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Format | Legality |
1v1 Commander | Legal |
Archenemy | Legal |
Arena | Legal |
Block Constructed | Legal |
Canadian Highlander | Legal |
Casual | Legal |
Commander / EDH | Legal |
Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
Custom | Legal |
Duel Commander | Legal |
Gladiator | Legal |
Highlander | Legal |
Historic | Legal |
Historic Brawl | Legal |
Legacy | Legal |
Leviathan | Legal |
Limited | Legal |
Modern | Legal |
Modern Beyond Horizons | Legal |
Oathbreaker | Legal |
Pioneer | Legal |
Planar Constructed | Legal |
Planechase | Legal |
Quest Magic | Legal |
Tiny Leaders | Legal |
Vanguard | Legal |
Vintage | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Merciless Executioner
Creature — Orc Warrior
When Merciless Executioner enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a creature.






![Negan, The Cold-Blooded feature for Mentally Screw With Your Friends [Negan Primer]](http://static.tappedout.net/mtg-cards-2/secret-lair/negan-the-cold-blooded/mtg-cards/_user-added/femme_fatale-negan-the-cold-blooded-sld-16061198410.png)
Snap157 on
Budget Meren
1 month ago
Meren as a commander really pushes you to build with a high density of creatures-which are currently only a third of your deck. In this case I would cut most of your non-creature ramp for cheap mana dorks (Somberwald Sage, Arbor Elf, Fyndhorn Elves, maybe even Viridian Emissary, Solemn Simulacrum or Springbloom Druid).
I would also do the same with your other critical deck areas such as removal, draw, boardwipes, sac outlets. I would cut Alesha's Legacy, Overwhelming Remorse, and Putrefy in favor of Merciless Executioner, Insidious Fungus, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Foundation Breaker, and Acidic Slime. Also with more creatures gives us better tutor options: Fauna Shaman is worth the money here, and Jarad's Orders is super efficient. Mausoleum Secrets is kinda cool but it only grabs black creatures which I don't like- up to you if you want to keep it.
Drawing cards is overrated in this deck- your hand IS your graveyard. I would lose the Village Rites, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Bastion of Remembrance and Disciple of Bolas to bring in cards like Golgari Thug, Stitcher's Supplier, Skull Prophet, or Satyr Wayfinder. Nyx Weaver and Golgari Grave-Troll are an absolute must.
Not sure terastadon belongs here, as much as I love it. It's nice as a reanimation target but meren will have trouble bringing it back and the deck isn't ramp heavy enough to reliably have the mana to cast it. Instead, maybe a Skullwinder or Junji, the Midnight Sky to give you some added recursion.
You may want to also add in about 5 cheap nonbasics. Temple of Malady, Woodland Cemetery, Dakmor Salvage, Tainted Wood, Twilight Mire, Viridescent Bog, Necroblossom Snarl are all very solid choices. Lands entering tapped won't be a super large issue if you stick to 5 or so but you will definitely notice the mana smoothing and appreciate it.
Hope this helps!
DreadKhan on Why is WotC Reducing the …
7 months ago
While I think tutoring can be fine in Commander, but I'm pretty sure most groups would prefer limited tutoring in decks if they could vote on it (and I say this as a person who has multiple tutor based decks, including 2 'tutor in the CZ' decks). VERY few groups outside cEDH are fine with consistently ending games turn 4, most people would openly say that people who play that way (without being open about it!) are the biggest problem the format has, ymmv.
Tutors have a BIG effect on competitive play, arguably one of the biggest, tons of cEDH decks used to run one way to win the game, and they'd run tutors to find it (then we got Breach among other things). Tutors let decks be way more 'all in' on something like Ad Naus (or Flash back in the day) because they could count on finding it early consistently. For more casual games, every tutor you include is a card that 'does nothing', meaning you're only running 98 cards in the 99 if you run a Demonic Tutor, thus a higher percentage of your deck will have to be staples, because 'you always run the staples'. The less tutors you use the more likely you are to have a unique deck, in part because you are less likely to be combo dependent.
I hope this doesn't seem too disagreeable, but I don't know how you can argue Commander doesn't have some fairly strict rules about decks... I have multiple Stax decks, I understand I have to mention that before I play with those decks (outside cEDH), same with my Chaos/Wipes deck, this is why my Meren deck shaved a BUNCH of Merciless Executioner family cards (and avoided Grave Pact stuff), it was too consistently 'doing the thing', at which point nobody was having fun anymore, now I can just sit down and play with the deck.
I agree that part of improving most Commander decks is increasing their consistency (many popular decks are shockingly inconsistent, even with tutors Commander is a nuts format to play), but I think most people who give into their inner Chaos Goblin end up having a lot more fun playing Commander (but they're also more likely to be up until 3AM because their pod is terrible at winning games).
TLDR Tutoring has it's place in competitive play, but I think most people prefer to play Commander in a less competitive manner. Most pods would be happier if people only ran bad tutors, or just skipped them.
Amuneth on
The Dark Lord Rises
8 months ago
Replacements from Precon
Mountain => Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
Boon of the Wish-Giver => March from the Black Gate
Deep Analysis => Call of the Ring
Goblin Dark-Dwellers => Dimir Signet
Goblin Cratermaker => Izzet Signet
Guttersnipe => Mauhur, Uruk-hai Captain
Inferno Titan => Rakdos Signet
Monstrosity of the Lake => Spiteful Banditry
Siege-Gang Commander => The Balrog, Durin's Bane
Summons of Saruman => Chromatic Lantern
Troll of Khazad-dum => Sauron, the Dark Lord
DreadKhan on Edh options
11 months ago
He's not heavily played, but Kresh the Bloodbraided can do some absolutely nutso things when he's big enough, and the deck often has some control elements (especially vs creatures, the deck wants to kill off everything but Kresh typically). It can be built on a budget (for Casual play) or as a High Power deck. On a budget you run all of the Merciless Executioner effects you can find, and at higher power you'll still run a bunch of them, but you'll also have Dictate of Erebos effects. Rite of the Raging Storm by itself turns Kresh into a huge body, and it's easy to include lots of Flings/Chandra's Ignition/Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord to win, but you can also use stuff like Mandate of Abaddon to wipe the board and one-shot someone, there are a TON of cards that play very well with Kresh, and people probably aren't familiar with the deck at this point.
Another option might be Azorius Control, Azorius is a great pair for wipes, removal and countermagic, meaning you can deal with problems, both for yourself as well as the table. I guess you might go something like Shorikai, Genesis Engine and play any vehicles that don't suck? You can freely wipe your pilots without risking your vehicles, even without things like Teferi's Protection. The card draw Shorikai offers can really help you dig, and it synergizes with untap effects.
My final idea would be something like Sauron, the Dark Lord, Grixis gives you a lot of control options, and Sauron makes you a big honking army very readily, and fwiw you can make an evasive Changeling (like Changeling Outcast) your Army in place of a token. Grixis struggles a bit vs certain types of permanents, but you can certainly pressure people and have input as to what stays around.
Oh yeah, just thought of a bad idea I've never gotten around to testing, but you might be able to build Optimus Prime, Hero Flip with all the Jeskai wipes you can find? Optimus can 'survive' a wipe, so as long as you can give him Haste somehow you can swing each turn vs a cleared board, wiping whenever anyone gets anything relevant out. Would it be obnoxious? Incredibly so. But I think it could work, especially since you have Red for various good Haste sources. You probably need lots of things to protect Optimus from Swords effects, including a smattering of Blue counters that are either free or cost {U} so you can hold them up.
Taking a look at other people's ideas, I support Karazikar and Breena, both seem like great fits!
Azoth2099 on
100 cards for Meren
1 year ago
Fleshbags, my friend. You need Fleshbags.
Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple, Plaguecrafter, Gravelighter & Phyrexian Delver. Sac them to their own Ability to control the board and pumping Experience Counters at the same time. Lifeline & Grimoire of the Dead could also be great, if you decide to go that route.
Crow_Umbra on
Smeagol will guide you | **Primer v2.0**
1 year ago
Hi there, thank you for reaching out. I hope my suggestions will be helpful, but here are some things I noticed when I took a look at your deck:
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I know that your commander can steal opponents' lands, but I think you are kind of low on your own land count. Personally, I would suggest bumping up to 35-36, especially since your average cmc is closer to 3.
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I think you can cut Voracious Fell Beast all together, or replace it with something like Fleshbag Marauder, Plaguecrafter, or Merciless Executioner for a cheaper version of a similar effect.
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Gnawing Vermin can likely be replaced by a ramp spell like Three Visits, Nature's Lore, Farseek, or Rampant Growth. Its effect isn't super impactful, even as a sacrifice target.
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You can probably swap out Fall of Gil-galad and Oath of the Grey Host for a couple more effects that let you sacrifice your own creatures like Ashnod's Altar, Plumb the Forbidden, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, or Phyrexian Altar, depending on your budget.
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I would recommend swapping out Rampaging Brontodon with Tireless Provisioner, Scute Swarm, or Tireless Tracker. All are lower on the mana curve, and still work with the landfall stuff you want to do.
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Depending on your budget, you can likely swap Butcher of Malakir out for Bastion of Remembrance, Poison-Tip Archer, Grave Pact, or Dictate of Erebos. The enchantments are a bit more resistant to removal and board wipes than creatures, and all options are lower on your mana curve to come down sooner.
If you haven't already, I would recommend checking out EDHREC's page on Smeagol, Helpful Guide, here are the pages for a Sacrifice themed deck and a more Landfall focused deck. These pages can give you an idea of which effects overlap between the two strats, and what might be within your budget.
I hope these suggestions were helpful.
DreadKhan on
F*** Kevin
1 year ago
Any reason you don't run Meren of Clan Nel Toth in here? You don't lose XP counters when she dies, so you can just recur her with your Commander. You could also try out Coffin Queen and Hell's Caretaker to get more recursion in. Repeatable recursion makes things like Merciless Executioner pop in my experience. Not sure how much you get targeted, but Dawnstrider is a nice second Spore Frog, Dawnstrider is also a discard outlet.
I playtested this vs one of my more salty decks, it doesn't feel too oppressive to play against. I actually think your friend should build a deck designed to tweak your nose back if he feels triggered by your deck! The best way to learn to appreciate a deck or play style is to try it out yourself, obvious exceptions abound but I think there's a kernel of truth. I thought Chaos decks were always a bad thing, but when I decided to throw some Chaotic cards into a deck it worked out very well, and now I enjoy a boarder spectrum of Magic games.
RockIV on
Kresh of the savage horde
1 year ago
Been reading all the comments , so many cards. Thnks everyone, but decided to take Azoth2099 advice and added Fleshbag Marauder , Plaguecrafter , Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple and also Decimate and Rhythm of the Wild