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Not zombie but differently alive (edh primer)

Commander / EDH Combo Multiplayer Reanimator Tribal UB (Dimir) Zombie

Ronyn44


Maybeboard


This is one of the most recent decks I've made, maybe not one of the easiest to play, but certainly effective (and the primer is here to help). If you've always wanted a commander deck based on the differently alive (they too have feelings), then take a look at this deck, you will see that The Scarab God is the perfect commander for this.

If you like black mana, have access to many removals, but above all, you like to to govern an army of creeping creatures, easy to play again and again in case they are defeated, then surely you will love this deck! You might like play this deck if:

  • you like playing a control deck, more aggressive than average.
  • you like to assemble your strategy turn after turn, with many key pieces that will take you to victory.
  • you like zombies and you want replay them several times from your graveyard.
You may not like playing this deck if:
  • you prefer the ramp, without the green this deck have no ramp, just mana rocks
  • you do not like combo decks or that require more specific pieces to win
  • you want to win with combat damage, and not slowly stealing your opponents' lives.
What will our deck be based on? the choices are really a lot, a good Dimir deck can do almost anything (except for the ramp): has access to the blue, that allows us to always have cards in hand and counter potential threats, while black allows us to remove everything breathe from play, and then reanimate it under our control. But there is one thing that shares every Dimir deck: the graveyard,it does not matter whether it is ours or our opponents. so our deck will be based above all on our graveyard, but which commander could help us make the most of this precious resource? Surely Lazav, Dimir Mastermind is a commander who would have a lot gain seeing the graveyards get bigger...however it is based on a mill strategy (discard opponents deck), and not zombie, we want a commander who can get value from graveyards and, why not, help us recover something from them.So what are our options?
  • Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is a formidable commander, which gives its best especially in 1v1 and extremely fun to play, however he relies on the removal of creatures and not on the graveyard, which makes it better as part of our deck than as our commander for this deck.
  • Gisa and Geralf is a little gem, it was really difficult to choose between them and the scarab, with the possibility, once per turn, to play potential allies from our graveyard; the simple reason why our beloved brothers are not our commanders, is for the potential of the next card that I will now go to explain in detail.
  • And finally the The Scarab God , what makes it a better commander than the brothers described earlier?To begin with, the Scarab is a deity, this means that, every time he is destroyed by our boardwipes or annoying removals of our opponents, we will have the chance to take it back in hand, rather than sending him to the commander area, really useful if you want to spend less mana. The second effect allows us to revive a creature from ANY (mind you, not just ours) graveyard, in the form of a 4/4 zombies and keeping its effects, what could we ask for better? imagine you can reanimate a Void Winnower from some enemy graveyard for only 4 mana, ora, why not, a Managorger Hydra ? and if you think that his being a "simple" 4/4 is a limitation, remember that the resurrected creature will be a zombie, and that therefore it will be able to benefit from the passive bonuses of our lords, like the Diregraf Captain . Already this would make the scarab itself an excellent commander, but the beautiful part arrives now, with its last effect: at the beginning of all our upkeep, every opponent loses as many life points as zombies we control and we can arrange the same number of cards from above our deck (or put them on the bottom of our deck), thus having the security of always drawing what we need,this makes our commander simply a bomb for a zombie tribal deck. If you are interested and want to know more of how the deck works, you can read the strategy a little lower.
Although the idea of submerging our enemies with a horde of zombies may seem tempting,it is not always that simple;before explaining how the deck works, it is good to remember that,although it will be possible for us to inflict heavy damage several times with our creeping friends,this is NOT an aggro deck, but a control one, 54/5000 so we never focus entirely on the attack. If on the one hand we do not have the speed of an elf deck, on the other we have the extreme versatility of easily sacrificable and reanimable creatures,which is an advantage that over time can be useful.
  • In the first phase of the game, we will usually play our mana rock, like Dimir Signet or a Sol Ring ; if instead we prefer to start to thicken our ranks, Cryptbreaker and Gravecrawler will be more than happy to come to your aid. If the field were to fill up too early, without giving you time to prepare an effective strategy, a couple of boardwipes like Damnation or Life's Finale they will surely come in handy. The positive thing about a dimir deck is the incredible versatility, as a "toolkit" deck you have answers for every eventuality: do you need to remove creatures quickly? Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are here to free your way, do you need to reanimate some creature? no problem, Animate Dead and Reanimate are here for this, you need to draw more? Windfall and Whispering Madness will give us a new hand,filling the graveyards from which we will soon be able to get value; the deck provides what you need, when you need it.To ensure we draw the right card at the right time, we will have not only the commander's powerful scry=zombie ability (which I will discuss later), but also several tutors, like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor ,and as many cards that allow us to arrange the cards on the top of our deck at will. The possible combinations of cards are so many that doing it here would only confuse many new players, so I'll just bring back the best combinations of cards, while you can read all the value cards in the subcategory "Card categories and value cards". With a bit of strategy and luck, you should have no problem keeping your opponents at bay until halfway through the game, just be careful not to unnerve too much the aggro enemies.
  • Now later several turns is time to play our commander and use him to reanimate our best cards or, why not, our opponents; remember that the cards reanimated by the scarab are zombies and for which they receive bonuses from our lords, like Diregraf Captain, if necessary don't worry about using some boardwipes, our commander will simply return to our hand, ready to recruit new friends the next turn. At this point we have 3 ways to close the game:
    1. the first method is to slowly drain the life points of our adversaries. Our commander plays a fundamental role in this, making each opponent lose so many life points every turn, how many zombies we control... and why not do it twice per turn, with a nice Paradox Haze? if we hide behind a nice Grave Pact and play with cunning, we can win a game even without needing to attack, but prudence is never too much, and the help of other zombies is always welcome. Lich Lord of Unx has the same, powerful effect of our commander to drain life points equal to our zombies... but it is repeatable several times in turn! while Vengeful Dead and Diregraf Captain will make our opponents think twice before killing our creatures. Along with some combat damage you should win without too much trouble.
    2. the second method is rough and simple combat damage, this victory is more difficult to achieve, but not impossible, with the help of our precious lords. Death Baron and Undead Warchief will make our army really dangerous, while Army of the Damned will make bigger our ranks and a Rooftop Storm will greatly facilitate things. Even if it does not work, it will still be fun.
    3. the third method is more complex, but it provides a guaranteed victory: put together the pieces of our combo. with all these scry and tutors we should not have too many problems to take the pieces we need. the first and fundamental piece is Phyrexian Altar, which allows us to have mana sacrificing creatures. The second piece of our combo is Gravecrawler, it will be really easy to get it, with Entomb, Buried Alive as we can play it from the graveyard like it was in our hand! how does the combo work? sacrificing the gravecrawler with the phyrexian altar, we will gain a mana, which we will use immediately to play gravecrawler from the graveyard again, now we can re-sacrifice it and repeat the operation as many times as we want ... but for what purpose? it's time for the third piece for the combo to come into play! this part is simpler, as it will suffice get any creature that make lose life points to our opponents with the death of a creature, like the Diregraf Captain or Vengeful Dead (which we can get them with the tutors mentioned above and reanimate them later). Now do you begin to understand the combo? sacrificing and playing again the gravecrawler to infinity, this last creature will deal 1 damage to a player each time the gravecrawler dies...that is infinite damage.If for any reason you do not have the last piece of combo available, it does not matter, Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar can be lethal by itself: if you have a Grave Pact in play you may remove any opposing creature, and if they have no way to reply, no one of them can have creatures in play for the rest of the game.
    With so many high-value cards it would not be enough to divide them into categories,so I decided to explain in detail every single card and the possible ways to play it, to make things easier for new players and always know what card they need:

    Creatures

  • Baleful Strix
  • : a good card draw and a decent, low-priced blocker, reaniamted with the scarab it can become a flying 4/4 with deathtouch, a much bigger threat.
  • Cemetery Reaper
  • : one of our many lords, useful for generating tokens and empowering our army.
  • Consuming Aberration
  • : a creature that not only fills the graveyards, giving us possible creatures to reanimate, but becomes stronger as they grow larger, very useful.
  • Corpse Harvester
  • : don't be confused by the mana cost, this little creature is a living tutor, very useful for putting together the pieces of our combo.
  • Cryptbreaker
  • : inexpensive, it generates tokens and makes us draw, definitely a good ally.
  • Death Baron
  • : the strongest of our lords, gives deathtouch to all our zombies and empowers them, it is an automatic inclusion in our deck.
  • Diregraf Captain
  • : one of our many lords and pieces for our combo, can slowly drain our opponents' life points and empower our creatures.
  • Forgotten Creation
  • : this creature allows us to discard a useless hand to draw a new one, not bad, knowing that we can reanimate the creatures discarded in this way.
  • Grave Titan
  • : one of the cards with the greatest value of the whole deck: it's big, it has deathtouch and it generates zombie tokens, just as useful even if reanimated, as it becomes a zombie himself.
  • Gravecrawler
  • : a classic, small but playable a lot of times, it is the main piece for our combo.
  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • : this creature often underestimated, can give us a lot of life points in multiplayer format, its value increases if we think it will be possible to replay it several times.
  • Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
  • : very funny creature, that even if it needs a sacrifice can become really huge, eliminating the greatest threats of our opponents. synergize well with Gravecrawler.
  • Havengul Runebinder
  • : create zombie tokens and empower the other creatures we control, not bad.
  • Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
  • : It allows us to always have cards in hand (or graveyard) to play, greatly reducing the hand of our opponents, the cost in mana is high, but if reanimated it is definitely worth it. Just pay attentionto make sure to don't draw the whole deck.
  • Josu Vess, Lich Knight
  • : a good constitution and can give us a lot of zombie tokens, proves to be more useful in late game.
  • Lich Lord of Unx
  • : a creature with a high strategic value, it can generate tokens and make our opponents lose life points without needing to attack.
  • Lord of the Accursed
  • : one of our many lords, useful for making our creatures difficult to block, and enhances our army.
  • Lord of the Undead
  • : one of our many lords, allows us to recover our creatures from the graveyard, useful if we lost pieces of our combo, strengthens our army.
  • Mulldrifter
  • : for only 3 mana it allows us to draw 2 cards. Why insert it in our deck? because replay it for 4 mana and draw another 2 cards worth it.
  • Nightscape Familiar
  • : reduces the mana cost of our spells.
  • Notion Thief
  • : Do your opponents like to draw often? Well, now we're drawing for them.
  • Plague Belcher
  • : piece for our combo, it can slowly drain the life points of our opponents.
  • Ravenous Chupacabra
  • : when a creature is destroyed, it is also useful to reanimate it.
  • Relentless Dead
  • : fast, difficult to kill and allows us to recover precious resources from the graveyard.
  • Shadowmage Infiltrator
  • : draw cards when dealing direct damage? we like it, especially if reanimated as 4/4
  • Sheoldred, Whispering One
  • : an expensive card with a very high value, allows us not only to revive our creatures but also to kill enemy creatures once per turn, especially useful if reanimated.
  • Shriekmaw
  • : when played it destroy a creature, usually played for 2 mana, also useful to reanimate it.
  • Sidisi, Undead Vizier
  • : strong constitution, deathtouch and tutor, a very useful zombie.
  • Undead Warchief
  • : one of our many lords, reduces the mana cost of our zombies and greatly enhances our army.
  • Vengeful Dead
  • : piece for our combo, it can slowly drain the life points of our opponents.

    Lands

  • Bojuka Bog
  • : I know we like to increase the enemy graveyards, but there are decks that can take advantage of this thing, I would say that it is not appropriate to make things easier to them.
  • Cabal Coffers
  • : it synergize well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to produce a lot of mana.
  • Choked Estuary
  • : no relevant effects
  • Command Tower
  • : no relevant effects
  • Darkwater Catacombs
  • : no relevant effects
  • Dimir Aqueduct
  • : no relevant effects
  • Drowned Catacomb
  • : no relevant effects
  • Fetid Pools
  • : no relevant effects
  • Island
  • : no relevant effects
  • Morphic Pool
  • : no relevant effects
  • Polluted Delta
  • : allows us to have access to more colors immediately, remember that you can look for a swamp or non-base island, such as Fetid Pools or Sunken Hollow.
  • Sunken Hollow
  • : no relevant effects
  • Swamp
  • : no relevant effects
  • Tainted Isle
  • : no relevant effects
  • Temple of Deceit
  • : scry is always welcome.
  • Underground River
  • : no relevant effects
  • Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • : synergize well with Cabal Coffers to produce a lot of mana.
  • Watery Grave
  • : no relevant effects

    Instant

  • Ancient Excavation
  • : useful in late game to draw and add cards to the cemetery, or at the beginning of the game to find a land.
  • Cyclonic Rift
  • : I do not think this card need explanations, one of the most hated cards of the format, it brings back any permanent of our opponents, allowing us to attack undisturbed, or temporarily get rid of threats or, why not, remove all the pawns from the game.
  • Entomb
  • : an excellent tutor, since we can reanimate any card we choose to put in the graveyard. Synergize well with Gravecrawler.
  • Fact or Fiction
  • : it allows us to draw and send cards to the graveyard, just what we need.
  • Mystical Tutor
  • : tutor for spells, allows us to get from the deck what we need based on the occasion.
  • Snuff Out
  • : removal from the reduced cost in exchange for life points.
  • Vampiric Tutor
  • : one of our many tutors, the cheapest in terms of mana. Recommended to recover the pieces of our combo.

    Planeswalker

  • Liliana, Death's Majesty
  • : create tokens, fill our graveyard, reanimate and boardwipe, exactly what we need.

    Sorcery

  • Army of the Damned
  • : What's better than a zombie token? 13 replayable zombie tokens with flashbacks.
  • Buried Alive
  • : an excellent tutor, since we can get any card we choose to put in the graveyard. Synergize well with Gravecrawler.
  • Damnation
  • : boardwipes in case the battlefield fills up too quickly.
  • Demonic Tutor
  • : one of our many tutor, Recommended to get the pieces of our combo.
  • Life's Finale
  • : boardwipes in case the battlefield fills up too quickly. It also allows us to send 3 creatures from any deck to the graveyard, ready to return to our side.
  • Reanimate
  • : the magic of resuscitation faster than the game, in exchange for a small sacrifice in pv.
  • Whispering Madness
  • : allows us to discard a useless hand to draw a new one, not bad, knowing that we can reanimate the creatures discarded in this way. Repeatable effect several times.
  • Windfall
  • : allows us to discard a useless hand to draw a new one, not bad, knowing that we can reanimate the creatures discarded in this way.

    Artifacts

  • Chromatic Lantern
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up, allows us to have all the colors of mana that we need.
  • Coalition Relic
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up, cumulative effect to have more mana the next turn.
  • Commander's Sphere
  • : mana rock, useful for speeding up, you can sacrifice it to draw a card.
  • Dimir Signet
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up
  • Fellwar Stone
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up
  • Gilded Lotus
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up, adds a large amount of mana.
  • Phyrexian Altar
  • : fundamental piece for our combo, almost always you will choose to get this card with the tutors.
  • Sol Ring
  • : mana rock, useful to speed up

    Enchantments

  • Animate Dead
  • : low-cost resuscitation spell, great for reanimate a discarded or destroyed creature from any graveyard.
  • Call to the Grave
  • : every turn destroys a non-zombie creature, not bad, being careful not to destroy our commander.
  • Dictate of Erebos
  • : for every creature that is killed to us, it destroys a creature of each opponent, strong alone, excellent in combo with Phyrexian Altar and Gravecrawler. Cute Flash ability, which allows us to make nice surprises to our opponents.
  • Grave Pact
  • : for every creature that is killed to us, it destroys a creature of each opponent, strong alone, excellent in combo with Phyrexian Altar and Gravecrawler.
  • Liliana's Mastery
  • : empower our zombies and create tokens.
  • Paradox Haze
  • : another card often retrieved by our tutors, allows us to use the effect of our commander twice per turn.
  • Rooftop Storm
  • : free zombies? yes please!
    for the lazy ones, here is a summary of the best card combinations:
  • The Scarab God + Paradox Haze = a lot of damage and scry
  • Grimgrin, Corpse-Born + Gravecrawler = a lot of removal, go to infinite with Rooftop Storm
  • Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Diregraf Captain , Vengeful Dead or Plague Belcher = infinite damage
  • Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Dictate of Erebos or Grave Pact = no more creatures for our opponents.
  • I really hope to be helpful to you, for any further questions or advice, please let me know, it is always welcome!

    If you liked this deck, consider supporting it with a vote, it would be really appreciated!

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    Date added 5 years
    Last updated 3 years
    Legality

    This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

    Rarity (main - side)

    12 - 0 Mythic Rares

    38 - 0 Rares

    19 - 0 Uncommons

    9 - 0 Commons

    Cards 100
    Avg. CMC 3.68
    Tokens Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
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