Vilis, Broker of Blood

Vilis, Broker of Blood is a card-draw engine that rewards you for losing life. Your gameplan is to get Vilis into play, then deliberately drain your own life total through effects like Bolas's Citadel, Dark Deal, or even just paying life for tutors and other abilities. Each point of life you lose triggers Vilis, drawing you cards and fueling your hand for more plays. You're essentially converting life total into card advantage, which in Black is a classic trade-off. The deck wins by either generating enough resources to overwhelm opponents with creatures and removal, or by assembling a combo finish like Sanguine Bond + any life-drain effect for the table.

This is a midrange-to-control shell that leans heavily on Black's life-pay synergies. You'll run cards that let you spend life as a resource (Dark Tutor effects, Necropotence-style effects), symmetrical damage effects that hit everyone (including you), and creatures that punish opponents when they attack or force them to lose life. The flying 8/8 body is also a respectable threat that pressures opponents while you're setting up your draw engine. Late game, you're drawing so many cards that you're simply out-resourcing the table.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.