to get right with every deck. The games are too long for any sort of traditional aggro game, and a good way to tell how you’re doing is to check your cards in hand – if you don’t have several, you’re probably losing.
Clackbridge Troll is the must-have card here, and you’ll be perfectly happy to see it tapped down any number of turns for the card draw. I’ve very often used Grim Tutor to fetch it and get myself in to the game.
Silversmote Ghoul is easily recycled turn-to-turn, Lost Legion’s scry is surprisingly good, and Mazemind Tome is always solid.
Erebos’ usually survives (destroy-type) board sweeps, when you can activate his ability, or flash in Liliana’s Standard Bearer to compensate serious losses with commensurate card draw.
Note that if your evil crew is exiled, you’re as screwed as everyone else, so play cautiously and hold something back in anticipation of Ugin and Extinction Event. They are both going to happen.
Removal
Removal is Black’s signature move, and we’re spoiled for choice. My preferred suite includes Eat to Extinction, Drag to the Underworld, Extinction Event, Murderous Rider and Soul Shatter.
Land Base
26 Land total seems to work well for the deck, but you could drop as low as 24 and be prepared to mulligan aggressively.
Of the special Lands: Locthwain is good; Skophos and Crawling Barrens can work, but Bonder’s Enclave is rarely useful because your creatures are generally too small. See how you find them.
The modal lands are very good, particularly Malakir Rebirth which is rarely played as land, and almost always for its Instant effect.
Recycling
How much recycling you play is a matter for fine tuning. The effect is very good, but its situational, and the cards make the deck a little too spell-heavy.
I like Cauldron of Eternity in the late game, when most of the artifact removal has already been played, and it can usefully rebuild your board state, possibly returning Gray Merchant to finish games. Maniacal laughter is optional.
Agadeem’s Awakening is rather poor, because so many of our creatures have the same cost, but it‘s modal, you can usually get a couple back, and if you need to do that, you’ll be glad you included it.
Threat, and All That
There’s a whole article worth writing about so-called ‘casual’ EDH players getting agitated about supposed threat, (“Why are you attacking me, I’m not the biggest threat!” etc. etc. and another about whether ‘threat’ means clear and present danger, or merely potential for that danger.
In which context Lithoform Engine needs mentioning because it would be outstanding if your opponents couldn’t foresee the ludicrous potential of doubling and retargeting your combo damage.
In lieu of all those articles then, I can tell you that at least in our locale (Tokyo), ‘Engine is considered a clear and present danger, lasts about 1 turn, and has consistently proved a waste of 4 mana.
Possible Changes
My feeling after playing it in a dozen or so games is that there aren’t enough creatures, and that it wants at least 3 more, without changing the Land base very much. If I can find a way to improve it, I’ll post an update
Final Thoughts
Multiplayer Brawl needs resilience, mono-coloured decks usually aren’t, and this deck is unfortunately no exception.
The big weakness is that it’s quite easy for your opponents to reduce your Devotion and counter your combos, so its effectiveness depends a lot on how much interaction there is in your match.
That said however, I really enjoy playing this deck and the bleak-hearted fun of trying to suck the life out of my opponents anyway.
There’s also aesthetic pleasure in the the beauty of the cards’ shared colourway, and I get satisfaction simply putting these cards on the ‘field together. Take a look at the visual display of the full decklist on Scryfall and you’ll see what I mean.
Your soul is lost, so you might as well enjoy the darkness!