Pay the TAXES! by valar96

Format: Commander

Commander: The Master of Lake-town

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 14

Deck overview

This is a mono-black sacrifice deck built around The Master of Lake-town, recursive creatures, death-trigger payoffs, and graveyard value. Its strongest ordinary plan is to assemble Viscera Seer, Reassembling Skeleton, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Midnight Reaper, then trade mana for repeated sacrifice triggers, scrying, and cards. That engine is functional but not infinite: returning Reassembling Skeleton costs {1}{B} each time, and the deck lacks a card that converts its death triggers into unlimited mana. Large payoffs such as Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Rise of the Dark Realms, and Exsanguinate can create powerful turns, but their timing and required supporting resources are inconsistent. Painful Quandary and mass-sacrifice effects provide meaningful attrition without creating a total lock. The deck has respectable creature removal and recovery tools, but limited protection, no stack interaction, and significant exposure to graveyard hate.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abyssal Harvester
  • 1 Access Tunnel
  • 1 Accursed Marauder
  • 1 Barren Moor
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Black Market
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Bloodchief Ascension
  • 1 Bloodsoaked Champion
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Bontu's Monument
  • 1 Crypt Ghast
  • 1 Crypt Incursion
  • 1 Culling the Weak
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Demolition Field
  • 1 Dire Fleet Ravager
  • 1 Dread Presence
  • 1 Epic Downfall
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Fake Your Own Death
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fell the Profane // Fell Mire
  • 1 Gravecrawler
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Grim Tutor
  • 1 Grimoire of the Dead
  • 1 Hazel's Nocturne
  • 1 Jet Medallion
  • 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Liliana's Standard Bearer
  • 1 Mai, Scornful Striker
  • 1 Marauding Blight-Priest
  • 1 Marionette Apprentice
  • 1 Massacre Girl
  • 1 Massacre Wurm
  • 1 Memorial to Folly
  • 1 Midnight Reaper
  • 1 Mindcrank
  • 1 Nighthawk Scavenger
  • 1 Nine-Lives Familiar
  • 1 Painful Quandary
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Plaguecrafter
  • 1 Pox Plague
  • 1 Realm of Koh
  • 1 Reassembling Skeleton
  • 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Rush of Dread
  • 1 Sanguine Bond
  • 1 Saw in Half
  • 1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
  • 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
  • 1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
  • 1 Sifter of Skulls
  • 1 Sign in Blood
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Starscape Cleric
  • 1 Supper for Spiders
  • 24 Swamp
  • 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
  • 1 The Darkness Crystal
  • 1 The Master of Lake-town
  • 1 Tragic Slip
  • 1 Tree of Perdition
  • 1 Twilight Prophet
  • 1 Unstoppable Slasher
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Vat of Rebirth
  • 1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Woe Strider
  • 1 Wound Reflection
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat