Meren's Trash 'n' Treasure Market

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser BG (Golgari) Midrange Reanimator Rock

ChainsawPolice

Lands (29)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 7x Forest
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Miscellaneous good stuff (6)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Yavimaya Elder
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sacrifice outlets (6)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x High Market
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Card draw and selection (4)

• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Bloodtracker
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones

Secondary reanimation/recursion (2)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Spot removal (13)

• 1x Cast Down
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Wasteland

Big threats and bombs (9)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kessig Cagebreakers
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One *f-pre*
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Thief of Blood

Board wipes (5)

• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Whiptongue Hydra

Graveyard hate (4)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Scavenging Ooze

Commander (1)

Ramp (12)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wood Elves

Mass edict effects (5)

• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Merciless Executioner

Tutors (4)

• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Survival of the Fittest

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Maybeboard

Other (7)

• 1x Creakwood Liege
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Pelakka Wurm
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Triskelion

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Meren's Trash 'n' Treasure Market

"Reduce, Abuse, Recycle"

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Welcome to Meren's Trash 'n' Treasure market! Come on down to find some great deals and steals on pre-loved, second-hand goods!

Appendix

The first deck I ever played in this format was an upgraded version of the Meren pre-constructed deck. However it got stale due to the deck not really ever coming close to a win and instead feeling like the whole idea of the deck was to make everyone win less, including myself. I took the deck apart and eventually rebuilt it after building and testing a grindier, more value engine-based approach. This list aims to play a durdly game, setting up a value engine and eventually winning by either overwhelming or opponents with value, or by soft-locking them out with combos, infinite or otherwise.

Oddball inclusions

• Thief of Blood and Vampire Hexmage mainly exist for the superfriends deck in our group whose early-game durdling finishes up with a much more potent end-goal than this deck's. Looping Thief of Blood makes it really hard for them to stick a threat, and also makes for a decent line to winning with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

Updates

17th August, 2018 — Commander 2018 update

Changes

• –Phyrexian Arena *TEST*
• –Victimize

• –Mindslicer

• +Bloodtracker *TEST*

• +Hero's Downfall
• +Whiptongue Hydra

If you read these notes, you'll see that I often talk about my mates' Angel and Dragon tribal decks. These are the scourge of the playgroup, as most of us like to play slow, durdle-ish games. Whiptongue Hydra is the addition that I didn't even know I wanted until I saw it. I'm cutting whatever I can to see how it plays out over the next few months.

Cutting Victimize seems like a faux pas, seeing as it's played in 73% of 3,332 Meren decks (according to EDHREC). The reason for this is that I feel like Meren is better suited as a general to a mid-range strategy compared to a re-animator strategy; even though her whole schtick is reanimating stuff for free, I often find myself grinding out games with Grave Titans and its ilk instead of going for the turn-one-fatty plan of Legacy Reanimator. I cut it in favour of Hero's Downfall for the Superfriends deck in the group.

Phyrexian Arena being cut in place of Bloodtracker is purely a test, as I'm unsure what else to cut for it. If I end up missing Arena but liking Bloodtracker, I'll find something else to cut.

2nd August, 2018 — Pulling no punches, more threats and bombs

Removals

• –Abrupt Decay
• –Creakwood Liege
• –Grim Haruspex
• –Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• –Massacre Wurm
• –Phyrexian Delver
• –Ramunap Excavator
• –Rishkar's Expertise
• –Swiftfoot Boots
• –Farhaven Elf

Abrupt Decay felt too narrow in my meta - there are a few go-big decks that simply aren't scared of Decay.

Creakwood Liege is good, but takes a while to get going. I'm trying out some other threats in its place, but I wouldn't feel bad if I had to put it back in.

Grim Haruspex and Phyrexian Delver seemed good on paper, but 3 mana for conditional card draw isn't where I want to be.

I never got to cast Jarad, so I'm taking him out before I get insanely disappointed or overly excited. Instead, I'm trying more threats in his place.

Massacre Wurm is a painful cut. It rocks shit against tokens, but really only against tokens. Pernicious Deed does just as good, and is less of a dead draw. I'd love to add it back in, though.

Swiftfoot Boots seems too redundant. Tutoring for Greaves is now possible, as well.

Ramunap Excavator has no reason to be here, as I don't run any lands-in-graveyard synergies. In the same vein, Rishkar's Expertise is way too conditional in this deck.

Additions

• +Avenger of Zendikar
• +Bane of Progress
• +Survival of the Fittest
• +Diabolic Intent
• +Final Parting
• +Night's Whisper
• +Read the Bones
• +Ambition's Cost
• +Pernicious Deed
• +Wood Elves

The threat-base needs an increase in density. As such, Avenger of Zendikar and Bane of Progress come in as punchy, beefy bombs that must be answered. Bane is 6 mana, which is easily castable after some ramping. However, the Avenger is a bit trickier to cast, but is offset by the tokens it brings back on ETB - looping this boy with Meren seems like a very real wincon.

"Tutor" is often a dirty word, but I feel like I know my deck enough to use tutors quickly and effectively. Diabolic Intent, Final Parting and Night's Whisper should make it easier for me to answer whatever I need to at the right time.

In the same vein, card draw should help me - Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, and Read the Bones help me churn through my deck quickly and more regularly than Rishkar's Expertise ever did. The main reason these weren't here before is that I just forgot that I was in black and had access to them.

Pernicious Deed is a Swiss army knife against many strategies and, like Toxic Deluge, is extremely controllable. I've fired off {X}=2 against an Edgar Markov deck, {X}=0 against a Rhys the Redeemed squirrel tribal deck, and {X}=8 against Samut, Voice of Dissent angel tribal and Scion of the Ur-Dragon decks. This essentially replaces Massacre Wurm.

Wood Elves is only in here because I can't find my Farhaven Elf lmfao.

1st June, 2018 — Initial cuts, refining the deck's game plan

Changes

• Polluted Delta -> Tainted Wood
• Bloodstained Mire -> Grim Backwoods
• Marsh Flats -> Barren Moor
• Windswept Heath -> Golgari Rot Farm
• Misty Rainforest -> Blooming Marsh
• Wooded Foothills -> Forest
• Panharmonicon -> Kessig Cagebreakers *TESTING*
• Wood Elves -> Farhaven Elf
• Mulch -> Fyndhorn Elves
• Grisly Salvage -> Elves of Deep Shadow
• Rune-Scarred Demon -> Mindslicer *TESTING*
• Noxious Gearhulk -> Butcher of Malakir
• Satyr Wayfinder -> Rishkar's Expertise *TESTING*
• Journey to Eternity   -> Thief of Blood

Rationale

The fetches weren't really pulling their weight: the need for colour-fixing is so low, and I only have two fetchable duals. This, coupled with the fact that I really don't need shuffle effects, makes the fetches really sub-optimal. I instead replaced them with more useful lands that tap for both colours. Grim Backwoods is also decent utility with Grave Titan.

Panharmonicon often does nothing the turn it gets played; playing it never feels like a huge game-winning move. I'm removing it and upping my density of threats by replacing it with Kessig Cagebreakers. If the Cagebreakers don't do too well, though, I'll probably replace it for something else.

Wood Elves only grabs the two fetchable duals I can run. So while it's great in the early-game, I'd rather run Farhaven Elf and fetch a swamp if I need it later on.

Mulch and Grisly Salvage seem good on paper, but they often end up dumping non-recurrable cards into my graveyard. As I'm going for less of a self-mill theme and more of a midrange grind-out play style, I'm gonna add some more ramp in the form of Elves of Deep Shadow and Fyndhorn Elves. Satyr Wayfinder falls into the same trap. This will give me a chance to try out Rishkar's Expertise, which, if it ends up under-performing, will be replaced with another card-draw spell.

Rune-Scarred Demon is good, but it's not much of a threat, surprisingly. Plus, Sidisi is abetter tutor-on-a-stick. I'm going to try out Mindslicer in its place as a more-potent-when-looped threat.

My Noxious Gearhulk hasn't arrived in the mail yet, so I put Butcher of Malakir in it's place, and it over-performed. Now, the Gearhulk is great and fits with the deck's plan, but having a third Grave Pact effect (that can be reanimated) is a huge boon to the deck. I'll keep the butcher in, but I'll see if i end up missing the Gearhulk.

I needed to make room for Thief of Blood somehow. the okay-but-mediocre Journey to Eternity   had to go as a result.

"German" cards are actually proxies to stand in for cards that I'm testing or waiting on in the mail. "Altered" cards are cards that are cards that I still need to proxy.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.27
Tokens	Experience Token, Human 2/2 G, Plant 0/1 G, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Works in progress