Usurping by ChipChill

Format: Commander

Commander: Ardyn, the Usurper

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

Ardyn, the Usurper is an 8-mana mono-black Demon engine: once he resolves, every Demon gains menace, lifelink, and haste, and at the beginning of each of your combats you can exile a creature card from any graveyard and turn it into a 5/5 black Demon token. The deck is built to exploit that trigger as hard as possible, pairing a heavy Demon tribal shell with Swamp-based mana multiplication and life-loss amplifiers. It plans to win through hasty token beats amplified by Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Archfiend of Despair, a giant Exsanguinate, Gray Merchant of Asphodel devotion drain, or the Liliana's Contract alternate win. Reanimation effects and ETB-copy synergies keep the token engine fed. This is a midrange value deck that snowballs once its expensive commander is allowed to stay on the battlefield.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abyssal Harvester
  • 1 Ancient Cellarspawn
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archfiend of Depravity
  • 1 Archfiend of Despair
  • 1 Archfiend of the Dross
  • 1 Ardyn, the Usurper
  • 1 Black Market
  • 1 Blasphemous Edict
  • 1 Bloodletter of Aclazotz
  • 1 Bontu's Monument
  • 1 Bubbling Muck
  • 1 Burning-Rune Demon
  • 1 Cabal Coffers
  • 1 Cabal Stronghold
  • 1 Caged Sun
  • 1 Charcoal Diamond
  • 1 Crypt Ghast
  • 1 Damnation
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Darkness
  • 1 Defiling Daemogoth
  • 1 Demon Wall
  • 1 Demonic Counsel
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Doom Whisperer
  • 1 Doomsday Excruciator
  • 1 Dream Devourer
  • 1 Elbrus, the Binding Blade // Withengar Unbound
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Great Unclean One
  • 1 Harvester of Souls
  • 1 Heartless Summoning
  • 1 Jet Medallion
  • 1 Kindred Dominance
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Liliana's Contract
  • 1 Lord of the Void
  • 1 Magus of the Coffers
  • 1 Mind Stone
  • 1 Myriad Landscape
  • 1 Night's Whisper
  • 1 Nirkana Revenant
  • 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
  • 1 Overseer of the Damned
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 1 Plague Drone
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reaper from the Abyss
  • 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Sign in Blood
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Sower of Discord
  • 31 Swamp
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 The Darkness Crystal
  • 1 The Soul Stone
  • 1 Thought Vessel
  • 1 Throne of Eldraine
  • 1 Undying Evil
  • 1 Undying Malice
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Urza's Incubator
  • 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
  • 1 Vilis, Broker of Blood