Meren's Road to Durdle Town

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Sacrifice

Vilhelm

Creature (49)

• 1x Blisterpod
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Diligent Farmhand
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Krosan Wayfarer
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Neverwinter Dryad
• 1x Shambling Ghast
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Clattering Augur
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Legion Vanguard
• 1x Masked Vandal
• 1x Outland Liberator  ^Flip
• 1x Primal Druid
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Satyr Wayfinder
• 1x Undead Butler
• 1x Viridian Emissary
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wirewood Herald
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fell Stinger
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Prowling Geistcatcher
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Kodama of the East Tree

Land (37)

• 1x Command Tower
• 17x Forest
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 15x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Woodland Chasm

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Abundant Harvest
• 1x Adventurous Impulse
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Living Death

Artifact (3)

• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Birthing Pod

Commander (1)

Instant (3)

• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Once Upon a Time

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Fecundity

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Maybeboard

Creature (19)

• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Cabal Therapist
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Ravenous Squirrel
• 1x Demon's Disciple
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Timeless Witness
• 1x Kagemaro, First to Suffer
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Gleancrawler
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Butcher of Malakir

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 1x Commune with the Gods
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Life's Legacy
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Primal Growth
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Final Parting

Instant (1)

• 1x Mausoleum Secrets

Land (8)

• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x Mishra's Factory
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Vampiric Rites
• 1x Foster
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Null Profusion

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Welcome to Durdle Town!

The design philosophy of this deck is that we want as many things to do on our turn as possible. The deck is overflowing with one drops so that we always have a play from turn one onward. Top end cards then leverage the abundance of one drops to storm off and play through the deck.

The game plan of this deck is to reach a critical mass of draw engines and lands to draw and play the entire deck. The secondary goal is to win the game with Zulaport Cutthroat off of Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker or a Living Death loop with Eternal Witness.

This is a budget deck, with some cards above $5 included because I already had them in my collection. The only cards at or above $5 which are necessary for the deck are Underrealm Lich, Eternal Witness, and Living Death.

Single Card Discussion:

Cards In The Deck

• Sifter of Skulls: A backbone value engine of the deck, this card allows us to cast several spells a turn. We’d rather have Pitiless Plunderer, but that card needs a reprint first.
• Pawn of Ulamog is another Sifter of Skulls and probably even does the job better. A second copy of this effect is worthwhile.
• Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: Clunky to get out, but creates unlimited value. Possibly the best top end card.
• Kodama of the East Tree is possibly the best top end card, but is win-more, since it does nothing without a prior draw engine already running.
• Grim Haruspex, Midnight Reaper: Backbone value engines.
• Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves: Exceptional in the opening hand, useful sac fodder late game.
• Neverwinter Dryad: meh, but better than rampant growth. Would include.
• Primal Druid: Amazing card, backbone of the deck.
• Viridian Emissary: Amazing card, backbone of the deck.
• Blisterpod: Surprisingly good, an overperformer.
• Elvish Visionary, Clattering Augur, Dusk Legion Zealot, Wall of Blossoms: This suite of creatures is a backbone of the deck.
• Masked Vandal: Pretty good! Can exile the worst creature in the yard, so it's not bad. However it doesn't break us out of graveyard hate lock pieces, which is a major purpose of artifact and enchantment hate.
• Wirewood Herald: Can run out of tutor targets, but if that happens it already did its job. This is a really good card, but it functions like a second Elvish Visionary rather than a tutor.
• Bloodthrone Vampire: Actually pretty good. Turns out a free sacrifice outlet is amazing.
• Woe Strider: The second free sac outlet that actually helps us.
• Zulaport Cutthroat: A very fast finisher, this is the perfect wincon for the deck. Closes out the game combined with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker, Sifter of Skulls, or Living Death.
• Living Death: If I would otherwise deck myself with Underrealm Lich and draw engines, this allows me to win on the spot with an Eternal Witness loop and Zulaport Cutthroat.
• Evolutionary Leap: Provides solid value, good enough to keep in the deck.
• Underrealm Lich: Backbone value engine of the deck.
• Springbloom Druid, Farhaven Elf: Three mana tapped ramp. Good enough, 1/1 bodies are better than anything else. Springbloom druid is probably the worst of the bunch.
• Wood Elves: Possibly the best creature ramp in the deck.
• Woodland Chasm: A Forest Swamp to fetch with Wood Elves.
• Yahenni, Undying Partisan: A sacrifice outlet that protects itself.
• Woe Strider: A sacrifice outlet that actually does something. The goat token is useful.
• Bloodthrone Vampire: The worst sacrifice outlet in the deck, better sacrifice outlet than all options not in the deck.
• Satyr Wayfinder: Similar to an elvish visionary. This deck often misses land drops, so having one in hand on turn three is never a bad thing. Good late game to fill the graveyard and continue making land drops. Still untested though. Tested: performs much better than expected. Drawing lands was nice, as I expected. I had undervalued how nice self mill is.
• Liliana, Heretical Healer  : Constant over performer. Recursion is very good in this deck, and discarding a top end card to reanimate with Meren comes up pretty often.
• Corpse Augur: One of the worst value engines, but still solid.
• Victimize: Invaluable recursion tool, and pairs with Eternal Witness to create a value engine.
• Unearth: Solid value card.
• Living Death: Engine with Eternal Witness. Otherwise, it provides great lategame value.
• Shambling Ghast: Having a net 0 mana creature turns out to be useful during storm turns, can sort of ramp early, and is a bit of interaction against enemy creatures.
• Plaguecrafter: Creature hate.
• Krosan Wayfarer: Can fail easily if no lands in hand, but gives the opportunity for fast acceleration early and has late game potential to add mana during a Living Death loop.
• Prowling Geistcatcher: We can loop this exactly like Living Death, and it's a creature too!
• Erebos, Bleak-Hearted: a good draw engine with a backup sacrifice outlet if things aren't going our way.
• Once Upon a Time: The card selection is nice, since we need to assemble a complicated cogwork machine of sac outlet + value engine + sac fodder. Also fixes mana at the beginning.
• Adventurous Impulse, Abundant Harvest: reasonable cantrips that lets us avoid both mana flooding and mana screwing.
• Mausoleum Secrets: Cheap, instant speed tutor that lets us find a myriad of 1 mana pieces early game, or Living Death late game. Being able to get Malakir Rebirth   expands this both cards’ utility.
• Legion Vanguard: Not bad, but not great. Sits in an unhappy medium between a free sacrifice outlet and a value piece like Midnight Reaper.
• Outland Liberator  : A much worse version of Caustic Caterpillar but at least it's better than Reclamation Sage.
• Fell Stinger: One of the few three mana creatures that can draw two cards on etb.
• Undead Butler: This thing seems like a nice, versitile addition to the deck, but I'm not sure how it'll play out yet.

Cards Not In The Deck (Maybeboard)

• Jarad's Orders: Good both midgame for value and late game for finishers. It costs a bit too much mana, since spending a turn tutoring isn't that powerful much less fun.
• Skullwinder: I made the mistake of running this card as Eternal Witness part two. I was wrong, this card is god awful. Giving your opponent the same effect is only good if you're both losing to a third opponent. Since the reason you'd play this card is to loop Living Death, you'll be returning multiple cards to an opponent who want to stop you from wrathing their board repeatedly.
• Gleancrawler: Clunky to get out and creates limited value. Possibly the worst top end card of the cards I considered.
• Tortured Existence: Best case forms a lackluster card advantage engine with gleancrawler. Worst case does nothing without an already existing card advantage engine. Medium case gives some value with a dork.
• Strionic Resonator: doesnt work with shirei, can’t target the same creature with meren, too much mana to justify copying etbs
• Ravenous Squirrel: Given unlimited mana, this card does everything our deck wants. However, it’s always too slow. Not bad as a big beater/blocker though. Being a creature makes it much better than Vampiric Rites.
• Foster: Provides solid value, but is a little too mana hungry.
• Hope of Ghirapur: Can lock a spellslinger out of the game, but recurring it every turn hampers our own gameplan. Could remove, since it doesn't help us durdle.
• Phyrexian Reclamation: Can fail early game, and not especially relevant late game. Best midgame, but is it good enough? Actually have never activated it once during goldfishing. Hot garbage.
• Primal Growth: Noncreature ramp is not good enough.
• Kagemaro, First to Suffer: Not only does it cost too much mana, it probably won't kill the creatures you want it to.
• Mycoloth: Not a good finisher. Provides very little value, only attempts to close out the game. It requires too much investment and wait before the payoff.
• card: traverse the uvenwald: Almost impossible to trigger delirium.
• Yavimaya Elder: good but not great. Is card advantage but only for lands. Would have rather have an etb draw creature.
• Elvish Rejuvenator: We don’t play a lot of nonbasic lands, so 9% the chance to whiff on this card is too big of a risk.
• Dictate of Erebos: This card makes games unfun for your opponents. That means it's probably correct to play it, but I just don't have the stomach for it.
• Foundation Breaker: seemed like a good fit, but evoking it is not ideal because we'd rather leave it on the battlefield to sac later. Possibly outclassed by Masked Vandal.
• Dawntreader Elk: Fine, but doesn't combo with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker, so I'd rather have a three mana 1/1 ramp elf.
• Magus of the Abyss: does nothing on etb, so not really what we want. Our value is so exponential that having this card produce value over several turns is not ideal.
• Null Profusion: Hot garbage. Skipping the draw step hurts.
• Merciless Executioner,Demon's Disciple: Redundant creature hate.
• Cabal Therapist: is a pet card of mine but it does nothing on etb, so not really what we want. Our value is so exponential that having this card produce value over several turns is not ideal. In fact, it's hot garbage.
• Grave Titan: Not a great card for this deck, since we aren't looking to win through combat. The tokens it makes aren't really usable since we care about nontoken creature deaths, and it costs too much mana.
• Westvale Abbey  : Too slow, colorless mana is bad.
• Mishra's Factory: Colorless mana is sooo bad.
• Heirloom Blade: foster #2. Having to equip this preemptively is cumbersome. A nonbo with both skull clamp and shieri.
• Deathreap Ritual doesn’t help us go off, just helps us not run out of gas. outclassed here by even Beast Whisperer.
• Vampiric Rites: Way too slow.
• Reclamation Sage: We really need to be able to blow up Rest in Peace. Synergizes with Wirewood Herald, but not Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker.
• Fleshbag Marauder: Redunant creature hate, could be brought in if you're a meaner deck pilot than me.
• Timeless Witness: Since our most powerful engine is Living Death + Eternal Witness, it benefits us to have multiple copies. This also rounds out our 4 cmc Birthing Pod targets. However the card just feels too slow at 4 mana.

Cards I'd Like To Put In The Deck

These are cards that I don't own but if I did might go in.

• Grisly Salvage: is a great cantrip that finds us what we need early game and stocks the graveyard.
• Morbid Opportunist: If deathreap ritual was a 3 mana creature, I’d consider playing it, and this is even a bit better since it triggers off of random creatures our opponents control dying.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 15 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 27 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.37
Tokens	Day, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Experience Token, Goat 0/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Night, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B