Commander Collection: Hair Raiser

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Bracket 4 Combo Reanimator

Jurrane

Creature (38)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Aftermath Analyst
• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Boggart Trawler  ^Flip
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Colossal Grave-Reaver
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Haywire Mite
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Icetill Explorer
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Satyr Wayfinder
• 1x Serra's Emissary
• 1x Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Skull Prophet
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Timeless Witness
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Witherbloom Apprentice
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa P
• 1x Bloodstained Mire P
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures P
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flooded Strand P
• 2x Forest
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hushwood Verge
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Kishla Village
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Lush Portico
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest P
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta P
• 1x Shadowy Backstreet
• 1x Shifting Woodland
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Underground Mortuary
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills P
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Breach the Multiverse
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Chain of Smog
• 1x Demonic Tutor PGC
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Vindicate

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Ripples of Undeath
• 1x Survival of the FittestGC

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sol Ring

Instant (4)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Goryo's Vengeance
• 1x Vampiric Tutor PGC

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{W}{B}{G} Introduction: Raising Hell {W}{B}{G}

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Welcome to my primer for "Hair Raiser", an Abzan reanimator deck for EDG, built around Karador, Ghost Chieftain and other graveyard recursion abilities. It's not the fastest - or sometimes the easiest deck to pilot, but it becomes stronger as the game goes on, with plenty of late-game options and lots of virtual card advantage by recycling creatures with ETB effects.

In my experience, a lot of graveyard decks tend to be a bit slow and grindy, which was definitely the case with this build in the first few years of its development. More recently, I've tried to solve the problem by lowering the mana curve as much as possible, while still retaining its key strength of being able to bring back powerful, high mana value creatures from the graveyard. I've also added two infinite combos (Witherbloom Apprentice // Chain of Smog; and Reveillark // Karmic Guide + a sacrifice outlet, as outlined in the Combos section below). These changes have made the deck much more effective and have resulted in at least one win in the early turns (T5 if I remember correctly).

Karador, Master of Value

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Although he's fallen out of favour slightly, Karador, Ghost Chieftain is one of the grindiest value engines there is. A perfect Commander for a reanimator-based strategy, Karador excels in games of sheer attrition, turning the graveyard into a toolbox to cast (and re-cast) the right creatures for the right situation. Unless the graveyard is removed (this deck's Kryptonite), we have the option of using dead creatures as removal, ramp or combar for as long as we want, or just stalling the game long enough to win with one of our combos.

The nice thing about Karador, Ghost Chieftain is that, built correctly, he usually allows us to dodge commander tax. Get enough creatures in the yard and it doesn't matter how many times we cast him, he'll only ever cost three mana. He's great at rebuilding after board wipes as we can start ramping again with Sakura-Tribe Elder and co, or going full scorched earth by playing Cataclysmic Gearhulk or Gray Merchant of Asphodel over and over again. As long we we have the right creatures in the graveyard, we can do pretty much anything we want.

Grave Importance

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For us to be successful, we must fill our graveyard with creatures. The graveyard then essentially becomes an extension of our hand, allowing us to raise creatures from the dead to meet the needs of any given situation.

There are a number of ways we can fill our graveyard with creatures. First, we don't mind at all if the creatures we play are removed (as long as they're not exiled). They hit they graveyard, they're chill - they're not going far. Second, we can use sacrifice outlets to send them to the graveyard when we want them to go, usually with the benefit of some nice value. Examples of our sac outlets include Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Phyrexian Altar, Birthing Pod and so on. Many of these sacrifice outlets are important for the combo lines mentioned in the following section below.

Another way we can get our creatures to the graveyard is by using Entomb type effects. Cards like Entomb, Buried Alive and Final Parting become pseudo-tutors because we can use them to search for particular creatures we want in the yard. A special mention goes to Final Parting because is finds both pieces of our Chain of Smog // Witherbloom Apprentice combo, often allowing us to win on the spot if we have a reanimation card ready to bring back the Witherbloom Apprentice we've just dumped in the graveyard.

Finally we also have various tools that will put cards in the graveyard with their ETB mill effects or activated abilities. These include Hermit Druid, Aftermath Analyst, Icetill Explorer, Satyr Wayfinder, Skull Prophet, Doom Whisperer, Perpetual Timepiece, Kishla Village and Ripples of Undeath. We also like Takenuma, Abandoned Mire as it does a similar thing. Using one or more of these sources often helps fill our graveyard fairly quickly.

Our Combo Plan

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Although we work well as an attritional deck that grinds its way through games, some of our reanimation tools enable infinite combos that end the game on the spot. We have Chain of Smog and Witherbloom Apprentice that can win out of nowhere, and we can create infinite loops with Karmic Guide, Reveillark and a sac outlet.

Here's how the Karmic Guide // Reveillark combo works:

• Karmic Guide, Reveillark and a sac outlet on the battlefield
• A sac outlet such as Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder or Phyrexian Altar also on the battlefield, plus our chosen payoff card for infinite death triggers/infinite mana (Blood Artist for infinite damage, Altar of Dementia for infinite mill).
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Karmic Guide.
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Reveillark.
• When Reveillark dies, it triggers, returning Karmic Guide from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• When Karmic Guide enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Reveillark from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• Repeat ad infinitum

We can also do the same thing with any combination of Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Saffi Eriksdotter and a sac outlet such as Blood Artist for infinite damage or Altar of Dementia // Altar of the Brood for infinite mill.

• Ensure Karmic Guide or Reveillark plus Saffi Eriksdotter and a sac outlet are on the battlefield
• Activate Saffi Eriksdotter by sacrificing it, targeting Karmic Guide or Reveillark.
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Karmic Guide.
• Karmic Guide or Reveillark dies, triggering Saffi Eriksdotter, returning Karmic Guide or Reveillark from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• When Karmic Guide or Reveillark enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Saffi Eriksdotterfrom the graveyard to the battlefield.
• Repeat ad infinitum

Some other notes:

• We can do the Karmic Guide and Reveillark loops with Gray Merchant of Asphodel too, to drain our opponents life infinitely and win the game.
• Protean Hulk is one of our most important enablers as it can find multiple creature combo pieces at once.
• We have some other useful tutors that help us find the right combo pieces at the right time. This is the perfect deck for Final Parting, we can search for creatures to dump in the graveyard with Entomb and Buried Alive, and we have tutor-on-a-stick creatures like Sidisi, Undead Vizier. alongside other tutors like Demonic TutorGC and Vampiric TutorGC to improve consistency.

Other Deck Elements

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In addition to the cards mentioned above, this deck is formed of a number of different card categories which which combine to deliver its game plan. In this section, I'll run through each of these category, outlining the card choices I've made and the reasons they've been chosen.

Ramp
One of the drawbacks of this list is it can be painfully slow in the early game. We run various ramp sources to mitigate this, to ensure we can build up our resources quickly and stay on parity with other faster players. We have mana dorks including Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves alongside creatures with built-in ramp abilities such as Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf and Wood Elves. The good thing about the latter three creatures is they can often be recycled again and again with our various recursion cards.

Removal
Abzan colours are amongst the best in the game for removal and we don't have any blind spots when it comes to dealing with permaments that are in play. We've got a couple of ultra-versatile single-use spells such as Assassin's Trophy and Vindicate. Alongside those one-shot effects, we have a host of creatures that can be cast (and re-cast from the graveyard) to destroy permanents of various types including Ashen Rider, Cataclysmic Gearhulk, Haywire Mite, Acidic Slime, Bane of Progress and Ravenous Chupacabra. There's also Grave Pact to ensure other players are sacrificing their creatures when ours go to the graveyard, which can often wreck their board states.

Card Draw & Tutors
Most EDH players want multiple sources of card draw in their decks, to keep their hands full and resplenish cards that are played. We do too but we treat card draw a bit differently in this deck, as cards are sometimes more valuable in the in the graveyard then they are in our hand. When the game's going well, it's almost as if our enormous graveyard is an extension of our hand, allowing us to pick and choose resources from it pretty much at will. Because of this, we prioritise effects that fill our graveyard rather than our hand, acting as card draw sources in a slightly different way. Cards chosen for this purpose are Ripples of Undeath and the various other tools mentioned in the "Grave Importance" section mentioned above.

We also have access to various tutors to find key cards or combo pieces at the right time. Some of those are creatures that can be recurred, like Sidisi, Undead Vizier. We also have one shot spells such as Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC and Final Parting. Additionally we can draw on several repeatable sacrifice/tutor sources to find creatures: Survival of the FittestGC, Birthing Pod and Fiend Artisan.

Recursion
Because we have so many ways of filling our graveyard, we also need ways of recycling cards that are put there. Karador, Ghost Chieftain fulfills that role but he's not the only one. Alongside Karador we run Eternal Witness, Timeless Witness, Sun Titan, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Reanimate, Goryo's Vengeance, Life / Death and Victimize. If we need to return lands, we can call on Icetill Explorer and Aftermath Analyst.

Lands
The mana base in this deck is worth mentioning as we run so few basics. I don't normally use lands that always enter tapped but the new surveil lands (Lush Portico, Underground Mortuary and Shadowy Backstreet) make the grade because of their surveil ability, which helps fill our graveyard. Plus they have the relevant basic land types too so we can find them with our fetchlands. Indatha Triome also ETBs tapped but has all three of our basic land types so it's included too. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, Kishla Village and Geier Reach Sanitarium all fuel our graveyard too, and Shifting Woodland is an incredible utility card that copies any permanent in the bin (assuming we have delirium which is pretty easy to achieve with this list). The versatility of Boseiju, Who Endures makes it an auto-include for all my green decks.

Finishers
Finally we have a series of cards that are powerful enough to win the game if they resolve. Late in the game, if we have a full graveyard, Rise of the Dark Realms presents us with a critical mass of creatures capable of overwhelming opponents when we get to our next combat phase. Breach the Multiverse fulfills a similar role but allows us to choose the most impactful creature from each graveyard. Blood Artist might not look like much but combines with our other combo pieces to do infinite damage if we're able to endlessly loop creatures to and from the graveyard. Gray Merchant of Asphodel can also drain the whole table if recurred a number of times. Serra's Emissary shuts down entire card types and can give our creatures (and us) protection from creatures, allowing our horde to attack unopposed.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

I would classify this deck as one of my Tier 2 lists. It has access to infinite combos that can be found via a number of different tutor sources but doesn't (yet) run any fast mana sources that would push it up to Tier 1 status (eg. Chrome MoxGC, Ancient TombGC, Mana VaultGC etc etc). It's intended to be on the stronger side of casual and I would want to Rule 0 before most new pods to make sure opponents are happy with infinite combos and tutoring cards. Although it's a powerful deck in its own right, graveyard strategies are able to be hosed relatively easily and even a well-placed Bojuka Bog can ruin our day. Quite rightly and sensibly, more and more EDH players are remembering to include grave hate in their casual builds.

In terms of WotC's new power brackets system, it's a slightly tricky deck to classify. It only runs a couple of game changer cards (Demonic TutorGC and Vampiric TutorGC so, on paper, this list is probably Bracket 3. But it's capable of winning with the Witherbloom Apprentice // Chain of Smog combo in the early turns and has a turn 5 victory under its belt already. So I'd err on the side of caution and place it in Bracket 4, especially as it's fairly well optimised in most other ways.

Budget

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Buying the cards for this deck on Card Kingdom will set you back about $800. That's obviously very expensive as casual builds go but the investment will get you a powerful, scalable deck that's a lot of fun to play and sometimes acts as a puzzle in its own right with its slightly complicated graveyard combo lines. Much of that cost comes from a three colour mana base that includes the relevant fetches and shocks, but it also a bunch of mid-price cards in the $10-$20 bracket. As I own multiple copies in other decks, I've included proxied versions of a few cards (eg. Vampiric TutorGC, Demonic TutorGC, Boseiju, Who Endures) as a way to keep the price down and to avoid swapping cards between decks. The other reason the cost is so high is I've recently traded for a Survival of the FittestGC, which is one of the bomb cards for this deck. As with all the premium card choices here though, it's by no means essential and the deck works perfectly well without it.

Upcoming Changes

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I'm pretty happy with this list so far and I'm not looking to make any major changes. As with most of my decks, it would benefit from powering up with more fast mana sources but I'm fairly satisfied with its current power level. Although it definitely has an Achilles heel, it's a lot of fun to play and works very well in slower, more grindy games.

Thanks for checking out this primer! :)

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	5 years
Last updated	14 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.27
Tokens	Timeless Witness 4/4 B