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[Primer] Drowned Phantoms - Araumi EDH

Commander / EDH Combo Control Mill Reanimator UB (Dimir) Value Engine

Hydrax

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Creature (39)

Land (37)

Instant (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Araumi of the Dead Tide

Artifact (10)

Sorcery (5)

Enchantment (2)

This deck has been moved to Moxfield. It will no longer be updated here.

Introduction

"Royalty of a small merfolk kingdom, Araumi always dreamed of something more. She ran away from home and flagged down a passing ship. Once aboard, she was greeted warmly by the humans crewing it. They told her incredible stories of the outside world, and she regaled them with tales of the splendor of her kingdom.

Tragically, the humans on board the ship were actually pirates. Upon hearing of these great treasures, they immediately subdued Araumi and changed course to the merfolk kingdom. When Araumi came to, she found her home in ruins, being looted by the pirates. It was then her substantial magic activated, dragging the pirates to their doom and reanimating them as undead thralls. Araumi now waits beneath the waves, delivering the same fate to every pirate ship that passes."

--Lore of Araumi, MTG Wiki

Araumi of the Dead Tide might be my favorite Legendary creature from Commander Legends. The new Encore mechanic is such a fun one to play with in a multiplayer format.

This deck is all about milling ourselves to provide fuel for Araumi's ability, after which we Encore our creatures to create 3 token copies of them (assuming we have 3 opponents) so we get triple the value.

And that's how the deck is built - it's packed full of creatures with decent ETB or Death effects, but when those effects get tripled, we're talking REAL value. This deck can control the board, rapidly accumulate resources to use in our graveyard and when the time is right, there are a few combos we can use to seal the game (but if combos aren't your thing, don't worry, they can be easily removed and the deck can function just fine as a grindy value reanimator deck).

This Primer is broken up into the following parts:

  • TL;DR Primer - the barebones gameplan with only the necessary details.

  • Packages - very brief grouping of cards so we can get a better picture at how many Ramp effects we have, how many Mill effects, etc.

  • Individual Card Choices - an in-dept look at every single card in the deck and why those cards made the cut.

  • Combos - a detailed step-by-step guide on how to generate massive value with Araumi's effect and how to demonstrate the various combo lines in this deck to your opponents.

  • No-Combo Kit - a list of cards that should be removed if your playgroup does not like infinite combos into instant wins. You can keep the spirit of the deck while removing the "unfun" parts of it.

  • Budget Options - more affordable suggestions if you like the idea of the deck but don't want to break the bank.

  • Change Log - every edit made to the deck since its inception and why those changes were made.

TL;DR Primer

Primary Gameplan

Alternative Gameplan

  • If you choose not to run the infinite mill combo, the gameplan doesn't change much. We're still looking to mill a ton of creatures into our graveyard. The more we mill, the more options we have. Our graveyard is an extension of our hand when playing this deck.

  • Control the board by encoring edict effects like Fleshbag Marauder.

  • Build an overwhelming board presence by encoring things like Reef Worm, Wurmcoil Engine and Abhorrent Overlord.

  • Check the Budget Options section of this primer to see what other tech cards you can run to replace the missing slots opened up by removing combo pieces from the list.

wave

I will drown this world for what it took from me

Packages

seamonster

Their greatest fears turned against them

Individual Card Choices

A lot of the cards in this deck are pretty self-explanatory. Reading the card explains the card. However, some do have some niche applications and synergies that aren't immediately apparent. Take a glance through this section if any card in the list looks peculiar to you, otherwise feel free to collapse this panel and skip it if you feel confident that you understand the applications of each card.

I also prefer to discuss my cards in order of ascending CMC to better visualize my curve. If you're viewing this deck, I encourage you to click the "Sort" dropdown and select "Mana Value".

Araumi of the Dead Tide can tap itself to give a creature in our graveyard Encore. We also have to exile X number of cards from our graveyard, X being the number of opponents we have in the game.

Araumi is at her strongest when we have 3 (or more) opponents. When it comes down to 2 opponents, the value derived from Encore goes down by 33%, and if we're in a 1v1 situation, this deck begins to feel pretty mediocre.

The end result of all this is that we should absolutely try to win while we have at least 2 opponents left. Our combo does not work if the game is a 1v1.

To be clear - the strategy is to play it slow while there are 4 players. Just mill yourself and occasionally answer a big threat but do not BECOME the big threat. We can police the board with our Fleshbag Marauder and Grave Pact effects and keep our opponents in check.

The goal is to build up our mana and fill up our graveyard with fuel for Araumi's ability. We're looking to quietly dump a Kelpie Guide, Vizier of Tumbling Sands or Fatestitcher into our graveyard and find some way to get Mesmeric Orb onto the battlefield before we combo off. If Mesmeric Orb is milled, it can be retrieved with Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Archaeomender or Academy Ruins, the first two of which can be encored so it doesn't matter if they are milled.

We also have another back-up combo available to us if we happen to mill Teardrop Kami, Halimar Excavator and Glasspool Mimic  . These can be easily dumped with Buried Alive or by encoring Vile Entomber or Corpse Connoisseur.

On top of all of that, there are yet two more (convoluted) combos available if we mill or have access to a few more cards, and they're all outlined in the Combos section.

Hedron Crab is just an efficient mill engine because we can just play a land to mill ourselves for 3 cards, so just one of these triggers is enough to pay Araumi's up front exiling cost. This is also the reason we're running extra fetch lands Prismatic Vista and Fabled Passage.

Stitcher's Supplier allows us to mill cards whenever it enters the battlefield or dies. If we Encore this creature while we have 3 opponents, we'll mill 9 cards upon field entry and another 9 when they all die or get sacrificed. That's 18 more cards for Araumi to play with and plenty of options for us to Encore later on.

Gnawing Vermin is a fantastic card to Encore in this deck because it cost just to do so. When we do, we can mill 6 cards which is exactly what we want and when each of these token copies die, they can give a creature -1/-1. So we can kill up to three weak creatures (for example Elvish Mystic) or we can kill a 2-toughness and a 1-toughness creature or just point it all at a 3-toughness creature and get rid of that. Gnawing Vermin does a lot in this deck for being a little 1-mana creature.

Teardrop Kami is a great combo extender because it can untap Araumi of the Dead Tide, allowing it to give Encore to more than one creature in our graveyard every turn. We can combine this with mana-generating creatures to make huge plays in a single turn.

Floating-Dream Zubera draws us a card for each other Zubera that died in that turn. In a singleton format, this usually isn't great, but with Araumi's effect, we can get 3 copies of this into play which will (no matter what) all die during that same turn. When the first one dies, we draw 1 card. When the second dies, it draws us 2 (because it sees itself and the one before it). When the third dies, that's 3 cards for a grand total of 6. Not bad value for a 2-mana Encore cost.

Selhoff Entomber is sort of like a looter, except it requires us to discard a creature first before we get to draw a card. But that shouldn't be an issue, considering we're playing 39 of them in the main deck.

Merfolk Looter is an efficient looting engine, allowing us to dump cards we don't want and draw through our deck looking for combo pieces and counter spells.

Thought Courier does exactly the same thing as Merfolk Looter, it's in here just as a second functional copy.

Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator is yet another efficent 2-mana looter except this one has the added optional effect of being able to "flashback" an instant or sorcery in our graveyard, useful for when we've milled something important and need to be able to cast it.

Thassa's Oracle is literally only in here for the infinite mill combo which is explained in the Combos section of this Primer.

Halimar Excavator doesn't look like a very impactful mill engine on the surface but it's mainly in here for a powerful combo with Araumi of the Dead Tide, Teardrop Kami and Glasspool Mimic  . See the Combos section of this Primer for details.

Deranged Assistant is a unique mana dork because it requires us to mill a card in exchange for . Great for our purposes then, mill and ramp all in one.

Cloud of Faeries can be encored to untap lands six times when the copies ETB. Even if we don't have six lands, we can just untap and tap the same two lands for mana in between triggers so we'll be getting access to six mana regardless. This is a great card to generate mana with Araumi to make more plays. We also have the option to cycle it to draw a new card, and this is perfect because it wants to be in the graveyard anyway.

Undead Butler mills three cards upon ETB which on its own is solid in an Araumi deck but it gives us the option to retrieve a creature card when it dies, something we may not need very often but the option is nice to have.

Fallaji Archaeologist is just a reliable mill effect upon ETB, just like Stitcher's Supplier. However, we also have the option of keeping a non-creature, non-land card from among the three cards it mills. This deck is all about Encoring creatures, and we have several ways of retrieving artifacts, but unfortunately we can't do much with Instants, Sorceries and Enchantments that are milled so Fallaji Archaeologist giving us the option to keep one of them is actually very nice. Furthermore, because the ability is optional, we can just choose to dump all the cards if we need fuel to pay for Araumi's ability.

Archaeomender is really only in here in case we mill our Mesmeric Orb and need to get it back. We can't exactly reanimate Artifacts but we can Encore Archaeomender with Araumi's effect and use the ETB effect to get Mesmeric Orb (and two other artifacts) from our graveyard back into our hand.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is in here for the same reason, just in case we need to get Mesmeric Orb out of the graveyard. However Emry also has a self-mill ability when she hits the battlefield so she works well in this deck. Keep in mind that she is Legendary so if we make three copies of her, we'll have to give two of them up immediately but they will at least trigger their mill effects when they ETB so it's not a total loss.

Jace's Archivist is essentially a repeatable Windfall. Just a good way to cycle through our deck, dumping resources for Araumi into our graveyard while keeping our hand topped off.

Zellix, Sanity Flayer has an activated ability we can use to mill ourselves to keep the fuel burning for the Araumi fire, but it also generates tokens we can use to attack or block each time one of our creature cards is milled.

Tribute Mage is one of the best cards in this deck because not only do we have several important 2 CMC artifacts it can fetch, but with Araumi's effect, we can Encore this thing for 3 copies and fetch 3 of those important artifacts - namely Mesmeric Orb, Altar of Dementia and Lightning Greaves.

Illuminor Szeras works well in this deck because it can sac a creature who has served its purpose (for example an ETB effect such as Tribute Mage). We then get mana in exchange, which we can then spend to cast other spells or just encore whatever we sac'd for repeated ETB value (or encore whatever else we want).

Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple and Plaguecrafter are all in here for essentially the same reason. They require all players to sacrifice a creature whenever they enter the battlefield. If we Encore any of these with Araumi, we'll be wiping 3 creatures off of each of our opponents' boards. If we do this while we have a Grave Pact in play, that's 6 creatures off of each opponent's board. These gang of misfits in this deck disallow anyone from maintaining any sort of board presence.

Glasspool Mimic   is mainly in here as one of our combo pieces but we can always play it and copy one of our existing ETB effects on the field for extra value. It combos with Halimar Excavator and Cavalier of Night, both of which are explained in the combos section. At its absolute worst, we can just play it as Glasspool Shore   if we need a land drop desperately.

Vizier of Tumbling Sands is mainly in here as a combo piece, but we can always Cycle it away for a new card and use that ability to untap Araumi of the Dead Tide so she can use her Encore effect again.

Kelpie Guide is effectively a second copy of Vizier of Tumbling Sands for combo purposes.

Fatestitcher is basically a third copy of Vizier of Tumbling Sands but also has the ability to Unearth itself for 1 mana, allowing us to quickly untap something like Araumi if we need to in a pinch.

Solemn Simulacrum ramps us by 1 basic land when it enters the battlefield and draws us a card when it dies. If we Encore this with Araumi, we're getting 3 basic lands and drawing 3 cards when the token copies die.

Ravenous Chupacabra is just in here for targeted ETB removal. We use this to get rid of a specific creature that our opponents have been saving from our Plaguecrafter effects. Encoring this means getting rid of any 3 creatures we want.

Impaler Shrike, when Encored, allows us to draw 3 cards each whenever we sac them after dealing combat damage. That's 9 cards total for just 4 mana.

Reef Worm is just disgusting amounts of value in this deck. If we Encore this, it's guaranteed to die, meaning we get 3 fish tokens. When those die, we get 3 Whale tokens. When those somehow die, we get 3 Krakens that are 9/9 each.

Vile Entomber basically Entombs a creature when it enters the battlefield, helping us set up plays for later by dumping cards we'd like to Encore with Araumi's ability.

Corpse Connoisseur is another copy of Vile Entomber except this one can Unearth itself in case we need it but don't want to Encore it.

Peregrine Drake untaps 5 lands when it enters the battlefield. If we Encore this card, we get 3 copies, whose triggers we can stack appropriately to essentially generate 15 mana. This interaction is explained in detail in the Combos section of this Primer.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel can potentially end games when Encored by Araumi. If we Encore Gary with 3 opponents, they will all enter and trigger their drain ability for a minimum of 7 EACH ( devotion from each Gary and from Araumi). So if we have 3 opponents, we're draining them for 21 life EACH and gaining 63. And remember, that's the BARE MINIMUM. If we have any other black mana symbols on permanents we control, we'll be draining them for even more. Insane value.

Cavalier of Night is an amazing creature to encore because when the three token copies enter, they can all sac each other to their effects, which lets us kill three enemy creatures and then reanimate three of our own (yes, I've checked the ruling on this and it does work; you can sacrifice the first token copy to the second one's ETB effect, the second one gets sac'd to the third and the third to the first and they all trigger simultaneously). It also lets us mill opponents out with Altar of Dementia and Glasspool Mimic   which is explained in detail in the Combos section.

Necron Deathmark is insanely good in this deck because even if we just cast it as a normal creature, it lets us destroy another creature and then mill a player. In most cases we'll be milling ourselves but in niche scenarios we can mill another player if they've scryed or tutored for a card on top of their deck. Of course, if we encore it we can destroy 3 creatures and mill ourselves for 9 cards. This card is a Ravenous Chupacabra and Undead Butler rolled into one.

Perpetual Timepiece is in here mainly to counter graveyard hate. It's cheap to cast and if it gets milled by our various mill effects, it's retrievable via Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Archaeomender or Academy Ruins. Having this on the board and holding up mana to use its ability is a good way to save ourselves from something like Bojuka Bog or Angel of Finality attempting to exile our precious graveyard.

Sol Ring is just a simple mana rock.

Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet and Talisman of Dominance are mana rocks that can tap for both of our colors.

Lightning Greaves gives the equipped creature Haste and Shroud. This is primarily used for protecting our Commander Araumi of the Dead Tide from targeted removal as well as allowing her to activate her ability the turn she comes down, without having to wait for summoning sickness. It's also searchable via Tribute Mage.

Altar of Dementia is a fantastic way to mill ourselves because we can sacrifice creatures (at instant speed) that are about to die anyway. Whether they are tokens that will be sacrificed due to the Encore mechanic, or if they are serving as blockers and are going to be killed in combat, or if somebody at the table casts a board wipe such as Wrath of God. We can just sac our creatures in response to any of these situations and fill our graveyard with juicy targets for Araumi's effect.

Mesmeric Orb is just a fantastic mill engine because it mills a card for each permanent that untaps. So if we have, for example, 5 lands that we've tapped for mana, that's 5 cards that will be milled during our untap step with Mesmeric Orb in play. Aside from all of that, it is a key piece of our infinite combo which is outlined further down in this Primer in the COMBOS section. This one is also searchable via Tribute Mage.

Thousand-Year Elixir is a great way to ensure that Araumi can activate her ability the turn she comes into play. This way we don't have to wait a whole rotation around the table and risk getting her removed. It also allows several of our looters such as Thought Courier to use their effects when they ETB immediately. Furthermore, it has the utility of letting us untap a creature, which means an additional Araumi activation or more looting if we need it.

Convergence of Dominion is one of the best cards Araumi could have asked for. First up, it reduces the activation cost of abilities in our graveyard. Encore is an activated ability that cards in our graveyard have. For example, if we have our commander Araumi and Convergence of Dominion in play and a Reef Worm in our graveyard, its Encore cost will be just instead of the usual . I don't need to tell you why this is good. But it gets better, because this artifact doesn't just sit around and provide some cost reduction. We can also pay to mill ourselves which is exactly what this deck wants to do. On top of all of that, if this card happens to get milled, it can easily be retrieved with Academy Ruins, Archaeomender and Emry, Lurker of the Loch.

Grave Pact synergizes with our deck perfectly because the tokens we generate with Araumi's Encore ability all have to be sacrificed at the end of turn anyway. So regardless of what happens, they WILL die. If we have Grave Pact on the board, that essentially means we'll be ridding our opponents of 3 creatures each. This is one of the harshest ways of controlling the board and pretty much prevents anyone from keeping any sort of board presence. This also gets around Indestructible effects such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope or creatures that are immune to targeted removal such as Narset, Enlightened Master.

Gift of Doom has really nice utility in this deck. We can cast it face-down for and flip it face-up at anytime by sacrifcing a creature. Important to know: the action of Morphing does not use the stack and can be done at literally any time by paying the Morph cost. This means that if somebody aims a removal spell at Araumi, we can flip this face-up to grant her Indestructible and fizzle that removal spell and because it doesn't use the stack, they cannot respond to us morphing Gift of Doom. Another reason why this card is good: sometimes we will have to hard cast a creature from our hand but we'd much rather have it in the graveyard so we can Encore it. A lot of the creatures in this deck are much more impactful when Encored rather than sitting around on the field, so Gift of Doom is a great way to get them off the field and into the graveyard ready to be encored.

Pact of Negation is in here to protect our combo from being interrupted. Sure we lose the game if we don't pay next turn but if we combo off properly, we'll just win before the game even gets to our next turn.

Entomb dumps any one card we want from our deck straight into our graveyard. We can use this to tutor a specific creature that we want to Encore with Araumi's ability. A good first target is Tribute Mage because if we Encore it, we can help ourselves to Lightning Greaves, Altar of Dementia and Mesmeric Orb, just like that. Otherwise, in most situations we'll be looking to dump a combo piece, depending on what else is in our graveyard and which combo we're trying to assemble. If we just desperately need some mill, we can dump Stinkweed Imp instead.

Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are essentially the same card. Just 1-mana answers to problematic enemy creatures. Sure, our opponent will get a 3/3 token in exchange but if we're firing this off then odds are we've gotten rid of something that was significantly more valuable to them than a vanilla 3/3.

Muddle the Mixture is a counterspell specifically for Instants and Sorcery spells but critically, it has Transmute, meaning we can pay and tutor a card with CMC 2 straight from our deck into our hand. This is a very easy way to find Mesmeric Orb to combo off or any other 2-drop card we need depending on the state of the game.

Fierce Guardianship is a great way to protect Araumi of the Dead Tide because if she's on the board, we can cast this for free. It's essentially a Negate that we don't have to pay for with Araumi out.

Reanimate is just a cheap and efficient way to grab a creature we need from our graveyard and put it onto the field.

Feed the Swarm is in here because it's one of the very few answers Dimir has to Enchantments. Something like Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace severely hinders our ability to play the game.

Buried Alive lets us dump three creatures from our deck straight into our graveyard. Most of the time, we'll want to dump Teardrop Kami, Halimar Excavator and Glasspool Mimic   because this is an infinite combo setup with Araumi. If those guys are already in the graveyard, or if that combo has been dirsupted or is impossible to execute, here are the next best options: Vizier of Tumbling Sands because its an essential piece of our other game-winning combo, Tribute Mage because we can always Encore it and fetch our Mesmeric Orb from its ETB effect, and the third can be any creature of our choice, usually a big mana generator like Peregrine Drake.

Toxic Deluge is just a solid, reliable board wipe in case we need to clear the field. Because it doesn't destroy but rather reduces toughness, it can get rid of creatures with Indestructible, Hexproof and Protection as well.

Dread Return is mainly in here as a combo piece but we can always use it in a pinch to reanimate a creature we need.

Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage and Polluted Delta are in here because they bring the fetched land into play untapped but also provide an additional card in the graveyard that we can exile to pay for Araumi of the Dead Tide's ability.

Clearwater Pathway  , Command Tower, Choked Estuary, Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, Morphic Pool, River of Tears, Shipwreck Marsh, Sunken Hollow, Sunken Ruins, Underground River and Watery Grave are all in here because they tap for either of our colors and can come into play untapped, which is important because we are playing a low-curve deck that can't afford to wait around for slow mana.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth turn all lands into Swamps so we'll never have to worry about access to Black mana.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge gives us the ability to untap a legendary permanent, meaning we can use Araumi of the Dead Tide more than once per turn. Basically in here for the same reason as Teardrop Kami.

Nephalia Drownyard gives us the option to mill ourselves in case we need fuel for Araumi's ability.

Academy Ruins is a great way to recur any of our artifacts that were milled, namely Mesmeric Orb.

9 Swamps and 9 Islands round out our basic lands.

ruins

Their phantoms forever bound to the place they destroyed

Combos

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Tap Araumi, exile 3 cards and give Encore to Cloud of Faeries.

  2. Pay the Encore cost , 3 token copies enter, 3 ETB triggers go onto the stack.

  3. Let the first one resolve, untap up to 2 lands. Before the second one resolves, tap 2 lands for mana. Then let the second resolve; untap those 2 lands. Before the last one resolves, tap those 2 lands for mana again. Then let the final Drake trigger resolve. Untap those 2 lands.

  4. The result is 4 mana floating and 2 lands untapped, access to 6 mana off of this play alone.

Or:

  1. Tap Araumi, exile 3 cards and give Encore to Peregrine Drake.

  2. Pay the Encore cost , 3 token copies enter, 3 ETB triggers go onto the stack.

  3. Let the first one resolve, untap up to 5 lands. Before the second one resolves, tap 5 lands for mana. Then let the second resolve; untap those 5 lands. Before the last one resolves, tap those 5 lands for mana again. Then let the final Drake trigger resolve. Untap those 5 lands.

  4. The result is 10 mana floating and 5 lands untapped, access to 15 mana off of this play alone.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Tap Araumi and give Encore to Teardrop Kami.

  2. Pay for Teardrop Kami's encore cost. 3 token copies enter.

  3. Each of these can be sacrificed to untap Araumi, allowing her to give encore to more creatures in a single turn.

Notes

  • This play should only be made if you have enough mana leftover to make more plays, otherwise it's pointless. For example, if you have a Peregrine Drake or Cloud of Faeries along with plenty of other juicy creatures in your graveyard, you can use the Teardrop Kami copies to untap Araumi up to 3 times.

  • Generate a ton of mana using by Encoring Cloud of Faeries or Peregrine Drake then untap Araumi again using another Teardrop Kami token and now you can Encore another creature and have the mana to pay for it.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Activate Araumi of the Dead Tide, exile three cards and give Encore to the untapper creature of your choice. We'll use Teardrop Kami in this example.

  2. Encore Teardrop Kami, three token copies enter.

  3. Sacrifice one Kami token to untap Araumi.

  4. Activate Araumi again, this time giving Encore to Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

  5. Encore Gray Merchant of Asphodel, three token copies enter.

  6. Each Gary sees at least 7 black devotion. Each gary drains opponents for 7 life for a total of 21 life lost and we gain 63.

  7. Sacrifice another Kami token to untap Araumi again.

  8. Activate Araumi once more, this time giving Encore to Glasspool Mimic  .

  9. Encore Glasspool Mimic   and have three token copies enter as Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

  10. The three new Garys all see 13 devotion each, and drain opponents for a total of 39 life each, gaining us 117.

Notes:

  • This isn't strictly speaking an instant-win combo but we're draining opponents for 60 life each.

  • It also requires at least 9 mana so it's not the most reliable but it's an option. The mana requirement is significantly reduced if we have Convergence of Dominion in play.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Cast Glasspool Mimic   or reanimate it, depending on where it is. Do NOT Encore it. It has to be the original, physical card, not a token.

  2. Have Glasspool Mimic   enter the battlefield as a copy of Cavalier of Night, but ignore its ETB effect.

  3. Sacrifice the Glasspool Mimic   to Altar of Dementia and mill an opponent.

  4. The Mimic dies but has the same death trigger as Cavalier of Night, so it can reanimate a 3 CMC creature. Choose Glasspool Mimic  .

  5. Repeat steps 2-4 until all opponents have been milled out.

Notes:

  • This combo isn't as reliable as our main ones but it's worth knowing in case you manage to assemble it.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Tap Araumi of the Dead Tide and give Encore to Teardrop Kami.

  2. Pay to Encore Teardrop Kami, three token copies are created.

  3. Sacrifice one of the Kami tokens to untap Araumi. Activate her effect again, this time granting Encore to Halimar Excavator.

  4. Pay to Encore Halimar Excavator, three token copies are created.

  5. The three Halimar Excavator copies all see each other ETB and trigger at the same time, they will each mill 9 cards for a total of 27. The math for this is explained in the notes below this combo.

  6. Now sacrifice another Kami token to untap Araumi again. Activate her effect again, this time granting Encore to Glasspool Mimic   in the graveyard.

  7. Pay to Encore Glasspool Mimic  . Three token copies enter, have them enter as copies of Halimar Excavator.

  8. The three Halimar Excavator copies along with the three new copies all see each other when they ETB, and they each mill 18 cards for a total of 108. At this point your whole deck should be in the graveyard.

  9. Somewhere in your graveyard is Dread Return. Pay its Flashback cost by sacrificing any three creatures and use it to reanimate Thassa's Oracle. You have no cards in your deck so you win.

Notes:

  • Buried Alive can get all three of the required creatures into the graveyard easily. Similarly, encoring Vile Entomber or Corpse Connoisseur can achieve the same effect.

  • Halimar Excavator says it will mill a number of cards each time it or another Ally ETBs and that number is equal to how many Allies are on the field at the time. So creating 3 of these makes it so each of them triggers 3 times, and each of those times counts 3 allies for a total of 9 cards milled from EACH Halimar Excavator. This is why we're milling 27 cards in Step 5. When we create 3 more copies with Glasspool Mimic  , the original 3 copies trigger alongside the 3 new ones. So here's what happens: each copy will trigger 3 times (because 3 new allies ETB'd). There are 6 copies and they each see 6 allies. So the math becomes (6 Excavators x 6 allies counted on the field x 3 allies just entered) = 108 cards milled.

  • This combo should only be attempted with three or more opponents. You simply can't mill enough cards with just two opponents because the Encore will only give two tokens instead of three.

  • This combo requires less mana if you have Convergence of Dominion in play, because it will be reducing each Encore cost by .

This example uses Vizier of Tumbling Sands, however Vizier can be used interchangeably with Kelpie Guide or Fatestitcher.

Requirements:

  • Vizier of Tumbling Sands in graveyard, to Encore it and enough cards in graveyard besides Vizier to activate Araumi's ability

  • Araumi of the Dead Tide on the board that is Untapped and NOT summoning sick.

  • Mesmeric Orb on the battlefield.

  • Dread Return and Thassa's Oracle need to be in the deck or in the graveyard. If they're in the deck, they'll be milled during the combo which is fine. However, if Thassa's Oracle is in your hand, you just need another to cast it at the end of the combo and there is no need for Dread Return. If Dread Return is in your hand but Thassa's Oracle is not, you're going to have to get it into the yard before attempting this combo (just hard cast it or use a looting effect to dump it).

  • At least 2 opponents must be alive for this to work, this combo doesn't work in a 1v1 situation.

Steps:

  1. Start by casting Mesmeric Orb if it isn't already in play.

  2. Tap Araumi of the Dead Tide, give Encore to Vizier of Tumbling Sands in the graveyard.

  3. Pay to Encore Vizier of Tumbling Sands. 3 token copies enter the battlefield.

  4. Activate one of the Vizier's ability and untap any permanent (one of your tapped lands is fine).

  5. Activate a second Vizier's ability and untap the first Vizier. This triggers Mesmeric Orb, mill yourself.

  6. Activate the first Vizier to untap the second Vizier. Mesmeric Orb triggers again, mill yourself again.

  7. Repeat this process of the two Vizier's untapping each other until you've milled your whole deck.

  8. Somewhere in your graveyard should be Dread Return. Activate it for its Flashback cost by sacrificing any three creatures (the three token copies of Vizier of Tumbling Sands, for example). Target Thassa's Oracle to reanimate with Dread Return.

  9. Thassa's Oracle enters the battlefield and triggers, but you have no cards left in your deck. You win.

drowned

Their souls will forever haunt the transgressors

No-Combo Kit

Not every playgroup will appreciate an infinite mill combo into Thassa's Oracle win, so here are the cards you can take out while still retaining the fun factor and overall theme of the deck:

With those cards taken out, we have 9 open slots for whatever we want.

Some fun considerations

Take a look through some of the suggested cards below in the Budget Options section and pick a few more that appeal to you to fill out the remaining missing slots.

Budget Options

I've put together a sub $100 budget Araumi deck here. It's not quite as powerful as this one but is still quite a potent control/combo deck. But if you'd like to make budget edits to this list you're seeing here, I've pointed out the expensive cards and tried to provide similar replacements that are much cheaper to purchase.

Lands

Instants

Sorceries

Other options on a budget

Change Log

11/3/22

10/3/22

10/1/22

  • Removed Wurmcoil Engine. It's a good card to encore but doesn't serve much purpose outside of lifegain and tokens. A back-up combo piece is more valueable in this slot, plus I needed this card for another build.

  • Removed Watcher for Tomorrow because it's a bit clunky for what it does. If we hard draw it instead of encoring it, it's pretty lackluster so I figured this slot is also better served with a combo piece.

  • Added Halimar Excavator and Phyrexian Metamorph in their place because this opens up another combo path for us. Also added details in the Combos and Downgrade Kit sections.

9/29/22

  • I'm a moron and didn't know Perpetual Timepiece exists. It's way better than Elixir of Immortality for our purposes because it does the same job of protecting our graveyard from graveyard hate while also being a mill engine which this deck desperately needs.

9/23/22

  • Did a lot of playtesting and decided that I did indeed like Gift of Doom in place of Dictate of Erebos. We have plenty of removal already and I decided that Araumi could use another piece of protection.

9/21/22

  • No changes to the deck, just cleaned up the Primer a bit.

  • Also considering removing Elixir of Immortality in favor of a cheap counterspell like Dispel or An Offer You Can't Refuse. My playgroup usually has way more threatening commanders whenever I play Araumi and I seldom have any graveyard hate pointed my way so I'm not sure how much value Elixir of Immortality is providing.

  • Also taking a look at Gift of Doom in place of Dictate of Erebos. It provides Araumi with some protection and can get a creature into the graveyard if we Morph it.

9/16/22

  • Some awesome new toys were revealed in the new Warhammer 40K "Necron Dynasties" deck. I just couldn't wait to add these so they're going in the deck right away even though they won't be legal until October 7, 2022. Let's talk about what was swapped out:

  • Panharmonicon was removed. This was a tough one, but I counted and noticed that there are 19 creatures with ETB effects. 4 of them, we probably don't want triggering twice (Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Plaguecrafter and Demon's Disciple). There were also some games in which I had this card on board but felt like it wasn't super impactful. Besides, when we encore a creature with Araumi we're basically getting triple ETB triggers anyway so Panharmonicon just didn't feel super necessary. It has been removed for now, we'll see how much I miss it. Convergence of Dominion was added in its place.

  • Noxious Gearhulk was removed. This one was a simpler decision, the new Necron Deathmark is less to cast and encore, accomplishes the same task AND mills us.

  • Cabal Ritual and Dark Ritual were removed. I'm trying to move away from non-creatures because if they get milled they're basically useless. Artifacts can be recurred with Archaeomender but instants and sorceries require something like Archaeomancer which I just do not see any room for. I've added Illuminor Szeras and Elixir of Immortality in their place.

  • Tainted Isle was removed. Frankly speaking, it only produces colorless mana unless we have a Swamp. There have been a few games where I drew this early on and not a single swamp in sight so it wasn't doing much for me. I found Academy Ruins better in this slot because it at least has the utility of being able to recur any of our artifacts that have been milled.

9/7/22

  • Needed Demonic Tutor for another deck so I took it out and replaced it with Selhoff Entomber. It's another 2-cost looter that helps us dig through our deck.

9/1/22

sunkenship

Let this be a reminder of what once was, and what will be

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Revision 16 See all

(1 year ago)

+1 Cloud of Faeries main
-1 Priest of Gix main
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 7 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

28 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.67
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Fish 3/3 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Horror, Kraken 9/9 U, Morph 2/2 C, Whale 6/6 U
Folders Mono Blue + Dimir Decks, Dimir, Deck Primers, Commander Ideas, EDH Decks
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