Mono-black is my favorite way to play Magic. My first Commander deck was built around Anowon, the Ruin Sage, and that morphed to a Sheoldred, Whispering One deck upon her release. That was a holdover from my (short) period playing Standard with Zendikar-era mono-black Vampires. It helps that, since the days of Necropotence, Mono-Black Control (MBC) has been the dream of many players who are just like I am, who love to grind out games, trade life for cards, and turn every graveyard into extensions of their hands. It almost seems cruel, doesnât it?

Hythonia doesnât mess around. Given enough mana and time (and a reasonable sacrifice effect), sheâll keep the world clear of almost every other creature on the battlefield. She also attacks with 7 powerâafter monstrosityâwhich means an opponent dies in three hits. That sounds like a good back-up plan, though first, weâre going to need a lot of mana.

Weâre going to need to draw all our lands and sweet control cards, so we have some nifty ways to make that happen. Greed is an absolute all-star (feel free to slot Erebos, God of the Dead in its place if you have one), allowing us to turn leftover mana and life (who cares about that?) into cards. Baleful Force is a Phyrexian Arena on a massive body, and Disciple of Bolas turns our recyclable creatures into piles of cards and life. Syphon Mind can be really disruptive, and it will almost always draw you cards equal to your number of opponents.

In addition to our draw engines, we have several ways to search up cards and keep the answers flowing. Traditional tutors like Diabolic Tutor, Diabolic Revelation, and Increasing Ambition are great, but the really effective ones are Fleshwrither and especially Dimir House Guard. Both cards can be returned from the graveyard for multiple goes, so we have a bunch of targets at a CMC of 4. The House Guard can fetch for you draw (Greed), a Wrath (Nevinyrral's Disk), graveyard hate (Agent of Erebos), a sac effect (Trading Post), spot removal (Faceless Butcher), recursion (Gravedigger), and so much more. Fleshwrither serves as House Guard number two, finding you the House Guard for you to return to your hand and transmute.

Avatar of Woe and Visara the Dreadful are both huge beaters and excellent spot-removal spells. Reiver Demon is a huge beast with a Plague Wind attached. Sepulchral Primordial is not only giant, but it takes away the juiciest targets in our opponentâs âyards, meaning they canât recur them (or whatever else they planned to do), and it gives them to us with which to do our dirty work. Nighthowler can be big on its own, what with all the wrathing we can do, and itâs even better bestowed on Hythonia. Soul of Innistrad beats face well all by itself; never mind that it helps us recover our fallen dudes. And Grave Betrayal , especially in combination with Hythonia or another Wrath effect, can set us up with a massive battlefield. However, there is a Plan A (and a Plan A.1, I suppose). Hereâs how it works.

Have Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar on the battlefield. Play Geralf's Messenger. Someone loses 2 life. Now sacrifice the Messenger to Ashnod's Altar. You have , and Geralf's Messenger undies, returning to the battlefield, causing another 2 life-loss to someone. Sacrifice the Messenger to the Altar again, and you have , meaning you can use Nim Deathmantle to return Geralf's Messenger to the battlefield. Do this as many times as you need to until your opponents are all dead. Plan A.1 requires more mana but probably fewer activationsâas long as you can make up the additional for each iteration, you can sacrifice Gray Merchant of Asphodel several times. Barring Oloro, Ageless Ascetic or some other random life-gain deck, normally three or four iterations (for only 8 mana!) is enough to wipe the table out. (If your playgroup doesnât like infinite combos, Iâd pull Geralf's Messenger and replace it with something else, but you want the Altar and the Deathmantle to make the deck run.)

Fleshbag Marauder works the same way as the Merchant does, but it will make everyone sacrifice their creatures for as long as you can pay Shriekmaw can be evoked and then sacrificed to the Altar in response to the evoke trigger. And Faceless Butcher has a weird rules idiosyncrasy: You can play it, which puts its first trigger (the exile one) on the stack and then sacrifice it in response. That will leave the first trigger on the stack and put the second trigger (returning the creature) on the stack on top of the first one. The second one resolves (returning nothing, because nothingâs been removed), and then the first one resolves, permanently exiling the target.

Dictate of Erebos and Butcher of Malakir turn every random sacrifice into an Innocent Blood, and Barter in Blood provides a similar effect on a sorcery. Murder and Tragic Slip serve as additional spot removal, Life's Finale is a great way to wrath the board and remove pesky Eldrazi or similar absurdity from the game, Black Sun's Zenith will even get rid of indestructible dudes and go back to your library, and In Garruk's Wake (in addition to having awesome art in both the normal and promo versions) is a mashup of Plague Wind and multiple copies of Hero's Downfall that will make any Superfriends players very sad. Vampire Hexmage also answers âWalkers and can be recurred, and Aether Snap will both kill all Planeswalkers on the board and crush the dreams of a tokens player (as well as abruptly terminate any Hydras rampaging around). Spine of Ish Sah is always great and can be sacrificed to Trading Post or Claws of Gix for another go, and Nevinyrral's Disk will get rid of most things all by itself. Agent of Erebos will take care of the graveyard of anyone else intending to abuse it, and Nezumi Graverobber is both graveyard hate and recursionâin one disgusting little Rat Wizard package.

We have a few more recursion spells with Beacon of Unrest and Disturbed Burial, which, like Soul of Innistrad, makes the rest of your creatures much more effective. Archetype of Finality and Visara are both Gorgons, so they donât die to Hythoniaâs monstrosity trigger.

Some excellent cards also were skipped due to budget. Sensei's Divining Top, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor all would be excellent early-game smoothers and tutors. Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth make so much mana itâs ridiculous. Entomb and Reanimate can lead to some truly broken first turns. Grave Pact is an auto-include if you can find one, and I like Wurmcoil Engine in decks that wrath a lot. Hero's Downfall and Slaughter Pact are great straight upgrades to Murder and Tragic Slipâor just solid additions.

The goal here is simple: Survive until you assemble one of your combos or clear the board, and beat down with Hythonia. But beware: Your friends will probably be mad at you.

Total cost: $72.63