Wilhelt, Grave Defiler

Commander / EDH MegaMatt13

SCORE: 156 | 106 COMMENTS | 39115 VIEWS | IN 88 FOLDERS


Reducing Mana Curve Even More —July 22, 2017

Rune-Scarred Demon ---> Buried Alive: The CMC of Rune-Scarred was just too high and I needed to make some cuts at the top of my curve. Buried Alive will fetch me whatever ETB creatures I need. With Vampiric Tutor and Sidisi, the deck still has some unconditional tutoring.

Grave Pact ---> Panharmonicon: I wasn't finding that this enchantment was giving me that much value. I may revisit this but I want to test Panharmonicon further to see how much extra ETB value it gives me.

Nekrataal ---> Big Game Hunter: Both of these ETB kill creatures are conditional but in different ways. With Shriekmaw I already have one creature that can't kill black or artifact creatures. Big Game Hunter is one mana less and can still kill plenty of targets. A lot of scary threats in Commander have 4+ power.

Noxious Gearhulk ---> Hedron Crab: It came down to cutting either the Gearhulk or Overseer of the Damned to reduce mana curve. For now I've settled on cutting out the Gearhulk. The fact that Overseer of the Damned produces a zombie token when it kills saved it despite being one mana more. I may revisit this though. Hedron Crab is a cheap way of getting creatures into graveyards (my own or opponents). It gives me something more to do early game while I'm waiting to get my Scarab God engine online.

Dragonlord Silumgar ---> Noosegraf Mob: I like Silumgar but I think Noosegraf Mob will synergize with the deck better as a zombie that easily makes zombie tokens.

Black Sun's Zenith ---> Necromantic Selection: I really wanted to bring back Necromantic Selection. It's just such a flavour win. It also works well if I choose to reanimate my commander with it. It will turn him into a zombie so that he will trigger himself with the upkeep life drain and scrying.

Swamp + Island ---> Exotic Orchard +Fellwar Stone: Thanks to Emzed and Doran_The_ButtFighter for suggesting these 2 cards. It may not happen that often, but it is nice to have some mana producers that can activate abilities on opponents' creatures in case they are different colours from mine. Both of these come into play untapped so there is little downside to running them.

Finally, a Dimir commander I can get behind! How about Exotic Orchard to trigger abilities on your opponents' stolen creatures?

July 19, 2017 1:22 a.m.

Endulaz says... #2

Have you considered adding Quicksilver Amulet ?

July 19, 2017 5:23 a.m.

MegaMatt13 says... #3

Endulaz, thanks for the suggestion. My experience with the amulet is that it's really good in decks with tons of creatures above 4 CMC (as its activation cost is 4). My deck doesn't have that many above 4 so often I wouldn't be benefiting from its cost reduction. It would be great in Xenagos or Mayael decks though.

Doran_The_ButtFighter, I hadn't thought of that! I often reanimate creatures for their ETB effects. I hadn't considered their other activated abilities. My exotic orchards are currently in other decks but I'll look at picking another.

July 19, 2017 2:42 p.m.

Emzed says... #4

Fellwar Stone is the mana rock counterpart to Exotic Orchard, if you are interested in a thing like that.

July 19, 2017 3:54 p.m.

MegaMatt13 says... #5

Emzed, thanks for the reminder on that. Added Fellwar Stone to the deck :)

July 20, 2017 2:22 p.m.