Overlord of the Balemurk

Legendary Enchantment Creature — Avatar Horror

Impending 5—{1}{B} (If you cast this spell for the impending cost, this enters with five time counters and isn't a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from this.)

Whenever this enters or attacks, mill four cards, then you may return a non-Avatar creature card or a planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Freeform	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
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (6)

TheVectornaut on King of the Skull Servants

1 day ago

As a fellow enjoyer of Grass Looking Greener (mostly Lightsworn but also some Zombie/Vampires, PK+Paleos, and Skull Servants), I do think the idea is interesting. You're always going to be in a bit of a battle between thematic consistency and power level. For instance, a grave-counting creature like Wight of Precinct Six or Nighthowler would fit the idea of King growing with more guys in the yard, but they would also be disappointingly weak right now since you don't have a lot of mass self-mill at the moment (Stitcher's Supplier and Overlord of the Balemurk are the first things that comes to my mind). On the subject of getting what you want in the GY, it probably is best to have a few more ways of getting specific targets buried at least. With Entomb off the table in modern, I could see Unmarked Grave being the best cheap option instead of or in addition to Buried Alive. This only negatively affects Maha who I already think is worse than reanimator staples like Archon of Cruelty or Sire Of Insanity. Fewer legendaries also makes Persist a great choice. There's also Lively Dirge if you want to stick to the low mana value plan and can afford to pay more mana. Finally, I'm partial to Burning-Rune Demon as a way to extend into more reanimations while being a reasonable threat in its own right. I think it would be cool to run more skeletons for the theme too, although most aren't that helpful. Cards like Reassembling Skeleton or Persistent Specimen could be sac fodder to a Victimize or Hell's Caretaker. Another one that I know can be good in black reanimator is Emperor of Bones, although he has some unfortunate anti-synergy with other cards in the deck like Twilight Diviner. Death Baron is always an option if you find the Corpses of the Lost backup plan doesn't have enough oomph.

Some final notes: It may be more consistent to focus on just the Xu-Ifit negated reanimations. That would involve going up to 4 Death's Shadow and adding in some similar options like Moonshadow or Yargle and Multani. The EDHRec page for Varolz, the Scar-Striped could be a place to start. That all said, having the more powerful effects of non-negated creatures may still be worth the inconsistency of the two plans not always meshing whan you need them to. You do want to have the best options available in either case though. My first cut suggestions would be Gloom Sower, Avatar of Woe, Inkwell Leviathan, and lastly Maha, Its Feathers Night. Finally, I second cutting some lands and would suggest Bitter Triumph as a replacement for Cast Down that comes with a Cabal Therapy option built-in.

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

1 month ago

I would love to slot back in Familiar Ground, Idoneity, it's just hard to find room! You're right, it has such a cool niche with Anikthea, Hand of Erebos's abilities; it's just also nowhere near as good if she's not also on the battlefield.

If I were to re-add Familiar Ground, do you have any suggestions for cuts? Overlord of the Balemurk and Ripples of Undeath had fairly easy options to swap with, but I'm less sure with Familiar Ground.

The only two that start to come to my mind are Flowering of the White Tree and Boon of the Spirit Realm. But I think I'm more partial to both of those cards, because they have a solid floor and they also have the potential to scale pretty crazily if I can make multiple token copies of them; whereas Familiar Ground does not, and doesn't synergize with as many other parts of the deck. That being said, this is just where my current build for this commander has shaken out and I think there's a lot of wiggle room to build with different cards for Anikthea; and Familiar Ground is definitely a solid include whenever she's the commander!

Idoneity on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

1 month ago

RufusTheGrufus - I always love thorough reviews. Greatly appreciated!

I'll admit for Spelunking, I'm typically more meticulous when suggesting a card. It was one of the few that doesn't appear on you're maybeboard, so I thought I'd leastwise bring it up.

As for the Overlord of the Balemurk, it's just fantastic. But you're right that whenever I cast it for its impending cost, I give up on it ever being relevant past that point. I include it because it's a self-milling cantrip that is both a creature and enchantment in other zones, giving it more value. It just happens to synergize with a lot.

One last point: Familiar Ground is a very cool consideration. Never heard of the card. I tend away from alpha strike inclusions as well, but it also just lets your commander attack with impunity. You should put it back in. It's old, niche, and sweet.

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

1 month ago

Idoneity, hi, thank you! I appreciate your suggestions and that you checked out the list!

Ripples of Undeath is great! It’s been in most of the different builds of Anikthea that I’ve tinkered with and is arguably just better Cemetery Tampering; I’ve wanted to slot it back into this list for a bit now. I think my main card advantage flex spots that I’d consider swapping would be: Palantir of Orthanc (even though I love this card), Commune with the Gods (flavor win), and Grisly Salvage (instant speed goodness). But, these cards are all in this list over Ripples of Undeath primarily because they offer card advantage immediately, rather than having to wait until the beginning of my next precombat mainphase... This deck’s gameplans are already inherently fragile and easily interacted with, so I wanted to reduce the number of plays that could end up just doing nothing; such as Ripples of Undeath getting blown up before I get any card advantage out of it (which had happened multiple times!). Interestingly enough, Cemetery Tampering has taken way less heat and oftentimes only gets removed when an enchantment-inclusive boardwipe gets used; so it ended up making the cut over Ripples of Undeath. That being said, I’m thinking it may just be time to swap out Cemetery Tampering for Ripples of Undeath because the flexibility of grabbing any non-enchantments milled is pretty invaluable for this deck.

Somehow I don’t think I’ve considered Overlord of the Balemurk for this build yet! It’s definitely an interesting option, but I do have some mixed feelings; primarily because I’m assuming that most of the time It’ll either be a reanimation target for Anikthea, or get cast for it’s Impending 5 cost which I’m not super jazzed about (because it takes forever to come online, only mills 4 once in the meantime, and recurs creatures to hand rather than the battlefield). Similar to Ripples of Undeath, my potential swap candidates would be listed above. I think I’m going to have to just rip off the bandaid and remove the flavor option in Commune with the Gods; at least for now because I think you’re on to something, and I want to playtest with Overlord of the Balemurk!

Spelunking is a fun option, I just don’t think it’s the right fit for this build of Anikthea though. Sure, it replaces itself when cast or nets a card if reanimated, but that’s kinda where it falls off for this build. I’m only running 6 lands that have to ETB tapped, so the last ability is not as helpful as it could be. To be fair, I’m able to play with whatever lands I want since my playgroup proxies, and I think Spelunking would feel much more synergistic and strong in a deck with more tapped lands (especially MDFC lands, which I’ve been lazy about finding space for). Any further synergy Spelunking has with the rest of the deck is solely based on the fact that it’s an enchantment, so I would primarily be looking critically at the main effect it provides (card advantage) relative to similar cards in my list for potential cards to swap it with; and ultimately I think I’d much rather swap in either Ripples of Undeath or Overlord of the Balemurk first!

Regardless, thank you again for your time and suggestions, I’m always happy to have new cards to mull over and consider for this deck!

Idoneity on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

1 month ago

Love the list! Excellent elaboration, dynamic gameplan, easy +1.

I would highly recommend an Overlord of the Balemurk. It has been creeping into more of my lists and always feels fantastic.

Spelunking is one that I deliberate whenever I consider its inclusion, but its simply far more explosive than its cost suggests. It at least replaces itself and at most synergizes wildly with cards you are already playing.

I see that Ripples of Undeath. You know its potential. If you're contentedly casting Cemetery Tampering, you'll like this one.

Welp, that's all from me! Happy casting!

wallisface on Conduit Shananigans

11 months ago

Inventors' Fair is very interesting, but probably only something to consider if burn becomes part of the meta in a big way.

The big change i’m looking to do at the moment here is swap Path to Exile out for Overlord of the Balemurk when I can acquire them