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Filthy Casual Meren | Primer

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BG (Golgari) Midrange Primer Reanimator Toolbox

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Commander: foil Meren of Clan Nel Toth

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Sorcery (9)

Updated February 28th, 2019

23rd EDH Deck - 75% Golgari Aristocrat

Introduction

"Perfection through Knowledge, Satisfaction through Ruthlessness, Harmony through Acceptance"

I'm the guy who loves playing decks that aren't that popular and will spends thousands of dollars refining them until I deem them complete, yes I am that type of person. I been introduced to Magic the Gathering back in middle school in the year of 2003, the block that I started in was the Kamigawa block and I found it very interesting. During that time I played a constructed deck on and off and eventually life happened and I stopped playing, flash forward almost exactly ten years later and I joined an anime/otaku club. Here I met people playing MTG and I also started getting back into it. Currently I am an avid competitive EDH player who has a tendency to play combo/control decks, I absolutely hate to lose but I enjoy a great match. I've been known in my group as always being threatening and able to win out of the blue so they love to make my life hard and deny me all of my resources, as you will see the reason a lot of my decks are built to win either with flair or questionable commanders. Now enough about me, go read further below that's what you actually came here for!

Ah Meren, she takes me back to a lot of good old times. We have a love and hate relationship. It all started when the commander 2015 came out, I already had delved quite a bit in the reanimator territory so she piqued my interest, she was amazing to play with right out the box. She was also there when I had to disassemble my Teneb back in early 2016 (sad days indeed) and she was also there during my resurgence in 2017. Now comes in 2019 and I have yet again rebuilt her, this would be my fifth time rebuilding her and this time she is staying for good. I don't know why but Meren is one of those commanders that is always fun to play with and never gets old.

In the core beginning she has always stricken to me as a value engine. Back when I first got Meren and to the current version now she hasn't changed much. Chock full of ETB effects and creatures to gain value. I moved away from infinite combos as this is my dirty casual deck. At most I will make this a 75% build and will settle at that, no more no less. Now I present you my dirty commander Filthy Casual Meren!

Deck Breakdown

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

A couple reasons why I chose Meren:

  1. She gives you value that no other Golgari commander can give. A constant source of grabbing creatures back to your hand or to the battlefield.
  2. She has a decent P/T. Having 3 power means she can deal with most average creatures and 4 toughness is decent when we have to deal with certain removals.
  3. Costing only at 4 cmc is also a boon, we will almost always cast her by T3. Any earlier will be a plus and allows us to set up a good range of options.

    Plus she is a chick that will reanimate your corpse and beat you with it, I like feisty girls.

    There are a couple other commanders in the Golgari colors but the closest one that comes to the aristocrat approach is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord , Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest , Ishkanah, Grafwidow , Varolz, the Scar-Striped , Savra, Queen of the Golgari , and the new recent one Izoni, Thousand-Eyed . Starting with Jarad, he is cool but doesn't produce enough value that Meren does inherently, not to mention the fact that he is more of a high creature power build to make use of his ability. That's not what I want to do with this build which is to abuse as many ETB effects over and over again. Mazirek is the same, plus he is easy to abuse with in making infinite combos. Ishkanah is cool no doubt but it leans towards a tribal deck and limits my options. Varolz doesn't add anything to what I want to do besides being a sac outlet in the command zone. Savra is just a bit win more effect when I want to abuse my creatures. Lastly Izoni is too high on the cost for the CMC as well as not giving much of an impact when being cast.

Acidic Slime : Great creature all around, as it can deal with pesky lands. Also good as a rattlesnake.

Birds of Paradise : Ramp, pod fodder, low CMC.

Blood Artist : Drain package, low CMC cost. Makes opponents weary of blowing up the board.

Blood Pet : Can self sac for Meren triggers. Nets mana when used with Mikaeus. Looks like a demented squirrel.

Carrion Feeder : One of two efficient sac outlets we have available.

Caustic Caterpillar : Rattlesnake removal, low CMC drop, get's around Torpor Orb .

Corpse Augur : The life loss is negligible, CA is far more important.

Deathrite Shaman : Great hate card, and so many useful abilities that is relevant at any point of game.

Disciple of Bolas : CA as well as a sac effect to trigger Meren's ability. Life gain helps as well.

Elves of Deep Shadow : Ramp, pod fodder, low CMC.

Elvish Mystic : Ramp, pod fodder, low CMC.

Eternal Witness : One of the best green staple cards. Soooo abuseable, such a filthy human.

Fauna Shaman : Our budget Survival of the Fittest , great with Meren as we can recur the discarded creature. Just pure value in this deck.

Golgari Grave-Troll : Can be a big beater to smack down some players, or can be used to dredge up more filth.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel : The main reason I rebuilt Meren. To abuse his ability over, and over, and over again. Try and see how many times you can make this filthy guy come back from the grave.

Grim Haruspex : Our CA engine, we will be sacrificing a lot of creatures anyway, why not get value from it as well?

Kokusho, the Evening Star : My favorite Kamigawa dragon. Does the same effect as the Gray filth above this.

Llanowar Elves : Ramp, pod fodder, low CMC.

Massacre Wurm : This is tech in for decks that like to go wide. We can loop it several times to kill the whole board as well. Pure filth as it also provides for our devotion.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed : Your all star in this deck, usually first pick for Reanimate target. Having double triggers of almost all of your creatures is too good not to include.

Mindslicer : Not going to lie, this is a hateful card that won't make you any friends. We can play without our hands, our opponents? ... Yeah not really.

Pawn of Ulamog : Great for any aristocrat decks. Makes your filth even filthier. Gotta love it.

Phyrexian Revoker : This is a meta call card as of now. Consistent grave hate really messes with this deck, any time there is a grave hate card, this is your go to answer.

Plaguecrafter : The filthiest version of Fleshbag Marauder . Ugh I wish he was a non-human so I can abuse him even more with Mikaeus.

Protean Hulk : This does not win the game in this build, but it does however net us an assortment of creatures that can lead us to a game winning state.

Ravenous Chupacabra : Only reason this is in over Shriekmaw is because it can target any creature, targeting non-black creatures is pretty awkward since Black is a popular EDH color.

Reclamation Sage : OG staple removal on a creature ETB.

Riftsweeper : Since we only have a few ways to win, if we don't have access to a sac outlet, our creatures will get exiled one way or another. This card is to get back the cards exiled this way.

Sakura-Tribe Elder : One of the filthiest creature in any Meren decks. The hard ramp is good especially for early Meren triggers.

Satyr Wayfinder : One of your best ways to dig for more filth.

Sheoldred, Whispering One : What more do you want in a reanimator deck that sacrifices your opponents creature and recurs back your own? Top notch filth material.

Sidis, Undead Vizier: Helps proc Meren death triggers as well as allowing you to tutor for your filthy cards. Great card to have.

Spore Frog : The filthiest frog in existence. All fear and be humbled by the frog filth.

Terastodon : A dirty, dirty card. Reanimating this one turn 1 leads to some controversy. Absolute filthfuckingtastic.

Viscera Seer : One of the two efficient sac outlets we have available. This is obviously the better one as we can scry away whatever we don't need.

Wall of Blossoms : Card draw and can be a great blocker as well.

Wood Elves : Staple green ETB ramp.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan : The only other creature sac outlet to make the cut, due to making himself insanely large and protecting himself. Plus I love his backstory.

Altar of Dementia : Our only non-creature sac outlet. Useful because it allows us to dig deeper into our deck.

Birthing Pod : This filthy thing has a section all on its own in the next section.

Skullclamp : Useful to draw all them cards. Your dorks became some filthy dirty dorks. Pure value.

Sol Ring : Ramp, Ramp, Ramp. Love me some filthy ramp.

Animate Dead : Prime recursion spell with minimal side effects.

Dance of the Dead : A different version of the one above, but just comes in tapped, which means not much since we abuse ETB triggers.

Exploration : Consistent accelerator, allows for early game Meren plays and use of extra fodder lands.

Necromancy : Super filthy card that can either steal your opponents creature or grab one of yours. If used at instant speed can also trigger Meren's ability, great card all in all.

Oversold Cemetery : A great card to bring back your filthy creatures back to your hand and to replay them for further hate.

Pattern of Rebirth : Another filthy card that lets me grab all the filth I need to do shenanigans.

Abrupt Decay : Staple golgari removal, the can't be countered clause is especially relevant in my meta.

Assassin's Trophy : Great hit all spell for the low cost, the basic land they grab is negligible most of the times.

Crop Rotation : Super spicy card to grab our filthy lands .

Culling the Weak : One of my favorite cards as of lately, that additional helps out so much. Not to mention that it also procs Meren's trigger in the process. Ultra filth card.

Dark Ritual : Great filthy card, used for fast plays or to grab that extra reach.

Entomb : Instant speed tutor essentially for our deck.

Krosan Grip : Used mainly for the split second. Aside from that great card all around. A common staple in any deck that uses green.

Nature's Claim : Most cost efficient artifact/enchantment hate.

Buried Alive : Spicy card that gives us so much options. A fun filthy card.

Demonic Tutor : Well if they are already know I'm playing dirty, well this filthy card is to be expected.

Diabolic Intent : In some ways this card is better than Demonic Tutor die to sacrificing a creature for Meren.

Eldritch Evolution : One time use pod , but very useful when needed.

Green Sun's Zenith : Since the addition of Dryad Arbor as well as the ability to tutor for any of our filthy toolbox answers. This has plenty of use any stage of the game, it scales as the game lasts.

Life / Death : Essentially our second Reanimate , rarely used for the life side since we don't run Razaketh.

Life from the Loam : A constant way to grab back our pitched lands or dredged stuff. Also enables some digging and synergy with our cycling lands.

Living Death : Our only board wipe... but a great one nonetheless.

Reanimate : Well the original reanimation card, what is there not to love about it? Pulls filthy creature onto the dirty battlefield to wreck some havoc.

Bojuka Bog : Used for those other decks that also abuse the grave as well. Anti-filth card.

High Market : Our first sac land, semi-filth material but still good because it doesn't require an activation cost to use.

Phyrexian Tower : Our filthiest land. Adds a great ton of value, and our number 1 target when we use Crop Rotation .

Strip Mine : Another way to deal with lands like Gaea's Cradle , Cabal Coffers , and the like.

Our main strengths include:

  • Toolbox Versatility
  • Value Effects
  • Resourceful Synergy

Our number one thing we have going for us is the versatility against most decks. We are a toolbox deck that is catered in going against a variety of deck. We don't care if our creature gets countered, why? well it ends up in the grave where we can reuse again at a later point or recur with Meren's trigger ability. Aggro decks? Well you grab that shiny looking frog and fog for days. Combo? Just deny them of resources from cards like Plaguecrafter or Terastodon .

The next thing we have going for us is the sheer value Meren provides, we run a lot of value creatures that do things so anyone of those creatures are going to do something every time we play them. Not only that we are also able to do it again and again and again. This leads to our next point, no matter where the cards end up we can use them to some filthy things. For example, we can sac Kokusho , drain everyone, use Reanimate to bring him back again, sac him one more time, than use Meren's trigger ability to put him into our hand if we don't have enough experience counter, and do it all over again the next turn.

Our main weaknesses include:

The most vital weakness for our plans is definitely grave hate, we see a Rest in Piece, your screwed. We see a Leyline of the Void , your fucked. You see other cards like Grafdigger's Cage , Tormod's Crypt , Relic of Progenitus , you'll wanna scream. Not to mention with the above mentioned cards, there are also cards like Hushwing Gryff , Torpor Orb , and Humility . All of them hoses us hard, and pretty much telling us to get fucked in the ass. We run quite a decent removal suite not reliant on creature ETB, but those are far in between the deck to rely on them consistently. You see any of those cards on the field, blow them up without remorse. Aside from that generally, those are the only thing that we are extremely weak too.

One of our main engine for filthy casual plays is the use of Birthing Pod . With Meren's innate ability to either bring back a creature card to the hand or battlefield, pod becomes a reusable sac out outlet as well as toolbox utility tutor for our whole deck. We run a streamline curve of efficient creatures so no matter what CMC of creature you have in play, you always have an option of going one higher. Our Birthing Pod chain stops at 8 CMC, which is Terastodon . Knowing your deck is also essential since we also run Eldritch Evolution which is a one time Pod but can reach two levels higher and isn't restricted as much. Listed below is the options we have to start the chain from and all the way to the highest CMC creature we have.

Deck Piloting

An optimal hand would look something akin to this:

  • 2-3 Lands that can tap for colors.
  • 1 Ramp effect.
  • 1 Sac Outlet.
  • 2-3 Filthy cards that do things.

Meren is fairly easy to understand. You want to get her on the field as soon as possible, so any form of acceleration is great. The next thing you have to understand is that, Meren needs an sac outlet to bring value to the table. Without any way to abuse her ability, she is just a 3/4 beatstick to fap off on. With that in mind, the filthy ETB creatures you start with should gain you some form of advantage, whether it be in ramping, disruption, or just plain CA.

Main Goals:

  1. Establish an active sac engine.
  2. Abuse your filthy ETB creatures.
  3. ??????
  4. $$$Profit$$$
If you have any comments, feedback, or questions feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to answer them!
+1 Clicky if ya like Graveyard Shenanigans!

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Casual

96% Competitive

Revision 27 See all

(5 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #4 position overall 5 years ago
Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

19 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.73
Tokens Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elephant 3-3 G, Experience Token, Morph 2/2 C
Folders dope as hell, Interesting EDH, Fun EDH, Retired Decks, meren, Meren - Golgari
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