This is my iteration of
Lazav, the Multifarious
. The deck has three primary strategies that I use depending on my hand and the playgroup that I am facing at the time: self-mill, Lazav beats, and combo. Given the variables for which I choose to play my deck, it can have a learning curve to it.
The first step to playing this version of the deck is to survey what you are up against. This deck does require you to have some knowledge of various Commanders and their strategies surrounding them. However, to put it in its simplest terms, I pair my strategies with a mindset such as: _"Is there one person in particularly troubling?", "Will I fly under the radar compared to another Commander?", and "Can I get my value engines out while the game is slowed down?." _
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With the first option, I tend to offer myself as the aggressor against a speedy or combo opponent--My general directive is to outrace them and eliminate them via infect (Make
Lazav, the Multifarious
a copy of
Vector Asp
, pay to give it infect, then morph it into a big beater like
Phyrexian Dreadnought
or
Hunted Horror
) or outright commander damage/abilities (you can make your Commander unblockable with a suite of creatures like
Slither Blade
and
Invisible Stalker
, waiting for the declare blockers to end since they cannot block Lazav, and change it to one of the former beaters. The more mana intensive variant to this strategy is to use
Phage the Untouchable
to sneak in a win if no other methods are within reach.
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This strategy generally works well when you do not have to be super aggressive and some of your opponents are intimidated by someone else. In this case, you fly under the radar until you can start making riskier moves like casting a
Buried Alive
to go for a combo kill which will be explained in a later section.
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This strategy involves playing reactively to your opponents or using them to get the advantage. Generally just keeping on value cards like
Search for Azcanta
or a
Notion Thief
can tip the scales in your favor in a very discreet manner.
The Combos
These combos function from a resolved
Buried Alive
and/or have these cards in the graveyard at the point of the combo with
Necrotic Ooze
in the graveyard or on the battlefield as well.
-
Bloodline Keeper
+
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
and either
Blood Artist
(ON THE FIELD) or
Triskelion
With this combination, Ooze lets you have all activated abilities of creatures in the graveyard so that would be the Keeper, Grimgrin, and potentially Trike. Keeper + Grimgrin allow you to have an infinite number of +1/+1 counters on Lazav or Ooze and an infinite number of Blood Artist triggers if it is on the battlefield at the time of the combo. Tap the Keeper to make a 2/2 Vampire toke. Sacrifice the token to Grimgrin's ability to untap the Lazav (or Ooze) and put a +1/+1 counter on it. Then if you have Blood Artist, drain the table and win or use Trike's ability to remove a +1/+1 counter to deal one damage to any creature or player.
2.
Palladium Myr
+
Pili-Pala
and
Necrotic Ooze
to make infinite mana.
Tap the Myr to make , then use the mana to pay for the Pili-Pala untap ability to make one mana of any color. Wash, Rinse, Repeat until you have as much mana as you feel necessary. Ideally, you have a sacrifice outlet you allow you to get Lazav back to the command zone and recast him (and copy Ooze for more mana) to surveil your library into your graveyard, or have
Mirror-Mad Phantasm
in your graveyard to mill your library. From there, use
Mindshrieker
to mill your opponents out and pump up Lazav/Ooze, use
Thassa, God of the Sea
to make your large creature unblockable and kill a player as well. (Don't worry if they have shuffle effects, there are ways around that with out value and you can opt to mill yourself to win with Lab Maniac if you want to add one).
Some Spicy Tech
Generally these cards have won me the game via disruption of my opponents, give great value, or abuse a rule that makes Lazav bonkers when it copies the card.
1.
Thassa, God of the Sea
is amazing in this deck for a couple reasons. First, it has value on or off the battlefield with the scry ability or the activated ability to make a creature unblockable. With this card, the ruling states that Thassa is a creature on the stack/graveyard/library/exile even if the devotion would not make it a creature. Lazav retains the copy ability and indestructible however, maintaining its place on the battlefield.
2.
Notion Thief
is really just a mean card. I mean honestly, it is, but dayum does it make for some angry opponents.
3.
Jace's Archivist
is a wheel on a stick and can function as discard for creatures you need in the graveyard as well as hand disruption for your opponent.
4.
Magus of the Bazaar
is a budgeted
Bazaar of Baghdad
that generated repetitive value the longer it's on the field by dumping all your creatures into the graveyard.
5.
Doom Whisperer
is the end all, be all to this deck. If you have this on field or copied, you have pretty much won the game. Pay live to sculpt your draws or get the exact creatures you need in the graveyard to win. It is such a valuable piece to this deck.
6.
Ovinomancer
does three things for us, save Lazav from being destroyed by bouncing it to hand, destroys a pesky creature, and sacrifices itself upon cast because only a dummy would sacrifice three basic islands for it in this deck.
NOTE: I am still optimizing the list and will update possible replacements for cards as I see them so stay tuned!