The Aristocratic Oath

Commander / EDH* Aristocrats BUG (Sultai) Casual Jank

Mizeov

Creature (29)

• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Hydroid Krasis
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Lord of Extinction
• 1x Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Willbender

Instant (4)

• 1x Constant Mists
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (37)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 4x Forest
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 3x Island
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Lotus Vale
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Life from the Loam

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Vraska, Golgari Queen
• 1x Vraska the Unseen

Commander (1)

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Ancestral Knowledge
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Seal of Primordium
• 1x Seal of Removal
• 1x Secrets of the Dead
• 1x Sultai Ascendancy
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Unbridled Growth
• 1x Vessel of Nascency

Artifact (11)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

---

Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Ochran Assassin
• 1x The Haunt of Hightower
• 1x World Shaper

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Deadbridge Chant
• 1x No Rest for the Wicked

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Decree of Pain

Instant (1)

• 1x Entomb

Artifact (1)

• 1x Nihil Spellbomb

---

The Aristocratic Oath

I will sacrifice my creatures, the better to harm to my enemies

I will sacrifice my artifacts to bolster my own strength

I will sacrifice my lands so that I may grow, and in turn halt the growth of others

Everything is expendable and made to serve me.

---

Introduction

I have been brewing for and playing Muldrotha since the day she was spoiled so long ago. Well, it was only Dominaria so not that long ago, but I'm hoping that joke will age like Jodah . A little bit about myself, I'm a casual going on competitive player, and my playgroup has slowly over the years increased the power level of our cards. I run some pretty expensive competitive staples but not so competitive that we believe in tier lists. Let’s be honest though, if you are reading a Muldrotha list you aren't super into competitive anyways.

About the Deck

This is a Sultai aristocrats deck revolving the value we can derive from Muldrotha. The deck has gone through a lot of iterations from combo to stax and back, but I have found that Muldrotha naturally wants to play an aristocrats role where the things you sacrifice are...everything.

I have gone through a lot of revisions for Muldrotha. I tried stax lists, combo lists, reanimator, and control lists with everyone's favorite card Control Magic , but none of them ever seemed to fit what Muldrotha wanted to do. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that Mardu was not the only colors that could play aristocrats, and so the new Muldrotha was born. That isn't to say the others were bad - they just weren't living up to what I felt Muldrotha could do.

So I set out to build a Sultai Aristocrats deck where not only are creatures meant to be sacrificed, but so too are artifacts, lands, and enchantments. Nothing is irretrievable. Everything is expendable and made to serve me.

Weaknesses

Unless your playgroup doesn’t believe in Bojuka Bog or Rest in Peace you will at some point encounter graveyard hate. I would hazard to say that a bojuka bog is run in almost every deck regardless of whether your meta has a dedicated recursion commander.

So how do we even make a recursion commander work in today’s world of Magic with constant exile effects? Well we have to get creative…

Playing the Deck

...In order to get around graveyard hate, this deck is designed to simply not care about the graveyard.

Ok that isn’t entirely true. The deck is designed to use the graveyard as a resource rather than as a win condition. By that I mean, everything can be sacrificed and recurred but exiling everything shouldn’t be able to stop you.

The main point of the deck is to draw out threats and not necessarily tax your opponents but outvalue them until they are stretched so thinly that they can’t respond. The way that we get this value is through the recursion that muldrotha offers.

Because Muldrotha allows you to play a permanent of each type, the typical turn looks something like Plaguecrafter followed by an Animate Dead causing Plaguecrafter to die. And from the graveyard, you can replay Plaguecrafter . followed by Animate Dead , all fueled by Lion's Eye Diamond (or Lotus Petal as a budget replacement) and Lake of the Dead .

See the next section - All-stars - for more cards which I really consider powerhouses in this deck and why.

All-Stars

These are the cards that really drive the deck and make it do what it wants to do. While I love plaguecrafter it falls more in the realm of utility than as an engine, but I have already mentioned two very powerful cards Lion's Eye Diamond and Lake of the Dead . Seeing as Muldrotha can play 1 of each permanent, I’ll choose one of each as an example all-star.

Artifact:

Lion's Eye Diamond : 3 mana at any time and all you have to do is give up your hand which is full of permanents you can use from the graveyard anyways? There is no downside. Save it for a turn to crack it twice and get 6 mana basically for free? Dark Ritual ain’t got nuthin on LED.

Land:

Lake of the Dead : Sacrifice a swamp to play it and then play that swamp right back with Muldrotha or any of the other cards which allow lands from the graveyard? No downside. Tap a Swamp for mana to add Symbol:B, then sacrifice a swamp to add Symbol:BSymbol:BSymbol:BSymbol:B, and then play the sacrificed swamp with Muldrotha to add another Symbol:B?!?! NO DOWNSIDE!

Creature:

Spore Frog : Ok, this one is a little tongue in cheek as there are arguably better creatures. You might not even need a spore frog in your meta, but I certainly do. Never build a deck without at least 1 fog, and this little guy is a fog on a stick which means we can get him back with Muldrotha. I have seen Spore Frog grind the game to a halt because the aggro player just doesn’t want to attack. So long as you are helping the table, frogger gets to live, but as soon as you become a liability expect a Bojuka Bog coming your way.

Enchantment:

Sultai Ascendancy : Ok ok, before we have any riots, the enchantment all-star could have easily been Animate Dead . It does after all enable more shenanigans than a Zedruu deck, but the power of Sultai Ascendancy is hard to rival. There is a reason that Ancestral Recall is banned, and it’s because drawing 3 cards is incredibly powerful. Sultai Ascendancy basically says “Draw 3 cards EVERY turn.” Because you can play stuff from the grave you don’t care about the conditions. Even at its worst, ascendancy is a two card Sensei's Divining Top every turn for free.

Planeswalker:

Vraska, Golgari Queen : I only have two planeswalkers in the deck so it was 50/50. One could argue that I should put cards like Jace, the Mindsculptor in here, and maybe one day I will add him back (he was in the original version). But when I saw Vraska spoiled I know she would be an auto-include in this deck. Vraska synergizes so well with what this deck wants to do. You can sacrifice ANY permanent to gain a life and draw a card. If you have a Gitrog Monster out you can sac a land and draw 2 cards. The best part is that you can replay whatever you sacrificed with Muldrotha, and that is just Vraska’s first ability!

Wincon

There are a few wincons in this deck and they are fairly obvious. This isn’t a combo deck or even competitive really so I opted to go for straight-up reliable beaters, most of which use the graveyard.

Lord of Extinction and Consuming Aberration . These two are the main wincons. It’s easy for someone to disrupt your graveyard, but generally harder to disrupt everyone’s graveyard. These guys can hit hard and if they die in the attempt they can often come back to hit harder. Combo them with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord to wipe the table out instantly.

Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths : Does this “combo” even need an introduction? Who doesn’t love an indestructible flying 20/20 eldritch being? The best part is that hexmage and depths are both permanents so you can replay them when your opponents foolishly waste removal on the token instead of rolling over and dying like they were meant to.

Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar : Multani is basically a smaller Lord of Extinction.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth : Ostensibly, Kozilek is in this deck as an anti-mill strategy, but he hits hard too. Generally eldrazis become target number 1, so you should only play kozilek when there is little other choice.

Conclusion

Muldrotha is an amazingly fun slime-baby to pilot. I doubt she will win any tournaments but choosing her for casual commander will net you a lot of good times. Thanks for reading through my so-called primer and if you liked it or the deck, let me know by hitting that upvote button (insert shameless plug here).

No deck is ever complete so if you have any suggestions feel-free to leave a comment below. Thanks everyone!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.83
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Player Killer, Emblem Vraska, Golgari Queen, Marit Lage, Morph 2/2 C