Back in black by user8941353

Format: Commander

Commander: Ayara, First of Locthwain

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a mono-black aristocrats deck helmed by Ayara, First of Locthwain, built around token generation, sacrifice, and repeated life-drain triggers. The core strategy is to flood the board with cheap creature tokens via Bitterblossom, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, and Sengir Autocrat, then sacrifice them for value through outlets like Ashnod's Altar and Viscera Seer. Ayara herself provides a constant drain on each black creature ETB and an activated draw engine, while Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance turn every death into additional life loss. The deck also leans on edict effects (Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos) to control opponents' boards and recursion (Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton) to maintain a steady supply of bodies. The primary win condition is incremental drain over many turns, with Bolas's Citadel and Living Death offering explosive recovery. There is no dedicated infinite combo, making the deck a pure value-grind strategy.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abhorrent Overlord
  • 1 Ancient Craving
  • 1 Ashnod's Altar
  • 1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
  • 1 Barter in Blood
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Bitterblossom
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Blood Vassal
  • 1 Blood for Bones
  • 1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
  • 1 Bloodghast
  • 1 Bolas's Citadel
  • 1 Butcher of Malakir
  • 1 Cabal Stronghold
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Defiling Daemogoth
  • 1 Dictate of Erebos
  • 1 Doom Blade
  • 1 Dread Return
  • 1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
  • 1 Enduring Tenacity
  • 1 Epicure of Blood
  • 1 Falkenrath Noble
  • 1 Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight
  • 1 Grave Pact
  • 1 Grave Venerations
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Innocent Blood
  • 1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
  • 1 Leaden Myr
  • 1 Living Death
  • 1 Merchant of Venom
  • 1 Mirkwood Bats
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 1 Mortician Beetle
  • 1 Necrotic Hex
  • 1 Noosegraf Mob
  • 1 Ophiomancer
  • 1 Pawn of Ulamog
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Plague of Vermin
  • 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
  • 1 Priest of Gix
  • 1 Read the Bones
  • 1 Reassembling Skeleton
  • 1 Rite of Belzenlok
  • 1 Sadistic Hypnotist
  • 1 Sengir Autocrat
  • 1 Sign in Blood
  • 1 Silversmote Ghoul
  • 1 Skirsdag High Priest
  • 1 Smothering Abomination
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate
  • 36 Swamp
  • 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
  • 1 Tenacious Dead
  • 1 Undying Evil
  • 1 Vendetta
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Walk the Plank
  • 1 Witch of the Moors
  • 1 Woe Strider
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat