Karador Revamp, Edition 4.0

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Reanimator Toolbox

Drakon562

Creature (44)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Archon of Justice
• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove *f-pre*
• 1x Elvish Rejuvenator
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (37)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 6x Forest
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x High Market
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 6x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Windswept Heath

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Victimize

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Greater Good

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Maybeboard

Creature (6)

• 1x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Remorseful Cleric

Land (19)

• 6x Snow-Covered Forest
• 6x Snow-Covered Plains
• 7x Snow-Covered Swamp

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Dead of Winter

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Welcome! This is the fourth version of this Karador build, finally getting updated after more than a year. Enjoy!

Introduction

Creatures are the cornerstone of Magic. Everyone who has played Magic has played a creature. They're easy to understand for new players, and they're the most typical way to end a game, be it via direct combat or other effects (looking at you, Gray Merchant of Asphodel). Over time, the game has seen the evolution of creatures, and cards as a whole, get better, introducing effects to creatures, or making them more powerful through their stat-to-cost ratio. With so many creatures in Magic history, it's not surprising at all that creatures are good in EDH. When combined with the number of recursion options, this makes creature decks that include said recursion a force to be reckoned with, as the decks no longer are limited to just their hand, but now have their graveyard as a tool as well.

Of course, Karador, Ghost Chieftain is hardly an underdog when it comes to this kind of inevitability. While it has been outclassed by newer commanders, it is still the second most played Abzan commander, and the original graveyard commander that returns creatures to play. Karador does lose out a bit compared to other commanders in the same archetypes (sacrifice, graveyard, reanimator), coming in at #6 or lower by EDHREC's counts by number of decks for all of them. That doesn't mean he's bad though, not by a longshot. Most of the other commanders in these do not have white in their color identity. Actually, the only commander that has a higher number of decks than Karador that also runs white is Teneb, the Harvester under the reanimator theme, coming in with 41 decks compared to Karador's 34. We have access to white's powerful recursion effects like Karmic Guide and Reveillark, which allows for massive plays that we wouldn't otherwise consistently get.

Like I said earlier, this deck is my pride and joy, and I've been working on it for years. It started off as a Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest build, focused on making everyone sacrifice. Once I got neutered by wraths one too many times, I swapped over to Savra, Queen of the Golgari, which started me on the path to a more reanimator-centric build. The ability to Grave Pact on command was super useful for board control, and that discovery meant that I began to turn towards graveyard shenanigans. It doesn't matter if I sacrifice creatures if I can get them back, right, so that was where the deck began to go. In 2017, my LGS went out of business, and I snagged Karador, Ghost Chieftain for 7 bucks. Thus began the deep dive into the world of reanimation and abusing effects.

One of the goals I placed for myself when building this deck was to make it have as high of a creature content as possible- that is, if there's an effect on a non-creature that is also on a creature, I want to run the creature over the non-creature. Naturalize turns to Reclamation Sage, Unburial Rites becomes Karmic Guide. Some exceptions are made for effects that are too powerful to pass up, like Greater Good or Buried Alive, but generally I'll choose to play the creature over the non-creature.

Deck Overview

Ratings

General Attributes:

• Speed: 2/5. This deck likes to grind it out, but can win relatively early with a lucky draw.

• Newbie Friendly: 2/5. This deck has a lot of triggers and abilities to keep track of, especially during mass resurrection moments. Since it is a toolbox build, it does require at least some level of threat assessment and knowing what is best in any particular situation, which only comes from experience.

• Commander Dependency: 1/5. Karador is only played as a last resort, as there are a plethora of better ways to recur things.

• Reputation: 3.5/5. Karador is pretty well known as a commander, usually because of Boonweaver combo, so if this is brought out, expect people to target you.

• Multiplayer: 4/5. Fortunately, this deck can hold its own in 1v1 as well, but when opponents have 2 other people to attack besides you, you have time to set up your yard to get the ball rolling.

• Price: 4/5. This deck has some expensive stuff, and works better when you have access to cards like Birthing Pod, Kokusho, the Evening Star, and Razaketh, the Foulblooded.

Game Play Attributes:

• Acceleration: 3/5. This deck utilizes a 7 card creature based ramp package, preferring creatures that tutor to field rather than to hand. If this feels like too little, feel free to bulk up this package.

• Tutoring: 4/5. I hope you don't mind being in your library, since you'll be doing a lot of that.

• Board Control: 3/5. There is a decent suite of removal here, with sacrifice based removal and spot removal. Grave Pact and the 1.5 wraths in here are going to be your best bet for dealing with opponents boards.

• Spell Control: 1/5. There are almost no non-creature spells in the deck, and those that are there are to directly further my game plan. All removal will be on creatures.

• Card Advantage: 3.5/5. On top of the cards that make you draw, the ability to return creatures from graveyard to battlefield means that nothing really truly dies.

• Linearity: 4/5. 90% of the time, either infinite combos or Living Death are going to win you the game. The other 10% is because you have big creatures.

• Combo Potential: 4.5/5. There are a bunch of infinite combos in here, simply because the cards that comprise them are amazing in this kind of build. I personally prefer to not use the infinite combos even if they're available to me, since I would rather win by abusing etb/ltb effects.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

• Toolbox build allows for an answer to nearly all scenarios.
• Hard to take down due to recursion package.
• Finding the win-cons are easy.
• Casting Living Death is just fun.

Weaknesses:

• Commanders such as Muldrotha, the Gravetide exist, which is just as good if not better than Karador in terms of reanimation capabilities and versatility.
• Most Karador builds are combo, so it's expected that you will get targeted if you show any signs of searching for combos.
• Somewhat slow, so fast metas will be a problem.
• Combo build, not the most original way to win.
• Graveyard hate will neuter your plans. If it's Leyline of the Void, it's relatively simple to deal with it, but Rest in Peace or Tormod's Crypt will mess up your day.

Other Commanders?

Abzan (Note: For the sake of brevity, I will not be going over partner combinations.)

• Ghave, Guru of Spores: Karador's Commander 2012 buddy is the most played Abzan commander, according to EDHREC. The combo potential is higher with this commander, due to the sac outlet being on the commander itself and not needing to find one from your library. This deck also prefers a grindy game, as it wants to go wide and tall at the same time and needs some set up to do it. Despite the sac outlet being built into the commander, I want this deck to be more focused on the graveyard than on counters, so Ghave is out.

• Nethroi, Apex of Death: Another graveyard commander, Nethroi is very mana intensive, since its mutate cost grows each time our furry friend goes back to the command zone. This is a great card if you're looking for a cheaper build but still want to play around in the graveyard, as it can assemble combos from seemingly nowhere when it mutates. I would run this, but it gets expensive real quick.

• Kathril, Aspect Warper: If you like counters, you'll like Kathril. This commander doesn't really care about the graveyard, and leans into Abzan's typical counter theme, albeit with new types of counters. However, because it barely even looks at the yard, Kathril doesn't get a spot in here.

• Tayam, Luminous Enigma: Slightly more graveyard focused than Kathril, Tayam combines two things Abzan are good at: counters and graveyard shenanigans. In theory, this can be a very resilient build due to the abundance of +1/+1 support present. However, the focus on counters doesn't fit with the graveyard idea this deck was built around, so Tayam is going to have to resurrect her creatures elsewhere.

• Anafenza, the Foremost: Anafenza's main selling point is being a Leyline of the Void for creatures, completely hosing other creature based decks. She works best as a control shell, shutting down other decks that rely on creatures to win, like this one. Her counter synergy can slowly grow her to the point where the opponents have to throw their own creatures under the bus or die to commander damage. Unfortunately, her leyline passive is not good enough to warrant her replacing Karador as the helm of this deck.

• Doran, the Siege Tower: The OG walls deck, Doran has somewhat faded since Arcades, the Strategist made its debut. However, this gives a better removal suite in black than Arcades has, in my opinion. Doran wants to play creatures with big butts and then slap, which doesn't really fit into the graveyard theme I had in mind when building the deck.

• Kethis, the Hidden Hand: Kethis is super interesting, but the legendary restriction is difficult to work around for a toolbox build. Like this Karador build, Kethis aims for a grindy game with a decent amount of self mill, and then playing legendary creatures for days. Unlike this Karador build, Kethis cares about a specific type, which is too restrictive for a deck that intends to win via recursion.

• Teneb, the Harvester: Karador's other Commander 2012 buddy, Teneb, recurs things and flies. Unfortunately, with the evolution of Magic over the last 8 years, fliers are even more common, so it's not unlikely that he just gets bricked. Teneb also likes bigger, splashier creatures rather than smaller utility creatures. A good contender, but ultimately demands a more combat-focused build than Karador offers.

• Daghatar the Adamant: Yet another Abzan counters commander, Daghatar is...meh at best. His ability to move counters around can come in handy, but more often than not, you'd rather just give more counters to everyone rather than redistributing. As I've said before, counters won't cut it in this build.

• Colfenor, the Last Yew: Similar to Doran, we have another toughness matters commander. Unlike Doran, Colfenor cares about the graveyard, which allows for more resilience in removal-heavy playgroups. Colfenor's toughness clause is what breaks it for this deck, as many of the creatures are small and have the same toughness, which nullifies the effectiveness of its ability.

Graveyard/Reanimator/Sacrifice (AKA other commanders in the same playspace.)

• Muldrotha, the Gravetide: Well I can't not talk about her. When Muldrotha was spoiled, she sent waves through the community, and is the third most built commander in the last two years according to EDHREC. The ability to play four cards rather than one is huge, and if I didn't already have Karador when she was released I would have built her. Like Karador, Muldrotha is super resilient, and she includes blue, the best color in commander, which adds another layer of versatility.

• Korvold, Fae-Cursed King: Korvold is the ultimate sacrifice commander, drawing a card and getting bigger with each thing sacrificed. This deck takes a token approach to have the most things to sacrifice without injuring itself too much. A very good commander, but not exactly what I'm looking for - if I wanted sacrifice, I would have stayed with Savra or Mazirek.

• Meren of Clan Nel Toth: Another graveyard commander, Meren is oppressively good. She usually tends towards stax in the competitive scene, grinding out games with her disgustingly good passive. She was my commander for a couple games, but she was target #1 simply due to her reputation. With Karador, people are wary, but won't necessarily want to eliminate you immediately.

• Chainer, Nightmare Adept: Chainer likes to play big creatures with splashy effects. Similar to Karador in that he can only reanimate one creature a turn, he also gives them haste, which leads to a more aggressive deck that prefers winning via combat over combos.

Piloting the Deck

General Plan

In a Nutshell

• Your games will end via Living Death, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or an infinite combo most of the time.
• This deck is meant to be able to deal with a multitude of problems via creatures. While you cast them to deal with threats, you're building your late-game potential.
• Mana wins games. So do graveyards. If you need to, burn a tutor on something to ramp you, since you can almost always reuse the tutor later in the game.
• You cannot survive the focus of all three of your opponents. Take it slow in the start and don't pull ahead too quickly. (* you technically can but it's not easy, I do not recommend.)
• Threat analysis is crucial. Be able to identify the big threats as they come out and make a plan to deal with them. Because you can't really counter effects, you might be able to bait your opponents into playing their threats instead of their baits.
• Karador should only be used as a last resort, since there rest of the deck is cohesive enough to function without him.
• If your combo pieces get removed, don't sweat it. It's super easy to bring them back.

Combos and Synergies

Lets start with the combos you want to keep your eyes out for. As a side note, since all these are infinite death loops, Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat can be added to any of these to close out the game via an infinite life loss loop. Everything in this section also requires a free sac outlet, which can be any of the 6 in the deck.

Combos

• Karmic Guide + Reveillark: This is the standard combo people think of. Use the Guide to bring back the Llark. Sacrifice the Guide, then sac the Llark to bring back Guide and up to one other creature with power two or less. Now Guide is in play and Llark is in yard with a Guide trigger on the stack. Bring back Llark, then sac the Guide. Repeat this cycle ad nauseum.

• Sun Titan + Saffi Eriksdotter: This is similar to the previous combo. Start with both in play, or bring Saffi back via the Titan. Sacrifice Saffi targeting the Titan, then sacrifice the Titan. It comes back due to Saffi's ability, which brings back Saffi via Titan's triggered ability. Repeat ad ifinitum.

• Reveillark + Saffi Eriksdotter: Mashup time! Sacrifice Saffi and target Llark, then sacrifice the Llark, brining back Saffi and up to one other thing. Llark comes back due to Saffi's ability, which means you can repeat this forever.

Synergies

• Meren of Clan Nel Toth + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Kokusho, the Evening Star: You need to have n-2 experience counters, where n is the converted mana cost of the creature you're planning on reanimating. Sacrifice the creature and get a counter. Mikaeus brings the creature back with a counter. Sacrifice it again, then move to your end step. On your endstep, target the creature with Meren, then sacrifice it. Mikaeus brings it back with a counter, and you can either sacrifice it or keep it as a blocker.

• Angel of Serenity + Any sac outlet: This one may get removed should Angel get cut, but here it is. When the Angel enters the battlefield, put the trigger on the stack and declare targets. Hold priority, and before the etb trigger resolves, sacrifice the Angel. This puts the death trigger on the stack. You can now resolve triggers. Since the death trigger doesn't see anything exiled by the Angel, nothing gets returned. The etb trigger resolves next, and permanently exiles the targeted cards.

• Living Death + Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos: Cast LD with one of the Pact effects on the field. The triggers from the Pact will go on the stack after the Living Death resolves, so you can wipe your opponents board while keeping all your stuff.

The Early Turns (1-4)

Of course, before the game really starts, you're gonna need a hand. There's nothing particularly needed in hand besides mana. Ideally, you're looking at 3 lands and one piece of ramp. The majority of the deck's creatures are 3 CMC, so three mana is about where you want to be to keep pace and set up later turns. Don't keep hands with higher costed cards, and look for the <=4 CMC cards to ensure you can consistently play something and you don't become a sitting duck.

Once the game starts, look to keep a low profile. A turn two Sakura-Tribe Elder won't raise any eyebrows, but a Fauna Shaman will. Don't overextend and draw attention to you. A turn 2 Reanimate hitting one of the large targets is sure to draw attention. Of course, if you can keep the steam off the turn 2 Ashen Rider or Sheoldred, Whispering One, go for it. If someone else is threatening a quick kill, either ally with them or accelerate to match them. Continue with the normal, on curve plays or ramp if nobody explodes early. Look to set up some early utility, like Plaguecrafter or a Knight of Autumn to shut down a Sol Ring or Skullclamp.

If an archenemy seems to be developing, focus your attention on them. Actually, just focus on whoever's ahead. Since the curve of this decks is relatively low to the ground, your early plays can put pressure on them and take attention off of you. Look to bin your impactful creatures, either by milling or sacrifice. The great thing about playing a graveyard toolbox build is that spells that kill off weaker commanders like Daxos the Returned don't matter to you. You can consider the early game done once you have some larger creatures in your hand with etb or ltb effects to abuse, and a creature or two in play/yard.

The Midgame (5-9)

Alright. You've got mana, you've got beefers, you've got utility, maybe a couple of your non-creatures. Time to get started.

The early game was dedicated to protecting yourself and beginning to set up. These turns are when you start building up. Use tutors to find answers to threats to keep up appearances, but also begin to start playing larger/more impactful/more creatures. If you sense an exile wrath coming (Merciless Eviction, Winds of Abandon), play more conservatively, and stick to dealing with threats. Try to get your non-creatures to stick, as they are some of the most powerful effects in the build. Greater Good is one you should keep your eye out for, as you can sacrifice the creatures from earlier to fill up your graveyard and prepare for reanimation shenanigans.

This is where you start tutoring for either reanimation targets or reanimation effects. Birthing Pod to grab something like Reveillark or Karmic Guide isn't bad here. Jarad's Orders can begin to set up combos, or just put powerful creatures in your yard to reanimate later.

In the scenario where you become the archenemy, play it safe. Only play what you need to stay alive, as you don't want to get blown out by a Rest in Peace or anything like that.

The end goal for the midgame is to have a couple good reanimation targets in your yard and at least one way to return things to play.

The Late Game (10+)

The transition between mid and late game tends to be the quality of your creatures. Your utility creatures are mostly dead, and you have creatures with hefty effects in your yard, primed for resurrection.

Cards to reanimate at this stage are Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Avenger of Zendikar, and other creatures that have effects that can slingshot you to the top. Razaketh, the Foulblooded's repeatable tutor can help you find Living Death or Rise of the Dark Realms, if you prefer to abuse etbs, or any of the combo pieces. If Razaketh isn't instantly answered, the game is basically in the bag.

If you haven't been able to pitch some high powered creatures at this point, it's time to start digging. Utilize draw (Disciple of Bolas) or tutors to find the key pieces of your engine. Aim for your win cons as soon as possible, but don't forget your role as a toolbox. Continue answering your opponents' threats.

To close out the game, do what I've been saying for this entire primer: drop a fat Living Death and watch as your opponents die inside. If it gets countered? Eternal Witness it and just try again. You should have enough mana at this point to cast it twice in a turn if you need to.

If you won, congratulations! You have been introduced to the wonderful (and terrible) world of reanimation/utility builds. If not, that's okay too! You win some, you lose some. It could be because you got crushed by higher power decks, or just got super unlucky. Either way, shuffle up and prepare to go again.

Card Choices

Mainboard

Creatures Show

Creatures make up the core of the build, of course. Why these ones?

• Acidic Slime: A Reclamation Sage with deathtouch that can hit troublesome lands. While I personally have never had to blow up a land before, if your playgroup uses cards Glacial Chasm or Boseju, Who Shelters All, this is going to be super useful, even if you only get the etb trigger once. Deathtouch isn't negligible either, as you can throw this down as a blocker if you need to.

• Angel of Serenity: Triple Oblivion Ring, but since it's a creature its easy to abuse. As mentioned in the Synergies section, when combined with a sac outlet, Angel permanently exiles key pieces of your opponents' game plans. I am considering cutting this for some slightly cheaper removal, but its still a great card if you're not trying to optimize and just want to mess around with triggers.

• Archon of Justice: A great card in this build. Since the exile happens when it dies, you get to control when it goes off, plus it works as a good rattlesnake card as a) it's a 4/4 flier and b) it can exile anything. Like Acidic Slime, feel free to play this if you need a bit of breathing room.

• Ashen Rider: Double Archon of Justice, Rider is also a good blocker. Don't expect to hard cast this most of the time due to its high cost and relatively weak effect for the cost, but if you can recur it, this creature does work. One of the weaker links in the deck, tbh, but still good.

• Avenger of Zendikar: Dude makes plants. Avenger is in here mostly to make tokens for sacrifice fodder, but occasionally the tokens become big enough to do work.

• Bane of Progress: Reclamation Sage on steroids, Bane is a fantastic sweeper. It's recurrable with Reveillark, and will almost certainly get 5+ counters, which makes it a good combat creature as well. Definitely get one of these.

• Blood Artist: This is one of the wincons when going infinite, and is a good creature for putting pressure on opponents, as it triggers whenever any creature dies. For life gain, this is best in slot, but if simply looking for fastest time to kill, Zulaport Cutthroat is going to be better.

• Bone Shredder: Cheap removal on a utility creature. Echo means that it fills up my yard faster, and flying isn't insignificant. If you're expecting an opponent to mount an aerial attack, this can come in handy. Because I prefer to recur instead of cast from graveyard, this is in over Shriekmaw, who does not have flying and costs two more.

• Butcher of Malakir: A Grave Pact on a stick, Butcher is a good deterrent. Definitely leave this in if you don't own a Grave Pact, otherwise this can probably be cut.

• Disciple of Bolas:

• Dryad of the Ilysian Grove:

• Elvish Rejuvenator:

• Eternal Witness:

• Farhaven Elf:

• Fauna Shaman:

• Gray Merchant of Asphodel:

• Grim Haruspex:

• Karmic Guide

• Knight of Autumn:

• Kokusho, the Evening Star:

• Krav, the Unredeemed:

• Massacre Wurm:

• Merciless Executioner:

• Meren of Clan Nel Toth:

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed:

• Plaguecrafter:

• Qasali Pridemage:

• Razaketh, the Foulblooded:

• Reveillark:

• Rune-Scarred Demon:

• Saffi Eriksdotter:

• Sakura-Tribe Elder:

• Shalai, Voice of Plenty:

• Sheoldred, Whispering One:

• Sidisi, Undead Vizier:

• Solemn Simulacrum:

• Spore Frog:

• Springbloom Druid:

• Sun Titan:

• Viscera Seer:

• Wood Elves:

• Yahenni, Undying Partisan:

• Yosei, the Morning Star:

• Zulaport Cutthroat:

Artifacts Show

How many variations of murderboards can we play? Lets find out!

• Altar of Dementia: A free sac outlet that either fills the yard or mills your opponents with an infinite combo. Incredibly versatile and a must have for this deck.


• Ashnod's Altar: Though not as good as Altar of Dementia or Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's murder board is still a free sac outlet. Two mana is nothing to scoff at either, letting you play a 6 drop on turn 4 without ramp.


• Birthing Pod: You know it, you probably hate it, it's pod. King of setting up broken combos and finding degenerate cards. The phyrexian mana lets it come down on turn four and find a four drop (usually Solemn Simulacrum) to prepare for the coming turns of spewing creatures from your library.


• Skullclamp: Clamps is amazing. Even if it doesn't kill the creature, it turns them into a rattlesnake, as nobody _wants_ to give the recursion deck two cards and a card in yard. Plus, you can always attach it to something right before sacrificing to get more value<.


• Sol Ring: I don't need to say much about this. It's a Sol Ring. Funnily enough, this is one of the cards I'm eager to cut, as it never seems to do much for me, as I usually have enough creature-based ramp to cast whatever I want to.

Enchantments Show

MaRo's sure to have given us some good enchantments by now, right? We've gotten plenty of enchantments over the years, so lets see which ones this deck deems worthy.

• Animate Dead: A two mana Reanimate already decent. The fact that it can be recurred with Sun Titan just adds to the synergy. The low mana cost means that it isn't a huge tax to play, and the ability to grab from any yard earns it a slot in the few non-creatures in the deck.


• Dictate of Erebos: A Grave Pact for one more and has flash. Useful as an extra copy of Pact for board control, and the flash comes in handy against one sided wipes like In Garruk's Wake.


• Evolutionary Leap: An instant speed sac outlet that digs for a creature. This is one of the weaker sac outlets/tutors, as it requires mana and you don't have control over what you get, but still a good way to mess up opponents' plans by potentially revealing a larger threat.


• Grave Pact: The original non-wrath board control effect (don't quote me on that), Grave Pact ensures that your opponents won't have a board to deal with you, assuming they're not playing a token deck. This card does work against Voltron decks or builds that are naturally lighter on creatures, but there's almost never a bad time to play this. It is a little color hungry, sure, but with Gray Merchant of Asphodel you can drain life and clear opponents boards.


• Greater Good: Possibly the best sac outlet in the deck (besides maybe Altar of Dementia), Greater Good allows you fill your yard _and_ draw cards. You can sacrifice your smaller creatures to bin big creatures for later reanimation, or you can bin big creatures for more cards. There is nothing bad about this, as your graveyard is more of a hand than your actual hand is. With the Battlebond reprint, this dropped from $20+ to $4. Grab one.

Instants + Sorceries Show

Joke's on you, I don't play instants!

Sorceries are a different matter:

• Buried Alive: Triple Entomb? Sign me up. Since this fetches 3 cards rather than 1, you can use this to completely set up combos in your yard, then either use a mass reanimation spell or bring them back inconspicuously over a couple turns.

• Decree of Pain: One of the most well known sweepers in the format, this draws a bunch of cards for its hefty price. However, if making edits, this should be replaced with a cheaper board wipe (think Toxic Deluge or Austere Command). Cards are nice, but generally if we're wrathing we already have enough stuff to quickly turn the game in our favor.

• Diabolic Intent: Demonic Tutor but slightly better because it allows you to sacrifice something for an effect. The tutor itself can be countered after you sac a creature, which is unfortunate when it happens, but in the end it's not too big of a deal considering how many tutors are in the list.

• Jarad's Orders: Another tutor that can set up combos or insane value, the fact that Orders sends one to hand and one to yard means that you can bin either a combo piece or a utility creature and have the other card be Karmic Guide to snag it again.

• Living Death: If you haven't picked up on it yet, I love this card. LD does everything you need it to. It acts as a pseudo wipe, it brings back all of your creatures, and usually will win you games. Even if you're not in a spot to win, LD can completely turn the tides. Since it makes people sacrifice rather than flat out destroying, things like Blightsteel Colossus get binned in return for something like a Sakura-Tribe Elder. Great value, and definitely one of the cards you should look to acquire first.

• Reanimate: Combined with Fauna Shaman, this can grab any large creature in your hand to play for the low cost of 2 mana. This is also great for snagging huge targets in other graveyards (the aforementioned Blightsteel Colossus?). Of course, this can also be used to great effect when targeting your own yard. Maybe you need a big flier so you don't get slapped by an opponent, or maybe you need that utility creature again. Either way, a great card.

• Rise of the Dark Realms: This is Living Death's younger cousin who just happens to be taller than them. Rise is very effective winning games, just as LD is, but it costs 9 mana as opposed to 5. Plus, it doesn't act as a wipe. In most scenarios, LD will be better than Rise because of the wipe effect, but make no mistake: if you can resolve this, you're almost sure to win.

• Victimize: Relatively budget recursion that hits two creatures for the low price of one. Generally you'll be sacrificing a card that's worn out its welcome to grab two creatures with relevant effects.

Maybeboard/Acquireboard

These are cards I either don't have and are trying to get or things that I'm considering for the build. Any updates will be added in the changelog, and the primer will be updated accordingly.

• Fiend Artisan: A slightly different version of Birthing Pod, this acts more like Green Sun's Zenith and would most likely replace Evolutionary Leap. It has the upside of being a creature and a lot of control what you tutor for. Downsides are that it will attract removal and it costs a lot to find the more expensive things.


• Luminous Broodmoth: Functionally another copy of Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (okay not really but close enough), Mothra here gives all creatures unflying. While the percentage of creatures without flying isn't nearly as high as the number of non-Human creatures, I think this will be a good addition.


• Mindslicer: This one is fairly common in sacrifice builds, and I foresee it doing work here. It shuts down combos while hardly hindering you, as the graveyard is basically your hand.


• Ravenous Chupacabra: You'd think I'd have this since I played during Ixalan, but nope. Universal removal on a four drop to smooth out the curve, I just need to get my hands on one and then it's going in. Nekrataal works as a substitute if you have one on hand, but this is the ideal creature.


• Reclamation Sage: This was originally cut for Knight of Autumn, but I'm not opposed to slotting it back in, should I find space for it. With the amount of exile and other removal for artifacts and enchantments, I'm not super hopeful, but we'll see.


• Remorseful Cleric: This is slightly better than Angel of Finality due to its lower cost. It still flies, and can completely brick a flying attacker if you exile someone's yard before damage is dealt.


• Austere Command: Utility board wipe, what more is there to say? I'm on the fence about this one: on one hand, its a powerful modal wipe, and on the other it's a high costed non-creature spell. Fortunately Commander Legends has dropped the price of this, so it's not too big of a blowout if I decide I don't like it. Regardless, I'm still going to try it.


• Dead of Winter and Snow Lands: This seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for maybe -7/-7 at greatest, but who knows? This was suggested as a replacement for Toxic Deluge, since I don't actually own one.

Notable Exclusions

There are some cards that are in a lot of other builds that I just didn't like in this one.

• Satyr Wayfinder: At first glance, this seems like a great card. Mills for up to four and puts a land in your hand, what's not to like? I've never really been impressed with this guy, honestly. He doesn't actually ramp, just ensures that you hit your next land drop. I'd rather play even something like Knight of the White Orchid over this guy, since the deck wants to put lands into play rather than just into hand. Still, if you want to bulk up the lands package, Satyr is a good budget choice for that.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.11
Tokens	Experience Token, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G
Folders	stuff, Fun Decks