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Muldrotha, the Gravetide

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Muldrotha, the Gravetide

At a glance

  • Commander: Muldrotha, the Gravetide
  • Colors: Sultai
  • Archetype: Sultai recursion-grind permanent control
  • Power tier: high

Cards

Gameplan

Muldrotha turns the graveyard into a second hand. Every turn she lets you replay one land, one creature, one artifact, and one enchantment straight out of the bin. The whole deck is built to abuse that: nearly every interactive piece is a permanent that dies, hits the yard, and comes back next turn. Removal trades stop being trades — they’re rent.

The early game is pure control: ramp + fix into a stable three-color base, point spot removal and edicts at whatever matters, and self-mill to stock the yard so Muldrotha has fuel the moment she lands. Once she’s online you reset the same Fleshbag/Abyssal Gatekeeper edict every turn, re-buy ETB removal creatures, and rebuild your board faster than anyone can answer it.

The kill is inevitability, not a combo: Pestilence and Crypt Rats are repeatable, recurrable board sweeps that double as direct-damage clocks (you control the timing and your big bodies survive a -X/-X that wipes the table’s small stuff). Meanwhile Falkenrath Noble plus the wide suite of “when this dies, each opponent loses life” creatures means every sacrifice and every sweep drains the table. You grind three opponents down to zero permanents and zero life simultaneously.

Key synergy lines

  • Edict loop: Fleshbag Marauder / Abyssal Gatekeeper / Demon’s Disciple / Accursed Marauder die or get sacrificed, then Muldrotha replays one every turn — a renewable, un-counterable “everyone sacrifices a creature” each upkeep cycle. Sac fodder is free with all the death-drain bodies.
  • Pestilence engine: Pestilence (enchantment) is recurred by Muldrotha if it ever falls off; with enough black mana it’s a one-sided sweeper (your fatties + indestructible-ish recursion survive, their board doesn’t) AND a direct damage finisher. Crypt Rats is the creature version you can re-buy as a creature each turn.
  • Self-mill → fuel: Glowspore Shaman, Ainok Wayfarer, Blanchwood Prowler, Circle of the Land Druid, Corpse Churn, Cache Grab, Drown in Filth, Eerie Gravestone fill the yard with permanents Muldrotha then replays. Drown in Filth also scales as removal off all the lands you mill.
  • Sac-for-land creatures/enchantments as repeatable ramp: Diligent Farmhand, Oashra Cultivator, Font of Fertility, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Armillary Sphere — sacrifice for a land, then replay the same permanent next turn for another land. Ramp that never runs out.
  • Executioner’s Capsule is recurring artifact removal; Orzhov Euthanist is a recurring creature that kills on ETB and on death.

Role breakdown (counts are the actual list)

  • Lands: 37 — heavy on fixing (see manabase note). Includes 5 fetch/utility lands that also thin/fix.
  • Ramp: 11 — Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Chromatic Star, Armillary Sphere, Font of Fertility, Diligent Farmhand, Oashra Cultivator, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Fork in the Road (+ Crop Rotation as a fixing tutor). Most double as color fixing.
  • Card advantage / draw / dig: 10 — Sign in Blood, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Curate, Corrupted Conviction, Corpse Churn, Cache Grab, Eerie Gravestone, plus recursion-as-card-advantage (Grim Discovery, Wander in Death).
  • Spot removal / interaction: 11 — Disfigure, Disembowel, Death Wind, Cast Down, Eyeblight’s Ending, Snuff Out, Bone Shards, Annihilating Glare, Executioner’s Capsule, Mold Shambler (artifact/enchant), Pick Your Poison (artifact/enchant/flyer).
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe: 4 — Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Innocent Blood, Myrkul’s Edict (recurring edicts Fleshbag/Abyssal/Demon’s Disciple/Slum Reaper/Accursed Marauder/Rot-Tide are additional repeatable board control on top of these).
  • Recursion: 5 — Disentomb, Raise Dead, Grim Discovery, Wander in Death, plus Muldrotha herself as the engine.
  • Payoffs / drain (wincon pieces): Falkenrath Noble, Fear of Lost Teeth, Serrated Scorpion, Tattered Mummy, Blistergrub, Spirit of Malevolence, Soulcage Fiend — death-triggered drain that the edict/sweep package weaponizes.

Manabase / fixing note

37 lands: 3 guildgates (one per pair), 6 dual taplands covering all three color pairs, Command Tower, Crystal/Shimmering Grotto + Unknown Shores (any-color), Foreboding Landscape, Bojuka Bog (graveyard hate), 5 fetch/sac-fetch lands, and 17 basics (8 Swamp / 5 Forest / 4 Island, black-weighted for the removal + Pestilence). Combined with 11 ramp/fixing rocks and spells, that’s ~24 fixing sources — well past the three-color floor, so BUG is reliably castable and Pestilence’s -hungry activations have support.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan for fixing + an early ramp/self-mill piece. You want Muldrotha down around turn 5-6 with a stocked yard.
  • Hold edict creatures until they kill something real; once Muldrotha is out you can rebuy them, so spend freely.
  • Pestilence math: you choose how much to pump it. Sweep their board to the depth that kills their stuff but leaves yours (your 6/6 commander and chunky recursion bodies). It also closes games as reach damage — count it as your clock.
  • Don’t over-commit into a wrath; the whole point is that your board lives in the graveyard. A board wipe against you is card disadvantage for them.
  • Replay priority each turn: usually land (ramp/value) → edict or ETB-removal creature → Executioner’s Capsule/value artifact → Pestilence/value enchantment.

Weaknesses

  • Graveyard hate (exile effects) attacks the engine directly; lean harder on hand-based recursion and keep a stocked board when you suspect it.
  • No hard mass-destruction at common in these colors beyond Pestilence/edicts — a single huge hexproof/indestructible threat can be awkward; answer it with -X/-X (Death Wind, Disembowel) or edicts when it’s their only creature.
  • Slow starts if you don’t draw fixing — three colors at common is greedy; the deck is built to grind, not race, so an aggressive table can pressure you before Muldrotha stabilizes.
  • Muldrotha is a build-around; if she’s repeatedly removed and you can’t recast (mana/), the deck drops to a fair value pile. The death-drain package keeps you relevant in that case.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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