REANIMATED THROUGH MAGIC:
My Name is Ryan Sparks, for many of those who don’t know me, I spend Thursday nights with Brian DeMars and Jon Wilkerson in the RIW studio running the Twitch stream chat, tournament info, and showcasing our local talent at the game store.
I started Magic around the 8th Edition and my favorite cards at the time were Elf decks. A friend of mine named Tom Mann (may he rest in peace) taught me how to play and built my elf deck. I remember how quickly it got out of hand! Gaining infinite life.
As this is a commander article, I must inform you awesome readers how I advanced to the realm of EDH from my origins of kitchen table elf madness. 2015 was a wild year for my musician hobby. I had just attended the Detroit Music Awards for my band’s single “Walk Away” (Detroit’s Music Award Ceremony – think Grammys, but for Detroit). On Sundays I could turn on the local radio station to hear my band make the cut on the FM station’s local talent show, my phone would blow up constantly with notifications being tagged on Facebook, and hearing that our band once again hit number 1 on an unsigned Radio Station in the UK.
However, all good things come to an end… The band at the time fell apart, people got married, had children, took on careers and then decided they didn’t want the spotlight anymore. I grew depressed, and was on the ledge as this was all I knew (I didn’t play Magic or have other hobbies back then).
One day around Christmas time that year a friend invited me over to Tom’s to try this new variant of magic Commander. We took cards out of Tom’s massive collection matching colors to what was called the General back then, and spent a good chunk of time into the wee’ hours of the night staying up late and playing multiple games.
This was it! This was the road to smiling again. I spent that night looking up various Commander precons and then there she was: Meren of clan toth, in all her glory, in the 2015 “Plunder the Graves.”
From that moment, being a Ghost Hunter by trade and playing in graveyards, that now I could relive the old school Graveborn days and play a graveyard theme in Magic. In a sense, the dead saved me and all my friends who brought it into my life. I once again found joy throwing out cards and bringing them back to smack my opponent with but within a year they started printing more accessible grave hate and I knew I had to make changes to my deck.
How could I one up Meren so I wasn’t so reliant on the graveyard? Well, this deck tech will show you why my Meren is different. I just hope if there’s one thing I can teach you about why I love Commander so much it’s:
“The best adventures in Magic aren’t always winning on the battlefield, but the friends we make when we leave those battlefields.”
I hope this helps! Please, know I had a great support system that I never got that bad, but if you ever are ever in doubt or if you or you know a friend on the edge, please save a life! National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). You can always talk to me also on twitter: @mtg_sparks
Meren of Clan Nel Toth is a great commander because it essentially utilizes the graveyard as a recycle center to reanimate creatures based on the amount of experience counters. What’s nifty is you don’t need to use the experience counters by only resurrecting a creature, you can throw it in your hand for card advantage. Meren and the rest of the Graveyard Toolbox gang have some pretty good ways to cheat experience counters and don’t even need to have things in the graveyard to win.
Yep I said it, Bojuka bog or Tormod’s Crypt away! This deck has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.
“What makes Meren’s Toolbox?” Not that Craftsman lifetime warranty!
I like to call my Toolbox method my plan B, heading into a commander game my opponents assume I need my graveyard and Meren to win (That’s plan A). I am here to tell you friends:
“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” -Friedrich Nietzsche.
To sum that short, if you lack direction, the abyss will further distract you (meaning your graveyard being their distraction while they flood the board gives you advantage with Defense of the Heart) letting them build up their creatures and pick two of your praetors to give the ultimate creature and mana smackdown (Vorinclex and Sheoldred).
My favorite move is stalling combat with my opponent due to Spore Frog (One of my favorite cards) and equipping Pattern of Rebirth on the spore frog to bring out anything from the library that can pack a punch or add value at a time in need. Natural Order is also in the deck (the old cheetah art from Visions) to cheat in a heavy hitting green card such as Lord of Extinction or Bane of Progress.
OPENING ACT? – THE MANA ROCKS
Jon Wilkerson and I made a joke once after knowing I play bass guitar that with my love of Commander if I ever decided to start a new band with some other magic peeps we could call ourselves the “Mana Rocks,” (Insert joke drum snare sound).
Meren has some solid artifact rocks, while I never went the route of a Mox Diamond in this 99 I did get the few next best things and it’s the good stuff… Meren houses 5 powerful mana rocks in her utility belt : Chrome Mox, Mana Vault, Arcane Signet, Mana Crypt, and yes… you guessed it…
Everyone’s Oprah Staple, Sol Ring! …and you get a sol ring! …they get a sol ring!
While not Mana Rocks, Birthing Pod and Sensei Diving top flesh out the artifact slots putting us at 7.
Birthing Pod pairs well with creatures that want to hit the board quickly and provides a sacrifice outlet. There are many CMC creatures in the deck to choose from to help B-pod do its thing.
Sensei Divining top allows me to stack the cards I need or quickly draw if I choose, so I can find an answer like a blue player.
Honorable Mention: I used to staple Howling Mine in here. I know it gave others card advantage but Howling Mine is one of my favorite cards and holds sentimental value as it was my late buddy Tom’s favorite card and he ran one in every deck because he wanted everyone to have fun.
ENCHANTRESS’S ENCHANTMENTS
Ever realize Meren closely resembles the enchantress from the DC Comic Books?
My Meren has 8 enchantments in her arsenal, each doing their own thing to make every pod have an enchanted evening.
Let’s talk about good card advantage. Sylvan Library hangs true, I can pay 8 to draw all 3 or I choose the best ones.
I spoke about Pattern of Rebirth and Defense of the Heart earlier so not much more to discuss.
Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact are the peanut butter and jelly of my deck. They help me get around indestructible and double up creatures like Merciless Executioner, Fleshbag Marauder and Plaguecrafter.
Tergrid makes the fun come into your favor with these snagging all the sacrificed creatures. Rankle, Master of Pranks having haste, gets you a double sac trigger with pact outlets and he has flying and haste (Lets you draw too).
Survival of the Fittest pairs well as another card advantage or in this case “Creature” advantage. I can throw big stuff in the graveyard and tutor for the smaller stuff by paying one green (Surprise tools we’ll use later as a famous mouse would say).
Fauna shaman is another creature in the deck that does a good job of acting just like this enchantment.
Phyrexian Arena was suggested a while back because I lacked draw, now with this add, Howling Mine never felt so good to cut (sorry, Tom).
A key staple for most reanimator EDH decks, no explanation needed.
LET’S DO SOME SEARCHING – THE TUTORS
There are plenty of tutors that reside in Meren’s bag of tricks. Like the rocks it took me some time but I got the good stuff: Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Diabolic intent (to collect that extra sac trigger), and Finale of Devastation (Grave and Library).
Entomb is a great tutor class card, it allows me to take any one card and put it in my graveyard.
We have a few creatures I’d say tutor for land such as Sakura Tribe Elder (One I can continue sac’ing to get a land and Meren trigger).
Razaketh allows me to sacrifice creatures to tutor for cards.
Fiend Artisan acts like a Birthing Pod on a stick while buffing itself for each creature in the grave, it allows me to search any creature and throw them on the battlefield.
Let’s not forget Wood Elves allowing me to search my library to cheat Bayou into play.
I’d consider Yavimaya Elder a tutor as well, it gets a sac trigger then allows me to search for land and to draw a card! I’ll throw the sad robot himself – Solemn Simulacrum into the mix as a land tutor too.
Let’s do an honorable mention: not a tutor, it can tutor the top 4 cards of any players library and cast them for any color, ladies and gentleman one of my favorite cards:
YOU HAVE BEEN TERMINATED – THE REMOVAL
As a graveyard deck, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to quote Terminator and say, “I’ll be back” like half of the cards in the deck say each time I play them, unless you decide to Bojuka Bog me and tell me to have a nice day.
There are plenty of removal spells in the deck Maelstrom Pulse is a favorite of mine, it saved my butt in a game once: my buddy had 100+ saproling tokens in play and I was able to save the table by taking them all out with it since it: “Destroys target nonland permanent and all other permanents with the same name as that permanent.”
Other removal spells include Assassin’s trophy and beast within. We have a few creatures who do removal such as Necron Deathmark which destroys any creature then you can mill yourself for 3 cards. Massacre Wurm gets rid of most of the small token boards by -2/-2 as soon as it enters taking care of threats out there such as Goblins and Elves and players take 2 damage per creature that died.
Reclamation Sage enters and blows up a target artifact and enchantment. Acidic Slime follows suit to do the same as rec sage but can also hit a land.
LET’S TALK WALKERS… NOT ZOMBIES FROM THE WALKING DEAD, PLANESWALKERS:
My deck contains two Planeswalker, one happens to be a creature until it flips Liliana, Heretical Healer. What I like about her is the fact my constant sac outlets going to the graveyard triggers her so easily. The backside of Lilly 1 in this deck can return a creature from the graveyard to battle or make everyone discard.
While its ult is a board wipe the other two effects are so on theme with Meren. Her +1 allows me to mill two cards off the top and create a zombie. The 2nd ability allows me to return any creature from the graveyard to the battlefield.
To start we have the legendary Xiahou Dun, the one eyed, who can be sacrificed to get any black card back from your graveyard. You have your Reanimate, Victimize (sacrifice trigger again) like I mentioned before you have the Animate Dead staple. Eternal Witness can net you any one card back from your graveyard.
Mikaeus, another fan favorite, is a toolbox himself that allows each non-human creature to return to the board with ‘undying’ when they die.
The deck used to run a lot of board wipes but I didn’t want it to be a sole graveyard / board wipe deck. So I went the route of limiting the line up.
Damnation starts the group by being able to destroy all creatures.
Toxic Deluge fills in gaps and takes care of indestructible creatures by paying life.
I consider this a good board wipe in a world of heavy artifacts in EDH and artifact theme decks.
It shuts down other graveyard decks, acts like Leyline of the Void on a stick leaving their threats at bay. To note, I slid Heroic Intervention in an instant that gives all my stuff indestructible and hexproof until the end of the turn so I can use the board wipes to blow up their stuff while still keeping a board and hoping to swing out.
THE REMAINING TOOLBOX – CREATURES: A WIN CON, LIFE GAIN, ADVANTAGE
I always hope to start every EDH with a Sol Ring on turn one or in this case a Birds
of Paradise so I can have 3 mana available on turn two.
Birds are a solid 1 drop in the deck and very versatile in what it can do for color fixing.
Grave Titan is one of my favorites, when it enters it brings in two zombies with it but also when it attacks it gives you 2 more as well!
Spike weaver is another fog frog or in this case… spider. Entering the battlefield with 3 counters and then you can remove one to fog or put counters on other creatures. You can keep sending him into play from the grave to fog for days like that frog friend of ours.
When it dies it creates a pair of 3/3 tokens, even more stuff to sacrifice!
Braids, Arisen nightmare is the latest add to the deck. It is a great card to use as a sac outlet. It forces opponents to make a choice at your end step whether then want to sac the permanent of your choice or they lose two and you draw one. 75% of the time they aren’t sac’ing and you are drawing.
Kokusho, the Evening star has always been in the deck to gain me life. I usually gain 15 points during this time and have won the game with a Kokusho loop before.
Lord of extinction is a PB&J card of the deck. It gains power and toughness equal to the cards in all graveyards. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken this bad boy and swung for game hitting two people for 100+ points of damage.
The complete creature package:
LANDING AT THE END – LANDS
When I build a commander deck I usually stay between 33-36 lands. For Meren, however, I keep the creature count and lands at 34 each. I will do a little write up for each land in a list formation, but I wanted to spend some time on one land in particular, the Bazaar of Baghdad.
A friend of mine, Kelly, gave me this land after knowing I loved Meren and always wanted one in my list. I found out it belonged to her late brother. While it may be battered and beat up, it’s why my deck is double sleeved today. The card has pulled me through many games to
secure a “W” throwing things away to draw.
I honor his memory and my friend and her boyfriend (My high school best friend Tim) each time I draw the card. I have some amazing friends and I did what I could do and gave her my entire bulk collection as a thank you (huge tub of cards).
1x Ancient Tomb – Getting two colorless to play your commander on turn 2 or 3? Why not. Sure you take a little damage. Why not?
1x Bayou – Ahh the only dual I own now. Black and Green color fixing.
1x Bojuka Bog – Gives you a swamp but allows you to exile the graveyard of your choice.
1x Boseiju, Who Endures – new addition to the deck, I almost stuck this in the removal section.
1x Cabal Coffers – Adds a swamp for each swamp I control, combine with Urborg for lots of fun!
1x Command Tower – Color fixing, a commander staple if you are two or more colors. Will net you one mana in your commander’s identity.
1x Darkbore Pathway – The pathway land that flips to green or black! Always good to have a choice.
1x Deathcap Glade – If I control two or more lands this is an amazing black green fixing.
1x Llanowar Wastes – having the ability to tap for a colorless or pay 1 for green or black is definitely a must.
1x Mana Confluence – Paying 1 for any color you need, is handy in EDH.
1x Nurturing Peatland – Like the Lanowar wastes, I can pay the 1 to add black or green, but I can also pay 1 to sacrifice it to draw.
1x Overgrown Tomb – The Green black classic shock land , pay 2 or it enters tapped, add you a green or black.
1x Phyrexian Tower – It allows you to add a colorless or allows you to sacrifice a creature to get BB.
1x Strip Mine – Get that colorless to add to your mana pool or destroy a land by sacrificing it.
1x Tainted Wood – another Green and black color fixing
1x Temple of Malady – While it enters tapped , it allows you to scry and add Green or black to your mana pool.
1x Twilight Mire – Ahh a filter land to give you black/black black green or green for one green or black, very helpful depending on what you need to cast.
1x Undergrowth Stadium – If you have more the one opponent you can play this card without having it enter tapped and it adds more green and black mana fixing.
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – All lands are swamps , combo this with cabal coffers for so much black mana!
1x Verdant Catacombs – a Tutor for a forest or swamp. Easily grabs Overgrown Tomb and Bayou.
1x Volrath’s Stronghold – The stronghold allows you to pay 1b 1 c to put a creature on top of your library, Generally useful to grab that response you need in a tight situation. Also adds one colorless.
1x Woodland Cemetery – Yet another Green and black color fixing land
1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth – Because I love having forests when I don’t have them. Turns all lands into forests.
That completes the deck tech, while I didn’t get too technical, I explained things in a fun way hoping you’d consider building a Meren deck and enjoyed my ride and story. Please reach out anytime you need any edh help or have questions, I go into every EDH game looking for a good time and always trying to have answers so people don’t get out of hand because I want to see people’s cards(Something I haven’t considered before or seen) and have a good time.
I generally can be seen playing EDH and sometimes adding variations to the game like “Planechase” or “Kingdom.”
Please as I mentioned above, if you ever are struggling or are on the edge, find me, let’s chat, and gather to have some fun on the battlefield. Magic has a way of being well…, “magic” . If you can find the things that make you shine in this world because “Even In the darkest places, the smallest light shines the brightest,” You are important in this world and just remember, there are people who love you.
August 5, 1972 ~ June 21, 2022
A man who was always selfless and took a group of 12-year-old kids and taught them a game to
love for life that kept them out of trouble and will be able to pass it on to their children.
Thank you for gathering with me on the battlefield.
