Eminence Necromancers (Budget)

Commander / EDH multimedia

SCORE: 57 | 31 COMMENTS | 8544 VIEWS | IN 37 FOLDERS


Kaslay says... #1

Deck looks great! I'm going to make a few modifications for my own taste, but it looks really well-built!

Quick question about the manabase though. There's a lot of painlands in there, do you find that it deals too much damage over the course of a game? What you have here seems like it would get you down quickly.

August 29, 2017 4:03 a.m.

multimedia says... #2

Kaslay, thanks for the upvote.

The manabase is pretty painful with 7x lands and one Talisman that can hurt I tend to lose life to it, but I feel it's required because of the budget and wanting to use three colors with not a lot of come into play tapped lands. Using more Basic lands in place of some of the pain is an option that I haven't really explored. 17x Basic lands currently is already a lot for three colors. I haven't reached the point where I feel the manabase hurts me so much that I need to include more cards that gain me life. Currently Disciple of Bolas is the only one and there's ways to repeatedly play him to gain life, while not ideal it's a nice option.

What modifications are you making? Are you taking it away from budget?


August 29, 2017 4:50 a.m.

Kaslay says... #3

Here's the decklist.

Most of my modifications were to give it more late-game bomb spells and more win conditions. By adding Kindred Discovery, its very easy to draw through your entire deck, and I figured that Laboratory Maniac would be good not only for that, but also a wincon after your infinite turns with Wanderwine Prophets.

Since I was less focused on comboing with Ashnod's Altar, I took out some of the less good transmute cards and just kept Muddle the Mixture and Perplex. I also added more 3 cmc Artifacts to get more value off Trophy Mage and the above transmute cards.

Finally, I played around with the mana base and took out some of the hurt lands. Survivor's Encampment is probably the most questionable inclusion, but I found in testing that you rarely lack some creature that you can tap if you need fixing. I haven't had any issues with 34 lands yet, but I think it might hurt me in the future.

Let me know what you think. The changes I made definitely boost the price tag of the deck, but on TCGPlayer I found that all the cards that weren't in the precon were around $130, which is still not that bad for a combo deck.

August 29, 2017 10:03 p.m.

CaptSillva says... #4

Here are a few cards you could consider Dualcaster Mage, Harbinger of the Tides, Magus of the Will, and Silumgar Sorcerer.

August 30, 2017 11:18 p.m.

multimedia says... #5

CaptSillva thanks for your interest.

I'm only using red as a splash mostly to cast Inalla from the Command Zone. Dualcaster Mage while good with eminence is a double red card, it will be too hard cast.

Repeatable bounce with a Wizard is what's powerful with eminence. I can bounce the original Wizard back to my hand and get an additional bounce trigger from the token. Harbinger of the Tides can't return itself to my hand after eminence and the token can't return it either because of this I don't think it's good enough.

Magus of the Will is a good suggestion, thanks. In fact it's already in the maybeboard. It's problem is without reanimation it's seven mana to cast, eminence and use the token's ability. However with reanimation it's good. I think I'll cut Dack's Duplicate for it. Because it fills a need that the deck needs and Duplicate has been lackluster.


August 31, 2017 12:09 a.m.

multimedia says... #6

Today's Update:

Added Realmwright, Magus of the Will and Izzet Charm.

Cut Sage of Epityr, Dack's Duplicate and Cathartic Reunion.

Realmwright helps with mana fixing, the painful manabase and is a Wizard. He's good because he affects all my lands. Whatever type of basic land I name I can tap a pain land and use that type thus not losing life while making colored mana with the land. It works with Mana Confluence, but not City of Brass because I lose life simply by tapping Brass.

Magus of the Will was added as a way to reuse the reanimation enchantments and the graveyard. In a single turn casting, eminence and using the token's ability is not really an option because it costs seven mana. This same turn I want to also be able to use mana to play cards from the graveyard to get actual value. Reanimating Magus however is good. Being able to eminence Magus and use the token's ability is pretty powerful because then he's not just a one shot deal. Getting to use Magus only once is however still fine.

There's ways to reanimate at instant speed with Necromancy and Apprentice Necromancer's tap ability. I use either of these on my last opponent's end step before it's my turn to reanimate Magus, pay one mana to eminence and then on my turn untap with the token and/or the original Magus. This works because I'm already in an end step when reanimating Magus the token gets exiled by Inalla at the beginning of the next end step. Same goes for Apprentice since I'm already in an end step the creature I reanimate with it dies at the beginning of the next end step. The next end step is mine, but I get my whole turn with the token. I can activate the token for three mana and then use the rest of my mana to cast cards from my graveyard for value.

I cut Reunion for Izzet Charm. Charm gives me so many more options for the same mana cost and is an instant. I also like that I can draw the cards before I have to discard them. Although Charm only draws two cards where as Reunion draws three the instant speed and extra options that Charm provides is more beneficial.


August 31, 2017 4:25 a.m.

multimedia says... #7

Today's Update:

Added Gamble, Mystical Tutor, Augur of Bolas and Talisman of Indulgence.

Cut Underground River, Dimir Infiltrator, Drift of Phantasms and Perplex.

Cards added today increased the total deck price by ~ $8. The drop in price of Wanderwine Prophets and cutting Underground River opened up cost for some tutors, Gamble and Mystical Tutor. These $6 tutors add a lot of speed and versatility. Gamble is an unconditional tutor with a drawback that can actually help the reanimation theme by putting a card in the graveyard. Having an unconditional tutor is a huge upgrade with Archaeomancer and Wizards who can bounce her back to my hand to keep playing her and reusing Gamble. Since Augur of Bolas can help to find either of these tutors he's also been added. There's 24 cards that Augur can find which is on the low side, but he's also a Wizard; he can help in other ways. The cutting of River brings this deck to 34 lands as a result I've added the second Talisman. Nine one and two drop ramp, eight cheap draw, 34 lands and a 2.6 avg cmc is good for the deck to function very well.

I had to make a choice between cutting River or Reliquary Tower and I chose River because Tower's interaction with Azami, Lady of Scrolls is too good. I find myself wanting to get Azami into play as fast as I can because of the incredible draw power she brings. More times than not she's the first Wizard I try to reanimate or search for.


September 1, 2017 11:01 p.m.

birkemand says... #8

Looks great. Just a FYI Sea Scryer isn't a wizard.

September 4, 2017 7:27 a.m.

birkemand says... #9

also Enclave Cryptologist is better than it seem and worth a look.

September 4, 2017 7:35 a.m.

multimedia says... #10

Thanks,

Sea Scryer was originally printed as a Merfolk, but it's been errata'd by WOTC to a Merfolk Wizard. It now counts as a Wizard.


September 4, 2017 4:22 p.m.

deckdabbleer says... #11

I hate to burst your bubble on the stonybrook banneret. It can only lower the cost by 1 mana not 2. Look up the ruling. First one listed.

September 5, 2017 12:02 a.m.

multimedia says... #12

Hey deckdabbleer, thanks for the info. I'll update the description here with the correct usage.

September 5, 2017 12:39 a.m.

multimedia says... #13

Today's Update:

Added Corpse Connoisseur and Terminate.

Cut Realmwright and Rapid Hybridization.

Connoisseur is a Wizard who I overlooked; it's pretty good with the reanimation theme because it has unearth. Putting Wizards into the graveyard is what this deck does making unearth great. Connoisseur is mana expensive compared to Buried Alive, but having this same effect with a Wizard is needed. It's unearth cost is only four mana and I can eminence it when unearthed. Realmwright is fine, but I've found that I don't need him. He's completely lackluster if I don't need his land ability.

Since adding Gamble I've also added more red lands sources to have a better chance of casting it early because of this I've added Terminate. It's such a good removal spell and I feel the manabase can now support it.

Cards on the chopping block are: Sea Scryer, Stonybrook Banneret and Victimize.


September 5, 2017 1:47 a.m.

Randsome says... #14

And another cool deck from you, multimedia!Did you consider Spawnbroker? It seems to open up some cool possibilities with giving out tokens in exchange for actual creatures, though with wizards' size most we could hope for are probably dorks and some utility creatures so i'm not sure how to utilize it fully here.

September 11, 2017 9:10 a.m.

multimedia says... #15

Hey Randsome, thanks I've been taking a break from Energy Elves to play Commander. It's currently so much more fun, haha.

I haven't considered Spawnbroker, thanks for the suggestion I'll add it to the maybeboard. As far as eminence working with Spawn you're right can't get much benefit from exchanging a token for a 1/1 or less and the majority of Wizards don't have greater than 2 power, but there must be a good interaction here to find. I'll have to think about it.

What do you think of Ixalan so far? No Elves of course :(


September 11, 2017 5:14 p.m.

Randsome says... #16

multimedia, it's always a pleasure being remembered =)

Well, right now i returned to Standard - for those sweet pushes - with the deck i have in the most complete state, IMO: GB Constrictor. Though, with a twist - as i don't have any Walking Ballista, i play three Thought-Knot Seer. Servant of the Conduit into turn three discardrazi is quite powerful, as you might imagine. One push down from one push available for now _

Yeah, Commander is always a fun thing to waste time and money with) Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is my latest aspiration, so i didn't get anything all too cool in particular for her yet - looked at your deck, looked at Labmaniac's take on it, threw all the junk and not-really-junk applicable for her in and had a blast! It's amazing how much a line of double Trinket Mage for Sol Ring and Sensei's Divining Top or Sol Ring and Chrome Mox into: Chrome Mox --> Sol Ring --> Talisman of Dominance makes opponents to eyeroll =)

From the notable cards that stood up for me either in games or the reason for inclusion in my deck:

Sundial of the Infinite - it's an extremely powerful card in Inalla as we get to keep all those tokens and can open up some additional shenengians;

Deadeye Navigator - nothing much to say here. Very good, with Inala in particular.

Panharmonicon - didn't come up in games yet, but the dream of those four Venser, Shaper Savant's triggers lives. Also of note i've got two clones for in deck that can copy it: Phyrexian Metamorph and Clever Impersonator;

Conjurer's Closet - free triggers of Inala, nothing else. Though i wonder whether i should cut it as i already have Deadeye and Ghostly Flicker for essentially same effect;

Whip of Erebos - showed itself as unexpectedly good card! Lifegain does matter and random reanimation also does matter. Also comboes with Sundial of the Infinite;

Sneak Attack - no much to say here: had one, threw one in as it should be amazing here) Also comboes with Sundial of the Infinite and blinks;

Beacon of Unrest - decided to use one for case of reanimating Altar or some other artifact if they got removed;

Warstorm Surge - pretty obvious. Provides some removal and possible finisher, though probably costs too much. Maybe will replace it with that two mana enchantment, but doesn't go to non-players;

Mistbind Clique - known combo. Also finish with previous card;

Herald’s Horn - kinda want to test this out and see whether it'll provide card advantage;

As of note: i don't have quite some staples like Wanderwine Prophets cause... well, cards do spike. And i don't ever buy spiked cards)

Also, as a core Tasigur player, it pains me greatly that there cards in my graveyard that are essentially gone forever, so i've been considering running Vedalken Orrery + Day's Undoing. Do you have any suggestions for this?


Well, Ixalan does seem quite interesting for standard and has some amazing cards for Commander, but overall i'm not too excited for. It does give us some generic tribal support... however expensive in CMC it is =)

And well, considering that after all talk of "no-more-1-mana-ramp-dorks" they gave one to dinos there is some hope for us in Dominaria!

September 14, 2017 8:06 a.m.

Randsome says... #17

I uploaded my current version of decklist here if u might be interested: Inala's Magus Gang brigandages here

September 21, 2017 5:06 p.m.

TheRedGoat says... #18

So I know it isn't necessary to point out, what with Eminence triggering even from teh command zone, but Minion Reflector and Flameshadow Conjuring are both what Inall's ability is based off of. And for the Bloodline combo, Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar respectively will still go infinite. And if Impact Tremors or any of its big brothers is in play, it can make the combo easier to win with when the opponent may have a Ghostly Prison type effect in play. (you can probably ignore the enchantment though since the Phyrexian half of that combo is way out of budget).

As an aside, if you were to use an instant or sorcery that let you blink one of your creatures, then Dualcaster Mage can go infinite much with Ashnod's Altar. I do of course mean the "leaves and comes back immediately" type of blinking.

  1. You play the blink spell on some random other wizard, and flash in Dualcaster in response.
  2. When he enters, you place the spell copy on the stack and then eminence to resolve first (I actually don't think the order matters in this case).
  3. When you make the creature token, you'll get another copy of the blink spell on the stack that will target the original Dualcaster .
  4. When the dualcaster gets blinked, he'll trigger eminence again, but you pay for this one through Ashnod's Altar sacking the first token. And you go infinite from here, netting yourself one mana floating each time or at least skipping every other token. Meaning you basically have infinite mana/infinite hasty tokens to swing with.

Of note is that the "original spell copy" can just target the same random starting creature or the original Dualcaster for all that matters. Neither it nor the actual blink spell need ever resolve.

Also, if you really want to run grixis reanimation, why not run Sedris, the Traitor King? I think he counts as a "friends of wizards" at least right?

September 29, 2017 12:55 a.m.

awesome deck. I'm always changing around my deck a lot, so always look for more help. Still I know Wanderwine Prophets is a must have for this deck I just can't do it. Feels so wrong with it being just an easy one card infinite too cheap. Though I'm new to commander so maybe I need to get use to this infinite thing. lol.

October 16, 2017 11:55 p.m.

Also with Stonybrook Banneret does the abilities count for the spells? You say the eminence is free, but wouldn't that be an ability?

October 17, 2017 midnight

multimedia says... #21

With the reprinting of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir in Iconic Masters the price has dropped from $12 to $3. Teferi is now a powerful budget Wizard. I recommend adding him to any Inalla deck. Flash is incredible with eminence.

Been a while since I updated this deck. Today's update is I cut Stunt Double and added Teferi.


November 29, 2017 12:19 p.m.

Kaslay says... #22

Happy to see you're still working on this deck. I've made a few significant edits from your list (mainly embracing Red a bit more) and I have a few card suggestions for you.

Anathemancer is a pick I made for my meta, and it hasn't ever been bad for me. Usually if I can reanimate him multiple times and Eminence him, his Unearth is great for finishing off the game.

Beguiler of Wills and Thalakos Deceiver are two of my huge bombs. Both of them get nasty with Eminence, allowing for immediate threat steals.

Diabolic Servitude is a bit "out there", but it has been awesome for me. Its a great way to grab back tech creatures for more usage. Just make sure you don't grab back any majorly important creatures. It replaced a Beacon of Unrest for me, and I've liked it a lot better.

Desolate Lighthouse and Geier Reach Sanitarium are good outlets for ditching cards if you find yourself looking for more. Being stapled onto lands is even better. They're also super cheap.

Herald’s Horn gives you practically free Eminence Triggers. It's not a mana rock, so it does nonbo with that Paradox Engine I put in to replace Intruder Alarm, but the draw chance and discount I find to be very worth it.

Devastation Tide over Evacuation because my mana rocks and enchantments are pretty cheap and I don't mind replaying them if I can bounce my opponents as well. I've gotten the Miracle once, and it pretty much won me the game on the spot.

Pulse of the Grid is a really underrated card, IMO. At worst it lets you bury a card and gives you a net zero, but if you're looking to rebuild your hand, this card quickly becomes a force.

And finally, even though I know you're building budget, nothing better than reanimating Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, AKA the reason my friends hate this deck. Drawing 7 is no joke.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/29-08-17-inalla-reanimator/

Here's a link to my decklist if you want to see the direction I took with it. Thanks again for giving me the foundation to what has become one of my favorite decks!

November 30, 2017 11:50 a.m.

multimedia says... #23

Hey Kaslay, thanks for all your interest and suggestions.

I like Thalakos Deceiver and I will consider adding it now that it's close to budget, $6 is still high though. Deceiver was $15 after a buyout when Inalla was first released. You're right it's amazing with eminence also bounce. Not sure what to cut for it though as I need to cut a card that's the same or more price.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur was just reprinted in Iconic Masters it's price has dropped from $20 to $8! It will continue to drop as more product is opened. Consecrated Sphinx was also reprinted and it's currently at $13 which will most likely drop more. Although not currently budget I'm still keeping my eye on both of these cards. You're right Jin is an amazing reanimation target, Sphinx is too even though they're not Wizards.


December 2, 2017 2:36 a.m.

Lumix1640 says... #24

Hello! What would you remove to add a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur?Thank you:)

December 28, 2017 12:26 p.m.

multimedia says... #25

Hey Lumix1640, to keep the deck at the $150 budget you could cut Mana Confluence replace it with Opal Palace to clear enough price for Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.

One of these cards could then be cut replaced by Jin:

  • Compulsive Research
  • Trophy Mage
  • Stonybrook Banneret


December 28, 2017 11:09 p.m. Edited.

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