Real Life Ramses Overdark

Posted on May 21, 2019

Hello folks!

I hope your day is going well! Have you ever been bitten by the Commander bug? I was!

Last week, I gave you my Top Ten Commanders You Forgot About. I was so inspired by my #1 Commander in that list that I had to build him.

I. Had. To.

I don't know about you. But when I am bitten by the Deck Building Bug, there is no medicine or magical balm that will alleviate it. All that I can do is just give in, and then build the deck.

My compulsion for deck building cannot be captured with the rules of grammar. I cannot transcribe it in mere symbols upon a page.

Say hello to Ramses Overdark:

Ramses Overdark is Dark-ly awesome!

As I mention in my Top Ten Commanders You Forgot About, he only has 62 decks registered on EDHREC.com despite a strong powerful suite of options to use. A simple tap-destroy even with a weakness like his is valuable at any kitchen table. He has a strong cachet from being from Legends so he is something fun and old-school. After Theros Block gave us many bestow cards you can use to bestow as an aura, as well as enchantment loving cards in all colors, we have an increased number of options to play into.

As this is a real-life build, I won't be able to run every single amazing card that is out there. If I don't run it, sorry! However, I think my deck will prove intriguing enough that you'll be satisfied.

What's the goal? The goal is to kill any creature that threatens me.

If I can enchant it, I can kill it. I first want to consider auras that will come back.

The first one I want to run is Screams from Within, one of my tech cards in my Vhati il-Dal build. In that build, Screams from Within is amazing, as I can target the creature enchanted with it with Vhati, then reduce its toughness to 1, which will kill it, and then the Screams will head to another dork of my choice to be hit by Vhati later. It's a machine gun of Vhati death, and it's great because I never have to spend any more mana on it to make it work. Plus, it can enchant something with hexproof or shroud that normally couldn't be targeted by an Aura as I cast it, but here, it's just being put ono the battlefield, so I can. It will do tandem work with Ramses just like it does with Vhati!

Screams from Within isn't going to be my only recursive aura option either! I can off something with a Despondency or Shade's Form and then recast it for later Ramses Death Tolling. Cycle Dragon Wings and then it can come back and enchant bigger things as you need. Fool's Demise in particularly is really intriguing, as I can enchant a foe's dork, kill it, and then I get their dork back, and my Demise recovers for another drop. Note that this is usually better than merely stealing a critter, as I will get any enters-the-battlefield triggers as well from your Cloudblazer or Eternal Witness. Thanks for being so giving!

One of the best tricks I can run is Rootwater Shaman. I can drop it early, and then flash out those sweet, sweet auras and then tap Ramses to kill them! This is incredibly strong to add into my deck. Another strong rare from Tempest is fellow Blue rare Merfolk in Rootwater Matriarch. The Matriarch will tap to steal an enchanted dork, which is usually better than merely killing it, so it gives me an additional level of game. Like Ramses himself, the Matriarch's powerful tap trigger doesn't use any mana, so I can use my mana to cast auras or other things, and then tap away without lowering my defenses.

Speaking of fun dorks that work with Auras, check out Rayne! If you target me or one of my things with anything (spell or ability, I draw a card before it resolves. I may draw an answer! But if I have enchanted Rayne? I am drawing two cards, so even a simple Swords to Plowshares on one of my dorks is going to draw two cards for your normal 1:1 trade, so you are always going to be on the wrong side of card advantage when you look my way.

I have learned from my decks that are targeting opposing dorks ad infinitum, (such as my Vhati il-Dal build or my Diaochan, Artful Beauty one), that making sure I can target them is very important to its success. There are not many cards in the line of Arcane Lighthouse or Glaring Spotlight, so I want to emphasize them where I can.

This deck is running the Mulldrifter of auras with Flight of Fancy. Cast it, draw two cards, and then tap and kill the enchanted dork, tap and steal it, or put this on Rayne and then get double the cards. Casting of Bones and Curator's Ward play into a similar space, drawing three and losing one when the enchanted creature dies or just two if it was historic.

Want to see another death aura like Casting of Bones that'll make you weep with its synergy? Of course!

Won't come back from Dead Man's Chest! Dead Man's Chest is no place to play! You enchant an opposing dork and then kill it. You'll exile-mill some sweet cards, and you can use any of your mana to cast the exiled cads, giving you a large amount of options for you. Wouldn't it be cool if you found a way to recur these auras?

I may not be in the major colors for enchantment recursion such as White or Green, but I can run out Skull of Orm and Crystal Chimes to help me grab a key aura or enchantment for another reload! When Ramses taps and takes out an enchanted dork, then normally that enchantment is gone, but Ramses isn't. It's a 1:1 exchange of cards, but these will help to eliminate that hurt. Any if you recur Flight of Fancy or Casting of Bones? Wow. You have entered Card Drawing City, Population 1771.

I also like Final Parting as a tutor that can both grab Skull of Orm or a similar friend, and load up a useful enchantment into your graveyard to target.

Get ready to hold onto your collective butts though, because the synergies are about to get even stronger!

We have some solid heroic triggers in the deck too, such as Agent of the Fates, a fellow Assassin. Did you target him when you cast your Flight of Fancy? Awesome! Each of your foes are now sacrificing dorks. Cards like Dragon Wings and Shade's Form are good here. Shoot, I'll cast Despondency on it if I want to rack up those triggers! And when you are restocking auras from your graveyard with Skull of Orm and then recasting them? Awesome.

Most heroic triggers are going to pump your guy for a turn, or toss a +1/+1 counter on them. That's not this deck. But these two Tritons are pretty strong. One will give you an option if you need to turn auras into cards, while the other can bounce an enchantment back to your hand to recast. You are going to love casting and recasting Flight of Fancy on Triton Cavalry!

And hey, since you are casting enchantments anyways....

Blightcaster says "Hello Darkness, My Old Friend!"

I have added a little combo in here for your perusal as well. What is it? Great question! It's Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. What value does it have? Well it's the only one of the various Tezzeret's that will easily turn any artifact into a dork (most limit the effect to an artifact you control). This will let you turn an opposing artifact into a creature, enchant it, and then kill it with Ramses Overdark. March of the Machines will turn all artifacts into dorks, so it can stay around and be used turn after turn for artifact killing. Enjoy!

This will give your deck the ability to answer artifacts. You could add in cards like Ensoul Artifact that not only enchant it to make it a dork, but also enchant it to target with Ramses. Both are useful.

Unfortunately, the only color that can do this effect for enchantments are White. Nothing will do that for planeswalkers.

Please note that I do not run every single un-tap effect out there. This is not a tap-untap-tap deck like my Prodigal Sorcerer + Fungusaur EDH build. Where possible? I wanted to run it! I have three cards that play into this space in my deck, and that's it.

Note that I am not running every single enchantment creature or bestow creature in my colors, only a few. I am not running something like Nyxborn Eidolon or Herald of Torment. But where it makes sense? Sure thing! These seven are good examples of what did make the final cut. Gods, strong creatures with bestow, or useful abilities on their own. You'll love recurring a Hypnotic Siren or Nighthowler over and over again. I'm also only running constellation cards that strongly help. The Lamia can easily load up opposing discards or the Agent of Erebos scour their graveyards clean! But most constellation triggers aren't really use. Why would I want to give something intimidate or force someone to mill two cards? No thanks.

Since we are killing a big number of dorks, reanimation auras that can bring back dead targets such as Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead are pretty keen. After your recurred dork's time has ended, you can a bring back the aura for another run of fun in the sun! Plus, if your Agent of Erebos has recently hit an opposing graveyard and removed your juicy targets, just turn them on your own stuff! Animating something powerful, like Rootwater Matriarch is pretty useful.

Now, here are the big questions...

Which death triggers do I run?

I mean, I have dorks like Avatar of Woe and Royal Assassin that I am running because of flavor. My opponents' creatures and artifacts that became creature should be dying at a decent clip, right?

How do I play into that space?

Do I draw cards with bigger effects like Harvester of Souls? Do I want to drain life with effects such as Blood Artist? Or something really big?

These two forces show two different ways to make this deck work. One will slip in a little life loss for your foes here and there, while the other will draw you a legion of cards! We have some other options, such as Ogre Slumlord as well that can make 1/1 Rats that will, hopefully, have deathtouch.

But that's not all. We can run effects that play into our enchantment-esque theme. We could cards like Black Market or something exotic like Cemetery Puca, but I don't' have any extras of those.

How about Grave Betrayal? I tap, kill your enchanted dork, and then steal it with a +1/+1 counter so it's better? Man, that's awesome! What about Revel in Riches? Man, that's awesome!

I put in a few of these death triggers to flesh out my build.

Please note that Aura Graft does not target. You can move something that is controlling a target, such as Take Possession, to a target with shroud or hexproof and steal them! It's legal. Now you cannot move it to something with protection from Blue, as they aren't enchant-able by that color. This will get around a lot of Commanders that get played with either hexproof or shroud. It also steals their Aura too, so yay! Enjoy!

Yo dawg, I heard you liked synergies! So, I have some synergies for your synergies! Clever Impersonator is the copy effect you need! Copy a key creature? Or a key enchantment? Artifact? Man, I got you covered! Meanwhile Copy Artifact copies an artifact while still counting as an enchantment for your stuff! I have auras like Imprisoned in the Moon that'll Sing your Song of the Dryad. I have Underworld Connections to aura-up something fun. Dominating Licid is a whole Licid of Problems. My favorite Licid trick is to spend a mana to stop being an aura, block, and then tap and spend the mana to turn into a Licid again. It's fun! You can also steal something else that attacked you, thus removing it from combat, so two dorks were stopped with two effects.