"Ray, when someone asks you if you're a God, you say YES!"

There are few better quotes I could think of to start off a column about a commander that forces players to sacrifice half of their non-God creatures (rounded down). Forcing players to sacrifice creatures is not something I enjoy doing, but it's good to occasionally push your own boundaries. Today's list is not as mean as it could have been, and it might not be as mean as this list you would put together, but it was a fun experiment and should be able to win its share of games at the right power level.

Before we dive into the directions I took in filling out the 99, let's look at the commander.

Zodiark, Umbral God is a 5/5 indestructible God with the kind of enter-the-battlefield trigger that would put a smile on Zuul's face. If you're not familiar with Ghostbusters, just remember - there is no Dana. Only Zuul. As mentioned earlier, when big Z enters the battlefield, each player will sacrifice half of the non-God creatures.

While I may not paint a Zuul alter for Zodiark, I will put a +1/+1 counter on Zodiark whenever a player sacrifices another creature. That kind of ability definitely incentivizes me to play a lot of Grave Pact effects, to the point where an fully optimized Zodiark deck would probably not be a lot of fun to play against.

Not everyone cares about building decks that are fun to play against and it's OK if that's how you roll. Commander is just a game, after all. I am running a couple of Marauders (Accursed and Fleshbag) but I decided to focus on something different for my list - devotion. It's rare to see a mono-colored commander with so many color pips in its casting cost, but Zodiark has just that. He is a five mana commander and all of that mana has to be Black.

Black Devotion

Devotion refers to the number of colored symbols in the casting costs of permanents you control. With Zodiark in play I'll have at least five devotion to Black. I expect to be playing out other permanents before my commander hits the field, so I tried to focus on at least some cards that leaned into my devotion theme.

The only four-drop with four Black pips in my list is one of the best mono-Black blockers in the history of blockers. Phyrexian Obliterator is a four-mana 5/5 with trample, and whenever a source deals damage to it, that source's controller sacrifices that many permanents. Not only does this Phyrexian Horror discourage players from attacking me, it also does a good job of keeping damage-based boardwipes in players' hands.

I've got four creatures in the list with three Black pips, but only a few of them will likely get out ahead of Zodiark. Ayara, First of Locthwain should help me with lifegain and might even draw me a few cards. Garza's Assassin, a Human Assassin that can be sacrificed to destroy target non-Black creatures, is another 3 mana, 3-pip creature. Massacre Wurm and Valgavoth, Terror Eater are also in the mix, but they are unlikely to get out early.

I have three enchantments with three Black mana pips. Dark Prophecy will have me draw a card and lose a life whenever a creature I control dies. Gravestorm and Underworld Dreams are also in the mix. The former has an upkeep trigger that will let target opponent choose to exile a card from their graveyard, and if they don't, I'll draw a card. The latter will deal 1 damage to an opponent when they draw a card. Both will help me with my devotion.

I'm running plenty of other cards with one and two Black pips in their casting costs, but I didn't forego all generic mana like one might with a highly tuned K'rrick deck. My payoffs for having lots of devotion to Black are good enough to have me somewhat excited about playing this deck.

I've got a couple of removal options that care about my devotion in Drag to the Underworld and Blight-Breath Catoblepas. The former is just an instant that normally costs four, but costs X less where X is my devotion to Black. A spell that lets me destroy target creature for two Black mana isn't bad, and I do like leaning into a theme when building a deck. The latter is a Beast with an enter the battlefield trigger that will give target creature -X/-X until end of turn where X is my devotion to Black.

Removal is important, but let's move on to the fun stuff.

Sanguimancy is a high risk / high reward sorcery that will draw me X cards and have me lose X life where X is my devotion to Black. Life is a resource and there's no better color in Magic to learn that lesson than Black.

As far as tutors go, Grim Servant is uniquely good in this list, but not very playable in most decks unless they are mono-Black. For four mana I'll get a 3/2 Zombie Warlock with Menace. When it enters play I can search for a card with mana value less than or equal to my devotion to Black, reveal it, put it into my hand, shuffle my library, and then lose 3 life for my trouble. What I tutor for will have a lot to do with what my deck has already given me, but I could easily see getting Maskwood Nexus (to make my creatures all Gods), Bolas's Citadel, Aetherflux Reservoir, Damnation, or even a few of the cards I've already mentioned.

One of my favorite things to do in Magic is make ridiculous amounts of mana. Nyx Lotus and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are both in this list and both can produce mana equal to my devotion to Black. Tapping either of those for a half dozen mana will feel good, and there's a decent chance they'll be tapping for a dozen or more mana if I've got a big enough board. Combine those with cards like Bubbling Muck, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Nirkana Revenant, and Crypt Ghast, and I'll have a decent chance to win with my Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate.

I may not have built this deck to try to go wide and win through combat, but it can be nice to have a lot of cannon fodder, or sacrifice fodder if you prefer. Abhorrent Overlord and Underworld Hermit can both help with that. Abhorrent Overlord will make 1/1 Black Harpy creature tokens with flying equal to my devotion to Black, but will also have me sacrifice a creature at the beginning of my upkeep. Underworld Hermit comes with no real downside, but it only makes 1/1 Green Squirrel creature tokens equal to my devotion to Black.

My primary devotion-related wincon in this list is the classic Black staple Gray Merchant of Asphodel. This zombie will enter play and have each opponent lose X life where X is my devotion to Black. I'll gain life equal to the life lost this way. If I luck into a tutor and already have "Gary" in hand, I'd do well to get Saw in Half. That three-mana instant will destroy target creature and its controller will make two token copies of it. The copies will have half that creature's power and toughness, rounded up.

A potential "Gary" win using Saw in Half could happen with enough devotion. If I've got ten Black pips amongst the permanents I control, Gary would enter, push that number up to 12, and my tablemates would each lose 12 life. I'd gain 36 life. Saw in Half cast targeting Gray Merchant of Asphodel would kill it and make two token copies, pushing my devotion up to 14. My tablemates would lose another 28 life, totalling 40 life on the turn, and I'd gain another 84 life.

In practice I play at enough tables where I'd be astonished if I were to get away with that kind of nonsense without being interrupted. If you play in a higher-powered meta you might look at adding in Conqueror's Flail so that your tablemates are "locked out" of casting spells on your turn. It's still fun to try stuff like this, and sometimes you do get away with it!

The God Squad

When you build decks focused on winning above everything else, it's easy for your deckbuilding to get stale. This deck should arguably have way more force-sacrifice effects and some tried and true wincons like the Exquisite Blood / Sanguine Bond combo. I'm already running Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir and Gray Merchant of Asphodel, so why not just rull all of the usual mono-Black stuff?

When I started brewing this list I decided it's more interesting to lean into something unexpected like mono-Black devotion. Most of my decks have at least a few different themes, and my next decision was to lean into the fact that Zodiark won't force me to sacrifice any Gods under my control.

There aren't a lot of mono-Black Gods, but we might as well start at the beginning.

Back in 2013 Wizards released Theros and we got five mono-colored gods including Erebos, God of the Dead. Seven years later in Theros Beyond Death, Erebos made a reappearance as Erebos, Bleak-Hearted. Both are indestructible and are only creatures if my devotion to Black is five or greater. God of the Dead will prevent my opponents from gaining life and will let me pay mana to lose life and draw a card. Bleak-Hearted will let me pay 2 life to draw a card whenever another creature I control dies. For one and a Black I can sacrifice another creature to give target creature -2/-1 until end of turn.

I'm also running both incarnations of Bontu - God-Eternal Bontu, and Bontu the Glorified. God-Eternal Bontu is a Zombie God from War of the Spark. He has menace and when he enters I can sacrifice any number of other permanents and draw that many cards. Bontu the Glorified has menace and indestructible, and can't attack or block unless a creature died under my control this turn. He also lets me sacrifice a creature and pay one and a Black to scry 1, have each opponent lose 1 life, and gain 1 life.

While I'm happy to run the "normal" gods, leaning into a theme sometimes means trying some weird things. In this case I'm running three cards that might help me get another god in play.

The Book of Vile Darkness can be used with Eye of Vecna and Hand of Vecna to make Vecna, a legendary indestructible 8/8 Black Zombie God creature token with the triggered abilities of the cards used to make it. This is more of a side quest than a main plan, but if I ever accomplish this feat I'll sure remember it!

The elephant in the room for any Zodiark, Umbral God deck is surely going to be Tergrid, God of Fright. It feels wrong not to include it, but it also feels wrong to include it because it's just so mean. Zodiark will force my opponents to sacrifice half of their non-God creatures. Tergrid will have me gain control of any nontoken permanent an opponent sacrifices or discards. Tergrid's trigger is a "may" so I don't have to get anything truly unhelpful, like a Leveler, or Eater of Days.

Pretty much anything, up to and including mass land destruction, is fair game in high powered EDH. I generally try to recommend that if you're going to play near-universally despised strategies, try to use them when you can quickly nail down the win. In this list Tergrid and Bolas's Citadel already put the list firmly in bracket 3. I'd suggest playing Tergrid when you think you can play Zodiark and then fairly quickly wrap up the game, but she is oppressive to play against. If you're really interested in playing at a lower power level you might do well to drop both of those game changers out of your list.

The Zodiark Killer

When I think of building a mono-Black deck, my mind naturally goes to wincons like Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate or oppressive decks that are constantly forcing you to sacrifice creatures, but this list actually gives us another viable option. Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, I'll put a +1/+1 counter on Zodiark. That means Zodiark could end up getting big enough to be a problem for my tablemates.

I included Rogue's Passage, and at the last minute dropped out Strata Scythe and Blackblade Reforged in favor of Dauthi Embrace and Trailblazer's Boots. The former lets me give target creature shadow until end of turn, and the latter gives it nonbasic landwalk. More evasion options might be good, but I'd play the list a few times to see how often Zodiark gets big enough for that to matter.

I could also see adding Nim Deathmantle combo into the deck. That combo would load up Zodiark with as many +1/+1 counters as I want, even if the loop wasn't generating positive mana, which is normally the point. Any combo that involves me sacrificing a creature again and again will be very good with Zodiark, and it's possible I should be running more sacrifice outlets. Viscera Seer may only give one more Black pip for my devotion theme, but it was probably an oversight not to include it in this first draft.

Zodiark, Umbral God | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zodiark, Umbral God

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Abhorrent Overlord
• 1 Accursed Marauder
• 1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1 Blight-Breath Catoblepas
• 1 Bontu the Glorified
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dark Confidant
• 1 Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Fumulus, the Infestation
• 1 Garza's Assassin
• 1 God-Eternal Bontu
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Grim Servant
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Tergrid, God of Fright
• 1 Underworld Hermit
• 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater

• Instants (10)
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Darkness
• 1 Deadly Rollick
• 1 Defile
• 1 Drag to the Underworld
• 1 Entomb
• 1 Saw in Half
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Withering Torment

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Bubbling Muck
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Sanguimancy
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Torment of Hailfire

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Black Market
• 1 Dark Prophecy
• 1 Dauthi Embrace
• 1 Gravestorm
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Underworld Dreams

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Eye of Vecna
• 1 Hand of Vecna
• 1 Jet Medallion
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 The Book of Vile Darkness
• 1 The Darkness Crystal
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots

• Lands (35)
• 30 Swamp
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to make this list a little less sweaty, you'd start by dropping out Tergrid. From there I think you'd want to play your version of the list and see what ends up feeling problematic in your playgroup. I think this is a fairly low powered starting point but some playgroups really don't want to deal with certain cards and certain strategies. Whether or not you adjust your list to be more palatable to your friends is entirely up to you, but I do advise that you aim for roughly the same power level that they are playing at.

To push this list up in power, there are tons of cards you could load in, from Dauthi Voidwalker and Orcish Bowmasters to cards like Grave Pact, Butcher of Malakir, and Merciless Executioner. You could also throw in a few flavors of Sheoldred, but you're going to run up against the question of why you don't just pivot to a more powerful Black commander like K'rrick - who should absolutely be run in the 99 of a higher powered Zodiark list.

Final Thoughts

I may not have been all that excited about Final Fantasy, but I've enjoyed brewing up lists over the past month and a half and I'm still planning to put a few more Final Fantasy commander decks together in paper. I need to pivot one of my landfall decks over to Tifa Lockhart, and I started assembling a pile of cards for a Yuna, Hope of Spira enchantress deck.

Edge of Eternities is on the horizon now, and I'm already working on a Star Wars themed alter for The Falcon, Airship Restored. If you haven't heard, legendary vehicles with a power and toughness will be allowed as commanders once that set drops. If I build The Falcon in paper I'll share the list with you, though at this point I have no specific plan beyond just painting a Millenium Falcon on the card.

Next week I may do one last FIN column, but I might also have a really neat list to share with you that I came across "in the wild" at an LGS I play at. I like to occasionally shine the spotlight on decks I play against and I found a really neat one that is worth putting into a column.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!