Bala Ged Recovery VS ??

[SirHerpaderp]

Hello everyone!

I'd like to try out Bala Ged Recovery and I#m having a little bit of trouble finding a slot for it. I'm debating on either Bojuka Bog, Blooming Marsh or Cabal Coffers. I know especially the latter seems crazy but I don't run that many swamps and I rarely want to waste a Tutor on fetching Urborg, so it feels like it's slowing me down rather then accellerating me. As for Bojuka Bog I have some other recurrable graveyard hate in Dauthi Voidwalker and Scavenging Ooze. Ofc I'm open to other suggestions for cuts or opinions on Bala Ged recovery as a useful card i my particular build itself as well!

My decklist can be found here:

https://deckstats.net/decks/112347/1107601-bring-out-your-dead-

Thank you in advance and stay safe!

[Capt Forest]

Bala ged is a very good card. You will not regret adding it to your deck.
I think you should drop Blooming Marsh for it.

I understand your logic for possibly dropping the coffers and i think that is a fine argument.
the coffers goes so hard with uborg and losing access to that combo is not worth adding bala ged when you can drop the blooming marsh instead.

[The Golgari Guy]

I'll be honest: while I really like this deck, I think you're not running nearly enough lands.

With Agadeem's Awakening, you have 34 lands, but one of them is Cabal Coffers, which shouldn't be counted as a land since it doesn't produce mana without Urborg. By drawing some sample hands you can see that often you end up with openings with 2 or less hands and no 2-cmc or less ramp, which is pretty risky to keep.

I usually aim for at least 37-38 lands (counting MDFCs) plus 10-12 ramp cards, so my suggestion would actually be to cut 3-4 non-lands and include Bala Ged Recovery, Malakir Rebirth, Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad Arbor, which works perfectly with Green Sun's Zenith and is synergistic with Meren.

Some cards that I would consider for cuts:

Moonlight Bargain (not efficient enough for 5 mana)
Grisly salvage (non-creatures should be as few as possible and this doesn't do enough)
Sheoldred (if you're going for a combo, she is not really needed and she's a bit slow)
Damnation (4 board wipes are a bit too much and Damnation is the worst of the bunch).

Also I'd suggest you consider Living Death, maybe instead of Culling Ritual. I know Ritual is a bomb in the right meta, but Living Death is one of the best cards in Meren and can straight up win games.

Hope this helps!

[SirHerpaderp]

Hey,

thank you both for your ideas and tips! I just noticed thad I did not include Fabled Passage and Dryad Arbor in this list but both are in the deck for quite some time. I must have forgotten to edit the list properly!

That said I never had any struggles with 34 lands, but I'd might be right to consider adding at least two more (including Bala Ged Recovery). Especially since the land count is quite low, I considered cutting the coffers in the first place. Moonlight Bargain and Sheoldred might be indeed some decent cuts, I have not been able to play the first and the latter didn't see the field for a long time. I have to admit she's is in the deck since I started playing Commander a few years ago, but since the decke volved from a more grindy winconless deck to a combobased one it might be her time to go since she - as much as I like her - feels more than a backup plan than an necessary gamepiece by now.

 

[The Golgari Guy]

Hey, first of all I really appreciate the polite reply. Often people get mad when you suggest to cut cards and add lands... 

Yes, I agree on Sheoldred. I also play her in my Meren and I love her (Praetors are so cool!) but she's just not very efficient these days, so I'd consider cutting her especially since you're going for combos (I'm more on the grindy winconless plan  ).

Regarding lands, I've been really falling in love with MDFCs. They allow you to play 38 to 40 lands without having as many feel bads when you draw a land late game. In my Meren list, I'm playing four: Bala Ged Recovery, Malakir Rebirth, Agadeem's Awakening and Hagra Mauling (the latter I still have to test though).

I'd really recommend trying to increase the land count by adding MDFCs: They'll be lands when you need lands and spells when you don't. Such great cards!

[SirHerpaderp]

I really, really appreciate anyone who takes the time to look at my lists and gives me feedback and suggestions, so it'd never come to my mind to be rude
I too think MDFCs are super awesome tho I sometimes struggle to include more than I have to since most of them come in tapped and they really feel bad, when you need to play one curve sometimes. My credo with tapped lands iy that they do need to have a significant upside to compensate for the delay. But ofc, that's just my personal preference.

On Sheoldred I fully agree with you, she is super cool but I'd not tutor for her or pick her as my preferred reanimation target either