Meren fast Casual (EDH / Commander)

0. Why should you play this deck?
   You might like this deck if:
   • You like playing the long game
   • You like creature decks
   • You like making people hate you when they are on creature decks
   • You like playing with your graveyard
   • You like winning with stax (although most people won't call this a stax deck for whatever reason)

You shouldn't play this if:

• They are a lot of really fast combo decks in your play group that don't rely on creatures.
• You want to win fast
• You want to interact with your opponents a lot (well, play blue then)
• You don't like tapping out (I don't run any instant speed removal because... well, they are not creatures)

1. Goal of the deck
   The goal of the deck is to ramp as fast and as consistent as humanly possibly and the rely on meren + a few reanimation spells to generate value while keeping the board clear via Grave Pact or Dictate. The "winning Combo" is to generate a lot of tokens with Avenger of Zendikar, use them to pump Bloodthrone Vampire and finally sac the Vampire into Jarad for a lot of drain (Over 40 should be no problem). As it is, I DON'T want to include Mikaeus + Walking Ballista because I feel like this would kinda kill the spirit of this deck but feel free to do so yourself. Sidenote: I'm currently making a list how often Hulk -> Mindslicer plus sac outlet outright won the game. If the count gets high enough, I'll just put mikaeus+Ballista back in.

2. Playstyle
   Depending on the decks you are facing mulligan more or less agressively for manadorks/ramp. Develop your mana as fast as you can. You should play meren only if you can immediately get a few counters so you can at least get some value even if they have a swords to Plowshares. You should be able to get to carddraw/tutors sooner or later and search hand- or board disruption. Mindslicer usually wins you the game since you just have the best deck for playing without cards in hand while grave pact/dictate take care of any opposing creatures. Actually reducing your opponents life totals is not that important since they will usually scoop sooner or later once they realise that they can't win any more. On that Note: Gray Merchant of Asphodel is NOT a wincon here. It's just there to regain some of the life you are paying for library, erebos and stuff
   WATCH OUT FOR GRAVEYARD HATE!!!
   I can't stress this enough. Graveyard hate, fired off at the right point, is the easiest way to lose a game. Therefore all the really important effects in this deck are redundant (Mindslicer/ sadistic Hypnotist; Dictate/ Grave Pact; Eternal Witness/ Greenwarden of Murasa; Carrion Feeder/ Viscera Seer). Make sure your opponents only get one of them when they crack their Nihil Spellbomb/ Tormods Crypt/ Relic of Progenitus and you should still be fine.

3. Issues with this build
   The most common issue I ran into when playing this deck is to run out of cards too fast since the deck has a pretty low curve and just getting lands doesnt give you cards. So you have to look out for that a little bit. Running out of steam can cost you the game fairly easily since most of the creatures in this deck serve exactly one purpose so you have a lot of dead topdecks once you enter topdeck mode.

4. Tech Cards/Substitutes
   Here I'll just list a few cards you can run or exclude:

   • Cabal Coffers: I excluded this card after a lot of testing since you don't have any mana sinks in this deck.
   • Demon of Dark Schemes: This is mostly a "pet card" that I just like (Isn't that the spirit of EDH, playing cards you like?). It didn't get cut since it performed surprisingly well so far.
   • Fade into Antiquity: When you see Pharika, play this. Otherwise this god will wreck you, promise
   • Ramunap Excavator: This Deck doesn't run that many lands so I thought crucible is worth testing. Edit: Had to be cut to make room for more Woe Strider
   • Chainer, master of Dementia: Should be worth a try
   • Reanimate: 3 reasons why I run Animate Dead: Cheaper (moneywise), can't be exiled with deathrite shaman, costs no life (you already play Erebos, Necropotence and Sylvan library)