The death priest Mazirek occupies a high position in the rigid caste system of the insectile kraul of Ravnica. He leads the buzzing chants of the kraul rites, invoking the essence of decay to keep the great wheel of life and death turning.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is one of the most versatile commanders out there. It provides support for many strategies either on their own or simultaneously. You can build it catering to voltron, tokens, +1/+1 counters, stax, stompy, any combination of these, or all of the above! This provides for so many possible combinations (31, to be exact!) that it would be overwhelming to discuss them all. However, even though there is no best way to play Mazirek, I will guide every type of strategy along with why I’ve gone with the builds I’ve stuck to. This is a very customizable general, to say the least.
Mazirek is not necessarily a graveyard general but due to it having synergy with so many different strategies, there are other BG generals out there that make it easier to pilot – especially those that deal with tokens, sacrificing, and stax.
”What gives? Am I not queen of the Golgari?”
The Gitrog Monster is a very broken commander with a non-linear strategy that can win out of nowhere. It has a lot of drawing/discarding/sacrificing interactions that can sometimes be very hard to keep track of. This is a very cutthroat and competitive commander which has basically breathed new life into Hermit Druid Combo to the point where this frog is nicknamed Kermit Druid. I include it as one of the 99 (more on that later) because it’s Exploration on a body, a sacrifice enabler during upkeep, and card advantage all rolled into one. Mazirek’s main goal isn’t to combo out - you can play a version without combos and win by smashing face. The Gitrog Monster doesn’t smash face or pump up your creatures to epic proportions and it’s main way of comboing off is by dredging and manipulating draw and discard. Mazirek deals more with taking advantage of sacrifice rather than drawing.
Glissa, the Traitor is a general that loves the Eggs strategy. Before Mazirek, I would say that she was the queen of Eggs. That’s because she has a built-in recursion ability for recovering artifacts from the graveyard. It’s one of the reasons she’s in the 99 of the Artifact Build (more on that later). With Glissa, you can sacrifice artifacts for profit and when opponents’ creatures are killed, you can recur that profit. However, besides reaping the rewards from using and reusing your artifacts, that’s all Glissa enables. With Mazirek, you can reap the rewards of cracking eggs and get the added bonus of pumping up all your creatures when you do. So a card like Chromatic Star no longer just provides mana and a card, but it also gives each of your creatures a +1/+1 counter. So Mazirek gives more dimensions to the Eggs strategy.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is another BG legend with a similar strategy to Mazirek in that it facilitates sacrifice and takes advantage of it. Jarad cares about how many creatures are in the graveyard because that number pumps him. He can also recur himself from the graveyard with a sacrificing cost. Additionally, he can sacrifice creatures to kill off all of your opponents. There’s a reason he was included in the BG precon. I’ve added and removed him so many times from my deck it’s hard to keep track. Currently, he’s excluded from the 99 (more on that later) but he can definitely find a home in your deck. That being said, he is included in the Budget Build as an alternate wincon. So, why play Mazirek over Jarad? Because Jarad needs large creatures in order to effectively kill the table - which is what Mazirek does anyways. Mazirek pumps a large army and then goes into the red zone with said army.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth is another BG commander that cares about creatures dying. Whenever one of your creatures die you get an experience counter and then with those, are able to reanimate one of your creatures. This is one of the reasons she’s in the 99. Meren is a very feared general because experience counters aren’t easy to get rid of. With a deck dedicated to sacrificing, stax, and reanimation, things can get out of hand. However, I prefer Mazirek over Meren because I like pumping up a huge horde or taking direct advantage of things getting sacrificed. Mazirek triggers due to anything getting sacrificed whereas Meren gets triggered when one of your creatures dies. So it may not appear as much, but they’re definitely different decks. In the end, Mazirek provides more overall perks on its own when compared to Meren.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari cares about when your creatures get sacrificed. You can either gain life or pay life to make other players sacrifice a creature. Like Mazirek, it requires sac outlets to make the most of her abilities. She used to be in the 99 because she triggers when my colored creatures die. However, I cut her for being underwhelming. Sure, I have the possibility of consistently making my opponents sacrifice a creature, in the end I found that too many hoops needed to be jumped through to take advantage of it. If you play cards like Fleshbag Marauder and pay 2 life, you can effectively make everyone else sacrifice two creatures for your trouble. It’s not a bad card but with so many awesome and broken cards that synergize with Mazirek, she was cut for being on the lower end of the broken spectrum. As a commander, she can definitely be played around as a brutal stax commander but Mazirek is not just a stax commander - you can do so much more.
Now, playing Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest obviously has its pros and cons depending on what you're facing. I've been playing this deck for quite some time and have found that there are some clearly beneficial decks to go against and some clearly detrimental decks to go up against. Since I don't feel that it's that black and white since there are some grey areas, I will explain them all in greater detail. For a quick summary as to how your match-ups should go, see below.
How well this deck fares against other EDH archetypes: Stax Mid-Range Aggro Milling Control Creature Hate Pillow Fort Graveyard Hate
”Ugh! Not Mazirek again!”
* Stax: Stax actually does us a favor, lol. We want stax! Hell, we're constantly sacrificing our own things! Whenever you face off against these types of players, just be thankful. Do try to hide your giddiness when an opponent reveals his commander is Shattergang Brothers (or another Mazirek). However, when that stax player sees that your commander is Mazirek, be prepared to be his or her nemesis since turn 0. Having Mazirek in play practically shuts these decks down because anything they do to stax other players will benefit you way more. If you’re in a mirror match, it can go either way. That player may find benefits in leaving you be or may see you as a threat. The same goes for you. You may find that with multiple Mazireks are on the table, it might result in a final showdown between you at the end of the game. May the largest army win! However, if your version is more combo-oriented, then make sure to win before pumping your opposing Mazirek too much. If your opposing Mazirek player is combo-oriented, make sure to eliminate him or her first.
* Mid-Range: Depending on the tempo, mid-range could be a pretty epic battle - these are the decks I prefer facing against. Mazirek is not necessarily mid-range since you can get a large army of fatties fairly quickly, but most games are won after turn 5 since Mazirek does cost 3BG to cast. I’ve been able to cast Mazirek as early as turn 2 thanks to mana dorks and Mana Vault, but it’s not common. Mid-range doesn’t pose much of a threat either because of the stax element. If you’re consistently depriving opponents of creatures, there’s little in the ways of threats that mid-range decks can do against you.
* Aggro: Blurry fast decks can be a problem since this deck doesn’t have much by ways of gaining life (unless you include Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist (more on that later)). Aggro decks love their creatures also so they’ll probably want to take you out before you get online. If you use the token route you should be able to at least amass some chump blockers that can eventually get very large thanks to Mazirek. In the long run, unless you’re ganged up by other players, aggro doesn’t pose much of a threat. I’ve faced many aggro decks before and I’m usually online before I’m killed. It’s the vultures you have to worry for. Once that aggro threat has passed, someone may come in to take you out when you’re in the red-flashing heart-zone.
* Milling: This isn’t a common strategy in EDH but there are those who run these decks. Milling can be annoying if your recovery pieces are milled away (like Splendid Reclamation, Eternal Witness, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, etc.). If you have The Gitrog Monster in play and are milled, it can be a two-edged sword because when you draw a card for each land milled, you get answers; however, when you draw a card for each land milled, your deck can get dangerously short. I wouldn’t worry too much about milling since most of the cards in the deck are there for redundancy so you should be able to amass an army of fatties and decimate your opponents. If Splendid Reclamation isn’t milled then you can at least recover your lands which would totally sadden the milling player. With a stompy army you don’t need a lot of turns to play so even if your deck is dangerously slim, you still have an opportunity to win the match.
So I heard you like playing stax...
* Control: Not so much a hindrance so long as the counterspell doesn't exile - even then, Riftsweeper can get things back from exile. When a creature gets countered you can simply recover it from the graveyard. The reason control is a neutral threat is that it could be a bit troublesome. To have Mazirek constantly countered can be a problem. If Inspiring Call or the like is countered when you cast it in response to a wrath - that can be a problem. There are ways to dealing with control players like depriving them of their lands. An uncountered Death Cloud or Pox could potentially spell trouble for the control player. Making all lands into creatures with Living Plane or Nature's Revolt and then destroying their “creatures” will definitely cripple that player. I would say that control decks are those that you should shyly target from turn 0 - not too brazenly to them have them waste all resources on you, though; just enough to be able to kill them in one fell swoop when the opportunity presents itself. It should be noted that there are particular generals that aren’t technically control but can still control several aspects of the game; one of these being Sigarda, Host of Herons. Such players should immediately be your target the moment you see their commander at the beginning of the game set up.
* Creature Hate: One would think that creature hate wouldn’t pose much of a threat to a BG deck. However, the deck does rely on its commander so getting it consistently killed/exiled can be a problem - especially when your commander costs 3BG. Also, it can be quite the bummer to have your army of creatures that dwarf eldrazis become obliterated by wraths. The reason creature hate is a neutral threat is because we have ways of protecting Mazirek and our creatures plus ways of recurring creatures in the graveyard. Yavimaya Hollow and Swarmyard help save Mazirek from destruction that allows regeneration. Wrap in Vigor, Wail of the Nim, and Golgari Charm regenerate all of our creatures. Eldrazi Monument and Inspiring Call make them indestructible. Sheoldred, Whispering One and Meren of Clan Nel Toth help recover creatures from the graveyard. In short, creature hate is only a problem if you don’t have responses when you really need them; it’s not a problem if you have responses when you need them. Also, players tend to hold on to their wraths with Nature's Revolt or Living Plane out; any wrath then becomes Devastation. Additionally, cards like Cauldron of Souls can recover all of your creatures after a board wipe. Even though your creatures will return with a -1/-1 counter, Mazirek takes care of that by neutralizing it with a +1/+1 counter. If your meta is very wrath-heavy, cards like Living Death, Living End, and Rise of the Dark Realms could be considered, as well. Losing tokens can be a problems thanks to wraths, but regenerating them or giving them indestructible prevents you from losing them.
* Pillow Fort: Could be annoying by preventing you from going all alpha strike with your huge creatures. There are answers to pillow fort such as Nullmage Shepherd, Bane of Progess, and Wave of Vitriol. Wave of Vitriol is my favorite card for getting rid of enchantments and artifacts because players have to sacrifice them. Even if you find yourself facing off against a brutal pillow fort, you can always just win by combo (more on that later) so you don’t need to win by combat damage alone. Mazirek has a plethora of strategies at its disposal so there are alternate wincons.
* Graveyard Hate: This can pose a problem if you’re running the Artifact Build. That build is devoted to recurring artifacts from the graveyard. It would follow that if you’re playing the Eggs strategy and an opponent is running Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, etc., then it could be a major problem. If you’re running the Artifact Build you must get rid of that player as soon as possible. If you’re running the Creature Build, you’re simply prevented from winning by the combo route since you won’t be able to recur any creatures to go to infinity (or at least enough times to get some huge creatures). The deck does run its fair share of artifact and enchantment removal. So, as long as you’re able to obtain your responses in a timely manner, you should be fine. Either way, if your meta is keen on graveyard hate then you can add more cards in the vein of getting rid of all artifacts and enchantments.
Ever since Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest was spoiled, I knew I had to incorporate it into Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Shattergang Brothers. When testing it with Sidisi it was broken but also felt more winmore. The reason I cut it from Sidisi was because it needed sac outlets in order to pull its weight around. It was in Shattergang Bros. that I saw it’s ultimate potential. What if I had a deck devoted entirely to stax? My Shattergang Bros. build barely used R so I decided to keep it BG with Mazirek. Thus, my Mazirek commander deck was born.
The deck started as a way to first take advantage of sacrifice interactions. So I played around with persist as well, since a creature with persist will return to battle indefinitely as long as Mazirek is in play. However, I found that that the deck wasn’t consistent. I either had a lot of potential sac triggers but no creatures to take advantage of it. Other times, I had a lot of creatures and no sac triggers to take advantage of it. I tried a lot of different strategies but then found that you could have various simultaneous strategies. Since I couldn’t find a balance between all of them, I decided to devote these strategies to various versions of the deck. Finally, my Mazirek deck was taking shape.
This allowed me to consider all of the different cards and combos which ended up being completely overwhelming. Since I like designing primers and decks that everyone could enjoy playing, I contemplated compiling a strategy guide (so to speak) for Mazirek showcasing all the different ways to play with it. This helped me as well since I would constantly cut and add and swap cards only to do it all over again. It was fun up to a certain point and my pod wouldn’t be able to specifically predict what I’d be doing with the deck. Yet, I stayed with some deck lists that were more my style. Since there’re so many possibilities with Mazirek, I wouldn’t want to impose my style on anyone. So, I decided to go all out and make a true to the title Primer. I will discuss how to make a deck that doesn’t go infinite, a deck to be played on a strict budget, and decks that go all out. Again, it was excruciatingly difficult to have a single deck with every strategy contained within, but if you’re able to do so, I tip my hat to you.
Each build incorporate stax as the main strategy. The difference between them is that the Creatures Matter version is more stompy and less combo while the Artifacts Matter version is more combo and less stompy. Each build will be discussed upon in great detail. I also provide an Über Budget Build since most players probably won’t be able to build a deck with 7 fetchlands, Crucible of Worlds, Gaea's Cradle, Mishra's Workshop, Doubling Season, etc.
Creatures Matter:
Out of the two main builds, this one is my favorite one (don’t tell the other one!) because I like the stompiness. This one is more in-your-face and less combo but it can still be tweaked for full-blown combo as well. The purpose of this deck is to have a lot of tokens and/or many creatures in play to take full advantage of the stax. That way you have a lot of creatures with a significant p/t in order to bring forth a massive wave of attack. Also, stax gets rid of many potential blockers so killing off players with combat damage is this version’s main wincon. Alternate wincons are provided by combo, since an all-out alpha strike is not always possible.
I will also give suggestions on how to run this deck without the infinite engines. Since all the cards are amazing on their own, you can simply choose to not go infinite. However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much).
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.27 Average Cost (as of 10/23/16):
$1,221.24
Budget Choices:
Even with excluding Gaea's Cradle and Bayou the deck is just generally expensive. Even though the deck runs some very cheap cards that cost less than a quarter, it does run 7 fetchlands and expensive cards in the form of Doubling Season, Mana Crypt, Living Plane, Scapeshift, etc. and they add up. Since budget cuts would actually require cutting more than just a couple of cards, I present a budget build that is quite competent and only costs less than $30. That saves you almost $1,200!
Updates:
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
2.1.2 - Strategy:
Hey, I heard you like early commander casting.
The main strategy of the deck is to try and get Mazirek into play as quickly as possible. This can be achieved as early as turn 2 with a forest, swamp, Mana Vault, and a mana dork. With so many mana dorks and the competitive mana rocks (Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring) it’s probable to cast Mazirek way before turn 5.
Even though I’ve discussed how Mazirek allows for many strategies, his +1/+1 counters requires sacrifice triggers. Therefore, the main strategy of them all is stax. Mazirek simply allows you to take advantage of stax whether to combo out, go stompy, voltron, or simply go with extreme denial.
Something that’s very crucial to Mazirek is how to make the most of sacrifice triggers. This is incredibly important; it’s the different between making incredible plays to making ridiculously epic plays. Mazirek’s trigger goes to the stack after sacrifices are made. However, if a sacrifice causes other abilities to trigger at the same time, you choose how they enter the stack. This can be confusing at times but be sure to always remember that what you want to resolve first should be the last thing you place in the stack. The reason this is so important is that it means the difference between getting a lot of tokens in play without +1/+1 counters or getting them all in play with +1/+1 counters. Here’s an example of what I mean:
Let’s say you have a card like Pawn of Ulamog in play so both that ability and Mazirek’s trigger enters the stack. If you put Mazirek’s ability first on the stack, that 0/1 eldrazi spawn token enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it as well as your creatures already in play. If you don’t place them correctly on the stack, any 0/1 eldrazi spawn entering the battlefield won’t get a +1/+1 counter placed on it. Yeah, knowledge of how the stack functions is incredibly important with this commander. If you’re unsure as to what to do, a general rule of thumb with Mazirek is to have his trigger be the first thing entering the stack so that it’s the last one leaving the stack. Shout out to WizardMN for clearing this up.
Synergy & Combos:
The overall synergy of the deck is to make no wasted movements. Any time you’re going to sacrifice anything or make your opponents sacrifice anything, ideally, Mazirek is going to be in play. Whenever you crack a fetch, cast Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, etc., the point is to do so in order to get a +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. If you have no other choice than to do so, it’s okay because the cards aren’t here simply for using them in conjunction with Mazirek; they are useful on their own, as well. When designing the deck, I wanted to be as independent of Mazirek as possible.
As I stated before, the amount of cards and strategies that are synergistic with Mazirek are nigh innumerable. I will try to be as comprehensive as possible. Whenever new synergies or combos become available, I will include them here. I will include them for discussion even if I don’t include them into the deck. I want everyone to be able to develop their own Mazirek.
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle
When combined with a creature that creates a token upon dying or entering the battlefield, this combo produces infinite sacrifice triggers. When combined with a creature that produces two tokens upon dying or entering the battlefield, this combo produces infinite , as well. When combined with a creature that produces more than two tokens upon dying or entering the battlefield, this combo produces infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite , and infinite tokens. How it works is by sacrifice both the token maker and a token created to Ashnod's Altar in order to produce the mana needed to pay for Nim Deathmantle’s ability to recover that token maker. Here's how it's done:
Step 1.: Sacrifice the token producer and at least one creature token to Ashnod's Altar. Step 2.: Use the to pay for Nim Deathmantle's trigger. Step 3.: The token producer returns to the battlefield, thus creating creature tokens. Step 4.: Repeat from Step 1.
Living Plane Suite
When combined with Archfiend of Depravity, you’re basically depriving your opponents of their lands - it can’t get anymore stax than that. At the end of each of your opponent’s turns, if Archfiend of Depravity isn’t answered, they will have to basically sacrifice all but two of their creatures - which includes their lands. When combined with Smothering Abomination and The Gitrog Monster, for every land you sacrifice as a creature, you draw two cards each. If you want to destroy your opponents’ lands, you could also target them when casting Eliminate the Competition.
+1/+1 Counters
Mazirek’s ability converts sacrifices into +1/+1 counters. So, it would follow that one would want to take the most advantage of all of this. With cards like Hardened Scales, Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, and Corpsejack Menace, you’re able to double, quadruple, or even octuple the amount of +1/+1 counters produced by Mazirek. With Kalonian Hydra, you can double the amount of +1/+1 counters on each of your creatures just by attacking.
Stax
Named after the Urza Block Smokestack, the stax archetype is one that makes others at the table particularly annoyed. I would argue more so than control. Stax is such a ruthless strategy that Braids, Cabal Minion is utterly banned in EDH. Not simply banned from being a commander, but banned altogether. However, we're not facing against stax, we are stax! Mazirek just begs to be included in stax decks. Its ability triggers when any permanent is sacrificed. Meaning from any player. So something as simple as Innocent Blood can pump you creatures very significantly if your match has multiple players. When playing a five-point star, casting something like Smallpox gives all of your creatures 10 +1/+1 counters. All for BB! Crippling spells like Death Cloud and Pox usually cause players to scoop. Most of the synergies available to Mazirek don't necessarily revolve around +1/+1 counters, but around Stax. Wave of Vitriol provides a ridiculous amount of +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. If running cards like this may seem counterproductive, the only creature that really needs to stay alive on your end is Mazirek. It wins very easily and out of nowhere with commander damage. That, and you're constantly forcing players to sacrifice creatures. Also, if you don't want your staxed creatures to go to waste, you could always include cards like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Death's Presence in order to salvage those +1/+1 counters. If you want to really be evil, you could always double up or even quadruple up on your stax effects by running cards like Dictate of Erebos, Butcher of Malakir, and the like.
Persist
Creatures with persist is one of the easiest ways to get infinite sacrifice triggers. With a sac outlet and Mazirek in play, sacrificing a creature with persist requires some understanding of the stack. Here’s how it’s done:
Step 1. Sacrifice a creature with persist. The persist trigger will go in the stack as well as Mazirek’s trigger. Step 2. Put Mazirek’s trigger on the stack first and then the persist trigger. This will cause the persist trigger to resolve first (returning the creature to play). Step 3. Mazirek’s trigger resolves, putting a +1/+1 counter on each creature. This counter cancels itself with the -1/-1 counter on the creature with persist. Step 4. The creature with persist no longer has a -1/-1 counter on it so you can repeat from Step 1.
Comboing to Victory
When you can’t win via combat damage, there are alternate wincons which rely on the combo facilitating properties of Mazirek. When you’re able to produce infinite sacrifice triggers, you can win after generating an epic gravestorm for Bitter Ordeal in order to exile all opponents’ decks. With Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist in play, you can drain the life from all of your opponents. You could also ping opponents to death with Triskelion and Walking Ballista or sacrifice infinitely large fatties to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.
Tokens
There are many creatures that produce tokens when entering the battlefield, dying, and leaving the battlefield; creatures that produce tokens with activated costs that don’t require tapping; creatures that produce tokens simply by tapping; creatures that produce tokens during the beginning of phases; and creatures that produce tokens other ways. I’ve tried them all. There are those who may want to take advantage of the massive mana produced to control when they produce these tokens (with creatures like Ant Queen and others that are similar mana sinks) and there are those who want a steady flow of free tokens by using creatures that produce tokens during upkeep (like Master of the Wild Hunt, Creakwood Liege, etc.). I used to run the latter but decided to cut them in favor of the creatures that produce tokens when entering the battlefield in order to go infinite with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, for those who don’t want to run infinite engines, those creatures worked amazingly well. The importance of tokens in the deck is because you need bodies to take advantage of the +1/+1 counters that are being placed on all of your creatures. Tokens are dispensable creatures that serve as chump blockers. Also, it’s better to sacrifice replaceable tokens to stax effects than key creatures. In the Card Options Section (Section 2.2) I explain in detail why the best creatures to use for producing tokens during the beginning of phases are Mycoloth, Creakwood Liege, Master of the Wild Hunt, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, and Ophiomancer. Other useful token producers are those that make tokens upon dying (Symbiotic Wurm, Worldspine Wurm, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.). That way, when you wipe the board or use a devastating Death Cloud, you'd still have a whole bunch of creatures that get a ton of +1/+1 counters since Mazirek's ability still enters the stack even though it's sacrificed when everything gets sacrificed. Here's how it's done:
Step 1. Place Mazirek's trigger on the stack first. Step 2. Place the tokens trigger on the stack next. Step 3. The tokens trigger resolves first, putting the creature tokens in play. Step 4. Mazirek's trigger resolves next, putting all those +1/+1 counters on each of those creatures.
Energy
With the release of Kaladesh, MechanicE was finally revealed to be energy, a very parasitic mechanic that opens the doors to a whole lot of possibilities. If energy returns in future sets, the possibilities of an suite with Mazirek is highly likely. The amount of energy counters produced with Mazirek’s many combos is ridiculous. Presently, it may seem like a background strategy since there aren’t many cards (yet) that interact with energy, but it can happen nonetheless. With AEtherworks Marvel, you get an for each permanent you sacrifice or have destroyed and with Demon of Dark Schemes you get an for each creature that dies. With any engine producing infinite sacrifice triggers you could also potentially get infinite energy counters. So far, the only stores to spend is Architect of the Untamed, Bristling Hydra, Electrostatic Pummeler, and Longtusk Cub. Architect of the Untamed would provide infinite creature tokens. The others I mentioned aren’t that special because they would already be pumped with Mazirek and the sacrifice triggers; pumping them any further with would be redundant. Again, this strategy isn’t calling out to me yet but I am keeping my eyes peeled because it does have potential.
Annihilator
I toyed around with this a bit being as annihilator is quite the sacrifice inducer. However, the creatures are just too expensive to cast and if I start going with intense mana production, I should be winning the game regardless. That’s why in previous versions of the deck I ran It That Betrays. It just ended up being winmore. Not only did I produce a lot of sacrifice triggers, but I would take control of whatever was sacrificed. Players either scooped or made me into the de facto archenemy. That being said, I don’t completely abandon this tactic as there are those out there that may enjoying using this mechanic with Mazirek - and it works. However, you would need ways to generate a lot of mana fairly quickly, which the deck does exceeding well if you have a lot of fodder for Ashnod's Altar. Also, including Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre double as milling prevention if you’re using The Gitrog Monster and/or Smothering Abomination to draw through your entire deck. Thus, a mana intensive build with annihilator eldrazi would be a cool take on Mazirek. Again, there are just too many strategies, engines, and synergistic cards to physically include them all in the deck. These are just some that I’ve either used, tried, or am suggesting because I know they’d work with Mazirek at the helm.
Advantages of the Commander’s Colors:
Nickelodeon would be so proud.
Dat Mana...
With all the creature tokens in play and all the swamps (thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth), the amount of G and B this deck produces is unreal. Also, the deck runs a lot of one-drop mana dorks which helps speed along the early game. The great thing about Gaea's Cradle is how it interacts with Animation Module. With one Mazirek trigger, Gaea's Cradle provides mana for each Animation Module trigger with one tap. This basically doubles the amount of creatures you have in play. Unfortunately, the servo tokens produced can’t get the +1/+1 counters due to the timing of the counters. Animation Module triggers when the +1/+1 counters are already added to the triggers. Still, doubling your creatures is nothing to scoff at. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is also helpful to make utility lands and fetchlands produce B in order to extend their usefulness.
Disruption / Removal / Stax BG has access to a plethora of removal spells and abilities but the aim of the deck is not spot removal or board wipes; it’s to remove threats by stax. As previously mentioned, stax bypasses indestructible, shroud, hexproof, etc. With enough recursion, you could get creatures like Merciless Executioner into play multiple times a turn. It’s very easy to wipe the board with stax. Also, with enough creatures and permanents, spells like Pox and Death Cloud hurt your opponents way more than they hurt you. All you need to survive those spells is Mazirek.
Recovery / Recursion
Again, these colors are excellent for these processes. Eternal Witness is obviously useful beyond any words I can use to describe it. When Meren of Clan Nel Toth sticks around long enough, the amount of experience counters obtained is enough to reanimate any creature from your graveyard. Splendid Reclamation is an amazing card to recover lands from your graveyard. When combined with Scapeshift it becomes ridiculous. Many a game have I sacrificed all my lands turned creature (thanks to Living Plane) only to have them all come back thanks to Splendid Reclamation.
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands and 2-3 mana dorks and/or mana rock in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. The quicker you have Mazirek in play the more advantage you can get out of the stax abilities of your spells, creatures, and other permanents. You also want to take advantage of the fetchlands, as well. However, as long as you have 3-4 lands and cheap cards, you don’t really need to mulligan; you’ll just have a slower game. The deck does have cards with a high casting cost but the average CMC is closer to 3 than to 4 so there should be plenty of things to cast while you’re able to cast Mazirek. However, an early Mazirek means a brutal game. Early Mazirek with support means being able to eliminate an opponent fairly quickly via commander damage. A slower Mazirek just means that your strategy should follow more of a mid-range pace. Good cards to start your hand with are Mana Crypt, Birds of Paradise, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Gyre Sage, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, Animation Module, Bitterblossom, and Awakening Zone.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 ability. It's quite the bummer to sacrifice cards or have opponents sacrifice cards without having Mazirek in play. Again, you can still crack fetches and whatnot without having Mazirek in play, but it’s just better. With players that cast their commanders first before other creatures, it’s also good to cast spells like Innocent Blood or creatures like Slum Reaper early on to considerably slow them down. With a fast early game, like described above, you can easily get a Mazirek with a beefy p/t - especially in a game with lots of players. Even in a triple threat game, I’ve been able to eliminate players by turn 4 with a great early game. Turn 2 Mazirek into Turn 3 Corpsejack Menace and Smallpox gives Mazirek 12 +1/+1 counters making it a 2-turn clock. By Turn 4 you just eliminated any player that was a major threat. Early game can go any way between ramping, getting components in play, or just disrupting players with some early stax. It doesn’t matter the order as long as Mazirek is distributing those +1/+1 counters.
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible but Mazirek being a key component to almost every strategy means that the deck can be slow if you have to cast him without the aid of mana acceleration. This deck doesn’t require a lot of mana to efficiently function but it does speed things along. What the deck does need is some quick token production in order to capitalize on Mazirek’s ability and to not be hindered by our own stax effects. During midgame you should be sacrificing permanents with Mazirek in order to get him some much needed +1/+1 counters to lower his clock to victory. Even if he's your only creature, he alone can win the game with 21 damage. Most of my victories haven't been from horde damage but Mazirek damage. So save those fetches whenever possible until Mazirek hits the field. The same for other taxing spells like Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Slum Reaper, etc.
Late Game:
Late game you should have a large army in both senses of the word: many creatures and with a considerable amount of +1/+1 counters. If anything, Mazirek should have a significant amount of +1/+1 counters since commander damage win is one of the most viable wincons of the deck. Late game should have a lot of opponents with few lands and creatures to the staxing effects in the deck. Additionally, any hindering artifacts and/or enchantments should've been dealt with thanks to the hate in the deck. Late game is usually the time when I cast the game-ending Wave of Vitriol or Eliminate the Competition. For those running a more hardcore stax package, by this time a brutal Death Cloud will usually end it in your favor.
End Game:
The deck has various other wincons besides combat damage and commander damage, which is the main wincon of this build. Besides pumping Mazirek to ridiculous proportions with +1/+1 counters, you could also be pumping your creatures this way. All you need is one creature with enough power to eliminate an opponent. Any of the infinity engines that provide infinite sacrifice triggers could be used to create infinite creature tokens and/or infinite +1/+1 counters and or infinite mana. These infinite sacrifice triggers could also be used to cast the game-winning Bitter Ordeal.
2.1.4 - Card by card analysis:
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
Mana Crypt - Produces for free which allows for a very early Mazirek casting if you have it in your opening hand or draw it within the first 3 turns.
Animation Module - Wow, where to begin? This card is just beyond words here. Mazirek's ability is global, meaning that with enough mana you could produce a token for 1 each. Combined with Gaea's Cradle you could potentially double the amount of creatures you have by a single sacrifice trigger. This card is quite literally a token making machine.
Mana Vault - Produces for a mere 1. This allows for a turn-2 Mazirek. Once Mazirek is cast and protected, the 1 life of damage is negligible until you can pay the upkeep cost. More often than not this is simply a one-time deal. It's also a permanent which can be sacrificed later on when needed (so it's better than Dark Ritual, in this case).
Nim Deathmantle - Not only is this card helpful for immediately recovering creatures, but it's cheap to cast and cheap to use. Apart from being useful on its own, it's part of an infinity engine: combined with Ashnod's Altar and a creature that produce tokens when entering or leaving the battlefield or dying produces infinite sacrifice triggers. It's a convoluted combo but it's not so simple that players may get upset at you pulling it off. It does require at least 3 cards to work and even then to get the full mileage out of it you'd need other cards in play like Mazirek, Grave Pact, among others.
Ashnod's Altar - I'm so happy this card got an epic aesthetic reprint in Eternal Masters. This card was meant for this deck. You sacrifice a creature, which triggers so many other cards (for free, to boot!), and get for your troubles. Part of the infinity engine combo with Nim Deathmantle
Phyrexian Altar - Along the same vein as Ashnod's Altar, this altar provides colored mana for your sacrifice. Again, free of cost.
Creatures:
Birds of Paradise - The deck runs a lot of one-drop mana dorks in order to get an early Mazirek. Fortunately, the birds give any color mana, so they have an advantage over the elves. That and it has flying (so it's great to pump it with +1/+1 counters). How often can you kill an opponent with a Birds of Paradise?
Caustic Caterpillar - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. The good thing about this larva stage is that you can sac it for cheap in order to get rid of an annoying enchantment or artifact.
Elves of Deep Shadow - Unlike your standard one-drop mana dorks, this elf provides B in exchange for tapping and 1 life. Neglible in the early game and a great source of B for when your turn 1 is a Forest but turn 2 doesn't provide a Swamp.
Elvish Mystic - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
Elvish Reclaimer - Dropping this on turn 1 means that we can tutor for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as early as turn 2. You can then tutor for Cabal Coffers the next turn, Gaea's Cradle the turn after, etc. Not only that, but with Mazirek in play you trigger those sweet, sweet +1/+1 counters as well. Synergy!
Fyndhorn Elves - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
Llanowar Elves - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
Sylvan Safekeeper - A free sac outlet for lands. Doing so protects any creature from targeted abilities. The versatility is amazing. When combined with The Gitrog Monster you basically draw a card as a bonus. When combined with Living Plane and Grave Pact you can make opponents lose a lot of creatures and possibly lands, too. With Splendid Reclamation in hand you can sac lands to your heart's content. Truly amazing card here.
Gyre Sage - A mana dork that provides G equivalent to the amount of +1/+1 counters on it. The amount of mana this elf provides is amazing.
Viridian Zealot - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. It's more expensive to cast than Caustic Caterpillar but other than that it's basically the same thing.
Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
Fleshbag Marauder - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
Liliana, Heretical Healer / Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - As a creature it can get +1/+1 counters so that's good. However, it's main function is to transform into Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. Though each of Liliana's planewalker abilities are good, it's quite clear that the goal is obtaining the emblem. Having Doubling Season in play when her spark awakens and transforms makes getting that emblem all the more easier. When she dies, she reverts to a creature so from the graveyard it's easy to reanimate or recur her.
Merciless Executioner - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan - With this card out, any creature that gets sniped will just have its +1/+1 shifted onto another creature. The great thing is that, when combined with +1/+1 counter doublers (like Doubling Season and its ilk), those counters are doubled. Definitely deters opponents from sniping other creatures while Reyhan is still in play. You can also benefit from all of the sacrifices made since the +1/+1 counters on those creatures aren’t wasted. Reyhan basically gives all your creatures modular but instead of for artifact creatures, it's for any of your creatures.
Tireless Tracker - Landfall is not a theme in this deck and although the main strategy isn't eggs, this guy produces eggs. Thanks to fetches, you get 2 clue tokens. Thanks to Splendid Reclamation and Scapeshift you get a extravagant amount of clue tokens - enough to make Sherlock Holmes proud.
Turntimber Sower - With all the fetchlands and lands like Strip Mine and Wasteland, the amount of tokens produced is significant. Additionally, it has a built-in sacrifice outlet which also returns lands to the battlefield. Both abilities are relevent on a great body (3/3 for 3) and it has relevant creature types if you want to have a tribal subtheme.
Armorcraft Judge - Inspiring Call on a body that doesn't grant indestructible. Compared the amount of cards drawn, the cost is practically nothing. Recurring and reanimating this creature provides card advantage to rival decks.
Bramble Sovereign - This creature is just all round amazing. Copying creatures like Fleshbag Marauder is already pretty atrocious, but being able to copy mana dorks or creatures like Caustic Caterpillar makes it an amazing card indeed.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - With all our creatures dying, you can get quite a lot of experience counters. Thanks to Meren we can effectively reanimate cards like Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, any utility creature like Caustic Caterpillar, or any other creature for that matter because the amount or experience counters easily reaches the double digits.
Whisper, Blood Liturgist - With an effect similar to Hell's Caretaker, Whisper exchanges being able to use the ability at instant speed in exchange for having to sacrifice an additional creature. That's not even a bother with Mazirek since it then provides two +1/+1 counters instead of one.
World Shaper - The deck already ran Splendid Reclamation, which is what this creature is. Meaning it's reanimatable and it's also a body to put +1/+1 counters on.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - He has a manaless sacrifice outlet, which is crucial. This ability can potentially kill creatures (even those with indestructible) as well as drawing cards. Additionally, it has a built-in proliferate ability that can be reused since it doesn't require tapping.
Archfiend of Depravity - Casting this makes players with an epic boardstate extremely nervous. Although it triggers at the end of each opponent's turn, it's still enough for those players to want to get rid of it or try to eliminate you before. Should it survive until an opponent's end step, prepare for a ton of sacrifice triggers. This card is also mega oppressive with Living Plane in play. Many games have I left opponents either scooping or with just 2 lands in play.
Krav, the Unredeemed - Not only are you able to sacrifice X creatures for just B, you get to draw X card, gain X life, and put X +1/+1 counters on Krav. Doing so puts X +1/+1 counters on all your creatures if you have Mazirek in play. Meaning that Krav would get 2X +1/+1 counters, making him a huge threat for just B.
Puppeteer Clique - Not simply added for having persist, but it's ability is quite useful, as well: you can take control of an opponent's creature from the graveyard and then exile it. So it grants you an attacker all while providing practically permanent removal to your opponent's creatures.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - When used purely as a tutor, it's too expensive. However, it's a tutor on a body with a sacrifice trigger all rolled into one. Similar to Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, I sacrifice it to itself when using the ability. It's better for it to die in order to be recurred or reanimated than to stay in play. The deck doesn't usually require tutoring for combo pieces, but I basically use BSidisi to look for any answers for things opponents have that will impede my victory. When it's possible to quickly assemble all combo pieces, then that's what you should tutor for, since that's also game-ending.
The Gitrog Monster - The synergy this card has is ridiculous. It gives so much value to fetches and lands like Strip Mine. It's also Exploration on a body and a free land sacrifice trigger each of your upkeeps. Casting Scapeshift with this is play is amazing. It's important to keep in mind how you arrange the triggers on the stack in order to take the most advantage out of The Gitrog Monster (as well as Mazirek).
Grave Titan - Honestly, this card's main purpose is to combo with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, it's a great token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it and attack with it. Also, it's a solid body with deathtouch. It can be a very convincing deterrent against attack when left available as a blocker.
Harvester of Souls - Nonobligatory card advantage from any noncreature token dying. Though it's expensive to cast, the deck does produce lots of mana. It also has a solid body with deathtouch to deter against attack when left available as a blocker.
Marionette Master - Honestly, this card's main purpose is to combo with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, it's a great token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it. The good thing about fabricate is that I can also have it enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters since with Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, and Doubling Season it will enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it. If that weren’t enough, it’s a more broken Disciple of the Vault since instead of having an opponent lose 1 life, they lose life in the amount of Marionette Master's power.
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Reanimation and stax all on a large body. Not only that, but since she has swampwalk and the deck runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, she can be a wincon on her own if she's large enough. A very versatile creature. Again, the hefty casting cost is not so limiting since the deck produces a lot of mana.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded - Once this card is in play you can basically tutor your deck for whatever you want all via a manaless sacrifice outlet. Not only that, but it's an 8/8 flying beater which will only get larger thanks to the +1/+1 counter interactions.
Woodfall Primus - Not simply added for having persist, but it's ability is quite useful, as well: you can pretty much destroy all of your opponents' noncreature permanents. All you needs is a sac outlet and Mazirek in play. Not only will you practically wipe the board, but you will have indefinitely many +1/+1 counters on all of your creatures. Very useful when there are artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, lands, etc. impeding your victory (or just overall being annoying).
Enchantments:
Dictate of Erebos - A slightly more expensive Grave Pact, it could be slightly easier to cast thanks to the 3BB casting cost versus Grave Pact’s 1BBB casting cost. The flash is negligible since it’s not really a surprise what the deck is doing; it’s simply here to provide redundancy for Grave Pact effects.
Doubling Season - An absurd card that provides so much advantage it’s ridiculous. It doubles the amount of loyalty counters of planeswalkers that enter the battlefield. It doubles the amount of tokens that are produced. And, most important of all, it doubles the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on your creatures.
Grave Pact - This allows your sacrifice triggers to essentially double. Everytime you sacrifice an eldrazi spawn or scion for mana, other players have to sacrifice two creatures. The amount of sacrifice triggers this is able to produce is insane. It also helps deter wraths from players who have indestructible creatures since sacrifice laughs in the face of indestructible.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun - With Gaea's Cradle being in the deck, this legendary enchantment definitely wants a home here. It's cheap and it's useful the moment it enters play. With so many tokens and cheap creatures, it's highly likely to very quickly transform into the reason it's considered in the first place, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.
Living Plane - In this deck this card is extremely oppressive. Since it makes all lands creatures, it helps you out with giving them +1/+1 counters but it harms opponents in a severe way. Whenever you make opponents sacrifice creatures, if they have no actual creatures in play, they start losing lands. This is not merely for use as a mass land destruction device; you take a lot of advantage out of having your lands be creatures as well.
Spells:
Golgari Charm - Although point of charms all throughout MtG has been to give a player options when casting, I usually use this card for its regenerative option. Wraths can really set you back so when they don’t have the “can’t be regenerated” clause, Golgari Charm can really help out.
Heroic Intervention - A great protection spell that grants indestructibility and hexproof at instant speed. It only costs 1G to boot!
Liliana's Triumph - Higher-costed than Innocent Blood but it's asymmetric. Having a Liliana planeswalker makes it better but it's still good even if your don't (at least the deck has two Liliana's).
Inspiring Call - This is a very versatile card in that it can save your creatures from wraths but can also fill your hand in a pinch. I usually use it more to protect my creatures but when I need responses and my hand is empty, this has been known to help me out tremendously.
Smallpox - A great disruption spell; everyone discards a card and sacrifices up to two permanents between land and creature. This provides some crazy sacrifice triggers in multiplayer games on par with Barter in Blood, only Smallpox is cheaper and more disruptive.
Bitter Ordeal - One of the alternate wincons in the deck, with an infinite amount of sacrifice triggers, you could basically deck every opponent at the table.
Virtus's Maneuver - You can have each opponent sacrifice a creature while you get to return one to your hand. All for the same cost as Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk.
Pir's Whim - Not only will you have each opponent sacrifice an artifact or enchantment but you get to ramp for any land card.
Scapeshift - Another broken card in this deck. You get as many sacrifice outlets as lands you use for it, plus you get a lot of lands entering the battlefield as well. When combined with Splendid Reclamation you can get a lot of lands in play very quickly.
Casualties of War - Costs a whopping 6 mana but you have the possibility of getting rid of 5 annoying cards at once. The mana isn't that taxing in a green/black deck - especially with all the mana dorks. In a multiplayer environment this card really shine and it's almost easier to cast than cards like Decimate.
Wave of Vitriol - This card has singlehandedly won me so many games. Most EDH decks run more than their fair share of nonbasic lands. Not only that, but artifacts and enchantments can be particular disruptive to our main strategy of winning by combat. This card gets rid of all of that all by sacrificing and by sacrificing all of that just triggers more and more for Mazirek.
Planeswalkers:
Garruk Relentless / Garruk, the Veil-Cursed - Such a useful planeswalker. With a total of 5 abilities where all of them are useful, I’m definitely grateful that he’s in Mazirek’s color combination. The green version’s abilities are both great; you can potentially kill a weenie or produce tokens. Once he transforms into his black version, you can make tokens with deathtouch (great for deterring attacks) by raising the loyalty. By sacrificing a creature (which Mazirek loves), you get to search your deck for any creature and put it into your hand. This is by far the most useful of all 5 abilities. The last ability isn’t really that needed but even with no creatures in the graveyard, you can still give all of your creatures trample when in a pinch.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General - Her static ability is bonkers for this deck. She also creates tokens to have bodies to put +1/+1 counters on. The \-4/ ability triggers a crazy amount of Mazirek triggers. The ultimate pretty much does the same but on a higher level.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - All 3 abilities are useful. You can gain loyalty by creating mana dork tokens. On top of that, you can eliminate a pesky artifact or enchantment. The ultimate is very useful since, with so many green creatures and/or tokens, you can potentially draw a lot of cards.
Lands:
Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
Ghost Quarter - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. Sure, it gives the opponent a chance to get a basic land, but the trade off is still worth it.
Karn's Bastion - Proliferate on a land. Is anything else even needed to be said?
Nurturing Peatland - Horizon lands definitely have a home here. They produce mana while also providing a self-sacrifice ability which Mazirek definitely loves.
Rogue's Passage - 21 points of commander damage is all you need to eliminate a player. This makes sure that Mazirek breaks through defenses in order to accomplish just that.
Strip Mine - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. It can also get rid of basic lands if you need to be evil and color-screw an opponent.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Giving Mazirek fear is sometimes enough to make him unblockable. Making short work of opponents due to commander damage.
Swarmyard - Regenerates Mazirek by merely tapping. It also provides and doesn’t come into play tapped. Overall a great land to have.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Makes all lands provides B meaning that you can tap fetches for mana. It also makes utility lands give colored mana instead of just .
Wasteland - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves.
Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince - Can create tokens in a pinch (the most expensive way to produce tokens in the deck) but the transformation cost is awesome: 5 creatures to make a 9/7 with flying, lifelink, indestructible, and haste. It may seem winmore but it’s on a land. So it’s no problem to include in a two-colored deck. Also, it still has a sacrifice outlet in order to transform. Ormendahl is also a great creature since it’s indestructible and has lifelink. So it’s a great blocker and if anyone wraths, you can transform Westvale Abbey in response, get a lot of +1/+1 counters on it, and then have a large creature to attack with next turn. It’s great.
Yavimaya Hollow - Similar to Swarmyard except it can regenerate any type of creature with an investment of G.
------------------------------------------------------- Lands Just for Sacrifice Triggers:
There were a lot of cards tested, cut, added, suggested from a lot of people; they're all strewn across the thread. However, I have included 2 alternate builds with many of the cards in question. They weren't used in the main build due to them underperforming or requiring a different environment altogether in order to make the deck work. All cuts were made for efficiency's sake. That being said, the Change Log at the end of the post reflects many of the changes in both the casual and competitive build which have merged to merely reflect the changes in the competitive build.
Bitterblossom - Provides creatures tokens each of your upkeeps early on, thanks to the low casting cost. Sure, you get stung 1 life each of your turns but you get a flyer. With enough +1/+1 counters, these fairies can become much more than simply annoying.
Eldrazi Monument - Provides solid protection from wraths while also giving a slight boost in p/t. It also provides flying for my creatures which can be very helpful against decks saturated with flyers.
Titania, Protector of Argoth: With so many lands being sacrificed whether on their own or combined with Living Plane or Scapeshift, Titania has the potential to produce a lot of big tokens; 5/3’s to be exact. Not only that, but if you arrange the triggers in the stack to your advantage, those 5/3's enter the battlefield and then get +1/+1 counters on them. Nothing to scoff at.
Hardened Scales - A very cheap way to potentially “double” the amount of +1/+1 counters on your creatures. The good thing about this card is that it can be cast before Mazirek even makes its first appearance. Then, whatever sacrifice triggers you make places two +1/+1 counters on your creatures. It’s important to note that when you have multiple ways to add or double +1/+1 triggers on your creatures, this one should be the first one to leave the stack. That way, the first +1/+1 counter becomes two counters, then four, then eight and so forth. Otherwise, you’ll only get an additional +1/+1 counter at the end of doubling counters instead of potentially going further along exponentially.
Workhorse: can provide ridiculous amounts of mana even if you’re not running an infinite sacrifice triggers engine. With enough sacrifice triggers it can definitely push the game along with its pretty much free production of .
Hooded Hydra and Hangarback Walker: With enough +1/+1 counters, these creatures end up producing a ton of tokens upon dying. They’re great wrath deterrents or just general token production. Personally, I found them to be winmore and don’t run them. However, they are in fact very amazing cards to include.
Death Cloud: A very brutal spell that produces an insane amount of sacrifice triggers. This card definitely gets the job done. However, most games I played it everyone just scooped afterwards. Also, a lot of games it would just sit in my hand because I was too low on life to make it count. I’m not completely disregarding it since it is a viable and amazing card for Mazirek. I’m constantly switching it in and out of the deck but it’s been quite a while since I’ve had it in the deck.
Pox: Along the lines of Death Cloud, a great card to get a ridiculous amount of sacrifice triggers. It won’t kill you like an epic Death Cloud would, but I found it to be winmore in games where I’d draw it late game. Early game it’s amazing but then mid to late game I’d already have a winning board state. Again, this card is great and should not be disregarded; if you want to play it then by all means do. I’m constantly switching it in and out of the deck but it’s been quite a while since I’ve had it in the deck.
Mycoloth: An amazing creature; it provides a sacrifice outlet thank to devour 2 and it produces a ridiculous amount of tokens during your upkeep. Even if you don’t use its devour ability, Mazirek places a lot of +1/+1 counters on it which helps in creating a huge army of saproling tokens. I’ve been playing it for a long time but decided on adding infinite combos to the deck so it was swapped out in favor of creatures that create tokens when entering the battlefield.
Creakwood Liege: Another creature that creates creatures during your upkeep. Though it creates 1/1 worms, that’s not really the case since Creakwood Liege pumps your green and black creatures by +1/+1 for each color, so they’re actually 3/3’s. It’s very flexible to cast. I’ve been playing it for a long time but decided on adding infinite combos to the deck so it was swapped out in favor of creatures that create tokens when entering the battlefield.
Master of the Wild Hunt: A creature that produces creatures during your upkeep. The good thing about this on being that you can use your wolf tokens to snipe at annoying creatures you want to get rid of. I’ve been playing it for a long time but decided on adding infinite combos to the deck so it was swapped out in favor of creatures that create tokens when entering the battlefield.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf: A creature that may potentially produce a creature during your upkeep; “potentially” because it depends on an opponent having a card in hand. The good thing about Nath is if you combine it with cards like Pox, Death Cloud, Smallpox, etc., you can take advantage of your opponents discarding in order to produce tokens.
Ophiomancer: A creature that can potentially create a token during each upkeep - not necessarily yours. The good thing about these tokens is that the have deathtouch which are great at deterring attacks. I’ve been playing it for a long time but decided on adding infinite combos to the deck so it was swapped out in favor of creatures that create tokens when entering the battlefield.
Ghoulcaller Gisa: This card is great because it provides a sacrifice outlet and can potentially fill your board with a lot of 2/2 tokens. I found it to be winmore so I cut it. However, by no means should it be disregarded; the card is great at what it does. So if you want to run it, by all means do so.
Deathreap Ritual: Not the best card advantage in the deck, but if you’re able to kill or sacrifice a creature each turn, that’s an additional card at the end of each turn. In a game with multiple players, drawing a card each turn adds up.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari: Although she doesn’t provide any built-in sacrifice outlets, you can take advantage of sacrifices with no investment in mana. Paying 2 life everytime you sacrifice a black creature produces an Innocent Blood effect (since you’ve already just sacrificed yours). Sacrificing a green creature gets you 2 life for free. This is great when producing a lot of tokens, particularly black faerie rogues and green saprolings & wolves.
Nylea, God of the Hunt: Great mana sink for pumping creatures with that infinite mana. Also provides free trample to all your creatures with a static ability. Is indestructible. Just a great all-around card to add. I don’t have it because I found it to be winmore. But, if there’s a lot of decks that produce a lot of tokens in your meta, then she makes all your creatures trample over those chump blockers.
Aerie Ouphes: Persist along with a built-in sacrifice trigger means that all you need to get infinite sacrifice triggers is to have this in play and Mazirek. If Mazirek is your only target, you’d have to stack each ability on the stack with Mazirek as a target. If you place the triggers on the stack like a sandwich loop (persist, damage ability, Mazireks’s +1/+1 counter, ad nauseam), Aerie Ouphes will return each time yet Mazirek will only receive the damage when you’re satisfied with the amount of iterations. I don’t run this card because it depends on there being a creature with flying in play. However, it’s an easy to pull off 2-card combo so I don’t completely disregard it; if you want to include it, you can.
Snake Basket: Mana sink as well as a built-in self-sacrifice ability. Produces an insane amount of tokens but I just found it to be winmore. Still an amazing card to include if you love those blowout plays or producing an insane amount of tokens. This card loves Doubling Season.
Evolutionary Leap: Great way to transform creature tokens into nontoken creatures all while providing a cheap creature sacrifice outlet. It’s a great card to consider for the deck.
Birthing Pod: Usually used with “pod chains”, which this deck doesn’t really have. What it can do is convert creature tokens into 1-drop mana dorks, which is great. Other than that, I don’t really see it as too viable. However, there are those that swear by it so if you want to add it, go for it.
Black Market: The amount of B this produces is insane. I cut it since I can’t control when the mana enters my mana pool. It still facilitates a lot of expensive spells being cast early on, though.
It That Betrays: Amazing card that just felt winmore. If I hardcast it near end game I should’ve been winning already. If I’m able to get it onto the battlefield early on, I instantly become the Archenemy. That being said, it’s an amazing effect and card if those are the types of plays you want to do.
Wurmcoil Engine: Produces dangerous tokens when killed or sacrificed (and it’s dangerous in and of itself). May feel like winmore but it’s a great blocker besides being a token producer. When combined with solid recursion effects, you can easily make a lot of lifelink and deathtouch tokens that can easily take advantage of Mazirek’s +1/+1 counters to generate a lot of life and headaches for opponents.
Karn, Silver Golem: Able to turn your artifacts into creatures and useful for generating some infinite combos. It also turns your opponents equipment into creatures so it can help when you’re about to be smacked by a creature carrying something like Sword of Feast and Famine.
Desolation: A great way to become the Archenemy, it can basically force players to sacrifice a land each turn if he or she tapped a land for mana during that turn. Hurts control players if they tap land for mana during any turn. I don’t include it because instead of being winmore, it just paints a huge target on my back. However, there are those who like their stax decks to be intense and abusive. If you’re one of those players, then you’re probably gonna play with Desolation.
Devoted Druid: Can potentially produce infinite mana with Mazirek out and infinite sacrifice triggers.
All is Dust: The mackdaddy of stax. Sure, you're going to lose practically everything you have in play but so will everybody else. With Mazirek in play, the amount of sacrifice triggers is ridiculous. However, only colorless artifact creatures you have in play can benefit from it. Also, if you have creatures like Worldspine Wurm in play, the tokens they put in play will get the +1/+1 counters if you use the stack correctly.
Curse of the Cabal: A lose/lose for opponents because if no one sacrifices to add time counters to it, the countdown to horrors drops. If players make the sacrifice, you trigger Mazirek. If there are no more time counters on it, you get to cast it and have someone sacrifice half their permanents, which is also good for Mazirek. I used to run this a lot until I got tired of it making me the Archenemy.
Eldrazi Conscription: Since voltron is one of the viable strategies for Mazirek, this just seals the deal. Getting a boost of +10/+10 plus gaining trample and annihilator 2 pretty much makes Mazirek extremely dangerous. Annihilator is just icing on the cake because it triggers with attack so Mazirek gets 2 +1/+1 counters on it just by being used to attack.
Living Death and Living End: These cards are great if you're using a lot of recursion. However, chances are that you've filled your opponents' graveyard with a lot of creatures. Since they provide a lot of sacrifice and recur all creatures from graveyards, they can definitely be built around. Adding creatures that give tokens upon dying and including cards like Leyline of the Void is one way to take total advantage of these types of spells.
Mimic Vat: With so many creatures dying, it's great to include. You could even potentially "steal"
creatures from opponents and make a copy anytime you want. It's also great for imprinting cards like Eternal Witness, Flehsbag Marauder and it's ilk, etc. I don't run it because I felt it was winmore - especially when combined with Doubling Season and Parallel Lives, but this card is definitely worth a slot if you like that sort of thing.
Minion Reflector: Along the same vein as Mimic Vat, this allows you to create tokens that are copies of your creatures. Sure, it basically means that you'd have to pay 2 more if you're hardcasting a creature, but for 2 more you can basically duplicate Eternal Witness's effect or other more heinous creatures like Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk. Since it's an "enter the battlefield" trigger and not a "when cast" triggers, that means that you can also take advantage whenever you reanimate something. Not only that, but you have to sacrifice the token at the end of turn, which triggers Mazirek. It's an overall great card to include. It's also great on budget. I don't run it because I found it to be winmore.
As for cards that have become available with new sets, I will discuss in greater detail some of the cards from the most recent sets. This section will be constantly updated as new sets arise and other sets have been understood to have been discussed. I will not simply discuss all cards that comply with color. I will only discuss cards that could be useful to any extent in the deck - even if they don't make the cut.
Witch of the Moors - This would be an autoinclude in the deck if not for there only being 3 cards in the entire deck that gain me life .
Allosaurus Shepherd - It makes half of my spells uncounterable for just G and it is itself uncounterable as well. Unfortunately, I can't take full advantage of it in this deck even though there are 7 elves in it and Freyalise creates elves.
Branching Evolution - Would be a great way to have redundancy for effects like Doubling Season. However, the deck used to run Corpsejack Menace which was cut because it was winmore. So this enchantment would probably be the same thing. That being said, both it and Corpsejack Menace are great for Mazirek for anyone who wants to take stompy to the next level.
Agadeem's Awakening - With sacrificing creatures in this deck, there will be instances where our graveyard if full of creatures that we've used for advantage. This can reanimate a lot of them (since they have to have different casting costs). The best thing about this spell, however, is that it doesn't really take up a slot in the deck since it can be played as Agadeem, the Undercrypt, thus only taking up a land slot.
Ancient Greenwarden - The deck doesn't have a lot of landfall effects but it does run a lot of fetchlands, and this is a great way to replay them from the graveyard. It's definitely stronger than Ramunap Excavator.
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild - Makes all of our nontoken creatures into forests. This not only saves them from nonland effects (like Cyclonic Rift and the like) but can also accelerate the deck by turning our creatures into mana dorks.
Iridescent Hornbeetle - This card is crazy good here. Any turn we put a +1/+1 on each of our creatures, we're going to get a 1/1 for each of those at the end of our turn. Not only will this grow our army, but it will give us a ton of sacrifice fodder.
Oran-Rief Ooze - It might be a bit winmore, but if it attacks with a bunch of creatures that already have a +1/+1 counter on it, it's going to add another one on them. If we have our effects that double counters, it can possibly add up.
Scute Swarm - Though this isn't a landfall deck, we are constantly getting plenty of lands onto the battlefield at once (or at the very minimum two triggers per turn when replaying fetchlands). This means that this will either present us with a bunch of sacrifice fodder or a huge swarm (no pun intended) we can swing in with.
Lucille - This equipment is absolutely crazy here and I'm limitlessly upset that it doesn't yet exist as an MtG IP version. Not only does it give Mazirek +2/+0 and menace, making it even harder to block (especially since we're having opponents constantly sacrifice their creatures) but it also forces the defending player to sacrifice a creature before blockers are even declared. If that weren't enough, you create a zombie when they do, giving you even more sacrifice fodder.
Michonne, Ruthless Survivor - She creates two 2/2 zombies when she enters the battlefield. This means that Michonne could be used as another potential creature for the Ashnod's Altar / Nim Deathmantle combo. Having her equipped with the deathmantle will also make her equipment dependent ability relevant although not entirely useful for what the deck wants to accomplish. Curiously enough, Lucille is an excellent equipment for a Michonne deck. This means that you can potentially include both of these cards in your deck if you feel so inclined to.
Necrotic Hex - Having the entire table sacrifice six creatures puts a ton of +1/+1 counters on our creatures. We also get 6 2/2 zombies back for our troubles. Amazing card.
Szat's Will - Has each opponent sacrifice their strongest creature but if we control Mazirek then we will also exile opponents' graveyards and create a bunch of thrull tokens as well. Also an amazing card for the deck.
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools - Not only does he create sacrifice fodder while gaining loyalty but can also be used as a sacrifice outlet to draw cards. Drawing 2 cards is enough since we don't really want to sacrifice Mazirek considering how expensive it is to cast.
Kamahl's Will - Not only can it be used as a removal spell but turning all of our lands into indestructible creatures means more bodies to put +1/+1 counters on. Not necessarily an auto-include in the deck, but it is worth mentioning.
Jeweled Lotus - As mentioned earlier, casting Mazirek is quite costly. This is a no-brainer to include.
Undergrowth Stadium - Finally, another land megacycle is completed. Thanks to this we get a battlebond land for BG decks.
2.2.1 - Without Infinity:
When everyone facepalms at you going infinite.
As I mentioned earlier, infinite combos is frowned upon by many players. That’s okay ‘cause I got you guys covered. I didn’t always play the infinite engines in this deck. However, the cards on their work so well that I felt that I was being too restrictive with the capabilities of the deck by excluding them. However, you can win without going infinite by removing Nim Deathmantle and the creatures that produce tokens by entering and/or leaving the battlefield and/or dying. Here’re some suggestions on what to swap:
Here's my less competitive, more casual, and über budget build. It's very fun to play in a casual pod. However, it's not a weakling either and can easily win in a casual setting without being too mean. This deck is designed under the impression that it will be in a setting with similar decks. Otherwise, don't use it, lol. If you're starting in commander or don't have that much of a budget and want a kooky, uncommon deck, then this is for you! You can also see an explanation of this version of the deck in video form in this episode of "The Brewery" series in my YouTube channel, The Commander Tavern.
3.1.2 - Deck Stats:
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
3.1.3 - Strategy:
The deck is piloted in the same vein as the Creature Matters Build. Most of the support needed for Eggs can be a bit out of budget but there is no shortage of inexpensive creature synergies available to this color combination. However, this deck plays more voltron than its expensive version since all you need to win is to have Mazirek get through with commander damage; having a massive horde is just a bonus. Again, knowledge of how the stack functions is incredibly important with this commander. If you’re unsure as to what to do, a general rule of thumb with Mazirek is to have his trigger be the first thing entering the stack so that it’s the last one leaving the stack.
Voltron
I didn’t mention this before in the previous strategies because the Creature Matters Build is all about swing with a massive army and overwhelming everyone at the table. However, much of the creatures here are for utility or to produce tokens and/or sacrifice triggers. It’s very common to get an incredibly large Mazirek while the other creatures remain smaller in comparison. The priority of the deck is to make sure Mazirek gets fat and is protected. Mazirek gets protected by a multitude of things such as Sylvan Safekeeper, Carapace, Thrull Retainer, etc. Not only do these cheap cards provide protection, but they do it at the cost of sacrificing something or themselves, so they also function as ways to further pump Mazirek. Fallen Ideal also serves to pump Mazirek as well as provide a sacrifice outlet.
Noticeable Budget Substitutes:
Homelands... now that’s an expansion.
The most competitive and efficient way to run this deck is inherently expensive. You need 7 fetches, Crucible of Worlds, Gaea's Cradle, Mana Crypt, etc. That being said, the deck runs extremely well in casual matches and in budget pods. Luckily, you can find a lot of cheap and inexpensive cards that are extremely synergistic with Mazirek. However, if you’re going to invest in all of the fetches you might as well invest in the other cards that make the deck much more competitive.
Though the more useful creatures with persist aren’t budget, Aerie Ouphes is budget and all it needs to go infinite is Mazirek. So, for those who still want a more competitive edge, you can add this card in order to generate an infinite sacrifice trigger engine and produce infinitely many +1/+1 counters. You could even do this if the only legal target is Mazirek. However, note that doing so means that Mazirek won’t survive afterwards.
Most token producers and card advantage is expensive but the cheap ones are cheap because they require more than just mana to use. So, here’s where cards like Carrion, Reprocess, and Fungal Sprouting shine. The choices are pretty self-explanatory when reviewing what each card does in the main build. However, I will explain some great cards that shine enough to be even considered in a casual build that’s not entirely budget. Here’s a highlight reel of some specific cards in the Budget Build:
Champion of Stray Souls: Has built in recursion for itself. Also, it can simultaneously provide reanimation with sacrifice all in the same motion. Amazing!
Emrakul's Evangel: Creates tokens by sacrificing itself along with other creatures. This provides tokens with as many +1/+1 counters on them as creatures sacrificed. So it can take small creatures and replace them with huge monsters.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord: Definitely useful as an alternate wincon. If you sacrifice large enough creatures (which you willl definitely have), it’s an instant win. This is great to bypass annoying pillowforts and other things that prevent getting that sweet combat damage through.
Korozda Guildmage: Produces tokens by sacrificing a nontoken. Amazing when you’re low on creatures; just sacrifice a fatty and get a whole bunch of chump blockers, sacrifice fodder, or potential horde.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: Free creature sacrifice outlet that can potentially get rid of creatures like Avacyn, Angel of Hope in the process. A great card anywhere sacrificing creatures is relevant.
Dark Privilege: Provides a way to regenerate Mazirek via a sacrifice outlet. So it can also pump all your creatures while protecting your commander.
Bloodspore Thrinax: Provides a sacrifice outlet in the form of devour. If not, it’s still useful if you don’t devour anything thanks to Mazirek’s counters. Basically a monoGMaster Biomancer.
Fallen Ideal: Another free creature sacrifice outlet that greatly pumps Mazirek. Although the pump is temporary, the +1/+1 counters from the sacrifices aren’t. Great way to ensure an insta-kill with Mazirek. Fallen Ideal also recovers itself for free so it’s a no-brainer.
Palace Siege: Sheoldred and Meren are out of budget range but this enchantment can very easily be a good budget substitute. With “khans” mode, you get to recover a creature during your upkeep for free.
Phyrexian Reclamation: For a small investment in life and mana, you can recover creatures from your graveyard to your hand.
Fungal Sprouting: When you’ve already got a super huge creature in play, casting this gives you a ridiculous amount of creature tokens.
Reprocess: Maybe the best card of the bunch, it transforms sacrifices into card advantage. With Mazirek in play, your creatures will all benefit from all the permanents sacrificed. Amazing card.
3.1.4 - Piloting the Deck:
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. Most of the cards in the deck are cheap to cast (the deck having an average CMC of less than 3) so as long as you have 3-4 lands and cards to play early game you can stay with that hand. It’s not the best starting hand but at least you won’t be mana screwed. The ideal opening hand has mana rocks and/or mana dorks with at least 3 lands. You don’t really need early game disruption but since most cards are to sacrifice in order to provide value for Mazirek, you want it out as quickly as possible.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 distributing ability. It's quite the bummer to be sacrificing permanents or making opponents sacrifice things without having Mazirek in play. Early game is just basically setting up your board state by producing tokens or by having mana dorks and other small utility creatures that can also take advantage of getting pumped with Mazirek. If you get too early an advantage, an early wrath from an opponent can significantly set you back. So keep that in mind. If you have early access to Inspiring Call, Wail of the Nim, or Wrap in Vigor than make sure to keep some mana open and available should you need to save your creatures.
Mid Game:
It’s okay if the deck has a slow start since it’s not supposed to be used in a cutthroat environment. However, by midgame you should already have some considerably large creatures to put pressure with by attacking, or to deter attack by keeping untapped. Mazirek should also be considerably large and already have some opponents killed off or about to be killed off by commander damage. With a large Mazirek, the easiest way to win is via commander damage. Hardened Scales and Corpsejack Menace can easily cut games in half by doubling and quadrupling the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on creatures.
Late Game:
With so many staxing effects, you should have little to no opposition to deter Mazirek and/or your large creatures from swinging in for the win. Either way, if your opponents also produce many creatures just as fast if not faster, then make sure that Mazirek is able to swing away without being blocked thanks to Rogue’s Passage. If you’re facing pillowfort or control, be sure to save your resources and responses to get rid of those deterrents in order to guarantee that victory. That’s usually ultimately solved by Wave of Vitriol but you can also snipe some particulars thanks to Caustic Caterpillar, Sylvok Replica, Viridian Zealot, etc. If you can’t, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord can pull a win out of nowhere by sacrificing a fatty and killing off the entire table. Thanks, boss!
End Game:
This deck is casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a casual meta, of course). It was also quite a challenge to build this for less than $30. With an ever increasing Mazirek, the clock to victory winds down. If your opponents don’t have flyers, do not refrain from keeping the pressure on them because 21 commander damage gets rid of anyone. Keep that in mind since that is the main way of victory in this deck. Tokens are usually used as chump blocks while you swing away with Mazirek. Even if they were to block Mazirek, you keep eliminating those creatures until inevitably winning the match.
3.1.5 - With a Bit More Budget:
Now relatively accessible. Thanks, Eternal Masters!
As I stated before, the deck is ridiculously cheap but the overall strategy had to be changed a bit in order to not lose synergy between the cards. On budget you don’t have access to fetchlands, choice cards, or format-warping mana rocks. With a bit more budget (but not one as large as getting all the fetches and the very expensive cards) the deck is still achievable. You could potentially build the Creatures Matter Build or the Artifacts Matter Build. I suggest leaving the cheap fetches (panoramas, Evolving Wilds, etc.) and then eventually and little by little get the fetches. So basically, build the decks as is, but if you can’t afford the fetches as well as the other very expensive cards, there are budget options for the mana base.
As for investing in Bayou, Gaea's Cradle, Mishra's Workshop, etc. may be a bit too much for most people (myself included), but here are some suggestions for those:
Another competitive build; this one relies on the tried and true archetype of Eggs. Whereas the Creatures Matter Build makes a large amount of relatively small creatures, this build makes a relatively small amount of incredibly large creatures. Both builds have infinite engines but cracking eggs makes the few creatures in play get amazingly large. Thus, the focus of this build is how to make the most out of artifacts and utility creatures.
The difference in decks is subtle as far as strategy is concerned. Both decks aim to make infinite mana, creatures, +1/+1 counters in order to win by commander damage, combat damage, or combo via Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist (in Creatures Matter) or Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master (in Artifacts Matter) and Bitter Ordeal. Some people like creatures more than other card types and some people like artifacts more than other card types. It’s a classic case of “to-may-to / to-mah-to” as far as Mazirek is concerned. It doesn’t care about what gets sacrificed as long as something gets sacrificed.
The pros (and cons) of the Artifact Matters Build is that it’s way more combo-centric than the Creature Matters Build. There are many more ways to go infinite and to take advantage of that. So you don’t really need so many creatures as long as you’re able to win with an epic Bitter Ordeal, Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master, or a ridiculously large Mazirek. That being said, just like the Creatures Matter Build, I will also give suggestions on how to run this deck without the infinite engines. Since all the cards are amazing on their own, you can simply choose to not go infinite. However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much).
C’mon, you know you have $1,000 just laying around.
Even with excluding Gaea's Cradle, Mishra's Workshop, and Bayou the deck is just generally expensive. Even though the deck runs some very cheap cards that cost less than a quarter, it does run 7 fetchlands and expensive cards in the form of Doubling Season, Mana Crypt, Crucible of Worlds, Living Plane, Scapeshift, etc. and they add up. Since the main strategy of the deck is Eggs, it is possible to considerably lower the price with some minor changes. Of course, the deck won’t run as smoothly, but it should still be well within competitive reach for frugal budgets. Some replacements are for similar effects. Others that have no viable replacement are just replaced with more Eggs.
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.41 Average Cost (as of 10/30/16): $2,195.54
Updates:
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
3.2.3 - Strategy:
Eggs
The bread and I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter of the deck. With so much artifact recursion, this strategy is nuts. Not only do you get to draw a card, but you get mana to reuse the ability when you recover it back. When you combo this with cards like Foundry Inspector, Salvaging Station, etc., things get really crazy. Foundry Inspector helps eggs cost 0 to cast and Salvaging Station brings an egg back everytime a creature dies. Glissa, the Traitor also recovers eggs (and any artifact, for that matter) to your hand when creatures your opponents control die (which is often in a stax deck). When compared to the Creatures Matters Build, the destination is the same (epic quantities of sacrifice triggers) but the journey there is different (creatures versus artifacts). The great thing about these eggs is that they replace themselves. So even if you don’t have Mazirek in play, you can still take advantage of them if you need to draw through the deck. However, with Mazirek in play, it gets ridiculous.
Numberprefixvus
There are creatures that play around with +1/+1 counters combine with token production and all of them are included here in the deck; these being Pentavus, Thopter Squadron, and Triskelavus. The amazing thing about these creatures is that Mazirek adds the +1/+1 counters without them having to play around with the tokens produced. However, note that Thopter Squadron’s ability can only be done as a sorcery. This produces infinite mana and infinite sacrifice triggers. Here’s how you can get an infinite combo thanks to them:
Step 1: Produce a token (pentavite for Pentavus, triskelavite for Triskelavus, etc.). Step 2: Sacrifice that token with either Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks to produce . Step 3: That sacrifice triggers Mazirek, placing a +1/+1 counter on Pentavus (etc.), basically “replacing” the token. Step 4: Repeat from Step 1.
Comboing to Victory
When you can’t win via combat damage, there are alternate wincons which rely on the combo facilitating properties of Mazirek. When you’re able to produce infinite sacrifice triggers, you can win after generating an epic gravestorm for Bitter Ordeal in order to exile all opponents’ decks. With Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master in play, you lower the life from all of your opponents. You could also ping opponents to death with Triskelion and Walking Ballista.
Modular
Very viable in an artifact heavy build since modular is just another way to play around with +1/+1 counters. Modular could be very useful with creating an insane artifact creature army since the deck produces a crazy amount of artifact creature tokens thanks to cards like Pentavus, Triskelavus, Thopter Squadron, etc. With all the recursion, creatures like Arcbound Ravager become especially dangerous since it provides a free sac outlet. Arcbound Reclaimer is also amazing here since it can be abused with the stack. Here’s how:
Step 1. Sacrifice an egg. Have the ability go to the stack. Since sacrificing is part of the cost, the egg will be in the graveyard as the ability enters the stack. Step 2. Have Mazirek’s ability go the the stack. Arcbound Reclaimer gets a +1/+1 counter. Step 3. Respond to the egg’s ability by activating Arcbound Reclaimer’s ability and put the egg you just cracked onto the library. Step 4. The card you draw with the egg’s ability is itself. Doesn’t that blow your mind?
3.2.4 - Piloting the Deck:
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. Most of the cards in the deck are cheap to cast (the deck having an average CMC of less than 4) so as long as you have 3-4 lands and cards to play early game you can stay with that hand. It’s not the best starting hand but at least you won’t be mana screwed. The ideal opening hand has eggs and/or mana rocks with at least 3 lands. You don’t really need early game disruption but since most cards are to sacrifice in order to provide value for Mazirek, you want it out as quickly as possible.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 distributing ability. It's quite the bummer to be cracking eggs and fetches or making opponents sacrifice things without having Mazirek in play. Early game is just basically setting up your board state by laying eggs and casting utility artifacts and creatures like Crucible of Worlds (if you’re lucky), Caustic Caterpillar, etc. If you get too early an advantage, an early wrath from an opponent can significantly set you back. So keep that in mind. If you have early access to Inspiring Call, Golgari Charm, or Wrap in Vigor than make sure to keep some mana open and available should you need to save your creatures.
Mid Game:
Unlike the Creatures Matter Build, the focus of this build is not to amass an army of tokens; it’s to combo out. The few creatures that may be out will be sacrificed in order to disrupt opponents or for your own advantage. However, the combo pieces are easy to acquire with all the digging provided by the deck whether it be cracking eggs or drawing a bunch of cards thanks to The Gitrog Monster. The deck isn’t meant to be intimidating; so you can build your board state until you set up the game-winning combos. If not, you should at least be drawing into responses and disruption.
Late Game:
With so many staxing effects, you should have little to no opposition to deter Mazirek and/or your large creatures from swinging in for the win. Either way, if your opponents also produce many creatures just as fast if not faster, then make sure that Mazirek is able to swing away without being blocked thanks to Rogue’s Passage. If you’re facing pillowfort or control, be sure to save your resources and responses to get rid of those deterrents in order to guarantee that victory. That’s usually ultimately solved by Wave of Vitriol but you can also snipe some particulars thanks to Caustic Caterpillar, Sylvok Replica, Viridian Zealot, etc.
End Game:
With a large enough Mazirek (and effective evasion), you can win the game with commander damage in a single strike. However, the deck has a couple of infinite combos that can be worked around in different ways so there are multiple manners to set up wins. You could kill with lifeloss thanks to Marionette Master and/or Disciple of the Vault along with infinitely recurring eggs or with infinitely recycling tokens with Pentavus, Triskelavus, and/or Thopter Squadron. Even then, if you can’t win via commander damage, combat damage, or lifeloss, you could always use the infinite sacrifice triggers and cast an epic Bitter Ordeal for the win.
3.2.5 - Card by card analysis:
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
Mana Crypt - Produces for free which allows for a very early Mazirek casting if you have it in your opening hand or draw it within the first 3 turns.
Animation Module - Wow, where to begin? This card is just beyond words here. Mazirek's ability is global, meaning that with enough mana you could produce a token for 1 each. Combined with Gaea's Cradle you could potentially double the amount of creatures you have by a single sacrifice trigger. This card is quite literally a token making machine.
Chromatic Sphere - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and colored mana.
Chromatic Star - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and colored mana.
Conjurer’s Bauble - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and moving a card from the graveyard to the bottom of the deck.
Expedition Map – I consider it to be an egg since it’s a 1 that can sacrifice itself for profit. You don’t draw a card but you search your deck for any land. So basically, the “draw” is a land of your choosing.
Mana Vault - Produces for a mere 1. This allows for a turn-2 Mazirek. Once Mazirek is cast and protected, the 1 life of damage is negligible until you can pay the upkeep cost. More often than not this is simply a one-time deal. It's also a permanent which can be sacrificed later on when needed (so it's better than Dark Ritual, in this case).
Nihil Spellbomb - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and exiling a graveyard.
Scrabbling Claws - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and exiling a card from a graveyard. This egg is also quite disruptive on as is without the sacrifice.
Fellwar Stone - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped and is capable of producing any colored mana. Green and black are very common colors in commander so you’re bound to get useful colored mana to use.
Golgari Signet - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped and is capable of producing colored mana in Mazirek’s colors.
Mind Stone - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped. It may produce only but it can still sacrifice itself for card draw so it’s great in a pinch.
Thought Vessel - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped. It may produce only but it has a built-in Spellbook effect which is useful with all the cards this deck draws into.
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Basically Ashnod's Altar for artifacts (though it costs 1 more). You sacrifice an artifact, which triggers so many other cards (for free, to boot!), and get for your troubles. Part of the infinity engine combo with Mazirek and creatures like Pentavus, Triskelavus, and Thopter Squadron.
Smokestack - The card for which the archetype is named after. Not only is this an artifact that can be sacrificed for profit (or recurred if lost), but it’s an amazing sacrifice outlet. With lots of tokens to feed to it, opponents can soon find themselves having to sacrifice lands for want of having nothing else.
Trading Post - This card provides a lot of diversity; all of its functions are useful. That being said, the best ones for this deck are the one that produces a goat token, the one that recovers an artifact, and the one where you can draw card for sacrificing an artifact.
Cauldron of Souls - Helps recover from wraths like Wrath of God, Damnation, and the like, since your creatures can’t regenerate from them. Also, helps to combo out since the -1/-1 counters from persist cancel out with the +1/+1 counters provided by Mazirek.
Tamiyo’s Journal - Creates an egg during each of your upkeep. Has the added bonus of being a tutor for any card if you sacrifice three clue tokens to it.
Mycosynth Lattice - Makes every permanent into an artifact. This becomes ridiculous when you cast Wave of Vitriol. Bonus points for using Cauldron of Souls in response to recover all your creatures afterwards, while your opponents are left with an empty table. It’s also amazing in that you can use any mana as any color since most of the mana produced in the deck is colorless. Also, having all your permanents be artifacts is that much better for cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks.
Salvaging Station - Excellent way of recovering eggs; especially when your opponents (and your own) creatures are constantly dying.
Darksteel Forge - I would consider this a staple to any artifact deck. Sure, it doesn’t prevent sacrifices to cards like Wave of Vitriol, but at least you get to control when your artifacts get destroyed. So it’s definitely helpful against an opponents Austere Command or Shatterstorm.
Creatures:
Walking Ballista - Basically an easier to cast and manage Triskelion. The great thing about it is the flexibility. It can be an easier to cast Triskelion or a great mana sink.
Caustic Caterpillar - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. The good thing about this larva stage is that you can sac it for cheap in order to get rid of an annoying enchantment or artifact.
Viridian Zealot - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. It's more expensive to cast than Caustic Caterpillar but other than that it's basically the same thing.
Elf Replica - An overcosted but easier to cast Viridian Zealot. Being an artifact creature is one of the reasons it’s included since it can trigger both cards that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
Fleshbag Marauder - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
Foundry Inspector - Reduces the casting costs of all of your artifacts by 1, meaning that your eggs are free to cast. On top of that, it’s an artifact creature so it benefits from Mazirek’s +1/+1 counters and if it dies or gets sacrificed, it triggers both abilities that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
Glissa, the Traitor - Not only is she one of the best blockers in the game, but she can also recur your artifacts. Opponents’ creatures are constantly dying thanks to all the stax effects so your bound to be cracking eggs at an amazing pace thanks to Phyrexian Glissa.
Merciless Executioner - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
Sylvok Replica - An overcosted but easier to cast Viridian Zealot. Being an artifact creature is one of the reasons it’s included since it can trigger both cards that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan - With this card out, any creature that gets sniped will just have its +1/+1 shifted onto another creature. The great thing is that, when combined with +1/+1 counter doublers (like Corpsejack Menace and its ilk), those counters are doubled. Definitely deters opponents from sniping other creatures while Reyhan is still in play. You can also benefit from all of the sacrifices made since the +1/+1 counters on those creatures aren’t wasted. Reyhan basically gives all your creatures modular but instead of for artifact creatures, it's for any of your creatures.
Tireless Tracker - Landfall is not a theme in this deck and although the main strategy isn't eggs, this guy produces eggs. Thanks to fetches, you get 2 clue tokens. Thanks to Splendid Reclamation and Scapeshift you get a extravagant amount of clue tokens - enough to make Sherlock Holmes proud.
Arcbound Reclaimer - By simply removing a +1/+1 counter from it you can topdeck any artifact in your graveyard. It also has modular so when it dies it can give its +1/+1 counters to another artifact creatures. With solid understanding of the stack, you can also use it to recover any egg you just cracked (explained in detail in the Strategies Section).
Corpsejack Menace - Cheaper to cast than Mazirek so you can have it in play before. The replacement effect makes games go twice as fast because it helps Mazirek (and your creatures) grow much faster by doubling the amount of +1/+1 placed on them. In games with this in play, cards like Barter in Blood become insane.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - With all our creatures dying, you can get quite a lot of experience counters. Thanks to Meren we can effectively reanimate cards like Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, any utility creature like Caustic Caterpillar, or any other creature for that matter because the amount or experience counters easily reaches the double digits.
Archfiend of Depravity - Casting this makes players with an epic boardstate extremely nervous. Although it triggers at the end of each opponent's turn, it's still enough for those players to want to get rid of it or try to eliminate you before. Should it survive until an opponent's end step, prepare for a ton of sacrifice triggers. This card is also mega oppressive with Living Plane in play. Many games have I left opponents either scooping or with just 2 lands in play.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - When used purely as a tutor, it's too expensive. However, it's a tutor on a body with a sacrifice trigger all rolled into one. Similar to Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, I sacrifice it to itself when using the ability. It's better for it to die in order to be recurred or reanimated than to stay in play. The deck doesn't usually require tutoring for combo pieces, but I basically use BSidisi to look for any answers for things opponents have that will impede my victory. When it's possible to quickly assemble all combo pieces, then that's what you should tutor for, since that's also game-ending.
Sly Requisitioner - Not only does tapping artifacts pay for its casting cost, but it creates tokens whenever an artifact you control is sent to the graveyard. Meaning that every egg cracked replaces itself with a 1/1 Servo. When the triggers are placed accordingly on the stack (with Mazirek in play), the Servo enters the battlefield with the +1/+1 counter.
The Gitrog Monster - The synergy this card has is ridiculous. It gives so much value to fetches and lands like Strip Mine. It's also Exploration on a body and a free land sacrifice trigger each of your upkeeps. Casting Scapeshift with this is play is amazing. It's important to keep in mind how you arrange the triggers on the stack in order to take the most advantage out of The Gitrog Monster (as well as Mazirek).
Marionette Master - It's a great artifact creature token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it. The good thing about fabricate is that I can also have it enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters since with Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, and Doubling Season it will enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it. If that weren’t enough, it’s a more broken Disciple of the Vault since instead of having an opponent lose 1 life, they life in the amount of power Marionette Master has.
Triskelion - With infinite +1/+1 counters comes infinite damage thanks to Triskelion. So, combined with any infinite sacrifice engine and Mazirek, you can simply ping all opponents to death for free.
Pentavus - A floating robot train to Value Town, this produces artifact creature tokens while also providing a built-in sacrifice outlet for said tokens. With Mazirek in play and infinite mana, infinite tokens and sacrifice triggers can be achieved. Part of an infinite combo with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod's Altar.
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Reanimation and stax all on a large body. Not only that, but since she has swampwalk and the deck runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, she can be a wincon on her own if she's large enough. A very versatile creature. Again, the hefty casting cost is not so limiting since the deck produces a lot of mana.
Triskelavus - A flying robot stingray to Value Town, this produces artifact creature tokens while also providing a built-in sacrifice outlet for said tokens. With Mazirek in play and infinite mana, infinite tokens and sacrifice triggers can be achieved. Part of an infinite combo with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod's Altar.
Enchantments:
Awakening Zone - Not only does it provide a creature token each of your upkeeps, but the tokens can self-sacrifice themselves providing and a sacrifice trigger.
From Beyond - A slightly more expensive Awakening Zone, the +1/+0 boost in eldrazi scions when compared to eldrazi spawns is negligible since the tokens are either being sacrificed for mana, used as chump blockers, or will become pumped with +1/+1 counters. So that +1/+0 difference doesn’t matter here. What does matter is that you’re getting a free token at the beginning of each of your upkeeps.
Living Plane - In this deck this card is extremely oppressive. Since it makes all lands creatures, it helps you out with giving them +1/+1 counters but it harms opponents in a severe way. Whenever you make opponents sacrifice creatures, if they have no actual creatures in play, they start losing lands. This is not merely for use as a mass land destruction device; you take a lot of advantage out of having your lands be creatures as well.
Doubling Season - An absurd card that provides so much advantage it’s ridiculous. It doubles the amount of loyalty counters of planeswalkers that enter the battlefield. It doubles the amount of tokens that are produced. And, most important of all, it doubles the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on your creatures.
Spells:
Golgari Charm - Although point of charms all throughout MtG has been to give a player options when casting, I usually use this card for its regenerative option. Wraths can really set you back so when they don’t have the “can’t be regenerated” clause, Golgari Charm can really help out.
Heroic Intervention - A great protection spell that grants indestructibility and hexproof at instant speed. It only costs 1G to boot!
Wrap in Vigor - Again, as explained with Golgari Charm, can help save your creatures from a wrath that allows for regeneration.
Bitter Ordeal - One of the alternate wincons in the deck, with an infinite amount of sacrifice triggers, you could basically deck every opponent at the table.
Inspiring Call - This is a very versatile card in that it can save your creatures from wraths but can also fill your hand in a pinch. I usually use it more to protect my creatures but when I need responses and my hand is empty, this has been known to help me out tremendously.
Scapeshift - Another broken card in this deck. You get as many sacrifice outlets as lands you use for it, plus you get a lot of lands entering the battlefield as well. When combined with Splendid Reclamation you can get a lot of lands in play very quickly.
Splendid Reclamation - Have been in love with this card since it was spoiled. This card is just amazing; you recover all your lands. This combos great when sacrificing lands to Scapeshift or sacrificing lands as creatures thanks to Living Plane.
Wave of Vitriol - This card has singlehandedly won me so many games. Most EDH decks run more than their fair share of nonbasic lands. Not only that, but artifacts and enchantments can be particular disruptive to our main strategy of winning by combat. This card gets rid of all of that all by sacrificing and by sacrificing all of that just triggers more and more for Mazirek.
Lands:
Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
Ghost Quarter - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. Sure, it gives the opponent a chance to get a basic land, but the trade off is still worth it.
Inventors' Fair - The life gain is negligible but still nice to have. However, the main point of this land is sacrifice (which Mazirek and The Gitrog Monster love) in order to tutor the deck for any artifact. Too useful not to include.
Mishra's Workshop - Unless you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play, this land can only provide mana to cast artifacts. That being said, it provides to cast artifacts by only tapping it. Ridiculous. The amount of advantage this land generates is beyond words, especially in a deck devoted to artifacts.
Reliquary Tower - Sometimes you have too fat a hand and having this land in the deck is not a hindrance.
Rogue’s Passage - Producing in an artifact heavy deck isn’t any kind of hindrance, especially when it’s a two-colored deck. However, thanks to this land Mazirek gets in an unblockable smack. Mazirek grows ridiculously large ridiculously fast since eggs are cheap to cast, crack, and recur. Too many times have I eliminated an opponent early on thanks to this land.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Provides B all while also giving Mazirek fear. Fear is a good additional evasion even though it already has flying. As mentioned before, Mazirek gets ridiculously large ridiculously fast with this particular build. So giving it all evasion possible means eliminating opponents early on.
Strip Mine - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. It can also get rid of basic lands if you need to be evil and color-screw an opponent.
Swarmyard - Regenerates Mazirek by merely tapping. It also provides and doesn’t come into play tapped. Overall a great land to have.
Throne of the High City - Being the monarch is not a focus of the deck nor is it a secondary theme of any kind of anything. It’s just a neat way to get a free card draw at the end of each turn. With so many chump blockers you can maintain monarch status for a long time, as well. Honestly, the reason I added this land is because of needing to be sacrificed. It provides a sacrifice trigger for Mazirek and a draw trigger for The Gitrog Monster. So, it’s not such a useless inclusion.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Makes all lands provides B meaning that you can tap fetches for mana. It also makes utility lands give colored mana instead of just .
Wasteland - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves.
Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince - Can create tokens in a pinch (the most expensive way to produce tokens in the deck) but the transformation cost is awesome: 5 creatures to make a 9/7 with flying, lifelink, indestructible, and haste. It may seem winmore but it’s on a land. So it’s no problem to include in a two-colored deck. Also, it still has a sacrifice outlet in order to transform. Ormendahl is also a great creature since it’s indestructible and has lifelink. So it’s a great blocker and if anyone wraths, you can transform Westvale Abbey in response, get a lot of +1/+1 counters on it, and then have a large creature to attack with next turn. It’s great.
Yavimaya Hollow - Similar to Swarmyard except it can regenerate any type of creature with an investment of G.
------------------------------------------------------- Lands Just for Sacrifice Triggers:
As I mentioned earlier, infinite combos is frowned upon by many players. That’s okay ‘cause I got you guys covered. There are so many different ways to achieve infinity in the deck that it’s kind of difficult to make all the cuts to make it not reach infinity. Since the loop is controlled, you can always just not go to infinity. Yet, since some people still consider that infinite, here’re some suggestions on what to swap:
Without going to infinity, Bitter Ordeal is not as broken as to warrant inclusion. In order to recover more eggs, more eggs are swapped in as well as artifact creatures that can recur artifacts when they die. I feel that the deck is still a solid contender without the cards that allow for reaching infinity and these swaps just make the overall strategy more consistent.
As previously mentioned, the deck has gone through quite a lot of changes. Recently, most of these changes haven't been as paramount as having the need for two different builds, but I do discuss them in great detail throughout the thread. I've discussed all the cards cut, considered, and used through this post, but if you still desire more information - particularly on what has been cut via testing, here are some link discussing cuts:
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + [creature that creates one creature token when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + [creature that creates two creature tokens when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers & infinite
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + [creature that creates at least three creature tokens when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers & infinite & infinite creature tokens
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + [creature that produces at least 2 mana when dying or entering the battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Nim Deathmantle + [artifact creature that creates one artifact token when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Nim Deathmantle + [artifact creature that creates two artifact tokens when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers & infinite
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Nim Deathmantle + [artifact creature that creates at least three artifact tokens when entering battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers & infinite & infinite creature tokens
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Nim Deathmantle + [artifact creature that produces at least 2 mana when dying or entering the battlefield] = infinite sacrifice triggers
Summoning Station + Salvaging Station + [egg with cmc<2 that's free to crack] + [creature sacrifice outlet] = infinite sacrifice triggers
The early version of the deck. The reason this deck has changed so much is because I eventually realized how futile it was to jam every single possible synergistic combination into the deck. There’s just so much to do. So I stopped trying to find a balance in one deck and designed 2 different decks showcasing various strategies. Every single card I've cut, considered, tested, hypothesize, or anything else related to being useful in the deck is discussed in one way or the other throughout this post (most of them being within the decks themselves of the Honorable Mention section of the Card by Card Analysis section.
The birth of my Eggs version of the deck which eventually evolved into the Artifact Matters Build. Eggs alone wasn’t cutting it so it evolved into a combo-centric build based around artifact abuse. The problem with Eggs was finding that balance between all of the elements in the deck. It was too inconsistent; there was either too many creatures and not enough sacrifice outlets to take advantage of Mazirek's ability or there was too many eggs and not enough creatures to benefit. So I decided to not make it completely devoted to eggs. However, with some slight changes without changing the overall concept, the point was to use a small number of creatures to combo out with thanks to the cheapness and recursiveness of the eggs. Thus, the Artifact Build came to fruition.
Added infinite combos to all three versions of the deck. However, since I hope to make this into a primer, I also provided the changes that were made in order to revert the decks to their non-infinite combo versions. All infinite combos and the reversions are discussed throughout each of the three versions.
Finally able to write up the main post in primer fashion! Hopefully it’s useful to absolutely anyone interested in anything that’s possible with Mazirek. It was quite a lot of work but I feel it was worth it. Mazirek is not a commander where I can simply post my own strategy and call it a primer. A primer is supposed to help anyone interested in it. With so much synergy and various strategies, I discuss in great detail how I play it and why as well as anything anyone else may find interesting. Thanks for reading it all!
Finally obtained [Primer] status!
I hope my thread can continue to serve as a guide to those looking into this commander and/or the many strategies it enables. I love this deck so I will definitely continue to work on it as more magic sets and new cards continue to come out. Mazirek is a very versatile commander so it took me quite a while to test so many things and compile even more things into the comprehensive primer you have before you. So I hope it's of good use to the community.
Once again, thanks to all those who've had any kind of interest and input in my thread!
”I literally make eggs. Where's my functional reprint?”
Welgo: for continued interest in my thread since Nov. 2015 and for being an invaluable resource for all things Mazirek.
RedGauntlet: continued interest in my thread since Nov. 2015 and plenty of useful feedback.
Besjbo: for reminding me that fetchlands are supposed to go in a deck like this - yeah, it was that important.
Hunding Gjornersen: for inspiring the Über Budget Build.
WizardMN: for clearing up how sacrifice triggers as part of activated costs work with Mazirek.
all the Cockatrice players who've been making suggestions and observations ever since I've been playing this deck online way back since the beginning of its conception (particularly users 359763432 and Gidix).
The EDH Primer Committee for both helping me shape this into the guide it is and recognizing my effort with the much sought after [Primer] tag! Thanks!
The Commander Rules Committee for temporarily unbanning most silver-bordered cards from 12/01/2017 - 01/15/2018. That gave me 45 days of testing silver-bordered cards for Mazirek. Organ Harvest was epic!
And all of you reading for your interest, curiosity, suggestions, and attention!
Please let me know of any errors, typos, etc.! I want to keep this very presentable!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I'm going a more tokens approach, using stuff like Army of the Damned and Spider Spawning to amass an army, sac around half of them with a Grave Pact effect out, and go to town. I like your approach, though. Maybe a blend of the two could work...
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Well, just to help you put into perspective just how dangerous Mazirek can be, lemme shine you in on the recent game I played (3DH):
I cast Awakening Zone turn 2 (with the help of a mana dork) helping me cast Mazirek turn 3. Turn 4 I cast Evolutionary Leap and Phyrexian Altar. Turn 5 I sacrificed the Eldrazi Spawn token to Evolutionary Leap and scored Puppeteer Clique. Next turn I cast Puppeteer Clique and produced infinite mana. I was able to cast every single creature from my deck thanks to Evolutionary Leap and made Mazirek so large that everyone else just scooped. The fact that Blood Artist and the like meant that indefinite sacrifices would automatically win me the game. It was surprisingly amazing. Of course, it just blind luck scoring a persist creature so early in the game along with some sweet, sweet sac outlets, but it just goes to show the insanity that is Mazirek.
I do like your take on stax/denial concept however it seems like something that could be done regardless of having Mazirek as your general. However, we are in the correct in seeing the danger that is Mazirek.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I'm still on the fence with Viscera Seer because I was also running Catacomb Sifter but found it lackluster. However, Viscera Seer is sac outlet and library filter all in one. I'll have to test to see. What could I cut for it?
Also, the reason I run Thunderfoot Baloth is not just or the +2/+2 to all my creatures, but it also gives all my creatures trample. What's the point of having so many fatties when they can get chump blocked? Trample has been key in this deck. I understand how Demon of Wailing Agonies can cause a player to sac a creature, but it doesn't trump Thunderfoot Baloth just for that; this is a wincon. Trample has been so key that I'm also considering adding Nylea, God of the Hunt to the deck.
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What I really need is haste-enabling on a body! Apparently the only creature in BG that could give more than one creature haste is Mogis's Marauder. Technically, it's limited to your devotion to black, so I'll just cast it last to give enough infinity/infinity creatures haste to kill off any and all opponents. Score! Now all I gotta do is find what to cut for it, lol.
As far as cuts go, I'm considering cutting Grave Betrayal for Viscera Seer. Grave Betrayal is too expensive to cast and by the time I can abuse it I've already won, lol. Viscera Seer is a free sac outlet that lets me "filter" my draws, somewhat. So it's a good swap, I think. Now I just gotta find a slot for Mogis's Marauder...
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I run Concordant Crossroads in my (still under construction) Mazirek deck. It's not a creature, but it's super cheap to cast! It does grant everyone's creatures haste, sadly, but I wouldn't use it unless I was swinging for the hills that turn anyway.
That cards more useful in super aggro decks where you can take the most advantage out of it. The only creatures I need tapping when entering are the mana dorks. Everything else can wait a turn. Besides, Mazirek ends up giving a ridiculous amount of commander damage. All I gotta do is make sure my victim doesn't have any flyers and it's game over. I've gotten not only Mazirek but a healthy amount of other creatures as well to significantly high p/t's quite early in the game. As long as I have a well-timed Wrap in Vigor or Golgari Charm I'm pretty much set.
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What about running stuff like Smallpox or Death Cloud? I want to try them out along with creatures that leave a body when they die (Pawn of Ulamog, Rotlung Reanimator, Xathrid Necromancer, Symbiotic Wurm, Hangarback Walker...) as they seem insane.
@Welgo:
I run both instants because redundancy. A single Wrap in Vigor type effect in a 99-card deck without tutors is pretty worthless.
@Inchtall:
I've considered Akroma's Memorial but the protection from black may hinder me in the end if I want to target my own creatures with something that's black.
@Stranger:
I have considered using sacrifice spells and actually have them in a maybe board yet the point of having Mazirek is to pump your creatures when things get sacrificed. So the more creatures you have the more advantages you can get out of those situations. Also, enchantments are permanently causing players to sacrifice things constantly, so that trumps the one-time-only effect of a spell. So that's where I've been taking the deck. Maybe when you build yours with those spells you can help compare the outcomes when testing. For the moment, I've found that permanents have been the way to go - more consistent. I'm also considering adding Smokestack to the deck though it may make me an instant target, lol.
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I swear on my life it wasn't there when I had just looked. I thought you were only running vigor, my mistake.
Lol, no problem. You made me second-guess if I'd placed it in the list or omitted it by accident - it happens. I was also running Wail of the Nim but it's too expensive and three's a crowd.
Just played a game against a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant (so my Fellwar Stone was very happy) and a Shattergang Brothers, which was automatically my friend - much to his begrudgenment. So I was targeting Sidisi since turn 0 and Shattergang Bros. was targeting me since turn 0 since whatever he'd do, it'd be way more beneficial to me that to himself. So it was basically a 2-on-1. Luckily, I had great mana advantage early game against my opponents so I was able to get ahead fairly quickly. I was able to take out Sidisi with my commander due to him lacking aerial blockers, subsequently losing to commander damage. By the time Shattergang Bros. got his groove on, I already had ways of producing multiple tokens each upkeep so his stax strategy wouldn't hinder me in the slightest - only benefitting me. So Shattergang Bros. was basically prohibited from doing anything until he eventually got commander damaged from my Marizek. I admit I was very lucky that game to go against Shattergang Bros. Word of caution to those Shattergang Bros. commander decks out there: BEWARE MAZIREK!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I know, right? Mazirek is a built-in stax/voltron commander. It's pretty hard to be one without the other in this deck. My build is more Voltron/Stax/Tokens, though the Voltron comes as a consequence of being Stax. My build has sprinkles of Combo thanks to the persist package. However, a more dedicated deck to this package can pretty much make this deck a consistent Voltron/Stax/Tokens/Combo hybrid. Mindblowing, I know...
I haven't won every single match I've played with it but I've pretty much won a great majority. Color fixing's not a problem in a bi-colored deck and mana rocks and mana dorks help with acceleration. Sometimes the deck runs out of steam if cards keep coming up in different order but once you get even the beginning of any engine out, you're good to go. Smothering Abomination nets me so many cards it's ridiculous - especially when I'm producing a butt-load of Eldrazi Spawn and Eldrazi Scion tokens. Thanks to all the token produces that pop out a token for free during each upkeep, I can keep Smokestack on a solid number between 5-6 counters. It gets pretty nuts. People usually scoop after they end up sacrificing 6 lands before anyone has a chance to take it out. By then I've already killed someone from commander damage. Swarmyard had been so clutch to regenerate Mazirek so thanks for recommending it! It has saved it from everything not -X/-X and the occasional Wrath of God or Damnation.
This deck could also be run an a reanimator. I'd almost forgotten that. Many a time I sacrifice just about everything to massively pump Mazirek and then eventually get it all back into play. It That Betrays and Grave Betrayal have been awesome with the Stax setup. So my build has also a pinch of reanimator in it - it does have B after all.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Cards I'm considering adding:
During some playtesting I got the idea for adding creatures that give a lot of tokens when they die. That way, if I sacrifice one, I then have a lot more to sacrifice in order to considerably pump Mazirek for the the kill. Here's a list of some potential candidates (each chosen either due to mana cost or amount of tokens made):
Liege of Hollows gives me as many Squirrel tokens as I can pay for. Other opponents could take advantage as well but it matters not when they're dying from commander damage that same combat step.
With token doublers out, Mitotic Slime can produce a ridiculous amount of tokens which Mazirek is gonna love when they get sacrificed.
Hangarback Walker and Hooded Hydra can make a ridiculous amount of tokens with Doubling Season and Primal Vigor out (or both!) being as the value of X is basically quadrupled (the amount of +1/+1 counters is doubled when they enter play and the amount of tokens is double that when they die). If anything, these are the two I'm seriously considering adding. Also, if opponents love wrathing mid-late game, having a pumped Hangarback Walker of Hooded Hydra may deter them until the find ways to get around them.
The others simply produce some nice body advantage when the main card dies, so it should still be interesting to test. However, the decklist is getting tighter as we speak and I may not find too much space for them.
Cards I'm considering cutting: It That Betrays: though great on paper, there's rarely been a game where I could take advantage of it. It's too expensive to cast and I'd need discard outlets to have the deck be even more reanimator than it already is. When my ramp game has been strong, I've been able to cast it to much success and pretty much guarantee the win. However, if I cut Grave Betrayal for being too expensive and it basically does the same (as far as creatures are concerned) then I guess I can cut It That Betrays.
Deathreap Ritual is a great card. However, it didn't generate as much card advantage as I wanted. It's been great in my Shattergang Brothers deck but that's because it's pure stax; this deck isn't.
Grave Betrayal was just too expensive to take advantage of. The only way I could reasonably and play this was when I had tons of mana rocks and mana dorks since early game or at least had a Black Market with tons of counters on it. Otherwise, it would just weigh in my hand. It had to go for something better.
Acidic Slime is a great card - one of the best versatile cards for G ever printed. For this deck however it was too expensive. Viridian Zealot on the other hand, can be sacrificed to do 66.6% of what Acidic Slime can do and it has a sacrifice trigger. That alone was the call for the change.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari was too conditional. Most of the creatures I'm sacrificing are colorless Eldrazi tokens giving me no advantage of Savra. And even if I did sacrifice another type of creature, I already had the engine going to win. She looked great on paper but performed poorly in practice. Had she a built in sacrifice outlet would be a totally different story.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I considered Aerie Ouphes since it sacrifices itself and it has persist. That'll more than likely find a home. Sylvan Safekeeper is another one I'm considering since I can just sac all lands and land the final blow. Death Cloud and Wave of Vitriol seem pretty vicious but it also hurts me as well. Golgari Germination proved to be too slow for a slot. Inspiring Call could be good in response to a wrath... I may even try to squeeze in Wail of the Nim in order to at least have 4 cards to deal with wraths.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
So managed to play with a mazirek deck, still in construction but damm it was really brutal.In 2 games i used Death Cloud with him been the lone creature on the field so yeah it was game right there.In the thirds game where we had 6 people playing was interesting to note that Mazirek deck is really subtle, thee deck doesn't draw as mutch hate as the Kaalia deck because the deck doesn't feature huge threats juts some silly and weak creatures that synergizes incredibly well with Mazirek.Flesh Carver and Jarad did work in this match managed to use Jarad to sacrifice Flesh Carver and Mazirek to kill every player at one swoop.
The deck might be abit too reliant on the commander but he has a huge payoff turning your small creatures to huge threats.This guy is really strong
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The death priest Mazirek occupies a high position in the rigid caste system of the insectile kraul of Ravnica. He leads the buzzing chants of the kraul rites, invoking the essence of decay to keep the great wheel of life and death turning.
1. Why play this commander?
5. Appendix
6. Change Log
7. Acknowledgments
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is one of the most versatile commanders out there. It provides support for many strategies either on their own or simultaneously. You can build it catering to voltron, tokens, +1/+1 counters, stax, stompy, any combination of these, or all of the above! This provides for so many possible combinations (31, to be exact!) that it would be overwhelming to discuss them all. However, even though there is no best way to play Mazirek, I will guide every type of strategy along with why I’ve gone with the builds I’ve stuck to. This is a very customizable general, to say the least.
Thus, you’ll enjoy playing with Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest if you:
- like punishing everyone at the table
- like having multiple strategies to choose from
- like being able to amass a huge army
- like to play with non-linear strategies
- like combo decks
- like abusing the stack
However, you won’t enjoy playing with Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest if you:Mazirek is not necessarily a graveyard general but due to it having synergy with so many different strategies, there are other BG generals out there that make it easier to pilot – especially those that deal with tokens, sacrificing, and stax.
”What gives? Am I not queen of the Golgari?”
Now, playing Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest obviously has its pros and cons depending on what you're facing. I've been playing this deck for quite some time and have found that there are some clearly beneficial decks to go against and some clearly detrimental decks to go up against. Since I don't feel that it's that black and white since there are some grey areas, I will explain them all in greater detail. For a quick summary as to how your match-ups should go, see below.
”Ugh! Not Mazirek again!”
* Mid-Range: Depending on the tempo, mid-range could be a pretty epic battle - these are the decks I prefer facing against. Mazirek is not necessarily mid-range since you can get a large army of fatties fairly quickly, but most games are won after turn 5 since Mazirek does cost 3BG to cast. I’ve been able to cast Mazirek as early as turn 2 thanks to mana dorks and Mana Vault, but it’s not common. Mid-range doesn’t pose much of a threat either because of the stax element. If you’re consistently depriving opponents of creatures, there’s little in the ways of threats that mid-range decks can do against you.
* Aggro: Blurry fast decks can be a problem since this deck doesn’t have much by ways of gaining life (unless you include Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist (more on that later)). Aggro decks love their creatures also so they’ll probably want to take you out before you get online. If you use the token route you should be able to at least amass some chump blockers that can eventually get very large thanks to Mazirek. In the long run, unless you’re ganged up by other players, aggro doesn’t pose much of a threat. I’ve faced many aggro decks before and I’m usually online before I’m killed. It’s the vultures you have to worry for. Once that aggro threat has passed, someone may come in to take you out when you’re in the red-flashing heart-zone.
* Milling: This isn’t a common strategy in EDH but there are those who run these decks. Milling can be annoying if your recovery pieces are milled away (like Splendid Reclamation, Eternal Witness, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, etc.). If you have The Gitrog Monster in play and are milled, it can be a two-edged sword because when you draw a card for each land milled, you get answers; however, when you draw a card for each land milled, your deck can get dangerously short. I wouldn’t worry too much about milling since most of the cards in the deck are there for redundancy so you should be able to amass an army of fatties and decimate your opponents. If Splendid Reclamation isn’t milled then you can at least recover your lands which would totally sadden the milling player. With a stompy army you don’t need a lot of turns to play so even if your deck is dangerously slim, you still have an opportunity to win the match.
So I heard you like playing stax...
* Creature Hate: One would think that creature hate wouldn’t pose much of a threat to a BG deck. However, the deck does rely on its commander so getting it consistently killed/exiled can be a problem - especially when your commander costs 3BG. Also, it can be quite the bummer to have your army of creatures that dwarf eldrazis become obliterated by wraths. The reason creature hate is a neutral threat is because we have ways of protecting Mazirek and our creatures plus ways of recurring creatures in the graveyard. Yavimaya Hollow and Swarmyard help save Mazirek from destruction that allows regeneration. Wrap in Vigor, Wail of the Nim, and Golgari Charm regenerate all of our creatures. Eldrazi Monument and Inspiring Call make them indestructible. Sheoldred, Whispering One and Meren of Clan Nel Toth help recover creatures from the graveyard. In short, creature hate is only a problem if you don’t have responses when you really need them; it’s not a problem if you have responses when you need them. Also, players tend to hold on to their wraths with Nature's Revolt or Living Plane out; any wrath then becomes Devastation. Additionally, cards like Cauldron of Souls can recover all of your creatures after a board wipe. Even though your creatures will return with a -1/-1 counter, Mazirek takes care of that by neutralizing it with a +1/+1 counter. If your meta is very wrath-heavy, cards like Living Death, Living End, and Rise of the Dark Realms could be considered, as well. Losing tokens can be a problems thanks to wraths, but regenerating them or giving them indestructible prevents you from losing them.
* Pillow Fort: Could be annoying by preventing you from going all alpha strike with your huge creatures. There are answers to pillow fort such as Nullmage Shepherd, Bane of Progess, and Wave of Vitriol. Wave of Vitriol is my favorite card for getting rid of enchantments and artifacts because players have to sacrifice them. Even if you find yourself facing off against a brutal pillow fort, you can always just win by combo (more on that later) so you don’t need to win by combat damage alone. Mazirek has a plethora of strategies at its disposal so there are alternate wincons.
* Graveyard Hate: This can pose a problem if you’re running the Artifact Build. That build is devoted to recurring artifacts from the graveyard. It would follow that if you’re playing the Eggs strategy and an opponent is running Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, etc., then it could be a major problem. If you’re running the Artifact Build you must get rid of that player as soon as possible. If you’re running the Creature Build, you’re simply prevented from winning by the combo route since you won’t be able to recur any creatures to go to infinity (or at least enough times to get some huge creatures). The deck does run its fair share of artifact and enchantment removal. So, as long as you’re able to obtain your responses in a timely manner, you should be fine. Either way, if your meta is keen on graveyard hate then you can add more cards in the vein of getting rid of all artifacts and enchantments.
”Mazirek, you’re good enough to go solo.”
The deck started as a way to first take advantage of sacrifice interactions. So I played around with persist as well, since a creature with persist will return to battle indefinitely as long as Mazirek is in play. However, I found that that the deck wasn’t consistent. I either had a lot of potential sac triggers but no creatures to take advantage of it. Other times, I had a lot of creatures and no sac triggers to take advantage of it. I tried a lot of different strategies but then found that you could have various simultaneous strategies. Since I couldn’t find a balance between all of them, I decided to devote these strategies to various versions of the deck. Finally, my Mazirek deck was taking shape.
This allowed me to consider all of the different cards and combos which ended up being completely overwhelming. Since I like designing primers and decks that everyone could enjoy playing, I contemplated compiling a strategy guide (so to speak) for Mazirek showcasing all the different ways to play with it. This helped me as well since I would constantly cut and add and swap cards only to do it all over again. It was fun up to a certain point and my pod wouldn’t be able to specifically predict what I’d be doing with the deck. Yet, I stayed with some deck lists that were more my style. Since there’re so many possibilities with Mazirek, I wouldn’t want to impose my style on anyone. So, I decided to go all out and make a true to the title Primer. I will discuss how to make a deck that doesn’t go infinite, a deck to be played on a strict budget, and decks that go all out. Again, it was excruciatingly difficult to have a single deck with every strategy contained within, but if you’re able to do so, I tip my hat to you.
Each build incorporate stax as the main strategy. The difference between them is that the Creatures Matter version is more stompy and less combo while the Artifacts Matter version is more combo and less stompy. Each build will be discussed upon in great detail. I also provide an Über Budget Build since most players probably won’t be able to build a deck with 7 fetchlands, Crucible of Worlds, Gaea's Cradle, Mishra's Workshop, Doubling Season, etc.
Creatures Matter:
Out of the two main builds, this one is my favorite one (don’t tell the other one!) because I like the stompiness. This one is more in-your-face and less combo but it can still be tweaked for full-blown combo as well. The purpose of this deck is to have a lot of tokens and/or many creatures in play to take full advantage of the stax. That way you have a lot of creatures with a significant p/t in order to bring forth a massive wave of attack. Also, stax gets rid of many potential blockers so killing off players with combat damage is this version’s main wincon. Alternate wincons are provided by combo, since an all-out alpha strike is not always possible.
I will also give suggestions on how to run this deck without the infinite engines. Since all the cards are amazing on their own, you can simply choose to not go infinite. However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much).
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Artifacts: 7
0 Mana Crypt
1 Animation Module
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Nim Deathmantle
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Phyrexian Altar
Creatures: 37
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Elvish Reclaimer
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Gyre Sage
2 Viridian Zealot
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Plaguecrafter
3 Ramunap Excavator
3 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Turntimber Sower
4 Armorcraft Judge
4 Bramble Sovereign
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Slum Reaper
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 World Shaper
4 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Krav, the Unredeemed
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 The Gitrog Monster
6 Grave Titan
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Marionette Master
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
8 Woodfall Primus
3 Grave Pact
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
4 Living Plane
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Doubling Season
Planeswalkers: 3
4 Garruk Relentless
5 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
6 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Spells: 11
2 Golgari Charm
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Liliana's Triumph
3 Inspiring Call
2 Smallpox
3 Bitter Ordeal
3 Virtus's Maneuver
4 Pir's Whim
4 Scapeshift
6 Casualties of War
7 Wave of Vitriol
Lands: 37
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bayou
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Command Tower
0 Forest (×5)
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Karn's Bastion
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Nurturing Peatland
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Prismatic Vista
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
0 Strip Mine
0 Swamp (×4)
0 Swarmyard
0 Tainted Wood
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wasteland
0 Westvale Abbey
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Woodland Cemetery
0 Yavimaya Hollow
0 Karn's Bastion
3 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Sacrifice Enablers:
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Smallpox
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Plaguecrafter
4 Grave Pact
4 Slum Reaper
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Krav, the Unredeemed
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Token Production:
0 Westvale Abbey
1 Animation Module
3 Turntimber Sower
4 Bramble Sovereign
6 Grave Titan
6 Marionette Master
Recovery:
2 Nim Deathmantle
3 Eternal Witness
3 Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
3 Ramunap Excavator
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 World Shaper
Mana Acceleration:
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
0 Mana Crypt
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Gyre Sage
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Phyrexian Altar
4 Scapeshift
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Armorcraft Judge
5 The Gitrog Monster
6 Harvester of Souls
Disruption:
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Strip Mine
0 Wasteland
1 Caustic Caterpillar
2 Viridian Zealot
6 Casualties of War
7 Wave of Vitriol
8 Woodfall Primus
Protection:
0 Swarmyard
0 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Golgari Charm
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Inspiring Call
Tutors:
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Prismatic Vista
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
1 Elvish Reclaimer
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Toolbox:
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Virtus's Maneuver
4 Garruk Relentless
4 Living Plane
4 Pir's Whim
4 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
5 Doubling Season
5 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
6 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
3 Bitter Ordeal
5 Puppeteer Clique
Lands for the Mana:
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bayou
0 Command Tower
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Nurturing Peatland
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Tainted Wood
0 Woodland Cemetery
Basics:
0 Forest (×5)
0 Swamp (×4)
You know you can live off of ramen. Buy me...
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.27
Average Cost (as of 10/23/16):
$1,221.24
Budget Choices:
Even with excluding Gaea's Cradle and Bayou the deck is just generally expensive. Even though the deck runs some very cheap cards that cost less than a quarter, it does run 7 fetchlands and expensive cards in the form of Doubling Season, Mana Crypt, Living Plane, Scapeshift, etc. and they add up. Since budget cuts would actually require cutting more than just a couple of cards, I present a budget build that is quite competent and only costs less than $30. That saves you almost $1,200!
Updates:
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
Hey, I heard you like early commander casting.
Even though I’ve discussed how Mazirek allows for many strategies, his +1/+1 counters requires sacrifice triggers. Therefore, the main strategy of them all is stax. Mazirek simply allows you to take advantage of stax whether to combo out, go stompy, voltron, or simply go with extreme denial.
Something that’s very crucial to Mazirek is how to make the most of sacrifice triggers. This is incredibly important; it’s the different between making incredible plays to making ridiculously epic plays. Mazirek’s trigger goes to the stack after sacrifices are made. However, if a sacrifice causes other abilities to trigger at the same time, you choose how they enter the stack. This can be confusing at times but be sure to always remember that what you want to resolve first should be the last thing you place in the stack. The reason this is so important is that it means the difference between getting a lot of tokens in play without +1/+1 counters or getting them all in play with +1/+1 counters. Here’s an example of what I mean:
Let’s say you have a card like Pawn of Ulamog in play so both that ability and Mazirek’s trigger enters the stack. If you put Mazirek’s ability first on the stack, that 0/1 eldrazi spawn token enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it as well as your creatures already in play. If you don’t place them correctly on the stack, any 0/1 eldrazi spawn entering the battlefield won’t get a +1/+1 counter placed on it. Yeah, knowledge of how the stack functions is incredibly important with this commander. If you’re unsure as to what to do, a general rule of thumb with Mazirek is to have his trigger be the first thing entering the stack so that it’s the last one leaving the stack. Shout out to WizardMN for clearing this up.
Synergy & Combos:
The overall synergy of the deck is to make no wasted movements. Any time you’re going to sacrifice anything or make your opponents sacrifice anything, ideally, Mazirek is going to be in play. Whenever you crack a fetch, cast Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, etc., the point is to do so in order to get a +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. If you have no other choice than to do so, it’s okay because the cards aren’t here simply for using them in conjunction with Mazirek; they are useful on their own, as well. When designing the deck, I wanted to be as independent of Mazirek as possible.
As I stated before, the amount of cards and strategies that are synergistic with Mazirek are nigh innumerable. I will try to be as comprehensive as possible. Whenever new synergies or combos become available, I will include them here. I will include them for discussion even if I don’t include them into the deck. I want everyone to be able to develop their own Mazirek.
When combined with a creature that creates a token upon dying or entering the battlefield, this combo produces infinite sacrifice triggers. When combined with a creature that produces two tokens upon dying or entering the battlefield, this combo produces infinite
Step 1.: Sacrifice the token producer and at least one creature token to Ashnod's Altar.
Step 2.: Use the
Step 3.: The token producer returns to the battlefield, thus creating creature tokens.
Step 4.: Repeat from Step 1.
When combined with Archfiend of Depravity, you’re basically depriving your opponents of their lands - it can’t get anymore stax than that. At the end of each of your opponent’s turns, if Archfiend of Depravity isn’t answered, they will have to basically sacrifice all but two of their creatures - which includes their lands. When combined with Smothering Abomination and The Gitrog Monster, for every land you sacrifice as a creature, you draw two cards each. If you want to destroy your opponents’ lands, you could also target them when casting Eliminate the Competition.
Mazirek’s ability converts sacrifices into +1/+1 counters. So, it would follow that one would want to take the most advantage of all of this. With cards like Hardened Scales, Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, and Corpsejack Menace, you’re able to double, quadruple, or even octuple the amount of +1/+1 counters produced by Mazirek. With Kalonian Hydra, you can double the amount of +1/+1 counters on each of your creatures just by attacking.
Named after the Urza Block Smokestack, the stax archetype is one that makes others at the table particularly annoyed. I would argue more so than control. Stax is such a ruthless strategy that Braids, Cabal Minion is utterly banned in EDH. Not simply banned from being a commander, but banned altogether. However, we're not facing against stax, we are stax! Mazirek just begs to be included in stax decks. Its ability triggers when any permanent is sacrificed. Meaning from any player. So something as simple as Innocent Blood can pump you creatures very significantly if your match has multiple players. When playing a five-point star, casting something like Smallpox gives all of your creatures 10 +1/+1 counters. All for BB! Crippling spells like Death Cloud and Pox usually cause players to scoop. Most of the synergies available to Mazirek don't necessarily revolve around +1/+1 counters, but around Stax. Wave of Vitriol provides a ridiculous amount of +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. If running cards like this may seem counterproductive, the only creature that really needs to stay alive on your end is Mazirek. It wins very easily and out of nowhere with commander damage. That, and you're constantly forcing players to sacrifice creatures. Also, if you don't want your staxed creatures to go to waste, you could always include cards like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Death's Presence in order to salvage those +1/+1 counters. If you want to really be evil, you could always double up or even quadruple up on your stax effects by running cards like Dictate of Erebos, Butcher of Malakir, and the like.
Creatures with persist is one of the easiest ways to get infinite sacrifice triggers. With a sac outlet and Mazirek in play, sacrificing a creature with persist requires some understanding of the stack. Here’s how it’s done:
Step 1. Sacrifice a creature with persist. The persist trigger will go in the stack as well as Mazirek’s trigger.
Step 2. Put Mazirek’s trigger on the stack first and then the persist trigger. This will cause the persist trigger to resolve first (returning the creature to play).
Step 3. Mazirek’s trigger resolves, putting a +1/+1 counter on each creature. This counter cancels itself with the -1/-1 counter on the creature with persist.
Step 4. The creature with persist no longer has a -1/-1 counter on it so you can repeat from Step 1.
When you can’t win via combat damage, there are alternate wincons which rely on the combo facilitating properties of Mazirek. When you’re able to produce infinite sacrifice triggers, you can win after generating an epic gravestorm for Bitter Ordeal in order to exile all opponents’ decks. With Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist in play, you can drain the life from all of your opponents. You could also ping opponents to death with Triskelion and Walking Ballista or sacrifice infinitely large fatties to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.
There are many creatures that produce tokens when entering the battlefield, dying, and leaving the battlefield; creatures that produce tokens with activated costs that don’t require tapping; creatures that produce tokens simply by tapping; creatures that produce tokens during the beginning of phases; and creatures that produce tokens other ways. I’ve tried them all. There are those who may want to take advantage of the massive mana produced to control when they produce these tokens (with creatures like Ant Queen and others that are similar mana sinks) and there are those who want a steady flow of free tokens by using creatures that produce tokens during upkeep (like Master of the Wild Hunt, Creakwood Liege, etc.). I used to run the latter but decided to cut them in favor of the creatures that produce tokens when entering the battlefield in order to go infinite with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, for those who don’t want to run infinite engines, those creatures worked amazingly well. The importance of tokens in the deck is because you need bodies to take advantage of the +1/+1 counters that are being placed on all of your creatures. Tokens are dispensable creatures that serve as chump blockers. Also, it’s better to sacrifice replaceable tokens to stax effects than key creatures. In the Card Options Section (Section 2.2) I explain in detail why the best creatures to use for producing tokens during the beginning of phases are Mycoloth, Creakwood Liege, Master of the Wild Hunt, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, and Ophiomancer. Other useful token producers are those that make tokens upon dying (Symbiotic Wurm, Worldspine Wurm, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.). That way, when you wipe the board or use a devastating Death Cloud, you'd still have a whole bunch of creatures that get a ton of +1/+1 counters since Mazirek's ability still enters the stack even though it's sacrificed when everything gets sacrificed. Here's how it's done:
Step 1. Place Mazirek's trigger on the stack first.
Step 2. Place the tokens trigger on the stack next.
Step 3. The tokens trigger resolves first, putting the creature tokens in play.
Step 4. Mazirek's trigger resolves next, putting all those +1/+1 counters on each of those creatures.
With the release of Kaladesh, MechanicE was finally revealed to be energy, a very parasitic mechanic that opens the doors to a whole lot of possibilities. If energy returns in future sets, the possibilities of an
I toyed around with this a bit being as annihilator is quite the sacrifice inducer. However, the creatures are just too expensive to cast and if I start going with intense mana production, I should be winning the game regardless. That’s why in previous versions of the deck I ran It That Betrays. It just ended up being winmore. Not only did I produce a lot of sacrifice triggers, but I would take control of whatever was sacrificed. Players either scooped or made me into the de facto archenemy. That being said, I don’t completely abandon this tactic as there are those out there that may enjoying using this mechanic with Mazirek - and it works. However, you would need ways to generate a lot of mana fairly quickly, which the deck does exceeding well if you have a lot of fodder for Ashnod's Altar. Also, including Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre double as milling prevention if you’re using The Gitrog Monster and/or Smothering Abomination to draw through your entire deck. Thus, a mana intensive build with annihilator eldrazi would be a cool take on Mazirek. Again, there are just too many strategies, engines, and synergistic cards to physically include them all in the deck. These are just some that I’ve either used, tried, or am suggesting because I know they’d work with Mazirek at the helm.
Nickelodeon would be so proud.
With all the creature tokens in play and all the swamps (thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth), the amount of G and B this deck produces is unreal. Also, the deck runs a lot of one-drop mana dorks which helps speed along the early game. The great thing about Gaea's Cradle is how it interacts with Animation Module. With one Mazirek trigger, Gaea's Cradle provides mana for each Animation Module trigger with one tap. This basically doubles the amount of creatures you have in play. Unfortunately, the servo tokens produced can’t get the +1/+1 counters due to the timing of the counters. Animation Module triggers when the +1/+1 counters are already added to the triggers. Still, doubling your creatures is nothing to scoff at. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is also helpful to make utility lands and fetchlands produce B in order to extend their usefulness.
Disruption / Removal / Stax
BG has access to a plethora of removal spells and abilities but the aim of the deck is not spot removal or board wipes; it’s to remove threats by stax. As previously mentioned, stax bypasses indestructible, shroud, hexproof, etc. With enough recursion, you could get creatures like Merciless Executioner into play multiple times a turn. It’s very easy to wipe the board with stax. Also, with enough creatures and permanents, spells like Pox and Death Cloud hurt your opponents way more than they hurt you. All you need to survive those spells is Mazirek.
Recovery / Recursion
Again, these colors are excellent for these processes. Eternal Witness is obviously useful beyond any words I can use to describe it. When Meren of Clan Nel Toth sticks around long enough, the amount of experience counters obtained is enough to reanimate any creature from your graveyard. Splendid Reclamation is an amazing card to recover lands from your graveyard. When combined with Scapeshift it becomes ridiculous. Many a game have I sacrificed all my lands turned creature (thanks to Living Plane) only to have them all come back thanks to Splendid Reclamation.
Tutoring
Ah, the best colors for tutoring. Although I don’t run any tutors like Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Tutor, etc. or cards like Primal Command, Tooth and Nail, Chord of Calling, Green Sun’s Zenith, etc. I do run Sidisi, Undead Vizier because it provides a sacrifice trigger upon entering the battlefield. It can also be abused with Meren of Clan Nel Toth.
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands and 2-3 mana dorks and/or mana rock in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. The quicker you have Mazirek in play the more advantage you can get out of the stax abilities of your spells, creatures, and other permanents. You also want to take advantage of the fetchlands, as well. However, as long as you have 3-4 lands and cheap cards, you don’t really need to mulligan; you’ll just have a slower game. The deck does have cards with a high casting cost but the average CMC is closer to 3 than to 4 so there should be plenty of things to cast while you’re able to cast Mazirek. However, an early Mazirek means a brutal game. Early Mazirek with support means being able to eliminate an opponent fairly quickly via commander damage. A slower Mazirek just means that your strategy should follow more of a mid-range pace. Good cards to start your hand with are Mana Crypt, Birds of Paradise, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Gyre Sage, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, Animation Module, Bitterblossom, and Awakening Zone.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 ability. It's quite the bummer to sacrifice cards or have opponents sacrifice cards without having Mazirek in play. Again, you can still crack fetches and whatnot without having Mazirek in play, but it’s just better. With players that cast their commanders first before other creatures, it’s also good to cast spells like Innocent Blood or creatures like Slum Reaper early on to considerably slow them down. With a fast early game, like described above, you can easily get a Mazirek with a beefy p/t - especially in a game with lots of players. Even in a triple threat game, I’ve been able to eliminate players by turn 4 with a great early game. Turn 2 Mazirek into Turn 3 Corpsejack Menace and Smallpox gives Mazirek 12 +1/+1 counters making it a 2-turn clock. By Turn 4 you just eliminated any player that was a major threat. Early game can go any way between ramping, getting components in play, or just disrupting players with some early stax. It doesn’t matter the order as long as Mazirek is distributing those +1/+1 counters.
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible but Mazirek being a key component to almost every strategy means that the deck can be slow if you have to cast him without the aid of mana acceleration. This deck doesn’t require a lot of mana to efficiently function but it does speed things along. What the deck does need is some quick token production in order to capitalize on Mazirek’s ability and to not be hindered by our own stax effects. During midgame you should be sacrificing permanents with Mazirek in order to get him some much needed +1/+1 counters to lower his clock to victory. Even if he's your only creature, he alone can win the game with 21 damage. Most of my victories haven't been from horde damage but Mazirek damage. So save those fetches whenever possible until Mazirek hits the field. The same for other taxing spells like Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Slum Reaper, etc.
Late Game:
Late game you should have a large army in both senses of the word: many creatures and with a considerable amount of +1/+1 counters. If anything, Mazirek should have a significant amount of +1/+1 counters since commander damage win is one of the most viable wincons of the deck. Late game should have a lot of opponents with few lands and creatures to the staxing effects in the deck. Additionally, any hindering artifacts and/or enchantments should've been dealt with thanks to the hate in the deck. Late game is usually the time when I cast the game-ending Wave of Vitriol or Eliminate the Competition. For those running a more hardcore stax package, by this time a brutal Death Cloud will usually end it in your favor.
End Game:
The deck has various other wincons besides combat damage and commander damage, which is the main wincon of this build. Besides pumping Mazirek to ridiculous proportions with +1/+1 counters, you could also be pumping your creatures this way. All you need is one creature with enough power to eliminate an opponent. Any of the infinity engines that provide infinite sacrifice triggers could be used to create infinite creature tokens and/or infinite +1/+1 counters and or infinite mana. These infinite sacrifice triggers could also be used to cast the game-winning Bitter Ordeal.
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
- Mana Crypt - Produces
for free which allows for a very early Mazirek casting if you have it in your opening hand or draw it within the first 3 turns.
- Animation Module - Wow, where to begin? This card is just beyond words here. Mazirek's ability is global, meaning that with enough mana you could produce a token for 1 each. Combined with Gaea's Cradle you could potentially double the amount of creatures you have by a single sacrifice trigger. This card is quite literally a token making machine.
- Mana Vault - Produces
for a mere 1. This allows for a turn-2 Mazirek. Once Mazirek is cast and protected, the 1 life of damage is negligible until you can pay the upkeep cost. More often than not this is simply a one-time deal. It's also a permanent which can be sacrificed later on when needed (so it's better than Dark Ritual, in this case).
- Sol Ring - Standard EDH mana rock.
- Nim Deathmantle - Not only is this card helpful for immediately recovering creatures, but it's cheap to cast and cheap to use. Apart from being useful on its own, it's part of an infinity engine: combined with Ashnod's Altar and a creature that produce tokens when entering or leaving the battlefield or dying produces infinite sacrifice triggers. It's a convoluted combo but it's not so simple that players may get upset at you pulling it off. It does require at least 3 cards to work and even then to get the full mileage out of it you'd need other cards in play like Mazirek, Grave Pact, among others.
- Ashnod's Altar - I'm so happy this card got an epic aesthetic reprint in Eternal Masters. This card was meant for this deck. You sacrifice a creature, which triggers so many other cards (for free, to boot!), and get
for your troubles. Part of the infinity engine combo with Nim Deathmantle
- Phyrexian Altar - Along the same vein as Ashnod's Altar, this altar provides colored mana for your sacrifice. Again, free of cost.
- Birds of Paradise - The deck runs a lot of one-drop mana dorks in order to get an early Mazirek. Fortunately, the birds give any color mana, so they have an advantage over the elves. That and it has flying (so it's great to pump it with +1/+1 counters). How often can you kill an opponent with a Birds of Paradise?
- Caustic Caterpillar - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. The good thing about this larva stage is that you can sac it for cheap in order to get rid of an annoying enchantment or artifact.
- Elves of Deep Shadow - Unlike your standard one-drop mana dorks, this elf provides B in exchange for tapping and 1 life. Neglible in the early game and a great source of B for when your turn 1 is a Forest but turn 2 doesn't provide a Swamp.
- Elvish Mystic - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
- Elvish Reclaimer - Dropping this on turn 1 means that we can tutor for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as early as turn 2. You can then tutor for Cabal Coffers the next turn, Gaea's Cradle the turn after, etc. Not only that, but with Mazirek in play you trigger those sweet, sweet +1/+1 counters as well. Synergy!
- Fyndhorn Elves - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
- Llanowar Elves - One-drop mana dork that's useful early game for a faster Mazirek. It's also useful later on for providing another body for sacrificing or placing +1/+1 counters.
- Sylvan Safekeeper - A free sac outlet for lands. Doing so protects any creature from targeted abilities. The versatility is amazing. When combined with The Gitrog Monster you basically draw a card as a bonus. When combined with Living Plane and Grave Pact you can make opponents lose a lot of creatures and possibly lands, too. With Splendid Reclamation in hand you can sac lands to your heart's content. Truly amazing card here.
- Gyre Sage - A mana dork that provides G equivalent to the amount of +1/+1 counters on it. The amount of mana this elf provides is amazing.
- Viridian Zealot - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. It's more expensive to cast than Caustic Caterpillar but other than that it's basically the same thing.
- Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
- Fleshbag Marauder - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
- Liliana, Heretical Healer / Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - As a creature it can get +1/+1 counters so that's good. However, it's main function is to transform into Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. Though each of Liliana's planewalker abilities are good, it's quite clear that the goal is obtaining the emblem. Having Doubling Season in play when her spark awakens and transforms makes getting that emblem all the more easier. When she dies, she reverts to a creature so from the graveyard it's easy to reanimate or recur her.
- Merciless Executioner - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
- Plaguecrafter - Similar to both Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner, Plaguecrafter has the bonus of also potentially taking out a planeswalker.
- Ramunap Excavator - This creature allows for abusing fetchlands. It also helps to recover lands like Throne of the High City if you lose the monarch status. However, it's most broken purpose is to recover lands like Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, and Wasteland.
- Reyhan, Last of the Abzan - With this card out, any creature that gets sniped will just have its +1/+1 shifted onto another creature. The great thing is that, when combined with +1/+1 counter doublers (like Doubling Season and its ilk), those counters are doubled. Definitely deters opponents from sniping other creatures while Reyhan is still in play. You can also benefit from all of the sacrifices made since the +1/+1 counters on those creatures aren’t wasted. Reyhan basically gives all your creatures modular but instead of for artifact creatures, it's for any of your creatures.
- Tireless Tracker - Landfall is not a theme in this deck and although the main strategy isn't eggs, this guy produces eggs. Thanks to fetches, you get 2 clue tokens. Thanks to Splendid Reclamation and Scapeshift you get a extravagant amount of clue tokens - enough to make Sherlock Holmes proud.
- Turntimber Sower - With all the fetchlands and lands like Strip Mine and Wasteland, the amount of tokens produced is significant. Additionally, it has a built-in sacrifice outlet which also returns lands to the battlefield. Both abilities are relevent on a great body (3/3 for 3) and it has relevant creature types if you want to have a tribal subtheme.
- Armorcraft Judge - Inspiring Call on a body that doesn't grant indestructible. Compared the amount of cards drawn, the cost is practically nothing. Recurring and reanimating this creature provides card advantage to rival
decks.
- Bramble Sovereign - This creature is just all round amazing. Copying creatures like Fleshbag Marauder is already pretty atrocious, but being able to copy mana dorks or creatures like Caustic Caterpillar makes it an amazing card indeed.
- Meren of Clan Nel Toth - With all our creatures dying, you can get quite a lot of experience counters. Thanks to Meren we can effectively reanimate cards like Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, any utility creature like Caustic Caterpillar, or any other creature for that matter because the amount or experience counters easily reaches the double digits.
- Slum Reaper - A more expensive Fleshbag Marauder, it still gets the job done. If Fleshbag Marauder gets another functional reprint like Merciless Executioner, it will definitely replace Slum Reaper. In the meantime, it's basically redundant for Fleshbag Marauder.
- Whisper, Blood Liturgist - With an effect similar to Hell's Caretaker, Whisper exchanges being able to use the ability at instant speed in exchange for having to sacrifice an additional creature. That's not even a bother with Mazirek since it then provides two +1/+1 counters instead of one.
- World Shaper - The deck already ran Splendid Reclamation, which is what this creature is. Meaning it's reanimatable and it's also a body to put +1/+1 counters on.
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - He has a manaless sacrifice outlet, which is crucial. This ability can potentially kill creatures (even those with indestructible) as well as drawing cards. Additionally, it has a built-in proliferate ability that can be reused since it doesn't require tapping.
- Archfiend of Depravity - Casting this makes players with an epic boardstate extremely nervous. Although it triggers at the end of each opponent's turn, it's still enough for those players to want to get rid of it or try to eliminate you before. Should it survive until an opponent's end step, prepare for a ton of sacrifice triggers. This card is also mega oppressive with Living Plane in play. Many games have I left opponents either scooping or with just 2 lands in play.
- Krav, the Unredeemed - Not only are you able to sacrifice X creatures for just B, you get to draw X card, gain X life, and put X +1/+1 counters on Krav. Doing so puts X +1/+1 counters on all your creatures if you have Mazirek in play. Meaning that Krav would get 2X +1/+1 counters, making him a huge threat for just B.
- Puppeteer Clique - Not simply added for having persist, but it's ability is quite useful, as well: you can take control of an opponent's creature from the graveyard and then exile it. So it grants you an attacker all while providing practically permanent removal to your opponent's creatures.
- Sidisi, Undead Vizier - When used purely as a tutor, it's too expensive. However, it's a tutor on a body with a sacrifice trigger all rolled into one. Similar to Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, I sacrifice it to itself when using the ability. It's better for it to die in order to be recurred or reanimated than to stay in play. The deck doesn't usually require tutoring for combo pieces, but I basically use BSidisi to look for any answers for things opponents have that will impede my victory. When it's possible to quickly assemble all combo pieces, then that's what you should tutor for, since that's also game-ending.
- The Gitrog Monster - The synergy this card has is ridiculous. It gives so much value to fetches and lands like Strip Mine. It's also Exploration on a body and a free land sacrifice trigger each of your upkeeps. Casting Scapeshift with this is play is amazing. It's important to keep in mind how you arrange the triggers on the stack in order to take the most advantage out of The Gitrog Monster (as well as Mazirek).
- Grave Titan - Honestly, this card's main purpose is to combo with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, it's a great token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it and attack with it. Also, it's a solid body with deathtouch. It can be a very convincing deterrent against attack when left available as a blocker.
- Harvester of Souls - Nonobligatory card advantage from any noncreature token dying. Though it's expensive to cast, the deck does produce lots of mana. It also has a solid body with deathtouch to deter against attack when left available as a blocker.
- Marionette Master - Honestly, this card's main purpose is to combo with Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar. However, it's a great token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it. The good thing about fabricate is that I can also have it enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters since with Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, and Doubling Season it will enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it. If that weren’t enough, it’s a more broken Disciple of the Vault since instead of having an opponent lose 1 life, they lose life in the amount of Marionette Master's power.
- Sheoldred, Whispering One - Reanimation and stax all on a large body. Not only that, but since she has swampwalk and the deck runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, she can be a wincon on her own if she's large enough. A very versatile creature. Again, the hefty casting cost is not so limiting since the deck produces a lot of mana.
- Razaketh, the Foulblooded - Once this card is in play you can basically tutor your deck for whatever you want all via a manaless sacrifice outlet. Not only that, but it's an 8/8 flying beater which will only get larger thanks to the +1/+1 counter interactions.
- Woodfall Primus - Not simply added for having persist, but it's ability is quite useful, as well: you can pretty much destroy all of your opponents' noncreature permanents. All you needs is a sac outlet and Mazirek in play. Not only will you practically wipe the board, but you will have indefinitely many +1/+1 counters on all of your creatures. Very useful when there are artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, lands, etc. impeding your victory (or just overall being annoying).
- Dictate of Erebos - A slightly more expensive Grave Pact, it could be slightly easier to cast thanks to the 3BB casting cost versus Grave Pact’s 1BBB casting cost. The flash is negligible since it’s not really a surprise what the deck is doing; it’s simply here to provide redundancy for Grave Pact effects.
- Doubling Season - An absurd card that provides so much advantage it’s ridiculous. It doubles the amount of loyalty counters of planeswalkers that enter the battlefield. It doubles the amount of tokens that are produced. And, most important of all, it doubles the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on your creatures.
- Grave Pact - This allows your sacrifice triggers to essentially double. Everytime you sacrifice an eldrazi spawn or scion for mana, other players have to sacrifice two creatures. The amount of sacrifice triggers this is able to produce is insane. It also helps deter wraths from players who have indestructible creatures since sacrifice laughs in the face of indestructible.
- Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun - With Gaea's Cradle being in the deck, this legendary enchantment definitely wants a home here. It's cheap and it's useful the moment it enters play. With so many tokens and cheap creatures, it's highly likely to very quickly transform into the reason it's considered in the first place, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.
- Living Plane - In this deck this card is extremely oppressive. Since it makes all lands creatures, it helps you out with giving them +1/+1 counters but it harms opponents in a severe way. Whenever you make opponents sacrifice creatures, if they have no actual creatures in play, they start losing lands. This is not merely for use as a mass land destruction device; you take a lot of advantage out of having your lands be creatures as well.
- Golgari Charm - Although point of charms all throughout MtG has been to give a player options when casting, I usually use this card for its regenerative option. Wraths can really set you back so when they don’t have the “can’t be regenerated” clause, Golgari Charm can really help out.
- Heroic Intervention - A great protection spell that grants indestructibility and hexproof at instant speed. It only costs 1G to boot!
- Liliana's Triumph - Higher-costed than Innocent Blood but it's asymmetric. Having a Liliana planeswalker makes it better but it's still good even if your don't (at least the deck has two Liliana's).
- Inspiring Call - This is a very versatile card in that it can save your creatures from wraths but can also fill your hand in a pinch. I usually use it more to protect my creatures but when I need responses and my hand is empty, this has been known to help me out tremendously.
- Smallpox - A great disruption spell; everyone discards a card and sacrifices up to two permanents between land and creature. This provides some crazy sacrifice triggers in multiplayer games on par with Barter in Blood, only Smallpox is cheaper and more disruptive.
- Bitter Ordeal - One of the alternate wincons in the deck, with an infinite amount of sacrifice triggers, you could basically deck every opponent at the table.
- Virtus's Maneuver - You can have each opponent sacrifice a creature while you get to return one to your hand. All for the same cost as Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk.
- Pir's Whim - Not only will you have each opponent sacrifice an artifact or enchantment but you get to ramp for any land card.
- Scapeshift - Another broken card in this deck. You get as many sacrifice outlets as lands you use for it, plus you get a lot of lands entering the battlefield as well. When combined with Splendid Reclamation you can get a lot of lands in play very quickly.
- Casualties of War - Costs a whopping 6 mana but you have the possibility of getting rid of 5 annoying cards at once. The mana isn't that taxing in a green/black deck - especially with all the mana dorks. In a multiplayer environment this card really shine and it's almost easier to cast than cards like Decimate.
- Wave of Vitriol - This card has singlehandedly won me so many games. Most EDH decks run more than their fair share of nonbasic lands. Not only that, but artifacts and enchantments can be particular disruptive to our main strategy of winning by combat. This card gets rid of all of that all by sacrificing and by sacrificing all of that just triggers more and more for Mazirek.
- Garruk Relentless / Garruk, the Veil-Cursed - Such a useful planeswalker. With a total of 5 abilities where all of them are useful, I’m definitely grateful that he’s in Mazirek’s color combination. The green version’s abilities are both great; you can potentially kill a weenie or produce tokens. Once he transforms into his black version, you can make tokens with deathtouch (great for deterring attacks) by raising the loyalty. By sacrificing a creature (which Mazirek loves), you get to search your deck for any creature and put it into your hand. This is by far the most useful of all 5 abilities. The last ability isn’t really that needed but even with no creatures in the graveyard, you can still give all of your creatures trample when in a pinch.
- Liliana, Dreadhorde General - Her static ability is bonkers for this deck. She also creates tokens to have bodies to put +1/+1 counters on. The \-4/ ability triggers a crazy amount of Mazirek triggers. The ultimate pretty much does the same but on a higher level.
- Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - All 3 abilities are useful. You can gain loyalty by creating mana dork tokens. On top of that, you can eliminate a pesky artifact or enchantment. The ultimate is very useful since, with so many green creatures and/or tokens, you can potentially draw a lot of cards.
- Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
- Ghost Quarter - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. Sure, it gives the opponent a chance to get a basic land, but the trade off is still worth it.
- Karn's Bastion - Proliferate on a land. Is anything else even needed to be said?
- Nurturing Peatland - Horizon lands definitely have a home here. They produce mana while also providing a self-sacrifice ability which Mazirek definitely loves.
- Rogue's Passage - 21 points of commander damage is all you need to eliminate a player. This makes sure that Mazirek breaks through defenses in order to accomplish just that.
- Strip Mine - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. It can also get rid of basic lands if you need to be evil and color-screw an opponent.
- Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Giving Mazirek fear is sometimes enough to make him unblockable. Making short work of opponents due to commander damage.
- Swarmyard - Regenerates Mazirek by merely tapping. It also provides
and doesn’t come into play tapped. Overall a great land to have.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Makes all lands provides B meaning that you can tap fetches for mana. It also makes utility lands give colored mana instead of just
.
- Wasteland - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves.
- Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince - Can create tokens in a pinch (the most expensive way to produce tokens in the deck) but the transformation cost is awesome: 5 creatures to make a 9/7 with flying, lifelink, indestructible, and haste. It may seem winmore but it’s on a land. So it’s no problem to include in a two-colored deck. Also, it still has a sacrifice outlet in order to transform. Ormendahl is also a great creature since it’s indestructible and has lifelink. So it’s a great blocker and if anyone wraths, you can transform Westvale Abbey in response, get a lot of +1/+1 counters on it, and then have a large creature to attack with next turn. It’s great.
- Yavimaya Hollow - Similar to Swarmyard except it can regenerate any type of creature with an investment of G.
-------------------------------------------------------
- Bloodstained Mire
- Marsh Flats
- Misty Rainforest
- Polluted Delta
- Prismatic Vista
- Verdant Catacombs
- Windswept Heath
- Wooded Foothills
-------------------------------------------------------
- Ancient Tomb
- Bayou
- Command Tower
- Llanowar Wastes
- Overgrown Tomb
- Tainted Wood
- Woodland Cemetery
Creatures:
Enchantments:
Spells:
Planeswalkers:
Lands:
Lands Just for Sacrifice Triggers:
Lands Just for the Mana:
There were a lot of cards tested, cut, added, suggested from a lot of people; they're all strewn across the thread. However, I have included 2 alternate builds with many of the cards in question. They weren't used in the main build due to them underperforming or requiring a different environment altogether in order to make the deck work. All cuts were made for efficiency's sake. That being said, the Change Log at the end of the post reflects many of the changes in both the casual and competitive build which have merged to merely reflect the changes in the competitive build.
As for cards that have become available with new sets, I will discuss in greater detail some of the cards from the most recent sets. This section will be constantly updated as new sets arise and other sets have been understood to have been discussed. I will not simply discuss all cards that comply with color. I will only discuss cards that could be useful to any extent in the deck - even if they don't make the cut.
When everyone facepalms at you going infinite.
2 Nim Deathmantle
3 Bitter Ordeal
6 Grave Titan
6 Marionette Master
5 Puppeteer Clique
8 Woodfall Primus
2 Thought Vessel
5 Primal Vigor
4 Creakwood Liege
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
5 Mycoloth
3 Ophiomancer
Here's my less competitive, more casual, and über budget build. It's very fun to play in a casual pod. However, it's not a weakling either and can easily win in a casual setting without being too mean. This deck is designed under the impression that it will be in a setting with similar decks. Otherwise, don't use it, lol. If you're starting in commander or don't have that much of a budget and want a kooky, uncommon deck, then this is for you! You can also see an explanation of this version of the deck in video form in this episode of "The Brewery" series in my YouTube channel, The Commander Tavern.
3.1.1 - Deck contents:
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Artifacts: 6
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Executioner's Capsule
2 Golgari Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Resilience
4 Trading Post
Creatures: 32
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Dawntreader Elk
2 Korozda Guildmage
2 Lesser Masticore
2 Putrid Goblin
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scorned Villager
2 Viridian Zealot
3 Emrakul's Evangel
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Fyndhorn Elder
3 Greenweaver Druid
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Plaguecrafter
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Wild-Field Scarecrow
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Armorcraft Judge
4 Corpsejack Menace
4 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
4 Slum Reaper
4 Smothering Abomination
4 Vindictive Vampire
5 Aerie Ouphes
5 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
5 Phyrexian Plaguelord
5 Shriekmaw
6 Champion of Stray Souls
6 Triskelion
1 Carapace
1 Thrull Retainer
1 Vampiric Rites
2 Dark Privilege
2 Seal of Primordium
3 Fallen Ideal
3 Seal of Doom
5 Moldervine Reclamation
5 Palace Siege
Spells: 15
1 Innocent Blood
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Smallpox
2 Tribute to the Wild
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Inspiring Call
3 Wail of the Nim
4 Barter in Blood
4 Fungal Sprouting
4 Reprocess
4 Worm Harvest
5 Eliminate the Competition
5 Shared Summons
6 Reign of the Pit
7 Wave of Vitriol
Lands: 37
0 Bant Panorama
0 Blighted Fen
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Centaur Garden
0 Esper Panorama
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Forest (×9)
0 Foundry of the Consuls
0 Gargoyle Castle
0 Golgari Guildgate
0 Grixis Panorama
0 Jund Panorama
0 Karn's Bastion
0 Memorial to Folly
0 Naya Panorama
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Spawning Bed
0 Swamp (×9)
0 Tainted Wood
0 Terramorphic Expanse
0 Tomb of Urami
0 Centaur Garden
0 Karn's Bastion
4 Corpsejack Menace
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Sacrifice Enablers:
0 Blighted Fen
0 Tomb of Urami
1 Innocent Blood
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Smallpox
2 Tribute to the Wild
3 Fallen Ideal
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Plaguecrafter
4 Barter in Blood
4 Slum Reaper
5 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
6 Reign of the Pit
7 Wave of Vitriol
Token Production:
0 Foundry of the Consuls
0 Gargoyle Castle
0 Spawning Bed
2 Korozda Guildmage
3 Emrakul's Evangel
4 Fungal Sprouting
4 Worm Harvest
Recovery:
0 Memorial to Folly
1 Elixir of Immortality
5 Palace Siege
6 Champion of Stray Souls
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Golgari Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Resilience
2 Scorned Villager
3 Fyndhorn Elder
3 Greenweaver Druid
Ramping:
2 Dawntreader Elk
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Wild-Field Scarecrow
3 Yavimaya Elder
Drawing:
1 Vampiric Rites
4 Armorcraft Judge
4 Reprocess
4 Smothering Abomination
5 Moldervine Reclamation
Disruption:
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Executioner's Capsule
2 Shriekmaw
2 Viridian Zealot
2 Seal of Primordium
3 Seal of Doom
3 Sylvok Replica
5 Aerie Ouphes
5 Eliminate the Competition
5 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Carapace
1 Thrull Retainer
2 Dark Privilege
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Inspiring Call
3 Wail of the Nim
Alternate Wincons:
4 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
4 Vindictive Vampire
6 Triskelion
Infinity Enablers:
2 Lesser Masticore
2 Putrid Goblin
Toolbox:
0 Rogue's Passage
4 Trading Post
Tutors:
0 Bant Panorama
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Esper Panorama
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Grixis Panorama
0 Jund Panorama
0 Naya Panorama
0 Terramorphic Expanse
5 Shared Summons
Lands for the Mana:
0 Golgari Guildgate
0 Tainted Wood
Basics:
0 Forest (x9)
0 Swamp (x9)
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
The deck is piloted in the same vein as the Creature Matters Build. Most of the support needed for Eggs can be a bit out of budget but there is no shortage of inexpensive creature synergies available to this color combination. However, this deck plays more voltron than its expensive version since all you need to win is to have Mazirek get through with commander damage; having a massive horde is just a bonus. Again, knowledge of how the stack functions is incredibly important with this commander. If you’re unsure as to what to do, a general rule of thumb with Mazirek is to have his trigger be the first thing entering the stack so that it’s the last one leaving the stack.
I didn’t mention this before in the previous strategies because the Creature Matters Build is all about swing with a massive army and overwhelming everyone at the table. However, much of the creatures here are for utility or to produce tokens and/or sacrifice triggers. It’s very common to get an incredibly large Mazirek while the other creatures remain smaller in comparison. The priority of the deck is to make sure Mazirek gets fat and is protected. Mazirek gets protected by a multitude of things such as Sylvan Safekeeper, Carapace, Thrull Retainer, etc. Not only do these cheap cards provide protection, but they do it at the cost of sacrificing something or themselves, so they also function as ways to further pump Mazirek. Fallen Ideal also serves to pump Mazirek as well as provide a sacrifice outlet.
Homelands... now that’s an expansion.
Though the more useful creatures with persist aren’t budget, Aerie Ouphes is budget and all it needs to go infinite is Mazirek. So, for those who still want a more competitive edge, you can add this card in order to generate an infinite sacrifice trigger engine and produce infinitely many +1/+1 counters. You could even do this if the only legal target is Mazirek. However, note that doing so means that Mazirek won’t survive afterwards.
Most token producers and card advantage is expensive but the cheap ones are cheap because they require more than just mana to use. So, here’s where cards like Carrion, Reprocess, and Fungal Sprouting shine. The choices are pretty self-explanatory when reviewing what each card does in the main build. However, I will explain some great cards that shine enough to be even considered in a casual build that’s not entirely budget. Here’s a highlight reel of some specific cards in the Budget Build:
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. Most of the cards in the deck are cheap to cast (the deck having an average CMC of less than 3) so as long as you have 3-4 lands and cards to play early game you can stay with that hand. It’s not the best starting hand but at least you won’t be mana screwed. The ideal opening hand has mana rocks and/or mana dorks with at least 3 lands. You don’t really need early game disruption but since most cards are to sacrifice in order to provide value for Mazirek, you want it out as quickly as possible.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 distributing ability. It's quite the bummer to be sacrificing permanents or making opponents sacrifice things without having Mazirek in play. Early game is just basically setting up your board state by producing tokens or by having mana dorks and other small utility creatures that can also take advantage of getting pumped with Mazirek. If you get too early an advantage, an early wrath from an opponent can significantly set you back. So keep that in mind. If you have early access to Inspiring Call, Wail of the Nim, or Wrap in Vigor than make sure to keep some mana open and available should you need to save your creatures.
Mid Game:
It’s okay if the deck has a slow start since it’s not supposed to be used in a cutthroat environment. However, by midgame you should already have some considerably large creatures to put pressure with by attacking, or to deter attack by keeping untapped. Mazirek should also be considerably large and already have some opponents killed off or about to be killed off by commander damage. With a large Mazirek, the easiest way to win is via commander damage. Hardened Scales and Corpsejack Menace can easily cut games in half by doubling and quadrupling the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on creatures.
Late Game:
With so many staxing effects, you should have little to no opposition to deter Mazirek and/or your large creatures from swinging in for the win. Either way, if your opponents also produce many creatures just as fast if not faster, then make sure that Mazirek is able to swing away without being blocked thanks to Rogue’s Passage. If you’re facing pillowfort or control, be sure to save your resources and responses to get rid of those deterrents in order to guarantee that victory. That’s usually ultimately solved by Wave of Vitriol but you can also snipe some particulars thanks to Caustic Caterpillar, Sylvok Replica, Viridian Zealot, etc. If you can’t, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord can pull a win out of nowhere by sacrificing a fatty and killing off the entire table. Thanks, boss!
End Game:
This deck is casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a casual meta, of course). It was also quite a challenge to build this for less than $30. With an ever increasing Mazirek, the clock to victory winds down. If your opponents don’t have flyers, do not refrain from keeping the pressure on them because 21 commander damage gets rid of anyone. Keep that in mind since that is the main way of victory in this deck. Tokens are usually used as chump blocks while you swing away with Mazirek. Even if they were to block Mazirek, you keep eliminating those creatures until inevitably winning the match.
Now relatively accessible. Thanks, Eternal Masters!
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Bant Panorama
0 Esper Panorama
0 Grixis Panorama
0 Jund Panorama
0 Naya Panorama
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Terramorphic Expanse
As for investing in Bayou, Gaea's Cradle, Mishra's Workshop, etc. may be a bit too much for most people (myself included), but here are some suggestions for those:
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Mishra's Workshop
0 Bayou
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
0 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
0 Blooming Marsh
Another competitive build; this one relies on the tried and true archetype of Eggs. Whereas the Creatures Matter Build makes a large amount of relatively small creatures, this build makes a relatively small amount of incredibly large creatures. Both builds have infinite engines but cracking eggs makes the few creatures in play get amazingly large. Thus, the focus of this build is how to make the most out of artifacts and utility creatures.
The difference in decks is subtle as far as strategy is concerned. Both decks aim to make infinite mana, creatures, +1/+1 counters in order to win by commander damage, combat damage, or combo via Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist (in Creatures Matter) or Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master (in Artifacts Matter) and Bitter Ordeal. Some people like creatures more than other card types and some people like artifacts more than other card types. It’s a classic case of “to-may-to / to-mah-to” as far as Mazirek is concerned. It doesn’t care about what gets sacrificed as long as something gets sacrificed.
The pros (and cons) of the Artifact Matters Build is that it’s way more combo-centric than the Creature Matters Build. There are many more ways to go infinite and to take advantage of that. So you don’t really need so many creatures as long as you’re able to win with an epic Bitter Ordeal, Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master, or a ridiculously large Mazirek. That being said, just like the Creatures Matter Build, I will also give suggestions on how to run this deck without the infinite engines. Since all the cards are amazing on their own, you can simply choose to not go infinite. However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much).
3.2.1 - Deck Contents:
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Artifacts: 23
0 Mana Crypt
1 Animation Module
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Expedition Map
1 Mana Vault
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sol Ring
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Golgari Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Thought Vessel
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Smokestack
4 Trading Post
5 Cauldron of Souls
5 Tamiyo's Journal
6 Mycosynth Lattice
6 Salvaging Station
9 Darksteel Forge
Creatures: 26
0 Walking Ballista
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Disciple of the Vault
2 Viridian Zealot
3 Elf Replica
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Foundry Inspector
3 Glissa, the Traitor
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Arcbound Reclaimer
4 Corpsejack Menace
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Slum Reaper
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Sly Requisitioner
5 The Gitrog Monster
6 Marionette Master
6 Triskelion
7 Pentavus
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
7 Triskelavus
3 Awakening Zone
4 From Beyond
4 Living Plane
5 Doubling Season
Spells: 8
2 Golgari Charm
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Bitter Ordeal
3 Inspiring Call
4 Scapeshift
4 Splendid Reclamation
7 Wave of Vitriol
Lands: 38
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bayou
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Command Tower
0 Forest (×6)
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Marsh Flats
0 Mishra's Workshop
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
0 Strip Mine
0 Swamp (×6)
0 Swarmyard
0 Tainted Wood
0 Throne of the High City
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wasteland
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Woodland Cemetery
0 Yavimaya Hollow
3 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
4 Corpsejack Menace
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Eggs:
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Expedition Map
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
3 Tireless Tracker
5 Tamiyo's Journal
Token Production:
1 Animation Module
3 Awakening Zone
4 From Beyond
5 Sly Requisitioner
6 Marionette Master
7 Pentavus
7 Triskelavus
Stax:
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Merciless Executioner
4 Slum Reaper
4 Smokestack
5 Archfiend of Depravity
Recovery / Recursion:
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Eternal Witness
3 Glissa, the Traitor
4 Arcbound Reclaimer
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Splendid Reclamation
5 Cauldron of Souls
6 Salvaging Station
Disruption:
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Strip Mine
0 Wasteland
1 Caustic Caterpillar
2 Viridian Zealot
3 Elf Replica
3 Sylvok Replica
7 Wave of Vitriol
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Golgari Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Thought Vessel
3 Foundry Inspector
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Scapeshift
Drawing
0 Throne of the High City
5 The Gitrog Monster
Protection:
0 Swarmyard
0 Yavimaya Hollow
2 Golgari Charm
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Inspiring Call
9 Darksteel Forge
Toolbox:
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Living Plane
4 Trading Post
5 Doubling Season
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
6 Mycosynth Lattice
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
0 Walking Ballista
1 Disciple of the Vault
3 Bitter Ordeal
6 Triskelion
Toolbox:
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Living Plane
4 Trading Post
5 Doubling Season
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
6 Mycosynth Lattice
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Fetchlands:
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
Land for the Mana:
0 Bayou
0 Command Tower
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Tainted Wood
0 Woodland Cemetery
Basics:
0 Forest (×6)
0 Swamp (×6)
Budget Choices:
C’mon, you know you have $1,000 just laying around.
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bayou
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Mana Crypt
0 Marsh Flats
0 Mishra's Workshop
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wasteland
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Yavimaya Hollow
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Living Plane
4 Scapeshift
5 Doubling Season
6 Mycosynth Lattice
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
0 Temple of the False God
0 Blooming Marsh
0 Jund Panorama
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Furnace
0 Esper Panorama
0 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
0 Bant Panorama
0 Grixis Panorama
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Lifespark Spellbomb
0 Naya Panorama
0 Terramorphic Expanse
0 Necrogen Spellbomb
0 Scroll of Avacyn
5 Nature's Revolt
0 Urza's Bauble
4 Parallel Lives
4 Extruder
5 Palace Siege
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.41
Average Cost (as of 10/30/16):
$2,195.54
Updates:
I will eventually keep an updated version of this deck online. Every time I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee that deckstats.net will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes). You'll soon find the deck there.
The bread and I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter of the deck. With so much artifact recursion, this strategy is nuts. Not only do you get to draw a card, but you get mana to reuse the ability when you recover it back. When you combo this with cards like Foundry Inspector, Salvaging Station, etc., things get really crazy. Foundry Inspector helps eggs cost 0 to cast and Salvaging Station brings an egg back everytime a creature dies. Glissa, the Traitor also recovers eggs (and any artifact, for that matter) to your hand when creatures your opponents control die (which is often in a stax deck). When compared to the Creatures Matters Build, the destination is the same (epic quantities of sacrifice triggers) but the journey there is different (creatures versus artifacts). The great thing about these eggs is that they replace themselves. So even if you don’t have Mazirek in play, you can still take advantage of them if you need to draw through the deck. However, with Mazirek in play, it gets ridiculous.
There are creatures that play around with +1/+1 counters combine with token production and all of them are included here in the deck; these being Pentavus, Thopter Squadron, and Triskelavus. The amazing thing about these creatures is that Mazirek adds the +1/+1 counters without them having to play around with the tokens produced. However, note that Thopter Squadron’s ability can only be done as a sorcery. This produces infinite mana and infinite sacrifice triggers. Here’s how you can get an infinite combo thanks to them:
Step 1: Produce a token (pentavite for Pentavus, triskelavite for Triskelavus, etc.).
Step 2: Sacrifice that token with either Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks to produce
Step 3: That sacrifice triggers Mazirek, placing a +1/+1 counter on Pentavus (etc.), basically “replacing” the token.
Step 4: Repeat from Step 1.
When you can’t win via combat damage, there are alternate wincons which rely on the combo facilitating properties of Mazirek. When you’re able to produce infinite sacrifice triggers, you can win after generating an epic gravestorm for Bitter Ordeal in order to exile all opponents’ decks. With Disciple of the Vault and/or Marionette Master in play, you lower the life from all of your opponents. You could also ping opponents to death with Triskelion and Walking Ballista.
Very viable in an artifact heavy build since modular is just another way to play around with +1/+1 counters. Modular could be very useful with creating an insane artifact creature army since the deck produces a crazy amount of artifact creature tokens thanks to cards like Pentavus, Triskelavus, Thopter Squadron, etc. With all the recursion, creatures like Arcbound Ravager become especially dangerous since it provides a free sac outlet. Arcbound Reclaimer is also amazing here since it can be abused with the stack. Here’s how:
Step 1. Sacrifice an egg. Have the ability go to the stack. Since sacrificing is part of the cost, the egg will be in the graveyard as the ability enters the stack.
Step 2. Have Mazirek’s ability go the the stack. Arcbound Reclaimer gets a +1/+1 counter.
Step 3. Respond to the egg’s ability by activating Arcbound Reclaimer’s ability and put the egg you just cracked onto the library.
Step 4. The card you draw with the egg’s ability is itself. Doesn’t that blow your mind?
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Mazirek as quickly as possible. Most of the cards in the deck are cheap to cast (the deck having an average CMC of less than 4) so as long as you have 3-4 lands and cards to play early game you can stay with that hand. It’s not the best starting hand but at least you won’t be mana screwed. The ideal opening hand has eggs and/or mana rocks with at least 3 lands. You don’t really need early game disruption but since most cards are to sacrifice in order to provide value for Mazirek, you want it out as quickly as possible.
Early game:
You want to try and get Mazirek out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on its +1/+1 distributing ability. It's quite the bummer to be cracking eggs and fetches or making opponents sacrifice things without having Mazirek in play. Early game is just basically setting up your board state by laying eggs and casting utility artifacts and creatures like Crucible of Worlds (if you’re lucky), Caustic Caterpillar, etc. If you get too early an advantage, an early wrath from an opponent can significantly set you back. So keep that in mind. If you have early access to Inspiring Call, Golgari Charm, or Wrap in Vigor than make sure to keep some mana open and available should you need to save your creatures.
Mid Game:
Unlike the Creatures Matter Build, the focus of this build is not to amass an army of tokens; it’s to combo out. The few creatures that may be out will be sacrificed in order to disrupt opponents or for your own advantage. However, the combo pieces are easy to acquire with all the digging provided by the deck whether it be cracking eggs or drawing a bunch of cards thanks to The Gitrog Monster. The deck isn’t meant to be intimidating; so you can build your board state until you set up the game-winning combos. If not, you should at least be drawing into responses and disruption.
Late Game:
With so many staxing effects, you should have little to no opposition to deter Mazirek and/or your large creatures from swinging in for the win. Either way, if your opponents also produce many creatures just as fast if not faster, then make sure that Mazirek is able to swing away without being blocked thanks to Rogue’s Passage. If you’re facing pillowfort or control, be sure to save your resources and responses to get rid of those deterrents in order to guarantee that victory. That’s usually ultimately solved by Wave of Vitriol but you can also snipe some particulars thanks to Caustic Caterpillar, Sylvok Replica, Viridian Zealot, etc.
End Game:
With a large enough Mazirek (and effective evasion), you can win the game with commander damage in a single strike. However, the deck has a couple of infinite combos that can be worked around in different ways so there are multiple manners to set up wins. You could kill with lifeloss thanks to Marionette Master and/or Disciple of the Vault along with infinitely recurring eggs or with infinitely recycling tokens with Pentavus, Triskelavus, and/or Thopter Squadron. Even then, if you can’t win via commander damage, combat damage, or lifeloss, you could always use the infinite sacrifice triggers and cast an epic Bitter Ordeal for the win.
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
- Mana Crypt - Produces
for free which allows for a very early Mazirek casting if you have it in your opening hand or draw it within the first 3 turns.
- Animation Module - Wow, where to begin? This card is just beyond words here. Mazirek's ability is global, meaning that with enough mana you could produce a token for 1 each. Combined with Gaea's Cradle you could potentially double the amount of creatures you have by a single sacrifice trigger. This card is quite literally a token making machine.
- Chromatic Sphere - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and colored mana.
- Chromatic Star - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and colored mana.
- Conjurer’s Bauble - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and moving a card from the graveyard to the bottom of the deck.
- Expedition Map – I consider it to be an egg since it’s a 1 that can sacrifice itself for profit. You don’t draw a card but you search your deck for any land. So basically, the “draw” is a land of your choosing.
- Mana Vault - Produces
for a mere 1. This allows for a turn-2 Mazirek. Once Mazirek is cast and protected, the 1 life of damage is negligible until you can pay the upkeep cost. More often than not this is simply a one-time deal. It's also a permanent which can be sacrificed later on when needed (so it's better than Dark Ritual, in this case).
- Nihil Spellbomb - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and exiling a graveyard.
- Scrabbling Claws - Standard “egg”: low-costed (typically 0 or 1) that can sacrifice itself to produce a card draw and some other profit. In this case, card draw and exiling a card from a graveyard. This egg is also quite disruptive on as is without the sacrifice.
- Sol Ring - Standard EDH mana rock.
- Fellwar Stone - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped and is capable of producing any colored mana. Green and black are very common colors in commander so you’re bound to get useful colored mana to use.
- Golgari Signet - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped and is capable of producing colored mana in Mazirek’s colors.
- Mind Stone - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped. It may produce only
but it can still sacrifice itself for card draw so it’s great in a pinch.
- Thought Vessel - Low-costed mana rock that enters untapped. It may produce only
but it has a built-in Spellbook effect which is useful with all the cards this deck draws into.
- Crucible of Worlds - This artifact allows for abusing fetchlands. It also helps to recover lands like Throne of the High City if you lose the monarch status. However, it's most broken purpose is to recover lands like Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, and Wasteland.
- Krark-Clan Ironworks - Basically Ashnod's Altar for artifacts (though it costs 1 more). You sacrifice an artifact, which triggers so many other cards (for free, to boot!), and get
for your troubles. Part of the infinity engine combo with Mazirek and creatures like Pentavus, Triskelavus, and Thopter Squadron.
- Smokestack - The card for which the archetype is named after. Not only is this an artifact that can be sacrificed for profit (or recurred if lost), but it’s an amazing sacrifice outlet. With lots of tokens to feed to it, opponents can soon find themselves having to sacrifice lands for want of having nothing else.
- Trading Post - This card provides a lot of diversity; all of its functions are useful. That being said, the best ones for this deck are the one that produces a goat token, the one that recovers an artifact, and the one where you can draw card for sacrificing an artifact.
- Cauldron of Souls - Helps recover from wraths like Wrath of God, Damnation, and the like, since your creatures can’t regenerate from them. Also, helps to combo out since the -1/-1 counters from persist cancel out with the +1/+1 counters provided by Mazirek.
- Tamiyo’s Journal - Creates an egg during each of your upkeep. Has the added bonus of being a tutor for any card if you sacrifice three clue tokens to it.
- Mycosynth Lattice - Makes every permanent into an artifact. This becomes ridiculous when you cast Wave of Vitriol. Bonus points for using Cauldron of Souls in response to recover all your creatures afterwards, while your opponents are left with an empty table. It’s also amazing in that you can use any mana as any color since most of the mana produced in the deck is colorless. Also, having all your permanents be artifacts is that much better for cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks.
- Salvaging Station - Excellent way of recovering eggs; especially when your opponents (and your own) creatures are constantly dying.
- Darksteel Forge - I would consider this a staple to any artifact deck. Sure, it doesn’t prevent sacrifices to cards like Wave of Vitriol, but at least you get to control when your artifacts get destroyed. So it’s definitely helpful against an opponents Austere Command or Shatterstorm.
- Walking Ballista - Basically an easier to cast and manage Triskelion. The great thing about it is the flexibility. It can be an easier to cast Triskelion or a great mana sink.
- Caustic Caterpillar - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. The good thing about this larva stage is that you can sac it for cheap in order to get rid of an annoying enchantment or artifact.
- Disciple of the Vault - A Zulaport Cutthroat for artifacts, it’s one of the wincons when you have an infinite artifact sacrifice engine running.
- Viridian Zealot - The deck mostly tries to run permanents since you can't sacrifice spells. It's more expensive to cast than Caustic Caterpillar but other than that it's basically the same thing.
- Elf Replica - An overcosted but easier to cast Viridian Zealot. Being an artifact creature is one of the reasons it’s included since it can trigger both cards that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
- Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
- Fleshbag Marauder - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
- Foundry Inspector - Reduces the casting costs of all of your artifacts by 1, meaning that your eggs are free to cast. On top of that, it’s an artifact creature so it benefits from Mazirek’s +1/+1 counters and if it dies or gets sacrificed, it triggers both abilities that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
- Glissa, the Traitor - Not only is she one of the best blockers in the game, but she can also recur your artifacts. Opponents’ creatures are constantly dying thanks to all the stax effects so your bound to be cracking eggs at an amazing pace thanks to Phyrexian Glissa.
- Merciless Executioner - A body that forces all players to sacrifice a creature, this is what Mazirek buzzes for. It's the Mazi's knees. Having this enter the battlefield provides a sacrifice trigger for each player in the game. The larger the game the further it goes. Recurring it is also great. I tend to always sacrifice it to itself because it worth more in the graveyard and recurrable than in play.
- Sylvok Replica - An overcosted but easier to cast Viridian Zealot. Being an artifact creature is one of the reasons it’s included since it can trigger both cards that care about creatures as well as artifacts.
- Reyhan, Last of the Abzan - With this card out, any creature that gets sniped will just have its +1/+1 shifted onto another creature. The great thing is that, when combined with +1/+1 counter doublers (like Corpsejack Menace and its ilk), those counters are doubled. Definitely deters opponents from sniping other creatures while Reyhan is still in play. You can also benefit from all of the sacrifices made since the +1/+1 counters on those creatures aren’t wasted. Reyhan basically gives all your creatures modular but instead of for artifact creatures, it's for any of your creatures.
- Tireless Tracker - Landfall is not a theme in this deck and although the main strategy isn't eggs, this guy produces eggs. Thanks to fetches, you get 2 clue tokens. Thanks to Splendid Reclamation and Scapeshift you get a extravagant amount of clue tokens - enough to make Sherlock Holmes proud.
- Arcbound Reclaimer - By simply removing a +1/+1 counter from it you can topdeck any artifact in your graveyard. It also has modular so when it dies it can give its +1/+1 counters to another artifact creatures. With solid understanding of the stack, you can also use it to recover any egg you just cracked (explained in detail in the Strategies Section).
- Corpsejack Menace - Cheaper to cast than Mazirek so you can have it in play before. The replacement effect makes games go twice as fast because it helps Mazirek (and your creatures) grow much faster by doubling the amount of +1/+1 placed on them. In games with this in play, cards like Barter in Blood become insane.
- Meren of Clan Nel Toth - With all our creatures dying, you can get quite a lot of experience counters. Thanks to Meren we can effectively reanimate cards like Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, any utility creature like Caustic Caterpillar, or any other creature for that matter because the amount or experience counters easily reaches the double digits.
- Slum Reaper - A more expensive Fleshbag Marauder, it still gets the job done. If Fleshbag Marauder gets another functional reprint like Merciless Executioner, it will definitely replace Slum Reaper. In the meantime, it's basically redundant for Fleshbag Marauder.
- Archfiend of Depravity - Casting this makes players with an epic boardstate extremely nervous. Although it triggers at the end of each opponent's turn, it's still enough for those players to want to get rid of it or try to eliminate you before. Should it survive until an opponent's end step, prepare for a ton of sacrifice triggers. This card is also mega oppressive with Living Plane in play. Many games have I left opponents either scooping or with just 2 lands in play.
- Sidisi, Undead Vizier - When used purely as a tutor, it's too expensive. However, it's a tutor on a body with a sacrifice trigger all rolled into one. Similar to Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk, I sacrifice it to itself when using the ability. It's better for it to die in order to be recurred or reanimated than to stay in play. The deck doesn't usually require tutoring for combo pieces, but I basically use BSidisi to look for any answers for things opponents have that will impede my victory. When it's possible to quickly assemble all combo pieces, then that's what you should tutor for, since that's also game-ending.
- Sly Requisitioner - Not only does tapping artifacts pay for its casting cost, but it creates tokens whenever an artifact you control is sent to the graveyard. Meaning that every egg cracked replaces itself with a 1/1 Servo. When the triggers are placed accordingly on the stack (with Mazirek in play), the Servo enters the battlefield with the +1/+1 counter.
- The Gitrog Monster - The synergy this card has is ridiculous. It gives so much value to fetches and lands like Strip Mine. It's also Exploration on a body and a free land sacrifice trigger each of your upkeeps. Casting Scapeshift with this is play is amazing. It's important to keep in mind how you arrange the triggers on the stack in order to take the most advantage out of The Gitrog Monster (as well as Mazirek).
- Marionette Master - It's a great artifact creature token producer when you're able to consistently recur/reanimate it. The good thing about fabricate is that I can also have it enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters since with Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace, and Doubling Season it will enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it. If that weren’t enough, it’s a more broken Disciple of the Vault since instead of having an opponent lose 1 life, they life in the amount of power Marionette Master has.
- Triskelion - With infinite +1/+1 counters comes infinite damage thanks to Triskelion. So, combined with any infinite sacrifice engine and Mazirek, you can simply ping all opponents to death for free.
- Pentavus - A floating robot train to Value Town, this produces artifact creature tokens while also providing a built-in sacrifice outlet for said tokens. With Mazirek in play and infinite mana, infinite tokens and sacrifice triggers can be achieved. Part of an infinite combo with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod's Altar.
- Sheoldred, Whispering One - Reanimation and stax all on a large body. Not only that, but since she has swampwalk and the deck runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, she can be a wincon on her own if she's large enough. A very versatile creature. Again, the hefty casting cost is not so limiting since the deck produces a lot of mana.
- Triskelavus - A flying robot stingray to Value Town, this produces artifact creature tokens while also providing a built-in sacrifice outlet for said tokens. With Mazirek in play and infinite mana, infinite tokens and sacrifice triggers can be achieved. Part of an infinite combo with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod's Altar.
- Awakening Zone - Not only does it provide a creature token each of your upkeeps, but the tokens can self-sacrifice themselves providing
and a sacrifice trigger.
- From Beyond - A slightly more expensive Awakening Zone, the +1/+0 boost in eldrazi scions when compared to eldrazi spawns is negligible since the tokens are either being sacrificed for mana, used as chump blockers, or will become pumped with +1/+1 counters. So that +1/+0 difference doesn’t matter here. What does matter is that you’re getting a free token at the beginning of each of your upkeeps.
- Living Plane - In this deck this card is extremely oppressive. Since it makes all lands creatures, it helps you out with giving them +1/+1 counters but it harms opponents in a severe way. Whenever you make opponents sacrifice creatures, if they have no actual creatures in play, they start losing lands. This is not merely for use as a mass land destruction device; you take a lot of advantage out of having your lands be creatures as well.
- Doubling Season - An absurd card that provides so much advantage it’s ridiculous. It doubles the amount of loyalty counters of planeswalkers that enter the battlefield. It doubles the amount of tokens that are produced. And, most important of all, it doubles the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on your creatures.
- Golgari Charm - Although point of charms all throughout MtG has been to give a player options when casting, I usually use this card for its regenerative option. Wraths can really set you back so when they don’t have the “can’t be regenerated” clause, Golgari Charm can really help out.
- Heroic Intervention - A great protection spell that grants indestructibility and hexproof at instant speed. It only costs 1G to boot!
- Wrap in Vigor - Again, as explained with Golgari Charm, can help save your creatures from a wrath that allows for regeneration.
- Bitter Ordeal - One of the alternate wincons in the deck, with an infinite amount of sacrifice triggers, you could basically deck every opponent at the table.
- Inspiring Call - This is a very versatile card in that it can save your creatures from wraths but can also fill your hand in a pinch. I usually use it more to protect my creatures but when I need responses and my hand is empty, this has been known to help me out tremendously.
- Scapeshift - Another broken card in this deck. You get as many sacrifice outlets as lands you use for it, plus you get a lot of lands entering the battlefield as well. When combined with Splendid Reclamation you can get a lot of lands in play very quickly.
- Splendid Reclamation - Have been in love with this card since it was spoiled. This card is just amazing; you recover all your lands. This combos great when sacrificing lands to Scapeshift or sacrificing lands as creatures thanks to Living Plane.
- Wave of Vitriol - This card has singlehandedly won me so many games. Most EDH decks run more than their fair share of nonbasic lands. Not only that, but artifacts and enchantments can be particular disruptive to our main strategy of winning by combat. This card gets rid of all of that all by sacrificing and by sacrificing all of that just triggers more and more for Mazirek.
- Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
- Ghost Quarter - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. Sure, it gives the opponent a chance to get a basic land, but the trade off is still worth it.
- Inventors' Fair - The life gain is negligible but still nice to have. However, the main point of this land is sacrifice (which Mazirek and The Gitrog Monster love) in order to tutor the deck for any artifact. Too useful not to include.
- Mishra's Workshop - Unless you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play, this land can only provide mana to cast artifacts. That being said, it provides
to cast artifacts by only tapping it. Ridiculous. The amount of advantage this land generates is beyond words, especially in a deck devoted to artifacts.
- Reliquary Tower - Sometimes you have too fat a hand and having this land in the deck is not a hindrance.
- Rogue’s Passage - Producing
in an artifact heavy deck isn’t any kind of hindrance, especially when it’s a two-colored deck. However, thanks to this land Mazirek gets in an unblockable smack. Mazirek grows ridiculously large ridiculously fast since eggs are cheap to cast, crack, and recur. Too many times have I eliminated an opponent early on thanks to this land.
- Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Provides B all while also giving Mazirek fear. Fear is a good additional evasion even though it already has flying. As mentioned before, Mazirek gets ridiculously large ridiculously fast with this particular build. So giving it all evasion possible means eliminating opponents early on.
- Strip Mine - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves. It can also get rid of basic lands if you need to be evil and color-screw an opponent.
- Swarmyard - Regenerates Mazirek by merely tapping. It also provides
and doesn’t come into play tapped. Overall a great land to have.
- Throne of the High City - Being the monarch is not a focus of the deck nor is it a secondary theme of any kind of anything. It’s just a neat way to get a free card draw at the end of each turn. With so many chump blockers you can maintain monarch status for a long time, as well. Honestly, the reason I added this land is because of needing to be sacrificed. It provides a sacrifice trigger for Mazirek and a draw trigger for The Gitrog Monster. So, it’s not such a useless inclusion.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Makes all lands provides B meaning that you can tap fetches for mana. It also makes utility lands give colored mana instead of just
.
- Wasteland - Gets rid of pesky lands like Maze of Ith, Kor Haven, and it’s ilk plus any other lands that may be too valuable for opponents. Oh, and it also provides a sacrifice outlet as well, which Mazirek loves.
- Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince - Can create tokens in a pinch (the most expensive way to produce tokens in the deck) but the transformation cost is awesome: 5 creatures to make a 9/7 with flying, lifelink, indestructible, and haste. It may seem winmore but it’s on a land. So it’s no problem to include in a two-colored deck. Also, it still has a sacrifice outlet in order to transform. Ormendahl is also a great creature since it’s indestructible and has lifelink. So it’s a great blocker and if anyone wraths, you can transform Westvale Abbey in response, get a lot of +1/+1 counters on it, and then have a large creature to attack with next turn. It’s great.
- Yavimaya Hollow - Similar to Swarmyard except it can regenerate any type of creature with an investment of G.
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- Bloodstained Mire
- Marsh Flats
- Misty Rainforest
- Polluted Delta
- Verdant Catacombs
- Windswept Heath
- Wooded Foothills
-------------------------------------------------------
- Ancient Tomb
- Bayou
- Command Tower
- Overgrown Tomb
- Tainted Wood
- Woodland Cemetery
Creatures:
Enchantments:
Spells:
Lands:
Lands Just for Sacrifice Triggers:
Lands Just for the Mana:
Why do bad things always come in infinity?
0 Walking Ballista
3 Bitter Ordeal
4 Arcbound Reclaimer
7 Pentavus
7 Triskelavus
1 Phyrexian Furnace
3 Junk Diver
2 Myr Retriever
1 Necrogen Spellbomb
3 Workshop Assistant
Without going to infinity, Bitter Ordeal is not as broken as to warrant inclusion. In order to recover more eggs, more eggs are swapped in as well as artifact creatures that can recur artifacts when they die. I feel that the deck is still a solid contender without the cards that allow for reaching infinity and these swaps just make the overall strategy more consistent.
Sometimes it's important to keep a journal.
1. 11/25/15
2. 2/12/16
3. 3/27/16
4. 8/27/16
5. 10/20/16
6. 10/29/16
7. 11/14/16
8. 11/26/16
9. 1/26/17
”Don't forget those convoluted 5+ card combos.”
Infinite Combos independent of Mazirek:
Infinite Combos dependent on Mazirek:
The early version of the deck. The reason this deck has changed so much is because I eventually realized how futile it was to jam every single possible synergistic combination into the deck. There’s just so much to do. So I stopped trying to find a balance in one deck and designed 2 different decks showcasing various strategies. Every single card I've cut, considered, tested, hypothesize, or anything else related to being useful in the deck is discussed in one way or the other throughout this post (most of them being within the decks themselves of the Honorable Mention section of the Card by Card Analysis section.
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Artifacts: 12
1 Mana Vault
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Golgari Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Thought Vessel
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Mimic Vat
3 Phyrexian Altar
4 Smokestack
5 Eldrazi Monument
Creatures: 36
0 Hangarback Walker
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Viscera Seer
2 Blood Artist
2 Gyre Sage
2 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Viridian Zealot
2 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pawn of Ulamog
4 Corpsejack Menace
4 Creakwood Liege
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Falkenrath Noble
4 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Slum Reaper
4 Smothering Abomination
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Kalonian Hydra
5 Mycoloth
5 Plaguemaw Beast
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Thunderfoot Baloth
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Woodfall Primus
1 Hardened Scales
2 Bitterblossom
2 Evolutionary Leap
3 Attrition
3 Awakening Zone
4 From Beyond
4 Grave Pact
5 Black Market
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Doubling Season
5 Palace Siege
5 Primal Vigor
Instants: 2
2 Golgari Charm
2 Wrap in Vigor
Lands: 37
0 Bayou
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Everglades
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Forest (x9)
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 High Market
0 Jund Paranorama
0 Jungle Basin
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Strip Mine
0 Swamp (x8)
0 Swarmyard
0 Temple of the False God
0 Terramorphic Expanse
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wasteland
0 Woodland Cemetery
The birth of my Eggs version of the deck which eventually evolved into the Artifact Matters Build. Eggs alone wasn’t cutting it so it evolved into a combo-centric build based around artifact abuse. The problem with Eggs was finding that balance between all of the elements in the deck. It was too inconsistent; there was either too many creatures and not enough sacrifice outlets to take advantage of Mazirek's ability or there was too many eggs and not enough creatures to benefit. So I decided to not make it completely devoted to eggs. However, with some slight changes without changing the overall concept, the point was to use a small number of creatures to combo out with thanks to the cheapness and recursiveness of the eggs. Thus, the Artifact Build came to fruition.
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Artifacts: 22
0 Mishra's Bauble
1 Barbed Sextant
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Lifespark Bomb
1 Mana Vault
1 Necrogen Spellbomb
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Scroll of Avacyn
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Mind Stone
2 Thought Vessel
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Commander's Sphere
3 Mimic Vat
4 Smokestack
4 Trading Post
Creatures: 26
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Viscera Seer
2 Gyre Sage
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Glissa, the Traitor
3 Merciless Executioner
3 Moriok Replica
4 Corpsejack Menace
4 Creakwood Liege
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Nylea, God of the Hunt
4 Slum Reaper
4 Smothering Abomination
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Kalonian Hydra
5 Mycoloth
5 Plaguemaw Beast
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Woodfall Primus
1 Hardened Scales
2 Bitterblossom
2 Evolutionary Leap
3 Attrition
3 Awakening Zone
4 From Beyond
5 Doubling Season
5 Palace Siege
5 Primal Vigor
Spells: 6
2 Golgari Charm
2 Smallpox
2 Wrap in Vigor
3 Inspiring Call
3 Death Cloud
3 Pox
Lands: 36
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bayou
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Command Beacon
0 Command Tower
0 Forest (x6)
0 Ghost Quarter
0 High Market
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
0 Strip Mine
0 Swamp (x6)
0 Swarmyard
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wasteland
0 Windswept Heath
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Woodland Cemetery
0 Yavimaya Hollow
Added infinite combos to all three versions of the deck. However, since I hope to make this into a primer, I also provided the changes that were made in order to revert the decks to their non-infinite combo versions. All infinite combos and the reversions are discussed throughout each of the three versions.
Finally able to write up the main post in primer fashion! Hopefully it’s useful to absolutely anyone interested in anything that’s possible with Mazirek. It was quite a lot of work but I feel it was worth it. Mazirek is not a commander where I can simply post my own strategy and call it a primer. A primer is supposed to help anyone interested in it. With so much synergy and various strategies, I discuss in great detail how I play it and why as well as anything anyone else may find interesting. Thanks for reading it all!
I hope my thread can continue to serve as a guide to those looking into this commander and/or the many strategies it enables. I love this deck so I will definitely continue to work on it as more magic sets and new cards continue to come out. Mazirek is a very versatile commander so it took me quite a while to test so many things and compile even more things into the comprehensive primer you have before you. So I hope it's of good use to the community.
Once again, thanks to all those who've had any kind of interest and input in my thread!
”I literally make eggs. Where's my functional reprint?”
Please let me know of any errors, typos, etc.! I want to keep this very presentable!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
-Commander-
UBGMill, Sidisi, and Other ShenanigansGBU
WUBRGShingeki no TazriGRBUW
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I cast Awakening Zone turn 2 (with the help of a mana dork) helping me cast Mazirek turn 3. Turn 4 I cast Evolutionary Leap and Phyrexian Altar. Turn 5 I sacrificed the Eldrazi Spawn token to Evolutionary Leap and scored Puppeteer Clique. Next turn I cast Puppeteer Clique and produced infinite mana. I was able to cast every single creature from my deck thanks to Evolutionary Leap and made Mazirek so large that everyone else just scooped. The fact that Blood Artist and the like meant that indefinite sacrifices would automatically win me the game. It was surprisingly amazing. Of course, it just blind luck scoring a persist creature so early in the game along with some sweet, sweet sac outlets, but it just goes to show the insanity that is Mazirek.
I do like your take on stax/denial concept however it seems like something that could be done regardless of having Mazirek as your general. However, we are in the correct in seeing the danger that is Mazirek.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
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Would Swarmyard have a spot?Is nice to be able to save your general with regeneration
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Also, the reason I run Thunderfoot Baloth is not just or the +2/+2 to all my creatures, but it also gives all my creatures trample. What's the point of having so many fatties when they can get chump blocked? Trample has been key in this deck. I understand how Demon of Wailing Agonies can cause a player to sac a creature, but it doesn't trump Thunderfoot Baloth just for that; this is a wincon. Trample has been so key that I'm also considering adding Nylea, God of the Hunt to the deck.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
First sac Woodfall Primus to Phyrexian Altar to get G. Then, use the G and sac Woodfall Primus to Evolutionary Leap to get the first creature from your library into your hand. Once you get all of your creatures, generate enough mana with Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest + Woodfall Primus + Phyrexian Altar to cast all your creatures.
What I really need is haste-enabling on a body! Apparently the only creature in BG that could give more than one creature haste is Mogis's Marauder. Technically, it's limited to your devotion to black, so I'll just cast it last to give enough infinity/infinity creatures haste to kill off any and all opponents. Score! Now all I gotta do is find what to cut for it, lol.
As far as cuts go, I'm considering cutting Grave Betrayal for Viscera Seer. Grave Betrayal is too expensive to cast and by the time I can abuse it I've already won, lol. Viscera Seer is a free sac outlet that lets me "filter" my draws, somewhat. So it's a good swap, I think. Now I just gotta find a slot for Mogis's Marauder...
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
-Commander-
UBGMill, Sidisi, and Other ShenanigansGBU
WUBRGShingeki no TazriGRBUW
URXSurf's Up, Mizz Magnus!XRU
URGWKynaios and Tiro's Multiplayer MenagerieWGRU
I run both instants because redundancy. A single Wrap in Vigor type effect in a 99-card deck without tutors is pretty worthless.
@Inchtall:
I've considered Akroma's Memorial but the protection from black may hinder me in the end if I want to target my own creatures with something that's black.
@Stranger:
I have considered using sacrifice spells and actually have them in a maybe board yet the point of having Mazirek is to pump your creatures when things get sacrificed. So the more creatures you have the more advantages you can get out of those situations. Also, enchantments are permanently causing players to sacrifice things constantly, so that trumps the one-time-only effect of a spell. So that's where I've been taking the deck. Maybe when you build yours with those spells you can help compare the outcomes when testing. For the moment, I've found that permanents have been the way to go - more consistent. I'm also considering adding Smokestack to the deck though it may make me an instant target, lol.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
URXSurf's Up, Mizz Magnus!XRU
URGWKynaios and Tiro's Multiplayer MenagerieWGRU
Lol, no problem. You made me second-guess if I'd placed it in the list or omitted it by accident - it happens. I was also running Wail of the Nim but it's too expensive and three's a crowd.
Just played a game against a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant (so my Fellwar Stone was very happy) and a Shattergang Brothers, which was automatically my friend - much to his begrudgenment. So I was targeting Sidisi since turn 0 and Shattergang Bros. was targeting me since turn 0 since whatever he'd do, it'd be way more beneficial to me that to himself. So it was basically a 2-on-1. Luckily, I had great mana advantage early game against my opponents so I was able to get ahead fairly quickly. I was able to take out Sidisi with my commander due to him lacking aerial blockers, subsequently losing to commander damage. By the time Shattergang Bros. got his groove on, I already had ways of producing multiple tokens each upkeep so his stax strategy wouldn't hinder me in the slightest - only benefitting me. So Shattergang Bros. was basically prohibited from doing anything until he eventually got commander damaged from my Marizek. I admit I was very lucky that game to go against Shattergang Bros. Word of caution to those Shattergang Bros. commander decks out there: BEWARE MAZIREK!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I love how strong this guy is.
I haven't won every single match I've played with it but I've pretty much won a great majority. Color fixing's not a problem in a bi-colored deck and mana rocks and mana dorks help with acceleration. Sometimes the deck runs out of steam if cards keep coming up in different order but once you get even the beginning of any engine out, you're good to go. Smothering Abomination nets me so many cards it's ridiculous - especially when I'm producing a butt-load of Eldrazi Spawn and Eldrazi Scion tokens. Thanks to all the token produces that pop out a token for free during each upkeep, I can keep Smokestack on a solid number between 5-6 counters. It gets pretty nuts. People usually scoop after they end up sacrificing 6 lands before anyone has a chance to take it out. By then I've already killed someone from commander damage. Swarmyard had been so clutch to regenerate Mazirek so thanks for recommending it! It has saved it from everything not -X/-X and the occasional Wrath of God or Damnation.
This deck could also be run an a reanimator. I'd almost forgotten that. Many a time I sacrifice just about everything to massively pump Mazirek and then eventually get it all back into play. It That Betrays and Grave Betrayal have been awesome with the Stax setup. So my build has also a pinch of reanimator in it - it does have B after all.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
During some playtesting I got the idea for adding creatures that give a lot of tokens when they die. That way, if I sacrifice one, I then have a lot more to sacrifice in order to considerably pump Mazirek for the the kill. Here's a list of some potential candidates (each chosen either due to mana cost or amount of tokens made):
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Mongrel Pack
1 Symbiotic Beast
1 Symbiotic Elf
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Hooded Hydra
- Liege of Hollows gives me as many Squirrel tokens as I can pay for. Other opponents could take advantage as well but it matters not when they're dying from commander damage that same combat step.
- With token doublers out, Mitotic Slime can produce a ridiculous amount of tokens which Mazirek is gonna love when they get sacrificed.
- Hangarback Walker and Hooded Hydra can make a ridiculous amount of tokens with Doubling Season and Primal Vigor out (or both!) being as the value of X is basically quadrupled (the amount of +1/+1 counters is doubled when they enter play and the amount of tokens is double that when they die). If anything, these are the two I'm seriously considering adding. Also, if opponents love wrathing mid-late game, having a pumped Hangarback Walker of Hooded Hydra may deter them until the find ways to get around them.
- The others simply produce some nice body advantage when the main card dies, so it should still be interesting to test. However, the decklist is getting tighter as we speak and I may not find too much space for them.
Cards I'm considering cutting:It That Betrays: though great on paper, there's rarely been a game where I could take advantage of it. It's too expensive to cast and I'd need discard outlets to have the deck be even more reanimator than it already is. When my ramp game has been strong, I've been able to cast it to much success and pretty much guarantee the win. However, if I cut Grave Betrayal for being too expensive and it basically does the same (as far as creatures are concerned) then I guess I can cut It That Betrays.
Changes since the first post:
1 Deathreap Ritual
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
1 Acidic Slime
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Swarmyard
1 Mogis's Marauder
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Viscera Seer
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions!
Good call on Caustic Caterpillar!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
The deck might be abit too reliant on the commander but he has a huge payoff turning your small creatures to huge threats.This guy is really strong