Stitcher Geralf: They See Me Millin', They Hatin' (EDH / Commander)

"Amazing, isn't it, how scraps can come together to create such a wonder?"
—Stitcher Geralf

=== P L E A S E _ N O T E ===

I disassembled this deck in August 2018.

=== I N T R O D U C T I O N ===

After I dismantled my unfortunate Heidar, Rimewind Master Bounce/Stax deck, I was in need of a new mono blue Commander deck. While doing a Gatherer query for possible commander candidates my gaze fell upon Stitcher Geralf.
He has a pretty unique and powerful ability to build around, and since milling is one of blue's favorite strategies, it wasn't hard to find a plethora of synergistic spells. In addition, I was able to reuse some of the (more expensive) cards from my dismantled build.

=== S T R A T E G Y ===

A lot of decklists I saw online for Stitcher Geralf focus on his ability to make zombie creature tokens, thus running a lot of big and beefy creatures to be tossed into the graveyard and sewn together. While this may be a valid and fun strategy for some people, I felt that a) exiling two creatures with abilities that may affect the board state to create a vanilla creature that doesn't may not be the smartest thing to do, and b) another beatdown deck wasn't what I was looking for anyways. So I laid focus on Geralf's ability to mill the whole playgroup for 3 cards with each activation. The creature tokens he may create while doing so only serve as a "wall of corpses" to hide behind while my opponents are milled to death.

To be able to exploit Geralf, I put an ample amount of permanents into the 99 that allow me to untap him multiple times or copy his ability. Since each activation costs 2U, an adequate mana supply is essential for my strategy to work. 41 lands and 13 other mana sources & accelerants provide all the mana needed, and often allow me to play Geralf turn 4 or earlier. Cards like Mesmeric Orb and Dreamborn Muse accelerate the milling process even more and put my opponents on a merciless clock.

Since EACH player is milled by these effects, I need some insurance against decking myself. While Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre would be obvious choices, I don't like the Eldrazi very much, so I decided to stick with more conventional methods. Elixir of Immortality and Psychic Spiral allow me to play my deck for an infinite amount of turns. They can be tutored for with Fabricate, respectively Mystical Tutor, and retrieved from my graveyard with Buried Ruin, Archaeomancer, Codex Shredder or Recall if necessary.

But wait, there's more! I don't want to just fill everyone's graveyard, I also want to use those stocked up graveyards as a resource. Crucible of Worlds has been quite an investment, but really shines in this deck - being able to play more than 40% of the cards in the 99 from my graveyard is huge, even without any tricks and combos. If I exile some cards from my graveyard while casting powerful spells like Dig Through Time and Temporal Trespass, I can play them for only a few mana. Pedantic Learning and Profane Memento provide value while milling, and Body Double, Diluvian Primordial and Myr Welder let me use cards from my opponents' graveyards to my advantage. Myr Welder also allows for an infinite combo: If I manage to imprint Staff of Domination and Gilded Lotus onto him, I get any amount of blue mana and life I like, can draw my whole deck and untap Geralf any number of times, which should allow me to win the game on the spot.

The deck is made round by obvious and commonly used spells for card draw, removal and defense, like Deep Analysis, Cyclonic Rift and Cryptic Command.

=== C O N C L U S I O N ===

Stitcher Geralf is not a top tier commander, but is a lot of fun to play. Naturally, he is more effective in larger playgroups and against decks that run a lot of creatures. While this deck's strategy won't attract much hate from experienced Magic players, new or unexperienced players may find the repeated milling oppressive and tend to target me first; thus against newbs I usually won't go crazy with stitching and switch to a more reactive playstyle.
After the first few games with my initial design, I realised that it had too many lands (43), while needing more means for card draw & filtering, as well as some more answers. This first modification should fix these issues to a noticeable degree. Further modifications will be inevitable, but for now, I hope that you like my concept and look forward to any comments or suggestions.

=== C O M M E N T E D _ D E C K L I S T ===

//Commander
1 Stitcher Geralf #!Commander

//Lands
31 [M14] Island
1 Blighted Cataract #Expensive, but repeatable card draw with Crucible of Worlds.
1 Buried Ruin
1 Coral Atoll
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Soldevi Excavations
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terrain Generator
1 [TMP] Wasteland

//Artifacts
1 Codex Shredder
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Expedition Map
1 Profane Memento
1 [EMA] Sensei's Divining Top #Powerful card in this deck. Draw the card I want, mill away the others.
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Everflowing Chalice <cost=2>
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Staff of Domination
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Unstable Obelisk #Mana accelerant & late game answer.
1 Hedron Archive #I really want to use Thran Dynamo, but I always end up with this.
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Keening Stone

//Equipments
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Swiftfoot Boots

//Enchantments
1 Pedantic Learning #Reliable source of card advantage in this deck.
1 Retreat to Coralhelm

//Auras
1 Pemmin's Aura #Combo piece. Can also be used as removal spell. Very versatile.

//Instants
1 [6ED] Mystical Tutor
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Reality Shift
1 [MM2] Cryptic Command
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Traumatic Visions #Spells with landcycling are more useful than most people assume.
1 Dig Through Time

//Sorceries
1 [MRD] Fabricate
1 [5ED] Recall <cost=2U>
1 Curse of the Swine <cost=1UU>
1 [DDH] Deep Analysis
1 Hour of Eternity <cost=2UUU>
1 Set Adrift
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Temporal Trespass

//Creatures
1 Walking Atlas
1 Aphetto Alchemist
1 Dreamscape Artist
1 Burnished Hart
1 Myr Welder
1 Niblis of the Breath
1 Tideforce Elemental
1 Jace's Archivist #Card draw & combo piece - nasty mill effect with Pemmin's Aura.
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Fatestitcher
1 Archaeomancer
1 Dreamborn Muse
1 [C17] Body Double
1 [DDN] Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Scourge of Fleets
1 Kederekt Leviathan
1 Tidal Force