“Tears of oceans of when we were together, my love.”
Art:Skull Collector
by Thomas M. Baxa
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Mono-black is an archetype that has been doing the same things and doing them quite well for a lot of years, there typically isn’t a ton of difference and variety in mono-black commanders, Skull Collector is one of those commanders who breaks from the norm; and does things a little bit different, being able to bounce one of our creatures every turn our commander is out, allows us to re-ETB some of the best creatures in our deck and can be a way to finish the game, especially with cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel
. This deck feels a little different than a traditional mono-black deck, and that is one of my favorite aspects about the deck, staying true to the spirit of mono-black but having different and fun elements. I am so excited to showcase this one today! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Skull Collector ETB's!
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Why Skull Collector?
Skull Collector is a huge part of our deck and one of the main reason why the deck “works”. Skull Collector enables us to re-etb and put a ton of additional pressure on our opponents; being able to fight through removal with our commander since we are able to regenerate them with only two mana allows us to be decently well-positioned against the large amount of single-target removal within the format. We rarely attack with our commander as we typically don’t want to put them in any additional danger. Because of the high density of removal in the format, I also like to keep a couple extra mana up if possible so we can regenerate our commander as needed.
Gameplan:
The overall game plan for the deck is very simple; beyond hitting some of our strong early ETB creatures, we mostly want a pretty average hand with a few lands and, hopefully, at least one mana rock. There are a ton of great hands for the deck, and as long as you have at least two to three lands and some castable cards, it’s a very good start. In the testing for this deck I rarely mulligan’d. This deck is great at having decent hands and turning them into great hands, we have quite a bit of card draw within the deck so we are able to filter through a lot of our deck to find amazing cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Blight-Breath Catoblepas
which are both a little expensive but are amazing ways to hurt our opponents and end the game. As far as the overall gameplan, we just want to bounce our own creatures when their ETBs would be advantageous and turn our cards sideways as much as we can; Gray Merchant is definitely one of the ways we can easily end the game after two or three turns it’s pretty much over but the combat route is pretty easy for us as well.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Breaker of Creation
Record against Breaker of Creation 4-0
Colorless is lacking a lot of things within Pauper EDH; they don’t have much removal or card draw, so they tend to be pretty aggressive with their mulligans; since we are in mono-black and are packing quite a bit of removal, we have a very good matchup against this deck, while we often can’t beat them in combat we can take over in the early game and finish with some of our better and bigger cards. One thing that is difficult about this matchup is that their commander is hexproof. Because of this, we either need to win in combat or destroy them with Blight-Breath Catoblepas. Overall, this is a strong matchup for us.
Hammers of Moradin
Record against Hammers of Moradin 3-2
Mono-white does not have access to the same quality of card draw and removal as we have but they do have a much better board presence; the name of the game in this one is taking away our opponent’s commander as they can lock down our board and hit very hard, their commander is a great source of damage and is tough for the entire table, removal is key in this matchup but they arent super fast so I typically am not super aggressive about mulligan’ing for these. Overall I like this matchup, its just as winnable as it is possible but is overall favorable if we have a decent hand.
Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
Record against Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder 4-0
In many Mr.Orfeo decks, their commander is what gives them the extra pop to get an advantage over us; they also tend to bully decks that are low on removal; luckily, we are good in both of those departments as we have the removal to make their commander uncastable and can overall be pretty strong against them in combat. This is a good matchup for us; they are in Jund, so they have sneaky access to some good removal and protection for their own creatures, but with the high amount of removal, we are typically able to fight through that. I had a ton of success against this deck in testing, and this deck never posed much of a threat, especially when we start taking cards out of their hands.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Record against Zada, Hedron Grinder 1-3
Zada is arguably one of the strongest and quickest decks within the format and can output damage at an extremely alarming rate; if we don’t have removal in our opening hand this is a very tough matchup for us, being able to remove their commander as soon as they come out is the clear path to victory here and one of the only ones ways we can sneak out a win. I tend to mulligan much more aggressively against Zada.
Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos
Record against Alexios 0-3
This is a very tough matchup for us; Alexios is so strong and just disrupts our overall gameplan a lot; while it is great when we have it, the owner of it can buff us up and make us face some very terrible combat decisions. This deck is hard and also has access to a decent amount of single-target removal. This is a hard one for the deck.
Witherbloom Apprentice
Record against Witherbloom Apprentice 2-4
Witherbloom Apprentice is a deck that is set up to beat us, while they arent a complete house against us they don’t really care what we do in combat and the life-gain can counteract a lot of our big finishers like Gray Merchant, just like us this deck focuses a lot on their commander so we can use that removal to our advantage but this deck is often packing protection like Snakeskin Veil
and Tamiyo's Safekeeping
. This deck is not super fast, and wins are definitely possible, but this is not a matchup I would consider favorable.
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:
Our creatures are the lifeblood of our deck and the reason our commander is our commander. We have a ton of great creatures to re-ETB in the early and late games; for now, let’s focus on the early game. Two of my favorites are Nezumi Informant
and Burglar Rat
. Both of these cards are identical in function and can be great in the early game, against decks with limited card draw playing these early can disrupt them quite a bit and make their game go much worse overall. I really like playing these on turn two, commander on turn three and on turn four replaying these two for a double-discard, this is of course a dream scenario but when it happens it gives us a huge advantage. Some of the late-game creatures we love to ETB are Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which is by far the best card in our deck and allows us to finish off opponents quite quickly and make a huge momentum swing within the game. Blight-Breath Catoblepas is another amazing finisher; it can kill pretty much anything in the format and is absolutely busted against Voltron strategies or any decks with ways to give indestructible to a creature. We have a lot of other great ETBs that work great, and if we can get them more than once it’s awesome, like Liliana's Shade
, which is a little pricey but is a great way to filter out some lands and make sure our card draw is all strong creatures and spells that further the overall gameplan.
Instants:
Removal is the name of the game within our instant package; one of my favorites in the deck is Breathe Your Last
, which is a strong piece of removal that also gives us life this can matter a ton, especially at a table that has a lot of aggressive strategies that output a lot of damage early. The removal is a huge strength of our deck and one of the reasons we can compete with a lot of the decks in the format that have good matchups with us. Feign Death
and Supernatural Stamina
and the various other effects like it are great for the deck as well. Being able to re-ETB a creature that is about to die to remove or save a creature that we want to keep on the battlefield, these cards are cheap and really help with the overall gameplan; whether we use these more offensively or defensively, they are amazing pieces of utility for the deck. We have a lot more card draw at sorcery speed, but we do have Blood Pact
, which is pretty strong and a great way to dig for removal or some of our cheaper cards.
Sorceries:
We have quite a bit of card draw at sorcery speed, while sadly we don’t have a ton of “fast” card draw we can typically keep our hand pretty full, which is key for this deck as we always want to have removal or something to do on our turn and our opponents turn, Pauper EDH has a lot of surprise power-swings within the games so being able to draw into those answers beyond the card draw from our turn is quite strong. Syphon Mind
is one of my favorite cards in the deck and allows us to hurt our opponent’s hands further while allowing us to fill up ours; this can be a very big swing, especially if we have been making our opponents discard previously.
Artifacts:
There aren’t a ton of notable cards within our artifact package; since you’ve already seen the decklist, I assume you are questioning why we are running Arcane Signet
in a mono-black deck. I can promise you it is on purpose and quite good; we have a decently high mana-curve in the deck and cheap mana rocks that can help us get ahead, and help to remove some of the drawback of mono-black, and help us cast our bigger and better cards sooner, that’s the main reason we are running all of these rocks, I typically look for at least one rock in hand, it is always different and a good hand with no rock does not mean it’s not a keep but having it can help us a ton in the early-game.
Enchantments:
I typically run into a lot of aggressive decks within my meta so Ill-Gotten Inheritance
is a good way to swing some life back to us and continuously chip away at our opponents, being able to sacrifice for four damage and life can be a big swing and in testing I ended multiple games with this, this is a card that can provide quite a bit of value throughout the game and is certainly worth the mana investment. Shade's Form
is protection for the equipped creature, which is usually one of our strong creatures like Gray Merchant and can allow them to output a ton of damage or win a combat situation they normally would not win; this card does a ton for only three mana and is a great asset to have at any stage of the game, while it isn’t amazing in the early-game it shines in the mid-late game when we have extra mana laying around. Oubliette
is another card that I always include in mono-black; it really is a perfect piece of removal and a great way to take care of commanders.
Land Base:
Our landbase is not very interesting; we have card draw within it, which can be great if we are low on cards and are looking for removal or pretty much anything. Being in mono-black lends us to have a very simple landbase consisting mostly of swamps; there isn’t many lands we look for our hope to draw utility lands like Mortuary Mire
and Witch's Cottage
are great examples of strong pieces of utility we would like to have, but it doesn’t change the overall gameplan and isn’t a big deal if we never see them in the game, as long as we can hit four or five lands consistently we can cast most of the deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We can consistently re-ETB creatures, allowing us to force our opponents to sacrifice creatures, discard cards, and make our opponents lose life.
- Our commander is quite resilient because they are decently cheap and can be cheaply regenerated.
- We are packing a lot of removal in our deck, allowing us to remove the biggest and baddies our opponents have.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We aren’t a graveyard deck entirely, but we have quite a few cards that interact with the graveyard, so graveyard hate like Bojuka Bog
can hurt us a lot. - Decks that play very few creatures or focus more on spell-slinging can be tough matchups for us.
- We are not that fast, especially in the early game, and aggro decks can do a lot of damage to us before we get set up.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Welcome back to TNT! Appreciate your being patient on our summer hiatus, and I hope you enjoy this deck. I have built an absolute ton of mono-black decks within my day, but this one feels fresh and different, and this is one of the coolest mono-black decks out there, but hey, that’s just my opinion! Do you have a Skull Collector deck? We’d love to see your list, we have a ton of awesome new deck techs and top tens coming so stay tuned! As always, Thanks so much for your support!