Gonti, Lord of Luxury is hands down one of my favorite card designs. Here the Aetherborn kingpin leads a mono-black midrange aristocrats deck with an ETB subtheme to maximize the number of cards you can extort from your opponents. Cunning Rhetoric gives you more of the same effect that Gonti goes for.

Modern players may find this deck familiar because it has a strategy that works like Rakdos () scam. You’ve got Undying Evil and all its variants on display here. This deck grinds out opponents with edict creatures like Plaguecrafter. You can use Fake Your Own Death to bring back your Plaguecrafter to double-edict or target something like Gonti to get a second trigger.

The main thing holding this deck back is its narrow interaction. Withering Torment is a step towards more flexible interaction, but far from an excellent answer. This is broadly the weakness of a monocolor Commander; you just won’t some tools in your black commander's arsenal. In Gonti’s case, this deck is excellent at shutting down opposing creatures but falters against decks that aren’t looking to win on that axis.