Commander Collection: Hair Raiser

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk)

Jurrane

Creature (34)

• 1x Aftermath Analyst
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Cynical Loner
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Haywire Mite
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 1x Nekrataal
• 1x Priest of Fell Rites
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Satyr Wayfinder
• 1x Serra's Emissary
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Skull Prophet
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Witherbloom Apprentice
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (35)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 6x Forest
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x High Market
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Plains
• 1x Shifting Woodland
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sol Ring

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Ripples of Undeath

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Chain of Smog
• 1x Damn
• 1x Diresight
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Rise of the Witch-king
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Vindicate

Instant (5)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Corrupted Conviction
• 1x Drag to the Roots
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Village Rites

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{W}{B}{G} Introduction: Raising Hell {W}{B}{G}

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'Hair Raiser' is an Abzan reanimator deck, built around Karador, Ghost Chieftain and other graveyard shenanigans. It's a bit slow to get started but becomes stronger the game goes on, with plenty of late-game options and lots of virtual card advantage by recycling creatures with ETB effects.

Most of the recent development on this deck has been to try to lower the curve and speed it up, which is tough when you have so many high CMC creatures that you want to cheat into play instead of casting. I've added a bunch of mana rocks alongside the usual green ramp cards in an effort to develop a board presence a bit quicker, as I was finding that if it didn't get its dream start of Entomb, Reanimate, Animate Dead etc then it durdled around and sometimes got run over. I haven't tested it much yet but the tricky part seems to be getting the right balance between early/late game, and reanimation targets vs reanimation sources vs sac outlets vs interaction.

Birthing Pod seems like a useful strategy in this deck so I've added it to create more of a toolbox element, to control the board with ETB effects and to help fill the graveyard. Elsewhere, there's also the opportunity to go infinite with Reveillark/Karmic Guide/sac outlet combos, potentially using Altar of Dementia or Altar of the Brood to mill out opponents, or Phyrexian Altar to generate infinite mana to power a game-ending Torment of Hailfire. But I need to play with the deck a lot more to get a better idea of whether it's built correctly.

Karador, Master of Value

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Although he's fallen out of favour slightly, Karador, Ghost Chieftain is one of the grindiest value engines there is. A perfect Commander for a reanimator-based strategy, Karador excels in games of sheer attrition, turning the graveyard into a toolbox to cast (and re-cast) the right creatures for the right situation. Unless the graveyard is removed (this deck's Kryptonite), we have the option of using dead creatures as removal, ramp or combar for as long as we want, or just stalling the game long enough to win with one of our combos.

The nice thing about Karador, Ghost Chieftain is that, built correctly, he usually allows us to dodge commander tax. Get enough creatures in the yard and it doesn't matter how many times we cast him, he'll only ever cost three mana. He's great at rebuilding after board wipes as we can start ramping again with Sakura-Tribe Elder and co, or going full scorched earth by playing Cataclysmic Gearhulk or Gray Merchant of Asphodel over and over again. As long we we have the right creatures in the graveyard, we can do pretty much anything we want.

Back, Sac & Crack

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For this deck to be successful, we must fill our graveyard with creatures. The yard then becomes an extension of our hand, allowing us to raise creatures from the dead to meet the needs of any given situation. Therefore our sacrifice enablers are the true workhorses of the deck because without them, it's difficult to execute our game plan.

There are a number of ways we can fill our graveyard with creatures. First, we don't mind at all if the creatures we play are removed (as long as they're not exiled). They hit they graveyard, they're chill - they're not going far. Second, we can use sacrifice outlets to send them to the graveyard when we want them to go, usually with the benefit of some nice value. Examples of our sac outlets include Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Phyrexian Altar, Birthing Pod and so on.

The third way we can get our creatures to the graveyard is by using Entomb type effects. Cards like Entomb, Unmarked Grave and Final Parting become pseudo-tutors because we can use them to search for particular creatures we want in the yard. A special mention goes to Final Parting because is finds both pieces of our Chain of Smog // Witherbloom Apprentice combo, often allowing us to win on the spot if we have a reanimation card ready to bring back the Witherbloom Apprentice we've just dumped in the graveyard. Finally we also have tools like Satyr Wayfinder, Underrealm Lich etc that will put cards in the yard for us.

Our Combo Plan

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Although we work well as an attritional deck that grinds its way through games, some of our reanimation tools enable infinite combos that end the game on the spot. We have Chain of Smog and Witherbloom Apprentice that can win out of nowhere, and we can create infinite loops with Karmic Guide, Reveillark and a sac outlet.

Here's how the Karmic Guide // Reveillark combo works:

• Karmic Guide, Reveillark and a sac outlet on the battlefield
• A sac outlet such as Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder or Phyrexian Altar also on the battlefield, plus our chosen payoff card for infinite death triggers/infinite mana (Blood Artist, Torment of Hailfire etc).
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Karmic Guide.
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Reveillark.
• When Reveillark dies, it triggers, returning Karmic Guide from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• When Karmic Guide enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Reveillark from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• Repeat ad infinitum

We can also do the same thing with any combination of Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Saffi Eriksdotter and a sac outlet ie.

• Karmic Guide or Reveillark plus Saffi Eriksdotter and a sac outlet on the battlefield
• Activate Saffi Eriksdotter by sacrificing it, targeting Karmic Guide or Reveillark.
• Activate the sac outlet by sacrificing Karmic Guide.
• Karmic Guide or Reveillark dies, triggering Saffi Eriksdotter, returning Karmic Guide or Reveillark from the graveyard to the battlefield.
• When Karmic Guide or Reveillark enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Saffi Eriksdotterfrom the graveyard to the battlefield.
• Repeat ad infinitum

Some other notes:

• We can do the Karmic Guide and Reveillark loops with Gray Merchant of Asphodel too, to drain our opponents life infinitely and win the game.
• Protean Hulk is one of our most important enablers as it can find multiple creature combo pieces at once.
• We have some other useful tutors that help us find the right combo pieces at the right time. This is the perfect deck for Final Parting, we can search for creatures to dump in the graveyard with Entomb and Buried Alive, and we have tutor-on-a-stick creatures like Rune-Scarred Demon and Sidisi, Undead Vizier. There'a also the option to add other tutors like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor or Grim Tutor to improve consistency.

Upcoming Changes

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I'm pretty happy with this list so far and I'm not looking to make any major changes. As with most of my decks, it would benefit from powering up with more fast mana sources but I'm fairly satisfied with its current power level. Shifting Woodland and Ripples of Undeath from MH3 are straight upgrades for a reanimator build so I'm adding them, to replace a Forest and Phyrexian Arena (which will probably move to this deck).

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IV {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Heron's Grace {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Prime Speaker Zegana {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Kess, Dissident Mage {U}{B}{R}
Mindbender: Grixis Discard

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Spirits Tribal

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.11
Tokens	Companion Zone, Elephant 3-3 G, Morph 2/2 C