Meren's Shadowborn Apostles

Commander / EDH* BG (Golgari) Demons Discard Humans Theme/Gimmick Zombie

Gooddaysir036

Creature (42)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Demon of Death's Gate
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Ravenous Demon  ^Flip
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Rotlung Reanimator
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 20x Shadowborn Apostle
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer

Land (35)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 9x Forest
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 15x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Bloodbond March
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Open the Graves

Artifact (5)

• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thrumming Stone

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Traverse the Outlands
• 1x Victimize

Instant (1)

• 1x Tainted Strike

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Rotlung Reanimator
• 1x Thrashing Brontodon

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Pox

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~~~~~Welcome to Meren's Apocalypse!~~~~~

Please note, this section is slowly being edited to include more

***Also please note that the deck is considerably more expensive due to the price jump in Shadowborns due to the popularity of the Athreos Shadowborn deck featured on The Command Zone. I imagine they will eventually go back down to normal price.

Welcome everyone! This deck has been my baby for over a year and a half now and has seen many changes over the course of its life (unlife?), each new iteration has made it stronger and more resilient. I hope you like it and enjoy it aaaaaaand let's jump right into it!

After Meren unleashed her vengeance on her former clan she set out to topple all of Jund, to silence its eternal drone and show it the beauty of destruction. Let us bring that destruction.

Gameplan!

Hallo everyone!

So our strategy for this deck can be quite open ended as it is very flexible based on what we need or based on what our opening hands are. Our main strategies are: ramping to high hell, disrupting our opponents through discard and sacrifice, and finally through cheating out big creatures / amassing a massive zombie token army. Best part is you can flip to any of these on a dime. This deck thrives on it's flexibility and assortment of win conditions.

So, how do we do this? Well let's talk about the deck's synergies... (This is the part where you click the next section) Imagine this being said in Shrek's voice. Praise our Ogrelord.

Oh also, let's queue up some music!

Synergy

The deck has very deep Synergy revolving around the Shadowborn Apostle . Since the Shadowborn is a 1 CMC card it gives us the ability to have lightning quick plays and very explosive turns.

Let's talk about some of the cards that work so well with these little dudes.

Cryptolith Rite allows all of our creatures to tap for mana, with so many Shadowborns this allows us to ramp into really large spells very quickly.

Skullclamp is a very effective sac and draw engine. The Shadowborns will always die and net us 2 card. If Grim Haruspex is on the field then it'll be 3 cards. Plus if this is combined with either Xathrid Necromancer , Rotlung Reanimator or Open the Graves then we will also receive a zombie for each one! If we have all three then 1 Shadowborn will net us 3 zombies.

Bloodbond March , Thrumming Stone , and Meren of Clan Nel Toth will ensure near endless recursion of these dudes whenever we need them.

Sacrifice Subtheme

With our Shadowborns we can start up sac engines using Viscera Seer , Skullclamp , Carrion Feeder and whatnot to control our opponent's boards using Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos . This will ensure their board state is nonexistent while we keep getting ours back. This will also set us up nicely for a Rise of the Dark Realms , but more on this in a later section.

Constantly wiping their creatures while Overseer of the Damned is on the field will also net us zombies!

Discard/Disruption Subtheme

So, sometimes dealing with people's creatures isn't enough, especially if they are just slinging spells, so this is where our discarding comes into play. Shadowborn Apostle and any zombies we are generating are excellent fodder for Sadistic Hypnotist . Plus the Hypnotist is great when setting up for either Living Death or Rise of the Dark Realms . Additionally we have Liliana, Defiant Necromancer . She is great! Discard + Recursion. Yes please. Anyways, our opponents can't use their resources if we keep stripping them from their hands. Anything we toss to the grave mid to late game is just more fuel for the fire for us! With Meren the grave is essentially just an extension of our hand anyways.

So let's talk about artifacts and enchantments. We can do fine without using them, decks revolved around them are going to constantly suffer when we play our cute little Caustic Caterpillar or Bane of Progress .

Next up, ramp!

Let's talk ramp!

Mkay, so this section is actually going to be pretty straightforward. We having things like Kodama's and whatnot, but there are 2 cards I'd like to give particular attention to.

Cryptolith Rite is explosive in this deck. A turn 2 Cryptolith with a Shadowborn will become super explosive really quick. Plus with Skullclamp the Shadowborns can tap themselves so you can draw cards.

Second. Traverse the Outlands . This card is INSANE. Set up for a Demon of Death's Gate by saccing 3 Shadowborns and paying the life then play the outlands and get 9 basic lands!! I've had this as early as turn 3, but getting 9 lands at any time is great.

Sweet, okay let's move on to the win conditions :)

Win Conditions!!

We've got numerous win conditions, so let's break it up a bit.

Combat Damage!?

Pathbreaker Ibex : This goat is metal as hell. With so many 9/9 demons in the deck this goat allows even our squishy shadowborns to become 10/10s.

Craterhoof Behemoth : So, if we get our zombie engine going we can have plenty creatures in no time. Oooor we can use Thrumming Stone to get all our Shadowborns, then it is goodnight!!

Tainted Strike : There are three 9 power demons in this deck. This card is for taking care of the troublesome lifegain player...or just troublesome player...yes infect sucks but it is necessary sometimes. Plus this is the deck's only source of infect that only works with 3 specific creatures.

All of the Demons are flying too so, yeah you can just swing with them and they can take care of the job too.

Alternate win conditions:

Gray Merchant of Asphodel : This undead potato is a bomb when he hits the field! It is easy to get high devotion in this deck. Dropping him will net a ton of life, but if we sac him and then bring him back with our commander it is sometimes enough to close out games. (Especially late game) Or we can drop him and then bring back Archfiend of Despair and it'll do the same thing.

Rise of the Dark Realms : It is time to get spooky!

Living Death : A board wipe and greatness from the graveyard! Slam dunk all your bad boys into the grave, drop this baby and let's get going!

and finally!

Torment of Hailfire : This deck can ramp hard if it needs, and if our other win conditions aren't feasible then this is amazing! Pair it with Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and you are freaking set! Bonus points if you empty everyone's hands with Sadistic Hypnotist first!

Graveyard plays, disruption and recursion will be nearly endless. The deck thrives on its resilience and win conditions.

My initial rendition of the deck has seen many changes over the last year, now it is definitely fine tuned and lethal if correctly piloted. If you're interested, the following article provides an alternate rendition of the deck and is an excellent read. The strategy for the deck in the article is more tailored for duel commander, however it is an excellent read regardless. EDHREC-Duel to the Death - http://articles.edhrec.com/edh-political-science-duel-to-the-death/

Thankyou for viewing my version of the deck, and thankyou for any comments ahead of time!

Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 27 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Energy Reserve, Experience Token, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	DEMONS ARE DANK, Commander, playtesters, Cool decks, bro, Commander Shiiiiiiieeeeeet, guest decks, Cool Commander, Interesting Commander Decks, decks, Considerable Decks