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[Primer] Dungeon Crawler - Sefris EDH

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Combo Control Reanimator Sacrifice Venture Into the Dungeon WUB (Esper)

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Creature (40)

Land (36)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Sefris of the Hidden Ways

Artifact (9)

Instant (5)

Sorcery (5)

Enchantment (3)

Planeswalker (1)

This deck has been moved to Moxfield. It will no longer be updated here.

Introduction

The introduction of the new Dungeon mechanic also brings with it a whole new set of cards and a whole new way to enjoy EDH.

Sefris of the Hidden Ways rewards us for completing dungeons by reanimating creatures and she doesn't care how they get to the graveyard in the first place. We can run self-mill, self-discard, aristrocrats-style sacrificial effects, or a combination of all three.

This deck focuses on triggering Sefris's ability as frequently as possible so that we can venture through and complete dungeons as efficiently as possible. Granted, she can only let us venture once per turn but we can get around this restriction by making copies of Sefris or dumping a creature on each of our opponents' turns.

If we somehow can't win the game through sheer recursive value, there are some combos this deck can assemble to end the game decisively.

This Primer includes the following:

  • TL;DR Gameplan - for those who don't want to read a wall of text and just want the bare bones game plan outline and can figure out the rest for themselves

  • Dungeons Explained - an in-depth explanation of the new Dungeon and Venture mechanics

  • Packages - cards grouped together so that we can more clearly see how many sources we have of ramp, removal, etc.

  • Individual Card Choices - each card in the deck discussed by itself and why it deserves a spot on the list along with detailed interactions and how to leverage each one to its maximum potential

  • Combos - combo lines explained step-by-step so that you can demostrate them in a live game

  • Budget Options - some of the really expensive cards in the deck are pointed out and significantly cheaper options are provided, as well as a link to a $100 budget Sefris deck

  • No-Combo Kit - what to take out if you want to play this deck but at a lower power level

  • Change Log - any edits made to the deck since its inception and why those changes were made

TL;DR Gameplan

Here is the general gameplan for this particular build:

  • Dump Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Razaketh, the Foulblooded into the graveyard ASAP if any grave tutors are available such as Buried Alive.

  • Play Sefris and start dumping creature cards once per turn to venture through and finish Lost Mine of Phandelver to reanimate Avacyn, Angel of Hope so your board has some resilience.

  • On your next dungeon completion, reanimate Razaketh, the Foulblooded.

  • Use Razaketh's ability to tutor for toolbox cards to answer any threats on the board, or just look to dump Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Toxrill, the Corrosive so you can reanimate them and increase your control over the board.

  • After that, look to reanimate a clone such as Spark Double. Use it to copy Sefris for faster venturing or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to give opponents' creatures -4/-4, making it near-impossible for them to put anything on board.

  • If the game has been going on too long and needs to end, look to assemble one of several combos available in this deck (see the Combos section for details).

  • If a combo attempt gets disrupted, look to assemble any one of the other combos. All combo pieces recurrable with the creature package we're running and the easy reanimation that Sefris provides

  • If combos just aren't an option, transition to board control with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Toxrill, the Corrosive, while reanimating whatever else you want with Sefris's ability.

ghisa

"Reanimate EVERYTHING!"

Dungeons Explained

entrance

"Now where the hell do I go?"

  • Dungeons are not cards.

  • "Venture into the dungeon" is a trigger and once resolved, you choose a dungeon and enter the first room. If you're already in a dungeon, "venture" means you move to an adjacent available room (follow the arrows).

  • Rooms have abilities that trigger as soon as you enter the room. Room abilities go on the stack when you enter that room and resolve like any other triggered ability.

  • You cannot be in more than one dungeon at a time, you CAN repeat the same dungeon multiple times.

  • Once you reach the last room in a dungeon and resolve its trigger, it is considered complete. For the rest of the game, you have the status "Completed" that dungeon, similar to the City's Blessing mechanic. If there are any Venture triggers remaining on the stack when you enter the last room, that dungeon is completed and once the last room's trigger resolves, the next Venture trigger will force you into the first room of a new dungeon of your choice.

  • We want to be doing Lost Mine of Phandelver over and over in this deck, as it is the most balanced dungeon to do (4 ventures to complete and no downsides). Tomb of Annihilation is even faster but more taxing, however in some cases we can run through it if we have the resources to pay the prices of its rooms. Dungeon of the Mad Mage is too long, we want to be efficiently completing dungeons to get value out of Sefris so avoid this one unless you're so far ahead that you just want to flex on people.

At the time of writing, WotC has produced 4 unique dungeons. They are:

  • Lost Mine of Phandelver

  • Tomb of Annihilation

  • Dungeon of the Mad Mage

  • Undercity

One thing we should get out of the way right away: these are NOT cards. They do not go into the 99 of your deck, nor do they go into your sideboard. This means they cannot be interacted with, even with cards like Wish.

They are simply ways to track progress through those dungeons. You can literally copy them onto a piece of paper to keep track of your venture progress. They are NOT actual cards.

In order to enter a dungeon, you must trigger an effect on one of your cards that says "Venture into the dungeon". Take Nadaar, Selfless Paladin for example. When he ETB's or attacks, we can "venture into the dungeon".

To do this, we choose one of the 3 available dungeons and put a marker on the first room (Undercity can only be chosen when we take the Initiative). As soon as you enter a room, that room's effect triggers and you resolve it like any other ability. A room's effect is literally written on the room itself.

This mechanic reads "When you enter this room...(insert room effect)". For example, when we enter Lost Mine of Phandelver, we reach the first room and it triggers. The "Scry 1" goes on the stack and resolves like any other spell/ability.

You CANNOT be in more than one dungeon at a time. If you've already ventured into one, you must complete it before entering another one. You may repeat the same dungeon multiple times.

If "venture into the dungeon" triggers and you're already in a dungeon, simply choose a room connected to the room you're in and venture into that one. You can only move one way in a dungeon, you cannot go backwards through the dungeon.

Multiple "venture into the dungeon" triggers are possible and use the stack like any other ability. Let's say you have 2 of these trigger and both go on the stack. The first one resolves, you enter a room and that room's ability triggers so now that room is also on the stack. You resolve the room ability, then resolve the second venture trigger and move into the next room and then that room's ability triggers and resolves.

Once you reach and resolve the last room of a dungeon, that dungeon is considered "complete" and you retain this title for the rest of the game. Cards that care about complete dungeons, such as Nadaar, Selfless Paladin are now online no matter when you play them for the rest of the game. This is similar to City's Blessing (example Wayward Swordtooth), once you have it you cannot lose it.

In this deck, we're going to want to be completing Lost Mine of Phandelver over and over. There is not much reason to venture into Dungeon of the Mad Mage because it's quite long and we want a short trip to reanimate things with Sefris of the Hidden Ways. Tomb of Annihilation can be done if we have the resources to spare (each of its rooms have some kind of downside) however it's fast to complete so we can do this one if we desperately need to reanimate something.

Finally, we need to discuss Taking the Initiative. Taking the initiative is like becoming the Monarch. Nobody in the game has Initiative until somebody plays a card that says to take it. Example: White Plume Adventurer. When we play this, we take the initative. What happens next depends on whether or not we're in a dungeon:

  • If you're already in a dungeon: just move to the next room when you take the initative.
  • If you're not in a dungeon, you're forced to venture into the Undercity

The initiative will trigger on each of your upkeeps as long as you have it, meaning you will venture again (if you're in a dungeon) or enter Undercity (if you're not in a dungeon) on your upkeep. The initiative can be lost if you take combat damage (just like Monarch) and the player who dealt damage to you will take the initiative.

Packages

goingalone

"It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."

Individual Cards Explained

Sefris of the Hidden Ways

Let's take a moment to disect this card's text so we have a better understanding of why we're running the cards we have in the 99 and why choosing our Buried Alive targets is so important (and other such entomb effects).

  • one venture trigger no matter how many creatures are dumped

  • higher quantity does not mean more value here

  • If we loot with Merfolk Looter, cast Entomb and sacrifice something to Carrion Feeder in the same turn, we will NOT get 3 ventures

  • Sefris will trigger on the first time a creature hits our graveyard each turn, and never again for the rest of that turn

  • Sefris CAN venture once on each opponent's turn, which is why we have instant-speed sacrifice outlets such as Carrion Feeder, instant speed self-mill such as Doom Whisperer and instant speed looting and entombing with Merfolk Looter and Oriq Loremage. All of these can be used on opponents' turns so we can venture efficiently with Sefris

  • The once per turn restriction applies only to that specific Sefris, meaning we can get multiple venture triggers each turn if we have multiple Sefris of the Hidden Ways. This is why we're running clones that don't violate the Legend Rule (Sakashima the Impostor, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Spark Double).

  • If Sefris leaves the field and returns, she is considered a new entity and can therefore venture again (even if we ventured with her earlier in the same turn).

  • not much to say here, enter and resolve the last room of a dungeon and you get to reanimate any creature from your graveyard

  • Dungeon of the Mad Mage is way too long, don't do this one. We want to be efficiently reanimating stuff with Sefris who can only do so whenever we complete a dungeon.

  • Tomb of Annihilation is short but quite taxing so only do this one if you have the resources to spare and/or you desperately and quickly need to reanimate something.

  • Lost Mine of Phandelver is the most efficent one, this is the one we'll likely be doing the most.

  • Doesn't matter too much, just take the path that will give you what you need. "Goblin Lair" is useful if you need a blocker to protect Teferi, Master of Time.

  • If you need some ramp, take the "Mine Tunnels" route.

  • Take the "Storeroom" to buff Sefris or "Dark Pool" if you're low on life

  • There's very little reason to take "Fungi Cavern" unless there's a really problematic creature looking to swing at you

Viscera Seer is a repeatable sac outlet that can be used at instant speed and doesn't require tapping, meaning we can use it to trigger Sefris's venture ability on opponents' turns.

Carrion Feeder is a second copy of Viscera Seer, but more importantly, it is a Zombie, meaning we can re-cast Gravecrawler from our graveyard and have a repeatable sac fodder to trigger Sefris's venture reliably.

Gravecrawler is mainly in here to combo with Carrion Feeder and be able to consistently return and be sacrificed for Sefris's sake. Yes, it's one of only four zombies in the deck which makes its inclusion feel a little strange, however consider just how many graveyard tutors we have (i.e. Buried Alive, Oriq Loremage, etc). With these, we can consistently put together Gravecrawler with Carrion Feeder to reliably sac and recur Gravecrawler on each of our turns to venture with Sefris and save our instant-speed discard/looting to venture on our opponents' turns.

Bloodghast alongside a repeatable sac outlet is another great way to trigger Sefris. If we have a fetch land such as Prismatic Vista, we can play the Vista, revive Bloodghast and sac it to a Carrion Feeder and get a venture trigger from Sefris of the Hidden Ways. But we don't crack the Prismatic Vista until the next person's turn begins because when we do, the Bloodghast comes back and we can sac it again to get another Sefris venture. We'd be missing out on this if we played and cracked the fetch land in the same turn.

Reassembling Skeleton has a built-in reanimation ability, making it an excellent repeatable sac fodder.

Cathar Commando serves double duty as Artifact/Enchantment removal but also as a way to trigger Sefris's Venture ability. Since it sacrifices itself to activate its effect, it's perfect in this deck. Removal alongside a Sefris trigger and the nice thing is that if we have nothing better to reanimate once we complete a dungeon, we can bring back Cathar Commando and threaten more removal.

Ghostly Pilferer is fantastic in this deck because it gives us the option to draw a card if we have the mana to spare AND whenever an opponent casts a spell from anywhere other than their hand. This includes casting their commander out of the command zone. Finally, it's an instant-speed discard outlet so we can easily trigger Sefris of the Hidden Ways' venture ability on an opponent's turn.

Yuan-Ti Malison is unblockable as long as it's attacking alone, allowing it to get in for easy combat damage. And whenever it does deal combat damage to a player, we get to venture into the dungeon. This is one of many additional venture effects we have in the deck because if we're relying on Sefris alone to complete dungeons, the deck feels slower.

Triumphant Adventurer is sort of like a Glissa, the Traitor in combat as long as it's our turn. Whenever we swing with him, we get to venture into the dungeon and he's usually pretty safe to swing with thanks to First Strike and Deathtouch, killing whatever decides to block him before it can strike back.

Merfolk Looter can tap itself to let us draw a card and discard a card. The nice thing is that we can do this on opponents' turns, so if we've already triggered Sefris on our turn, we can save the Looter's tap ability to get another Sefris trigger on somebody else's turn.

Thought Courier is just another copy of Merfolk Looter and is in here for exactly the same reasons.

Selhoff Entomber is another decent looter except it requires us to discard a creature card first, so it's sort of an inverse looter but for 2 mana and considering we're playing 39 creatures in the main deck, it's not bad for what we want to do.

Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator is just another 2-mana creature with a tap-to-loot ability. It does give us the option to cast an instant or sorcery from our graveyard if we need it, useful for re-using a removal spell like Void Rend.

Obsessive Stitcher also has a looting effect so it serves the same purpose as Merfolk Looter. However this card also has an activated ability that lets us sacrifice it to reanimate another creature in our graveyard, just a nice option to have in a deck built around dumping cards in the graveyard.

Glasspool Mimic   is in here because it can copy one of our creatures for extra utility. Having two Radiant Solars for example means two venture triggers each time a creature ETBs on our field. It also enables a combo line with Cavalier of Night (see the Combos section for details). Worst-case scenario, we can just play it as a land if we need a land drop so it's never really a dead card.

Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple and Plaguecrafter are all in here for the same reason - they guarantee a creature on our field gets put into the graveyard (they can sac themselves upon ETB) which gives us a Sefris venture trigger, and they make sure our opponents have to sacrifice one on their side of the board as well.

Nadaar, Selfless Paladin lets us venture when he enters the battlefield and whenever he attacks. If we've completed a dungeon, he gives our whole team a +1/+1 buff.

White Plume Adventurer lets us take the Initiative when we play it, meaning we get to venture further into the dungeon we're already in or we get to start Undercity which is by no means a bad dungeon to do. White Plume Adventurer lets us untap a creature on each opponent's turn, so we can do some extra looting with things like Merfolk Looter. If we've completed a dungeon, however, then we get to untap ALL of our creatures, giving them pseudo-vigilance which is great value. Furthermore, this will help us keep the initative with blockers meaning we'll get to venture on our upkeep as long as we have the initiative.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan is just a very reliable instant-speed free sac outlet because he can make himself Indestructible while triggering Sefris's venture ability on an opponent's turn. A great card to have in any aristocrats deck.

Seasoned Dungeoneer lets us take the initiative when it ETBs, which means an immediate venture into the next room (if we're already in a dungeon) or a fresh start on the Undercity. If we lose the initiative, Seasoned Dungeoneer makes it easy to get back thanks to its ability to grant protection to a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior or Wizard. If nothing else, it can grant protection to itself due to being a Warrior or our commander Sefris of the Hidden Ways due to her being a Wizard. Finally, the creature granted protection this way also gets to Explore, which means looking at the top card of our deck and essentially drawing it if it's a land or putting back on top or dumping it otherwise. This is a great way to get a free draw or dump a card to venture with Sefris for the turn.

Oriq Loremage lets us tap to Entomb a creature from our deck into the graveyard. Since this is an instant-speed ability, we can save it for one of our opponents' turns to make sure we're being efficient about our Sefris venture triggers.

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces lets us copy Sefris of the Hidden Ways and since it lets us ignore the Legend Rule, we essentially have two copies of Sefris on the field. So whenever we send a creature to our graveyard, we get a venture trigger from each of them. This is one way to bypass the usual "this ability triggers only once each turn" restriction. Alternatively, we can copy something like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which means all of our opponents' creatures will have -4/-4, so everything with 4 or less toughness will just die immediately to a state-based effect if our opponents try to play them. These clones are very versatile in this deck and can chill in the graveyard ready to be reanimated once we have something worth copying.

Sakashima the Impostor is in here for the same reason, we can make another functional copy of Sefris except this one retains the name "Sakashima the Impostor" so we don't have to sacrifice either of them to the Legend Rule.

Spark Double is another clone that can get around the legendary rule by literally making itself non-legendary.

Corpse Connoisseur lets us Entomb a creature when it enters the battlefield. The nice thing is that it also has Unearth, meaning we can revive it from the graveyard without needing any other card to do so, so we can get value from it even if it was milled, killed or sacrificed earlier in the game.

Doom Whisperer has Surveil 2 at the cost of 2 life. Since this is at Instant speed and costs no mana, we can essentially do it whenever we want, allowing for easy Sefris venture triggers on our opponents turns. To Surveil, we look at the top 2 cards of our deck and can dump any of them. Roughly 1 out of every 3 cards in the deck is a creature so while it isn't guaranteed that we'll see one, it's fairly likely. Aside from all of that, it's just a solid 6/6 Flyer with Trample.

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward is mainly in here because it combos with Animate Dead and Sefris of the Hidden Ways for infinite ventures into the dungeon. Since he's a creature, he can just chill in the graveyard and wait to be reanimated by Animate Dead, which we can be searched by Razaketh, the Foulblooded and retrieved by Cavalier of Dawn if it ends up in the graveyard so we have some combo resiliency and consistency.

Karmic Guide reanimates a creature when it ETB's and thanks to Echo, it then gets sacrificed on our next turn if we don't pay the cost, which is an easy way to get a Sefris venture trigger.

Mulldrifter can be Evoked to draw us 2 cards and then be sacrificed immediately after. Card draw and Sefris venture trigger all in one.

Reveillark can reanimate two of our creatures with power 2 or less when it leaves the field, which we can force by Evoking it. Crucially, however, it enables an infinite ETB/LTB loop with Kamic Guide and a sac outlet such as Carrion Feeder. Combine this with Radiant Solar on the field and we have infinite venture into the dungeon triggers. So Reveillark provides utility in a reanimator deck and enables some optional combo lines if we happen to assemble the right cards. Win-win.

Cavalier of Dawn is literally in here just to retrieve Animate Dead in case it gets blind milled by Altar of Dementia (of if it just gets removed or countered when we play it). Animate Dead is a crucial combo piece and we need a way to retrieve it in case it ends up in the graveyard. Cavalier of Dawn is a creature which means we always have an avenue to reanimate it with Sefris, then kill it with one of our sac outlets to retrieve any artifact/enchantment we need from our graveyard.

Cavalier of Night is amazing in this deck because of a multitude of reasons. First off, when it ETBs it gives us the option to sac one of our creatures and in exchange we get to kill an opponents. That is a venture trigger with Sefris on board and removal all in one. Next up, when it dies, we get to reanimate any creature with CMC 3 or less, so it's recursion as well. It does everything we want in this deck and opens up a combo line with Glasspool Mimic   and Altar of Dementia. See the Combos section for more details.

Radiant Solar is great value in this deck because it lets us venture into the dungeon whenever another non-token creature ETB's under our control. We're constantly reanimating stuff, so this will be triggering a lot. We also have the option to discard it and venture, which also gives us an additional venture from Sefris.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is just a fun reanimation target because it buffs our creatures, making them harder to kill while severely crippling our opponents'. If we copy Elesh Norn with something like Spark Double, our opponents' creatures with 4 or less toughness simply cannot exist on the board.

Toxrill, the Corrosive constantly weakens our opponents' creatures by debuffing them with slime counters on EACH end step, not just ours. Whenever one of those creatures dies, we get a 1/1 Slug token, which we can use as sac fodder for various effects in our deck or Toxrill's own ability, allowing us to draw a card at instant speed.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope is just one of the best reanimation targets you can find in white. Making all of our permanents indestructible makes them incredibly difficult to remove.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded does everything we want in this deck. It's a repeatable sac outlet at instant speed that doesn't require mana or tapping, meaning it's a great way to put creatures in the graveyard to trigger Sefris, all while being a Demonic Tutor effect every time we do so.

Teferi, Master of Time has a +1 ability that lets us loot. The crazy thing is that we can use one of his abilities on EACH player's turn, meaning we can +1 him on our opponents' turns to loot. Sefris of the Hidden Ways wants a creature to hit our graveyard at least once each turn for efficient Dungeon traversal, so this is a great way to dump creatures on not just our turn but our opponents' as well.

Sol Ring is just an efficient, reliable mana rock. An EDH staple.

Arcane Signet taps for any of our colors.

1 of each signet in our respsective color pairs: Azorius Signet, Dimir Signet and Orzhov Signet.

1 of each talisman in our respective color pairs: Talisman of Progress, Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Hierarchy.

Altar of Dementia is a repeatable sac outlet at instant speed, meaning if we have the creatures available, we can trigger Sefris of the Hidden Ways venture once each on our opponents' turns.

Tortured Existence is insane value in this deck because it provides an instant-speed way to dump a creature out of our hand to get one back. With this on the board and mana available, we can essentially just loop any 2 creatures (1 from hand and 1 from graveyard) once during each player's turn to be able to venture into the dungeon with Sefris. Keep in mind that there must be a valid creature card target in the graveyard for us to use this effect first.

Animate Dead is just another cheap reanimation spell we're running alongside Reanimate. We won't always have Sefris on the field so it's nice to have a backup way to get our big guns out of the graveyard.

Gift of Doom is fantastic in this deck because it does the two things we want it to do: it protects Sefris and it gets a creature into our graveyard to trigger Sefris's Venture. We can play it face-down for then turn it face-up at any time by sac'ing another creature. When we do, we can attach it to Sefris and grant her Indestructible. This can catch opponents by surprise when they try to destroy her with something like Beast Within or a board wipe. This deck wants Sefris on the field as much as possible and Gift of Doom helps her stick around. The action of unmorphing (turning a Morph card to its face-up side) does not use the stack, can be done at any time and cannot be responded to even by spells/abilities at instant speed.

Entomb lets us find any creature we want from our deck and send it straight to the graveyard. Useful for setting up our sacrifice/reanimation engine or just putting a value reanimation target such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope into the graveyard primed and ready for Sefris of the Hidden Ways to bring back upon completion of a dungeon.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are just reliable removal spells that exile a target creature. This gets around Indestructible effects and are both cheaply-costed.

Anguished Unmaking straight up exiles anything on the board, one of the most reliable removal spells in the format. Gets around things like Indestructible which is an added bonus.

Void Rend is another reliable removal spell that deals with any permanent.

Reanimate is appropriately named because it can bring back any creature we want from our graveyard. We're dumping a lot of them and sometimes we just can't wait for Sefris of the Hidden Ways to revive them.

Unmarked Grave is just a very simple way to venture into the dungeon with Sefris of the Hidden Ways and we can use this to send something like Gravecrawler or Bloodghast to the graveyard so we can start abusing their self-reanimation abilities. Alternatively, if we're ready to reanimate a big boy, Radiant Solar, Cavalier of Night, Cavalier of Dawn, Doom Whisperer and Spark Double are all great targets. We can't dump Legendary creatures with this but we can dump Corpse Connoisseur and Unearth it, using it to send a Legendary creature to the graveyard so in a roundabout way and 4 extra mana, Unmarked Grave can act as a regular Entomb.

Buried Alive is the most efficient way to get our sacrifice/reanimation engine going. The best targets to send with this are Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Razaketh, the Foulblooded and any other big creature. Drawing any of them in the early game isn't great because its unlikely we'll be able to hard cast them so they're better off being dumped and waiting to be reanimated. If, however, we've already dumped them and cast Buried Alive afterward, Carrion Feeder, Gravecrawler and Bloodghast are great targets. The reason for this is that we can reanimate Carrion Feeder upon completion of a Dungeon and then we can cast Gravecrawler from our graveyard because Carrion Feeder is a Zombie. Plus, any land we play lets us reanimate Bloodghast. With this setup, we can let our next opponent's turn begin and sac Gravecrawler to Carrion Feeder at instant speed and get our once per turn Sefris of the Hidden Ways venture trigger. Then, on the next opponent's turn, we can do the same thing with Bloodghast. That's at least 2 venture triggers on turns that aren't ours. This deck has the best chance of success when we're triggering Sefris efficiently.

Damn can be cast for 2 mana to simply destory a creature, or we have the flexibility of spending 4 mana and turning it into a board wipe.

Supreme Verdict is just a hard board wipe that cannot be countered, making it a reliable way to clear the board.

Prismatic Vista, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta and Marsh Flats are our fetch lands. We're playing a lot of these to take advantage of Bloodghast and our sac outlets.

Command Tower and Raffine's Tower produce any of our colors.

1 of each shock land in our colors: Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Godless Shrine

1 of each buddy land in our colors: Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb, Isolated Chapel

1 of each pain land in our colors: Adarkar Wastes, Underground River, Caves of Koilos

1 of each battle land in our colors: Sea of Clouds, Morphic Pool, Vault of Champions

1 of each filter land in our colors: Mystic Gate, Sunken Ruins, Fetid Heath

1 of each slow land in our colors: Deserted Beach, Shipwreck Marsh, Shattered Sanctum

1 of each pathway in our colors: Hengegate Pathway  , Clearwater Pathway  , Brightclimb Pathway  

Darkslick Shores is in here because blue and black are important early colors for a lot of our cheap spells we need to cast.

Silent Clearing can be sacrificed to draw a card if needed.

Phyrexian Tower can produce colorless mana on its own but can also sacrifice a creature to produce 2 black. This can also be done at instant speed so we can trigger Sefris of the Hidden Ways on somebody else's turn if we have a creature to sac.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth turns all lands into Swamps, meaning we no longer have to worry about black mana availability.

2 Plains, 2 Swamps and 1 Island round out the lands in the deck.

Glasspool Mimic   can be played as a land if we need the land drop, so it's included in the land count for a total of 37.

Combos

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Get Glasspool Mimic   into play as a copy of Cavalier of Night but ignore its ETB trigger.

  2. Sacrifice the Glasspool Mimic   to any sac outlet. Its death trigger is the same as Cavalier of Night so you can reanimate a 3 CMC creature. Choose Glasspool Mimic  .

  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and each time the Mimic ETBs, Radiant Solar will let you venture. Keep going through the Dark Pool room of Lost Mine of Phandelver to drain everyone out.

Notes:

  • This isn't strictly speaking infinite because you'll have to draw a card each time you complete Lost Mine of Phandelver but it's more likely your opponents will be dead before then.

  • If your sac outlet of choice is Altar of Dementia then you don't need Radiant Solar for venturing and can just mill everyone out instead.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to any repeatable sac outlet to get it into the graveyard.

  2. Then sacrifice Reveillark to any repeatable sac outlet which will trigger its LTB ability.

  3. Using this trigger, reanimate Karmic Guide which will then reanimate Reveillark. Radiant Solar will trigger because a creature ETB'd and you can venture into Lost Mine of Phandelver.

  4. Repeat steps 1-3 an infinite number of times, which will repeatedly trigger Radiant Solar and let you venture through the Dark Pool room in Lost Mine of Phandelver over and over to drain opponents out.

Notes:

  • If either Reveillark or Karmic Guide is in the graveyard you can still start this combo because one can revive the other. Karmic Guide can bring back Reveillark if it's in the graveyard upon ETB and if Karmic Guide is in the graveyard then you can just play Reveillark and sac it your sac outlet to get the combo rolling.

  • This isn't strictly speaking infinite because you'll have to draw a card each time you complete Lost Mine of Phandelver but it's more likely your opponents will be dead before then.

  • Keep in mind that if your sac outlet of choice is Altar of Dementia then you don't need Radiant Solar and can just mill everyone out instead.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to Altar of Dementia and mill an opponent.

  2. Sacrifice Reveillark to Altar of Dementia and mill an opponent again. Reveillark triggers its LTB effect, which reanimates Karmic Guide which then reanimates Reveillark with its ETB effect.

  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to mill everyone out.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Cast Glasspool Mimic   or reanimate it, depending on where it is.

  2. Have Glasspool Mimic   enter the battlefield as a copy of Cavalier of Night, but ignore its ETB effect.

  3. Sacrifice the Glasspool Mimic   to Altar of Dementia and mill an opponent.

  4. The Mimic dies but has the same death trigger as Cavalier of Night, so it can reanimate a 3 CMC creature. Choose Glasspool Mimic  .

  5. Repeat steps 2-4 until all opponents have been milled out.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Sacrifice Karmic Guide to the sac outlet, Sefris will trigger. Venture into Lost Mine of Phandelver.

  2. Sacrifice Sefris of the Hidden Ways, then sacrifice Reveillark.

  3. Using Reveillark's death trigger, reanimate both Karmic Guide and Sefris of the Hidden Ways.

  4. Karmic Guide ETB, reanimate Reveillark.

  5. You're now back to where you started, but because Sefris of the Hidden Ways left the field and was brought back, she's considered a new entity and has no restriction on her first ability, meaning she can venture again. Repeat steps 1-4 an infinite number of times, venturing through the Dark Pool room of Lost Mine of Phandelver each time to drain opponents out.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Cast Animate Dead, targeting Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward in the graveyard to reanimate him.

  2. Abdel enters the battlefield and triggers his ETB effect. Use it to exile Animate Dead.

  3. Animate Dead leaves the field, so Abdel must be sacrificed. This triggers Sefris of the Hidden Ways who lets you venture into Lost Mine of Phandelver.

  4. Abdel leaving the field allows Animate Dead to return. When it does, use it to reanimate Abdel again.

  5. Abdel re-enters and triggers his ETB effect; this time exile both Animate Dead AND Sefris of the Hidden Ways.

  6. Animate Dead leaving the field causes Abdel to be sacrificed.

  7. This makes Sefris return and since she is a new entity, you can venture with her again. Animate Dead also returns to the battlefield, use it to reanimate Abdel again.

  8. Repeat steps 2-7 for infinite ventures through Lost Mine of Phandelver, draining opponents out by going through the Dark Pool room each time.

Notes:

angryabdel

The face of a man whose visa keeps getting denied

Budget Options

I've put together a $100 Budget version of this deck here. It has its own condensed primer and the same overall gameplan.

However if you'd like to make budget edits to this particular list, keep reading.

loot

"For you my friend, special price!"

No-Combo Kit

Personally, I think the combos in this deck are pretty fair, considering the all require at least three pieces to assemble, however I'm aware that not all playgroups will appreciate getting infinite combo'd to death so if you want to dial it back a notch, here's what to remove:

Next up, not every playgroup will be equipped to handle some of the biggest, baddest creatures in Esper colors.

Again, making some of these cuts or all of these cuts will be up to your discretion and will depend entirely on what kind of playgroup you want to tailor the deck to. Once the cuts have been made, feel free to fill the slots with anything from the Budget Options section above. Or if you want 1-to-1 replacement suggestions, here would be my picks:

Always consider the power level of your playgroup and adjust the deck as needed. It won't feel great for them if you turbo-venture through dungeons like a Zelda speedrunner on eighteen cans of Red Bull.

browbeat

"Are you telling me I'm too high level for this quest!?"

"Sir, this is a Wendy's"

Change Log

12/22/22

  • Midnight Pathlighter was removed in favor of Seasoned Dungeoneer because it provides way more utility. Fracture was also repalced with Cathar Commando because it serves the same overall purpose but is a creature so it can trigger Sefris when we use it and we can reanimate it if needed, unlike Fracture.

  • These changes were actually made in paper a while ago but I had forgotten to update the deck on Moxfield.

10/31/22

  • Very minor change: swapped out one Swamp for Darkslick Shores. Just a tiny bit of optimization and mana fixing, needed more reliable access to blue in the early game.

10/28/22

10/27/22

  • Added a budget build of this deck. It can be found here but is also linked in the Budget section of this primer above.

10/24/22

  • Auramancer was replaced with Cavalier of Dawn. It serves the same purpose because it allows us to retrieve an enchantment but it also has the added utility of ETB removal.

  • Took out a basic Island in favor of Glasspool Mimic  . We can play the Mimic as a land so the opportunity cost is negligable and we get the added option of copying one of our powerful creatures if we want.

  • Replaced Shriekmaw with Cavalier of Night because it does a lot of what Shriekmaw does and much more. Also enables new combo lines for us.

10/4/22

  • Sun Titan was removed in favor of Reveillark because it sort of does the same sort of reanimation purpose but more importantly it opens two new combo lines for us.

  • Hard Cover was replaced with Selhoff Entomber because I want to maximize creatures in this deck. We want to be dumping creatures off of our looting and mill effects and Selhoff Entomber is a very similar effect to Hard Cover but on a creature body.

9/6/22

  • Minor update, got my hands on a Hengegate Pathway   so I replaced an Island for it. Just makes my mana a little more flexible, especially if I draw it in the early game.

  • Also cleaned up the Primer. Fixed some grammar and formatting errors. Wrote some better lines. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty cringe, but now it's cringe with slightly better English.

9/2/22

8/23/22

  • Removed Victimize because I found myself almost never casting it, this deck has such efficient reanimation that whenever I had Victimize in hand, there were no creatures in my graveyard that I wanted to exchange for anything on my field. I replaced it with Gift of Doom because it's a great way to protect Sefris and puts a creature in grave to trigger her venture. It's been performing extremely well in my Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker decks.

8/17/22

  • Dark Ritual was removed in favor of another Island. The Ritual wasn't doing anything too stellar for me and I felt like 37 lands is the magic number for this deck so I replaced it with an Island. Going to continue testing this deck to see if I miss Dark Ritual and potentially add it back in.

8/6/22

  • Generous Gift was replaced by Void Rend. It does the same job but doesn't leave our opponents with a 3/3 token and the more intensive mana cost isn't really an issue because we're running the "good" dual and fetch lands.

  • Am going to be testing Bonded Fetch in place of Auramancer for more looting options but this change hasn't been made yet.

7/28/22

  • Fierce Guardianship was removed. Honestly I needed this for another higher power deck and I found myself not needing it in this one so I replaced it with Anguished Unmaking.

  • Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent were removed. The deck was a little too consistent at finding the combo pieces and I didn't want this creeping into cEDH territory. For that reason, these 2 tutors were removed to cut down the consistency. They were replaced with Bloodsoaked Champion and Animate Dead to fill the gaps.

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Revision 6 See all

(1 year ago)

+1 Cathar Commando main
-1 Fracture main
-1 Midnight Pathlighter main
+1 Seasoned Dungeoneer main
Date added 2 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

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

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

57 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.11
Tokens Dungeon: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dungeon: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dungeon: Tomb of Annihilation, Dungeon: Undercity, Goblin 1/1 R, Golem 3/3 C, Morph 2/2 C, Skeleton 1/1 B, Skeleton 4/1 B, Slug 1-1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, The Atropal, The Initiative, Treasure
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