Greven, Uncertain Death

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Reanimator Value Engine

Dustinsanity

Creature (19)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
• 1x Chainer, Nightmare Adept
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Greater Gargadon
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Homura, Human Ascendant  ^Flip
• 1x Malfegor
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
• 1x Nightmare Shepherd
• 1x Rotting Regisaur
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Toshiro Umezawa
• 1x Vindictive Lich

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Act of Treason
• 1x Besmirch
• 1x Cut / Ribbons
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Hijack
• 1x Kari Zev's Expertise
• 1x Languish
• 1x Mire in Misery
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Shreds of Sanity
• 1x Tentative Connection
• 1x Vandalblast

Land (33)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Mishra's Factory
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Artifact (12)

• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Cultivator's Caravan
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Glaring Spotlight
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Commander (1)

Instant (19)

• 1x Abnormal Endurance
• 1x Bolt Bend
• 1x Boon of Erebos
• 1x Burnt Offering
• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Fists of Flame
• 1x Fling
• 1x Grotesque Mutation
• 1x Heartless Act
• 1x Raking Claws
• 1x Reckless Spite
• 1x Rush of Vitality
• 1x Sacrifice
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Skeletal Scrying
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Temur Battle Rage
• 1x Undying Evil

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Tectonic Reformation

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**Greven is a bully. He wants to destroy potential blockers, make your opponent waste their removal spells, and dish out tons of damage at a time, while keeping your hand nice and full.

If you like smacking an opponent for lethal from one attack out of nowhere, Greven is the commander for you. This is my budget version -- and I'm always building. And always on a budget.**

Combat Tricks

Undying Evil, Abnormal Endurance - Act to keep Greven swinging even if he's destroyed or forced to sac. They also act on other creatures to redo their etb triggers in a pinch. Rush of Vitality, Boon of Erebos - Keep a creature from dying, but Rush gives lifelink, so it can be used to bring us back from the brink of death from aggro our own Greven trigger. Boon gives +4/+0 to Greven for 1 and saves him from death. I think that's worth a shot. Grotesque Mutation - If we're gonna be paying life, we also want to gain it. This provides a little more commander damage, toughness in a pinch, and brings us back from yet again, the brink of death. While there are better options, this is what I'm using in my first iteration before purchases for improvement. I had to feel him out. Temur Battle Rage, Raking Claws - In a word, these are finishers. We sac a creature with power 6 or greater to Greven, and if we declare no blocks, we give him double strike and find new prey. Being able to cycle Raking Claws early game is strong, but the card draw version might be more favorable in the future. Fling - If I can't hit you in the face for 26 commander damage, I'll hit you in the face for 26 regular damage. This is best used in response to a removal spell once an opponent has allowed you to commit to your combat trick plan for a combat step. Bolt Bend - Saying no to a spell is strong. Removing something else and saving Greven is stronger. Greven's power makes Bolt Bend R to cast. I recommend Deflecting Swat as well, but I can't buy that right now. Fists of Flame - After we trigger Greven, we want to draw into more combat tricks to finish our defending player. If we are able to cast Fists of Flame, we double the benefit of Greven's attack trigger, give him trample, and draw a card. To me, it's a win-win. Plus you can virtually cycle it if you don't need to or can't cast it.

Removal Suite

Hijack, Tentative Connection, Besmirch, Kari Zev's Expertise, Act of Treason - At best use, we can use these for removal by "eating" them with Greven. Idk what he does to extract all that good stuff from the creatures he sacs, but I imagine it's a bit more than standard-issue interrogation. Being able to steal a creature with one of these spells early ensures that if your opponent only had 2 creatures upon cast, Greven his hitting them very hard, and you're drawing a lot of cards. Reckless Spite, Snuff Out - Spells that get rid of creatures and cost us life are best used to get ahead, but when we're behind, paying no mana or destroying 2 for the price of 3 mana is a no brainer. Heartless Act, Curtains' Call, Cut / Ribbons - Heartless Act is a solid removal spell, and a good budget option for those suffering with mana color problems over Terminate. It's versatile, and sometimes a creature is 0/0 with counters on it. Creatures like Marath and Reyhan are usually protected by "indestructibility" effects, but Heartless Act can just kill them from state-based effects for having no toughness and no counters. Cut // Ribbons is an early game removal spell and a late game sleeper finisher. Mire in Misery, Vandalblast - We need the tempo plays. We need asymmetrical sacrifices and destructive effects so we can commit to the board with no penalty to our own mass removal. Languish, Deadly Tempest - Board wipes. Languish gets past indestructible and protection. Deadly Tempest punishes token players or those flooding the board with dorks or utility drops. Malfegor Best played when you're ahead, Malfegor is here to clear the way for an attack to finish off someone with Greven. Then he'll happily feed himself to greven for +6/+0 and 6 cards. It's pretty sweet since the cost of using him is so steep, but you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet. Because he's a creature, he can come back for more one-sided board wipes.

Card Draw

Read the Bones, Skeletal Scrying - These spells get us from 0 cards to 2+ cards. It's essential that we don't depend on Greven to feed us cards alone. Disciple of Bolas, Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion, Grim Haruspex, Midnight Reaper - Disciple gives us life and cards. We need both. Erebos gives us a sac outlet to remove blockers, draw cards as a result, and coincidentally make Greven bigger with each activation. Neheb will help us get dead cards out of our hand and useful cards into it. While he's a removal magnet, there's tricks to keep him alive for a trigger, and a trigger can mean a nice recovery in the second main phase. Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex work as removal fodder because a lot of our effects let us sacrifice creatures. In a pinch, sacing them to our other activations/triggers isn't bad since they both have 3 power. Grim Haruspex lowkey draws curiosity face-down since Akroma lurks in the 99, and she's hard to get rid of once she's face-up. More on her ahead.

Recursion

Nightmare Shepherd, Mimic Vat - Serve the dual purpose of getting triggers from things that died under our control, even if the things triggered outside our control initially. Using our opponent's resources is critical toward our palette of options. Phyrexian Reclamation, Chainer, Nightmare Adept, Feldon of the Third Path - These let us replay creatures from our decks that have died through some tragic or strategically timed reason. Recursion is pseudo card advantage. Being able to recycle our effects will provide us consistency in our plan. Shreds of Sanity, Toshiro Umezawa - Toshiro allows us to use our mana more efficiently than usual on an opponent's turn. If we play reactively, we can cast the same removal spell twice in a rotation, or chain a removal spell into a ritual, into a removal spell into a card draw trigger, etc. Shreds of sanity is just great spell recursion, and it's an effect that red is hard pressed to abuse without blue helping.

Random Tidbits

Tectonic Reformation - We do not want to be land flooded. If we don't need this we can cycle it away. Seize the Day - We can finish two players in one turn, 3 if we're lucky. Rotting Regisaur - Big dumpy creature we just want to swing with until we can sac it to draw 7 cards with Greven. Vindictive Lich - This guy is just great to commit toaster bath with. He'll probably die before you can cast Greven and make the Magical Christmas Land Dream Play, but he's good value and a great reanimation target. Greater Gargadon - While we're stealing things, we get a virtually untouchable sac outlet that's bringing a 9/7 ever closer to us, with haste. Solemn Simulacrum - Greven costs 5. Robot costs 4. Robot gets land. Robot wants to die. Seems legit. Homura, Human Ascendant / Homura's Essence - Admittedly a Red/Black pet card of mine, he also wants dead and he can be sac'd. We have powerful sac effects that let us use a 4/4 for 4RR in a way that returns the mana and feeds us more cards. Once Essence is online, he'll feed us 2 more cards, and likely allow us to finish off defending player with Greven.

Evasion & Toys

Whispersilk Cloak, Glaring Spotlight, Loxodon Warhammer, Rogue's Passage, Shizo, Death's Storehouse - We want him to hit, for sure. Glaring Spotlight is more there to ensure hexproof doesn't thwart our removal package, but sacing Glaring Spotlight in a pinch can counter a piece of removal and let Greven and his crew through with no trouble for 3 mana. In a game where you're having to be careful, it's best for Greven to have shroud, because your opponents don't want to ever see him tap as it is. While you can't target him with your spells, neither can they, and you're still free to trigger him, being unblockable, getting bigger, and drawing you cards.

More Toys

Akroma, Angel of Fury - Here to stay, here to stomp. Morph her early, flip her later with a tricky spell like Undying Evil or Abnormal Endurance. She can't be countered, so casting her for 8 doesn't hurt either. If you must. Hammer of Purphoros - Greven wants haste. Your team wants haste. Greven wants bodies to turn into cards. I see no better permanent for this deck than Hammer for providing both. Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Finisher, lifeline, reanimation target. No relation to Lifeline.

Mana Acceleration

Soldevi Adnate - You want to be turning your creatures into mana. Greven takes mana to feed. Sacrifice / Burnt Offering - This is a spell that puts Adnate's activation on the stack. It can give us tons of mana in a pinch, or even prevent our commander from being stolen or exiled. Seething Song / Dark Ritual - Rituals. Good mana acceleration to get stuff out of your hand and onto the field. It's best to play this deck as fast as you can if you notice an opponent is behind from the start. Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, Everflowing Chalice, Talisman of Indulgence, Basalt Monolith Budget options. We don't have Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Ancient Tomb, etc.

There are many obvious choices I have excluded for lack of inventory. If you have any suggestions, please indulge me.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.06
Tokens	Copy Clone, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Morph 2/2 C, Treasure