Cabal Patriarch
{2}{B}, Sacrifice a creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. {2}{B}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
How Cabal Patriarch decks play in EDH
Cabal Patriarch is a mono-black commander costing 3BBB, and its legendary creature - human wizard line shapes the whole deck around it. Sacrifice is built into the card, which pairs it with cheap recursive creatures and payoffs that trigger when something dies. It works out of the graveyard, so self-mill and cheap recursion effectively become extra card advantage. The cards below are the ones Cabal Patriarch decks actually play most often, grouped by the job they do.
Most-played cards
20 cards · about $46.59Play rates from EDHREC. Prices from Scryfall, refreshed daily.
Ramp (2)
Card draw (1)
Removal (2)
Creatures (9)
Synergy & payoffs (6)
Build the full 100
Grimoire generates a complete, Commander-legal Cabal Patriarch decklist with a written strategy, a full mana base and live prices — from the whole card pool, or only from cards you already own.
Start with Cabal PatriarchCabal Patriarch deck questions
What colours can I use in a Cabal Patriarch deck?
Cabal Patriarch has a mono-black colour identity, so every card in the deck must be black or colourless. That includes mana symbols in rules text, not just casting cost.
What are the best cards for Cabal Patriarch?
The cards played most often in Cabal Patriarch decks include Gangrenous Goliath, Patriarch's Desire, Morbid Hunger. The full list of staples above is grouped by the job each card does, so you can see the deck's skeleton rather than just a pile of names.
How much does a Cabal Patriarch deck cost?
The 20 most-played cards shown above come to roughly $46.59 at current market prices. A complete 100-card build costs more, and Grimoire can generate a budget version instead if you set a price ceiling.
Can I build a Cabal Patriarch deck from cards I already own?
Yes. Import your collection into Grimoire and choose "my cards" when you build. The generator will only use cards you actually own, and the Missing Cards page shows what you would need to buy to finish any list.