Sacrificing for the Greater Good

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Combo Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer Reanimator

Enral

Creature (35)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Channeler Initiate
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Walking Ballista

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Diamond Valley
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 6x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x High Market
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Artifact (6)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victimize

Instant (5)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

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Sacrificing for the Greater Good

Please upvote if you enjoy this deck!

Credit to weedmansenior @ deviantart

Introduction

Meren watched the shaman's approach, taking a step back while wiping the blood from her bone blade with a finger. She quickly drew a glyph on the wrist holding the knife, finishing just as the thornlings leapt at her. With a quick flick of her hands, the two elementals burst aflame with green fire then disappeared into fine ash, blowing away on the wind.

The charging shaman cried out in anguish but didn't slow, drawing back her staff, fire sparking around the teeth and bone jangling wildly on the endwhen a charred hand reached up and grasped her ankle. She fell hard, staff flying out of her hands, hitting the ground with a crunch, her wrist snapping under the sudden impact.

The shaman looked back in horror at the immolated, blank eyes of the dead warrior staring lifelessly at her, glowing the same putrid green as the fires that consumed her elementals. The warrior's other arm reached out and grasped the shaman's leg, the bone of fingers poking through where flesh had melted away, digging in and piercing skin, eliciting a horrified scream.

Through all of this, Meren stepped closer, watching the panicked, struggling shaman with cold contempt. Another sickening crunch rang out as she stomped down hard on the shaman's injured hand. The shaman howled in pain, writhing to free herself, until the bone blade flicked against her jugular.

"Where are they?"

The shaman looked up into cold grey eyes, blank of emotion. "Abomination!" she hissed. "What foul magic do you"

Strategy

Meren's ability allows you to reanimate any creature back to the play if it's at least equal in cmc as the experience counter or otherwise put it into your hand. This is pure value and is what makes Meren a great value reanimator commander. The strategy of this deck is as simple as "all path leads to Rome". Every piece of the deck is working towards finishing the game with assembling any one of our combos in as efficient of a manner as possible while disrupting our opponents' game plan. With the unbanning of Protean Hulk, Meren can finally compete with the likes of Karador in terms of explosiveness. The following are lines of play with and without a sacrifice outlet:

1. With sac outlet = fetch Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista to win (this is the most common hulk line)

2. Without sac outlet = when Protean Hulk dies (via Necromancy for example), fetch Phyrexian Delver + Carrion Feeder/Viscera Seer which will reanimate Protean Hulk on ETB. Sac Protean Hulk to fetch Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista to win

This deck is also capable of a turn 2 win:

1. (T1) Play swamp and use it for for Sol Ring
2. (T2) Play another swamp and wait till before your opponent's end step and use to cast Entomb for Protean Hulk. Use the remaining for Necromancy to reanimate Protean Hulk. The hulk will die due to necromancy's instant speed clause (see above for whole hulk chain to win)

Our secondary strategy is simply to out-value our opponents as the game prolongs. Ending the game using by stripping their hands with Mindslicer and creatures with Fleshbag Marauder while locking them out using Sheoldred, Whispering One/Void Winnower isn't uncommon.

Combos

The following is the main combo I use to win most of the time:

• Carrion Feeder + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista

How the combo work is that Walking Ballista will come in at 1/1 thanks to Mikaeus, the Unhallowed's buff. Sac ballista to Carrion Feeder or any other sac outlets which will trigger undying for it to return with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter to deal 1 damage to a player. Repeat ad infinitum to kill the entire table. I've also included a Necrotic Ooze combo package for my alternatic win condition:

• Necrotic Ooze (in play) + Devoted Druid + Channeler Initiate + Walking Ballista (all three in graveyard or Walking Ballista in hand) = generate infinite mana with druid and initiate and use it to activate ballista to win. All three of the yard combo pieces could be tutored with Buried Alive to win on the spot. A full explanation of the combo is as follows:

• Necrotic Ooze in play and Devoted Druid + Channeler Initiate + Walking Ballista in yard.

• Use Necrotic Ooze to activate Devoted Druid's ability to tap for a green mana and put a -1/-1 counter on it to untap it
• Use Necrotic Ooze to activate Channeler Initiate's ability to tap to remove the -1/-1 counter on it to generate a mana of any color
• Use Necrotic Ooze to activate Devoted Druid's ability to put a -1/-1 counter on it to untap it
• Use Necrotic Ooze to activate Channeler Initiate's ability to tap to remove the -1/-1 counter on it to generate a mana of any color
• Repeat the last two steps to generate infinite mana
• Use infinite mana to dump infinite +1/+1 counters using Walking Ballista's ability on Necrotic Ooze to infinite ping everyone to death with Walking Ballista's second ability.

The last infinite combo involves having devoted druid using its -1/-1 ability to kill itself and have Mikaeus bring it back infinite times. Blood artist can be replaced with Altar of Dementia for infinite mill:

• Blood Artist + Devoted Druid + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Another combo that I love is a self-replenishing Meren protection with the following:

• Sylvan Safekeeper + Dryad Arbor

With Meren on the battle field, she can just return Dryad Arbor to play for every targeted creature removal every round. A way to lock out opponents that don't play black is the following:

• Contamination + Ophiomancer

The following are other notable combos that not included in my deck but for your reference if you are interested in including it in your build:

• Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion: You want to have Phyrexian Devourer & Triskelion in the graveyard. You want to have Necrotic Ooze on the battle field. Using Necrotic Ooze's ability you have all the activated abilites of cards in the graveyard. Using Phyrexian Devourer's effect you exile a bunch of cards to make Necrotic Ooze huge. Then using Triskelion you blow up each +1/+1 counter to do damage to every opponent. There is also Melira, Sylvok Outcast in place of Mikaeus, the Unhallowed for another potential infinite:

• Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Puppeteer Clique + Altar of Dementia

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion

Notable Exclusions

• Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos: Found them more of a distraction piece than useful. The mana spent could have been used for other more useful lines of play. Also a removal magnet before I get to take advantage of it. Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner is more than enough for population control.
• Grave Titan: Doesn't further the strategy of the deck
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel: I initially ran this but since I am running Greater Good, Kokusho, the Evening Star seemed to be more attractive as I can now draw more cards if I sac him
• Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest: Same reasons as grave titan
• Massacre Wurm: Doesn't work in my meta with fat aggro creatures
• Terastodon/Woodfall Primus: Felt that it is too clunky especially early game
• Dawntreader Elk : Using mana dorks instead
• Acidic Slime: Overcosted reclamation sage
• Avenger of Zendikar: Not going for the midrange Meren build
• Craterhoof Behemoth: Not going for the midrange Meren build
• Grisly Salvage: Entomb does the job 10x better
• Damnation: Debating if I should run this over toxic deluge/pernicious deed
• Devoted Druid: Needs further testing

Footnotes

This is by no means a competitive build and is made with a more casual to 75% meta in mind. In a more competitive meta, it is recommended to go towards a more stax direction. I do have a more competitive Karador that I can convert this Meren into if for some reason my meta turned full cutthroat competitive.

"You should have died, Meren." - Kael (Master)

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion Carrion Feeder + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista Contamination + Ophiomancer Blood Artist + Devoted Druid + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.60
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Experience Token, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 B
Folders	My EDH Brews, Cool Ideas, Primers, EDH, actually good decks, EDH, EDH, [7] Player Decks - (Not mine), Cool, Retired: Meren's merry graveyard