Drana

In pondering what to do with Drana, I started looking around edhrec.com and mtgsalvation.com. I was pretty stuck. All of the decks that I saw on edhrec were vampire tribal...and there's no lists in the database at all on mtgsalvation. So, I decided to focus on the ability rather than Drana being an ally or a vampire. There are not that many monoblack creatures that care about +1/+1 counters except as a stat boost. While I liked the idea of build a Suicide Black style deck, it didn't seem as interesting as actually using the ability in a relevant way. There are piles of artifact creatures that use +1/+1 counters as a resource. That looked like a way to use Drana's ability profitably. As such, the core of the deck is artifact creatures with abilities like Modular.

Decklist - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-10-15-EGK-drana/
Bullshit rating - 3

The core of the deck:

The modular creatures necessitate that the deck is mostly constructed of artifact creatures, but the pay offs of Triskelion, Hanagerback Walker, Pentavus, and Triskelivus are more than worthwhile when also used in combination with Drana's ability. Adding proliferate is another way to continue the counter action if Drana is incapacitated. One of Drana's strengths is her low cost, so I don't anticipate her being out of the action for long. Still, its good to have back ups.

These creatures are rather good at gumming up the ground and generating incremental advantage. The card draw suite I chose reflects how the deck wants to play.

I do think the deck could use something like Damnable Pact. However, there's a lot here to love. Mind Stone is with the card draw since that's more its function than acceleration. In combination with Junk Diver and Myr Retriever, it can generate significant velocity.While not technically drawing cards, the Diver and the Myr can do some pretty spectacular plays with Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks. I omitted Necropotence for several reasons. Since the removal suite includes All Is Dust and Ugin, having colored permanents makes those effects less one sided. The deck doesn't have significant life gain to offset Necro's draw back, and the triple black is surprisingly annoying in a deck that wants to get away with as much utility in its mana base as possible.

There's some specific ramp options that this deck can take advantage of, like Workhorse, Metalworker, and Krark-Clan Ironworks. The other options are pretty generically good, though Everflowing Chalice does extra work with the proliferate that's in the deck. The vast majority of the cards in the deck are colorless so paying extra to generate black mana is largely pointless. As such, the deck just plays the best cost to mana produced ratio.

These are just some great utility cards. Exsanguinate can be a game winner, and frequently will help replenish the health paid in other effects. Eldrazi Monument and Soul of New Phyrexia are both solid ways of protecting the board. The other option is Darksteel Forge, though I somewhat dislike it since I'd have to pay retail for it. Mikaeus is obviously a combo outlet and lets the deck steal games it would otherwise definitely lose. The same goes for Mephidross Vampire. 

Like any deck, removal is important. Black is however, terrible at dealing with artifacts and enchantments. So much so that I'm essentially ignoring them. Ugin and All Is Dust do a great job of clearing up the board of permanents, and the rest deal with problem creatures. 

It wouldn't be black without tutors. I tried to keep them minimal so as to reduce the consistency. The deck is going to be consistent with a 3 mana general already. No need to add to that too much. These are classic black tutors, well maybe not Increasing Ambition. However, that card is only a mana more than Diabolic Tutor and the colorless to black conversion might actually make Ambition easier to cast in a deck loaded with colorless acceleration. 

The lands are pretty straightforward. I do think there's room for more utility, however, wanting to have BB on turn three every game is going to hamper the number of colorless lands the deck can realistically play. I think upon reflection that the Crypt isn't correct and going forward would replace it with a Mortuary Mire.

Powering Up:

Mana Crypt/Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith/Voltaic Key - Powerhouses of acceleration, the first two are a bit too pricey to just throw into a deck willy-nilly. If you have them they are perfect. Key has powerful utility with the theme. Key works with the artifact acceleration to power out threats early. However, it wasn't included in the main deck since Key needs a mass of the cheaper acceleration and electing not to play Crypt and the Monoliths would have left it feeling anemic. 

Army of the Damned/Endrek Sahr/Spawning Pit/Tombstone Stairwell - There was some thought to including these types of token makers. They feel somewhat out of place. The various artifacts that replenish themselves to make tokens forever with Drana feel significantly more powerful. If you find that you want more token action, these are all solid options, and the threat of having an army in a can is a good one to have in the face of decks with lots of sweepers. 

Smothering Abomination/Dark Prophecy - With the number of tokens that can be cycled through or sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks, these could be used to draw an absurd number of cards. Dark Prophecy had the problem I had with Necropotence of being triple black and a colored permanent, but on the other side doesn't lock you out of your draw step. Smothering Abomination is the best of both worlds. It has no life cost, is a creature itself for Drana pumps, and its colorless for All Is Dust/Ugin. Abomination is more narrow since it only works on sacrifice, but there's plenty of that in the deck. Include if you want to make the deck more consistently combo.

Kozilek/Ulamog 1/Ulamog 2/It That Betrays - These large colorless threats could be used to push away from a combo finish, but I had a couple problems with the colorless Eldrazi. First, they don't actually absorb too much of the artifact synergies. Second, they are a bit too high on the mana curve. This deck can generate a lot of mana through Cabal Coffers and the artifact mana, but its aiming for 7-8, not 10-12. That makes it unlikely for the Eldrazi to show up early. I do think that having one of the original titans, specifically Koziliek, would be great to go long with as anti-milling tech and a constant threat of being able to refill your hand. 

The deck turned out much better than I expected. I might try to play this one in real life. 

Thank you all for reading the article and look for Zada coming next Monday! Cheers!