Artisan of Kozilek is not a good choice?

I think it's a good card, but don't see it having a place in this deck. I already have cheaper ways to recur creatures, and if I'm spending 9 mana on a creature I want it to have a backbreaking effect like Void Winnower or Terastodon. The annihilator is nice, but cards like Pox, Death Cloud, and Smokestack provide a cheaper and overall more repressive effect.

I can't seem to find a reason to have Crucible of Worlds or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in this deck. Please explain.

Crucible of Worlds not only allows me to recover lands sacrificed to my Death Cloud and Pox, it also allows me to Strip Mine and Ghost Quarter opponent's lands again and again. It plays well with my stax theme while incidentally making opponent's land destruction worse.

As for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth there is no reason not to run one. It helps color fix and is really, really good with Cabal Coffers. All for the space of a swamp, which I already have 11 of.

Alright. Thanks for clearing that up. Good deck overall. +1 from me

Hi! I have a little suggest for you: Diabolic Tutor is a good tutor, but the cost is quite high, maybe Diabolic Intent could be better, it has half cost, and the sacrifice thing, well, in a Meren deck shouldn't be a problem! If you want, check my deck Meren, stop! It hurts! for some ideas! anyway, nice deck! +1 from me

Thanks! Yeah Diabolic Intent is definitely on my short list for inclusions. The only reason I have Diabolic Tutor in its place right now is for budget reasons.

You have a high curve, thoughts on Frontier Siege to ramp into your big things (big death cloud)? Have the the "good stuff creatures" worked well with meren? I feel the biggest thing you want is to power out stax effects asap. My list My Deckbox Smells of Rich Mahogany has been my Nath stax list, and I think some cards in my list could be applicable.

Frontier Siege is really interesting, I hand't considered that before. Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots would both be good additions as well, looking at your list. The good stuff creatures have actually worked out well, except for Grave Titan, which I plan on cutting. Being able to cast a Reclamation Sage, Fleshbag Marauder, etc. for free every turn has been really powerful. I'm also considering replacing Kokusho with Triskelion. Since I'm running Mikaeus I was thinking it would be nice to have a way to just finish off the game.

I'm probably also going to cut Puppeteer Clique and Terastodon along with Grave Titan, replace them with Birds of Paradise, Frontier Siege, and Wall of Roots. Void Winnower is expensive, but hilarious and powerful so I'll keep him in for at least a little while.

What about Leyline of the Void - Helm of Obedience combo?

I was considering putting Leyline of the Void in but I really want to keep as many of my stax pieces as possible below 4 CMC; before I would add the Leyline I want to get Thorn of Amethyst and Null Rod, maybe Sphere of Resistance. I like the combo overall, but I'm not sure if I want to add in another combo finisher when one of the pieces, Helm of Obedience, is totally dead by itself. The main point of the deck is to stax people out and then be able to combo finish, and not really to race to find the combo ASAP. I'll definitely consider it going forward though.

A few suggestions based on what I run in my own Meren deck which runs along a similar idea but tries to wear them out for the big beaters to come through rather than combo kill them:

Woodland Bellower - a nice size beater and can fetch a lot of your utility creatures with it's ETB effect and put it into play. I think it's pure value for 6 CMC.

Butcher of Malakir - it's Grave Pact on a creature, which means Meren can put it back in hand or into play if it gets killed.

Natural Order - Fetches Green creatures into play for 4 Mana and sacrificing a creature, which is what Meren wants you to do anyway so on turn 3 you ditch that 1/1 Wood Elves you played turn 2 and go get a Woodfall Primus straight into play. Also combos nicely if you put Woodland Bellower into play then fetch Eternal Witness netting you two creatures and putting Natural Order back in your hand to use again.

Life/Death - Although you'd think the Reanimator side of the card would be most useful, if you're looking to do an explosive play and you have Ashnod's Altar out, you can cast Life for (G) and then sacrifice off lands you've tapped out for extra mana.

It That Betrays - not that hard to get into play with this deck either, and when you're forcing opponents to sac creatures a lot this does work. Is nuts with Living Death as it sees the opponents creatures die as everything is sacrificed at once so you not only net the creatures in your bin but everything you opponents just sacrificed because of the spell is yours too.

The Gitrog Monster - a decent beater, helps you ramp and allows for some nuts draws alongside your dredge cards. You can use this and Life from the Loam to keep looping Bojuka Bog into play if you find yourself against other graveyard based strategies as well.

See the Unwritten - if you've a decent sized board this can be a cheaper CMC version of Tooth and Nail. Can be set up with clever use of Golgari Thug and Worldly Tutor to put expensive creatures you want to hit with it from your graveyard to on top of your deck. This also has the potential added bonus of sticking other useful stuff into your graveyard for later.

Tooth and Nail - this card is nuts in either mode but especially if you can cast with Entwine. In a game where Ashnod's Altar is in play and using some of the cards listed above it is entirely possible to Entwine this twice, put 5 creatures into play in the process and then sacrifice some off more creatures and wipe out and steal most of your opponents creature board presence. It also lets you fetch and put your Tricky Micky combo straight into play.

About the previous post: It that Betrays does not interact with Living Death in that way. Living death exiles creatures before putting them into the graveyard, so It that Betrays does not see any creatures die.

Nevermind. Disregard my previous post.

Have you thought of running Voyaging Satyr over Arbor Elf? I would think being able to untap Cabal Coffers and utility lands would be worth the 1 extra CmC. I'd suggest going with Krosan Restorer over both of those if you were running more utility lands.

Also, why run Null Rod that you have to get rid of before you can win with Walking Ballista or to use your Ashnod's Altar? Do you only destroy it when you are about to win, and if so, is Eternal Witness your only way to recur it if you need it back because someone stopped you from combo killing everyone and you still need to stop artifact activations?

Satyr is nice, but I don't think I am running enough utility lands to justify the extra CMC. Null Rod can be absolutely brutal against decks running fast mana. Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Mox Opal...all shut off, while my dorks keep on ramping. Yeah, I'll either just blow it up (if I played it that game) or I can just go off with the Necrotic Ooze combo, which is not impeded by Null Rod.

Have you thought of Fleshwrither? You're not running a bunch of 4 drops, but he can put either Necrotic Ooze or Body Snatcher directly into play.

one card I've had good experiences with in my meren list is Apprentice Necromancer it's very efficient at looping etb triggers with a meren out and with a hulk in graveyard, it enables your combo without the need for another sac outlet already on the field.

Nice, Apprentice Necromancer looks really good. What would you recommend cutting for it? I'm thinking of taking out Cabal Coffers as I never really assemble the coffers+urborg "combo". I was also thinking about taking out Shriekmaw and Ashnod's Altar.

I don't think altar is good enough as it costs 3 and I never really need the mana it makes. Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer, along with High Market and Phyrexian Tower are much better.

WAIT! Instead of removing Cabal Coffers why don't you just add in Hour of Promise? While you're at it you may as well toss in Ulvenwald Hydra, Thief of Blood, Dark Depths, and Thespian's Stage to add in two more combos!

Cutting altar is probably fine since, as you said, you don't really have all that much use for the colorless mana.

cutting Cabal Coffers would probably also be fine since it's very clunky if you draw into it without an urborg

You want all of necromancy, apprentice necro, and wake the dead because they kill hulk. Animate dead isn't great because you need a sac effect. You can cut crop rotation until you get a cradle, also autumn's veil and mana web aren't worth. Lmk if you want me to link my list.

Yeah I was seriously considering cutting Mana Web already, probably replace it with sphere of resistance. I like Autumn's Veil due to the super-inbred meta I usually play in, but I'll take it out when playing with a new pod. I like Crop rotation as it allows me to instant-speed tutor for: land destruction (strip mine/ghost quarter), a free sac outlet (phyrexian tower/high market), graveyard hate (bojuka bog), and color fixing.

And those are all good suggestions for includes. Yeah I always appreciate taking a look at different lists! Budget is holding me back right now, hence no cradle, ghost quarter instead of wasteland, fewer fetches than I would like, etc.

Thanks for the advice!