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Mazirek, the Token God [Primer] [2023]

Commander / EDH* Aristocrats BG (Golgari) Combo Counters Infinite Combo Sacrifice Tokens Tokens

Mitrian

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Commander: Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

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This is a "new" deck, with an older commander (from 2015). But just because Mazirek is not a sexy new commander doesn't mean it's not powerful. While it can get a combo win in the first few turns if you get the right draw, I would generally classify it as more of a midrange combo deck. There are quite a few infinite combos in the deck, which means if you aren't checked, you can commonly end things on the spot.

ETA: Well ok. This was "new" when I first posted it five years ago, but I suppose it's one of my oldest remaining decks at this point...)

The deck's main goals:

  • Operate everything at instant speed
  • Produce big mana
  • Create massive token armies
  • Make sacrifices happen (and create giant creatures)

With that strategy, you have many ways to win -- this isn't the kind of deck where you're just always going to go tutor up the same two cards to create your win condition. In fact, I've removed all the tutors from my list, as I don't find them necessary at all. This deck plays different every time, because there's just so many different ways to knock out your opponents, which is a big reason it's one of my all-time favorite decks to play. Here's a few specific examples how it goes:

  1. A sacrifice win with one of the three Blood Artist effects
  2. An aggro-stompy win with huge creatures that have gotten a ton of counters
  3. A swing wide win with a huge token army
  4. A shotgun win with one of the three ballista effects
  5. 21 commander damage with a pumped up, evasive Mazirek
  6. Milling the opponent with dementia!
  7. Stealing your opponent's win conditions with a scythe ballista!
  8. Ten Treasures to trigger Revel in Riches
  9. Drawing out your deck with Laboratory Maniac on your board. (Just kidding, but only because that's not in our colors...)

But why Mazirek? Aren't there better commanders for this kind of strategy? What about Slimefoot? Or Meren? Jarad is awesome, right? Maybe Gitrog?

Well, none of them work the +1 counters quite like Mazirek does. And I really like the +1 counters, they're more my style. Are any of those better commanders? Maybe. Probably. But they just aren't quite what I wanted to build.

So in order to really capitalize on Mazirek's trigger, we need two primary elements in the deck:

  1. lots of things to sacrifice
  2. lots of ways to profit from those sacrifices

So I've broken those two things down, into the following sections below. Thanks for taking the time to read my list, and thanks in advance for any suggestions to improve the list. If you think of something to add, please also recommend something that should be removed to make room for it!

The first item is easy, nothing beats creature volume better than a good token strategy. Golgari brings us a number of really great options to build a token army, and many are included here. Let's look at each one:
  • Animation Module - A premium combo piece! At first glance, this doesn't seem that impressive, but consider just having an Ashnod's Altar and Mazirek on the board with this thing. Any sacrifice — opponents’ fetch lands, your own creatures, legend rules, whatever — and you're infinite. Pairs beautifully with Earthcraft as well. Because it triggers for each creature getting +1 counters, it can get crazy in a hurry. It's a really cheap and powerful mana dump.
  • Avenger of Zendikar - EDH staple in green for a good reason, and in a deck with the ability to recur the threat, this guy really pulls his weight. I'm never sad to see him.
  • Scurry Oak - Leverages the +1 counter strategy to provide insane value, and is a 2-card infinite combo with Ivy Lane Denizen. And, because squirrels.
  • Herd Baloth - With all the +1 counters flying around, this guy is nuts for token generation, and just like Scurry Oak above, goes infinite with Ivy Lane Denizen, even without Mazirek.
  • Pentavus - There's a number of ways in the deck that this guy combos off. One of the highest CMC's in the list, but provides phenomenal finishing power on the right board. He's definitely a win condition.
  • Hangarback Walker - An excellent outlet for huge mana plays. Best to play only if you have a sac ability, since he's a prime target to get Path'd. But even playing him for X=1, then pumping him up with a bunch of Mazirek triggers is a good way to abuse him.
  • Iridescent Hornbeetle - Currently testing this one more, as it's not an effect that happens at instant speed, but, it's on our own end step which is dramatically better than upkeep, and it has the potential to create a significant amount of tokens for us to abuse during enemy turns. Psychologically, he doesn't seem to be the ticking time bomb that Mycoloth always was, and it doesn't seem to trigger as much targeted hate.
  • Spawning Pit - The card is here for resiliency as well as for raw token generation. It recently saved me from a Rakdos Charm and with the huge mana possibilities in the deck, it works great to rebuild the board after a board wipe. That it doubles as a free sac outlet is perfect for the deck.
  • Second Harvest - Speaks for itself. Makes for some really explosive turns when we're unable to get our infinite combos out. Also love that it's at instant speed, providing an option to respond to opponents' plays.
  • Fresh Meat - One of my favorite plays. Great for board wipe recovery. And great for just insanely explosive turns. Is often a surprise play. You do have to keep track of how many tokens have died in a turn, since in this deck you can't just count the creatures in your graveyard.
  • Squirrel Nest - Ideally combos with Earthcraft, but even without the combo, one mana (the enchanted land) for a squirrel per turn is acceptable in the early game.
  • Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder - Great combo piece that often makes casting creature spells effectively free with certain sac outlets.
  • Pitiless Plunderer - Doesn't create creature tokens, but we don't care. Treasure tokens can sacrifice themselves so they're perfect for us anyway. And he doubles as ramp. He does require creatures to die, but we are good at making that happen.
  • Revel in Riches - Similarly, this creates tokens as well, but relies on opponent creatures dying, which is tougher. But it's here for the win condition as well.
These cards are more than just your typical token support. Har har.
  • Chatterfang, Squirrel General is not active token generation, but is in the list essentially as a token doubler. And because our squirrels need a leader. His removal effect is very valuable as well, and he gives us another sac outlet -- albeit a restrictive one.
  • Ivy Lane Denizen creates +1 counters. Big deal, right? The reason for the inclusion is that they can be put on any targetable creature, which allows direct combos with cards like Herd Baloth and Scurry Oak. Without the need for a sacrifice outlet. This deck has creatures entering our board constantly, and most of them are green.

  • Doubling Season and Parallel Lives - For obvious reasons, these are stalwarts in our list here.

All of these have been tried in the deck, but didn't make the cut for various reasons listed below. Many of them are good cards, but were removed because they are 'one shot' effects that can't be easily abused by all the instant speed shenanigans we explode into. Or in some cases because I need to make room for some new cards I want to playtest for a while.

  • Bitterblossom - Very cheap, great early drop that isn’t completely useless in mid or late game because it’s passive and gives you flying blockers. Recently cut in favor of faster playing options.

  • Awakening Zone - Slow, but passive token generation, with the added benefit of being self-sacrificing tokens, and a little ramp if needed. Also cut recently as it is way to slow if drawn later in the game.
  • Mycoloth - Man, such a great card, but unless you can flash him in on an opponent's end step, he needs to survive a turn to get full value. Most experienced opponents will see him and tutor for removal if they don't already have it. I found that he never lived long enough to trigger, so I've replaced him with effects that I can trigger on my own time, rather than having to wait for upkeep.
  • Saproling Symbiosis - Replaced Saprolings with Squirrels so the value with this one is less without having Slimefoot anymore.
  • Slimefoot, the Stowaway - A really good card, but without more consistent Saprolings, we had to rely too much on his own ability to create them. It does happen, but the combo cards have to be just right, and the lack of flexibility is why he's not currently in the list. But he may return someday…
  • Tendershoot Dryad - Compared to some of the other token generators, she's not quite as explosive, but because the trigger is each upkeep, in a multiplayer game you're still likely to get quite a few tokens out of her. She's also very good friends with Slimefoot. If he returns someday, so will the Dryad, most likely.
  • Ophiomancer - Cheaper to play than Tendershoot Dryad but requires a sac outlet to get similar value.
  • Spontaneous Generation - Three cards in hand is the minimum threshold I’d target for this to be worthwhile. Early game, that’s plenty feasible but often it just sat in hand waiting for the right time to play. Ain't no one got time for that!
  • Ant Queen - High CMC for the initial value. The queen is a pretty solid mana dump, and is also part of multiple combo plays that will devastate or outright kill opponents, but there's enough other options we have that I think are less situational and mana hungry.
  • Fungal Sprouting - Sorcery speed was the real drawback, and it's not an insignificant one. This role is also covered by cards like Saproling Symbiosis and Second Harvest, both of which can be an instant speed response.
  • Grave Titan - Not really an early game option, but can create a good amount of tokens if not kept in check.
  • Noosegraf Mob - It's rare that you won't get at least a couple tokens out of the mob, and the synergy with Mazirek is really powerful. Also a good target for recursion.
  • Symbiotic Wurm - Awesome target for graveyard recursion but definitely not an early game option. Same category as Avenger of Zendikar.
  • Necrogenesis - Two mana per token and doubles as graveyard hate, however, not very useful in the early game, as there are not likely to be a lot of targets yet.
  • Jade Mage - Decent mid or late as a mana dump, but too slow and expensive early to make the list.
  • Creakwood Liege - Too slow for token generation. The anthem is nice but mostly irrelevant to us with all the +1 counters flying around.
  • Druid's Call - Chump block a fattie! And works fantastic with the ballista effects, but is otherwise too narrow to include.
  • Sengir Autocrat - Only worth it if I know I can sac the tokens before he dies, which makes it situational and not consistent enough to stay in.
  • Mitotic Slime - 7 tokens for 5 mana is good, but it's not repeatable which is what the deck wants most.
    • Ok, now that we've highlighted all the token generators, let's talk about how we can abuse them. First let's look at our considerable list of sacrifice outlets. We also really want to focus on repeatable, instant-speed sacrifice, which is what really powers out the explosiveness.
    • Altar of Dementia - This might seem like a weird inclusion, since it's the only mill effect in the list. But it's a free sac on a cheap artifact, that is a win condition when combo'ing off with things like Death's Presence or Reyhan, or the Persist combo. I'll cover those more in my combo section below.
    • Ashnod's Altar - Sacrifice staple. Another free sac, that fuels a ton of combos in the deck. More on this below...
    • Phyrexian Altar - Similar to Ashnod's, but with the ability to fuel things like Ant Queen and others that require colored mana.
    • Spawning Pit - Both a token generator AND a free sac outlet.
    • Arcbound Ravager - We do create some artifact tokens, so this is a reasonable outlet for us, and with Arcbound Reclaimer you can just cycle artifact cards to the top of the deck if needed.
    • High Market - Obvious inclusion. More about saving a creature from exile than anything else, but still very useful.
    • Westvale Abbey   - Sacrificing five tokens is not difficult at all. The keywords on Ormendahl   seal the deal on why this card is included. It's really a no-brainer.
    • Chatterfang, Squirrel General - It's a very restrictive sac outlet and costs 1 black to use, but it's a really beneficial ability and counts as sacrifice for Mazirek. Does not require haste.
    • Ravenous Squirrel has a somewhat expensive sac outlet, but for card draw and life gain, and it'll trigger Mazirek, so it's worth the slot in the deck.
    • Krav, the Unredeemed - Similar to Chatterfang above, it costs 1 black, but it sacrifices creatures and get cards, life, and counters, even without Mazirek. Also does not require haste.
    • Whisper, Blood Liturgist - Just awesome. Sac and recursion. I mean, who wouldn't want to trade a couple Thrulls for another round of Avenger of Zendikar? The nice thing is that you can even bring back the creature you sacrificed to pay for the ability. How about doing that every turn? Main downside is the lack of haste, so he needs to survive a turn to be useful, which is why he's actually on the cutting block. But I don't have much else in the way of recursion, so he remains for now.
    These have been tried and found lacking for one reason or another.
    • Momentous Fall - Another good way to save our stuff from exile, but with our ability to get enormous creatures from Mazirek's triggers, it can also draw huge amounts of cards. Being a one-shot effect is the only reason it was removed in favor of a permanent card draw effect like Smothering Abomination instead.
    • Mind Slash - This card is really mean. Forcing opponents to top deck makes the game less fun for them, and is the main reason I took this out for now, but it's a super effective strategy for winning. It still sits in the sideboard, and will definitely re-enter the deck against more competitive opponents.
    • Bloodflow Connoisseur: Not super powerful by itself, but it's a free, instant speed sac outlet that doesn't tap, it combos well with the deck's +1 counters strategy, and can potentially be a big beater. If I find I need more sac outlets, this may get added to the list, but that's unlikely.
    • Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord: Potential to be a huge finisher once Mazirek pumps up the board. He's part of the land sac package I no longer run, but he still functions really well on his own. Maybe someday will return to the list.
    • Ghoulcaller Gisa: Really powerful when you can use it, but hasn't made the cut simply because I have no way to give it haste, and it's only one sac per turn. I want more repeatable effects at instant speed.
    • Attrition: A strong contender, but it's not in the list because it's not a free sac, and the deck wants to force sacrifices, not targeted destruction. Still good, just not the right fit.
    • Victimize: Great card, but not included because it's generally just a one-time use, and it's at sorcery speed, rather than instant. We can get more value from something repeatable, or at instant speed.
    Ok, now we have tokens, and some really great ways to sacrifice them. Now we just need tons of mana to fuel the explosiveness!
    • Crystalline Crawler - This little critter loves his buddy Mazirek! He's another way to go infinite with a sac outlet, and because you get mana of any color, he can be used to power things like Ant Queen or Mind Slash. He can often power out a game win if there's also a doubler out with him.
    • Devoted Druid - He basically reads, "Remove a +1 counter, create a green mana." Very similar to the crawler, except he only produces green. But because the ability is actually an untap, he combos great with Necrotic Ooze as well. More on that in the combo section.
    • Marwyn, the Nurturer tends to get pretty big, which means she produces a ton of mana. Pretty solid mana dork in this deck.
    • Seedborn Muse is essentially a mana source for enemy turns. Well known card, not much else needs to be said here.
    • Wilderness Reclamation - same as above, mana for enemy turn shenanigans!
    • Gaea's Cradle and Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun - With token armies, they speak for themselves. Getting the rites   to four creatures is not difficult at all.
    • Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - We have a lot of non-swamps, so this needs more testing, but it's here for the potential as much as anything.
    • Deserted Temple - Untap those cradles or coffers and do it again. Makes for really big turns. There are some other decent utility lands, such as Atzal, Cave of Eternity   or Oran-Rief, the Vastwood worth doing twice in a turn, but primarily this is for mana explosions.
    • Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar - Tokens = mana. Lots of tokens = lots of mana. Infinite tokens = infinite mana. You get the idea.
    • Pitiless Plunderer gives us Treasure tokens, which are a mana bank to be used whenever needed. Even better than Smothering Tithe in our case.
    • Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Thought Vessel, and Chromatic Lantern - Because the deck can be a slow starter, these help the early game, but aren't terrible in the late game. The Chromatic Lantern is in since I'm running a pretty high number of uncolored utility lands. Mainly though, I don't want to drop below five mana rocks, since I'm currently not running any other ramp.
    • Earthcraft - This basically means tokens tap for black or green, even with summoning sickness (which makes this so much better than Cryptolith Rite). Our sac effects don't care whether the token is tapped, so there's really no downside here. I'm also considering adding Squirrel Nest with this, but I worry that it's a little cliché to run them both.
    • Black Market - This can make some big mana. The main downside is that you can't control when you get the mana, and it has to survive a full turn before you make your first profit. But the upside is huge for powering out some enormous ballistas or walkers, or for launching a game-winning Death Cloud or Torment of Hailfire. It also just helps cast your commander and other utility cards, which shouldn't be overlooked.
    • Viridian Joiner - Replaced by Marwyn, the Nuturer. Excellent card for what we're doing. Maybe we should run both??
    • Cryptolith Rite - Great card, but too slow because our tokens don't have haste. So it's actually really bad in this list.
    Alright, we've got tokens, we've got sacrifices, and we've got mana! How do we profit? Let's review a few of the combos:
    • Mazirek and Persist. This works because you can choose the order to stack the triggers. The list runs just two persist creatures, Puppeteer Clique and Woodfall Primus. But when you sacrifice the Puppeteer, for example, two triggers happen -- the +1 counters, and the persist. The general rule is to always put Mazirek's counters on the stack first. That means persist resolves first, and the Puppeteer returns to the battlefield with a -1 counter. Then Mazirek's trigger resolves, a +1 counter is added, and then board state effects remove them both, leaving it safe to sacrifice again. So assuming your sac effect is a free sac, you've just gone infinite. It's worth noting, that you don't have to stop when there are no more creatures in opponents’ graveyards. Just sac one that you stole, it'll return to their graveyard, and you have that target for stealing again. This means all the creatures on your board except the Puppeteer and the last opponent's creature effectively have infinite counters on them as well. But yeah, you now control all creatures from your opponents' graveyards. Or you've destroyed all their non-creature permanents (with the Woodfall Primus). If you're mean and kill their lands too, you probably just won, if you hadn't already. It's a simple combo, but there's potential for a LOT to be going on there with all sorts of ETB effects and triggers to pay attention to.
    • Dictate of Erebos / Grave Pact and any sac outlet. Pretty basic combo, but it's a foundation of the deck. The goal is to always have tokens around to make your sacrifice less valuable than their sacrifice. Then the additive synergy with Mazirek means your one token sacrifice just made multiple counters for all your remaining creatures.
    • Blood Artist / Falkenrath Noble / Zulaport Cutthroat / Slimefoot and all the carnage. This is another foundational strategy of the deck. The first two here trigger on anyone's creatures dying, but only damage one opponent. These both pair great with the Grave Pact effects we'd like to have out as well. The Zulaport Cutthroat only triggers on our own sacrifices (and other deaths), but it damages the whole table. Since the deck is built to sac a ton of our own tokens, this guy is arguably more devastating than the first two. And Slimefoot only triggers on Saprolings, but we do have the ability to create a bunch of those, and to go infinite with them, so there's great potential from the fungi, too!
    • Animation Module, Ashnod's Altar, and a Mazirek trigger. If you have at least two creatures (Mazirek and one other), and one open mana to activate the first animation, this combination goes infinite. Earthcraft can take the altar's place in the combo if you have another free sac outlet.
    • Herd Baloth / Scurry Oak and Ivy Lane Denizen.** This one doesn't even need Mazirek on the board, as between just those two they can produce infinite tokens. If you can in Baloth or Oak on opponents end step, then produce a ton of tokens, you can swing for the win on your turn.
    • Walking Ballista / Triskelion and Scythe of the Wretched. This one's pretty cool. The reason the scythe is in the deck is because of these two creatures, and the ability the deck has to pump them up to massive or infinite size. These two constructs are also the reason the deck includes Arcane Lighthouse. You can steal any opponent's (destructible) creatures if you have enough counters, or if you can ping it once, then force them to sacrifice it. It's also fun in response to a board wipe. Ping every creature (including itself) on the board before the wrath resolves, and they all come right back to your board, along with all their wonderful ETB effects! You then choose which one to equip the scythe back onto. Sneaky, mean, and beautiful.
      • Another benefit of the scythe is to use the same technique to intentionally and repeatedly 'flicker' your own stuff. Here's one fun example: Ping Avenger of Zendikar once, sac him, and he comes right back with a batch of new plant tokens. Sac two plants to Ashnod's Altar to pay the equip cost so you can move the scythe back to your ballista, and do it again. If Mazirek is out when you do that, you just went infinite. Same strategy goes for cards like Symbiotic Wurm and Sengir Autocrat -- or any creature that creates at least two tokens when entering or leaving the battlefield.
      • Finally, the scythe can really deter opponents from blocking if you chose to equip and attack with Mazirek, especially if you have stuff on the board you can sacrifice in mid-combat. This helps get to 21 commander damage, or just force the opponents into choosing between the lesser of two really bad things for them. Most of the time, they'll choose to give you their creature. On second main, move the scythe back to an untapped creature that can block, or otherwise abuse it.
    • Necrotic Ooze and a fistful of options. You never want to see the ooze in the opening hand, because it's value only comes after you've had your ability creatures die. His favorite graveyard buddies are Devoted Druid, Crystalline Crawler, Walking Ballista and Triskelion. But the full list of cards he gets to leverage include Ant Queen, Arcbound Reclaimer, Viridian Joiner, Hangarback Walker, Krav, the Unredeemed, Pentavus, Slimefoot, Whisper, Razaketh, and even Caustic Caterpillar.
      • If both the druid and Whisper are in the graveyard, you can bring back all your creatures, instant speed. (Requires additional tokens to sac.)
      • This also creates another opportunity to abuse the Scythe of the Wretched tricks mentioned above. The creatures in the list can make for some interesting combinations of abilities to have on the same card.
    • Krav, the Unredeemed, Crystalline Crawler, Mazirek, and tokens to sacrifice. The crawler feeds you the black mana for Krav's ability, Mazirek feeds the crawler his counters, and the tokens feed Mazirek. This combo basically converts tokens into card draw, for as long as you have tokens. If you have something like an Animation Module or other ways to create additional tokens, this combo can get you a ton of cards. Even if you just use your regular land-producing mana for the turn to create tokens for Krav, he can easily refill your hand. He's Captain Value Town in this list!
    • Smothering Abomination, tokens and sac outlets. Not much to say here, this is just really good with what we have in the list.
    • Pentavus and Ashnod's Altar. Infinite with just these two, but it nets you nothing by itself. Add Mazirek for infinite counters and colorless mana. Add a ballista for infinite damage, that's a win. Add an Animation Module for infinite tokens. Add a doubler for infinite tokens or counters. If you have any Blood Artist effects in play, that's a win. If you make the infinite tokens at end step before your turn, you can swing with infinite tokens with infinite power, that's a win. Pentavus really enables quite a few combo possibilities, including many game winners.
    • Journey to Eternity   and sac outlets. With the abundance of sac outlets, it's really hard not to include this card. Drop him on an Avenger of Zendikar, Symbiotic Wurm, Sengir Autocrat, or even a dwindling Noosegraf Mob or Caustic Caterpillar for great value. And then you have a flip land   that if not removed is going to reanimate something every turn, almost guaranteed, thanks to our myriad sacrifices.
    • Death's Presence / Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Altar of Dementia (or any sac outlet, really). Imagine one of these are out, along with Mazirek, and then you make a bunch of tokens. Sacrifice one token, put counters on everything, mill your opponent. Sacrifice another token, move counters from the sacrificed token to another token, mill your opponent a little more. Keep repeating this. By the time you're done, your last few creatures could be huge, and a big chunk of your opponent's library is in his graveyard. Now imagine that you had a Doubling Season or even just a Hardened Scales while doing this. And finally, imagine if the last creature you have is a ballista!
    Let's do the math on that last combo example, because it's pretty bonkers:
    • You have Death's Presence, Doubling Season, and Mazirek on the board with Altar of Dementia. You resolve Avenger of Zendikar, and create 12 tokens (you had six lands), and then play a land for turn to make them all 2/3.
    • Sacrifice one, milling for 2, and creating two more triggers -- Death's Presence and Mazirek, doubling both of those with Doubling Season's trigger, the order doesn't really matter in this case. The first token sac adds 4 counters to one token, and 2 counters to all of them. Ten tokens now are 4/5's, and one token is an 8/9.
    • Sac the 8/9, milling for 8 (10 total, so far), leaving 9 tokens as 6/7's, and one token as an 24/25.
    • Sac the 24/25, milling for 24 (34 total, so far), leaving 8 tokens as 8/9's, and one token as a 58/59.
    • Sac the 58/59, milling for 58 (92 total, so far), leaving 7 tokens as 10/11's, and one token as a 118/119.
    • Sac the 118/119, milling for 118 (210 total, so far), leaving 6 tokens as 12/13's, and one token as a 238/239.
    • You get the idea... and my head's exploding from the math. Basically, if they didn't have an Eldrazi or another way to cycle their graveyard into their library, the whole table just lost.
    • This is a bit of magical Christmasland (thanks to Doubling Season, mostly), but the power of Death's Presence and Reyhan is definitely real in this deck.
    I'll add more combo plays as I remember them. I know that is not a comprehensive list. But for now, let's move on to some of the powerful utility that is included in the list:
    • Vedalken Orrery - With most of the win conditions here, the only way to interrupt it is to have split second or something like Trickbind. The board already operates most things at instant speed (all the activated abilities) which allows us to be super responsive to threats. Generate mana off of our sac outlets and flash out something like a Death's Presence to go nuts in response to opponents' plays. Or, when the player to your right throws a wrath, how great would it be to flash in a Black Market in response? While this isn't really a control deck (even though Dictate of Erebos might disagree), a card like Vedalken Orrery helps it be immune to a lot of removal effects that are common in EDH.
    • Winding Canyons is in the list for the same reasons. Too bad Alchemist's Refuge is blue.
    • Cavern of Souls - You don't often see this in non-tribal decks, but it's here primarily to name Constructs. All five of our constructs are incredibly potent. Two of them are X spells, so if we front load them with ton of mana, as this deck is capable of doing, we want to ensure we don't get countered.
    • To provide some extra draws, Krav, Smothering Abomination, Moldervine Reclamation, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Ravenous Squirrel. Note that Drivnod does not double up Krav or Ravenous Squirrel, but it trigger on the others. I have also considered The Immortal Sun in the list, but I just don't know what to cut for it. I have a somewhat irrational hatred of Planeswalkers, so I'd love to find a spot, but we'll see if I decide I need more draw effects — so far I haven’t.
    • Arcbound Reclaimer / Buried Ruin - We run a lot of artifacts, and our best sac outlets are artifacts. Having the ability to get them back is definitely worthwhile.
    • Hardened Scales, Parallel Lives and Doubling Season - No explanation really needed here. They are absolute all stars in the deck, especially the token doubling. I really hate when they get targeted for removal, which is pretty much always immediately.
    • Lightning Greaves is strictly protection for Mazirek. So much of the deck's explosiveness is fueled by his ability, that even though you can win without him, I'd rather not be recasting him more than a time or two if it can be avoided. These can also equip Whisper, Devoted Druid, or Marwyn, the Nurturer to allow use of their abilities the turn they're played.
    • Primal Vigor - I don't like symmetrical effects, even when I know I'll be able to abuse this far more than my opponents.
    • Corpsejack Menace, Pir, Imaginative Rascal, and Winding Constrictor - I love all of these. I just don't know if they are needed, and I had to make cuts. I think they're win more, and I think Doubling Season, Parallel Lives and Hardened Scales are plenty adequate for that role, and are typically harder to remove.
    • Greater Good - If this were more of a graveyard deck, this sac outlet would be a no-brainer. But the discard requirement here has kept it off the list for now. Also, most of the time I'm sacrificing my smaller tokens first, so it's often negative card advantage. However, if I end up slanting the deck for more reanimation in the future, this enchantment would be an obvious inclusion.
    • Skullclamp - How can you run a token deck and not include this?! Well, I love Skullclamp but it fits awkwardly here. Generally I don’t want to kill my tokens with the clamp, I want to be sacrificing them. Also, because of all the +1 counters, the tokens quickly get out of range of clamping anyway. Recent draw additions have made the need for this card much less noticeable.
    • Vampiric Rites and Praetor's Grasp - Both are great here, but have recently been removed. If I find that I'm lacking sufficient draw, I'll look to bring them back in.
    • Razaketh is a tutor that had great synergy here, but he usually comes down too late to be a reliable contributor. I'm also just not a big fan of tutoring in general, and this deck has so many interchangeable combo pieces that it plays consistently enough that tutors aren't that critical to success.
    • Living Death - The only control I have over what's in the opponents' graveyard is the Puppeteer Clique, and if I have him out I'm usually already winning. Besides, it's kind of anti-synergy with Necrotic Ooze which is one of my favorite shenanigans.
    • Death Cloud - really great inclusion, especially considering the huge mana potential we have, but I’ve killed my self twice now because of Teferi's Protection being played in response. So it goes. I have enough win conditions without it.
    • Cauldron of Souls - Persist is such a great combo with Mazirek, however the reason it's great is that it immediately goes infinite. The cauldron doesn't go infinite, because the persist keyword goes away as soon as the creature is sacrificed; it comes back without it. But of course, now the cauldron is tapped, so it can't keep giving it out. So it's a once-per turn synergy. Still very good with Mazirek, and if I have a big board it can still be really explosive, but... if I have a big board, I'm probably already doing great and don't need it.
    • I originally had a Land Sacrifices package, including cards like Harrow, Crop Rotation, Sylvan Safekeeper, and the recursion to fully complement it, including Crucible of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation, and Life from the Loam - While I like this element, it just doesn't make sense to only run a couple of them, I'd need to include enough to make it a reliable aspect of the deck. Also, while cards like Harrow can be considered ramp and therefore serve a dual purpose, that ramp is most beneficial in the first couple turns, which is before Mazirek is on the board to benefit from the sacrifice. And, because of only one land per turn (without certain cards), these land sacrifices provide only incremental synergy (outside of something like Scapeshift), and this deck is really aiming for more splashy, explosive turns. So, they don't make the cut. Incremental synergy is still good, of course, and I do still run all the fetch lands, so ideally those will still trigger.
    • Scapeshift - This combos really great with Avenger of Zendikar in this deck, and is exactly the type of big splashy explosiveness I was just talking about. The reason I don't run it though -- aside from the lack of land recursion mentioned above -- is because I have too many utility lands and not enough basics. I don't usually want to kill my utility lands, given the choice. So I really only want to play it when it can combo with Avenger, which the odds are against. In the few times I've drawn it at a time it made sense to play it, to get the best bang I had to sacrifice too many lands that I wanted to keep. I never drew it when I also had access to the big plant guy, and I already have too many cards I don't want to draw in the first 4-5 turns, so it just never worked for me.

    Other cards I haven't mentioned yet, that I'd really like to find a spot for, but can't justify cutting something else to make room:

    • Scroll Rack - The best top deck filter in Magic! Because there are cards I want later, but not early, trading them out for other cards (and shuffling them away with a fetch land, if desired), is such a great play. And this is a very artifact friendly list.
    • Sensei's Divining Top - Top deck filtering is such a huge benefit to almost any EDH deck. And I'm a big fan of this card, especially considering how much instant-speed draw is included in the list. It would be a very welcome addition.
    • Triskelavus - Another excellent repeatable token producer that has great synergy with Mazirek. If I find that I'm not producing enough tokens to reliably fuel my strategy, this is the first guy I'll add. However, Pentavus already does mostly the same thing, so this is somewhat redundant.
    • Nim Deathmantle - If I move to more ETB tokens, such as Sengir Autocrat and Symbiotic Wurm, I will also make a spot for this, and it enables even more infinite combos. I worry a little that my group will hate on it too much, however.

    More stuff, pulled off the Maybeboard to keep the page cleaner:

    In many ways, this will play like a control deck, which can seem weird in Golgari, but once you have board presence with token generators and sac outlets, and you have Mazirek in play, you can kind of just sit back and respond, or just take most of your actions at the end step of enemy turns. If there's no obvious benefit of laying down a bunch of tokens that are just going to sit there until someone declares their attackers, then hold your actions back and wait until the last moment before you show the table what you plan to do. Don't spend mana until it's needed, to keep your options open. This is a big reason why there aren't many sorceries, or even sorcery speed abilities in this deck.

    Personally I prefer to do my sacrifices on other players’ turns whenever possible, or while other spells are on the stack even, depending what they may be casting. Someone playing a board wipe? In response, I sac all my creatures and draw six cards. Someone attacking me with three 5/5s? Cool, I'll spin out 8 tokens, then sac five of them to pump up the remaining three to block with. No actions taken that require a response? No problem, on the end step before my turn, I'll do this, this, this, and this. Untap, draw, and…. Go.

    The deck focuses on leveraging things at instant speed, so I always try to make full advantage of that power. Hide your true intentions!

    In the early game you are focusing on ramping up mana, just like most everyone else at the table. If you see an opportunity to mess with someone else's ramp game, go for it, as long as it doesn't set you back too much. Most of the time, we aren't able to do that until we can start forcing others to sacrifice stuff, which happens more mid-game.

    Don't play out Mazirek until you have sac targets, sac engines, and a beneficial reason for sacs all ready to go. Once you do though, cast him, and start forcing uncomfortable decisions on your opponents.

    Mid game, you should already be at the explosive phase of your game, and if you can get the untappers out (Seedborn Muse or Wilderness Reclamation) you can start to go wild. Focus on card draw if that happens, because you'll be able to burn through your hand much more quickly.

    And then drop the hammer using any of the win conditions your deck draws out to you. Get creative, see what it can do. And enjoy the process! Win or lose, you'll almost certainly get to do some cool things along the way.

    Attack me with Avacyn wielding a Worldslayer. That'll do it.

    But seriously, in Magic, there's always an answer to everything, so this section highlights some of the styles that can do really well against my list.

    Heavy control can give us problems if it puts too many of our combo pieces into the graveyard. Combine that with graveyard hate and things can be ugly for us, as we do have some recursion to help offset removal and control.

    The hardest opponents I've found though, are the ultra-value players like Ur-Dragon and Rashmi that have figured out how to vomit out a ton of high power spells and permanents that can interfere with our degenerative combos. Getting free casts is one of the best ways to out-value what we're able to do with the token+sac plan. In those situations I generally fight hard to remove the commander as quickly and often as possible to interrupt their plans, and just hope to build one of our surprise combos to explode into a win.

    I'm a veteran player, who started playing Magic back in the days of Alpha -- which means I'm getting pretty old. I once had my own Black Lotus, more than one I believe, and I of course played them unsleeved. Back then, as a kid, I didn't like the card, because I didn't even dream about things like Turn 1 wins. So they were traded away. Not that it matters, because my early collection of cards, which included the moxen, duals, and other craziness (by today's standards anyway) were all heavily played, bent up, and ultimately lost over the course of moves and life transitions.

    In my thirties I got back into Magic, spending a lot of time and money playing Standard during the days of Lorwyn, Alara, Zendikar, Mirrodin, and Innistrad. I never won any tournaments, but I played in quite a few. I had full playsets of every card produced during those 5-7 years, so could build any Standard deck I wanted -- man that was a lot of fun. But eventually, I lost the taste for the ultra-competitive scene and switched back to kitchen table Magic where I fell in love with Commander. My first Commander ever built was Maelstrom Wanderer and I still try to keep that deck current and relevant.

    I've stopped spending as much money these days, and play mostly with MPC proxies, which means I don't worry about card costs much at all. I feel strongly that people should play with whatever cards they enjoy playing with, not just the ones they can afford to buy. Magic is an expensive hobby, but finances shouldn't be what prevents any participation. I do, however, still support WotC and I buy almost every Commander pre-con deck they make, which lately has gotten crazy with the number being produced.

    There are some elements of Magic that I tend to avoid -- including MLD (generally not fun for people to play against), excessive tutors (makes many decks too linear for me, and searching and shuffling often slows things down), and extra turns (often creates "feels bad" moments and more downtime for opponents). I respect the power of these cards and styles, but I'm more interested in games where everyone is having fun, and not just me.

    I build and play to win (without those cards, usually), in every game, but ultimately I really don't mind losing -- I just love to play.

    Thanks for reading my long-winded primer! I write these not for Internet points, but because it's become part of my process for building and fine-tuning a deck. I find when I have to write out justifications for my card choices, it's easier to be honest and objective about which cards are actually effective, and which are just 'pet' cards. However, please feel free to comment and share thoughts. I welcome alternative opinions!

    Using the Playtest feature here on Tappedout, I'll write out how I'd play or mulligan a few different opening hands.

    more to come here

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    Updates Add

    2023 Update — April 20, 2023
    Edit

    Some noteworthy changes made over the years, finally compiled to update the list. I'll come back and modify the Primer at some point with these new goodies, but in short, these changes make the deck even faster and more responsive to opponent actions, which is crazy because we were already good at that. Check it out:

    Swapped out Fellwar Stone for Arcane Signet. Easy upgrade there.

    Marwyn, the Nuturer is a straight upgrade to Viridian Joiner. We do run two other elves currently, but generally speaking, these two cards are about the same for us.

    Added the Squirrel Package: Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Ravenous Squirrel, Scurry Oak, Squirrel Nest -- These guys multiply fast, and have some great synergy with what we're already doing in the deck, so they just add more power and replace some slower token generators that were good cards, but weren't doing things at instant speed like we want to see in the deck.

    Removed: Mycoloth, Ophiomancer, Awakening Zone, Bitterblossom -- all excellent passive token generators, but are too slow compared to the above additions.

    Added a small Treasure Package: Pitiless Plunderer, and Revel in Riches. These just benefit from everything we're already doing, and give us one more win condition. Playing the enchantment at instant speed on opponent's end step for a surprise win, always fun!

    Removed: Expedition Map (not impactful enough) and Swiftfoot Boots (kept Lightning Greaves, didn't need both).

    These next three really leverage the combo theme with +1 counters and tokens, and go infinite even just by themselves, without Mazirek on the board: Herd Baloth, Iridescent Hornbeetle, and Ivy Lane Denizen.

    Removed: Tendershoot Dryad (awesome but too slow and doesn't function at instant speed), Viscera Seer (I have enough sac outlets, and found I rarely used this one), Carrion Feeder (good but less impactful than these new cards).

    A few others:

    • Added: Drivnod, Carnage Dominus basically doubles the profit from all the sacrificing. Incredible card for the deck.
    • Removed: Erebos, God of the Dead to sideboard as he's only really good against life gain decks.
    • Added: Liliana, Dreadhorde General for the awesome card draw. Her abilities are ok for us, but aren't the main reason for the add.
    • Removed: Slimefoot, the Stowaway who was perfect for this deck, except for the lack of Saproling production in the deck -- I found it was a mostly dead card far too often.
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    Date added 5 years
    Last updated 1 year
    Legality

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

    10 - 2 Mythic Rares

    57 - 6 Rares

    23 - 5 Uncommons

    5 - 2 Commons
    Cards 100
    Avg. CMC 3.57
    Tokens 2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, City's Blessing, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Insect 1/1 G, Pentavite 1/1 C, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Squirrel 1/1 G, Thopter 1/1 C, Thrull 1/1 B, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
    Folders test, Commander Decks, Competitivo, Mazriek, Decks, Sweet Brews from Other Folks
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