Old Sarum by John Constable (1829). Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer by Daarken.

With Ravnica Allegiance set to come out in a few weeks and new cards being spoiled every few days, it seems like an opportune time to jump into a new decklist. Today's Commanderruminations column is going to be a look at how I'd tackle one of the most interesting Mono-Black commanders I've seen in a while - The Haunt of Hightower. This is the buy-a-box promo for the Ravnica Allegiance set and you can bet I'm going to be picking one up!

This Legendary Vampire costs and is a 3/3 with flying and lifelink. That's not great, but his party trick is pretty neat. When The Haunt attacks, the defending player discards a card. Whenever a card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, you put a +1/+1 counter on The Haunt of Hightower.

A competitive Mono-Black deck-builder might lean away from the lure of a voltron strategy and would build a deck designed to win games with some quick combo that comes out of nowhere and is hard to stop and easy to recur. It's simply the best way to win games, but I want to have fun, I love voltron decks, and I'm not aiming for this list to crush the hopes and dreams of my opponents. Well, maybe a little - but this certainly isn't meant to be a competitive list.

Initial Reactions

My first thought when looking at The Haunt of Hightower was that it really wanted to be in a Dimir () list so that I could run him with cards like Windfall. Strangely, I tend to forget about Red wheel effects and for some reason I just fixated on building this Commander with Blue cards.

My second thought was that The Haunt was going to force opponents to discard cards so maybe he'd be a great commander for a dedicated hand hate strategy. Forcing your opponents to discard all the time isn't the worst plan ever. Of course, if they want cards in their graveyard we'll be helping them out and it seems like more and more decks are playing with graveyard-based strategies these days.

My next thought when looking at The Haunt of Hightower was that it really, really wanted to be in a Dimir () list so that we could do fun stuff like Traumatize someone to put half their library into their graveyard and then swing at someone with a ridiculously large commander with flying and lifelink. Apparently the bright minds over at Wizards of the Coast realized the trouble we'd get up to if they didn't make him Mono-Black so at least for this build we're going to stick to one color and one color only.

I think the way to go with this deck is to remember that The Haunt only cares about cards going into opponents' graveyards, and doesn't care about where they came from. That means we should probably build with a balance of hand hate, targeted removal, and boardwipes.

Hand Hate

Forcing your opponents to discard cards can be strong and against certain colors even crippling. It isn't "playing nice" but we're leaning towars a voltron strategy so we'll need all the help we can get.

We're going to be attacking and our commander has flying so it makes sense to pack in a few trinkets that will force our opponents to discard. Specter's Shroud is both cheap to cast and to equip and will give us +1/+0 and the combat damage discard trigger we're looking for. The much more expensive Sword of Feast and Famine will bring a lot more to the party but will also let us force our opponent to discard a card.

We'll be running creatures that force our opponents to discard cards when they enter the battlefield in the likes of Liliana's Specter, Cackling Fiend, and even Bloodhusk Ritualist and Caligo Skin-Witch, which require a kicker cost to be paid if you want opponents to discard cards. We'll also have creatures that force your opponents to discard cards when they die like Noxious Toad and Screeching Buzzard.

We'll also be running a few sorceries to help with our plan. Arterial Flow will probably get cast when we have our Vampire Commander on the field, giving us a little damage and lifegain. Syphon Mind will give us a little card draw for our trouble. Capital Punishment will force our opponents to sacrifice creatures or discard cards, but both will put +1/+1 counters on The Haunt of Hightower.

The Removal Package

Removing specific targets will always be necessary in Commander. While killing threats is important, putting +1/+1 counters on our commander is going to be equally important. We're starting out as a 3/3 so if we actually want to kill anyone we'll have to put a lot of work in before we can become a real threat.

Creatures that can kill when they enter the battlefield are fantastic, whether they let you target your victim or you force your opponent to choose which of their minions they'll have to sacrifice. Ravenous Chupacabra and Shriekmaw, which can be cast for its evoke cost, will both let you target a creature for destruction. Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, and Archfiend of Depravity will force opponents to sacrifice creatures, though the latter will affect us as well. Royal Assassin, once he is able to tap to do his thing, can destroy target tapped creature.

If our hand hate spells are all sorceries, it should come as no surprise that our kill spells are all instants. Go for the Throat, Hero's Downfall, Murder, and Price of Fame will all put in work. Tragic Slip is going to let us deal with the odd indestructible nuisance. Malicious Affliction will sometimes give us two kills if another creature died on the turn we cast it. Curtains' Call will also give us two kills and might cost as little as three or even two mana if we're at a large enough table.

We'll be running some more traditional boardwipes like the costly In Garruk's Wake and the cheaper and much better Toxic Deluge, but a lot of our sweepers are going to give -2/-2 to all creatures. Our Commander happens to be a 3/3 so we'll be hoping to see The Haunt survive and catch a few armies with their pants down. Wiping a board of 8-10 saprolings, using a kill spell on a flying blocker and swinging in for a mess of Commander damage is our basic plan. We're unlikely to get anyone on a one turn clock but we should be able to swing for over 10 damage if things go well.

Black Goodstuff

We're running a voltron deck with loads of hand hate and removal, but we've going to add in some other beaters

I usually try to keep my average CMC fairly low, but at least in this first draft I couldn't resist some of these beefy Black goodstuff creatures. Sheoldred may elicit groans from some of our opponents but if she sticks around we'll be getting creatures back and counters on The Haunt when our opponents sacrifice their creatures. Harvester of Souls will give us a card for each and every nontoken creature that dies. While I might not be pursuing the easy-win combos he enables, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed will let us get additional ETB and death triggers.

We're running a significant amount of hand hate, so Geth's Grimoire should pay off pretty nicely. It will let us draw a card every time an opponent discards a card. We are definitely going to want to blow up any Reliquary Towers that pop up on a Blue player's board, so Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, and Wasteland will fit in nicely.

We're running more big creatures than I usually run so we're going to want ways to generate more mana. Crypt Ghast and its sister-from-another-mister, Nirkana Revenant will fit in nicely. We'll also be running Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Cabal Coffers, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth because we're in Mono-Black and they're fantastic at helping us make big mana.

Necropolis Regent might not really be a piece of "secret tech" or the card that will turn this deck into a real powerhouse, but if we can get Regent to stick around it shouldn't take many swings with The Haunt of Hightower before we're swinging for lethal. If we can attach Fireshrieker we should be able to present a lethal threat very quickly, as Regent will trigger for each instance of combat damage.

If we swing with a 6/6 double-striking Haunt of Hightower with Necropolis Regent on the field, we'll force the defending player to discard a card, making Haunt a 7/7. On first strike damage we'll do 7 damage, gain 7 life and put 7 +1/+1 counters on Haunt. On regular combat damage we'll be hitting for 14 for a total of 21 commander damage and a kill.

To protect that threat we'll definitely run Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves. We don't have a lot of other options for giving double-strike or hexproof/shroud but these cards are voltron staples for a reason.

The Decklist

I don't feel like I'm breaking new ground, but I am still excited to build this deck. I think this list represents a pretty casual first step, and is lacking a lot of cards that might find their way into the deck if I play it, enjoy it and decide that I want to tune it up a bit.

The Haunt | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Haunt of Hightower

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Archfiend of Depravity
• 1 Bloodhusk Ritualist
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Caligo Skin-Witch
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Grim Haruspex
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Herald of Anguish
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Necropolis Regent
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Noxious Toad
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Royal Assassin
• 1 Screeching Buzzard
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk

• Instants (8)
• 1 Curtains' Call
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Hideous Laughter
• 1 Malicious Affliction
• 1 Murder
• 1 Price of Fame
• 1 Tragic Slip

• Sorceries (14)
• 1 Arterial Flow
• 1 Bite of the Black Rose
• 1 Capital Punishment
• 1 Damnable Pact
• 1 Golden Demise
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Morbid Curiosity
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Tasigur's Cruelty
• 1 Torment of Hailfire
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Unnerve

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Inner Demon
• 1 The Eldest Reborn

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Charcoal Diamond
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Geth's Grimoire
• 1 Jet Medallion
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Specter's Shroud
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (36)
• 26 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Wasteland

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There you have it. There's a noticeable lack of tutors. The reason behind that choice is simply that I'm not running a combo strategy, but I'm expecting that as I play the deck I will wind up dropping out the underperforming cards and adding in a tutor or three. Being able to get my Boots when I need them, Inner Demon when I'm faced with an army of saprolings, or Tragic Slip to deal with a big, indestructible threat will definitely make the deck more resilient.

Final Thoughts

How can I be excited about a voltron build with no clear ability to dig to a combo wincon or deliver a turn three knockout punch?

I play in a league and in a casual meta in which the occasional competitive build is tolerated and even respected, but most of our players don't really want to having to constantly face overwhelming, hyper-competitive decks. We play for fun and the league's prize is merely "bragging rights" for winning a month.

My Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon deck has been gathering dust because it feels a little too mean to play and too weak to withstand an entire table deciding to murder me after I kill one player way more quickly than anyone expected. I'm actually looking forward to taking it apart and building something I'll play more often.

The Haunt of Hightower will not only let me gain life, giving me a bit of a buffer against a table ganging up on me, but it really benefits from two things Black does really well - kill creatures and force opponents to discard cards. A big part of my excitement about this deck is that I'll finally have a Mono-Black deck that I can play in my casual games and hopefully even in league play and enjoy. There are lots of other Mono-Black commanders who might also fill that role, but I do have a weakness for voltron decks so this build should scratch that itch.

I expect this list to go through a number of revisions. I might add Hammer of Nazahn and some tutors and I could see dropping out some of the hand hate if it doesn't feel like it's providing enough advantage. Most of my decks see a fair amount of churn and this one should be no exception.

If I missed some ridiculous combo that The Haunt of Hightower is uniquely positioned to enable, please let me know in the comments. My casual tendencies sometimes get the better of me, and I'm always happy to be educated on the finer points of more competitive strategies.

I'm definitely picking up a box of Ravnica Allegiance so that I can get my hands on The Haunt of Hightower. The fact that there are a ton of great new cards in this set is icing on the cake and I'm looking forward to sharing more decklists with you in the coming weeks.

That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you back here next Monday!