Benefactor's Draught

Instant

Untap all creatures. Until end of turn, whenever a creature an opponent controls blocks, draw a card.

Draw a card

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

SaberTech on Naya tricks

2 months ago

Naya Charm, Boros Charm, Valorous Stance, and Collective Resistance have been common inclusions for me.

Trash the Town has been pretty useful in my Gargos, Vicious Watcher deck.

Green has all sorts of instants that grant indestructible like Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Gaea's Gift, and Strength of Will. There are a variety of others as well with specific additional effects that may be better for your specific deck so it is worth taking a look.

Benefactor's Draught is a surprisingly versatile tool that you can use to politic with, catch an opponent off guard with blockers they weren't expecting, or draw a bunch of cards if an opponent blocks a bunch of your creatures.

If you are running cards like Zada, Hedron Grinder and Feather, the Redeemed then Fists of Flame, Ancestor's Aid, Sudden Breakthrough, Crimson Wisps, Might of the Weak, Guided Strike, Shelter, Otherworldly Outburst, and Felonious Rage are cards worth considering.

Heroic Intervention, Dawn's Truce, Akroma's Will, and Lorehold Command are strong general options too.

DreadKhan on Meren Sacrifice Shenanigans

3 months ago

I see that you are taking a pretty different angle than I did here, but there might be a few cards that I can suggest from my own Meren and the Golgari Queens. Would Savra, Queen of the Golgari make sense in your list? It's a slightly different Grave Pact, but at 4 mana and easy to cast she can come out earlier, the life gain is a lot less important other than offsetting the payment for the effect.

I think they're about as fun as an untreatable toothache, but Grave Pact effects in my experience like you to run several of the Merciless Executioner type creatures that exist, Accursed Marauder is a great start, but I think Plaguecrafter and Demon's Disciple might fit. I don't know exactly how many you'd 'want', but I'd run 3-5 creatures that exist almost purely to make everyone sacrifice a creature. IMHO if you only run one or the other the Executioners are probably the better include since you can get them out sooner, they stand alone (Grave Pact does nothing if you don't have a creature), and you can recur them with your Commander, but both are INCREDIBLY nasty when combined. In the decks I have that use edicts you really want to reach 'critical mass', so that you both have access to an Edict when it's necessary, but also have enough to continuously pare back the opponent's board.

This is a personal preference more than anything, but when I play Meren my fondest hope is usually to have a creature that ramps me that also kills itself; Sakura Tribe Elder is the 'gold standard' of the effect, but I think you could benefit from Diligent Farmhand and Dawntreader Elk, and maybe Yavimaya Granger. I even run Fertilid and Burnished Hart, but I don't think I'd recommend them to anyone else at this point! Anyways, the idea is you juggle one of these to both gain XP for Meren while ramping yourself, and when you draw something better to reanimate just reanimate that. The ramp is usually very useful to cast either Protean Hulk or Razaketh.

Speaking of Razaketh, I found it VERY useful to have mass untap effect to go with Life/Death, once Life/Death makes all your lands into weenies you can untap them with something like Vitalize or Benefactor's Draught. I also threw in a Songs of the Damned and Dark Ritual to help generate mana when I'm short. Lotus Petal is also a very good Razaketh card if you don't want to spring for Lion's Eye DiamondGC.

Just a little tip I stumbled upon, most Meren decks have very high Black devotion, but they rely heavily on early Green ramp; I really wanted to shave lands for creatures in my list, but since I can find Swamps with Forests via ramp, I ended up running WAY less Black sources than Green. I used 7 Basic Swamps and 2 Swamp/Forest duals, and I find I have very few fixing issues, even with a very low land count, since I almost never need more than 2 lands early on, and I found the deck absolutely hated drawing into them (Meren is a deck where I feel like you're supposed to run all the creature ramp you can, because Meren cares so much about Creatures and so little about non-creature spells, lands are dead draws).

I guess that brings me to the last point, I feel like you should really try to get more creatures into this list; your Commander does absolutely nothing if you don't have creatures in the graveyard. I have 57 in the 99 atm, I feel like having less than 40 in a Meren deck is too few. The nice thing about creatures is that Golgari has a LOT of creature synergies, I love using Lurking Predators or Heartwood Storyteller.

If you want more specific help feel free to ask!

DreadKhan on The Mimeospasm [Reanimator Terminator] - primer

1 year ago

Yeah, Dreadnought is one of those cards I was sure you'd already know about, but it seems really convenient with your Commander.

I think Triskelion is a better card with your Commander than Walking Ballista, but both can go infinite with Mikaeus iirc, but you'll need an extra piece with Walking Ballista because Mikaeus makes it a 1/1 base creature, so it won't die because it has no counters, Triskelion can ping itself and still have a ping for something else, meaning you can combo off easier with it, so I'd go with that.

I'm a bit surprised that Necrogoyf would be smaller than Tarmogoyf, especially if you've got Mill in your deck, it looks in every bin for creatures, surely there are 2 or 3 in each opponents' bin? If you've got 3 opponents with 2 creatures a piece (which doesn't seem like a big ask by mid game, but I don't know your playgroup the way you do!), that's 6 creatures before counting your own, and you've probably been filling it as well. I think I misread the Urborg one, it only looks at your graveyard, so you're definitely correct about that one!

It's not EXACTLY 'Fast Mana', but Songs of the Damned can generate a bunch of mana if you have a full graveyard, it's the kind of card you use with Razaketh, the Foulblooded I figure.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between playing a land with Explore or using Burgeoning, Burgeoning won't let you use Crucible unfortunately, but has a very high ceiling potentially. I use Burgeoning in my Sisay, Weatherlight Captain deck because that deck would love to have a hand with 6 lands and Burgeoning, but it's less keen on Explore and similar effects. You could try a Sakura-Tribe Scout, it's potentially better ramp than Birds of Paradise, you just have to run enough lands to justify it (I think 37 is fine), it's also a cheaper card to test out I suspect. Oh, with a card like Razaketh you can easily chain together a win if you've got lands, I do that in Meren with Life / Death which turns all my lands into creatures so I have plenty of fodder for Razaketh, I usually chain a few untap effects (I just recycle Benefactor's Draught a couple times to generate enough mana to win), Razaketh is a great card if you've got access to LED (even Lotus Petal can do work, and if you can tutor up Lotus Petal with Razaketh you can always dig out Mox Amber fwiw). I think if you wanted you could switch out Runescarred Demon for Razaketh (or just pretend Runescarred is Razaketh to test haha), both are tutors that cost a lot of mana, Razaketh is a much better body and a much better tutor IMHO.

If you want Haste on your Commander I think I'd use Hall of the Bandit Lord, it's not a spectacular card but it will give you access to Haste, I've been fairly happy with it in a competitive list that cared about Haste on the Commander, it's a terrible land but Haste is REALLY good sometimes.

DrNarwhal on Mer-man!

1 year ago

Hey there Fish Plissken! Just wanted to say that I like how creative and fun this deck is. You have some cool, unusual picks in here like Benefactor's Draught, The Millennium Calendar, and just your enchantments/utility in general.

I also love card draw a lot in general, so just a couple ideas since this has some similarities with a Damia deck of mine..

I definitely recommend considering maybe some creatures like Horizon Chimera, Overbeing of Myth and Tishana, Voice of Thunder if you haven't considered them already.

And then Siege Behemoth and Psychosis Crawler have always been fun ways for me to get a lot of damage in.

And then I feel like Progenitor Mimic goes in any G/U deck really well and cool stuff always seems to happen with him. It's always fun to copy someone's Rune-Scarred Demon or something xD

But yeah! Just wanted to say that I love how you made this deck fun and creative but also made it pretty competitive as well.

Carry on :)

nuperokaso on Better Not to Block

1 year ago

Cool deck idea, but needs slight adjustments! - Deathcap Cultivator isn't really working - your deck can get into the graveyard an Instant, a Sorcery and a Creature, but you don't have any way how to get other type into your graveyard, so you'll never have Delirium. Considering that you are lacking any one mana drop, play Ignoble Hierarch instead. - Tear Asunder is great, but it's obvious that your 2 and 4 mana slots are quite full, and 1 mana is rather empty. I suggest looking up ways how to lower it a little. Maybe play only 2, and some mix of Fatal Push, Tragic Slip and Cut Down. - Worldly Tutor is a card disadvantage. I understand that this is a "combo deck", but it's simply easier to play additional combo cards instead. Blood Artist and Slaughter Specialist have great interaction with tokens and cost only 2 mana. - Engulfing Slagwurm is way outside of your mana curve, and has summoning sickness. I would cut it. Your mana curve effectively ends on 4. If you really insist on playing one expensive finisher just as a Worldly Tutor target, play Massacre Wurm instead. - Benefactor's Draught is questionable. Without Vicious Battlerager, it's bad. Maybe just play 1 as a random surprise. - A second Amulet of Safekeeping is a blank draw. I suggest you go down to 2 copies, and instead play a few Trespasser's Curse. - Restless Cottage is pretty much useless as your opponents will likely have tokens for blocking. - It's always best to play a robust mana base. Why play just 10 non-basic lands? Check some modern mana bases for better fixing.

jarncards on Sleeping Elves Kill

2 years ago

Collected Company is one of the better cards in a deck like this.

If you run Green Sun's Zenith, I think you should run Dryad Arbor 100% of the time. Having the option to 1 mana ramp tutor as needed is the best in the game, even if it's fragile.

If you want to do the whole tap ten elves thing Benefactor's Draught, Vitalize, and Mobilize are useful. And as long as you're using mana dorks, they are good throughout the game. Birchlore Rangers is also a good mana dork for getting either color as needed if it matters. Like some of the others you have it can use creatures with summoning sickness.

Add Regal Force, you'll have the mana, and it draws infinity. Toski, Bearer of Secrets is also amazing at this.

Consider Patriarch's Bidding for when your ridiculous board state earns the response it will deserve. Also Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant

I cant build a green/black deck without Gaze of Granite and Pernicious Deed. They are great

Timberwatch Elf for the commander, or maybe Gempalm Strider might be better than Overrun. Trample isnt so important with so many creatures that will likely outnumber blockers, and the extra card from cycling and utility of another creature is worth considering. Ezuri, Renegade Leader is already in your deck and he's definitely the best option though. Beastmaster Ascension also works like a really inexpensive overun and turns on really easily.

Some of the green and black backgrounds area awesome Criminal Past, Cultist of the Absolute, Haunted One and Raised by Giants will stick around for the next cast even after your commander gets removed.

Consider Constant Mists or even instead of Fog, however I really don't think you need any of the fog effects. Honestly, you might actually need to worry about other people's fogs instead. Questing Beast is the only card that is capable of piercing though a Teferi's Protection or The One Ring in these colors. THrow in a Natural Order and you can get that, or a Craterhoof Behemoth when it matters most

Viridian Zealot, Reclamation Sage, Nullmage Shepherd, and Elvish Lyrist are useful for removal. You already have Glissa, but I dont think she's enough.

Elvish Champion might be your best lord. Pair it with Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth. Also definitely want to add Shizo, Death's Storehouse. Having lathril connect is important.

If you keep the tyvar planeswalkers, Harald Unites the Elves does a lot.

Kithkin Mourncaller might draw cards to use with your excessive mana. Leaf-Crowned Visionary, Skemfar Avenger, Miara, Thorn of the Glade do too, at a cost.

consider Crop Rotation. It can get nythkos, yavimaya.

Looking at your list you have almost nothing that turns on lathril in combat. look at Alpha Authority, Familiar Ground, Alpha Status, Gift of Doom, Rancor, Spider Umbra, Alpha Authority, Canopy Cover, Vorrac Battlehorns. Fallen Ideal is possibly my favorite with the die/sacrifce synergies you already have. Im not a fan of token doublers. I think youd be better off powering up lathril to make more tokens in the first place.

I would dump any ramp card that costs more than 3

redeyeswizard on Lucea Kane's Hydra Farm

2 years ago

I've made maybe 10-15 changes from the original build to include more mana from artifacts and a couple lands like :Gruul Signet; Mana Crypt; Simic Signet; Taiga; Tropical Island; Volcanic Island. Came to include Benefactor's Draught. For 2 mana I can UN-tap my commander and any other creatures that may have abilities that can also UN-tap her for when you really want to get nasty numbers in copies off one specific spell while also drawing at least one card. The small downfall is the creature UN-tap for everyone, but this deck benefits so much more as long as a counter spell doesn't catch your target X spell in the end. Can't remember everything ive swapped out and in as a lot of it happened while i was tired but i tried to remove anything that would slow down the deck while trying to get faster access to Magus Lucea Kane and more pop off directed towards her spell/ability copy.

king-saproling on Mana Burn

2 years ago

You might like these: Umbral Mantle, Sword of the Paruns, Aggravated Assault, Benefactor's Draught, Seeker of Skybreak, Patron of the Orochi, Seedborn Muse, Keeper of Progenitus, Zhur-Taa Ancient, Archfiend of Despair, Awakening, Quest for Renewal