Crosis, Mad Necromancer

Commander / EDH* Budget Combo Control Infinite Combo Reanimator Stax UBR (Grixis)

DashJovis1

Land (33)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Bad River
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Cinder Marsh
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Ebon Stronghold
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Island
• 1x Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1x Lantern-Lit Graveyard
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rocky Tar Pit
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Marsh
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necromancy

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana Vess

Instant (20)

• 1x Annul
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Ertai's Meddling
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song

Creature (15)

• 1x Anowon, the Ruin Sage
• 1x Body Double
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Inkwell Leviathan
• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Magus of the Abyss
• 1x Marchesa, the Black Rose
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Taigam, Sidisi's Hand
• 1x Vindictive Lich

Commander (1)

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Chart a Course
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Kindred Dominance
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Portent
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Zombify

Artifact (10)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

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Hello, and welcome to my Crosis build. I have a decent sized collection of MTG cards, including a reanimator build I was quite proud of, so the idea was to see how few cards I would have to buy to turn the new Arcane Wizardry deck into a Crosis deck with a semi-viable Reanimator build. It's not going to be winning any tournaments, but I'm hoping it will hold its own at the kitchen table and have a chance in multiplayer games.

I'm running Crosis, the Purger over Nicol Bolas because Crosis is less expensive mana wise, and because I already own a Crosis, meaning I don't have to look around for a cheap copy of Bolas. Not having to pay 3 each turn is incredibly handy, and so is playing him for 2 less. I'm running Crosis over Thraximundar despite Thrax fitting better into my Stax suite - the reason is that the deck doesn't have a heavy sacrifice base. I only have 3 sacrifice engines in the deck, and as such, I'd rather have the hand control, card advantage, and insight Crosis offers. Some players may be opposed to me running Braids, Cabal Minion in the mainboard, in which case I'll swap her for Harvester of Souls. The deck is, at its core, a combo deck that is not reliant on its commander, and thus Crosis becomes the ideal commander. He can reveal the hands of opponents who may threaten you, and even disrupt those hands, making your combos harder to answer, and giving you a plan B should the combo fail.

I'm running a copy of Whispersilk Cloak. Not only is it a good combo piece with Crosis, but it can also protect important creatures in my reanimation stack.

The goal of the deck is to stall my opponents out with control options until I can fill my graveyard with a stax engine and reanimate them. The deck has five parts - mana base to let me play my cards, deck filtration / tutors to allow me to get cards and fill my graveyard, board control to stall my opponents out and disrupt combos that threaten me, graveyard recursion to take advantage of the cards that make their way into the graveyard, and reanimation targets that can allow me to win through board presence.

I'll slowly fix the mana base with duals, shocks, and fetches as time goes on. I may pick up Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal later, if I ever have the cash. The draw and control suite could use some minor upgrades as well, but I'm trying to work with what I've got as much as possible.

Mana Base Show

There isn't much to say about the land base - its heavier on black to support the predominantly black deck, and leans on as many cheap dual lands as I had lying around. For mana rocks, I left in the obligatory Sol Ring, for fast colourless mana. I left in Darksteel Ingot. I replaced the three drop mana rocks with three Signets for cheap and decent mana ramp. I left in Fellwar Stone. And then I added Coalition Relic, which gets you from 3-5 and colour fixes like a boss.

I'm also running Ashnod's Altar, which is super handy when it comes to board wipes (mine and others), targeted exile, clone effects, Puppeteer Clique etc. It goes infinite with Nim Deathmantle and Flayer of the Hatebound.

Deck Filtration / Tutors Show

There are two goals to the deck filtration suite - get the cards you need in your hands, and likewise get them from your hand into the graveyard. I'm going to go through them in terms of their mana cost, from lowest to highest.

Brainstorm - The instant speed cantrip/deck fixer is a great card in general, and fits in my budget. Instant speed draw is great in any counter heavy build. Heavy tutor base and budget fetch lands help me shuffly my library, to maximize Brainstorm's effect on the game. Protection from targeted discard is less important in multiplayer EDH. but it is cool. Best used with a fetchland of some kind.

Ponder - In some ways Ponder is much better than Brainstorm - the ability to shuffle your library helps you avoid having too many cards designed to serve the same purpose, and re-ordering your library top to get to needed cards early. It's only sorcery speed, but it's less dependant on other cards in your hand.

Portent - Functionally a Ponder, with its key difference being that the cantrips of the time cause you to draw during the next player's upkeep step. Still worth running.

Mystic Remora - One of the best draw spells ever printed, Mystic Remora allows you to draw a card for each non-creature spell your opponents play. They CAN pay 4 to try and prevent this, but even late-game that's a huge mana investment to waste to deny an opponent a card. In multiplayer reanimator EDH, this card is a bomb, since even an overfull hand is an advantage, allowing you to discard your creatures for reanimation. Its upkeep cost does prevent you from doing much else while it's on the field, but you should only need to field it for a turn or two anyways.

Careful Study - A card draw spell that also enables discarding. You won't get any card advantage off this bad boy, but you do get to filter two cards for one, and discard up to two creatures.

Faithless Looting - A functional reprint of careful study that also has flashback. Not strictly better, since it's in red, but definitely better in general.

Gamble - Tutor for any card, then discard at random. Gamble is often "tutor for a card and discard it" which works well in this deck. It can be gamed if it's alone in a hand with reanimation targets. It's a little frustrating if it gets rid of your sole reanimator, but it makes its slot. In larger hands can tutor for any card. Works well with Kess, Dissident Mage, since you can cast instants and sorceries from the graveyard.

Entomb - This card is the absolute KING of grave filling. 1 mana for one card of any kind, and at instant speed, it's hard to beat Entomb.

Demonic Tutor - Tutor 1 card into your hand. Don't show it. Auto include!

Lim-Dul's Vault is a psuedo tutor, which can help you put whichever card you want on top of your library in exchange for life. It also allows you to rearange several cards to the top of your deck, allowing you to seriously manipulate your pulls. The life loss can add up pretty quick, but overall a good card for my budget.

Impulse - While it can hurt to throw three cards on the bottom of your library, the ability to look at four cards at instant speed is incredible.

Telling Time - An instant speed sleight of hand. Telling Time lets you look at the top 3 cards of your library, keeping two, and replacing itself in your hand.

Into the Roil - When kicked, Into the Roil cantrips.

Sickening Dreams - Honorable mention at 2, since it enables discard.

Buried Alive - Find three creature, and throw em in the graveyard. This card is the real combo enabler of the deck, letting you put your stax engine into the graveyard. Three cards is nearly the perfect number for this concept, making it the ideal combo enabler.

Corpse Connoisseur - A potential reanimation target, a creature that can recur itself, and an entomb stapled to a body. Having a second Entomb is essential in a reanimation deck, and one that can recurr its effect to fill the grave is super useful.

Taigam, Sidisi's Hand - Deck control that lets you throw cards into the graveyard, and also functions as a kill spell on a stick. It isn't a key card, but it's worth keeping in the deck.

Liliana Vess - Planeswalkers are cool. I'm not a huge fan of most of them, and they don't usually fit into my builds, but this version of Liliana has actually served me really well. Her +1 can let you discard the card that you need, or pick apart opponents hands, which combos nicely with Crosis, particularly in a multiplayer setting. However, her real purpose is her -2, which is a tutoring effect, and even if that's all you do with her, that's okay. Sometimes she may even be a two-time tutor, which is amazing. Her ult is huge, its a real game winner by the time you build up to it. I've gotten her there a few times too, this version of Liliana may not protect herself, but she has high loyalty and disrupts opponents efforts to catch up. That means the trick is to either play her when you're ahead and stay ahead, or play her as an expensive slow Diabolic Tutor that sponges a hit.

Rune-Scarred Demon - A Demonic Tutor stapled to a big flying body, this guy is an excellent reanimation target that facilitates your combo, and can integrate seamlessly into it.

Board Control Show

I'll be going through these in terms of mana cost as well. I consider all counterspells, removal, and board-wipes part of my board control suite. The goal of board control is to cement your board advantage or prevent a combo opponent from winning the game.

Annul - An important piece, since it prevents that Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Torpor Orb, Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, or Nihil Spellbomb from ever hitting the board. It also handles artifact and enchantment creatures when necessary, and can take down combos.

Pyroblast / Red Elemental Blast - Nearly identical in function, their slight difference will almost never matter in a real game. Usually, there will be another blue player in multiplayer, and 1 drop counterspells/removal are too powerful to pass up. Redblasts handle a very diverse array of threats, such as counterspells, removal, Jace, combo pieces, and even blue commanders.

Swan Song - It's a swan! I love this spell in any format, and it's even better in EDH. Handling instants, sorceries, AND enchantments for one mana is a huge boon, whereas a lone 2/2 Swan token is a small price to pay, especially in multiplayer EDH with a stax engine. It's one of our best ways to handle enchantments.

Turn Aside - A wonderful piece of defensive magic, which shuts down opponents removal.

Rapid Hybridization - Hybridization is a 1 drop kill spell. A cheaper Pongify in a different tribe. As a fan of Pongify, I was so happy when this card was printed. It's even better in EDH, and like Swan Song the lizard is easily dealt with by the stax engine.

Vandalblast - A one drop shatter that turns into an asymmetrical wipe. Vandalblast the only removal in the deck that is limited explicitly to artifacts, but its ability to wipe the board, its low mana cost, and its cheap price make it well worth the slot.

Ertai's Meddling - I've gushed about Ertai's Meddling long enough. My favourite counterspell in the game, largely because it gets around spells that can't be countered. For 2 mana it wins counterspell wars, even against Counterflux, and it can counter Thrun. Keeping an opponent's win condition out of their hands for several turns is tantamount to removing it from the game entirely. Cast for 3 it gives players an interesting choice RE their commander - do they return the spell to their command zone, increasing its cost and forcing them to pay it again, or do they leave it in exile, hoping to get it for free in 2 turns? Spells that lose their last delay counter are cast as a copy of the spell in the state it hit the stack - this creates some interesting interactions with morph, and also gives you a second opportunity to counter the spell for real when it tries to resolve.

Memory Lapse - The dickhead's Remand. Put an opponent behind instead of coming ahead.

Into the Roil - Into the Roil may not be a hard answer to anything, but it's a soft answer to everything, and it can be kicked to cantrip. Worth keeping in the deck.

Negate - Since Black already has such great creature removal, I'm more worried about using blue to answer non-creature spells, and for two mana Negate does exactly that. Artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries... So long as it's not also a creature and can be countered Negate handles it.

Reality Shift - Exile target creature for 2, and at instant speed? Yes, please! Manifest is a weird mechanic, harkening back to Pongify. If a land or non-creature is exiled you've basically exiled a creature and kept an opponent's piece from them. If they lack recursion you've denied them the card entirely. Great creature removal, worth keeping in the deck.

Rakdos Charm - I like this card. I think most players do. Its key effect is artifact removal, but tacking on targeted graveyard hate and token hate makes it really valuable in any format it's allowed in, and EDH is no exception. Defeating graveyard strategies, handling artifacts, and killing anybody who manages to create a giant token army.

Sickening Dreams - Our first board wipe is also a combo enabler - drop your creatures into the graveyard and clear the field. A 2 drop wipe is a good thing to have, particularly one that's so flexible. You can handle a hoard of small tokens without hurting your own creatures, or go big and discard your hand to start fresh. It can kill walkers too, since it hits players.

Go for the Throat - Kill non-artifact creature. More splashable. Nnnnnnice.

Hero's Downfall - Strictly better Murder. Kills creatures and walkers at instant speed.

Ashes to Ashes - Exile two target creatures on one card for 3 mana? Saweeet! 5 life is a small price to pay for this. The real downside is you need two targets to cast it, but in multiplayer EDH that shouldn't be a problem.

Chaos Warp - Shuffle a permanent into an opponent's library. This is one of our best options to get rid of enchantments on the board in our colours. Shuffling a library ruins top-deck tutors. Its downside is more frustrating against decks with high permanent counts, so bear that in mind.

Crosis's Charm - For three mana, you get flexibility. Destroy an artifact, kill a creature, or bounce anything else, all at instant speed. It is a little expensive, and it can't kill black creatures, but I'd say it's worth it to destroy artifacts and creatures while retaining options against enchantments, planeswalkers, and indestructible things.

Nevinyrral's Disk - Black's OG boardwipe, and one of its best options against enchantments. I mean, it's technically an artifact, and opponents have a turn to destroy it, making it a little bit slow, but it's worth it for such a complete wipe. It kills everyone's rocks, however, so keep that in mind.

Kindred Dominance - You could use this spell to leave your Humans or Wizards intact. Or you could choose Dragons, to get a free swing in with Crosis. If you've used Necromantic Selection in turns prior and/or have the Nim Deathmantle you may choose Zombies on occasion. Or Praetors, to keep Sheoldred running. The deck lacks any tribal focus now, but asymmetrical boardwipes are useful enough for it to make the cut.

Necromantic Selection - You can steal on opponent's bomb with this, or merely protect your own important combo piece. All of the field wipes become more valuable with Marchesa, the Black Rose, but this one especially so. This field wipe also combos nicely with Flayer of the Hatebound or Puppeteer Clique.

Decree of Pain - You can cycle it for five, at instant speed and without using the stack, as a mini boardwipe that clears away 2 toughness creatures, including indestructible ones. Or cast it for 8 to wipe the slate and draw a tonne of cards. Either way, it's a useful piece.

Reanimation / Recursion Suite Show

Reanimate - Hail to the king. A 1 mana reanimation spell, no muss no fuss. Paying life is not a serious downside for this bomb, particularly in EDH.

Animate Dead - Gotta love the classics. Animate Dead has two key downsides - enchantment removal, and a slight reduction in power. Still a worth a banana sticker.

Dance of the Dead- Animate Dead, except instead of weakening a creature it empowers it. Instead, you must pay mana to untap the creature. One of the best reanimators of all time.

Exhume - Exhume lets you reanimate a creature with only a single downside; each opponent gets to do it also. You can get around this by casting it early or emptying graveyards, and it's a less serious downside thanks to our stax engine.

Nim Deathmantle - This card isn't a great example, but it does technically recurr a creature from a graveyard at its time of death. As a piece of equipment it's a little lackluster, though both intimidation and creating zombies do come in handy from time to time. However, we're mostly running this for the Ashnod's Altar combo. With Puppeteer Clique and Ashnod's Altar you can generate infinite colorless mana and pull creatures of of people's graveyard as often as you like, then decide whether they get exiled or not. It's mildly atrocious. However, more atrocious is Flayer of the Hatebound, which becomes infinite targeted damage to creatures and players of your choice. Nim Deathmantle is a nice repeatable recursion effect on its own, and it has great targets in this deck.

Zombify - We're getting a little expensive here, but it's very splashable, and has no downside.

Dread Return - Return is a slightly less splashable Zombify, with a manaless flashback. I don't intend to create too many targets for its flashback ability, but with the recursion in the deck it could help increase board presence in theory.

Body Double - A 5 drop blue reanimator. Being a creature is an advantage in this deck. Not exiling the card it becomes is an advantage and a disadvantage. It can target creatures in any graveyard, and if recurred it can take a new target.

Kess, Dissident Mage - Kess makes every instant and sorcery in your graveyard have flashback. Infinite snapcaster is super handy in terms of control and filtration, and is essential for recurring reanimation tech.

Marchesa, the Black Rose - Recurrable creatures... Super useful. Marchesa is a combo piece well worth her slot.

Puppeteer Clique - The puppet clique only works on opponent's creatures, which is a huge downside. However, it's one of those cards that can feed an extended stax engine while still granting you an advantage, earning its spot.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - The great queen, the core of our stax engine. A creature that reanimates your creatures while forcing your opponents to sacrifice them. A few turns with her out and the game is yours. Also... Combos with Urborg, Tomb of Yagmoth.

Reanimation Targets Show

So, the combo at the core of this deck is Sheoldred, Whispering One + Braids, Cabal Minion / Magus of the Abyss + reanimation target. The goal is to starve out your opponents while slowly gaining advantage from the creatures you recur.

A secondary combo exists in the form of Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + Flayer of the Hatebound. The deck doesn't have great tutors for the artifacts, but the combo is nice to have, and all three pieces fit into the deck anyways. Rune-Scarred Demon can pull them pretty easily given a couple turns - Grab the altar, sac him to the Altar, recurr him with the Deathmantle, grab the flayer, sac your field to play the flayer. Torture the flayer forever while reanimating him with the mantle to direct his flame burst. Cackle madly.

Rune-Scarred Demon - Probably your ideal choice for a reanimation target. A tutor a turn while your opponents get choked out will result in a swift victory for you. He can put together an altar combo, and works with the Puppeteer combo to allow you infinite tutoring, provided any opponent has a creature in the graveyard. Even if the altar gets denied somehow, getting an extra card of your choice per turn will win you the game quickly.

Vindictive Lich - Fun to recur each turn, since you can further starve each of three opponents in delicious ways. Make the blue player discard, make the green player sacrifice. Life loss is minor, but could kill or pressure any player who heavily uses life as a resource. Can be a good plan B, or a way to gain enough advantage to protect plan A.

Corpse Connoisseur - Usually you want to cast and/or unearth this guy to fill your graveyard, but recurring him can help set up the larger Braids combo when you only have a piece of it.

Puppeteer Clique - This creature is capable of feeding the extended engine, which is to say the engine with Braids and the Abyss, while still granting you a slow and steady increasing field presence. Helpful when trying to feed a further extended engine, with Phantasmal Image and Body Double as copies of Magus of the Abyss.

Flayer of the Hatebound - Also capable of feeding the extended engine, and often capable of removing lingering threats to it. Turns recursion into damage, comboing nicely with the entire deck.

Marchesa, the Black Rose - Combos nicely with the Clique and the Flayer, and can make it even easier for you to feed your engine without losing pace. Only works if you're not the player with the most life, which in turn makes you a less appealing target when ahead. Be sure to pay a lot of life kids!

Phantasmal Image - This card can easily become a second copoy of whatever you want, and sacrificing and recurring these creatures can allow you to pick new targets for them. The best clone IMO.

Inkwell Leviathan - This is a terrible part of the ongoing combo. However, it's a great creature - removal resistant, hard to kill in combat, and hard to prevent from damaging you. Phantasmal Image loves becoming this guy for the shroud. You can make up to three of him theoretically. The Leviathan helps give you a plan B, in case things fall apart, and is a powerful early reanimation target. He's a good blocker too.

Hellkite Tyrant - My other dragon, and my other big bomb of an early reanimator target. He's another backup plan, a way the deck can deal with artifacts, and a potential win condition. He works well with Crosis - while Crosis hits players with colored decks and strips away their hand, the Tyrant steals the field of any player relying heavily on artifacts. A bomb in EDH, since you'll have plenty of mana rocks and other targets. Can make an opponent think twice about fielding a Mycosynth Lattice combo.

Honorable Mentions

Crosis, the Purger - Often it can pay to leave him in your graveyard, since you can recur him more cheaply from there. Used to tear apart the hands of players, particularly mono colored players, and as a potential source of general damage.

Harvester of Souls - If people are offended you included Braids then swap her out for this guy. You'll draw a lot of cards with him on the field beside your smokestax engine, and he turns kill spells into cantrips. In a multiplayer game you'll draw a lot of cards.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 32 - 0 Uncommons 25 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.01
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C