<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Erebos, God of the Dead" href="#" target="_blank">Erebos, God of the Dead</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/bugmeyer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peter Mohrbacher</a>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable). The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it.
This week's random commander is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Erebos, God of the Dead" href="#" target="_blank">Erebos, God of the Dead</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Erebos, God of the Dead"></div></div>
We've covered a lot of mono-black commanders here on Technically Playable, from a <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/author/paul-palmer/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Balthor the Defiled Reanimator deck</a> to <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/underplayed-partner-options-for-tevesh-szat-doom-of-fools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tevesh Szat and friends</a>, and realistically, a lot of these decks end up looking the same. You have some removal, some ways to reanimate, and then some tutors to find a card like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Torment of Hailfire" href="#" target="_blank">Torment of Hailfire</a> to close the game out.
I'd like to use this article to showcase some cards from my personal <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Anrakyr the Traveller" href="#" target="_blank">Anrakyr the Traveller</a> deck that are focused around life total manipulation since Erebos also works as an excellent option to head up a deck like this.
<h2>Time To Pay the Piper</h2>
The bread and butter of this deck is paying as much life as we can without dying, so that we can then benefit from a number of powerful payoffs.
If I had my, way <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Griselbrand" href="#" target="_blank">Griselbrand</a> (my favorite card of all time) would be legal, and that would be the end of the article. Griselbrand is both a way of paying life, and the payoff. Unfortunately, we don't live in Paul's magical dream world, so we have to make do with other options.
The first thing to do is to create a DIY <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Griselbrand" href="#" target="_blank">Griselbrand</a>. There are a couple of ways of doing this. My personal favorite is using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vilis, Broker of Blood" href="#" target="_blank">Vilis, Broker of Blood</a> with a card like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necrodominance" href="#" target="_blank">Necrodominance</a> to create something close to an expensive version of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Yawgmoth&#039;s Bargain" href="#" target="_blank">Yawgmoth&#039;s Bargain</a>. Alternatively, the deck can run cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necrologia" href="#" target="_blank">Necrologia</a> which give a way to pay a one-off cost of mana to draw as many cards as you can pay life for; imagine this as the casual version of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ad Nauseam" href="#" target="_blank">Ad Nauseam</a>.
Alternatively, you can run the card that I feel doesn't get enough love (or enough abuse), <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas&#039;s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas&#039;s Citadel</a> (only in 8.15% of decks if you can believe that...). If your deck can gain life or has a payoff for losing life, you can effectively play through your entire deck, hopefully finding a way to win.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Bolas&#039;s Citadel"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Infernal Contract"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Necrologia"></div></div>
While "DIY <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Griselbrand" href="#" target="_blank">Griselbrand</a>" is one way to play this deck, there are some other routes that can also be built around. One fun way is to really go all in on the life loss. Instead of paying a few life here or a few there, aim to dump as much life as possible into individual cards. Cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Murderous Betrayal" href="#" target="_blank">Murderous Betrayal</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Infernal Contract" href="#" target="_blank">Infernal Contract</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cruel Bargain" href="#" target="_blank">Cruel Bargain</a> allow the deck to have great ways of topdecking into huge life loss to help fuel the bigger payoffs, while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Doom Whisperer" href="#" target="_blank">Doom Whisperer</a> gives a way to pay at will and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Marshland Bloodcaster" href="#" target="_blank">Marshland Bloodcaster</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="K&#039;rrik, Son of Yawgmoth" href="#" target="_blank">K&#039;rrik, Son of Yawgmoth</a> give the deck ways of cheating mana similarly to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas&#039;s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas&#039;s Citadel</a>.
And of course, no black deck would be complete without a powerful suite of removal, but when I build a deck on a theme, I go all in. Luckily, there are plenty of removal spells that care about paying life in some way. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Toxic Deluge" href="#" target="_blank">Toxic Deluge</a> is probably the most powerful of these, offering a cheap board wipe that gets around keywords like indestructible, all while allowing any amount of life to be paid to help with the payoffs mentioned below, similarly to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necrologia" href="#" target="_blank">Necrologia</a>.
While Deluge is an all-or-nothing type of card, there are also options like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Withering Torment" href="#" target="_blank">Withering Torment</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Feed the Swarm" href="#" target="_blank">Feed the Swarm</a> that have more limited life costs to them. The main upside of running these two removal spells in particular is access to enchantment removal, something that black has traditionally struggled with. While not as powerful or flexible as some of the above options, these are good utility cards that help the deck run while also offering some benefit for the deck's main focus.
<h2>Your Life Total Is a Resource</h2>
Just like mana, our life total can often be used as a resource. We've talked about how we're paying that cost above, but just like ramping turn three <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a> into turn four <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a> allows you an eight-drop on turn five, we need a way to do more with all of this life we're paying than just making it easier for the aggro player to hit us with a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Goblin Guide" href="#" target="_blank">Goblin Guide</a> until we're out of the game.
One of the best and funniest ways to utilize paying life is definitely swapping life totals. By dropping a ton of life on a spell like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necrologia" href="#" target="_blank">Necrologia</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wall of Blood" href="#" target="_blank">Wall of Blood</a>/<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necropotence" href="#" target="_blank">Necropotence</a> (definitely two cards of equal power level) the deck can use <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Profane Transfusion" href="#" target="_blank">Profane Transfusion</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul Conduit" href="#" target="_blank">Soul Conduit</a> to swap life totals and set up opponents for an easy kill. These are just the two that I have in my Anrakyr deck, but you also have <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magus of the Mirror" href="#" target="_blank">Magus of the Mirror</a> and, for those with deeper pockets than I, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mirror Universe" href="#" target="_blank">Mirror Universe</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Profane Transfusion"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Soul Conduit"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magus of the Mirror"></div></div>
And while life swapping is hilarious, you can also break out <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Repay in Kind" href="#" target="_blank">Repay in Kind</a>. Again, dump as much life as possible into a spell and then bring everyone down to the lowest life at the table - one life if you're feeling chaotic, or a more friendly five or six will finish a game quickly. This can also combo well with cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gray Merchant of Asphodel" href="#" target="_blank">Gray Merchant of Asphodel</a> since so many of your enchantments have mana costs, or even the new <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mai, Scornful Striker" href="#" target="_blank">Mai, Scornful Striker</a> from the <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/tla">Avatar</a> set.
One final way to utilize this is a bit of a cheeky one, and that's to use it in a political way. If this is the first time the deck is seeing play in a pod, the other players may not know what it's capable of. This can be used as an advantage as it allows the deck's pilot to point at the life totals in the middle of the table and say, "X player has more life than me, hit them." This might feel like cheating, but realistically, if your opponents fall for it, that's kind of on them.
This will hopefully let you set up enough pieces to prevent dying when it becomes apparent that you're a threat. Cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stunning Reversal" href="#" target="_blank">Stunning Reversal</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Golden Throne" href="#" target="_blank">The Golden Throne</a> allow a second (or third) go at closing the game out. This strategy is much riskier as you play more games. And if you win any games with this deck, you'll have to find something else to rely on.
<h2>The Supporting Cast</h2>
One really key element of this deck is that the cards are expensive to cast. A lot of the win conditions are seven or more mana, which can be a high price to pay in the world of 2025 Commander. The Anrakyr deck is fortunate enough that it can run cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Caged Sun" href="#" target="_blank">Caged Sun</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gauntlet of Power" href="#" target="_blank">Gauntlet of Power</a>, since if they're destroyed, Anrakyr simply brings them back, acting as both reanimation and life loss.
While these work with Erebos and will provide plenty of mana to repeatedly activate his own ability, this list would be much less reliant on artifact reanimation, so once they're gone, it will be much harder to return them.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cabal Coffers"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magus of the Coffers"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Command the Dreadhorde"></div></div>
In this case, it's better to look towards creature or non-artifact permanent sources of mana. Cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wayfarer&#039;s Bauble" href="#" target="_blank">Wayfarer&#039;s Bauble</a> can get more lands into play, which gives the deck some legs in the race against <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a>. Alternatively, using tutors to find the deck's powerful lands like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cabal Coffers" href="#" target="_blank">Cabal Coffers</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth" href="#" target="_blank">Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth</a> allows it to create a ton of mana for big payoffs.
The deck can also use creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magus of the Coffers" href="#" target="_blank">Magus of the Coffers</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Crypt Ghast" href="#" target="_blank">Crypt Ghast</a> as an alternative to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Caged Sun" href="#" target="_blank">Caged Sun</a>. Since this list will have cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reanimate" href="#" target="_blank">Reanimate</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Command the Dreadhorde" href="#" target="_blank">Command the Dreadhorde</a> to synergize with its life loss game plan, having the mana be tied to creatures makes the deck much more resilient against non-exile-based removal.
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Erebos, God of the Dead" href="#" target="_blank">Erebos, God of the Dead</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Erebos as the commander tick. Let me know in the comments below if you play Erebos or any of the other Theros gods as commanders, and if you liked this, check out my <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/technically-playable-phenax-god-of-deception" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phenax retrospective deck tech from last year</a>!
This is the last Technically Playable of the year, so I hope you have a lovely winter break and I'll see you in 2026 for more articles!

theros gods

Technically Playable - Erebos, God of the Dead