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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 |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Oldschool 93/94 | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Hell's Caretaker
Creature — Horror
, Sacrifice a creature: Return target creature card from your graveyard to play. Play this ability only during your upkeep.
DreadKhan on
Unlimited Fodder, Kardur the Doomscourge budget
4 weeks ago
Angel's Trumpet might do some work in here? It's a source of Vigilance that also does damage to decks that won't swing (and make them unable to block). Goblin Diplomats can also force them to swing, if you consistently have the better board this can win games easily. If you know people are going to attack and you want their board to survive (or you want yours to survive swinging) you can try War Cadence, this is a sneaky enchantment that's easy to underestimate since you can activate it during anyone's turn.
If you expect other people's stuff to die, there is Kothophed, Soul Hoarder that can draw a bunch of cards. This can be extra good if your meta is fairly spiky, as this draws off of any sacrifice effect your opponent's use... this can also kill you technically vs a treasure (or other infinite sacrifice based combo). Mask of Griselbrand is pretty good with decks that expect to lose creatures a lot while attacking, Lifelink and evasion are sweet, cards are even better I find, this card is amazing with Rite of the Raging Storm (as are Berserkers' Onslaught and Exquisite Blood actually, not sure if they're within your budget).
If people play lots of non-basic lands vs you then Dwarven Miner and Dwarven Blastminer are disturbingly strong. Volcanic Offering can also torch 2 lands and 2 creatures in many matches. If people avoid non-Basics then these are bad cards, so beware.
Really random, but if you expect your opponent's stuff to be dying, you can use Grave Betrayal to steal them, letting you swarm them the next turn.
If you tend to have tokens that aren't very impressive, Hell's Caretaker can turn one into any creature in your graveyard by tapping.
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
Misappropriation of funds
1 month ago
Not sure if Springleaf Drum would work in here? Your Commander comes out quite early and doesn't tap to use his ability, also useful if you steal a creature or make a small token.
If you end up using Tymaret's ability a fair bit, some Lifelink might be nice since it's damage, Mask of Griselbrand seems like a fit (great if your Commander dies a lot), possibly Basilisk Collar. Either of those is also quite good with Rite of the Raging Storm, and if it's not killed you can sacrifice the token with your Commander each turn (same if a 5/1 trample is useless otherwise). Another great sacrifice source could be Ophiomancer (but it's a bit pricey), or Ogre Slumlord, which can make a ton of bodies in some matches. Sifter of Skulls is a budget pawn of ulamog, not sure if you want both (but I think I would).
If you're using Crux of Fate, I feel like you should consider Sarkhan the Masterless, it's Dragon tokens will dodge the wipe, and he can make you harder to attack if you have a few Dragons out.
If you like a land that can make a creature, there are also Kher Keep and Springjack Pasture, both make 0/1s, but they are technically bodies.
It's an old/weird card, but Kyren Negotiations has some synergy with your Commander, it turns any creatures you have out into damage sources, even if they can't attack, handy to use before sacrificing something maybe?
Whenever I see Whisper, it makes me think of Hell's Caretaker, Caretaker is more awkward timing-wise, but it's also only 1 for 1. I really love Coffin Queen, especially to reanimate opponent's stuff, but she is a bit pricey.
Since your Commander is a Zombie, have you thought about using Gravecrawler? If you have enough support, you could make your Commander into an infinite combo, but I think even if you just cast Gravecrawler 2 or 3 times a turn you're probably not doing too badly? The fact that it's not a token means it'll work with Pawn or Sifter of Skulls, and Bog Initiate can turn their mana into Black, so you can recast Gravecrawler at least. Defiler of Flesh can also help recast Gravecrawler (or any other Black permanent).
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.
awesomedude20 on
The Advantage Train (Shirei)
1 month ago
Nyx_The_Necromancer Oh definitely, but I'd say permanently saccing a creature could potentially be worth the draw 2, in a pinch. Could run some recursion stuff even, like Hell's Caretaker or Apprentice Necromancer
But for the most part, keeping it around for tokens seems like an alright plan in general. But, that being said, there's no shortage of draw for the deck, so uh, choices I guess haha
DreadKhan on
EDH Merens Reanimator
2 months ago
If you're interested in playing fair, then you might like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This can take a board full of utility creatures and make them very formidable very quickly. Hell's Caretaker is a card I find useful that doesn't go infinite with anything I know of, it just lets you sneak stuff in once per turn. If you don't include anything like Pitiless Plunderer you can set up repeatable sacrifice loops to generate XP for Meren, probably to reanimate a Protean Hulk or someting else juicy. For this you might use Gravecrawler or Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and probably a 1 drop Knight to have something you can keep killing over and over. Any card that cares about creatures dying will go off, so some stuff that draws on death might be nice, Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a versatile card that fits the bill.
In my experience, the best thing you can tutor up is usually Protean Hulk, Sidisi, or Razaketh, any of these tends to spiral out of control in a deck that can reanimate them on the end step or sooner. Hulk can find various creatures to solve whatever problems you have, but you probably need a sac outlet to ensure it dies right away, the others are more generous. Razaketh notoriously likes abusing Life / Death to set up a pretty quick win when you're ready, you can find stuff like rituals to generate enough mana to go off.
If you want another reanimator that isn't picky, there is Demon of Dark Schemes that helps clear the board of weenies, and as long as you don't have cards that generate mana the Demon won't go infinite with something like Mitotic Slime or Underworld Hermit, they'll just give you lots of triggers for your extra mana. Demon also likes Merciless Executioner type creatures, they can easily generate Energy. Another reanimator I often forget reanimates stuff is Liliana, Death's Majesty, this brings back stuff as a Zombie if you don't want the ultimate, and she survives some wipes as a PW that can make 2/2s while milling you. Some people don't like PWs so ymmv.
I suspect that if you're not sure if you need more wipes, you might want to try one or two more. In Black there is Make an Example that is very brutal as you always hit your priority target for each opponent. It won't clear the board, but it can help manage it, and you can follow it up with a bunch of forced sacrifice. One card that likes seeing a wipe happen (that makes running extra feel less problematic) is Ogre Slumlord, if you run enough 'pay life'effects you might want Sangromancer, and if you think you can kill enough of your opponent's permenants then Kothophed, Soul Hoarder might work out, that can turn a Damnation into a big draw spell.
If your deck is finding it hard to stay alive, you can use Dawnstrider to save you on needing to reanimate a Spore Frog, though I use both as I find Meren can be annoying to certain players.
If you like Phyrexian Arena and aren't using 'win on the spot combos', have you considered Protection Racket? This can draw plenty of non-land cards or deal damage to your opponents, both seem good as long as you don't care if you lose some random 1-3 drops. There is also Black Market Connections, this can provide various resources without being as busted/all-or-nothing as Necropotence.
Hope some of this is helpful! Any Commander that requires a lot of tutoring is very frustrating to learn to play, Commander is incredibly hard to master, but it's easy to get better with practice!
Barbarian_Sun_Pope on
LORD OF THE PIT ! - Mid/OK Tier Mono Black Casual
3 months ago
Hmmm ... been a while a since I seen Lord of the Pit. Have you considered Hell's Caretaker or Doomed Necromancer? their sacrifice ability feels like it would fit right in here and the Necrotic Ooze could provide some redundancy. Hope this helps.
DreadKhan on
Sacrificial Deer Two the Cat
6 months ago
I feel like stuff like Make an Example or Do or Die can kill a ton of creatures (or people's very important ones), it's pricier but Phyrexian Purge can clear a bunch of stuff out, it's very good with Sangromancer fwiw. Not sure if it's too pricey, but Vona's Hunger can clear a ton of opponent's stuff out for you. I could be wrong, but I think Necromantic Selection is absolutely hilarious with your Commander, you can just choose your Commander and you get a treasure for each creature that died, including your Commander. Rise of the Dread Marn is maybe good enough.
Rite of the Raging Storm should probably be considered, it'll give you a treasure almost guaranteed each of your turns, and hits only opponents on each opponent's turn. It's also budget atm, it might go up. Rite is very good with Mask of Griselbrand, a card that is better than it looks in my experience.
Nettlecyst might be decent? It's bigger than Cranial Plating, but you can't move it at instant speed, maybe still good?
If you can get enough tokens out, Kyren Negotiations can let them ping opponents you can't swing at.
Not sure you need another, but Sifter of Skulls is another Pawn of Ulamog. Both like Bog Initiate in my experience.
If you like reanimation, there is Hell's Caretaker, which can turn a token into any creature in your graveyard. Not sure if other people in your area play graveyard decks, but Callous Bloodmage is a nice solution to such decks that also can be used to generate a card or a Pest.
It's probably as cheap as it'll get, but Grim Hireling is both great with Treasures in general, but also can generate them for you, especially if you have evasive creatures. In reference to Treasure generation, there is also Academy Manufactor, a very good card if you want potential life gain/card draw when you generate treasures.
