Death and Staxes by flaveraid

Format: Commander

Commander: Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

This is a tightly tuned Orzhov aristocrats deck helmed by Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim. The plan floods the board with tokens and recursive bodies, then converts every death into table-wide life loss while Elas (and parallel drain engines) turn ETBs into lifegain. Primary wins are compact infinite drain loops-Exquisite Blood paired with a gain-to-drain payoff, Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead death loops, and skeleton + Ashnod's Altar + Pitiless Plunderer engines-backed by a dense tutor suite and Ad Nauseam. Token makers (Ocelot Pride, Ophiomancer, Illustrious Wanderglyph) and sticky recursion (Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Traitor, Persistent Specimen) keep the engine fed. Elas is an efficient 2-CMC payoff and rattlesnake, not a hard requirement; the 99 already contains multiple independent drain outlets and win lines.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Ad Nauseam
  • 1 Anguished Unmaking
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Ashnod's Altar
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Bleachbone Verge
  • 1 Blind Obedience
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Brightclimb Pathway // Grimclimb Pathway
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Cathar Commando
  • 1 Cathar's Call
  • 1 Caves of Koilos
  • 1 Charismatic Conqueror
  • 1 Charitable Levy
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Concealed Courtyard
  • 1 Corpse Knight
  • 1 Cruel Tutor
  • 1 Dark Confidant
  • 1 Dark Knight's Greatsword
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Deadly Rollick
  • 1 Debt to the Deathless
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Diabolic Intent
  • 1 Dire Tactics
  • 1 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
  • 1 Enlightened Tutor
  • 1 Entomb
  • 1 Exquisite Blood
  • 1 Field of the Dead
  • 1 First Response
  • 1 Gemstone Caverns
  • 1 Godless Shrine
  • 1 Grand Abolisher
  • 1 Greed
  • 1 Griffin Aerie
  • 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
  • 1 Hero's Downfall
  • 1 Illustrious Wanderglyph
  • 1 Infernal Grasp
  • 1 Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky
  • 1 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Leonin Relic-Warder
  • 1 Lotus Petal
  • 1 Lunar Convocation
  • 1 Marauding Blight-Priest
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 1 Nether Traitor
  • 1 Obsessive Pursuit
  • 1 Ocelot Pride
  • 1 Ophiomancer
  • 1 Orim's Chant
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 1 Persistent Specimen
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 1 Phyrexian Tower
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Plaguecrafter
  • 4 Plains
  • 1 Plumb the Forbidden
  • 1 Praetor's Grasp
  • 1 Pristine Talisman
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reassembling Skeleton
  • 1 Regal Bloodlord
  • 1 Rite of Oblivion
  • 1 Rowan's Grim Search
  • 1 Rule of Law
  • 1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
  • 1 Shattered Sanctum
  • 1 Silence
  • 1 Silent Clearing
  • 1 Single Combat
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Smothering Tithe
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Stitch Together
  • 5 Swamp
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Tainted Field
  • 1 The Soul Stone
  • 1 Umbral Collar Zealot
  • 1 Underworld Coinsmith
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Vault of Champions
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Viscera Seer