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Rev, Tithe Extractor is a mono black commander introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sFoundations Jumpstart set. Despite its restriction to only black and colorless cards, the tools available in mono black are all you need to make Rev shine in the command zone.
The deck is a theft deck, playing your opponents' cards primarily as opposed to your own. This is done in the way of exiling them and casting them later. It’s a different way to play Commander, so if you’re looking for a commander that plays a more untraditional game, look no further than a deck led by Rev, Tithe Extractor.
Key to the City
x27 Swamp
The Black Gate
War Room
The decklistcontains 31 creatures, five sorceries, five instants, 18 artifacts, six enchantments,and34 lands. The majority of the creatures are ones that are unblockable (or hard to block) or ramp to make so you’re able to cast your stolen spells.
Key Cards
Rev, Tithe Extractor
The commander of the deck, Rev, Tithe Extractoris what everyone revolves around.Theability to give a creature deathtouch is not very relevant, as most of your creatures won’t be blockable to begin with. The main attraction is theability to generate Treasure tokens.
Rev triggers once forevery player that takes damage. This means if three different creatures connect for damage to all three opponents, you’ll make a total of three Treasure tokens and exile the top card of each of their libraries.
Thecards exile with Rev can be cast for the rest of the game, regardless if Rev is on the battlefield or not.You still need to pay the proper mana costs, including the right colors, but since Rev also makes Treasure tokens, this is hardly an issue.
Thieving Varmint
Mono black can struggle with mana dorks (creatures that tap themselves to add mana) since they have a very limited number of them. Thieving Varmintis the best available in theft decks, asit taps to add two mana of any color(but only for spells you don’t own, which will be the spells you exile).
Thieving Varmint combined with the Treasure token generation of Rev gives you a large amount of mana to work with. This pairing helps you tocast any of the spells you exile. The lack of limitation on the kind of colored mana produced makes Thieving Varmint theperfect tool to pay for color requirements in mana costs.
Drana, Liberator Of Malakir
Drana, Liberator of Malakir acts a bit as a consistency plan if you aren’t getting any useful cards from your opponents' libraries.Itneeds to connect for combat damage to spread +1/+1 counters to all attacking creatures.
What makes Drana so important in the decklist is that most of your creatures are unblockable.Thismeans you may attack with them recklessly since they can’t be blocked, and guarantee they get the stat boost. This rapidly stacks up, making them large damage sources after only a few counters get put on your creatures.
Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
Minas Morgul, Dark Fortressis the most important land in the deck bar none. While it does enter tapped which is unideal, the trade-off is more than worth it when you can continuously give your creatures shadow.
Creatures with shadow can only block and be blocked by other creatures with shadow. You don’t want to give every creature you control shadow, as this will make you unable to block most of your opponents' creatures since shadow is very uncommon.
You cangive a creature a shadow counter at instant speed. So you’re able to wait until the end step before your turn starts to use Minas Morgul so you can hold up your mana for interaction and then use Minas Morgul once you know you won’t need a vital removal spell.
Revel In Riches
Revel in Richesis both another way to ramp and acts asan alternate win condition. Any time a creature an opponent controls dies for any reason, you create a Treasure token. This is something that will happen naturally, so you don’t even need to go out of your way to trigger Revel in Riches.
For Revel in Riches' win condition,it just cares if you have ten Treasuresat your upkeep. They do not need to be made with Revel in Riches itself. Since Rev can make a total of three Treasure tokens each turn cycle, you can very quickly reach the required ten Treasure tokens for the win condition on Revel in Riches.
How To Play The Deck
A Rev, Tithe Extractor Commander deck isall about dealing damage to your opponents through guaranteed methods,creating Treasure tokens, and playing your opponents' cards. As with most theft decks, most of your creatures are enablers, while you’ll be stealing your opponents' best cards and using them for your own gains.
Rev needs creatures to connect for damage, so there is a large suite of creatures that can’t be blocked.Changeling Outcast and Tormented Soulboth can’t block but are unblockable, and theDauthi lineup of creaturesall have shadow, meaning only other creatures with shadow can block them.
There are only just under 40 creatures in the game with shadow, and most of those cards do not see any kind of meaningful play due to their weak power. This makes it so your creatures with shadow are unlikely to ever be blocked.
You won’t always have Rev around to steal cards, so other spells that enable theft are key as well.Court of Locthwain, Cunning Rhetoric, andBrainstealer Dragonall exile cards from your opponents' libraries, and with the exception of Cunning Rhetoric, can all be cast without spending mana to do so (so long as you’re the monarch in Court of Locthwain’s case).
The primary win condition is winning through combat. You have a ton of unblockable creatures and while they have low base stats, they can grow with extra support to make them more of a threat.Alternatively,Revel in Riches' win conditionis very easy to accomplish thanks to how much mana Rev makes.
The win conditions vary from game to game, as your game plan will alter based on what spells you’re getting from your opponents.
The biggest flaw of the deck is the heavy reliance on the commander. Rev, Tithe Extractor is a fantastic card, and as such it’s a prime target for removal. This is counteracted by having Equipment that gives it protection such asLightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and Psychic Paper.
Your creature suite isn’t too strong, soRev sticking around is vital to the success of the game plan.
