Archmage Ritualists of the Deep

Commander / EDH* Combo Control Creature Cheat Doomsday Pile Jank Theme/Gimmick UBR (Grixis)

GrimlockVIII

Creature (28)

• 1x Alchemist's Apprentice
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Basalt Ravager
• 1x Beguiler of Wills
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Deranged Assistant
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Eternal Skylord
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Graveshifter
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Havengul Runebinder
• 1x Karfell Harbinger
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Magmatic Channeler
• 1x Master of Death
• 1x Obsessive Stitcher
• 1x Smogsteed Rider
• 1x Thought Courier
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Vesper Ghoul
• 1x Vizier of the Scorpion
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
• 1x Ral, Storm Conduit

Land (38)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Dreadship Reef
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Island
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 11x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Unclaimed Territory

Instant (7)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Plumb the Forbidden
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Whirlwind Denial

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Graf Harvest
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Open the Graves

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x By Force
• 1x Dark Salvation
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Devil's Play
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Finale of Eternity
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Never / Return
• 1x Of One Mind
• 1x Sever the Bloodline

Artifact (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Grimoire of the Dead
• 1x Relic Amulet
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Creature (32)

• 1x Amoeboid Changeling
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Augur of Skulls
• 1x Beguiler of Wills
• 1x Bloodline Pretender
• 1x Corpse Harvester
• 1x Custodi Lich
• 1x Cyclone Summoner
• 1x Dakmor Sorceress
• 1x Deranged Assistant
• 1x Dreadmalkin
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
• 1x Filth
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Harmonic Prodigy
• 1x Kaza, Roil Chaser
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Riptide Director
• 1x Sea Gate Stormcaller
• 1x Soul Diviner
• 1x Squelching Leeches
• 1x Surtland Elementalist
• 1x Thoughtpicker Witch
• 1x Tormod's Cryptkeeper
• 1x Tormod, the Desecrator
• 1x Vizier of Many Faces

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Devil's Play
• 1x Enter the God-Eternals
• 1x Ever After
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Past in Flames
• 1x Rise from the Tides
• 1x Sever the Bloodline
• 1x Step Through

Instant (3)

• 1x Calibrated Blast
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Go for the Throat

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Bad Moon
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Liliana's Mastery

Land (2)

• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Artifact (1)

• 1x Tormod's Crypt

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Doing another Dark Souls 3 reference with the Cathedral of the Deep this time. Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's effect perfectly mimics the endlessly spawning horde of priests in the Deacons of the Deep boss fight. It helps that there are multiple people in her artwork as well, for that extra flavor.

The main strategy is to overwhelm your opponents with all the Wizards, benefitting from the hasty token copies you acquire upon using Inalla's ability. You can also sacrifice the Wizard tokens through different outlets before they exile themselves during the next end phase.

There's also a bit of a zombie sub-theme since many of MTG's wizards, especially the black and Dimir ones, sort of just work with that tribe well in different ways. It also helps that the Cathedral itself is crawling with different types of undead, ranging from the Infested Corpses in the cemetery to the Hollow Slaves surrounding the perimeter as well as the roof of the building.

Basalt Ravager can not only deal a shitload of damage depending on the number of zombies or wizards under your control, but he also represents one of the two giant minbosses you have to fight at some point in the level.

Diregraf Colossus is the other Giant Miniboss who also supports the zombie sub-theme of the deck. You can also use Grave Titan if you just don't give af about money.

Prophetic Titan and/or Aegar, the Freezing Flame are also viable giants, tho I think Aegar's legendary status might prevent him from synergizing well with Inalla.

For extra flavor and to represent the large corpse grubs found near the lower river basin of the level, you can add Squelching Leeches or any of the 7 other Grixis leech cards in existence even though they do jack shit to synergize with the deck. If anything, cards like Sapphire Leech and Andradite Leech actively hurt your deck, if you're into that.

For another bit of flavor, you can add some Enchantment Curses, as the Deacons of the Deep will eventually start to hit you with the Curse status if you take too long to kill them. A lot of the good ones actually fall underneath the Grixis color combo, too. However, space for the deck is a bit tight at this point, so be careful.

I realize that clerics might have been more appropriate for this kind of deck thematically, but there aren't that many zombie clerics out there, and zombies and wizards have waaaaay more synergy between one another than zombies and clerics.

This deck still needs a lot of work before it can actually be viable in some fashion. I realize I need to include more win cons besides just having a bunch of Wizard and Zombie tokens.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.16
Tokens	Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C, Wizard 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB