Going Down to Value Town

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Ramp Reanimator Sacrifice Toolbox

LordBlackblade

Creature (29)

• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Body Snatcher
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Dawntreader Elk
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Foundation Breaker
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Outland Liberator  ^Flip
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Instant (5)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (34)

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Deathcap Glade
• 10x Forest
• 1x High Market
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Deathreap Ritual
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Footsteps of the Goryo
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Persist
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Unmarked Grave

Artifact (6)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strionic Resonator

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Welcome to my Meren of Clan Nel Toth based around a concept that I've always enjoyed: Graveyard play! Golgari (Black/Green) is the ideal color combination for this type of deck, being the guild of death and regrowth. The main theme of the deck is resiliency and re-usability. Placing cards into your graveyard only to recover them is the primary mechanic of the deck. Our focus is recycling creatures with abilities that trigger on entering and exiting the battlefield. Let's break down the deck so we can discuss card choice and strategy. I'm always open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment below!

Try setting sort to Custom to see my thought process when designing the deck!

The Commander

Meren of Clan Nel Toth is an outstanding reanimation commander. Her ability essentially has two modes. The first occurs when you have less experience counters than the creature you want to reanimate's mana cost. In that case at the end of your turn you put that card in your hand. The second mode is if you have experience counters greater than or equal to its mana cost. In this case, the creature is returned to the battlefield. Either way, you're getting a card back from the graveyard.

EDH Staples

Some cards have a place in (nearly) every EDH deck. Most of these so-called staples serve one purpose: color fixing. As the number of colors in a deck increases, so too does the need for color fixing. The primary method of color fixing in the deck is through effective use of dual and fetch lands. My research on the topic has lead me to create what I believe to be an optimized mana base for the deck. This was achieved by removing as many tap lands as possible and replacing them with dual lands that have a way to enter the battlefield untapped.

The Battlebond Lands Show

These lands come in untapped if you have two or more opponents. In casual EDH, that should be the vast majority of games.

• Undergrowth Stadium

The Check Lands Show

These lands check to see if you have a given land type under your control. We'll usually have a basic land under our control, making this an easy requirement to meet.

• Woodland Cemetery

Command Tower Show

The land of lands in EDH, Command Tower should be in every multicolor EDH deck.

• Command Tower

The Fetch Lands Show

The ideal use of the fetch lands is to tutor for our shock lands. Barring that, they can also be used for early game mana fixing.

• Verdant Catacombs

The Filter Lands Show

These lands are able to tap for a colorless mana on their own, or can be used to filter mana of one color into another color.

• Twilight Mire

The Pain Lands Show

An underrated type of dual land, the pain lands deal one damage to you when tapped for either of their colors; however, they can also be tapped for a colorless mana at no penalty.

• Llanowar Wastes

The Pathways Show

These relatively simple lands are great! They always come in untapped, and let you choose what you need on the spot. I'm not saying they are as good as the fetch lands; however, their ability to fix you is quite high.

• Darkbore Pathway  

The Shock Lands Show

Get Shocked in order to get an untapped dual land into play. The shock lands are true color-fixing staples in any format.

• Overgrown Tomb

The Slow Lands Show

Strictly better battle lands. Only punish you on turns 1 and 2, which is not the majority of the game. Most of the time they function as untapped dual lands.

• Deathcap Glade

The Tainted Lands Show

The tainted lands are a form of black-only dual land originally printed in the Torment set. They have since all received a modern reprint save for Tainted Peak. They are excellent duals and function most similarly to the check lands.

• Tainted Wood

Miscellaneous Mana Fixers Show

These cards don't fit into the other mana-fixing staple categories, but are used still widely used and can be quite powerful.

• Sol Ring - The EDH staple-of-staples. Undeniably powerful mana acceleration

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - A staple in any black deck. Allows all of our lands to tap for black

• Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - A green Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Easy, low opportunity cost fixing.

Recursion

The heart and soul of this deck is the recursion of as many creatures as possible. These cards accomplish this by returning those selected creatures from the graveyard to play. The deck also has a few cards that return non-creature cards to play or to our hand.

• Agadeem's Awakening   - A splashy reanimation spell, run at no opportunity cost, as it can be played as a land

• Animate Dead - Reanimates a creature for two mana and a small debuff to its power

• Apprentice Necromancer - Easy-to-recur reanimation. The target sacrificing itself is very nice as well

• Body Snatcher - An interesting recursion card. Single-use only. Requires careful trigger stacking and a sacrifice outlet

• Dance of the Dead - A variant of Animate Dead, the doesn't untap clause is irrelevant for our purposes

• Dread Return - Returns a single creature card from the graveyard to the battlefield. The treat here is that is has flashback

• Eternal Witness - Return a permanent card from the graveyard to our hand. Ideally used for enchantments or artifacts

• Footsteps of the Goryo - A three mana reanimation spell that auto-sacrifices the creature

• Life / Death - The Death half is literally a two mana Reanimate

• Malakir Rebirth   - A low-costed recursion spell, also has no opportunity cost to run

• Necromancy - Instant-speed reanimation for three mana. Solid

• Persist - Similar to Animate Dead, but can only target nonlegendary creatures

• Phyrexian Delver - A Reanimate that can only target our graveyard stapled to a 3/2 body we can recur

• Reanimate - One mana and some life to get any creature back to the battlefield

• Takenuma, Abandoned Mire - An overcosted recursion spell; however, it has no opportunity cost to run

Removal Suite

Removal is a key concept in many EDH decks. If your deck doesn't have the ability to counter a spell, removal is the next best option. The key deciding factor for removal spells in this deck is versatility. Any spell that does more than simply destroy a creature is an outstanding choice. In this deck, our removal is mostly in the form of sacrifice effects.

Creature-Based Show

This is where the majority of our removal is based. Due to the deck's plethora of recursion, we will get a lot of use from these cards.

• Caustic Caterpillar - Deceptively powerful removal. With Meren of Clan Nel Toth on the board it can be quite oppressive

• Faceless Butcher - Provided you have a sac outlet and stack your triggers right, this permanently exiles a creature

• Foundation Breaker - Essentially Naturalize that gives us an experience counter and can be be reanimated

• Outland Liberator   - A variant of Caustic Caterpillar. More expensive upfront, but cheaper to use. The transformed side is quite powerful, but most likely won't be used

• Plaguecrafter - Our basic removal. Easily recurrable and hits all players. A strict upgrade over the old Fleshbag Marauder

Grave Pact Effects Show

These cards capitalize on all of the self-sacrificing that the deck does by tacking a non-ascended Vona's Hunger onto each creature we sacrifice. This also makes us less of target in combat by making any attacker think twice before attacking us.

• Dictate of Erebos - The flash version. More expensive, but potentially unexpected by our opponents

• Grave Pact - The original and the cheapest to cast

Sorceries and Instants Show

There are only a few sorceries and instants in the deck due to the fact that our other forms of removal are more easily recurred. The deck only has one card that can get them back: Eternal Witness.

• Assassin's Trophy - A new all-star! Two mana to deal with any permanent

• Hagra Mauling   - Usually an over-costed Murder; however, has a low opportunity cost to run

Sacrifice Outlets

One of the key features of the deck is getting creatures into our graveyard. These cards help do that by giving an option to sacrifice any creature we control. The abilities that are triggered by these sacrifices are usually minimal; however, they're a nice bonus.

• Altar of Dementia - Two mana for a free sacrifice outlet. Mill yourself for added value

• Ashnod's Altar - The archetypal sac outlet. Sac a creature for two mana

• Bloodthrone Vampire - Another two-mana sacrifice outlet. Being a creature makes it easy to recur

• Carrion Feeder - No cost sacrifice on a one-drop creature

• High Market - A powerful sac outlet. No cost sacrifice on a land

• Phyrexian Altar - Sacrifice any creature for one mana of any color

• Phyrexian Tower - A "free" sacrifice outlet that also ramps

• Viscera Seer - See Carrion Feeder

• Woe Strider - The new all-star from Theros Beyond Death. A free sacrifice outlet that recurs itself is really good

The Strategy

The deck's primary win-con is to go for the classic Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista combo. The deck's secondary win condition is to simply out-value your opponents. When your opponents have to sacrifice all of their creatures while your board state grows, the results can be powerful but a little on the grindy side. The tertiary win conditions in the deck are relatively minor and situational.

• Kokusho, the Evening Star - Our primary win-con. Repeatably drain our opponents to death

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - One-half of our primary combo. It giving nun-human creatures undying helps enable said combo

• Mindslicer - Establish nearly insurmountable value through hand denial

• Spore Frog - While not an outright win condition, Spore Frog essential makes combat against us pointless. He is easily recurrable and is often underestimated

• Strionic Resonator - Now this is some serious value. Double the value of any of our ETBs or Meren of Clan Nel Toth's ability

• Sylvan Safekeeper - Protects all of our pieces and is super easy to tutor up

• Walking Ballista - One-half of our primary combo. It being able to remove +1/+1 counters to damage our opponents helps enable said combo

Sub-Themes

Any given deck has a number of sub-themes running in the background of the overall deck architecture. Our three sub-themes represent a major component of this particular deck.

Card Draw Show

Being able to draw more cards allows us to see more of our deck in a given game. The majority of the card draw in this deck is either related to milling our self or creatures dying.

• Deathreap Ritual - Draw a card at the end of each turn if a creature has died. Ideally should be working every turn

• Greater Good - This awesome card could fit into several categories, but its primary function is to draw cards

• Grim Haruspex - Draw a card whenever a creature we control dies, at no additional cost

• Guardian Project - A newish green EDH staple. We will get so much value off of this recurring our creatures

• Midnight Reaper - Essentially Grim Haruspex, but cost life. Also counts itself in a pinch

• Morbid Opportunist - A variant of Grim Haruspex. Doesn't cost life and sees all creatures, but only occurs once per turn

• Skullclamp - A classic, but even more potent in this deck. Offers a potential sac outlet

• Solemn Simulacrum - A classic. Ramps when it enters, draws when it leaves

• Yavimaya Elder - Sacs itself to draw a card and fetches to hand two basics. A lot of value

Mana Acceleration Show

Mana fuels all of our spells, so it makes sense that having more of it, earlier, is a great thing. Ramp is considered especially powerful in EDH due to the average length of the games and the mana cost of the cards involved.

• Dawntreader Elk - The slightly worse version of Sakura-Tribe Elder. Still decent

• Nature's Lore - One of the best sorcery-speed ramp spells. Gets you an untapped forest

• Sakura-Tribe Elder - Sacrifice it to tutor out a basic land

• Three Visits - Functionally identical to Nature's Lore

• Utopia Sprawl - One mana for one mana. Enchantments are surprisingly difficult to remove, and this is particularly low aggro as well

• Wild Growth - See Utopia Sprawl

• Wood Elves - Fetches either a Forest or an Overgrown Tomb. Land enters untapped

Tutors Show

Consistancy is the bane of any singleton format. To counter this, the deck includes many cards that can draw a specific card from the deck.

• Buried Alive - Three creature cards of our choice to the graveyard, nearly as good as putting them in our hand

• Demonic Tutor - A contender as the best tutor ever printed in Magic. Two mana, any card, and it goes to your hand

• Diabolic Intent - Demonic Tutor that requires a sacrifice. What is normally a penalty is a boon in this deck

• Eldritch Evolution - Sac one creature to get a better one. Unfortunately exiles itself upon resolving

• Entomb - Any card to the graveyard ripe for reanimation

• Fiend Artisan - A new tutor from Ikoria. Potentially mana-intensive, but tutors to the field, at a minor surcharge

• Jarad's Orders - Puts one creature in our hand and the other in our graveyard

• Pattern of Rebirth - An aura that tutors and cheats out a creature when the enchanted creature dies

• Protean Hulk - The king of tutors in this deck. Fish for a bunch of low CMC creatures or a major bomb depending on the situation

• Unmarked Grave - Can only tutor nonlegendary creatures, but it's as close to a second Entomb as we have available

• Vampiric Tutor - One of the best tutors in Magic. One mana cost and instant speed make it very powerful

Weaknesses

It should go without saying that the deck's greatest weakness is graveyard hate. A well-timed Bojuka Bog or an early game Relic of Progenitus can easily shut the deck down. There's not really much to be done for most forms of graveyard hate, so just be aware that it can happen.

Two cards that can interfere with our strategy are Tajuru Preserver and Sigarda, Host of Herons. You don't see preserver very often, but Sigarda is pretty common in EDH. The presence of either puts a big damper on the majority of our removal suite, which is primarily sacrifice-based.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.73
Tokens	Day, Experience Token, Goat 0/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Night
Folders	Reference, Completed Decks