My first and favourite 60-card Ice Age/Alliances jank pile ultimately became a multiplayer necro monster that terrorized a tech support night shift. A precon deck became dragon deck became an undead dragon deck became an expression of my inner Johnny. Finding evermore creative and convoluted ways to loop things in and out of the grave became an art piece, a 2am requiem I’d sing to my coworkers as they’d scoop to the realization of infinity.

Years later, I discovered EDH through podcasts. These podcasts were my new 2am labour lullaby; I listened and learned while back on the graveyard shift, though this time solo, and doing morgue duty at the local hospital.

Unsurprisingly, my thoughts kept circling back to my old reanimator deck. There was only one legend that could possibly help me dredge up a vision of my long dead past and breathe new life into it: Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Her kinda-hot-kinda-meth-binge hair screams “I’ve been up all night working with corpses, just like you” and she’s even got an undead dragon for a puppers.

This deck, as with the first of all my firsts before it, strives to make the most of infinite graveyard loops. I chose a Birthing Pod tutor theme, since Meren of Clan Nel Toth's experience scales well with a Pod chain, reanimating each successive sac for value, and offering options for chain branching at key CMC points.

The usual suspects have been added, (i.e. Spore Frog, Plaguecrafter) for recursive value grinding and board control while searching for the following win conditions:

Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Putrid Goblin forms the basis of the first link in the Pod chain for an infinite graveyard loop.

Add Phyrexian Altar for infinite mana, Altar of Dementia for a mill win, or throw in an aristocrat like Blood Artist for infinite damage/lifegain.

I've included repetition for each combo part, and plenty of sac outlets to mitigate pesky graveyard hate and exile effects.

A little further up the chain, we'll Pod into a couple of these repetitive pieces and spice up our recursion loops while adding to the macabre theme.

First we have everybody's favourite zombie preacher: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. In addition to singing backup for Melira, Sylvok Outcast in persist combos, Mike allows infinite interactions with XX cost artifact creatures such as Walking Ballista. XX cost artifacts also provide immediate value the turn Meren of Clan Nel Toth is played, and can net 2 quick experience counters, as they sac immediately when played for 0, and then recur as 0 offering up a second helping of sac at end of turn.

Puppeteer Clique Pods directly into Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and immediately serves as the persist half of that combination. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Puppeteer Clique allows us offer our undeath services to opposing graveyards. This allows for my personal favourite, fair, I'm-only-infinite-if-you're-infinite combo, as it's limited by the strength of opponents' board states.

If you prefer unfair, either Altar of the Brood or Altar of Dementia will happily serve twofold here, as they allow us to punch each opponent in the face with their entire creature catalogue before decking them.

The mana curve tops out at seven for the ultimate-sac-fodder-bubble-toad-thing: Protean Hulk. The aforementioned combos of Blood Artist + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Putrid Goblin and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista are both 6-CMC Hulk fetches. Phyrexian Delver and Viscera Seer form a 6-CMC pre-fetch crew that offer immediate recursion and subsequent re-sac for Protean Hulk, and allow an immediate window to infinity.

Speaking of immediacy, green mana dorks like Llanowar Elves will both ramp into, and pair nicely with Natural Order and Pattern of Rebirth and allow impatient players to enjoy a Protean Hulk on turn two or three instead of waiting for Birthing Pod to climax.

Race or grind as you will, this deck plays smooth at any speed. Meren will allow an adept pilot to comfortably navigate a wide range of power levels.

Beyond balancing and tuning stats (21 x <= 1 CMC, 21 x 2 CMC, 21 x >=3 CMC, etc.,) I have my decks built into functionally and aesthetically balanced five card blocks, such that each block forms multiple mirrored patterns, while adhering to strict functionality and thematic principles within both its mirrored grouping, and the deck as a whole.

It's difficult to describe accurately, or display using this site's interface, but each deck is a functional piece of art, as beautiful to behold as it is true to purpose.

Though I own my decks in paper, I rarely if ever actually play in group. I simply like the challenge of theory-crafting something perfect, numerically, functionally, and aesthetically.

If it please you, a taste of my other deck primers:

I hope that my OCD outlet provides your playgroup some entertainment.

For you, and forever,

j.

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Casual

92% Competitive

Revision 18 See all

(3 years ago)

Top Ranked
Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

41 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.22
Tokens Experience Token, Morph 2/2 C
Folders Cool EDH Decks, Unconscionable EDH Primers, Helpful Decks, Interesting Stuff, EDH, Other Decks, Decks to Try, Golgari, cool shit, Decks
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