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Mazirek Sac-Storm: The *Primer* of Life & Death

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Combo Counters Pox Sacrifice Storm Tokens Tokens

Rzepkanut

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Land (33)

Ramp (13)

Token Machine (10)

Tutor (8)

Extra Counters and Tokens (3)

Life Gain (2)

Persist Combo Enablers (2)

Removal (20)

Sac Outlet (17)

Self Sacrifices (12)

Sac As Cost (8)

Recursion (6)

Steal (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

Fodder (19)

Draw (12)

Death Trigger (9)

Eldrazi Tokens (7)

Discard (5)

Protection (1)

Maybeboard

Cards I Want To Get Still (2)

Self-Sacrifice At Its Best.

This deck is fun, powerful, interactive, and deceptively complicated to pilot. Between all the tutors and the different kinds of tokens, the various triggered abilities that are always going off, and then theres the fact that Mazirek is basically a reverse Cathars' Crusade on a stick. Which as you probably already know, Cathars' Crusade is one of the most powerful but also most annoying cards to deal with actually using in real life out of all Magic: the Gathering.

A big thanks to everyone who upvoted and shared this deck already and making it so popular!! Its become the #1 highest rated Mazirek deck on tapped out, and its even made it all the way up to the #8 decklist of the whole site before!!

This deck plays out like a metaphor for the circle of life, translated into Magic: the Gathering.

There is usually at least one turn the deck seems to "go off" (and often win) and its not hard to accumulate upwards of a dozen sacrifice effects to pump the team with Mazirek in one turn. Sometimes way more, like 50 or 60 or even infinite!!! How can this happen you may be wondering??

Mass sacrifice effects like Pox, Eldrazi tokens and treasure tokens which all sac for mana, many lands can sac for mana, cheap sacrifice outlets, all being fueled by creatures that replace themselves, mass resurrection spells to reload the board along with tons of triggered abilities continuously crapping out tokens and cards for free, can all add up to make huge freaking turns!

I've started to use a D20 to count up all the sacrifice effects during my big turns instead of updating each creature's counters after each one to save time. Its the "Sac-Storm" counter. The difference is after the big turn I have to update all the dice on everything I still have in play with that number, compared to a normal storm counter which resets to 0 each turn. Although with this deck (and even more so with storm decks) you want to just win the game during your big turn anyway.

Its also possible to create an infinite loop using a creature with persist (Putrid Goblin) a zero mana sacrifice outlet (Viscera Seer) and the commander, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest to put an unlimited number of +1/+1 counters on your creatures. With all the tutors in the deck, this is quite easy to achieve if it's your goal. Also Doubling Season can make Liliana, Dreadhorde General ultimate on the spot, which is gonna end most games.

Because you like winning in big dramatic attacks while playing a difficult to stop strategy.

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is such a unique card. The next most similar cards are either Mortician Beetle or Cathars' Crusade...and Mazirek is like a weird combination of those two cards, but with flying. Black + green decks have many good options for commanders but none can be swapped in for Mazirek in this deck if you want it to function optimally. Because of his unusual ability he is not necessarily the best Commander for a generic "goodstuff" Golgari deck either.

Mazirek is not a traditional aggro deck, although it is a creature based deck. Nor is it a traditional reanimator deck, although it does plan on reanimating creatures. It has the feel of a combo deck to play during the game, but it still wins the old fashioned way by turning guys sideways (...most of the time at least...it can technically win without attacking because of Zulaport Cutthroat triggers so whatever).

This version isn't trying to be a super tier-1 competitive style cEDH deck, nor does it seem likely possible. I think a more combo centric version could push it into a more competitive zone for sure, but ultimately it's still quite vulnerable to creature removal even when comboing. So for cutthroat cEDH, I would look at other commanders. Mazirek is more at home against a table of high powered battle cruiser players. Pre-con level decks usually get smushed.

All the cards that I actually tried out in games and the reasons they were ultimately cut. Many of them are great options to swap in if you don't have some of the cards in my list. They are mostly presented in chronological order too.

Ulvenwald Mysteries was just too slow since it needs the clues to be cashed in to make the tokens, even though it was pretty cool to investigate :)

Qarsi High Priest can upgrade tokens into manifests, but it was too unimpactful in play for me.

Golgari Germination was also too do nothing.

Animation Module + Ashnod's Altar + Mazirek = infinite +1/+1 counters and colorless mana, but the module did nothing most of the time. In the end cards that only care about +1/+1 counters were just not good enough in this build and I don't want to quickly combo win EDH games anyways. So, its not that they were not good at helping me win, it was just a case of win-more or whatever. Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Hardened Scales, Winding Constrictor, Corpsejack Menace, etc.. are all examples of cards that didn't help the game until I have already cast Mazirek, which means very late game, after much setup. So even though those kind of cards could help add counters on the big turn, every other turn before that they did nothing so I cut 'em.

Greater Good wasn't very good because I never want to sacrifice a creature bigger than 1/1 or 2/2.

Genesis Chamber although it was very effective in making lots of tokens for me it also made my edict effects ineffective, it was quite the non-bo.

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder was great but too slow and no synergy with reanimation.

Carrion Feeder was a fine sac outlet, but too vulnerable easily blocked to be that useful beyond being a sac outlet.

Wave of Vitriol was just a little bit too slow for me.

Sadistic Hypnotist & Mind Slash were cut for different sac outlets. The effects are extremely powerful but not technically game ending. I'm not trying to make this into a control deck, and they just seemed to slow down everything without enough of a benefit for the game.

Deathreap Ritual too slow and not explosive enough... waiting until end of turn and only getting one card per turn is too slow for this 4 mana do nothing enchantment. Seemed ok... but not good enough for this deck. This card is great in limited though, lol.

Sakura-Tribe Elder was turned into Farhaven Elf because it can be sacrificed to other stuff.

Fecundity was great fun but we don't need to be filling our opponent's hands when we use our removal on their threats.

Blighted Fen was too mana intensive to activate and there are probably too many colorless lands already.

Creakwood Liege kinda slow, needs to be in play for a whole turn for value.

Whisperwood Elemental truly a great card for this deck, but cuts had to be made... and fodder is already quite abundant even without the manifest machine.

Caustic Caterpillar dinky card..too low impact, and most importantly is not good fodder.

Elvish Visionary, Dusk Legion Zealot, Orzhov Enforcer, Sorcerer's Broom, Sultai Emissary, Brindle Shoat, Doomed Dissenter, Dire Fleet Hoarder, Dripping-Tongue Zubera, Myr Sire, Solemn Simulacrum, Pilgrim's Eye, Sylvan Ranger, Gatecreeper Vine, and Epochrasite are the cast of fodder I've tried and removed for different fodder options over the years.

Pitiless Plunderer could occasionally be super cool, but treasures are not creatures. It was not as synergistic as it seemed like it would be.

Ravenous Chupacabra is great but the deck has so much removal already that it was cut anyways.

Emrakul's Evangel was not good enough in practice.

Shriekmaw, Garza's Assassin replaced with better removal.

Spawning Bed too slow, too many colorless sources in the deck.

Phyrexian Delver is a bit on the high CMC end but extremely close to good enough...it still might go back in. Resurrecting a key creature can be game ending, and having that ability on stapled onto a creature was great.

Twilight's Call cut for a Diabolic Tutor because it can go get Rise of the Dark Realms or Living Death or anything else.

Butcher of Malakir and Slum Reaper cost too much mana for their effects.

The lone persist creature in the deck Rendclaw Trow, became Puppeteer Clique because its better when its not comboing off.

Archfiend of Depravity is too easy to play around to rely on for removal, even though it was pretty cool sometimes.

Ruthless Knave is actually a great card for this deck. For some builds it can be amazing, but cuts had to be made somewhere. It has helped fuel game wins for sure, its not a bad card for the deck at all.

Merciless Executioner & Fleshbag Marauder both got cut after Plaguecrafter came out.

Journey to Eternity   is cool but the payoff of paying 5 mana to resurrect usually fodder is meh.

Diabolic Tutor upgraded into Diabolic Intent.

Liliana, Heretical Healer   was too low impact.

Reprocess was turned into a permanent sac outlet.

Barter in Blood is a great sac based removal spell but not the best of the best.

Growth Spasm is a great and synergistic ramp spell. Eldrazi tokens are great. But still you gotta make room.

Cryptolith Rite was not always that great, we don't always have that many critters to tap.

Vampiric Rites has replaced with Priest of Forgotten Gods, seemed like a direct upgrade.

Dimir House Guard's synergy with this deck is through the roof, but there are more useful sac outlets and better tutors.

Grim Backwoods costs too much to activate to be that useful.

Hell's Caretaker is a great effect that is a little too inconvenient and fragile to really take advantage of reliably.

Dark Prophecy was good, but it was replaced with a more versatile card, Rankle, Master of Pranks.

Whisper, Blood Liturgist is only good when you have lots of stuff going on since you have to sac 2 creatures and have a juicy target in the yard for it to be worth it. Just killing fodder to move around fodder can be a card advantage engine but it's not usually going to be that impactful, and even when it works out it still relies on other cards in play to be really good.

Cryptic Caves is cool, but having too many colorless lands isn't great.

Izoni, Thousand-Eyed is a great option for Mazirek, however it doesn't have much use until the graveyard is super duper full.

Command the Dreadhorde we don't gain much life to play with but it was still quite good. I have enough of these effects plus tutors that we can still get the graveyard back consistently.

Garruk, Cursed Huntsman is a great kinda generic golgari card, but not enough synergy for this 6 mana walker to make it.

Beast Within is ok, giving a token to the opponent is not ideal with our sac effects though.

Khalni Garden has a very minor effect, not worth the land coming into play tapped.

Wake the Dead is too conditional, even though its super tech.

Virtus's Maneuver is a decently synergistic removal spell, but just a little over costed as a 3 mana sorcery.

Myriad Construct isn't good fodder because it has to be targeted to turn into tokens.

Grim Haruspex was fine. If it drew a card off its own death it would not have been cut.

Innocent Blood, Soul Shatter great sac effects, but not great enough anymore.

Fae Offering seems great but I never actually cast it the short time it was in the deck and Ghoulish Procession needed a spot...maybe it will switch back so I can at least try it for real eventually.

  • Key Rules Interaction When Casting Living Death or Syphon Flesh With Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest Already In Play: The creatures that come back from (or are created as a result of) casting them will get a Mazirek pump for everything that got sacrificed along with and including Mazirek. Its because his triggered effect (along with any other triggers caused by everything getting sacrificed) go on the stack and won't resolve until after Living Death, etc.. is done resolving. Then any creatures that just came into play with ETB abilities will also get stacked along with the Mazirek triggers in whatever order you want to put them on the stack. It's game ending. Casting Syphon Flesh or transforming Westvale Abbey   into Ormendahl, Profane Prince will also do this with the Mazirek sacrifice trigger, even when Mazirek is sacrificed too. Also Szat's Will and Victimize do it.

  • All of the creatures provide value on ETB or death so sac outlets can do a lot of work even without Mazirek in play. We are using many "fodder" creatures in this deck, so there is usually one in play very early to start doing sacrificial stuff with right away. Use them to gain card advantage as fast as possible, and don't try to hoard them for attacking with since more will appear anyways.

  • The Pox type effects trigger Mazirek big time and they should be saved until he's in play so they can act like overruns not just removal.

  • Creatures with Persist like Puppeteer Clique combined with the right kind of sac outlet like Viscera Seer and Mazirek can create an infinite amount of sacrifice triggers. The -1/-1 counter from the persist trigger is removed when the +1/+1 counter from Mazirek lands on it, making it ready to die and come back again. It's kinda cheesy to rely on infinite combos but its good to include them because sometimes you need one if you want to win.

  • Sylvan Safekeeper can come down early and protect the team, then out of nowhere allow you to sacrifice all your lands and alpha strike.

  • Primal Vigor and Doubling Season are 2 of the MVPs of the deck. They make Hooded Hydra and Hangarback Walker specifically go insane with Mazirek out, and just power up everything the deck is doing in general.

  • The mass resurrection spells Rise of the Dark Realms & Living Death will create a bonkers amount of value, easily fueling a game winning sequence.

  • Manifest creatures count as non-tokens, which makes them much better than tokens. Many effects in the deck only trigger from non-token creatures entering play or dying. Not any manifesting going on in this deck anymore, but it's still noteworthy if you are building this deck.

  • Protean Hulk line for comboing off with Mazirek in play: Viscera Seer, Putrid Goblin, Zulaport Cutthroat, & Sylvan Safekeeper

The deck is somewhat reliant on Mazirek to win... but not entirely. It's just way, way easier to win with it in play. So getting our commander shut out is definitely something we want to avoid. I don't cast Mazirek until I can for sure get some value from it or win immediately.

I attempted to incorporate sacrificing effects everywhere that was possible so that there isn't even always a need for a real sac outlet to be able to win the game out of nowhere just by casting Mazirek. Also it makes us harder to stop when the sacrifices are coming from everywhere instead of one spell or permanent. We can usually generate at least five or six sacrifice triggers by the time we can afford to cast Mazirek. Those self-sacrifice effects are all so easily overlooked and forgotten about, that opponents don't think of them as pump spells. Winning with commander damage (often in one swing) is always an option too since it has flying and pumps itself.

The redundant card abilities make the combos practically assemble themselves. Drawing a couple cards and/or getting a couple tokens from a creature dying, especially one thats already getting sacrificed for some other additional value is where we gain our card advantage. Most of the "fodder" creatures are 1 or 2 CMC and they all replace themselves with a token. That means if we can curve out with some combo enablers and mana ramp then by the time we have 4 or 5 mana we can cast multiple spells per turn and start doing some cool stuff. Like drawing a bunch of cards and building up an army and killing things.

Having the thought "wow, Blisterpod is an amazing late game topdeck" can happen with this deck ...as bizarre as that sounds. However, even though this deck is capable of assembling very powerful combos and synergies, it can also draw into some very underwhelming topdecks. One weakness with combo decks like this is that sometimes the combos don't find themselves in time or in order. Blisterpod is inherently a weak card alone. If you have some cool ways to utilize it in play already it can be very impactful when topdecked, but if not its going to be a real bummer to draw it. Thats why there are as many cards that are in multiple categories as possible. If every card has made than one function, everything is more likely to be useful in any random circumstance.

There are so many fun things to do with our "fodder". This deck tends to use up its "fodder" creatures as the game progresses, and it gets way more value out of killing non-token creatures so mass graveyard resurrection spells are very important for the late game. Even if it's just to get back a bunch of little dorky "fodder" dudes. Don't let your preconceived notions about these "fodder" cards fool you, there is an explosiveness hidden in the synergies here that may not be apparent from looking at this list.

This deck can definitely be disrupted, but not by just killing all the creatures in play. This deck can handle board wipes pretty well, they usually refill my hand and leave tokens behind. Even land destruction isn't too bad since it has such a low mana curve. The worst thing that can happen is someone destroying or worse exiling "all artifacts, enchantments, and creatures" and then exiling my graveyard in one turn. But isn't that like the worst thing that can happen to pretty much any deck?

Important Permanents and Effects in Play:

Cast a Carrier Thrall...

Sacrifice the Carrier Thrall to Viscera Seer...

Thats 2x cards drawn, 1 life lost, 4x Edlrazi Scion Tokens, 4x Myr Tokens, 1x Manifest creature, 2x +1/+1 counters on everything, and then scry 1...just from casting and saccing a single Carrier Thrall to Viscera Seer. If I was trying to build up a board for next turn (instead of continuing to grind up everything and attack for the win immediately) that sequence added 8x 3/3 tokens and a 4/4 manifest to the board.

This is not a magical Christmas land scenario (although admittedly that was an awesome game). That sequence is from a real game that I played, and whether I win or lose most games really end like some version of this. Since there are multiple redundant copies of all the different effects along with so much graveyard recursion, the end game is usually about the same. Its likely a similar board state is instantly assembled as soon as we can resolve a good recursion spell or two. Imagine how the above board state explodes if the Carrier Thrall entered play along with a bunch of other creatures from casting a Rise of the Dark Realms.

And in case you were wondering there were multiple different ways in the deck to keep the Dark Prophecy from killing us from damage or decking us while we combo off. Many of the cards in that little story have since been cut from the deck, that game was a few years ago now.

I'd love to hear your ideas, questions, comments, anything!

Any budget friendly suggestions are much appreciated! Thanks.

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Updates Add

Modern horizons 2, Strixhaven & CMDR Legends Added — June 4, 2021
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So we got some great upgrades the last few sets, especially Modern Horizons 2!

Woo hoo!! Magic rules!

100 Upvotes! And I just got Doubling Season! Yeah! — March 9, 2019
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Rivals of Ixalan Updates — Feb. 4, 2018
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Revision 81 See all

(2 years ago)

-1 Fae Offering main
+1 Ghoulish Procession main
Top Ranked
Date added 7 years
Last updated 2 years
Exclude colors WUR
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.21
Tokens City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G, Squirrel 1/1 G, Thopter 1/1 C, Thrull 0/1 B, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed
Folders Commander, Funny, Interesantes, Stuff i wanna try, To buy, Interesting Commander Decks, the dreams, Deck Inspiration, Budget, edh
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