<h6 style="text-align: right;">( <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Plague of Vermin" href="#" target="_blank">Plague of Vermin</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="http://www.carlcritchlow.com/">Carl Critchlow</a> )</h6>
<h1><strong>The High Life</strong></h1>
<p>Greetings, everyone, and welcome back to <em>Monomania Takes on Eldraine</em>. In this article series we build mono-colored decks as a way to explore ramp and draw packages that are synergistic with our particular deck’s strategy, challenging staples and misconceptions about the color pie.</p>
<p>We’re back with more mono-colored action from <em>Throne of Eldraine</em>. Today, our commander has a penchant for mass exploitation.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ayara, First of Locthwain"></div></div>
<p>Ayara is an aggressively-costed commander; if we can build a deck that swarms the board early, the incremental drain effect that she provides could easily steal games from unwary opponents. The most powerful word in her text box is<em> '</em>each'. The fact that we can harass the whole table at once makes Ayara a truly powerful option. Even past the early waves of aggression, Ayara can maintain pressure into the late game if built to persist; by doubling down on drain effects and an Aristocrats strategy, we can easily set up an engine to win the game after fifteen turns.</p>
<p>One thing that is important to note is that Ayara would be an incredible home for a couple of infinite combos such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gravecrawler" href="#" target="_blank">Gravecrawler</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> + <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Altar" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Altar</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. While I don’t shy away from combos, generally, I don’t think that Ayara needs them. Combos are great safety valves for decks that tend to reach stalemates on board, which is a situation that will be wholly unfamiliar to our general: she is a persistent threat on an axis that largely ignores board stalls.</p>
<p>Ayara wants to extract capital from her underlings; she wants to continue exploiting creatures until we funnel every point of life from our opponents to ourselves. Now that we have a direction, let’s take a look at our ramp and draw packages.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>Channel Funds</strong></h2>
<p>We have discussed black’s big mana package twice already here on <em>Monomania</em>, and while I love <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cabal Coffers" href="#" target="_blank">Cabal Coffers</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and company, I’m leaving them at home for this article. Ayara likes to be low to the ground, casting small creatures and cycling them through the graveyard; while big mana is never bad, it isn’t quite as useful in this deck as it is in others. In the spirit of variety, let’s look at other ramp options in black.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Bontu’s Monument"></div></div>
<p>This Monument is the muscle of our deck: any game in which we draw this card will feel smooth as butter. Because we want to cast multiple creatures on certain turns, that discount will sometimes net us the equivalent three or four mana in said turn, a rate that's hard to ignore. The other half of the text here is also relevant to our strategy; while <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bontu’s Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Bontu’s Monument</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> only triggers on casting creatures, it does a decent impression of our commander. Doubling up on that effect can be extremely powerful for us, doubling the speed of our deck.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Black Market"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Pitiless Plunderer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Revel in Riches"></div></div>
<p>If everything goes to plan, quite a few creatures will die when we sleeve up this deck. These three cards are incredible ways to capitalize on this proclivity for death. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Black Market" href="#" target="_blank">Black Market</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> will continue to produce more and more mana with each turn cycle, but it restricts the use of this mana to our turn and, not only that, to our precombat main phase. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Revel in Riches" href="#" target="_blank">Revel in Riches</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pitiless Plunderer" href="#" target="_blank">Pitiless Plunderer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> both produce much less mana overall, but the mana that they do produce is more flexible, available to us whenever we want to cash out. I’ve disclosed my love of Treasure and other fragile sources of mana in this article series before, and while many players cringe at the thought of temporary ramp effects, I think they can be highly effective and skill-testing resources in EDH. Deciding how and when to scrap Treasure or Eldrazi Spawn tokens is a difficult process, but if we navigate these decision points correctly, they can make the difference between a win and a loss. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Revel in Riches" href="#" target="_blank">Revel in Riches</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is particularly appealing in this category of ramp because it can also errantly snag a win every once in a while.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Treasure Map"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sword of the Animist"></div></div>
<p>Finally, we have two miscellaneous ramp effects that fit very well into our strategies: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Treasure Map" href="#" target="_blank">Treasure Map</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> produces some of that mouthwatering Treasure for us and will also flip into another land at some point in the game, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sword of the Animist" href="#" target="_blank">Sword of the Animist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> performs well here because we'll have plenty of creatures on the board at any given time, so we won’t particularly care if they survive an attack or not.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>Life Savings</strong></h2>
<p>The card advantage package of this deck is perhaps its most exciting feature. The association between sacrifice and card draw is a time-honored and institutionalized aspect of black. As such, Aristocrat strategies suffer from an embarrassment of riches when it comes to choosing between card advantage effects, and ours is no exception.</p>
<p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Smothering Abomination"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Dark Prophecy"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="God-Eternal Bontu"></div></div></p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Smothering Abomination" href="#" target="_blank">Smothering Abomination</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is both a sacrifice outlet as well as a source of card advantage. Notice that this card triggers whenever you sacrifice any creature to any effect: if you have a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Viscera Seer" href="#" target="_blank">Viscera Seer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> on the board with this card, not only can you can draw a card for each creature you sacrifice, but you can scry before each draw as well. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dark Prophecy" href="#" target="_blank">Dark Prophecy</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is one of our more resilient card advantage engines; as an enchantment, it'll be hard to remove, and it'll often allow us to dig through our deck at a blistering pace.</p>
<p>Finally, Bontu is absurd here. Although her ETB trigger is a one-shot effect, the option to sacrifice lands or enchantments that aren’t pulling their weight in exchange for even more cards is unique and powerful in our format.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Dusk Legion Zealot"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phyrexian Rager"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Minions’ Murmurs"></div></div>
<p>We also have a few card advantage effects that leverage our minion-heavy strategy: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dusk Legion Zealot" href="#" target="_blank">Dusk Legion Zealot</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Rager" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Rager</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> both cycle themselves, an ability that is actually subtly potent in decks that want to dump creatures on the board turn after turn. These types of creatures lend resiliency to this style of deck.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Minions’ Murmurs" href="#" target="_blank">Minions’ Murmurs</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has long been a pet card of mine, and it is a <em>house</em> with Ayara. With our commander, this sorcery can casually and consistently draw us four or more cards. Give it a hard look in creature-based decks—it rarely underperforms. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Minions&#039; Murmurs" href="#" target="_blank">Minions&#039; Murmurs</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> only sees play in 153 decks on EDHREC, and somebody needs to remedy that situation.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phyrexian Reclamation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Oversold Cemetery"></div></div>
<p>The last pieces of our card advantage package are two effects that can fish cards out of our graveyard. This deck relies on a few high-impact creatures that can close out a game on their own. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gray Merchant of Asphodel" href="#" target="_blank">Gray Merchant of Asphodel</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, for example, will end games early if reliably recurred from the graveyard. On a board with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Reclamation" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Reclamation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gray Merchant of Asphodel" href="#" target="_blank">Gray Merchant of Asphodel</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ashnod’s Altar" href="#" target="_blank">Ashnod’s Altar</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, we can loop our Gary incessantly for a total of five mana every time. There are several other important creatures to recur here as well—from <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blood Artist" href="#" target="_blank">Blood Artist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abhorrent Overlord" href="#" target="_blank">Abhorrent Overlord</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>The Deck</strong></h2>
<p>Now that we’ve examined how we’ll keep up on mana and card advantage, let’s put it all together with a decklist. While I filed off the combo edge that Ayara seems to invite, as a commander she seems powerful enough to carry a game on her own. This is always a fun position to be in; if our commander needs less support to be good, we can designate more slots to fun tech. As always, season to taste.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cauldron of Souls"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Plague of Vermin"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="God-Pharaoh’s Gift"></div></div>
<p>Among the other notable inclusions here, we have a few powerful cards adjacent to our Aristocrats strategy. First up, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cauldron of Souls" href="#" target="_blank">Cauldron of Souls</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is one of my personal favorites, acting both as board protection as well as a value engine in decks that sacrifice in bulk. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Plague of Vermin" href="#" target="_blank">Plague of Vermin</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is rightfully seeing play in 52% of Ayara decks listed on EDHREC and it's easy to see why: if we cast this card with Ayara on the battlefield, we're free to pay all of our life but one; when it resolves, each of those Rats will drain our opponents for one life. We'll end up at the same life total as before and we'll most likely destroy an opponent or two in the process.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="God-Pharaoh’s Gift" href="#" target="_blank">God-Pharaoh’s Gift</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, along with its counterpart, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gate to the Afterlife" href="#" target="_blank">Gate to the Afterlife</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, always tempt me when brewing but almost never make the final cut. It’s possible that they don’t belong here, but they seem to synergize with everything our deck wants to be doing: Gate rifles through our deck while Gift provides late-game value that can help us close out the game. Even if we only exile a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dusk Legion Zealot" href="#" target="_blank">Dusk Legion Zealot</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, making a 4/4 that draws us a card is decent value. Plus, the Zombie tokens that Gift produces are black, triggering Ayara’s ability.</p>
<p>In addition to all this, we have recursive creatures like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gutterbones" href="#" target="_blank">Gutterbones</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nether Traitor" href="#" target="_blank">Nether Traitor</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bloodghast" href="#" target="_blank">Bloodghast</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to ensure we always have fodder for our aristocrats. Finally, mass resurrection effects like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Twilight’s Call" href="#" target="_blank">Twilight’s Call</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can also be a game-ending swing with our commander on the battlefield.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Capital Gains" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Carrion Feeder
*1 Gutterbones
*1 Viscera Seer
*1 Blood Artist
*1 Bloodghast
*1 Butcher Ghoul
*1 Doomed Dissenter
*1 Dusk Legion Zealot
*1 Nether Traitor
*1 Orzhov Enforcer
*1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
*1 Reassembling Skeleton
*1 Zulaport Cutthroat
*1 Burnished Hart
*1 Fleshbag Marauder
*1 Grim Haruspex
*1 Merciless Executioner
*1 Midnight Reaper
*1 Phyrexian Rager
*1 Plaguecrafter
*1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
*1 Chittering Witch
*1 Demonlord of Ashmouth
*1 Falkenrath Noble
*1 Pitiless Plunderer
*1 Sengir Autocrat
*1 Smothering Abomination
*1 Solemn Simulacrum
*1 Vindictive Vampire
*1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
*1 God-Eternal Bontu
*1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
*1 Ogre Slumlord
*1 Grave Titan
*1 Abhorrent Overlord
[/Creatures]
[Instants]
*1 Dark Bargain
*1 Moonlight Bargain
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Minions&#039; Murmurs
*1 Mutilate
*1 Living Death
*1 Twilight&#039;s Call
*1 Plague of Vermin
*1 Rise of the Dark Realms
[/Sorceries]
[Artifacts]
*1 Skullclamp
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Wayfarer&#039;s Bauble
*1 Sword of the Animist
*1 Treasure Map
*1 Ashnod&#039;s Altar
*1 Bontu&#039;s Monument
*1 Gate to the Afterlife
*1 Cauldron of Souls
*1 God-Pharaoh&#039;s Gift
[/Artifacts]
[Enchantments]
*1 Phyrexian Reclamation
*1 Oversold Cemetery
*1 Dark Prophecy
*1 Grave Pact
*1 Tombstone Stairwell
*1 Black Market
*1 Dictate of Erebos
*1 Open the Graves
*1 Revel in Riches
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Barren Moor
*1 Bojuka Bog
*1 Cabal Stronghold
*1 Crypt of Agadeem
*1 Desert of the Glorified
*1 Memorial to Folly
*1 Mortuary Mire
*1 Myriad Landscape
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
*1 Polluted Mire
*23 Swamp
*1 Volrath&#039;s Stronghold
*1 Westvale Abbey
*1 Witch&#039;s Cottage
*1 Zoetic Cavern
[/Lands]"></span></div>

<hr />
<p>Have you all taken a gander at Ayara? Am I doing her a disservice by excluding the pertinent combos? When it’s all set and settled, who will be more popular—her or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syr Konrad, the Grim" href="#" target="_blank">Syr Konrad, the Grim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>? Let me know in the comments below! As always, remember to EDHREC responsibly: always dig a little beyond the statistics. I’ll see you all on down the road.</p>


gate to the afterlife

Monomania Takes on Eldraine – Capital Gains