Keepers of the Hallowed Dead [Primer]

Commander / EDH Devotion Lifegain Primer Tokens WB (Orzhov)

Eareph

Creature (35)

• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Banisher Priest
• 1x Bishop of Binding
• 1x Bishop of Rebirth
• 1x Bloodline Pretender
• 1x Bygone Bishop
• 1x Cleric of Life's Bond
• 1x Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1x Dream Devourer
• 1x Elite Spellbinder
• 1x God-Eternal Oketra
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Luminarch Aspirant
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Markov Purifier
• 1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1x Nullpriest of Oblivion
• 1x Orah, Skyclave Hierophant
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Reidane, God of the Worthy  ^Flip
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x Rotlung Reanimator
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Speaker of the Heavens
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Taborax, Hope's Demise
• 1x Thalisse, Reverent Medium
• 1x Transcendent Master
• 1x Traveling Minister
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Voice of the Blessed

Land (30)

• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hostile Hostel  ^Flip
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Orzhova, the Church of Deals
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 4x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Salt Flats
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Shimmerdrift Vale
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Snowfield Sinkhole
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Artifact (9)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Altar of the Pantheon
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Lucille
• 1x Maskwood Nexus
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wand of Orcus

Instant (7)

• 1x Condemn
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Misery Charm
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vanishing Verse

Commanders (2)

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Bloodchief's Thirst
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Despise
• 1x Duress
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Oust
• 1x Peach Garden Oath
• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Search for Glory

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Ajani's Welcome
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Cleric Class
• 1x Paladin Class

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Second Sunrise

Creature (1)

• 1x Edgewalker

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"Tread carefully in these hallowed halls lest you wake the dead."

Let me preface this by saying that this is my first attempt to write a Primer for a deck I've crafted. It may be rough, or lacking in certain areas, but I will try my best to explain the deck concepts(they're not too complex) and the combos that I've intentionally created/discovered through happy little accidents. I suppose we should get started.

I have always loved playing the Healer/Necromancer in games, whether they be video(Neverwinter Nights) or paper(D&D); it's what I enjoy. Awhile back I was link-hopping through this site and I stumbled upon a cleric deck - now I've made plenty of Orzhov decks in the past, but never a Commander oriented one - and that was when I decided to try my hand at it. This deck's construction was inspired by that deck, I apologise for not remembering the creator/title of that deck.

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Gathering the Congregation (Early Game)

Early on we want to do what all decks desire, that is to build our mana up. However, for us it's not as critical to build a large supply as we can safely subsist upon a minimum of 3 mana, but only if we have access to both of our colors. With only 3 mana it's true that we won't have access to some of our more interesting cards, but we will be able to cast a majority of our creatures. Ideally in our starting hand we'll have 3-4 lands(and access to both {W}&{B}) as well as our 1-Drop lifegain cards.

(Note: You can survive for a short period of time on a minimum of 2 mana, though it will be unpleasant and whether you can turn it around or not depends largely on your skill as a negotiator/instigator when it comes to table politics.)

First Three Turns

One of our first goals early game is to get our lifegain online with any of our 1-Drop cards.

• Soul Warden and/or Soul's Attendant - The ideal lifegain card as it will proc on any creature.

• Ajani's Welcome - Not as nice since it only "sees" our creatures, but still quite good.

• Authority of the Consuls - Doubles as a nice stun for when you need a bit more time.

• Traveling Minister - Least favorable card to play, but we're not picky when it comes to lifegain.

Once you have your lifegain in place, or even if you don't, a great card to play early on is Cleric Class as it "doubles" all our lifegain - I understand it doesn't really double, it just adds a +1 to our gain, but since most of our gain is only 1 in the first place... Anywho, it's also great at buffing our weak, little 1/1's and turning them into scary +1/+1 counter hoarders once we have the 4cmc to pay for the upgrade. Its last upgrade is pretty expensive recovery, but if we really need the creature back it's worth the cost.

(Note: The last upgrade for Cleric Class is a one-time use, so save it for when you really need it.)

Early game we just want to sit back and slowly gain life while playing 1 card a turn. We don't really want to draw attention to ourselves; slow and steady and all that. Once we have access to roughly 4-5 mana our gameplay shifts into the next phase.

Tending the Flock (Mid Game)

At this point we should have at least 4 lands and access to both colors, as well as having several of our lifegain cards online. Here is where we start shifting into offensive operations and preparing our board for victory. First things first, we need to get all the end game pieces into our hands or topdeck them with tutors. We run a few options in this deck to do just that. The most important pieces to add to your hand with any of the tutor cards are as follows - the ordering is a general "of-most-to-least-importance," obviously your gamestate will determine which cards you need the most.

1. Wand of Orcus - This is the most important card in our deck as it generates massive lifegain/plethora of blockers/and the hoard we will sweep with later on.

2. Cleric Class - This is what will turn our monsters into terrifying beatsticks.

3. Lucille - If you own it, cool, that's a +2/0 Menace with a creature targeted Annihilation attached to it, plus when you swing you get a free blocker and more life.

4. Helm of the Host - I put this at number 4, but it could be higher. This is actually a really important piece for us as we can copy our legendaries and create tokens without fear of the legend rule destroying them. (Plus, you can copy something like Soul Warden and just rake in the lifegain)

5. Twilight Prophet - Great card as it will give us life, inflict damage, and give us a free draw each of our turns. This can potentially bypass what would otherwise be a dead draw.

There are other cards that may be important, but these 5 are the "key" pieces and without them - especially Wand of Orcus - our ability to win will be greatly slowed.

Responses, Espionage, & Recovery

Responses

There are several cards in this deck that can deal with troublesome cards, whether they be creatures on the field or nonlands in the hand.

• Banisher Priest - One of my favorites; I just like the way she looks.

• Bishop of Binding - More creature removal in the form of banishment.

• Elite Spellbinder - This card falls under both Responses and Espionage. Get a good look at opponent's hand and kill a card.

• Grand Abolisher - While not technically a "response" it does have the benefit of stopping counters to your plays.

• Valkmira, Protector's Shield - Again, not technically a "response," but it does provide minor protection in the form of tax.

• Vanishing Verse - Can be used to remove any troublesome permanent, so long as it's monocolored.

• Bloodchief's Thirst, Fatal Push, Oust, Condemn, and Swords to Plowshares - Direct creature removal.

Espionage

Very small section, but sometimes it's good to know what your opponent has in their hand before you play one of your important pieces.

Despise & Duress - 1-Drop peek and "kill" a creature/planeswalker or nonland/noncreature from the hand.

Recovery

No doubt through the natural course of the game you've either had to block some damage with a valuble creature or happened to be on the end of some Lightning-esque hate and said creature died. Our creatures dying is inevitable really. No worries though, there are several options to recover what you lost, one of which (our 2nd commander) can return a creature to our hand during each of our upkeeps.

Probably the best recovery we have in this deck is our commander Ravos, Soultender. Not only does he grab a creature during each of our upkeeps and add it to our hand, but he also gives a nice +1/+1 boost to all our creatures, helping further their survivability. A nice play that I've used from time to time, is that when our primary commander Tymna the Weaver dies while we have this guy on the field, we can forgo using the Commander Replacement effect and just leave her in the grave, as we'll scoop her up come next turn - this is actually pretty useful if you want to avoid the "tax."

Another great card for recovery is Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, though he does have the caveat: "When "this card" or another Cleric dies, return target Cleric from your grave with lesser CMC to the battlefield". Meaning that if our 1-Drop Soul Warden dies, we won't be able to return any Clerics to the battlefield as none of them are less than 1CMC. However, if you have this guy on the field and a big wipe takes place, well, have fun recovering 90% of your creatures from the grave - you just have to be very particular with your triggers here and make sure that you always have your highest CMC creature that triggered Orah target and grab the next highest CMC creature, and so on and so forth.

Now this card: Athreos, God of Passage is a superb candidate for the "win/win" category. Either we get a card back to our hand, or our opponent loses 3 life. Truly a win/win for us when you consider that we have our Commander that can always be cast on our turn(assuming we have the mana) and he can easily recover our creatures. Plus, once we meet his Devotion "cost" he becomes a nice 5/4 Indestructible blocker.

The other recovery options aren't nearly as good, but they have their uses and could be considered a "net gain" depending on how you used them.

• Bishop of Rebirth - I only put her in this category due to the fact that she is pretty expensive at 5CMC, but seeing as how a vast majority of our creatures are 3CMC and under, she should have little trouble recovering for us.

• Nullpriest of Oblivion - This is really probably the worst recovery we have at 6CMC, but when the times are tough "beggars can't be choosers." Really though, if you can, you should wait to cast this for its "Kicker Cost" and capitalize on the recovery.

• Agadeem's Awakening   - You probably won't get much out of this side of the card, but if you're not hurting for mana and you have some targets, it's not a "bad" choice. Mostly though, I just use it as a land.

• Reanimate - Honestly, this should probably be in the "good" recovery section, as it's a 1-Drop revive, but I forgot about it until right now and I don't really want to move stuff around - even if it would be beyond easy.

• Misery Charm - I'm sure that there are strictly better recovery options, but I really like that this follows the flavor of our deck. Plus, it can help in other ways if we don't need the recovery portion of its effects.

• Priest of Forgotten Gods - I know this isn't technically recovery, but if you happen to have Orah, Skyclave Hierophant on the field, then depending on what you sacrifice you can get two of your Clerics back, plus all the nice things this girl gives you in exchange.

Embarking on the Crusades (End Game/Wincons/Honorable Mentions)

At this point you should have Wand of Orcus attached to a creature, preferably one of our limited selection of Flyers, and swung for some damage a few times, building up our "Hallowed Dead" army. Barring a field wipe - which I'm sure everyone and their mother run with the exception of this deck - we should be looking at a multitude of 2/2 tokens (or 3/3 if Ravos, Soultender is out) that can simply overwhelm our opponents.

Wincon(s)

This deck, at its heart, is quite simple. It just wants to populate the field with tokens and attack en masse. That being said, there are technically other strategies for our victory.

• One of our strategies goes hand in hand with our desire to gain life. Using the second upgrade of Cleric Class we can buff our creatures into rather unfair levels and just swing for some heavy damage. We can get this effect to proc multiple times with card combinations like: Soul's Attendant + Soul Warden + Ajani's Welcome/Authority of the Consuls.
      A particularly enjoyable trigger is the combination of Wand of Orcus + Maskwood Nexus + Righteous Valkyrie. We'll get a ton of life off of the "Clerics(zombies)" and a ton of +1/+1 counters to distribute amongst our creatures. If we pile a few of those +1/+1's onto our creature with the Wand of Orcus, then come next turn we'll spawn even more "Cleric(zombies)" and have even more life and counters, etc. (Oh, and because of Maskwood Nexus all of our creatures will gain Deathtouch whenever our Wand of Orcus creature attacks or blocks.)

• Another option is to go the burn route with cards like: Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Bloodchief Ascension, or Twilight Prophet.

  1. We do gain tons of life, so Vito can be a nice 1-sting every time we cast a creature, or he can annihilate our opponents when you combine him with Righteous Valkyrie+Maskwood Nexus+Wand of Orcus.

  2. Bloodchief is mostly there to punish our opponents for casting nonpermanents or field wipes.

  3. Twilight is mainly for the possible unbricking of the draws, but the roulette-style burn/gain is nice as well.

Honorable Mentions

There are a few cards that are either very good and deserve to be named as such or I just like them and so I'm going to call them out.

• The first card that deserves a shout-out is: Voice of the Blessed. This guy will get seriously stronk with our ability to gain life like we do and he has a nice benefit of becoming a Vigilant Indestructible Flyer once he has amassed at least 10 +1/+1 counters. Just bonkers really...

• The second card I'm shouting out is: Transcendent Master. There are probably much better cards and/or Clerics to use, but I don't care. I like this guy and that's the reason I'm using him. He's cool. Period.

• Third card is: Thalisse, Reverent Medium. She's really only good if you combine her with our Wand of Orcus, but when you do you'll be rolling in the life and +1/+1 counters. Thalisse, Reverent Medium is also one of our more expensive cards at 5CMC, but if she is used in conjunction with other cards the cost doesn't matter so much.

• The fourth card is: God-Eternal Oketra The 4/4 Vigilant tokens that this produces is worth the high cost. Plus, we don't have to waste our recovery on it as it will just shift to the "third from the top" of our Deck on destruction/exile.

There are probably a few more cards that deserve to be mentioned, but I think it's probably fine at four. I really could just call out every card in the deck after all.

Welp, this is my deck. As always, any suggestions/helpful comments are appreciated, or even just a simple "well done."

    May your day be filled with Magic! ~ Eareph

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.32
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, City's Blessing, Clue, Copy Clone, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Shapeshifter 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Warrior 4/4 B