> Introduction

K´rrik is one of the strongest mono black commanders and his ability fits absolutely well in the black color pie. As you can use your life as a resource he can finish the game very quickly with the right cards or just be grindy because of the reanimation spells. How to get the right cards? well we are playing black so we are going to tutor what we need because we don´t need luck, we just need enough life.
This deck will use his commander as an enabler for each infinite combo and trying to finish the game in early- or midgame in most of the games. K'rrik is also a good attacker and blocker. He can be a one man show if you have to block creatures and will bring back life, which is mana and his ability to get bigger and bigger just by playing black spells makes him fearsome.

>Strategy

This deck is completely based on his commander and can win the game very quickly in turn 2-3 but is also strong in midgame. The key cards are Aetherflux Reservoir, Doomsday, Peer into the Abyss and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. We will use the ability of K'rrik to pay with life points instead of mana. We will try to get the four mana in turn one or two so we can cast K'rrik with six life and four mana. After this we are going to finish the game with an infinity combo of devotion dmg or Aetherflux reservoir. It is important to keep an eye of our life as a resource because if we don´t have enough life we can´t finish the game so don´t waste your life if it is not necessary.

Also don‘t forget, that K'rrik has lifelink and gets stronger for each black spell, so attack if possible to get life back or just keep him as a blocker if the enemies playing decks with combat dmg.

Use the recursion spells for K'rrik to get a comeback, for Vilis to draw a lot of cards or for Chainer to finish the game.

>Win Cons

>Devotion

Gray Merchant of Asphodel Devotion DMG:

Using Buried Alive to win the Game in combination with a reanimate, animate dead, Goryo's Vengeance, necromancy or yawgmoth's will and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth as an enabler.
Searching for :

• Chainer, Dementia Master
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• Carrion Feeder

Bring Chainer back to the battlefield - Using his ability to bring back Feeder and Gray, Sacrifice Gray and bring him back again till you win the game. Possible to use Chainers effect as an instant (with yawgmoth's will use Chainers ability before enemy draw step)
Also possible without Buried Alive.
If someone tries to remove Chainer, you can pay 9 life again to bring back gray.

If Chainer is exiled - Corpse Dance and Blood Celebrant can do the same for 14 Life instead of 9

>Doomsday wins

Play Doomsday with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth and note some prerequisites (If you can draw more than one card and have more life then required and need some mana, change Zuran Orb with dark ritual)

> Sac Pile

22 Life, 3 Mana, 2 Lands and if you want to finish in the same turn a cantrip or draw spell is needed as well as 2 or 6 life more

Pile: Bolas's Citadel - Zuran Orb (For Life) - Aetherflux Reservoir - Carrion Feeder - Gravecrawler

1. Cast Doomsday - 16 life
2. Doomsday resolves - 8 life
3. Use {3} to cast Citadel - 2 life
4. Cast Zuran Orb and sac 2 lands - 6 life
5. Cast Aetherflux Reservoir - 2 life
6. Cast Carrion Feeder - 6 life
7. Cast Gravecrawler - 11 life
8. Executing the Loop: Sac Crawler to Feeder, play Crawler
   Note: If you draw more than 1 card change some postions of the pile

> Leshrac's Pile

20 (22 with lotus petal) Life , 3 Mana , 2 Lands and if you want to finish in the same turn a cantrip or draw spell is needed as well as 2 or 6 life more

Pile: Bolas's Citadel - Zuran Orb - Aetherflux Reservoir - Lion's Eye Diamond (or lotus petal) - Leshrac's Sigil

1. Cast Doomsday - 14 life
2. Doomsday resolves - 7 life
3. Use {3} to cast Citadel - 1 life
4. Cast Zuran Orb - 1 life
5. Sac 2 of your lands - 5 life
6. Cast Aetherflux - 1 life
7. Cast LED - 1 life
8. Aetherflux trigger - 6 life
9. Activate LED - 6 life
10. Cast Leshrac's Sigil wiht LED mana - 6 life
11. Aetherflux trigger resolves - 12 life
12. Activate Leshrac's Sigil with LED mana and 2 life- 10 life
13. Cast Leshrac again - 6 life
14. Bounce and play Leshrac again
    Note: If you draw more than 1 card change some postions of the pile

> Oracle Pile

20 Life, 3 Mana, 2 Land and if you want to finish in the same turn a cantrip or draw spell is needed as well as 2 or 6 life more

Pile: Bolas's Citadel - Zuran Orb - Lotus Petal - Lion's Eye Diamond - Praetor's Grasp

1. Cast Doomsday - 14 life
2. Doomsday resolves - 7 life
3. Use {3} to cast Citadel - 1 life
4. Cast Zuran Orb - 1 life
5. Sac 2 of your lands - 5 life
6. CastLotus Petal - 5 life
7. Cast Lion's Eye Diamond - 5 life
8. Cast Praetor's Grasp and grab Thassa's oracle - 2 Life
9. Sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond for 3 Blue Mana - 3 Life
10. Play Thassa's oracle
    Note: If Lion's Eye Diamond is exiled or something use Mox Opal instead

> Special : thassa's oracle or Jace, wielder of Mysteries

30 Life - and if you want to finish in the same turn a cantrip or draw spell is needed as well as 2 - 6 life more

Pile:Cruel Bargain - Dark Ritual - Lion's Eye Diamond - Yawgmoth's WIll - Praetor's Grasp

1. Cast Doomsday -24 life
2. Doomsday resolves - 12 life
3. Cast Cruel Bargain - 6 life
4. Resolve Cruel Bargain - 3 life
5. Cast Dark Ritual - 1 life, 3 black
6. Cast Lion's Eye Diamond - 1 life, 3 black
7. Cast Yawgmoth's Will - 1 life
8. Holding Priority, sacrifice LED - 1 life, 3 black
9. Resolve Yawgmoth's Will - 1 life, 3 black
10. Cast and sacrifice LED - 1 life, 3 black, 3 blue
11. Cast Dark Ritual - 1 life, 5 black, 3 blue
12. Cast Praetor's Grasp - 1 life, 2 black, 3 blue
13. Resolve Praetor's Grasp, finding thassa's oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries - 1 life, 2 black, 3 blue
14. Cast thassa's oracle and win or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries - 1 life, 1 black
15. Activate Jace's {+1} targeting yourself
16. win to jace's static ability

Note: I´m not playing Cruel Bargain anymore But You can use it instead of Ad Nauseam!

> Aetherflux without pile

Using Aetherflux Reservoir with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth to win the game.
Play Atherflux and then use a few options (depends on life and cards):

1. Play Carrion Feeder with Gravecrawler
2. Play Leshrac's Sigil - Bounce it - play it again
3. Play Sensei's Divining Top and Bolas's Citadel

There are a few other options to get the win cons like : Tainted Pact, Final Parting, or the other tutors

> Oracle

Need 2 Blue mana (Lions Eye Diamond, Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, Lotus Petal or multicolored lands like Exotic Orchard) 1-3 generic mana and at least 6 life

1. Use Praetor's Grasp or opposition agent to grab Thassas Oracle
2. Play Demonic Consultation or tainted pact
3. Play Thassas Oracle
4. Win

> Starting Hand

We should try to hold a hand that generates four mana quickly and at least one part of our combo and a tutor. There are even hands that can win in the first turn, but you should aim at turn two or three to go infinite or try to play till midgame because of the grind potential.
Try to play K'rrik in turn one or two so he can block and let you pay life for the spells. It is easily possible to finish in turn two or three if you have the right cards in hand, if not just try to hold a hand with some draw or ramp an get to the midgame. Prepare yourself to win in one turn with some of the protection cards if possible.
It is no problem if you keep a hand with just one Land if you can produce four mana quickly and cast spells with K'rrik.

> Single Card Discussion

> Inclusions

• Peer into the Abyss : Can win the game with still 1 life left after resolve (trust me it already happened a few times). Drawing the half of the library is equal to a win because of the 0 cmc mana rocks, zuran orb and K'rriks ability
• Shred Memory : Mainly as a tutor for a reanimation spell or sign in blood, but also good against the gitrog monster
• Cling to dust : Cantrip for Doomsday pile or for topdeck tutor. Also good against graveyard combos like the gitrog monster and can give you life if needed.
• Zuran Orb : We don´t need lands if we can finish the game (same is true for rain of filth), so use the lands for mana and sac them for life which is basically mana in this deck
• Barren Moor : Cantrip for Doomsday pile or topdeck tutor. Also a good land to exile with Mox Diamond.
• Duress, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek : use them do get an overview about the hand of players with counter and protect your game.
• Boseiju, Who shelters all : Protect your reanimation spell like shallow grave, Yawgmoth's Will or corpse dance
• blood celebrant : One of the best cards in this deck. You can use your life for every mana not only swamps.
• Buried Ruin : Bring back the Aetherflux reservoir
• homeward path : For the gilded drakes and other stealing stuff, to bring back our enabler
• tainted pact : Without any card twice (only one swamp and one snow-covered swamp) you can go through your deck if you only need one card to win.
• Sign in Blood : Draw two cards for the doomsday pile or top deck tutor.
• Wishclaw talisman : Just for tutor and win in the same turn, don´t let someone else use this.
• Vilis, Broker of Blood : Our yawgmoth's bargain, pay 4 life and draw 4 cards. And if you are really lucky, you can kill something as an bonus.
• Praetor's Grasp : Flexible usage to get a Doomsday or get rid of a combo piece from the enemy if needed. Also a win condition with thassas oracle and Demonic Consultation. Or just look for a tutor for yourself.
• Final Parting : Usually gets Reanimate to hand, and Vilis, Broker of Blood to grave for a quick set-up. This can also put Chainer, Dementia Master in hand, and put Gray Merchant of Asphodel in the graveyard for a solid 2/3 combo pieces at the ready.
• Conqueror's Flail, Infernal Darkness & Defense grid : just protect your turn and lets start the infinite
• Imp's Mischief : counter the counter
• Font of Agonies : Paying 2 life and 1 mana to destroy a creature and get back 2 counter because we payed 2 life
• Drag to the Underworld : the better version of victim of night
• Bolas's Citadel : Part of the combo and also a good way to go through the deck with necropotence and Sensei's Divining Top

> Exclusions

• Scheming Symmetry : Without a cantrip, draw spell or Opposition Agent you will let an enemy find an answer for you or even worse he will go infinite with this free tutor.
• Diabolic Intent : with only 10 creatures (one of them is K'rrik himself) I don´t think that this tutor will be konsistent in this deck.
• Slaughter pact : The nonblack requirement and the two mana in the upkeep makes this removal only good to interrupt someone to win the game with a non black creature combo piece. Deadly Rollick is better.
• Cruel Bargain : Only good for a Doomsday pile, I prefer ad nauseam.
• Exhume : strong but if the enemy react with a entomb or something like that, you will get a problem.
• Varragoth, Bloodsky sire : too slow for the important top deck tutor.
• Overeager Apprentice : too slow to ramp.
• Contamination : Only good for one turn, because we don´t run enough creatures to hold this card on the battlefield.
• Phyrexian obliterator : Not necessary in this deck, it will get removed or ignored.
• Cremate : cling to dust is more flexible
• Grim Tutor - Life is important and this tutor needs a lot of it. It is just too expensive to play
• Extort: It does not work as well as many people thought. For example you will drain 3 opponents, 2 instances of Extort will bring back the life lost for each Black mana in a spell’s cost. And every mana besides of black mana can´t be replaced with life which means you need to use Blood Celebrant to change out mana for life. So you need 3 times the Extort life per life spent on black mana. This means that you need a lot of pieces to even get this loop started. Another problem is, that if you need 3 opponents to stay alive while using the loop and one of them die because he had the lowest life, you cant continue with the loop. Then you need to try to win another way if you haven’t gotten your other opponents low enough to kill them before you kill yourself by continue the loop in a life-negative situation.

> Strengths and Weaknesses

> Strengths

• This deck ist extremely fast and can tutor all important combopieces without mana just with life.
• It is just mono black so in a cEDH group it shouldn´t get the most attention, use this and finish the game out of the nowhere.
• High comeback potential (midgame) if you don´t play too agressive.

> Weaknesses

• Just mono black, lack of counter and protection
• K'rrik as an important component and at the same time bottleneck of this deck
• Late game, lack of lands and engines (and the life loss will bring us into a dangerous position)
• Countermagic can be a problem

> Changelog

See revision : https://deckstats.net/decks/118014/1634363--primer-k-rrik-the-dark-prince#show__revisions