I had an older version of this deck but I rebuilt it because I wasn't happy with how it didn't really interact with the graveyard as much as I wanted it to. So I added in more things that either pull stuff out of my graveyard like relentless dead or bring themselves back like advanced stitchwing. I also added more madness enablers including stitchwing and necromancer's stockpile. Theres also plenty of tokens and burn for reach.
There are some very strong cards here, but it looks like you could really tighten the synergy of the deck a bit. What are your aims here? If you're going for Zombie tribal, I'd potentially look at a different commander. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Grimgrin, but he doesn't really have a lot of tribal synergy or provide a lot of support to the zombie hordes.
The untapping cards are a really good idea. I have a few ways in the list(minamo, school at water's edge is in the list). That was one of the issues I had with my original build im that I didn't use my general as much as I'd like outside getting the gravecrawler rooftop storm combo going or having endless ranks in play etc. In addition to that theres enough tokens and stuff that gives vigilance like haunted cloak that I hope I'll be sending him into the red zone more consistently than before. Dance of the dead is pretty good after grimgrin eventually gets answered because it untaps him for 1B and he gets a cool +1/+1 buff. And I honestly forgot paradox engine existed.
Its a work in progress. I have a lot of play testing to do. I'm not sure if advanced stitchwing, stitchwing skaab, ghoulsteed or haunted dead are going to be good or not for example.
I'd suggest that these work better in a reanimator build.
I'm not necessarily set in using grimgrin however I am set on the colors. The only other zombie general I would consider would be Thraximundar.
Thraximundar is fairly similar in that he works better as a midrange/aggro build with a bit of ramp, attrition, and really maximising your attack step. If you're set on the colors (and to be clear this is not me blowing my own trumpet, as I run this general) I would suggest Gisa and Geralf as a really good reanimator general. They're much better at reanimation and they help fill your yard. Grimgrin would work just fine in the 99 too.
I think as far as keeping tribal flavour goes, it is what you make it. The only other legendary zombies that you haven't touched on are Lord of Tresserhorn and Balthor the Defiled. For a couple of reasons I don't think either fits what you seem to be after, which seems to be more of a flavour niche above anything else.
You never know, the tribal theme of the next Commander release could be rewarding. I think it's in August. Personally, I'm hoping for a few reprints - Death Baron is expensive as hell, and a lot of the uncommon zombie lord effects are tough to track down.
I have a balthor but he ended up being cut since twilight's call, living death and zombie apocalyspe do about the same thing but better. If only he were a zombie lord instead of buffing minions. patriarch's bidding was cut too. Which is kinda unfortunate since that was part of the first zombie deck I played ever.
Crossing my fingers for a new good zombie general or two in commander 2017!
I actually own copies of all of the zombie lords including death baron(excluding the new one from amonkhet) but really how many anthems do I need in addition to undead warchief, mikaeus, the unhallowed, gauntlet of power, caged sun and liliana's mastery?
In my opinion, Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power are not really the right pick here anyway. Do you have a use for all that mana? As far as I can see in the list you have two X spells. If you don't have any use for the mana, you're really only handing more mana to any opponents that share colours with you, and the same could be said of extraplanar lens unless you're running snow-covered lands. Caged sun is more expensive to cast than Death Baron anyway, and doesn't give your creatures deathtouch.
Liliana's Mastery I actually don't think much of personally. It's a buff, and you get zombie tokens, but unless you can recur the mastery itself, 3 is all you'll get. I don't see it as a particularly strong anthem option.
The other side of things is the additional abilities you get from the other lords. Cemetery Reaper is my favourite as you can nerf other reanimator decks to fill your own board. That's a strong effect.
I was just thinking that you play the lords primarily for their secondary effects. I play zombie master because regenerating and swampwalk are potentially better than a small boost im power and toughness. Death baron is the best way to grant zombies deathtouch. I have enough raise dead effects that I don't think I would need lord of the undead in here. diregraf captain is the weakest of the "when zombies die burn people" cards in my opinion. Cemetary reaper is decent graveyard hate that I probably should have in here.
All valid points about the doublers. I probably should just run normal ramp.
I actually was using snow lands but didn't bother to autocard them right. Opps.
Ramp wise, you don't really need a lot to be honest. You have the coffers/urborg combo. You could go for some redundancy with Magus of the Coffers and Crypt Ghast but I suspect you will say no because they're not zombies. Other than that I really wouldn't worry too much about ramp.
I play magus and ghast in my other black deck that doesn't care about creature type so much alongside nirkana revenant and I love them. I could get that redundancy by playing things like expedition map that can fetch coffers/urborg. And I do have the redundancy that blacks fetch anything tutors lend to the whole deck too.
How about the Zombie King himself Sedris, the Traitor King? All your zombies can reanimate and you can use Unscythe, Killer of Kings.
It's not the worst idea in the world tbh. Fill the gy with zombie bombs, unearth them then sac them before end of turn. One trigger replaces another and they return to the graveyard instead of exile.
Unearth has a "or if it would leave the battlefield." clause that makes that impossible. 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.
If you're going to stay on-theme with Zombies and Zombie things, I applaud you - I've altered my Sedris to look like the real Champion of the Scourge. I couldn't help myself from spiking it, but originally I had Warcraft theme.
Yeah I realised I had that wrong as soon as I posted. Deadeye Navigator will do it too as when they blink back in they come in as new permanents.
Theyd be leaving the battlefield in that instance and be exiled. Teferi's Veil phases them so they never technically leave the battlefield. And Sundial of the Infinite ends the turn so the trigger never happens. Deadeye Navigator can save Sneak Attack creatures however.
Grimgrin, corpse-born
24 creatures
Cryptbreaker
Gravecrawler
Relentless dead
Diregraf colossus
Haakon, stromgald scourge
Plague belcher
Prized amalgram
Zombie master
Agent of erebos
Corpse augur
Forgotten creation
Haunted dead
Stitchwing skaab
Undead warchief
Vengeful dead
Advanced stitchwing
Ghoulsteed
Gray merchant of asphodel
Havengul lich
Noxious ghoul
Geralf's mindcrusher
Mikaeus, the unhallowed
Noosegraf mob
Scourge of nel toth
39 spells
Epiphany at the drownyard
Read the runes
Sensei's divining top
Sol ring
Tragic slip
Vampiric tutor
Anvil of bogarden
Dance of the dead
Demonic tutor
Dread summons
Necromancer's stockpile
Thought vessel
Extraplanar lens
Flux
Haunted cloak
Intuition
Toxic deluge
Urza's incubator
Yawgmoth's will
Careful consideration
Deep analysis
Endless ranks of the dead
Rite of replication
Tombstone stairwell
Call to the grave
From under the floorboards
Gauntlet of power
Liliana's mastery
Liliana, death's majesty
Living death
Syphon flesh
Caged sun
Null profusion
Rooftop storm
Twilight's call
Volition reins
Zombie apocalypse
Blatant thievery
Army of the damned
36 land
13 snow-covered swamp
4 snow-covered island
Bloodstained mire
Cabal coffers
Cavern of souls
Derserted temple
Drownyard temple
Geier reach sanitarium
Marsh flats
Minamo, school at water's edge
Polluted delta
Reliquary tower
Sunken hollow
Thawing glacier
Tolaria west
Underground sea
Unholy grotto
Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
Verdant catacomb
Volrath's stronghold
Watery grave
That being said, there are some great Grimgrin lists out there. If you're set on him as a commander, I would focus on making the most of his sacrifice trigger, and provide him with ways to easily untap - the first part is things like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Zulaport Cutthroat, Reassembling Skeleton. The second is things like Hidden Strings, Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Fatestitcher, Paradox Engine.
Happy to help with recommendations as you'd like, let us all know what direction you're headed in.
I'm not necessarily set in using grimgrin however I am set on the colors. The only other zombie general I would consider would be Thraximundar.
I also want to avoid non-zombie creatures in my list like reassembling skeleton or grave titan(seriously why aren't you a zombie giant?!).
Dictate of erebos and gravepact are things I really want to squeeze in somehow.
The untapping cards are a really good idea. I have a few ways in the list(minamo, school at water's edge is in the list). That was one of the issues I had with my original build im that I didn't use my general as much as I'd like outside getting the gravecrawler rooftop storm combo going or having endless ranks in play etc. In addition to that theres enough tokens and stuff that gives vigilance like haunted cloak that I hope I'll be sending him into the red zone more consistently than before. Dance of the dead is pretty good after grimgrin eventually gets answered because it untaps him for 1B and he gets a cool +1/+1 buff. And I honestly forgot paradox engine existed.
I'd suggest that these work better in a reanimator build.
Thraximundar is fairly similar in that he works better as a midrange/aggro build with a bit of ramp, attrition, and really maximising your attack step. If you're set on the colors (and to be clear this is not me blowing my own trumpet, as I run this general) I would suggest Gisa and Geralf as a really good reanimator general. They're much better at reanimation and they help fill your yard. Grimgrin would work just fine in the 99 too.
If you're set on Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as a general, Retreat to Coralhelm is great, so is Thousand-Year Elixir, and I'd be looking at some zombie token generators for his sac engine too.
I wish there was a bug zombie general. I'm torn between playing Bu and Bg. Jarad, golgari lich lord is another general I like. And he gives access to support like survival of the fittest and mulch
What other zombie generals have good tribal interactions?
I think as far as keeping tribal flavour goes, it is what you make it. The only other legendary zombies that you haven't touched on are Lord of Tresserhorn and Balthor the Defiled. For a couple of reasons I don't think either fits what you seem to be after, which seems to be more of a flavour niche above anything else.
You never know, the tribal theme of the next Commander release could be rewarding. I think it's in August. Personally, I'm hoping for a few reprints - Death Baron is expensive as hell, and a lot of the uncommon zombie lord effects are tough to track down.
I have a balthor but he ended up being cut since twilight's call, living death and zombie apocalyspe do about the same thing but better. If only he were a zombie lord instead of buffing minions. patriarch's bidding was cut too. Which is kinda unfortunate since that was part of the first zombie deck I played ever.
Crossing my fingers for a new good zombie general or two in commander 2017!
In my opinion, Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power are not really the right pick here anyway. Do you have a use for all that mana? As far as I can see in the list you have two X spells. If you don't have any use for the mana, you're really only handing more mana to any opponents that share colours with you, and the same could be said of extraplanar lens unless you're running snow-covered lands. Caged sun is more expensive to cast than Death Baron anyway, and doesn't give your creatures deathtouch.
Liliana's Mastery I actually don't think much of personally. It's a buff, and you get zombie tokens, but unless you can recur the mastery itself, 3 is all you'll get. I don't see it as a particularly strong anthem option.
The other side of things is the additional abilities you get from the other lords. Cemetery Reaper is my favourite as you can nerf other reanimator decks to fill your own board. That's a strong effect.
This is all just my two cents anyhow.
All valid points about the doublers. I probably should just run normal ramp.
I actually was using snow lands but didn't bother to autocard them right. Opps.
I play Zombie Master for the same reasons.
I don't play Lord of the Undead for the same reasons.
Diregraf Captain is the only tribal burn I have which is why I play him. I'd swap in Shepherd of Rot in an instant.
Ramp wise, you don't really need a lot to be honest. You have the coffers/urborg combo. You could go for some redundancy with Magus of the Coffers and Crypt Ghast but I suspect you will say no because they're not zombies. Other than that I really wouldn't worry too much about ramp.
I play magus and ghast in my other black deck that doesn't care about creature type so much alongside nirkana revenant and I love them. I could get that redundancy by playing things like expedition map that can fetch coffers/urborg. And I do have the redundancy that blacks fetch anything tutors lend to the whole deck too.
Yeah as I said, I don't think ramp is an issue for you at all.
It's not the worst idea in the world tbh. Fill the gy with zombie bombs, unearth them then sac them before end of turn. One trigger replaces another and they return to the graveyard instead of exile.
It would work well with Thraximundar and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. I'd invest in things like Entomb,Buried Alive,Corpse Connoisseur to fill the yard, then you're all good. Sac with Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar to fuel more unearth, or Altar of Dementia to fill your yard more.
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.
If you're going to stay on-theme with Zombies and Zombie things, I applaud you - I've altered my Sedris to look like the real Champion of the Scourge. I couldn't help myself from spiking it, but originally I had Warcraft theme.
Theyd be leaving the battlefield in that instance and be exiled. Teferi's Veil phases them so they never technically leave the battlefield. And Sundial of the Infinite ends the turn so the trigger never happens. Deadeye Navigator can save Sneak Attack creatures however.
Of course those are "better" but you don't have access to them out of the Command Zone and can still use them as redundancy