STARDEW_VALE'S GUIDE TO EREBOS, BLEAK-HARTED ARISTOCRATS EDH
Welcome to this very quick guide to Erebos, Bleak-Hearted. This decklist is just a very straightforward aristocrat list, and being in mono black we have all the resources to make it work efficiently and, most of all, with relative simplicity. As you will notice, I divided this deck into specific cathegories in order to simplify the structure of the deck and to better understand the functioning and game plan.
GAMEPLAY
The plan we will follow with this deck is very simple. We put creatures onto the battlefield, we use them in many ways on order to advance our game and build up to a certain good boardstate full of all the elements we need to win, and then use the power of cards like Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist in order to drain all of our opponents and win through both pure aristocrat attrition (constant pinging/draining throughout many turns) or set up a board that lends itself to some kind of damage-based combo (either easily repetable or, in some specific case, infinite). In order to make this happen, we need only three elements: SAC OUTLETS, FODDERS AND DAMAGE DEALERS. This cathegories will be explained later on in depth.
COMMANDER
But what does our commander do in this strategy? Why choosing him and not other, more popular options? Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is basically there to offer a lot of support to the strategy, mainly by turining every creature we sacrifice into a card we draw, at just the cost of two life points. Remember that we can mitigate this by using some of our DRAINERS (all of them have effect like Zulaport Cutthroat ) and having two of them on the field will make this operation completely free. Having card draw in the commandzone is always good, but having on an indestructible enchantment (which will never really leave the battlefield) and linked to the main mechanics around which the whole deck revolves is just really, really good. Keep also in mind that our commander triggers whenever one of our creature dies, so boardwipes, removals, or even blocking enemy creatures will count, turing these potentially bad situation into "good" ones for us (or better, at least, with respect to our opponents). At last, I should mention that the sacrifice ability of our commander is not very efficient, but is always good to have access to a sac outlet, especially with the added flexibility of turing sacrificed ceratures into removal and card draw at the same time. All things considered, Erebos is a really strong pick at the helm of an aristocrat strategy.
SAC OUTLETS
The rule here is simple. Sac outlets should be either free in cost and instant speed, like Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer or have some benefit which is important to the deck strategy, like Spawning Pit or Disciple of Griselbrand. Adding some more cards that gain you life when sacrificing would be a good things, but there is no other card like that currently, at a competitive CMC and ability activation cost.
FODDERS
We need some cannon fodder in order to make the aristocrat strategy work and we have two different kinds here. The first one consists in TOKEN MAKERS like Sling-Gang Liutenant or Chittering Witch , creatures that offer many bodies when entering the battlefield, and idealy will also provide some way to sacrifice them. This are also ideal targets for reanimations or other sheenaningans, like Mimic Vat. The second kind is just composed of Reassembling Skeleton and is various cousins, which have the great benefits to be casted again and again from the graveyard after being sacrificed. Keep in mind that it's difficult to loop continuously like we would do in Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker , so many of these picks will not be exactly the best ones, but are the more efficient we can afford with this commander and strategy.
DRAINERS
The core of the deck. All of our sacrifice operations end up beinf transformed in asymmetrical damage to our opponents. Just keep in mind that Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble are special in this regard, as they don't do damage to all opponents but also trigger on every creatures that dies on the battlefield. Also, remember that Ayara, First of Locthwain works in reverse, as it activates on black creatures entering the battlefield. Drainers are the win condition of this deck, so we carry a bunch of them and we want to be sure to prioritize recursion on these cards rather then other targets. Speaking of win cons, we are of course making great use of Great Merchant of Asphodel , as our board will be flooded with black mana pips.
SUPPORT TO THE STRATEGY
The rest of the deck is basically trying to support the main strategy by granting us card or mana advantage and ways to interact with our opponents and problematic pieces on their board. We need many cards to make our main strategy flow wihtout problems, so certain areas (like interaction) are a bit more lacking then I would like them to be.
DRAW
Even if we have built-in card draw on our commander which is readily available (thanks to low cmc and indestructibility on an enchantment) we need some more draw that is not that expensive, as 2 life point can add up very easily when we sacrifice a lot of creatures. Endless Atlas is an example of a draw surce which does not depend on our strategy, good for when we are a bit behind on board state or after boardwipes, while creatures like Grim Haruspex , Morbid Opportunist or Skullclamp are here to augment the draw capability linked to our main plan. Cards like Vampiric Rites or Dockside Chef are a perfect blend between sac outlets and draw engines that we want to advance our strategy.
INTERACTION
Our interaction package is kind of limited and also a bit dependent on many conditions, but we carry it anyways (because of my need for reactive play and felxibility). We use super cheap removal as Defile or Tragic Slip, great for very problematic targets (like indestructible creatures) , Feed the Swarm for the aforementioned flexibilty and a couple of boardwipes in the form of Decree of Pain and Mutilate. In this cathegories there are much more powerful alternatives, but they come at a great monetary price. I would also consider Grave Pact and Butcher of Malakir as suital interaction or boadwipes, given our main strategy based on sacrificing creatures, and are too good to pass on anyways.
RAMP
Fairly straighforward mana rock package with things like Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Commander Sphere or Mind Stone. Just keep in mind that we need some colored mana for many of our spells. I would also add in this cathegory ramp cards that synergize with our sac strategy, like Pitiless Plunderer. Of course we also need to mention cards like Cabal Stronghold , Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Caged Sun which are mono black staples to make our mana go brrrr real fast.
RECURSION
Recursion is important in any aristocrat deck. Here we carry a light recursion package, and we need to prioritize these spells on very specific targets, the ones which will have the more impact. We both have cards like Dread Return or Victimize , which are targeter reanimations for special pieces, and mass reanimation like Thrilling Encore for responding to boardwipes which are really problematic for us. Special mention goes to Nim Deathmantle which is one card that easily loops and combos off with many cards.
COMBOS
ALTAR + DEATHMANTLE
In the current list, there is only one type of infinite combo, which is based on infinite looping. It's easilly done with Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle and a creature that gives us two or more bodies on entering the battlefield as Sling- Gang Liutenant. Sacrificing 2 creatures to altar gives us 4 mana, which can be used to pay for deathmantle's equip ability to take the creature making tokens back to the battlefield. In this way we can have infinite creatures entering the battlefield, which means infinite damage if we have one of the many Zulaport Cutthroat iteraitions, and also infinite tokens if the token maker gives us more that 2 bodies upon entering the battlefiled, which means exponentially more and more mana from the altar.
OTHER OPRIONS
Another clear option is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion. Works as above but based on converting +1/+1 counters into damage.
ALTERNATIVE WIN CONDITIONS
If we really focus on the mana production thanks to combo or more mana doublers (adding Cabal Coffers, Nircana Revenant and Crypt Ghast ) we can use Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate to end games quickly.
DESCRITPION WILL CONTINUE SOON
