Bring Out Your Dead
Commander / EDH
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Refining —April 5, 2016
I don't know if anyone reads this. It's mostly for myself anyway. I removed a lot of cards that I felt didn't do enough like Krosan Wayfarer, and also noncreature ramp like Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Rampant Growth, etc... I also, for the most part, removed creatures and lands that had activation costs like Grim Backwoods and Stitcher Geralf. For this reason, I replaced the keyrunes with signets. They're more cost effective mana-wise, and still accomplish the task of fixing my mana. Also, if I get them on curve, I can cast my commander early. This isn't the case with the keyrunes. I'll post my new additions below, broken out by the role they play, although many fit in multiple.
Draw: Mulldrifter, Elvish Visionary, The Gitrog Monster. Ramp: Burnished Hart, Dreamscape Artist, Voyaging Satyr Evasion: Wonder, Filth ETB: Reclamation Sage, Gravedigger, Phyrexian Delver Sacrificial Fodder: Destructor Dragon, Shambling Shell Grave Exploitation: Deadbridge Chant, Living Death Nonbasic Land: Drownyard Temple, Svogthos, the Restless Tomb, Westvale Abbey Flip, Sunken Hollow.
I think these changes have helped to focus the deck in the direction I want it to go. I want to attack all the time without necessarily leaving myself open. I haven't played it in this exact configuration yet, but the last time I played, it was pretty close to this. It ran much smoother than it previously had, and had more answers on hand due to relying much less on noncreature removal/advancement. Also, I think I managed to drop the average CMC in the deck just a little bit.
One thing I have noticed is that the deck has gotten further away from my original intent. It was supposed to just play off of the synergy between Meren, Ezuri, and Sidisi. However, the Ezuri factor seems to be much less important, or it just serves a different purpose. I used to have Brawn in the deck because the creatures would get really big, and thus trample was a good effect to have. Now, I find that flying and Swampwalk work much better (especially flying as I don't have a spare Urborg to throw in the deck. Instead of building experience counters with Meren, it now seems much more viable to build them with Ezuri, and then pull out Meren. Either way, I really only run two tutors (Jarad's Orders and Corpse Connoisseur).