Commander Deck Guide: K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

How about a commander that turns your life points into the most useful resource in the game, mana?

Modern Horizons 3 brought us a few iconic reprints, like Toxic Deluge, Kaalia of the Vast (we even have a deck tech on Kaalia, if you're interested), Laelia, the Blade Reforged, and, the theme of this article: K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth (also known in Dominaria as Kerrick).

In this article, we'll show you two commander lists: the main one, which has many combos and works well on high-level tables, and the second one, which focuses on Demon-type creatures.

Before we dive right in, let's introduce this character and how important he is to one of the most critical planes in the Multiverse.

Just like Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, Kerrick was, naturally, a Sleeper Agent. Unlike Xantcha, however, he knew what he was and what he was meant to do in Tolaria, Dominaria.

He conquered Joira's heart and betrayed her by bringing other phyrexians to the Tolarian Academy.

To prevent the invasion, Karn and Urza used a time machine. This resulted in a time anomaly that bound Kerrick and other phyrexians to a time rift.

Kerrick took this opportunity to establish himself in the phyrexian army, and changed his name to K'rrik.

Many years later, K'rrik was killed by Urza and Multani, who had joined forces to prevent the horrors he had cultivated from affecting the plane.

K'rrik shows up in the flavor text of many black cards, like No Mercy, Ostracize, and Subversion.

Phyrexian Mana and Its Uses

K'rrik's main ability uses phyrexian mana. So, instead of paying one black mana for your spells, you can pay 2 life.

With this list, we can put our commander in play on turn 2. You just need 2 Swamps on the board, as you'll use one of them to cast Dark Ritual. Next, pay this card's phyrexian mana with your life.

This is just one of the things you can do with this deck with K'rrik's ability, but you'll notice there is a lot more in the list itself.

Furthermore, K'rrik gains one +1/+1 counter any time you cast a black spell, and has lifelink. This means he has a lot of potential as an attacker and blocker, as well as a lot of power and value.

The entire list centers around his ability, as you can use any life points you have to cast strong spells in your graveyard. Some lifegain pieces, like Whip of Erebos, will give you the support you need to use as much life as you can.

Now that you know how the commander works, let's discuss this deck's interactions.

Accelerators and Mana Rocks

Previously, we mentioned Dark Ritual, but that isn't the only accelerator in your deck. Other cards that will let you play faster are:

Despite not being mana rocks, I'll highlight Bontu's Monument, which discounts the cost of your black creature spells.

As this is a mono black deck, for two mana, we also have Jet Medallion, which will discount all your black spells by one generic mana, regardless of their type.

A creature that will also give more mana to play is Nirkana Revenant. As lands, we added the classic Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, which all bring more power to this mono black list.

Protection and Reanimates

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth was once traumatic to many Commander players. Nowadays, it is relatively common to face players that will try to remove him from your board as fast as possible.

If K'rrik on the board is already enough to pressure your opponents, we'll make the most out of it with protections to keep him on the board, as well as Reanimates, black's specialty in Magic: The Gathering.

Combos

Now, let's get into why K'rrik has such a bad reputation: all the combos you can put in this deck.

We're considering "combos" both interactions that end the game and those who give you a big advantage, such as gaining infinite life.

So, these combos are the most straightforward way you have to end the game with this deck.

Some included in this list are:

1. Activate Carrion Feeder and sacrifice it.

2. When Carrion Feeder dies, Mortuary triggers, which puts Carrion Feeder at the top of your deck, straight from your graveyard.

3. Resolve Carrion Feeder's effect, and nothing else.

4. Cast Carrion Feeder from the top of your deck by paying 1 life with Bolas's Citadel.

5. Bontu's Monument will then trigger, and you'll gain one life as other opponents each lose one life.

6. Repeat this process.

1. With all these cards on the board, activate Sensei's Divining Top's second ability by tapping it. You'll draw one card and put Sensei's Divining Top on the top of your deck, straight from the battlefield.

2. Sheoldred's first ability will trigger, and you'll gain two life.

3. Cast Sensei's Divining Top from the top of your deck by paying 1 life.

4. Repeat this process.

1. With all these permanents on the board, activate Sensei's Divining Top's ability by taping it. You'll draw one card and then put Sensei's Divining Top on the top of your deck.

2. Cast Sensei's Divining Top from the top of your deck by paying 1 life.

3. Aetherflux Reservoir will activate, and give you 1 life for each spell you cast this turn.

4. Repeat this process until you have 52 or more life points.

5. Activate Aetherflux Reservoir by paying 50 life, and deal 50 damage to any target.

6. Repeat this process to kill all your opponents.

Pre-requisite: Have all these permanents on the board and at least 5 life.

1. Activate Vilis' ability by paying 4 life (2 for his ability and 2 to turn your life into phyrexian mana), and target any creature.

2. Vilis will activate, and draw you four cards.

3. Sheoldred's first ability will activate four times, and give you 8 life.

4. Repeat as many times as you want to.

5. Resolve all Vilis' abilities, giving -1/-1 to as many target creatures as you want until the end of the turn for each ability.

These are just a few of the combos in this list.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, this list was built for high-level tables.

If you don't enjoy high-level games, or don't like combos, we also built another fun list without all the stress of setting up combos. It uses one of the most iconic black creature types: Demons.

With creatures like Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Reiver Demon, and Bloodletter of Aclazotz , this list uses one of the most iconic (and annoying!) Demons to disrupt your friends' game plan and get you closer to victory.

As Demons are quite expensive, K'rrik's effect will let you cast them by using your life.

Furthermore, this deck also has several huge Flying creatures that will certainly be big headaches for your opponents.

K'rrik has generically good abilities that let you build this deck in any way you like, either with combos, lots of lifegain, Aristocrats, Infect, or whatever.

The most important thing is to have fun and take advantage of everything a mono black deck can give you, like recursion and creatures no one likes to face.

What about you, did you like this list? Would you play it? Tell us all your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!