Araumi of the Dead TideAraumi of the Dead Tide | Art by Daarken

Greetings and salutations from a place in France where concrete is currently melting (well, almost). I'm Arnaud and I'm delighted as always to take you on a journey of budget brews, ephemeral reanimation and face smacking.

At this point, I usually address the results of the polls from the week before. Let's keep this one short. SythisSythis came third (9 votes), SvyelunSvyelun came second (17 votes), and AraumiAraumi placed first (26 votes). These are unusually low figures, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. In the meantime, let's focus on today's winner.

Commander Legends remains one of the sets I have the fondest memories of, be it for the inventiveness of its legendary creatures, its fair price point (sigh) or the sheer excitement I felt about cracking packs. Araumi ties all of that in a neat bundle, as the Merfolk will spin the wheel often to guarantee spectacular plays.

A puny 1/4 for warrants no excitement, but that ability is an absolute delight. Basically fill your graveyard to the Brim (pun totally intended), exile a puny three cards at most and encore a fearsome beast.

While we sadly won't have access to a lot of fun toys due to their cost, I'm quite confident we can achieve something fun and decently powerful.

Without further ado, let's import all cards from both the regular and budget pages on EDHREC and fill a list on Archidekt. This nets us a nice 328 different cards.

Let's start trimming.

First Trim - The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre

Before we start our gruesome work, a word of introduction to any newcomers. This series is all about budget builds. No cards worth more than $1.10 are allowed on our grounds. Why the 10 cents? To give us a bit of leeway and account for price variation!

With that being said, let's get to cutting. Following our initial axing, we're left with 247 cards worth less than $2, of which 20 are in the $1.10-$2 range. Before we mercilessly cut them, let's take a look at some worthy includes, should you be tempted to indulge yourself:

• Whispering MadnessWhispering Madness: An interesting way to repeatedly fill your graveyard with goodies
• Matzalantli, the Great DoorMatzalantli, the Great Door: A very nice looter, and if you manage to flip it, an immense source of mana
• Zulaport CutthroatZulaport Cutthroat: One of the best pingers out there. Encoring him will drain the table for nine life - nothing to scoff at
• Songs of the DamnedSongs of the Damned: In this deck, this is basically a beefed-up Dark RitualDark Ritual
• PersistPersist: Fantastic reanimation outlet
• Search for AzcantaSearch for Azcanta: Surveil 1 on your upkeep? Yes please!
• Living DeathLiving Death: Since you're dumping each and every card of your deck in your graveyard, you might as well get it back at some point
• Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch: A solid plan B should you rely strongly on artifacts

This leaves us with four cards worth between $1 and $1.10:

• Rapid HybridizationRapid Hybridization: One of the best removal spells in blue
• An Offer You Can't RefuseAn Offer You Can't Refuse: Who am I to say no to this counterspell?
• Mystic ReflectionMystic Reflection: A great way to turn your next encore into the best creature currently on the field.
• Geier Reach SanitariumGeier Reach Sanitarium: Loot for everyone!

And with this initial trim, we're down to 225 cards. Time for some housekeeping.

Second Trim - Cardward Scissorhands

You know what I like best about this colour combination? Draw and removal will never be an issue. Without even looking at the list, I know there will be plenty of each. See for yourself:

Not bad. Although the Draw category contains a lot of cantrips and looters, netting us no significant value overall.

Since this is a fairly mana-intensive commander, as it requires you to play both spells to fill the bin and to pay for the costs induced by your commander's ability, I'm going to keep a fair share of ramp spells.

Same goes for draw, although I may have a few tricks up my sleeve I'll share later.

The board wipes count is on the low end, so I may add a couple spells in there, just as insurance.

Let's cut.

Let's stop here for now. I know, the removal count is unusually high, as is the draw section. But I have good reasons for that, which I'll explain in the next section.

Before we move on, I'd like to direct your attention to Accursed MarauderAccursed Marauder. While this usually is a magnificent card, the fact that it mentions nontoken creatures means you won't be able to sacrifice it to itself were you to encore it, usually spelling doom for your commander.

How time flies! We're already down to 149 cards, not a bad situation to be in. Let's move on to the fun part.

Third Trim - Cutting Off the Rough Edges

Now that the utility part is out of the way, let's examine more closely what we're planning to do here.

From my personal experience, there are basically two ways to play Araumi:

1. Reanimate a lot of huge monsters to equally smash faces
2. Repeatedly ping your opponents to death in an Aristocrats fashion

Given the current state of our list, I'm much more inclined to follow the second route. And to fully achieve our goal, I believe there are some glaring omissions that would go hand-in-hand with our commander:

• Grim GuardianGrim Guardian and Kalastria HealerKalastria Healer: Encoring these drains the table for nine life on arrival, as each instance will see the other enter the battlefield at the same time
• Nadier's NightbladeNadier's Nightblade: Same thought process, except this happens when tokens leave. Even if you cast it normally, it will see the encored tokens die and drain the table accordingly
• Sling-Gang LieutenantSling-Gang Lieutenant: Similar, but it could also net a bit more damage if some defenses are down
• Marionette ApprenticeMarionette Apprentice: I can't believe this is still under a dollar. Enters or encores for cheap, comes with a friend, pings the entire table. Even if you encore it alone, it will still cause a loss of six life around the table. Not bad for a puny .
• Blood ArtistBlood Artist: One of the classic pingers, we would be remiss not to run it here. Sadly it hits only a single target, but it still packs a nasty punch.

Since we're also short on board wipes, let's add a fun one: Doomwake GiantDoomwake Giant. Granted, it's a bit situational, as it won't achieve much by itself. However, should you encore it, you'll give creatures your opponents control a nasty -9/-9, enough to clear most boards. Not bad for five mana.

And last but not least, I'd like to add what I consider a glaring omission from the original lists, Disciple of BolasDisciple of Bolas:

• Worst case scenario, you cast it from your hand and sacrifice another creature to regain some life and draw a bunch of cards.
• Fun case scenario, you encore it, put the triggers on the stack, and sacrifice one to the other (A to B, B to C, C to A), netting you six cards and six life.

This is an unusual track for us to follow. Usually I add at most a couple of cards, but strive to follow what the initial lists gave me. Except here I feel we're on to something that could become both stupidly powerful and fun to play. Call this a brewer's hunch.

Don't forget your opponents will play stuff as well, and tinker around life totals as well. As long as you can keep your head above the water, you could end up culling the weakculling the weak in one fell swoop.

We're up to 157 cards, and that means we're going to have to deal some drastic blows to the list:

• Off with counterspells: We have more than enough removal at hand and this is supposed to play at Bracket 2, maybe low 3.
• Off with tutors: By now, you know these are not my jam in these types of decks.
• Off with the less impactful mill spells.
• Off with the most expensive cards that don't directly serve our strategy. Our deck is already quite mana intensive as is.
• Let's keep recursion minimal, so that we can still have a plan B should our commander become too expensive.

Let's be brutal, shall we?

Usually I go down to the final 10 before moving on to the final cuts. This time, let's give ourselves a little more wiggle room. So, down to the final 15. Let's end this.

Final Trim - Heart-Wrenching Choices

It was written that this would be an uncanny build among uncanny builds. Before I start axing the final cards, I'm going to add one final entry: Banshee of the Dread ChoirBanshee of the Dread Choir. Encore this gleeful undead, and you get to attack each opponent with three 4/4s that'll cause severe damage to their hand were they to connect.

This is serious power to contend with.

I'd have loved to include Cybermen Squadron as well – each of these encored bad boys would have three myriad triggers – but alas, it's well outside our price range.

So. What to cut now?

Let's first address removal. We have a theme, let's stick to it. Off with:

• Rapid HybridizationRapid Hybridization
• Overwhelming RemorseOverwhelming Remorse
• Fleshbag MarauderFleshbag Marauder
• Kairi, the Swirling SkyKairi, the Swirling Sky

I'm going to particularly miss Kairi and its huge mill, but by the time we get to encore it I hope we'll already have some better things to reanimate in the bin.

Then card draw. We currently still have 17 spells, and we can safely part ways with four of these:

• Dihada's PloyDihada's Ploy
• Filigree FamiliarFiligree Familiar
• Frantic SearchFrantic Search
• Notion RainNotion Rain

All excellent choices, but we need the room.

Eight more. Let's cut Embalmer's ToolsEmbalmer's Tools. It's unlikely a single mana will make a huge difference, as we don't have that many means to activate Araumi multiple times in a row.

And here's the rest, folded in a neat pile:

• Vohar, Vodalian DesecratorVohar, Vodalian Desecrator: Looting a single card each turn doesn't seem fast enough in my book
• Sepulchral PrimordialSepulchral Primordial: Sounds fantastic on paper, but let's face it, is a lot to pay, even for such a powerful effect
• Diluvian PrimordialDiluvian Primordial: Basically the same reason, but I would be inclined to give this one a try in a future tinkering
• Reef WormReef Worm: It's funny, it's cute, it provides three growing bodies, but it's slow, costly, and has no evasion
• Eyeblight CullersEyeblight Cullers: I like the concept, it's just slightly too mana-intensive for my taste. And the tokens have no evasion
• Blood ArtistBlood Artist: Ok look, I know I was the one to include it in the first place. But there are still three cards to cut, and this one has only a single target. If it's any consolation, it breaks my heart.
• Drown in the LochDrown in the Loch: I made an exception for this removal/counterspell, but I said no counterspells earlier and I'm genuinely out of ideas.

And with that final, painful cut, I give you...

Araumi of the Dead Tide Commander Deck List

Additional Trim - A Look Into the Past

Well well well, Will Will have withstood the Dollar Bill?

This week, we're looking at a commander back from Wilds of Eldraine, Will, Scion of PeaceWill, Scion of Peace.

It seems time has been fairly lenient to our life-gaining friend. Only four cards are worth more than $1.10 today:

• Valkyrie HarbingerValkyrie Harbinger: $1.14
• Blue Sun's ZenithBlue Sun's Zenith: $1.30
• Dramatic ReversalDramatic Reversal: $1.35
• Chakram RetrieverChakram Retriever: $4.55 (!!!)

So, what decent replacements can we find?

• Finale of GloryFinale of Glory: Our commander should make it easy to reach the 10 threshold for X
• Finale of RevelationFinale of Revelation: Same as above, and that will net us a ton of cards
• Rhox FaithmenderRhox Faithmender: The recent reprint in Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks means it has dropped below $1. An asset of utmost value.
• Drown in DreamsDrown in Dreams: Either card value or finisher. This could easily mill someone out in the right conditions.

You can find the updated list here.

Conclusion

I'll tell you something. This has been one of the most difficult Trims, and yet I feel quite happy with the end result. I'm certainly going to build something akin to this in the near future, and I look forward to pinging my opponents to death.

How about you? Does this weird path stir your mad brewers tingling? Have I forgotten an incredible hidden gem?

I'm really curious about your comments on this one.

See you in two weeks!