Mill-Shake Brings All the Boys to the Graveyard (EDH / Commander)

This deck is mainly focused on getting as many high value targets for Araumi of the Dead Tide into the graveyard as possible, and casting them for even more value!

To fill up the graveyard, we have powerful selfmill cards such as the amazing Altar of Dementia, Stitcher's Supplier, Perpetual Timepiece and of course Mesmeric Orb, which all quickly fill our graveyard to the brim. In the graveyard, our most powerful creatures are our black creatures: They all have powerful ETB's, which either fills our board or destroys our opponent's precious creatures. Our blue creatures are powerful as well, but do things a little differently by drawing us cards, stealing spells and snatching creatures straight from the battlefield.

To make sure we can activate our commander, I've included both Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots, so that Araumi can hit the ground (wave?) running while also being protected. Other artifacts include Panharmonicon for double up on our ETB's, as well as Sundial of the Infinite for keeping the creatures we get from Araumi instead of losing them.

So as to not lose gas, we have plenty of good draw spells and creatures, notably Mulldrifter and Floating-Dream Zubera. To ensure the graveyard stays nice and full, we also have a lot of loot-effects in the form of Looter il-Kor, Notion Rain and Thirst for Knowledge etc. While these options don't always offer us card advantage, they do give us card selection, while also moving our big beaters from the hand into the grave. To get them OUT of the grave again, we have some reanimation spells handy, in case Araumi isn't on the battlefield: Animate Dead, Reanimate and Dread Return.
With all of our draw and looting, we'll hopefully also draw into our removal spells, some of which are on creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra for those Araumi encores! Others, like Cyclonic Rift and Feed the Swarm, are one-time effects but definitely worth a slot.

Lastly, there's the land and ramp package. Some cards of note here are Millikin and Deranged Assistant, which are the true MVP's of the deck; you can't beat creatures serving as both ramp and mill! In the lands department, there's also some zingers, namely Minamo, School at Water's Edge, letting Ararumi do all of her nasty tricks a second time per turn cycle. Our bounce lands, Dimir Aqueduct and Guildless Commons, may seem forgetable, but can serve as a way of discarding good encore targets; fx, if you cast any other land on turn 1, and then a bounce land on turn 2, resulting in a hand size of 8 cards total. Voila, free discard!

So there you have it. Any advice is greatly appreciated, since I haven't built many decks myself. Cheers!

CATEGORIES:

• Fill the Graves = Selfmill
• Warm Bodies = Encore Targets
• No Rest for the Wicked = Reanimation
• Live Fast, Die Young = Draw & Discard
• Undertakers = Removal
• Graverobbing = Artifacts & Enchantments
• Deranged Assistants = Ramp
• Cemetery = Lands

EDIT: Some new inclusions have been made, so that we have more protection for Araumi: Aboshan's Desire and Alexi's Cloak. Both of these are cheap (both mana AND money wise), and give us an extra safety net.
Other than that, I've (sadly) removed some of our big bois: Grave Titan and Syr Konrad, the Grim. While not anywhere close to being bad (if you've ever seen a Konrad go off, I feel bad for you), both of these two cards are expensive. When it comes to reanimatng them, we have much better options at the end of our curve; the Sepulchrals, for example. I've upped our interaction instead with cards like Rapid Hybridization and Arcane Denial. Surprisingly, I've also cut some removal, notably a board wipe: Damnation. This card just was NOT worth it's price tag, and it's just a very mediocre card. It does its job, but nothing else, which gives us a lot of other better (and cheaper) options. Toxic Deluge comes to mind, being one of the best board wipes in the format within the same price range as Damnation.