Ormendahl's Soul Cauldron

Ardeyn · Post by **Ardeyn** » 8 months ago

Preface

With a steady influx of new players in my commander group recently, I've decided to do some brewing with rather obscure / underplayed commanders that seem interesting / are not just the usual fare.
I always liked the design of Jerren, Corrupted Bishop // Ormendahl, the Corrupter but found it clunky as hell. With the power level a bit down in the group and the advent of Agatha's Soul Cauldron I decided to find out if I can actually transform Jerren more easily and have some fun with his Ormendahl side.
With what's currently going on in the (magic) world it feels kind of good to get some respite from the search for the fastest most powerful things to do in commander and go back to the roots a couple of steps to see what crazy things one can pull off in this awesome format.
The deck has some finishing combos to dig for, but isn't necessarily strong. From Goldfishing on Archidekt (https://archidekt.com/decks/5342959) it seems to work fine in its preliminary draft. Though, before comitting to building it in paper I'd really appreciate some input from the creative hive mind of the Nexus.

The Decklist v2.0

The goal is to get one of the transforming creatures into the graveyard, exile them with Agatha's Soul Cauldron to put a +1/+1 counter on Jerren and give him the new transform ability. So in the best case he will transform into Ormendahl just by sacrificing a human through his newly acquired ability from Ravenous Demon // Archdemon of Greed.
The backup here is good ol' Razaketh, the Foulblooded to find all kinds of shenanigans.
Main Wincons are:

Maskwood Nexus + Xathrid Necromancer + Free Sac Outlet & Drain Effect
Bontu's Monument + Phyrexian Altar + Oathsworn Vampire
Bloodsoaked Champion + Phyrexian Altar + Jerren, Corrupted Bishop // Ormendahl, the Corrupter + Drain Effect
Four demons probably through Maskwood Nexus + Liliana's Contract

Decklist

Approximate Total Cost:

Maybeboard

Card	Type	CMC	Function
Evolved Sleeper	Creature	1	Flexible Mana Sink
Harvester of Souls	Creature	6	Card Draw
Imp's Mischief	Instant	2	Protection
Mind Slash	Enchantment	3	Disruption, Protection
Thornbite Staff	Artifact	1	Combo Piece
Victimize	Sorcery	3	Reanimation
Tarrian's Journal // The Tomb of Aclazotz	Artifact	2	Card Draw, Sac Outlet, (Reanimation)
Fain, the Broker	Creature	3	Sacrifice Outlet, Tokens, Mana

The Agenda

So this is basically a token sacrifice deck with a very strong draw engine and finisher in the command zone. If you can get Jerren to become his corrupted self.
There is a clear creature type focus on Humans and Demons.

The goal is to make the deck as fun and strong as possible while still achieving the transformation into the Ormendahl with regularity.
Are there any things I missed? Where can this deck be improved? Cards to add? Cards to remove?

Thanks for reading!

Ardeyn

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 8 months ago

If your plan is to use Agatha's Soul Cauldron I think you're going to need a lot more than 2 tutors and Razaketh, the Foulblooded.

Obviously, you have Necropotence as well, still doesn't seem like enough ways to trigger him.

Ardeyn · Post by **Ardeyn** » 8 months ago

Thanks for chiming in, Dunadain.

Actually, there are four tutors: Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent and Final Parting. Final Parting even is a one card enabler finding both parts of the transform equation: the Cauldron to hand and e.g. Ravenous Demon // Archdemon of Greed into the yard.
Then there's Razaketh and quite a good amount of draw. But if there's another worthwhile tutor I forgot about, I'm all ears.

For flipping Jerren, Corrupted Bishop // Ormendahl, the Corrupter you can also go to 13 Life with Necropotence, Plunge into Darkness - which is also a conditional tutor.
In goldfishing, the consistency was quite good actually.

Ardeyn

Ardeyn · Post by **Ardeyn** » 7 months ago

So, I decided to actually build the deck. Though after dozens of goldfishes some changes are in order to streamline the deck and plug a few holes.

In:

Out:

I suspect that in real play Imp's Mischief might need to get back in. But for now, this seems a good place to start.
With Yawgmoth there's another great sacrifice outlet and card draw engine and with Haunted One some more resiliency and tribal support.
Also I realized that after attacks with Jerren on the battlefield you can sacrifice Bloodsoaked Champion to Phyrexian Altar, get a Human Token that can be sacrificed to the Altar and pay the two mana from this to return the Champion to the battlefield. With Zulaport Cutthroat or Bastion of Remembrance this means infinte life drain.
Still, the original premise of flipping into Ormendahl with the help of Agatha's Soul Cauldron comes up reasonably often in testing, which I'm quite happy with.

Ardeyn

Ardeyn · Post by **Ardeyn** » 3 months ago

After quite a number of games with this deck, I'm surprised how well it plays out: There's quite a lot of Combo potential and Jerren himself is a lot stronger than I expected.
I really enjoy the aristocrats route this deck offers, coupled with the fact, that whenever Agatha's Soul Cauldron comes down and Jerren is flipped into his demonic self people are always surprised. It's a deck everyone seems to underestimate.
Unmarked Grave has been a bit underwhelming and I wish there were better transforming humans to make the plan really tick. Ecstatic Awakener // Awoken Demon is ok-ish, but Ravenous Demon // Archdemon of Greed is so much better.
So, after reviewing recent sets, as well as older cards again, potential cards to add in place of those two are:
Tarrian's Journal // The Tomb of Aclazotz for more draw, sacrifice and everything else this little package offers
and Fain, the Broker, to have some counter manipulation, another sac outlet and a generally versatile set of abilities in one card.

Ardeyn

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