THE CARDS
So basically this is my Grimgrin EDH, it's actually exactly 25/75 split for blue mana and black, which is pretty cool (16 blue symbols to 48 black symbols) and I suppose that's mostly because his effects lend to black cards more. Basically the idea is to use a lot of recursion and some decent control to make sure Grimgrin gets counters and attacks until the game is over. It works alright, the main concerns are the weak early game and the fact it hinges so much on Grimgrin, so I've resorted to running some silly stuff like Apprentice Wizard and Sol Ring (which gets swapped for Mind Stone when playing Duel) because I wanna be sure I get ahold of him. Gilded Lotus and Lotus Bloom don't really help much with that since by the time they happen I either had five mana anyway, or I'm a fair few turns in. Anyways, once he shows up things start going pretty well, and most games he winds up having sorta-vigilance because Gravecrawler, Reassembling Skeleton, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed get silly, maybe I have out Sheoldred, Whispering One or he's equipped with a Pemmin's Aura. Equipment like the Argentum Armor and Blade of the Bloodchief are mostly so Grimgrin has to deal with less blockers and gets more counters, although Blade of the Bloodchief sometimes gets relevant on an early Blood Artist or Bloodghast. The other equipment like Deathrender and Nim Deathmantle are to make use of all the stuff dying and the recursion, but in a pinch they sometimes help get past 21 commander damage.
The two planeswalkers work pretty good, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver can make some stuff to sacrifice or populate my side with blockers and since the deck already has 37 creatures and quite a few token pumps, Ashiok makes it to his ultimate pretty often. Liliana Vess is cool if Lifebane Zombie showed a scary hand but usually she just does two tutors and then dies, which is at least nice card economy and since this deck can get sorta combo-y, helps out. I have a few Zombie anthem guys because the deck wound up with a decent stack of them, and in really ideal conditions, having Grave Titan tokens show up as 8/7s or something makes the power on my end fill out fairly well. I'm also using a Rooftop Storm for the same reason and because it affects Grimgrin's CMC (but not his Commander tax of course). It wasn't meant to be Zombie tribal but the subtheme is fairly present I suppose.
Dawn of the Dead is a sort of questionable addition, but it works good late game as a closer and I happened to get ahold of a signed copy so I threw it in for flavour purposes. Trading Post is another oddball but the Goat tokens work great for Grimgrin and there's some small interactions that become relevant occasionally, like recurring Baleful Strix or tossing out creatures that Champion of Stray Souls or Soul of Innistrad can grab back or have recursion on their own, for some life gain in a pinch. Pemmin's Aura is awesome on Grimgrin, because he gets evasion, much cheaper untaps, and a way to stagger his P/T for the last few points, which is all really relevant.
HOW IT PLAYS
Basically when playing this deck you want to use early recursive creatures and mana accelerants to make it to Grimgrin, and then work off of him. The recurring creatures, tokens and reanimation effects should keep him untapped and the removal should ensure he gets in his hits without being blocked. A lot of the removal is stuff like Chainer's Edict, Desecration Demon, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Dictate of Erebos is forced sacrifice stuff because Grimgrin's "destroy creature" effect usually only leaves hexproof and indestructible dudes left, so that way we can get around them. Since indestructible creatures do have the ability to hold Grimgrin off pretty good, a lot of the late end threats in this deck are stuff with evasion that make sure the pressure doesn't get let off. Liliana Vess is tricky not to be greedy with, but sometimes it just works out that you have to hunt for Pemmin's Aura or even a land to make ends meet. If you have to get a threat AND something specific you can always look for Rune-Scarred Demon and just use his ETB.
Stuff like Blood Artist and Dark Prophecy are in the deck to get value out of the interactions that are going to occur if things go smoothly; although there's a lot of stuff that bites in for one life or so, but I've never found it game-ruining since usually Trading Post pitches and Sangromancer triggers pick up enough life to not have to worry. Mana accelerants like Dark Ritual and Apprentice Wizard might seem irrelevant in late game when the biggest two spells in this deck are seven mana, but there's so many cards like Geth, Lord of the Vault, Champion of Stray Souls, Soul of Innistrad or Lich Lord of Unx that have really hefty mana cost abilities, so a late game Dark Rit almost always has some kind of purpose. It's important to remember that Grimgrin can eat up multiple guys in a turn to get a big stack of counters, so Pemmin's Aura on Lich Lord of Unx or something can wind up being a really good gig.
CHANGES TO BE MADE?
If there's any suggestions from the community I'd love to check them out, one thing I really like about the list as it is, is it's only ~200$ right now and decently stocked with recent cards, so the average player owns a fair chunk of these and can afford to pick up the remainder at an LGS. There's some obvious goodstuff I could go pick up if I wanted to make this another 400-600$ brew but I like the challenge of a budget. Thanks for reading this!
I think you should take out Dictate of Kruphix. Even with the flash, you are still giving your opponents fuel. Maybe a windfall or cards similar to it would fit better.
1x Apprentice Wizard
1x Cathedral of War
1x Command Tower
1x Crypt Ghast
1x Dark Ritual
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Dimir Signet
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Halimar Depths
6x Island
1x Mistvein Borderpost
1x Nephalia Drownyard
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Sol Ring
1x Strionic Resonator
20x Swamp
1x Temple of Deceit
1x Temple of the False God
1x Watery Grave
EQUIPMENT
1x Argentum Armor
1x Blade of the Bloodchief
1x Deathrender
1x Skullclamp
SACRIFICE CREATURES
1x Baleful Strix
1x Bloodghast
1x Champion of Stray Souls
1x Dregscape Zombie
1x Grave Titan
1x Gravecrawler
1x Keiga, the Tide Star
1x Lich Lord of Unx
1x Pack Rat
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Skinrender
1x Curse of Shallow Graves
1x Dawn of the Dead
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
1x Gruesome Encore
1x Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1x Lord of the Undead
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Profane Command
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Soul of Innistrad
1x Whip of Erebos
REMOVAL AND CONTROL
1x Chainer's Edict
1x Desecration Demon
1x Dictate of Erebos
1x Dimir Charm
1x Go for the Throat
1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1x Void Stalker
CARD DRAW
1x Bloodgift Demon
1x Dark Prophecy
1x Dictate of Kruphix
1x Duskmantle Seer
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Harvester of Souls
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Jar of Eyeballs
1x Pain Seer
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Liliana Vess
OTHER STUFF
1x Blood Artist
1x Cemetery Reaper
1x Diregraf Captain
1x Glen Elendra Liege
1x Havengul Lich
1x Lifebane Zombie
1x Pemmin's Aura
1x Rooftop Storm
1x Sangromancer
1x Trading Post
1x Undead Warchief
AND GRIMGRIN
1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
THE CARDS
So basically this is my Grimgrin EDH, it's actually exactly 25/75 split for blue mana and black, which is pretty cool (16 blue symbols to 48 black symbols) and I suppose that's mostly because his effects lend to black cards more. Basically the idea is to use a lot of recursion and some decent control to make sure Grimgrin gets counters and attacks until the game is over. It works alright, the main concerns are the weak early game and the fact it hinges so much on Grimgrin, so I've resorted to running some silly stuff like Apprentice Wizard and Sol Ring (which gets swapped for Mind Stone when playing Duel) because I wanna be sure I get ahold of him. Gilded Lotus and Lotus Bloom don't really help much with that since by the time they happen I either had five mana anyway, or I'm a fair few turns in. Anyways, once he shows up things start going pretty well, and most games he winds up having sorta-vigilance because Gravecrawler, Reassembling Skeleton, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed get silly, maybe I have out Sheoldred, Whispering One or he's equipped with a Pemmin's Aura. Equipment like the Argentum Armor and Blade of the Bloodchief are mostly so Grimgrin has to deal with less blockers and gets more counters, although Blade of the Bloodchief sometimes gets relevant on an early Blood Artist or Bloodghast. The other equipment like Deathrender and Nim Deathmantle are to make use of all the stuff dying and the recursion, but in a pinch they sometimes help get past 21 commander damage.
The two planeswalkers work pretty good, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver can make some stuff to sacrifice or populate my side with blockers and since the deck already has 37 creatures and quite a few token pumps, Ashiok makes it to his ultimate pretty often. Liliana Vess is cool if Lifebane Zombie showed a scary hand but usually she just does two tutors and then dies, which is at least nice card economy and since this deck can get sorta combo-y, helps out. I have a few Zombie anthem guys because the deck wound up with a decent stack of them, and in really ideal conditions, having Grave Titan tokens show up as 8/7s or something makes the power on my end fill out fairly well. I'm also using a Rooftop Storm for the same reason and because it affects Grimgrin's CMC (but not his Commander tax of course). It wasn't meant to be Zombie tribal but the subtheme is fairly present I suppose.
Dawn of the Dead is a sort of questionable addition, but it works good late game as a closer and I happened to get ahold of a signed copy so I threw it in for flavour purposes. Trading Post is another oddball but the Goat tokens work great for Grimgrin and there's some small interactions that become relevant occasionally, like recurring Baleful Strix or tossing out creatures that Champion of Stray Souls or Soul of Innistrad can grab back or have recursion on their own, for some life gain in a pinch. Pemmin's Aura is awesome on Grimgrin, because he gets evasion, much cheaper untaps, and a way to stagger his P/T for the last few points, which is all really relevant.
HOW IT PLAYS
Basically when playing this deck you want to use early recursive creatures and mana accelerants to make it to Grimgrin, and then work off of him. The recurring creatures, tokens and reanimation effects should keep him untapped and the removal should ensure he gets in his hits without being blocked. A lot of the removal is stuff like Chainer's Edict, Desecration Demon, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Dictate of Erebos is forced sacrifice stuff because Grimgrin's "destroy creature" effect usually only leaves hexproof and indestructible dudes left, so that way we can get around them. Since indestructible creatures do have the ability to hold Grimgrin off pretty good, a lot of the late end threats in this deck are stuff with evasion that make sure the pressure doesn't get let off. Liliana Vess is tricky not to be greedy with, but sometimes it just works out that you have to hunt for Pemmin's Aura or even a land to make ends meet. If you have to get a threat AND something specific you can always look for Rune-Scarred Demon and just use his ETB.
Stuff like Blood Artist and Dark Prophecy are in the deck to get value out of the interactions that are going to occur if things go smoothly; although there's a lot of stuff that bites in for one life or so, but I've never found it game-ruining since usually Trading Post pitches and Sangromancer triggers pick up enough life to not have to worry. Mana accelerants like Dark Ritual and Apprentice Wizard might seem irrelevant in late game when the biggest two spells in this deck are seven mana, but there's so many cards like Geth, Lord of the Vault, Champion of Stray Souls, Soul of Innistrad or Lich Lord of Unx that have really hefty mana cost abilities, so a late game Dark Rit almost always has some kind of purpose. It's important to remember that Grimgrin can eat up multiple guys in a turn to get a big stack of counters, so Pemmin's Aura on Lich Lord of Unx or something can wind up being a really good gig.
CHANGES TO BE MADE?
If there's any suggestions from the community I'd love to check them out, one thing I really like about the list as it is, is it's only ~200$ right now and decently stocked with recent cards, so the average player owns a fair chunk of these and can afford to pick up the remainder at an LGS. There's some obvious goodstuff I could go pick up if I wanted to make this another 400-600$ brew but I like the challenge of a budget. Thanks for reading this!