Deck Tech Analysis: Myrkul, Lord of Bones

On May 9th of 2025 I published an article detailing a substantial retooling of my Myrkul, Lord of Bones commander deck. It was a fun deck to pilot, but I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I took the deck apart for a deep analysis to identify where its weak points were so I could strengthen them, and also identify its strong points so that I could reinforce them. I wanted to lean into an enchantress theme, drawing cards and getting value by having enchantments enter the battlefield. Myrkul's ability turns dead creatures into enchantment tokens so the engine was there. Before editing the deck it seemed like I was popping off with value, but lacked a way to finish off my opponents. In total, I replaced 12 non-land cards in the deck and to view the specific card swaps check out the original article. Nerdleagues allowed me to track the deck's progress over time and answer the question: How did the changes affect its performance? Nerdleagues uses Elo as a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games (where one player's gain is another's loss). Within a playgroup, all players Elo scores will average out to 1,000. Winning a game takes points from the other players.

The first game that I played since the overhaul was its 4th game (win on 5/19/25). I won that game and gained a substantial amount of ELO. Games 5 through 10 were pretty rough, losing all 5. It had sunk to an all time low of 973. During this time, something was happening within the games that the stats will not show. I found the deck was executing its enchantress strategy more efficiently than before. I was often becoming a major problem for the other players at the table who then focused their efforts on taking me out. Once I got a handle on the new changes I was able to achieve my win strategy faster, and began winning games. As anyone who plays multiplayer edh consistently will tell you, wins can be hard to come by. Politics, early infinite combos, and plain bad luck often get between you and victory. The difference was that the deck felt better and easier to pilot. The final entry logged for the deck on game 21 has its Elo sitting at 1004. The deck tech resulted in an overall 31 Elo point increase and a lifetime record of 6-15. I want to highlight a win that the deck had. It came on 8/4/25 (game 11) and its first win since the initial slide.

This was a turning point win for the newly edited deck. It was up against two players with a higher Elo score, and two decks which were also higher rated. From the comments of this game I was able to see what had happened. Grande's Lord Windgrace deck came out as an early powerhouse. I had a tendershoot dryad in play which I sacrificed to Woe strider triggering myrkul, lord of bones to create an enchantment token copy of it. After a few turns I had created 8 1/1 saproling tokens. It was time to strike the table by casting for the common good targeting the tendershoot dryad enchantment token where x=5. I now had 6 total enchantment copies of the dryad. I had 10 or more permanents granting me the city's blessing so in total the tendershoot dryad enchantment tokens were giving my saprolings a whopping +12/+12! This was more than enough to swarm my opponents for victory.

This deck has been incredibly fun to pilot since the changes were made. I often find myself jumping out ahead of the table with my board state and value engines rolling. I've had to stare down multiple options of how to take my turn and often making the wrong play, but I love the fact that the options are there. It seems like every game has the deck breaking the mechanics of a different card to glorious levels. The stats back up the elevated level of the deck, and so does the experience of piloting it. This deck will be coming with me to all commander nights and will see at least one game each night.