So as we continue to look at the most recent pre-cons, my old itch to control the board and draw out the game became uncontrollable. And while sometimes the best way to make a new experience is to change commanders, sometimes the commander is already correct, and we just need to focus. The preconstructed decks are reliably varied: the idea behind them is to try them, then tweak them as the player figures out what they want to do with it, so they can satisfy different players. In our case, we take the cost of the deck and use the rest of our $100 to tune it up to tightly focus on a specific aspect.

And what better way to focus on grinding out a game than beginning with a shell already designed to reuse its resources? Let’s start, therefore, with 2015’s Plunder the Graves, and its shaman commander, Meren of Clan Nel Toth.

This deck, and this commander, has lots of cards to try to control the game. However, there are some weaknesses we can shore up, some effects we can redouble, and quite a few ways to build consistency. Let’s see if we can build a deck where other players only get a creature to stay on the board if we say so. We’ll use Meren’s recursion (and some others) combined with Grave Pact and its ilk to do the work.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing to do is up the land count to 40. It’s a simple move, just two more Swamps, but this deck can do a lot with mana, so hitting land drops is important, as with most control decks. The deck gives us some great tools to start with. Because we use ETB and ETG effects a lot, the sacrifice effects which let us use Meren to recur them are at a premium here. So, the High Market and Grim Backwoods already in the list are excellent. We’ve also got great cycling lands, which are wonderful in a deck like this, where it rarely matters when they come into play tapped early, and later it’s useful to just cycle them away. The dual lands are fine as they are. One astute reader pointed out in the last article that the Vivid Lands aren’t great in two-color decks, and that’s a fair argument. They work great for smoothing out three, four or five-color mana bases, but they’re a bit slow in a world with Woodland Cemetery. It’s true, and if you’ve got better lands, go ahead and drop them in. However, again, the Vivids are fine in this deck; just hit the drops. We’ve left the few pieces of acceleration, a turn one Sol Ring certainly can make for some explosive turns, while the Golgari Signet smoothes early mana troubles and Thought Vessel is great with a big Decree of Pain. Then Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, and Viridian Emissary all get us early fixing or late-game thinning and sacrifice fodder.

We’ve got two of the better colors for drawing cards: Wall of Blossoms on the Green side and Ambition's Cost and Altar's Reap on the Black. Corpse Augur, too, can do work in this deck. It’s really fun to sacrifice it every turn and just get it back with Meren on the battlefield. We’re going to add a few pieces, though, both some straight draw, Decree of Pain and Dregs of Sorrow, which double as answers, and some unusual card advantage. Perilous Forays is reliably underused in EDH. Its combo potential is huge, but here it serves as a valuable sacrifice outlet that’s relatively hard to interact with and gives us value each time we use it. Oversold Cemetery and Phyrexian Reclamation double as ways to get creatures back from the graveyard; sometimes Meren is just not available, right? Expedition Map is here to find High Market. After that, Grim Backwoods. And Sidisi, Undead Vizier serves as our Demonic Tutor. It’s the only one here, but boy oh boy is it good in this deck. It gives us an experience counter when it comes into play, and with five experience counters, not that hard to get, we get to tutor every turn. That normally leads to a pretty quick end to the game.

That said, it’s tough to grind out that 1-for-1 advantage when we’ve got three or four opponents. So we’re going to get around that problem with some careful card choice and some “unfair” play. Starting with Butcher of Malakir, we’re going to add Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos. In fact, Grave Pact is the most likely target for Sidisi, Undead Vizier, should we see her before any of the others. These, combined with Meren and any sacrifice effect, make it so we can keep most people off the kind of big creatures people often play. With enough mana, we can even tame something like Omnath, Locus of Rage or Rampaging Baloths, which have a tendency to make three or four creatures a turn. We can get the ball rolling with Fleshbag Marauder and its ilk; these are great with a Grave Pact in play, but work just fine as early plays to keep the board clear while we’re still setting up. Putrefy and Hero's Downfall give us some point removal just in case. Viridian Zealot, Indrik Stomphowler, and Acidic Slime do good jobs of dealing with individual enchantments and artifacts. In fact, the Zealot is a great early play because it can sac itself to get Experience Counters, then start returning itself with Meren to keep making them while Bane of Progress, Creeping Corrosion, and Back to Nature will wipe the board of all pesky enchantments or artifacts. Life's Finale dumps even more stuff in the yard for us, and a few other board wipes serve as reset buttons. Aether Snap will kill every Planeswalker on the battlefield and make Vorel of the Hull Clade players really sad. Finally, we’re running a couple of -2/-2 effects: Drown in Sorrow and Flaying Tendrils. These are unusual, but not for us. Sometimes we’ll have a Goblin or Elves player who gets a bit out of hand, and this lets us clear those without destroying our larger stuff.

Mimic Vat is great in a deck like this, because it gives us extra ETB effects, Experience Counters, and creatures to sacrifice to keep the board clear (but note we must have a sac effect — the Vat forces the tokens into exile otherwise). For extra fun, try Eternal Witness, Merciless Executioner, or Acidic Slime. We’ve also added some sacrifice effects, just to make sure we can clear the ‘field whenever we want. Ashnod's Altar can be surprisingly useful because it doesn’t tap and is therefore reusable. Neither does Attrition or Spawning Pit, which can turn around and give us more creatures to sac to force more sacs by opponents.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Meren of Clan NelToth

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Bane of Progress
• 1 Butcher of Malakir
• 1 Corpse Augur
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Indrik Stomphowler
• 1 Korozda Guildmage
• 1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Skullwinder
• 1 Slum Reaper
• 1 Viridian Emissary
• 1 Viridian Zealot
• 1 Wall of Blossoms
• 1 Wood Elves

• Spells (38)
• 1 Altar's Reap
• 1 Back to Nature
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Wretched Confluence
• 1 Aether Snap
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Creeping Corrosion
• 1 Deadly Tempest
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Drown in Sorrow
• 1 Flaying Tendrils
• 1 Innocent Blood
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Primal Growth
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Attrition
• 1 Dictate of Erebos
• 1 Grave Betrayal
• 1 Grave Pact
• 1 Oversold Cemetery
• 1 Perilous Forays
• 1 Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spawning Pit
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (40)
• 12 Forest
• 15 Swamp
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 High Market
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Slippery Karst
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Vivid Grove
• 1 Vivid Marsh

Buy This Deck

There are ways to spend a bit more coin on this stack. Stronger lands, more duals, including ones that tap for both colors and don’t come into play tapped, will make any deck stronger. Damnation would probably be worth the slot, and Butcher of Malakir could be dropped if you’re willing to run the Black tutors; Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and the like, though the single tutor shows some style. Lashwrithe was in the deck for a while as a sort-of Bonehoard number two, it can certainly be strong, but testing suggested it wasn’t necessary. Frankly, putting in a pocket combo or two might be a good way to finish games; Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Puppeteer Clique would both be good cards in the deck, and together with a sac outlet like Ashnod's Altar allow control of every creature in every opponent’s graveyard. Sort of a three-card Rise of the Dark Realms, but with haste.

Games with this deck will go long, assuming your opponents plan to do things with creatures. Everyone will start to want you out of the game, which I think is ultimately what I like about decks like this. I identify as a Timmy/Tammy, but the Spike in me comes out when I’m behind the wheel of a deck where everyone is pointing at me and I have to hold them all off. With tight play, careful decisions, and a little luck, this deck will be able to stand up to some of the biggest and baddest EDH has to offer. Now get out there and grind.

Total cost: $99.46