Merciless Executioner

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DreadKhan on Edh options

1 week ago

He's not heavily played, but Kresh the Bloodbraided can do some absolutely nutso things when he's big enough, and the deck often has some control elements (especially vs creatures, the deck wants to kill off everything but Kresh typically). It can be built on a budget (for Casual play) or as a High Power deck. On a budget you run all of the Merciless Executioner effects you can find, and at higher power you'll still run a bunch of them, but you'll also have Dictate of Erebos effects. Rite of the Raging Storm by itself turns Kresh into a huge body, and it's easy to include lots of Flings/Chandra's Ignition/Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord to win, but you can also use stuff like Mandate of Abaddon to wipe the board and one-shot someone, there are a TON of cards that play very well with Kresh, and people probably aren't familiar with the deck at this point.

Another option might be Azorius Control, Azorius is a great pair for wipes, removal and countermagic, meaning you can deal with problems, both for yourself as well as the table. I guess you might go something like Shorikai, Genesis Engine and play any vehicles that don't suck? You can freely wipe your pilots without risking your vehicles, even without things like Teferi's Protection. The card draw Shorikai offers can really help you dig, and it synergizes with untap effects.

My final idea would be something like Sauron, the Dark Lord, Grixis gives you a lot of control options, and Sauron makes you a big honking army very readily, and fwiw you can make an evasive Changeling (like Changeling Outcast) your Army in place of a token. Grixis struggles a bit vs certain types of permanents, but you can certainly pressure people and have input as to what stays around.

Oh yeah, just thought of a bad idea I've never gotten around to testing, but you might be able to build Optimus Prime, Hero  ^Flip with all the Jeskai wipes you can find? Optimus can 'survive' a wipe, so as long as you can give him Haste somehow you can swing each turn vs a cleared board, wiping whenever anyone gets anything relevant out. Would it be obnoxious? Incredibly so. But I think it could work, especially since you have Red for various good Haste sources. You probably need lots of things to protect Optimus from Swords effects, including a smattering of Blue counters that are either free or cost {U} so you can hold them up.

Taking a look at other people's ideas, I support Karazikar and Breena, both seem like great fits!

Azoth2099 on 100 cards for Meren

9 months ago

The_Ush

Fleshbags, my friend. You need Fleshbags.

Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple, Plaguecrafter, Gravelighter & Phyrexian Delver. Sac them to their own Ability to control the board and pumping Experience Counters at the same time. Lifeline & Grimoire of the Dead could also be great, if you decide to go that route.

Crow_Umbra on Smeagol will guide you | **Primer v2.0**

10 months ago

Hi there, thank you for reaching out. I hope my suggestions will be helpful, but here are some things I noticed when I took a look at your deck:

• I know that your commander can steal opponents' lands, but I think you are kind of low on your own land count. Personally, I would suggest bumping up to 35-36, especially since your average cmc is closer to 3.

• I think you can cut Voracious Fell Beast all together, or replace it with something like Fleshbag Marauder, Plaguecrafter, or Merciless Executioner for a cheaper version of a similar effect.

• Gnawing Vermin can likely be replaced by a ramp spell like Three Visits, Nature's Lore, Farseek, or Rampant Growth. Its effect isn't super impactful, even as a sacrifice target.

• You can probably swap out Fall of Gil-galad and Oath of the Grey Host for a couple more effects that let you sacrifice your own creatures like Ashnod's Altar, Plumb the Forbidden, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, or Phyrexian Altar, depending on your budget.

• I would recommend swapping out Rampaging Brontodon with Tireless Provisioner, Scute Swarm, or Tireless Tracker. All are lower on the mana curve, and still work with the landfall stuff you want to do.

• Depending on your budget, you can likely swap Butcher of Malakir out for Bastion of Remembrance, Poison-Tip Archer, Grave Pact, or Dictate of Erebos. The enchantments are a bit more resistant to removal and board wipes than creatures, and all options are lower on your mana curve to come down sooner.

If you haven't already, I would recommend checking out EDHREC's page on Smeagol, Helpful Guide, here are the pages for a Sacrifice themed deck and a more Landfall focused deck. These pages can give you an idea of which effects overlap between the two strats, and what might be within your budget.

I hope these suggestions were helpful.

DreadKhan on F*** Kevin

1 year ago

Any reason you don't run Meren of Clan Nel Toth in here? You don't lose XP counters when she dies, so you can just recur her with your Commander. You could also try out Coffin Queen and Hell's Caretaker to get more recursion in. Repeatable recursion makes things like Merciless Executioner pop in my experience. Not sure how much you get targeted, but Dawnstrider is a nice second Spore Frog, Dawnstrider is also a discard outlet.

I playtested this vs one of my more salty decks, it doesn't feel too oppressive to play against. I actually think your friend should build a deck designed to tweak your nose back if he feels triggered by your deck! The best way to learn to appreciate a deck or play style is to try it out yourself, obvious exceptions abound but I think there's a kernel of truth. I thought Chaos decks were always a bad thing, but when I decided to throw some Chaotic cards into a deck it worked out very well, and now I enjoy a boarder spectrum of Magic games.

RockIV on Kresh of the savage horde

1 year ago

Been reading all the comments , so many cards. Thnks everyone, but decided to take Azoth2099 advice and added Fleshbag Marauder , Plaguecrafter , Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple and also Decimate and Rhythm of the Wild

Azoth2099 on Kresh of the savage horde

1 year ago

RockIV

Edicts! Mass Edicts! Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Demon's Disciple, Plaguecrafter & Gravelighter are all nuts in this build. I wouldn't recommend ones that cost more than 3, though. Soul Shatter, Vona's Hunger, Liliana's Triumph & Sheoldred's Edict do the same thing at Instant speed, with the tradeoff being less Counters on Kresh the Bloodbraided, as those are not Creature Spells.

Those cheap, 3-drop Elemental stompers are solid as well, like Ball Lightning & Lightning Skelemental.

I'd also recommend literally as many Dorks as possible, as they also pump Kresh when they die, they're utility at both the floor and the ceiling of your deck is undeniable.

Pestilence & Pyrohemia are also worth it for this Commander for the same reason mass Edicts are worth it: controlling the board and pumping your Commander at the same time is just a great thing to do.

More card draw couldn't hurt either, maybe a Beast Whisperer & a Dark Tutelage or something.

Cheers!

DPhoenix on Dina, Soul Steeper

1 year ago

Corpse Connoisseur vs Vile Entomber

Fleshbag Marauder vs Demon's Disciple

Merciless Executioner vs Plaguecrafter

Haywire Mite

Exotic Orchard vs Twilight Mire

-1 Misty Rainforest +1 Prismatic Vista

-1 Mana Confluence +1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

-1 Cabal Coffers +1 Boseiju, Who Endures

Skullwinder vs Timeless Witness or Treasured Find

-1 Mausoleum Secrets +1 either Grim Tutor or Vampiric Tutor

Jarad's Orders vs Final Parting

Twilight's Call vs Living Death

Moonsilver Key vs Dig Up

Maybe

Ash Barrens; Castle Locthwain; Necromancy; Assassin's Trophy; Imp's Mischief; Tamiyo's Safekeeping; Sylvan Library

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 year ago

If you're interested in playing fair, then you might like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This can take a board full of utility creatures and make them very formidable very quickly. Hell's Caretaker is a card I find useful that doesn't go infinite with anything I know of, it just lets you sneak stuff in once per turn. If you don't include anything like Pitiless Plunderer you can set up repeatable sacrifice loops to generate XP for Meren, probably to reanimate a Protean Hulk or someting else juicy. For this you might use Gravecrawler or Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and probably a 1 drop Knight to have something you can keep killing over and over. Any card that cares about creatures dying will go off, so some stuff that draws on death might be nice, Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a versatile card that fits the bill.

In my experience, the best thing you can tutor up is usually Protean Hulk, Sidisi, or Razaketh, any of these tends to spiral out of control in a deck that can reanimate them on the end step or sooner. Hulk can find various creatures to solve whatever problems you have, but you probably need a sac outlet to ensure it dies right away, the others are more generous. Razaketh notoriously likes abusing Life / Death to set up a pretty quick win when you're ready, you can find stuff like rituals to generate enough mana to go off.

If you want another reanimator that isn't picky, there is Demon of Dark Schemes that helps clear the board of weenies, and as long as you don't have cards that generate mana the Demon won't go infinite with something like Mitotic Slime or Underworld Hermit, they'll just give you lots of triggers for your extra mana. Demon also likes Merciless Executioner type creatures, they can easily generate Energy. Another reanimator I often forget reanimates stuff is Liliana, Death's Majesty, this brings back stuff as a Zombie if you don't want the ultimate, and she survives some wipes as a PW that can make 2/2s while milling you. Some people don't like PWs so ymmv.

I suspect that if you're not sure if you need more wipes, you might want to try one or two more. In Black there is Make an Example that is very brutal as you always hit your priority target for each opponent. It won't clear the board, but it can help manage it, and you can follow it up with a bunch of forced sacrifice. One card that likes seeing a wipe happen (that makes running extra feel less problematic) is Ogre Slumlord, if you run enough 'pay life'effects you might want Sangromancer, and if you think you can kill enough of your opponent's permenants then Kothophed, Soul Hoarder might work out, that can turn a Damnation into a big draw spell.

If your deck is finding it hard to stay alive, you can use Dawnstrider to save you on needing to reanimate a Spore Frog, though I use both as I find Meren can be annoying to certain players.

If you like Phyrexian Arena and aren't using 'win on the spot combos', have you considered Protection Racket? This can draw plenty of non-land cards or deal damage to your opponents, both seem good as long as you don't care if you lose some random 1-3 drops. There is also Black Market Connections, this can provide various resources without being as busted/all-or-nothing as Necropotence.

Hope some of this is helpful! Any Commander that requires a lot of tutoring is very frustrating to learn to play, Commander is incredibly hard to master, but it's easy to get better with practice!