Hello awesome folks! Two weeks ago I finished my Commanders from Wilds of Eldraine and now I can get back to my Commanders on different stuff from ye olde days! One of my favorite Theme Decks ever printed is "The Migraine" from Stronghold.

Let's look at it, and then we'll build a Commander around it.

Here is the description around it:

"The Migraine deck features an array of fast creatures coupled with discard combinations to gain card advantage. This mono-Black deck is geared toward the more experienced player, using a subtle design and potent theme."

It's a deck for experienced players...ready for the decklist?

The Migraine

• Creatures (15)
• 4 Dauthi Horror
• 1 Dauthi Mindripper
• 2 Dauthi Slayer
• 4 Foul Imp
• 1 Mindwarper
• 2 Pit Imp
• 1 Rabid Rats

• Spells (21)
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Hornet Cannon
• 1 Portcullis
• 2 Bottomless Pit
• 3 Megrim
• 3 Corercion
• 1 Dark Banishing
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 4 Death Stroke
• 2 Diabolic Edict
• 2 Mind Peel

• Lands (24)
• 24 Swamp

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24 basics in an early era like this is very weird and good to see when everyone was running 20 outside of control. This is a discard deck. The Rares are Mindwarper, Portcullis and Ensnaring Bridge. It wants to drop a one turn Pit Imp or second-turn shadow or flyer, and then a third-turn Bottomless Pit to start the discards for everyone, win with Megrims or your early drops. Note that with the Bridge out and no cards in hand, you can swing with a zero power Pit Imp and then pump with two mana to beat for two flying.

I am building a deck today around everyone discard triggers like the Pit, the Ensnaring Bridge to keep you safe, and then discard triggers like Megrim to win along with zero power pumpers to close out games. Ready?

Now, here's the first question...

Who is my Commander? If I stick in mono-Black I have a few options like Tinybones, Trinket Thief or Tourach, Dread Cantor. If I move to red and make this Rakdos, I get some Rakdos colored everyone discards effects to add. What do I like here? Let's stick with mono-Black!

I like The Raven Man. He makes win cons and if you keep the card you draw prior to attacking you can swing with the 1/1 flyers with the Bridge out and win the game. He's also tap discard on a stick.

Mana, Rocks, Ramp

Let's start with ramps! Check out this mono-Black favorite pair of mine since we'll need Black mana to win with pump effects, and then drop and these help you out. The artifact costs six, you choose Black when it ETBs and all of your Black dorks get +1/+1 permanently and then your Black tapping lands make another mana--nasty here! Even non-Swamps like Bojuka Bog will do so. I am also running the three Swamp mana doublers here like the Gauntlet and then the two dorks like Nirkana Revenant.

The planeswalker costs four for a lower three loyalty. She can +1 to Tutor up a Swamp and put it into your hand. Note you can get any Swamp here, but we have one non-basic Swamp in Witch's Cottage. Then you can -3 her to kill an opposing dork with -X/-X equal to your Swamp count, which is very high and likely post-Urborg.

Since The Raven Man can be dropped on the second turn without ramp, I didn't add in any cheap two-drop mana rocks. I am running higher cost bigger tappers for my bigger mana like Nyx Lotus and Stonespeaker Crystal. The rare costs four, ETBs tapped, and then taps for mana equal to your devotion to that color. Nasty! The uncommon costs four too, and taps for double colorless. It can be sacrificed for two to draw a card and exile all other graveyards. That's why it's here, for card flow and graveyard exiling alongside Bojuka Bog.

Now let's turn to this pair of artifact and lands! Expedition Map drops turn one, can be sacrificed turn two and then you Tutor for any land and put it into your hand, like Urborg, Nykthos, or some of the lands we'll see later. Ditto Demonic Tutor which can also get Nyx Lotus, a Shade to win, the Bridge or more. Cabal Coffers is a classic, and I am also running the Cabal Stronghold as well.

Let's turn to lands that are synergetic with The Raven Man. Anytime anyone discards end of turn, you make a Raven. Ideally, you'll want to do this once a turn four times for making four Ravens in a four-player game. Enter this pair. The legendary land taps for colorless and then taps with two to have everyone draw and then discard. It's here to get a Raven Man trigger on a foe's turn if no one discarded. The non-legendary ETBs tapped so you take a turn off. It cycles and will discard to draw. I am running all of the cycling lands here. They are here to cycle on a foe's turn to trigger discards and making a Raven from your leader.

Check out another pair of legendary lands here! The Black tapping one does not ETB tapped so you don't take a turn off to run it. You can discard it for no more than four mana at instant speed on a foe's turn to net a trigger. Then you mill three and Raise Dead a creature or planeswalker from your graveyard to your hand. The colorless tapping one also ETBs untapped and ready to be used. It taps with two mana to reload a dork from your graveyard to the top of your library. I also am running Burnished Hart to sacrifice, fetch two Swamps, and keep doing it over and over again until you are happy. This legendary pair of graveyard use is strong here.

Let's finish with a rare land duo that ETBs untapped and ready to be used. They are here to be win-cons in land form. I wanted mana sinks and win cons.

Crawling Barrens can turn four mana of any color into two +1/+1 counters onto this land and it can become a creature. Do it EOT with your extra mana and then untap and move forward. Then the latter will tap for Black mana on the turn you drop it. Then it taps with three to make a 1/1 that cannot block like your Ravens with toxic one and are artifact creatures. Since I have built a 1/1 infrastructure into this brew already, this is great here. I also tossed in Urza's Factory to turn mana into token creatures in my land base and Rogue's Passage to turn four mana into an unblockable dork with a Shade or a toxic Mite you could get a fast win.

Discard Effects

Now let's turn to mass discard effects! We'll start with our other two Lilianas! The three-drop arrives with three loyalty. She can +1 to force everyone to discard a card, you too. That will let you spin down your and everyone else's hand as fast as possible and grow her loyalty as well. Then she can -2 once with her starting loyalty to Diabolic Edict a foe. Nasty here with the synergy from your discards forcing them to cast their stuff fast and then punishing them with a sacrifice that slips past indestructible. Then the four-drop Liliana is rocking four loyalty. Then she can +1 to force every to discard, you too, just like the three-drop. If your foe's cannot, they lose three life, so it's a win con attached to a mass discard effect. Then the -3 here will again kill a creature just like the other two, and slip past indestructible, just like the other two, and this time it gets -X/-X equal to your graveyard card count.

Now let's turn to a madness pair! Necrogoyf costs five mana, with madness three. Then it's a win-con too since it's size is equal to the creature count in all graveyards. Then, in each player's upkeep, they discard a card, which is four triggers of The Raven Man if they started their turn with a card in their hand! Rogue's Passage without the Bridge out can win fast!

Gibbering Descent costs one more at six mana to hard cast and one more to madness at four. Then in each players upkeep they discard and lose a life. That's a win con with the life loss even without discarding. Then if you have no cards in your hand, you'll skip your upkeep and won't lose life from this.

Now let's finish with this non-rare pair! The common costs two for a 1/1 that's a Rat and Rogue too. Then on arrival to the battlefield, everyone one else disards a card. There are four of these that were printed, all are here. It's just one ting of The Raven Man, but it's so worth it with your Megrims and other triggers. Also, I have built around recursion like Volrath's Stronghold to bring them back and then 1/1 token infrastruture in places, that this can be quite the cozy thing there. Then the uncommon is a five-cost Saga. On chapter I everyoe else sacrfices a dork or planeswalker so it's removal. Then on Chapter II your foes will discard a card. Then on Chapter III you get a free Zombify effect from any graveyard, so it is in one card mass discard, control, and recursion.

Synergies and Win Conditions

The Shade costs four, has a smaller 1/1 size with flying and then pumps. You can kill with this out and the Bridge with one card in hand from your draw. It flies and you can Rogue's Passage it with a flyer or reaching blocker. The Scion costs a massive eight mana, for an evasive 6/6 trampling body. It cycles to trigger your Commander. When you smash a foe, you can get a free Zombify from them to your battlefield not theirs, so you steal their best stuff that you killed and/or discarded. Then you can give this Rogue's Passage if they have a seven-toughness blocker or something that would kill it. It has no synergy with the Bridge that we are building around, but if you draw it when you have it out, just hold on because someone will answer it or cycle for a card and a Raven token on your foe's turn.

Sangromancer is a flying 3/3 with two triggers. Did your foe's stuff die? Gain three life! Did they discard? Gain three life! Nasty, and you get an on curve 3/3 flyer so it's very powerful with the discard triggers here.

With Raiders' Wake, when your foe discards a card, they lose two life, so this is another Megrim here. But if you attacked this turn, which is likely with your Raven tokens and Shades, in your end step you can force someone to discard and then lose that life too. Strong stuff!

The Zombie is an on-curve 4/4 body with three abilities, all self-discard triggers you like. For what you discarded you can draw, make a 2/2 Zombie or make a pair of mana for ramping. All good stuff here! The sorcery will let you sacrifice any number of tokens, enchantments or artifacts. This includes artifact dorks like Virus Beetle or the Hart. Zombies from the Zombie above? Ravens? Mites from Mirrex? Urza's Factory tokens? Sacrifice a bunch as well as enchantments or artifacts we have many of. Then you can Zombify that many creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. For just five mana that could be a game swinging change!

Let's finish this section with a enchantment duo! Nihilistic Glee has two abilities. The first is to discard a card with three mana to drain the life of a foe by one. Use this on foe's turns with extra cards to trigger your Commander. Then if you have hellbent, you can spend two life and one mana to draw a card, and then cast, drop it if a land, and then activate again. It's a discard engine and then also card flow too! Painful Quandary has an opponent cast trigger. Did they cast a spell of any sort? Great! Then they have two choices. They will lose five life unless they discard a card with your discard triggers. Five life will count up quickly with the 40 life total, and then they will have it rough with the discarding.

Answers

Now let's turn to answers! We'll start with an answer to answers as well as flavorful counter! The answer to answers is a modal spell/land. It costs one instantly and you lose a pair of life. Then a dork you control comes back tapped, so this is great on something key about to die like my Scion or a Shade that wins the game or the Necrogoyf. The Counter-answer is on a four mana artifact form. You can tap it with two mana to Negate. And that's an ability and hard to counter back. The only issue here is that you have to discard your hand to make it work. I love it here with you wanting to discard anyway for your leader or your Bridge.

Every deck needs mass removal, so enter this sorcery pair! Mutilate will force all creatures to lose power and toughness equal to your Swamp count - which can be elevated with Urborg to even kill Eldrazi-sized threats. I love this here since you can get past any defense like hexproof or indestrucibe, but you can recur them with your effects since they aren't exiled. Decree of Pain will destory everyhing so it won't slip past indestructible, but you'll draw a card for each one destroyed - so you'll love to draw a ton of cards with your tokens out to reload your hand. Then I have Living Death to kilil everything in play and like Mutilate it slips past defenses and it will recur. Then In Garruk's Wake to kill all opposing creatures and planeswalkers.

Cursed Scroll was printed in the same Block as our key combos (Null Brooch, too, by the by). You can tap this for three to Shock any target if they reveal the card you named from your hand. It's here to kill after you've established control with just the one card in your hand that you topdeck. It's also a mana sink. I also have targeted emergency removal spell Feed the Swarm to take out an enchantment and Tragic Fall to kill something small early and then something bigger later.

Archfiend of Ifnir has a 5/4 flying body, no ability to attack with the Bridge out, but otherwise a useful attacker in the skies. It does have cycling to make a Raven on a foe's turn. But you want to cast it for that self-discard trigger. You'll put a -1/-1 counter on all creatures that all opponents control! That's massive removal over time!

Card Flow

Now let's finish with card flow! The super secret tech card Standard legal during this era was this four cost rare artifact, which I have also, super secretly built my deck around. I love it with Bridge since you draw on your turn two, and then discard your hand, so that's a trigger for the Raven Man and then no one can attack you. I almost went Rakdos since there is one more of this in creature form in mono-red called Avaricious Dragon. The common sorcery also costs four. It forces your foes to discard one each and then you might draw a few too for each one discarded. Love this loads here!

Dread Presence gives you a pair of options when you play a Swamp: you can draw and lose a life, or you can drain two from any target. Great way to finish off a foe if a few Swamps are enough to do the job, but the base here is card flow. Black Market Connections costs three and comes with three abilities that can trigger in your pre-combat main phase.

Each costs life and you must choose at least one. You can swap one life for a Treasure, two life for a card, or three life for a 3/2 with changeling, and then all two or three. The Treasure counts as an artifact or token for Lich-Knights' Conquest. The Changeling can also be sacrificed as a token. I prefer slower card flow here like this or Phyrexian Arena over Ambition's Cost since you can cast it each turn and won't need to worry as much about discarding if you need to drop it, like drawing two combo pieces after spending four mana.

I metioned in a few places how I have synergies for the 1/1 stuff. Enter this uncommon one-drop pair! The equipment equips for just one and gives the equipped dork a +1/-1 and then when it dies you draw too. That's awesome on your 1/1 Ravens. I also love this:

• Turn 1 - Land, Clamp
• Turn 2 - Land, Commander
• Turn 3 - Land, drop 1/1 two-drop everyone discards like Burglar Rat. Then equip with one to kill it and draw two. Swing with Commander for two. Trigger for a free Raven EOT to 'Clamp on turn 4 after swinging.

It's just too good here. The enchantment can be dropped on the first turn as well as long as you have an untapped Black tapping land. Then you can churn two mana into a sacrificed dork for a card and you'll gain a life too, don't forget that, most thin it's life loss since it's Black. I also love this in repsonse to removal or chump blocking to get that card flow from it. Great pair to turn tokens or early dorks into cards as well as before a mass recursion effect like Living Death or to reload an ETB trigger with Volrath's Stronghold!

Ready for my decklist?

Raven Man's Migraine | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Raven Man

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1 Bone Miser
• 1 Burglar Rat
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dread Presence
• 1 Drifting Shade
• 1 Dungeon Shade
• 1 Elderfang Disciple
• 1 Frozen Shade
• 1 Liliana's Shade
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Necrogoyf
• 1 Nezumi Informant
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 1 Sangromancer
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Tinybones, Trinket Thief
• 1 Virus Beetle

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Liliana, Waker of the Dead
• 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1 Liliana of the Veil

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Malakir Rebirth
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Tragic Fall

• Enchantments (16)
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Bottomless Pit
• 1 Dying to Serve
• 1 Gibbering Descent
• 1 Lich-Knights' Conquest
• 1 Liliana's Caress
• 1 Megrim
• 1 Nihilistic Glee
• 1 Painful Quandary
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Raiders' Wake
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 1 Vampiric Rites
• 1 Virtue of Persistence
• 1 Waste Not

• Artifacts (52)
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Cursed Scroll
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Gauntlet of Power
• 1 Geth's Grimoire
• 1 Grafted Skullcap
• 1 Null Broach
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Crawling Barrens
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Volath's Stronghold
• 1 War Room
• 1 Witch's Cottage
• 20 Swamp

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There we are! I hope that you enjoyed my updated take on "The Migraine"! What did you think?