Why is this Deck?
Self-mill strategies are kind of my jam, and when given an opportunity to abuse triggers that put a ton of power onto the board through the graveyard, you'd better believe I'm going to do it. This deck has been popular in Timeless and Historic for some time now since Prized Amalgam joined the client with Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered, but I decided now was the time to test it out because we Arena players got our hands on Buried Alive in Modern Horizons 3.
The Star of Our Show
Buried Alive is a card that was first printed in Weatherlight back in 1997 and got its now iconic art by Greg Staples in Odyssey circa 2001. The card allows you to set up graveyard shenanigans incredibly reliably because you can pull any three creature cards from your library directly into your graveyard. I remember casting this card in high school in the early 2000's to set up a reanimate on Spirit of the Night or Akroma, Angel of Wrath. It's always been a powerhouse, so I decided to see how it's aged.
Filling our graveyard is a lot easier now than it was in 2003, so a three-mana setup piece for traditional reanimator like this is awfully slow unless it's rifled out on turn one with a Dark Ritual. Stitcher's Supplier or Faithless Looting are just superior options and often reanimator strategies are slower than simply ramping or using other effects like Show and Tell.
I took inspiration from the Arclight Phoenix deck that some folks have shifted from Izzet to Grixis with Dark Ritual and Buried Alive to ensure a massive Pheonix hit. Creatures that reanimate themselves can work wonders alongside Buried Alive and Prized Amalgam and Narcomoeba joined the team. If you Dark Ritual and Buried Alive on turn one, you can fetch two Prized Amalgams and one Narcomoeba; the Narcomoeba will leave the graveyard immediately and trigger the Prized Amalgams, netting you seven power on turn one.
The Traditional Package
If your starting hand contains both Founding the Third Path and Glimpse the Unthinkable, you are capable of teeing up a twenty-four card self mill sequence that starts on turn two. Given that so many of this deck's cards want to be milled or exist within the graveyard, the rest just takes care of itself.
Founding's first mode lets you free cast Glimpse the Unthinkable and milling yourself for ten cards. Hopefully there will be some triggers in there. Then, on the following turn, you get to mill four cards and have your mana open for other supplemental spells like Stitcher's Supplier or Demonic Tutor. Then, on turn four, you can recast Glimpse the Unthinkable from your graveyard using Founding's third mode. Note that this does require you to spend mana, so make sure to sequence accordingly.
As you're blasting through your deck like this, you'll pull creatures out and simply attack with them at the first opportunities. Note that the Prized Amalgams and Bloodghasts are especially durable as they recur at the drop of a hat, so don't be afraid to trade them with your opponent's blockers. Also, you may want to wait until post combat to hit your land drops as getting Bloodghast triggers can be awfully handy especially before they have haste.
Other New Additions
Other Modern Horizons 3 cards that help the deck tick are Flare of Denial and Cephalid Coliseum. Flare of Denial is huge because our Narcomoebas are expendable once they've helped pull our amalgams out of the yard, and our amalgams themselves can recur in a bunch of different ways, so having a counterspell that costs nothing but a sacrifice is excellent. You know that ideal turn one I outlined above? If you have a Flare of Denial in hand, it's available at the end of that nonsense.
Cephalid Coliseum is just a land with the classic keyword Threshold which, frankly, I wish we saw more often. Threshold says that you get something when your graveyard has at least seven cards in it, which this deck is absolutely going to do. In the coliseum's case, it allows you to turn it in for a draw three/discard three. Now, if Narcomoebas or Creeping Chills get caught up in this, it's disappointing because them being discarded has no effect, but this can help you dump cards like Bloodghast or Wonder that have been stuck in your hand but need to get to the graveyard. If you haven't hid your land drop for turn when you activate it, there's a good chance you'll trigger any Bloodghasts you discard.
Favorable Matchups
For our purposes today, I focused on Best-of-1, so I can't speak to the world post-board, but this deck is extremely strong right now as people are trying to tune in their ideal Scam packages. Depending on the composition of your hand, your opponents hitting you with Thoughtseize or Grief can actually be beneficial. Additionally, Prized Amalgam lines up favorably against Orcish Bowmasters and nearly all the evoke elementals seeing considerable play right now (watch out for Endurance, though, that guy'll get you).
Even Show and Tell isn't terrible as it lets us cheat in Founding the Third Path on their turn to start our engine. Granted, sometimes that deck just draws a million cards and wins on the spot, but one bad draw from them post show can line you up for a kill shot. Additionally, if your opponent is manipulating the top of their deck or has a card like Approach of the Second Sun, you may wish to target the opponent with mill like Glimpse the Unthinkable and chapter two of Founding the Third Path. It can potentially throw them off their gameplan in a big way.
And then, of course, there's the nightmare matchup for our opponents with mill. Turn one Archive Traps are this deck's best friend and we can't wait to vomit out a ton of value because our opponent caught us off guard cracking a fetch land. Milling to exile with Tasha's Hideous Laughter or Ashiok, Dream Render are still problematic, but in best-of-1, you'll probably end the game before that can potentially bite you.
In Conclusion
I honestly had more fun with this deck than I was expecting. The sheer stopping power and the consistency Buried Alive gave it was a joy to behold. I considered adding Victimize as a way to add even more power to the experience, but I ultimately didn't find it necessary. To be honest, though, future builds with that in mind are bound to happen so stay tuned for those!
Thanks so much for reading, and happy brewing!
