Perhaps Meren decks have gotten stronger in the month or two since I stopped playing commander, but what is so difficult about Meren? Kill her before her end step and she does nothing. Either way I definitely agree that a focused gravehate deck can do some serious damage to most commander strategies. I like your list +1

Lilbrudder, thanks man! The problem I have come across is just how consistent the recursion is with meren. Unless your deck is chock full of removal, you can get tied up quickly. Meren decks are built like aristocrats, and designed specifically to recur ANYTHING that hits the yard, and they are made with much more ramp to ensure recasting is easy when she gets removed. She's just so hard to make inconsistent from the opponent perspective. Once she gets going, the board fills quickly and ETB affects make matters all the worst. Constant Terastodons is a problem IMO.

Yeah I could see that. I guess Meren has never been that problematic for me because I usually play alot of cards that hose general focused decks. In Mardu I play Crackling Doom, Angel of Serenity, and Terminus on her. In BUG I use mass bounce effects like Kederekt Leviathan + Necromancy ,Terastodons of my own to kill excessive ramp, mass flipping like Ixidron, steal cards like Gilded Drake, and cheap non targeted removal like Toxic Deluge. Meren has always been a good matchup for me but I can see how she would be difficult for a lot of decks given her consistency. Keep hating man. I love making Meren players salty :-)

Lilbrudder, Sweet man! Thanks!

Wow... I genuinely read "Anafenza hates Men"...

Marenkai lol

+1 I like the deck. A big commander you missed in your list of decks that need the graveyard is Scion of the Ur-Dragon. Even if it's not Hermit Druid combo.

HarroHunter, good point. Adding it now. Thanks for the upvote!

Also Hallowed Moonlight fits in there somewhere I think.

Why play the inferior version of Containment Priest ? That's redundant.

Marenkai You don't always draw Containment Priest so one other card with the same effect doesn't seem excessive to me.

I realized last night she needs Living End.

gonki, no she doesnt. If RIP is out, or i just popped a relic, or something of the sort, LE is just an overpriced, suspended board wipe. It would have cool synergy, but it is a nonbo with soooo many cards in the deck. I thought about that too actually when i was first making the deck.

gonki, Living Death on the other hand could fit, because it doesnt require suspending it and playing around it for turn after turn. You could just drop it, and then play RIP.

This deck itself is very situational though. Like I wanted to grab a combo piece with a tutor yesterday and then I realized I needed to deal with Captain Sisay and Oloro so I took Sadistic Sacrament instead. If RIP or Leyline aren't in play but Anafenza is either card will work great. I agree Living Death is an overall better card but a suspended Living End is an excellent intimidation tactic or bluff, which matters in commander. For example, suspend it, drop Anafenza and swing commander damage for free because people don't want to lose their creatures to Living End. Then wait for them to drop their value cards and Duneblast.

Incidentally I'd like you to know I kept a Meren off the table yesterday with this deck. I saw a guy going for her when I was going to play Azusa and I was just like "Nope nope. Anafenza is the blade against your neck."

In terms of what you pay for him I'm not sure Athreos is worth it in this deck. Heliod, God of the Sun would get you a big, indestructible body and you probably have sufficient devotion to white. Teneb is also grabbing creatures from your graveyard if you need them as well. Most of the time people will just pay the three life to say nope. Abzan Banner should definitely be swapped for Commander's Sphere. Idyllic Tutor is fantastic but you can cut costs using Plea for Guidance and you shouldn't be short on mana to cast it. Enlightened Tutor also lets you grab artifacts which is relevant to one of the combos. Transguild Promenade is horrible... trust me. It may cause budget issues but you should probably put pain lands and bounce lands in. Once you test it out you might want to consider replacing some of the lands that come in tapped with basics or shocks when you can get a hold of them. Again, since you're working in a budget use something like Beseech the Queen instead of Demonic Tutor and you can put more money where it matters for a trivial loss of convenience.

I'm back with more! I'd replace Transguild Promenade with Temple of the False God. Krosan Grip over Disenchant to make sure they can't just do something like sac a bunch of shit to Ashnod's Altar etc. when you destroy it. I believe you also know I'm a fan of Return to Dust. I consider Sword of the Animist pretty much an auto-include in commander now and you're running enough basics for it. Anafenza herself definitely needs Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves. Whispersilk Cloak is also nice along with Trailblazer's Boots but those two are more of personal favorites of mine. Sudden Death is good for removing a lot of commanders or tossing something into their graveyard to exile it. Again they lose the chance to respond which is crucial in a lot of cases. Darksteel Mutation or Song of the Dryads want to be in here to nullify commanders. I'm currently considering finding a spot for Tainted Remedy because screw Oloro and Wound Reflection because screw everyone.

Lilbrudder I was just reading through the comments and thought I'd note some other things about using Anafenza in a match up with Meren. One nice thing is that she shuts Meren down with zero effort. If she's on the table before Meren, the player probably won't even cast Meren and immediately try to deal with you, which can be hard in a deck built around her. This has a side benefit of people tending to keep the heat off you because nearly everyone is aware of the general degeneracy of Meren decks. Since the many tools to deal with Meren can be repurposed to combo out or disable and beat down so many commanders it puts you in a nice position right from the start. If you don't want to combo out or only need minimal Meren hate Anafenza can be adjusted to support tokens, ramp, stompy or even your own graveyard strategies if you neglect to play Rest in Peace.

As an aside the biggest issue I've run into dealing with Meren when I don't have that much graveyard hate (or say a Grand Abolisher) available is that people inevitably respond to removal with mass sacrifice to stuff like Ashnod's Altar thus accumulating a tremendous number of experience counters. The most frustrating thing about this is it stops you from exiling the really odious recurring stuff like Spore Frog.

+1 for anafenza.

You should use Beast Within over Naturalize, because being able to hit anything is pretty much worth the additional mana and a 3/3 beast is pretty worthless when life totals are 40. Being able to destroy Planeswalkers, lands (especially Gaea's Cradles, Cabal Coffers and more) at instant speed is huge, let alone the capacity to hit creatures.

Grand Abolisher would be a good call here, too. Doesn't just keep your stuff safe from counter spells: He keeps your stuff safe from other people activating abilities on your turn, as well, so when an opponent has a Spike Weaver or something up, you're the one unaffected by it and can even win through it.

Also, I think you should add Chainer, Dementia Master to your list of affected Commanders. He's pretty reliant on the graveyard as a finisher, despite being a more control-oriented deck.

How about Ground Seal or a Grafdigger's Cage?

+1

CrazyDanPsycho I played Ground Seal in my version of this deck and it had some weird interactions iirc. The cage is great though.