Crafting an Isareth, The Awakener MTG Commander Deck

Deep beneath the city that once hailed her as its queen, Isareth the Awakener commands her legion of undead servants. In the world of Magic: The Gathering, players have numerous options for reanimation decks, and Isareth offers a fresh perspective on this archetype.

Whenever Isareth attacks, you can bring a creature back from your graveyard at a cost equal to its mana value. With the mana acceleration available to mono-black decks and the many effects that allow creatures to enter and leave the battlefield, Isareth can transform your graveyard into a nearly unlimited resource, making your opponents think twice before letting their creatures hit the graveyard.

Sample Decklist

The Commander

Isareth the Awakener is a 3/3 Human Wizard with deathtouch that costs two black mana and one generic mana. When she attacks, you can pay a generic mana cost to return a creature from your graveyard to play, matching its mana value.

Creatures reanimated using Isareth’s ability come into play with a corpse counter. If they leave the battlefield, they won’t go back to your graveyard but will instead be exiled, which prevents you from continuously reusing her ability on the same creature.

Note: Corpse counters do not have any inherent effects; they simply indicate which creatures have been resurrected by Isareth. Removing them with effects like Power Conduit will not prevent those creatures from being exiled when they die.

Playing reanimation decks is usually about getting creatures back for less than their mana cost. While Isareth does not allow you to do this directly, she effectively lets you use your graveyard as an extension of your hand. This comes with distinct advantages, such as not being limited by graveyard size and having access to various low-cost graveyard tutors in black.

Isareth’s reanimation ability is highly versatile, and you can include various other reanimation spells in your deck to support your strategy, which helps you avoid the commander tax by reanimating her instead of recasting her when she dies.

How to Build the Deck

To fully utilize Isareth’s ability, you must consider three key factors: having valuable creatures in your graveyard, enough mana to cast them, and ensuring you can attack safely.

Getting creatures into your graveyard is relatively easy. You can sacrifice them, discard them, mill them, or use graveyard tutors like Entomb to find the right creatures. Since you’ll often need to pay the full casting cost to put them into play, the best strategy is to play creatures normally and then leverage Isareth’s ability for a second chance after they die.

Your creature choices should include a blend of heavy hitters and cheap utility creatures that trigger valuable effects upon entering or leaving the battlefield. After casting Isareth, you won’t want to wait multiple turns to use her again, so optimizing her effectiveness is key. If you can eliminate the exile effect, you might gain the advantage of reusing your creatures after they’ve died.

Since you’ll be accumulating useful creatures in your graveyard and might not always be able to attack freely with Isareth, consider adding several additional ways to interact with your graveyard. Cards like Living Death and Animate Dead fit seamlessly with Isareth’s strategy.

Ramp

Mono-black decks excel at ramping up their mana using strategies that focus on Swamps. You can employ a "Swamps matter" subtheme to enhance your mana production significantly.

Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold are two prime examples. Both of these lands generate additional black mana based on the number of Swamps you control. While Cabal Coffers usually outperforms Stronghold, both are excellent in this deck.

Crypt Ghast serves as another benefit; for just four mana, you can get a 2/2 Spirit that turns all your Swamps into double mana producers. This card’s power increases with the number of Swamps you have, and it can also be resurrected by Isareth alongside other reanimation effects.

Everflowing Chalice is versatile for ramping. Although it might tempt you to save it for a more significant return later, starting it off for just two mana gives you similar output to Mind Stone. If drawn later, you can still cash it in for even more mana thanks to its multikick ability.

Crowded Crypt may not have the same versatility, but its theme aligns well with Isareth’s abilities. It can tap for black mana while accruing corpse counters along the way. Later on, you can sacrifice Crowded Crypt to create a number of 2/2 Zombies corresponding to its corpse counter count.

If Nesting Grounds is included, you could use it to transfer corpse counters from Isareth’s reanimated creatures onto Crowded Crypt, increasing your Zombie count. However, many players find that an extra Swamp is typically more beneficial.

Draw Mechanics

While decks that leverage their graveyards as resources generally don’t need as much card draw, you should still include some draw effects through self-mill.

Morbid Opportunist and Grim Haruspex allow you to draw cards when your creatures die, and you can activate these effects repeatedly since sacrificing creatures fuels your strategy to bring them back shortly after.

Vilis, Broker of Blood can be quite resource-intensive, but it lets you draw cards while losing life, and it has the added benefit of being able to weaken creatures.

Another valuable draw engine is Skullclamp. This card lets you draw two cards whenever a creature with it equipped dies, which works wonderfully in a deck that often sacrifices its creatures.

Ripples of Undeath is excellent for simultaneously drawing cards and filling your graveyard. It mills three cards each turn, allowing you to choose one to add to your hand, tailor-making your card selections based on your current needs.

You can utilize Oriq Loremage to tutor for any card and put it into your graveyard. This makes it a great way to prepare for healing spells when you attack with Isareth or another effect.

Reanimation Strategy

What happens if your graveyard is filled with powerful cards, yet your opponents keep targeting Isareth? Adding backup reanimation options allows you to deploy powerful creatures without depending solely on your commander.

Animate Dead and Reanimate are fantastic reanimation spells that are both cost-effective, allowing you to resurrect any creature from any graveyard. Getting a powerful card like Vilis, Broker of Blood into play early can provide a large advantage.

Dread Return, while slightly less potent since it only reanimates creatures from your graveyard, has flashback, allowing for additional flexibility.

To reanimate more than one creature, look to Agadeem’s Awakening, which lets you bring back multiple creatures as long as the total mana value paid is correct.

Lastly, Living Death serves as a great combination of board wipe and mass reanimation, swapping all creatures in graveyards for those in play, often favoring you since your deck fills the graveyard with threats.

Deck Considerations

One significant drawback to using Isareth is that if a creature she brings back dies or returns to your hand or library, it’s exiled. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome this limitation.

Isareth’s ability is a replacement effect, and when a creature is exiled, any replacement effect doesn’t activate. This is where cards like Conjurer’s Closet come into play. It can exile a creature brought back by Isareth and then return it, allowing you to sidestep the exile issue.

Void Maw offers a different approach, exiling any creature that would go to the graveyard while allowing you to shift them back to your graveyard afterward, providing options for resurrection in the future.

Since Isareth regularly cycles creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield, you can further benefit from effects like Desecrated Tomb and Tormod, the Desecrator, generating tokens when cards leave your graveyard.

Syr Konrad, the Grim also fits snugly in this deck, providing an inexpensive means to mill cards while punishing opponents when creatures die or are reanimated. This creature makes for an excellent play alongside Isareth, ensuring you maximize value from each interaction.