Preview time, preview time, preview time! Nothing gets me hyped up like preview time—especially for a big set. Now, strangely, we have our second big set of the block—I don’t understand why, but gift horses, mouths, and so on. Preview time!!!

I’m obviously not thrilled about the whole triumphant-Angels vibe of this set. In fact, I had a bad feeling about this when the first previews came out of PAX East: Avacyn, Her Bad-Ass Self and Sigarda, Host of What-do-birds-have-to-do-with-it-again. I don’t mind indestructible creatures as long as I can Edict them, but denying black its most powerful form of removal seems kind of unfair.

Thank the Old Ones for Griselbrand, He Who Only Needs One Name.

Griselbrand is among the most exciting black cards we’ve seen in a long time, and I realize that we’ve had Mikaeus and Phyrexian Obliterator in the last year. The Griz blows them away for many of us Timmies. A 7/7 with lifelink and evasion? Yes please. Seven cards!? Hell yeah!

Now that I’ve settled down a little from my Griselbrand-induced nerdgasm, let me offer a few ideas on how we can best use him—first in sixties, then in Commander.

Speed Demon

In Grixis colors, large numbers of Ravnica bounce lands allow you to discard an enormous demonic dude on turn two, followed by an Exhume on turn three—I recommend eight bounce lands in a sixty-card deck. If the dude you Exhume is a Defiler, anyone not playing gold creatures or a token army just lost the game, and if that dude is a Prince of Thralls, Dark Ritual for Pox puts things away pretty sharply.

However, Defiler of Souls doesn’t play nicely with Griselbrand, so we’ll be significantly less colorful in this new build, but that won’t be a problem. In fact, by cutting out the gold, we can hew to black’s traditional strengths of life-gain and discard.

"Speed Demons"

• Land (22)
• 15 Swamp
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Everglades
• 1 Reliquary Tower

• Acceleration (12)
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 4 Armillary Sphere
• 4 Rotting Rats

• Demons (11)
• 4 Ob Nixilis the Fallen
• 4 Griselbrand
• 3 Pestilence Demon

• Reanimation (9)
• 4 Exhume
• 3 Shallow Grave
• 2 Living Death

• Support (6)
• 4 Tendrils of Corruption
• 2 Corrupt

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There are lots of options for building around Griselbrand, from reanimator to a more significant group-discard theme with cards such as Liliana and her Caress, Delirium Skeins, and Hollowborn Barghest as a reanimation target

You can also go full-on Pox or push up your life so much that you can activate Griselbrand multiple times without any danger. Or you can follow the path that my Grixis deck originally went down with Charcoal Diamond (no, really!), Obelisk of Grixis, Signets, and the like. All that matters is that Griselbrand hits the table before those snooty Angels can swoop in and start bossing you around!

Commanding the Demon

I’m honestly not completely sure about the best way to take advantage of Griselbrand in Commander—as a commander or as an awesome support card in another deck. As a role-player in another commander’s deck, he serves the kind of role Balthor the Defiled does: He hits the board late and gives you a huge boost that is often enough to put the game away. Unlike Balthor, he has a hugely relevant body in his own right, and his card-drawing ability is completely one-sided. Balthor has his own strengths, of course, but I am confident that Griselbrand will wreak havoc on your opponents as a top-of-the-curve threat in any deck that can cast him.

However, my preference is to put him in a deck designed to power out huge bombs. Rather than post another overlong decklist, I’m going to do something different. The best way to build a balanced Commander deck is to divide your available card slots into distinct functions (spot removal, sweepers, reanimation, ramp, and so on). What I’ll do here is suggest a functional structure for the deck, based on my Sheoldred deck from last year, with suggested cards for each function. Think of this as kitset deck-building. All you have to do is choose whichever of the following cards you have close at hand and put them in the deck—or, replace any of my suggestions with your personal favorites.

Forty Lands

"Forty Lands"

• Lands (10)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Lake of the Dead
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold

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And of course, lots and lots of Swamps (full art John Avon Swamps for preference). Forty lands is absolutely rock-bottom minimum for a Commander that costs 8, unless perhaps you’re playing green. I don’t care how many mana rocks you’re rocking; you cannot afford to go below forty lands in this deck.

Most of these lands you don’t need to be told about—if you have them, you know that they’re good. Phyrexia's Core is the only one I haven’t heard anyone talk about before, but I really like it for its interaction with Spine of Ish Sah and the Wellsprings from Scars block. Plus, the one sure thing about mana rocks is that they will get swept away, so you might as well get some more value out of them. Saccing your own stuff can also thwart the machinations of players with buyback spells—let the rest of the table worry about Capsize and Shattering Pulse while you can freely fizzle those nasty spells by sacrificing their targets in response.

Ten or More Accelerants

I’m not the biggest fan of the mana rocks, but 8 mana isn’t cheap. The last multiplayer game I played had six players, and I was the only one whose commander cost more than 5, so Griselbrand’s cost is putting us behind the curve. These cards will make up for it.

"Ten or More Accelerants"

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Twisted Abomination
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum

• Spells (17)
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Promise of Power
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Necropotence
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Jet Medallion
• 1 Journeyer's Kite
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thran Dynamo

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Some of these are the pricey crutches that all of the Commander fanatics know about already; some of them are surprisingly effective budget solutions. Any of these cards that you don’t know you should check out—they can give you tremendous value and noticeably improve how well your deck plays, yet they are often overlooked.

For example, everyone in my old group in Tokyo had discovered the wonderful Pilgrim's Eye, but when I played it in Korea recently, most people didn’t seem to know what it did. Advantage: me!

Notice that some of these accelerants are creatures, so you have the option of including ten non-creatures in your Accelerants function and slot these accelerating creatures as Utility Creatures just to make sure you’re getting Griselbrand out that little bit sooner.

Ten Cards in Griselbrand’s Support Suite

You can’t afford to get the big guy tucked, so you have to protect that 8-mana investment. More importantly though, that massive card-drawing ability can be incredibly useful in more ways than one. Here are some of the usual suspects along with some of my very own super-secret technology.

"Ten Cards in Griselbrand’s Support Suite"

• Creatures (2)
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer

• Spells (10)
• 1 Neverending Torment
• 1 Sanguine Bond
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Empyrial Plate
• 1 Ivory Tower
• 1 Lashwrithe
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Venser's Journal

• Lands (1)
• 1 Arena

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Yeah, that’s right, I said Neverending Torment! Griselbrand is going to make that pop—with a full hand of cards, it doesn’t matter if you can never cast another spell again—you receive what is essentially a kicked Sadistic Sacrament every turn. Also, Empyrial Plate turns Griselbrand into an overpowered hybrid of Necropotence and Hatred.

Overkill? This isn’t a game of kick the Ouphe!

Ten Utility Creatures

There isn’t a lot of room in this list for creatures, but I’m sure that you’ll find one or two every time you draw seven cards. Here are some early plays that carry you to the late game. Don’t forget that there are other creatures listed under the other categories, so you could end up with twenty-five to thirty creatures in the final list if you need to.

"Ten Utility Creatures"

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Bane of the Living
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Bone Shredder
• 1 Child of Night
• 1 Entomber Exarch
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Mortivore
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1 Sengir Vampire
• 1 Thrashing Wumpus
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Creepy Doll
• 1 Phyrexian Revoker
• 1 Stuffy Doll

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Note: Obliterator and Wumpus should not be played together, but either is fine. I like playing Arena when my commander has either lifelink or deathtouch, and if you’re playing Arena because of Griselbrand, you should probably try to find an Obliterator to go along with it. “Oh no, you played a Blightsteel Colossus! Whatever shall I do? Oh yeah . . . sac my Obliterator to wipe out everything you own!”

Ten Big Bastards

"Ten Big Bastards"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Demon of Death's Gate
• 1 Dread
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Laquatus's Champion
• 1 Pestilence Demon
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Umbra Stalker
• 1 Xathrid Demon
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
• 1 Lim-Dul the Necromancer
• 1 Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Spirit of the Night

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Ten Angel-Insurance Cards

If you’re having fun with the new Demon, you have to be prepared for your opponents to bring out the new Angels. Avacyn Restored is a brand new world, and it’s one in which a lot of black’s traditional weapons don’t always work so well. How do you get rid of critters when they’re indestructible and/or protected from black and/or you can’t make your opponent sacrifice? Each of these will answer some, but not all, of the new challenges.

"Ten Angel-Insurance Cards"

• Creatures (2)
• 1 Butcher of Malakir
• 1 Reiver Demon

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Karn Liberated

• Spells (16)
• 1 Tribute to Hunger
• 1 Tsabo's Decree
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Innocent Blood
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Sadistic Sacrament
• 1 All is Dust
• 1 Grave Pact
• 1 Altar of Shadows
• 1 Jester's Cap
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Helvault

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Nine Cards with Overwhelming Power

When you draw seven cards, you want to feel the power, am I right? Here are some serious game-changers that you can play with once you get up to Griselbrand mana.

"Nine Cards with Overwhelming Power"

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Various Eldrazi Monstrosities

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Spells (12)
• 1 Death Denied
• 1 Army of the Damned
• 1 Choice of Damnations
• 1 Curse of the Cabal
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Hex
• 1 Killing Wave
• 1 Overwhelming Forces
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Repay in Kind

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. . . and anything else that’ll make your inner demon cackle when you cast it.

So, there you have it: a simple way to build a unique, balanced, and efficient deck. If you don’t have any particular vision of what a Griselbrand deck should look like, start with this, and then modify it in whichever direction your Muse takes you. If you like this structure but don’t have enough of the cards to fill in all ninety-nine cards, I would recommend filling in the blanks with one-third lands, one-third spot removal effects, and one-third cheap creatures. That will let you survive until the eighth turn, which should be the absolute latest you drop Griselbrand.

Fellow necromancers, we don’t get a card this awesome every set—let’s make the most of this opportunity. Get cracking with the deck, and let me know what fiendish concoctions you come up with!