MTG Salvation

I've really wanted to build Xiahou Dun since I acquired an english p3k one. He's awesome on 2 levels - first, he provides recursion that mono-black can't get anywhere else, and second, he provides an almost totally unblockable general as a win condition.

This deck aims to exploits both of those features to the max.

In the early stages of the game, you want to focus on tutoring into some of the deck's powerful recursion options. Using Xiahou Dun with recursion, you can repeatedly tutor and/or wipe the board until people start to run out of gas. The recursion can also be used with kagemaro or fleshbag to remove indestructibles and the like.

Once the game is safely under control, Xiahou Dun starts using his unblockability to provide a nice quick kill. Swords are awesome, and bonehoard can just straight-up kill someone with general damage, and both are way better with fireshrieker.

You HAVE to fit in Profane Command, it's a definite must-play for ol' one eye because it recurrs him and acts as removal all at the same time.

Quote from BlackVise

Nice looking deck.

How are the equipments working out for you? With so few creatures besides XHD I get the impression that you're likely to be drawing more of them than you want in the early game.

Well I haven't tried it out yet, I just bought the cards last night and I'll be playing it either this thursday, or a week from thursday.

So keeping in mind this is theorycraft on my part, I think I'll be ok. I've got 9 reasonable targets (not counting fleshbag) for equips, and of course it's super easy to tutor for one, or recur them if they happen to get killed. Plus I can always take a break from recurring with mr. Dun for a while and let him soften people up a bit, especially if I've got other stuff I'd rather spend mana on.

I don't super want to increase the number of creatures since the deck is pretty focused on wiping the board, and I also don't really want to cut the number of equips since that's my primary wincon. All the swords are so powerful that I really doubt I'll mind jumping through a few hoops (oh darn, I had to tutor for crypt ghast so I could use my sword! if only I could have spent my time playing something that's actually POWERFUL!!! :P) to use them. fireshrieker just gets stupid with any of the swords as well, and of course lox and greaves are easy staples that provide good protection for my awesome creatures like ghast. And bonehoard provides its own body, so that's not a problem.

Quote from KageHamusuta

You HAVE to fit in Profane Command, it's a definite must-play for ol' one eye because it recurrs him and acts as removal all at the same time.

Hmm, good point. I'll probably try it in place of cruel tutor since I don't currently own one, and I'm not sure it's worth it.

For equipment did you consider:

• Strata Scythe
  
• Nightmare Lash
  
• Lashwrithe
  
• Inquisitor's Flail

All scale nicely with your unblockable general or other random attackers.

So I see you're going a control route. This is my preferred route as well.

Some minor suggestions:
Swiftfoot Boots > Lightning Greaves if you want to be able to equip your other equipment without making your general vulnerable.

Despite not being able to recur it, All is Dust is extremely useful at getting rid of enchantments and (colored) things that are indestructible.

Torpor Orb is a powerful piece of hate, and it effects only a single creature in your deck.

Swamps are really where it's at here. I know the colorless lands provide some utility, but times where you need black mana over the some other effect is going to be higher. (Cabal Coffers works without trying...casting BB on turn 2...getting Necropotence down early...Lashwrithe)
There's a handful of your utility lands I'd probably just cut altogether.

Jet Medallion > Your other 2CC mana rocks.

Anyway, you can take a look at the link in my sig for some ideas, I generally keep it pretty updated. Good luck.

Why not Rings of Brighthearth?

You can copy Xiahou Dun's effect and retrieve him from the grave also since by the time Rings triggers, Xiahou WILL be in the graveyard making him a valid target.

Other worthwhile combos:
Cabal Coffers (activated ability, not a mana ability)
Kagemaro
Planeswalkers
Fetchlands (grab 2 lands for 2 and put them into play untapped and do it again? yes please)
And more...

EDIT:
Also because he is the commander, you could grab 2 cards and just re-play him for 2 more.

The guy that made this deck is my long lost brother. He plays my favorite general and listens to my favorite musician.

I must say that Rings of Brighthearth is pretty amazing in XHD. Totally agree with LordGrimpow.

Quote from LordGrimpow

Other worthwhile combos:
Cabal Coffers (activated ability, not a mana ability)

This is incorrect. Cabal Coffers ability IS a mana ability.

To help with understanding Mana Abilities here is the relevant part of the Comp Rules.
605. Mana Abilities
605.1. Some activated abilities and some triggered abilities are mana abilities, which are subject to special rules. Only abilities that meet either of the following two sets of criteria are mana abilities, regardless of what other effects they may generate or what timing restrictions (such as "Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant") they may have.
605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets three criteria: it doesn't have a target, it could put mana into a player's mana pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, "Loyalty Abilities.")

Quote from Dracilic

This is incorrect. Cabal Coffers ability IS a mana ability.

To help with understanding Mana Abilities here is the relevant part of the Comp Rules.
605. Mana Abilities
605.1. Some activated abilities and some triggered abilities are mana abilities, which are subject to special rules. Only abilities that meet either of the following two sets of criteria are mana abilities, regardless of what other effects they may generate or what timing restrictions (such as "Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant") they may have.
605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets three criteria: it doesn't have a target, it could put mana into a player's mana pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, "Loyalty Abilities.")

This is a very true point that I didn't catch. Rings is still good, but it doesn't boost Cabal Coffers. It can help boost Deserted Temple though.

Quote from XeroxedFool

This is a very true point that I didn't catch. Rings is still good, but it doesn't boost Cabal Coffers. It can help boost Deserted Temple though.

It is nice with Deserted Temple and of course it's pretty good with the General.

He's running Lilianna as well so it's good with both versions of her.

Just wanted to clarify that it didn't work with coffers.

Yeah sorry don't know what I was thinking when I said that lol

TO ADD:
Infinite mana with Basalt Monolith (requires 2 of any color to start)
Which is good for Exsanguinate to kill the entire board

Process:
1. Tap Basalt for 3
2. Use the 3 to activate the untap effect (1 untap effect on stack)
3. Pay 2 to copy the untap effect (2 untap effects on stack)
4. First resolves, tap again for 3 (1 untap effect on stack, 3 in pool)
5. Second resolves, repeat from step 1 (6 in pool, costs 5 to untap twice)

MORE TO ADD:
Works with Transmute ("702.51a Transmute is an activated ability...") so pay 2 more to double tutor

Quote from Patryn

For equipment did you consider:

• Strata Scythe
  
• Nightmare Lash
  
• Lashwrithe
  
• Inquisitor's Flail

All scale nicely with your unblockable general or other random attackers.

I did consider the +x/+x swamp boosters but I'm not sure if I'll have enough swamps for it to pay off as quickly as other equipment. I prefer stuff that has an additional effect like the swords. Lashwrithe has the token which is sort of nice, though, so maybe that one. space is a little tight at the moment though.

Quote from Darklich528

So I see you're going a control route. This is my preferred route as well.

Some minor suggestions:
Swiftfoot Boots > Lightning Greaves if you want to be able to equip your other equipment without making your general vulnerable.

Despite not being able to recur it, All is Dust is extremely useful at getting rid of enchantments and (colored) things that are indestructible.

Torpor Orb is a powerful piece of hate, and it effects only a single creature in your deck.

Swamps are really where it's at here. I know the colorless lands provide some utility, but times where you need black mana over the some other effect is going to be higher. (Cabal Coffers works without trying...casting BB on turn 2...getting Necropotence down early...Lashwrithe)
There's a handful of your utility lands I'd probably just cut altogether.

Jet Medallion > Your other 2CC mana rocks.

Anyway, you can take a look at the link in my sig for some ideas, I generally keep it pretty updated. Good luck.

I think I prefer greaves for the mana savings. There's not much risk involved in moving them off xiahou anyway, worst case you just sac him in response. Plus if he's got a bunch of swords on he's not really vulnerable.

I can't think of any colored permanents that I can't kill via some other recurrable means, aside from elspeth ultimating. I'd think O-stone would generally be more useful and more recurrable.

Torpor orb maybe. Usually my goal is to make the deck do its own thing before I worry too much about blocking other people's things. But maybe once I free up some space.

Good call on the medallion. Sorta forgot about it since it doesn't show up in the usual searches.

Which utility lands would you cut?

Quote from XeroxedFool

The guy that made this deck is my long lost brother. He plays my favorite general and listens to my favorite musician.

I must say that Rings of Brighthearth is pretty amazing in XHD. Totally agree with LordGrimpow.

I did sorta forget about rings. Definitely worth a shot.

Are you referring to Ayreon? Or one of the other bands in my prog exploration thread?

Quote from LordGrimpow

Yeah sorry don't know what I was thinking when I said that lol

TO ADD:
Infinite mana with Basalt Monolith (requires 2 of any color to start)
Which is good for Exsanguinate to kill the entire board

Process:
1. Tap Basalt for 3
2. Use the 3 to activate the untap effect (1 untap effect on stack)
3. Pay 2 to copy the untap effect (2 untap effects on stack)
4. First resolves, tap again for 3 (1 untap effect on stack, 3 in pool)
5. Second resolves, repeat from step 1 (6 in pool, costs 5 to untap twice)

MORE TO ADD:
Works with Transmute ("702.51a Transmute is an activated ability...") so pay 2 more to double tutor

cool that it works with transmute. Don't really have an interest in running basalt monolith or exsanguinate though.

I did sorta forget about rings. Definitely worth a shot.

Are you referring to Ayreon? Or one of the other bands in my prog exploration thread?

Anything by Arjen A. Lucassen really. Ayreon is my favorite but I enjoy Stream of Passion, Guilt Machine, and his solo stuff as well.

I have been playing ol' one-eye for awhile and can assure you to the power of Profane Command, which gets sillier with many of the combos listed above.

I also play Liliana of the Dark Realms in mine, as it gets out consistent swamps to my hand, acts as repeated removal, and finally either pumps my mana to over drive, or allows for insane swings of 10-12 points to finish games more quickly with ol' one-eye general damage. With Rings of Brighthearth I've managed to double that damage and take out a player in one shot! BAM! This is similarly truth of things like Nightmare Lash and Strata Scythe, but without the explosiveness with RoB

He's one of my fav generals, and easily my favorite black general.

You can also make victimize work pretty easily with one-eye but that requires a little creature support to fully utilize. Think ETB to get the full idea here.

Not sure if I'm sold on a third liliana, just because I think the other 2 are better and cover what i'd want a pw to do for me. Veil gives some really strong control, and vess gives a repeatable tutor. I just don't think I see the same power level from realms. And she's competing with xiahou at the 4 slot.

victimize is intriguing, it's basically the same thing as recurring nightmare when xiahou is in the mix. Unforunately it doesn't interact well with any of the creatures i'm currently running, any suggestions?