NO Green Sun's Zenith

Dang, I knew I was forgetting something.

Green Sun's Zenith is better when you have Dryad Arbor in the list, and since it wasn't in this version I wasn't thinking about it. Good catch, chrisdavis.

No wurmcoil engine? Lol this is a great deck list. +1

Atrent3 - No Wurmcoil Engine because I don't need the tokens (Pod a zero drop, sac a creature I guess but I'd rather not) and it doesn't deny opponents anything. :-( I love Wurmcoil but it simply did not fit.

Don't joke wurmcoil fits everywhere.

I've reached full Satanist levels, my friend. I'm sorry. I took Avenger of Zendikar out of this deck, too.

Rather I could run Wurmcoil but Geth fills my six-drop threat spot on personal preference. 6-drops have one flex spot so my boy gets it

I'm surprised that your ramp suite is lacking Primal Growth. And no High Market? Meren's pretty unforgiving if ever you're stuck without a sac outlet. I'm really not sold on cards like Viscera Seer, though. Sac outlets can be much more efficient than that little dork, I'd sooner run Culling Dais over that guy.

I can see why Sheoldred would be a really promising card to run, but for a top-end card like it I'd almost sooner run something like Void Winnower. At that point I'm more interested in stopping topdecks from being able to do anything. In my experience when you're running such a tight list that's meant to hit so hard and fast, particularly with minimal self mill you'll only really need to reanimate one card a turn anyway.

I'd definitely push for you to grab Duplicant and Disciple of Bolas out of the maybeboard too, though. Disciple grabs you cards and life, two things you'll want, particularly since you've chosen to run cards like Bob and Necropotence. Duplicant is just such a good swiss army card, and exile is just so relevant considering how many cards are just a nightmare even if you kill them. To be fair, I'm coming from a somewhat more durdley perspective. I run the Edict enchantments and I generally just take advantage of the fact that I can lock people out easily with a sac outlet and one out on the field.

I'd also point out Spore Frog if feast or famine gameplay's got you down. In a lot of cases I find it can buy you some valuable time to do whatever you need to do to stabilize and start climbing back.

Also, considering your strong predilection to attrition/prison, I would recommend Oracle of Mul Daya. It makes your draws more valuable and lets you ramp out and empty your hand faster for when you've got things like your Mindslicer loop online.

I'm very surprised there's none of the Tiny Trio (Ghast, Skelly and Crawler) since they provide such strong reusable sac fodder at very little investment.

I also think this deck is lacking in more artifact/enchantment hate, since one of the ways these attrition-y GB decks can get locked out is by artifacts/enchantments that make the gameplan harder in some way.

vgdc7: Thanks so much for your detailed comment! I really, really appreciate it a lot. I'm gonna approach everything one at a time 'cause you took the time and deserve that time. Thank you. <3

• Primal Growth Only running creature and artifact-based ramp, no instants or sorceries. Creature-based ramp is better for this list.
• High Market is a high priority investment for this deck.
• Void Winnower has been tossed around, but this is a full attrition-playstyle/Birthing Pod list as opposed to reanimator. Everything has to synergize and Void Winnower just sits there.
• Duplicant is an INSANE SWAK card, very good to Pod into but lackluster to hardcast. It's got the ETB/LTB trigger I'm looking for, but I'm not sure what I need it for. It's in a ton of competitive lists so maybe I'm just dumb. Still testing it.
• Disciple of Bolas is stupid good. The card advantage is slightly less significant since I'm already generating an insane amount. Plus I need to have some room for threats. I was tossing between Disciple and Kokusho, the Evening Star for lifegain. Mixed feelings. Still testing.
• Grave Pact I wrote about in the primer, but I'll add that when you recur Fleshbag and Executioner a million times a turn Grave Pact is insignificant and little more than an extra mana investment.
• Oracle of Mul Daya... It's very hard to find the right spot for ramp in a deck that doesn't care for it much. I really want to find a spot for it but I don't know where it would go. 4 CMC is a very tough spot to make room in right now. :-(

Khaotica: Tytyty for commenting, much appreciated! Spooky scary skellys!

• Bloodghast is way out of my price range right now for the effect so I play Nether Traitor. I don't trigger landfall as much as I trigger dead creatures. :-( Nether Traitor is basically my one-of replacement for Crawler and Skellybones. In Pod lists you're not looking to run many cards that do the same thing, but instead lots of cards that do different things since your deck is a full toolbox.

• I've yet to play a game since really nailing down this list that a single Rest in Peace or LeyVoid could keep it down. Reclamation Sage is INSANE, especially since I find myself recurring it multiple times a turn or (more often) multiple turns in a row. Tilts people so hard. RecSage and Woodfall Primus both do their work very well.

Yeah, I definitely feel your concerns. For what it's worth, High Market's reprint has made life a lot more bearable therein.

Duplicant is, as noted, something of a swiss army card. It's just kind of a hole-filler for when you need to deal with something, which I think is why it's so popular among lists of all power levels.

Kokusho's definitely a pretty solid card to compare to Disciple in this case; in my experiences running Meren in 2DH with cards that cause pain like Bob and Reanimate you really need to be careful you don't burn yourself out of the game. Considering your game plan's faster than mine you probably don't need the card advantage as much.

Have you considered Putrefy? It may not hit enchantments, but it's pretty awesome in a lot of situations.

Also, a Bojuka Bog is a must, I think. A bit of graveyard hate is always really good, especially with your land nuke/recursion package. Bojuka Bog + Life from the Loam + Strip Mine for instance means that you can slowly whittle away everything they have with no chance of ever bringing it back, even with something like Time Spiral or The Great Aurora.

I really dig where you're going with this deck. I've run Ghave, Guru of Spores for years, and I've tuned him to be a lot more like your deck than the usual mix of token swarms and crazy combos. I seek to control the game, grind out advantage, and usually win by looping either Kokusho or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I actually have Meren in my 99. Anyway, on with my suggestions.

I know that neither of these are very budget friendly, but have you considered Natural Order or Entomb? Natural Order is just a silly good tutor, especially in a deck where you are actively looking to sac things. Entomb is another great tutor for graveyard-centric decks. One trick I like to run is a single classic Eldrazi titan (the ones with the graveyard shuffle effect) alongside Entomb so that I actually have a response to something like Bojuka Bog.

Doomed Necromancer can be a strong card, especially if you have enough counters on Meren to bring him right back to the battlefield. Toss a fatty to either Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman, then use Doomed Necromancer to bring it into play, then use Meren to bring the Doomed Necromancer back. This can be done turn after turn.

I know he'd be a weaker backup to Meren, but Genesis almost always finds his way into my green decks. He could at least get you out of a jam if Meren gets disabled somehow.

I've enjoyed running Evolutionary Leap in my deck. It's another sac outlet, and it can keep the cards flowing without costing you life like Bob or Necropotence.

I see that you are already running Attrition, which is a great card for the archetype. You did, however, say that you were looking to have as many effects as possible on creatures, so, while less efficient, you could look at Stronghold Assassin.

Another card I've fallen in love with in my deck is Black Market. With the amount of sacrificing you get up to, that card can generate stupid amounts of mana if left unchecked.

You can't go wrong with Maelstrom Pulse in a BG deck. It's the cure for what ails ya.

I would agree with the above statements that Duplicant is well worth the slot. He goes into darn near every EDH deck I build, but my meta is also rife with indestructibility, be it from equipment, auras, or the proliferation of Avacyn, Angel of Hope that I contend with on a weekly basis. Disciple of Bolas also usually pulls his weight. The only reason I don't run him in my Ghave deck is that I needed to make room for all the white goodies.

My final comment will be a word of advice about another card on your maybe list. While Sadistic Hypnotist is a crazy powerful card in a deck like this, he will not win you any friends. You need to decide if being the only one really playing the game is how you want to spend your evening.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I really appreciate the help, it's so great!

vgdc7 - Duplicant will definitely be finding a spot in here, though I'm not quite sure where. Probably over Jarad's Orders because I don't need it that much.

Putrefy is one of my favorite cards, but I want to keep those effects on my creatures as opposed to non-creature spells so that ETB/LTB triggers are where I get my value. Not even Torpor Orb can tame me!

EbonRose -

Natural Order and Entomb are both incredible, though a tiny bit out of my per-card price range right now. The Titan + Entomb strategy is awesome, dude. I love it. Bojuka Bog does bash on this list pretty hard if it's recurred.

Doomed Necromancer will now take the spot of Hell's Caretaker. I like that it's faster and still pitches a creature to the graveyard, that's a huge deal. Thanks for reminding me it exists and is easy to Pod into.

Ya'll keep suggesting Disciple of Bolas so I'll try to make a spot for him, too! No doubt that card is awesome, I just don't know exactly where it belongs. I like it better than Evolutionary Leap. (Not more than I like Necropotence and Dark Confidant because they get better if Disciple of Bolas and Kokusho, the Evening Star are in the list.)

Sadistic Hypnotist might not win me any friends, but it's in the board because I'm 100% willing to take that risk against certain decks. There are some decks that I don't think I can realistically beat with this list and that bums me out. So, #yolo, might as well have a utility sideboard!

I suppose I can remove Geth, Lord of the Vault to keep Puppeteer Clique in, since I'm all-in on ETB/LTB abilities. Geth can go in the sideboard, right? Someone reassure me, I love Geth and don't want to take him out of the main. He's such a good grindy card. :(

Then again I don't need Puppeteer Clique, cause I have Geth, Lord of the Vault to take peoples' shit... Nevermind, we're good!

I highly recommend adding Triskelion to your deck. It gives you infinite damage with Mikaeus. Trike comes in with 3 counters the first time. Shoot one damage in any direction you like and two at the Triskelion itself, killing it. Then it comes back with four counters, three from itself plus one from undying. Shock something, shock Trike and repeat.

Mephidross Vampire plus Triskelion also means that your opponents don't get to keep creatures alive that die to damage.

I actually had Triskelion in here for the instant-win combo at first but can't bring myself to put it back in. It's not a strong utility creature and held the place of an "oops I win" card, which isn't what I've been trying to do. I've been thinking about keeping it in the sideboard but to be honest I simply have zero interest in the combo after playing it for so long.

Is Dark Confidant worth risking 6-drops?

You know, I initially went back and forth on Dark Confidant because I can punch myself in the face for 8 with Woodfall Primus, but after many, many games with this deck I've concluded that Bob does in fact belong in it.

The early card advantage from landing a turn 2 Dark Confidant is insanely strong. It can be backbreaking to deal with since, surprisingly, not everybody has answers for a turn 2 Bob in their opening hand. I don't mind having my hand revealed, nor do I mind being hit for 5-6 life early on when I can dig more easily for Kokusho, the Evening Star.

Plus I can always Birthing Pod Bob away into a 3-drop. I do that rather frequently.

I like where you went with this - although perhaps because it's very similar to what I was doing in between the two versions of Meren on my profile, so I may be biased.

But... how do you fare against creature-light combo decks or creature-based combos that just go off, such as Boonweaver or Jarad's several options? A lot of your value seems dependent on making trades at parity and then recurring creatures for card advantage that these decks just shrug off.

For example, I see almost no way for you to stop a Laboratory Maniac + Mind Over Matter combo. Is this simply a result of your local meta being more creature heavy?

You make an absolutely excellent point. Thank you so much for pointing out that weakness. You're right--most of my value is gained off of denying opponents advantage early-on, but if they manage to get a combo like Mind Over Matter set up, I'm going to have a very difficult time.

This is both a result of local meta being more creature-heavy, and me lacking the foresight to think about every "broken" combo in the format. Now that I think about it I don't think I can answer a Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron deck on the spot, either. This is a huge fault in the building.

Do you have any recommendations to combat this?

Well, if those combos are rare in your local group I'd say just stay weak to them.

But if that changes, now things are interesting! My own The Circle of Life is trying to handle this exact problem because I'm commonly matched against Azami, Jarad, Tasigur, and Sen Triplets. The best solution I've found is to really push the stax plan to slow things down, but from an angle that works for Meren.

This means avoiding tax effects and Winter Orb for the most part but going light on hurting the untap step isn't a bad idea. Instead, I've cut a lot of my creature hate for discard and targeted land destruction plus grave hate. Since I'm not facing a fully powered storm deck that is adept at refilling its hand, denying cards is really strong.

If my meta shifted back to creatures, though, I would play something closer to your list but perhaps with a lower avg CMC.