Cruel Revival

Instant

Destroy target non-Zombie creature. It can't be regenerated. Return up to one target Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (19)

Jonesbond49 on Zombie Tribal

3 years ago

I'm going to make some suggestions but I'll keep the creature list intact. The number one thing that you need is more lands and at the very minimum you should have 37 lands.

These are cards I would take out and in order from first to last:

Clutch of Undeath is too over costed for what the aura does.

Liliana, Death Mage doesn't do much for zombie tribal and is a 6 mana planeswalker. Most other Liliana cards are good for zombie tribal.

Liliana's Scorn is a sorcery and cost too much to remove just one creature.

Cruel Revival is at least an instant but also cost too much.

Gitaxian Probe is a good card but doesn't do much for your deck.

These are the cards I would put in:

4 Swamps and Feed the Swarm. With the amount of removal I had the take out of your list, we desperatly need to put in another one and Feed the Swarm is a great black removal spell. It's biggest downfall is that it is a sorcery and not an instant but black struggles to get rid of enchantments.

Overall you picked some really great cards for zombie tribal and The Scarab God will win games all on his own. I will say that I made the same exact mistake you did with my first deck. I had only 33 lands too and found out the hard way that it was really hard to get my land drops. 37 lands is still on the low side, but it should be a lot smoother. Play with the deck some, see what you do and don't like, and then we can find some more changes for the deck. I'll post one more list of cards that you might want to add in later.

Jonesbond49 on Zombie Tribal

3 years ago

Card advantage (7/10): Bone Miser, Cryptbreaker, God-Eternal Bontu, Midnight Reaper, Sift, Icon of Ancestry, and Witching Well.

Ramp (9/10): Bone Miser, Undead Warchief, Arcane Signet, Caged Sun, Nyx Lotus, Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Dark Ritual, and Rooftop Storm.

Single Target Removal (5/5): Dark Salvation, Liliana's Scorn, Shamble Back, Cruel Revival, and Liliana, Death Mage.

Board Wipes (2/5): In Garruk's Wake, and Zombie Apocalypse.

JonMH on zambo cambo

6 years ago

I'd recommend dropping a few lands. I've found 34-38 to be the sweet spot for most commander decks I've run. You can replace a few of those lands with some mana artifacts like Sol Ring and that will tend to make things run more smoothly.

From there I'd add some more zombie tribal support with cards like Endless Ranks of the Dead, Relentless Dead, and Diregraf Colossus.

You might try playing around with some on-theme removal with Cruel Revival

Tenlor on White Black Budget

6 years ago

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying theme you're trying to go with. I'm going to assume you want to have B/W aggro-zombies, and base my suggestions around that.

First of all, I would recommend putting some more land in there. I know you're deck does have much mana cost, but you can still get mana screwed. Secondly, I would put in some dual colored lands, if you have any.

Secondly, I would personally make this a Zombie tribal deck, so I would remove Augmenting Automaton, Devoted Crop-Mate, Fourth Bridge Prowler, and Gonti, Lord of Luxury, as none of them help your zombies at all.

There are quite a few zombie cards that I think would have a good place in this deck. Particularly Wayward Servant and Graf Harvest. Wayward Servant would allow you to deal some damage to your opponents each time you play or bring back a Zombie, and let you gain some life as well. Graf Harvest would make it much more of a pain to prevent your horde of zombies from eating your opponents brains, as they would all have menace.

I feel like this deck needs a little more removal, so I would look at Cruel Revival as it kills your opponents things and allows you to bring back your own. Dark Salvation would let you create more zombies and potentially kill a creature, or weaken it enough to kill it with a token.

A few more cards to look at for general zombie purposes would be Shamble Back, Cemetery Recruitment, and From Under the Floorboards.

If you decided to upgrade your budget, a few pricier options are Liliana's Mastery, Relentless Dead, Diregraf Colossus, and liliana, death's majesty.

Making-a-new-account-Hopefully-I-can-get-my-old-Username on Moan-N-Bone

7 years ago

I like it! Looks very streamlined and efficient. How about a good old Cruel Revival? I know you benefit from exiling creatures from your yard, but sometimes you just wanna kill a dude and get a dude back in one go :) stay frosty!

Supahpikmin on Zombie Horde

7 years ago

So Here's a few suggestions for you, though the numbers probably won't add up:

What you should take out

• Cruel Revival is a very costly kill spell, even if it does return zombies, there are other means of killing creatures and getting more zombies. Drop 2.

• Reap the Seagraf Not the best since it's 3 mana for one zombie, and 5 for one more. I'd drop them all.

• Zombie Infestation is just kinda bad. Your draw power is not strong enough to use this too often. Drop them all.
• Undead Alchemist is a weird one. It lets you gain more and more zombies, however, once it's out, you shift gears from damage to mill. If it works for you, it works, but if you really need to drop something, it's this.
• Abattoir Ghoul hits on turn 5, meaning it's likely that another deck will have a way to handle it by then, be it a kill spell or strong blocker. I'd drop them both.

What you should add:

• Call to the Grave is, in my opinion, better than Cruel Revival because it kills an enemy creature every turn, and, unless you become board wiped, it will stay on the battlefield forever. Add 2
• Cemetery Reaper is a little costlier, but is almost a straight upgrade to Reap the Seagraf because it also counts towards the number of zombies that you have.
• Cemetery Recruitment gives you draw power and return power for two mana, or Ghoulcaller's Chant returns two zombies. Add 4 in any combination.
• Drunau Corpse Trawler will give you a blue creature to work with, and can boost your other zombies. Add 2.
• Endless Ranks of the Dead is an AMAZING card. Add 2 more.
• Havengul Runebinder Although not a zombie, this guy seriously boosts what you have, at the cost of returning zombies. Add whatever you feel is appropriate
• Lich Lord of Unx is another pricy card, but it can be a win-condition for you if you play your cards right. If you can, add 4.
• Shamble Back gives you some life and a zombie. pretty nice. Add two or so.
• Grixis Grimblade is a turn 2 zombie that uses blue. You may not get much benefit from its ability, but early game is really important.
• Headless Skaab removes a creature from your graveyard, but it's a very strong blue zombie, which is good for color balance.

So that's all I got. Remember though, that this is your deck, so any and all changes are totally up to you. I have some other advice for general magic, seeing as you're a new player.

• You want as many cards of yours to work with each other as possible, especially in a zombie deck
• When thinking about what cards you have in your deck, think about the mana cost of the card and its abilities. For example, would you rather bring out another creature, draw some cards, or use an artifact's ability.
• Think about your "God Hand." If you could rig your deck to have the perfect hand and perfect order of cards drawn, how strong would you be? If you would be tough to beat, great! If not, find the flaws and fix them.

Making-a-new-account-Hopefully-I-can-get-my-old-Username on Diregraf Destruction

7 years ago

Hey dude. This looks like a pretty solid foundation of a zombie deck. Since you're in blue, why not give Undead Alchemist a try? Cruel Revival has always worked amazingly for me. Since you have a bunch of guys that you can bring back from the yard, I'd suggest Necromancer's Stockpile - it just screams value :) If you don't mind me self-plugging, you could try and have a look at My OG Zombies for a little inspiration :) Have a great day :)

DukeofSam on Forest of Lost Souls (Delirium)

7 years ago

Theme/Style: Important in all decks but especially so in budget decks. Typically if you aren't playing very expensive cards that are the best in their own right you have to try and make the most out of synergies and combos to make your deck good. You can either do this by committing heavily to a mechanic such as delirium (which gives you great pay off if you can get 4 or more card types in your graveyard) sacrifice synergy (my personal favourite, kill your own creatures for value with cards like Nantuko Husk, Smothering Abomination and Zulaport Cutthroat) or aligning your strategy to that of the colour combination your playing. Traditionally for this means grinding your opponent out by getting more value out of your cards than they do. Typically you'll be answering their threats bringing important things back from your graveyard whilst slowly building board pressure. Deathtouch is a great mechanic for this as it allows even your smallest creatures to stay relevant and trade for their biggest. Here is a link to all standard cards that will help you eek value out of your graveyard, ideally you want to choose cards that also do other things as well as this is how you will win the "value" game. That isn't to say that cards that only return things from your graveyard aren't useful as they give you alot of versatility in what you choose to take back with them but bear in mind you aren't affecting the board state by just returning a card so it can result in you falling behind in tempo. Pulse of Murasa (which you've already included is an example of a good card that does this as it more than compensates you for the time you spent casting i by restoring a significant amount of life, it's also an instant which means you can hold up mana in-case something else demands your attention (even if you're just bluffing a kill spell) and then cast it on your opponents end step if you still have the mana up. Cemetery Recruitment is a less good example in this deck I feel as you have very few zombies to get that "draw a card" compensation. I would recommend either increasing the number of zombies you run (Baloth Null and Cruel Revival would also be great if you wanted to do that) or finding a better alternative that is more likely to give you a "two for one", Foul Renewal for example can kill a creature and get you one back.

Creatures: I won't direct you too much in terms of your creature choices as there are a huge number to choose from for all price ranges. Look on any card data base (such as the one on this site) and you'll find an overwhelming selection. Just bear in mind things such as curve, synergy, value and board presence. Some personal budget favorites in these colours: Catacomb Sifter, Distended Mindbender, Elvish Visionary, Graf Rats + Midnight Scavengers, Shrill Howler  ^Flip, The Gitrog Monster, Ukud Cobra

Interaction: The only major concern I have about your deck as it stands is that as a colour combination is typically not fast enough to beat someone in a typical damage race. I like what you're doing with equitable menace abilities and a generally high toughness creature line allowing you to force through one of your own creatures whilst holding down the fort with the rest. I fear this won't work against decks that try to be much faster or go much bigger than yours. In order to survive to the point where you can out value your opponent and win with medium sized creatures you'll need to have real answers to your opponents win conditions. This: Grasp of Darkness, Ultimate Price, Cruel Revival, Murder and removal options like that.

Lands (the backbone of any deck): Having a two colour deck makes things nice and simple for obvious reasons. The two best lands in standard in your colours are Llanowar Wastes and Hissing Quagmire; it's great that you've already got some Hissing Quagmire the 2/2 deathtouch ability is brilliant, many opponents will be too scared to attack you with their big creatures in the mid game if you hold up mana for it and you can often sneak in some nice hits with it as well. I wouldn't bother getting any Llanowar Wastes as they'll be rotating out of standard in a few weeks but if you have any it's worth noting that it's a very good land and sometimes the ability to tap for and on the turn you play it can make the difference between winning and loosing. Foul Orchard is a solid choice in budget and full priced decks alike and I would recommend replacing some forests and swamps for them. Including more two colour lands in your deck will not only ensure you get colour screwed less often but it should also free up some space for some utility lands, such as: Warped Landscape/Evolving Wilds (great for deck thinning, colour fixing and getting lands into your graveyard for effects such as delirium), Westvale Abbey  ^Flip (an incredibly powerful land that can win games on it's own but doesn't provide you with coloured mana), Blighted Fen (A removal spell that you can use for mana until you need to kill something!), Spawning Bed (Tokens!), Rogue's Passage (sneak your biggest creature through a massive board stall) and many more. Hopefully you'll be able to see the advantage of sorting out all the colours you need through multi coloured lands such that you can play very powerful lands that don't give you coloured mana but do have other very useful effects. I don't know how good you are at maths but typically a 90+% chance of having access to 4 lands with enough of each colour by turn 4 is a good target.

TL/DR: Commit to a strategy to make the most of budget cards. Have a clear way to win. You're in so look to outvalue your opponant. You could use some removal. There are some more budget duel lands you can fit in to improve your mana base. Sorry for any typos/ terrible writing style. Have fun!