Greedy Ghost and Nightmare Cat
Commander / EDH Attrition Lifegain Lifelink Lurrus of the Dream-Den Sacrifice WB (Orzhov)
Creature (32)
- 1x Ajani's Pridemate
- 1x Archivist of Oghma
- 1x Auriok Champion
- 1x Bartolome del Presidio
- 1x Benevolent Bodyguard
- 1x Blood Artist
- 1x Carrion Feeder
- 1x Cruel Celebrant
- 1x Dark Confidant
- 1x Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
- 1x Dust Animus
- 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
- 1x Esper Sentinel
- 1x Giver of Runes
- 1x Grand Abolisher
- 1x Hopeful Initiate
- 1x Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
- 1x Lunarch Veteran Flip
- 1x Mother of Runes
- 1x Orcish Bowmasters
- 1x Selfless Spirit
- 1x Serra Ascendant
- 1x Skrelv, Defector Mite
- 1x Soul Warden
- 1x Soul's Attendant
- 1x Spectrum Sentinel
- 1x Suture Priest
- 1x Viscera Seer
- 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
- 1x Voice of the Blessed
- 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
Sorcery (5)
Land (36)
- 1x Ancient Den
- 1x Arid Mesa
- 1x Barad-dur
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Castle Locthwain
- 1x Caves of Koilos
- 1x City of Brass
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
- 1x Fabled Passage
- 1x Fetid Heath
- 1x Forbidden Orchard
- 1x Godless Shrine
-
1x
High Market
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Mirrex
- 1x Obscura Storefront
- 1x Phyrexian Tower
- 5x Plains
- 1x Plaza of Heroes
- 1x Radiant Fountain
- 1x Scrubland
- 1x Shattered Sanctum
- 1x Silent Clearing
- 4x Swamp
- 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
- 1x Urza's Saga
- 1x Vault of Champions
- 1x Vault of Whispers
Instant (8)
Commander (1)
Companion (1)
Artifact (10)
- 1x Agatha's Soul Cauldron
- 1x Animation Module
-
1x
Chrome Mox
- 1x Lotus Petal
- 1x Mox Amber
- 1x Shadowspear
- 1x Skullclamp
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x The Ozolith
- 1x Umezawa's Jitte
Enchantment (8)
Sideboard
Sorcery (10)
Creature (3)
Maybeboard
Enchantment (3)
Sorcery (1)
Land (2)
Gain life make the Karlov big then exile problem creatures. Use our Companion (backup Commander) to replay our stuff.
Creatures will be the backbone of the deck. At first aristocrats were part of the deck but after playing more Commander pods they're so much better than 1v1. They've proven themselves to be great at playing a long grindy game. We'll also be using our creatures as a source of passive life gain and as a way to slow them down by way of taxes and prison effects.
At the bottom there's instructions for a Learn/Lesson wish board, if your group goes in for things like that.
Do you like to gain life?
Do you like playing creature based strategies?
Do you like playing long grindy games?
Do you want to play a deck with a companion?
Do you like to making creative deck choices (Mainly because we play a companion?
Do you like playing decks with multiple paths to victory?
If you answered 'yes' to at least 5/6 of these questions Karlov
/Lurrus might be for you.
Karlov of the Ghost Council - Has a rather interesting design. He can be used to go tall and smash or he can be used as a control tool. When playing him we need to be flexible to switch between both.
An ideal opening hand should have both of our colours of mana. It should also have a way to gain life or protection for our Commander, preferably both. We'll want to use our free mulligan aggressively to get this.
By the companion rule every permanent we play can be returned from The Dreaming. Some of our cards are here because we want to play them over-and-over.
Benevolent Bodyguard - Alseid's ancestor. Bit of give and take between the two. We just have to Sacrifice the Bodyguard but he doesn't come with built in Lifelink.
Selfless Spirit - Protects all our creatures from Wrath style board wipes. The flying isn't unimportant to get through while equipped. It's protection is repeatable with Lurrus.
Lotus Petal - Early on it's mana acceleration in the late game it's a free land we can get with Lurrus. Our curve is low but we have a bunch of cards with activated abilities with real costs and the extra coloured mana can be the difference between victory and defeat, or even just limping into another turn.
There are a few cards with an in their casting cost that either are in our deck or can be put into our deck. When we play them from our hand the can be any number. When we're bring them back from the graveyard with Lurrus' ability the total CMC can't exceed .
For example, The Meathook Massacre can be Brought Back as an enchantment with our companion's ability but we won't be able to shrink anything. It'll just be solid aristocrats payoff.
Archivist of Oghma - White has been getting a lot of tools for drawing cards. The archvisit also fulfils what we want to be doing with out deck...gaining life. Both triggering when a fetch land and a non-basic land is found. EDH/Commander is a format with many players need to be searching to find what they need. Because it won't trigger all the time we not only get to gain a life but we get a card so we kind of keep up with what our opponent is doing. If Archivist draws us one card every turn cycle we're doing pretty well. We shouldn't expect to draw more than two cards per turn, one fetch and one tutor.
Auriok Champion, Soul Warden & Soul's Attendant - The Soul Sisters. Gain life and pump up Karlov every time a creature enters play. All three came from an earlier age of Magic when we could gain life on any creature entering the battlefield not just our own. Usually two lands that produce a black and a white with one of these is a snap keep. Also, if one of these is out ahead of our Commander he'll immediately get two counters.
Authority of the Consuls - Passive life gain when it's not our turn. It also turns off haste. This card is quickly becoming a white staple in Commander.
Daxos, Blessed by the Sun - Lateral of the soul sisters. This soul sibling only gains a life when we get a creature. He also gains life when we lose a creature. He can also gain a lot of toughness based on our devotion to white.
Lunarch Veteran - Another pseudo-Soul Warden, only gaining life when we get a creature, after going to the graveyard it can be reborn as Luminous Phantom . The returned Phantom gives us another flyer and we start gaining life when one of our creatures leaves play. This works well with our aristocrats.
Blind Obedience - Another way of removing haste it also tags artifact recursion and has the chance to slow ramping with artifacts.
Spectrum Sentinel - Most EDH/Commander deck are big piles of Greed and want to play as versatile a land base as possible which means lots of non-basic lands. There are also fetch lands which give us two life gain triggers. Then there are ramp strategies, which usually only grab basics but some don't and there seem to be more every set.
Umezawa's Jitte - When first printed this card completely warped the format around it to the point where the best card to play against Jitte is another Jitte (this was the time when the Legend rule destroyed the second copy of a Legendary permeant played). It's still a pretty good card. In a perfect situation, oddly, we'll want to use the counters to gain life first. Doing so at the end of the opponent's turn just before our turn. We shouldn't be afraid to remove problem creatures either. The +2/+2 is best used to try and push through a little bit more Commander damage or help protect our creatures from -x/-x removal.
Radiant Fountain & Seraph Sanctuary - Gain a bit of life and a few counters on our Commander. The best thing about these cards is that they don't come into play tapped like Kabira Crossroads or Scoured Barrens. Maybe someday there will be an Angel or two we want to play to get additional triggers off the Sanctuary.
These cards are the, mostly, opposite of our Soul Sisters package. Gaining life when creatures leave and dealing a bit of damage.While others put creatures into play, at the cost of life, pairing nicely with the Soul Sisters. These are the cards that allow us to grind deep into a game.
Blood Artist - Just solid all around. Something dies somewhere we gain a life and throw some damage around.
Bitterblossom - Maybe Bitter-Awesome would be a better name? Okay. No more Dad jokes. But what else could you call it when we're making a 1/1 flyer that can chump block or go on offense every turn? Left alone the can take over a game.
Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim -
Skrelv's Hive - A "fixed" Bitterblossom. The creatures it make can block, they're clunky attackers what they do is trigger our Soul Sisters immediately replace the life we lost and pumps our Commander. The mites it makes are artifacts and will help us to trigger our Inventors' Fair It also creates an opportunity to scry with Viscera Seer. Add in card:Vraan Exectioner Thane|Vraan and we can get some extra life and drain. If nothing else it's better than Dreadhorde Invasion.
Suture Priest - Rewards us for playing creatures and punishes infinite creature strategies and blinking strategies.
The goal is to cover as many as we can types of removal as we can. Target bounce, damage, destroy and exile, we have colour protection. Mass destroy we have cards that grant indestructible. Targeted sacrifice, we rely on our ability to go wide. Mass bounce we can't do much about but our low curve makes rebuilding easier, the same can be said about mass sacrifice. -X/-X will be handled by our Commander himself and we'll make it as difficult to do as possible.
Benevolent Bodyguard - Quick and simple. A one-shot Giver of Runes or Mother of Runes but, it can be used if it has summoning sickness. It can also be Recycled with Lurrus after he's used.
Giver of Runes & Mother of Runes - Protects our Commander and other creatures from targeted removal. Just remember Mom can protect herself and the Giver can't. However, Giver can give protection from colourless whereas Mom can't.
Skrelv, Defector Mite - Repeatable protection & granting selective unblockable is pretty good. With a big enough Commander we can get rid a player with Commander damage. The Toxic is nice but unless one of our opponents have a proliferate, or Skrelv's Hive goes really unchecked, poison counters probably won't come into play. Their is a cost but we can always just use some our overabundant life to pay it or pay a like a sucker.
Flawless Maneuver - One of the free-for-one card from Ikoria Commander. With the low cost of our Commander it'll be weird when we actually pay to cast this card.
First, yes there is some tension with Agatha's Soul Cauldron and Lurrus of the Dream-Den. The Soul Cauldron is the third or fourth plan that we can go to when Karlov of the Ghost Council gets too expensive to replay and when Lurrus of the Dream-Den is lost to us. We'll always have access to Karlov and
Lurrus. Agatha's Soul Cauldron is something we'll have to wait for or search up.
At worst Agatha's Soul Cauldron is reasonable, even subpar, targeted graveyard removal. The best comparisons to it would be the first abilities of Relic of Progenitus or Scrabbling Claws, or Phyrexian Furnace.
Ingredients: -cards we want exiled-
Benevolent Bodyguard - Carrion Feeder -
Pull from Eternity - One of the most popular cards in the format is Cyclonic Rift. Along with this bounce and artifact destruction are widely played. We may need a way to put something key back in Agatha's Soul Cauldron. This is our best option, if a little janky. It also has a lot of flexibility. It can put cards which are: imprinted, suspended or on an adventure into the graveyard. We can also put an exiled card back into the graveyard. It doesn't even have to be ours.
Who Eats the Stew?:
Many, but not all, of our cards with activated ability involve a Sacrifice. These cards generate tokens which we can easily sac for said effect.
Animation Module - Clear synergy with Soul Cauldron, exile a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature, pay and get a Servo. The Module also works with our Soul Sisters and our Commander (or anything that gets counters for gaining life). Play a creature, gain a life, put counters on Karlov, pay , get a Servo, then gain a life from a Soul Sister and repeat. We can make as many Servos as we have mana.
Bitterblossom - Maybe Bitter-Awesome would be a better name? Okay. No more Dad jokes. But what else could you call it when we're making a 1/1 flyer that can chump block or go on offense every turn? Left alone the can take over a game.
Skrelv's Hive - A "fixed" Bitterblossom . The creatures it make can block, they're clunky attackers what they do is trigger our Soul Sisters immediately replace the life we lost and pumps our Commander. The mites it makes are artifacts and will help us to trigger our Inventors' Fair It also creates an opportunity to scry with Viscera Seer.
Barad-dur - Slightly disappointed the card database doesn't have the accent above the 'U'. J.R.R Tolkien would be cross but on to business. The closest comparison to this card is Castle Ardenvale. They both have a restriction on whether or not they come into play tapped. To be far the Castle's is less restrictive. We can have individual tokens with the Castle's too. Barad-dur's tokens cost less to make a disposable blocker and it doesn't require double coloured mana. We can also pour more mana into it to make a larger token if we need to and make that one token larger over time. It's token's play well with Orcish Bowmasters, The Ozolith, and Dreadhorde Invasion.
Mirrex -
Whose been served?:
-cards who get or give +1/+1 counters-
Ajani's Pridemate - A less impressive version of our Commander but, don't let only getting a single +1/+1 anytime we gain life fool you. He's quite capable of getting quite tall.
Amalia Benavides Aguirre - Right off the bat we're not likely to be regularly getting her wrath effect off. She's here for card selection and to get big
Bartolome del Presidio - With Lurrus of the Dream-Den once per turn we can Sacrifice and replay a creature with an ETB effect. We can send our creatures to the graveyard when the table gets hit with an Exile board wipe. With regular board wipes Bart well with The Ozolith turning all of our creatures in +1/+1 counters which can be given to the next attacking creature. he's another legend that can turn on our Mox Amber. Currently, our deck isn't tuned for aristocrats but del Presidio would be a cornerstone of that strategy if we were to add it. For the history buffs out there a 'Presidio' was a Spanish fortress.
Dust Animus - Right out of the gate we never ever want to play this as a 2/3. We want to plot this on an off turn. Then don't draw attention to it we want our opponents to forget it's even there. So when it's actually cast it after a board wipe we have a 4/5 flying Lifelink, an infant Serra Ascendant. Because the Lifelink is coming front a counter then The Ozolith can pass that counter onto another creature when Dusty dies.
Cleric Class - The extra life gain is nice. The third part isn't the goal. The good stuff is in the second level. This substitutes any creature with for the Animation Module combo seen above in this section. Overkill? Maybe but redundancy makes EDH/Commander decks more resilient.
The Ozolith - Since many of our activated ability cards are a Sacrifice the The Ozolith can collect the vanishing +1/+1 counters and put them on another creature. Maybe to turn something else on or maybe we go for the commander damage win with Karlov.
Ad Nauseam - Gaining life is great and all but how do we best put it to use? How about drawing cards? We're low to the ground and we don't mind discarding cards to hand size. Mid to late game we can reload our hand for a final push.
Assemble the Players - Because of our companion restriction we're limited in the permanents we can use to draw additional cards, this one though is a banger. Allowing us to get potential psuedo-draws every single turn. At the time of writing this all the creatures in our deck has two or less power. We are allowed to play cards with Flash on other players turns. Ironically, one the few creatures with Flash, Cathar Commando, is the only creature with more than two power in the deck. Viscera Seer can clear the top of our deck for another potential play. If nothing else it gives us more information.
Dark Confidant - Greatness at any cost...oh, so that's where that comes from. Another card to give us an extra draw. We may have to reveal what the card is but there's a good chance we'll be casting it this turn. Like with many other things in our deck the loss of life isn't a big deal. We're also so low to the ground the damage wont be that big anyway. Dark Confidant isn't what it used to be in terms of use and price. If you cant find/affordable one Raffine's Informant or Dusk Legion Zealot, or something else like them, could be a solution.
Esper Sentinel - We can draw multiple cards every turn cycle. It's unlikely our opponents will be paying more than for their first non-creature spell every turn but, if we can't draw taxing our opponents is a nice consolation.
Skullclamp - As we're a weenie deck we have plenty of creatures with one toughness that could easily become two cards.
Viscera Seer - Not so much card draw as card selection. In a tough spot we can Sacrifice a creature to improve our draw. They help us get value from our creatures in response to a board wipe. It also gives us a sliver of hope that we can recover them from the graveyard in the face of a piece of exile removal.
Castle Locthwain - The flavour text could be "greatness at a higher cost". We'll be emptying our hands fairly quickly so the loss of life shouldn't be too great. If we're going to lose draw the Damn card.
As a general comment, this deck started with a lower land count and Sol Ring as the only mana rock. Eventhough were low to the ground because of our companion's restriction, we still need to pay for activated abilities and for our higher mana spells. You can certainly play other cards but it may not go as well as you think.
Sol Ring - Let's see we're playing Commander so we play one of these.
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff - Think of him as creating single use painlands. In the magical Christmas land scenario, and in a four player game, we can receive SIXTEEN treasure tokens, with everyone drawing two cards in a turn cycle. The downside to this we're also taking SIXTEEN damage which would also be tough to take even for our life gaining deck. It's very unlikely that this'll happen. If people try to draw us to death there's always Viscera Seer and Ayli. We also have the option of adding Leonin Elder.
Mox Amber - Not mana acceleration but it is half an activation of our Commander's ability. The Lord of the Rings has given this card a boon. Whenever a new ring bearer is chosen it becomes legendary and gives us more options and opportunities to activate this powerful artifact.
Anguished Unmaking - It's interesting to see the cost of moving a sorcery to an instant. Vindicate was first printed in Apocalypse at the same cost and destroyed anything. This comes out it does exile but we can't destroy land (in this day destroying a land for 3 or less without some drawback) and it also costs 3 life.
Deadly Rollick - Certainly on of the best removal spells in EDH/Commander. It was nice to, finally, get a reprint and a reduction in price.
Despark - Disdainful Stroke for cards already in play. It's hard for us to keep up in terms of, one-to-one, big threats. This helps to level things out.
Imp's Mischief - It could be anything, even a boat. This card is so freaking flexible. Change the target of removal. Change the target of a counter spell, change the target of an extra turn spell. Change the target of a game ending spell. The only caveat is the spell in question can only have one target.
Path to Exile - Great premium removal. It's not impossible that our opponent won't be able to get a basic land because of a greedy land base.
Swords to Plowshares - One of the all time greatest all time removal spells. The big question is will they have more life than us?
Damn - Can help us get rid of an early problem or, more than likely, be used to reset the board.
The Meathook Massacre - Works as mass removal and as a piece another Blood Artist effect. If we're recasting it from the graveyard with Lurrus X can only be 0 or 1.
Toxic Deluge - Seems to be the standard mass removal spell when playing black. Sure, it costs life but it was made for a format with starting life half of what we get and are we planning to gain life? Might have been mentioned once or twice. Also, there's a real possibility that our Commander could survive this deluge.
Karlov is a pretty good source of creature removal too.
In terms of our mass removal some decks are running cards like: Retribution of the Meek, Slaughter the Strong or Citywide Bust to act as one-sided wraths. The problem is there will friendly fire, and most likely to be friendly fire is our Commander. If we've gained life once since he hit play we'd have to spend another card to protect him. We can also spend mana to destroy creatures which would survive, as long as the number of counters is a multiple of six. Otherwise he's caught in the blast. Our suite of protection spells are there to help him and if the board is too big to handle we'll blow the board ourselves.
Orcish Bowmasters - One of the best answers for Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora. Drawing cards outside of the draw step is no longer straight up advantage. This'll allow us to do a little bit of diplomacy. Is there a problem Planeswalker? We can let someone draw to kill it. The table can also work together to permanently end a threat. We can also gain life from the army token. Throw in Viscera Seer or Ayli and we can gain a lot of life.
Grand Abolisher - Not a traditional tax man who forces additional costs to spells and ability. This one just shuts them down on our turns. Living the dream of spells never being countered. Shutting down activated abilities is nothing to sneeze at either.
Phyrexian Reclamation - We can use this to bring back any of our creatures. It also allows us to change the rules around the Commander Tax. With this we allow our Commander to go to the graveyard and return it to our hand to be recast for and 2 life. We aren't obligated to pay it all at once either like we're replaying a Commander normally. If we're stuck on 3 lands we can pay at the end of an opponent's turn and recast it on ours. If Phyrexian Reclamation is destroyed while our Commander is in the graveyard and we can't return it, we have other ways to bring him back and if all else fails we may have to exile him ourselves to put him back to the Command Zone.
This is an incredibly powerful card that isn't just for artifact decks, though we are trying.
Making two X/X construct tokens at any time in the game can swing the game in our favour. The true power, for this deck anyway, is the search two turns after we play it. We'll want to look for the missing piece of our combos, what will apply more pressure or something that just keep us in the game for another turn.
What Can We Get?
Ancient Den or Vault of Whispers - Certainly not ideal. There are scenarios where we're losing a land,Urza's Saga, and we need to replace it or we need to colour fix.
Mox Amber - Not really ramp, unless we have it Skrelv, Defector Mite, but we do a lot with just one extra mana.
Sol Ring - Let's see. This is a Commander/EDH deck so it needs one of these.
As the card pool expands Urza's Saga power will only continue to grow.
Orzhov Lands:
Any of the lands without comments are generally good two colour mana producers, but they can be replaced if something better comes along.
Caves of Koilos & City of Brass - Might as well take advantage of the life we're gaining and have some more duals.
Command Tower - Let's see. We're playing Commander and Karlov has more than one colour. Moving on.
Fetid Heath - Our mana base isn't always kind to us. There will be times when we have two and really need two . This filter can be a real lifesaver.
Forbidden Orchard - Fixes our mana, triggers our souk sisters, which in turn triggers
Karlov AND we can be diplomatic with chump blockers.
Godless Shrine - Pretty standard.
Plaza of Heroes - Fixes our mana when we want to play our Commander. We also get to to tap for the coloured mana of any of our Legendary permanents which is what is written on the card.
Shattered Sanctum - Still don't trust fast lands in Commander. The odds are we'll draw this after land two, same as if we had Concealed Courtyard.
Silent Clearing - Sun Droplet won't help us here but, the ability to trade an extra land for a card cannot be underestimated.
Utility Lands:
Arid Mesa - Along with Bloodstained Mire, Marsh Flats, ... help to smooth out our mana. They also work with Viscera Seer to help control the top of our deck for Assemble the Players or Dark Confidant.
Barad-dur - Slightly disappointed the card database doesn't have the accent above the 'U', on to business. The closest comparison to this card is Castle Ardenvale. They both have a restriction on wether or not they come into play tapped. To be far the Castle's is less restrictive. We can have individual tokens with the Castle's too. Barad-dur's tokens cost less to make a disposable blocker and it doesn't require double coloured mana. We can also pour more mana into it to make a larger token if we need to and make that one token larger over time. Again Ardenvale's token will always be just 1/1s.
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire - it's a land with no "enters the battlefield tapped" clause. It also doubles as removal. What's not to like?
Obscura Storefront - A Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds that has to be used right away but, we also trigger our Commander with an extra life. Seems fair. When the Abzan and Mardu versions come out they'll likely find a home here too.
Mirrex -
Phyrexian Tower - We gain advantages from our creatures leaving the battlefield. This is just another Sacrifice outlet and we get a little bit of ramp out of the deal too.
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire - Another way we can allow our Commander to go to the graveyard, recover him & recast him without paying the Commander Tax. Filling the graveyard a bit for Lurrus is nice. However, we shouldn't be using this to find something to cast as our Plan A. If we're in need of a blocker of course go ahead. We should be looking for something to bring back to our hand before we mill ourselves. If something better pops up we can still nab it.
Basic Lands:
Plains -
Swamp -
This is for groups that believe in continuing education. Right now the rules are we don't allow us to play with sideboard or a wish-board. It's possible this could change in the future. We're not taking this to a CEDH tournament so just ask your group maybe they'll let you play Learn/Lesson.
There are two creatures which allow us to Learn:
Eyetwitch - Just a side note if our plan is to block with card:Eyetwitch(stx) and learn our opponents a Lesson at instant speed, all of our Lessons are sorceries, and why yes there is a story attached to this note. _Reccomended cuts from the main for this card:
Professor of Symbology - _Reccomended cuts from the main for this card: card:Spirted Companion or Night's Whisper. _
And we have a pen for taking notes:
Poet's Quill - Fits under our companion's restriction. It also gives the equipped creature a token power and toughness boost and lifelink. When Karlov, Ajani's Pridemate or Voice of the Blessed gets big enough we want to smash in or send a flyer over it'll be nice to gain some life as well.
Hunt for Specimens - This is us going into the field. All of these enablers are a stepdown from the regular cards in our deck. This one is the biggest step down.
Learn has some hidden text. If there's a situation where we want a random card from our deck rather than a specific Lesson we can also discard a card and draw.
Just keep them in the wish board and swap them in a creature with the same CMC.
Then we pick up to fourteen (Lurrus is part of the side board [think of her as the class familiar]) spells with the Lesson subtype, which fit our Commander restrictions. At the time of this writing all of them with a few extra spots. Also, at the time of writing there are no Lesson permanents so Lurrus is all good.
It's pretty safe to say that these cards would never been part of the 99. Most of them could kindly be called draft-chaff. However, we're getting them for a few deck slots and because were also gaining flexibility they cost a bit more, for what they do, than what we'd like to see under normal circumstances.
Alseid of Life's Bounty - and sac to give protection and save another creature is great. What makes it perfect for our deck is that it also has Lifelink.
Animate Dead - we can let our Commander go to the graveyard for many reasons. Here are two more. They can also be used to snag something big out of an opponent's grave. There just sweet, universal, lil Body Doubles.
Arcane Signet - Better than Fellwar Stone because it guarantees our colours. And this IS the best art.
Call of the Ring - our most consistent tempter. Just four turns and we'll have ring bearer enthralled to the ring. If we lose it then we're just an upkeep away from getting a new one. On that note every turn we can lose two life and draw a card if we change a ring bearer. Beyond drawing a card changing the ring bearer has many advantages. We may want a lower powered ring bearer to take advantage of the pseudo-skulk ability. We may want to do the opposite to take advantage of the pseudo death touch and force an uncomfortable block or lose a planeswalker. We may also want to take advantage of a newly played creature with an additional ability like trample or flying. Finally, changing our ring bearer can fix our mana if we have Mox Amber in play. There are so many applications for moving around the ring.
Cauldron Familiar & Witch's Oven - One-two punch that slows down every format they're in. The Oven is more flexible as a Sacrifice outlet. We don't have another way to make for the cat to eat so it may just be a chump blocker in a lot of situations. Put them together and they're a dynamic duo.
Corpse Knight - We're not just about gaining life on Enter The Battlefield (ETB) triggers we also need to inflict some pain. Especially with Bitterblossom and/or Skrelv's Hive.
card:Dawn of a New Age(ltr) - Norn's Wellspring had a brief and unimpressive run. Instead of our goal being drawing two cards over the course of a game, that should be our floor. In a perfect scenario we play a 1 drop turn 1, then our Commander on turn 2, and on turn 3 we play another 1 drop then this. We'll draw three and when it goes we gain life and we'll be ready to bring it back with Lurrus. Into the mid game Dawn becomes Wrath insurance.
Dauthi Voidwalker - in most situations Shadow may as well be "can't block" and "can't be blocked". It also pressures our opponent's graveyards by exiling cards which go there. If that wasn't enough we get to cast one of those cards . If only we had a way to play it every turn and get our opponent's big spells for . Even if we don't have Lurrus of the Dream-Den we have other ways to replay it from the graveyard (Phyrexian Reclamation, Vat of Rebirth, Animate Dead, etc.). Just another overpowered card from Modern Horizons 2 .
Drannith Magistrate - More a lock piece than a piece of taxation. It doesn't affect us only our opponents. It stops any type of flash back or play from exile type abilities. Playing a Commander from the Command Zone is also important part of most deck's gameplay.
Entomb - Toss a card in the graveyard and bring it back with any one of many restriction tools. We can also take advantage of the hidden text on this card because it sends any card to the 'yard, not just creatures.
Executioner's Capsule - it's tricky to find a permanent that destroys all creatures AND costs two or less. This is probably the best option. Not being able to target black creatures can be a problem. That just means we know where to send our spells.
Frodo, Sauron's Bane - Who doesn't like a little alternate wincon? Like most alternate win cons the stars will have to align for us to win this way. We'll get to that in a moment. The base for Frodo is unimpressiv but, like with Figure of Destiny this card kicks off once we start pouring mana into it. His first leveled form makes him a 2/3 with lifelink. Let's be honest this will likely be where he spends most of his time and this is a serviceable if unimpressive card for our deck. When Frodo reaches his final form a target goes up (or he becomes a distraction) and we'll want to a piece of protect either in hand or active on the battlefield, preferably both. Now if we connect with our opponent we win if we've maxed out the temptation of the ring. If we haven't we'll be tempted and try again next turn. Realisticly, the best time to play Frodo is at the end of the game when there are fewer spells and fewer players in the game. As Gandalf once said "There's was never much hope, just a fool's hope". It'll be fun to try though. Generous Gift - it's nice to have a card that can destroy anything. The 3/3 left behind is almost always better.
Hope of Ghirapur - We have to hit our opponent for this to work but we can lock down the combo player from comboing off, replay it and do it again the turn after.
Kaya's Ghostform - Another way to save our creatures from the graveyard. Nice bonus of being able to pull things back from exile. With Lurrus still in play we'll be able replay this aura over and over again.
card:Leonine Arbiter - because of budget and deck building decisions there aren't a lot of times when we search our deck, compared to other Commander decks. This gives us the opportunity to make searching miserable for other players.
Minas Tirith - This one might be wishful thinking but, being able to draw cards off our land is too good not to try.
Night's Whisper - Straight forward pay two life draw two cards. It could also be Sign in Blood.
Norn's Wellspring - Trying this out over Night's Whisper. We're looking to grind so we're likely to draw more than two cards over the course of the game.
Orzhov Basilica - It's always risky putting a Karoo land into our deck. There is a real risk of it being destroyed before we get to use it. There are a couple of lands that gain us life when they enter play, picking them up and reusing them is pretty useful. We're also playing Takenuma & the new Eiganjo. It's not impossible that we'll need to play these early and we'll want their recursion and removal, respectively, in the later game.
Orzhov Signet - Good colourless mana filtering.
Paladin Class - there are three levels to climb through. We get what we want right off the bat. Plus to our opponents spells on our turns. The second level gives us an anthem, which is nice. The third level is also nice but we're not going to break our backs to get there.
Remorseful Cleric - In Commander some players ignore their graveyard, some people plan to Recycle a few cards. Some people use the graveyard as a second hand. We need to be able to reactivately respond to the last two or the situation could be grim. Jirina, Dauntless General was a consideration. We do have some humans to take advantage of her sacrifice effect, removing a graveyard as an ETB just isn't enough.
Seal of Cleansing - With this we'll be able to Eliminate one problem artifact or enchantment every turn.
Selfless Savior - Protects one creature from mass or targeted removal. Truly, the goodest boy. This is a better choice than Dauntless Bodyguard because it has to be cast after Karlov and we're limited in what we grant indestructibility to.
Sevinne's Reclamation - This is our back-up recursion and is extra flexible with it's Flashback. Patch Up and Victimize are also good recursion with the same CMC.
Snuff Out - Why use mana to kill something when we can just pay life? There are a couple of caveats. We have to control a Swamp and this card comes from an era when black targeted removal couldn't remove a black card for reasons. If we were a bit richer card:Deadly Rollock would slot in perfectly.
Sun Droplet - Part of the reason we're playing Caves of Koilos & City of Brass. Sun Droplet also has the Verdant Force clause where we will activate it EVERY upkeep, not just ours. We can quickly regain those little pokes and after three players' turns Karlov is rather tall and can exile one problem. Castle Locthwain & Silent Clearing. They're loss of life not damage.
Reverent Mantra - Brave the Elements's bigger brother. It has all the same perks as Brave but costs far more. This big brother is always willing to help out for a cost, Mantra can be cast for free as long as we exile a white card from our hand.
Spirited Companion - White's Elvish Visionary. Something which combos with our Viscera Seer. It can also be used to block and recast with Lurrus. Cat's and dogs working together at last.
Talisman of Hierarchy - Good colourless mana-fixing. The damage we take an also activate Sun Droplet, in turn will power up our Commander.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - She taxes all non-creature spells which can come back to bite us but the results are worth it.
Thrull Parasite - The lowest casting cost for an Extort creature. In addition to stealing life when we cast something it can so remove a counter from non-land permanents. If want to be kind we can keep someone's Saga in play. In most situations we'll be mean and use it to pull +1/+1 counters to mess up blocks or loyalty from Planeswalkers to make using their middle and ultimate abilities.
Tithe Taker - A middle ground between Grand Abolisher and Thalia. The spirit it leaves behind isn't nothing either.
Tormod's Crypt - We won't be reusing it every turn but, it's something we'll want to reuse to keep the other graveyard decks honest.
Vat of Rebirth - This is a back up Phyrexian Reclamation. There are pros and cons but Reclamation is better because the only hoop to jump through is paying 2 life. Vat of Rebirth we have to wait for four creatures and/or artifacts to die between activations and only ar sorcery speed. The reason it has a spot is it puts the creature directly into play. When rebuilding after a Wrath efficiently getting cards into play can be the difference between survival and watching the rest of the game from the sidelines.
Village Rites - Best way to get value from a creature we're going to lose to removal. Or if we need to dig a little deeper for some cards.
Vraan, Executioner Thane - Chump block with another creature the table loses and we win. Targeted removal we win. Scry with Viscera Seer coming out even further ahead. It's sad he only triggers once per turn. We'll just have to make that work for us.
Zuran Orb - Gain life on demand at no cost. We're so low to the ground we can occastionaly afford to Sacrifice down to two or three lands. Flagstones of Trokair combos perfectly.
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96% Casual
Competitive
| Date added | 1 year |
| Last updated | 2 weeks |
| Exclude colors | URG |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 6 - 1 Mythic Rares 54 - 4 Rares 18 - 4 Uncommons 13 - 5 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.69 |
| Tokens | Companion Zone, Construct 0/0 C, Elemental 4/4 UR, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Inkling 2/1 WB, Orc Army, Pest 1/1 BG, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 3/2 RW, Treasure |
| Folders | decks to use on tbs |
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