Gisa and Geralf - 99% Innistrad.

Commander / EDH Theme/Gimmick Vorthos Zombie

Legendorum

Creatures (18)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nephalia Moondrakes
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Possessed Skaab
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Unbreathing Horde
• 1x Undead Alchemist

Manarocks (8)

• 1x Corrupted Grafstone
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Terrarion
• 1x Vessel of Endless Rest
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Wild-Field Scarecrow
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Boardwipes (3)

• 1x Descent into Madness
• 1x Killing Wave
• 1x Languish

Lifegain (3)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Falkenrath Noble

Carddraw/Tutors (12)

• 1x Altar's Reap
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• 1x Jar of Eyeballs
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal

Removal (9)

• 1x Barter in Blood
• 1x Compelling Deterrence
• 1x Dark Salvation
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Murder
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Victim of Night

Recursion (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Ever After
• 1x Grimoire of the Dead
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

Ramp (2)

• 1x Heartless Summoning
• 1x Rooftop Storm

Commander (1)

Lands (31)

• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Drownyard Temple
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 9x Island
• 1x Nephalia Academy
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 12x Swamp
• 1x Warped Landscape
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Other (6)

• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Graf Harvest
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Witchbane Orb

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Maybeboard

Other (16)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demon of Death's Gate
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana's Reaver
• 1x Liliana's Shade
• 1x Midnight Banshee
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Necromancer's Stockpile
• 1x Necrotic Plague
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Stormtide Leviathan

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Flavour

This is a Gisa and Geralf deck made mostly from the Innistrad and Shadows over Innistad blocks - plus a very small number of other cards from different sets that are clearly based on Innistrad; such as Possessed Skaab from Origins, or Ghoulcaller Gisa from Commander 2015, for example.

The deck started off as pure Innistrad, but over time I eventually started adding cards not from the two Innistrad blocks, this really started when Eternal Masters came out and introduced Entomb with a Gisa quote, I couldn't not include that.. so, I started to also include cards that are not necessarily set on Innistrad, although I've made sure there is no indication that they are set on a plane other than Innistrad.

For example - If there are not Innistrad cards in this deck, they're only from one of the Core sets, with art and/or flavour text that could be very well be set on Innistrad.

The only cards I have a slight issue with using are the mana-rocks I've used, as I have replaced pure Innistrad mana rocks with these ones, simply because the Innistrad mana rocks are just terrible in comparison to these, and I was finding the deck was lacking early game consistency. I have kept in the appalling Corrupted Grafstone however, simply for flavour.

Obviously, because this is a block EDH deck, it's not very competative at all - though I still win a good few games! This really is just for fun though. I enjoy making Block EDH decks!

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History

I change this deck around all the time - Sometimes it has more zombies, however at the moment it's pretty much just Black and Blue goodstuff (with a slight lean on Zombies). I understand Grimgrin is a much better commander, but I have a thing for the mad siblings.

This deck started of as virtually a pure zombie deck - but I was finding although some of the Innistrad zombies are amazing (Mikaeus!), a lot of the otherwise essential Zombies (Undead Warchief, Death Baron, Noxious Ghoul, etc.), were from other planes, And I did not want some of my most pivotal deck pieces to be not-Innistrad. I found that however much I wanted a pure Innistrad zombie deck to work, it seemed to work better with simply blue-black goodstuff.

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Improvements

I am always looking for input! At the moment I am mostly concerned with my cardraw/tutor suit. I feel I have too many tutors, and not enough cheap card draw to keep 'flow' going. A lot of my draw is very expensive, and/or situational, such as Harvester of Souls. I would much, much prefer to run cheaper alternatives. However - staples such as Phyrexian Arena are clearly out in this flavour deck. I have considered Necropotence, but the art is only Innistrad at a big stretch, plus the discard clause is pretty nasty with all the reanimation I have going on. So anyway - help in the card draw department would be nice!

The second issue I am having with this deck, is that I generally struggle against particuarly fast creature based decks. My cheaper creatures tend to be not at all useful for blocking with Gravecrawler,Skirsdag High Priest, and I am at a loss of what to take out, if I were to include a better early game defense. Spot removal only goes so far against multiple players, and board wipes are lovely, but I'd prefer not to have too many in a deck (they can kind of annoy players if you're doing it all the time).

All that being said, if anyone has any ideas of what I could swap in or out to improve the deck in any way, it would be very appreciated! (and even more kudos for good flavour!) Considering this will stay as a purely Innistrad block EDH deck, I still aim for it to be the best it can be within that limitation.

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Maybeboard

My maybeboard is a list of non-Innistrad cards that I am thinking about adding in, but am hesitant to do so, because they're not Innistrad (although, some of them would fit perfectly) - and mainly because don't help what problems I am having with this deck, which is effective early game creatures, and/or card draw.

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Hopefully someone might enjoy just looking this over, or shout me some ideas for the deck!

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Extra Info;

Usually the deck wins through Grimgrin, Corpse-Born or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed just sitting around doing their thing, with a horde of zombies. Nephalia Moondrake being in the graveyard has also bought out a few surprise wins. Living Death and (if it ever actually resolves) Grimoire of the Dead are usually game winners too.

There are a few combos - The usual Grimgrin, Corpse-Born + Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm and either Diregraf Captain or Blood Artist or Falkenrath Noble.

There's also Havengul Lich coupled with Rooftop Storm that enables you to cast any zombie from your graveyard for 1 colourless mana.

Using Conjurer's Closet or Deadeye Navigator on Possessed Skaab or Evil Twin or Noosegraf Mob, amongst others, is also good fun.

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Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.62
Tokens	Clue, Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander, EDH