MTG Salvation

• Tireless Provisioner - The deck's already running Tireless Tracker which synergizes amazingly well with all the land ramp effects while also providing us card draw (albeit via tokens that cost 2 to activate). This one creates treasures which is even better since they're free to crack and can accelerate us even further. 100% going in the deck.
• Urza's Saga - Doesn't take up a slot in a mono-colored deck like this one plus it helps get either Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Jeweled Lotus for when Polukranos gets to expensive to recast from the command zone.
• Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - As a mono-green deck, this one's a no-brainer.

• Archon of Cruelty - It costs a whopping 8 mana to cast but it's a 6/6 flyer with an ability so at least it passes the vanilla test. However, what makes it great for Mazirek is that triggered ability that happens when it enters the battlefield and when it attacks. Target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalkers, discards a card, and loses 3 life. On top of that, you draw a card and gain 3 life. I'd have to extensively test this because of its high mana value. The deck does generate a ton of mana, but by the time you're able to cast this, your opponents will more likely than not already be creatureless.
• Dauthi Voidwalker - A 2 mana 3/2 with shadow is amazing stats and I'm glad it's just a rare. On top of that, it's a Leyline of the Void on a body, which is great against graveyard and reanimator decks. You can then tap it and sacrifice it to cast any exiled card with it for free. Since we're able to reanimate and recur our creatures, we can potentially do this multiple times in a game. Definitely worth testing.
• Nested Shambler - Thanks to Mazirek putting a ton of +1/+1 counters on it, if you sacrifice it to any ability afterwards, you're going to get a ton of squirrels, which can then be used as sacrifice fodder or as more free bodies to carry more +1/+1 counters. 100% going in the Budget Build but worth considering in the Main Build.
• Herd Baloth - This is an autoinclude in this deck. It goes infinite with Mazirek and any free sacrifice outlet. When it gets a +1/+1 counter and creates the token, you sacrifice that token to trigger Mazirek and get yet another +1/+1 counter and token.
• Scurry Oak - Another Herd Baloth! 100% going in the deck.
• Tireless Provisioner - The deck's already running Tireless Tracker which synergizes amazingly well with the fetchlands while also providing us card draw via tokens that have a built-in sacrifice outlet. This one creates treasures which is even better since they're free to crack and can accelerate us even further. 100% going in the deck.
• Urza's Saga - Helps get either Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Jeweled Lotus which can help casting Mazirek or even Animation Module which is an amazing card in the deck. Even if we do have Mazirek already out, when the saga gets sacrificed to its own trigger that'll trigger Mazirek. So this is great regardless of when we use it.
• Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - The deck's already running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for color fixing our fetchlands and colorless lands, so this one's a no-brainer.

• Junk Winder - Affinity for tokens means that this will almost likely never cost the full 7 to pay. So potentially getting a 5/6 for just UU is no joke. However, that's not the main reason for running it. It freezes down a nonland permanent whenever a token enters the battlefield under your control. So every zombie you create will freeze any nonland permanent, which is amazing. The deck is running Opposition as well (and has been for the longest time) so getting a similar effect is great. It's not as good as Opposition but it is a creature. Would I swap it out for it? I don't think so. That being said, I would definitely find a slot for it.
• Dauthi Voidwalker - A 2 mana 3/2 with shadow is amazing stats and I'm glad it's just a rare. On top of that, it's a Leyline of the Void on a body, which is great against other graveyard decks. You can then tap it and sacrifice it to cast any exiled card with it for free. Since we're constantly reanimating creatures, we can continuously do this effect as well. Definitely worth testing.
• Necrogoyf - The deck doesn't run Lhurgoyf but this one can be cheaper to cast if you discard it from your hand. It also provides a discard outlet that affects opponents as well. It has the potential of being a huge beater but it doesn't have any kind of evasion. So, just like the original, this one will probably not be in the deck as well.
• Unmarked Grave - The deck's already running Entomb, which is obviously much better since it costs less, is an instant, and can get any card, but this one is a good enough budget substitute. That being said, Entomb is also used to get an eldrazi titan into the graveyard at instant speed in response to graveyard hate, so there's that to consider, as well. However, it's definitely worth including since it can still help assemble any combos that don't rely on legendary cards.
• Vile Entomber - Definitely going in the Zombie Build. It's an Entomb on a body, albeit costing quadruple as much. That being said, it's a zombie so it gets all of the perks in the Zombie Build.
• Blessed Respite - If graveyard hate is very prevalent in your meta, you could consider this as an instant speed response to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog, etc.
• Endurance - This one's even better than Blessed Respite since it's a creature. It's a 3/4 with flash and reach for 3 mana, which is already kind of pushed, especially considering you can cast it for free in a pinch.
• Chatterfang, Squirrel General - Believe it or not, this actually has the potential of being good in the deck. Each time we create a zombie we create a squirrel which can help overwhelm opponents. I don't think I'll include it, but it's definitely worth testing if you like the card.
• Gaea's Will - The deck's not even running Yawgmoth's Will, which is essentially better since you don't have to wait. The reason being that most of the spells and effects in the deck self-mill, which would then exile the cards, which is not good for this deck.
• Grist, the Hunger Tide - Its creature effect is amazing for this deck because if we mill it, it'll trigger Sidisi even though it's a planeswalker. Speaking of milling, it self-mills us for 1 with its first ability while also providing a token. It's not going to happen again since there aren't any other insects in the deck, though. It's second ability can be used in a pinch especially since we have a ton of sacrifice fodder with all of our tokens. Its ultimate is very easy to achieve and can actually win us the game on the spot if we have enough creatures in our graveyard (and we've dealt enough damage to our opponents). Definitely worth testing.
• Dermotaxi - It's quite risky to exile our own things from the graveyard but we're able to change it into a copy of that imprinted creature (which can be from any graveyard). It also only costs 2 to cast meaning we can have a very early game Razaketh or other key creatures.
• Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - The deck's already running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth so this one's a no-brainer.

Quote from AnarchyStarfish »

Have you considered running Crystalline Crawler in place of Gyre Sage? It costs more, but generates counters less conditionally and has the payoff of being usable on multiple turns instead of just once per cycle.

• Fractal Harness - Not only could we get an X/X beater out of it, but when equipped to Polukranos it can make it especially dangerous since it's going to get a ton of +1/+1 counters, which is never a bad thing.
• Witch's Clinic - There're plenty of equipment that give lifelink to Polukranos but this one doesn't take up a slot in the deck since it's a land that taps for mana without entering the battlefield tapped.

• Author of Shadows - With all of the creatures and other things we're forcing opponents to sacrifice, we might be able to steal something good besides also having the potential of screwing over graveyard matters decks by exiling their graveyard.
• Blight Mound - A cute way to take advantage of our own nontoken creatures dying since they're essentially replacing themselves. These tokens dying would then gain us life, but are 2/1's with menace, which isn't bad, considering that Mazirek makes them larger.
• Fain, the Broker - 100% going in the deck. All of his abilities are relevant here plus he has a built-in untap ability for even further value.
• Fractal Harness - Even if we cast this for X=0, it's still great in the deck since it'll double the +1/+1 counters on the equipped creature when it attacks. This can make Mazirek even more dangerous than it is. The deck no longer has Kalonian Hydra which did it better, but at least artifacts stick around a bit longer than creatures do.
• Yedora, Grave Gardener - This is an interesting way to make the most out of our nontoken creatures dying since they return as forests. Since the deck has ways to also sacrifice lands, we can make even more out of our creatures dying.
• Tempting Contract - If opponents take the treasures, then they have things to sacrifice to trigger Mazirek. And, if they do, you get that many treasures as well to further Mazirek's triggers, too.
• Witch's Clinic - The deck doesn't aim to gain a lot of life but life is a resource in it so being able to gain a ton of it from Mazirek without taking up a slot in the deck is definitely something to consider.

• Adrix and Nev, Twincasters - I'm not running cards like Parallel Lives in the deck or other similar token doublers because I want to keep the noncreature count as low as possible. However, this is a Parallel Lives on a body which is a different story. This can be reanimated and creates zombies when milled while Sidisi is on the battlefield. This is definitely going in the deck.
• Incarnation Technique - This card is simply amazing. Not only are we milling 5 cards but we get to reanimate any creature from our graveyard. Yes, it's a noncreature spell, but it can be swapped in for another noncreature spell to compensate.
• Ruxa, Patient Professor - This would be an interesting zombie lord if our zombie tokens don't acquire any keyword abilities. They'd get +1/+1 and it wouldn't matter if they're blocked or not, making them quite dangerous.
• Revival Experiment - We might lose a lot of life but this essentially a one-time Muldrotha effect that exiles itself. It does cost 3 life for each permanent we return, but it's well worth it if we return a lot of expensive permanents (and a land).

Quote from mustafa_2812 »

After putting your deck into TappedOut, it seems very heavy on 4 and 5 with a decent amount of ramp at 0 and 1 but not much after that. Do you find the high average CMC to be an issue with this deck?

Quote from mustafa_2812 »

That would be awesome! Looking forward to it! I'm playing a version of your deck without infinite combos (personal choice) and with a few pet cards (death cloud and others) but would love some guidance on what works given the latest sets. I'm not particularly good at designing decks with so many moving parts like this one but you seems to have a great handle on it.

Quote from Belakor »

Any thoughts on the tha cards from Strixhaven? There's some pretty good ones imho

Quote from mustafa_2812 »

Hi DementedKirby! I am loving this deck! Made some tweaks to it to make it my own and have been playing it for a few years. Looking to update it and wanted to see your most recent build for inspiration. Curious what you are running. I see a lot of out/in posts but it's difficult to gather from how many of these posts there have been as to what your deck actually looks like at this point.

Do you have your current build uploaded somewhere? Would love to see it!