Muldrotha Reanimator Combo *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Combo Infinite Combo Midrange Primer Reanimator

jdcasiglia

Lands (33)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 12x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 5x Island
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Graveyard Fillers (7)

• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Vessel of Nascency
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Nyx Weaver
• 1x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Underrealm Lich

Reanimator Package (6)

• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

Primary Wincon (5)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Protean Hulk

Secondary Wincon (5)

• 1x Endless One
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Simic Ascendancy
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar

Ramp Package (13)

• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Worn Powerstone
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Value Engines (8)

• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Secrets of the Dead
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Sacrifice Outlets (6)

• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Greater Good

Removal Package (5)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Woodfall Primus

Flex Spots (3)

• 1x Neoform
• 1x Lord of Extinction
• 1x Puppeteer Clique

Commander (1)

Tutors (8)

• 1x Entomb
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Liliana Vess

Protection (6)

• 1x Elephant Grass
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage

Sacrifice Targets (6)

• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Lord of Extinction

Combo Enablers (3)

• 1x Flash
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Elvish Piper

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Introduction: Why Muldrotha?

Simply put: Muldrotha is the best reanimator commander around. Sultai colors allows for a degree of unfairness not possible in other color combinations. While more fair creature decks only have a few avenues of attack, Muldrotha allows for air tight defenses, quick recovery after board wipes, explosive value plays, and brutal combo finishes that other creature based decks just aren't capable of.

In short: If you like creature based strategies in theory, but don't like fighting fair, Muldrotha is the commander for you.

Surviving Until Your End Game

This deck is mana hungry, a lot more mana hungry than your average commander deck. In order to survive to your end game you will likely need to play defensively until you get your graveyard, ramp, and value engines online.

Elephant Grass is an amazing card in this deck, being that you can always get in back when it becomes too expensive. It completely hoses creature based black decks and apart from voltron style decks it should protect you from most other creature based builds as well.

Spore Frog Is another important inclusion. The Fog Frog will cover the gaps your elephant grass doesn't and is easy to search out with your tutor suite.

You are unlikely to be targeted until your graveyard grows too large or you resolve Muldrotha, so keep that in mind and make sure you are prepared to have your first explosive turn immediately after Muldrotha ETBs. Obviously, getting Muldrotha to stick can be tricky, however Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots will make this easier and Command Beacon ensures that your commander will never grow too expensive to cast even when she does inevitably get removed.

Grey Merchant of Asphodel is a surprisingly effective durtle tool when you find yourself caught with your pants down while your opponents are on the beatdown. You probably won't want to run enough devotion to actually make this a full on win con, however a repeatable 10-20 point life swing every few turns should give you more than enough time to either find a board wipe or one of your protection pieces.

Being in blue enables you to run some amount of interaction, however I believe creature based counters are the best route for this deck, as they are repeatable via your reanimator suite and not dependent on snappy being available to recast what you've accidentally milled something important into your graveyard. With both Glen Elendra Archmage and Siren Stormtamer online its very difficult for your opponents to either win the game or target your board directly. Being that board wipes likely help you more than anyone else at the table, there are few viable ways of interacting with you once your shields are up.

Setting Up Your Graveyard

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is a strong alternate commander for this deck if you are looking for something more low to the ground and is an overall great include here. She both mills you quickly and gives you fodder to sacrifice for value. Being that she is a c-edh staple, be aware she is unlikely to stay on the field without protection.

While it doesn’t vomit chump blockers like Sidisi, Stitcher's Supplier is often underestimated in reanimator builds and likely will mill you faster than Sidisi can if you have repeatable recursion and a sac outlet online.

Doom Whisperer , and Underrealm Lich help you quickly churn through your deck, each capable of sending your several of your best threats to your yard for reanimation, while making sure cards you want in hand end up there.

Nyx Weaver and Vessel of Nascency are less controllable than the above creatures, but still can fill your yard relatively fast. While Vessel being an enchantment makes it an obvious include due to Muldrotha’s ability to reanimate it, Weaver will likely be cut for Necropotence in the near future.

Going off

Before going off with your combos or trying to make a large value play, ensure you are properly protected. Without either Glen Elendra Archmage / Siren Stormtamer out or one of your pair of boots equipped, your opponents will be able to easily blow you out by simply taking out Muldrotha mid-play. Pay attention to signals, if your opponent is either holding up a fair amount of mana, especially blue mana, or staring at your value engine like they are trying to strangle it via telekinesis, it may be best to fly under the radar for a little while longer if you can afford to.

Zendikar Resurgent and Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun are your best friends when going off. If you can get one of them online your secondary wincon can likely play out in one turn, making it actually viable in a semi-competitive match. Not to mention, you can likely just win via out tempoing your opponents at this point, with either of these cards plus Sheoldred, the Whispering One being absolutely back breaking for non-token decks that can’t do anything about it.

Value Plays

Play, Sac, Reanimate, Repeat.

This is the backbone of what you want to be doing every turn as a Muldrotha player. Ideally, you want to be targeting creatures that accrue value for you each time they etb, while also earning you value on their way to the graveyard.

Your Targets:

Snapcaster Mage is probably your best sacrifice target in the entire deck. It single handedly allows you to run instants and sorceries without having to worry about accidentally milling something important into your yard. Not to mention it can often get you multiple uses out of your best reanimator spells. The best part is its body is small enough to Skullclamp away, making each time it snaps something back go something like: pay 3-5 mana, reanimate a threat or take out one of your opponent's, draw two or mill. It's an all star in the deck and should be a high priority inclusion.

Stitcher's Supplier Fills your yard quickly and can be the difference between you getting the chance to go off or not. Establishing your graveyard by milling seven cards deep in one turn is made easy with Alter and Stitcher, setting you up for a big Muldrotha play as soon as she resolves.

Baleful Strix Draws as it etbs and discourages voltron or other beat down decks from getting too frisky with you. Solid include.

Glen Elendra Archmage and Woodfall Primus can be saced multiple times with undying if you are stuck and need to get in some additional digging or just need something gone with another Primus trigger.

Lord of Extinction Can be both a massive threat to opponents with their shields down and a huge swing in value in your late game if it isn’t doing anything. Sac it to Alter or Greater Good for disgusting amounts of value.

Finally, Grey Merchant of Asphodel Is another fantastic sac target. While in this build it isn’t a viable win con by itself, it can get your opponents inside the dangerous 15-20 life range after just a couple of triggers. Within this range our creature based damage can often be enough to finish off an opponent or two, all the while giving you enough life to safely continue to build your board state without fear of the crack back.

Sacrifice Outlets:

Skullclamp and Altar of Dementia allows you to quickly feed your smaller creatures that have served their purpose into your graveyard while drawing into and digging up bigger more dangerous threats.

Visera Seer is easily tutorable and essential for your primary combo win.

Greater Good I’m not convinced fits in the deck. It wants you to sac high power creatures to it, but that plan may be too slow to be truly good enough quick enough. obviously you don’t care so much about having to discard, but not breaking even on it feels bad, especially if you are only drawing one off of it. This slot may be replaced with a stronger option in the future. I believe that your best case scenario for this card is being able to set up a sacrifice loop with it and Lord of Extinction , however that feels like it may take away too many valuable resources during when we really want to be in our end game.

As you can see, this deck is both fast and resilient once its engine is online. While you are covered from targeted removal by your protection creatures, you can gradually play out a cascading tempo game that will overwhelm your opponents. Even if they board wipe, without graveyard removal there really isn't anything they can do to stop you from setting back up in a turn or two.

Primary Win Condition: Protean Hulk Combo

This is a classic Protean Hulk Combo and happens to be extraordinarily resilient to removal even without your counter creatures online. While most of you will likely know just by the colors Muldrotha is playing in what it wants to do, I'll explain the combo for the uninitiated.

Step one: Resolve and Sac Protean Hulk Best case scenario, you Flash it out on your opponent's end step, allowing it to die rather than paying for its mana cost. This will make what you are about to do even more difficult to interact with. You can also cheat it out with Elfish Piper, Sacing it with either Visera seer, Greater Good or Altar of Dimentia. Worst case scenario, you may need to point your removal at it or board wipe after it resolves. Regardless of how you do it Protean Hulk needs to resolve and hit your graveyard.

Step Two: Target Phyrexian Delver and Viscera Seer with the hulk trigger.

Step Three: Sac your Delver to Seer and get back Hulk, immediately sacing it again to seer.

Step Four: Get Walking Ballista and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed with your Hulk trigger.

Step Five: Sac Ballista, Undying Triggers, Remove one of the +1/+1 counters on the Walking Ballista targeting one of your opponent's life total. Sac Ballista again. Undying Triggers, Repeat this process for infinite damage output.

It's worth pointing out that Triskelion can also go infinite with Mikaeus without a sac outlet. However, being that it has a mana cost, it's considerably less desirable for the purposes of this combo and is likely way slower than you'd like to be.

Keep in mind, hulk is not required for this combo to work. So long as you have a sac outlet, Ballista and Mikaeus will go off together regardless of how they are put out onto the battlefield.

Secondary Win Condition: Simic Ascendency

The Secondary Win Condition of this deck is entirely optional and likely not desirable in the more competitive builds of this deck. That being said, Protean Hulk combo FTW is probably not the best way to make friends at more casual commander nights. So this win condition mostly exists as a way of winning the game without pissing your entire table off, not to mention alternate win cons are just great anyway and its just a little funny how well it works here.

So your game plan is simple:

1) Play Simic Ascendancy

2) Play or Cheat out any combination of Avenger of Zendikar , Prime Speaker Zegana , Walking Ballista , or Endless One

3) Win the Game

This seems, at first glance, like quite a greedy plan and at some level it is, but dropping all of our big scary +1/+1 counter creatures in one turn is made possible by a number of enablers our deck already wants. In fact, endless one and simic ascendancy are probably the only cards in this win condition our deck doesn't already naturally want regardless.

The first way to cheat out your creatures is obviously your reanimator suite. Snapcaster Mage gives you multiple shots at using spells like Reanimate or Victimize to quickly get out Zegana or Avenger, who can just win on its own a large portion of the time, and your ramp package ensures you almost always have enough mana to pump into Ballista or Endless One to finish the job.

Elvish Piper , and Animate Dead also serve as easy ways to cheat mana cost and Flash can even be used in a pinch as Ascendancy's counters go up regardless of wether or not the creatures involved stick around on the battlefield.

All and all this is a fun way to make a non-Labman alt win condition work. Its not perfect and the fact it only triggers on your upkeep can be scary without your counter-creatures online, but when it works it's hilarious and will be much more fun for your opponents then simply goldfishing out.

Upgrades and Closing

Obviously this deck could use a stronger mana base. Fetches, Shocks, Originals Duals, and Battlebond Lands along with utility lands such as Strip Mine or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are all strong options if you have them. Being that you will never really miss a land drop after your yard is built up, I doubt better duals are necessary, however they will only make the deck stronger, if only slightly.

This deck could also use an additional draw engine or two that won’t require you to use Muldrotha’s creature trigger. Phyrexian Arena and or Necropotence would be great picks, especially since you don’t mind discarding some extra cards into your graveyard by abusing necro.

Stronger tutors are always welcome. Vampiric Tutor and Diabolic Tutor would be good additions if desired, but are not included here simply for budget reasons. Honestly, the tutor package we already have on board is quite strong, so I’m not convinced these would be necessary for any but the spikiest of players. Final Parting would be the most obvious cut, but two cards for five is not the worst rate, as it can easily set up a large value play, or even fetch out your hulk combo in one shot.

A Infinite mana combo will be an important near future upgrade for this deck. Grand Architect + Pili-Pala will probably be the choice due to how easy the combo is to tutor or reanimate out.

Your graveyard is both your largest asset and your largest vulnerability in this deck. I’ve experimented with cards like witchbane’s orb to provide graveyard protection in the past, however it just feels too slow and fragile to be really good here. This deck probably needs a solid avenue to protect its graveyard from hate, however I am unsure what that would look like in practicality. Getting hit by a Bojuka Bog is a real problem for this deck’s late game and happens quite frequently as graveyard decks are a very popular archetype in commander.

This list is not the be all end all of the archetype. It is simply a snapshot of my deck in its current form and serves as just a small snapshot of all the possibilities Muldrotha affords you in deck building. Don’t be afraid to adapt this list to your meta and budgetary preferences. Muldrotha biggest advantage over other commanders is just how adaptable she is. She scales nicely to any budget and has the ability to be as tool boxy as you need her to be.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Key combos	Grand Architect + Pili-Pala
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.07
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Plant 0/1 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	decks I like, edh, Muldrotha