could be competitive Mikaeus, the Unhallowed as commander?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Sept. 14, 2015, 2:41 p.m. by edrm
I was thinking in use that guy as commander in a kind of combo deck... And i want to know if it could be competitive, thanks
ThisIsBullshit says... #3
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion. Boom done.
September 14, 2015 3:12 p.m.
Competitive? No. Not really. As a rule of thumb, mono colored decks don't usually lend themselves well to combo. Yes, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed has access to Triskelion, but the problem with it is that the piece itself has low value outside of the combo and it costs 6 mana. Additionally, being mono black means you have no real ways of protecting your combo. Mikaeus can be a great goodstuff commander, but he's not really competitive. Up until around mid-level commander, he's a fine choice that can be built on a budget. Once you enter more serious metas, however, he falls prey to common problems lesser generals face in EDH.
September 14, 2015 4:10 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #5
If you want to build around Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and be as competitive as you can you need two primary elements:
- Cost-free sac outlets. Cards like Phyrexian Altar, Viscera Seer, the former will give you infinite mana and the latter is Vampiric Tutor. There are lots of options in black, as well as cards that provide some effect when they watch creatures die like Grim Haruspex, Blood Artist and Pawn of Ulamog.
- Creatures that, with undying, can be sacrificed infinitely. Anything that can put -1/-1 counters on itself, has persist, or can remove +1/+1 counters as an activated ability without tapping. Spincrusher, Tatterkite, Grim Poppet, Chainbreaker. Triskelion has already been mentioned and can end the game with Mikaeus out without a sac outlet.
For filling out the rest of your deck you'll want ramp and tutors. Mikaeus is expensive for a competitive commander combo piece, Crypt Ghast, Heartless Summoning, and Mana Crypt would all be invaluable. Black has the best tutors around, so start with Demonic Tutor and just go down the list from there. Sidisi, Undead Vizier gets a special mention for being able to tutor up 2 cards with Mikaeus out.
September 14, 2015 4:13 p.m. Edited.
KillTheIslandUser says... #6
Pros:1.) He's in black, and some if not all the best tutors are in black.
Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Doomsday, Beseech the Queen, Cruel Tutor, Grim Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, Insidious Dreams (when used with necropotence or other draw mechanics to build the perfect combo hand.), Spoils of the Vault (this works really well in monoblack where you need THAT CERTAIN CARD), Rune-Scarred Demon he's a beast in Mikaeus), Maralen of the Mornsong (just because she's not your commander doesn't mean you still can't play her, she's beast in monoblack when you draw early into), Fleshwrither (great 4 drop tutor, and you can sac him and he comes back with mikaeus), Liliana Vess (that planeswalker doe).
The next tutors are reanimator dependent, but still great for him regardless:Entomb, Buried Alive, Corpse Connoisseur and again those are great with Reanimate type effects.
2.) Black comes with some of the best draw spells, I mean... come one.. Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, Dark Confidant, Bloodgift Demon, Greed, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Dark Tutelage, Ambition's Cost, Ad Nauseam Read the Bones and the list goes on.
3.) Black has some of the best utility creatures in the game when they die, and mikaeus let's them come back to abuse it again
So what I said basically is about black, but when you play a mono color black general you still have to look at these things and know the strengths to abuse with him, as well as the weakness of black, and why you would want to play.
First off Mikaeus is a very strong commander in mono black for abusing creature combo. You will need to play a lot of artifact ramp though for mana. You will also need to realize that you will need to play a lot of ETB or upon death effects, otherwise you might as well play other generals in monoblack. Also you will want to play quite a few board wipes in your deck. Reason being, you don't care if your crap dies, you get to basically reanimate your battlefield. You will need control as well. Usually creature based effects like Fleshbag Marauder etc etc. You will want to play Grave Pact and etc with him too.
Now the problem with Mikaeus is graveyard hate, and his cost. Creature hate is pretty prevalent in EDH, so you will need to protect him. Lightning Greaves and the like is gonna be key to protecting your commander. You don't necessarily have to play Mik at all till you need to either. That's a big misconception that you have to play him right way.
Now you are wondering.. ok how do I win? Necrotic Ooze, Kokusho, the Evening Star and Hex Parasite/Grim Poppet, Triskelion are the easy win cons, but some good tech that will help your board position worth mentioning are as follows Sepulchral Primordial, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Puppeteer Clique and Myojin of Night's Reach. Get some of them creatures out of their hands, and reanimate them, seems pretty good. Ghoulcaller Gisa can get you infinite zombies depending on who you reanimate and how to get it back. Sorin Markov is another good win con to nut shot some one with.
There's a lot of crazy ways to abuse Mikaeus, and he's a great competitive commander if built right. You can't just throw random combos in there though, contrary to popular belief. You need to be smart on how you want him to pilot, and how to run him. Either way yes... Mikaeus is a competitive combo general.
September 14, 2015 5:19 p.m.
You can build him to be fast. But for 1vs1 he is simply too slow. My mikaeus deck can consitently combo on turn 6. But at this point you should usually have lost in a competitive environment
September 14, 2015 5:49 p.m.
Nope. Sadly, no matter how well-built the deck is, Mikaeus just isn't competitive. To be considered tier 1 or 2, a commander and its deck need to either be capable of closing out a game consistently by four or five (Narset, Animar, Prossh, etc), or play incredibly tight, oppressive control (Azami, Brago, Zur the enchanter, etc). No matter how expensive and well-constructed a Mikaeus deck is, it will never be capable of either of those things.
While black is one of the best colors to splash in EDH, it can't stand by itself. Lack of ramp and protection make it slow and easily stopped. It has almost no answers to Nevermore, it easily dies to large board states (Damnation is its only real solution most of the time), and one or two well-placed counter spells can usually take it out of the running entirely.
That's not to say Mikaeus isn't a useful card. He almost always has a place in reanimator decks thanks to his aforementioned combo with Triskelion. Decks that run Ghave, Karador, Mimeoplasm, or Sedris as a commander all often have him in the 99.
September 14, 2015 10:04 p.m.
Mikaeus, Extreme Sub $20 Budget EDH is a rather fun budget deck on here, I tailored it to be budget mtgo and got Budget+ Mikaeus EDH for MTGO.
theres a lot of fun to be had with it.
MagicalHacker says... #2
Sure! MagicalHacker - Mikaeus, the Unhallowed has all the combo pieces.
September 14, 2015 2:49 p.m.