Acererak the Archlich

Gameplan

Cast Acererak cheap and grind value: he venturing on every recast and his attack trigger forces each opponent to either sacrifice a creature or hand you a 2/2 Zombie — both great outcomes for a mono-black aristocrats/tokens deck. The real engine is making him cost 0 with reducers so you can loop cast/venture (entering a dungeon other than Tomb of Annihilation so he keeps bouncing) for arbitrary spell-cast triggers, then close with Aetherflux Reservoir. Outside the combo you go wide with Zombies and drain the table with sacrifice payoffs.

Key Cards

• Aetherflux Reservoir — Turns the infinite cast loop into a 50-life snipe that kills the whole table.
• Urza's Incubator — Naming Zombie slashes Acererak's cost, a core piece of getting him to free.
• Bontu's Monument — Reduces creature spell costs and drains opponents whenever Acererak re-enters.
• Semblance Anvil — Imprint a Zombie to cut Acererak's generic cost toward zero for the loop.
• Zulaport Cutthroat — Converts forced opponent sacrifices and your own Zombies into table-wide drain.
• Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure off death, helping fund recasts and enabling combo mana.
• Gravecrawler — A free recurring body that fuels sacrifice loops and aristocrat triggers.
• Phyrexian Altar — Sacs your Zombie tokens for mana to power recasts and combo lines.

Upgrade Path

Tighten the combo by adding more cost reducers (Herald's Horn, Cloud Key, Foundry Inspector) and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent) to find Aetherflux Reservoir reliably. Add fast mana (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, dark rituals) and recursion like Phyrexian Reclamation to rebuild after disruption, and consider Peer into the Abyss or Bolas's Citadel as alternate engines. Round out the aristocrats shell with Pitiless Plunderer plus a free sac outlet for non-combo grinds.