The Haunt of Discardtower [EDH]

[Oversoul]

Twenty years ago, I took apart my casual U/B Discard deck and replaced it with a mono-black Discard deck. I guess I've just repeated this feat. Now discard your hands.

Commander
1 The Haunt of Hightower

1 Animate Dead
1 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Archon of Cruelty
1 Bitterblossom
1 Black Market
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Bottomless Pit
1 Burglar Rat
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Coffin Queen
1 Consume Spirit
1 Corrupt
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Culling the Weak
1 Damnation
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Deal
1 Dark Petition
1 Dark Ritual
1 Dauthi Voidwalker
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Deserted Temple
1 Drain Life
1 Dread Return
1 Elderfang Disciple
1 Ever After
1 Exsanguinate
1 Geth's Grimoire
1 Grave Titan
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Jet Medallion
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Mind Twist
1 Mox Diamond
1 Necrogoyf
1 Necromancy
1 No Mercy
1 Oversold Cemetery
1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
1 Reanimate
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
15 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Stronghold Rats
15 Swamp
1 Sword of Hearth and Home
1 The Elderspell
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Tourach, Dread Cantor
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Twilight Prophet
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Venser's Journal
1 Victimize
1 Village Rites
1 Virus Beetle
1 Waste Not
1 Wasteland

 

[Oversoul]

Only played this one once so far, and it went poorly. I had bad topdecks and one opponent had poor threat assessment, leading to my stuff getting targeted when there was a much bigger threat to deal with. I have further thoughts on that day as a whole, but this deck only got one game itself, and it was relatively uneventful. More in the Quintorius thread...

 

[Oversoul]

I probably could have done a better job with this one, but I like it. I'm still zero for two on games won, but the second outing with this deck showed its potential. I essentially killed the most dangerous player two turns in a row, each time giving the remaining players more time. My final opponent overpowered me, but if I'd gone after him first, he'd have died and then I'd have lost to one of the other two. It was an impossible situation. I was relegated to a kingmaker role. But I did kill two of my three opponents, and I think I kinda had bad topdecks anyway.

 

[Oversoul]

Well, at least the Quintorius deck finally caught a break. This one still hasn't.

Not sure how much longer I can keep this deck around, but things are not looking great for it. Much of the problem is that I'm simply getting manascrewed too much, which is a bit weird since this deck has 36 lands, more than average for my EDH decks. But yeah, it's been bad.

 

[Oversoul]

Much of the problem is that I'm simply getting manascrewed too much, which is a bit weird since this deck has 36 lands, more than average for my EDH decks. But yeah, it's been bad.

Turned out the next time I tried this deck, it sat around with one land for like seven or eight turns. I originally had an opening hand with Strip Mine and Lake of the Dead, so I pitched it because of the lack of black mana. Second hand had a Swamp and a Dark Ritual to get me started. Worst manascrew I've had in a while. I'm afraid that this might be the end for this deck.

 

[Oversoul]

Woo hoo! This deck dominated a game. Probably scrapping it for parts soon, but at least it managed to sneak one win in. It was brutal and I felt a bit sorry for one opponent.

My opening hand looked OK, but was light on mana, so I started out right away with Vampiric Tutor for Sol Ring. Second turn I got Dark Confidant. Third turn was Dark Ritual for The Haunt of Hightower. I noticed that one opponent had kept a one-land hand, so I hit the land with a Wasteland to slow that player down and make my commander bigger. I topdecked Dark Deal and was able to use Strip Mine to slow down another opponent while presenting lethal commander damage against the third opponent. It happened to be the case that Dark Deal drew me into lands and nothing else, but I had my gigantic flying lifelink commander to see this through. Rankle, Master of Pranks came in the following turn and none of my opponents had spot removal that could deal with The Haunt of Hightower, so I picked them off one by one.

 

[Oversoul]

I've been taking a look back at decks that I might consider recreating and updating. I'll admit that I didn't originally home in on this one. It wasn't at the top of my list. It wasn't until I decided that I wanted to build a mono-black deck that I even thought of revisiting this one, and even then it wasn't at the top of my list. But taking some time to think changed things. I really only ran with the 2022 version of this deck for a month, and it mostly had unfortunate games and poor performances. Let's see if I can do better on my second attempt.

The Haunt of Hightower is a cute little baby vampire that just wants to make you discard cards.

Commander:
1 The Haunt of Hightower

1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
1 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Archon of Cruelty
1 Bottomless Pit
1 Breach the Multiverse
1 Burglar Rat
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Cabal Conditioning
1 Coffin Queen
1 Consume Spirit
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Culling the Weak
1 Damnation
1 Dark Deal
1 Dark Petition
1 Dark Ritual
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Deserted Temple
1 Drain Life
1 Dread Return
1 Elderfang Disciple
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Ever After
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Geth's Grimoire
1 Grave Titan
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Jet Medallion
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Malakir Rebirth
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Twist
1 Mox Diamond
1 Necrogoyf
1 Nezumi Informant
1 Nighthawk Scavenger
1 No Mercy
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Oppression
1 Oversold Cemetery
1 Painful Quandary
1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
1 Reanimate
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Sceptre of Eternal Glory
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Sheoldred
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
13 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Stronghold Rats
14 Swamp
1 Sword of Hearth and Home
1 Syphon Mind
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Tourach, Dread Cantor
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Twilight Prophet
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Venser's Journal
1 Victimize
1 Village Rites
1 Virus Beetle
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Waste Not
1 Wasteland

1 Corrupt
1 Exsanguinate
1 Jeweled Lotus

 

[Oversoul]

Played this deck yesterday. Only one game so far, but it does kinda have the same issue as the 2022 version. I could have killed any one of my opponents. I killed one, but another one popped off and took over the game with eldrazi. Oh well, at least I had a 27/27 commander. So that's fun.

 

[Oversoul]

Played this one last night (uneventful game, got taken out by a player who was dominating the table with broken stuff). But I still need a proper substitute for the Jeweled Lotus I'd thrown in here if I'm going to keep the deck around.

 

[Oversoul]

Jeweled Lotus was banned, so now I need to change this deck. Also, Exsanguinate is kind of boring anyway, so let's swap that out too:

-1 Corrupt
-1 Exsanguinate
-1 Jeweled Lotus
+1 Ever After
+1 Painful Quandary
+1 Rite of Consumption

 

[Oversoul]

I played this deck for my first game yesterday. With Mana Vault and Dark Ritual, I got The Haunt of Hightower out on turn 2. None of my opponents managed to ever kill or block my commander, so the game was over quickly and uneventfully.