Table of Contents
Apart from Mono-Blue, who’s constantly denying you from playing the game, Mono-Black comes with another flavor of control and interaction, they have the card drawing of blue, the removal capabilities of white, the direct damage cards of red and even the ramping of green, all of this, normally at the cost of some life points, which it can also regain, overall a Mono-Black deck shall be considered one of, if not the most all-around of the mono colored decks.
Ardyn’s Premise
Ardyn, the Usurper, provides us with a more kindred way of dealing with the board, by filling it with the presence of powerful and disruptive Demons, and even doing some graveyard shenanigans by reanimating creatures from the graveyard as demons ready to follow his commands. The deck acts as a relentless crusher. It utilizes high-stat monsters and crushing board wipes to maintain control. Ardyn reigns supreme over a battlefield of his own making. No resource is too precious to spend for victory.
First off, Ardyn provides your demons with some static effects, in the form of Menace, Lifelink and Haste, making them especially hard to deal with because they’ll enter the battlefield ready to swing at your opponents, and by being virtually unblockable, they will be dealing some hefty damage to your opponents while also regaining you some life points.
The second thing this guy can do is bad news, for the other players. It lets you take a creature from a graveyard at the start of a fight. Then you make a copy of that creature and turn it into a big 5/5 Black Demon. This means you can mess with the players graveyards and at the same time you get to fill your side of the battlefield with more powerful Demons. This ability is very disruptive because it helps you mess with the opponents graveyards and it also helps you get more Demons on the battlefield.
This strategy functions as a mix of Midrange and Control. It utilizes the inherent strengths of black removal to keep the battlefield clear. While your opponents struggle to maintain a board presence, you’ll be amassing great advantages and keeping your presence and power all-around the game estate. This deck does not rely on a single gimmick. It presents a resilient front that can adapt to various threats.
Core Gameplay
As his Final Fantasy XV counterpart, Ardyn will be controlling the political state of the battlefield, trying to be on the sideline, while decisively stagnating your opponents until they fall in control of the empire.
Laying out the Foundations of the Empire
In the early-game, you should focus on your mana acceleration. Ardyn is a pretty mana heavy commander, who needs as much acceleration as you can get. Sol Ring and Charcoal Diamond are essential during these early turns. You have to keep up ahead of the mana curve, trying to accelerate as much as possible. Dark Ritual serves as an explosive ramping spell allowing you to play mid-game threats far ahead of your opponents. In the early stages, using utility cards like Tithing Blade to keep the battlefield in check is a must, preparing the field for the arrival of Ardyn.
Consolidating Power through Political Ways
Once the game transitions into mid-game, you should play your core threats. Creatures like Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Indulgent Tormentor become major problems. At this point, if your opponents can’t deal with your demons, they’ll likely lose the game in this stage. Spells like Deadly Dispute are there to remind you that your creatures are just resources to help you attain victory through any means possible. Sudden Edict and Chainer's Edict provide efficient answers to problematic creatures.
The Eternal Reign of the Demons
Your endgame is characterized by having massive, evasive threats. You will be aiming to close the game with powerful combat phases. If the board is stalled, Exsanguinate or Suffer the Past can finish the job. The deck counts on the sheer power of Abhorrent Overlord to flood the field. At this stage, your opponents should be exhausted. Their resources are gone. Your victory is impending.
Decklist
We are looking into a strong Bracket 4 deck. A middle of the road 300-ish dollar deck. that possesses significant efficiency and high-impact cards. The mana base is incredibly optimized. With Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, you won’t be short of mana any time soon once both of them are on the battlefield.
The mana curve of this deck is pretty high, so, you’ll have multiples ways to spend those copious amounts of mana. Like casting Damnation or Black Sun's Zenith and playing something like Rune-Scarred Demon on the same turn.
The deck is designed for those who enjoy having an answer for everything. It strikes a balance between proactive actions and reactive decisions.
Creatures (27)
Instants (13)
Sorceries (12)
Artifacts (9)
Enchantments (5)
Lands (35)
101 Cards
$319.53
Creatures That Guard the Throne
Demons are the type of creature you should focus on, they’re powerful and impactful creatures at the cost of some negative effects that we gleefully accept to dominate the battlefield.
High-Impact Demons
The deck follows the idea of providing massive bodies for significant mana investment.
Abhorrent Overlord is a primary example. It is a massive flyer that brings an army of Harpies with it. The devotion to black fuels this token generation. This turns a single creature into a wide board presence. Similarly, Bloodletter of Aclazotz offers a terrifying passive ability. It doubles the life loss of your opponents on your turn. This makes every attack and every spell twice as lethal. You should be prepared to protect him or see him being removed as soon as possible..
Archfiend of Depravity serves a different role. It will work as a constant edict for your opponents. At the beginning of each opponent’s end step, they must choose two creatures and sacrifice the rest. This prevents token strategies from ever getting off the ground. It forces opponents to play a “tall” game. This plays directly into your hands. You have the edicts to remove those few remaining creatures.
Demon of Loathing and Indulgent Tormentor provide constant pressure. The former forces sacrifices upon combat damage. The latter presents a cruel choice. Opponents must let you draw or pay with their life and creatures. Most players will find both options distasteful. This is the beauty of the Ardyn strategy. Every choice the opponent makes is a losing one.
Utility and Tutors
You’ll be in need of creatures that serve a purpose in the ranks of Ardyn other than being powerful damage dealers.
Rune-Scarred Demon is a classic staple. It provides a massive body and tutors for any card. In a deck with this much mana, it is often the precursor to a win. Demonlord Belzenlok provides a burst of card draw. It digs through the library for your high-mana bombs at the cost of your life points for each card put into your hand, this is where giving your demons Lifelink comes handy.
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is an incredible tool for consistency. His boast ability allows you to tutor a card to the top of your library. This ensures that the next draw is exactly what you need. Whether it is a land or a finisher, Varragoth will find it.
Massacre Girl handles small creature swarms. She can clear an entire board of utility creatures. She leaves herself and Ardyn standing. Rakshasa Debaser and Abyssal Harvester allow you to exploit the graveyards. They turn the opponents’ best creatures against them. This is the ultimate insult to a fallen foe.
The High-Cost Finishers
Overseer of the Damned and Stronghold Overseer occupy the top end of the curve. They provide tactical advantages in combat. One generates 2/2 Zombie tokens every time a nontoken creature an opponent controls dies. The other manipulates the power of shadow and shadowless creatures. They ensure that your dominance is total.
Spells of the Usurper
While this deck is creature-heavy, the spells listed provide the necessary support.
Sorceries of Destruction
Damnation is the gold standard for black wipes. It clears the board for four mana, while preventing any creature to be regenerated. Black Sun's Zenith offers a modular way to deal with indestructible threats. It puts -1/-1 counters on everything. This can bypass many forms of protection. While being recursive by shuffling itself in your library after being used.
Blasphemous Edict is an interesting edict effect. For five manas you’ll make every player sacrifice thirteen creatures, and also, if you control thirteen creatures, you could cast it by a single black mana.
Exsanguinate is a classic finisher. In the late game, it can drain the entire table of their life points. Resulting in an immediate victory. Suffer the Past, while targeting a single opponent, works similarly while also acting as graveyard hate. It punishes those who rely on their graveyards.
Demonic Counsel is a tactical tutor. For two manas it will tutor you a demon, and if you have delirium it becomes a Demonic Tutor.
Rite of Consumption provides a way to turn your massive creatures into direct damage. At the cost of sacrificing that creature.
Instants: Swift Justice
Defileand Doom Blade are efficient targeted removal, the former serves as a way to deal with indestructible creatures by giving them -1/-1 for the number of swamps you control, while the latter will help you deal with nonblack creatures.
Sudden Edict is a powerhouse. Its split-second ability prevents opponents from responding. They cannot activate abilities or cast spells to save their creatures. This makes it one of the most reliable removal spells in the game.
March of Wretched Sorrow allows you to trade excess cards for life and removal. It is a versatile tool for any situation.
What good is a mono-black deck without their good ol’trusty Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual to help you with a burst of black mana to ramp up in a pinch.
Artifacts to Optimize your Hostile Takeover
Being a mana hungry deck means that we have to look for ways to ensure our supply of mana is as steady as it gets.
Mana Rocks
Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are mandatory. They ensure you stay ahead of the curve.
Charcoal Diamond, a pretty straight forward mana rock that enters tapped and provide you with black mana. Jet Medallion while not a mana rock by itself, it provides you with cost reduction for your black spells making them cheaper to cast and stay ahead of the curve.
Gilded Lotus is a difficult card to work with, not every deck has the means to produce the five manas to cast it and keep it relevant after that, but this deck is particularly mana heavy, so we could work with it to help our mana base with a massive boost in the mid-game. It allows for the casting of your seven-mana demons with ease.
The Darkness Crystal is a unique inclusion. It combines the effects of Jet Medallion and Leyline of the Void, while also providing you a way to gain control of your opponents creatures once they’re exiled after they die. It serves as a flavorful piece for Ardyn. Assisting it in maintaining the Usurper’s grip on the game.
Utility Tools for the Job
Not every artifact in this deck is a mana source, you also need ways to deal with the everchanging landscape of the battlefield.
Elixir, while a pretty slow card, will allow you to reset your graveyard and library if needed, working as an emergency button and being a flavor lore friendly card for Ardyn.
Tithing Blade is a pretty efficient way to make all your opponents sacrifice a creature in the early game, and later can become a stable way to regain life while draining your opponents, by crafting it with a creature to turn it into Consuming Sepulcher.
Finally Winter Moon will help you deal with the ever increasing greediness of commander’s mana bases, where there’s a number of basic lands as close to zero as possible, by making every player to only be able to untap one non-basic land during their untapping step.
Enchantments: The Dark Bargains
The deck runs five enchantments to exploit board state and provide card draw.
Grasping Shadows will help any creature you control that attacks alone by giving them Deathtouch and Lifelink until end of turn. This effect will in turn give Grasping Shadows a Dread counter, and once there’s three counters on it, it will transform into
Trespasser's Curse is a nightmare for go-wide decks. It drains the cursed player of his life points every time a creature enters under their control. This can quickly add up to a lethal amount.
Liliana's Contract works as an alternative way to winning the game. The deck features a high density of Demons. Casting this enchantment often leads to a victory in the next upkeep. It provides card draw even if you don’t hit the four-demon requirement.
No Rest for the Wicked and Phyresis provide backup plans. One gives you recursion of your creatures after being hit by a boardwipe. The other can turn any of your creatures into an infect threat. Turning every point of damage it deals to a player into poison counters, and thanks to WoTC considering poison a balanced way to win, you only need to deal 10 points of poison to a player.
Mana Base: The Lands of the Usurper
Playing Mono-Black allows for a very consistent mana base. This deck runs 26 Swamps to capitalize on basic land synergies.
Mana Overflood
Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are the most important, and pricy lands in this deck. Together, they generate massive amounts of mana. This interaction is the backbone of the deck’s late-game power.
Utility lands
Castle Locthwain provides you with a card draw effect on a land. Helping you keep your hand with at least a card most of the time.
Hive of the Eye Tyrant is a creature on land that will give you a blocker in a pinch if needed, or provide you with an extra attacker that would also incorporate more graveyard hate towards your opponents.
Westvale Abbey can transform into Ormendahl, Profane Prince. This is yet another massive Demon for your collection.
Witch's Cottage provides recursion. It puts a creature from your graveyard back on top of your library.
Desert of the Glorified and Polluted Mire can be cycled. This prevents mana flood in the late game.
Closing Words
In conclusion, Ardyn, the Usurper offers a refreshing take on the Mono-Black identity. It moves away from the standard grind. It views the battlefield as a throne to be seized. This deck presents you with the opportunity to have a presence that is as resilient as it is lethal. Whether you are soaring over the field with massive Demons or draining the table with doubled life loss, this deck rewards bold tactical moves.
The deck pivots between a heavy control strategy and a wide creature aggro approach. It provides a versatile gameplay experience. It is suitable for high-power pods. You must prioritize protecting the commander. As long as Ardyn remains, the pressure is constant. Whether overwhelming opponents through sheer numbers or exhausting them with edicts, the Usurper offers a consistent path to victory.
