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Mazirek's Blood Bank | V-TDM

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BG (Golgari) Counters Land Destruction Multiplayer Sacrifice Tokens

Beebles

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Lands (37)

Ramp (15)

When Things Die (11)

Protection (4)

Cash In The Counters (19)

Draw/Filter (15)

Sac Outlet (14)

Treasure (7)

Life (5)

Big Mana (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

Creature Tokens (15)

Interaction (15)

More +1/+1 Counters (11)

Tutors (6)

Recursion (4)

Maybeboard

Sac Outlet (18)

Life (10)

More +1/+1 Counters (9)

Lands (7)

Other (5)

Treasure (2)

Evasion (1)

Creature Tokens (17)

Interaction (12)

Protection (9)

Recursion (7)

Ramp (4)

Bank Counters (1)

Cash In The Counters (16)

Draw/Filter (15)

When Things Die (8)

Other Tokens (6)

Tutors (3)

Big Mana (1)

This big bug is out for blood...

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Welcome to my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest deck

Origin

I've always had a soft spot for the "sacrifice matters" theme and have tried in in a few decks as a side-dish, but I never got around building around it as the main course. Recent tinkering with other brews made me reconsider Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest as a commander and rejuvenated those sacrifice matters deck ideas. It feels nice to put those sacrifice-themed cards in a deck again.

It’s also great to finally have a deck centred around +1/+1 counters. I loved the idea of a deck where +1/+1 counters can be banked up as a currency that can be traded in for all sorts of benefits, so that was another aim with this build.

Lastly I figured out that Mazirek allows for a way to play Massive Land Destruction (MLD) in EDH without totally wrecking games. This was a great incentive to continue with this build, because I really liked playing Land Destruction decks back in the day, and I'd love to have an EDH deck that punishes greedy land-ramp decks in a fair way.

So this is my take at the big bug Mazirek: a deck that combines +1/+1 counter farming with sacrifice matters and fair land destruction.

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Deck Premise

With this deck I want to bank up +1/+1 counters and cash them in for value. There is quite a group of cards that can do that: cards like Crystalline Crawler and Devoted Druid turn them into mana, Hangarback Walker and Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel turn them into creatures, and Bloodtracker turns them into cards. Then there are those cards that allow us to bank up counters for later use, like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan *f-etch* and The Ozolith. The general idea is to get a few of these cards out there, add Mazirek to the board and start saccing some stuff!

Since Mazirek trigger works when things are sacrificed, we run a bunch of token generators such as Bitterblossom that generate sac fodder, as well as free sacrifice outlets like Ashnod's Altar that can sac our own stuff at will. Most of our hate cards, such as Pox as well as a lot of our lands cards are sacrifice-based also, adding to the counter production. Lastly there are cards that trigger when something dies, like Pitiless Plunderer.

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I want to set up a board state where I can get a lot of +1/+1 counters via Mazirek and then get all sorts of value via the counter banks and and cards with triggers, leading to different possible lines of play:

  • We can cripple our opponent's board with our mass sacrifice spells, such as Vona's Hunger and Grave Pact, giving the deck strong board control options. Combined with Mazirek, these spells allow for the most explosive of plays, adding huge amounts of counters to our creatures.
  • Some of these spells, like Pox, also take out a part of our opponent's mana bases, while our deck is prepared to either mitigate the blow or to turn land loss into an advantage (more on that later).
  • Treasures work really well with Mazirek’s ability, so cards like Tireless Provisioner and Pitiless Plunderer are valuable includes. Old Gnawbone is just hilarious, and cheating it out with Natural Order or Pattern of Rebirth really puts fuel to our fires. And Marionette Master can turn all those treasures into a lethal weapon.
  • Playing Liliana, Dreadhorde General with Doubling Season out will pretty much end the game.
  • We can use God-Eternal Bontu to sacrifice all our lands if combined with Natural Balance or World Shaper, generating a lot of sac triggers and hilarious turns.
  • With help of the modular-type creatures we make Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest a lethal attacker and eliminate a player via commander damage. Inkmoth Nexus is an easier-to-achieve variant of this strategy.
  • And we can just amass an army of small critters, pump them with Mazirek's ability and swing!

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Then there are the following infinite combo routes that can finish the job if the game drags out too long:

Less Lands Matter

There were 2 related ideas floating around before I started this deck that I did not have a home for yet:

  1. I don't like it that lands have become a safe haven in our playgroup for ramping. I wanted to attack land bases, but do it in a way that does not destroy all lands. I wanted to punish greedy decks that just ramp lands like there's no tomorrow without having a contingency plan.
  2. With Lotus Field printed I felt I could do something interesting with this card. Apart from fixing your mana, it also reduce your land count. We've been learned to assume that in EDH more lands is better. However, due to Lotus Field I was wondering if I could somehow turn having less lands into a resource.

These ideas clicked into place when reconsidering Mazirek, where MLD is already going to give you value if it is sacrifice-based. Pox and Smallpox synergize with these ideas, but there is one other Land Destruction card that truly rewards having less lands.

Enter a little played reserved list card called Natural Balance. It is the prime example of a fair land destruction spell, punishing the ever rampant land ramp decks and helping that one deck that got land screwed in the early game (Yay, MLD that is not breaching the social contract \0/). However, it becomes especially delicious when combined with lands like Lotus Field, Golgari Rot Farm. They turn Natural Balance into a big land ramp spell while destroying the ramp advantage of your opponents. The lands it finds enter the battlefield untapped to boot! You could be playing this at turn 6 with just 3 lands in play while your opponents might already have 8. It's plays like this that I love to build decks around, even if it only happens every now and then.

“Hmm… maybe lotuses this year.”

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This is where having as few lands in play as possible has value. The less lands we have, the more value we are getting from Natural Balance. Less lands will also help to mitigate our land loss of a Pox. This is why I don't run any ramp cards that search out additional lands from the library. A nice thing about this theme as that the main way to reduce your land count comes from the lotus lands, which already synergize well with our commander. Thespian's Stage can copy them without triggering their ETB, while cards like Crystal Vein and Urza's Saga also net us value while keeping our land count lower than our opponents.

If you like this theme, also check my Akiri, Fearless Voyager Deck where I included it as well, as it’s probably more valuable in white decks.

Land Graveyard Synergy

Because of Natural Balance, Pox and the sac lands, there are some cards here that give us more benefits of lands being sacrificed. Lands like Drownyard Temple get us value when going to the bin, and World Shaper/Ramunap Excavator get us our compost back into play. I still have to play around with this theme to see how much of it can be in this deck without damaging the +1/+1 counters synergy too much.

Other Topics

Mazirek is a unique commander in that it cares about people sacrificing permanents. This is what makes Mazirek an interesting choice for a deck as it is hard to create a similar build with another commander. It is also a commander that allows for a lot of different builds, so it is unlikely to bump into another list and feel like you've played against that deck before. These are characteristics I enjoy in any commander. Plus, he's a big bug that makes small critters huge! What's not to like?

I play commander with a set playgroup in a kitchentable setting. We have added one house rule: no infinite card combo's of 2 or less cards (like Tooth and Nail based combo's). We also try to keep a check on excessive stax or denial strategies. This usually enables that everyone has a chance to try out their creations and have some fun.

I tried to make a deck similar in power level compare to the majority of my playgroup, which is somewhere between Mid and High. I like the majority of my decks to be at that power level in order to play the deck in more situations and still make sure everyone has a good time. This deck can do some powerful stuff, but usually not until after most of the table has had a chance to give their decks a go.

Category (Jank - Low - Mid - High - Competitive)

Mid/High

Closing Thoughts

I'm always happy if you leave some feedback. Any cards that you think I should run given the deck's premise and themes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Also, feel free to upvote the deck if you liked it!

Upvote & Support This Deck!

GL & HF

Beebles

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Suggestions

Updates Add

AFR Tweaks — Aug. 21, 2021
Edit

Changing up this list a bit due to AFR:

  • IN: Old Gnawbone - OUT: From Beyond. I don't think I need to say much about this include ^.^. Hilarious! From beyond was always a weaker version of Awakaning Zone, and I could part with one ramp piece after the previous update included Tireless Provisioner.
  • IN: Natural Order - OUT: Fiend Artisan. A direct consequence of adding Gnawbone. Natural Order was on the maybe list for a while, but now we have enough juicy targets for it.
  • IN: Deadly Dispute - OUT: Tireless Tracker. Tireless tracker was always a bit slow in this deck, and did not feel as at home here due to the less lands matter theme. Deadly dispute is a sweet little card that does a bit of everything really. Nice glue.
  • IN: Nested Shambler - OUT: Tendershoot Dryad. I must have missed this sweet common with the MH2 spoilers, but I had to trow it in here. Parking Tendershoot Dryad to make room.
  • IN Grim Hireling - OUT: Gift of Doom. More powerful black treasure support. I like this, because our commander and some other creatures in this deck have evasion, or we can hit many players by going wide. Taking out Gift of Doom to make room.
  • IN Revel in Riches - OUT: Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip. With all the new treasure support added, I feel this one has to go back in. Taking out Tegrid, as she has gotten a certain reputation, and that's not really what I want to go for with this deck at the moment.
Strixhaven Update — April 11, 2021
Edit
The Ozolith — April 7, 2020
Edit

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Revision 93 See all

(1 month ago)

+1 Host of the Hereafter main