Xiahou Dun, Tutors Ahoy!

[BlackVise]

This deck started off as an all out combo deck, looking to combo out quite early in the game with disruption to back it up and protect your combo pieces. Whilst it worked incredibly well when it did combo out, I found it far too unreliable and found myself at the mercy of my draws too much.

I've since taken the deck more a combo/control route, with lots of pillow fort elements, lots of removal, and most importantly - TONS of tutors.

Commander (1):
1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Board Control (19):
1x Maze of Ith
1x Sinkhole
1x Drain Life
1x Consume Spirit
1x Terror
1x Ashes to Ashes
1x Oubliette
1x Contagion
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Faceless Butcher
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Triskelion
1x Reiver Demon
1x Forcefield
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Rain of Daggers
1x Curse of the Cabal

Card Draw (11):
1x Night's Whisper
1x Sign in Blood
1x Promise of Power
1x Moonlight Bargain
1x Skullclamp
1x Bottled Cloister
1x Graveborn Muse
1x Bloodgift Demon
1x Necropotence
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Null Profusion

Tutors (9):
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Dimir Machinations
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Demonic Collusion
1x Expedition Map
1x Journeyer's Kite
1x Dimir House Guard
1x Fleshwrither
1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Discard (4):
1x Duress
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Hymn to Tourach
1x Distress

Recursion (7):
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Reanimate
1x Footsteps of the Goryo
1x Dread Return
1x Corpse Dance
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Acceleration (5):
1x Dark Ritual
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Wayfaerer's Bauble
1x Extraplanar Lens
1x Bog Witch

Miscellaneous (6):
1x Temporal Extortion
1x Ivory Tower
1x Exsanguinate
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Library of Leng
1x Guardian Beast

Mana Base (39):
1x Lotus Petal
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Mind Stone
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Phyrexian Totem
1x Strip Mine
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Reliquary Tower
1x High Market
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Desert
1x Crystal Vein
1x Vesuva
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Ebon Stronghold
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
21x Swamp

A few of the best plays and combos in the deck:

• Corpse Dance -> Xiahou Dun - This is an incredibly efficient recursion engine, giving us access to Regrowth with buyback, not bad!
• Curse of the Cabal - One of the most effective cards in the deck, this can absolutely annihilate an opponent's board position. This is one of the most common recursion targets in the deck.
• Temporal Extortion - Recur this for multiple extra turns or a lot of direct damage to your opponent.
• Null Profusion + Library of Leng/Reliquary Tower - Play no hand limit cards after Null Profusion to give you a very potent draw engine.
• Ensnaring Bridge + Bottled Cloister - You draw an extra card during your upkeep and no one else can attack. This is one of the most useful combos in the deck.
• Mikaeus the Unhallowed + Triskelion - Infinite damage. I don't particularly enjoy using this combo but it's good to have as a back up win condition if you're in too bad a position to win in any other way.
• Guardian Beast - This deck really relies on its artifacts, so this guy helps you keep them in play! If you can recur him he creates somewhat of a lock with Nevinyrral's Disk.
• Exsanguinate/Drain Life/Consume Spirit - These are the deck's main conditions. You can generate a lot of mana with Extraplanar Lens, Urborg, Tombof Yawgmoth, and Cabal Coffers, so these are easy to use effectively. You can also recur them for use in small bursts rather than one big spell.
• Necropotence + Ivory Tower + Library of Leng/Reliquary Tower - Allows you to draw a huge amount of cards every turn.

Cards I'm looking to add when I can get a hold of them:

Vampiric Tutor
Sensei's Divining Top
Scroll Rack
Deserted Temple
Liliana of the Dark Realms

Any thoughts or feedback on this deck would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[withmangone]

I also run XD, but my playgroup disallowed tutors. It's funny how very different our decklists are I think I'll 'borrow' the triskelion/mikeus combo!

A few goodies that might fit well somewhere in your list:

pillow fort- imp's mischief, dystopia, arena of the ancients, mindslicer
misc- rings of brighthearth
recursion- chainer dimentia master, grim discovery
fun alternative win-cons: sadistic sacrament, nightmare incursion

The only thing I would definitely change out is terror for doom blade or (more likely) go for the throat. Beyond that I like your list a lot. It's hard for me to offer too much constructive criticism though- a lot of your choices would be a bit bland in my slower XD deck, but I can't comment on their efficacy in a faster, tutor-centric build.

[BlackVise]

I also run XD, but my playgroup disallowed tutors. It's funny how very different our decklists are I think I'll 'borrow' the triskelion/mikeus combo!

A few goodies that might fit well somewhere in your list:

pillow fort- imp's mischief, dystopia, arena of the ancients, mindslicer
misc- rings of brighthearth
recursion- chainer dimentia master, grim discovery
fun alternative win-cons: sadistic sacrament, nightmare incursion

The only thing I would definitely change out is terror for doom blade or (more likely) go for the throat. Beyond that I like your list a lot. It's hard for me to offer too much constructive criticism though- a lot of your choices would be a bit bland in my slower XD deck, but I can't comment on their efficacy in a faster, tutor-centric build.

Thanks for the kind words. I've had to build mine to be quite fast and tutor based due to the nature of my playgroup, there are some very fast and overwhelming decks for me to deal with, but in a slower meta I'd like to play it a bit slower.

I REALLY want to find room for Chainer in this list! I haven't got a spare copy of him at the moment, but when I do he'll be going in, so thanks for suggesting that. How do you think Grim Discovery compares to a straight up reanimation spell like Animate Dead? I've thought of running one or the other for a while but I'm rather undecided at the moment.

Sadistic Sacrament is another card I really like the look of. My list's getting quite tight but I'll see if I can find space for one.

As for Terror vs Go for the Throat - GtfT is definitely better, and if I ever run this in a tournament I'll likely swap the two. The reason I'm running Terror instead is just because I've got a rather lovely looking Alpha one. Good catch though!

Thanks for the feedback.

[zimagic]

I would have thought that Entomb, and to a lesser extent Buried Alive or Corpse Connisseur, would be good in a Xiahou Dun deck. Sure they are situational based on the volume of graveyard hate in your meta but there's the potential for some savage set-ups with Buried and Entomb essentially becomes an instant DT for  .

Null Profusion is gutsy but I like it with your general though Lightning Greaves would probably be a great idea both as general protection and getting things into someone's face the turn they come into play. Given you play Ziahou Dun, they are likely to be a relevant player in a lot of situations as opponents need to work overtime to get rid of them. It's hard to know what will or won't work in any given deck without complete information on your meta, however the presence of any token decks should boost things like Plague Spitter (over faceless butcher unless your planning on butchering your own creatures as wrath protection) and I've seen Rancid Earth do things to tables that Sinkhole can only ever dream of.

Though, speaking of dreaming, your list is one delicious trip back in time. I like it.

[BlackVise]

Thanks, zimagic!

Entomb/Buried Alive/Corpse Connoisseur - I've really been considering trying Entomb out and I think it's time I give it a try, so thanks for giving me the nudge to do so!

Null Profusion - I've got to admit, when I added this to the deck it was kind of for a joke and I expected it to be awful. However, it's actually been incredible. I run a lot of Phyrexian Arena effects, so the skip your draw phase part isn't too much of a problem, and it works really well with Ensnaring Bridge for a lock, or Library of Leng/Reliquary Tower for a draw engine.

Lightning Greaves - This deck doesn't actually attack much, and Xiahou Dun rarely stays in play for more than one turn, so I'm not sure how much use they would be. If I find myself with an empty slot in the deck though I'll give them a try.

Rancid Earth - This was actually in the deck until recently! Originally I had geared the deck much more towards 1v1 matches, so I had a few more land destruction cards, but I've since started playing more multiplayer games, meaning that the land destruction element became quite weak a lot of the time.

As for my meta, it's mostly creature based aggro with very few tokens (in fact, I don't think there are any dedicated token decks being played at the moment), plus the occasional Stax deck, which is why I opted for the pillowfort route.

Thanks for the feedback!

[withmangone]

How do you think Grim Discovery compares to a straight up reanimation spell like Animate Dead? I've thought of running one or the other for a while but I'm rather undecided at the moment.

The Grim Discovery in my deck is less of an Animate Dead slot, and more of a Crucible of Worlds/Petrified Field slot. I like to double up on land recursion so I always have access to my Cabal Coffers/Buried Ruin. I think the only reason I mentioned it is that it can be really good in this type of deck, but it's easy to overlook since it's just a common lol.

[BC]

You could also play the Buried Alive/Necrotic Ooze/Triskelion/Phyrexian Devourer combo.  I have it in my Balther, the Defiled deck.  With all of your tutors it should be pretty easy to assemble.

[BlackVise]

How do you think Grim Discovery compares to a straight up reanimation spell like Animate Dead? I've thought of running one or the other for a while but I'm rather undecided at the moment.

The Grim Discovery in my deck is less of an Animate Dead slot, and more of a Crucible of Worlds/Petrified Field slot. I like to double up on land recursion so I always have access to my Cabal Coffers/Buried Ruin. I think the only reason I mentioned it is that it can be really good in this type of deck, but it's easy to overlook since it's just a common lol.

I'm not sure if Crucible of Worlds would make it redundant, but it definitely seems a good inclusion. I'll see if I can find a slot for it plus Buried Ruin.

You could also play the Buried Alive/Necrotic Ooze/Triskelion/Phyrexian Devourer combo.  I have it in my Balther, the Defiled deck.  With all of your tutors it should be pretty easy to assemble.

I've actually just cut Triskelion, as the combo with Mikaeus was like playing the game on easy mode. I could put together a sideboard of cards like those for the sake of tournaments though, when I would want instant win combos.

Any thoughts on Mindless Automaton? It seems a powerful draw engine.

I'm also looking for some recursion for my artifacts at the moment, so any suggestions on that would be welcomed.

[BlackVise]

So I've been working on this deck pretty much constantly since my last post and it's come along quite a way. If anyone's interested I can update my deck list in the first post.

However, I'm currently looking for a way to take advantage of Doomsday in this beast! The idea obviously is to resolve Doomsday and win within the next turn, but without access to blue it becomes quite difficult. The only pile I can think of so far is:

Moonlight Bargain,
Triskelion,
Mikaeus the Unhallowed,
Animate Dead,
Dance of the Dead.

However, there have to be more viable piles than that! So I ask you, the great minds of TMD, what other piles are available in mono black?

[withmangone]

Moonlight bargain/whatever draw spell, bloodchief ascension, mindcrank, contagion engine, myojin of night's reach. Requires roughly a billion mana
Sanguine bond, exquisite blood, smallpox. Still very expensive.
If everyone is lowish on life, just cabal coffers+exsanguinate.
For single player there's the dark depths or helm/leyline combos.