I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love grinding out games with one-for-one-style control decks. I don't know why, but when I get the opportunity to simply not let anyone else at the table play Magic, I'm a happy guy. (It should be noted I don't do it very often, and when I do, I always admit that's the style of deck I'm playing and make sure everyone is okay with that. They're normally not, so I don't get to do it all that often!)

I've got the Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck I linked to above, which has been banned by more than one of my playgroups. I have King Macar, the Gold-Cursed and Hythonia the Cruel, both of which do their best to not let anyone have any creatures. And I have to admit, when I first saw this guy, I didn't see this style of deck.

I mean, having a built-in sacrifice effect is great, and drawing cards off it (especially without losing life, given we're in Black) and that means we have a lot of options available, but still. We're not stopping anyone from doing their thing.

Or are we?

Okay, we can play the creatures, kill some stuff, then sacrifice them for some cards. Now we're talking. But if we're going to do that, we're going to need to keep a constant flow of cards coming into our hand. Enter our Background of choice.

This may seem like a strange choice, but we can attack the opponent with the highest life total with Shadowheart, give another one of our creatures +3/+3 (since Shadowheart's power is 3), then sacrifice the pumped creature (whether it attacked or not) and draw three extra cards. Since we're likely to be talking about at least a one-power creature, we're drawing a minimum of four. And adding Green gives us access to a bunch of other effects we can make use of, like Artifact and Enchantment destruction and land fetch.

You may have noticed a flaw with this logic, though. Shadowheart has to tap to attack, but he also has to tap to sacrifice a Creature. I think we can get around that problem, too. Let's take a look.

Heart of Darkness | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar

• Background (1)
• 1 Hardy Outlander

• Creatures (41)
• 1 Apprentice Necromancer
• 1 Archon of Cruelty
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Borderland Ranger
• 1 Cadaver Imp
• 1 Cemetery Desecrator
• 1 Civic Wayfinder
• 1 Destructor Dragon
• 1 District Guide
• 1 Doomed Necromancer
• 1 Dread Cacodemon
• 1 Druid of Purification
• 1 Entomber Exarch
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Gala Greeters
• 1 Gravedigger
• 1 Graveshifter
• 1 Hex Parasite
• 1 Hooded Assassin
• 1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1 Kura, the Boundless Sky
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Patron of the Vein
• 1 Pharika's Mender
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Scryb Ranger
• 1 Seeker of Skybreak
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Suspicious Bookcase
• 1 Sylvan Ranger
• 1 Vengeant Vampire
• 1 Vindictive Lich
• 1 Viridian Emissary
• 1 Wild Wanderer
• 1 Woodfall Primus

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Nissa, Genesis Mage

• Sorceries (2)
• 1 Aether Snap
• 1 Sylvan Scrying

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Journey to Eternity
• 1 Palace Siege
• 1 Phyrexian Reclamation

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Bladed Bracers
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Haunted Cloak
• 1 Hot Soup
• 1 Magewright's Stone
• 1 Manifold Key
• 1 Patriar's Seal
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Ring of Thune
• 1 Thieves' Tools
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 10 Swamp
• 6 Forest
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Blighted Fen
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Blooming Marsh
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Haunted Fengraf
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Memorial to Folly
• 1 Nurturing Peatland
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Turntimber Grove
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Witch's Cottage
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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We can normally break cards in our deck into categories, and this deck is no different. In this case, we have the following:

• Recursion
• Destruction
• Land Fetch
• Untapping/Vigilance
• Evasion

Many Recursion/Reanimator decks prioritize Graveyard-to-Battlefield effects. That makes sense; skipping the casting part of a Creature can make for reduced-cost casting (after all, paying four to return a Creature that costs eight is pretty big savings). In this case, though, we're going to worry about that less; we should have plenty of mana, and we'd honestly rather hold our stuff for when we need it, so our hand is probably safer. That doesn't mean we don't have a couple of ways of returning stuff straight to the 'field, it's just not a priority. A couple of great examples are Phyrexian Reclamation and Palace Siege. Either one of those is fantastic (and we should only have one of them out at a time), because they allow us to sac our Creatures freely, knowing we can get them back and recast them at will. Of course, we also have Journey to Eternity, which will transform into a land which lets us simply Reanimate something for no life loss, and Sheoldred, Whispering One, who brings something back every turn. Then again, something like Doomed Necromancer can work wonders with something like Gravedigger: sac the Necromancer to buy back the Gravedigger, then the Gravedigger returns the Necromancer to our hand. We sac the Gravedigger for five cards (using our Commander and Background combo) and recast the Necromancer, ready to repeat.

The big thrust of our deck is in keeping the board clear of major threats. Because our Creatures are (for the most part) reusable, we are sticking with Creature-based effects as much as possible. So, Ravenous Chupacabra, yes, but also Druid of Purification, Meteor Golem, and Woodfall Primus. We have a lot of ways to kill just about everything, and we draw so many cards we shouldn't have too much trouble finding the answer we need for any given problem. Even without a Reliquary Tower, remember we can discard our Creatures without too much worry, because we can just get them back later.

That said, we have a few ways to find that Reliquary Tower. Expedition Map and Sylvan Scrying are both able to find any land, and that's probably our first choice, though Access Tunnel or Rogue's Passage are both great, too, since we'll be attacking with Shadowheart a lot, and eventually making him unblockable will probably be important. We also have a bunch of Creatures which go get lands, some to the Battlefield (Solemn Simulacrum, Wood Elves) and others to our hand (Sylvan Ranger, Pilgrim's Eye). While acceleration is good, we're not in a hurry. We're playing a long game, and the best way to make sure we have what we need is simply to never miss a land drop. Don't be afraid to spend some extra mana early to use Borderland Ranger extra times to make sure we hit drops eight through eleven.

Shadowheart needs to attack, but he also needs to be untapped to sacrifice something, so we're going to have to either untap him or give him Vigilance. We have a few ways of doing this, but my favorites are the Creature-based ways: Seeker of Skybreak and Scryb Ranger. Scryb Ranger slows down our mana a bit, but both of these can be bought back with our recursion, so they're worth having. Magewright's Stone and Patriar's Seal are cheap ways to untap Shadowheart, and both work well with Manifold Key, because we can untap the Artifact to untap Shadowheart again and sacrifice something else. Bladed Bracers and Haunted Cloak both grant Vigilance, as does Ring of Thune. Finally, our one Planeswalker, Nissa, Genesis Mage is here purely to untap our Commander. We need one of these to get our card flow really rolling, so dig for one early, keeping in mind we can sac a creature for just a card or two early and still buy it back as we dig for a way to manage this.

Finally, keeping Shadowheart attacking is really important. The lands have been mentioned, but we also have a few Artifacts which make him hard to block (Hot Soup, Prowler's Helm, Thieves' Tools) and one which is really good, because Whispersilk Cloak also makes him much harder to target. Add things like Suspicious Bookcase and Manifold Key, which can grant temporary Unblockability, and we should be able to keep him attacking for as long as we need to.

A couple of things worth mentioning. Aether Snap is a concession to Planeswalkers and Tokens. It's a shame it's not a Creature, but alas. On the other hand, Hex Parasite is a fantastic answer to opposing 'walkers and is a great sacrifice target, because it pumps its own power, kills a 'walker, then can be sacrificed for a bunch of cards. Note that the Parasite works on any counter on a permanent, so it can serve as an answer to pesky shield or divinity counters. There're a fair number of creatures with choices when they enter the Battlefield or die. Hooded Assassin, for example, gives us a choice. So does Gala Greeters. Choices are good. With the Greeters, for example, we can gain a little life if we want. We can put a counter on it (or the Assassin, for that matter) to draw another card later. And Treasure is always useful. Keep the options in mind. Dread Cacodemon is one of our board wipes, and is excellent for us (plus a good reason to return Creatures to our hand, rather than the Battlefield). So, what it taps all our stuff? We can sac it and draw 11 next turn!

A couple of things worth remembering. At some point, you probably want to stop drawing cards. You'll probably have all the answers you'll need in the 'yard, and we could seriously mill ourselves with this one without too much trouble. Always see if there's a way out of a problem with the resources you have before you sacrifice your Archon of Cruelty for nine more cards. (Though probably do that. Then recast it. That's hilarious.) District Guide should probably get Golgari Guildgate. And again, Expedition Map or Sylvan Scrying should probably get Reliquary Tower, though if people are turtling up with big creatures, get Access Tunnel to sneak Shadowheart through.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think, in general, of grindy control decks in Commander? What's your favorite color combination for them? Also, what Background do you want to use with Shadowheart? Please let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.