Ob Nixilis of the Black OathOb Nixilis of the Black Oath | Art by Daarken

Welcome to the Cult

Salutations to you, dear readers! And, if you're new, welcome to Precon Remastered, where old preconstructed Commander decks are given new life by sacrificing some cards.

Today, we delve into the darkness to call upon sinister forces. Forces that, in ancient times, were cast aside until Onslaught, where they made their triumphant return. Much has happened since then...

Oh, we're not talking about Demons right now? Oops. Let's just get straight to the commander then.

This week, our commander of choice is Ob Nixilis of the Black OathOb Nixilis of the Black Oath. On the surface, it doesn't do all that much. The lone plus ability gives us some life while slightly draining our opponents. Meanwhile, the minus ability puts a Demon token onto the battlefield at the cost of two life. Lastly, the ultimate bestows upon us an emblem that acts as a sacrifice outlet akin to Disciple of BolasDisciple of Bolas.

However, a deeper reading tells us something more than meets the eye (and no, it's not Transformers). But first, we need to lay the groundwork.

Gathering the Materials

As always, here are our rules for remastering precons:

1. The value of the deck cannot exceed $120. This will apply to the reprints only, which gets to my first personal quirk.
2. Every card unique to the original precon stays in the deck. All those new cards that get released with precons remain in the list.
3. The land package should closely reflect what we get in precons these days (and, in my humble opinion, they're actually pretty good).
4. At least until 2020, we're not tied to a particular set, so we're free to choose whatever we want. You can be assured I have ideas for 2020 and beyond, though.
5. Universes Beyond cards are not added. No exceptions, unless they have an in-universe variant.

With that out of the way, let's take a good look at what the precon looked like originally.

The Original List

A Weak Performance

While the section name is only slightly misleading, there's something to be said about what we got. Like when I covered Peer Through Time the other week, we have ourselves a hodgepodge of cards that fall pretty flat. There are a few X-spells in the list, like Dregs of SorrowDregs of Sorrow telling us that this deck will be mana-hungry. On top of that, our best impressions of Cabal CoffersCabal Coffers are either a creature that needs to wait a turn, or a land that depends on the number of creatures in our graveyard.

That said, I do detect a bit of a theme in the 99, which I'll get to in a bit. However, said theme doesn't work too well with our alternate commander, Ghoulcaller GisaGhoulcaller Gisa. It's better placed at the helm of a Zombie deck. On the other hand, Gisa does work with the very evident sacrifice theme present in the deck list.

The best cards to sacrifice are also, paradoxically, the worst cards in the list. Cards like Morkrut BansheeMorkrut Banshee and Evernight ShadeEvernight Shade are easy fodder, considering they don't do much to affect the board. The Shade has the added benefit of being sacrificed a second time thanks to undying.

New Ingredients for the Ritual

With the new cards, we do get a few goodies. With creatures dying left and right, Malicious AfflictionMalicious Affliction will be likely to kill off two creatures. Necromantic SelectionNecromantic Selection will wipe the board, and bring us back a creature, too! In addition, we've got Unstable ObeliskUnstable Obelisk, which snipes a troublesome permanent, especially enchantments. Note that this card has been outclassed here, as we'll see soon, but at least it hits artifacts, right?

On top of those new cards, we get some cards that help Aristocrats decks. One of these is Wake the DeadWake the Dead, which can bring back multiple creatures. Note that we can't use it on our turn, so they're blocking fodder.

Mostly.

What we could also do is cast it, bring back a bunch of creatures, then sacrifice them to fuel stuff like Blood ArtistBlood Artist, among other things. It also lets us reuse enters the battlefield (ETB) effects, so yay! More value.

Anyway, we also get another sacrifice outlet in Flesh CarverFlesh Carver, but paying two to do it each time means we can only do it so many times during each round. However, Aristocrats is not what I'm intending to do here, so what's that mysterious theme I hinted at earlier?

Sworn to Darkness Remastered

Blessings of Power

If you guessed Demons, you're exactly right! I leaned into a Demon deck with this remaster. It certainly fits our commander, considering it depicts him before he became one. That said, there are only a few cards that reward us for selling our souls to them.

Firstly, Demonic CovenantDemonic Covenant will have us draw a card and lose a life if a Demon is attacking an opponent. If my guess is right, we could draw as many as an Ambition's CostAmbition's Cost allows. Next, we have Standard all-star Unholy Annex // Ritual ChamberUnholy Annex // Ritual Chamber, which will draw more cards, plus drain our opponents for two. The other half can be unlocked in a pinch.

More often than not, Demons tend to work alone, and it shows. Archfiend of DepravityArchfiend of Depravity will set back those pesky go-wide decks considerably. Meanwhile, Demonlord BelzenlokDemonlord Belzenlok will potentially draw us a few cards, as will Kothophed, Soul HoarderKothophed, Soul Hoarder.

That said, Demons tend to be expensive and mana hungry. We are packing more wipes than usual to help cover us early on, but we also have cards like Dream DevourerDream Devourer, which makes casting them cheaper if we foretell them instead.

Ceremonial End

That about does it for our delightfully evil overlords, and for this series for a bit. Come back next week when we return to Commander Makeover with a new entry.