Alpharael, StonechosenAlpharael, Stonechosen | Art by Kieran Yanner

From about as early as Magic: The Gathering's initial conception, black has been the posterchild color for power at all costs. Between the infamous "Black Summer" of 1996 and amazing cards made even more iconic by celebrities, it's clear that black is all about losing something and gaining something better.

Even stories about the game, such as the manga titled Destroy All Humans, They Can't Be Regenerated, have something to say about the color.

This deck tech, based around Edge of Eternities' newest mono-black legend Alpharael, StonechosenAlpharael, Stonechosen, is another love letter to the self-serving ideas of black's oldest tenets in the color pie.

What Does Alpharael, Stonechosen Do?

Alpharael is a 3/3 Human Cleric for . He has a ward cost that forces an opponent targeting him to discard a card at random if they want that spell or ability to resolve. His most notable ability is based around the void mechanic.

Void, for those unfamiliar, is a pseudo-keyword mechanic that becomes active if a nonland permanent has left the battlefield or if a card was warped into play that turn. If you've met this condition, whenever Alpharael attacks, the defending player loses half their life, rounded up.

Immediately, we can draw some parallels to decks led by Virtus the VeiledVirtus the Veiled and Gorm the GreatGorm the Great, or to a lesser extent Phage the UntouchablePhage the Untouchable. Both of these are combat-oriented commanders with a backbreaking combat trigger, although both rely on dealing combat damage.

Alpharael is probably a little faster since his void ability triggers off of him attacking. Nevertheless, if you're a fan of either Virtus and Gorm or Phage, you'll probably really like playing with Alph.

As it stands, this deck is a black deck drawing on the more traditional mutually destructive tendencies of the color. Our general strategy with this deck is to lower life totals and not let them get any higher. This may mean our own life total as well, so if you're not a huge fan of having lower life, you might not like this deck.

But remember, life isn't just a safety net! It is also very much a resource worth spending.

Key Cards For Alpharael, Stonechosen

The two main concepts we want to explore within this Alpharael deck are as follows:

• (Safe) self-destruction
• Life total manipulation

With that, there are a great many cool cards we can use within each of these bullets to assist us in our quest for victory:

Safe Life-Loss Enablers

In this deck we run a variety of enablers to the goal of safe life payments, other forms of lifeloss, and even enablement of void. To begin, let's talk about the lifeloss route.

These cards will help us to lower our life total to a very risky degree. But, because of various safeguards we have within the deck, we should be relatively safe.

Cards like Phyrexian ProcessorPhyrexian Processor, BitterblossomBitterblossom, and Black Market ConnectionsBlack Market Connections can all get our life total down quite far for the sake of our payoffs. Beyond this, each of these specific examples also make tokens that will in most cases be able to block. The tokens are also sacrificial fodder for enabling Alpharael's void trigger.

To a similar end, we're running two important Game Changers on this list. Vampiric TutorVampiric Tutor is a rather easy card to explain here; it's a format staple in higher brackets, but it has a downside or two. Here, one of its downsides, the two life lost, is actually mitigated by the need for that effect.

Meanwhile, NecropotenceNecropotence is one of the most, if not the most, effective sources of card advantage in the format. And guess what? It costs life to accrue that card advantage! Therefore, it definitely has a home in this build.

Sacrifice Outlets

We've discussed the ways we can lose life of our own accord here. So now, let's look at what we can do with the various sacrifice outlets in this deck.

We have some more overt options that allow us to sacrifice something at will, like Carrion FeederCarrion Feeder, Umbral Collar ZealotUmbral Collar Zealot, and Blasting StationBlasting Station. For a discerning Aristocrats player, these cards should need little to no introduction.

In addition, we're running Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar, Soldevi AdnateSoldevi Adnate, and Priest of YawgmothPriest of Yawgmoth for a few mana outlets that require sacrifice. (This deck could feasibly stand to add a Phyrexian AltarPhyrexian Altar too, if there's no issue with that among your playgroup.)

Some other sacrifice outlets in the deck include the classics of Woe StriderWoe Strider and Viscera SeerViscera Seer, Blasting StationBlasting Station, and The Golden ThroneThe Golden Throne. Finally, while not an at-will outlet, this subset includes Abhorrent OverlordAbhorrent Overlord to do double duty in setting up sacrificial fodder and enabling void.

Sacrificial Payoffs

We've talked at length about the ways to set up void as well as life loss-based plays. Here are some of the payoffs for the life loss subset.

For this Alpharael deck, we'll want cards that trigger off of losing or paying life. Immediately as I built this deck, I had Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood firmly in mind. Vilis, being able to draw cards whenever we lose any amount of life, also enables various deck concepts and strategies by providing a life payment outlet that also doubles as removal.

In essence, we're paying to lose two life, draw two cards, and shrink down an opposing creature. With enough life and black mana, we're enabling void.

The deck doesn't actually run a ton of cards that pay off enabling void. Alpharael is the only one, but as he's the commander, he's pretty ever-present here.

Speaking frankly, Alph is so well-protected by his ward ability that he's all we need. It's a bit of a chore finding a place for even just one Aristocrat effect to include here. However, if you find room, this kind of card is probably an appreciated inclusion.

Life Total Manipulation

Moving on, we have to talk about life total manipulation. This is another big payoff for losing life en masse. As such, it's one of the key elements of this Commander deck. Here are a small handful of cards we can use to this effect:

• Soul ConduitSoul Conduit: part of a very small subset of cards that exchange life totals. Put simply, we want more of them in the deck than there are in the game. One in particular, Mirror UniverseMirror Universe, is very out of budget, and as such I've omitted it from this list. This leaves us with three cards with this impactful ability.
• Magus of the MirrorMagus of the Mirror: The second of these life-exchange abilities comes from Magus of the Mirror. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast created the artifact Magus cycle in 2006 with Time Spiral. As a result, Mirror Universe has a creature counterpart. Granted, you can only activate Magus of the Mirror on your upkeep. That said, with instant-speed activated abilities such as NecropotenceNecropotence available, you shouldn't be fettered by timing.
• Profane TransfusionProfane Transfusion: The third life-exchange card in this deck, Profane Transfusion is a one-0ff spell in this build. It not only exchanges two life totals among any two players, but then you create a Horror token with power and toughness equal to the difference between those life totals. How utterly gruesome!

If we have a higher life total than an opponent we want to take down, this deck also runs Plague DronePlague Drone and Tainted RemedyTainted Remedy. Both cards make it so if an opponent would gain life, including via exchange, they lose that much life instead.

This deck also runs other means to set life totals quite low. Repay in KindRepay in Kind and Sorin MarkovSorin Markov will both achieve this quite effectively. They're pretty mean effects overall, but they should do you some good here.

How Does Alpharael, Stonechosen Win?

Part of the plan with Alpharael, Stonechosen is to lull our opponents into a false sense of security through means they'll see as reckless. Paying what seems like just a smidge more life than is reasonable to opponents will mean they get confident. We still don't want to overextend our payments, because they'll get suspicious. However, if we plan these plays with surgical precision we should be able to lose the trail of our opposition long enough to hit them hard out of nowhere.

If struggling to achieve this, there are a few failsafes we can use to ensure your own security.

For one, there's Platinum AngelPlatinum Angel. This iconic card doesn't let us pay more life than we have, but it'll allow us to lose life to our heart's content. In addition there are Stunning ReversalStunning Reversal and Lich's MirrorLich's Mirror, two failsafes in case we lose. Finally, the aformentioned Warhammer 40,000 card The Golden ThroneThe Golden Throne is another last-ditch effort to evade defeat.

I've waxed poetic for a while now, so let's look at this deck list!

Alpharael, Stonechosen Commander Deck List

Conclusion

As mentioned above, this Alpharael, Stonechosen deck is a great match for players of a variety of decks. If you like K'rrik, Son of YawgmothK'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, Alpharael is a great fit. If you like Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood, Alph is your guy. Heck, even if you're a fan of Chainer, Dementia MasterChainer, Dementia Master, you'll probably really like it.

The deck will, no doubt, stir a little bit of salt into your playgroup's Commander pod, but it's a price that, like your life total, you're ideally willing to pay.

With that, I'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! Are you already planning to make an Alpharael, Stonechosen deck of your own for Commander? What inclusions do you suggest that aren't in this list, and what would you cut for them? Alternatively, are you running Alpharael in any non-Commander lists, such as in Standard? Sound off in the comments!

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