MTG Salvation

Another Zombie post I get it.

But, Does anyone have any good trails or leads to tip me off into the right Direction. I'm normally a Tier 3 to Tier 4 non competitive player of EDH. But, I would like to try my hand in a Zombie deck. Particularly Tribal if at all possible. I do know the new Commander Anthropology is based on Tribal Commanders, but I do not know if it provided any guidance on Zombies.

Quick History lesson,
My Commanders that I normally run are
1) Mayael the Anima
2) Mimeoplasm (2 Decks) mill and control
3) Omnath Locust of Mana (Big Green Booger)
4) Kambal, Consul of Allocation

I know the only Commander who comes close to Zombies would be Mimeoplasm. But I never actually built a Zombie deck of anykind. I would like to reach out and seek any guidance, criticism, or just plain knowledge. I do like Grimgrin. If the deck is preferred to be blue and black then I am guessing GrimGrin is the way to go. But mono black. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is a possibility right? I'll do my research on Lord of Tesserhorn. I actually have no idea who or what that creature is, which is why I need to do my own research of my own. But this post is mainly for those who have built a Zombie EDH deck or who have gone up against a Zombie EDH deck.

Also, regarding the rules, I know of not adding decklists because as a newbie to this Forum. Help? Please?

My zombie tribal is UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, but a friend of mine had a mono-B Geth, Lord of the Vault that was pretty reasonable. Adding in U does provide the deck a lot more draw and card advantage though.

Lots of options for mono zombies. Ghoulcaller Gisa in mono B, Grimgrin un UB and Thraximundar un grixis. If you want to look more I would go to EDHrec and search through tribes quite easily which will give you the most popular commanders.

In my opinion the best way to build zombies in EDH is using Sidisi Brood Tyrant. Blue and Green offer lots of utility and the commander itself fuels the strategy of dumping zombies in your graveyard (while creating bodies) to get back later with Zombie Apocalypse/Living End/Bidding, which promotes massive life swings with Gray Merchant and Plague Belcher/Vengeful Dead/etc. She also can be used with combos to mill your deck for quicker wins if you so desire.

Hi! I actually have a primer for Lord of Tresserhorn, located in my signature, that is mostly zombie tribal. I haven't yet updated it for Amonkhet (as I was out of town for prerelease weekend and just now received some product), but there are some great additions. If you're looking for ideas to get you started, I think it'd be a good starting point.

That being said, I've seen solid mono black zombies (Ghoulcaller Gisa), good black/blue zombies (Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Gisa and Geralf), and blue/black/red (Lord of Tresserhorn, Thraximundar). Though fun-looking, all the Sidisi, Brood Tyrant decks I've seen end up being less about zombies and more about the non-zombie cards.

I hope you find what you're looking for!

Be different and do Kambal Zombies!
There is Necromancer's Covenant and all the new White Zombie tokens and what not out there.

Gisa and Geralf are fun commanders. I have a Nekusar deck that has a Lich subtheme (spellbooks, reanimation, etc etc).

If your looking to be competitive then UB with Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is the best option, combo piece in the command zone. Though Gisa and Geralf can do some fun things with that opt cast from grave.

Mono B is a good way to go aswell Ghoulcaller Gisa can be a powerhouse but Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is just insane with or without a zombie build.

All in all in my experience red adds nothing to zombies competitive wise, you get a few fun cards though, being said Nekusar, the Mindrazer will get targeted with hate because no one will believe you are really doing zombie tribal and not wheeling, in my experience anyway. The other Grixis zombie commanders just aren't very competitive without setup.

Green has a similar issue to red, its add little to the zombie theme and will usually end up being focused on something else ala Sidisi, Brood Tyrant or Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. These decks are perfectly competitive but not really zombie decks, though they can certainly be built that way.

As far as BW goes, yes we just got a few new toys in Amonkhet, all in all though only Wayward Servant and Binding Mummy really make an impact as white zombies, and Embalm does make zombies but you don't really want to be exiling creatures from your yard in a Zombie deck. Necromancer's Covenant on the other hand makes it almost worth it.

I alternate between Ghoulcaller Gisa and Gisa and Geralf. Both are diferent because lonelly Gisa focus in massing a zombie army while the siblings are focused in self mill and reanimation so i keep changing without deciding. I guess my favourite is Ghoulcaller Gisa because of her ability but soemtimes i miss blue for some staples like Rooftop Storm and Diregraf Captain.

My deck isn't very competitive but there are times it can be dangerous if not awnsered by an oponent because is so ridiculous fun creating your own zombie army with Zombie Lords pumping them to scary degrees.

I like nekusar, the mindrazer for a casual zombie commander. You have all the blue/black zombies, and red can give you vandalblast/blasphemous act/savage beating/etc for additional support.

Nekusar does tend to represent a pain-wheel deck, but is typically ignored unless you have a punishment effect out. You can use him just to help draw a few extra cards in early game, and play out your zombies at a normal pace.

Or, if you like patriarch's bidding/zombie apocalypse/living death/twilight's call/rise of the dark realms effects, you could add in some Nekusar theme'd cards like wheel of fortune/windfall/reforge the soul/whispering madness/etc, so you can cause some damage with your commander while filling your graveyard for a mass recursion play.

I'm going put a +1 for Gisa and Geralf as my opinion. If you're going for zombie hordes, alone Gisa could do quite well, but G&G provide plenty of draw and some self mill fun. It's a good time. There should be plenty of lists for them in the database.

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born seems to me like a solid voltron option. If that's your thing.

There are a couple of other options: Thraximundar (LOTS of fun as a midrange aggro), Sedris, the Traitor King, but to my mind G&G is pretty solid.

EDIT:
Hit up this link:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/204408-commander-decklist-database

It's updated regularly, and has more or less every deck listed in the EDH forums. It's what you're after.

There is a lot of zombie tribal support around, plenty of zombie lords. The one thing I've found really important to consider is to run enough disruption and not focus just on your hordes - its easy to slam everything zombie related in a deck, its another alotgether to make it work despite everyone else's best efforts. Run some counters, destroy/bounce and draw. My G&G deck does well with draw but can struggle time to time with enough disruption. So learn from my mistakes.

I strongly suggest Thrax, Grixis gives you many options for control. Thrax is a powerful general to begin with. He gives you access to Rooftop Storm and he is great fro both soloing and tribal play. While he does not necessarily synergize with zombies he is good with them (As he is a zombie himself)

I'm going to make the case for Sedris, the Traitor King. Teferi's Veil and Sundial of the Infinite get around the exile clause. The real big impact is Haste, and everything is a liability to your opponents: they have to kill it, trade with it or take the damage. It pushes the action so much, and makes most attacks super profitable.

In my Sedris deck I have Sneak Attack to cheat in big fatties, sacrifice them and bring them back with Unearth to swing again. I've done it with Emrakul, the Promised End, as well as hard cast it because of grave yard filling.

My list is very out of date, and not entirely reflective of its current incarnation - I've since added more Zombies, sometime in the future I will update it: here it is

The inevitably provided by balthor, the defiled shouldn't be ignored.