Meren of Clan Nel Toth EDH COMMANDER DECK TECH

HERE IT IS!! MY FAVORITE DECK!!
Meren of Clan Nel Toth. My oldest Commander Deck. This video goes over the full deck tech with strategies and cool unique combos I run. The deck wants to do 3 things.... Discard, Sacrifice and Gain/Drain. Let me know what you all think!
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/meren...

[@alex.sanders]

You made me consider putting the Phyrexian Obliterator in the deck... Usually people love to attack the Meren player, so maybe thats a good enough way to avoid combat damage

[@commanderinsight]

Awesome! If you haven't done so yet, check out my video on how to break Phyrexian Obliterator in commander. I love that card! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpeUi6Wml9GGkKM

[@joelruizdiaz6204]

Phyrexian obliterator is the best wall ever made.

[@commanderinsight]

@@joelruizdiaz6204 for sure! underrated card in commander

[@arturrodrigues7161]

really nice deck! recently I've been avoiding mill stuff like mesmeric orb and more in sending my stuff direcly to the gy to avoid losing enchantments/artifacts in the process, so I would consider exchanging for something else

[@commanderinsight]

I’ve always felt that was a down side to self mill but the format is only getting faster and I still feel self mill is necessary in order to keep up at all. There are cards like eternal witness and bala ged recovery to get some of those cards back to the hand. Eternal witness especially is great because she can be looped with meren pretty easily. Since this video I’ve added a few more cards to self mill actually. The faster the deck the better the game play. Of course it’s whatever flavor of meren you like. You say you send stuff directly to the yard, what cards do you use? Buried alive, entomb and oriq loremage. What else do you use to put things directly to the yard? I feel there isn’t enough effects to do that so it wouldn’t be consistent. I’m interested to see your build!

[@tytaniium]

Hey man, big fan of your deck techs. Was wondering where you got your Meren Alt art?

[@commanderinsight]

Hey thank you very much! I appreciate the comment. I ordered the alternative art from a user on Instagram who makes really cool proxies. The name on the account was atomicashes . If you search that up on Instagram you can message him about specific cards and I think there’s a website now too. I’ve ordered from him twice and it’s all been legit.

[@joshrobinson2409]

I use dredge in my build with meren, life from the loam is nice but I also have a stink weed imp

[@Logan-gb7uy]

I literally got bojuka bogged 3 times in a row lol nice deck tech btw meren is my favorite commander my first too and if you just change a couple cards it changes the whole experience of the deck which is really cool I used to run necrotic ooze combo but that got a lil stake so I switched it up to a 6 card combo I made myself based off a non infinite combo I have in the deck which is eternal witness,cavalier of knight,and victimize is the combo I just made it infinite with beledros,aetherflux reservoir,and any sac outlet lol doesn’t happen often but still fun lol but it’s main combo is mindslicer tergrid if you do that you win lol or just mindslicer but I can add more mill cards more reanimation cards more aristocrat cards it’s really diverse you can make it stax it’s really fun too also phyrexian obliterator is interesting maybe might add it I recommend cavalier of knight for the deck removal with revival lol also avenger of zendikar and eldrazi monument are really good as well I was using hypnotist but opted for mindslicer I did have syr Konrad but took him out for a blood artist I already have a zulaport cutthroat in there too

[@commanderinsight]

I literally want to change up the deck every other day sometimes and just try all the different creatures. I had mind slicer but took it out. Cause it was a little too oppressive. I don’t like infinite combos in a deck like this because it becomes a very stake and boring strategy. Just my opinion. I run infinite combos in other decks. I’ve had avenger in as well but it came out for beladros. I also tried cavalier but I don’t think I gave it enough time because it does seem really good. I’ve slowly been moving away from the discard package and sticking to just sacrificing on the field. Added some new cards in that name it more about creatures dying. Overall right now it’s vastly different than my Karador deck which is what I wanted. 2 graveyard decks that are just very different and both still incredibly fun. Thanks for the comment. Drop your deck list if you can!

[@commanderinsight]

I’d take another look at Syr Konrad too. It’s much better than blood artist because it triggers for 3 different scenarios that happen pretty often. It hits everyone too. Running both wold be the best I guess. I know blood artist is much cheaper. Phyrexian obliterator is just one of my fav cards and I wanted to try and make it work. It always becomes a huge threat when it hits the battlefield and it becomes insta kill when I drop the tracker with it. Check out the obliterator video I made explaining some combos with it. Especially if you already run tergrid. Trying to get more people on board with the oblit lol.

[@Logan-gb7uy]

@@commanderinsight I liked the obliterator video it seems neat and you can use it with the new werewolf card that is coming out and yeah I was thinking about adding in syr Konrad lol but my cmc is so high because I cheat big plays out often my deck is kinda slow but blows up but I guess that’s all meren decks lol I’ll post a decklist but it might be a little weird to you lol and yeah i don’t like infinite combos in these kinds of grindy value decks either it gets really stale with necrotic ooze I only put them in if I want a guaranteed win I can explain the six card combo I made to you the only reason it’s in there is because I made a Combo with eternal witness,cavalier of knight,and victimize lol then wanted to make it infinite so I added beledros,aetherflux reservoir,and it’s any sac outlet so basically only dead card unless I have the combo rn is aetherflux reservoir I got lucky with a phyrexian alter on my b-day tho since I only started a year ago I have like 2 decks meren still my favorite

[@commanderinsight]

@@Logan-gb7uy I love weird and unique plays that people dont think of and make the deck fun yet still good. Meren was the most popular commander at one point and has been shafted down to top 15ish according to EDHREC. New commanders coming out recently have just been faster and more efficient. everything has draw power built into them now too. Still, those of us still wanting to build a good Meren deck (w/o the popular infinite combos) and can keep up need to get creative. if your like me (and it sounds like you are) I love cheating out big creatures and finding legal ways to bring out more value than the mana i paid. my pet card is living death! Especially on creatures I think they are the core of EDH. I built 2 graveyard decks Meren is my first and then Karador which is probably a little better than Meren right now. Access to white opens up so many more doors. They are both different but have a few similar cards between them. But they play very differently and i did that on purpose. The other amazing deck that I love to cheat out big creatures is Atla Palani. That deck has a randomness added to it too so its extremely fast strong and fun because you dont actually know what youre going to get. I have deck lists in my videos although Atla has had some changes so i may need to do an updated video. Just FYI in case you wanted to look into other decks that do similar big creature cheats. Karador is incredibly resilient and i rarely ever get my graveyard exiled. (rest in peace is still a thing but no bojuka bogs) BTW - you said you were considering putting Konrad back in.... consider this...Konrad can also be a little insurance policy on your graveyard if it gets exiled. If someone bojuka bog you (or 3 times like you said lol) with Konrad on the field, they take damage for each creature they exile.

[@Logan-gb7uy]

@@commanderinsight yeah true and I love the living death play you said with Konrad lol since I only started a year ago and I build budget I don’t really have to good of a land base rn but I’m gonna post the decklist

[@pocitv]

hey great video ! can i ask you where did you get that Meren version ? that's insane

[@commanderinsight]

theres a guy on instagram called "atomicashes" he makes proxies and sells them. good quality imo. I got it from him a few years ago. He may have a website now i havent gone back in a while. I like to get them for all my commanders i know ill be keeping for a while

[@pocitv]

@@commanderinsight thank you so much❤️❤️

[@dzane01]

Hey man I don't know if you read comments on old videos but mindslicer might be a good addition to your discard theme 2c2b 4/3 when mindslicer is put into a graveyard from play each player discards their hand

[@commanderinsight]

Hey, thanks for the recommendation! I actually had mindslicer in the deck but took it out to reduce the salt level of the deck for my playgroup. I was consistently getting the effect off where it became no fun to play against. You're right its incredibly powerful in a deck like this especially with tergrid and such

[@dzane01]

@@commanderinsight haha awesome I'm building mine for edh tournaments so I've been scrounging KZbin and online and looking through gatherer for anything good to throw in that isn't super spendy your video helped alot looking forward to my phyrexian oblitorator to get here 😈

[@commanderinsight]

@@dzane01 awesome! I hope it helps. I love phyrexian obliterator. Underrated IMO. Are you running ulvenwald tracker too? It’s a great “target removal” on a creature. You can throw obliterator at their highest power or any death touch creature like the snakes ophiomancer makes.

[@dzane01]

@@commanderinsight yep I've hot it ordered just have to wait for the delivery thanks for the help!

[@commanderinsight]

Great! glad to help. Keep me posted on how the deck runs and the terror on your opponents faces when you bring obliterator and tracker out together with a protean hulk trigger!

[@720steelers]

I was thinking of turning my korvold deck into a meren deck what do you think? My korvold deck was all about having ways to put tokens into and play and sac them to generate value and also function with some aristocrats style to sacrifice things and deal damage while I gain life any thoughts on that?

[@commanderinsight]

So this is just my opinion based on a few assumptions. Korvold is probably a way more powerful commander, however to me it’s boring because it’s very repetitive and does the same thing kind of every time. Very good but the deck playstyle gets stale after you win with it only after a few times. I love meren for many reasons but one being it’s so easy to make a few changes to the deck and have an entirely new feeling to the playstyle. That being said, you could try and run a meren deck inside a korvold deck. Thatd be cool because you can have access to some red if you wanted, while still playing a meren deck. The only issue would be getting meren out of the 99 onto the field. If you did just switch to a meren commander the aristocrats style is popular and very good for the long game. Korvold is much faster but you can really go aristocrat theme in meren. What I think the best aspect between the 2 commanders is korvold is a must have on the field where a meren deck can win without her but having her accelerates your value that much more. Regardless of what you go with, my secret pet card for either deck would be to include an essence warden for life gain.

[@720steelers]

@@commanderinsight ah appreciate the feedback thank you! I’m excited to build and transfer over korvold into meren do you have any recommendations for some big beaters that are relatively cheap on the budget

[@commanderinsight]

@@720steelers I think you’ll enjoy a meren deck coming from a korvold. Depending on the style you go it can out last most other decks. As for budget big beaters you could go with terastadon, and woodfall primus for target removal and massacre wurm for board wipe and life drain. A good finisher that goes under the radar is kessig cagebreaker. If you have a bunch of creatures in your graveyard you can win very easily. It’s also tokens for sac fodder for aristocrats. Did you see anything you liked from my deck tech video you are considering?

[@720steelers]

@@commanderinsight I already found a bunch of things in your deck tech that I hadn’t really considered that I look forward to adding as it goes along probably pick up a couple cards here and there as I get paid!

[@MrManukenchin]

No man Korvold is the best in this type of game with aristocrats, I have a meren deck, it's pretty weak with graveyard hate and very fragile, I would like to build a korvold deck instead of meren

[@hijjak97]

Thoughts on Strionic Resonator? Duplicating triggers is pretty gross, especially from Meren, Obliterator, Hulk, Gary, etc.

[@commanderinsight]

Hey thanks for the suggestion! No Joke.... I just added strionic resonator into my revised build like yesterday. I am anticipating Tergrid to get banned so I took out a bunch of cards that revolve around her. You are right strionic resonator is amazing with Meren and a bunch of the other creatures you mentioned. I am also considering putting Sheoldred back in because you can double down on either of her effects.

[@Kosmoloog]

@@commanderinsight Any way for us to see your revised build?

[@commanderinsight]

@@Kosmoloog I will be making another video as soon as the new kamigawa set comes out because there are some cards i might be including. The deck has strayed from the discard packaged because i am anticipating Tergrid to get banned. If it doesnt i'll keep her in and try and use more strategies to utilize her.

[@maxbodifee3263]

Meren is so cool but got hated of the table so hard that I changed the commander to Savra

[@commanderinsight]

Savra is cool too. But what type of meren deck were you running that it got hated enough for you to change it? Seems unreasonable to expect a fellow player to change their commander like that. If anything you can tone the deck down so it’s not so hated. Merens effect is not broken at all and it’s actually kind of slow these days. She’s dropped down the list on edhrec too. She’s still my favorite too though. I Probly don’t know enough about the situation but don’t let your friends bully you into changing commanders if you want to play meren. If it was too strong or hate bearing you can adjust the 99.

[@daviddent5662]

I once saw Maren make 10,000.000 tokens off of three cards. Utterly horrifying commander when given the right stuff.

[@commanderinsight]

What 3 cards? That’s crazy cool. I never focused on tokens but that’d be an insta win for sure.

[@batousai619]

@@commanderinsight My idea would be Grave Titan, Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar (not sure if this is what he's talking about). Sacrifice Grave Titan and one of his Zombie tokens for Ashnod's to get 4 colorless mana. Since Grave Titan technically dies due to sac, pay 4 to Nim Deathmantle so he returns to the battlefield, thus triggering him to bring another set of 2 Zombie tokens. Then repeat as desired. If Ayara, First of Locthwain is on the field, then it's game over since it's 3 damage each time Grave Titan is brought back via Nim Deathmantle.

[@7r6htojx]

Why not run protean package?

[@commanderinsight]

Your referring to the auto win con? Mike and trike or walking ballista?

[@Logan-gb7uy]

@@commanderinsight I think he is talking about the disciple of the vault combo

[@paolo97ism]

You run almost no ramp other than sol ring and the dorks

[@commanderinsight]

Well if youre going to ramp more, do it with creatures if you can. There are mana dorks, wood elves, sakura tribe, urborg/cabal, ashnods altar, sol ring. The deck functions fine without it but obviously upping the # of ramp cards would make it faster. lower CMC curve helps too

[@akselhansen304]

Buy some innersleeves my dude......