Value is Murder, Apparently by Alistair_Steele

Format: Commander

Commander: Braids, Arisen Nightmare

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 48

Deck overview

This mono-black aristocrats deck is piloted by Braids, Arisen Nightmare, leveraging early recursive fodder and disposable permanents to establish a recurring card advantage and life-drain engine on Turn 3. By sacrificing tokens, artifacts, and enchantments, the deck forces opponents into difficult choices between sacrificing valuable board presence or allowing the pilot to draw multiple cards each turn cycle. The surplus card velocity rapidly digs into high-impact aristocrat payoffs, asymmetric removal, and land-scaling mana engines such as Cabal Coffers and Crypt Ghast. Between Turns 6 and 7, the deck closes the game by pairing death triggers from Blood Artist and Bastion of Remembrance with devastating finishers like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Massacre Wurm, and Torment of Hailfire. While vulnerable to exile-based board wipes and direct graveyard hate, the deck's extreme functional redundancy and reanimation tools allow it to rebuild rapidly and maintain continuous pressure.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Accursed Marauder
  • 1 Arid Archway
  • 1 Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist
  • 1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Beamsaw Prospector
  • 1 Bitterbloom Bearer
  • 1 Bitterblossom
  • 1 Black Market
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Bloodchief Ascension
  • 1 Bloodghast
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
  • 1 Cabal Coffers
  • 1 Castle Locthwain
  • 1 Chthonian Nightmare
  • 1 Circuit Mender
  • 1 Corrupted Conviction
  • 1 Crypt Ghast
  • 1 Dark Prophecy
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Deadly Rollick
  • 1 Decorum Dissertation
  • 1 Dreadhorde Invasion
  • 1 Elegy Acolyte
  • 1 Expedition Map
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fell the Profane // Fell Mire
  • 1 Flare of Malice
  • 1 Funeral Room // Awakening Hall
  • 1 Gixian Puppeteer
  • 1 Grave Venerations
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Guildless Commons
  • 1 High Market
  • 1 Homeward Path
  • 1 Ichor Wellspring
  • 1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
  • 1 Lotus Field
  • 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
  • 1 Marionette Apprentice
  • 1 Massacre Wurm
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 1 Nether Traitor
  • 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
  • 1 Ophiomancer
  • 1 Phyrexian Tower
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Scampering Surveyor
  • 1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
  • 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
  • 1 Sinister Gnarlbark
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Smothering Abomination
  • 1 Solemn Simulacrum
  • 1 Soul Shatter
  • 1 Susur Secundi, Void Altar
  • 18 Swamp
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Tarrian's Journal // The Tomb of Aclazotz
  • 1 The Meathook Massacre
  • 1 The Soul Stone
  • 1 Timeline Culler
  • 1 Torment of Hailfire
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Unearth
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Urza's Cave
  • 1 Vein Ripper
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
  • 1 War Room
  • 1 Whip of Erebos
  • 1 Will of the Abzan
  • 1 Witch's Cottage
  • 1 Withering Torment
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat