Your Grim is My Grin

Commander / EDH* Control UB (Dimir) Voltron Zombie

hotaru91

Creature (30)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gravedigger
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
• 1x Phenax, God of Deception
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Rotting Rats
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Land (36)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Encroaching Wastes
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 2x Island
• 1x Miren, the Moaning Well HP
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Submerged Boneyard
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Rooftop Storm

Commander (1)

Artifact (11)

• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Dimir Cluestone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x MImic Vat
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Vengeance
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Vessel of Endless Rest

Instant (9)

• 1x Annul
• 1x Compelling Deterrence
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Far / Away
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Remand
• 1x Silumgar's Command
• 1x Soul Manipulation

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Profane Command

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Sideboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Flashfreeze

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Maybeboard

Creature (16)

• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Dimir Doppelganger
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Duskmantle Guildmage
• 1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
• 1x Liliana's Reaver
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Pontiff of Blight
• 1x Servant of Tymaret
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Siren of the Silent Song
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh

Land (3)

• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Tainted Isle

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Instant (2)

• 1x Psychic Strike
• 1x Warped Physique

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Increasing Ambition

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In the previous version, it was focused at zombie tribal and dumping stuff to the graveyard for later recursion. Now it is more focused as a control voltron build with mild zombie flavour. In my meta where enchantments and artifact are heavily played, countering them would be the best thing UB can do. This can be considered a budget build on what i already have, so I won't be including more expensive cards like Cryptic Command or Minamo, School at Water's Edge any time soon.

Themes:-

1. Voltron. Beef up the commander.

• Lightning Greaves gives Grimgrin the haste and spot removal protection (from shroud) the turn he comes into play (assuming there are already creatures available for him to chow down on and untap, or another untap outlet such as Fatestitcher already in play).
• Batterskull gives a token for Grimgrin to untap and gives him Vigilance (reduces pressure to find a way to keep Grimgrin going by finding more creatures to sac.
• Sword of Vengeance gives Grimgrin all the keywords he loves, namely, first strike, vigilance, trample and haste and a nice +2/+0 bonus.
• Glistening Oil combined with unblockable or a target opponent with no creatures can close the game easily using poison counters with a 10 (or more) power Grimgrin.
• Unblockable enablers: Aqueous Form, Rogue's Passage, Thassa, God of the Sea. An unblockable Grimgrin is no laughing matter.

2. Creatures to sacrifice. Untap the commander.

• Gravecrawler, in a deck like this, Gravecrawler is a super star.
• Reassembling Skeleton, has decent recursion for 1B.
• Geralf's Messenger, can technically be sacrificed twice if not interrupted, and incidentally, cause a net life loss of 4.
• Rotting Rats, Ruining each players' hand the moment it hits can be devastating. With Unearth, can technically use this as a sacrifice target twice.

3. Tokens to sacrifice. Untap the commander.

• Sengir Autocrat, for 4 mana, puts 3 tokens up and ready for Grimgrin (can sac itself if required
• Abhorrent Overlord, The deck with a mild black devotion theme can go bonkers with this. It can make enough Harpys for the win.
• Oona, Queen of the Fae, Can potentially create tokens for Grimgrin to sacrifice. Functions as a mild graveyard hoser too by exiling top of library cards.
• Lich Lord of Unx, Can produce a token for tap, and UB. A little expensive. But can potentially close games with the life drain / mill ability
• Bloodline Keeper  , Can be tapped every turn for a vampire to be sacrificed to Grimgrin.
• Cemetery Reaper, Create a token for 2B and tap and exiles a creature card from a graveyard. While primarily used for making tokens, soft GY hosing and zombie anthem is also a good bonus.
• Grave Titan, produces the tokens needed for Grimgrin to sacrifice upon ETB and attack. Also a decent beater with Deathtouch
• Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, never got a chance to use him yet, but I foresee it can make shitloads of tokens.
• Diregraf Colossus, has done good work thus far as a somewhat repeatable token generator as long as a zombie is being cast. Might consider replacing this with Ophiomancer as the number of zombies to trigger the colossus's abilities have significantly been reduced.

4. Death Triggers. As a result of using the commander's ability.

• Life loss, see Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble and Zulaport Cutthroat. (Note 1:Diregraf Captain was eventually axed as I'm playing less zombies and the life loss was not impactful.)(Note 2: might consider adding in Vela the Night-Clad for life loss)
• Card draw, see Dark Prophecy, might consider running Grim Haruspex as well fort his purpose.
• Each player sacrifices Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos and Butcher of Malakir. May consider axing one of these if it becomes too clunky as they all do the same thing.

5. Control.

Counterspells. Protect the commander.

• Counterspells, namely Countersquall, Silumgar's Command, Remand, Soul Manipulation, Annul (this baby has done me wonders against enchantments and artifacts that I can't handle once it hits te battlefield - but of course an upgrade to Swan Song would be more preferable).

Card Advantage

• Card advantage (draw power): Dark Prophecy, Graveborn Muse, Erebos, God of the Dead, Bloodgift Demon, Skullclamp, Bident of Thassa

Cheaper commander casting

• Nightscape Familiar helps make Grimgrin cheaper to cast, in addition to making other blue spells like Fatestitcher, Silumgar's Command, Phenax, God of Deception cheaper to cast as well. The stapled-on regeneration matters very little, unless you need him post board wipe and / or emergency chump blocking.

6. Recursion. Revive the commander.

You would almost always never want to pay command tax in black where graveyard recursion comes naturally to this colour. I find the only time I'd have to pay command tax is if Grimgrin was exiled, or put to the bottom of the library (by, say, a Terminus or Spell Crumple.)

• Graveyard to top of library: Mortuary Mire
• Graveyard to hand: Soul Manipulation, Gravedigger
• Graveyard to battlefield: Profane Command, Ever After, Whip of Erebos (one use), Havengul Lich

7. Noteworthy mentions

• Mimic Vat, select a creature you want imprinted on it via Grimgrin's sacrifice ability. Also puts other opponents sacrifice shenanigans to a slow down, as they will need to carefuly consider what they will allow to be imprinted ont he Mimic Vat. Gray Merchant of Asphodel can close games quickly with the deck's high devotion to black. Other reasonable imprint targets include Grave Titan, Abhorrent Overlord and Fleshbag Marauder (for removing opponent's creatures if they get in the way, or for more life loss death triggers).
• Trading Post has been amazing for this deck. It can pitch a card to be revived later. It can produce a Goat token to be sacrificed to Grimgrin. It can retrieve destroyed artifacts (this will do as Academy Ruins is not within budget reach).

8. Combos

• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born + Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler + one of the life loss triggers (Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble and Zulaport Cutthroat) = each opponent life can be drained to zero.
• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born + Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler + Phenax, God of Deception = each opponent can be milled / decked to zero cards by tapping and untapping grimgrin like a madman.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 22 - 1 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	99
Avg. CMC	3.49
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Faerie Rogue 1/1 UB, Goat 0/1 W, Harpy 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Serf 0/1 B, Thrull 1/1 B, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB