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Lazav, Eldritch Mastermind *Retired*

Commander / EDH Dark Depths Horror Mill Primer Theme/Gimmick UB (Dimir) Vorthos

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Land (36)

Creature (20)

Artifact (12)

Enchantment (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Lazav, Dimir Mastermind

Sorcery (15)

Instant (10)

Deck has been retired. While I loved playing this deck, it never did well. Pretty sure I only won two games with it. I decided to swap over to Captain N'ghathrod, allowing for more options with playing/building while maintaining a great Lovecraftian feel. When I'm finished building it I'll upload the decklist here and you can see how the deck has evolved. Thanks!

“I have looked upon all the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Lazav, Eldritch Mastermind is my take on Lazav, Dimir Mastermind with a Lovecraftian twist. This was the first commander deck that I build from scratch rather than modifying a precon. I originally had a standard/kitchen table Dimir Mill deck that I played for a while during the Return to Ravnica Block, but once I discovered the EDH format, I quickly switched it over.

I've been a huge fan of Lovecraft and his weird fiction, so this deck pays homage to his work, with a heavier emphasis on the works of his Cthulhu Mythos. While this is not meant to be super competitive deck, it was designed to mill our opponents and cause general madness to everyone in a fun Vorthos/Lore inspired way.

This primer will be divided into two sections - Mechanics and Lore

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Milling out our opponents and driving them to madness

Our Commander Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Whenever a creature is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind can become a copy of that creature. He maintains his name, his legendary status, and can repeat this process whenever another creature enters an opponent's graveyard. And he's got built-in Hexproof, which is a nice bit of defense against the various removal effects. With this commander, we want him on the field, then start milling our opponents. Maybe we mill into a large beater like Blightsteel Colossus, or improve our ramp options with Nyxbloom Ancient, or both when they mill out Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. This commander does depend on our opponents running a creature-based deck as opposed to spell slingers, but we have some options to take advantage of Instants and Sorceries as well as creatures.

Creatures that Mill

  • Ruin Crab - A nice drop, good turn one or two play to start getting cards into our opponents' graveyards. Obviously, we want Lazav, Dimir Mastermind on the field to be able and take advantage of anything that enters the graveyards, but it could provide good targets for Animate Dead or Reanimate
  • Duskmantle Guildmage - This guy has two activated abilities. The first is the more important one, as we can weaponize the milling process and drain life equal to the number of cards milled. The second ability is a little pricey for such a low effect, but if you've got available mana, you can ruin someone's Sylvan Library, Brainstorm, or Vampiric Tutor play
  • Imperious Mindbreaker - This creature Soulbonds to another creature, and gives both itself and that creature a mill on attack trigger equal to its Toughness. If we've got a beefy creature in play like Emrakul or a zombie creation from Stitcher Geralf, we can mill a lot of cards quickly.
  • Manic Scribe - A good early drop that when he ETBs, each opponent mills 3 cards. But if we activate Delirium, which shouldn't be too tough with the fairly even spread of card types in this deck, our opponents will continue to mill 3 cards on their upkeeps.
  • Mindshrieker - Another early drop. Not too impressive stats-wise, but being able to pay 2 to mill can be advantageous against Topdeck manipulations or tutors.
  • Shadow Kin - Acts like a pseudo-Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, as one our upkeep all players mill and it can copy something as it enters the graveyard. This is one of the few cards in this deck that mills all players, including ourselves, so it can copy one of our own creatures.
  • Consuming Aberration - This can become massive if left unchecked, and also mills to the next land whenever we cast a spell. And that triggers for each opponent too, so a single spell could increase its power dramatically.
  • Nemesis of Reason - This nightmarish creature mills 10 cards on attack, it doesn't have to connect to get the effect. Similar to Imperious Mindbreaker.
  • Phenax, God of Deception - A more defensive milling creature, all we need to do it wait until just before our turn, then tap all our remaining untapped creatures and mill out a lot of cards. Unfortunately, it is a single target effect, so we can either spread the effect around or heavily target one opponent.
  • Stitcher Geralf - A bit mana intensive, but for 3, each player mills 3 cards. Of those cards, we can exile 2 of them and make a beefy zombie token that can pair with Phenax, God of Deception or Imperious Mindbreaker

Enchantments

  • Court of Cunning - At its worst, this enchantment mills our opponents for 2 on our upkeep, which is similar to other enchantments like Curse of the Bloody Tome or Memory Erosion, both of which I've had in this deck before. At its best, we are milling at least 30 cards a turn with a four-player group. Plus, Monarch is a fun mechanic for a large group.
  • Patient Rebuilding - We mill 3 cards of one target opponent, then draw a card for each land milled this way. Try to aim for the lands matters deck or a green deck for maximum value.

Direct Mill Spells

  • Fractured Sanity - for 3, each opponent mills 14 cards
  • Maddening Cacophony - for 2, each opponent 8 cards, but with a kicker cost of 4, each opponent mills half their library
  • Mind Funeral - Mills until 4 lands have been revealed
  • Startled Awake   - Target opponent Mills 13, but can come back as a 1/1 Skulk to potentially cast the spell again
  • Traumatize - Target opponent mills half their library

Mill Spells

  • Mind Grind - Each opponent mills until X lands have been revealed
  • Drown in Dreams - Can both draw us X cards and Mill 2x the X value

Artifacts

  • Trepanation Blade - The only equipment in the deck, but can add some extra damage to an attacker while milling out the defending player a bit.
  • Grinning Totem - This acts like a tutor for Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. We can play it, sacrifice it, then search for a card in our opponent's deck. We have until our next upkeep to cast the stolen card, otherwise, it goes into their graveyard. So we could use it to steal a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt for more mana, or allow Lazav, Dimir Mastermind to turn into something terrifying.

Lands

Geier Reach Sanitarium - This land provides symmetrical Draw and Discard. Possibly force our opponents to discard something good into their graveyard. Nephalia Drownyard - A bit expensive, but for 3 mana, we can Mill an opponent 3 cards.

Payoffs

Non-Creature Payoffs

  • Drown in the Loch - This flexible counter or kill spell is dependent on the number of cards in the respective graveyard.
  • Extract from Darkness - For 5, all players mill 2, then we put a creature from any graveyard into play under our control.
  • Mnemonic Betrayal - Exiles all graveyards for a turn, allows us to cast anything we can, then puts it all back, which Lazav, Dimir Mastermind can see and copy
  • Memory Plunder - Similar to Wrexial, we can cast an Instant or Sorcery from an opponents graveyard for free. Aim for those big spells like Expropriate or Nexus of Fate
  • Reanimate/Animate Dead - Steal a creature from any graveyard.
  • Fraying Sanity - While this card doesn't mill anyone directly, it does count the number of cards they put in the graveyard, then mills that player accordingly. This works with them cracking Fetchlands, discarding, and milling effects.
  • Grimoire of the Dead - Fairly mana intensive and best used in the late game, but if we've been filling up our opponents graveyards, we could potentially overwhelm or outvalue the rest of the table.
  • Mindcrank - Doesn't actively mill, but similar to Duskmantle Guildmage, we can further weaponize Mill effects.

Lovecraft Stories, Themes, and their Noodlely Counterparts:

As I said above, this deck pays homage to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. While the most well-known part of his work is the Great Old One Cthulhu, there are many more stories that he wrote that encompass weird fiction or cosmic horror.

“Where does madness leave off and reality begin?” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

The Horror in Clay

The Tale of Inspector Legrasse

The Madness from the Sea

“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness

“Damn it, it wasn’t quite fresh enough!” ― H.P. Lovecraft, Herbert West—Reanimator

"The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror

This is by no means a complete account of Lovecraftian relationships between the deck and his Cthulhu Mythos, but it should give the viewer a better understanding of why some cards were selected. There are many more cards in Magic the Gathering that would represent elements of H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos, but not all of them can fit into a single EDH Deck or cover the different mechanics within the game.

There are a lot of great Sea Monster cards in MtG that would fit with his works (The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Call of Cthulhu), such as Runo Stromkirk, which is a great reference to Cthulhu, but they just doesn't fit mechanically in this deck. I am working on a Blue/Black Runo Stromkirk EDH deck to focus more on that archetype at some point in the future. Some of his stories, like Herbert West-Reanimator would be better represented with a more Zombie/Reanimator style EDH deck, but that theme can be focused on in much more detail than in this deck, which is why there are only a few references in this particular one. I'm also working on a Blue/Black Wilhelt the Rotcleaver deck to more heavily focus on this theme.

If you are a fellow Lovecraftian enthusiast and/or have any suggestions on cards that fit within a story or general Lovecraftian theme, I'd love to hear it. Blue/Black seems like the best color combination for Lovecraft works, but if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them. And if you'd like to learn more about the works of H.P. Lovecraft, I'd highly recommend The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast (hppodcraft). Great stuff, super informative.

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Revision 1 See all

(2 years ago)

+1 Grim Tutor main
-1 Lim-Dul's Vault main
Top Ranked
Date added 4 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

16 - 0 Mythic Rares

46 - 0 Rares

24 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.16
Tokens Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Marit Lage, Monarch Emblem, Zombie */* U
Folders My Deck Creations, Inspiration, saved decks, Mythos: The Gathering, other decks, Commander/EDH
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