Skull & Bones | Ayli & Lurrus

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Hatebears Infinite Combo Lurrus of the Dream-Den Primer WB (Orzhov)

Enral

Creature (26)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Hushbringer
• 1x Kami of False Hope
• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Leonin Arbiter
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Tithe Taker
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Kaya's Ghostform
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Seal of Cleansing

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 4x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Windswept Heath

Instant (11)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Companion (1)

Artifact (15)

• 1x Aether Vial
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Springleaf Drum
• 1x Viridian Longbow

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Sickening Dreams
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Winds of Abandon

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Sideboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den

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The Deck

Introduction

Two Peas in a Pod

When Lurrus of the Dream-Den was spoiled in Ikoria, I knew it was a match made in heaven for Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and I had to revamp my old Ayli deck entirely to build around its companion clause. So Lurrus has been the missing half Ayli has been waiting for to complete the circle of death and recursion! This is my Ad Nauseam Ayli/Lurrus farm deck aka "slow naus" build around grinding a long game with various cheap hatebears to eventually finding a window of opportunity to resolve an Ad Nauseam to assemble a win. The deck is expected to play a long and grindy game.

Why Ayli and Lurrus?

Other than having both abilities made for each other, the deck is extremely fun to pilot. Being forced into Lurrus' deckbuilding restrictions does indeed breed creativity and is basically dopamine overdrive for brewer enthusiasts like me. Niche cards that probably won't see play are now completely viable in this deck. The restriction also prevents me from running powerful staples like Necropotence which capped its power level somewhat so I can play the deck at tables of different power levels without being too weak or oppressive.

Deck Construction

There are a couple of interesting ways you can take this deck to. When it comes to Ad Nauseam builds, going disruption/aristocrats turbo naus or hatebears/aristocrats slow naus are two possible choices I've narrowed down to. Turbo naus in my opinion would work better with Tymna the Weaver/partner farm builds due to the card draw and life gain in the commandzone. Leptys did a pretty good primer on reddit as well as a followup article regarding farm/turbo naus which I encourage everyone who is interested to read.

Since there isn't any inherent card draw for Ayli/Lurrus but life gain, sacrifice outlet, and recursion, I think going a slower hatebears direction makes sense. In addition to that, because of the limitations set by having Lurrus as a companion, powerful cards like Necropotence and easier combo lines with Phyrexian Altar couldn't be included. Ayli's sacrifice and removal ability makes a death and taxes style build really solid because she can essentially sacrifice/remove the hate piece at any time before comboing off. This further solidifies my decision that slow naus is a better fit for this pairing.

I know its very tempting to include a bunch of cards that synergize well with Lurrus but building around a companion poses a significant risk because there is no way to get it back once it is exiled. Therefore if the core of the deck functions only with Lurrus in play, I think just having Lurrus as a commander is a much better option. Lurrus' role in the deck is simply a recursion insurance to be able to get our hatebears or any other permanents back.

Notable Exclusions

The following are cards I've excluded for various reasons:

• Angelic Renewal felt too clunky/do nothing and doesn't protect from exile or without a sac outlet in play.

• Viscera Seer isn't really needed since I don't need a redundant combo piece for plan C/D and have a sac outlet readily available in the commandzone already.

The following are cards that I am considering as I tweak the deck more:

• Lion's Eye Diamond, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Yawgmoth's Will, Imperial Seal, Shred Memory, Silence, Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak,Cabal Ritual, and Cabal Therapist.

Strategy

Piloting the Deck

This is a hyper resilient death and taxes deck that your opponents will have a difficult time dealing with due to the potent combination of Ayli and Lurrus. Both of them can create a one-sided soft lock on the table if left unanswered. Ayli's main role of the deck is to sustain life total for Ad Nauseam and remove hatebears on my board when necessary. Lurrus plays more of a supporting role and should only be cast as a plan C usually after a boardwipe or removal on an important card. The following are general guidelines to piloting the deck efficiently:

• Play hatebears strategically according to the context of the game and texture of the battlefield. Take full advantage of Lurrus's recursion and Ayli's sacrifice to make it as one sided as possible.

• Never ever play Lurrus of the Dream-Den without any form of protection or when there's nothing valuable to recur from the yard. Kaya's Ghostform is the most important form of protection for Lurrus and should be number one priority for tutor targets. This is because once Lurrus is fully protected, I can start farming and reaping harvest.

• With a low cmc, it is very easy to dump your entire hand on the table. However, it is best to deploy your threats strategically to avoid a complete blowout.

• Prime tutor targets are always card draw or protection. Card draw provides more gas for longevity and protection ensures that I can continue to keep my farm animals in play.

Deck Anatomy

The deck comprises of a couple of important moving pieces that glue everything together:

• Death and Taxes slows down and obstruct our opponents' gameplans while we go forward with ours. The resource imbalance will be more apparent the longer the hatebears remain in play.

• Card draw is paramount to keeping the deck going throughout all phases of the game. Looting effect is also card advantage with Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

• A redundancy of A+B combos that can be easily assembled through an Ad Nauseam.

• A redundancy of protection for Ayli and Lurrus as well as the combos.

Notable Synergies

Ayli Synergies

• Viridian Longbow = Kill any creature by just tapping Ayli.

• Serra Ascendant = Swing once with ascendant and sac it to Ayli to enable Ayli's exile ability.

Lurrus Synergies

• Cryptbreaker = Discard a card that can be recurred with Lurrus.

• Kaya's Ghostform = Lurrus will never go away.

• Skullclamp + Spirit of the Labyrinth = Equip clamp to spirit to draw two cards and recast spirit again to form a one-sided card draw lock.

Miscellaneous Synergies

• Children of Korlis + Ad Nauseam = Draw a bunch of cards and gain all of the life back.

• Aether Vial + Phyrexian Reclamation = Bring creature back to play from graveyard for at instant speed.

• Forbidden Orchard + Carnival of Souls = Get an additional every time you tap for mana.

The Endgame

Win Conditions

All win conditions are usually assembled after slowing down the game enough by taxing our opponents out with hatebear effects. How we win is to main phase Angel's Grace + Ad Nauseam into Sickening Dreams or do it at opponent's EOT into the following wincons on my turn:

Plan A

Sickening Dreams + Teferi's Protection = You have your entire library drawn from Ad Nauseam. Cast Grand Abolisher first with Cavern of Souls for protection. Cast Sickening Dreams pitching the entire hand. Hold priority and cast Teferi's Protection to give you immunity. Let Sickening Dreams resolve to kill the entire table.

Plan B

Leonin Relic-Warder (in graveyard) + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead + Blood Artist effect = You reanimate LRW with the enchantment which exiles the enchantment that is now keeping it alive. This causes LRW to die. The enchantment comes back and once again reanimates LRW. Repeat infinite times.

Plan C

Lurrus of the Dream-Den + Kaya's Ghostform + Carnival of Souls + Carrion Feeder + Blood Artist effect = Sacrifice Lurrus enchanted with ghostform (draining everyone with artist). This will trigger ghostform to put Lurrus back to play (triggering carnival to generate and losing a life) and resetting it's cast from yard ability. Cast ghostform (with the generated from carnival) from yard enchanting Lurrus. Repeat infinite times.

Plan D

Carnival of Souls + Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder + Blood Artist effect = Sac crawler (draining everyone with artist). Cast crawler (triggering carnival to generate and losing a life). Repeat infinite times.

Footnotes

Thoughts

The addition of Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion has turned Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim into a completely new beast. The deck now has an accessible recursion engine in the companion zone to be able to grind the long game. It seems that Lurrus is made for Ayli because both abilities feed off each other, forming a nice little sacrifice-recursion loop. Previously unplayable cards like Gravecrawler are given a second thought because it can be played from the yard with Lurrus in the absence of zombies. Hatebears become much more potent and one-sided too due to the ability to manipulate what stays or what dies with Ayli and Lurrus.

Power Level

Because of the deckbuilding restrictions set by Lurrus as a companion, efficient A+B combo lines are limited and I'm forced to use other more inefficient set-up to make up for it. This means that this deck can hang with the big bois at the cEDH table but won't win many games without careful navigation and experience. The silverlining is that this deck is perfectly fine to play in a high powered pod without feeling like it's pubstomping the table. This creates a unique situation where the deck fits pretty well in both spectrums of the power level which is pretty sweet.

My Other Companion Brews

• Yarok & Keruga
• Lazav & Gyruda
• Kaervek & Obosh

Don't forget to +1 if you like the deck!

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 60 - 1 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.54
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Companion Zone, Human 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	My EDH Brews, Great Ideas, Cool ideas, Cool Ideas, Interesting Ideas, Commander, Insp, Interesting Commander Decks, Commander inspirations, Commander/EDH