Hello! I'm a longtime Magic player, starting in 7th edition with the Beginner's precon and with an Onslaught Fat Pack. (I remember my first pulls too!) While my original favorite color combination was RG, I've always had a love for Golgari, ever since I cracked the Golgari precon back in 2005 with the original Ravinca set and fell in love with the concept of Dredge. I had toyed with the idea of reanimation before, but Dredge took it to the next level in terms of the flavor, playability, and just the fun concept of winning via attrition. I've since experimented with many different types of GB decks, from legacy/vintage dredge, to casual "value" decks, a Glissa the Traitor EDH deck, and now this!
Deck History
This Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck originally started out as a Shattergang Bros deck. I was wanting to play something Golgari for the longest time, having no luck with a very messy Stax based Glissa deck, and not really enjoying durdling while others just won. So I was helping a friend on here develop a Shattergang deck he had built, which was a very different, interesting build, mostly focused on tokens, mass land destruction, and planeswalkers! However, it wasn't all roses and daises; the deck had numerous setup issues. Much like Glissa, I spent so many turns finding engine pieces like Squee, Goblin Nabob, Survival of the Fittest, etc, while others just won. When board wipes and removal hit, I couldn't stop it, and generally never was able to rebuild. While the concept was there, and it was plenty of fun to play, I was generally unhappy with the deck.
I put it and EDH on the shelf for a few months, hoping the C15 series of decks would bring me an UR artifact deck to play with. Sadly, we didnt get that, but instead, I saw Meren. It was love at first sight! She was what I wanted all along for Shattergang Bros. Less setup, more value, and immediately, for doing what I wanted to do in the first place.
I originally developed the deck with many Enter the Battlefield (ETB) and Leave the Battlefield (LTB) abilities, focusing on Midrange "Value" creatures to abuse with Meren's ability. In addition, I had a subtheme of Stax, where I would use cards like Grave Pact and Smokestack to grind the board in my favor, while getting free reanimation triggers off Meren. This caused my curve to be quite high, and made the deck just as slow as Shattergang Bros without a solid hand that curved out well. I realized after about a dozen games playtesting the build, I needed to lower the curve, focus on a few concrete win conditions, remove the the poor performing and pet cards. In doing so, I've replaced those cards with more efficient, general answers to cover my weaknesses and not play so many silver bullets. In addition, in lowering the curve, the deck explodes out of nowhere when Meren makes her appearance, and she quickly becomes public enemy #1!
In conclusion, we are now a stax/combo deck. We aim to ramp quickly with mana dorks, then clutch control of the board, then win via one of our numerous combos.
Why Meren? Why Combos?
You might like this deck if
You enjoy interacting with the board and other players
You enjoy combos, particularly ones with creatures
You enjoy reanimator and utilizing your graveyard as a resource
You dislike stax - This list runs light stax to help control the board. If you dislike the stax elements, they can be replaced by more draw/tutors/mana dorks/Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos
You dislike reanimator - some people dislike reanimator on principle, or dislike the idea of opening yourself to grave hate and the political issues it can cause
Deck Power Level
90-95% tuned - Combo + Stax
I am missing key stax pieces and tutors that would push this deck into the 100% territory such as Imperial Seal, Trinisphere, etc. This is due to my general meta being generals all over the spectrum being ran at
Karador is the most similar general to Meren in our gameplans. We both want to combo out as soon as possible using creature based combos. You do lose alot playing Meren by lacking white for white's combo pieces, removal, and tutors. However, our mana base can be much more consistent. In addition, Karador requires a different, but similar setup: Karador requires a graveyard with creature to play Karador, and then you still need to cast the creature. Meren has a static cost, starting at 4, and can immediately recur or reanimate something. It's a different taste of a similar strategy, I personally prefer the consistency of Meren.
This card is the same as Karador, in that the three colors does open up some new combos and synergizes, but the general costs more mana and particularly unique to Mimeo, requires the kill in the grave to get proper value out of their general.
Jarad is also a combo general, but tends to only kill one player at a time. In addition, he plays completely different combos, and has no built in reanimation ability like Meren has. Also, since he is the focus of the deck for multiple combos, opponents can repeatedly remove him to neuter your ability to combo and win.
Glissa is also a reanimator general, but one that utilizes mana rocks/lure effects/Edict effects to recur artifacts. I dont think that BG plays enough solid artifact tutors/support to utilize artifact combo better than generals like
Monoblack is a solid choice, but lacks green's removal, mana dorks/ramp, and the addition of many efficient creature tutors. With that said, there are reasons to play mono black for reanimator combos, such as the addition of ramp such as Cabal Coffers and Black Market.
Meren is arguably the most powerful GB general ever printed, allowing free reanimation or recursion on each of your turns that she is still on the battlefield. To this end, she is a dedicated creature-based commander, so ideally creatures that generate value by being returned to the board, or removed from the board, play well into her titular ability. She is a good example of Wizards printing less linear generals for us to build around, which makes inclusions and exclusions greatly dependent on your meta, subjectivity, power level, or even just what you and your group finds enjoyable.
Getting these counters requires cards and or effects outside of Meren herself
One or more creatures to sacrifice/die while Meren is in play
A sacrifice outlet, board wipe, or attacking/blocking
Given that Meren cannot gain experience counters simply by casting a spell like other Commander 2015 generals, she must not only resolve a creature, but have it hit your graveyard while she is in play. Through this, we run multiple, powerful sacrifice outlets, as well as creatures who can sacrifice themselves to produce some effect on the board. (From this point on, the term "Sac outlet" is used as a term to represent a way to remove our creatures from the board). While unlike those other generals, Meren's ability is a negative play for your board! Why would we want to ever do that?!
Well, she can return the creature to play at the end of your turn. Unlike many other similar effects in Magic, which require you to wait until your next upkeep, the beautiful design of Meren is in that she can always do something at the end of each turn she is in play. Your opponents then need to prioritize saving instant speed removal for her, as she will always net you some benefit as long as a creature is in your graveyard.
While our focus on reanimation has lessened over time, we still rely on it to impact the board through creatures with powerful removal effects like Reclamation Sage or tutoring like Sidisi, Undead Vizier
At the end of your turn, when Meren's ability triggers, you have two options,
Return a creature from your graveyard to your hand.
Return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield, but it must have a converted mana cost less than or equal to your experience counters.
Typically, the latter is the ideal choice since it avoids counterspells and places it onto the battlefield for free! However, with Evoke creatures like Shriekmaw, Evoking it for its effect, and gaining an experience counter for 1B is generally a much stronger play than returning it to the board since one requires 0 counters, and the other requires 5+. We've since removed Shriekmaw, but it's a good meta call!
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that diversifying your threats, removal, and wincons to avoid common hate cards and effects like Torpor Orb and Cursed Totem allows you to not get blown out by a single piece of hate. If you are being shut down by Cursed Totem, Reclamation Sage is a triggered ability, and comes down to remove the Totem.
Each of these creatures performs a similar effect, but does it differently. Steve is an activated ability and grabs a land to the battlefield, while Druid will generate mana itself for us to ramp.
One is a triggered ability, and one is an activated ability. Utilizing multiple copies of both effects is ideal in an environment where you may be unable to remove a problem artifact/enchantment with one or the other.
Finally, win conditions. Sadly, each of these are activated abilities. However, in one case, you need the former two on the board, and in the other, you just need Ooze in play and the others in the graveyard.
In any game where you're allowed to build lists or decks, I find focusing on your strengths, rather than covering every weakness, to be the ideal goal. So really, what we're attempting to do with Meren in this build is to grind out value small creatures, pretend to just be durdling, so we can safely ramp into win conditions while controlling the board with our efficient removal.
Creatures
Here I'm going to outline the choices in each card that has been included and possibly why another was excluded in its favor
Mana dorks
One of the large focuses of this deck is on our numerous mana dorks. I want to put them in their own section, above the other creatures, to avoid repeating myself too much. After seeing a few similar, competitive lists running well over 10, I played some test hands and discovered just how powerful they really are in this deck. Instead of using spells to focus on tutoring out lands, or creatures that tutor lands, we instead opt for mana dorks that generate mana, as they typically come down earlier, and we dont need to cast many high mana spells, so the quicker we can make use of our mana, the better.
Their uses are many, and I will outline some of the general ones below, with any extra notes by the dork with a specific purpose:
As Ramp: used in place of mana rocks due to their added synergy with our general.
Ramp into a turn 2-3 Meren or a Meren suffering from the Commander Tax
To generate experience counters for Meren's ability
Most importantly, they are innocuous and dont warrant your opponent's removal until it is too late
Birds of Paradise Flying is a huge hole in many of my EDH decks, particularly this one, so having a Flying blocker is an incredible tech piece. In addition, it produces either B or G which can help us immensely.
Deathrite Shaman Our little mini planeswalker who can ramp us, heal us, hurt our enemies, and provide targeted graveyard hate in a pinch.
Devoted Druid Druid is a burst of GG and an experience counter if Meren is in play.
Diligent Farmhand This guy allows us to have an on command Experience counter and land drop. Much like other sacrifice outlets and creatures, he is ideally saved until Meren is on the board, but sometimes we need to hit that land drop earlier. Late game he can help start the pod engine when we have enough lands. The boon to Farmhand is that he comes down turn 1, to curve into his ability turn 2 and be at 3 lands going into turn 3.
Elves of Deep Shadow A generic mana dork who can produce B, but at the cost of pinging us. This is important due to the fact we have many black spells that use BB or BBB in their mana cost.
Joraga Treespeaker A more complex mana dork, Treespeaker's only downside is his mana investment initally. But he will provide us much more mana over the course of his time on the board than Llanowar Elves will, while also providing us a valuable mana dump. Ideally, we drop him turn 1, and turn 2, we level him up and lose no tempo.
Priest of Titania A mana dork that produces G mana based on the amount of Elves in play. She is a mana-mulitplier and can get out of hand quickly, especially if your opponents are also playing elf creatures.
Sylvan Ranger Probably our worst two drop, but it allows us to grab basic lands, which the rest of our dorks do not. I run this creature over Wood Elves due to the fact it comes down a turn earlier. Typically turn 3 is us casting Meren, tutors, or removal.
Eternal Witness While many people might question the inclusion of this card in a deck so heavily built on recursion, but there are many spells, including creature spells, worth targeting with her. Basically every green deck in EDH is better off running one, and ours benefits as well. In addition, Meren's ability to return her to play makes her invaluable compared to non-creature recursion spells such as Regrowth.
Fauna Shaman I found in many games that our 2 drop slot was lacking in impact, especially after we transitioned from a midrangey Meren to a more stax/combo based build. As a result, my choices were left with basically mana ramp at the 2 slot if I needed to Birthing Pod a one drop away. To this end, nabbing something more useful like Fauna Shaman I think has been very useful. Her downside is that she needs to be tapped to tutor creatures, so she's slower than Survival of the Fittest and much less abusable.
Riftsweeper This card is absolutely necessary due to all of the exiling effects that are played in Commander. Whether it's a combo piece being Path to Exiled'd, or your graveyard being hit by a Tormod's Crypt, sometimes you need a way to stay in the game. This is especially pertinent given that Triskeleon is key to both of your wincons. Protecting him and ensuring he is somewhere safe is priority #1. Riftsweeper should be tutored for in situations where your combo pieces are exiled, and ideally, protected himself via sac outlets/Meren to keep him in your graveyard or hand, wherever is safest.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded A great way to make use of those mana dorks so we can find our Nooze or Hulk combo lines. 2 life is nothing in this format. He also makes an amazing reanimation target.
Sakura-Tribe Elder STEve is Steve. Steve perfect for this deck as he has a built in way to remove himself to grant Meren an experience counter and also fetch a basic land to the battlefield.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier So we've mentioned that Meren benefits from creatures hitting the graveyard and how important it is to include creatures that can do this themselves. Well, this creature sacrifices either itself or another friendly creature when you resolve it, allowing you to immediately gain an experience counter if Meren is in play, and then tutor up the card you need for that particular board state.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard Yisan is being tested as another tutor who is required to be answered, hopefully taking heat off Meren while also finding us at first, mana dorks, then soon removal, then combo pieces!
Removal - Creatures
Bane of Progress Bane of Progress is an "Oh $#$^%" card i can cast, Pod, or return to play to eat a stax/superfriend/daretti/etc player's board if necessary. This deck deals with non-token creatures well, but it's the permanents and threats outside of that we struggle to deal with most, especially when a critical mass are on the board. While this card has the added disadvantage of eating our own artifacts and enchantments, saving yourself or your teammates/Sheriff in EDH is worth it.
Caustic Caterpillar One of the best commons in the deck. At 1 CMC he can be returned with only one Experience counter, which he himself can generate when you inevitably use this card to deal with the more pesky Artifacts and Enchantments that would hurt our gameplan! This card is one of the most common creatures I return to play with Meren along with Reclamation Sage.
Fleshbag Marauder Another low cmc creature that plays into our gameplan and gives you an amazing Edict trigger. Ideally, you can sacrifice himself to his ability, gain an experience counter, then return him to play with Meren at the end of your turn to eat two creatures off each opponent.
Magus of the Abyss Magus is being retested as a way to control the board since my meta is full of either token swarm decks, which we can handle, or decks that use 0-2 creatures on the board at any given time.
Mindslicer People are slowly coming around to this guy. Similar to "I dont want to play fetches/black draw spells because they cost me life", one must get rid of the idea of dumping ones hand as bad. Or of sacrificing your own creatures to kill your opponent's as bad. It's a symmetrical effect, doesnt seem good. But that's until you consider what that effect does to everyone and how your deck is built to take advantage of it more than your opponent's will. Putting everyone on topdeck mode while you return things from your graveyard to play/hand is hardly symmetrical and something you really want to be doing. Best 4 drop outside of our general.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Besides the infinite combo with Triskelion, what is notable is getting double the triggers, mana, use out of your creatures, which can be downright oppressive to our opponents. He tends to eat any of your opponent's hate, so play him with this in mind.
Carpet of Flowers Carpet is a defacto accellerant in more competitive green decks, and should do nicely here. I've neglected to include it due to a lack of blue in my meta, but that is quickly changing.
Contamination Speaking of cards opponent's hate and the usefulness of token generators... this helps finalize your victory. Yeah, it's mean. Just remember to keep a green source around, via mana dorks, phyrexian altar, or your signet in case Meren gets killed while it's out.
Pernicious Deed A way to reset the board efficiently all the while being a threatening piece. It also helps us deal with tokens!
Phyrexian Arena Re-included this card as a way to allow us to draw a huge amount of cards over the course of the game. The issue had always been drawing it late, and I'd rather have it in regardless. Especially since we're focusing on speed now, and card advantage is required.
Phyrexian Reclamation This card gives us a solid way to rebuild the board after wipes, which has been a big issue, or save things prior to graveyard hate.
Root Maze This card slows down the decks that can combo faster than we can due to shutting down lands and artifacts, as well as other stax decks.
Sylvan Library A better top, especially here. Digging deep is pretty important here, and I dont want a mana sink.
Survival of the Fittest This is one of the strongest enchantments ever printed and it's juicy in this deck. Remember Meren's ability to return creatures to play or your hand. Well, here is a discard outlet that allows you to pitch something to reanimate with Meren's ability, while fetching something else you need. For it's cost, and even real life paper $$$ cost, it's worth an inclusion for how powerful it is.
Artifacts
Birthing Pod An engine that has tons of synergy with our general and allows us to pull combo pieces, hate bears, and utility creatures our from our deck at instant speed.
Mana Crypt We're competitive, and we need the free acceleration. Curves nicely into a T2 Meren!
Null Rod Stops other combo and stax decks cold, by turning off their precious ramp. In addition, it will stop those stax decks from using MLD since they wont have their precious rocks to keep them in the game. This card is an absolute all star in vintage and I'm excited to use it here. We avoid it's parity by running mana dorks over mana rocks, with the downside being our fast mana and Birthing Pod are turned off.
Sol Ring I mean, this could be cut, but it's Sol Ring. It helps.
Sphere of Resistance Sphere helps slow down decks like Selvala and the occasional storm deck I face. Luckily due to our mana dorks, we can generally circumvent the downsides to this card.
Buried Alive Funny enough, this has been in the deck since its inception and I've yet to use it. It's discriminate milling! Unlike cards like Grisly Salvage, this card allows us to purposely throw in some toolboxy answers to answer a difficult board or to ensure a lock.
Diabolic IntentDemonic Tutor #2. It normally would be a disadvantage for its additional cost to be paid, but since we want to be sacrificing creatures anyway, it is a boon!
Demonic Tutor Much like Eternal Witness, this doesnt need explaining. Grabs what you need for 2 mana.
Eldritch Evolution Works wonders with Meren. It's a sac outlet that also lets us ramp into our 3-4 mana sweet spot on creatures!
Green Sun's Zenith A great way to fetch out utility creatures and removal, and we may be lucky enough to find it twice.
Maelstrom Pulse An all purpose removal card that has the added bonus of hosing the token player at the table if need be.
Reanimate Allows us to pull off a win with combo pieces in the grave, or just grab removal. It's such a flexible card!
Tooth and Nail Allows us to grab Mike and Trike for an easy win.
Victimize Replacing Animate Dead for the time being, as it nabs us, with Meren, net 3 new creatures (virtually), rather than net 2. While we do have to sacrifice a creature, sometimes that can help us return it to play with Meren later.
Nature's Claim Stupidly powerful removal. We go infinite, we dont care about life totals...except if it feeds an Ad Nauseam player haha
Vampiric Tutor This card generally finds us a combo piece or a lock piece while we wait for the mana / correct time to win.
Worldly Tutor A cheap, but slow tutor to find one or more of our combo or disruption pieces.
Strategy
Mulligans
While this greatly depends on the colors and cmc of the cards in your hand, as well as who is sitting at the table with you, ideally we want to see
At least 2 lands, preferably at least one that produces black but one MUST contain green
1 or more mana dorks. See the Creatures section above.
We keep this. It contains a sacrifice outlet, a green mana source, some ramp, and a tutor. However, we have no removal in this hand, and it could be risky.
This is a difficult hand to judge, as we have a turn 1 play into a turn 2 play if we topdeck a land on turns 1-2, as well as a combo piece, tutoring, and card draw. The issue is that the card draw requires us to have BB. This hand is most likely a pitch based on having no knowledge of what could be coming next.
Tutors
Tutors play a huge part in more compeitive EDH decks due to the need to lower the nature of variance in a highlander format. Fortunately, both of our general's colors contain the most efficient tutors for our strategy, and while we are missing white tutors like Enlightened Tutor and Eladamri's Call, we have a more powerful commander for our strategy to make up for it. Each of these tutors usually will fetch hate pieces, combo pieces, or removal depending on the board state, the amount of mana you have available, and what hate pieces your opponents are running to stop you.
Creature-based tutors Fauna Shaman - Fauna Shaman is a much slower Survival of the Fittest, and I originally disliked this card for that exact reason. Why do I want to wait a turn and have such a huge rattlesnake on the board? But her value should not be overstated. Just being able to double up on your tutoring effects is still powerful, and much like Survival, has the added synergy of dumping creatures into your graveyard, where Meren can reanimate them. Sidisi, Undead Vizier A demonic tutor on a body, that also synergizes with Meren's experience counter ability. It's never a poor play to have her Exploit herself if need be, as being able to reanimate or return to hand a Demonic Tutor is incredibly powerful.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard Yisan tends to not survive long due to how powerful his tutoring effect is. While Fauna Shaman places creatures into your hand and graveyard, Yisan summons them directly to the battlefield. Typically I get to two experience counters before he is killed, but by then he's tutored out Fauna Shaman herself! Razaketh, the Foulblooded A great way to make use of those mana dorks so we can find our Nooze or Hulk combo lines. 2 life is nothing in this format. He also makes an amazing reanimation target.
Artifact-based tutors Birthing Pod A ridiculously powerful engine given the low CMC of the deck, allowing us to find hatebears like Manglehorn or even our combo pieces. This is also a combo with Meren, as she can return the sacrificed creatures to our hand or play
Enchantment-based tutors Defense of the Heart A new addition to punish other swarm decks, this allows us to find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion and win on the spot! Evolutionary Leap A more fair Survival of the Fittest, this card requires a sacrifice to place a creature into our hand. I usually wait to activate it to net experience counters for Meren, or as a board wipe is occurring. Pattern of Rebirth Place this on a mana dork or a creature that can off itself for a free to-the-battlefield creature! Survival of the Fittest The card Fauna Shaman was based off of, it's is an incredibly powerful, repeatable, tutor engine. This card will draw a good bit of hate from the table, so only cast it when you can be sure you can get a one or more activations off of it.
Sorcery speed tutors Buried Alive Quite possibly the best tutor in the deck, with Meren in play with 4 experience counters, you get to win on your end step by finding Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion, then activating Ooze's abilities to win! Demonic Tutor This classic card can fetch us ANYTHING and should be used for finding very specific cards that our other tutors or draw spells usually cannot. For example, I've used it to find Buried Alive!
Diabolic Intent A Demonic Tutor with a drawback that benefits our deck! Eldritch Evolution A tutor that allows us to have added synergy with Meren by sacrificing a creature to place one directly onto the battlefield. Any tutors that place creatures onto the battlefield are immensely powerful in this deck! Green Sun's Zenith A great way to find early mana dorks and place them directly onto the battlefield. Sadly, it doesnt allow us to tutor out any of our wincons. Tooth and Nail Allows us to grab Mike and Trike for an easy win.
Instant speed tutors Chord of Calling This is one of the worst to-the-battlefield tutors we have due to the insane mana cost it requires, but if we have a board of a few creatures, we can at instant speed find Mindslicer or Necrotic Ooze. Crop Rotation This can find us Gaea's Cradle. Alternatively, Phyrexian Tower, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, etc. Vampiric Tutor An instant speed Demonic tutor, for one less mana and 2 life, that places the card on top of our library. Worldly Tutor Instant speed creature tutor that I usually save for utility creatures and removal due to having to reveal the target!
Early Game
We have a few early priorities each game, and through multiple redundant effects, some more powerful and fun than others, we can hope to consistently achieve this to the best of our abilities
Once we cast Meren, we start with 0 experience counters, and from this, we can only return a creature to our hand from our graveyard. While in a midrangey shell this could be bad, for our combo/stax build, returning the creature to hand is sufficient and protects us against common board and grave hate. Ideally, Meren is merely a reanimation/recursion effect in the command zone. If we Buried Alive for Necrotic Ooze, Triskelion, and Phyrexian Devourer, having Meren in play allows us to return Ooze to the battlefield with 4 or more counters, or to hand to combo off the following turn.
Mana dorks are not threatening, but your general is. Allow other explosive decks to make the first play, so removal from the rest of the table is wasted there rather than on your board and graveyard.
Only cast Meren if you have a way to either rack up experience counters, or if you need to reanimate or return something to your hand and its a priority (combo pieces namely, or Eternal Witness to return something like Demonic Tutor or Pernicious Deed)
Dont overextend, but dont sacrifice your board to gain numerous experience counters quickly; this is a trap. If you sacrifice five mana dorks to gain 5 counters, you can only return one to play at a time. If you need to mass sacrifice, do it in response to a board wipe that would kill them anyway. Maintain position and control. Counters are important, but your board is moreso. The ideal counter # is 4-6 so we can return key creatures such as Necrotic Ooze, Mikeaus the Unhallowed, Mindslicer, etc.
Midgame
Focus on finding one or more of our combos, and possibly tutoring a Mindslicer if you have the chance to lock the board. Continue to pressure the board with dorks and recursion if necessary, while playing careful politics to keep the board in a favorable position for you to combo out in the late game. Be sure to remove Cursed Totem and similar effects when you can, as both of your wincons revolve around activated abilities of creatures. Pernicious Deed is an amazing hate piece which you can recur with Eternal Witness to wipe the board in a pinch.
Lategame
Find one of the two combos below, and use it to win. Be mindful of gravehate, creature hate, counterspells, and how you stack your triggers.
Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion
This combo works like this:
Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield
Devourer and Triskeleon in the graveyard
You activate Devourer's ability over and over to exile your library to make Ooze bigger and bigger with +1/+1 counters.
You then remove these counters to ping each opposing player until they are dead.
Downsides to this combo is if other players have too much life, as you usually can do 40-80 damage with this combo assuming you having milled or drew through too much of your library.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion
This is a true infinite combo, that doesn't have the limitations that the Ooze combo does, but requires two CMC6 creatures to be in play, but once they are, you can keep responding to any removal or interference by continuing the combo.
Use Triskelion's ability to ping a player twice, then itself once. Due to Mike's ability granting it undying, it returns to play with a +1/+1 counter from Undying, and three from its own triggered ETB ability. Rinse and Repeat.
I'm not sure how essential the edict creatures are except in situations, like with Selvala 2.0, where if shes the only creature on the field for that player, it's really good. Sphere helps slow down decks like Selvala and the occasional storm deck I face.
Grip -> Claim
Claim hits the same things Grip hits, for a third of the cost. I typically win before Mind over Matter decks win, so I'm not worried anymore about that. If this becomes a problem again, I might re-add it. Beast Within is worth the cost just due to hitting more things.
Grim -> Raz
Raz is just utterly insane in cEDH. Grim is a solid, solid card, but we aren't all-in on Meren anymore, and even though Grim can draw us cards, he's generally a terrible topdeck. As we have added more tutors and utterly powerful cards, his low power level shows. Raz is another tutor we can hardcast or reanimate that abuses the same mana dorks in a more powerful way.
I made a mistake in dropping Pod, I was in a hurry last night. This may also be a mistake, as Defense really depends on the meta, but I'm gonna see how it does without it. Honestly I'd like to remove Pattern and Defense as they're both pretty bad competitively and aren't consistent. Devoted for Boreal since we focus less on Meren, and more on needing immediate ramps.
So I wanna talk about each change individually. So we're adding the Hulk package to the deck as other competitive Meren decks have done. Tooth and Nail was also considered as a cut. I also cant find my boreal druid, or I would swap it for Devoted Druid
Birthing Pod: This one hurts, but I never see this card and when I do, two situations occur:
* I'm either unable to cast it due to needing to prioritize other threats or removal so I cannot safely drop it.
* It is destroyed before it generates much value
That being said, I hope to fit it back in sometime. I have a gorgeous japanese foil I was using, and atm I have no other deck for it!
Skullclamp: Holdover from Midrange Meren that still does work even in a more competitive shell. It's one I want to work back in with a high priority, as it still does work, just much less since casting Meren is less of a priority.
Sylvok Replica: A very bad version of Caustic Caterpillar, but one that also helped me deal with Torpor Orb. In addition, the need for a sac outlet on a stick with a useful effect is another holdover from the midrange deck. The issue is now that Cursed Totem effects hurt us more, so it's become a high cost bad card. I wont be working this back in.
Hermit Druid: I've gotten to test this only in goldfishing and it wasn't amazing. As I expected, I dumped more than I wanted into the grave and having Meren built up, all midrange style, or with Reanimation/Reclamation available wasn't something I wanted to rely on. It may work its way back as I wanna try it in a real game.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways: Another one I'd like to work back in, but much less so. I've not been able to activate his Formidable ability except when this was ran more midrangey. Now it's more or less a more expensive Bloom Tender which we also dont run.
Jarad's Orders: Final holdover cut from the midrange deck that still can do work, its cost is not worth the inclusion. I feel it opens me too much to hand, graveyard, and general hate.
Spore Frog is a relic from the midrange age, and while she still comes in handy, she's just not useful to our gameplan at all. She is replaced by Winter Orb, which does help our gameplan out! Primus is removed due to being generally, an overcosted Rec Sage that can infinite with Mike in the right situation, but that situation is better suited to a midrange build. Manglehorn comes in as a testing piece to further stax mana rocks and other artifacts our opponents play.
I dont know how many fans I'll win over with this one... but Stronghold hasnt done anything for me since the days I ran this as a midrangey build with Gary and Kokopuffs. It's so slow and a tempo loss since we miss our draw. Biggest thing it can do now is function as a slow Meren replacement in a pinch or abuse Mindslicer. Meh. It's replaced by a Forest. But at least it's foil!
I'm replacing Leap and Attrition for similar reasons. This decklist isn't a midrange deck, so playing the grindy sacrifice game isn't advancing our gameplan. To stall better, Root Maze. Missing Attrition's ability to remove threats is solid, but if Shriekmaw cant cut it, neither can this imo. Evoltionary Leap was one that hurt to admit that it needed cut since it's so thematic and powerful. However with no control over the creature we get, Confidant will give us those same cards with life instead.
Shriekmaw was a tech piece, that's for certain. However, most of the things I'd want to remove are artifact or black creatures, so he's a blank card to me. Too often I dont want to see this guy, and I cant remember any games where I pulled out a win because of it.
To that end, Null Rod enters its place, finally. Picked up a japanese copy too! This should help us slow down other combo and stax decks. While it does turn off some of our rocks and Birthing Pod, it's usually worth it.
I've been waiting for this day for months. I finally got a copy, and I can replace this underperforming card. Zone is fine in midrange Meren, but here it's just not a good card. We use Meren as a backup reanimator effect, and not a primary one.
Too often I've needed this spell to save my butt or to combo off, and thus I've added it in. I dont think missing a 33rd land will hurt with 13 mana dorks/mana fetchers, plus sol ring/mana crypt
While it pains me to do so, after moving from the midrange shell, Seer only remained as a way to poorly dig while Meren was in play, to gain exp counters, or to save a target from exile removal. It's not a good topdeck anymore, and as a result, I included something else that is always a huge threat and will eat removal like no others - Druid. He also will allow us to dig deep for combo pieces and disruption for Meren to reanimate, I hope. [/cards]
edit: Decided to add more fetches and expensive lands as proxies. I want to test the mana generation of Cradle to help us late game tutor into our wincons, and bazaar as a draw engine.
Pattern returns! While I dislike how slow it can be (And it's pretty annoying in your opening hand), the ability to just grab whatever I need is obscenely strong. Stronger than another awkward token killer like Necroplasm, which isn't as big of a concern anymore for my meta. What I have found is a lack of an ability to find answers, specialized ones, or my wincons before others win. More tutors are necessary as well, since as I've mentioned previously, I have issues in some games where I just see removal and mana dorks, and no tutors/draw.
Priest is back due to needing better two drops and more mana producers that wont hurt my curve or be poor topdecks. Farmhand's cost is somewhat prohibitive at times, but Dawntreader Elk is a poor Yisan/Pod target over priest/Fauna Shaman and since it wants to sacrifice itself. I picked up a judge promo Defense, so I had to include it. My meta is more keen on going wide, so having an "I win" one card combo to fetch Mike+Trike seems better than just a poor Mindslicer tutor.
I've got enough mana dorks in more recent games, but this doesnt rule her out. Necroplasm on the watch list. Thorn is here to slow down control and combo decks.
Oppression is winmore with Mindslicer, and otherwise can harm us or just be... useless. I've had too many games where it sits in my hand and I dont see where it would particularly help, but instead put a target I didnt need on my head with a weak hand. Priest is another mana dork since I've seen plenty of hands with the new mulligan rule that dont contain any dorks.
I'm retesting Magus, and since we have enough fast mana dorks now, I figure I would cut one of the weakest. However, I do like Wood Elves to fetch my Bayou/Overgrown Tomb, so we shall see. Magus is being retested as a way to control the board since my meta is full of either token swarm decks, which we can handle, or decks that use 0-2 creatures on the board at any given time.
Carrion feeder is better in a build focusing on Meren's reanimation ability. We are winning via combo now, and while gaining experience counters can be useful, it is not ultimately important. Therefore, Feeder gets the cut. Obviously he does over Viscera Seer who can scry for us. Worldly Tutor I've been trying to fit in for weeks now, hoping to give it a shot tomorrow.
Carpet is a defacto accellerant in more competitive green decks, and should do nicely here. I've neglected to include it due to a lack of blue in my meta, but that is quickly changing. Animate Dead has usually been a dead card. If it hasnt been dead, I would have preferred another tutor in its place. I've just been extremely underwhelmed by it.
I feel our Green mana production and ramp is sufficient to not need a signet, as it dilutes our gameplan (we want mana dorks, not rocks), and reduces our potential tutor count, and especially really excellent and synergistic ones like Diabolic Intent
I know, I removed it for being too slow and now it's back. But as the deck has evolved, I have fewer high priority targets, a lower curve, and targets like Mindslicer or Necrotic Ooze that demand being put directly into play.
This wont win me any fans, but since we can handle most boards now, we no longer need Grave Pact and Dictate. Tokens can be dealt with by other means, and if the board is that big, I can find room for a Toxic Deluge. Merciless Executioner comes in to double up with Fleshbag Marauder, as looping them a few times typically deals with the board.
Fyndhorn elves and Void Winnower replace Gary and Kokopuffs. We dont need to focus on these slow wincons anymore. Animate Dead enters to help us loop key creatures more.
Tainted Wood can occasionally be bad. I'm keeping it as a maybe for now, in case I need more dual lands, and I do, but I also want to be careful of Ruination and Back to Basics
Hurts me to do, but Wurmcoil, as he is, is solid here. He is, but I played a few games the other day and not hitting my mana dorks until 5-6 cards in with the new mulligan rules really hurts, and prevents us from getting off the ground at all. So as it stands, Wurmcoil isn't as necessary to the gameplan.
Makes me sad to drop Disciple, but we run so few high power creatures anymore. He doesnt net us enough value anymore to be of any benefit. In most instances, he is a sac outlet to gain 1-2 life and draw 1-2 cards. He is replaced by a similar effect: Evolution allows us to get something we need rather than just a card or two.
Next, Hypnotist. His CMC is really what hurts his inclusion. By the time I can cast him and really benefit from him, I should be winning in other ways. He's been a dead card most of the time. while I dont doubt he could return, he is incredibly expensive resource-wise and seems winmore. Yisan replaces him as a "must answer" card that is also resource intensive, but comes down much earlier and will tutor us first mana dorks, then removal, then soon real threats. He is in the testing phase, so we'll see how he fares!
This was a necessary evil for us to be able to combo out and win. Pox was used alongside Koko and Gary to help us reduce life totals and impact the board in a real way to break a combo/aggro player's lead. While it may come back in, as I LOVE it to make everyone groan and disrupt the board, we need Riftsweeper to grab back key exiled [creature] cards.
I'm eyeing a few others as potential cuts, like Wurmcoil for Void Winnower. Wurmcoil is just a great way to keep a board post wrath, as well as recover life so we arent such a juicy target.
7/8/2016
Removed:
Forest
Added:
Woodland Cemetery
Someone stole mine, I found another. So there! However, I worry about running too few basics, particularly since I sometimes play at tables with MLD, Mass Non-basic hate, and general non-basic hate, so I will test to see.
Map for Scrying is an obvious choice, since we have better things to be doing turn 1 now, this gives us a better curve play.
Sifter.. ahh, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, comes out for a tech piece against tokens.
This last one is going to be controversial, but removing animate dead for something that nets us more dudes in the long run is what I prefer. Animate works better on an empty board, and can grab other things, but Victimize works well with Meren's ability and allows us to be net 3 creatures at the end of the turn, rather than just 2. I've come across situations in EVERY game I've played where I could use more dudes on the board, and hopefully this helps!
While Necroplasm was going to take Wurm's spot, until I test Sifter and pals further, Shaman takes the spot as a mana dork that produces mana of any color, and can become a win condition in its own right, if the game goes on long enough! We'll see how it performs in any case.
Wurm, as I've discussed in other posts, looks incredible, but rarely pans out unless you're in a heavy token meta, and even then, he's not your tutor target usually. Just a decent topdeck. He also doesnt help if your opponents can pump their tokens, which usually they can or will.
Another city of brass for a basic, and Nykthos per a suggestion for a forest. This allows me to replace Ashnod's Altar. I dont need to recast Meren as much now that we're more Stax/Combo than midrange goodstuff.dec. As such, we dont need the Altar. So Fauna Shaman comes in to add variety to our 2 drop slot, as well as another tutor for our combo pieces/Mindslicer/Gary
Deciding to test this guy in the 1CMC mana dork slot. Basically, his only downside is his mana investment, but he will provide us much more mana over the course of his time on the board than Llanowar will, while also providing us a valuable mana dump. Ideally, we drop him turn 1, and turn 2, we level him up and aren't down any mana, except if we filtered out black mana and for whatever reason NEED it, which I doubt.
It finally came in the mail. It should help with some of the more restrictive casting costs of our spells, as well as comboing with Cabal Coffers (Once that comes in the mail) to allow us to recast Meren repeatedly, and finally drop Ashnod's Altar for something better.
Catacomb Shifter went away, then returned for more testing. Some unpopular changes here, but Buried Alive becomes an incredible wincon by fetching Ooze, Devourer, and Trike, then returning Ooze to play with Meren. This also gives us a third major wincon outside of Mike+trike and draining everyone to death with Gary/Koko puffs. Green Sun comes in, and should have been here to begin with. I guess I kept misreading that it places the creature into play... So the cuts. Sheoldred was a huge rattlesnake and just ate removal. Not that it was a bad thing, but it typically didnt help as our opponents would have so many creatures we needed more triggers, or she wouldnt have any targets to return to play. In addition, she does little for our gameplan besides disruption and recursion, and her CMC is incredibly restrictive. Just wasnt working out. Same with Rune Scarred, which is an overcosted Demonic Tutor on a flying body, but didnt do much else. So 99% of the time, both were essentially dead cards that I overvalued due to their triggers. Liliana is solid, but requires too much investment for too little gain. I already need a solid board, and she generally returns small creatures to play. I can see placing her back in here as time goes on, but she's not essential.
While I'm still looking to make room for Necrotic ooze, Void Winnower and Phyrexian Devourer, these were easier to make. Shifter is replaced by someone who can do targeted graveyard hate, gain us life, make opponent's lose life, and ramp is in a pinch. Reanimate is removed for Animate Dead due to lifeloss issues.
After a game, I realized I have a ton of 1 drop dorks now, but lack two drops. Devoted needs to come back in as a Birthing Pod target/mana dork. Plus, it also produces GG for Contamination in case we need to recast Meren. Altar was there for this, but isnt needed anymore really.
Mystic are a stand in for Deathrite Shaman / Arbor Elf. (I cant find mine!). Acidic Slime is no longer that useful and it hurts the curve HARD for its effect, which we now have in spades. It goes to the maybe board. Devoted Druid is replaced by Elves. Carrion Feeder is another cheap sac outlet that can get big enough to be threatening. The last one was more difficult, but sorry Smothering Abomination, you're out just for now given your conditions. I need these other cards more! I'll see about the amount of mana dorks, as he could make a return easily (as always, he is a flex slot.) Oppression is more pain for the opponents. We focus heavily on tutoring Mindslicer, Gary, and a sac outlet. Once you have their hands stripped, keeping them down is important, especially when they need to spend two turns about it.
The deck has been performing admirably with the changes, and as such, I've decided to increase the power a bit with Lilly and try out Abom again. Executioner, while the effect is good, I dont need that many edict effects once I have Grave Pact out. What I need is ways to refill my hand and keep the pressure on. Obviously Lilly is good here for that purpose, but I think Veil is better still.
Unpopular cuts, but Regrowth clogs your hand and should be replaced with more relevant answers, reanimation, and tutors. Putrefy as well, we deal with Creatures much better now, with Attrition and others. Artifacts were not super concerned about, and if we are, Slime or Sage them. Map is a stand in for Crop Rotation for now to find Altar/Ancient Tomb/etc. From Beyond was replaced to lower our curve, as well as less reliance on poor token producers. With the direction I'm taking the deck, it doesnt have the same priority, although it is nice. Swamps come out for cards from my other decks that should have been here anyway. Recplica replaces Avenger, as I needed to lower my curve. Avenger was never stellar except for making chaff or forcing a wrath. It's because we dont abuse landfall (yet). It was between him or Massacre Wurm, and I need the help vs token decks more. In addition, Farhaven for a better mana dork.
Wickerbough Elder cannot remove himself, so he cant generate counters. I'd prefer Sylvok Replica for not needing a specific mana source for early plays, and his abilily to do the same, at one less mana. Losing him isnt a big deal. Llanowar Elves comes in to speed the deck up.
Agent was an inclusion I didnt think about fully, as I am currently moving the deck in more of a fast, token stax based build, with smatterings of combo, and he's just too costly for what I want to do. It really only hoses Kharador and while that's an issue in my meta, I should be focusing on having bodies to sacrifice to remove their pieces prior to them being able to combo off. Phyrexian Reclaimation comes in to give us more ways to continue to rebuild the board after wipes, which has been a big issue, or save things prior to graveyard hate.
Visionary was a flex slot. It's just.. eh. Arena comes back to replace it.
Nether Traitor was always... meh. He could be abusable but most of the time was a poor mana sink like Resassembling Skeleton. Or I'd forget about him. Devoted Druid comes back in for another early removable mana dork to replace him.
4/28/2016
Removed: Devoted Druid
Added: Diligent Farmhand
Someone mentioned wanting to cut Krosan Wayfarer and Diligent Farmhand from his build, and I found I'd really like him in my build. Despite the fact he doesnt generate mana like Druid, I found Druid was slow. It goes infinite with Mike, but we dont need the green mana. If I ever add in Exsanguinate and the Coffers package, it will make an appearance. Farmhand is another one drop, which we lack dearly, and does what Dawntreader Elk does: Sacrifices itself to find a basic land card. Lowering the curve is incredibly important. Even if both he and Druid do nothing the first turn they're out, they both accomplish similar ends.
4/26/2016
Removed: Krosan Tusker
Removed: Lightning Greaves
Removed: Swiftfoot Boots
Added: Death Cloud
Added: Catacomb Sifter
Added: Sadistic Hypnotist
Krosan was removed with the advent of cheaper creatures that produce mana, as well as him being a weird pet card. Not that he was bad, but just slow, and better mid/late game as a mana dump and a Meren target. Lowering our curve enables more Meren targets that actually impact our board.
Swiftfoot boots and Lightning Greaves have been removed. Seems an odd choice, but I dont face much single target removal much anymore, and since we have few ways to tutor boots/greaves, and typically tutor other things, they were mostly dead slots, only occasionally protecting Meren when they are actually out on the field.
Hypnotist enters as a sacrifice outlet that can further strip hands of powerful players. I've found hand destruction is a powerful subtheme that I want to chase along with the Grave Pact token theme.
Death Cloud enters as another wincon and way to control the board, along with its brother Pox already doing heavy work. I dislike seeing this early, unlike Pox, but it gives us a really great way to close out the game, especially vs control decks.
I really dislike creatures like Pawn of Ulamog as they greatly depend on non-token creatures, and we like tokens. They also do nothing on their own and require us to be ahead... only to net more dudes. Sifter is a bit different, being very on the curve, if it matters, but generating a token on its own, allowing us to have an easy way to generate mana, an experience counter, and to be able to Scry off of Sifter. Scrying isnt particularly powerful, but it can help us find the land, tutor, enchantment, etc we need next turn. It is on the testing table, and might be replaced with Magus of the Abyss.
4/13/2016
Removed: Pattern of Rebirth
Removed: Oracle of Mul Daya
Removed: Grave Titan
Added: Wurmcoil Engine
Added: Elvish Visionary
Added: Vampiric Tutor
More efforts to speed up the deck and reduce the curve. Oracle wasnt super stellar and was always on the cutting board. Visionary helps me get ahead by cantripping early, and isnt terrible to return to play if there is nothing else to do. I want to continue to add more smaller creatures, like Deathrite Shaman, Birds of Paradise, etc, that can help me ramp faster, earlier. All this while continuing to focus on the token stax gameplan. Might have to cut some fatties, or non-creature removal, but I want to add back in Smokestax, Phyrexian Devourer, and Necrotic Ooze.
As for Grave Titan, If I'm going to keep the count I have of fatties in, I need fatties that also makes bodies, but also are real threats. Grave Titan has always just been a way to force a wipe, but Wurmcoil survives wipes.
Pattern does great work, but I want to speed up the deck, even at the cost of life. Need to find Contamination/token generators/Ashnod's altar earlier.
Zulaport Cutthroat, despite his usefulness and the fact I just nabbed a foil, is replaced by Birds of Paradise. I just need more of those dorks, like I mentioned above.
4/11/2016
Added: Triskeleon
Added: Agent of Erebos
Removed: Puppeteer Clique
Removed: Grim Haruspex
So, Puppeteer was one of those pieces that always popped up and I never had targets for it, or I couldnt get it to land and grab juicy targets and make it matter. It works well with Meren's ability since you get to keep those creatures until your next end step, but it wasnt worth the setup for the payoff. So I removed him. Just too often he was a dead card or i wish i had anything else. Grim Haruspex is the same way. I do too many tokens, as other players told me, and even when he works (like after a Wrath I might draw 2-5 cards), I'd be better off with better card draw.
In it's place, and I feel bad doing this, but Triskeleon to help end games quickly with Mike. Despite getting good lockdowns, I need a way to just end it. Sometimes folks just get out from under my lock. Agent is there as another way to deal with graveyard decks.
3/28/2016
Removed:Phyrexian Arena
Removed: Corpse Augur
Removed: Primal Growth
Removed: Swamp
Added: Volrath's Stronghold
Added: Wickerbough Elder
Added: Birthing Pod
Added: Read the Bones
Sick of seeing this card (Arena), I really am. It's the continued lifeloss I dislike the most, or drawing it late. It also draws alot of hate. I hope Read will get me that lifeloss and card quality over quantity. I dont much like more lifeloss in the deck unless it's big impact. Augur is very meh and at best was netting me a few cards when I was already ahead. However, Birthing Pod brings lifeloss, but it gets me exactly what I need, rather than a couple random topdecks. We'll see how it performs. It very much feels like theres too many tutors as is.
With Elder, I need the removal more for when Torpor Orb hits. Primal is good on paper, but I'd hate to draw it late or early when I have nothing for the Kicker. It goes to the maybeboard.
I hesitate to add too many colorless lands, but there are many times mid/late game I need to return multiple creatures to play with Meren. Or some low cmc utility creature and a fatty. I can return the little guy to the top of the deck to be drawn the next turn instead.
2/22/2016
Removed: Smothering Abomination
Added: Phyrexian Altar
I thought Altar was already in here, but we may need it for things like Contamination to cast Meren and the like. And as an amazing sac outlet. I love it. Abomination is a card I never want to see, but works well with the deck in theory, I've yet to get to test it. But I KNOW altar works by how well Ashnod's works here, and how well both work in Krenko
2/19/2016
Removed: Garruk, Wildspeaker
Added: Sylvan Library
Garruk was pretty terrible, and I never got to overrun with him. He seems to want to draw the deck more toward Mazerik, and I'd prefer him there instead, being able to produce tokens and untap key lands. Not that that isnt viable here, but it wasn't really too impressive. Library is an obvious addition to find key cards.
2/9/2016
Removed: Yavimaya Elder
Added: Bane of Progress
I had Bane in the side for a while, but most people look unkindly at SB in EDH. Elder was very hit or miss. I prefer creatures to do something immediately, and he required so much setup that by the time he came down, I was already good on lands for the most part, since no one wants to block his ass, or attack me. If I wanted to then cantrip, I needed another 2 colorless. This deck is mana hungry early on, and I dont wanna durdle too much.
Bane of Progress is an "Oh *****" card i can cast or return to play to eat a stax/superfriend/daretti/etc player's board if necessary. This deck deals with creatures well, but it's threats outside of that that we need to deal with. This has the added disadvantage of eating our own artifacts and enchantments, but there are situations where that is beneficial! Worst case just keep looping E Witness with Meren/Clique to grab stuff back afterwards. Note 4/26, he is incredible and backbreaking to tables. I dont regret his addition.
2/8/2016
Removed: Grisly Salvage
Added: Zulaport Cutthroat
As others have pointed out, this is much better than Blood Artist. I originally evaluated them as not necessary because they only targeted one played, not fully reading this card. This guy is bonkers. Definitely nice to have another amazing 2 drop. Grisly I'm torn on. I've yet to test it. It was between it and Primal Growth. Growth cant pitch my important enchantments/artifacts, so it stays. Salvage, like other self mill cards, looks really good on paper. My fear is having to find an E Witness because I pitched something critical, or getting my Bog Juked.
It's a little harder on the board than smokestacks sense it's not optional but it gives you a second copy of the effect, descent into madness, possessed portal is also in that vein
Sad Robot is too expensive for its cost, and in a green deck like this, it's pretty average. Stronghold itself is a huge mana sink and doesnt produce colored mana, which we desperately need. I'll test without it and see how it goes, but as it stands, so long as Meren herself can remain on the board, it's not as powerful of an effect. However I want to remain near 35 lands, and at 34 and not many rocks, it's iffy. I hope all the tutors help!
I would play Nest Invader or Devoted Druid over Sylvan Ranger. Both of those generate mana rather than simply finding a land and can gain experience by themselves. Nest Invader has the benefit of producing two bodies for sac effects.
On a similar note I like the inclusion of Yavimaya Granger. Once Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf enter the battlefield they merely sit there. Granger will gain experience right away. I'm glad to know it exists.
I would play Nest Invader or Devoted Druid over Sylvan Ranger. Both of those generate mana rather than simply finding a land and can gain experience by themselves. Nest Invader has the benefit of producing two bodies for sac effects.
On a similar note I like the inclusion of Yavimaya Granger. Once Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf enter the battlefield they merely sit there. Granger will gain experience right away. I'm glad to know it exists.
Thanks! I found it on another person's list of land fetchers. I definitely agree on the Ranger. I wanted a 2CMC way to fetch lands outside of Steve, and it was the best effect I thought of. I was shying away from pure mana dorks due to their inability to fetch lands and thin the deck a bit, etc. Devoted Druid I like the most. It wont let me immediately produce mana/EXP counters like Nest Invader can, but it can sacrifice itself and still produce GG. I'll have to go pick one up now that I think about it! Thanks!
It was removed early on, as the multiple Edict effects already to the same job, and if the opponent is outpacing me with quality creatures, the inclusion of one Bone Shredder wont make a difference imo. Plus, what do you remove for it?
Mazzy isnt bad by any means, but Mike does more for the deck in general. It allowed me to get double triggers from Koko puffs and Acidic Slime over and over. Definitely not bad by any means. The deck is incredibly quick to set up. I love it! Won over the weekend by recurring Kokopuffs and Gravepact to keep the board clear.
Jarad's Orders was also a key game winner, finding me Viscera Seer and kokopuffs in both games I played. I'll update the OP to reflect these changes
Another one of those "It's nice if it survives" creatures that has potential but I never liked seeing it. Great when youre ahead, during a wipe, or recovering, but Primus is just another Acidic Slime/Caterpillar/Putrefy/Reclaimation Sage full of value
Quickly added in descriptions for the cards and their uses. I feel this deck is easy enough to understand that I dont need to repeat myself in what you want to sacrifice, what you want to do with your tokens, etc, but I will continue to add to it as time goes on and testing continues.
-Grisly Salvage + Zulaport Cutthroat As others have pointed out, this is much better than Blood Artist. I originally evaluated them as not necessary because they only targeted one played, not fully reading this card. This guy is bonkers. Definitely nice to have another amazing 2 drop. Grisly I'm torn on. I've yet to test it. It was between it and Primal Growth. Growth cant pitch my important enchantments/artifacts, so it stays. Salvage, like other self mill cards, looks really good on paper. My fear is having to find an E Witness because I pitched something critical, or getting my Bog Juked.
-1 Yavimaya Elder +1 Bane of Progress I had him in the side for a while, but most people look unkindly at SB in EDH. Elder was very hit or miss. I prefer creatures to do something immediately, and he required so much setup that by the time he came down, I was already good on lands for the most part, since no one wants to block his ass, and to cantrip, you need 2 colorless. This deck is mana hungry early on, and I dont wanna durdle too much.
Bane of Progress is an "Oh $#$^%" card i can cast or return to play to eat a stax/superfriend/daretti/etc player's board if necessary. This deck deals with creatures well, but it's threats outside of that that we need to deal with. This has the added disadvantage of eating our own artifacts and enchantments, but there are situations where that is beneficial! Worst case just keep looping E Witness with Meren/Clique to grab stuff back afterwards
You will have to keep me up to date with this list. I took mine apart to build a Karabor deck, but want to build it again when it gets a bit more tuned. Im still going to playtest it on Cockstrice and try to help.
You should add the Birthing Pod. It is insanely powerful. You even have the curve for it.
I prefer Phyrexian Altar to Ashnod's Altar. The former randomly goes infinite with a lot of cards.
I didn't know this card, unlike Whip of Erebos, you can sac the creature before EOT, and reanimate with Meren, it could be a thing with buyback !
Corpse dance is a possiblity, but only if I have a sac outlet out. Maybe!
10/4/2004 Corpse Dance only exiles the card if the card is still on the battlefield at the beginning of the end step.
I run both Altars as they both are incredibly good, particularly under Contamination.
I took Pod out, since it never did much more me. It might come back in eventually, probably for something like Black Market. It's just been really slow for me. And I tend to want to put alot of effort into using it, and it's much weaker and more expensive to use than the other tutors in the deck. You're right, my curve is getting much better for it. I'm gonna give it time, and see what happens. It's sitting in my Keepables binder.
It was just a rattlesnake that we have no way to utilize. If we went Exsanguinate, it would be incredible! But as of now, it just lets me empty my hand and go into topdeck mode. Abom is winmore, but at least gets me cards and is a reliable sac outlet for the multitudes of tokens we run.
Removed Garruk, Wildspeaker for Sylvan Library. Garruk was pretty terrible, and I never got to overrun with him. He seems to want to draw the deck more toward Mazerik, and I'd prefer him there instead
Removed: 1x Smothering Abomination, Added: 1x Phyrexian Altar. I thought Altar was already in here, but we may need it for things like Contamination to cast Meren and the like. And as an amazing sac outlet. I love it. Abomination is a card I never want to see, but works well with the deck in theory, I've yet to get to test it. But I KNOW altar works by how well Ashnod's works here, and how well both work in Krenko
Removed: 1x Smothering Abomination, Added: 1x Phyrexian Altar. I thought Altar was already in here, but we may need it for things like Contamination to cast Meren and the like. And as an amazing sac outlet. I love it. Abomination is a card I never want to see, but works well with the deck in theory, I've yet to get to test it. But I KNOW altar works by how well Ashnod's works here, and how well both work in Krenko
I've actually had a lot of positive results with the Abomination, but definitely cut it if it's between it and the Altar.
Still, if you ever get room to try to test it again, I'd give it another shot.
Removed: 1x Smothering Abomination, Added: 1x Phyrexian Altar. I thought Altar was already in here, but we may need it for things like Contamination to cast Meren and the like. And as an amazing sac outlet. I love it. Abomination is a card I never want to see, but works well with the deck in theory, I've yet to get to test it. But I KNOW altar works by how well Ashnod's works here, and how well both work in Krenko
I've actually had a lot of positive results with the Abomination, but definitely cut it if it's between it and the Altar.
Still, if you ever get room to try to test it again, I'd give it another shot.
I probably will haha, it's that poor card that keeps going in and out, in and out. Wickerbough Elder would be the next addition I think. Torpor Orb really hurts the deck. My meta is pretty cutthroat and if I can maintain a board to benefit the Abomination, I've already won :D. Like Sheoldred, Whispering One. I've reanimated her countless times, hardcasted her more. I've gotten one trigger off of her to reanimate a dude of my own. That's how much removal I see thrown around! haha. So abomination is a tough sell.
Hello! I'm a longtime Magic player, starting in 7th edition with the Beginner's precon and with an Onslaught Fat Pack. (I remember my first pulls too!) While my original favorite color combination was RG, I've always had a love for Golgari, ever since I cracked the Golgari precon back in 2005 with the original Ravinca set and fell in love with the concept of Dredge. I had toyed with the idea of reanimation before, but Dredge took it to the next level in terms of the flavor, playability, and just the fun concept of winning via attrition. I've since experimented with many different types of GB decks, from legacy/vintage dredge, to casual "value" decks, a Glissa the Traitor EDH deck, and now this!
This Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck originally started out as a Shattergang Bros deck. I was wanting to play something Golgari for the longest time, having no luck with a very messy Stax based Glissa deck, and not really enjoying durdling while others just won. So I was helping a friend on here develop a Shattergang deck he had built, which was a very different, interesting build, mostly focused on tokens, mass land destruction, and planeswalkers! However, it wasn't all roses and daises; the deck had numerous setup issues. Much like Glissa, I spent so many turns finding engine pieces like Squee, Goblin Nabob, Survival of the Fittest, etc, while others just won. When board wipes and removal hit, I couldn't stop it, and generally never was able to rebuild. While the concept was there, and it was plenty of fun to play, I was generally unhappy with the deck.
I put it and EDH on the shelf for a few months, hoping the C15 series of decks would bring me an UR artifact deck to play with. Sadly, we didnt get that, but instead, I saw Meren. It was love at first sight! She was what I wanted all along for Shattergang Bros. Less setup, more value, and immediately, for doing what I wanted to do in the first place.
I originally developed the deck with many Enter the Battlefield (ETB) and Leave the Battlefield (LTB) abilities, focusing on Midrange "Value" creatures to abuse with Meren's ability. In addition, I had a subtheme of Stax, where I would use cards like Grave Pact and Smokestack to grind the board in my favor, while getting free reanimation triggers off Meren. This caused my curve to be quite high, and made the deck just as slow as Shattergang Bros without a solid hand that curved out well. I realized after about a dozen games playtesting the build, I needed to lower the curve, focus on a few concrete win conditions, remove the the poor performing and pet cards. In doing so, I've replaced those cards with more efficient, general answers to cover my weaknesses and not play so many silver bullets. In addition, in lowering the curve, the deck explodes out of nowhere when Meren makes her appearance, and she quickly becomes public enemy #1!
In conclusion, we are now a stax/combo deck. We aim to ramp quickly with mana dorks, then clutch control of the board, then win via one of our numerous combos.
You might like this deck if
You might dislike this deck if
Deck Power Level
Now finally onto the decklist!
1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Creature (36)
1x Bane of Progress
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Body Snatcher
1x Boreal Druid
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Caustic Caterpillar
1x Dark Confidant
1x Deathrite Shaman
1x Diligent Farmhand
1x Elves of Deep Shadow
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Joraga Treespeaker
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Magus of the Abyss
1x Manglehorn
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Mindslicer
1x Necrotic Ooze
1x Phyrexian Devourer
1x Priest of Titania
1x Protean Hulk
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Riftsweeper
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Sylvan Ranger
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x Triskelion
1x Viscera Seer
1x Walking Ballista
1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Bayou
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
6x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x High Market
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Mana Confluence
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Strip Mine
5x Swamp
1x Temple of Malady
1x Twilight Mire
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Woodland Cemetery
Sorcery (9)
1x Buried Alive
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Eldritch Evolution
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Reanimate
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Victimize
1x Birthing Pod
1x Mana Crypt
1x Null Rod
1x Sol Ring
1x Sphere of Resistance
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Winter Orb
Enchantment (9)
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Contamination
1x Defense of the Heart
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Root Maze
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sylvan Library
Instant (6)
1x Beast Within
1x Chord of Calling
1x Crop Rotation
1x Nature's Claim
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor
Getting these counters requires cards and or effects outside of Meren herself
Given that Meren cannot gain experience counters simply by casting a spell like other Commander 2015 generals, she must not only resolve a creature, but have it hit your graveyard while she is in play. Through this, we run multiple, powerful sacrifice outlets, as well as creatures who can sacrifice themselves to produce some effect on the board. (From this point on, the term "Sac outlet" is used as a term to represent a way to remove our creatures from the board). While unlike those other generals, Meren's ability is a negative play for your board! Why would we want to ever do that?!
Well, she can return the creature to play at the end of your turn. Unlike many other similar effects in Magic, which require you to wait until your next upkeep, the beautiful design of Meren is in that she can always do something at the end of each turn she is in play. Your opponents then need to prioritize saving instant speed removal for her, as she will always net you some benefit as long as a creature is in your graveyard.
While our focus on reanimation has lessened over time, we still rely on it to impact the board through creatures with powerful removal effects like Reclamation Sage or tutoring like Sidisi, Undead Vizier
At the end of your turn, when Meren's ability triggers, you have two options,
Typically, the latter is the ideal choice since it avoids counterspells and places it onto the battlefield for free! However, with Evoke creatures like Shriekmaw, Evoking it for its effect, and gaining an experience counter for 1B is generally a much stronger play than returning it to the board since one requires 0 counters, and the other requires 5+. We've since removed Shriekmaw, but it's a good meta call!
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that diversifying your threats, removal, and wincons to avoid common hate cards and effects like Torpor Orb and Cursed Totem allows you to not get blown out by a single piece of hate. If you are being shut down by Cursed Totem, Reclamation Sage is a triggered ability, and comes down to remove the Totem.
Here I'm going to outline the choices in each card that has been included and possibly why another was excluded in its favor
One of the large focuses of this deck is on our numerous mana dorks. I want to put them in their own section, above the other creatures, to avoid repeating myself too much. After seeing a few similar, competitive lists running well over 10, I played some test hands and discovered just how powerful they really are in this deck. Instead of using spells to focus on tutoring out lands, or creatures that tutor lands, we instead opt for mana dorks that generate mana, as they typically come down earlier, and we dont need to cast many high mana spells, so the quicker we can make use of our mana, the better.
Their uses are many, and I will outline some of the general ones below, with any extra notes by the dork with a specific purpose:
Mulligans
While this greatly depends on the colors and cmc of the cards in your hand, as well as who is sitting at the table with you, ideally we want to see
We also would like to see, with a lower priority.
Sample hands
Tutors
Tutors play a huge part in more compeitive EDH decks due to the need to lower the nature of variance in a highlander format. Fortunately, both of our general's colors contain the most efficient tutors for our strategy, and while we are missing white tutors like Enlightened Tutor and Eladamri's Call, we have a more powerful commander for our strategy to make up for it. Each of these tutors usually will fetch hate pieces, combo pieces, or removal depending on the board state, the amount of mana you have available, and what hate pieces your opponents are running to stop you.
Creature-based tutors
Fauna Shaman - Fauna Shaman is a much slower Survival of the Fittest, and I originally disliked this card for that exact reason. Why do I want to wait a turn and have such a huge rattlesnake on the board? But her value should not be overstated. Just being able to double up on your tutoring effects is still powerful, and much like Survival, has the added synergy of dumping creatures into your graveyard, where Meren can reanimate them.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier A demonic tutor on a body, that also synergizes with Meren's experience counter ability. It's never a poor play to have her Exploit herself if need be, as being able to reanimate or return to hand a Demonic Tutor is incredibly powerful.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded A great way to make use of those mana dorks so we can find our Nooze or Hulk combo lines. 2 life is nothing in this format. He also makes an amazing reanimation target.
Artifact-based tutors
Birthing Pod A ridiculously powerful engine given the low CMC of the deck, allowing us to find hatebears like Manglehorn or even our combo pieces. This is also a combo with Meren, as she can return the sacrificed creatures to our hand or play
Enchantment-based tutors
Defense of the Heart A new addition to punish other swarm decks, this allows us to find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion and win on the spot!
Evolutionary Leap A more fair Survival of the Fittest, this card requires a sacrifice to place a creature into our hand. I usually wait to activate it to net experience counters for Meren, or as a board wipe is occurring.
Pattern of Rebirth Place this on a mana dork or a creature that can off itself for a free to-the-battlefield creature!
Survival of the Fittest The card Fauna Shaman was based off of, it's is an incredibly powerful, repeatable, tutor engine. This card will draw a good bit of hate from the table, so only cast it when you can be sure you can get a one or more activations off of it.
Sorcery speed tutors
Buried Alive Quite possibly the best tutor in the deck, with Meren in play with 4 experience counters, you get to win on your end step by finding Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion, then activating Ooze's abilities to win!
Demonic Tutor This classic card can fetch us ANYTHING and should be used for finding very specific cards that our other tutors or draw spells usually cannot. For example, I've used it to find Buried Alive!
Eldritch Evolution A tutor that allows us to have added synergy with Meren by sacrificing a creature to place one directly onto the battlefield. Any tutors that place creatures onto the battlefield are immensely powerful in this deck!
Green Sun's Zenith A great way to find early mana dorks and place them directly onto the battlefield. Sadly, it doesnt allow us to tutor out any of our wincons.
Tooth and Nail Allows us to grab Mike and Trike for an easy win.
Instant speed tutors
Chord of Calling This is one of the worst to-the-battlefield tutors we have due to the insane mana cost it requires, but if we have a board of a few creatures, we can at instant speed find Mindslicer or Necrotic Ooze.
Crop Rotation This can find us Gaea's Cradle. Alternatively, Phyrexian Tower, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, etc.
Vampiric Tutor An instant speed Demonic tutor, for one less mana and 2 life, that places the card on top of our library.
Worldly Tutor Instant speed creature tutor that I usually save for utility creatures and removal due to having to reveal the target!
Early Game
We have a few early priorities each game, and through multiple redundant effects, some more powerful and fun than others, we can hope to consistently achieve this to the best of our abilities
Midgame
Focus on finding one or more of our combos, and possibly tutoring a Mindslicer if you have the chance to lock the board. Continue to pressure the board with dorks and recursion if necessary, while playing careful politics to keep the board in a favorable position for you to combo out in the late game. Be sure to remove Cursed Totem and similar effects when you can, as both of your wincons revolve around activated abilities of creatures. Pernicious Deed is an amazing hate piece which you can recur with Eternal Witness to wipe the board in a pinch.
Lategame
Find one of the two combos below, and use it to win. Be mindful of gravehate, creature hate, counterspells, and how you stack your triggers.
Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion
This combo works like this:
Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield
Devourer and Triskeleon in the graveyard
You activate Devourer's ability over and over to exile your library to make Ooze bigger and bigger with +1/+1 counters.
You then remove these counters to ping each opposing player until they are dead.
Downsides to this combo is if other players have too much life, as you usually can do 40-80 damage with this combo assuming you having milled or drew through too much of your library.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion
This is a true infinite combo, that doesn't have the limitations that the Ooze combo does, but requires two CMC6 creatures to be in play, but once they are, you can keep responding to any removal or interference by continuing the combo.
Use Triskelion's ability to ping a player twice, then itself once. Due to Mike's ability granting it undying, it returns to play with a +1/+1 counter from Undying, and three from its own triggered ETB ability. Rinse and Repeat.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista + Sacrifice Outlet
Works per the above Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion combo, but requires a sacrifice outlet due to Mikeaus giving the Ballista undying.
10/22/2017
Removed:
Merciless Executioner
Added:
Sphere of Resistance
I'm not sure how essential the edict creatures are except in situations, like with Selvala 2.0, where if shes the only creature on the field for that player, it's really good. Sphere helps slow down decks like Selvala and the occasional storm deck I face.
9/26/2017
Removed:
Added:
Grip -> Claim
Claim hits the same things Grip hits, for a third of the cost. I typically win before Mind over Matter decks win, so I'm not worried anymore about that. If this becomes a problem again, I might re-add it. Beast Within is worth the cost just due to hitting more things.
Grim -> Raz
Raz is just utterly insane in cEDH. Grim is a solid, solid card, but we aren't all-in on Meren anymore, and even though Grim can draw us cards, he's generally a terrible topdeck. As we have added more tutors and utterly powerful cards, his low power level shows. Raz is another tutor we can hardcast or reanimate that abuses the same mana dorks in a more powerful way.
8/25/2017
Removed:
Added:
I made a mistake in dropping Pod, I was in a hurry last night. This may also be a mistake, as Defense really depends on the meta, but I'm gonna see how it does without it. Honestly I'd like to remove Pattern and Defense as they're both pretty bad competitively and aren't consistent. Devoted for Boreal since we focus less on Meren, and more on needing immediate ramps.
8/24/2017
Removed:
Added:
So I wanna talk about each change individually. So we're adding the Hulk package to the deck as other competitive Meren decks have done. Tooth and Nail was also considered as a cut. I also cant find my boreal druid, or I would swap it for Devoted Druid
Birthing Pod: This one hurts, but I never see this card and when I do, two situations occur:
* I'm either unable to cast it due to needing to prioritize other threats or removal so I cannot safely drop it.
* It is destroyed before it generates much value
That being said, I hope to fit it back in sometime. I have a gorgeous japanese foil I was using, and atm I have no other deck for it!
Skullclamp: Holdover from Midrange Meren that still does work even in a more competitive shell. It's one I want to work back in with a high priority, as it still does work, just much less since casting Meren is less of a priority.
Sylvok Replica: A very bad version of Caustic Caterpillar, but one that also helped me deal with Torpor Orb. In addition, the need for a sac outlet on a stick with a useful effect is another holdover from the midrange deck. The issue is now that Cursed Totem effects hurt us more, so it's become a high cost bad card. I wont be working this back in.
Hermit Druid: I've gotten to test this only in goldfishing and it wasn't amazing. As I expected, I dumped more than I wanted into the grave and having Meren built up, all midrange style, or with Reanimation/Reclamation available wasn't something I wanted to rely on. It may work its way back as I wanna try it in a real game.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways: Another one I'd like to work back in, but much less so. I've not been able to activate his Formidable ability except when this was ran more midrangey. Now it's more or less a more expensive Bloom Tender which we also dont run.
Jarad's Orders: Final holdover cut from the midrange deck that still can do work, its cost is not worth the inclusion. I feel it opens me too much to hand, graveyard, and general hate.
8/6/2017
Removed:
Command Beacon
Added:
Swamp
Need more black sources, and I dont cast Meren enough to need Command Beacon. Plus it helps me cut back on the colorless mana sources!
5/4/2017
Removed:
Added:
Spore Frog is a relic from the midrange age, and while she still comes in handy, she's just not useful to our gameplan at all. She is replaced by Winter Orb, which does help our gameplan out! Primus is removed due to being generally, an overcosted Rec Sage that can infinite with Mike in the right situation, but that situation is better suited to a midrange build. Manglehorn comes in as a testing piece to further stax mana rocks and other artifacts our opponents play.
3/24/2017
Removed:
Volrath's Stronghold
Added:
Forest
I dont know how many fans I'll win over with this one... but Stronghold hasnt done anything for me since the days I ran this as a midrangey build with Gary and Kokopuffs. It's so slow and a tempo loss since we miss our draw. Biggest thing it can do now is function as a slow Meren replacement in a pinch or abuse Mindslicer. Meh. It's replaced by a Forest. But at least it's foil!
3/10/2017
Removed:
Added:
I'm replacing Leap and Attrition for similar reasons. This decklist isn't a midrange deck, so playing the grindy sacrifice game isn't advancing our gameplan. To stall better, Root Maze. Missing Attrition's ability to remove threats is solid, but if Shriekmaw cant cut it, neither can this imo. Evoltionary Leap was one that hurt to admit that it needed cut since it's so thematic and powerful. However with no control over the creature we get, Confidant will give us those same cards with life instead.
2/13/2017
Removed:
Shriekmaw
Added:
Null Rod
Shriekmaw was a tech piece, that's for certain. However, most of the things I'd want to remove are artifact or black creatures, so he's a blank card to me. Too often I dont want to see this guy, and I cant remember any games where I pulled out a win because of it.
To that end, Null Rod enters its place, finally. Picked up a japanese copy too! This should help us slow down other combo and stax decks. While it does turn off some of our rocks and Birthing Pod, it's usually worth it.
I'm looking to cut Yisan and Diligent Farmhand for more mana dorks+Entomb/Dark Confidant.
1/30/2017
Removed:
Awakening Zone
Added:
Tooth and Nail
I've been waiting for this day for months. I finally got a copy, and I can replace this underperforming card. Zone is fine in midrange Meren, but here it's just not a good card. We use Meren as a backup reanimator effect, and not a primary one.
12/25/2016
Removed:
Swamp
Added:
Reanimate
Too often I've needed this spell to save my butt or to combo off, and thus I've added it in. I dont think missing a 33rd land will hurt with 13 mana dorks/mana fetchers, plus sol ring/mana crypt
12/22/2016
Removed:
Added:
Scrying is slower and weaker than Crop Rotation. I originally didnt like sacrificing my lands, but with Cradle in the deck, Things have changed.
My group wasnt cool with Bazaar being used as a proxy if i had no intention of spending 800$+ on one, so a fetchland will replace it
12/2/2016
Removed:
Viscera Seer
Added:
Hermit Druid
While it pains me to do so, after moving from the midrange shell, Seer only remained as a way to poorly dig while Meren was in play, to gain exp counters, or to save a target from exile removal. It's not a good topdeck anymore, and as a result, I included something else that is always a huge threat and will eat removal like no others - Druid. He also will allow us to dig deep for combo pieces and disruption for Meren to reanimate, I hope. [/cards]
11/26/2016
Removed:
Added:
edit: Decided to add more fetches and expensive lands as proxies. I want to test the mana generation of Cradle to help us late game tutor into our wincons, and bazaar as a draw engine.
11/21/2016
Removed:
Necroplasm
Added:
Pattern of Rebirth
Pattern returns! While I dislike how slow it can be (And it's pretty annoying in your opening hand), the ability to just grab whatever I need is obscenely strong. Stronger than another awkward token killer like Necroplasm, which isn't as big of a concern anymore for my meta. What I have found is a lack of an ability to find answers, specialized ones, or my wincons before others win. More tutors are necessary as well, since as I've mentioned previously, I have issues in some games where I just see removal and mana dorks, and no tutors/draw.
Farmhand is on the watch list, as is Sylvan Scrying.
11/6/2016
Removed:
Added:
Priest is back due to needing better two drops and more mana producers that wont hurt my curve or be poor topdecks. Farmhand's cost is somewhat prohibitive at times, but Dawntreader Elk is a poor Yisan/Pod target over priest/Fauna Shaman and since it wants to sacrifice itself. I picked up a judge promo Defense, so I had to include it. My meta is more keen on going wide, so having an "I win" one card combo to fetch Mike+Trike seems better than just a poor Mindslicer tutor.
Farmhand is on the watch list, as is Sylvan Scrying and Necroplasm.
Removed:
Priest of Titania
Added:
Thorn of Amethyst
I've got enough mana dorks in more recent games, but this doesnt rule her out. Necroplasm on the watch list. Thorn is here to slow down control and combo decks.
10/23/2016
Removed:
Oppression
Added:
Priest of Titania
Oppression is winmore with Mindslicer, and otherwise can harm us or just be... useless. I've had too many games where it sits in my hand and I dont see where it would particularly help, but instead put a target I didnt need on my head with a weak hand. Priest is another mana dork since I've seen plenty of hands with the new mulligan rule that dont contain any dorks.
Removed:
Wood Elves
Carrion Feeder
Added:
Magus of the Abyss
Worldly Tutor
I'm retesting Magus, and since we have enough fast mana dorks now, I figure I would cut one of the weakest. However, I do like Wood Elves to fetch my Bayou/Overgrown Tomb, so we shall see. Magus is being retested as a way to control the board since my meta is full of either token swarm decks, which we can handle, or decks that use 0-2 creatures on the board at any given time.
Carrion feeder is better in a build focusing on Meren's reanimation ability. We are winning via combo now, and while gaining experience counters can be useful, it is not ultimately important. Therefore, Feeder gets the cut. Obviously he does over Viscera Seer who can scry for us. Worldly Tutor I've been trying to fit in for weeks now, hoping to give it a shot tomorrow.
10/12/2016
Removed:
Animate Dead
Added:
Carpet of Flowers
Carpet is a defacto accellerant in more competitive green decks, and should do nicely here. I've neglected to include it due to a lack of blue in my meta, but that is quickly changing. Animate Dead has usually been a dead card. If it hasnt been dead, I would have preferred another tutor in its place. I've just been extremely underwhelmed by it.
9/10/2016
Removed:
Golgari Signet
Added:
Diabolic Intent
I feel our Green mana production and ramp is sufficient to not need a signet, as it dilutes our gameplan (we want mana dorks, not rocks), and reduces our potential tutor count, and especially really excellent and synergistic ones like Diabolic Intent
9/1/2016
Removed:
Bitterblossom
Added:
Chord of Calling
Moving away from Grave Pact Meren to combo Meren, we dont need faeries anymore. Awakening Zone serves a special purpose of generating mana and experience counters on its own. Chord enters as another way to hit Mindslicer/Necrotic Ooze/Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Triskelion
8/26/2016
Removed:
Void Winnower
Added:
Pattern of Rebirth
I know, I removed it for being too slow and now it's back. But as the deck has evolved, I have fewer high priority targets, a lower curve, and targets like Mindslicer or Necrotic Ooze that demand being put directly into play.
I'm also looking to find a Chord of Calling, Bloom Tender, and Dark Confidant. I also picked up a Worldly Tutor, so I'm looking to make room for those as well.
8/23/2016
Removed:
Added:
This wont win me any fans, but since we can handle most boards now, we no longer need Grave Pact and Dictate. Tokens can be dealt with by other means, and if the board is that big, I can find room for a Toxic Deluge. Merciless Executioner comes in to double up with Fleshbag Marauder, as looping them a few times typically deals with the board.
Fyndhorn elves and Void Winnower replace Gary and Kokopuffs. We dont need to focus on these slow wincons anymore. Animate Dead enters to help us loop key creatures more.
8/22/2016
Removed:
Tainted Wood
Added:
Twilight Mire
Tainted Wood can occasionally be bad. I'm keeping it as a maybe for now, in case I need more dual lands, and I do, but I also want to be careful of Ruination and Back to Basics
8/8/2016
Removed:
Wurmcoil Engine
Added:
Llanowar Elves
Hurts me to do, but Wurmcoil, as he is, is solid here. He is, but I played a few games the other day and not hitting my mana dorks until 5-6 cards in with the new mulligan rules really hurts, and prevents us from getting off the ground at all. So as it stands, Wurmcoil isn't as necessary to the gameplan.
7/21/2016
Removed:
Added:
Makes me sad to drop Disciple, but we run so few high power creatures anymore. He doesnt net us enough value anymore to be of any benefit. In most instances, he is a sac outlet to gain 1-2 life and draw 1-2 cards. He is replaced by a similar effect: Evolution allows us to get something we need rather than just a card or two.
Next, Hypnotist. His CMC is really what hurts his inclusion. By the time I can cast him and really benefit from him, I should be winning in other ways. He's been a dead card most of the time. while I dont doubt he could return, he is incredibly expensive resource-wise and seems winmore. Yisan replaces him as a "must answer" card that is also resource intensive, but comes down much earlier and will tutor us first mana dorks, then removal, then soon real threats. He is in the testing phase, so we'll see how he fares!
7/10/2016
Removed:
Pox
Added:
Riftsweeper
This was a necessary evil for us to be able to combo out and win. Pox was used alongside Koko and Gary to help us reduce life totals and impact the board in a real way to break a combo/aggro player's lead. While it may come back in, as I LOVE it to make everyone groan and disrupt the board, we need Riftsweeper to grab back key exiled [creature] cards.
I'm eyeing a few others as potential cuts, like Wurmcoil for Void Winnower. Wurmcoil is just a great way to keep a board post wrath, as well as recover life so we arent such a juicy target.
7/8/2016
Removed:
Forest
Added:
Woodland Cemetery
Someone stole mine, I found another. So there! However, I worry about running too few basics, particularly since I sometimes play at tables with MLD, Mass Non-basic hate, and general non-basic hate, so I will test to see.
6/24/2016
Removed:
Added:
Map for Scrying is an obvious choice, since we have better things to be doing turn 1 now, this gives us a better curve play.
Sifter.. ahh, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, comes out for a tech piece against tokens.
This last one is going to be controversial, but removing animate dead for something that nets us more dudes in the long run is what I prefer. Animate works better on an empty board, and can grab other things, but Victimize works well with Meren's ability and allows us to be net 3 creatures at the end of the turn, rather than just 2. I've come across situations in EVERY game I've played where I could use more dudes on the board, and hopefully this helps!
6/21/2016
Removed:
Massacre Wurm
Added:
Shaman of Forgotten Ways
While Necroplasm was going to take Wurm's spot, until I test Sifter and pals further, Shaman takes the spot as a mana dork that produces mana of any color, and can become a win condition in its own right, if the game goes on long enough! We'll see how it performs in any case.
Wurm, as I've discussed in other posts, looks incredible, but rarely pans out unless you're in a heavy token meta, and even then, he's not your tutor target usually. Just a decent topdeck. He also doesnt help if your opponents can pump their tokens, which usually they can or will.
6/11/2016
Removed:
Added:
Another city of brass for a basic, and Nykthos per a suggestion for a forest. This allows me to replace Ashnod's Altar. I dont need to recast Meren as much now that we're more Stax/Combo than midrange goodstuff.dec. As such, we dont need the Altar. So Fauna Shaman comes in to add variety to our 2 drop slot, as well as another tutor for our combo pieces/Mindslicer/Gary
6/10/2016
Removed:
Llanowar Elves
Added:
Joraga Treespeaker
Deciding to test this guy in the 1CMC mana dork slot. Basically, his only downside is his mana investment, but he will provide us much more mana over the course of his time on the board than Llanowar will, while also providing us a valuable mana dump. Ideally, we drop him turn 1, and turn 2, we level him up and aren't down any mana, except if we filtered out black mana and for whatever reason NEED it, which I doubt.
6/5/2016
Removed:
Forest
Added:
City of Brass
More dual lands I forgot I had
6/4/2016
Removed:
Swamp
Added:
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
It finally came in the mail. It should help with some of the more restrictive casting costs of our spells, as well as comboing with Cabal Coffers (Once that comes in the mail) to allow us to recast Meren repeatedly, and finally drop Ashnod's Altar for something better.
5/29/2016
Added:
Removed:
Catacomb Shifter went away, then returned for more testing. Some unpopular changes here, but Buried Alive becomes an incredible wincon by fetching Ooze, Devourer, and Trike, then returning Ooze to play with Meren. This also gives us a third major wincon outside of Mike+trike and draining everyone to death with Gary/Koko puffs. Green Sun comes in, and should have been here to begin with. I guess I kept misreading that it places the creature into play... So the cuts. Sheoldred was a huge rattlesnake and just ate removal. Not that it was a bad thing, but it typically didnt help as our opponents would have so many creatures we needed more triggers, or she wouldnt have any targets to return to play. In addition, she does little for our gameplan besides disruption and recursion, and her CMC is incredibly restrictive. Just wasnt working out. Same with Rune Scarred, which is an overcosted Demonic Tutor on a flying body, but didnt do much else. So 99% of the time, both were essentially dead cards that I overvalued due to their triggers. Liliana is solid, but requires too much investment for too little gain. I already need a solid board, and she generally returns small creatures to play. I can see placing her back in here as time goes on, but she's not essential.
5/26/2016
Removed:
Added:
While I'm still looking to make room for Necrotic ooze, Void Winnower and Phyrexian Devourer, these were easier to make. Shifter is replaced by someone who can do targeted graveyard hate, gain us life, make opponent's lose life, and ramp is in a pinch. Reanimate is removed for Animate Dead due to lifeloss issues.
5/22/2016
Removed:
Phyrexian Altar
Added:
Devoted Druid
After a game, I realized I have a ton of 1 drop dorks now, but lack two drops. Devoted needs to come back in as a Birthing Pod target/mana dork. Plus, it also produces GG for Contamination in case we need to recast Meren. Altar was there for this, but isnt needed anymore really.
Catacomb Sifter is on the watch list
5/18/2016
Removed:
Added:
Mystic are a stand in for Deathrite Shaman / Arbor Elf. (I cant find mine!). Acidic Slime is no longer that useful and it hurts the curve HARD for its effect, which we now have in spades. It goes to the maybe board. Devoted Druid is replaced by Elves. Carrion Feeder is another cheap sac outlet that can get big enough to be threatening. The last one was more difficult, but sorry Smothering Abomination, you're out just for now given your conditions. I need these other cards more! I'll see about the amount of mana dorks, as he could make a return easily (as always, he is a flex slot.) Oppression is more pain for the opponents. We focus heavily on tutoring Mindslicer, Gary, and a sac outlet. Once you have their hands stripped, keeping them down is important, especially when they need to spend two turns about it.
I'm still looking for room for Phyrexian Devourer/Necrotic Ooze...
5/14/2016
Removed:
Added:
The deck has been performing admirably with the changes, and as such, I've decided to increase the power a bit with Lilly and try out Abom again. Executioner, while the effect is good, I dont need that many edict effects once I have Grave Pact out. What I need is ways to refill my hand and keep the pressure on. Obviously Lilly is good here for that purpose, but I think Veil is better still.
5/12/2016
Removed:
Added:
Unpopular cuts, but Regrowth clogs your hand and should be replaced with more relevant answers, reanimation, and tutors. Putrefy as well, we deal with Creatures much better now, with Attrition and others. Artifacts were not super concerned about, and if we are, Slime or Sage them. Map is a stand in for Crop Rotation for now to find Altar/Ancient Tomb/etc. From Beyond was replaced to lower our curve, as well as less reliance on poor token producers. With the direction I'm taking the deck, it doesnt have the same priority, although it is nice. Swamps come out for cards from my other decks that should have been here anyway. Recplica replaces Avenger, as I needed to lower my curve. Avenger was never stellar except for making chaff or forcing a wrath. It's because we dont abuse landfall (yet). It was between him or Massacre Wurm, and I need the help vs token decks more. In addition, Farhaven for a better mana dork.
5/11/2016
Removed:
Added:
Wickerbough Elder cannot remove himself, so he cant generate counters. I'd prefer Sylvok Replica for not needing a specific mana source for early plays, and his abilily to do the same, at one less mana. Losing him isnt a big deal. Llanowar Elves comes in to speed the deck up.
Agent was an inclusion I didnt think about fully, as I am currently moving the deck in more of a fast, token stax based build, with smatterings of combo, and he's just too costly for what I want to do. It really only hoses Kharador and while that's an issue in my meta, I should be focusing on having bodies to sacrifice to remove their pieces prior to them being able to combo off. Phyrexian Reclaimation comes in to give us more ways to continue to rebuild the board after wipes, which has been a big issue, or save things prior to graveyard hate.
Visionary was a flex slot. It's just.. eh. Arena comes back to replace it.
Nether Traitor was always... meh. He could be abusable but most of the time was a poor mana sink like Resassembling Skeleton. Or I'd forget about him. Devoted Druid comes back in for another early removable mana dork to replace him.
4/28/2016
Removed: Devoted Druid
Added: Diligent Farmhand
Someone mentioned wanting to cut Krosan Wayfarer and Diligent Farmhand from his build, and I found I'd really like him in my build. Despite the fact he doesnt generate mana like Druid, I found Druid was slow. It goes infinite with Mike, but we dont need the green mana. If I ever add in Exsanguinate and the Coffers package, it will make an appearance. Farmhand is another one drop, which we lack dearly, and does what Dawntreader Elk does: Sacrifices itself to find a basic land card. Lowering the curve is incredibly important. Even if both he and Druid do nothing the first turn they're out, they both accomplish similar ends.
4/26/2016
Removed: Krosan Tusker
Removed: Lightning Greaves
Removed: Swiftfoot Boots
Added: Death Cloud
Added: Catacomb Sifter
Added: Sadistic Hypnotist
Krosan was removed with the advent of cheaper creatures that produce mana, as well as him being a weird pet card. Not that he was bad, but just slow, and better mid/late game as a mana dump and a Meren target. Lowering our curve enables more Meren targets that actually impact our board.
Swiftfoot boots and Lightning Greaves have been removed. Seems an odd choice, but I dont face much single target removal much anymore, and since we have few ways to tutor boots/greaves, and typically tutor other things, they were mostly dead slots, only occasionally protecting Meren when they are actually out on the field.
Hypnotist enters as a sacrifice outlet that can further strip hands of powerful players. I've found hand destruction is a powerful subtheme that I want to chase along with the Grave Pact token theme.
Death Cloud enters as another wincon and way to control the board, along with its brother Pox already doing heavy work. I dislike seeing this early, unlike Pox, but it gives us a really great way to close out the game, especially vs control decks.
I really dislike creatures like Pawn of Ulamog as they greatly depend on non-token creatures, and we like tokens. They also do nothing on their own and require us to be ahead... only to net more dudes. Sifter is a bit different, being very on the curve, if it matters, but generating a token on its own, allowing us to have an easy way to generate mana, an experience counter, and to be able to Scry off of Sifter. Scrying isnt particularly powerful, but it can help us find the land, tutor, enchantment, etc we need next turn. It is on the testing table, and might be replaced with Magus of the Abyss.
4/13/2016
Removed: Pattern of Rebirth
Removed: Oracle of Mul Daya
Removed: Grave Titan
Added: Wurmcoil Engine
Added: Elvish Visionary
Added: Vampiric Tutor
More efforts to speed up the deck and reduce the curve. Oracle wasnt super stellar and was always on the cutting board. Visionary helps me get ahead by cantripping early, and isnt terrible to return to play if there is nothing else to do. I want to continue to add more smaller creatures, like Deathrite Shaman, Birds of Paradise, etc, that can help me ramp faster, earlier. All this while continuing to focus on the token stax gameplan. Might have to cut some fatties, or non-creature removal, but I want to add back in Smokestax, Phyrexian Devourer, and Necrotic Ooze.
As for Grave Titan, If I'm going to keep the count I have of fatties in, I need fatties that also makes bodies, but also are real threats. Grave Titan has always just been a way to force a wipe, but Wurmcoil survives wipes.
Pattern does great work, but I want to speed up the deck, even at the cost of life. Need to find Contamination/token generators/Ashnod's altar earlier.
Zulaport Cutthroat, despite his usefulness and the fact I just nabbed a foil, is replaced by Birds of Paradise. I just need more of those dorks, like I mentioned above.
4/11/2016
Added: Triskeleon
Added: Agent of Erebos
Removed: Puppeteer Clique
Removed: Grim Haruspex
So, Puppeteer was one of those pieces that always popped up and I never had targets for it, or I couldnt get it to land and grab juicy targets and make it matter. It works well with Meren's ability since you get to keep those creatures until your next end step, but it wasnt worth the setup for the payoff. So I removed him. Just too often he was a dead card or i wish i had anything else. Grim Haruspex is the same way. I do too many tokens, as other players told me, and even when he works (like after a Wrath I might draw 2-5 cards), I'd be better off with better card draw.
In it's place, and I feel bad doing this, but Triskeleon to help end games quickly with Mike. Despite getting good lockdowns, I need a way to just end it. Sometimes folks just get out from under my lock. Agent is there as another way to deal with graveyard decks.
3/28/2016
Removed:Phyrexian Arena
Removed: Corpse Augur
Removed: Primal Growth
Removed: Swamp
Added: Volrath's Stronghold
Added: Wickerbough Elder
Added: Birthing Pod
Added: Read the Bones
Sick of seeing this card (Arena), I really am. It's the continued lifeloss I dislike the most, or drawing it late. It also draws alot of hate. I hope Read will get me that lifeloss and card quality over quantity. I dont much like more lifeloss in the deck unless it's big impact. Augur is very meh and at best was netting me a few cards when I was already ahead. However, Birthing Pod brings lifeloss, but it gets me exactly what I need, rather than a couple random topdecks. We'll see how it performs. It very much feels like theres too many tutors as is.
With Elder, I need the removal more for when Torpor Orb hits. Primal is good on paper, but I'd hate to draw it late or early when I have nothing for the Kicker. It goes to the maybeboard.
I hesitate to add too many colorless lands, but there are many times mid/late game I need to return multiple creatures to play with Meren. Or some low cmc utility creature and a fatty. I can return the little guy to the top of the deck to be drawn the next turn instead.
2/22/2016
Removed: Smothering Abomination
Added: Phyrexian Altar
I thought Altar was already in here, but we may need it for things like Contamination to cast Meren and the like. And as an amazing sac outlet. I love it. Abomination is a card I never want to see, but works well with the deck in theory, I've yet to get to test it. But I KNOW altar works by how well Ashnod's works here, and how well both work in Krenko
2/19/2016
Removed: Garruk, Wildspeaker
Added: Sylvan Library
Garruk was pretty terrible, and I never got to overrun with him. He seems to want to draw the deck more toward Mazerik, and I'd prefer him there instead, being able to produce tokens and untap key lands. Not that that isnt viable here, but it wasn't really too impressive. Library is an obvious addition to find key cards.
2/9/2016
Removed: Yavimaya Elder
Added: Bane of Progress
I had Bane in the side for a while, but most people look unkindly at SB in EDH. Elder was very hit or miss. I prefer creatures to do something immediately, and he required so much setup that by the time he came down, I was already good on lands for the most part, since no one wants to block his ass, or attack me. If I wanted to then cantrip, I needed another 2 colorless. This deck is mana hungry early on, and I dont wanna durdle too much.
Bane of Progress is an "Oh *****" card i can cast or return to play to eat a stax/superfriend/daretti/etc player's board if necessary. This deck deals with creatures well, but it's threats outside of that that we need to deal with. This has the added disadvantage of eating our own artifacts and enchantments, but there are situations where that is beneficial! Worst case just keep looping E Witness with Meren/Clique to grab stuff back afterwards. Note 4/26, he is incredible and backbreaking to tables. I dont regret his addition.
2/8/2016
Removed: Grisly Salvage
Added: Zulaport Cutthroat
As others have pointed out, this is much better than Blood Artist. I originally evaluated them as not necessary because they only targeted one played, not fully reading this card. This guy is bonkers. Definitely nice to have another amazing 2 drop. Grisly I'm torn on. I've yet to test it. It was between it and Primal Growth. Growth cant pitch my important enchantments/artifacts, so it stays. Salvage, like other self mill cards, looks really good on paper. My fear is having to find an E Witness because I pitched something critical, or getting my Bog Juked.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Modern: WURG Twin
Standard: Mardu Planeswalkers
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/deck-creation-standard/661834-mardu-planeswalker?comment=1
Monthly Proxy Legacy
Charlotte/Greensboro area, NC
Pm me for details
Out: Sad Robot, Volrath's Stronghold
Sad Robot is too expensive for its cost, and in a green deck like this, it's pretty average. Stronghold itself is a huge mana sink and doesnt produce colored mana, which we desperately need. I'll test without it and see how it goes, but as it stands, so long as Meren herself can remain on the board, it's not as powerful of an effect. However I want to remain near 35 lands, and at 34 and not many rocks, it's iffy. I hope all the tutors help!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
On a similar note I like the inclusion of Yavimaya Granger. Once Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf enter the battlefield they merely sit there. Granger will gain experience right away. I'm glad to know it exists.
Thanks! I found it on another person's list of land fetchers. I definitely agree on the Ranger. I wanted a 2CMC way to fetch lands outside of Steve, and it was the best effect I thought of. I was shying away from pure mana dorks due to their inability to fetch lands and thin the deck a bit, etc. Devoted Druid I like the most. It wont let me immediately produce mana/EXP counters like Nest Invader can, but it can sacrifice itself and still produce GG. I'll have to go pick one up now that I think about it! Thanks!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
* I run and maintain an EDH-friendly bot system on MTGO (AbandonedOutpost)
It was removed early on, as the multiple Edict effects already to the same job, and if the opponent is outpacing me with quality creatures, the inclusion of one Bone Shredder wont make a difference imo. Plus, what do you remove for it?
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Out mazirek death priest, Grisly Salvage
Mazzy isnt bad by any means, but Mike does more for the deck in general. It allowed me to get double triggers from Koko puffs and Acidic Slime over and over. Definitely not bad by any means. The deck is incredibly quick to set up. I love it! Won over the weekend by recurring Kokopuffs and Gravepact to keep the board clear.
Jarad's Orders was also a key game winner, finding me Viscera Seer and kokopuffs in both games I played. I'll update the OP to reflect these changes
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Out: Smothering Abomination
Another one of those "It's nice if it survives" creatures that has potential but I never liked seeing it. Great when youre ahead, during a wipe, or recovering, but Primus is just another Acidic Slime/Caterpillar/Putrefy/Reclaimation Sage full of value
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
-1 Yavimaya Elder +1 Bane of Progress I had him in the side for a while, but most people look unkindly at SB in EDH. Elder was very hit or miss. I prefer creatures to do something immediately, and he required so much setup that by the time he came down, I was already good on lands for the most part, since no one wants to block his ass, and to cantrip, you need 2 colorless. This deck is mana hungry early on, and I dont wanna durdle too much.
Bane of Progress is an "Oh $#$^%" card i can cast or return to play to eat a stax/superfriend/daretti/etc player's board if necessary. This deck deals with creatures well, but it's threats outside of that that we need to deal with. This has the added disadvantage of eating our own artifacts and enchantments, but there are situations where that is beneficial! Worst case just keep looping E Witness with Meren/Clique to grab stuff back afterwards
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
I still can't belive I misread a card I used in the prerelease so badly.
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
I shall! I might try aggressively tutoring for it following getting Gary out, just to make Gary triggers that much more annoying.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Modern
UWGB 4c Snow Control BGWU
Yes it is!
Maybe budget option ?
I didn't know this card, unlike Whip of Erebos, you can sac the creature before EOT, and reanimate with Meren, it could be a thing with buyback !
Corpse dance is a possiblity, but only if I have a sac outlet out. Maybe!
10/4/2004 Corpse Dance only exiles the card if the card is still on the battlefield at the beginning of the end step.
I run both Altars as they both are incredibly good, particularly under Contamination.
I took Pod out, since it never did much more me. It might come back in eventually, probably for something like Black Market. It's just been really slow for me. And I tend to want to put alot of effort into using it, and it's much weaker and more expensive to use than the other tutors in the deck. You're right, my curve is getting much better for it. I'm gonna give it time, and see what happens. It's sitting in my Keepables binder.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
+Smothering Abomination
It was just a rattlesnake that we have no way to utilize. If we went Exsanguinate, it would be incredible! But as of now, it just lets me empty my hand and go into topdeck mode. Abom is winmore, but at least gets me cards and is a reliable sac outlet for the multitudes of tokens we run.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Still, if you ever get room to try to test it again, I'd give it another shot.
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
I probably will haha, it's that poor card that keeps going in and out, in and out. Wickerbough Elder would be the next addition I think. Torpor Orb really hurts the deck. My meta is pretty cutthroat and if I can maintain a board to benefit the Abomination, I've already won :D. Like Sheoldred, Whispering One. I've reanimated her countless times, hardcasted her more. I've gotten one trigger off of her to reanimate a dude of my own. That's how much removal I see thrown around! haha. So abomination is a tough sell.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
That is a really cool little combo haha! Nets you exp counters and alot of life!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
I play it in my Deck and it feels good to get rid of a 1-5cmc mana rock every turn.