This week I would like to talk about my Thraximundar EDH deck. Thraximundar is no group hug. This guy is meant to dominate the board and remove players through 21 General Damage.

[easybox]Thraximundar {4}{U}{B}{R}

Legendary Creature – Zombie Assassin

Haste

Whenever Thraximundar attacks, defending players sacrifices a creature.

Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Thraximundar.[/easybox]

So as you can see, the object is to have as many players sacrifice as many creatures as possible, pump Thraximundar, and get in there for 21.

This land base is pretty darn good. Grixis has a wide variety of great lands that should keep you in your colors easily. You could add a few Shocks and Duals if you have them, or you could replace some of the more expensive lands with come into play tapped lands to go more budget. Don't forget High Market and Phyrexian Tower, which have sacrifice effects to pump Thraximundar!

I add in 5 Artifact mana producers for a little acceleration, including the indestructible Darksteel Ingot, which can be important with Obliterate in the deck.

You have 5 Planeswalkers, which are always big time good stuff in EDH. Besides just being too awesome, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, also fits the deck them with his ultimate ability.

Blood Tyrant is -the- multiplayer card. I get this guy in any EDH deck where he fits the colors. He starts out as a 5/5 Flying Trampler, and just never stops getting bigger. He's hard to remove being black and starting at 5 toughness. You just have to love a guy who grows every time a player loses the game!

Rhystic Study is one of my all time favorite EDH cards. The card advantage Rhystic Study can net you is incredible, and Enchantments are, of course, the hardest cards to remove.

Sengir Nosferatu wins the award for the most flavorful card in Magic. It's a Vampire, which turns into a bat, which turns into a Vampire. It fits this deck so well since you can have infi blockers that fly, and continue that sacrifice effect over and over.

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Skeletal Vampire, Promise of Power, Goblin Assault and Diamond Kaleidoscope are great token generators, which can give you extra creatures for all of those sacrifice effects.

Pestilence is just the best removal ever. While it's not a sacrifice, so it's not pumping Thraximundar, you can kill off pretty much everything over and over and over. Keep Thraximundar bigger than all the other creatures and you can keep everything off the board, leaving Thraximundar to continue his quest for 21 damage.

Vampire Hexmage is a great way to kill off a Planeswalker, pumping Thraximundar at the same time, yep, it's a sacrifice effect!

Pyre Zombie is a superstar in the Thraximundar deck. Return it to your hand from the yard during your upkeep for {1}{B}{B}, play it out, then sacrifice it to do 2 damage to a player or creature, pumping Thraximundar at the same time.

Dimir Doppelganger and Withered Wretch should help you keep other graveyards empty of anything you don't like. These guys are targeted and don't mess with your graveyard unless you want them to. I dig these over Relic of Progenitus and the like.

Some important sacrifice effects that you may not have realized were sacrifice effects; Mulldrifter, the Evoke ability includes sacrificing the creature. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is sacrificed when control seven or more Thrulls. Greater Gargadon when suspended allows you to sacrifice any creature you control. Glen Elendra, Archmage's counter noncreature spell effect is also a sacrifice.

Slave of Bolas and Grab the Reins allow you steal someone else's creature then, you guessed it, sacrifice their creature!

Butcher of Malakir, Magus of the Abyss and Grave Pact are all great ways to continue forcing your opponents to sacrifice creatures. An actual Abyss would be great in this deck, but I don't have one!

Savage Beating has won me a ton of games! Send Thraximundar in against anyone with only one creature in play. They sacrifice the creature making Thraximundar a 7/7. Before damage cast Savage Beating with Entwine. Now Thraximundar is double strike and does 14 General damage. Untap Thraximundar and do it all again, now you've done a total of 28 General damage. Good day sir!

An alternate win condition is an Obliterate with any Planeswalker in play, with the possible exception of Jace. Should you happen to have Darksteel Ingot and Sensei's Divining Top in play when Obliterate goes off then you are looking really good! Liliana is best for this play, since you can play Liliana and use her to tutor for the Obliterate. Then your opponents have 5 turns to get rid of Liliana, or have all creatures in all graveyards go to you. After an Obliterate/Liliana play I will occasionally use her discard ability on myself if I have a fatty I can put in my yard, knowing it will be coming into play soon. Nicol Bolas is also pretty awesome after an Obliterate as well since you can blow up any lands that come into play.

Lots of good board sweepers and board control and a ton of sacrifice effects, all giving the Zombie Assassin the support he needs to get in for 21! Until next week, this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play!