Intro

This deck is inspired by a 4-Color Olivia deck I found online. The idea behind the deck is to get game-winning creatures and occasionally Olivia, Crimson Bride into the discard pile, and then reanimate those creatures either using Olivia, Crimson Bride or Diregraf Rebirth. I\’ve made fairly large changes to the mainboard and the manabase, which in my testing has improved the deck immensely, but it\’s still not fully refined. Suggestions for refinement are welcome.

Self Mill

The initial plan of the deck revolves around self-mill. The core cards for this strategy are Mulch, Undead Butler, and Old Rutstein. Mulch has the added benefit of filling your hand with lands, which at the beginning of the game can even be used as discard with the 7 card hand limit.

Card Draw

The deck uses the mono-black control card draw package of low-cost creatures with on death effects (Undead Butler, Eyetwitch, and Shambling Ghast) alongside Deadly Dispute. It also has some copies of Thirst for Discovery, which serve as good card draw and discard to get the giant creatures in the bin.

Ramp

The deck has some treasure generation in the form of Shambling Ghast, Old Rutstein, and Deadly Dispute. There is also a single copy of Culling Ritual which can occasionally be used as ramp. Using Mulch and Environmental Sciences in addition, you will rarely miss a land drop, which allows the deck to get to reanimating quickly enough to outpace even aggro decks on occasion.

Runo

I\’ve devoted a section to this card because it doesn\’t fit anywhere else. There is a single copy of Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep which serves a dual purpose. The untransformed side is a legendary vampire, which will keep Olivia\’s reanimations alive even if Olivia dies to removal. The transformed side (Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep) can create 2 copies of Hullbreaker Horror or the serpent tokens that Koma, Cosmos Serpent makes. Keep in mind, the transformed side Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep is not a legendary vampire, so on occasion, keeping him untransformed can be preferable.

Reanimation

Last but not least, the reanimation engine. The deck contains 2 game-winning creatures Hullbreaker Horror and Koma, Cosmos Serpent. These can be reanimated either with the titular Olivia, Crimson Bride or with Diregraf Rebirth. Often you will want to reanimate Olivia, Crimson Bride with Diregraf Rebirth and then reanimate one of the game-winning creatures with Olivia\’s attack. There also exists a rare combo of using Culling Ritual to reduce the cost of Diregraf Rebirth, allowing you to reanimate as early as turn 3 or 4. This is a rare case, though, and is not the primary goal of the deck.