Meren Lands Control

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Control Loam Multiplayer

xantm70

Creature (31)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Herald of Leshrac
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Magus of the Abyss
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Thorn of the Black Rose
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Praetor's Grasp

Land (37)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 6x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x High Market
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Instant (7)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Corpse Dance
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Darkblast
• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Unravel the Aether

Commander (1)

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Awakening Zone
• 1x Bottomless Pit
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Exploration
• 1x From Beyond
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Necrogen Mists
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Shadows of the Past
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Artifact (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Possessed Portal
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smokestack

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Thoughtseize

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Waste Not

Instant (1)

• 1x Warping Wail

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Maybeboard

Creature (27)

• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Borderland Explorer
• 1x Cunning Lethemancer
• 1x Entomber Exarch
• 1x Entourage of Trest
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Golgari Grave-Troll
• 1x Hypnotic Specter
• 1x Ixalli's Diviner
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Mindlash Sliver
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
• 1x Nekrataal
• 1x Noxious Toad
• 1x Pit Keeper
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Rotting Rats
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Weaponcraft Enthusiast
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Land (12)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Bayou
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Creeping Dread
• 1x Gaea's Touch
• 1x Koskun Falls
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Squandered Resources
• 1x Strands of Night
• 1x Waste Not
• 1x Words of Waste

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Cabal Therapy
• 1x Death Cloud
• 1x Driven / Despair
• 1x Duress
• 1x Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1x Mind Peel
• 1x Mind Twist
• 1x Pox
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Smallpox
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Instant (4)

• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Warping Wail

Artifact (3)

• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Spawning Pit *list*
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil

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Early draft of a 75%-ish Meren deck, designed for more "fair" play than cEDH pods.

Core goal: To present an interactive deck which cannot win, de facto or de jure, in a single turn cycle, and which must win by beating in.

The prevailing meta is light on land-kill, encouraging a ramp strategy based around ETB/LTB creatures that fetch lands to play. A conscious effort is made herein to curtail the deck's power, including an aversion to two-card combos and mana denial, an omission of efficient tutors, and an absence of all artifact-ramp or efficient mana dorks. Resolving Meren earlier than T3 or later than T4 is to be avoided. The win-con should constitute a traditional beat-down approach bolstered by a sac-control strategy, with some hand-attack/hand-lock support to offset disruption. Testing may present a need to include light Stax/prison elements, such as Root Maze, to progress through the early-game. Any win-condition must be able to be disrupted with strong play and a modest window of opportunity; counter-or-die situations ought to be considered anathema to the core goal. The mana curve is deliberately kept somewhat heavier where it could be lean in an effort to maintain a heightened degree of parity with opponents. Any efficient (i.e. two-card) combos found during testing will be removed.

Most interaction, and indeed most spells, are creatures, with a light smattering of supportive enchantments/artifacts and a few pieces of powerful instant-speed disruption. Consequently, cards that care about creatures or creature cards are broadly preferred over those which do not.

The current main sub-theme is lands-matter, which itself may lead to a switch to The Gitrog Monster; this tension in the deck merits further exploration.

Cards marked as foil in the maybeboard are ones I have yet to acquire that I consider auto-includes for the deck. Cards marked as altered are flex spots I am testing or would like to test for general synergy and efficacy. While making cuts, there may be a sideboard and acquire list present; most cards in the sideboard have been recently slotted into the mainboard, though the ones marked as altered are cards I would like to include but have not made room for.

Possible alternate or additional sub-themes, whether efficient or cutesy:

• Eldrazi tribal
• Elf tribal
• Zombie tribal
• Thallid/Saproling tribal
• Dredge
• Reanimator (which might be too strong/"unfair" for the goal at hand)
• Hand-lock (which might precipitate a shift to Nath of the Gilt-Leaf)
• Self-mill
• Lantern-control
• +1/+1 counters with *vus-style creatures (e.g. Pentavus)
• Spirit of the Night package
• Transmute (or generally inefficient/restricted tutors)

Possible mechanics/cards to explore:

• Explore (ability, not card)
• Monarch
• The Gitrog Monster and Dakmor Salvage
• Blood Pet, Gaea's Touch, and other mana-battery cards

Metagame choices:

• Vampire Hexmage: Beyond the Depths-combo, there is a sufficiently high local preponderance of Superfriends and Planeswalker-Commander decks that this has utility on its own
• Unravel the Aether: One player in particular runs multiple decks chock-full of Gods; another runs Blightsteel Colossus. Tutor density is also very low in the meta while recursion is very high, making this somewhat harder removal than Naturalize
• Crop Rotation: Even setting aside Depths-combo, fetching Bojuka Bog at instant-speed can neuter decently many local decks

Notable Omissions:

• Blood Artist and its kin are eschewed for the time being in an endeavor to discourage attempts to win outside of the combat step
• Necropotence and Necro-Impotence will be avoided unless testing reveals a need for more consistent draw to seal games; regardless, no efficient combos will be deliberately run, which should keep the use of either confined to value-plays and not digging for combo pieces
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Razaketh, the Foulblooded have yet to be tested to determine if they are too powerful for the desired pods
• Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Carpet of Flowers, and the legal Moxen are omitted to reduce the likelihood of a possible T2 Meren; the same is true of mana dorks
• Sylvan Library is likely too strong of a card draw and card selection engine for the desired build
• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and Birthing Pod both seem likely to be too strong, and will only be tested after the deck is more refined and its power level better assessed
• Strip Mine, Wasteland, and Dust Bowl were omitted out of deference to concerns about mana denial in the meta, though they may yet prove acceptable
• Gaea's Cradle, despite its synergy with sacrificing lands and obtaining extra land drops, would be too powerful for the desired meta
• City of Brass and Mana Confluence, though both excellent, have not made the list as yet due to my desire to take this deck deep into the late game; until I have a better grasp on life management for my shell, I want to avoid lands that must hurt me when I get mana from them, especially since I already plan on abusing fetchlands in conjunction with, e.g., Mirri's Guile

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	WUR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 1 Mythic Rares 45 - 3 Rares 23 - 2 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.90
Tokens	Ashaya, the Awoken World, Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Experience Token, Marit Lage, Plant 0/1 G, Serf 0/1 B, The Monarch, Zombie 2/2 B