Never Dying

Commander / EDH* BGW (Abzan, Junk) Reanimator

Sarkhan_Dragonclaw348

Creature (38)

• 1x Abzan Falconer
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Bloodspore Thrinax
• 1x Catacomb Sifter
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Corpsejack Menace
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Korozda Guildmage
• 1x Lotleth Troll
• 1x Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Plaguemaw Beast
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Rot Shambler
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Satyr Wayfinder
• 1x Scourge of Skola Vale
• 1x Sepulchral Primordial
• 1x Servant of the Scale
• 1x Simic Initiate
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spike Feeder
• 1x Tenacious Dead
• 1x Vastwood Hydra
• 1x Veteran Explorer
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Land (37)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 6x Forest
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Graypelt Refuge
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x High Market
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Murmuring Bosk
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 2x Plains
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Sungrass Prairie
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Languish
• 1x Necromantic Summons
• 1x Victimize

Artifact (4)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring

Commanders (2)

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Abzan Ascendancy
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Death's Presence
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x From Beyond
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x Retribution of the Ancients

Instant (1)

• 1x Putrefy

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

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After my first deck using Reyhan, Last of the Abzan as a commander partnered with Kydele, I decided to take another route to see how it would work. My immediate choice was Ravos, Soultender. This slight change from a Sultai sac-draw strategy to an Abzan sac-return strategy made for an interesting twist on my favorite deck style. Let's get into this, shall we?

Early Game

If you take a second to look at the mana curve of this deck, you'll find the bulk of the nonland cards to fall into the thee-to-five-drop section. The one-drops are comprised of a few creatures (one sac outlet and a couple targets) and a Sol Ring. Simple enough. The two-drops include a couple of sac outlets, two targets, a beneficiary creature, and two hydras. Strategically speaking, we aren't planning to do terribly much early on; this deck isn't meant to be an early threat. You may want to play your second-most-useful cards to begin with, in order to draw your opponents' removal on those creatures, because once your recursion begins, they'll be throwing everything they have at it to stop its advance. Ravos will be an annoyance to your opponents and a serious target, so expect to give him as much protection as you can (see Lightning Greaves). You should begin by getting utility/etb-effects creatures onto the battlefield, while hoarding your sac outlets in your hand. Creatures with devour are going to stick around in your hand awhile, and if you want to give your opponents as little warning as to your strategy as possible, keep your sac outlets in hand until you need them--or even in your graveyard, since once you cast Ravos you'll be able to get them back.

Mid-Game

Once you hit turn five or so, you should have the following things:- One to three etb-effect creatures that you can sac now that they're useless- At least one sac outlet, in your hand or on the battlefield if it isn't a devour creature- Reyhan if any effects you get from saccing will give your things +1/+1 countersA creature that benefits from sacrificing your things is useful as well.Once you have this stuff around, get going. Play Ravos when you're ready, then start sacrificing as soon as possible. Remember not to sacrifice just for the purpose of sacrificing, and remember that if you sacrifice a creature to an outlet you can also sacrifice it for its own ability on the stack, so that the costs for each ability are paid and you get both benefits. (E.g. you sac Caustic Caterpillar in response to saccing it to Viscera Seer and draw cards equal to its power as well as scry 1.) Some of the cards, like in the previous example, have similar effects and it isn't wise to sacrifice a creature if you can wait instead. Try blocking with a creature, then sacrificing it to an outlet so you don't take damage, and you still get the sacrifice effect.

Once you get enough lands, you can really get going.

Late Game

Here we are. This is what each deck is designed to achieve. Ready?

You should have a fair number of cards that benefit from creatures dying. Your early-game Rot Shambler is now a 5/5. You just cast Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. You've spent turns charging up and protecting your Hangarback Walker. Whatever. Now it's business time.

Attack with the creature you intend to sac. As always, attack wisely; choose a player that has a good combination of "I won't get slaughtered if I attack them" and "They've got a lot of life and they need to be taken down some." If your creature survives, sac it afterwards. If it's about to die, use the sac effect on the stack. Chances are, you've already distributed counters on that creature--especially if it's like Hooded Hydra, Vastwood Hydra, or the aforementioned Hangarback. You pass those counters on to something else--say, your Bloodspore Thrinax. In response to the sacrifice, some of the permanents that benefit from it give you goodstuff, like drawing a card, Anthem-ing all your creatures, creating a token. Best-case scenario, you have Bloodspore Thrinax, Reyhan or Death's Presence, Corpsejack Menace, and Pawn of Ulamog and you sacrifice a creature, put double its counters on the Thrinax, Anthem your field, the token enters the battlefield with lots of counters, sac IT and get even more counters, doubling quickly out of hand. The best part: with Ravos, you are getting a creature back EVERY TURN, and if you have Athreos, God of Passage around, those creatures might not even hit the graveyard. To this deck, sacrificing isn't an additional cost. It's an added benefit.

Combos

There are three main types of combo that exist in this deck: counter combos, kill combos, and reanimation combos. (No infinite combos because this is supposed to be fun and interactive, not so much competitive.) Here's some of them:

• Dictate of Erebos + Attrition. Sac a creature to kill a creature, and the sacrifice causes them to sac another creature. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest gets two counters on everything.
• Hangarback Walker + Cathars' Crusade. Sac your 6/6 walker and get a 6/6 flier, 5/5 flier, a 4/4 flier, a 3/3 flier, a 2/2 flier, and a 1/1 flier--plus the rest of your team gets a +6/+6 boost too.
• Skullwinder + Eternal Witness + Ravos. Infitely saccing your creatures, reanimating them, reaping etb effects, and saccing them again, giving you two sacs per turn for six mana. Not the greatest, but it's nice to have.
• Sac effects + Tenacious Dead + Cathars' Crusade. For a measly , you can Anthem your team, in addition to the effect given. Mazirek will give you an extra counter on everyone, and our good old friend Corpsejack Menace doubles the effect. Do it once for a team-wide permanent +4/+4.

Additionally, Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder go infinite with each other, having infinite life and counters upon activation of either of them when on the battlefield together.

There's more, of course, but these are just my favorites.

Conclusion

Of course, this deck is far from polished. I highly doubt I know all the best cards for this deck. This was never meant to be extremely competitive, but I expect it probably doesn't reach even the bar of friendly-but-capable decks. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	99
Avg. CMC	3.18
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Horror */* B, Morph 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 W, Thopter 1/1 C