Inspired Necromancy

Commander / EDH* Combo Zombie

dlaxw7

Land (37)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x High Market
• 2x Island
• 1x Leechridden Swamp
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (6)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Creature (29)

• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gisa and Geralf
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Noxious Ghoul
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Wayward Servant
• 1x Withered Wretch

Instant (7)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
• 1x Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 1x Saheeli Rai

Commanders (2)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Arcane Adaptation
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Rooftop Storm

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast

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Maybeboard

Creature (9)

• 1x Deathbringer Thoctar
• 1x Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
• 1x Lightning Reaver
• 1x Magus of the Will
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Spiteful Returned
• 1x Thrull Parasite
• 1x Tymna the Weaver
• 1x Undead Warchief

Instant (7)

• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Psychic Strike
• 1x Soul Manipulation
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Unlicensed Disintegration
• 1x Vex

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Intimations
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Obzedat's Aid
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Toil / Trouble
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Curse of Verbosity
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Necromancer's Covenant
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Palace Siege
• 1x Pestilence
• 1x Pyrohemia

Land (1)

• 1x Reliquary Tower

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A deck idea I threw together since the release of Amonkhet. I wanted to run a zombie deck that could deal with enchantments without having to run things like Scour from Existence, Karn Liberated, or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. It had to include black for obvious reasons and blue for Rooftop Storm, Havengul Lich, and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born (because they're too awesome to ignore). Looking at all of the commanders available, the only real option flavor-wise was to run a partner setup with Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. My secondary commander had to include black, so the options were Tymna the Weaver, Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Ravos, Soultender, or Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper if I wanted to get out of Grixis. Of those, Ravos was the only one that seemed on theme enough, so here we are.

The deck is primarily based around pinging for damage through the plethora of direct damage cards which activate on either EtB or the death of my zombies/creatures so as to benefit the most from Ludevic. Inflicting damage on my turn gets me tons of value out of Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist and lets me dig for a finishing combo pretty quickly, but isn't insanely broken. In addition, I have access to W/B spot removal, so the deck can respond to other shenanigans pretty effectively. Most of my finishers revolve around the abuse of things like Gravecrawler, Rooftop Storm, or copious amounts of token generation triggering some damage dealing EtB stuff:

Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar : This is one of my favorite interactions in Magic. Being able to cycle this guy in and out of my graveyard at will sets up a host of different lethal or lockdown effects.

Infinite damage: tossing Wayward Servant, Impact Tremors, Diregraf Captain, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Plague Belcher, or Warstorm Surge onto the crawler/Altar combo domes everyone for lethal. Without the Altar or crawler they all still facilitate the card draw from Ludevic, so the value is still there without getting degenerate. Also, there are enough token producers in the deck that it can pile on tons of damage without drawing into the infinite combo.

Plague Belcher, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and any sacrifice outlet can also net you an infinite loop. Combine this with Phyrexian Altar for infinite mana, Noxious Ghoul or Dictate of Erebos for a board wipe, or any of the damage spells for a good dose of win.

Also, along with Rooftop Storm, Relentless Dead becomes a second copy of Gravecrawler who can also recur a ton of creatures from your yard.

Board Control: Noxious Ghoul and Dictate of Erebos can lock other players out of doing anything with creatures.

Also, Diregraf Colossus with Gravecrawler and a sac outlet lets me fill my board with tons of zombies pretty quickly even without the infinite combo.

Shepherd of Rot is a great political piece if you've got Ludevic on the field; if you can ping someone else during your turn to get a draw from Ludevic you can then hold up the Shepherd and tap him during an opponents turn to give them a draw. Also, if you can get to any of the lifegain or outpace everyone else in other damage output (which is one of this deck's strengths) he can quickly bring the game to a close.

Saheeli Rai, Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, and Kaya, Ghost Assassin are all in here to get me some free pings each turn in addition to whatever else they bring to the table. Saheeli lets me dig 2 cards deep when coupled with Ludevic, and her -2 can get me a whole bunch of ridiculous effects. Ob Nixilis tacks a bit of life gain onto his ping effect, plus he can make some pretty beefy flyers, which this deck is really light on. I'm a little unsure on Kaya in here. Like the others, she does a good job of pinging opponents, and her -2 can net me some pretty solid card advantage if I've already got another pinger going, but she doesn't have any really scary effects like the other two. I'm considering swapping her out for Pestilence, a sac outlet, or Teferi's Protection.

Both Bolas planeswalkers are just way too powerful and fun to not play, so here they are.

Let me know what you think of the deck and, if you like it, please drop a +1.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.48
Tokens	Copy Clone, Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Need to playtest, Need to try!