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

Commander / EDH Rzepkanut

SCORE: 190 | 62 COMMENTS | 23464 VIEWS | IN 78 FOLDERS


Rivals of Ixalan Updates —Feb. 4, 2018

We got 2 great new cards, Ravenous Chupacabra and Pitiless Plunderer from Rivals of Ixalan! They are great additions, the deck is better now. I also traded for Verdant Catacombs, Overgrown Tomb, and Toxic Deluge at the prerelease, so the deck improved quite a bit recently.

And this page is now at 50 Upvotes and 7000 page views!! Thank you! Fun!

OlahZep says... #1

Fun take on Mazirek! Turns an army of little guys into a big threat. There's a couple cards that came to mind. Parallel Lives is a cheaper alternative to Doubling Season (but you cant beat Doubling Season). Second Harvest is pretty good too. Panharmonicon could net a good amount of additional tokens and ETB effects as well. Rec Sage, Shriekmaw, Fleshbag Marauder, and ETB token generators would all like it. It doesn't synergize with the LTB effects but it's still very powerful.

Other than that I'd just really recommend a Krosan Grip. There's so many combos in EDH that can literally be stopped only with K Grip. You have good creature removal, but not as many artifact/enchantment answers.

Ok, two more. Haha. Heroic Intervention and Inspiring Call. Sooo good.

April 8, 2017 5:37 p.m.

Rzepkanut says... #2

Thanks for the kind words and good ideas OlahZep! I definitely think if I can trade for a Parallel Lives I'll try it out. It was on my radar already, but I agree I should really get one, it could be awesome here. Even though its a card that technically does nothing on its own...and I already run a few other cards that could be described like that...Krosan Grip also could find its way in, as it's one of the best combo breakers out there... I just have such a hard time cutting synergistic solutions for generic edh staples even when it's potentially better to do so...for example right now I'm running Caustic Caterpillar and Reclamation Sage instead. As for the other cards, they either fall into the "board wipe protection" category, which this deck doesn't really need, or its a "win more" card that's a little too narrow for this deck. Thanks again :)

April 11, 2017 9:29 p.m.

Karkilan says... #3

Any reason why you don't run fetchlands? Is it solely a budget issue?

April 19, 2017 11:23 a.m.

Rzepkanut says... #4

Yeah my magic budget is tiny. I don't even own a Verdant Catacombs, and the fetches I do actually own and could use here are elsewhere in my deck collection fixing mana colors. I try to trade for them whenever possible. That's a good notice though, they are conspicuously absent.

April 19, 2017 11:38 a.m.

Jay_Lucky13 says... #5

Couple of suggestions/upgrades to look for:

-Greater Good vice Fecundity While the latter gets down faster the idea of allowing our opponents draw cards off of their blockers is just gross to me. There is a political appeal to Fecundity but I would trash it.

-Woodfall Primus and Puppeteer Clique are valuable because of persist and you could also consider Cauldron of Souls as well as you want to "Storm" off. Puppeteer Clique is just gorgeous because it can let you go infinite and kill your opponents off with their own creatures and you can get the combo off of Protean Hulk grabbing the clique and a one-mana sac dork. Rendclaw Trow can go pound sand.

-Rise of the Dark Realms isn't recursion; it's a finisher and if you want to storm/combo off to win, its an unnecessary card for the deck. I recommend more tutors even something like Diabolic Tutor as you could end up winning. If you want a good finisher card, I'd go with Rite of Consumption or Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

May 8, 2017 6:03 a.m.

Rzepkanut says... #6

Hey thanks for the suggestions. Since this deck is obviously not ultra cutthroat or competitive I am not going overboard on the infinite combos or tutors. I have other decks designed for that kind of gameplay. I have had the other persist creatures on my radar for inclusion since I built the deck, but I'm happy with having only one in for now. I suppose you are right that Rise of the dark realms is a finisher here, but I think its too fun to cut, even if there are other ways to win for less than 9 mana. Also I have already tried Greater Good in here and I didn't like it because I am usually just killing off 1/1's and 2/2's, same problem with Jarad I expect. Rite of consumption is ok, but I don't like cards that do nothing all game until I am about to win.

May 8, 2017 10:46 a.m.

Enral says... #7

Very cool deck and good write up +1

June 12, 2017 2:29 p.m.

UnleashedHavok says... #8

A card that I really enjoy in my Kresh the Bloodbraided is Flesh Carver. I know that you have to pay mana for his sacrifice, but if your opponent is not running black or artifacts (depends on your meta) he can be a surprisingly difficult threat very quickly. I have won games with him alone. I think he could have some fun interactions with your deck, and he would have a fun interaction with Mazireck.

July 9, 2017 11:36 p.m.

Rzepkanut says... #9

Hey UnleashedHavok, thanks for the suggestion! I used to use Flesh Carver, because it came in the Prossh, Skyraider of Kher precon deck I believe. Which I played a handful of games with before changing it up. It was pretty good, I distinctively remember getting a win using Flesh Carver once too. In this Mazirek deck I have been very picky about the token generating cards and the sac outlets I am using...currently I'm using mostly 1-2 CMC creatures that replace themselves with a token or cards that make a token every turn (for no mana) for generating tokens....and all sac outlets that cost no mana to activate or ones that draw cards. That way I pretty much always get both kinds of value (card draw and a replacement token) from any creature sacrifice interaction.

July 10, 2017 1:49 a.m.

NiTRoBoX says... #10

Have you thought about Deadbridge Chant?
In my Glissa's Necromonicon deck, I have took out Deathreap Ritual and kept Deadbridge Chant.
As Deathreap Ritual felt slow and limited, as it won't give you more then 1 card, and sometimes it was destroyed before it did anything.
And my deck benefit from the grave fuel Deadbridge Chant creates, so even if it gets removed, I will have something to reanimate.
Also Grave Pact or Phyrexian Arena can be a replacement for Deathreap Ritual.

July 17, 2017 5:19 p.m. Edited.

Rzepkanut says... #11

Grave Pact and Phyrexian Arena are good ideas for sure...however don't have an extra Arena currently, and don't own a Pact at all (it was already on my "maybeboard"/want list). Deadbridge Chant has been too slow for me in games in other decks. Seemed like it should've been good but ended up cutting it from my Karador deck (which is more of a graveyard deck than this one), because it always seemed to get destroyed before my first upkeep trigger. This deck isn't really interested in milling itself, it fill up the graveyard pretty fast just from its main strategy working. Thanks for the suggestions!

July 17, 2017 10:02 p.m.

Karkilan says... #12

Hey man, I built a deck based off of this one. I highly recommend getting a Smokestack in there somehow.

July 28, 2017 11:58 a.m.

Rzepkanut says... #13

That's cool! You should put your Mazirek list on the site, I'd love to see it. I was already thinking about acquiring Smokestack for the deck. Reading that its been good for you in a similar deck is great info though, thanks!

July 28, 2017 1:24 p.m.

xander11 says... #14

This guy is a personal favorite of mine, but, what about Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord He's a good sac outlet and can hurt opponents while buffing himself

August 16, 2017 11:48 p.m.

Rzepkanut says... #15

Jarad never made it in because it costs too much Mana to use his sacrifice ability to do it repeatedly in the same turn and also there are almost never moments where I want to sacrifice a creature with larger than one or two power. Thanks for the suggestion though :)

August 17, 2017 1:08 p.m.

CynicalDog says... #16

Always nice to see a good gravestorm deck.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker could be an option. It doesn't look like you have too many creatures that fit his bill but he turns small creatures into value machines. He turns your self-replacing creatures into token generators and happens to love squirrels. Might be a little out of his element but something to consider.

Also Animation Module, a weird little artifact that loves Cathars' Crusade. While writing this I realized that it goes infinite with Mazirek and Ashnod's Altar, sac something for 2 colorless, get counters with Mazirek, pay 1 to create a servo, sac the servo to Altar, etc. Besides that, it works well with the rest of the deck and only costs 1. Couldn't tell you what to replace with it but I'd definitely recommend it.

October 8, 2017 6:05 p.m.

Rzepkanut says... #17

Hey CynicalDog thanks for the input!! However both of those cards have been on my radar already. Animation Module has even been in and out of the deck already. It ended up getting cut because I was never actually using it. There is infinite combo potential, but the way the deck usually plays out the module never did much. Since I don't play him out until the late game I moved away from cards that are only good after Mazirek is in play, and toward ones that are just always good. Thats why no other +1/+1 counter synergy cards are here, they were all cut one by one. And Shirei is a great recursion engine card but just too much mana, and its too easy to kill without me getting value from it. I appreciate the suggestions though :)

October 8, 2017 8:54 p.m.

NCN946 says... #18

I run a deck similar in a sac attack, but my commander is Meren of Clan Nel Toth I think she works really well in this deck, because you'll get experience counters easily, and then she allows you to reuse cards over and over again

October 31, 2017 9:06 a.m.

Rzepkanut says... #19

I do love the idea of Meren, but I find she has a problem staying alive. I actually run her in my Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck because she can be replayed so easily over and over. Thanks for the suggestion though.

November 21, 2017 2:19 p.m. Edited.