This is an enchantment themed Prison/Stax deck with Reanimation Combo as the way to win.
Prison/Stax
With so many of the restrictive cards being enchantments and in Mardu colors, Ghen is the perfect commander for enabling constant lock-down of players ability to carry out certain strategies.
With Ghen ability to bring enchantments back directly into play, it is very hard for your opponents to remove the problematic enchantments that will more than likely be restricting their ability to get ahead on resources or win the game.
There are 24 enchantments in the deck, so you will always have access to sacrificing an enchantment to bring back something that will be more meaningful at that stage in the game.
You can even do this in response to what opponents might be trying.
Let's say they go to search their library and you have Stranglehold in your graveyard. This is where you can sacrifice something to get the better lock-down at that stage of the game.
There is even Entomb in the deck so that you can put something into your graveyard at instant speed.
Opponent goes to Wheel with Narset, Parter of Veils in play. No problem Entomb for Spirit of the Labyrinth/Chains of Mephistopheles and every body is on a "level" playing field, except you still have access to all those enchantments that might be discarded with Ghen ability to get them back.
The deck is happy to play a "fair game" with only one spell a turn with Deafening Silence, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Rule of Law, Archon of Emeria.
I will even show you how you can win in a turn without even casting a single spell!
Blood Moon and Contamination can take people off their colored mana and Stony Silence can stop them from trying to use artifacts to get those colors.
Contamination is a great card to consider what can be done with Ghen if you leave options open. You don't have to sacrifice a creature, you might even sacrifice it just before your turn to bring something else back and then you can bring it back into play at the end of your turn to lock-down the other players.
It's not always about keeping things around forever, but rather to buy enough time to carry out your own plans.
Planar Chaos is another great card like this. Trust me it's almost impossible for people to pull the trigger on casting too many spells, especially combo win cards as it often involves several cards. So the chances of winning all the flips makes it so that opponents have to hold off, buying a lot of time.
If you lose the flip to keep it in play you can always potentially bring it back with Ghen, or you might even just sacrifice it before your turn to bring another enchantment into play, to then put it back into play at the end of your own turn, which of course allows you to cast what you want during your own turn.
Even if you go to cast an important enchantment and it does get countered, it goes to graveyard which means you have access to it still with Ghen.
Stony Silence obviously shuts down a lot of strategies and fast starts and this deck doesn't care too much about disabling the minimal number of artifacts in the deck.
Seal of Cleansing and Aura of Silence can be use multiple times with Ghen to get rid of pesky artifacts or enchantments.
There are more prison cards that are hate-bears and not enchantments, but they round out the death-grasp nicely; Archon of Emeria, Aven Mindcensor, Drannith Magistrate, Opposition Agent, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
Combo Reanimation
On top of this we have efficient reanimation enchantments in Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, and this deck looks to win with a number of different creature combos.
The reason I've focused heavily on the reanimation is that Ghen has the unique ability to be activate at instant speed to get your enchantments into play from graveyard.
With Necropotence or Ad Nauseam you can look to win potentially in the same turn, mainly the clean up step.
The idea is that as long as you have the available mana for Ghen activation of then you can look to set up a win.
With Necropotence/Ad Nauseam you can look to put as many cards into your hand as you have available life left.
At the clean up step you discard down to 7 cards and even though Necropotence will exile your cards eventually when you discard, those are triggers that go onto the stack giving a window of opportunity to respond.
You are wanting to discard some key combo cards and discard either Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy so that you can activate Ghen to put the reanimation enchantment into play. You can just sacrifice Necropotence if need be.
Now you want to be able to potentially win in that clean up step, so there are a lot of limiting factors when it comes to this and what is even available in Magic to be able to do this in Mardu colors.
Reanimation Combo #1
Necrotic Ooze + Walking Ballista + Phyrexian Devourer
You reanimate the Necrotic Ooze and now you can deal damage equal to the converted mana cost you have left in your deck.
Now with Necropotence and Ad Nauseam it is important to note that you are putting a hefty chunk of your deck into your hand, so you will not have realistically enough to kill three players all at once.
There is 172 converted mana cost in the deck, but let's say your library only has 60 cards left. That would be on average about 100 converted mana cost left, which isn't enough to deal 120 say in a 4 player game if opponents are near full life.
You can kill 2 players and keep around a 20/20 in this example however. If you keep attacking that player and clear out any blockers then it should come down to another couple of turns at most.
Of note Razaketh, the Foulblooded also has an activated ability to search your library for a card. If you discard Razaketh then the Necrotic Ooze will also have that ability.
You can sacrifice a creature (say Ghen in a pinch) if need be to get a missing piece for your combos. Because you are still in the clean up step, you will be forced to discard down to 7 cards, so you can just discard that card. All the exile triggers (Necro) will still be on the stack so no problems there.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded is also in the deck as just a solid reanimation target maybe in the absence of a full combo, getting you key cards as necessary to setup a win or disrupt opponents.
There are also discard outlets in the deck in case you draw some reanimation targets that you want to reanimate.
Faithless Looting, Thrill of Possibility and Wheel of Fortune can do this.
Cabal Therapy and Thoughtseize can obviously be used on opponents to spoil their plans, but you can use them on yourself if wanting to discard a creature or even enchantment in a pinch.
Chains of Mephistopheles can even be used to discard cards given the number of draw 7 type effects in the cEDH scene.
Lion's Eye Diamond even has some synergy there.
Reanimation Combo #2
Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy + Grim Guardian/Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors
Leonin Relic-Warder with a reanimation enchantment means that you get an indefinite loop with targeting the enchantment with Leonin ETB that is reanimating it and when it leaves the battlefield the enchantment comes back and you can target the Leonin Relic-Warder again in your graveyard.
Eventually you'll need to target another creature in a graveyard to stop this loop.
However this by itself doesn't win you the game, you need something else to make use of this loop.
This is where you'll also need one of the following Grim Guardian/Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors to finish off opponents.
So here you'll actually need to have cast one of these first before you try to combo.
Reanimation Combo #3
Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy + Grim Guardian/Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors
Worldgorger Dragon works in a similar manner with reanimation enchantments in that you will keep exiling your permanents and they will come back into play once the Worldgorger Dragon dies due to the reanimation enchantment leaving the battlefield and then you can re-target the Dragon to do this loop infinitely.
You can get infinite mana just from your lands as they come into play untapped once you've tapped them for mana before they leave play.
However you need to have something that makes use of ETB/LTB or a way to spend that mana to actually win the game.
Often this combo is paired up with ETB/LTB commanders or ones with mana sinks. We are not afforded this.
This is where you'll need Grim Guardian/Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors to deal life loss or damage.
Now as a further extension to this with the Necropotence/Ad Nauseam plays if you discard Anger and you make sure you've set yourself up with a Mountain, then your creatures get haste. With Ghen also coming back into play untapped you can sacrifice another enchantment to bring back one of the life loss/deal damage enchantments for the win.
There are plenty of fetchlands in the deck, so it is wise to think about getting a Badlands, Blood Crypt, Plateau, Sacred Foundry early(ish) in the game if you are looking to go for a big Necropotence/Ad Nauseam win.
Buried Alive
If you have a reanimation enchantment in your hand then the go to pile will be the Necrotic Ooze + Walking Ballista + Phyrexian Devourer.
However if you don't have a reanimation enchantment then you can actually look at Gravebreaker Lamia to put an Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy into your graveyard.
Because Gravebreaker Lamia is also an enchantment you can bring it into play with Ghen ability. Then you can use Ghen ability next turn to bring the reanimation enchantment into play targeting say Worldgorger Dragon.
It will depend on what you have access to already, but your pile might be; Gravebreaker Lamia + Worldgorger Dragon + Grim Guardian.
Grim Guardian is also an enchantment so that you might bring it back with Ghen ability. At the very least you can set up a win over three turns within these cards and using Ghen.
Look Ma No Spells!
The great thing about the reanimation combos is that you don't actually need to cast a single spell in the actual turn you go for it potentially.
Remember you want to have enough mana to activate Ghen ability so with Necropotence you might wait to go for the all in life loss during the following turn you've played it.
Ad Nauseam is different in that you can set yourself up in a number of ways, it'll be more organic to how the game is playing out with what resources you have access to already.
But it's important to remember that this is a prison deck and often these are symmetrical effects, meaning that you also are under the restrictions.
With Deafening Silence, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Rule of Law, Archon of Emeria you can only cast a single spell each turn.
Now it is possible to sacrifice these before your turn to free yourself up of the restrictions if need be.
But you can also use Ad Nauseam with these still in play no problems with the idea of the reanimation combos.
You can cast Ad Nauseam before your turn so that you have the available mana during your clean up step to activate Ghen.
If an opponent goes to interrupt you with say removal of your Worldgorger (or whatever) then you can respond with your own things like Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, Imps Mischief, Deflecting Swat. With the one spell per turn limit cards, that opponent then can't go to counter back.
Again this is where a card like Planar Chaos can really shine as you can go for a combo win without actually casting a spell when you activate Ghen for a reanimation enchantment. Your opponents are forced to try their removal spells and the coin will determine the fate.
Silence and Grand Abolisher are obviously great as precursors when going for a combo win.
Note that even opponents trying to Thassa's Oracle with Demonic Consultation requires casting two spells. Not on our watch!
There is Angel's Grace that can be paired up with Ad Nauseam to make sure you get access to as many cards as your want.
However it is not essential at all to using Ad Nauseam in an effective way.
Angel's Grace can be effectively used against Thassa's Oracle type wins.
Underworld Breach
The deck has a lot of resilience with Underworld Breach and getting it back with Ghen when you want to get further value. In this manner it doesn't need to be used as a combo card, but just as a way to really grind opponents out with bringing back cards that are locking them down.
Lion's Eye Diamond is a way you can potentially get more mana with Underworld Breach and also discarding your hand isn't the worst with Ghen ability.
Let's say you have Worldgorger Dragon and an Animate Dead in hand. You can use the Lion's Eye Diamond and then activate Ghen ability to bring the Animate Dead into play and now the Dragon is in the graveyard to target.
Replenish is also a powerful card in the late game, enabling you to bring back all your enchantments that either been removed or discarded.
You do have to sacrifice enchantments to bring others back, and so even if you are only bringing back a couple of enchantments you still get good value.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity also gives you access to get back any enchantments that you want back to hand.
Parallax Wave can be used in conjunction with Ghen ability to sacrifice it while the exile triggers are still on the stack to then permanently remove creatures. So it can be a one-sided board wipe of creatures in a way.
Also a way to protect your own creatures by exiling them and then bringing them back if necessary. The fact that you can keep bringing back Parallax Wave with Ghen ability means that you can really put opponents under stress with them trying to get traction with their own creature base.
Ghen, Arcanum Weaver - Prison/Stax and Combo Reanimation
Approximate Total Cost:
Zacama
