"Mikaeus the Unhallowed EDH: Making it bloody for everyone else"

"Just making sure that the team comes back..."

"Mikaeus the Unhallowed EDH: Making it bloody for everyone else"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

The Main stars of my Black/Green EDH deck is Skull Briar , Lotleth  Troll and the Necropolis Regent. They are pretty consistent and have won games for me as early face smashers but in a 100 piece deck I won't be winning all that much if these were the only 3 creatures that I could rely on. 

I chose a lot of creatures that have comes into play abilities in constructing this particular deck because I just love creatures who make an impact the moment they hit the battlefield and I love Reanimating them so they could do those things pretty early. I believe in 2nd and 3rd chances especially if the creature kills or blows up something. I played like that for awhile. Content in reanimaton spells.

Until one day I was reading one of my early blogs and came upon Mikaues the Unhallowed again. A pretty awesome creature that I was raving about as a finisher in Zombie decks. However I have overlooked his potential abusiveness factor. So I sought out Mikaeus and put him into my Skull Briar deck.

I have not pulled out all the stops with Mikaeus the Unhallowed in play  , when I think about it now there are several scenarios that are really great with this guy. It also involves a sacrifice outlet which are already in place in the deck.

Since my deck only had a few humans in it , Mikaeus the Unhallowed was a great enabler for the whole mix of Zombies and Elementals and Vampires. The Undying Mechanic that he gives to everyone is an insane way of surviving all the Mass Removals available in the EDH setting. I was content with that but there was so much more to this guy than that.

The Mikaeus the Unhallowed engine offers the following things:

"Coming back to kill something again is great!"

Mikaeus the Unhallowed + Fleshbag Marauder or Slum Reaper - Fleshbag Marauder or Slum Reaper comes into play all players Sacrifice a creature. You sacrifice the Fleshbag Marauder or Slum Reaper to itself and it comes back via the Undying Mechanic. and you get to sacrifice it to itself again. You just killed 2 creatures for the price of 1! With a Grave pact you have killed 4 creatures. You will notice the look of annoyance on your opponents faces by this time.

"Can you say Boom 3 times?"

Birthing Pod + Mikaeus the Unhallowed + any non human creature - I was happy doing this with a Sylvan Primordial in play , sacrificed to Birthing Pod looking for a Terrastodon to destroy 3 non-land permanents then have the Sylvan Primordial come back because of the Undying Mechanic and be able to destroy 3 more non land permanents and fetch me( potentially) 3 more Forests. crazy right? Destroying things is much better when you could destroy things for a second or third time.

This is the part where it gets really bloody...For everyone else:

Nantuko Husk or Varolz + Mikaeus the Unhallowed + Triskelion  - Talk about a finisher or board sweeper when you need it. This is the damage loop that would get you maimed in a very hostile play group (Assuming that you get to play this of course). 

"I'm going to ping you like I should..."

The Triskelion comes in as a beefy 5/5 creature with Mikaeus the Unhallowed in play.

You could remove +1/+1 counters from the Triskelion (3 at the beginning). You could deal 3 damage. The Triskelion stops having counters and becomes a 2/2 creature. At this point you could sacrifice it to Varolz or the Nantuko Husk. Since it will have the Undying Mechanic thanks to the good old Zombie Cleric , The Triskelion will now return as a 6/6 creature with 4 +1/+1 counters. 4 counters that you could remove and deal damage to a creature or a player. Loop until everyone on the table is dead but you...Scoop your cards and run like hell if these aren't the regular guys you are playing with. This will cost you a knee cap.

If that was abusive then this adds salt to the injury and you rub it in really slowly:

Nantuko Husk or Varolz + Mikaeus the Unhallowed + Triskelion + Grave pact - For each sacrifice of the Triskelion your opponents now sacrifice creatures and since you can this for an unlimited number of times no creatures will be left on the board shoould you decide to attack. Now imagine if you also have a Grave betrayal in play? All of those creatures will come to your side of the board!!!

I really enjoyed writing this one. Hopefully I don't get hurt when I play this.