(Salvaging Station | Art by Greg Staples)

A Green Mono-Black Deck

Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of Hidden Strings, the article series where we build decks whose commanders are creature versions of overcosted, overcosted Demonic Tutors.

For today's deck, recycling will be the name of the game, as we're going to build a machinery that runs on biofuel and extracts precious materials from jewelry and knickknacks scraps:

The Value Train Is Leaving the Station

Like every other section of the Fifth Dawn assembly line, Salvaging Station oozes with game-winning combo potential, and its high mana value is arguably what held it back the most with respect to the cheaper departments of the factory. While this is something to be mindful of, we can turn it into an advantage by setting slower and more sustainable goals for this wing of the facility: in fact, barring infinite combos, the recursion of cheap trinkets can be much more valuable than simply milling or pinging.

Indeed, there are many artifacts with mana value one or less that provide all sort of desirable effects. The first thing to consider in narrowing down the options is that permanents which need to be sacrificed as part (or as a result) of their activation are the most useful ones, since they can be recycled by the Station without additional support. Within this subset, we can then start looking for the obvious categories: mana advantage, card advantage and interaction.

The best card in the deck is probably Lotus Bloom, which turns into a literal (and reusable) Black Lotus once the Station is on the field. Next in line is a group of cards that we've encountered in my previous article: bad one-mana cantrips, which always overperform when you can get additional copies/uses for free. Lastly, a couple niche interaction pieces, like Soul-Guide Lantern and Executioner's Capsule, can go a long way in a deck that runs a universal tutor in the command zone, making it very easy to find its silver bullets.

Building the Facility

Now that we have a clear production plan, the first step will of course be to build the required structures and machinery, a task that turns out to be quite demanding in terms of mana investment.

Worn Powerstones and Thran Dynamos (usually acquirable through the Black Market) are valid power sources for this purpose, and a thorough exploration of the area surrounding the site might also lead to reserves of natural energy that can be exploited during the process.

Of course, a lot of manpower will be needed, and, given the complex and dangerous nature of the labor, a natural inclination to self-sacrifice will be the most desirable trait among potential contractors.

Powering the Plant

Once the Station is up and running, being able to reap the rewards of recycling is still dependent on the presence of an efficient infrastructure that can sustain the operating costs and maximize the production output.

The technology that makes this possible is a special kind of biofuel that's extracted from the corpses of freshly dead creatures. Luckily, between selective diseases, deliberate use of violence, and unholy rituals, black mages have their fair share of ways to keep the death rate high around them, often needing to find inventive ways to swarm the battlefield with enough creatures for them to harvest.

This is precisely the reason why a whole section of our deck will be devoted to ensuring that the board is always crowded with enough warm bodies to start the occasional massacre, whether that'll be on our side of the field, on our opponents', or both.

Profit

Assuming that everything goes according to plan, we should soon find ourselves as the lucky owners of a Rube Goldberg/perpetual motion machine hybrid that produces creatures in order to kill them, in order to recur artifacts, in order to draw cards and add mana, in order to produce other creatures... We should then look for opportunities to insert one last component into this complex contraption so that the virtuous(?) circle described above can start generating some actual profit.

Sifter of Skulls rides the line between Pawn of Ulamog, which is still a support card, and Tormod, the Desecrator and Imotekh the Stormlord, which are actually capable of creating threatening armies. Should attacking not be an option, we can always rely on a more traditional Aristocrats approach that gradually burns our opponents while we perform our series of inconsequential game actions.

Final Parting

And there you have it! A weird mono-black build th--wait, we're not there yet! This time I'm talking about actual factual Final Parting, the card. In decks that use their graveyard as a resource, Entomb variants are pretty close to regular tutors, meaning that Final Parting, Vile Entomber, and Unmarked Grave are all great inclusions for our deck.

Profane Tutor adds a bit of redundancy to what still is a combo-based value deck, and Moonsilver Key can help us find either of our two most desirable effects in Lotus Bloom and Chromatic Sphere/Star.

Lastly, grafting undying to our commander in response to her exploit ability will allow us to sacrifice her just to bring her right back and double up on the search trigger; all for the low, low price of one mana.

Potential Upgrades

At the time of writing, this deck would set you back around $55. A few focused inclusions, like Drivnod, Carnage Dominus, Dark Prophecy, and Ashnod's Altar, can already spice up the deck at a contained price, and if you feel like splurging (or own the cards already) Krark-Clan Ironworks and Karn, Silver Golem are useful support engines that can also combine to produce game-winning loops if you're into that sort of thing.

Final Parting (For Real, This Time)

And there you have it! A weird mono-black Aristo-facts concoction that seeks to harvest dead bodies in order to harness their bioenergy and fuel a mass production of fragile jewelry.

Do you love it? Do you hate it? Let me know in the comments! And while you're at it, feel free to leave a suggestion for a card you'd want to see as a hidden commander: I'm always up for a deckbuilding challenge.

Until next time!