This is my much looser attempt at making a deck that runs a hybrid strategy of deploying either Sedris, the Traitor King OR Nekusar, the Mindrazer as my General. I feel like I've struck a pretty unique and great balance between both. There is plenty of ways they both interact and a surprising amount of overlap in the strategies. While the deck may have suffered in some areas due to this dual set-up, ultimately I found it the best solution.
Sedris generates a ton of mana, so I want him to be paying it whenever possible. Also, sometimes the Graveyard gets hated on - so he also needs to be able to cast those spells.
It is important to know that this list is part of my closed EDH meta. Giving advice and taking advice is difficult in the context of the other decks: some obvious auto-includes are well...not included. Sometimes strictly worse versions of cards are included in this deck because of balancing. Specific Meta Adjustments are discussed here.
9/27/15
+ Rakdos Charm
- Crosis's Charm
This change was to give the ultimate blowout card for Prossh to a deck in the Meta. It doesn't destroy a creature but does destroy an Artifact just the same.
It has been awhile since any updates and Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon brought us new toys. I switched some cards into Zombies because of that whole motif, and added a big Ol' Eldrazi Titan to give the deck a legitimate threat.
It has been almost 2 years since any official updates and in the meantime Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan brought us new toys. I am constantly revising the meta lately so Sedris got caught up in the mass updates. I like this deck probably the most because it is very straight forward and strong, and people who play it enjoy it most of all for the same reasons.
Hello comrade. I think that you have a great idea going on here, and I want to build on it using specifically Sedris as the general. Nekusar broadcasts his game plan too obviously, I think, so Sedris is my undead baron of choice.
Here is what I see as being the core of a Waste Not combo deck in Grixis colors:
So I would pick Waste Not and 6 of the core pieces of the Waste Not Combo, with perhaps 6 more additional pieces to complement the Waste Not strategy. I would choose most definitely the creatures because Sedris allows us to Reanimate them and use them should they get pitched to the wheel effects.
My choices would be:
Great. So we have 13 cards, with 6 of these choices being creatures. Excellent Sedris synergy and the creatures are good with Nekusar as well, so it’s looking good so far. Further, these pieces also add depth to our card advantage suite, which means we can devote less actual space to true card advantage pieces.
Now, we need to find Waste Not, Reanimator effects, and Wheel effects to really make our Waste Not Sedris shell work. Enter tutors. The more creaturetutors there are, the better, but any relevant Grixis tutor that interacts with Sedris is acceptable.
I like these pieces because they all work great with Sedris while still allowing us to get Waste Not. The high value tutors are Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor because they help us find Waste Not ASAP. The other tutors are highly synergistic with Sedris, so this is working up to be a streamlined list. This puts us at 20 cards for our deck, which is pretty good.
Ramp! Grixis needs some ramp to compete with faster tables and otherwise keep up with those pesky Green mages and their land/dork based ramp. Further, when Waste Not is spewing mana to us, we need to be able to convert it into colors other than B to keep our Wheel chains going and so we can maximize the amount of creatures we can Reanimate with Sedris’ ability post wheel. Here’s the ramp package I like:
This ramp package can also allow us to play a few lands less than 36. I play with 34 and it’s worked out ok for me so far in my games and goldfishes. This ramp package puts us at 31 cards.
The last few cards that I think are absolutely necessary for a Waste Not Sedris shell are additional reamination spells to supplement Sedris so we aren’t totally reliant on him. Here are the cards I like that are both flavorful and effective:
That’s 6 additional cards that are great Reanimators that complement Sedris and also take advantage of our Wheels. This brings us to 37 cards.
And I think, honestly, that the rest of the deck is completely tailor-able from here out. This leaves about 28 cards to play with. Here are the cards that I think strengthen Sedris’ Reanimator plan and work well with the Waste Not shell I’ve outlined. Keep in mind, I think these cards are good but not necessarily the most competitive because I want Sedris to be “casual” (ie: no counterspells to protect my combos). Here’s some cards that I think are fun, competitive, and flavorful:
Further, because we are wheeling so much, it’s reasonable to have a Lab Mac win package. By adding in the cards below, you can easily win with Mind Over Matter.
Further, there are additional infinite combos with Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts as well as Necrotic Ooze + Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker in the ‘yard (Tap the Ooze to target itself with Kiki-Jiki’s ability, sac the token you just made to Grimgrin’s ability = infinite P/T Necrotic Ooze). I think that this completes the shell that I’m thinking as well as the cards that I think I will be adding to my current Sedris iteration.
That is a lot to take in. We've got a surprising amount of overlap, my deck being more tuned for my personal meta. Needless to say, I really enjoy your build of the deck. I might even consider running your version instead of tending my own list. Sort of like how I copied Hunding Gjornersen's Zedruu Voltron because of how much I enjoy it and how much effort he puts into it.
I like Grimoire of the Dead simply because I have a foily one and it's too full of flavor for me to resist. In my list, with Mind Over Matter, Tezzeret the Seeker, Minamo, School at Water's Edge I can get some additional activations at a lower CMC than tapping out for Rise. Tezzeret can lso find it and Whip of Erebos in case I need either of them. Currently, they're fighting for that slot, because I would like Teferi's Veil as my SEdris gimmick. Further, I like Consuming Aberration lot, and in the games where I'm more relaxed and not aggressively going for Waste Not chains, casting spells to build 'yards and then opening the Necronomicon to bring them all back to life is so Lovecraftian to me that I secretly smile inside.
Dark Deal is great. It's a mono-black Windfall effect, so in the case that there aren't any mana rocks to transform Waste Not mana into colored mana, I can use the Waste Not mana on Dark Deal to keep going. My current build is also heavily black based, so any opportuinity to purify my mana base is welcome. I think in total, I have like 15 U and 12 R in all of my cards, the rest of it being black. Because of this heavy black emphasis, I run Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx alongside Coffers because it usually taps for lots of mana. Crypt of Agadeem is a tasty inclusion too that I will probably add.
Possessed Skaab plays the same role as Izzet Chronarch except it can pick up a creature in case I want it to. The exile clause hasn't been especially important to me, because whatever I pick up is probably going to win me the game. Sometimes I need to, like when I've Snuck something in that's scary big like It That Betrays or, my personal favorite, Lord of the Void. The Lord is so much fun for me, by the way. My playgroup decided to unban Primeval Titan while I was getting married, and so now it's in every green deck. Bribery got better and so did Lord of the Void.
You would flatter me too much if you borrowed my list. Mimicry is the highest form of flattery, right? Thank you if you do.
How has Mutilate been for you? I'm less inclined to use Swamp matters cards, except Coffers, outside of mono-Black. I know Urborg turns it on, but wouldn't Damnation or Toxic Deluge be better? They are unconditional which is great. Plus, the Deluge gets around the infamous hate advisor Gaddock Teeg.
I like Grimoire of the Dead simply because I have a foily one and it's too full of flavor for me to resist. In my list, with Mind Over Matter, Tezzeret the Seeker, Minamo, School at Water's Edge I can get some additional activations at a lower CMC than tapping out for Rise. Tezzeret can lso find it and Whip of Erebos in case I need either of them. Currently, they're fighting for that slot, because I would like Teferi's Veil as my SEdris gimmick. Further, I like Consuming Aberration lot, and in the games where I'm more relaxed and not aggressively going for Waste Not chains, casting spells to build 'yards and then opening the Necronomicon to bring them all back to life is so Lovecraftian to me that I secretly smile inside.
I don't run any of those cards, I could see how Grimoire of the Dead has more synergy. Consuming Aberration is great, it's sort of why I included Disciple of Bolas (which is going to be cut shortly) because the idea of gaining a billion life and drawing a ton of cards was far too appealing, but it is not practical at all.
Dark Deal is great. It's a mono-black Windfall effect, so in the case that there aren't any mana rocks to transform Waste Not mana into colored mana, I can use the Waste Not mana on Dark Deal to keep going. My current build is also heavily black based, so any opportuinity to purify my mana base is welcome. I think in total, I have like 15 U and 12 R in all of my cards, the rest of it being black. Because of this heavy black emphasis, I run Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx alongside Coffers because it usually taps for lots of mana. Crypt of Agadeem is a tasty inclusion too that I will probably add.
Possessed Skaab plays the same role as Izzet Chronarch except it can pick up a creature in case I want it to. The exile clause hasn't been especially important to me, because whatever I pick up is probably going to win me the game. Sometimes I need to, like when I've Snuck something in that's scary big like It That Betrays or, my personal favorite, Lord of the Void. The Lord is so much fun for me, by the way. My playgroup decided to unban Primeval Titan while I was getting married, and so now it's in every green deck. Bribery got better and so did Lord of the Void.
I can see this. I will update my list to include it in its place. The whole reasoning behind including Izzet Chronarch instead of Archaeomancer was I wanted my list to push its pilot to use renanimation or Sedris, the Traitor King. Whenever it makes sense, I try to include the more expensive version of the same effect, but not have it cost too much. Running Magus of the Jar in place of Memory Jar for instance: it's not that I think Magus is better, but it is a creature (which Sedris cares about) and costs more which means I'm pushing whoever is running the deck into playing more reanimator style. It's the reason I've run Liliana Vess and Rune-Scarred Demon as my tutors, because Sedris cares about reanimation. I don't want anything to cost TOO much, because Graveyard hate is very common (I've scaled it back in the meta) but it also needs to be able to cast the creatures too.
How has Mutilate been for you? I'm less inclined to use Swamp matters cards, except Coffers, outside of mono-Black. I know Urborg turns it on, but wouldn't Damnation or Toxic Deluge be better? They are unconditional which is great. Plus, the Deluge gets around the infamous hate advisor Gaddock Teeg.
I ran Damnation for a long time, it is probably on par. Toxic Deluge is better. The reason for Mutilate is that I didn't want the reanimator deck to not care about playing creatures. In order to make it interact more I included Mutilate because it promoted more casting creatures to be on defense, or attacking wisely, not clearing the board of potential enemies then casting things. No other deck in the meta has the potential for a gigantic Consuming Aberration or something like that, and these big giant reanimator targets can be played around Mutilate whereas Damnation is just a Day of Judgment that is a generic boardsweeper. It gives the deck a bit more identity to not just have all of the best cards available to it at all times. It isn't a good reason, but a reason. I've felt that in my time spent balancing the meta and thinking about how it all fits together Sedris and Prossh need the most amount of restraint. It is easy for me to good off the rails (I've done it before) and make a deck that can do whatever it wants whenever it wants. Just like other formats would be boring if there was only 1 deck and it was obviously better than anything (i.e Caw Blade in Standard) having 5 top-tier decks (i.e Modern) interests me more. I would make this all more clear in my deck tech, but I have not written any literature on this deck for the time being. It is coming though.
For the last bit: Teferi's Veil is superior in nearly every single way. I was considering cutting the effect entirely, I just feel like Teferi's Veil makes WAY more things extremely better, whereas Sundial of the Infinite is just narrow and cute. If I cut Sundial, I am unlikely to add Veil because of how good it is.
I like your reasoning behind Mutilate actually. That sounds fair and reasonable and makes your closed meta more balanced. Although the lack of BUG is sad... I recommend Tasigur!
I think that making the swap for Dark Deal for Cephalid Broker is a good choice. I would make the swap as it rounds out your windfall effects and is a way to continue some Waste Not chains that might not otherwise be available if you don't have the mana rocks for it.
A card I would also recommend, to substitute a Snapcaster Mage or Yawgmoth's Will kind of effect in your list, is Dralnu, Lich Lord. He's a creature, he's a zombie wizard (the two best tribes besides Slivers), he's legendary so he can be an advisor to either Sedris or Nekusar (for flavor reasons, if that's important to you), and more importantly he's a creature (for Sedris) that allows you to reuse the powerful instants and sorceries in your deck that have been discarded to Wheel effects or otherwise cast for reals. His drawback is steep and he does have summoning sickness, which makes it a balanced inclusion in your meta. I think he easily replaces the Hypersonic Dragon because he has a better ability that's not extensively overpowered, cleans up the amount of R symbols in your list, and has better synergy with your list overall.
A card to keep an eye out for that I think will be an automatic inclusion is the Magus of the Wheel that's being printed in the new commander series. And of those, I think the BG one is by far the best.
Sweet alters, comrade. I think it's cool to think that Sedris or Nekusar have sweet villain advisors who are plotting to bring your opponents down to the grave--where they will then become minions of yours! Bahaha!
What are your thoughts on Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? I think that the triple red could make it a little more difficult to cast, therefore ensuring that it's not a card that always breaks the game, and if you switch it in for Zealous Conscripts you keep the infinite combos in your deck to 1. I think that Kiki-Jiki really makes Sedris' ability get a lot of value and I think is an extremely powerful complement to a Reanimator strategy. Think about it, and if you think it makes your closed meta a little too heavy on Sedris then forego this suggestion.
Sweet alters, comrade. I think it's cool to think that Sedris or Nekusar have sweet villain advisors who are plotting to bring your opponents down to the grave--where they will then become minions of yours! Bahaha!
What are your thoughts on Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? I think that the triple red could make it a little more difficult to cast, therefore ensuring that it's not a card that always breaks the game, and if you switch it in for Zealous Conscripts you keep the infinite combos in your deck to 1. I think that Kiki-Jiki really makes Sedris' ability get a lot of value and I think is an extremely powerful complement to a Reanimator strategy. Think about it, and if you think it makes your closed meta a little too heavy on Sedris then forego this suggestion.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker does fulfill the criteria for the type of creatures I'm looking for, but I'm afraid it is just going to combo far too well, including other cards in other decks. Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead infinite combo can be pretty disastrous also, especially with Gary in the mix. I'll never say never, and really the more and more other decks get built up the more Sedris will need to do going forward. All but one deck has a dedicated graveyard hate (Rest in Peace) so they all accommodate for each other in some ways, Zealous Conscripts is for stealing Planeswalker ultimates, or doing something silly like grabbing a giant Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter. I'll lead an exploratory expedition into including Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker OR if the deck even needs it, it sort of is already using Feldon of the Third Path as the "make a token" kinda thingy.
Sorry for the late reply. Life gets busy sometimes.
I would look at Feldon of the Third Path as a repeatable reanimation spell, actually. He allows you to tap and recreate a copy of the creature that you want to reanimate, and since our creature suite are all very aggressive/impactful ETB creatures, having Feldon in play is basically like playing 2R: have a hasty version of a creature that you want to Reanimate but don't want to expose to removal. He's a lot of fun and can turn on your early game Reanimation plan pretty well.
Any cool games that you've had the chance to play?
As I've changed the list, I used to run Mikaeus, the Unhallowed seems to be less good in my build. He has wrath protection for my dudes and that seems to be about it. Trike doesn't Unearth well, so Mikaeus loses a lot of the combo potential in my build which is his main appeal to me.
After a lengthy delay in pre-order shipping I actually finally got my Commander 2015 cards. So I haven't the chance to play with the new technology yet. I've got a playgroup session planned for Thanksgiving Day weekend. I love the new editions but might want to throttle back some of the mono-black offerings, make it more Reanimator oriented. But first we've gotta see it play out. I think Dark Deal may come out as quickly as it went in because of Magus of the Wheel. I don't want to overload on those Windfall effects. Any suggestions would be great. I'm thinking a creature, and I kinda want it to be gigantic and troublesome.
Sorry for the late response. I guess no one else likes Nekusar/Sedris Reanimator-Wheel strategies as much as we do.
A big fat creature that would be really fun to play with: Wrexial, the Risen Deep. Unleash the Kraken! I think I'm going to out it and Lorthos into my deck, since Sedris has clearly become my least competitive deck between Tasigur and Memnarch, and my Lorthos desperately wants to be played. Lorthos, the Tidemaker tapping down all the things! I still recommend Lord of the Void in case you haven't tried him either.
How did you're Turkey day games go? Any additional insights on what works and what doesn't? I think I will be patterning my list off of what you have now. It seems like more fun, honestly.
How did you're Turkey day games go? Any additional insights on what works and what doesn't? I think I will be patterning my list off of what you have now. It seems like more fun, honestly.
Very well. No major complaints about Sedris whatsoever. The new stuff was a hit and I'm looking forward to Oath of the Gatewatch for some punishing new Eldrazi (got my eyes on the new Kozilek). Lord of the Void loops super sweet btw, gonna get a copy to test.
My version of the deck hasn't been piloted by me personally in awhile, but is a very big favorite of people in my playgroup. There are lots of ways to play it and I think Reanimator lends itself to being a favorite in the Format.
Here is what I see as being the core of a Waste Not combo deck in Grixis colors:
1 Windfall
1 Whispering Madness
1 Jace’s Archivist
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Dark Deal
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Wheel and Deal
1 Dragon Mage
1 Alhammerret’s Archive
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Thought Reflection
1 Notion Thief
1 Reforge the Soul (CMC-wise I think it gets slid out of the core Waste Not package)
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
1 Molten Psyche
1 Fate Unraveler
1 Megrim
1 Phyrexian Tyranny
1 Kederekt Parasite
My choices would be:
1 Windfall
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Dark Deal
1 Whispering Madness
1 Jace’s Archivist
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Alhammerret’s Archive
1 Notion Thief
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Memory Jar
1 Dragon Mage
1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Now, we need to find Waste Not, Reanimator effects, and Wheel effects to really make our Waste Not Sedris shell work. Enter tutors. The more creaturetutors there are, the better, but any relevant Grixis tutor that interacts with Sedris is acceptable.
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Entomb
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Buried Alive
1 Intuition
Ramp! Grixis needs some ramp to compete with faster tables and otherwise keep up with those pesky Green mages and their land/dork based ramp. Further, when Waste Not is spewing mana to us, we need to be able to convert it into colors other than B to keep our Wheel chains going and so we can maximize the amount of creatures we can Reanimate with Sedris’ ability post wheel. Here’s the ramp package I like:
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Dimir Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Coalition Relic
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Gilded Lotus
The last few cards that I think are absolutely necessary for a Waste Not Sedris shell are additional reamination spells to supplement Sedris so we aren’t totally reliant on him. Here are the cards I like that are both flavorful and effective:
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Victimize
1 Living Death
1 Phyrexian Delver
And I think, honestly, that the rest of the deck is completely tailor-able from here out. This leaves about 28 cards to play with. Here are the cards that I think strengthen Sedris’ Reanimator plan and work well with the Waste Not shell I’ve outlined. Keep in mind, I think these cards are good but not necessarily the most competitive because I want Sedris to be “casual” (ie: no counterspells to protect my combos). Here’s some cards that I think are fun, competitive, and flavorful:
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Grimoire of the Dead
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Thraximundar
1 It That Betrays
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
1 Sneak Attack
1 Lord of the Void
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Duplicant
1 Damnation
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 Dire Undercurrents
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Exhume
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Possessed Skaab
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Anger
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Temple Bell
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I'd be interesting in knowing how Dark Deal, Alhammarret's Archive and Possessed Skaab work out. They've been on my radar for a bit and I've been so busy to really put them into the deck. Why Grimoire of the Dead over Rise of the Dark Realms? Cabal Coffers and Crypt of Agadeem I consider mana acceleration when I put the list together.
Dark Deal is great. It's a mono-black Windfall effect, so in the case that there aren't any mana rocks to transform Waste Not mana into colored mana, I can use the Waste Not mana on Dark Deal to keep going. My current build is also heavily black based, so any opportuinity to purify my mana base is welcome. I think in total, I have like 15 U and 12 R in all of my cards, the rest of it being black. Because of this heavy black emphasis, I run Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx alongside Coffers because it usually taps for lots of mana. Crypt of Agadeem is a tasty inclusion too that I will probably add.
Possessed Skaab plays the same role as Izzet Chronarch except it can pick up a creature in case I want it to. The exile clause hasn't been especially important to me, because whatever I pick up is probably going to win me the game. Sometimes I need to, like when I've Snuck something in that's scary big like It That Betrays or, my personal favorite, Lord of the Void. The Lord is so much fun for me, by the way. My playgroup decided to unban Primeval Titan while I was getting married, and so now it's in every green deck. Bribery got better and so did Lord of the Void.
You would flatter me too much if you borrowed my list. Mimicry is the highest form of flattery, right? Thank you if you do.
How has Mutilate been for you? I'm less inclined to use Swamp matters cards, except Coffers, outside of mono-Black. I know Urborg turns it on, but wouldn't Damnation or Toxic Deluge be better? They are unconditional which is great. Plus, the Deluge gets around the infamous hate advisor Gaddock Teeg.
Between Sundial of the Infinite and Teferi's Veil which do you prefer? I like that the Veil requires no mana to take advantage of.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I don't run any of those cards, I could see how Grimoire of the Dead has more synergy. Consuming Aberration is great, it's sort of why I included Disciple of Bolas (which is going to be cut shortly) because the idea of gaining a billion life and drawing a ton of cards was far too appealing, but it is not practical at all.
I've noticed the same in my build also, leaning heavily toward mono-B. You've got the whole Minamo, School at Water's Edge untap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx thing going on. My Roon deck does the Minamo, School at Water's Edge untap Gaea's Cradle thing already, so I haven't included it in my build. I like Dark Deal and don't know what I would cut for it, maybe Cephalid Broker
I can see this. I will update my list to include it in its place. The whole reasoning behind including Izzet Chronarch instead of Archaeomancer was I wanted my list to push its pilot to use renanimation or Sedris, the Traitor King. Whenever it makes sense, I try to include the more expensive version of the same effect, but not have it cost too much. Running Magus of the Jar in place of Memory Jar for instance: it's not that I think Magus is better, but it is a creature (which Sedris cares about) and costs more which means I'm pushing whoever is running the deck into playing more reanimator style. It's the reason I've run Liliana Vess and Rune-Scarred Demon as my tutors, because Sedris cares about reanimation. I don't want anything to cost TOO much, because Graveyard hate is very common (I've scaled it back in the meta) but it also needs to be able to cast the creatures too.
I ran Damnation for a long time, it is probably on par. Toxic Deluge is better. The reason for Mutilate is that I didn't want the reanimator deck to not care about playing creatures. In order to make it interact more I included Mutilate because it promoted more casting creatures to be on defense, or attacking wisely, not clearing the board of potential enemies then casting things. No other deck in the meta has the potential for a gigantic Consuming Aberration or something like that, and these big giant reanimator targets can be played around Mutilate whereas Damnation is just a Day of Judgment that is a generic boardsweeper. It gives the deck a bit more identity to not just have all of the best cards available to it at all times. It isn't a good reason, but a reason. I've felt that in my time spent balancing the meta and thinking about how it all fits together Sedris and Prossh need the most amount of restraint. It is easy for me to good off the rails (I've done it before) and make a deck that can do whatever it wants whenever it wants. Just like other formats would be boring if there was only 1 deck and it was obviously better than anything (i.e Caw Blade in Standard) having 5 top-tier decks (i.e Modern) interests me more. I would make this all more clear in my deck tech, but I have not written any literature on this deck for the time being. It is coming though.
For the last bit: Teferi's Veil is superior in nearly every single way. I was considering cutting the effect entirely, I just feel like Teferi's Veil makes WAY more things extremely better, whereas Sundial of the Infinite is just narrow and cute. If I cut Sundial, I am unlikely to add Veil because of how good it is.
I think that making the swap for Dark Deal for Cephalid Broker is a good choice. I would make the swap as it rounds out your windfall effects and is a way to continue some Waste Not chains that might not otherwise be available if you don't have the mana rocks for it.
A card I would also recommend, to substitute a Snapcaster Mage or Yawgmoth's Will kind of effect in your list, is Dralnu, Lich Lord. He's a creature, he's a zombie wizard (the two best tribes besides Slivers), he's legendary so he can be an advisor to either Sedris or Nekusar (for flavor reasons, if that's important to you), and more importantly he's a creature (for Sedris) that allows you to reuse the powerful instants and sorceries in your deck that have been discarded to Wheel effects or otherwise cast for reals. His drawback is steep and he does have summoning sickness, which makes it a balanced inclusion in your meta. I think he easily replaces the Hypersonic Dragon because he has a better ability that's not extensively overpowered, cleans up the amount of R symbols in your list, and has better synergy with your list overall.
A card to keep an eye out for that I think will be an automatic inclusion is the Magus of the Wheel that's being printed in the new commander series. And of those, I think the BG one is by far the best.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
What are your thoughts on Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? I think that the triple red could make it a little more difficult to cast, therefore ensuring that it's not a card that always breaks the game, and if you switch it in for Zealous Conscripts you keep the infinite combos in your deck to 1. I think that Kiki-Jiki really makes Sedris' ability get a lot of value and I think is an extremely powerful complement to a Reanimator strategy. Think about it, and if you think it makes your closed meta a little too heavy on Sedris then forego this suggestion.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker does fulfill the criteria for the type of creatures I'm looking for, but I'm afraid it is just going to combo far too well, including other cards in other decks. Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead infinite combo can be pretty disastrous also, especially with Gary in the mix. I'll never say never, and really the more and more other decks get built up the more Sedris will need to do going forward. All but one deck has a dedicated graveyard hate (Rest in Peace) so they all accommodate for each other in some ways, Zealous Conscripts is for stealing Planeswalker ultimates, or doing something silly like grabbing a giant Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter. I'll lead an exploratory expedition into including Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker OR if the deck even needs it, it sort of is already using Feldon of the Third Path as the "make a token" kinda thingy.
I would look at Feldon of the Third Path as a repeatable reanimation spell, actually. He allows you to tap and recreate a copy of the creature that you want to reanimate, and since our creature suite are all very aggressive/impactful ETB creatures, having Feldon in play is basically like playing 2R: have a hasty version of a creature that you want to Reanimate but don't want to expose to removal. He's a lot of fun and can turn on your early game Reanimation plan pretty well.
Any cool games that you've had the chance to play?
As I've changed the list, I used to run Mikaeus, the Unhallowed seems to be less good in my build. He has wrath protection for my dudes and that seems to be about it. Trike doesn't Unearth well, so Mikaeus loses a lot of the combo potential in my build which is his main appeal to me.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
A big fat creature that would be really fun to play with: Wrexial, the Risen Deep. Unleash the Kraken! I think I'm going to out it and Lorthos into my deck, since Sedris has clearly become my least competitive deck between Tasigur and Memnarch, and my Lorthos desperately wants to be played. Lorthos, the Tidemaker tapping down all the things! I still recommend Lord of the Void in case you haven't tried him either.
How did you're Turkey day games go? Any additional insights on what works and what doesn't? I think I will be patterning my list off of what you have now. It seems like more fun, honestly.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Very well. No major complaints about Sedris whatsoever. The new stuff was a hit and I'm looking forward to Oath of the Gatewatch for some punishing new Eldrazi (got my eyes on the new Kozilek). Lord of the Void loops super sweet btw, gonna get a copy to test.
My version of the deck hasn't been piloted by me personally in awhile, but is a very big favorite of people in my playgroup. There are lots of ways to play it and I think Reanimator lends itself to being a favorite in the Format.