{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"K'rrikback Bog"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"A vast expanse of swampland that men never dare enter"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Introduction"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nOur commander for this deck, K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, has an ability that allows us to pay black pip mana costs in any cost of a card with life instead, which is neat. Unfortunately, that means we'll rapidly be killing ourselves every turn in order to pay those costs. Enter left, life gain. Mono black is pretty bare as far as raw life gain goes, so we'll be intertwining life drain and life link synergies in order to keep ourselves alive, while we drain all our opponents. We also have kind of a vampire tribal sub theme going on in this deck as well, since they carry the bulk of life gain and life drain cards.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Strategy"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nMain strategy here is giving our opponents that good suck. Before the suck can begin, however, we'll need to get some mana. We have some good ramp options in this deck that synergize pretty well with our strategy. Pristine Talisman and Paradise Plume will heal us as well as give us mana, and Bontu's Monument, The Darkness Crystal, and Cloud Key each reduce our creature costs by one. Cards like Nirkana Revenant and Bubbling Muck allow us to double our mana for each swamp and Heraldic Banner gives us an anthem buff for our black creatures. \n\nOnce we have our mana, its time to play some creatures. Cards like Marauding Blight-Priest, Blood Artist, Starscape Cleric, or Creeping Bloodsucker are all low mana cost and will drain opponents life total and heal us passively during normal gameplay, so we'll want to get them out quickly to make the most use of them. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Sanguine Bond are also low cost, and are required for a number of our two cards combos, so we'll want them out quickly as well. About 20% of the deck is lifelink creatures or lifegain enablers, so once we have our cards out on the field that drain opponents when we gain life, we'll want to get them out and put them to work. Vampire Nighthawk, Grimdancer, and Nighthawk Scavenger are workhorses in this deck. With the commander out, they're one mana cost each, and Menace, Lifelink, and Deathtouch is a brutal combination. Our opponents will be unlikely to block them, if they even can, and will be likely waste their removal to get rid of them, freeing us up to safely send in our real threats later on. \n\nThe fun thing about this commander is that anything with only black pips in its cost can be sent out for free. Cards like Morlun, Devourer of Spiders, Gifted Aetherborn, or Vampire of the Dire Moon are free, along with most of the removal in this deck. Archenemy's Charm, Consuming Corruption, and Defile can all be cast with life, which means we don't have to be a stickler about leaving mana left over at the end of our turns. Ramp cards like Dark Ritual and Bubbling Muck are also free. Cards with X in the mana cost like Profane Command, Erebos's Intervention or Exsanguinate can have the upfront cost paid for. The best part of this, is that we're not limited on only paying mana costs for cards with life either. \n\nOnce we have our lifelink creatures out and our life drain cards out. We can swing at our opponents for damage, which will heal us, which will drain our opponents further. \n\nCombos"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Thrashing Wumpus + Rush of Vitality"},{"insert":"\n\nThrashing Wumpus might not look like much of a threat. Its a 5 drop 3/3 with a single mana ability that does one damage to each creature and player. Its not even able to use it more than 3 times in a turn without killing itself, which on the surface might seem pretty bad. Why would we have it in this deck? Well, funny thing about Thrashing Wumpus, is that its mana ability can be paid with a black pip. Because of this, we can pay with life instead of mana. To make this even better, we can also give it indestructible and lifelink. In its ability description, it says that 'Thrashing Wumpus' deals the 1 damage to each player and creature, which means that damage triggers lifelink and heals us back the damage it deals to us and then some. If we make it indestructible it also doesn't die from the damage it does to itself. Because we're paying the mana cost with health, and healing that health back from lifelink and its ability is not a tap ability, we can literally spam it infinitely. This will kill every creature on the board, and every other player. Thrashing Wumpus won't even be able to be removed with traditional destruction removal spells. How would we give it both indestructible and lifelink? There's a card that does both: Rush of Vitality. \n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Bloodthirsty Conqueror + <Vito or Sanguine Bond or Marauding Blight-Priest or Starscape Cleric> "},{"insert":"\n\nKind of a boring combo, but effective nonetheless. Bloodthirsty Conqueror allows us to gain life when opponents lose life and any of the 4 second cards for this combos listed above make opponents lose life when we gain life. Infinite life gain/loss ensues. All of these cards are relatively low cost, with the highest being 5, so this combo can be achieved within the first 4-6 turns if we're lucky enough to draw it, or lucky enough to draw Emeritus of Woe, which is a repeatable tutor. \n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Blood Tribute"},{"insert":"\n\nOne of the great things about having so many vampires in this deck is how easily and early it is to get this combo out. Blood Tribute's kicker cost can be paid for by tapping an untapped vampire. The opponent will lose half their life, and we will gain that much life, which will cause the opponent to lose the other half of their life because of Vito. This isn't a definitive kill about half the time, since Blood Tribute's life loss is rounded up, so if a player has an odd life total, they will still live at 1 health. \n"}]}