“The clot thickens.”
Art:Persuasive Interrogators
by Dmitry Burmak
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Persuasive Interrogators is a very flavorful and fun commander, well, at least fun for us. Infect never makes you the most popular person at the table, so I would definitely bring this one out in the right environment because, during my testing, I found this deck to be quite strong and overwhelming for lower power decks but works very well against more mid-high power decks. Infect is crazy strong, and the card advantage we get off of the clues helps as well. Our commander does cost six, which is quite high for the format, but we can help negate the impact of this by having some strong creatures that can come down a few turns earlier than our commander. If you love to infect and mono-black, I think you are going to like this one; in my opinion, I think this is one of the coolest PEDH commanders for the set, and I am very excited to showcase this deck today. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Persuasive Interrogators Infect!
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Why Persuasive Interrogators?
Our commander does cost six, so that isn’t great because we can’t get them down until the mid-late game, even with some of our artifact ramp. Now, Persuasive Interrogators does have the advantage of producing card advantage for the deck and being a great source to add additional poison counters, and in my testing, I finished off many opponents with our commander out and strong support cards like Magnifying Glass
. Persuasive Interrogators is a card we commit to the board as soon as possible, and while it does draw a lot of hate, we have a ton of cards like Undying Evil
and Kaya's Ghostform
which help us fight through a large amount of removal we get subjected too.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We do have some strong mana dorks like Leaden Myr
and Alloy Myr
, which are a little expensive, but the extra mana is helpful, and since we are in mono-black, the options are quite limited. Scaretiller
is another great card for the deck and helps us accelerate our mana. Faceless Butcher
is a card I often use to temporarily remove Persuasive Interrogators and get another clue and, subsequently, more poison counters. Gulping Scraptrap
may not have an infect but is extremely strong and lets us proliferate a ton; definitely one of those creatures you want to use one of our comeback spells on. Swamp Mosquito
is such a cool and classic card, and the fact that it gives opponents poison counters helps a ton within the deck. The same is true for Plague Stinger
, but the stinger has the benefit of being able to receive some of the buffs that the deck has. I like Thorn of the Black Rose
in the deck because the deathtouch can give us a strong blocker and the card draw from being the monarch is quite nice as well.
Instants:
We have a ton of strong instant speed removal like Go for the Throat
, Cast Down
, and Doom Blade
which are all cheap ways to get rid of a variety of opponents threats, but I think the most interesting cards in the deck are how we protect our creatures. We have a ton of ways to fight through all of the removal and hate we draw, like Undying Evil, Not Dead After All
, and Undying Evil which is absolutely perfect for Persuasive Interrogators but can be strong to protect just about anything. Virulent Wound
and Whisper of the Dross
are both great ways to get the poison counters rolling and can be very strong against aggressive strategies. Beyond that, we have a ton of other sources to destroy, protect our own stuff, and proliferate.
Sorceries:
Bubbling Muck
is a card I love to use with Shade's Form
, Endless Scream
, or our commander to get them out early; more mana is pretty much always good at any stage of the game. When we start getting close to ten poison counters for our opponents, we can finish the job with Dirge of Dread
, or if we need the card, we can cycle and single-target one of our creatures and hit for some pretty big damage. We naturally have a ton of strong draw like Night's Whisper
, Sign in Blood
, and Read the Bones
. While all of those draw spells are quite strong, Infectious Inquiry
is the best draw spell in our deck since it helps to get the ball rolling on the infect gameplan. Spread the Sickness
is an expensive removal spell at sorcery speed, but since we get to proliferate, it is very strong in the deck.
Artifacts:
To start off, we have some mana rocks ourselves in Bonder's Ornament
and Charcoal Diamond
as well as Commander's Sphere
we are quite low on rocks because we value removal/protection for our creatures much higher than casting our commander early. Infernal Idol
is a mana rock, but I mostly sac it as soon as I can to get the supplemental card draw. Spare Supplies
is another strong draw source for the deck; being in mono-black, these extra cards matter a ton for the deck and can certainly be the difference between a win and a loss. The most important artifact in our deck is Magnifying Glass since it allows us to investigate whenever we go and, with Persuasive Interrogators, start getting even more poison counters on opponents.
Enchantments:
Because of how many artifacts and mana rocks are in the format, cards like Relic Putrescence
can stop an opponent from using those mana rocks or artifacts or make them take quite the penalty from tapping it. We also have some strong enchantments that let us play through removals, like Kaya's Ghostform and Shade's Form, which also lets us be a better attacker since we can buff that creature up. Our infect creatures are quite evasive naturally, with a fair few of them coming with flying, so when we have a lot of mana Endless Scream can be a great way to one-shot and take out an opponent.
Land Base:
We are a mono-colored deck, so our landbase is quite simple, but we do have some strong non-basics like Witch's Cottage
and Mortuary Mire
, which are both great lands to help us recur creatures that have died to removal or died in combat. We also have some strong supplemental card draws like Desert of the Glorified
and The Dross Pits
, which are tap-lands, so it does make us a little slower, but the card draw is certainly worth it. There is not too much to say about the rest of our landbase. We are in mono-black, so as long as we keep a hand with two to three lands, we should be all good.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Because we are all-in on the infect strategy, our opponents are effectively on ten-life.
- We have a ton of great ways to play through removal, like Feign Death
, Supernatural Stamina, and Undying Evil, which can be great to protect our creatures or if we let our commander die so we can re-ETB them. - We are quite strong against other creature-based strategies because of the heavy emphasis on removal.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are quite weak to decks heavy on flying creatures because many of our creatures rely on being evasive and chipping in poison counters.
- Our commander is extremely strong, but they cost six, and very few commanders in the format that are that expensive.
- Most of our creatures are terrible at blocking, so we tend to just take the damage rather than lose them.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We win the game by giving our opponents poison counters whether we proliferate these counters on or use cards like Feign Death
and Supernatural Stamina
to recur our commander to get additional clues and thus additional poison counters. We are pretty heavy in combat, and we have a lot of infect creatures that are strong and naturally quite evasive. Combining this with a decent amount of ways to proliferate, we have quite the winning recipe.
Conclusion:
Persuasive Interrogators was one of my favorite cards during spoiler season, and I have been having a ton of fun with it. While you will certainly draw some attention/hate because you are on infect but we are decently equipped to deal with a lot of the hate because we are quite heavy on removal ourselves. Obviously, if every opponent is targeting you in an archenemy situation, that is certainly an uphill battle, but since we start the game being kinda slow, we can avoid that hate until we are built up. I have been having a blast with this one and I hope you enjoyed as well, if you have a list id love to check it out. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!