Do you hunger for the flesh of the living? Do you sometimes check your fridge and lament over the lack of human brains provided by today's market? Well, then Grimgrin is absolutely for you! The zombie tribe has been around for many-a year, and with the addition of the Innistrad block we have some pretty juicy zombies to tinker around with, this includes our wonderfully stitched-together Grimgrin! In time, I hope you will also be stitched-together with him as he becomes one of your favorite combo bombs!
Let's go over the pros of running Grimgrin as your general! Pros
- His creature type is one of the most printed and polarized tribes
- Sacrificing a creature nets you a +1/+1 counter and untaps him! Great for defending
- He lets you destroy a creature defending player controls just by ATTACKING. Oh, did I mention he gets another +1/+1 counter?
- This saucy undead gets huge FAST so long as you have the bodies to feed him
And, of course, you have the cons of playing with Grimgrin: Cons
- Grimgrin does not believe in Weight Watchers. If you don't have any creatures to toss to him, he just sits there doing nothing.
- Grimgrin comes into play tapped, so to utilize him you'll need to have something prepared for him to munch on
- He has absolutely NO evasion! He is an easy target for all sorts of removal
Now that we have the pros and cons out of the way, let's move on to examining some of Grimgrin's best toys and friends:
Gravecrawler is one of Grimgrin's closest friends alongside Vengeful Dead. The first zombie is one piece of an infinite loop to feed Grimgrin +1/+1 counters and the other sucks the life out of your opponent whenever any of your zombies is put into your graveyard! For those with a love for infinite loops, Grimgrin has many tricks to spare.
Needless to say, but Gravecrawler and Rooftop Storm are two very important combo pieces, so you will need to run countermagic in order to protect them from people who want to throw a wrench in your gears. There are probably tons of other infinite loops out there you can perform with Grimgrin. Half of the fun is finding them!
My deck list is formulated especially for the current meta in my region. It runs some graveyard hate (both spot and whole), it contains tribe hate (Haakon + Ego Erasure or Nameless Inversion), and it contains alternate win conditions (Diregraf, Profane Command, Exsanguinate). Graveborn Muse is also a choice pick to run in this deck because if you get tired of losing life to her, you can feed her to something like Grimgrin or the Altar! Dralnu allows you to reuse countermagic play already-spent tutors and can evade taking damage by being sacrificed.
Some of you may be wondering why I am running Increasing Ambition instead of say, vampiric tutor, but it has really pulled through in this deck. Allowing me to fetch rooftop storm one turn, then two win conditions with its flashback paid!
The rest is utility, bounce or disruption to keep my opponents from getting too bonkers. Share your decks lists and/or offer me feedback! I understand that some of my lands are weird picks, but my collection isn't quite that impressive.
Do you hunger for the flesh of the living? Do you sometimes check your fridge and lament over the lack of human brains provided by today's market? Well, then Grimgrin is absolutely for you! The zombie tribe has been around for many-a year, and with the addition of the Innistrad block we have some pretty juicy zombies to tinker around with, this includes our wonderfully stitched-together Grimgrin! In time, I hope you will also be stitched-together with him as he becomes one of your favorite combo bombs!
Let's go over the pros of running Grimgrin as your general!
Pros
- Sacrificing a creature nets you a +1/+1 counter and untaps him! Great for defending
- He lets you destroy a creature defending player controls just by ATTACKING. Oh, did I mention he gets another +1/+1 counter?
- This saucy undead gets huge FAST so long as you have the bodies to feed him
And, of course, you have the cons of playing with Grimgrin:
Cons
- Grimgrin comes into play tapped, so to utilize him you'll need to have something prepared for him to munch on
- He has absolutely NO evasion! He is an easy target for all sorts of removal
Now that we have the pros and cons out of the way, let's move on to examining some of Grimgrin's best toys and friends:
Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Grimgrin/Carrion Feeder = Infinite +1/+1 counters!
Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite Mana!
Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Any Sac Outlet + Vengeful Dead/Diregraf Captain = All of your opponents die!
Needless to say, but Gravecrawler and Rooftop Storm are two very important combo pieces, so you will need to run countermagic in order to protect them from people who want to throw a wrench in your gears. There are probably tons of other infinite loops out there you can perform with Grimgrin. Half of the fun is finding them!
For example, Noxious Ghoul interacts really nicely with Gravecrawler as does Grave Pact. To ensure that your zombies actually connect, the use of enchantments like Cover of Darkness or even equipment like Whispersilk Cloak are great!
Let's move on to a sample decklist. Mine!
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Lands
14 Swamp
11 Island
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tainted Isle
1 Halimar Depths
1 Waterveil Cavern
1 Barren Moor
1 Dimir Aquedict
1 Unholy Grotto
1 Drowned Catacombs
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Watery Grave
Artifacts
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Dimir Signet
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Sol Ring
1 Blasting Station
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Mana Crypt
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Rooftop Storm
1 Grave Pact
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
Instants
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Perplex
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ego Erasure
1 Countersquall
1 Spell Crumple
1 Hinder
1 Undermine
1 Counterspell
Sorceries
1 Exsanguinate
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Victimize
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Profane Command
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Zombie Apocalypse
1 Army of the Damned
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Damnation
1 Decree of Pain
1 Buried Alive
1 Geralf's Mindcrusher
1 Dralnu, Lich Lord
1 Havengul Lich
1 Diregraf Captain
1 Triskelion
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Undead Warchief
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Grave Titan
1 Gravespawn Sovereign
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Sedraxis Alchemist
1 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Gravedigger
1 Vengeful Dead
1 Black Cat
1 Gravecrawler
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Noxious Ghoul
1 Shepherd of Rot
1 Withered Wretch
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Zombie Trailblazer
My deck list is formulated especially for the current meta in my region. It runs some graveyard hate (both spot and whole), it contains tribe hate (Haakon + Ego Erasure or Nameless Inversion), and it contains alternate win conditions (Diregraf, Profane Command, Exsanguinate). Graveborn Muse is also a choice pick to run in this deck because if you get tired of losing life to her, you can feed her to something like Grimgrin or the Altar! Dralnu allows you to reuse countermagic play already-spent tutors and can evade taking damage by being sacrificed.
Some of you may be wondering why I am running Increasing Ambition instead of say, vampiric tutor, but it has really pulled through in this deck. Allowing me to fetch rooftop storm one turn, then two win conditions with its flashback paid!
The rest is utility, bounce or disruption to keep my opponents from getting too bonkers. Share your decks lists and/or offer me feedback! I understand that some of my lands are weird picks, but my collection isn't quite that impressive.
Thanks!
WUR Enduring Ideal RUW
GGG Stompy Crux GGG
-- Elder Dragon Highlander --
UBU
Grimgrin, Zombie HordeUBURWR
Jor Kadeen TronRWRBRU Sedris Beatdown URB
UUU Llawan, Empress of "No" UUU
WBW Vish Kal Tron WBW
GRG Thromok Token GRG
RRR Zo-Zu, Hater of Everything RRR
Also NGW has a really sweet Combo/Reanimator list HERE: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=7610073
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-BornUB
WRG Marath, Will of the Wild GRW
RGOmnath, Locus of RageGR
WBTeysa, Orzhov ScionBW
URThe Locust GodRU
W(W/R)RAkiri, Line-SlingerW(W/R)R