Master of Death

Creature — Zombie Wizard

When this enters the battlefield, surveil 2. (Look at the top 2 cards of your library. You may put any number of them into your graveyard, and the rest on top of your library in any order.)

At the beginning of your upkeep, if this is in your graveyard, you may pay 1 life. If you do, return it 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
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (17)

GaryofGen4 on UB Zombie Weenie

4 months ago

I'd look at adding some card with surveil to the deck like Master of Death, Contingency Plan and Undercity Sewers since you're running Gravecrawler and Prized Amalgam. Hope this helps

mrweaselman on Stumbly Boys (EDH)

11 months ago

Starting with mana, you only have 44 sources. I would recommend going around 47. Sapphire Medallion and Jet Medallion are a lot better than the monuments, although more expensive. You want to avoid 3 mana rocks like Dimir Locket and Commander's Sphere, you have better options in two mana ones. Add Coldsteel Heart, Fellwar Stone, Dimir Signet, Talisman of Dominance and at least one land.

For interaction, you could add enchantment removal like Feed the Swarm. Bitter Triumph is new and may be better than Infernal Grasp here.

Since mill and discard can basically act as card draw, you can run cards like Mire Triton, Stitcher's Supplier, Undead Butler, Palantir of Orthanc, and Fact or Fiction, as well as sacrifice based card draw like Corrupted Conviction, Village Rites, and Deadly Dispute. There's also always all-stars Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, and Rhystic Study if you want to go that direction.

Some card to protect your commander like Netherborn Altar, Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip, Zombie Master or Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots may be helpful if you rely on Gisa and it keeps getting removed.

There are certain cards I am not a fan of in this deck including Master of Death, Prized Amalgam, Scourge of Nel Toth, Tomebound Lich, Dead Revels, and Syphon Flesh.

Some other cards to consider include Cryptbreaker, Geralf, Visionary Stitcher, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Lord of the Undead, Noxious Ghoul, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, The Scarab God, Distant Melody, Buried Alive, Diabolic Intent, Liliana, Dreadhorde General. You could probably replace similar cards with these if they are better.

Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Sac Outlet is infinite. I don't think you run many sac outlets. You could add Acererak the Archlich to go infinite with just Rooftop Storm.

legendofa on What is your favorite tribe, …

1 year ago

Always gotta answer with Skeletons. I would like Zombies, but they get way more push than I would prefer--I feel like every time there's a halfway decent Skeleton card, there's a Zombie that does the same thing except better, either pre-existing or in the same set (Clattering Augur vs. Master of Death for one example). The underdog needs some love, too.

Undead rivalries aside, I like the bone aesthetic in fantasy and am fascinated by calacas (the skull decorations used for Dīa de Los Muertos in Mexico--if you've seen either of the animated movies Coco or The Book of Life, those are built around calacas and Day of the Dead imagery). As far as game mechanics go, I also enjoy the resilience that regenerate brings, or used to bring. The skeleton tribe helped me learn the basics of how to use both {B} and control decks, which are the basis of my favorite playstyle to this day. Discard: for when counterspells don't say "no" hard enough.

Of the "major" tribes, I would have to go with Elves. Lots of mana, lots of options, {B}{G}, and generally easy to build.

teafresch on Tormod

1 year ago

Id suggest switching out Relic of Progenitus with either Unlicensed Hearse or Scrabbling Claws. Poxwalkers, Prized Amalgam, and Master of Death are also cards that have proven to be super good in my Tormod deck although I also have Intuition, Entomb, Traumatize, Unmarked Grave, Altar of Dementia, Oriq Loremage and Vile Entomber in mine. Some dredge cards might help filling your grave. If you ever add fetchlands then I would also add Hostile Desert and Crucible of Worlds. Phyrexian Tower, High Market and Unholy Grotto/Volrath's Stronghold are some other good lands. Tortured Existence is also a must. 1 black mana per 2/2 zombie as much as you want is hard to beat.

legendofa on Grave Infestation

2 years ago

Welcome to the club, CaptainGuppy! As I see it, the plan is to use Squee, Goblin Nabob, Master of Death, Genesis, and Stinkweed Imp to fuel Zombie Infestation and Cryptbreaker. If this is right, I'm not sure Bastion of Remembrance and Feaster of Fools are quite right for this deck.

Since your return-from-graveyard-to-hand creatures can only recur themselves at your upkeep/draw step, and since Cryptbreaker is a mana+tap effect, I expect this deck to be putting out maybe 2-3 Zombie tokens each turn, at best. I would suggest focusing on making those tokens bigger and better. Diregraf Captain would be a replacement for Bastion, and something like Corpse Cobble for Feaster. Corpse Cobble also has flashback, so it can be discarded to Infestation and still be used. Cemetery Reaper is another source of Zombies that can eat your opponents' graveyard.

Genesis feels a little redundant; its most worthwhile target is the Cryptbreaker. If you like the effect, maybe try Wonder.

NinjaBunny01 on Rise of the Dead Horde

2 years ago

Master of Death is an interesting one and I may give it a try in the deck. Plague Belcher was in and never felt all that useful. It sort of felt like a hindrance with the 2 -1/-1 counters it gives. I may rework it back in as it does have combo potential. We will see as I play the deck more. Thanks for the suggestions!

Housegheist on Rise of the Dead Horde

2 years ago

...so that I can say something productive... :D

Any thoughts on Master of Death or Plague Belcher?

golgarigirl on Scarab God UB Zombie Tribal

2 years ago

I would definitely look at some mana rocks (artifacts that make mana) for your deck to help you speed up. Some can even help you with card draw or other things later when you don't need them for mana. I like Mind Stone as an example. I would keep these to 3-drop or less.

Some creatures can help with card draw too. Tomebound Lich, Master of Death, and Liliana's Standard Bearer can all provide card selection on bodies (that you can re-use later if needed). Surveil isn't quite card draw, but in a zombie deck, it should do about the same if you're playing enough reanimation.

Additional card draw I would look at is sacrifice card draw like Village Rites, Reckoner's Bargain, and Deadly Dispute. If you can combine the sacrifice from these cards with an effect your zombies may have, they're extra worth it.

One thing you may consider doing with your deck is seeing how many zombies you get per mana/card spent. Scarab God cares about quantity of zombies to be super effective, so maximizing that is key!

In my group, I am a fan of Reality Shift, Disdainful Stroke, Negate, Hagra Mauling  ^Flip, Negate and Infernal Grasp for removal in these colors.