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Syr Konrad, the Grim

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Syr Konrad, the Grim

At a glance

  • Commander: Syr Konrad, the Grim — {3}{B}{B}, 5/4
  • Colors: Mono-Black
  • Archetype: Aristocrats drain / inevitability control
  • Power tier: High

Cards

Gameplan

Konrad turns the entire graveyard economy into a Drain-the-table machine. Every creature death (yours or theirs), every creature card milled, and every creature recurred from your yard pings each opponent for 1. The deck is built to manufacture those triggers on repeat while keeping the board clear with edicts, point removal, and repeatable sweepers. You are a control deck whose win path is inevitability, not draw-go-into-wrath: you grind every game to a table-wide life drain no common board can race.

Three overlapping trigger sources stack on Konrad:

  1. Deaths — edicts, sac outlets, sweepers, and dying fodder.
  2. Self-mill — milling creature cards triggers Konrad directly (and fuels recursion).
  3. Recursion — a creature card leaving your graveyard (recur it, then it dies again) is a third trigger per loop.

Key synergy lines

  • Sac loop: Persistent Specimen / Doomed Dissenter / Nested Shambler + Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer or Ashnod’s Altar. Sac the creature (Konrad ping), it dies (Falkenrath Noble / Spirit of Malevolence ping), recur Persistent Specimen from the yard (leaves graveyard = another Konrad ping). Each iteration drains the table for 2-3.
  • Recursion grind: Grim Harvest and Tortured Existence return a creature each turn — every return leaves the graveyard for a Konrad ping; re-cast and re-sac the body for more. Grim Harvest’s Recover refunds itself whenever a creature dies, making it a perpetual engine.
  • Sweeper-as-burn: Pestilence, Crypt Rats, and Evincar’s Justice each kill multiple creatures (a flurry of Konrad pings) and burn players directly. With 29+ Swamps, Defile becomes a near-unconditional kill and Crypt Rats/Pestilence scale to lethal sweeps.
  • Edicts feed Konrad too: every opponent forced to sacrifice (Fleshbag, the edict suite) is a creature dying = a Konrad ping plus a Falkenrath Noble ping.
  • Self-mill front-loads the yard: Gorging Vulture, Eerie Soultender, Corpse Churn, Mire Triton, etc. dump creature cards (each = a Konrad ping) and stock recursion fuel.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 37: 29 Swamp + Bojuka Bog, Barren Moor, Polluted Mire, Witch’s Cottage, Desert of the Glorified, Ash Barrens, Cradle of the Accursed, plus Wayfarer’s Bauble as a virtual 38th. Swamp-heavy to power Defile / Crypt Rats / Pestilence.
  • Ramp — 11: Sol Ring, Ashnod’s Altar, Charcoal Diamond, Mind Stone, Guardian Idol, Prismatic Lens, Star Compass, Commander’s Sphere, Pristine Talisman, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Arcane Signet. (Ashnod’s Altar doubles as a free sac outlet.)
  • Card advantage — 9: Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, Costly Plunder, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Skulltap, Corpse Churn, plus Mind Stone / Commander’s Sphere late-game cantrips. Most are sac-fueled, converting fodder into cards + Konrad triggers.
  • Spot removal / interaction — 13: Cruel Edict, Diabolic Edict, Geth’s Verdict, Devour Flesh, Myrkul’s Edict, Tyrant’s Choice, Fleshbag Marauder (edicts), Defile, Tragic Slip, Feed the Swarm, Annihilating Glare, Bone Splinters, Spark Harvest.
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe — 4: Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Evincar’s Justice (repeatable, scalable), Drown in Sorrow.
  • Aristocrat payoffs — 7: Falkenrath Noble, Spirit of Malevolence, Tattered Mummy, Vampire Spawn, Infectious Host, Etched Familiar, Vengeful Dead.
  • Sac outlets / fodder / engine creatures — remainder: Carrion Feeder, Viscera Seer, Bloodthrone Vampire, Blood Pet, Persistent Specimen, Doomed Dissenter, Festering Mummy, Nested Shambler, Wakedancer, Bone Picker, Twisted Abomination, Ravenous Gigamole, plus the self-mill suite (Mire Triton, Returned Reveler, Crow of Dark Tidings, Gorging Vulture, Eerie Soultender, Stinkweed Imp) and recursion (Grim Harvest, Tortured Existence).

Win condition

Inevitability via repeatable, table-wide life loss. Konrad pings each opponent on every death / mill / recursion; Falkenrath Noble and Spirit-of-Malevolence-style drains stack on top. A single sac-and-recur loop (Persistent Specimen + a free sac outlet + Falkenrath Noble) drains all opponents every turn, and Pestilence / Crypt Rats / Evincar’s Justice convert a clear board into direct burn. No common-power board state can race or stop the grind — you simply out-drain the table.

Pilot notes

  • Lead on a mana rock or self-mill; deploy Konrad turn 4-5 once you have a sac outlet or recursion piece online.
  • Hold edicts for opposing commanders and hexproof threats; they double as Konrad fuel, so never feel bad firing them.
  • With Pestilence/Crypt Rats, count your Swamps — you can often sweep their board to zero while finishing a player. Keep Pestilence alive by always having a creature out at end step.
  • Save Defile for the biggest threat; it scales with Swamp count and is your cleanest single-target kill.
  • Grim Harvest + a sac outlet is your value engine in long games; prioritize finding it.

Weaknesses

  • Graveyard hate (exile-on-death, GY exile) blunts the recursion half of the engine; lean harder on the death/mill triggers and edicts when it appears.
  • Lifegain decks can slow the drain clock — Tattered Mummy/Infectious Host/sweepers push through, but it’s the worst matchup.
  • Mono-black has no counterspells, so a resolved problematic enchantment/artifact is hard to answer (Feed the Swarm covers enchantments at a life cost; otherwise rely on the edict/board-control plan).
  • Heavy reliance on Konrad in play; against repeated commander removal, the Falkenrath Noble + sweeper backup carries, but tempo suffers.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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