[EDH / Commander] Black Mono

[Bardman]

Black Mono

[Soren841]

You have 1 too many cards

[Bardman]

Oh sorry, I didn't realize I probably added 1 too many lands. Though doesn't the commander not count as a card or is that false?

[Soren841]

100 cards including your commander

[Bardman]

Gotcha, how's the deck look so far by the way? It's the first I've ever made and have no idea how well it could do in commander.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Welcome to the Commander format 

You don't have enough mana ramp (non-land mana sources).  Dark Ritual is the only one that I see.  Everyone plays some sort of ramp in Commander.  If you're the only one just playing your one land per turn, you're going to fall behind every game.  You want things like Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Charcoal Diamond, Armillary Sphere, Crypt Ghast, Magus of the Coffers, Solemn Simulacrum.  I usually aim for 6 to 10 non-land mana sources.

I would also recommend a few non-basic lands.  I am a big fan of the cycling lands in a mono-deck.  Also Myriad Landscape, Temple of the False God, and Terramorphic Expanse.  Some people like Strip Mine and/or Ghost Quarter are useful too.  For a mono-black deck, Bojuka Bog is useful.  Cabal Coffers can really help with the ramp.  And Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can really help out Cabal Coffers.

You seem to be going with a discard theme.  Commander is a multi-player format.  I would recommend using cards that say "each opponent discards" rather than "target opponent".  Things like Syphon Mind, Liliana's Specter, Mind Raker, Scythe Specter.  Going along with the discard theme, Waste Not and Liliana's Caress (among others) make the discarding even more brutal.  Torment of Hailfire can also be brutal.

I like your choice of commander.  His only real job is to prevent opponents from tutoring.  I do find it a little odd that you don't have any tutoring going on.  But I also like that choice, as I feel tutoring is among the most broken mechanics in casual Commander.  I might suggest a Vedalken Orrery so that you could flash in your commander in response to a tutor, forcing that player to sac a dude and lose 10 life.

Happy Brewing

[Bardman]

Ohhhh I like some of those suggestions. I did search high and low for torment of hailfire and would have settled for torment of scarabs. I have forsaken sanctuary, although that might not help as much as the lands you mentioned. Now that I'm looking at it, my commander could be swapped for he who hungers if I manage to find more useful spirit cards. Thanks for the input I got a lot of cards to search for but I'm sure I'll find a good amount of them.

[Bardman]

I managed to update the deck today, tried to get some suggested cards from here. I also think I weeded out some of the do nothing cards along with less synergistic ones as well. Anymore feedback would appreciated as I think the deck is starting to really come together.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Glad to see you got rid of Extirpate.  That card doesn't really do much in a singleton format like Commander.  Infinite Obliteration is similar.  I would suggest that that would be the next card to go once you find something better for your deck.  Now that you have some mana ramp, you'll be able to at least play your spells.  That will be your best indicator of what cards can stay and what need to go.  You find all levels of builds in a casual format like this.  A lot depends upon who you play with.  If you spend a lot of mana on a spell and then find it really didn't help you much, then perhaps that card should be replaced for something better.

You still have a lot of "target player" discard spells.  I personally think that you are going to find them largely ineffective (much like direct damage) with multiple opponents.

Rag Man would also top my list of cards to replace.  4 mana to cast.  3 to activate.  Then he only gets 1 card from 1 player IF that player has a creature in hand.  Most Commander decks are about 25% creatures.  Many are less.  This will wiff more often than not.

I see Smallpox.  If you like Smallpox, you may want to run Pox too.

Happy Brewing

[ApothecaryGeist]

If you're looking for some more good discard spells/creatures, check out my decks.  It's the one called "Bolas won't let you have a hand".  It isn't mono-black.  But it does run a lot of good mono-black discard options.

Happy Brewing 

[Bardman]

Glad to see most of your mono black spells aren't the high priced ones X)
In all honesty I've been searching up and down for communal discard spells and creatures in shops around town and can't seem to find much, but I'll keep searching and probably order some online when given the chance.

[Bardman]

Okay, I don't know if these cards will help much but I acquired Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Bontu's Last Reckoning, Dark Deal, and Sheoldred, Whispering One. Unless I happen to pull a Torment of Hailfire from hour of destruction I think I might need to get the rest of what I need online.

[ApothecaryGeist]

All decent to really good.  Sheoldred is very oppressive (to your opponents ... and isn't that the point )  In my playgroup, Sheoldred always draws the hate.  I have personally stopped running her so frequently in my decks.  I personally didn't like Dark Deal for my discard deck.  I just wanted to straight-up make my opponents discard; I didn't want them to be able to draw replacements.  (I'm evil like that.)  I also personally don't really like Bontu's Last Reckoning, but that is mainly because I have a Damnation, Black Sun's Zenith, and many other black board wipes.  Gonti is awesome.  He can go into just about any deck.  Casting your opponent's spells is always fun.  I had a deck with Gonti as the commander.  It's in my "Retired decks" folder.

Once you get past having appropriate land counts and non-land mana sources for your deck, the individual card choices come down to personal choice, the cards that you have, and the cards that you can obtain.  Ob Nixilis is a decent commander choice for a mono-black "good stuff" deck.

Happy Brewing 

[ApothecaryGeist]

I've been searching up and down for communal discard spells and creatures in shops around town and can't seem to find much, but I'll keep searching

You might see if your playgroup objects to using proxies for the cards that you cannot find.

[Bardman]

Oh you mean different shops then they go to? If so, the friends I see live in different towns nowadays so we would all get our cards from across state.