Divine Machinations (Cleric Tribal)

Commander / EDH Cleric Infinite Combo Lifegain Partner Reanimator Theme/Gimmick WB (Orzhov)

Gadianten

Church Holdings (34)

• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 4x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Divine Retribution (6)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vindicate

Champions (3)

• 1x Angel of Glory's Rise
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Benediction of Salvation (1)

• 1x Cover of Darkness

Rites of Annihilation (1)

• 1x Morality Shift

The Clergy (28)

• 1x Akroma's Devoted
• 1x Ancestor's Prophet
• 1x Angel of Destiny
• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Battletide Alchemist
• 1x Benevolent Bodyguard
• 1x Cabal Archon
• 1x Changeling Hero
• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Edgewalker
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Orah, Skyclave Hierophant
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Remorseful Cleric
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Shadow-Rite Priest
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Taborax, Hope's Demise
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Resurrection and Rebirth (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Reanimate

Coffers (4)

• 1x Bolas's CitadelGC
• 1x Necrologia
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Smothering TitheGC

Commanders (2)

Esoteric Lore (7)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Relics (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Relic of Legends
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Rituals (2)

• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual

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Maybeboard

Other (1)

• 1x Selfless Glyphweaver  ^Flip

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"Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back" (Vigo the Carpathian). Tymna the Weaver *f-etch* and Ravos, Soultender *f-etch* cleric tribal deck focusing on early card draw and late game recurring reanimation and life drain effects.

Protection

Protection

• Benevolent Bodyguard
• Giver of Runes
• Mother of Runes
• Selfless Spirit
• Battletide Alchemist
• Avacyn, Angel of Hope
While not quite as good as Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Selfless Spirit and Gift of Immortality make for a decent poor man's version of her.
Also worth noting, Benevolent Bodyguard and Gift of Immortality make it very difficult to use spot removal on your creatures while also making blocks and attacks more favorable; so in short Benevolent Bodyguard is good at complicating plans and being a general nuisance.

Card Draw

Card Draw

• Necrologia
• Necropotence
• Bolas's Citadel
• Archivist of Oghma
• Taborax, Hope's Demise
• Tymna the Weaver
• Mangara, the Diplomat
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• Barren Moor
• Secluded Steppe
• Silent Clearing
• Geier Reach Sanitarium

Drawing ALL the Cards:
Black draw strategies commonly spend entire life totals chasing a solution as anyone who has witnessed Greed like effects in action can attest to, however why accept such limitations...? Enter the blackest card in white, Children of Korlis the only card in magic whose activation requires you to "Sacrifice Children". The ideal setup consists of...
• Necropotence
• Children of Korlis
• Reliquary Tower
If you have 40 life, draw 35 cards, 39 if your feeling really brave, and then reset yourself to 40 life, if you have Ravos, Soultender *f-etch* repeat every turn if desired. I have only pulled this off early game once as I don't usually dig for the pieces to do this but the universal response of "what" from my opponents alone was worth it, also it turns out drawing more cards then all my opponents combined was game breaking who knew?

Bolas's Citadel, Playing Until it Hurts:
With the low general cost of spells in the deck and the life gain mechanics within its quite possible to play every nonland card in the library. Amusingly, playing Necropotence is quite useful as a method to remove land cards from the top of the library along with Sensei's Divining Top and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician being a good back up for this job as well. Just keep playing cards until you are able to assemble the reanimation combo with some life gain mechanic to then finish the game or at the very least gain a massive lead before someone inevitably smashes Bolas's Citadel. The list of approved Citadel additions...
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• Necropotence

Tymna the Weaver Enablers

• Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• Benevolent Bodyguard
• Mother of Runes
• Giver of Runes
• Cover of Darkness

Removal and Control

The best approach to problem solving really

Removal

• Swords to Plowshares
• Path to Exile
• Anguished Unmaking
• Generous Gift
• Vindicate
• Living Death
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• Fiend Hunter
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Graveyard Removal

• Remorseful Cleric

Mana Ramp

Mana Ramp

• Chrome Mox
• Mox Amber
• Mox Diamond
• Sol Ring
• Worn Powerstone
• Culling the Weak
• Dark Ritual
• Smothering Tithe

Ramp Lands

• Ancient Tomb
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Cabal Coffers/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Honorable Mention

• Weathered Wayfarer
• Edgewalker

Lifegain

Lifegain

• Children of Korlis
• Soul Warden
• Soul's Attendant
• Archivist of Oghma
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• Cabal Archon
• Righteous Valkyrie
• Tymna the Weaver
• Mangara, the Diplomat
• Orah, Skyclave Hierophant
• Ancestor's Prophet
• Angel of Destiny
• Changeling Hero

Infinite life gain: Currently the only infinite life combo that does not end in an auto win is Angel of Glory's Rise, Fiend Hunter, Priest of Gix and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. But if you want another way of gaining infinite life while murdering everyone at the table try the above reanimation setup but without the need for the Priest of Gix, and replace the sacrifice outlet with Altar of Dementia. Although the arbitrarily high life total may be an obstacle to your opponents, the instant free at will reanimation of human creatures will probably be more problematic then your actual life total, but hey crazy life gain.

Sanctioned Infinite Combos

Morality shift and Turning the World Upside Down

• Morality Shift
• Dread Return
• Angel of Glory's Rise
• Fiend Hunter/Changeling Hero
• Priest of Gix
• Cabal Archon
Playing the combo: The way this works is after casting Morality Shift (with enough creatures in play to pay the flashback cost of Dread Return), flashback Dread Return targeting Angel of Glory's Rise, returning her to the battlefield and subsequently causing all zombies to be exiled and all your humans to return to play. When all of the humans enter the battlefield have Fiend Hunter or Changeling Hero exile/champion her and gain {B}{B}{B} from Priest of Gix, use Cabal Archon to sacrifice Fiend Hunter and Priest of Gix, draining someone two life for every cleric sacrificed, now proceed in abusing Angel of Glory's Rise triggers to loop this until everyone else is dead. An advantage with this combo is that it seems to come from out nowhere and can catch people off guard. The ideal setup will also have Grand Abolisher out preventing opponent interactions but the combo itself does not require him.

Important: Do not sacrifice Fiend Hunter BEFORE you exile Angel of Glory's Rise! This is because Fiend Hunter has TWO separate triggered abilities tied to it, one is to exile the target and another is to return said target, screwing up and causing the return trigger to resolve first will cause the target to be permanently exiled. Also something to be aware of in case of opponent shenanigans attempting to cause the above dilemma is that the trigger from Fiend Hunter is a may ability and goes onto the stack regardless of intent, it is only after resolution that you choose if you want to exile the target or not (Triggered Abilities 603.5).

Reanimation

Reanimation

• Reanimate
• Dread Return
• Living Death
• Angel of Glory's Rise
• Animate Dead
• Dance of the Dead

Buried Alive for value and profit

• Angel of Glory's Rise
• Changeling Hero/Fiend Hunter
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: Use Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and draw cards so that you can discard all relevant human creatures for reanimation, potentially winning on your opponents upkeep.
Creatures That Can Abuse This Reanimation Setup
• Children of Korlis: Infinite Lifegain if damage taken
• Soul Warden: Infinite Lifegain
• Soul's Attendant: Infinite Lifegain
• Fiend Hunter: Exile any number of creatures permanently if Changeling Hero is on the board
• Heliod's Pilgrim: Tutor up any number of auras
• Priest of Gix: Infinite {B}
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: Congratulations you have assembled Yawgmoth's Bargain that also distributes -1/-1 counters, enjoy the cheese because no one else will
• Ancestor's Prophet: Infinite lifegain if you have five or more clerics
Important note, if you have Altar of Dementia out with this setup the struggle is over, you have won, just mill yourself until you have completed the main combo or just mill away the oppositions libraries.

Recursion

Recursion

• Ravos, Soultender

Pseudo Recursion

• Mistveil Plains
This is really for when Morality Shift goes south and serves as a way to eventually reset the library using Morality Shift even if it takes a turn or two to start the process.

Tutors

Tutors

• Enlightened Tutor
• Entomb
• Scheming Symmetry
• Vampiric Tutor
• Demonic Tutor
• Diabolic Intent
• Buried Alive
• Weathered Wayfarer
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• Heliod's Pilgrim
Heliod's Pilgrim
• Animate Dead
• Dance of the Dead
• Gift of Immortality

If you have any ideas on how to improve the deck please leave a comment.

Top Ranked	Achieved #22 position overall 7 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Lifegain 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Reanimator 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Theme/Gimmick 5 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.79
Tokens	Elephant 3-3 G, Treasure
Folders	Cool concepts, Decks, edh, weird, super neat idea, Favorable Fodder, Commander/EDH, Interesting Commander Decks, Decks I want to try, Personal Decks