"Christ promised the resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had something a little different in mind."
.... Herschel Greene
Another piece of artistic genius from Ace5301 over at "Ace of Spades" Studio.
Soldier - "Sir, the line is crumbling, we have to have reinforcements now."
Captain - "Don't talk crazy, son. We've got this under control. I saw the vanguard crush their main force over an hour ago. Half their force is dead."
Soldier - "I saw that too, sir..... but...."
Captain - "So what's the problem?"
Soldier - "Sir...... they keep coming back."
Deck History:
My latest Zombie Tribal deck. Since I'm a huge fan of playing with dead things, I built a Dralnu, Lich Lord zom deck a long time ago, it eventually got taken apart for other things. Then I moved onto Glissa, the Traitor zoms. It just wasn't very satisfying. This build is turning out to be more fun so far, and appears that it will be my permanent Zombie Tribal deck.
How does it play/win?
Lots of playing, dying, re-playing going on. It mainly wins in one of three ways.
1) Commander damage with a huge, pumped Grimgrin
2) Alpha Strike with lots of zoms
3) Opponents losing life when lots of zoms leave play because of Vela the Night-Clad, Blood Artist, Vengeful Dead, or Diregraf Captain. Cycling Gempalm Polluter before they die is another variation/option.
There are a few cool combos and a big finisher or two as backup plans. There is a ton of interesting synergies going on.
I recently finished a game by cycling Gempalm Polluter with 16 zoms in play, then saccing 15 of them to Grimgrin while Vengeful Dead was in play.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
Tombstone Stairwell: Tombstone Stairwell is a tricky card due to its upkeep cost. Save it 'til you can really take advantage of it for a couple turns with various other cards like:
Don't forget that with Endless Ranks of the Dead, you control both triggers, so you decide how they go on the stack. Let Stairwell resolve first so there are more zoms in play for Ranks. You get to keep the Ranks tokens.
Before the end of the turn, take advantage of all the zom tokens that are about to die with things like:
Recommended Playlist:
"Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult
"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
"All You Zombies" by Hooters
"Welcome To My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper
"Zombie" by the Cranberries
"Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie
Some of the cards i think are cut worthy are some of the lords as they generally don't do much for you in the long run. (i have tested this a lot, but it might be different in your meta). You can look at my deck in my signature for any ideas.
Lim-Dûl is too expensive considering that Grave Betrayal is similar and doesn't cost any additional mana (same goes for Dread Slaver).
Souless One is a big beater and can possibly one shot a player on its own if your able to get a lot of zombies and give it evasion.
Bone Dancer is almost like a creature version of Corpse Dance, hmm i may have to consider it for my deck...
Coffin Queen is awesome (but one should always have a sac outlet at the ready just in case).
Patriarch's Bidding is great but i find that Zombie Apocalypse can work better regardless of the fact that it cost 1 more mana and the creatures ETB tapped. And seriously who doesn't want to kill all humans?
Hey there Blackjack. I've seen a couple of your decklists before and they, including this one, are all pretty awesome. I've been playing Grimgrin as my head ever since he was released, and working with this kind of deck there's a good chance that you can run out of steam in the middle to late game areas. Here are some suggestions that may or may not help.
These aren't so hard to cast, with the possible exception of CC having a CMC of 4, while also including double blue. The upside to these cards, aside from the obvious card draw, is that it also fills your graveyard for more recursion. Even better if you decide to kick Probe to have an opponent discard to feed stuff like Coffin Queen.
And my favorite inclusion to this card draw package... Unfulfilled Desires! It's a controllable Phyrexian Arena that you have to pay one for, but it helps when you have a bunch of crap in your hand, or want to discard something like Filth in a pinch.
How helpful has Archdemon of Unx been? How have you been getting enough non-zombies to keep him alive or is the plan to hope for Nim Deathmantle to already be out on the field?
How helpful has Archdemon of Unx been? How have you been getting enough non-zombies to keep him alive or is the plan to hope for Nim Deathmantle to already be out on the field?
I'm taking him out. I thought it would be a cute combo with deathmantle (and Rise from the Grave which I already took out), but it's just too unreliable, it's been useless so far. Meh, it was worth a try
First thanks so much for all of your posts I always enjoy your decks and the writing style you use to put the posts together... I have a quick question on this deck, why no protection for grimgrin? Do you not go for general damage strikes? Seems like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, maybe even Draksteel Plate would all be very useful.
First thanks so much for all of your posts I always enjoy your decks and the writing style you use to put the posts together.
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
I have a quick question on this deck, why no protection for grimgrin? Do you not go for general damage strikes? Seems like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, maybe even Draksteel Plate would all be very useful.
I may very well put one or two equips in once Gatecrash releases (I'm putting off official deck changes 'til then). I didn't originally since, equal to Grimgrins usefulness as a beater, is the mass swarm of zoms the deck can generate and then do it's killing with mass dmg + Gempalm Polluter and Vengeful Dead style shenanigans. I didn't want to use up the card slots for equips.
Since I've been able to play the deck a few more times now, I'm going to make a few cuts and may free up enough slots to warrant an equip inclusion or two.
I still haven't completely scoured the Gatecrash spoiler for cards that would be good in here, if you spot any hidden tech, let me know.
Have you looked at Lich Lord of Unx? His second ability seems like it would be great for you deck. Also any deck that can make a ton of creatures will benifit from Opposition if it can run it. I really like Sculpting Steel as it becomes whatever I want/need and if your running Hinder, why no Spell crumple its better than Counterspell imo?
The other two cards I really like are Ashes to Ashes and Cyclonic Rift... Exile in black is just nice to have sometimes and well rift speaks for itself I think...
Only because I didn't have another copy and didn't think to order one. That's why Coldsteel Heart is in there too, I just ran out of better mana rocks.
Yeah, cool trick. I used this in one of my old zom decks. I used Buried Alive and corpse connoisseur to fetch him. Ah, if only Haakon said "zombies" instead of "knights". Still, he's always in the back of my mind.
Also, did you know that Ashnod's Altar, Nim Deathmantle and Grave Titan is an infinite sac/token combo? Cast titan, sac a token and the titan for 4 mana to bring back the titan with deathmantle etc.
It's actually infinite tokens and infinite mana both. I haven't had time yet to fully type out the tips/tricks/combo section. Here's the copy/paste from my Ghost Council deck.
Here's how it works with Knight-Captain of Eos:
KC in play with the 2 tokens he brought. Sac the two tokens to Ashnods which puts in the pool. Now sac KC himself to the altar. in pool, using of it to bring KC back with Deathmantle. Now you're at your starting state and up in the pool. Repeat for as many times as you need to kill the table with an Exsanguinate.
NOW THAT YOU'VE GOT INIF-MANA: It's time to get infi-tokens.
Just sac off KC and one token instead of both tokens, and use the 4 mana that generates to return KC to play on the Deathmantle. Now you're even on mana and +1 token. Repeat.
Keep up the good work! Grimgrin was my first Commander and has alway been a lot of fun, even in the beginning when my deck was terrible
Thanks, man. This one is still pretty rough, I think it'll get considerably better with the upcoming batch of changes. So far, it's been a lot of fun, but just not quite deadly enough. I'm getting too many decks, so they're individually getting a lot less play/testing because of it. I guess I'll just have to pick up the pace on playing edh games a little
How often do you win off of Grimgrin? I ask because the list doesn't seem to leverage him too much. Is that something you care about trying to do?
Thornbite Staff - untap him any time a creature dies. Intruder Alarm - untap him any time a creature ETBs. Blade of the Bloodchief - double up on the counters he gets. Fatestitcher - untaps him, is a zombie, can be unearthed. (There are lots of twiddles on sticks but this is imo the best one) Bitterblossom - makes tokens for you to sac.
I've found that if the table lets you build Grimgrin even a little he turns into a one-shot right quick.
Of those Fatestitcher is the only one I have interest in as it can be used in other ways with the other lords out an I am really trying to keep my deck on theme...
Thornbite Staff - Its already pretty darn easy to untap him and this card does little for the deck other than with grimgrin, one dimensional. Intruder Alarm - See above Blade of the Bloodchief - Doesnt really help him stick around and its already really easy to get counters on him... maybe this one would be worth throwing in to test. Bitterblossom - Shoot man when isn't this good in a deck... like ever.
Those are my thoughts at least...
The reason why I like the shroud/hexproof equips is that they can also be used to protect combo pieces not just our smiling commander.
For my own deck I plan to use Grimgrin a little more than Blackjack seems to, but at the same time its not my sole plan. If I really focus on using him the whole table will make sure I never get a chance too (I run in a removal heavy meta...)
I want the ability to have multiple paths to victory; Grimgrin, Pseudo-combo, Zombie beats
Yeah, I haven't really focused much on commander damage, but I'm going to go a bit heavier that way with the new changes. I've won more just by using him as a sac outlet with Vengeful Dead or Diregraf Captain in play.
I want the ability to have multiple paths to victory; Grimgrin, Pseudo-combo, Zombie beats
That's the final goal for me.
Hands down, my favorite kills so far have come from having a big horde and cycling Gempalm Polluter a couple times. Especially nice when everyone has zoms in play from Tombstone Stairwell.
In the interest of provoking continued discussion because I am very interested in this general I will post my current list as it stands. I am interested in making a few more tweaks to it... Right now it favors mass removal over spot removal.
Definitely taking out Corpse Dance now. It's my favorite recursion spell ever, but this deck doesn't really abuse etb abilities like my others and doesn't have nearly as many sac outlets to get around the exile clause with any consistency.
I'll be finalizing my changes and updating the list within a day or so. Tough decisions.
Metamorph is an upgrade to sculpting steel because it can be artifacts or creatures and can be cast for the same cost if needed...
Plague Wind is 9 mana.... 9 freaking mana I deserve to win for that amount on one spell, so I changed it to tutor for X. Diabolic Revelation will win me the game if I am not disrupted, that being said I will watch it closely to make sure it doesn't become the, "lets combo asap" card it could be.
Finally Vess came in for Syphon Mind because she gets me what I want, can also mess others up, and in a rare ultimate is pretty sweet. Looking at maybe Liliana of the veil as well.
Your deck looks similar to mine too. Have you tried running Cruel Revival? It's removal and recursion at the same time! Sure it has a cmc of 5, but that's easy in EDH. Also, why not also use Liliana of the Dark Realms as mana fix? Keep up the good work.
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Dead Reckoning
"Christ promised the resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had something a little different in mind."
.... Herschel Greene
Another piece of artistic genius from Ace5301 over at "Ace of Spades" Studio.
Soldier - "Sir, the line is crumbling, we have to have reinforcements now."
Captain - "Don't talk crazy, son. We've got this under control. I saw the vanguard crush their main force over an hour ago. Half their force is dead."
Soldier - "I saw that too, sir..... but...."
Captain - "So what's the problem?"
Soldier - "Sir...... they keep coming back."
Deck History:
My latest Zombie Tribal deck. Since I'm a huge fan of playing with dead things, I built a Dralnu, Lich Lord zom deck a long time ago, it eventually got taken apart for other things. Then I moved onto Glissa, the Traitor zoms. It just wasn't very satisfying. This build is turning out to be more fun so far, and appears that it will be my permanent Zombie Tribal deck.
How does it play/win?
Lots of playing, dying, re-playing going on. It mainly wins in one of three ways.
1) Commander damage with a huge, pumped Grimgrin
2) Alpha Strike with lots of zoms
3) Opponents losing life when lots of zoms leave play because of Vela the Night-Clad, Blood Artist, Vengeful Dead, or Diregraf Captain. Cycling Gempalm Polluter before they die is another variation/option.
There are a few cool combos and a big finisher or two as backup plans. There is a ton of interesting synergies going on.
I recently finished a game by cycling Gempalm Polluter with 16 zoms in play, then saccing 15 of them to Grimgrin while Vengeful Dead was in play.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
Approx:
Deckstats Value = $136
Average CMC = 3.84
The Decklist:
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Mana Lands:
13 Swamp
11 Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
Utility Lands:
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Unholy Grotto
1 Buried Ruin
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Tolaria West
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Rogue's Passage
Mana Help:
1 Expedition Map
1 Dimir Signet
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Blood Artist (combo)
1 Grave Titan (zom maker)
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One (recursion and removal)
1 Vela the Night-Clad (combo)
Zombie Lords:
1 Diregraf Captain
1 Zombie Master
Zombies:
1 Carrion Feeder (plus sac outlet)
1 Coffin Queen
1 Corpse Connoisseur (tutor)
1 Corpse Harvester
1 Dralnu, Lich Lord (plus recursion)
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Gempalm Polluter (combo)
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Gravecrawler (recursion combo)
1 Havengul Lich
1 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (plus recursion)
1 Noxious Ghoul (removal)
1 Skinrender (plus removal)
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Vengeful Dead (combo killer)
1 Vengeful Pharaoh (rattlesnake)
1 Withered Wretch (gy hate)
Gets More Zombies:
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Army of the Damned
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
1 Tombstone Stairwell
1 Zombie Apocalypse
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Grave Betrayal
Additional Sac Outlets:
1 Ashnod's Altar
Countermagic:
1 Hinder
1 Spell Crumple
1 Soul Manipulation
Additional Removal:
1 Decree of Pain (plus draw)
1 Rend Flesh
1 Call to the Grave
1 Black Sun's Zenith
Draw:
1 Syphon Mind
1 Skullclamp
1 Phyrexian Arena
Misc Spells:
1 Exsanguinate
1 Rooftop Storm
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Cyclonic Rift
.
Wishlist:
- Entomb
..
Chopping Block:
.
.
Thinking About/Testing:
- Eldrazi Monument
- Blasting Station (for combo)
- Buried Alive
- Falkenrath Noble
..
Changelog:
Too new for that
.
Tips, Tricks, Combos, and just General Nastiness:
Minamo, School at Water's Edge - Untaps El Jefe when you need him.
Rooftop Storm Combo:
Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler + Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Nice combo of opportunity gives you an infinitely big Grimgrin to swing with.
Add:
Vengeful Dead or Diregraf Captain = Kill the table
River Kelpie = Draw your deck 'til you hit Vengeful Dead (or Captain), kill the table.
Nantuko Husk or Carrion Feeder = Infibig swingers along with Grimgrin
Noxious Ghoul or Grave Pact = Sweeps all creatures (even indestructibles) for the big swing
Rooftop Storm/Gravecrawler also combos with:
Ashnod's Altar - Infimana for an Exsanguinate or Profane Command
Blasting Station - Kill the table
Gempalm Polluter:
I love this Gempalm Polluter! Cycle him with a lot of zoms in play, then bring him back to hand with Lord of the Undead or Unholy Grotto to do it again. Particularly fun with Tombstone Stairwell tokens in play.
Swampwalk:
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth enables you to swampwalk over anyone with Zombie Master in play.
Tombstone Stairwell:
Tombstone Stairwell is a tricky card due to its upkeep cost. Save it 'til you can really take advantage of it for a couple turns with various other cards like:
- Gempalm Polluter
- Vengeful Dead
- Grave Pact
- Diregraf Captain
- Akroma's Memorial
Don't forget that with Endless Ranks of the Dead, you control both triggers, so you decide how they go on the stack. Let Stairwell resolve first so there are more zoms in play for Ranks. You get to keep the Ranks tokens.Before the end of the turn, take advantage of all the zom tokens that are about to die with things like:
--------------------------------------------------
Recommended Playlist:
"Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult
"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
"All You Zombies" by Hooters
"Welcome To My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper
"Zombie" by the Cranberries
"Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
I would definitely add these:
Corpse Connoisseur - Helps with getting stuff in the grave for reanimating.
Havengul Lich - So great with Rooftop Storm tap 1 cast free zombie from the grave.
Vela the Night-Clad - Life Loss help.
Blood Artist - Life Loss help.
Eldrazi Monument - Can get insane if you can produce a lot of tokens.
Some of the cards i think are cut worthy are some of the lords as they generally don't do much for you in the long run. (i have tested this a lot, but it might be different in your meta). You can look at my deck in my signature for any ideas.
Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood can kill the table for an easy win if you want to go that route.
Feel free to look at my deck in my signature for any ideas/comments.
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
I'm especially liking the looks of Havengul Lich so far.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Under ConstructionEDH-W Wrath of the Angels
U Arcanis Goodstuff
B The Baron's Vampires
R Smashing Mirrors
G The Snakes Rising
RG The Grand Feast
UBR The Lord's Zombies
Nom
Thanks to Kracked Graphics for the signature!
[Limited]
Lim-Dûl is too expensive considering that Grave Betrayal is similar and doesn't cost any additional mana (same goes for Dread Slaver).
Souless One is a big beater and can possibly one shot a player on its own if your able to get a lot of zombies and give it evasion.
Bone Dancer is almost like a creature version of Corpse Dance, hmm i may have to consider it for my deck...
Coffin Queen is awesome (but one should always have a sac outlet at the ready just in case).
Patriarch's Bidding is great but i find that Zombie Apocalypse can work better regardless of the fact that it cost 1 more mana and the creatures ETB tapped. And seriously who doesn't want to kill all humans?
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
Otherwise, looks like a really good deck. Will keep my eyes peeled on this one...
| B Erebos, God of VampiresB | GYeva SmashG | RBosh ArtifactsR | GURAnimar +1 BeatsGUR | RBVial's Secret Hot SauceRB | UBRNekusar, Draw if you DareUBR | RGBDarigaaz'z DragonsRGB | GBSlimeFEETGB | UBOn-Hit LazavUB | URBrudiclad's Artificer InventionsUR | GUBMuldrotha's ElementalsGUB | WUGKestia's EnchantmentsWUG | GUTatyova - Draw, Land, Go!GU | WGArahbo's EquipmentWG | BUWVarina's ZOMBIE HORDESBUW | WLyra's Angelic SalvationW | WBChurch of TeysaWB | UAzami...WizardsU
These aren't so hard to cast, with the possible exception of CC having a CMC of 4, while also including double blue. The upside to these cards, aside from the obvious card draw, is that it also fills your graveyard for more recursion. Even better if you decide to kick Probe to have an opponent discard to feed stuff like Coffin Queen.
And my favorite inclusion to this card draw package... Unfulfilled Desires! It's a controllable Phyrexian Arena that you have to pay one for, but it helps when you have a bunch of crap in your hand, or want to discard something like Filth in a pinch.
BGWKarador, Night of the Wood God
UBRMarchesa, The Black Rose
BRGProssh, Suicide Crew
I'm taking him out. I thought it would be a cute combo with deathmantle (and Rise from the Grave which I already took out), but it's just too unreliable, it's been useless so far. Meh, it was worth a try
Swapping him out in the list for Zombie Apocalypse now.
Edit... also swapped out Argivian Restoration (not enough targets) for Corpse Connoisseur
Still a lot of tweaking and testing to do on this one.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
First thanks so much for all of your posts I always enjoy your decks and the writing style you use to put the posts together... I have a quick question on this deck, why no protection for grimgrin? Do you not go for general damage strikes? Seems like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, maybe even Draksteel Plate would all be very useful.
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
I may very well put one or two equips in once Gatecrash releases (I'm putting off official deck changes 'til then). I didn't originally since, equal to Grimgrins usefulness as a beater, is the mass swarm of zoms the deck can generate and then do it's killing with mass dmg + Gempalm Polluter and Vengeful Dead style shenanigans. I didn't want to use up the card slots for equips.
Since I've been able to play the deck a few more times now, I'm going to make a few cuts and may free up enough slots to warrant an equip inclusion or two.
I still haven't completely scoured the Gatecrash spoiler for cards that would be good in here, if you spot any hidden tech, let me know.
I know that the guildgate and keyrune are going in, Coffin Queen and Havengul Lich (I've been liking him), Buried Alive, and probably Blasting Station.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Have you looked at Lich Lord of Unx? His second ability seems like it would be great for you deck. Also any deck that can make a ton of creatures will benifit from Opposition if it can run it. I really like Sculpting Steel as it becomes whatever I want/need and if your running Hinder, why no Spell crumple its better than Counterspell imo?
The other two cards I really like are Ashes to Ashes and Cyclonic Rift... Exile in black is just nice to have sometimes and well rift speaks for itself I think...
Only because I didn't have another copy and didn't think to order one. That's why Coldsteel Heart is in there too, I just ran out of better mana rocks.
Agreed, that will go in.
Just when I thought I could cut enough cards to put in the new stuff I want, you come along with these and make my life difficult again.....
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Thank you for the compliment
Yeah, cool trick. I used this in one of my old zom decks. I used Buried Alive and corpse connoisseur to fetch him. Ah, if only Haakon said "zombies" instead of "knights". Still, he's always in the back of my mind.
It's actually infinite tokens and infinite mana both. I haven't had time yet to fully type out the tips/tricks/combo section. Here's the copy/paste from my Ghost Council deck.
Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar Combo for Infinite Mana & Tokens:
Nim Deathmantle plus Ashnod's Altar plus any creature that brings at least two tokens into play with it = Infinite Tokens and Mana. The creature could be Grave Titan, Skeletal Vampire, Knight-Captain of Eos, Cloudgoat Ranger, Marsh Flitter, or Wurmcoil Engine. Whatever.
Here's how it works with Knight-Captain of Eos:
KC in play with the 2 tokens he brought. Sac the two tokens to Ashnods which puts in the pool. Now sac KC himself to the altar. in pool, using of it to bring KC back with Deathmantle. Now you're at your starting state and up in the pool. Repeat for as many times as you need to kill the table with an Exsanguinate.
NOW THAT YOU'VE GOT INIF-MANA: It's time to get infi-tokens.
Just sac off KC and one token instead of both tokens, and use the 4 mana that generates to return KC to play on the Deathmantle. Now you're even on mana and +1 token. Repeat.
Thanks, man. This one is still pretty rough, I think it'll get considerably better with the upcoming batch of changes. So far, it's been a lot of fun, but just not quite deadly enough. I'm getting too many decks, so they're individually getting a lot less play/testing because of it. I guess I'll just have to pick up the pace on playing edh games a little
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Thornbite Staff - untap him any time a creature dies.
Intruder Alarm - untap him any time a creature ETBs.
Blade of the Bloodchief - double up on the counters he gets.
Fatestitcher - untaps him, is a zombie, can be unearthed. (There are lots of twiddles on sticks but this is imo the best one)
Bitterblossom - makes tokens for you to sac.
I've found that if the table lets you build Grimgrin even a little he turns into a one-shot right quick.
Thornbite Staff - Its already pretty darn easy to untap him and this card does little for the deck other than with grimgrin, one dimensional.
Intruder Alarm - See above
Blade of the Bloodchief - Doesnt really help him stick around and its already really easy to get counters on him... maybe this one would be worth throwing in to test.
Bitterblossom - Shoot man when isn't this good in a deck... like ever.
Those are my thoughts at least...
The reason why I like the shroud/hexproof equips is that they can also be used to protect combo pieces not just our smiling commander.
I want the ability to have multiple paths to victory; Grimgrin, Pseudo-combo, Zombie beats
That's the final goal for me.
Hands down, my favorite kills so far have come from having a big horde and cycling Gempalm Polluter a couple times. Especially nice when everyone has zoms in play from Tombstone Stairwell.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
DECK 1/25/13
1x Cemetery Reaper
1x Coffin Queen
1x Corpse Harvester
1x Death Baron
1x Diregraf Captain
1x Dralnu, Lich Lord
1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Gempalm Polluter
1x Grave Titan
1x Graveborn Muse
1x Gravecrawler
1x Havengul Lich
1x Lord of the Undead
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Noxious Ghoul
1x Undead Warchief
1x Vengeful Dead
1x Withered Wretch
1x Zombie Master
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Dimir Signet
1x Expedition Map
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Call to the Grave
1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
1x Grave Betrayal
1x Grave Pact
1x Opposition
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Rhystic Study
1x Rooftop Storm
1x Ancient Craving
1x Army of the Damned
1x Ashes to Ashes
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Bitter Ordeal
1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Damnation
1x Decree of Pain
1x Life's Finale
1x Living Death
1x Patriarch's Bidding
1x Plague Wind
1x Profane Command
1x Reanimate
1x Syphon Flesh
1x Syphon Mind
1x Zombie Apocalypse
1x Command Tower
1x Darkwater Catacombs
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x High Market
10x Island
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1x Sunken Ruins
15x Swamp
1x Tainted Isle
1x Tolaria West
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Hinder
1x Spell Crumple
1x Tragic Slip
Here are the cards I am thinking about right now.
Definitely taking out Corpse Dance now. It's my favorite recursion spell ever, but this deck doesn't really abuse etb abilities like my others and doesn't have nearly as many sac outlets to get around the exile clause with any consistency.
I'll be finalizing my changes and updating the list within a day or so. Tough decisions.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Put in Phyrexian Metamorph, Liliana Vess, and Diabolic Revelation
Here is my reasoning;
Metamorph is an upgrade to sculpting steel because it can be artifacts or creatures and can be cast for the same cost if needed...
Plague Wind is 9 mana.... 9 freaking mana I deserve to win for that amount on one spell, so I changed it to tutor for X. Diabolic Revelation will win me the game if I am not disrupted, that being said I will watch it closely to make sure it doesn't become the, "lets combo asap" card it could be.
Finally Vess came in for Syphon Mind because she gets me what I want, can also mess others up, and in a rare ultimate is pretty sweet. Looking at maybe Liliana of the veil as well.
A little more ramp and mana fixing
Out with most Lords
More ways to sneak a pumped Grimgrin through
More ways to abuse ltb for life loss
Notable Additions:
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning