Muldrotha Defensive Flash Hulk

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Combo Competitive Control Reanimator

pkdan

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 3x Forest
• 1x High Market
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Seal of Primordium
• 1x Sylvan Library

Creature (24)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Body Double
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Merfolk Looter
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reanimate

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Flash
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Overwhelming Denial
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (6)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Tamiyo, Collector of Tales

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

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My fairly competitive, but still fun to play version of Muldrotha, the Gravetide . It has the classic Protean Hulk combo with the cards available in Sultai colors.

This deck likes to ramp like crazy. Unless you get to tutor for some win conds to win turns 1-3, it is extremely necessary to play all the ramp spells early. There are cards that can bring your tutors back to hand: Tamiyo, Collector of Tales or Eternal Witness . If the starting hand shows no way to win fast, it is ok to use tutors for utilities like ramp spells, counterspells or some way to mill the deck.

Apart from combos it has the usual things to go with reanimation and value. It includes tutors for good consistency and Riftsweeper in case an important card gets exiled.

Any suggestions are welcome and here comes the long version of how the deck works.

Win Conds: Protean Hulk death trigger

As stated in the previous segment, the main win cond of this deck is the death trigger of Protean Hulk . The cards in this deck allow for a fast way to cheat him out. You almost never have to cast it for it's cost.

Main death trigger loop explained

The steps to win after the first death trigger with an empty board:

1. Search for Viscera Seer and Body Double (or Carrion Feeder and Phyrexian Delver respectively)
2. Have body Body Double become a copy of Protean Hulk in your graveyard (or have Phyrexian Delver reanimate it, but you take 7 damage)
3. Use Viscera Seer (or Carrion Feeder ) to sacrifice your new Protean Hulk to proc a new death trigger
4. Search for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista
5. Sacrifice Walking Ballista to get a proc of undying then remove the +1/+1 counter to deal 1 damage to a player and repeat until you win

Safer death trigger loop explained

The steps to have a safer win after the first death trigger with an empty board and if you included Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir in the deck:

1. Search for Viscera Seer and Body Double (or Carrion Feeder instead of seer)
2. Have body Body Double become a copy of Protean Hulk in your graveyard
3. Use Viscera Seer (or Carrion Feeder ) to sacrifice your new copy of Protean Hulk to proc a new death trigger
4. Search for Sylvan Safekeeper and Phyrexian Delver
5. Have Phyrexian Delver reanimate Protean Hulk (requires you to have 8 or more life)
6. Use Viscera Seer (or Carrion Feeder ) to sacrifice your new copy of Protean Hulk to proc a new death trigger
7. Search for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista
8. Now that Phyrexian Delver has undying from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed you sacrifice it with Viscera Seer to reuse it's ETB
9. Have the respawned Phyrexian Delver reanimate Protean Hulk (requires to have 15 or more life before you begin all this)
10. Use Viscera Seer (or Carrion Feeder ) to sacrifice your new copy of Protean Hulk to proc a new death trigger
11. Search for Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and whatever you feel like it's worth for that 1 cmc left
12. Sacrifice Walking Ballista to get a proc of undying then remove the +1/+1 counter to deal 1 damage to a player and repeat until you win

I know those were a lot of steps but Sylvan Safekeeper protects your creatures from removal and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir makes it almost impossible for your opponents to stop you from winning at that point. You can skip steps 8-11 if you are sure the shroud ability is enough.

Other ways to win?

Apart from the main combo the only ways to slowly win:

• Some combat damage. Doesn't sound as exciting
• There is also Riftsweeper included to help recover some exiled combo pieces.
• I managed to win sometimes by simply casting Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista or reanimating either of them. The main combo will NOT work if either of them is in your hand so be careful about that.
• As hard as it seems to achieve, Muldrotha, the Gravetide is still a 6/6 commander that can take out someone if left unchecked. 4 hits are not impossible to achieve with this big creature.

How to achieve the main goal: sacrificing Protean Hulk

The list of sac outlets is pretty simple here:

1. Flash (the turn1 win star card)
2. Razaketh, the Foulblooded (use the ability to also tutor for some counterspells)
3. Carrion Feeder
4. Viscera Seer
5. Phyrexian Tower
6. High Market
7. Necromancy (during the cleanup step)
8. Plaguecrafter (i mean, it can work)
9. ???

Turns 1-3 wins

Here are some examples on how this deck can win extremely quick. These are the reasons I call this deck competitive.

Turn 1 win

This is obviously all about starting hand luck. What your hand needs to look like for this:

• Flash
• Protean Hulk
• Lotus Petal
• Land

I know the odds are pretty low for such a hand but hey, it's possible. Idealy in this hand you would also have Pact of Negation for safety.

Turn 2 win

The odds for this kind of win get a lot better now. There are many combinations so here are some examples:

• Hand: Flash (or Protean Hulk ) + Vampiric Tutor + Swamp + Island . Turn 1: tutor Protean Hulk (or Flash ). Turn 2: cast Flash and win
• Hand: Flash and Worldly Tutor + Forest + Island . Turn 1: tutor Protean Hulk . Turn 2: cast Flash and win
• Hand: Entomb , Animate Dead (or Dance of the Dead ), Lotus Petal (or Reanimate ), Swamp , any sac outlet cmc 1 or less. Turn 1: tutor in graveyard Protean Hulk . Turn 2: reanimate Protean Hulk and sacrifice
• Hand: Necromancy , Entomb , Lotus Petal , 2+ lands. Turn 1: tutor in graveyard Protean Hulk . Turn 2: Lotus Petal + second land, wait until endstep, cast Necromancy with flash, win on cleanup step.
• The list can go on with different combinations of those cards.

Turn 3 win

Again a lot better odds for this to happen. It allows for more time to reanimate Protean Hulk and search for it in some way. It is a lot easier to setup because you can now play some sac outlets before proceeding to reanimate Protean Hulk and maybe even have some spare mana for Swan Song and Dispel . There is not much need for Lotus Petal to win pas turn 2.

Strategy for long games if combo does not come early

Everything looks cool and all, but so far Muldrotha, the Gravetide served no purpose apart from restricting the combo to Sultai colors. The commander in this deck serves as a backup plan. If there is no way to combo off early the strategy is simple: play every ramp spell you have, it's not a shame to even tutor for some ramp spells if the hand is not good. Keep generating value by recasting stuff until you eventually reach the previously mentioned combos, protect yourself with counterspells and enjoy the game.

A good plan is to not look like a threat. Since the goal is to achieve the Protean Hulk combo you should avoid attacking. The passive nature of this deck makes it fly under the radar until the moment you start your combo and win.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.71
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B