Evelyn: Swamps and Vampires (EDH / Commander) [Révision 33]

Evelyn's mana cost can be paid with all black mana, so this deck is almost all black with just a few cheeky splashes into blue and red.

The deck is split with two themes: Swamps and Vampires,

To power the swamp theme, the mana base is all swamps except for Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold which are both powered up by the swamps and with Xander's Lounge as the only land that can produce blue and red in addition to black.

When mana flooded, cycle Xander's Lounge for the card draw. Saving it for color fixing should not be required. Do search for it with Liliana of the Dark Realms when color fixing is required but basic swamps are more likely to be the right choice.

The mana rocks give 5 additional sources of the other colors, but it is not enough to reliably get for casting off color spells. The only off color spells are Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat which can be cast for free with the commander out, and Leyline of Anticipation which can start on the battlefield when it is in the opening hand. The sources of all colors can be used to activate abilities of any opponent's permanents that have been cast with Evelyn's ability. The creatures here can become vampires with Drana, the Last Bloodchief or Maskwood Nexus. Many of these have nice extra abilities that should not be forgotten. Bronze Walrus has scry that can setup Evelyn's exile ability. Ornithopter of Paradise has flying which is nice with the equipment or for blocking flyers. Mana Crypt, Dark Ritual, and Sol Ring help get Evelyn out early. Wayfarer's Bauble also helps here since it can be played and cracked on turn 3 to allow for an early Evelyn on turn 4.

Searching for more swamps also helps power the swamp theme. Some of these put the lands onto the battlefield but others put the swamps into hand. Evelyn's last ability is only once per turn, to get the most out of this we have Sword of Hearth and Home to blink Evelyn to get a second use while also searching out another basic swamp. Lilianna of the Dark Realms searches for swamps and can be used as removal with the -X/-X ability. Sword of the Animist and Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus both allow for repeatedly searching for swamps. Burnished Hart and Canoptek Wraith both can search out 2 swamps, Navigation Orb can do this too. Solemn Simulacrum can search for a swamp and draws a card when it dies. Canoptec Wraith can't be blocked which makes it a good target for the equipment. Similarly, Plasmancer has flying which is helpful.

Cards that are powered up with more swamps include mana doublers, removal and equipment and creatures that have power and toughness bonus based on number of swamps. Liliana of the Dark Realms also has an ultimate ability to allow swamps to tap for 4 black mana. The big mana allows for activating Nirkana Revenant to power up to lethal, or threaten to at least - forcing a block. Corrupt gains life as it kills a creature or planeswalker. Tendrils of Corruption can take out a creature while also gaining life. Nightmare Lash and Lashwrithe both can power up a creature. Korlash and Nightmare offer a big creature that grows as swamps are accumulated. Some other removal here is Mutilate, Quage Sickness, Defile, Dread Presence. Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, and Magus of the Coffers all double up mana from swamps.

Not all the creatures are Vampires so Maskwood Nexus is here to turn everything into Vampires. There are may ways to create Vampire tokens to trigger Evelyn at least once per turn even without all the creatures being vampires. Vampire of the Dire Moon is great early as a chump blocker with deathtouch, later as a one mana vampire that triggers Evelyn, and lifelink when powered up by the equipment is good too. Viscera Seer is good as a sacrifice outlet and the scry synergizes with Evelyn's ability nicely, being a vampire is a happy bonus. Riptide Replicator can be powered out and activated to be {X}{8} to create a X/X vampire and {4} to create another on each future turn, but it is also fine when paying less to just be able to create a vampire each turn. Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet needs a lot of mana to get going, and a creature to destroy to create Vampires, but it is possible to get there. There is also a trio of flying deathtouch vampires in Midnight Assassin, Vampire Nighthawk, and Nighthawk Scavenger, the last two also have lifelink. These help urge players to attack elsewhere. (Expect Midnight Assassin to be replaced with Preacher of the Schism. It does not have flying, but it does have deathtouch and a way to create vampire tokens.)

The three free spells can draw a bit of salt especially when there is no easy way to hard cast the blue and red ones. These are to protect the commander since Evelyn is key to getting access to a large amount of cards each turn. Deadly Rollick is an extra bit of removal which is something this deck is low on. Having the three best cards from this cycle in a mostly mono-black deck is the concept that resulted in brewing with Evelyn, the Covetous. Baleful Mastery and Pile On add some more removal.

Flash from Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation is to allow casting of non-instants during opponents turn, including those cast with Evelyn's ability. Leyline of Anticipation can be hard to cast. Using Vampiric Tutor to put Leyline of Anticipation on top of the library so Evelyn will exile it will allow the card to be cast with any mana. Evelyn allow lands to be played so an opponent's Island or Command Tower can also be used for blue if needed. Leyline of Anticipation can also be discarded to Call the Bloodline if there is no immediate way to cast it, or if Vedalken Orrery is already out.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are here to protect the commander, but the haste can be helpful to attack with a big creature or activate Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet.

Skullclamp and Vampiric tutor get their own category. The tutor can help get a specific card and the clamp can combine with the various tokens to generate card draw.

Other cards in the maybeboard were considered but I don't see an easy cards to remove to add any of these.