Meren of Clan Nel Toth Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins
Meren of Clan Nel Toth is a Legendary Creature — Human Shaman (mana cost {2}{B}{G}; Legendary Creature — Human Shaman; 3/4; rarity: mythic; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander). Its colour identity is black, green, and its Commander legality on Scryfall is listed as legal. This guide explains what the card actually does, how a deck built around it wins, and which decisions matter most when you build your own version.
What Meren of Clan Nel Toth does
The card's exact text is where every honest build starts:
Whenever another creature you control dies, you get an experience counter.
At the beginning of your end step, choose target creature card in your graveyard. If that card's mana value is less than or equal to the number of experience counters you have, return it to the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Read that text literally. Every line of it is a building instruction: the abilities tell you which supporting cards multiply the commander, which weaknesses opponents will attack, and which turns of the game the deck is designed to own. Brewers get into trouble when they build the deck they wish the commander were; build the one this text describes.
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How the deck wins
Ask what the deck looks like when it is merely fine. A resilient build still develops its board, still draws extra cards, and still threatens something through an average opening hand. The spectacular draws will take care of themselves; your card choices should be spent making the average draw functional, because you will see far more average draws than perfect ones.
If this topic is on your bench, keep going with Fabled Passage vs Prismatic Vista: Two Fetchlands, Two Different Ceilings — it covers the neighbouring decisions from a different angle, and the two pieces together give you a fuller picture than either one alone.
Keep reading
Keep reading: Fabled Passage vs Prismatic Vista: Two Fetchlands, Two Different Ceilings and Esper Sentinel in Commander: Early Tax and Card Draw.
Building and tuning tips
Mind the curve before you mind the highlights. Count how many plays the deck has on each of the first four turns, and be honest about hands that do nothing until turn five. One cheaper role-player often improves a deck more than one expensive splash, because games are decided by who starts playing first as often as by who plays biggest.
Keep the mana honest, too. A commander in black, green colours needs a mana base built for those colours in the proportions the deck actually casts — a lesson that applies to every list you will ever build, and one the MTGBrew Learn guides return to often.
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