The Commander
Whenever Ayara or another black creature you control enters, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
, Sacrifice another black creature: Draw a card.
Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with black creatures so each ETB drains every opponent and gains you life, then convert those bodies into cards with Ayara's sacrifice ability. You grind incrementally, looping tokens and recursive creatures to bleed the table out while staying out of reach of damage.
Strengths
- Mono-black consistency with strong tutors and recursion
- Built-in card advantage engine via the sacrifice draw ability
- Passive lifeloss that pressures all opponents simultaneously
- Excellent synergy with token makers and aristocrats sacrifice loops
Weaknesses
- Slow clock without a dedicated combo finisher
- Heavily commander-dependent; removal stalls the engine
- Mono-color means no access to blue interaction or wraths
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate that shuts off recursion loops
Key Cards
- Gravecrawler — Recurs from the graveyard for repeated ETB drains and free sacrifice fodder.
- Bastion of Remembrance — Doubles your aristocrats damage, turning every sacrifice into extra drain.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on each death, fueling explosive recasting loops.
- Bontu's Monument — Each black creature ETB drains opponents, stacking with Ayara's trigger.
- Ayara, Widow of the Realm — The newer face partners with this Ayara for a powerful drain-and-loop engine.
- Skullclamp — Turns sacrificed creatures and tokens into a relentless card-draw machine.
Upgrade Path
Add reliable loops: Gravecrawler plus a free sac outlet and a Treasure/mana engine like Pitiless Plunderer or Phyrexian Altar enables infinite ETB drains. Layer multiple payoffs (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance) so any sacrifice loop wins, and run fast mana (Dark Ritual, Jet Medallion) plus tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to find your combo pieces faster.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Infinite or near-infinite creature ETB loops draining the table
- ▸Aristocrats death triggers (Blood Artist, Bastion of Remembrance) plus Ayara drain
- ▸Recasting recursive creatures repeatedly for incremental life loss
- ▸Reanimating a finisher and grinding out the board
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Ayara rewards creatures entering and dying, the core of sacrifice strategies.
- Tokens — Black token swarms trigger her ETB drain en masse for huge life swings.
- Reanimator — Recurring big black creatures replays ETB drains and refuels the sac engine.
- Combo — Undying/persist loops with her drain close games out of nowhere.
Combos
- Warren Soultrader + Gravecrawler + Ayara, First of Locthwain
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Plague of Vermin
→ Near-infinite creature tokens for all players, Near-infinite ETB, Near-infinite lifegain
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ayara, First of Locthwain
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite death triggers
- Acererak the Archlich + Ayara, First of Locthwain + Bontu's Monument + K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth + Jet Medallion
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite +1/+1 counters
- Acererak the Archlich + Ayara, First of Locthwain + Bontu's Monument + K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth + Heartless Summoning
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite +1/+1 counters
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
