Aetherdrift is right around the corner, and I'm anxiously awaiting the cards dropping on Arena so we can begin brewing all kinds of crazy vehicular nonsense. Like a kid the night before Christmas, however, I feel the need to distract myself a bit from the excitement so I don't absolutely pop. To do so, I've put together a classic Brawl commander that I, somehow, hadn't played before and put some energy into creating a fun experience that can win some games.
I present to you: Milldrotha.
The Commander
Muldrotha, the Gravetide is a classic Sultai commander for folks who love filling their graveyard for value. Her ability to play permanents of various types from the yard each turn means that your graveyard essentially becomes a second hand once you have the mana. You're almost guaranteed to hit every land drop after she's present and having a healthy mix of creatures, enchantments, and planeswalkers means you'll be getting amazing value if your opponent can't answer her.
She was first released with the set called Dominaria in 2018 and was once a best-in-class graveyard commander. While power creep has pushed her out of the top spot, she still retains the title of 'absolute classic,' in a lot of eyes, including my own.
The Gameplan
You can build Muldrotha in a lot of ways with the only constant being that she wants permanents in the deck and cards that fill the graveyard. We’re doing that, but with our kill shot being a mill victory. We have some creatures that can pack a punch alongside damage output, but our primary gameplan will be to punish their library for existing. If opponents aren’t bringing graveyard hate, they’ll be in for a rough time.
Mesmeric Orb is arguably the strongest card in the entire deck. This card punishes our opponent for playing the game while filling our graveyard and preparing for Muldrotha's arrival in the late game. I generally don't advise keeping two land hands, especially in Brawl, but if this card is in it, I'd probably keep it.
Altar of Dementia is our primary kill shot mechanism, but thanks to Muldrotha's ability, we don't need to draw it early. If we mill it and pull it out of our graveyard later, that's perfectly fine. Our deck can create a number of high-power creatures we can feed to the altar for huge mill hits, but chief among them is Lord of Extinction. The lord gets power and toughness equal to all graveyards, which can easily blast the final 30 or 40 cards out of their deck if we've set up properly.
This combo is our primary kill spell later in the game and I've actually used this combo in a friendly Historic match to mill a 250-card deck given how well it scales.
Key Omissions
I want to call out the fact that this deck doesn't include a number of popular mill pieces like Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Fleet Swallower, or Terisian Mindbreaker. Simply, this is because we don't need them and they represent some redundancy with other non-creature cards we do have like Fraying Sanity.
Cards that mill half the library are best when combined with Fraying Sanity or Bruvac for a one-shot kill, or if they're milling a largely intact library. Given that this deck wants cheap cards that can mill early and often, these won't accomplish much unless paired with a mill doubler. Given how expensive they are, I thought it would be best to lean into other more reliable mill engines rather than attempting this particular combo.
That said, if you disagree with me and want to slot them in your version, feel free as I don’t think they're bad, just not my preferred flavor.
The Interaction
Unable to Scream is an underrated piece of removal in Brawl and I cannot recommend it enough. Stripping abilities from commanders without removing them from the field is huge and because we aren't relying on combat damage for our primary gameplan, we'll rarely need to attack and let them block so they can recast their commander. Even if they do, Muldrotha can recur this from the yard for only one mana. Seriously, it's great. Run it in all your blue decks.
This deck is full of classic Commander cards, so we had to include Fleshbag Marauder and all the cards that behave the same way. Creatures entering and forcing sacrifice is a great way to get around hexproof and with Muldrotha's ability, this even reloads the marauder for future castings. Special shoutout to Accursed Marauder for limiting the options to nontoken creatures as it makes throwing away fodder to this effect much harder.
Grist, Voracious Larva is insane in this build. While she does a lot for this deck, I consider her removal because of her -2 Naturalize ability. Often, you'll cast her from the graveyard and pay G immediately to blast a relevant permanent from your opponent. The craziest part about this card is that if the opponent kills her, you simply recast her again later and do it again. Grist in the graveyard is actually better than having Grist in your hand most of the time.
Plans B
Every deck should have a few alternate win cons in case the primary plan falls through. Brawl is no exception and we do have Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to give us the out of milling ourselves for victory. You'll notice we aren't running Thassa's Oracle or other effects like it because this is our secondary win con and milling ourselves gives us access to cards, so we should be able to find this planeswalker at any time when we'll need him (assuming he hasn't been exiled).
We have a number of cards that can deliver punishment to our opponents in a pinch, but Syr Konrad is the one that can do it without combat. As the mills are firing, this guy can absolutely pepper our opponent with pings and easily close out a game even if the opponent has stabilized the board and prevented attacks.
Conclusion
If you’re a graveyard enthusiast like me, I’d recommend giving this a shot or building your own Muldrotha build with some of these concepts in mind. She’s an absolute classic for a reason, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time getting to know her via this deck for the past few weeks.
And don't worry, I'll be back to Standard next week with some brand-new Aetherdrift brews!
Thanks for reading, and happy brewing!
