Hello awesome folks and happiest of days to you and yours!!! I hope that you are having an awesome-tastic week and month and year! Ready for my next deck being built with Tales of Middle Earth (TOME)? I hope so! Today I am building around my top card and legendary dork in the set according to my Top Ten which you can find right here!

Witch-King of Angmar! This five-drop 5/3 with flying is a bit on curve and will win in a few hits. What I want to do is build around both of his other abilities. The first is a triggered ability. Did someone smash you for combat damage? They sacrifice a dork that dealt damage. Commanders will only attack in a horde, and bigger stuff is the same, bigger hordes like with 1/1 tokens won't be slowed down, but it's a nice keep away. Then the activated ability is to discard a card and give the Witch-King indestructible for the turn.

What do I wanna do with this? I could add in the nine Nazgul to pump all Wraiths permanently with their "Ring tempt" trigger. I could run this around the Ring tempting. That's where EDHREC is running around. But no thanks; I see this mono-black deck as where No Mercy meets Damnation. Ready for the deep dive?

Mana, Ramp, Lands

I know a lot of folks are pulling Manaliths for two-drop rocks, but in here a fourth-turn drop of our five-mana Commander is doable with either, so why not get the better card, like Phial, also from Tales of Middle-earth.

It's a nasty amount of card flow. I like Manaliths where possible over Arcane Signets since they can tap for mana you cannot make in case you gain control of something with an activation cost. Then the Map can be dropped turn 1 before counters are up, sacrificed on turn 2, and then fetches any land from your deck, and since we are built around Coffers and Urborg, whichever you don't have would be my recommendation.

Check out Sceptre of Eternal Glory! This four-drop is a tapper of one mana of any color, but if you control three Swamps, it'll tap for 3. Strong here! It's a key card in any mono-colored deck! Liliana of the Dark Realms can +1 to tutor any Swamp and put it into your hand! Strong stuff! And then you can get nonbasic Swamps here. Then we can -3 her to either pump the Witch-King to kill with +X/+X where that is your Swamp count, or -X/-X to kill an opposing critter.

Now let's turn to mana boosters like this pair! The Sun costs six, you call out "Black" when it drops, and then your stuff gets +1/+1 and your lands will tap for one extra B mana. Note that this is just not limited to Swamp lands. The Ghast is a four-drop 2/2 with extort. When you tap a Swamp for mana, make another B. I am also running Nirkana Revenant and Gauntlet of Power to help with this mana increasing fun times.

Now let's turn to lands! The Tales of Middle-earth land usually arrives tapped unless you control a legendary dork, but can tap for mana and amass after that. You can only do that when something has died that turn, which is easy with boardwipes. Since we'll be leaning on Commander damage on a board after removal to kill, I have a few ways to make the Witch-King unblockable, including Shizo. Nasty!

The first colorless tapping land is Dust Bowl, repeatable land removal. Every deck often runs powerful lands since they are hard to answer. Take them out with Dust Bowl! I also have Wasteland. War Room can tap with 3 to spend one life to draw a card, so that's card flow in my lands, again, hard to answer!

No Mercies and Other Answers

Now let's turn to No Mercies! The idea with these and our leader is to keep foes from wanting to attack us, and if they do, they will be punished, much like Ghostly Prison or Propaganda, but better since we have 40 life to play with. The No Mercy proper is a four-drop enchantment that when someone deals damage to you, it's destroyed.

Dread is a No Mercy on legs but on a fragile 6/6 for six mana that also is evasive. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is also a six-drop harder to cast 5/5 with evasion in the form of intimidate. Then when a Human deals damage to you, it's destroyed, and many creatures are human just randomly and it'll keep them away. It also pumps your non-Humans by +1/+1 and gives them undying for a while. Then you can kill with the commander in 4 hits instead of 5 with this power boost. Nasty combo!

There are a trio of four-drop enchantments that force your foes to lose a life for each creature that attacks you or your planeswalkers, so if they attack you with four, they'll lose four life. All three are here. One makes you the Monarch for card flow, another is the Revenge here that gives you life, and the last doesn't have any extras. The last card in this section is a three-cost enchantment. When someone attacks you or your planeswalker, you exile the top card of their library. You can cast it if it's exiled, and then spend any many you have for it. It's very strong here as card flow to play keep away.

The Decree is a powerful eight-drop sweeper, and that'll be cheaper to cast with the Coffers/Urborg combo. It also cycles to Infest for five mana at instant speed. Also note that you destroy everything and then you draw a card for each one destroyed, so that should draw you a strong amount of cards. I also tossed in Plague Wind and In Garruk's Wake to sweep others and keep our stuff. The Money costs seven, sweeps everything, and then for each nontoken creature that was destroyed in this way? Make a tapped Treasure for future big stuff casts. Strong ramp attached to my sweeper!

We'll finish with removal here. Invoke Despair costs 5 and a foe sacrifices a dork, enchantment and planeswalker. For each one they cannot, they lose two life and you draw a card, so it's always a 3-for-1. Corrupt costs one more, and deals X damage to any target where X was your Swamp count. And you gain that in life. That's nasty.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

Now let's turn our attention to synergies and win-cons! Since we have a few "Swamp" matters cards in here already, I tossed in this six-mana sorcery. You search out their cards and exile them from a foe's library equal to your Swamp count. Exile enough and you can exile all of their win-cons and enough cards to win the game with decking.

The artifact dork costs four on a 1/5 body. No one can attack or block with more than one dork each. That means only one will attack you each combat and if you control the Witch-king, that'll be one sacrifice, so they'll lose what attacked you, so that's not going to happen save with a game winner like Guiltfeeder or a 20+ power Commander. Now, you can only block with one dork too, but I don't think you'll care. You're winning with Commander damage anyway, so you don't care about the one attack limit on you. It's very strong here.

Check out this three-drop equipment duo! The former equips for two and gives your equipped dork shroud and unblockable, so that's another way to slip through while protecting your Commander from targeted removal. The latter equips for three and has flash. When it ETBs, you can equip a legendary dork for free, so you can use it to save your Commander at instant speed without a discard permanently since it gives indestructible. There are loads of key dorks in here you'll want to save from your Damnations, like the Silent Arbiter above, or that Crypt Ghast or Magus of the Coffers, so it's here for that too.

We'll finish this section with two artifact critters! Stuffy Doll is a classic multiplayer staple. When it takes damage, a player takes it instead. And it can tap to shoot itself for damage. This is very strong at holding off a bunch of dorks. It also has indestructible to stay alive with your Damnations. The Sentinel is a powerful defender as well, with flash, six mana, 3/3 body, vigilance and indestructible too. You can flash it out to block an attack, you can attack with vigilance an open player and stay back to block the counter attacks, and then be immune to your Damnations as well. Also, note that I am running the three indestructible Colossuses (Darksteel Sentinel, Blightsteel and Akros) and an Eldrazi Titan, again playable with my Coffers, Urborg combo as well as the Ghast, Magus, Nykthos, the Sceptre, Caged Sun and more. It's pretty reliable there!

Card Flow

Let's finish with card flow. Since we are built around my discard ability, I included more than my typical 10 card draw cards, and some you already saw like War Room or Decree of Pain in other places here.

The Craving costs four, draws three and then loses three life. I also have Ambition's Cost here drawing three as well. I am running these over cheaper options like Sign in Blood since they'll draw more cards. The planeswalker costs five with 5 loyalty for our needs. His +1 can draw a card and lose a life, so he's card draw turn after turn. He can also -3 to Murder something. Strong planeswalker here, love him loads!

Check out Gix! This is another dork you'll want Mithril Coat for. This three-drop legendary 3/3 dork may draw a card each time an opponent is dealt combat damage, and life is lost here. This will work on opponents too, so they'll attack each other for cards. Then you spend 7 mana (doable with the mana ramp here) to discard X cards and exile that many from a foe's library and then play them for free! Both work quite well here! The instant costs five and will draw you 5 and lose 5 life since your Commander costs five. Strong!

Let's finish with this legendary artifact pair! The one from TOME costs four, has indestructible, and in your upkeep you'll lose life equal to the burden counters on it. Then you can tap it for no mana to put a burden counter here and then draw that many cards! Scales quickly. Also, if you cast it when it ETBs, you get protection from everything until your next turn, so swing with your army without worries since you cannot be damaged on your opponent's turns.

Citadel costs a pricey six but you can look at the top card of your library anytime you want! Also, any time you want you can cast the top spell of your library for free but lose life equal to its mana cost. That means you can get free cards until something big arrives like Ulamog or a Colossus. Since you start with 40 life, you should lean into this. I am also running Exsanguinate to gain a bunch of life from killing foes as a mana sink here which will really push this into next year.

Ready for my decklist? I got you!

No Mercy Meets Damnation | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Witch-King of Angmar

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Bloodgift Demon
• 1 Colossus of Akros
• 1 Creepy Doll
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Darksteel Sentinel
• 1 Dread
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 1 Liliana's Shade
• 1 Magus of the Coffers
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Reiver Demon
• 1 Silent Arbiter
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

• Spells (18)
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Ancient Craving
• 1 Blood Money
• 1 Corrupt
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Invoke Despair
• 1 Mind Sludge
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Nightmare Incursion
• 1 Plague Wind
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Stinging Study
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Tendrils of Corruption

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Blood Reckoning
• 1 Cunning Rhetoric
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Marchesa's Decree
• 1 No Mercy
• 1 Revenge of Ravens
• 1 Underworld Connections

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Gauntlet of Power
• 1 Inherited Envelope
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mithril Coat
• 1 Phial of Galadriel
• 1 Sceptre of Eternal Glory
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (38)
• 1 Barad-Dur
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 High Market
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 War Room
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Witch's Cottage
• 23 Swamp

Buy This Deck Export text format

And there we are! I hope that you enjoyed my different take on the Witch-King of Angmar than EDHREC.com building around No Mercy and Damnation instead.