Moseo, Vein's New DeanMoseo, Vein's New Dean | Art by Abz J Harding

You know you picked the cool college when you show up for orientation and the dean is the sickest Bird Skeleton Warlock you've ever met. Look at that art: you know he gives the most interesting osteomancy lectures in the whole of Arcavios. And becoming Dean of the Vein despite having no veins himself? Talk about overcoming obstacles. Moseo, Vein's New DeanMoseo, Vein's New Dean hints at all the stories of Strixhaven that are too intricate to tell through cardboard.

The card is a pretty wicked commander too. For three mana, we get a flying body plus a PestPest to gain us a point of life or two. But the real reason for this guy's tenure is the infusion ability. On our end step, if we've gained life, we can reanimate a creature that costs less than the amount of life we've gained.

Moseo does a decent Meren of Clan Nel TothMeren of Clan Nel Toth impression while also encouraging us to lean into one of black's greatest strengths: Lifegain. From Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel to ExsanguinateExsanguinate, no color steals life from its opponents better than black, and Moseo gives us a great fulcrum on which to balance the two themes of our deck.

There are a few ways to build a Moseo Commander deck. The most bombastic, least consistent version of this deck would play like a combo Reanimator deck, looking to gain a ton of life in one turn and return a single huge creature to play. That build requires a lot of things to come together at once, and becomes a huge threat at the table without a guaranteed way to keep staying ahead.

The way I prefer to build Moseo uses him as a more unassuming engine, looking to return a two- or three-drop every turn and whittle away the rest of the table. This build can lean into an Aristocrats-style package, which fits perfectly because many of the payoffs, like Blood ArtistBlood Artist, gain us life, and that strategy naturally puts utility creatures into the graveyard quite easily.

Key Cards for Moseo, Vein's New DeanMoseo, Vein's New Dean

First of all, we need to gain life. Blood ArtistBlood Artist effects are one of the most obvious places to turn, since we're a black deck that can recur creatures, and our commander even comes with an expendable body. Zulaport CutthroatZulaport Cutthroat and Vengeful BloodwitchVengeful Bloodwitch are the simplest versions, but in our deck, Vraan, Executioner ThaneVraan, Executioner Thane and the new Arnyn, Deathbloom BotanistArnyn, Deathbloom Botanist absolutely deserve their slots.

Further up the curve, Falkenrath NobleFalkenrath Noble and Vein RipperVein Ripper are some of our juicier reanimation payoffs while also being eminently castable.

Because we're leaning into the lifegain element of the classic Aristocrats theme rather than the life loss our payoffs inflict on our opponents, we can play some slightly less ubiquitous creatures.

DeathgreeterDeathgreeter is one of the most efficient engines in our deck, triggering off of any player's creatures dying, and it's just a one-mana common creature. SangromancerSangromancer was once a Commander staple, but it's now relegated to specific homes like this one, where we'll manage to pick off plenty of our opponents' creatures in the course of our own shenanigans.

And Disciple of GriselbrandDisciple of Griselbrand powers up this deck's plan even if we have to pay mana to sacrifice our creatures.

Rounding out our lifegain package, we have some generically powerful cards that help us play the fair game if our Aristocrats synergies get disrupted.

Whip of ErebosWhip of Erebos, once a Standard deck unto itself, gives our whole board lifelink and acts as backup recursion if we need it. Veinwitch CovenVeinwitch Coven and Witch of the MoorsWitch of the Moors can also act as redundant engines alongside our commander, and the latter can even control our opponents' boards.

And no mono-black deck can afford to not play Gary, Merchant of AsphodelGary, Merchant of Asphodel, especially since we can return him to play again and again.

The next piece of the puzzle is finding some good creatures to return to the battlefield with Moseo's ability and our other engines. Luckily, black has some of the nastiest enters triggers in the game, and we're poised to recycle them in this deck.

Ravenous ChupacabraRavenous Chupacabra and NekrataalNekrataal are good, but in this deck they might be shown up by Bone ShredderBone Shredder, ShriekmawShriekmaw, and Accursed MarauderAccursed Marauder since they can put themselves right in the graveyard. Gumdrop PoisonerGumdrop Poisoner is the best of all of them, as its Adventure and lifelinking body add up to quite a bit of extra value.

Apart from creatures that double as removal spells, we can return Metamorphosis FanaticMetamorphosis Fanatic to keep our recursion train rolling (and add lifelink to boot!), and Chainer, Dementia MasterChainer, Dementia Master if we want to generously extend our reanimation to our opponents' graveyards as well.

The final piece that makes this deck tick is the package we can include simply for being mono-black. More than any other color in Commander, black rewards deck builders for resisting the urge to add more colors.

Crypt GhastCrypt Ghast is a longtime staple, giving us a huge amount of mana and letting us spend it to drain more life from the table. Dread PresenceDread Presence turns each new SwampSwamp we play into a removal spell or a cantrip, ensuring we can never flood out. Cabal CoffersCabal Coffers is an absurd land that lets us cast whatever we want in the late game.

And despite just listing three payoffs that specifically reward SwampSwamps, our monocolored mana base allows us to play lands like Adventurer's InnAdventurer's Inn, Radiant FountainRadiant Fountain, and High MarketHigh Market that turn on all of our lifegain engines for almost no cost at all.

How Does Moseo, Vein's New DeanMoseo, Vein's New Dean Win?

Some Aristocrats decks seek to build up a huge board and then sacrifice it all in one turn to drain the table out. This deck aims to win more gradually. We don't have the best tools to go wide with a lot of creatures, but instead we have tools to control the board and cause consistent life loss over a long game.

Because we can recur our creatures so easily, cards like Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge and the new Withering CurseWithering Curse reset the board but let us build back fastest. Accursed MarauderAccursed Marauder and PlaguecrafterPlaguecrafter take out a card from every player when they enter, which can easily happen every turn. Even the fact that all of our engines gain us incidental life sets us up to win a long game of attrition.

But while we are a grindy, synergy-based deck, some of our cards certainly let us take the aggressive stance.

The aforementioned Vein RipperVein Ripper and Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel can cause huge life total swings, as can Bloodchief AscensionBloodchief Ascension once we get it active. Our bomb creatures have an extra advantage once we find them, since they're very hard to get rid of. Killing them only puts them right back where we want them, ready to return to battle, so only exile removal is truly effective.

We're stocking up on cheap ways to draw cards, like Village RitesVillage Rites and Deadly DisputeDeadly Dispute, in hopes to maximize our chances of finding our heavy hitters.

Moseo, Vein's New Dean Commander Deck List

I love playing small value creatures, and I love playing a grindy strategy, so this deck is right up my alley. Moving cards through different zones, triggering tons of abilities, and presenting threats that keep coming back are a joy for anyone who wants to feel clever. The games this deck wins are never blowouts, but that just means that all the decisions in those games matter.

Moseo, Vein's New DeanMoseo, Vein's New Dean is a great commander for players who want to improve at long-term planning and resource management.

I've also become addicted to building decks with very low mana curves. This deck has 20 cards that cost only a single mana, and its average mana value is 2.53, despite it being a deck that wants the game to go long. Haymakers are so much less important when a deck has potent engines that can scale with the game, and playing cheaper cards makes it so much easier to assemble those engines.

We don't need to use our Crypt GhastCrypt Ghast or Cabal CoffersCabal Coffers to cast Torment of HailfireTorment of Hailfire; we can just pump it into Phyrexian ReclamationPhyrexian Reclamation or chain Village RitesVillage Rites effects until we find the pieces we need to scrape together a win.