Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

Legendary Creature — Insect Shaman

Flying

Whenever a player sacrifices another permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

Combos

• Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest + Winding Constrictor

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
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

TheVectornaut on Dead of Night

2 months ago

I think the biggest weakness of this deck is that it's hard to curve out early with so many of the slots occupied by cards at 3 CMC or higher. The ideal play pattern is probably to slam down Champion of the Perished on turn 1 and then follow up with a zombie or 2 every following turn until finishing with a bomb. This is difficult to do with Relentless Dead as your only 2 drop, and if you don't draw Champion, the lack of 1 drops makes things even worse. I'd recommend adding something like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Cryptbreaker, or Dread Wanderer to provide early pressure in the absence of a champion. Then, on 2, I personally like Undead Augur for the draw, especially paired with a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder. Other 2s could be Waste Not with a discard package, Graveyard Marshal as a lordless Cemetery Reaper, or you could dedicate the slots to cheaper removal. Invoke Despair is very flashy but seldom as efficient as a Thoughtseize or Fatal Push. On 3, you have enough cards, although I would still offer Geralf's Messenger, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed as other options to consider. To make room, the most obvious place to start is the bloated 6-slot, and as much as I love using him in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest EDH deck, Champion of Stray Souls is very slow in 60-card formats. Helm of the Host, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Killing Wave (without a drain package with Gray Merchant of Asphodel) also seem underwhelming to me. It should be noted that I'm using modern as the basis for my evaluation. If your local casual meta is slow enough, running more big guys isn't as big of a problem, although I'd still try for more 1s and 2s just to avoid games where you're bricked until turn 3.

Last_Laugh on The Big Eleventy-One

3 months ago

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest would be a REALLY good go-wide +1+1 counter engine here.

DreadKhan on Meren's Menagerie

3 months ago

One with the Kami can generate a fair bit of value if you expect to have +1 counters on lots of creatures. I wish Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest was an ooze for you, I suspect he'd do good work.

I'm not sure how big your creatures get, but if they end up really big pretty often you might like Altar of Dementia, this is a good alternate win con if you either have a huge number of tokens or huge creatures. In a pinch you can also Mill yourself if that will help.

KongMing on Pattern Recognition #285 - Aristocrats

3 months ago

My friend Questioned@3E made a great Aristocrats Commander deck that used {G} when Meren of Clan Nel Toth was released. He used cards like Satyr Wayfinder, Viscera Seer, and Sakura-Tribe Elder for consistency. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Dictate of Erebos effects would oppress the field and keep it clear. And Meren lets you recur all your good stuff, over and over again.

Lanzo493 on Cards Like Grand Cenobite?

4 months ago

Some other cards would be Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Defiler of Vigor, Adriana, Captain of the Guard, and Cultivator of Blades.

UltimateRoxas40 on Carrion, My Wayward Swarm (Grist Insects + Song)

6 months ago

Love the deck and love the song! Have you thought about Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest? A pretty nasty bug that can take advantage of fetchlands or other sac effects. Zask, Skittering Swarmlord seems like another good inclusion, especially with self mill sub-theme you've got going.

KongMing on Fungi Garden

6 months ago

I recommend Krav, the Unredeemed as a way to draw cards without dumping a bunch of mana into it. Also gains you life. Only downside is it's not a Fungus.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is great in this deck for many obvious reasons.

And hey, since there's so much sacrifice going on, why not Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest?

Now, your graveyard. Seems to me you need more steady ways to toss Fungus in there. How about Cemetery Tampering, Crawling Infestation, Crawling Sensation, Crop Sigil, Uurg, Spawn of Turg, Deathbonnet Sprout  ^Flip, Nyx Weaver, Old Rutstein, Out of the Tombs, Splinterfright, and Throne of Death  ^Flip.

Deadbridge Chant isn't steady, but it's great explosive mill.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

6 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!