Daedalus19876 re: Zulaport Cutthroat and other creatures with death triggers. Are you able to reliably have them die at same time for maximum effect? Does that even really matter?

In the Cutthroat example you mentioned you need a lot of fragile creatures to survive combat for the delayed Encore trigger. The only other way I can think of in the list to achieve mass, simultaneous triggers is Living Death.

Have decided to build this deck myself but wondering if I should lean into the Wake the Dead/Living Death and Cavalier loops. Would allow me to replace the Araumi specific payoffs with more interaction and draw.

iammute: It's not hard to force them all to die simultaneously -- just encore during your second main :) I do highly recommend the Wake the Dead / Cavalier of Night loops, because the keep the deck from being dependent on Araumi. But I wouldn't remove the Araumi payoffs entirely, because 1) there's decent overlap, and 2) Araumi is cheap enough (mana-wise) that a little commander-dependence isn't too bad. If you went for the combo-win more than the value plans, I'd test with all of the powerful tutors of course. Enjoy the deck, it's SUPER fun to pilot! Just complex, haha :)

SenSpooky: Apologies that it took me like two months to respond!

The reason Arcane Signet is a maybe is because Talisman of Dominance is so pretty in foil, and because I haven't found room for both yet XD Not a good reason, I know.

I've never really needed a board wipe, honestly -- Fleshbag Marauder (plus friends) and Living Death usually do the trick. And I don't ramp much here (except on turns where I expect to win), so 7 mana is hard.

Daedalus19876 oh dear, I am an idiot haha. Good thing you told me that before I build it.

Daedalus19876 Hey there! I LOVE your primer; it's well-written and it has inspired me to look at running Araumi as my next commander choice!

Quick preface before going into some questions; I'm a pretty new Commander player (coming from Modern and Pioneer background) and I've been looking at a few decks to make a small "commander stable" over time.

Using this deck as a template (and also your Fresh Fish for Cheap ($250 Budget Araumi) as another reference), I wanted to ask you a few questions about how to tweak/modify this deck in case I wanted to modify for certain rules.

1) No infinite combo(s) rule: Let's say I'm playing in a more casual pod where this rule is instituted. What would you immediately sub out from this decklist and what would be good options to put in that would allow you to play a more relatively "fair (even if it's still graveyard shenanigans!)" game? Bonus points if the sub-in options are sub $20 at max!

2) Tailored budget considerations: For that matter, what would be some good options to sub out the >$20 cards in this list? The most obvious ones that I can tell, from quick pricing, are:

• Gilded Drake , Hullbreacher , and Spellseeker
• Entomb , Mana Drain , and Fierce Guardianship
• Mana Crypt and Phyrexian Arena
• Naturally, the expensive lands (fetches, Volrath's Stronghold , etc.)

3) General theme of "powering down/creating more flair": I'm a huge fan of the 75% deck mentality, and I'd love to be able to modulate the deck to power up or down (mostly down based on this current decklist). Taking out the pricier cards is probably one of the most obvious ways to "power down" the deck, but what would you recommend in terms of other card substitutes (i.e. if I wanted to be able to side out/in certain cards just to add more flavor)? This whole theme is generally tied into the previous two questions, but this is just more picking your brain at this point!

Thanks so much for your work!

Daedalus19876 Also, I apologize if my question(s) are repetitive; I also saw in the other, budget, decklist that you've probably already done some of this. Still, always curious to pick the author's brain if there's anything else that came to mind that was more recent (given that some new stuff has released since then)!

Kaeladin: Heya! Lemme try and answer all your questions :) Welcome to the best format in Magic -- and I'm glad my primer could inspire you!

1) This deck can do fine in a "no infinite combos" meta, though it depends what precisely that definition entails. I would shift the deck to have more "staxy" elements (so re-adding Ashen-Skin Zubera and Burglar Rat , etc), and focus on killing via Gray Merchant of Asphodel lines (with potentially a few extra clones). However, the deck DOES aim towards infinite combos in its current iteration, and avoiding infinite combos will tend to make you more commander-reliant, which also means you'll need more counters and protection. Note that the wheel + Hullbreacher lines aren't "infinite" but still might make people angry XD

2) The "Fresh Fish For Cheap" list cut most of the $20+ cards, and that's the best place I'd start with. I haven't updated that list, but Araumi hasn't gotten many new toys in Kaldheim/Strixhaven. The biggest additions from MH2 which I want to test are Unmarked Grave , Persist , and Dauthi Voidwalker -- which all should be cheap-ish, I believe. Apart from Hullbreacher and potentially Entomb (which I'd highly suggest keeping), everything above $20 in this list can be cut immediately, without any big problems -- run basics over fetches, and perhaps a few more Fleshbag Marauder effects. Oriq Loremage is great, as is Mystic Reflection .

3) Hrm. The biggest thing is that Araumi can be built in a thousand different ways -- she works well with just about any good ETB creature XD You could do things like include Gyruda, Doom of Depths or Sower of Temptation to steal more cards, clones to double up on good spells, etc. I would emphasize cards which says "for each opponent, do X" or "for each X you control", which "multiply" well with multiple copies. Sac outlets too, especially if you cut Phyrexian Altar -- maybe Legion Vanguard ? I hope this helps, Araumi is SUPER open ended and you can tune her to basically use whatever creatures you enjoy!

Please let me know if there's any other questions you have!

Daedalus19876 You rock! Thanks so much for your advice; man, Dauthi Voidwalker looks amazing (not just for this deck, but for any of the blue/blacks like Anowon)!

Since you mentioned tons of building options for Araumi, were there other decklists/variants of Araumi that really caught your eye and/or that you'd recommend as reference? I'd love to be able to run some "transformative" options that I can modify depending on the house rules for a pod.

regarding alternative sacrifice outlets - Carrion Feeder , Viscera Seer and Dross Hopper are cheap, free sac outlets I’ve had success with in my Teysa, Orzhov Scion and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest sacrifice decks. Having sac outlets you can reanimate has been incredibly useful.

Modern Horizons 2 has some pretty phenomenal stuff for this deck! I'm keen to get hold of a heap of them for testing. I'll list off a few staples I think are worth considering.

Unmarked Grave : I can see you've already had a gander at this one given it shows up in the maybeboard. It's no Entomb, but two mana is still pretty damn efficient, given it can also get Wake the Dead or other combo pieces. Vile Entomber is another one of these cards, but one that I think is better than Oriq Loremage . Having to wait a turn feels bad. Of both of these, I'd much rather play the Entomber.

Persist : Reanimate at home, but I'm so glad to see a card that will probably replace Dance of the Dead . I dislike that card with a passion. The -1/-1 counter is a pretty low cost given most of our important stuff survives it, but it does turn a Stitcher's Supplier in the bin into a mill 6 for 2.

Dihada's Ploy : This is a decent filtering spell that I think is good because you can just repeat it as many times as you have mana available, and it's an instant. This looks much nicer that Deep Analysis .

Diamond Lion : Probably a good one if you're intending on going full combo. Getting three of these off Araumi of the Dead Tide and then getting 9 mana seems decent, along with getting rid of stuff it your hand you'd rather in your graveyard. I probably won't play it though, since it feels very all-in.

Magus of the Bridge : More combo! Multiples of these can give you some gangbusters tokens that you can further sacrifice/attack with. BBB is a bit rough, but imagine all the Undead Augur shenanigans.

Urza's Saga : I don't have to explain this one.

Cool to see your post-MH2 upgrades! Do you think you'd ever consider Archon of Cruelty for the more casual version of the deck? I know 8 cmc is pretty steep in Araumi, but getting essentially 6 Archon triggers for the 8 mana seems pretty not bad.

Hey man have you tried using Archfiend of Despair? If all 3 connect that's 48 instant damage to the table at end step since each one will double damage 3 times for a total of 48! It's disgusting haha!

Krom3: I did test it! But honestly, I found I never needed it. I had other ways to win at lower CMCs ;)

Daedalus19876 Oh nice haha good to know then how about Cephalid Vandal as a low cmc way to keep the self mill engine going?

Added: Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Oversold Cemetery, Sacrifice

Removed: Volrath's Stronghold, Massacre Wurm, Agent of Treachery

This deck is a beast!

Why did you take out oversold cemetery?

I decided that Phyrexian Reclamation did the job better ;)

No Thoughtrender Lamia for that sweet, sweet, 9 card hand wipe? My guess to why you aren't playing it is that it's pretty bad by itself

darklord1135: It's just too much mana for the effect, alas. And if I wanted to go for a hand-wipe, I'd be playing Ashen-Skin Zubera and Burglar Rat ;)

What do you think of Body Launderer from New Capenna? Looting and reanimation on a solid body feels really strong

iammute, Daedalus moved over to Moxfield a few months ago. They've been updating their Araumi deck and primer over there a lot more frequently. You can find the most up to date version here