When I first got into Commander I knew from the start I wanted to make a Grixis deck. UBR was the first color combination I used when I started playing Magic during the Shards block, and graveyard recursion has always been a common theme with most of my decks. I got to thinking about the different Grixis generals - Jeleva, Nicol Bolas, Marchesa - when I remembered I had a single copy of Sedris in my spares. I'd completely forgotten about his unearth ability, so right away I went to work building what I still consider my favorite Commander deck.
The Theme
Naturally the primary theme had to be dumping things into the 'yard to resurrect them with Sedris. However, unearth is (usually) a one-time deal, so I wanted to make the most out of the creatures I was bringing back. Fortunately, UBR creatures have some of the best and wonkiest enter-the-battlefield effects. The main goal is to blitz my opponent to death, swinging a 5/5 or greater after an ETB effect has happened.
Spells Traumatize, Living Death, and Twilight's Call - The backbone of the deck. It is possible to reanimate creatures through normal means (discard or through other milling effects), but nothing compares to Traumatizing yourself and following it with Living Death or Twilight's Call. Since I run more creatures than other spells, I'm almost guaranteed to get something good out of it. Damnation, Terror, Doom Blade, and Terminate - Every black deck needs removal, and these four are the best around. Damnation is the only true 'field wipe' (besides Living Death) in the deck, but I have creatures that can clear the field if need be. Into the Roil - This card has saved my rear more times than I can count. It gets rid of pretty much any nonland permanent you don't want on the field, including your own things.
Artifacts and Enchantments Mesmeric Orb - Much slower than Traumatize, but also effects your opponents, giving you targets for Necromancy and Animate Dead if you don't get anything good in your own graveyard. Ashnod's Altar and Spawning Pit - Free sac is always a good thing. The Altar can generate insane (and oftentimes unusable) amounts of mana, and the Pit makes sure you have creatures when somebody field wipes.
Creatures Flayer of the Hatebound and Gray Merchant of Asphodel - These are the primary win conditions. Traumatize + Twilight's Call/Living Death can mean an insta-kill in most cases (though the Flayer doesn't work if you Living Death him out). Most of my creatures are heavy black, meaning you'll be gaining a lot of life once the Merchant hits. Izzet Chronarch - The funny thing about this guy is I was so iffy on sticking him in the deck; he just never seemed that good to me. But after using him I know now that he'll be a permanent addition. If he's in your graveyard when the Traumatize/Mass Recursion combo goes off, you can get the recursion spell right back, so if somebody field wipes you can just rinse and repeat. Butcher of Malakir and Void Maw - Void Maw has the potential to completely disrupt other players' graveyard-based decks, especially when combined with Butcher's sac ability. This can potentially turn into a field wipe for everybody but you, and on top of that you get to decide whether or not the creatures return to their owner's graveyards. Kederekt Leviathan and Extractor Demon - I have milled three separate opponents out after recurring these two cards simultaneously. The good thing is you can mill yourself if need be. Crater Hellion and Massacre Wurm - More pseudo-field wipe. The Wurm's secondary life-loss effect is an excellent addition to all of the killing it and the Hellion do combined. Liliana Vess - Not a creature exactly, but I always group Planeswalkers with creatures when laying out how the deck functions. All three of her abilities are perfect for this deck - free discard if you have a fattie in your hand, a tutor for any card, and a Rise of the Dark Realms for yourself.
The Good
- Sedris and other reanimation spells allow you to get big creatures out easily.
- The deck itself is rather defensive - you won't be the target until everything you need is out on the field.
- Traumatize/Mass Recursion can result in an instant win in some cases.
- Can bounce back from field wipes easily enough.
- Not entirely reliant on the commander.
The Bad
- Slow-paced and not competitive.
- There are some expensive cards that I splurged on - Demonic Tutor and Damnation specifically.
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate.
- I hate using counter spells, so there are none (unless you count Swerve).
- The Traumatize + Living Death/Twilight's Call combo is fragile and can be easily countered.
- If somebody else has a Void Maw, things can get complicated.
- More multiplayer-based than one vs. one.
I recently wrote a primer on Sedris, which I'm going to submit for official primer status as soon as the thread is old enough. You can check it out here.
Yeah, I knew it didn't work (comes into play via exile and all that) but I suppose I could have worded it a bit better.
I used to have River Kelpie in here but I actually drew myself out more than once with it, so I gave it the axe. It's been suggested I keep it and throw in a Laboratory Maniac but I've never been a big fan of the Maniac in EDH - too fragile with just about every deck packing kill spells and whatnot.
Background
When I first got into Commander I knew from the start I wanted to make a Grixis deck. UBR was the first color combination I used when I started playing Magic during the Shards block, and graveyard recursion has always been a common theme with most of my decks. I got to thinking about the different Grixis generals - Jeleva, Nicol Bolas, Marchesa - when I remembered I had a single copy of Sedris in my spares. I'd completely forgotten about his unearth ability, so right away I went to work building what I still consider my favorite Commander deck.
The Theme
Naturally the primary theme had to be dumping things into the 'yard to resurrect them with Sedris. However, unearth is (usually) a one-time deal, so I wanted to make the most out of the creatures I was bringing back. Fortunately, UBR creatures have some of the best and wonkiest enter-the-battlefield effects. The main goal is to blitz my opponent to death, swinging a 5/5 or greater after an ETB effect has happened.
The Decklist
1 Sedris, the Traitor King
Creatures - 32
1 Sage of Epityr
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Raven Familiar
1 Kederekt Leviathan
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Crater Hellion
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Nightscape Familiar
1 Abyssal Gatekeeper
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Grixis Battlemage
1 Doomed Necromancer
1 Pawn of Ulamog
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Void Maw
1 Scythe Specter
1 Extractor Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Lord of the Pit
1 Devouring Strossus
1 Sedraxis Specter
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Defiler of Souls
1 Thraximundar
1 Blood Tyrant
1 Prince of Thralls
1 Into the Roil
1 Taigam's Scheming
1 Strategic Planning
1 Compulsive Research
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mystic Retrieval
1 Traumatize
1 Terror
1 Doom Blade
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Victimize
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Dread Return
1 Damnation
1 Living Death
1 Twilight's Call
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Swerve
1 Terminate
Artifacts and Enchantments - 7
1 Sol Ring
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Spawning Pit
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Liliana Vess
Lands - 39
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Shadows
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Temple of Deceit
12 Swamp
10 Island
8 Mountain
Functionality
Spells
Traumatize, Living Death, and Twilight's Call - The backbone of the deck. It is possible to reanimate creatures through normal means (discard or through other milling effects), but nothing compares to Traumatizing yourself and following it with Living Death or Twilight's Call. Since I run more creatures than other spells, I'm almost guaranteed to get something good out of it.
Damnation, Terror, Doom Blade, and Terminate - Every black deck needs removal, and these four are the best around. Damnation is the only true 'field wipe' (besides Living Death) in the deck, but I have creatures that can clear the field if need be.
Into the Roil - This card has saved my rear more times than I can count. It gets rid of pretty much any nonland permanent you don't want on the field, including your own things.
Artifacts and Enchantments
Mesmeric Orb - Much slower than Traumatize, but also effects your opponents, giving you targets for Necromancy and Animate Dead if you don't get anything good in your own graveyard.
Ashnod's Altar and Spawning Pit - Free sac is always a good thing. The Altar can generate insane (and oftentimes unusable) amounts of mana, and the Pit makes sure you have creatures when somebody field wipes.
Creatures
Flayer of the Hatebound and Gray Merchant of Asphodel - These are the primary win conditions. Traumatize + Twilight's Call/Living Death can mean an insta-kill in most cases (though the Flayer doesn't work if you Living Death him out). Most of my creatures are heavy black, meaning you'll be gaining a lot of life once the Merchant hits.
Izzet Chronarch - The funny thing about this guy is I was so iffy on sticking him in the deck; he just never seemed that good to me. But after using him I know now that he'll be a permanent addition. If he's in your graveyard when the Traumatize/Mass Recursion combo goes off, you can get the recursion spell right back, so if somebody field wipes you can just rinse and repeat.
Butcher of Malakir and Void Maw - Void Maw has the potential to completely disrupt other players' graveyard-based decks, especially when combined with Butcher's sac ability. This can potentially turn into a field wipe for everybody but you, and on top of that you get to decide whether or not the creatures return to their owner's graveyards.
Kederekt Leviathan and Extractor Demon - I have milled three separate opponents out after recurring these two cards simultaneously. The good thing is you can mill yourself if need be.
Crater Hellion and Massacre Wurm - More pseudo-field wipe. The Wurm's secondary life-loss effect is an excellent addition to all of the killing it and the Hellion do combined.
Liliana Vess - Not a creature exactly, but I always group Planeswalkers with creatures when laying out how the deck functions. All three of her abilities are perfect for this deck - free discard if you have a fattie in your hand, a tutor for any card, and a Rise of the Dark Realms for yourself.
The Good
- Sedris and other reanimation spells allow you to get big creatures out easily.
- The deck itself is rather defensive - you won't be the target until everything you need is out on the field.
- Traumatize/Mass Recursion can result in an instant win in some cases.
- Can bounce back from field wipes easily enough.
- Not entirely reliant on the commander.
The Bad
- Slow-paced and not competitive.
- There are some expensive cards that I splurged on - Demonic Tutor and Damnation specifically.
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate.
- I hate using counter spells, so there are none (unless you count Swerve).
- The Traumatize + Living Death/Twilight's Call combo is fragile and can be easily countered.
- If somebody else has a Void Maw, things can get complicated.
- More multiplayer-based than one vs. one.
All criticisms/comments/opinions are welcome!
UBRGwendlyn, Grixis Wheel 'n DealUBR
BGSavra, Golgari Land Sac'nBG
---
Current Commanders: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (coming soon) | [Primer] Sedris, the Traitor King | Maelstrom Wanderer | Najeela, the Blade Blossom | Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
---
Retired Commanders: [Primer] Jenara, Asura of War | [Primer] Ghave, Guru of Spores | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury | Saskia the Unyielding | Sydri, Galvanic Genius
Yeah, I knew it didn't work (comes into play via exile and all that) but I suppose I could have worded it a bit better.
I used to have River Kelpie in here but I actually drew myself out more than once with it, so I gave it the axe. It's been suggested I keep it and throw in a Laboratory Maniac but I've never been a big fan of the Maniac in EDH - too fragile with just about every deck packing kill spells and whatnot.
UBRGwendlyn, Grixis Wheel 'n DealUBR
BGSavra, Golgari Land Sac'nBG