Midnight Reaper

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Midnight Reaper

Creature — Zombie Knight

Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, Midnight Reaper deals 1 damage to you and you draw a card. (Dying is being put into the graveyard from the battlefield.)

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 year ago

When I built my Meren deck, I found that even with a pretty Black heavy deck, it was nice to run more Green than Black mana sources, since my Green ramp fixed my Black mana. I also cut lands for repeatable (and potentially repeatable) ramp like Diligent Farmhand or the Dawntreader you're considering, these can not only help get Meren out early, they give her something very useful to do with her ability as soon as she's out. There are quite a few now, but I only run ones that can find swamps. I also run a couple cards like Wood Elves, which don't sac themselves but can be sacrificed for value as soon as Meren is out. Using these types of cards allows my fairly low land Meren deck to be extremely rampy if Meren stays out. You can also run lots of 1 mana dorks in Meren, including Elves of Deep Shadow and knock-off Llanowar Elves.

I also find it's hard to run enough card draw, stuff like Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper or Beast Whisperer can draw a bunch of cards, and all of them are creatures. This brings me to another point, I found that in Meren that it's hard to run too many utility creatures of various sorts, you can do an astonishing amount of stuff with creatures in Golgari, I presently have 55 creatures in the 99, which makes cards like Lurking Predators insane and Heartwood Storyteller lots of fun, because Meren decks are also pretty good at pressuring the board, it's hard to know how many of the various Demon's Disciple family of cards you should run, but they feel pretty decent in Meren in my experience, if a bit obnoxious. There are also more cards like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, as well as Savra, Queen of the Golgari, these are all super-obnoxious in a deck that likes to sacrifice stuff. One really weird 'one creature toolbox' is Callous Bloodmage, this can do a bunch of stuff and can be worth recurring if you can get it killed.

Not sure if you've ever come across these, they are old and rare even in Commander, but I find Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can do work in Meren, the Helm is a sac outlet that grabs the best creature on the board. It rarely lasts too long, but it's a very strong effect if you're not worried about running artifacts. Ritual is nice and compact, you sac something you want dead to steal the best thing in a way that's hard to interact with for many decks. Final Parting is an interesting card in Meren, you can put a Protean Hulk or Razaketh, the Foulblooded, maybe Sheoldred into the graveyard and a Reanimate into hand, so it's 6 or 7 mana to put your best creature into play from the library.

If you want any ideas about infinite (or non-infinite) combos that can win games, I read a lot of Meren deck Primers, so I might have some ideas if you want to have that option.

Very good deck so far, hope you enjoy testing it!

DreadKhan on Korvold Sacrifice

1 year ago

There are lots of options to help fix your mana that have been printed, some of the handiest are those that can dig out a land, and lands that make more than 1 colour. Both are very useful, some effects can even dig out 2 or 3 colour lands, but these are pricier in most cases. Some budget options include Jund Panorama, Riveteers Overlook, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Mountain Valley, and Rocky Tar Pit (the last two can find non-Basic lands, this includes Woodland Chasm, Highland Forest, Sulfurous Mire), Cinder Glade, Smoldering Marsh). Blighted Woodland can find other land types if you have Green already, Myriad Landscape can find Green (or another colour), finding Green is usually important because of cards like Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach, these ramp you but can also find you a needed land type. There are also even better options (arguably) like Farseek, Nature's Lore and the pricier Three Visits, these can find non-Basic lands, making them very useful. I always liked Harrow, it can find 2 different colours of land if it's helpful, there is also the lesser Roiling Regrowth. Since your Commander is at 5 mana, you might even include stuff like Skyshroud Claim or Circuitous Route, there are more but they aren't as popular due to costing 4 mana (you can get stuck on 2 or 3 lands).

A pair of random cards that might work for you are Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex, both draw cards whenever your creatures die, and cost very little mana. Another couple randomly useful creatures Dockside Chef, Skullport Merchant, and Mayhem Devil, which are certainly gotten pricier but is still extremely good.

Happy deck building!

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

1 year ago

Foster_I_Amkirbysan Crawling Chorus is definitely a great new addition, even though it's a bit boring. Currently, I'm torn on replacing either sultai emissary, carrier thrall, or ministrant. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts:

Sultai Emissary

  • A manifest is not a token, so it triggers all our non-token death triggers, including Grim Haruspex, Midnight Reaper, Pawn of Ulamog, and Luminous Broodmoth. Not that it comes up super often, but manifests have a particularly interesting interaction with broodmoth. If any manifested permanent dies, like a land, it will come back with a flying counter.
  • We can flip over the permanent if it's a creature, meaning manifested creatures are not only fodder but card draw. Because we have 35 creatures, Emissary will effectively draw us a card one third of the time.
  • The downside is that he's 2 mana for a fodder creature, and the manifest doesn't die to Skullclamp.

Carrier Thrall

  • Tokens can sac themselves and provide mana. He effectively pays for himself with Teysa out.
  • Both sides die to Skullclamp.
  • Unfortunately 2 mana to play.

Ministrant of Obligation

  • With Teysa out, has 5 bodies for one instead of 3.
  • 3 mana is even more unfortunate than 2.

Currently, I'm considering ministrant more heavily because of how inflexible 3 mana is. I was already thinking of replacing him for Hallowed Spiritkeeper because of more potential upside, so this might be the right time to replace.

DreadKhan on Meren of Clan Nel Toth

1 year ago

I usually recommend people try out Diligent Farmhand and Dawntreader Elk as creatures for Meren to reanimate and ramp you because they are sacrificed. This makes these play better than Wood Elves in a lot of situations, but you can certainly run both (I only run 30 lands in my Meren deck, and no mana rocks, I usually end up with a ton of lands by the time the game is done).

If you use creatures that make a bunch of tokens upon entering the battlefield, you might like Demon of Dark Schemes, which can be used as a tiny wipe and as a repeatable source of reanimation? It combos fairly well, using Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar or Pitiless Plunderer, another card very good with the Demon or in Meren in general is Mitotic Slime, which is a ton of bodies for 5 mana. Another solid card in Meren is Callous Bloodmage, a very versatile creature to reanimate for sure, it also doesn't exile your graveyard when it exiles an opponent's. Dauthi Voidwalker is a really good card if you play against people who use a lot of spells, especially powerful ones, the ability is amazing in Meren because the cards that are exiled stay that way even if you recur Voidwalker it can still see all of those exiled cards, including any an opponent's Voidwalker exiled from your opponents. Helm of Possession is a really off-colour ability for Golgari, and you probably can pay the creature. When you want a new creature you can just sac the old one and steal a new one. Midnight Reaper is another Grim Haruspex, not sure how many you necessarily want, but I rarely mind having two out.

I don't love spells in Meren, but I make an exception for Jarad's Orders, Final Parting and Ritual of the Machine. Graveyard tutors are good in Meren, and tutoring cards into hand is also good. Ritual's ability to steal most creatures can really save you if people run certain kinds of decks. Another good tutor to consider is Fiend Artisan, digging out a Sidisi feels pretty good if Meren is out, I can usually recur her right away for a second tutor.

I'm not really sure if your creature count is high enough at 38, but I absolutely adore Lurking Predators, it can put out multiple creatures per cycle for me, which will usually put me ahead quickly. I run 55 creatures IIRC, so technically I should get a creature a little more often than every other spell, which is obviously absurd if someone else can't combo off. It's just hilarious when you pull something like Plaguecrafter or Ravenous Chupacabra.

It's pretty pushed so you might not want to run it, but Protean Hulk can find 6 MV worth of bodies, so it can find Walking Ballista and Mikaeus in one go, which is pretty solid. If you use something like Activated Sleeper you can get an extra 3 MV worth of creature, which can mean a Blood Artist and Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer to just win on the spot.

If you are using Mazirek, I feel like I have to mention One with the Kami, this very easily goes infinite with Mazirek, giving you infinite deaths and enters as well as infinitely large tokens for something like Altar of Dementia, or even swinging.

Your deck looks great as is, just throwing a few ideas out there for you, hope some are helpful!

DreadKhan on Lyzolda's Bloody Sunday

1 year ago

Just had a thought, perhaps Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper could do work in here? They just need your creatures to die, a thing you're trying to do, and both are budget.

lhetrick13 on Beyond the Grave (Abzan)

1 year ago

squiGGhetti - Still way to early for anything concrete but played a round or two with Pyre of Heroes replacing the 2xEldritch Evolution and started with it in hand for a game...I really like it. I had Midnight Reaper out and the ability to sacrifice weaker creatures to draw out larger ones plus the draws Midnight Reaper was providing is pretty sweet. I think you may be onto something with suggesting that to me as it does seem to fit in very nicely with the deck. Glad I checked out your cleric deck!

IHATENAMES on Meren, currently

1 year ago

Ideas:

Demon of Dark Schemes reanimation and a boardwipe

Any number of sac ramp creatures. A few examples Neverwinter Dryad Diligent Farmhand

Fog on a creature Spore Frog

Dread Return reanimation

Free sac outlet on cheap creatures Viscera Seer Carrion Feeder

Puppeteer Clique reanimation of an opponents threat (also works with persist combos if you choose to do that)

Midnight Reaper Grim Haruspex card draw upon death of a creature Liliana's Standard Bearer situational card draw

Mindslicer hate on blue players. Everyone discard their hand.

Mausoleum Secrets instant speed tutor

Victimize sac a creature return 2. Very good reanimation

For a few additional ideas take a look at My golgari deck it has a lifegain theme that won't translate but many off the cards beyond that might be good includes.

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