Anafenza Hates Your Graveyard

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Competitive Control Infinite Combo

gonki

Land (38)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 5x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Murmuring Bosk
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 5x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Windswept Heath

Instant (8)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Abzan Charm
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Dromoka's Command
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Sudden Death
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Creature (20)

• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Archetype of Courage
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Ashling, the Extinguisher
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Creakwood Liege
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1x Dryad Militant
• 1x Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Pharika, God of Affliction
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
• 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Duneblast
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Map the Wastes
• 1x Peregrination
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 1x Vraska the Unseen

Commander (1)

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Painful Quandary
• 1x Primeval Bounty
• 1x Privileged Position
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Artifact (9)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Body and Mind
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Siege Rhino

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Barter in Blood
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Death Grasp
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Find / Finality
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Kaya's Wrath
• 1x Living End
• 1x Revival / Revenge

Creature (5)

• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Viridian Emissary

Artifact (2)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Ugin's Nexus

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaya, Orzhov Usurper

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Faerie Tauntings

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Anafenza hates your graveyard! Anafenza is sick of Meren at FNM! Anafenza was a collaborative effort with Sergal and fredsamboyo!

So the lowdown here is first and foremost to stop graveyard shenanigans. Obviously this is aimed at Meren decks which are recently quite popular but it is effective against a large number of commanders including other commander set commanders. These commanders usually use their graveyard as a shortcut to infinite combos and while I run infinite combos in a few decks (see the note at the end for more on that) that I pull out against not so fun opponents I generally prefer to punish people who run them.

To be honest even in a deck that doesn't use its graveyard as a strategy most decks use "When this creature dies" to a lesser or greater extent. Anafenza puts a stop to that as that is short hand for "When this creature is put into a graveyard" which never happens when you're exiling them. If you're playing against green they almost always have some kind of recursion and that just doesn't happen when Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void are out. You can also use a card like Yixlid Jailer to stop stuff such as Filth . So that's just examples of where you're disrupting people who want to use anything in their graveyard even if it's not a wincon. And disruption is the beginning of how you win.

My experience with people playing competitive is that they can NOT handle rules changes. If they're playing Oloro for example then Tainted Remedy is their undoing. My strategy is a lockdown. In a totally ideal world it begins with Dragonlord Dromoka . Then on my turn I can bring in cards like Tainted Remedy , Painful Quandary and Wound Reflection . Simultaneously I'm looking to drop Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Privileged Position . The ONLY way I know of to deal with this is bouncing my stuff or forcing me to sacrifice it. But all I need to deal with forced sacrifice is Sigarda, Host of Herons (if I swap her in). Of course this is all ideal but I can run multiple tutors for nearly every one of these cards and inevitably I will draw some of them. I guess the final piece is having No Mercy and/or Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts out. Between her and my fliers I can abuse the effects of Wound Reflection and with even half of the above setup people are hard pressed to do anything about me. They will mostly fight each other and hope they can draw into their combo or get the removal they need in the meantime.

I want to move on to say that with the amount of netdecking that goes on people have a really hard time understanding what I'm doing even after multiple encounters with this deck. Now that's not an issue in Modern or Standard but it's a big problem in EDH. Everything boils down to this deck changing the rules. When you change the rules people just can't deal with it. Of course I encounter good players that can adapt but most people can't. They play decks that autopilot and I take advantage of it.

As a final note I'd like to say this deck can run combos of its own. Infinite mill, Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood and you have a tremendous amount of removal and tutoring available in these colors to get those combos on the board quickly. I just find that people expect that. They're looking for me to combo out so it's easier to just smash them with Avacyn or one of the other large creatures. This deck is a consistent winner. Of course nothing wins 100% of the time in EDH but I bring a lot of decks on an average night and generally someone asks to borrow this deck almost every time. The only other deck I can say that for is From Zero to Dragons.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 2 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.39
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Player Killer, Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Enchantment Snake 1/1 BG, Human 2/2 G, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, Vampire 2/2 B, Wolf 2/2 G, Worm 1/1 BG
Folders	Commander