Meren of Clan Nel TothMeren of Clan Nel Toth | Art by Mark Winters

Grabbing a Shovel

Greetings, and welcome to another edition of Precon Remastered! Here we take an old deck and give it a second chance in life (or give it undeath, same thing). This week, we venture into the second preconstructed deck of Commander 2015, and boy, it's a good one.

Who's the commander, though?

Our commander this week loves creatures dying, and we get rewarded with experience counters to recur creatures later on. The more we sacrifice those creatures, the more options we can recur during our end step.

By that very nature, Meren leans towards the one archetype I despise (less so than the likes of Stax, but there is no like or love for it): Aristocrats.

My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined when the list came out. I had been hoping it was Golgari (black/green) Reanimator, where we bring back massive monsters. Instead, we're bringing stuff back for value.

Entering the Cemetery

As always, here are our rules for remastering precons:

1. The value of the deck cannot exceed $120. This will apply to the reprints only, which gets to my first personal quirk.
2. Every card unique to the original precon stays in the deck. All those new cards that get released with precons remain in the list.
3. The land package should closely reflect what we get in precons these days (and, in my humble opinion, they're actually pretty good).
4. At least until 2020, we're not tied to a particular set, so we're free to choose whatever we want. You can be assured I have ideas for 2020 and beyond, though.
5. Universes Beyond cards are not added. No exceptions, unless they have an in-universe variant. Granted, this will change when we get there.

With that out of the way, let's see what the original list looked like.

The Original Deck List

Found the Tombstone

For starters, experience counters was not the only new mechanic introduced in these precons: myriad came out here, too.

I didn't cover it much when I touched on the previous entry because there was no real synergy. This time, though, there is: we attack with a myriad creature (like Banshee of the Dread ChoirBanshee of the Dread Choir), the tokens go away, and we get experience counters for it. Just a neat little synergy.

And since they're sacrificed, then we can reap the benefits with something like Mazirek, Kraul Death PriestMazirek, Kraul Death Priest to pump our board. We could also sacrifice those tokens before that happens for some additional value, too.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Pathbreaker IbexPathbreaker Ibex. This is a really good finisher, assuming we can give it haste somehow.

We also happen to have Overwhelming StampedeOverwhelming Stampede in the deck, so we have a bit of redundancy. Taken together, these two spell out how we're going to win games with this precon.

Scoop, Turn, Toss; This is the Way We Mourn Our Loss

(An aside, if you don't get the subtitle, it's the flavor text from Scavenger FolkScavenger Folk. A deep cut for us boomers out there.)

When this precon came out, it was hailed as one of the best in the group, if not the best.

However, that doesn't mean we got a perfect precon. To really turn the deck into an absolute monstrosity, we need to cut some fluff and fat. For example, CloudthresherCloudthresher is really not that good, though it is a big beater. I'd rather pick up HurricaneHurricane if I wanted to deal with flyers (or an oldie but goodie, Silklash SpiderSilklash Spider).

Also, our sacrifice outlets have seen better days. Who wants to wait a full turn cycle to pay five and sacrifice a bunch of creatures with Champion of Stray SoulsChampion of Stray Souls? Nobody? Thought so.

Why not use Living DeathLiving Death instead? In addition, one of the only reanimation spells in the deck, Diabolic ServitudeDiabolic Servitude, leaves much to be desired. Let's fix this all up, shall we?

Plunder the Graves Remastered

Dredge Up the Body

Old Price: $96.53

New Price: $114.05

Alright, chances are, we may have created a monster. Let's be fortunate I very much avoid tutors in my decks.

Spore FrogSpore Frog will fog the combat step over and over again, stalling the game out while we bump up our experience counter numbers.

In addition, both Fleshbag MarauderFleshbag Marauder and PlaguecrafterPlaguecrafter will make each player sacrifice a creature, doing the same thing. This also creates a soft lock if we keep looping it like the villains we are. All this because I'm evil.

Anyways, as usual, I spruced up the mana base, so it doesn't look like a heap, and threw in some payoffs like Blood ArtistBlood Artist and Cauldron of EssenceCauldron of Essence.

I didn't mess around with reanimation much, since our commander does this anyway. Both Deathreap RitualDeathreap Ritual and Moldervine ReclamationMoldervine Reclamation will ensure we keep a full grip of cards a lot of the time.

Lastly, I have a couple more deep cuts in there. Reaper of the WildsReaper of the Wilds will scry each time a creature dies. It's easy to lose track, so best stay on top of that. She can protect herself and/or give herself deathtouch, provided we have the mana.

After that, we have a personal favorite of mine, Journey to EternityJourney to Eternity, which is extremely easy to flip here. Just stick it on the aforementioned Spore Frog, then wait for something. The reverse side will ramp us, but also can be used to recur creatures from our graveyard.

Walking Into the Night

And there we have it. What memories do you have with this list? Any more deep cuts I didn't think of? Either way, tune back in next week, where we return to my other series, Commander Remastered, where have a seat on a throne.