Massacre Girl, Known Killer is my new favorite Mono Black EDH Deck

[@RobShannanigans]

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for: an interactive mono black deck with card advantage in the command zone, but no infinite combos or tutors. Seems like a fun build and power level.

[@gossemuijzer8461]

I’ve been waiting for a use case for Gaze of Pain since Ice Age was printed, so massive kudos for you.

[@CommanderMechanic]

It’s a DEEP cut! Glad to make uses of classics

[@alexanderficken9354]

gaze of pain is very good in hapatra decks as well

[@themanascribe]

I’ve been looking for a mono black commander and I think I just found the one

[@newtpondskipper]

Same.

[@zweetkonijn]

Did you build it? And how did it play?

[@Winterhe4rt]

She looks like a balanced and more fun version of Yawgmoth, haha

[@elchavito19]

but who is the best edh for -1/-1 ?? her or Toxrill ?? :C

[@thpogani]

How do you deal with enchantments? No place for feed the swarm?

[@paulobertolini7340]

Did you build this deck? How was the experience with your playgroup? My playgroup is semi-casual and i fear the deck could be salty for them

[@CommanderMechanic]

I built and played it on MTGO. Definitely some salty scoops

[@gpivet]

Im facing a hard time closing the game with my build (Conquest variant). I've tryed yesterday and its really fun, but its hard to close. Im looking for something other than torment of hailfire or exsanguinate + rings of brightearth and basalt monolith... Any finishers or combos you suggest to close the game more efficiently?

[@CommanderMechanic]

Some of the most efficient combos would be Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond if you want an efficient combo to close the game. Otherwise you're a control deck and a grindier game should be what you're expecting. Sources of Aristocrat effects or Extort would be fine for long-game strategies.

[@gpivet]

@@CommanderMechanic Yeah tks a lot! And congrats on the list :)

[@miranaofficial8098]

i've seen versions of the deck that use more proliferate aspects and use poison counters, so proliferating puts them on a clock and kills their creatures

[@daniellehall5455]

@@miranaofficial8098this was my idea. Sure, it’s great to kill creatures, but you can’t finish a game that way. She’s not big enough for commander damage wins. So I thought to try poison counters and proliferate!

[@chrisdomingo9143]

Close the game with volpar sword and make sure your unblockable

[@karelcamra9613]

Very nice deck, I am building it.. any ideas for cards(mostly creatures) how to make the more powerfull in high powered games?

[@CommanderMechanic]

pushing the power higher would likely dilute the deck's theme and synergies further. But spells like Snuff Out or Deadly Rollick would add some targeted removal elements

[@karelcamra9613]

@@CommanderMechanic DR is a fine piece! I wast thinking also to add Grave pact, Invasion of Innistrad... what I lack is... creatures which would survive or at leas help out with our metta... Sheoldred for example. I know its out of the decks synergies, but imho Chittering Witch, Kaervek and Drakestown Forgotten are too slow...

[@trentthurston7867]

She may not be a better commander than Yawgmoth, but definitely close, and will most certainly be part of the 99.

[@SaiyanNoctis]

I'm just getting back into magic and I pulled this commander and I liked the idea sadly don't have alot of the synergies yet so I'm kinda just making a deck and updating it as I go

[@CommanderMechanic]

That’s a good first step, for someone just getting into the game you don’t immediately have to purchase all the best cards. Play with what you have and find out what you like!

[@famousstranger8468]

You also want first strike in the deck Your attackers and blockers will survive every combat encounter

[@jayjayhooksch1]

Yea, I would agree but the problem is there isn't a lot of great first strike creatures in mono black. Drana came close to making my list, but the only first strike creature I ended up on was Razormane Masticore and even it's likely the first card to get cut if I find something better.

[@famousstranger8468]

@@jayjayhooksch1 akroma memorial

[@jayjayhooksch1]

@@famousstranger8468 Hmm. I'll have to think on Akroma's Memorial. If it offered double strike as well it would be a slam dunk win con, but at 7 mana and only allowing us to dominate combat, which is something this deck is already good at between wither and -x/-x instants, it might be possible to achieve a similar effect for much cheaper. Dolmen Gate for example, allows us to dominate combat for much cheaper albeit only on offense. My list for example runs 36 cards that I consider removal, so I'm not too worried about needing to dominate combat on defence, I have plenty of ways to protect myself.

[@famousstranger8468]

@@jayjayhooksch1 I'd love to see the list

[@jayjayhooksch1]

​@@famousstranger8468 I'm not comfortable sharing my list yet, it's changing like 5-6 cards a day still. I will say that I think people making this list are sleeping on Cuombajj witches and Armix though. Both repeatable sources of -x/-x whose downsides are offset by either politics or the commanders ability to draw cards. You need a decent amount of artifacts to make armix really shine, but between mana rocks and some equipment (13 total artifacts in my list) I think you can reasonably expect armix to be hitting -2 most of the time which is good enough to take out small creatures or combine with other effects/cards to take out larger creatures. At the very least it's another way to dominate combat on the offensive.

[@isnith]

Eh... I wanted to have only one mono colored commander from each color. Once I saw this card I knew I'm going to have to break that - now I'll have to have both, Massacre Girl and Braids, Arisen Nightmare.

[@YaBoyEdGames]

Thats me man. I was in the process of building Braids but now with this out, Braids will sit for a small bit while I build this.

[@katekyo11]

That was my rule before but honestly mono color is awesome. Massacre girl would be my 3rd mono black. I have currently 2 decks for each of the other mono colors

[@MagicApocalypseTCG]

How to create this arena?

[@rennelson9576]

Literally the win con is going face

[@steelberserk]

Hapatra says thank you!

[@Tekillyah]

Ran mine with discards, with black weak against enchantments and artifacts the only solution is discard.

[@ezramorrison7330]

I'm actually shocked after watching the video and reading the decklist that my fave toxic boy Toxrill wasn't included in the 99! Any particular reason you didn't wanna add him?

[@mikeugg]

Not legal, Toxrill is Blue/Black :( Would be an easy add if just black.

[@CommanderMechanic]

Toxril is black/blue because of the activated ability

[@ezramorrison7330]

@@CommanderMechanic Oh! I entirely forgot that! Sorry for the confusion, I just saw the focus on -1/-1 and immediately thought of the slug

[@CordPluggedIn]

nest of scarabs though?

[@thpogani]

Is Languish really a good choice since it kills your commander?

[@CommanderMechanic]

Killing your commander is fine if it draws you tons of cards. It’s no different than a Damnation would be in theory, but in practice it also draws a lot of cards.

[@Crazy_Cranberry]

But you wouldn’t draw the cards because your commander is dead right?

[@verzen]

@@Crazy_Cranberry It works just like a board wipe. LTB effects still trigger. The creatures notice they are about to leave the battlefield, so you still draw the cards for all creatures and then they go away.

[@TheFoxlover93]

I'd do Yahenni's Expertise. I thought about that as well and so this can wipe away most small things, let you cast something and also keep your commander around

[@dragade101]

How do I play monoblack and not feel dirty after? That this kind of playstyle feels vile for me to touch lol. I’m very much a W/G or U/G mage at heart.

[@CommanderMechanic]

Interaction and removal isn't everybody's vibe. Don't force yourself into a playstyle that's not for you.

[@YoutubeAccount-l1p]

Deathtouch + wither 💀💀

[@Paddyama]

Clone Zone!

[@anthonyredington]

can't play grismold because he is green and black right?

[@CommanderMechanic]

yes, I didn't call out Grismold to include him in the deck but rather a deck that we can look at that wants some similar themes

[@Celadil]

Look up the card dolmen gate and thank me later

[@nickatwork]

The problem with dolmen gate in a deck like this is you benefit from creatures blocking you, and dolmen gate in this context would lead people away from that completely

[@Celadil]

@@nickatwork you dont need to draw when your opponents are dead. But ofc you are right in a way. MG deters opponents from blocking anyway though

[@thomasmgarcia]

Clone Zone

[@witchcraft2264]

Problem: she's not good enough for competitive and she's too frustrating for casual (nobody likes it when your goal is to ensure they aren't allowed to play the game)

[@Boblol126]

She also doesn’t have any solid wincons beyond wanting to kill stuff all the time. I get that the OG Massacre Girl wants to do a similar thing but she at least has the utility of being a boardwipe in the command zone. This one kind of just sits there and draws the attention of your opponents

[@CrunchesFPS]

Yeah, i think she’d fit in well with any highpower non cedh but that’s always a grey area.

[@CrunchesFPS]

Another one that’s gunna have the same problem from this set is judith, carnage connoisseur. Annihilating boards, life gain, stupid single target removal, but no card/ mana advantage.

[@wolf_8026]

Why would frustrating players matter? It's a strategy. That's three problem if they take it personally

[@witchcraft2264]

@@wolf_8026 personally, I actually have no problems with making frustrating decks. I have a fire song and sun speaker deck that is boardwipe tribal, including ones that make you sacrifice lands. The problem with that is that if my deck is roughly the same power level as the decks of the rest of the table, when they almost invariably decide that the game would be more fun with me dead, I am not strong enough to 1v3 them. This problem could be solved by building my deck in a way that it would be strong enough to 1v3 them, but intentionally building a deck that is way stronger than the other decks present (pubstomping) is also not something I or the people I play with find enjoyable. A large part of the appeal of commander (in my opinion) is that there are more players in the game so disregarding the social aspect when building decks seems like a mistake to me. You can absolutely build frustrating decks and many people do. These decks (Hinata, for instance) often make up the category of high power casual, where your decks are too good for regular casual tables and not good enough for competitive tables. This is not, however, a collection of commanders I would describe as "the best in their colors," rather, in my experience, the hardest ones to find a satisfying pod for on commander night at the game store. Sorry this comment is probably gonna be a wall of text (on my phone so I won't actually see how much I've written until I post but it feels like a lot, I just enjoy sharing my thoughts)

[@HAGO002]

Eldrazi smash!

[@Dragon_Fyre]

I think Massacre Girl may play like Tergrid, where it is just too powerful (and deck is heavily reliant on the Commander), so everyone designates you arch-enemy before game even begins and the only way she ever lives a turn is that no one has removal.

[@CommanderMechanic]

entirely possible! She may be a LITTLE more fair than Tegrid and will be cut some slack, but she'll be a target for sure.

[@Winterhe4rt]

wat...

[@nickatwork]

Definitely not as unfair as Tegrid

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

Not even remotely comparable to Tergrid.

[@chanic4621]

This can’t be better than Yawgmoth

[@CommanderMechanic]

Play her and find out

[@chanic4621]

@@CommanderMechanic I don’t really need to. I don’t see this being a cEDH commander but I’ve been wrong before.

[@Tvo812]

Get Creative!

[@modesttriangle1022]

ttf is this bs

[@varsoonhks3211]

Seems a bit pointless. Since she's not a wincon in her own right, you're going to just want to win off of one of Black's many boring control combos. But since she's so heavily a creature-hate commander, just opening a game with her broadcasts to everyone to clutch removal or just not fill the board with low-to-the-ground chumps for her to fodder into draw. I don't like any commander that relies on your opponents to knowingly play into your win for you to have a chance at success.

[@viniciusvenancio9782]

Clone Zone