Topphh Cast it with X = 0.

Anubi24 because the total CMC of the deck is 140 (not counting Meren), it's barely enough to kill everyone and after you cast anything/have pretty much anything in your hand it will be too low to kill everyone.

Anubi24 the nooze combo is OK, you can use it as a secondary wincon but it's two more dead slots and only combos with buried alive. i think it's totally unnecessary if you're running razaketh, even before adding raza i ignored the nooze combo and if my combo pieces got exiled i'd just use riftsweeper.

one good trick to get around what malens mentioned is to just pass turn with it on the battlefield and if anyone looks at you sideways you kill them in response. whittle everyone down in the combat step until you can finish it out.

Thoughts on Manglehorn instead of Reclamation Sage?

i use rec sage over manglehorn because of RIP. if you don't see RIP, run manglehorn.

(fwiw, the primary target of both manglehorn and rec sage is cursed totem)

I am new to cEDH so please feel free to ignore this if this is a stupid question but why so few board wipes? I counted only the one being toxic deluge is the reason that others are too slow or is the redundancy of them irrelevant?

Judas13 I ain't rogue, but I can tell you that decklists always need to be tweaked for your meta. It's common in cEDH for there to not be a lot of creatures on the field, so board wipes are at less of a premium than a more casual game of commander. If you were going to use Rogue's list as inspiration for your own Meren build and you play in a meta with a heavier emphasis on creatures, then you should absolutely think about slammin' more wipes. Personally, that's the situation I am in and I run Pernicious Deed and Living Death in my Meren build along with Toxic Deluge. Damnation is also quite viable and probably more competitive than Living Death but Living Death is yet another way to get hulk and other combo pieces onto the field after a spicy Buried Alive and it's just one of the funnest cards in the damn game when it all comes down to it.

Syncharmony Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it, I'll take it into consideration when building my own meren deck.

Judas13 Yahenni's Expertise also comes in and out of the deck, but in my experience Fleshbag Marauder effects keep the board pretty clean. They're slow so you have to commit to looping one with Meren every turn.

Syncharmony it's not so much about cEDH meta, mainly I don't like killing my whole board including Meren with actual wrath effects.

Real talk though, the reason why cEDH decks get away with running only 1 wipe is all the tutors for it.

In a less competitive context would Necropotence be an acceptable swap for a sylvan library?

Love the list & Primer! Have a question though: Why do you play 2 snow-covered lands?

Has anybody thought of a 30 life Gary combo since 1v1 went to 30 life? Possibly with a lower starting life requirement? Or maybe one of your pieces is exiled/in the yard?

Okay, I got one that will drain for 52 if you're at 15 life.

Protean hulk dies, get sac outlet + phyrexian delver.

Delver brings back hulk, 7 life.

Sac hulk to get Mike.

Sac Delver to bring back hulk. 14 life.

Sac hulk, hulk comes back with undying, get body snatcher and any creature that costs BB (I'm running vampire hexmage for this)

sac hulk for Gary and the other one mana sac outlet. Total of 13 devotion to black, drain for 13.

Sac Gary, undying, drained for 26 total.

Sac Gary again, sac body snatcher, who comes back with undying.

If you have another creature in hand, discard it to bs trigger, or sac bs again to reanimate 2 more devotion if possible, Gary comes back, drains for 39 total (37 if you have to exile body snatcher)

sac Gary again, undying, drained for 52 total life. Paid 14.

(You could also sac the hexmage to remove the +1/+1 counters from Gary twice to get extra undying triggers if someone is at a lot more that 52 life somehow.)

Judas13 necropotence is fine, i find the exile clause very awkward but many folks feel that the sheer draw power is worth it. remember that it's triggered so it doesn't stop the hulk trigger, it doesn't stop the combo as long as you put exile under undying on the stack, and that if you discard your reanimation target you can respond with necromancy or apprentice necro activation.

Bayfront i like the art on all my basic lands to match or none of them to match; my meren has no matching art.

big_jake_d after the first 2 steps the gary combo is very flexible, it's easy to find room for stuff like reclamation sage in the middle. i couldn't come up with anything more life-efficient than you did but the hexmage is interesting. it goes infinite with delver at least. maybe there's some way to capitalize on that in terms of combo slots.

you mentioned cutting the razaketh package for budget constraints and replacing it with more stax pieces. what are your thoughts on Orb of Dreams instead of Tangle Wire?

also, thoughts on a budget confidant - Phyrexian Arena? Necropotence? Ohran Viper?

or perhaps fauna shaman instead of confidant would work too?

Love the deck man, but why the mindblade render. just for card draw? and would you replace her and bob with anything?

Is walking ballista out of the list now?

pao2 orb of dreams is very bad. replace bob with runic armasaur or compost (i'm not trolling, compost is good). fauna shaman is fine but she's a tutor, not card advantage.

TheeMrJiggles yep, sally (mindblade render) is there for value. once i finish testing her i'm going to replace her with one of the bob replacements i mentioned above but i can't draw the fucking thing.

Legion564 it's never been in the list, that's the whole joke.

played a bit with runic armasaur today and it was sweet. drew a few cards before it died.

quick Q: what are your thoughts on ramp spells such as wild growth and utopia sprawl as budget options to mana crypt and mox diamond? are they better or worse than sakura-tribe elder, devoted druid, wood elves, etc?

I like WG and would replace chrome mox with it in a less greedy build. Utopia sprawl can be unreliable, even in 2 color; too many utility lands or not enough $$$ make it risky. If you're running a ton of basics and your deck is mostly green, which is correct for budget Meren, then sprawl will do work.

I consider Sakura-Tribe Elder (Steve) a bad card with great synergy; the experience and ramp he provides will transition you from the midgame into an inevitable late-game monster very quickly, not bad for a 2-drop. I can't get away with using him because my meta has virtually no stax, if I thought I'd live four turns every game I'd probably still run Steve.

I think devoted druid and wood elves are trash, when cast on curve your turn sucked. Wood elves can be very good in combination with other engines like skullclamp and birthing pod.

Generally speaking, artifact or enchantment ramp is faster than creature or land ramp. Creatures are renewable resources in Meren, so err on the side of creatures.

Thanks for providing this tight primer - I've been working with this list in combination with my own build and love seeing the different hulk lines and the deck in general. Any thoughts on Rotting Rats ? Been looking for good ways to dump cards in the grave as I don't have sylvan library or survival yet

is life//death still worth running without razaketh? is razaketh worth running without LED? i don't own LED but I've completed the rest of the deck save for bayou, cradle, chains, and cavern. should i just run damping sphere and tangle wire over raz and LED? or perhaps there is space for merciless executioner or fauna shaman if razaketh package is omitted?