Life / Death

Sorcery

Life:

All lands you control become 1/1 creatures until end of turn. They're still lands.

---

Death:

Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost/mana value.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 days ago

The OG Fetches are very good cards in almost any deck, and as I mentioned in my first post, I don't know if it would be easy to improve this deck without either adding Fetchlands or increasing the power level.

The easiest way to increase the power level a deck like yours is to add a combo, but your present power level is high enough that you'd need to add a fairly efficient combo, something like Protean Hulk to find a complete combo (ideally via a single pile), this would leave you at a strong 8, not quite cEDH but it's fairly hard to make Meren a cEDH deck at this point, her ability is too slow/grindy for cEDH games. cEDH Meren lists are likely to make use of something like Razaketh, or possibly a Phyrexian Devourer combo. Razaketh uses something like Life / Death to turn your lands into creatures so you can keep tutoring until you find both your combo of choice as well as the mana to play it. Razaketh decks love stuff like Lion's Eye Diamond, which is extremely pricey and does very little other than combo off. You'd also want Dark Ritual type cards, and possibly things like Lotus Petal and Elvish Spirit Guide. The main problem with Razaketh is getting him out early, but something like Final Parting can get you there by putting Razaketh in the bin and a Reanimate into hand. Similarly, you can reanimate a Protean Hulk (which you then sacrifice) to tutor up a game ending combo, the advantage of Protean Hulk is that it's easier to cast when you're desperate, but the upside of Razaketh is that you can tutor up any cards you want, Razaketh just gives you a new hand in exchange for a few creatures. I think Protean Hulk is the best of the lot, but Phyrexian Devourer isn't a bad option, you use Triskelion with it by getting both into your graveyard, with a Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield, you then just exile cards to put counters on your Devourer, and the only real drawbacks are your limit on individual MV (Devourer dies if it gets too big), and you'll need enough total MV to actually kill everyone (this isn't too hard if you go off fairly early, but it can suck if you take all game to get into position and can't kill everyone because you don't have enough cards left. Another upside to Devourer is that Triskelion also wins the game with Mikaeus (you ping Triskelion with the last counter so it dies (without any counters left) and has Undying). Oh, with Protean Hulk the 'smallest' pile I am familiar with involves Disciple of the Vault, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Lesser Masticore, and Carrion Feeder/Viscera Seer, with that pile you don't even need Activated Sleeper to nab a second Protean Hulk (with only 3 MV after you account for the Sleeper). The main drawback of this pile is that the cards are individually bad IMHO (I would run Feeder and Seer, but none of the others fit in a generic Meren deck), and the lack of redundancy (Melira and Masticore aren't used in a lot of other combos in Meren decks afaik) makes it less stable than some lists. The final one I feel is worth mention is Demon of Dark Schemes, Mitotic Slime, and Phyrexian Altar nets you infinite mana, ETBs, death triggers, Energy, and all the creatures in each graveyard can be reanimated by you. The nice thing about the Demon is that it's only 6 mana (so technically Hulk can find him), and it can do a lot of work in certain situations since it can wipe small creatures as well as reanimate cards from anyone's graveyard. It's one of the better generic reanimation effects that can go infinite, and it's sheer range of utility makes it worth looking at even if you didn't use Mitotic Slime. The Slime btw is very good in most Meren decks since it offers a plethora of tokens for only 5 mana, while Phyrexian Altar (or Pitiless Plunderer) are both amazing cards in a deck like this.

If you feel like adding a combo, I wouldn't have more than ~2 trees/paths to work with, unless the cards are shared between multiple lists.

I can go into more detail if it would be helpful, I have a Meren deck on here you could take a look at, it's a lot more combo oriented than your list, but it's combos aren't optimal, they're all made with stuff I already had.

Jimmithee on no

3 months ago

Collection of suggestions from the thread, plus a few of mine:

Max out Griselbrand, and remove cityscape leveler and two Iona's. I'd recommend taking out persist and replacing it with Life / Death, for the sole reason that most of your reanimation targets are legendary. You should also add a playset of Putrid Imps to have a discard outlet on the ready, which could replace buried alive. Definitely replace the Sol Rings with Lotus Petal to make the deck Legacy legal, and replace The Stone Brains with something like Thoughtseize or Collective Brutality.

Probrably not the best reanimator target, but my personal favorite one is Akroma, Angel of Wrath :)

jamochawoke on Uurg eats everything

3 months ago

This is a super fun little combo deck! But it can get shut down pretty easily. I'd suggest putting some key Commander pieces in that you're missing... and thankfully there's a TON of things that work with a land-based deck archetype like this in those colors.

First off, you need to complete your Cultivator combo with Splendid Reclamation for getting all those lands out of your own yard in a very big way (Cultivator probably becomes the biggest thing in your game at this point)!

Centaur Vinecrasher or Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar are superb alternate or additional beatsticks for Cultivator with tons of synergy with your commander that also dig themselves out of the graveyard after they get immediately removed like in my games!

Terravore is nice if you never hit Cultivator in your games (or it gets hated out).

Constant Mists basically you get eternal fog in a deck like this whenever you want if it doesn't get countered.

Entish Restoration, Dig Up, and Beseech the Queen for synergistic tutors.

Kagha, Shadow Archdruid, Elvish Reclaimer, Grisly Salvage, World Shaper, Circle of the Land Druid, Stinkweed Imp, Winding Way, Life from the Loam, Scapeshift, and Satyr Wayfinder for digging through the deck faster while also rotating lands. Life From the Loam is ESPECIALLY GOOD for its dredge ability in this deck so you can keep casting it. Scapeshift is the single most powerful cycler you could run but it's very $$$ and doesn't synergize completely with this deck (it's more for landfall decks, but it can still work with this too).

The utility lands Witch's Cottage, Mortuary Mire, Memorial to Folly can help get your creatures back out of the 'yard.

The utility lands Witch's Clinic, Rogue's Passage, Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, Wasteland, Field of the Dead, Thespian's Stage, Restless Cottage, Boseiju, Who Endures, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire would all help your deck's overall resilience and ability to deal with threats.

Either Abundance or Rishkar's Expertise could be a game-ending bomb for you. Rishkar's is great if your commander has enough power. You can draw a ton of your deck, likely hit a tutor you cast for free, then if your hand is flooded with lands you discard down to 7 putting all those lands in your 'yard making your commander even bigger! Abundance isn't as synergistic, but is basically a creature tutor spell for Cultivator Colossus if you decide to not run any other beaters or utility creatures.

Assassin's Trophy for instant-cast targeted removal of EVERYTHING.

Tear Asunder and Abrupt Decay are less-good Assassin's Trophy but at least Decay can't be countered.

Casualties of War for when you need to get rid of a lot of different pests that turn.

Return to Nature for instant-cast targeted removal of Enchantment/Artifact or Graveyard card.

Drown in Filth for a land-synergistic targeted removal that gets around indestructible.

Terror Tide for land-synergistic boardwipe that also gets around indestructible.

Nurgle's Conscription, Froghemoth, and Bojuka Bog for some enemy graveyard hate.

Rain of Filth for a MASSIVE spike in mana for that turn.

Worm Harvest for generating a TON of tokens off of the lands in your 'yard.

Titania, Protector of Argoth or Rampaging Baloths for much, much bigger tokens.

Gitrog, Horror of Zhava and The Gitrog Monster for super frog-land-pseudocycling synergy!

Brawn since you're putting things in your 'yard anyways you might as well give your commander and other beatsticks Trample for free! Trample has saved me so many times in games. No reason not to run it in this deck tbh.

Erinis, Gloom Stalker, Ayula's Influence, and Old Rutstein for more synergy with your commander's ability.

Life / Death for making an army out of your lands or pulling something out of your 'yard.

The planeswalkers Nissa of Shadowed Boughs and Vraska, Golgari Queen can give you alternate win-cons while also being synergistic with your commander.

If you don't need more combo stuff and just need another big beatstick alternate for the Colossus it's hard to go wrong with Yargle and Multani's power (plus the stained glass alt-art is sick!). But unfortunately it doesn't come with the cool yard recovery abilities of the other beatsticks I mentioned and doesn't have trample or evasion, but it does have more power than Emrakul!

DreadKhan on Beledros Witherbloom

6 months ago

I could be wrong, but since your deck cares about lands I would make an effort to include more land ramp, artifacts seem to get blown up a lot anyways. I would use Wood Elves over arcane signet (or Dawntreader Elk?), replacing Sol Ring is harder, but there is Crop Rotation. Finding a Coffer or Urborg at the right time is a much bigger effect than Sol Ring. Deserted Temple is a good card in here with Coffers. Since you have Urborg and Coffers in here I wonder about Hour of Promise and/or Tempt with Discovery, if you can cheat out 2 or 3 lands at once you can probably cast your Commander and go off.

Not sure if it's really a 'good' card, but Silverglade Pathfinder can dig lands out repeatedly, your Commander is high enough MV that this might be worth doing.

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild is interesting in here, but especially if you've got something like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds out. Ashaya also works very well with your landfall effects.

I'm not sure if you need to stack up activations, but if you reanimate your Commander you can activate him again, so maybe some of the lower to the ground reanimation effects, stuff like Reanimate, Life / Death, and Animate Dead. They are pretty big ramp if you have a sac outlet and your Commander out.

I'm not sure if it's outside your playgroups boundaries, but Pitiless Plunderer is very good with Chatterfang. It's not a combo, but if you've got lots of Pests kicking around there is Savra, Queen of the Golgari, she's budget compared to Dictate of Erebos and might fit in here.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 year ago

If you're interested in playing fair, then you might like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This can take a board full of utility creatures and make them very formidable very quickly. Hell's Caretaker is a card I find useful that doesn't go infinite with anything I know of, it just lets you sneak stuff in once per turn. If you don't include anything like Pitiless Plunderer you can set up repeatable sacrifice loops to generate XP for Meren, probably to reanimate a Protean Hulk or someting else juicy. For this you might use Gravecrawler or Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and probably a 1 drop Knight to have something you can keep killing over and over. Any card that cares about creatures dying will go off, so some stuff that draws on death might be nice, Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a versatile card that fits the bill.

In my experience, the best thing you can tutor up is usually Protean Hulk, Sidisi, or Razaketh, any of these tends to spiral out of control in a deck that can reanimate them on the end step or sooner. Hulk can find various creatures to solve whatever problems you have, but you probably need a sac outlet to ensure it dies right away, the others are more generous. Razaketh notoriously likes abusing Life / Death to set up a pretty quick win when you're ready, you can find stuff like rituals to generate enough mana to go off.

If you want another reanimator that isn't picky, there is Demon of Dark Schemes that helps clear the board of weenies, and as long as you don't have cards that generate mana the Demon won't go infinite with something like Mitotic Slime or Underworld Hermit, they'll just give you lots of triggers for your extra mana. Demon also likes Merciless Executioner type creatures, they can easily generate Energy. Another reanimator I often forget reanimates stuff is Liliana, Death's Majesty, this brings back stuff as a Zombie if you don't want the ultimate, and she survives some wipes as a PW that can make 2/2s while milling you. Some people don't like PWs so ymmv.

I suspect that if you're not sure if you need more wipes, you might want to try one or two more. In Black there is Make an Example that is very brutal as you always hit your priority target for each opponent. It won't clear the board, but it can help manage it, and you can follow it up with a bunch of forced sacrifice. One card that likes seeing a wipe happen (that makes running extra feel less problematic) is Ogre Slumlord, if you run enough 'pay life'effects you might want Sangromancer, and if you think you can kill enough of your opponent's permenants then Kothophed, Soul Hoarder might work out, that can turn a Damnation into a big draw spell.

If your deck is finding it hard to stay alive, you can use Dawnstrider to save you on needing to reanimate a Spore Frog, though I use both as I find Meren can be annoying to certain players.

If you like Phyrexian Arena and aren't using 'win on the spot combos', have you considered Protection Racket? This can draw plenty of non-land cards or deal damage to your opponents, both seem good as long as you don't care if you lose some random 1-3 drops. There is also Black Market Connections, this can provide various resources without being as busted/all-or-nothing as Necropotence.

Hope some of this is helpful! Any Commander that requires a lot of tutoring is very frustrating to learn to play, Commander is incredibly hard to master, but it's easy to get better with practice!

biobrush on Za-Draw Ascendancy (Hidden Commander: Zada)

1 year ago

Twizzlywizzle I'm looking over your list. It's rock solid and I'm impressed how you've outfitted it for cEDH. I have a few suggestions that you may consider testing.

Green Sun's Zenith will grab your best mana dork or the one you can afford with the mana available. It's another spell for those triggers, it opens the possibility of a creature toolbox (Collector Ouphe is fairly asymmetrical in your deck), and it could be used as a infinitely re-shuffling last-card-in-deck (if that situation were to arise, not sure how).

Life / Death is really, really good. It's all about the Life half, Death is just gravy. For 1 mana, you can usually triple the number of mana dorks you have on the field, unlocking stupidly good Jeskai Ascendancy and cantriping lines. With the quantity of mana dorks in your deck already, I can see why you might pass on the less mana efficient and versatile "lands become creatures" cards, but I would highly recommend at least testing Life / Death.

Mutavault: It's a free mana dork for the cost of a colorless producing land. Yes, we're playing 5c, but is Tarnished Citadel really worth it? (Of all the cards in cEDH -- which I don't play -- this is the one that irritates me the most.)

And Mutavault is an Ally for... Harabaz Druid. This card is so good pre-Tazri and Zada!

Lastly, Narset's Reversal. This does cheeky stuff in returning your cantrip to hand with the Zada triggers on the stack, doubling the cantrip's potential. More importantly, it's a rock solid cEDH card as a counterspell and/or the best spell on the stack!

I hope some of this helps. Truth be told, I haven't tested this deck much in the wild. But in theory, this advice is sound.

ClockworkSwordfish on Angelic Reanimator

2 years ago

Looks like a solid reanimator deck, and I appreciate that it even has a theme!

That said, having sixteen ways to reanimate a creature is a lot - maybe too much. The other thing that really stands out is that twelve of those ways are four mana apiece. Not too fast, which is what you probably are hoping for.

Even if you can't afford the real classics like Reanimate, Life / Death is an excellent budget replacement. Getting Iona into play two turns faster is worth the life loss, trust me. Animate Dead is also a solid option, since the loss of 1 power should hardly matter when your creatures are as big as they are.

KanisxKoda on

2 years ago

Lol your comment page is getting long. Had to scroll for a min.

Yeah I took a quick peak and there are a few tweaks/upgrades you can run over some others I think that wont be too overbudget.

I'd run:

Burnished Hart (under $2) or my favorite Yavimaya Elder (under $1) overDawntreader Elk/Neverwinter Dryad

So if your gonna pay to play lands you might as well get 2 for the price of one. Right? These 2 all stars allow you to pull 2 lands (deck thinning) and elder is even a static trigger which means you can sac to other outlets and still get value...soon much value lol.

Living Death(under $10) over Culling Ritual

Honestly I see the appeal in both. Culling however is more local meta based with high end, low cmc deck opponents. Living death covers a better wide meta and pairs amazingly with Dauthi Voidwalker, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or even a Scavenging Ooze

Toski, Bearer of Secrets ($10) over Oakhame Adversary

If your running a draw engine like this toski is a clear winner over adversary because he covers each attacking creature so you can draw multiple cards per turn instead of 1.

Veil of Summer (under $10) over Heroic Intervention

This is a meta call swap. I like Veil because it protects you from counters and the 2 of the most popular wipe spells colors. And draws a card. But if your group is heavy on red and white intervention is better.

For Junji, the Midnight Sky I usually replace creature for creature but in your decks case you can trim a reanimate since you have about 9 not including Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Best replacement creature for creature is taking out Apprentice Necromancer, otherwise Dread Return or Life / Death.

I say these 2 because of the exile clause and death only targets your yard un-like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Necromancy which allow you to hit any yard.

Also you may want to add another free sac outlet. I highly recommend Altar of Dementia. It's budget friendly at around $10 ATM from mm2. Mill opponents and fills your yard fast. Great replacement for one of the extra reanimate spells you have.