Karador Midrange Primer (cEDH)

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Competitive Hatebears Infinite Combo Midrange Toolbox

Sakatsu

Creature (37)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Archon of Emeria
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Drannith MagistrateGC
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Satyr Wayfinder
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tymna the Weaver
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x World Shaper

Land (30)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Riftstone Portal
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Commander (1)

Instant (12)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Worldly TutorGC

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Survival of the FittestGC
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (6)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

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Karador, Ghost Chieftain Midrange Reanimator Primer

This guide is up to date as of 24-SEP-2020
Moxfield Link: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/w4zd529wCEWu3aSkAQkvcQ/

Introduction

Summary

Karador Midrange is a creature-based reanimator deck, aiming to outvalue opponents through ramp and card advantage, followed by a graveyard creature combo featuring Saffi Eriksdotter and friends like Karmic Guide and Blood Artist. The main plan is to stick a mana dork or two early on followed by some form of continual card advantage (typically Sylvan Library or Dark Confidant) to put you in a very strong position. With access to white come the hatebears that allow you to control the flow of the game. Even without access to blue, this deck packs strong interaction such as Silence and Veil of Summer. Unlike other midrange decks, this list aims to take advantage of Karador's "Graveyard Affinity" and his ability to treat your graveyard like a second hand by including ways to fill the graveyard quickly, such as Hermit Druid and Survival of the Fittest. With access to nearly every card in your library at your fingertips, this deck rides a fine line between a controlling stax deck and a fast combo deck.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

• By nature of it being a Pod-esque deck, it's extremely versatile. There are a plethora of ways to grab nearly any creature in your deck quickly, and the creature composition is designed to give you a variety of impactful options at nearly every CMC.
• Because this is a graveyard centric deck, it is extremely resilient against removal. Karador himself allows you to recast any of your removed creatures, so even if your opponents remove a pesky stax piece, you can just recast it on your next turn.
• Every single combo piece has a use outside of the combo, and synergizes with the rest of the deck perfectly. Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Sun Titan, and Renegade Rallier all reanimate most/all of your relevant creatures, and Saffi Eriksdotter lets you double up on ETB effects, or "ignore" the sacrifice cost of Birthing Pod, Diabolic Intent, and Eldritch Evolution.

Weaknesses

• This deck is slower than more proactive decks like Farm or Food Chain. Outside of Magic Christmas Land, this deck wins by turn 3 at the earlier end, more likely winning by turns 4-6. We run hatebears and other stax effects to accomodate for this difference in speed, but this deck will not fare well in a meta full of Turbo Naus decks.
• Karador doesn't generate value on his own, and unless you're recasting creatures like Satyr Wayfinder, he really only pulls you from behind, rather than put you ahead of the card advantage curve.
• Blue is easily the most powerful color in the game, and this deck really notices the lack of strong counter spells and card advantage options like Force of Will, Brain Storm, and Dig Through Time.

Why Karador?

Karador's main strengths come down to the two abilities listed on the card: The ability to continually reduce his own casting cost so long as you have creatures in your graveyard, and the ability to cast one of your creatures from the graveyard each turn. Because this deck runs 35+ creatures, it's pretty easy to get Karador to consistently cost . It's not the easiest casting cost in the world, but most of the time his mana cost isn't an issue. His cost reduction includes commander tax, so even in long drawn out games where you're grinding for advantage, Karador should rarely ever cost more than .

His other ability allows you to treat your graveyard like an extension of your hand, giving us significant amounts of value over the course of a game. Because you have to cast the creatures rather than cheat them in, this deck wants to run a ton of cheap creature that can be easily recast from the graveyard. Mana dorks, hate bears, and card advantage engines are never really gone unless they get exiled, because you'll always be able to recast them with Karador. At worst, he adds to the casting cost of a creature in your graveyard. At best, he reanimates the best creature in your graveyard each turn. And because many of the cards in this deck can daisy-chain off of one another from the graveyard, Karador can create some explosive turns.

While at first glance, it may seem like Tymna the Weaver and either Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa or Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper would make a better choice. However, the primary win-condition of Saffi Eriksdotter and friends is too clunky for any strategy other than a dedicated graveyard strategy, which is easier to execute with Karador than it is with the Abzan partners. While Karador himself may not provide the raw card advantage offered by Tymna, the various dredge effects offer a greater level of consistency in finding your combo pieces compared to raw card draw, since you usually dig deeper with self mill than you can with card draw. This does come at the increased risk of getting blown out by a well-timed Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, but as long as you don't over-extend into your graveyard you'll be fine.

The other graveyard Abzan commanders, Nethroi, Apex of Death and Tayam, Luminous Enigma, are also strong contenders, but I find Karador to be the most consistent. Nethroi's mutate cost of is quite intensive, and there are no ways to cheat or abuse his mutate trigger either. Mutate is also easily disrupted and extremely vulnerable to removal. Tayam is probably the strongest replacement for Karador, but his combos would require a revamp of several core pieces of the deck, and I personally find the inability to grab anything that costs more than 3 mana a little limiting. That said, neither of these are bad cards, and either could serve as the helm of these decks, with a few modifications.

The Combo

Sometimes it's best to start at the end and work your way backwards. In this case, the win condition for Karador involves a variety of A + B interactions primarily between Saffi Eriksdotter, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Sun Titan, Renegade Rallier, Animate Dead, and Necromancy, with a few other necessary pieces on the board. While not nearly as complicated as Gitrog loops, assembling these combos can require a variety of pathways to take, and there's not always a clear cut answer on how to best assemble your combo. Generally, the most effective path is to reanimate a Protean Hulk (discussed below). Other times, it's best to dump a chunk of your library into your graveyard using Hermit Druid and then tutoring up the last piece.

The Basic Combo

To start with, for each of these combos, you need:

• A sacrifice outlet (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Altar of Dementia)
• A way to benefit from infinite death triggers (Blood Artist or Altar of Dementia; Alter of Dementia works as both a sacrifice outlet and a kill condition)

Once both of those conditions are met, you proceed to win the game by infinitely recurring any of the following cards in the pairs listed below:

Saffi Eriksdotter + Karmic Guide
Saffi Eriksdotter + Reveillark
Saffi Eriksdotter + Sun Titan
Saffi Eriksdotter + Renegade Rallier
Karmic Guide + Reveillark
Karmic Guide + Sun Titan + Animate Dead/Necromancy
Karmic Guide + Renegade Rallier + Animate Dead
Sun Titan + Renegade Rallier + Animate Dead

Protean Hulk

Protean Hulk is the most efficient way of getting the combo onto the field with just a single death trigger. If you're aiming to combo as quickly as possible, your goal is to cheat Protean Hulk onto the field ASAP then sacrifice it.

Basic Hulk Line

Assuming all your combo pieces are in your library, the basic Hulk line is as follows:

1. Sacrifice Protean Hulk, searching for Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder.
2. Have Karmic Guide return Protean Hulk.
3. Sacrifice Protean Hulk again, searching for Saffi Eriksdotter, Blood Artist, and Grand Abolisher (or any other creature with CMC 2 or less).
4. Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter to her own ability, targeting Karmic Guide.
5. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to Viscera Seer.
6. Saffi Eriksdotter triggers, bringing back Karmic Guide.
7. Have Karmic Guide return Saffi Eriksdotter.
8. Repeat steps 4-7 for the win.

Protected Hulk Line

Assuming you already have a sacrifice outlet on board, you can search for Grand Abolisher and Academy Rector once Protean Hulk’s ability resolves to ensure no one else can respond to anything else you do this turn, then follow up with the standard Hulk package.

1. Sacrifice Protean Hulk, searching for Academy Rector and Grand Abolisher.
2. Sacrifice Academy Rector, exile her then search for Animate Dead/Necromancy.
3. Animate Dead/Necromancy brings back Protean Hulk.
4. Sacrifice Protean Hulk, searching for Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder.
5. Have Karmic Guide return Protean Hulk.
6. Sacrifice Protean Hulk again, searching for Saffi Eriksdotter, Blood Artist, and any other creature with CMC 2 or less.
7. Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter to her own ability, targeting Karmic Guide.
8. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder.
9. Saffi Eriksdotter triggers, bringing back Karmic Guide.
10. Have Karmic Guide return Saffi Eriksdotter.
11. Repeat steps 7-10 for the win.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Razaketh, the Foulblooded is one of the strongest card advantage engines in this deck, and like Protean Hulk can singlehandedly assemble our combo pieces with minimal set up. Unlike Protean Hulk though, he does require additional mana investment and/or just sets up for an attempted combo kill the following turn. With that said, Razaketh is still one of the strongest cards in the deck. With cards like Life and the various mana dorks, he can tutor for a huge number of cards at instant speed, making him one of the most efficient ways of assembling your combo.

Razaketh Pivot

If your opponents try to exile your Protean Hulk in response to his death trigger, you can use this combo to pivot from a Hulk combo line to Razaketh, the Foulblooded. This is one of the key strengths of the deck, being able to change from a Hulk pile to Razaketh combo assembly on a dime.

1. Sacrifice Protean Hulk, searching for Viscera Seer, Academy Rector, any creature with CMC 1 (e.g. Elvish Mystic).
2. Sacrifice Academy Rector, searching for Pattern of Rebirth.
3. Attach Pattern of Rebirth to Elvish Mystic.
4. Sacrifice Elvish Mystic to trigger Pattern of Rebirth, and use that to search for Razaketh.
5. Use Razaketh to assemble your combo.

Example Razaketh Line

Needed: Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Viscera Seer, Karmic Guide, and Blood Artist in your graveyard, Life and Reanimate in hand, access to and 2 lands. Costs less and 2 less lands if you have 2 other creatures on the field.

1. Cast Reanimate targeting Razaketh.
2. Cast Life. Sacrifice a land to search for Entomb.
3. Cast Entomb searching for Reveillark.
4. Sacrifice another land to search for Animate Dead. Cast Animate Dead targeting Reveillark.
5. Sacrifice Reveillark to search for any creature, bringing back Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer.
6. Use Karmic Guide to bring back Reveillark, then combo out.

Getting There

The Game Plan

The Early Game (Turns 1-3)

Your primary goal during these turns is to stick 1-2 mana dorks/rocks on the field, followed up by some form of either hate piece or card advantage engine. Which route you go depends entirely on the pod composition as well as the current board state. Unless someone poses a clear victory within the next turn cycle, it's generally best to land a card advantage engine during these turns. If your opponents are posing a clear victory, you do have the means to stop them with the variety of hate pieces at your disposal as well as a well-timed Silence.

The Mid Game (Turns 4-6)

This is where things get a little trickier. You have a variety of plays available at your disposal during these turns, and ideally you've already landed some form of card advantage on the board. Your opponents are going to threaten a win in these turns, so you have to find some way of stopping it. This is where your personal knowledge of your pod composition comes into play. Do they rely on Dockside looping for infinite mana? Collector Ouphe stops them in their tracks. Did they end step Ad Naus? Silence them on their upkeep. Are they going to storm off using Breach? Archon of Emeria. The flexibility of this deck really allows you to access pretty much any hate piece you want very easily.

Assuming the path is clear for you to combo out, landing a Pattern of Rebirth or Academy Rector with a sacrifice outlet in play pretty much spells victory. Entomb + Reanimate on either Protean Hulk or Razaketh, the Foulblooded is also a very clean win condition. If you mill enough of your deck quickly enough, you can use Karador to cast your combo from the graveyard. Winning in this time frame requires a good deal of skill, forethough, meta knowledge, and a bit of luck.

The Late Game (Turns 6+)

Once you get to the late game, you still have a combo win in mind, but winning through beatdown is starting to become more of a possibility. At this point, Karador should always cost , you have the engines to pull out any creature you want, and you should be able to easily assemble your combo from here. If the board is too gummed up with stax pieces to effectively combo off, stick an Elesh Norn on the field and start beating face.

Graveyard Advantage

One important thing to learn about Karador is the two distinct forms of card advantage. First, there's the traditional forms of card draw such as Skullclamp, Sylvan Library, and Tymna the Weaver, as well as tutoring abilities like Demonic Tutor and Eladamri's Call. These forms of card advantage are important, regardless of what kind of strategy you run, because everyone needs more cards in their hand. Karador is no different; despite having the ability to recast any creature from your graveyard, along with the plethora of reanimation spells, it is easier to just cast things from your hand, especially non-permaments.

Graveyard advantage is the term I'll be using to describe the advantages of using self-mill cards such as Hermit Druid, Stinkweed Imp, and Satyr Wayfinder. Because Karador Midrange primarily wins through graveyard combos, filling up your graveyard as quickly as possible is key. Generally, cards that mill provide a larger number of cards for their mana cost compared to traditional forms of card advantage. For example, Satyr Wayfinder can dig four cards deep into your library in a single turn for just , meanwhile Dark Confidant takes four turns to dig that deep for a comparable cost. That's not to say that Dark Confidant is worse than Satyr Wayfinder, but it illustrates the the disparity in card volume when drawing vs milling. Because you can directly recast creatures using Karador, along with several other ways of reanimating permanents, the number of dead cards that get milled is minimal. If you need non-permanents returned from the graveyard, Eternal Witness and Noxious Revival can get you any card from your graveyard. Eternal Witness also has the benefit of being a creature, so triggering her ETB ability multiple times throughout a grindy match isn't out of the question.

That's not to say that graveyard advantage doesn't come with very real downsides. Because you're dumping resources into your graveyard, that makes you more vulnerable. A well-timed Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can be absolutely backbreaking, and if they manage to exile the key combo pieces, you have to hope and pray that hatebear beats will be enough to win. Utilizing graveyard advantage also requires you to utilize other cards. You can't access your graveyard if you can't cast Karador or Animate Dead or one of the other reanimation spells in the deck. However, don't let this discourage you! There are enough ways to access your graveyard that unless you're directly targeted, you'll always have something to do.

One thing to consider when evaluating cards that provide graveyard advantage is "what does this do?" Just milling is not as efficient at generating card advantage compared to straight draw, so each card that mills has to either be very mana efficient or provide some sort of utility that makes it worth a card slot.

• Hermit Druid: This is one of the only mill cards whose sole purpose is to mill, because his graveyard advantage ceiling is so high. This list runs six basic lands to play around Blood Moon effects and to avoid getting blown out of the game by a single Bojuka Bog. If you want to be more reckless with your self kill, feel free to cut as many basic lands as you want.
• Altar of Dementia: This card serves as combo piece first, graveyard advantage engine second. Because it's a sac outlet that mills cards, it cuts down on the number of cards needed to combo kill. Outside of the combo, it can be used to either fill your graveyard or to screw with the top of your opponents' libraries. They'll no longer be able to safely Vampiric Tutor without you just milling their top card.
• World Shaper: Because this deck is so cavalier about chucking cards into the graveyard, sometimes we run a little dry on land. He nab all the lands you milled earlier on death, making him an excellent Birthing Pod or Eldritch Evolution target, and he has a high ceiling on graveyard advantage. He has a large enough body to dissuade bad trades, combined with people wanting to avoid giving you more land, he can frequently dig six to nine cards deep. He's also large enough to block Tymna and friends, which is very relevant.
• Satyr Wayfinder: Normally I would not suggest this card in most decks, but Satyr Wayfinder is exactly what Karador wants: he's cheap, he provides card selection (specifically for lands, which is relevant since you'll often be milling lands while digging), and he's a creature, meaning he can attack for Tymna, chump block, be sacrificed to Skullclamp, and he reduces Karador's cost.
• Stinkweed Imp: The best Dredge card in EDH. Golgari Grave-Troll is good in Legacy, but GGT costs way too much for what we want. Plus, the difference between Dredge 5 and Dredge 6 is small. Outside of Dredge, Stinkweed Imp has a lot of political influence. "Deathtouch" makes people not want to attack into you, potentially denying them attack/damage triggers. Offensively, you can use his flying and "deathtouch" to connect with opponents and draw cards off Tymna.
• Stitcher's Supplier: This is the other card besides Hermit Druid that's in the deck exclusively for the mill. She is extremely mana efficient, costing just to dig at least six cards deep. If you incidentally reanimate this off of, say, a Sun Titan or Renegade Rallier, then that's an additional six cards. Because half of the effect is on death, this makes Supplier an excellent Birthing Pod or Eldritch Evolution target. She also has the benefit of getting fetched by Ranger-Captain of Eos.

Your Toolbox

One of this deck's key features is its versatility. This is accomplished by the sheer number of tutor engines available at your disposal.

• Survival of the Fittest: This card is absolutely no joke. As long as you have even a single creature in your hand, you are able to daisy-chain tutors together, pitching your creatures into the yard in the process. Remember, with Karador, having creatures in the yard is inconsequential. In some cases, being able to pitch a poorly-timed Protean Hulk can help propel you to victory.
• Fauna Shaman: Fauna Shaman is often seen as a weaker version of Survival of the Fittest and not worth running. For most decks, that's probably true, but in this deck the utility of Survival is so strong that it's worth running a slightly weaker version, even if you can only activate her once per turn. One thing to note is that Fauna Shaman is a creature, which means she can be fetched from Finale of Devastation, Worldly Tutor, or Birthing Pod, and she discounts Karador's casting cost when in the yard.
• Birthing Pod: Speaking of Birthing Pod, this card is nuts. A 3-mana artifact (yes, this artifact costs ) that turns any and all of your creatures into whatever you need them to be.
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded: Even outside of assembling your combo win, Razaketh can turn all your creatures (and/or lands if you cast Life) into any card you want. Notably, he's not bound to searching for creatures, so you can sacrifice a creature to tutor up and cast Silence or Veil of Summer while a critical spell is on the stack.
• Eldritch Evolution: This spell acts as a one-time turbo-Pod, allowing you to jump up 2 CMC in your pod chain. Cast this on a mana dork to bring out a Tymna, or cast it on a Karmic Guide to bring out Elesh Norn.
• Finale of Devastation: I originally had Green Sun's Zenith in Finale's place, and I have to say, I don't miss GSZ at all. This card can do so much. It not only acts as both a library tutor and a reanimation spell, it also has the ability to act as a finisher on a wide enough board. While the X = 10 clause rarely comes up, the versatility of grabbing creatures from my graveyard (as well as grabbing non-green creatures) makes me prefer this over GSZ significantly.

Hate Pieces

Deathrite Shaman: This card does so much, there's a reason it's banned in most formats. It primarily serves to hate specific graveyard strategies, but it can also act as a mana dork when necessary. You'll pretty much always have fuel for this guy.

Archon of Emeria: This is one of the stronger hate pieces printed in white. This slows down your opponents in resource generation as well as tempo, and is critical for ensuring that you remain tempo-positive.

Reclamation Sage: I personally choose to run this over Manglehorn because of its ability to hit enchantments, as well as it being weak enough to sacrifice immediately to Skullclamp.

Ranger-Captain of Eos: A tutor and a conditional Silence effect tacked onto an on-curve body. Notable cards that this can search for include Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, and Deathrite Shaman.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: The best Praetor, Elesh Norn serves as a finisher against other midrange/stax decks that you can't combo out against. At the very least, she kills all opposing dorks, and turns your own dorks into a formidable force. She has some cute synergy with Life, if you're not aiming to mass tutor with Razaketh with it.

Collector Ouphe: With Dockside Extortionist on the rise, having a way to preemptively stop your opponents' mana generation is crucial. You only have 6 artifacts in this deck in total, so you're relatively unaffected by it's effect.

Blind Obedience: This stops Dockside looping as well as Kiki/Twin combos. Extort is also a minor upside. Given how frequently health is used as a resource in this deck, having the ability to gain 3-6 health can mean the difference between winning and accidentally killing yourself while trying to assemble your win. While it's not a creature, it can be tutored up with Enlightened Tutor as well as Academy Rector if you're in a pinch. (It can also be reanimated with Sun Titan or Renegade Rallier).

Drannith Magistrate: This guy is a powerhouse in slowing down the table. First of all, you stop your opponents from casting their commanders. Given that the entire format is built around casting your commanders from the command zone, that is huge. Second of all, it stops several important unfair interactions: Food Chain, Elsha/Bolas Top, Kess/Muldrotha, etc.

Stinkweed Imp: This little guy is way more than he appears at first glance. He's a 1/2 flyer with "deathtouch", meaning he can be offensive and push through damage to draw off Tymna, or he can be defensive and discourage your opponents from attacking you. Throw him away liberally, as he digs 5 cards deep and can be reused for even more card advantage.

Aven Mindcensor: Tutors are the cornerstone of this format, so restricting your opponents' searches is invaluable. It has flash, so you can cast this in response to a Demonic Tutor.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence: With how popular mana dorks are in this meta, shutting them down is back-breaking. She also shuts down key combos like Thrasios, Urza, Ballista, and more.

Interaction/Removal

Just because this deck lacks blue doesn't mean it lacks the ability to interact with the stack or your opponents' threats. It's pretty standard cEDH interaction, but I'll break down the reasoning here

Silence: Arguably one of the strongest counter spells in the game, this card has so much flexibility. Cast this at the beginning of the Ad Naus player's upkeep to delay them comboing off for a turn. Cast this preemptively on your own turn to ensure you're able to combo off in peace. Learning when to cast this spell takes practice, and it may seem underwhelming at first, but there's a reason so many cEDH decks opt to run it.

Veil of Summer: The second best counter spell in this deck, it is almost as strong as Silence, but at the cost of it only being reactive. Blanking your opponents' removal or their hate spells is absolutely vital to ensure you can combo off in peace.

Abrupt Decay/Assassin's Trophy: The premier removal spells of the deck, these two spells can hit pretty much any target you need. While they do have their drawbacks, being able to hit nearly any permanent for just is just too good.

Noxious Revival: This card does so much. First of all, it doesn't cost mana, which is huge. Second, it has a ton of flexibility. It can serve as a second Eternal Witness, it can save key combo pieces from graveyard removal, it can blank your opponents' reanimation spells, and it can screw up your opponents' draws or Vampiric Tutors.

Force of Vigor: cEDH has a lot of high profile artifacts/enchantments, and being able to hit two of them for free is excellent. If you play in a stax-heavy meta, this card is crucial for breaking out of certain locks.

Swords to Plowshares: This is probably the weakest of the interaction in this deck, but it's by no means bad. There are plenty of key creatures that are utilized in game winning combos that this spell can stop. Godo, Najeela, Kiki-Jiki, Razaketh, you name it. However if you find yourself not really needing the creature exile, replace this with Nature's Claim.

Toxic Deluge: The best board wipe in EDH. You're mostly going to be casting this for X = 2-3, just to kill off enemy mana dorks as well as any relevant hate pieces. You're generally going to be the one generating a board presence, so use this only when it hurts your opponents more than it hurts you.

Miscellaneous

Substitutions

Generally, Karador decks follow a similar mold, but there is some flexibility, especially in the hatebears package. The following cards that I personally didn't include just because of meta considerations, but they're definitely playable, especially if your meta calls for them.

Spirit of the Labyrinth: This shuts down pretty much any combo that relies on drawing their deck to win. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop Consultation Oracle, but it's still a relevant hate card to slow down the stream of value across the board. Karador is relatively unaffected by this, as most of the card advantage is generated not by drawing but by revealing with Dark Confidant, by self milling, or through tutors.

Deafening Silence: If you really need a way to taper off the amount of spells being cast, then this card is great. Because it specifies noncreature spells, it's easy for you to play around.

Leyline of the Void: This card is absolutely amazing if you get it in your opening hand, paying 4 mana can be quite the ask. Still, it's the best asymmetrical graveyard hate you can run in this deck, so it's worth it if you find yourself in desperate need of graveyard hate.

Manglehorn: If you find yourself needing the artifact hate more than the enchantment hate from Reclamation Sage, this card is just better.

Autumn's Veil: A worse version of Veil of Summer is still pretty good. If you find yourself going toe-to-toe with counter spells, adding in more counter spells of your own is a good idea.

Imp's Mischief: Pretty much the last good counter spell in Abzan, use this if you find yourself needing counter magic of your own. It does more than Autumn's Veil, since you can redirect non-counter spells, but it costs twice as much, so take that as you will.

Perpetual Timepiece: If you find yourself getting blown out by graveyard hate too much, this card will help you out quite a bit. It serves to mill you two cards a turn, and it forces your opponents to wait until you're tapped out to drop their graveyard hate.

Riftsweeper: This is one of the only cards that lets you nab any card from exile. It's a one-off effect compared to Perpetual Timepiece, but if you find yourself needing just one more piece that's been exiled, this might be for you.

Other Resources

* Who's the Beatdown?: This is one of the most important Magic articles ever written, and the principles laid out in this article are absolutely crucial for understanding how to play this deck well. Knowing when you're "the beatdown" (in this case, the player aggressively trying to combo off), is paramount for securing victory without wasting resources. The follow up article, Eight Core Principles of "Who's the Beatdown?" revisits the original article published in 1999 and uses more modern examples from 2012. The examples might be outdated, but the core concepts are the same, and are transferable to any format in any game. * Karador Boonweaver Combo originally written by Cobblepott: This post was what originally got me started on playing Karador as a dedicated combo commander, rather than a value goodstuff reanimator commander. The deck list and card choices are a bit outdated (Boonweaver Giant was joined by Protean Hulk after the unbanning and then later cut altogether), but it's still worth reading, just for the sake of learning the history of the deck. * Tymna/Sidar Junkweaver and Anafenza Razakats were helpful for curating the right balance of mana dorks, hate bears, and graveyard support. * This reddit thread breaks down the theory behind the combo vs stax axis that Karador exists on.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.44
Folders	Nethroi Inspo