Rev, Tithe Extractor "Thanks for the Help!" Five-Color Mono-Black Theft - Plot Twist #22

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it'll tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome! I'd encourage you to check out the previous articles in the series to get a sense of the types of stories we're looking to tell.

Last time, we built a truly odd Naya lands deck that revolved around making all of our lands every basic land type helmed by Kirri, Talented Sprout, and it might be my favorite deck we've done yet. This week, we're diving into our first commander from Magic Foundations (Okay, technically from Foundations Jumpstart), and I have to admit I'm rather excited from what I've seen so far from both Foundations sets. For products that are developed with Standard, Limited, and the new player experience in mind, both Foundations sets have quite a few interesting, pushed cards for Commander. Today, we're looking at one of them in particular for our first ever mono-black Plot Twist decklist: Rev, Tithe Extractor.

How Does Rev, Tithe Extractor Work?

Rev is sort of a cross between Tymna the Weaver and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, two very pushed cards, with an extra ability, too. Let's the get the easier of Rev's two abilities out of the way first: Rev, Tithe Extractor has a triggered ability that can give target creature deathtouch until end of turn whenever you attack. Notably, Rev doesn't have to attack herself in order for this ability to trigger, so it will trigger the turn you cast Rev (as long as you do so before combat) or if you hold her back as a blocker. We'll definitely be putting this ability to good use in this week's decklist as well.

Rev's second ability reads "Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token, then look at the top card of that player's library and exile it face down. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled." Which is similar to the way that Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer's ability works, but triggers for each player you deal combat damage to, somewhat like Tymna the Weaver. This is a potentially huge source of card advantage for us with two notable drawbacks: first, it says 'cast', so we cannot play lands that are exiled this way and secondly it says nothing about paying "as though it were mana of any color", so we have to pay the full, actual mana costs of any cards we exile with Rev, Tithe Extractor's ability. The Treasures Rev creates will certainly help, but this week's deck is chock full of ways to produce mana of any color as well since we can continue to cast cards exiled this way even if Rev dies. One quick note about cards that are exiled face-down: they don't have any characteristics, so we can't use a card like Oblivion Sower to cheat lands we exile with Rev, Tithe Extractor into play. The ruling for this circumstance comes up on Oblivion Sower's Gatherer page if you want to look into it further.

If we pop over to Rev's EDHREC page, we can see that brewers seem to be leaning into mono-black good stuff with cards like Black Market Connections, Toxic Deluge, and Feed the Swarm each appearing in about 50% of Rev, Tithe Extractor decks at the time of writing. The other theme in Rev decks that immediately stuck out to me was fast ramp with Dark Ritual and Jet Medallion appearing as the two most played cards so far. Overall, it looks like Rev, Tithe Extractor decks are looking to power Rev out early and then back her up with a suite of staple black cards.

Doing the Twist

But on Plot Twist, we're not interested in doing something expected, which is why this week we're leaning all the way into both of Rev's abilities. We'll use her ability to grant a creature deathtouch in combination with creatures that have trample, like Arcbound Crusher and Demon of Loathing, or first strike, like Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Sire of Seven Deaths, to make sure our creatures connect or our opponents lose their blockers. This should give us an advantage in combat, even after the way that Foundations is changing combat damage (correct me in the comments if I'm wrong), and a steady stream of card and mana advantage from Rev's triggers.

We're also running a variety of cards like Brainstealer Dragon, Elder Brain, Staff of Eden, Vault's Key, Thieving Amalgam, and more 'theft' cards to further enable us to steal our opponents' cards and reward us for doing so. We've also carefully crafted a five-color mana base with lands like Cactus Preserve, Exotic Orchard, and Scene of the Crime to help us cast any cards we steal with Rev, Tithe Extractor.

Lastly, one thing you'll notice about this week's deck is that it's running only permanents, almost as if it was a mono-black Primal Surge deck. That's an intentional deckbuilding decision we've made this week to further play into the idea that we're going to be stealing everything from our opponents. This week's decklist is going to encourage combat (kind of like our Aurelia, the Law Above decklist from Plot Twist #3), steal our opponents' cards when our creatures connect, and then hopefully find whatever we're missing from the top of their decks.

Making Blocking Difficult

Since Rev, Tithe Extractor can grant deathtouch to one of our creatures until end of turn whenever we attack, we're going to utilize the way that deathtouch interacts with both trample and first strike to maximum benefit. If a creature has deathtouch, when it deals one point of damage to a blocker, that is considered 'lethal' damage. If that attacking creature also has trample, that means we can then assign any additional damage to other blockers and/or the defending player. I believe that will still work with how combat damage is changing with Foundations, but let me know if I'm wrong. We've got more than 10 creatures in this week's decklist with trample, including Cityscape Leveler, Clackbridge Troll, Geode Golem, and Reality Smasher to use this interaction to our benefit.

In particular, I want to highlight Arcbound Crusher, which is poised to grow by +1/+1 every time Rev's ability triggers and whenever an artifact enters under an opponent's control as well, with cards like Bloodvial Purveyor or just Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. Phyrexian Obliterator has always had a special place in my heard because it forces our opponents to make tough choices when blocking, doubly so if we have Rev, Tithe Extractor in play. Maha, Its Feathers Night can be really polarizing as a commander, but in this deck it maximizes the damage our tramplers will do to our opponents. Soul of New Phyrexia is a serious attacking threat itself, and it doubles as a Heroic Intervention of sorts for us, something I've used to great effect in my Gandalf, Westward Voyager / Keruga, the Macrosage deck. Lastly, Wave of Rats seems like a great recursive threat that will almost always come back into play if it dies while attacking.

While we don't have quite as many creatures with first strike, we're running a few to maximize the interaction with deathtouch. Since deathtouch destroys the blocking creature when damage is dealt, a creature with deathtouch and first strike will destroy the blocking creature during the first strike combat damage effect, before a potential blocker could do damage to our attacker. Argentum Masticore shines (just as it did in our Mr. Foxglove Madness deck) because it has first strike and can turn any card in our hand into a pseudo Mortality Spear. Drana, Liberator of Malakir can help buff the rest of our team every time it connects, Nekrataal adds to our removal suite, and the new Sire of Seven Deaths seems like a difficult-to-remove threat that will cause headaches for our opponents.

Stealing Wins and Answers

Since we're running all permanents in this deck and really leaning into the 'theft' theme, we'll want to make sure we have ways to steal cards aside from Rev, Tithe Extractor. Apple of Eden, Isu Relic is a really interesting way to turn an opponent's hand against them if they've drawn a bunch of cards with, say, Rhystic Study or Mystic Remora. It was one of the final cards cut from our Mono-White Templar Knight deck, so I'm glad to see it found a home in this week's Plot Twist decklist because winning with your opponents' full grips of cards always makes for a memorable game. Brainstealer Dragon, Thieving Amalgam, and Thieving Varmint all come from the Grand Larceny precon that was released earlier this year with Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and they'll help us continually steal and cast our opponents' cards. Court of Locthwain helps us steal and cast cards from our opponents while introducing the monarch mechanic (we're also running Custodi Lich and Coveted Jewel for similar reasons) to further incentivize the other players to continue to attack. 

In general, our hope is to cast Rev, Tithe Extractor early and start stealing our opponents' cards. While we can't play lands that Rev exiles, the Treasures she makes will certainly help us color fix alongside our rather unusual mana base. While we shouldn't rely on drawing any specific card from our opponents' decks, I do want to highlight a rather unique interaction with Rev and Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire: because Varragoth's boast ability can target any player, we can team up with an opponent to tutor a specific card to the top of their deck, exile it with Rev, Tithe Extractor's triggered ability, then cast it to help deal with a mutual problem. Admittedly, that's a lot of hoops for us to jump through, but if a third player is poised to win the game on their turn, this gives us a really memorable way to get ourselves out of a jam! If you've ever used Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire as a political tool, I'd love to hear about it in the comments, because this seems like a very Plot Twist-style card.

Five-Color Fixing in a Mono-Black Deck

Since Rev, Tithe Extractor requires us to pay the actual mana cost of the cards we exile with her ability, we've had to build a rather unusual mana base and suite of mana rocks. Like I mentioned in the intro, we're not running Jet Medallion or Dark Ritual-type cards for this very reason, but it also means *gasp* we're not playing Sol Ring either. We've also snuck in plenty of color fixing in our mana base with cards like City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Exotic Orchard, Gemstone Mine, and Vivid Marsh, to name a few. While they're a little slower or more costly, we also have color-fixing lands, like Abstergo Entertainment, Crystal Grotto, Hidden Grotto, Mirrex, Plaza of Heroes, and Scene of the Crime because they not only help us fix our colors but also add some extra utility effects into our mana base. We're even running a few creature lands in Blinkmoth Nexus, Cactus Preserve, Hive of the Eye Tyrant, Inkmoth Nexus, and Spawning Pool to give us the ability to attack and trigger Rev even if we're empty-handed.

The mana rocks in this deck are also worth taking a moment to discuss. Fellwar Stone and Myr Convert both help us make any color of mana we might need, and crucially cast Rev, Tithe Extractor on turn 3. We're also running five of the Bobbleheads from the Fallout precons: Agility Bobblehead, Charisma Bobblehead, Endurance Bobblehead, Intelligence Bobblehead, and Luck Bobblehead. In addition to fixing for all five colors, the Bobbleheads can give us haste and unblockability, extra attackers, a power buff and indestructible, card draw, or extra Treasures as we need them. You could argue that we should add the last two Bobbleheads, Perception Bobblehead and Strength Bobblehead, so that we can live the dream and win a game with a Luck Bobblehead activation, but I think those last two Bobbleheads aren't doing enough for us otherwise to merit inclusion right now. That might be wrong, winning with all seven Bobbleheads feels like a story you'll never forget.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

As always on Plot Twist, we stumbled across a few really interesting cards that are worth highlighting. Both Dalek Squadron and Banshee of the Dread Choir feel tailor-made for Rev, Tithe Extractor because the myriad copies allow us to potentially hit all three opponents with a 'single' attacker. On a similar note, Nettling Nuisance feels like it will create lots of attackers if we cast it early, especially in combination with the monarch and initiative cards that we're running. Dino DNA looks like it'll fill the role of both graveyard interaction and creating massive trampling attackers in this deck. We featured it in the decklist for Plot Twist #8 that looked to get multiple enters triggers from stealing our opponents creatures as they died, and it will hopefully provide some added utility here as well. Lastly, I'm curious if you've had any success with Staff of Eden, Vault's Key. A reanimation spell that can also draw us a bunch of cards, in this deck anyways, for six mana seems like a great way to get back into the game.

Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Rev, Tithe Extractor. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.

For those of you who are curious to see our other mono-colored decklists, here they are:

Mono-White: Plot Twist #20 - The Wandering Rescuer "Templar Knight Twiddle"
Mono-Blue: Plot Twist #5 - Nick Valentine, Private Eye "Rise and Shine, it's Millin' Time"
Mono-Red: Plot Twist #10 - Herigast, Erupting Nullkite "I've Got an Affinity for Dragons"
Mono-Green: Plot Twist #6 - Baru, Fist of Krosa "The Forests Fight Back"

I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my decklists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I've been tinkering around with my Signature Ikra/Bruse Secret Commander Wild Pair Deck lately, and really enjoying looking back at the deck now that I've gotten quite a few games under my belt with it. I'm constantly toying with new ideas like this Mono-Green 'Reanimator' Deck and Colorless Combo deck and would love to hear your thoughts on them there.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.