Woopsie, I forgot to lock the dungeons

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Budget Combo Theme/Gimmick

Jazzyboy

Mana (14)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bog Witch
• 1x Braid of Fire
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Priest of Urabrask
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Thran Turbine
• 1x Treasonous Ogre
• 1x Workhorse

Land (32)

• 1x Command Beacon
• 13x Mountain
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 14x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Protection (4)

• 1x Cloak and Dagger
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mad Auntie

Deathlovers (3)

• 1x Ogre Slumlord
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Sangromancer

Combo (2)

• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Soldevi Digger

Bombs (12)

• 1x Filth
• 1x Godo, Bandit Warlord *oversized*
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Mindclaw Shaman
• 1x Myr Welder
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Olivia, Mobilized for War
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Summoner's Egg
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Controlly (8)

• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood
• 1x Furystoke Giant
• 1x Herald of Leshrac
• 1x Invader Parasite
• 1x Skinrender
• 1x Tsabo's Assassin
• 1x Vampire Hexmage

Tokens (6)

• 1x Beetleback Chief
• 1x Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1x Rakshasa Gravecaller
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander
• 1x Skeletal Vampire

Filter (3)

• 1x Clone Shell
• 1x Junktroller
• 1x Tel-Jilad Stylus

Commander (1)

Discard (11)

• 1x Blazing Specter
• 1x Cao Cao, Lord of Wei
• 1x Cunning Lethemancer
• 1x Entomber Exarch
• 1x Fiend of the Shadows
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 1x Mournwhelk
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Shimian Specter
• 1x Stronghold Rats

Reanimation (4)

• 1x Body Snatcher
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Puppeteer Clique

Sacrifice (3)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Soldevi Adnate

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Maybeboard

Other (9)

• 1x Brass Herald
• 1x Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Drakestown Forgotten
• 1x Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1x Junk Diver
• 1x Kulrath Knight
• 1x Murderous Redcap
• 1x Nim Deathmantle

Bombs (2)

• 1x Instigator Gang  ^Flip
• 1x Master of Cruelties

Land (1)

• 1x Bojuka Bog

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Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is the noblest of dungeon wardens in all the multiverse. Ever vigilant, he spends day and night watching his prisoners and carrying out his duties. So what's the problem if he uh... accidentally leaves a couple cells open now and again?! It's a simple mistake after all. And at least none of them are bigger than him, so he can catch them later. No probs.

Ahem; anyway, Grenzo works by grabbing whatever's on the bottom of your library whenever you activate his ability. If it's a creature and it's not bigger than him, he gets to release it on to the battlefield. Otherwise, it gets dumped into your graveyard and stays there. Simples.

Why This Deck Is How It Is

Now; there are a few different strategies for making full use of his ability.

1. You can run loads of equipment and other buffs for him. Buff him up so that he's bigger than everything else in your deck, and then you can use his ability to grab all sorts of beasts, whether it's Myr Battlesphere or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. All for 2 mana. Pretty cool. Only problem with that strategy is that all the equipment in your deck can end up piling up at the bottom of your library with certain shuffles. That means Grenzo has to dig through all those swords left in the hall before he can get to the scoundrels in his dungeons. Basically, this strategy is inconsistent because you can end up having loads of lands and equipment piled up at the bottom of your library that Grenzo can't do anything with, so you never get to pull out any creatures with Grenzo and you just waste loads of time and mana.

2. You can always play Grenzo as a 2/2, and run loads of creatures with 2 or less power. This allows you to play very fast and go for an aggro strategy. The best creatures to run in this kind of deck are the modular creatures and other things with 0 power that enter with +1/+1 counters. This works pretty well, but funnily enough, a lot of the best utility creatures and combo machines for Grenzo have just 1 more power, e.g. Ogre Slumlord, which lets you sacc things to Ashnod's Altar and get tokens, which you can then sacc for more mana. You can use all that mana to keep activating Grenzo's ability loads of times.

3. So I find that the optimal power for Grenzo is 3. This gives you access to some great cards like Sangromancer, Zealous Conscripts(which goes infinite with Kiki-Jiki), and Ogre Slumlord; and it's still very early-game for EDH. Godo, Bandit Warlord can also search up Lightning Greaves to protect Grenzo from all your opponents' spot removal.

You can also run loads of scry with Grenzo; but again, I find that all of the artifacts for scry and even the creatures just slow Grenzo down too much. This deck needs to play fast and efficiently. Even if you have to rely on luck, having a very creature-heavy deck full of only the best and most brutal scoundrels makes that luck much more likely to give you your winning pieces.

Optimal Start of Game

Turn 1: Mountain. Sol Ring

Turn 2: Swamp. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden as a 4/4.

Turn 3: Swamp. Tap Sol Ring and Swamp for Ashnod's Altar. Activate Grenzo's ability. If you get a token producer or one of the priests, you can start activating Grenzo's ability several times in one turn, both getting etb effects from cards before saccing them and filtering your board so that you get the best cards out of the deck.

Infinite Combos

Ashnod's Altar, Soldevi Digger and Priest of Gix, Priest of Urabrask or any token producer. Sacrifice one of the priests to Ashnod's Altar. Put it from the top of your graveyard on the bottom of your library with Soldevi Digger using the mana Altar gave you. Use Grenzo to put the priest back on the field. Get 3 mana. Sacrifice it for 2 mana. Put it on the bottom of your library with Digger. You still have 3 mana. Use 2 mana for Grenzo to put the priest back on the field. Repeat steps for infinite mana. Anything that makes at least one token can also go infinite with this, as you can sacc the tokens to the altar along with the producer. With 2 tokens, you can get infinite mana.

Soldevi Digger and Workhorse. Remove 4 counters from Workhorse, killing Workhorse and getting 4 mana. Put Workhorse on the bottom of your library with Digger. Throw it back out with Grenzo. Repeat steps. With Ashnod's Altar, you can also make infinite mana by removing 3 counters from Workhorse, then saccing it. You then have 5 mana total. Use 4 mana to throw Workhorse back out with Digger and Grenzo and you'll have 1 mana left, so just repeat steps for infinite mana.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts. Tap Kiki to create a copy of Conscripts. When Conscripts enters, it doesn't say you have to target a permanent your opponents control, so you can actually target Kiki to 'gain control' of him, and then he's untapped. Tap him to create a copy of Conscripts; when Conscripts enters, untap Kiki. Rinse and repeat for infinite Conscripts.

Top Ranked	Achieved #17 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.79
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Goblin 1/1 R, Rat 1/1 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Cool Decks, EDH decks, commander, Cool decks, Commander, MTG Deck ideas, Commander Ideas, Grenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH, Rakdos, Commander