This is my Karador deck. I've spent many months fine-tuning it, and it is by no means finished or optimal, but every card in the deck serves a purpose, and I've tried to make sure every card synergizes well with as many other cards as possible. It is my pride and joy, and I'm currently in the process of foiling out the whole thing (about 80% there).
Anyway, this deck is designed to come at the opponent(s) from multiple different angles. It out-values them with ramp and removal spells that can be recurred over and over. It can tutor up whatever answer it needs. It can drop an early fatty through ramp or reanimate and take over the game. Eventually it wins by comboing off, landing a huge Living Death, or just beating them down with creatures the old fashioned way. I'll divide up all the cards in to different sections, and then go into detail about some of the synergies.
RAMP: Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman, Wall of Roots, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, Harrow, Oracle of Mul Daya, Skyshroud Claim, Solemn Simulacrum. Efficient ramp, fixing, value. That's all this is about.
FATTIES: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, Sun Titan, Ashen Rider, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Avenger of Zendikar, Rune-Scarred Demon. The great thing about all these guys is that they're not just fat, they also provide me with crazy amounts of value. Any combination of these guys in play at the same time also makes for some huge plays.
VALUE/UTILITY CREATURES: Satyr Wayfinder, Stinkweed Imp, Harmonic Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, Knight of the Reliquary, Disciple of Bolas, Qasali Pridemage, Eternal Witness, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Saffi Eriksdotter, Restoration Angel, Blood Artist,
Riftsweeper
, Big Game Hunter, Acidic Slime. Spore Frog, Duplicant, Fleshbag Marauder, Academy Rector. Value all day. Each of these guys serves a different purpose, and they can all be easily recurred for maximum value.
TUTORS: Survival of the Fittest, Academy Rector, Knight of the Reliquary, Fauna Shaman, Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, Entomb, Buried Alive, Corpse Connoisseur, Birthing Pod, Dimir House Guard, Rune-Scarred Demon, Demonic Tutor. Not much to be said here, these get me the cards I want when I want them.
JUST GOOD CARDS: Mirari's Wake, Pernicious Deed. Greater Good, Debtors' Knell, Necromancy, Wrath of God, Living Death, Swords to Plowshares, Skullclamp. Gift of Immortality, Life from the Loam, Sylvan Library, Unburial Rites. These cards are good.
LANDS:
Utility: Dryad Arbor, Horizon Canopy, Phyrexian Tower, Strip Mine, Bojuka Bog, High Market, Winding Canyons, Homeward Path, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers. These lands are great. They're like free spells, and they synergize well with a lot of other cards in the deck.
Fixing: Scrubland, Savannah, Bayou, Godless Shrine, Temple Garden, Overgrown Tomb, Twilight Mire, Wooded Bastion, Evolving Wilds, Temple of Plenty, Reflecting Pool, Command Tower, Wooded Foothills, Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest. Fetchlands have great synergy with lots of other cards, so I included as many as possible. All the on-colour fetches, and all fetches that can grab forests. I also threw in an Evolving Wilds just for fun. I included Twilight Mire and Wooded Bastion as well because I'll often have lots of green mana, but need either BB or WW.
Basics: 5xForest, 3xPlains, 3xSwamp. Lots of forests because green mana is the most important, especially early in the game. I also have a few cards that search for forests specifically. Plains are nice for Knight of the Reliquary and swamps are nice for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, so I included equal numbers of both.
And now, on to the fun stuff...
LANDS.DEC: Oracle of Mul Daya, Knight of the Reliquary, Harrow, Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam. This is probably the most fun part of the deck, interacting with lands in the graveyard. These cards all work very well together and can do some really fun things, especially in combination with utility lands and Avenger of Zendikar. Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds can also do some pretty nasty things with Strip Mine, Horizon Canopy and fetchlands.
COMBOS:
Reveillark + Karmic Guide + sac outlet + creature with 2 or less power. The sac outlets available are Dimir House Guard, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter and Greater Good (although I wouldn't advise going infinite with that one). This is usually the go-to combo, as it generally sets itself up over a longer game and it gives us an instant win. The way this combo works is by, first, getting Karmic Guide and a 2 power creature into the graveyard, along with a sac outlet. Then you evoke Reveillark (or sacrifice it), returning Karmic Guide and the creature you want to recur. Karmic Guide will bring back Reveillark, and then you sac all 3 creatures, rinse and repeat. Dimir House Guard is the best enabler for this combo, since he can transmute for Birthing Pod to set it up, and then he can be brought back by Reveillark to kick off the combo. Acidic Slime and Blood Artist are the most common creatures to recur, although you can also use Big Game Hunter, Duplicant or Harmonic Sliver for a selective boardwipe, Solemn Simulacrum or Disciple of Bolas for infinite cards, Wall of Roots for infinite green mana, Wood Elves or Sakura-Tribe Elder to fetch all your lands, or Satyr Wayfinder to fill your graveyard until you hit a better creature.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter. I'm not a fan of Mike + Triskelion kills, so I put this in instead. Selective boardwipe, and it can kill any creature anyone plays afterwards.
Sun Titan + Gift of Immortality or Saffi Eriksdotter. A Sun Titan that never dies. It also makes for an infinitely large Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter or an instant kill with a sac outlet and Blood Artist
These next few aren't so much combos, but individual cards that are really powerful, and the cards that go along with each of them to get maximum value.
Academy Rector + Mirari's Wake, Pernicious Deed, Greater Good, Debtors' Knell, Necromancy, Gift of Immortality, Survival of the Fittest, Sylvan Library. It's not too hard to get this guy to die in this deck, and there's such a wide variety of enchantments he can grab that there's always going to be something good.
Skullclamp + Satyr Wayfinder, Harmonic Sliver, Blood Artist, Disciple of Bolas, Eternal Witness, Big Game Hunter, Necrotic Sliver, Karmic Guide, Shadowborn Demon, Wood Elves, Wall of Roots, Dryad Arbor, Avenger of Zendikar Drawing cards is always awesome, and I don't mind at all if these guys get put into my graveyard.
Green Sun's Zenith + Dryad Arbor, Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman, Wall of Roots, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, Oracle of Mul Daya. Early in the game, GSZ with X = anywhere from 0 to 4 will always grab you ramp. And if ramp isn't what you need, there are tons of other green creatures you can get as well.
Survival of the Fittest + Stinkweed Imp, Big Game Hunter. Ok, so Survival is good with literally any creatures. But the imp comes back to my hand every turn, which gives me at least one guaranteed use of Survival every turn. Stinkweed Imp is often the first creature I will search for to start a Survival chain. This also works with Fauna Shaman, but it's significantly slower.
Sun Titan + Necromancy, Pernicious Deed, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Necrotic Sliver, Fleshbag Marauder, Qasali Pridemage, Spore Frog, Saffi Eriksdotter, Wall of Roots, Strip Mine, Horizon Canopy, fetchlands. This guy is great for getting back things that have been killed, but he's even better with cards that kill themselves. Pernicious Deed for 5 every turn sounds pretty good to me.
INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES:
Some of these cards are not the typical ones you would see in most Karador decks. Some of them are just pet cards of mine, and some of them are in there just for their synergy with specific other cards.
Gift of Immortality - This isn't just in there for the combo with Sun Titan. It also does wonders on creatures that kill themselves like Karmic Guide or Qasali Pridemage. And you don't know true power until you've gotten this thing on an Ashen Rider with Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter in play.
Wall of Roots - You don't see this guy in most decks, but he's an efficient ramp creature that puts himself in the graveyard, and he works really well with Survival of the Fittest, Sun Titan and Skullclamp.
Harrow - I chose this one over other ramp spells because sacrificing a land helps me get extra value off a Deathrite Shaman, Sun Titan or Life from the Loam.
Academy Rector - There are a lot of powerful enchantments in the deck, so I figured I'd add a way to easily fetch them. This guy is also a great 4 drop to use with Birthing Pod.
Dimir House Guard - This guy ties the deck together so nicely. He doesn't do any of the big flashy stuff, but he fetches me Birthing Pod, which is one of the best cards in the deck, and he also enables the Reveillark combo very nicely. He can also grab Wrath of God in a pinch.
Blood Artist - I'm still trying this one out in the deck, but it's been doing pretty well so far. It turns any of my combos into instant kills, and also goes pretty well with Skullclamp. There are often enough creatures dying in this deck that the life gain he gives can actually be relevant.
SIDEBOARD
The sideboard lets me take out my combos if I'm playing with a group that isn't ok with going infinite. If that's the case, I can basically just take out all the free sac outlets, and replace them as follows:
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter becomes Sheoldred, Whispering One
Dimir House Guard becomes Puppeteer Clique
Greater Good becomes Deadbridge Chant
Vindicate and Unravel the Aether are in there for decks that play Humility, as that card completely shuts down my deck, and the only answer I have maindeck is Pernicious Deed. They both also help against Rest in Peace, and Unravel helps against pesky gods that seem to be becoming more and more popular.
Mindslicer is for greedy control decks that like to draw lots of cards. It's also really good against Stonecloaker, which is another big hoser against my deck.
That about sums up the deck. I hope you like it and I hope this helps you out with your deckbuilding!
