Diligent Farmhand
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Legality

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

Diligent Farmhand

Creature — Human Druid

(1)(Green), Sacrifice Diligent Farmhand: Search your library for a basic land card and put that card into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.

If Diligent Farmhand is in a graveyard, Muscle Burst's effect counts it as a card named Muscle Burst.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 month ago

In my Meren deck, I don't run a lot of bigger creatures, even though the deck has decent odds of ending up with huge amounts of mana, stuff like Beast Whisperer/Grim Haruspex draw cards off of creatures either entering or leaving the battlefield, there are lots of variants of both of those effects, and these will let you play many spells in a turn, rather than play one huge thing. I don't think your MVs are a huge problem, but the 'top of my curve' creatures are Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Protean Hulk, and Sheoldred, Whispering One, the first two can win on the spot or very quickly, while Sheoldred is a bit more questionable, a lot of people find stuff like Sheoldred tends to be too slow in todays game, so even that is a card I'm considering switching out for lower to the ground stuff. I checked and atm I have 14 1 drops, which is a few more, there are plenty of decent 1 drop mana dorks you could throw in to both lower your curve and possibly raise your consistency, though the best is Elves of Deep Shadow, since your deck cares more about Black mana.

As a general rule of thumb for Meren, if you can do a thing with a creature instead, you probably should unless the creature option is truly awful, I run 55 creatures in the 99, and I'm still thinking about sneaking more in by taking out things like Artifacts. Creature payoffs are better than artifact payoffs in Golgari, and Meren can't recur non-creatures.

For sac outlets, you ideally want a selection of 'free' sac outlets, ones that only use a creature and no other input, so stuff like Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, any of the good altars (Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, and Altar of Dementia are my all very good), Sadistic Hypnotist is insanely useful (it is a 5 drop though), if you have 4 drops that matter you can use Dimir House Guard because Transmute is a good mechanic if you care about the MV and it's also a free sac outlet. I think you can throw in a few sac outlets that are more limited, stuff like Helm of Possession, Phyrexian Tower, Hell's Caretaker, Altar of Bhaal, and Ritual of the Machine are all beefy effects, even if you can only use them once per turn. I really like stuff like Sakura Tribe Elder because the card provides it's own sac outlet (but only for itself), ymmv but I think you're taking a risk by running something like Solemn Simulacrum over Dawntreader Elk or Diligent Farmhand, 4 mana is a ton and it lacks a self destruct feature.

One option some people end up taking is replacing Meren as the Commander, not because she isn't strong enough but because the play patterns are pretty consistent, once you've figured out what your deck is trying to do, Meren is usually very predictable, so some people prefer something like Baba Lysaga, Night Witch. She offers card draw and a sac outlet in the Command zone while caring a lot less about creatures in particular, so you'd have more freedom in terms of card types.

Hope some of this is helpful!

DreadKhan on Meren Reanimation

1 month ago

I have a lot of fun using Meren in an EDH deck, maybe some of my EHD concepts translate?

I really liked stuff like Diligent Farmhand, Dawntreader Elk, and of course Sakura-Tribe Elder are very useful. There is also Elves of Deep Shadow, which is useful if you use the 'trick' of running lots of green ramp that finds Swamps/makes black mana and run less black sources because you only need a few. A few black ramp creatures are Blood Pet and Blood Vassal, Vassal is probably worse. A card I used to use in Meren that might work here is Street Wraith, it'll eat up a bit of life, but it gives Meren something worth getting back if she has low/no XP, I settled on running enough ramp-that-dies to not worry about Meren having nothing to do. Death payoffs like Grim Haruspex to draw some cards when things die might help too.

One really funny trick that's very easy for Meren to pull off (and that's way better in 1v1) is abusing Spore Frog, this also builds up XP fwiw. I think Dawnstrider is a lot worse in 1v1 than Spore Frog, but it is also a discard outlet so I run both in EDH.

If you want another 'backup Meren', there is also Hell's Caretaker, this is a bit cheaper than Meren and can actually reanimate big stuff on it's 2nd turn (usually much sooner than Meren), but it does eat a body each time.

Another trick I liked using was Gravecrawler + any sac outlet, as long as you've got another Zombie you can just reuse your Gravecrawler, even if you don't want to splurge on something like Phyrexian Altar or Pitiless Plunderer to make it infinite, it can still be pretty good to have a recursive (and cheap) creature.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 months ago

When I built my Meren deck, I found that even with a pretty Black heavy deck, it was nice to run more Green than Black mana sources, since my Green ramp fixed my Black mana. I also cut lands for repeatable (and potentially repeatable) ramp like Diligent Farmhand or the Dawntreader you're considering, these can not only help get Meren out early, they give her something very useful to do with her ability as soon as she's out. There are quite a few now, but I only run ones that can find swamps. I also run a couple cards like Wood Elves, which don't sac themselves but can be sacrificed for value as soon as Meren is out. Using these types of cards allows my fairly low land Meren deck to be extremely rampy if Meren stays out. You can also run lots of 1 mana dorks in Meren, including Elves of Deep Shadow and knock-off Llanowar Elves.

I also find it's hard to run enough card draw, stuff like Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper or Beast Whisperer can draw a bunch of cards, and all of them are creatures. This brings me to another point, I found that in Meren that it's hard to run too many utility creatures of various sorts, you can do an astonishing amount of stuff with creatures in Golgari, I presently have 55 creatures in the 99, which makes cards like Lurking Predators insane and Heartwood Storyteller lots of fun, because Meren decks are also pretty good at pressuring the board, it's hard to know how many of the various Demon's Disciple family of cards you should run, but they feel pretty decent in Meren in my experience, if a bit obnoxious. There are also more cards like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, as well as Savra, Queen of the Golgari, these are all super-obnoxious in a deck that likes to sacrifice stuff. One really weird 'one creature toolbox' is Callous Bloodmage, this can do a bunch of stuff and can be worth recurring if you can get it killed.

Not sure if you've ever come across these, they are old and rare even in Commander, but I find Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can do work in Meren, the Helm is a sac outlet that grabs the best creature on the board. It rarely lasts too long, but it's a very strong effect if you're not worried about running artifacts. Ritual is nice and compact, you sac something you want dead to steal the best thing in a way that's hard to interact with for many decks. Final Parting is an interesting card in Meren, you can put a Protean Hulk or Razaketh, the Foulblooded, maybe Sheoldred into the graveyard and a Reanimate into hand, so it's 6 or 7 mana to put your best creature into play from the library.

If you want any ideas about infinite (or non-infinite) combos that can win games, I read a lot of Meren deck Primers, so I might have some ideas if you want to have that option.

Very good deck so far, hope you enjoy testing it!

DreadKhan on Meren of Clan Nel Toth

7 months ago

I usually recommend people try out Diligent Farmhand and Dawntreader Elk as creatures for Meren to reanimate and ramp you because they are sacrificed. This makes these play better than Wood Elves in a lot of situations, but you can certainly run both (I only run 30 lands in my Meren deck, and no mana rocks, I usually end up with a ton of lands by the time the game is done).

If you use creatures that make a bunch of tokens upon entering the battlefield, you might like Demon of Dark Schemes, which can be used as a tiny wipe and as a repeatable source of reanimation? It combos fairly well, using Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar or Pitiless Plunderer, another card very good with the Demon or in Meren in general is Mitotic Slime, which is a ton of bodies for 5 mana. Another solid card in Meren is Callous Bloodmage, a very versatile creature to reanimate for sure, it also doesn't exile your graveyard when it exiles an opponent's. Dauthi Voidwalker is a really good card if you play against people who use a lot of spells, especially powerful ones, the ability is amazing in Meren because the cards that are exiled stay that way even if you recur Voidwalker it can still see all of those exiled cards, including any an opponent's Voidwalker exiled from your opponents. Helm of Possession is a really off-colour ability for Golgari, and you probably can pay the creature. When you want a new creature you can just sac the old one and steal a new one. Midnight Reaper is another Grim Haruspex, not sure how many you necessarily want, but I rarely mind having two out.

I don't love spells in Meren, but I make an exception for Jarad's Orders, Final Parting and Ritual of the Machine. Graveyard tutors are good in Meren, and tutoring cards into hand is also good. Ritual's ability to steal most creatures can really save you if people run certain kinds of decks. Another good tutor to consider is Fiend Artisan, digging out a Sidisi feels pretty good if Meren is out, I can usually recur her right away for a second tutor.

I'm not really sure if your creature count is high enough at 38, but I absolutely adore Lurking Predators, it can put out multiple creatures per cycle for me, which will usually put me ahead quickly. I run 55 creatures IIRC, so technically I should get a creature a little more often than every other spell, which is obviously absurd if someone else can't combo off. It's just hilarious when you pull something like Plaguecrafter or Ravenous Chupacabra.

It's pretty pushed so you might not want to run it, but Protean Hulk can find 6 MV worth of bodies, so it can find Walking Ballista and Mikaeus in one go, which is pretty solid. If you use something like Activated Sleeper you can get an extra 3 MV worth of creature, which can mean a Blood Artist and Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer to just win on the spot.

If you are using Mazirek, I feel like I have to mention One with the Kami, this very easily goes infinite with Mazirek, giving you infinite deaths and enters as well as infinitely large tokens for something like Altar of Dementia, or even swinging.

Your deck looks great as is, just throwing a few ideas out there for you, hope some are helpful!

IHATENAMES on Meren, currently

8 months ago

Ideas:

Demon of Dark Schemes reanimation and a boardwipe

Any number of sac ramp creatures. A few examples Neverwinter Dryad Diligent Farmhand

Fog on a creature Spore Frog

Dread Return reanimation

Free sac outlet on cheap creatures Viscera Seer Carrion Feeder

Puppeteer Clique reanimation of an opponents threat (also works with persist combos if you choose to do that)

Midnight Reaper Grim Haruspex card draw upon death of a creature Liliana's Standard Bearer situational card draw

Mindslicer hate on blue players. Everyone discard their hand.

Mausoleum Secrets instant speed tutor

Victimize sac a creature return 2. Very good reanimation

For a few additional ideas take a look at My golgari deck it has a lifegain theme that won't translate but many off the cards beyond that might be good includes.

multimedia on Meren Current

8 months ago

Hey, good start on a low budget. I think you can optimize what you currently have even more since there's 16 high mana cost cards here.

Some advice to consider, fill the rest of the deck spots with one, two or three CMC cards since the high end part of your deck is done? One drop budget creatures who can sac themselves are excellent support with Meren.

Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder are sac outlets which could use more of those to get experience counters. There's not much draw here that Meren can take advantage of. Consider more repeatable draw when you sac creature/creature dies?

Morbid Opportunist can trigger on an opponents turn if any creature dies not just your own creature. Body Launderer loots each time a creature you control dies, helps to setup Meren reanimation. Can also get more draw from single effects.

Budget one drop mana dorks can be ramp who can be saced/die later on for experience counters.

Arcane Signet is an upgrade for Golgari Signet and Talisman of Resilience is another Golgari mana rock. Some budget lands to consider adding/upgrades:

Woodland Chasm gives Wood Elves a Golgari Forest land to search for.

Good luck with your deck.

legendofa on What even is this card?

9 months ago

Less related to art and flavor, but the cards that took me too long to figure out were Pardic Firecat and Diligent Farmhand. I didn't know what a burst was. Nobody I talked to knew what a burst was. For a while, we decided it was something like an advanced part of the combat step that didn't get covered in the basic rules. Somehow, it took several years for us to find a Flame Burst, and then it all made sense.

Ah, the joys of being young and kinda dumb...

multimedia on Muldrotha Snow: The Frozen Forest

9 months ago

Hey, well done with such a low budget, The Undead Forest is a cool deck name. Interesting deck idea for your first Commander deck with Muldrotha, but why snow? Weathered Runestone completely shuts down Muldrotha.

Marit Lage's Slumber, Jorn, God of Winter  Flip, Priest of the Haunted Edge, Blood on the Snow, Ice-Fang Coatl these are some reasons to play snow with Muldrotha. Iceberg Cancrix can repeatable self-mill and that's a good effect with Muldrotha. Pilfering Hawk can be repeatable loot which gets cards into your graveyard. Unfortunately, this isn't many cards.

Draugr Necromancer is a good card with snow, but it doesn't have much interaction with Muldrotha. Dead of Winter is another good card with snow, but Muldrotha is not a snow creature. Narfi, Betrayer King is fine, able to reanimate itself with snow, but he's support for snow not really a reason to play snow.

Some advice to consider is to play nonsnow cards that can put snow-covered permanents (lands) onto the battlefield to meet the snow requirement for snow cards without playing lots of unnecessary snow creatures. The best way to get snow permanents is with snow-covered lands. You really don't need lots of other subpar snow creatures here.

All these creatures could be cut to improve your deck.

Instead of playing lots of lesser snow creatures, play just the better snow creatures here?

Use other deck slots for cards that can search for and get snow-covered lands onto the battlefield?

Consider adding some spells that are not permanents that can search for and put snow-covered lands onto the battlefield?

Cards that can get snow-covered lands into your hand as well as get cards into your graveyard can be helpful with Muldrotha.

Could also add some snow mana rocks and mana dorks?

Land ramp for snow-covered lands and mana from mana rocks is more ramp which also helps to cast 6 mana Muldrotha as well as having more mana to cast permanents from your graveyard when you control Muldrotha.

Example of a budget more refined creature base with snow.

Good luck with your deck.

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