MTG Salvation

Hey folks!

Currently in the process of redoing a few of my decks, but also wanting to create a new one with a lot of spare cards I have. However, I have not had any luck finding a commander I truly like to build around. Here are the decks that I have so far:

Aminatou, the Fateshifter - Reanimator
Teysa, Orzhov Scion - Token Aristocrats
Marchesa, the Black Rose - Value Aggro
Niv-Mizzet, Parun - Storm
Breya, Etherium Shaper - Artifact Value

As you can see here, I'm a huge fan of graveyard centric decks or at least uses the GY in some way, shape or form. I have some of the following cards that I would love to use in a deck, but I am not a fan of the obvious choices for them:

Doubling Season
The Scarab God
Ancient Excavation
Nissa, Vital Force
Muldrotha, the Gravetide

And this is just to name a few.

One idea I had was to put them in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant to make a ton of tokens with Mesmeric Orb and the like. However, I don't want to put in a ton of zombie support for a tribe that I'm not a huge fan of (that and I barely have any). Even thought of using Muldrotha, the Gravetide for a toolbox deck, but while powerful, a deck around her is very commander heavy and she tends to get hated. Right now, I have a Reyhan, Last of the Abzan/Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker deck with a graveyard side theme in testing, but not 100% sold on it yet.

So, I come to all of you happy people with a question: What commander would you suggest for the listed cards that is something different from the other decks I currently have? Any advice on the matter would be appreciated!

Build a Gjave, Guru Of spores and jam evety possible degenerate interaction ypu can in.

Quote from TheAmericanSpirit »

Build a Gjave, Guru Of spores and jam evety possible degenerate interaction ypu can in.

I has thought of that, but I don’t want to go full on combo. Grace, as much as I love him, leads into too many accidental combos lol

I honestly can't think of a deck, other than Muldrotha, that all five of those cards would be good in. I can give some suggestions based on some things I've been wanting to build.

Gyrus, Waker of Corpses - Graveyard-based and makes tokens. Doubling Season is really good. Nissa, Vital Force could be ok, though not my favorite Nissa to begin with so bias.

Lazav, the Multifarious - Loves the Ancient Excavation and The Scarab God. He's still grave based and you don't need to use combo for it to be good.

One card I've always wanted to build around is Licia, Sanguine Tribune. Unfortunately, I already have a life-gain deck with Trostani, but this looks like a fun new angle on the life-gain style.

Quote from TheAmericanSpirit »

Build a Gjave, Guru Of spores and jam evety possible degenerate interaction ypu can in.

Ghave doesn't usually do graveyard stuff that much beyond being in the best colors for recursion (except for persist/undying interactions). And only really has synergy with one card on the list.

The thing with Muldrotha, the Gravetide is that sure he get's hated upon, but at the same time it's incredible hard for your opponents to grind you out.

The reason is that when you play Muldrotha, you get to play a land without ever passing priority, and then you can play out some other additional mana, like artifact mana (Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond, etc), or a creature (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, etc), or even enchantment land (Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth). This is ever before your opponent's can remove him, as you get to cast at least one spell.

This way invariably you'll always be able to recast him the next turn being able to afford the commander tax he accumulates, as you can usually get an additional 2 through graveyard shenanigans each time you can him.

If you make the right build to prepare for a lot of hate like this, you can just get to the stage where they run out of removal. Plus the deck is doing stuff without him, like the cards are solid ramp and potential draw, removal, etc.

Really it comes down to spending some money to make sure you get a good build. As darkeshrine says all the cards you mentioned are good with Muldrotha, as you can even put in a few planeswalkers (permanent type) so the Doubling Season becomes better.

Personally a big fan of The Scarab God. I've been playing casually since before the first precons and have tried dozens of different decks. So far it's been my favourite. Is it the strongest deck out there? No, but damn is it fun and it fits my playstyle like a glove. I too love GY decks and it's nice having a good excuse to use a bunch of sweet zombie generators like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Overseer of the Damned and Grave Titan. I don't go full tribal, I just use a more classic reanimator build but these can do a lot of work with the God's first ability.

Quote from darkeshrine »

I honestly can't think of a deck, other than Muldrotha, that all five of those cards would be good in. I can give some suggestions based on some things I've been wanting to build.

Gyrus, Waker of Corpses - Graveyard-based and makes tokens. Doubling Season is really good. Nissa, Vital Force could be ok, though not my favorite Nissa to begin with so bias.

Lazav, the Multifarious - Loves the Ancient Excavation and The Scarab God. He's still grave based and you don't need to use combo for it to be good.

Quote from darrenhabib »

The thing with Muldrotha, the Gravetide is that sure he get's hated upon, but at the same time it's incredible hard for your opponents to grind you out.

The reason is that when you play Muldrotha, you get to play a land without ever passing priority, and then you can play out some other additional mana, like artifact mana (Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond, etc), or a creature (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, etc), or even enchantment land (Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth). This is ever before your opponent's can remove him, as you get to cast at least one spell.

This way invariably you'll always be able to recast him the next turn being able to afford the commander tax he accumulates, as you can usually get an additional 2 through graveyard shenanigans each time you can him.

If you make the right build to prepare for a lot of hate like this, you can just get to the stage where they run out of removal. Plus the deck is doing stuff without him, like the cards are solid ramp and potential draw, removal, etc.

Really it comes down to spending some money to make sure you get a good build. As darkeshrine says all the cards you mentioned are good with Muldrotha, as you can even put in a few planeswalkers (permanent type) so the Doubling Season becomes better.

Thank you @darrenhabib for looking out on multiple decks I'm working on! You guys make a very very good point and I never really thought about that. I had gone off of my assumption of playing a budget Muldrotha for a while, but with some tunning, I could see it getting past that hate weakness (kinda like how Nissa, Vastwood Seer is). This definitely puts Muldrotha back in the running, though I had also thought of doing Ramos, Dragon Engine as a possibility to get Bring to Light (aka the best card in magic) into a deck and could fit all of these cards as well. Just a random thought.

Thank you all for the help thus far!

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire, VV2, is a surprisingly fun commander mixing graveyard/reanimate and miracle together.

Shattergang Brothers is a great reanimation, token style deck that can grind or combo depending on how you build it.

Right now, I am trying out Shattergang bros reanimation with necrotic ooze and protean hulk.

Grave play and GUB...
...
The Mimeoplasm?

Quote from Gashnaw »

Grave play and GUB...
...
The Mimeoplasm?

I had thought about a long time ago for doing The Mimeoplasm as the build your own commander commander lol However, I never know how exactly to build the guy. Wasn’t sure how well he works if Mimeo gets hated on.

Kess, Dissident Mage can play either storm or tapout control; I recommend the latter. She does draw a fair amount of hate but her power level is extremely high.

Quote from GrimoireDark »

Quote from Gashnaw »

Grave play and GUB...
...
The Mimeoplasm?

I had thought about a long time ago for doing The Mimeoplasm as the build your own commander commander lol However, I never know how exactly to build the guy. Wasn’t sure how well he works if Mimeo gets hated on.

depends how dirthy you build him. Blighted agent with death's shadow is dirty. If you are going for the kill. Blighted agent is a good bet but he ia rude.

On the other hand. You could build a kinder version of mimeoplasm.

As for me. He was one of my favorite decks. I might he rebuild hom some day. But i still have other decks tbat take presidence right now. Like yuriko and ghave. Both using a binch of catds i would use... plus i would have to buy death's shadow again. And get impervious wurm.

Quote from GrimoireDark »

Quote from darrenhabib »

The thing with Muldrotha, the Gravetide is that sure he get's hated upon, but at the same time it's incredible hard for your opponents to grind you out.

Thank you @darrenhabib for looking out on multiple decks I'm working on! You guys make a very very good point and I never really thought about that. I had gone off of my assumption of playing a budget Muldrotha for a while, but with some tunning, I could see it getting past that hate weakness (kinda like how Nissa, Vastwood Seer is). This definitely puts Muldrotha back in the running, though I had also thought of doing Ramos, Dragon Engine as a possibility to get Bring to Light (aka the best card in magic) into a deck and could fit all of these cards as well. Just a random thought.

Thank you all for the help thus far!

What Darrenhabib has said is very accurate, but I'd like to chip in to say that Muldrotha is not fun to play against. Unless you are able to remove the graveyard reliably, you're playing against the same dozen cards that just keep returning. But, that could be your jam. I personally don't like playing GY decks.

Quote from Monkey222 »

Quote from GrimoireDark »

Quote from darrenhabib »

The thing with Muldrotha, the Gravetide is that sure he get's hated upon, but at the same time it's incredible hard for your opponents to grind you out.

Thank you @darrenhabib for looking out on multiple decks I'm working on! You guys make a very very good point and I never really thought about that. I had gone off of my assumption of playing a budget Muldrotha for a while, but with some tunning, I could see it getting past that hate weakness (kinda like how Nissa, Vastwood Seer is). This definitely puts Muldrotha back in the running, though I had also thought of doing Ramos, Dragon Engine as a possibility to get Bring to Light (aka the best card in magic) into a deck and could fit all of these cards as well. Just a random thought.

Thank you all for the help thus far!

What Darrenhabib has said is very accurate, but I'd like to chip in to say that Muldrotha is not fun to play against. Unless you are able to remove the graveyard reliably, you're playing against the same dozen cards that just keep returning. But, that could be your jam. I personally don't like playing GY decks.

Blame RTR standard’s Junk Rites Deck for my love of graveyard decks lol And that is another thing I wasn’t a fan of either. Doing the same thing over and over again could be stale.

I am actually thinking of doing something off the wall and playing Horde of Notions for a Elemental Tribal Deck. Haven’t made one but I am curious to give it a whirl!