1) This is a 100% multiplayer deck. I do not play 1v1 ever, or if I do, I'd rather do it with multiplayer decks because the games go longer and feel more fun.

2) I really wanted a Grixis general that didn't immediately scream "play tons of graveyard recursion!!!one!!11!! I have multiple decks that do that already, and I really wanted to do something different.

3) I wanted a general that fit well with a heavy black strategy in a Grixis deck. You're probably asking, "Artos, why don't you just build a mono black deck then?" The answer is I wanted to do something different and having a deck for every shard but Grixis has really been bugging me. Black is by far my least played color, and I couldn't find a Grixis deck that I was really enjoying. I decided to put the two together and see what happens. The theme is actually really interesting (at least for me) so I'm going to go ahead and test this sucker out and see how it plays.

To solve 1:
The deck runs multiple solutions to every permanent type, but skips countermagic completely. This is partially to stay on theme, and partially because I feel you have to run a ton of counterspells (10-12 or more) for them to be remotely useful in EDH. I have a large number of tutors as well to keep my answers flexible, and I'm finally getting a chance to play some of black's deck extraction cards (Sadistic Sacrament being one I've wanted to put in a deck for a while).

To solve 2 and 3:
Sol'Kanar doesn't immediately lend himself to mass graveyard recursion like many other generals in UBR. He's an evasive beater with some built in life gain. Looking at him, I think he lends himself to a heavy board control strategy and playing out your spells to take advantage of his life gain triggers. As you'll see in the deck list, that's what I'm aiming for overall.

Playing Sol'Kanar over a mono black general also gives me access to a few hybrid cards I've really wanted to get into a deck but just haven't had room or the right deck theme, like Oona and Memory Plunder. Every card in the deck is 100% usable with only swamps, minus Sol'Kanar himself.

It is. Playing this deck, the only text on those cards is "Moutaincycling (2)" or "Islandcycling (2)". Nine times out of ten I'll be using them to get dual lands to help me play Sol'Kanar and giving me something to do early while making sure I don't miss any land drops. This deck is incredibly reliant on hitting a land drop every turn until at least 7 or even 8 to play effectively, and I want to make sure I get there every time. They also happen to be reusable with creature recursion - something black is pretty good at randomly doing without being totally committed to it (see number 2).

The goal of the list is for almost every relevant spell to be black to take full advantage of Sol'Kanar and add to the mono-black feel. The few multicolored cards in the list are hybrid, or land cyclers.

This card seems so busted, and I have no deck that it would fit into better. For something this good, and this on theme, I'm willing to make an exception. The idea of looping Profane Command with this guy is incredibly exciting for me - it just seems awesome.

I have a few other cards in the deck to recur my threats and land fetchers, most notably Volrath's Stronghold and Crucible of Worlds. For me, making a recursion-less EDH deck is like asking me to build a deck without lands. What I'm really shooting for is a deck where I don't want to put Living Death into it just because it can generate black mana. My two other decks that play black are Kresh (oh man does he love Living Death) and Sharuum (doesn't play it, but might as well for how often things come out of my graveyard). This deck isn't nearly as dependent on the graveyard, but can still take advantage of it.

It's Grixis, so enchantments are a problem. It's also basically mono black, so artifacts really are too. I have both Nevinyrral's Disk and Oblivion Stone in there to handle both, and to be additional creature sweepers. Memory Plunder also stands to help out with that quite a bit as I can reuse other player's removal. However, it's still stands to be ugly semi-frequently. I foresee myself tutoring for O-stone or Disk pretty often, but I'll have to wait and see. My play group is very creature heavy, and I don't see a whole lot of enchantments and artifacts unless it's a theme deck.

Cards considered:
Cruel Ultimatum- I want to include this spell because it's silly good, but there's no way I'd reliably be able to cast it, nor do I want to change my manabase to make that possible.

Cards I'm considering:
Mind Twist and Mind Shatter - I'm tempted to put these in, but I'm not sure how effective they'd be. I have Myojin of Night's Reach in because it hits everyone and sometimes that's what I'd need to do to stay in the game with my play group, but wiping out a single player's hand doesn't seem as useful in multiplayer. I can think of multiple decks in my group where it would be the right play though...

Loxodon Warhammer or some other equipment - While we don't keep track of general damage in my group, giving Sol'Kanar a boost would likely be useful almost all of the time. A good number of my heavy hitters would also love some trampling goodness. I'm torn on whether to slip a few pieces of equipment in or even just one as a tutor target for when I just need to get in for damage, and if so, which ones are the best choice.

Hatred - See the equipment argument above, but the general theory (heh, puns) is that if I have a noticeable amount of life gained off Sol'Kanar triggers, I can sneak in for some ridiculous amount of damage and eliminate someone with this. Seems like a solid way to just end the game when I need to do so.

More to be added later as I think of them.

None yet!