Legendary Creature — Human Minion

Braids, Cabal Minion

Mana value4EDHREC#5,378Game ChangerYes

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The Commander

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices an artifact, creature, or land of their choice.

Guide

Gameplan

Drop Braids early to force every player—including you—to sacrifice a permanent each upkeep, then break the symmetry so your board outlasts theirs. You leverage recursion, sacrifice value, and ways to replenish what you lose, grinding opponents to nothing before closing with a few resilient threats.

Strengths

Brutal early-game resource denial that punishes greedy mana bases and stunts ramp decks
Mono-black gives access to the best recursion, tutors, and land/creature retrieval to ignore the symmetry
Cheap commander that immediately pressures all opponents at once
Synergizes with sacrifice payoffs, aristocrats, and graveyard recursion

Weaknesses

Symmetric effect hurts you too if you can't rebuild faster than opponents
Removal-magnet that paints a target and draws table hate
Can be too slow to actually close games—generates attrition but no inherent win condition
Mono-color means no access to blink, blue protection, or off-color combo pieces
Politically dangerous; tables often gang up to remove Braids

Key Cards

Crucible of Worlds — Lets you replay sacrificed lands from the graveyard, completely breaking the symmetry on land sacrifices.
Cabal Coffers — Pumps out huge mana so losing one permanent a turn barely matters while you out-resource the table.
Reassembling Skeleton — A creature you can sacrifice every upkeep and return for two mana, fueling the Braids tax indefinitely.
Bloodghast — Returns from the graveyard whenever you play a land, making your Braids sacrifice essentially free.
Smothering Tithe — Generates Treasures off opponents' draws, giving you renewable artifacts to feed Braids and ramp.
Pitiless Plunderer — Turns each sacrifice into a Treasure, converting Braids' tax into mana and combo fuel.
Liliana, Dread Queen / Liliana of the Dark Realms — Black planeswalkers provide repeatable value and recursion that survives the attrition you create.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana (Dark Ritual, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt) so you can deploy Braids on turn one or two before opponents establish a board, maximizing the denial. Layer in more free-to-sacrifice fodder and recursion (Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Gravecrawler, Crucible of Worlds) plus a sacrifice combo line like Pitiless Plunderer with a free sac outlet to actually end games. Round out with tutors (Demonic/Vampiric Tutor) and a clear aristocrats payoff package so your attrition converts into a real kill.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Grind opponents out of all resources, then close with a few recurring evasive threats
▸Drain the table with aristocrats payoffs like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat
▸Overwhelm with a massive mana base (Coffers/Cabal Stronghold) into X-spells or a big finisher
▸Combo lethal with Pitiless Plunderer or Treasure loops generating infinite sacrifice triggers

Archetypes

Stax — Braids' forced upkeep sacrifice is a premier resource-denial engine that grinds opponents out of permanents.
Aristocrats — You can feed Braids each turn with tokens and recursive creatures while triggering death payoffs like Blood Artist.
Lands / Recursion — Crucible effects and recurring lands let you ignore the land sacrifice while opponents fall behind.
Reanimator — Mono-black reanimation rebuilds your board from the graveyard the Braids tax keeps filling.