Muldrotha, the Gravetide Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on November 2, 2022

Muldrotha, the Gravetide | Illustration by Jason Rainville

Sometimes the graveyard is a place where cards go to rest. But when Muldrotha, the Gravetide is on the table, your graveyard is more like your second hand. The more cards in your graveyard, the better!

Today I’m going to dive into how to play a Commander deck with Muldrotha, the Gravetide at the helm. I’ll cover deckbuilding options, strategy, and unique interactions that you might not have known about. And remember, when you’re playing Sultai (), the graveyard is your best friend.

Ready? Let’s jump right in!

The Deck

Stitcher’s Supplier | Illustration by Chris Seaman

I’ve played Muldrotha, the Gravetide in just about every format you can play on MTG Arena. And let me tell you, when the Muldrotha train gets rolling it doesn’t stop. It lets you play one permanent of each type from your graveyard per turn as if it were in your hand. To maximize this effect this is a self-mill deck with recursion that grinds your opponents through sheer value.

Here’s what you can play from the graveyard: creatures, enchantments, artifacts, lands, and planeswalkers. The secret to a Muldrotha deck is to have lots of different card types in your graveyard at all times. When your commander hits the battlefield, you have both card advantage and card selection.

Want to cast creature removal? Seal of Doom and Executioner’s Capsule are waiting for you. Want to get rid of artifacts or enchantments? Reclamation Sage, Seal of Primordium, and Caustic Caterpillar are great options. Need card advantage? Cast Mulldrifter for the 5th time.

The Commander

Muldrotha, the Gravetide is a 6/6 creature for that lets you cast permanents from the graveyard. This can be done once per turn for every type of permanent.

Playing instants and sorceries is fine, but those are kept to a minimum in favor of permanents. Seeing as your commander boasts a hefty mana cost, though, it’s important to include a protection package.

Protection Package

Cast Muldrotha and enchant it with Kaya’s Ghostform to protect it, even from exile effects. When Muldrotha returns you can cast Kaya’s Ghostform again to enchant it. Diplomatic Immunity, Swiftfoot Boots, and Lightning Greaves all serve similar functions.

Voyager Staff can blink your Muldrotha from certain death, and it’s recastable.

Stubborn Denial is a better Negate when Muldrotha is in the game. Unfortunately it’s one cast only because it’s an instant.

Creatures

Ravenous Chupacabra, Shriekmaw, Fleshbag Marauder, and Plaguecrafter creatures help keep your opponents’ board presence in check. Plus you can cast them again with Muldrotha’s ability.

Your favorite 2/2 flier that draws you two cards. This deck allows you to cast Mulldrifter with evoke to get it to the graveyard early.

A value staple, Solemn Simulacrum ramps you and then draws you a card when it leaves. Plus it’s an artifact for Muldrotha too which helps balance out the different card types.

Sell-mill and it hits your land drops. Satyr Wayfinder is perfect synergy.

What do you do with a lot of mana? Steal a creature or artifact from your opponent. If Hostage Taker dies then you can do it again next turn.

Your creatures will eventually die somehow. When Liliana, Heretical Healer dies it turns into Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, ready to keep your opponent’s card count low and reanimate some stuff.

This innocuous Spore Frog can be a repeatable Fog effect.

Naturalize effects aren’t usually worth it here, but it becomes awesome when you can use the effect every turn.

A green staple in a lot of Constructed formats, Sakura-Tribe Elder shines even more here since it’s repeatable ramp and color fixing.

Considering you’re playing fetch lands, milling yourself, and putting more lands into the graveyard, The Gitrog Monster’s ability triggers a lot. Tatyova, Benthic Druid makes the list for similar reasons.

Graveyard Interaction

Constant Mists is just a fog, but you get to cast it again for the low cost of sacrificing a land. And considering that Muldrotha is always playing lands from your graveyard it can be an eternal Fog.

Sometimes you need to get some extra cards from your graveyard, and Eternal Witness can do just that. It’s also awesome to set loops with Muldrotha. Greenwarden of Murasa is just another Witness on steroids.

River Kelpie and Secrets of the Dead. Who doesn’t like to draw cards?

World Shaper was made for this deck. It mills you for three and recovers all your lands, effectively ramping you.

Graveyard Fillers

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries draws you extra cards while slowly filling your graveyard. Some Muldrotha builds focused on self-mill can use it as a win condition.

Ashiok, Dream Render fills your graveyard while denying your opponents. This is one card you don’t want to see on the other side of the board.

Wrenn and Seven can fill your graveyard and produce huge threats.

Stitcher’s Supplier and Codex Shredder are more sources of self-mill for your graveyard shenanigans.

Artifacts and Enchantments

Seal of Doom and Executioner’s Capsule are great spot removal. It’s the same effect on two different permanent types.

Binding the Old Gods is an all-purpose piece of removal that ramps then goes to the graveyard to be recast.

Mark your Muldrotha with a fate counter and wrath whatever your opponents are doing with Oblivion Stone.

Phyrexian Scriptures and Elspeth’s Nightmare provide card advantage and removal while upping the deck’s enchantment count.

Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead offer reanimation and extra value in case you already cast a creature this turn.

Pernicious Deed can be played lots of times and never hits your Muldrotha if you don’t want it to.

Win Conditions

Here’s a tough one. This Muldrotha build aims to grind the table and survive long enough for these cards to help win in style, but this deck mostly wins by grinding.

Just aim Villainous Wealth and Torment of Hailfire at an opponent with a large enough X and you’ll have good card advantage, or they lose on the spot.

Worm Harvest slowly but steadily builds an army of 1/1s.

Sometimes you need to control your opponents for the win. Mindslaver‘s effect is repeatable with Muldrotha.

The Mana Base

Because Muldrotha can cast lands from the graveyard there’s a lot of focus on fetch and cycling lands. 

Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and the Panorama lands from Shards of Alara serve as examples of lands that work as fetches.

To help fix your three colors you have the on-color shock lands from Ravnica, the check lands from M10 and Innistrad, the slow lands from Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow, and the cycling lands from Urza’s Saga and Amonkhet.

If you want to exchange a dual land you don’t have with a Guildgate or snow land, go for it. For upgrades consider the Zendikar and Khans of Tarkir fetch lands.

The Strategy

Your main goal is to chill and survive. Everybody knows that if you’re playing a Muldrotha deck you’re going to be a long-term problem. So you may be attacked early, your commander will probably be the target of removal, and your graveyard the target of some hate. Try to always land your commander on the battlefield with a protective spell or enchantment.  

Ramp is best in the early game. In the midgame your cards should disrupt everybody equally, forcing every player to sacrifice a creature or discard a card. Get your self-mill going to obtain more resources turn after turn.

In the late game you should be recurring your big spells with Eternal Witness-like effects, replaying your sagas for value until you fire your win condition at an opponent.

Combos and Interactions

Fact or Fiction | Illustration by Matt Cavotta

• Cards like Fact of Fiction can draw you cards and “play the cards from your graveyard.” The same interaction is seen in cards like Wrenn and Seven and Satyr Wayfinder.
• Thought Scour operates as a mini Ancestral Recall.
• When casting cards with Muldrotha, cast Solemn Simulacrum and other cards like artifacts instead of creatures. That way you can still use Muldrotha to cast another creature.
• Remember that Muldrotha’s ability resets if you return it to your hand. It’s possible to cast cards from the graveyard using it and then return it to your hand to cast it again and play even more cards from your graveyard.
• This deck has a fair share of basic lands because there are lots of repeatable ramp effects that search for basics, like Sakura-Tribe Elder.
• Command Beacon is a repeatable way to recast your commander for six mana if you need to.

Rule 0 Violations

This deck doesn’t have any play pattern that can violate Commander‘s Rule 0 since it’s a casual build. It doesn’t have tutors that search for combo pieces or locks that keep everyone out of the game.

Upgrade Options

• Strip Mine and Wasteland can wreak havoc on your opponents’ mana base.
• Zendikar and Khans of Tarkir fetch lands.
• Mana Drain is a Counterspell that ramps you.
• Mystic Remora draw cards at the expense of your opponents unless they pay .
• Ashnod’s Altar and Altar of Dementia are sacrifice outlets that allow you to turn your creatures into damage and mana.
• Deathrite Shaman can turn your graveyard into resources, mainly ramp and color fixing.
• Phyrexian Tower is another value play with Muldrotha. You can find it in your graveyard and start sacrificing creatures for value and mana.
• Sylvan Safekeeper offers more ways to protect your commander.
• Entomb and Demonic Tutor are more tutors for your deck that can search for the right pieces.

Other Builds

Muldrotha offers several avenues to pursue in EDH.

The first is a dedicated self-mill strategy using Hermit Druid alongside Laboratory Maniac or Thassa’s Oracle. You may want to play some dredge cards like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll to accelerate this process. 

Some players like builds that use Birthing Pod and Prime Speaker Vannifar along with Muldrotha to keep sacrificing creatures for value while going up the chain.

Other builds like to win with a big Lord of Extinction or Consuming Aberration sacrificed to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

Kokusho, the Evening Star sacrifice loops are also popular.

Wrap Up

Villainous Wealth | Illustration by Erica Yang

Muldrotha, the Gravetide was one of the most popular commanders when it released and is still one of the more fun commanders to play. If you’re a control player at heart you’ll love the value avenue that Muldrotha offers. If you have the resources and cards available to put together a Muldrotha EDH list then I urge you to do it. Muldrotha EDH is a great combination of power and flexibility.

What do you think of this list? Is your Muldrotha build different? Are Sultai commanders your favorite, or do you prefer other color combinations? Don’t be afraid to leave a comment below with your thoughts and feedback or find us over on Twitter.

That’s all from me for today. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands!