While flipping through my collection, I found a lot of awesome reanimator and tutoring cards in GB. I thought to myself "this might make a fun and amazing EDH deck". When trying to find a commander that would fit this structure that I had started creating, there were really only three choices: Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Pharika, God of Affliction, and Glissa, the Traitor.
Jarad was a little too reliant on graveyard shenanigans for my tastes, and the decks that abuse him seem to be a little fragile, especially concerning graveyard hate. Pharika didn't have enough of an effect for me to want to run him, and I can't imagine I will be reliably hitting 7 devotion. This left Glissa. Glissa is incredibly powerful on her own just by virtue of being a 3/3 for 3 with first strike and deathtouch. Her other ability was also one that I could easily take advantage of without building my entire deck around her. This versatility is what led me to choose her as my commander.
Keep in mind that my playgroup frowns on decks that use infinite combos, and will gang up on you if you do something degenerate. This is the best "fair" deck that I could come up with. It plays very defensively in the early-mid game, then gets progressively stronger every turn for the rest of the game as you pull more cards out of your deck.
As you can see, I opted for more of a GB Reanimator/goodstuff deck instead of running a heavy artifact package.
Things I'm probably going to add when I get them Dryad Arbor- Fills a variety of purposes, and is a shoe-in with GSZ Volrath's Stronghold- Duplicate effects are nice Liliana Vess- Does all of the things this deck likes Sol Ring? not sure it's really necessary. My spells are pretty color-heavy, and I'd rather run a mana dork as a 1-drop because I need to keep my saturation of creatures really high Greater Good- Seems like both a great sac outlet and heavy card drawing. I need to test it Lord of Extinction- The dream of saccing him to Jarad after a Memory Jar is appealing. I might run him over Gurzigost
Things I am considering Corpse Dance- I'm not super interested in this type of reanimation, but I'll probably try it out. Putrefy- Not sure if I need this in addition to Beast Within, but I would certainly run it over Maelstrom Pulse Dimir House Guard- Digs for a lot of really good cards in this deck and could also be a sac outlet in a pinch should I be close to LD or something of the like. Didn't play during Ravnica so I don't have one yet. Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots- I have a few wincons that I kind of want to protect. However, the fact that I have so much recursion and don't really care about you killing my guys keeps me from wanting to devote a card to this effect. These do make Lord of Extinction and Kessig Cagebreakers a LOT better though. Bow of Nylea- I feel like I want another effect to put cards from my graveyard back into my library for a variety of reasons. Bow is the only one I could find that actually does something useful all the time.
On the chopping block Dregs of Sorrow- Super powerful, but heavy on mana. This is probably the removal spell I would drop first
I haven't really needed any more single-target removal to this point, and I almost never attack with Glissa.
Expedition Map might not be a bad idea, since I do have some pretty nice utility lands. I'd say I can replace Burnished Hart with it, but I want to keep my creature count up. Maybe I can get rid of Harrow
I've been playtesting Greater Good and it definitely needs to be in this deck.
Life from the Loam and Golgari Grave-Troll are interesting, but I don't want this deck to become too reliant on the graveyard. The best part of this deck is that it is balanced and capable of handling any threat or board state. That said, Life from the Loam seems like it could be pretty awesome. Not as sure about the troll.
I wanted some more artifacts to use with Glissa, and these are the three that I think provide the most impact.
Memory Jar accomplishes so much that this deck wants to do, and being able to reuse it is pretty nasty. It makes Lord of Extinction more appealing, but I'm still not sure that a big vanilla beater is what this deck needs.
Plague Boiler is absolutely brutal in this deck. I'm not too concerned about most of my permanents being destroyed, and it keeps decks that swarm from doing much of anything. Also, unlike Pernicious Deed, it can be returned to my hand with Buried Ruin and Glissa
Oblivion Stone is even more brutal with Glissa and, again, I don't really care about board wipes.
I played a multiplayer EDH game last night with 4 players (myself included). The other decks were Goblins with Krenko, Mob Boss, weenies/enchantress with Selvala, Explorer Returned, and tempo/control with Arcanis the Omnipotent (minus some of the $50-100 cards). It pretty much felt like there was nothing anyone could do to stop my deck. Karn Liberated was by far the scariest card to play against, but I eventually got it with a Hex Parasite before too much damage was done. They managed to get me down to <10 life at one point, until I popped Plague Boiler then used Gnaw to the Bone to get back up to 40 or so. I proceeded to kill them all with a giant Mortivore
Played a few games on untap. I still have yet to lose with this deck, but I will admit I haven't played really serious competition.
So far my surprise MVPs are:
Plague Boiler- I've set up the Genesis, Glissa, Boiler combo a few times and it is really hard to beat. Being able to wipe the board on command over and over until I get to a state where I have the advantage is probably this deck's surest path to victory
Brutalizer Exarch- Being able to tuck noncreatures is amazing, especially against people running Gods as generals. Also, I have so many ways to tutor it up
Gurzigost- Discard outlet? check. Beefy creature with evasion? check. Puts cards back into my library so I can tutor them back up? check. This guy has done a surprising amount of work for me. Also, the 8 toughness is surprisingly relevant
This deck is still all about Survival and Genesis, but I seem to lean on a different group of cards every game. I've noticed that while a lot of decks are running out of gas in the late game (especially after a few board wipes), I'm usually just picking up steam.
While flipping through my collection, I found a lot of awesome reanimator and tutoring cards in GB. I thought to myself "this might make a fun and amazing EDH deck". When trying to find a commander that would fit this structure that I had started creating, there were really only three choices: Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Pharika, God of Affliction, and Glissa, the Traitor.
Jarad was a little too reliant on graveyard shenanigans for my tastes, and the decks that abuse him seem to be a little fragile, especially concerning graveyard hate. Pharika didn't have enough of an effect for me to want to run him, and I can't imagine I will be reliably hitting 7 devotion. This left Glissa. Glissa is incredibly powerful on her own just by virtue of being a 3/3 for 3 with first strike and deathtouch. Her other ability was also one that I could easily take advantage of without building my entire deck around her. This versatility is what led me to choose her as my commander.
Keep in mind that my playgroup frowns on decks that use infinite combos, and will gang up on you if you do something degenerate. This is the best "fair" deck that I could come up with. It plays very defensively in the early-mid game, then gets progressively stronger every turn for the rest of the game as you pull more cards out of your deck.
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Hex Parasite
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Veteran Explorer
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Hermit Druid
1x Lotleth Troll
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Sylvan Caryatid
1x Ulvenwald Tracker
1x Wall of Roots
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Eternal Witness
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Splinterfright
1x Sylvok Replica
1x Yavimaya Elder
1x Brawn
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Mortivore
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Spike Weaver
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Acidic Slime
1x Chainer, Dementia Master
1x Genesis
1x Gurzigost
1x Kessig Cagebreakers
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
1x Harvester of Souls
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Visara the Dreadful
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Moldgraf Monstrosity
1x Terastodon
Instants:
1x Beast Within
1x Chord of Calling
1x Gnaw to the Bone
1x Golgari Charm
1x Grisly Salvage
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor
Sorceries:
1x Buried Alive
1x Damnation
1x Diabolic Revelation
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Living Death
1x Reanimate
1x Regrowth
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Unearth
Artifacts:
1x Birthing Pod
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Memory Jar
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Plague Boiler
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Deadbridge Chant
1x Hibernation's End
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Survival of the Fittest
Planeswalkers:
1x Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Lands:
1x Buried Ruin
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
7x Forest
1x Golgari Guildgate
1x Grim Backwoods
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Strip Mine
7x Swamp
1x Tainted Wood
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Terrain Generator
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Treetop Village
1x Undiscovered Paradise
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
As you can see, I opted for more of a GB Reanimator/goodstuff deck instead of running a heavy artifact package.
Things I'm probably going to add when I get them
Dryad Arbor- Fills a variety of purposes, and is a shoe-in with GSZ
Volrath's Stronghold- Duplicate effects are nice
Liliana Vess- Does all of the things this deck likes
Sol Ring? not sure it's really necessary. My spells are pretty color-heavy, and I'd rather run a mana dork as a 1-drop because I need to keep my saturation of creatures really high
Greater Good- Seems like both a great sac outlet and heavy card drawing. I need to test it
Lord of Extinction- The dream of saccing him to Jarad after a Memory Jar is appealing. I might run him over Gurzigost
Things I am considering
Corpse Dance- I'm not super interested in this type of reanimation, but I'll probably try it out.
Putrefy- Not sure if I need this in addition to Beast Within, but I would certainly run it over Maelstrom Pulse
Dimir House Guard- Digs for a lot of really good cards in this deck and could also be a sac outlet in a pinch should I be close to LD or something of the like. Didn't play during Ravnica so I don't have one yet.
Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots- I have a few wincons that I kind of want to protect. However, the fact that I have so much recursion and don't really care about you killing my guys keeps me from wanting to devote a card to this effect. These do make Lord of Extinction and Kessig Cagebreakers a LOT better though.
Bow of Nylea- I feel like I want another effect to put cards from my graveyard back into my library for a variety of reasons. Bow is the only one I could find that actually does something useful all the time.
On the chopping block
Dregs of Sorrow- Super powerful, but heavy on mana. This is probably the removal spell I would drop first
Expedition Map may be helpful.
My decks:
-Modern UWR gifts control
-Modern Mono-G aggro elves
-Azami, Lady of Scrolls EDH
-Glissa the Traitor EDH
-Modern UWR Counterbalance Control
-Modern UW enchantment control: primer, on tapped out
-Modern regular UWR control
I haven't really needed any more single-target removal to this point, and I almost never attack with Glissa.
Expedition Map might not be a bad idea, since I do have some pretty nice utility lands. I'd say I can replace Burnished Hart with it, but I want to keep my creature count up. Maybe I can get rid of Harrow
I've been playtesting Greater Good and it definitely needs to be in this deck.
Life from the Loam and Golgari Grave-Troll are interesting, but I don't want this deck to become too reliant on the graveyard. The best part of this deck is that it is balanced and capable of handling any threat or board state. That said, Life from the Loam seems like it could be pretty awesome. Not as sure about the troll.
Thanks for the replies!
I've made a few changes:
-1 Ink Eyes
-1 Grim Flowering
-1 Increasing Savagery
+1 Memory Jar
+1 Plague Boiler
+1 Oblivion Stone
I wanted some more artifacts to use with Glissa, and these are the three that I think provide the most impact.
Memory Jar accomplishes so much that this deck wants to do, and being able to reuse it is pretty nasty. It makes Lord of Extinction more appealing, but I'm still not sure that a big vanilla beater is what this deck needs.
Plague Boiler is absolutely brutal in this deck. I'm not too concerned about most of my permanents being destroyed, and it keeps decks that swarm from doing much of anything. Also, unlike Pernicious Deed, it can be returned to my hand with Buried Ruin and Glissa
Oblivion Stone is even more brutal with Glissa and, again, I don't really care about board wipes.
I played a multiplayer EDH game last night with 4 players (myself included). The other decks were Goblins with Krenko, Mob Boss, weenies/enchantress with Selvala, Explorer Returned, and tempo/control with Arcanis the Omnipotent (minus some of the $50-100 cards). It pretty much felt like there was nothing anyone could do to stop my deck. Karn Liberated was by far the scariest card to play against, but I eventually got it with a Hex Parasite before too much damage was done. They managed to get me down to <10 life at one point, until I popped Plague Boiler then used Gnaw to the Bone to get back up to 40 or so. I proceeded to kill them all with a giant Mortivore
I added a few cards that I recently acquired. My deck is close to being where I want it to be. Survival of the Fittest is broken...
So far my surprise MVPs are:
Plague Boiler- I've set up the Genesis, Glissa, Boiler combo a few times and it is really hard to beat. Being able to wipe the board on command over and over until I get to a state where I have the advantage is probably this deck's surest path to victory
Brutalizer Exarch- Being able to tuck noncreatures is amazing, especially against people running Gods as generals. Also, I have so many ways to tutor it up
Gurzigost- Discard outlet? check. Beefy creature with evasion? check. Puts cards back into my library so I can tutor them back up? check. This guy has done a surprising amount of work for me. Also, the 8 toughness is surprisingly relevant
This deck is still all about Survival and Genesis, but I seem to lean on a different group of cards every game. I've noticed that while a lot of decks are running out of gas in the late game (especially after a few board wipes), I'm usually just picking up steam.