Zombie King of Urborg

Commander / EDH Blink Infinite Combo WUB (Esper) Zombie

kpres

Creature (30)

• 1x Boromir, Warden of the Tower
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cleaver Skaab
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Denethor, Ruling Steward
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
• 1x Gollum, Patient Plotter
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Kels, Fight Fixer
• 1x Lampad of Death's Vigil
• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Nadier's Nightblade
• 1x Nezumi Bone-Reader
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Prince Imrahil the Fair
• 1x Ratadrabik of Urborg
• 1x Stronghold Assassin
• 1x Teysa Karlov
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Vizier of the Scorpion
• 1x Vraan, Executioner Thane
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Call of the Ring
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Oversold Cemetery
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Land (34)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Barad-dur
• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 3x Island
• 1x Minas Tirith
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 3x Plains
• 1x Port of Karfell
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunlit Marsh
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Vault of Champions

Instant (9)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Black Sun's Twilight
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Plumb the Forbidden
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thrilling Encore
• 1x Transcendent Message

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Norn's Wellspring
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Against All Odds
• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Ringsight
• 1x Time Reversal
• 1x Victimize

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaya, Geist Hunter

---

Maybeboard

Creature (65)

• 1x Bladestitched Skaab
• 1x Blood Scrivener
• 1x Boneknitter
• 1x Brine Shaman
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Champion of the Perished
• 1x Cleaver Skaab
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Deranged Assistant
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Dreadmalkin
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Eternal Skylord
• 1x Eternal Taskmaster
• 1x Fallen Angel
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 1x Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gisa and Geralf *thick*
• 1x Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x God-Eternal Oketra
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Havengul Runebinder
• 1x Headless Rider
• 1x Herald of the Dreadhorde
• 1x Hordewing Skaab
• 1x Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 1x Kels, Fight Fixer
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Narfi, Betrayer King
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Qarsi High Priest
• 1x Ratadrabik of Urborg
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Shambling Goblin
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Skaab Goliath
• 1x Stitcher Geralf
• 1x Stronghold Assassin
• 1x Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Tobias, Doomed Conqueror
• 1x Tomb Tyrant
• 1x Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
• 1x Tormod, the Desecrator
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Varina, Lich Queen
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy
• 1x Wakedancer
• 1x Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Land (82)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Glacial Floodplain
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Ice Tunnel
• 5x Island
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 5x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 12x Snow-Covered Island
• 12x Snow-Covered Plains
• 12x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Snowfield Sinkhole
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunlit Marsh
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thran Quarry
• 1x Vault of Champions

Artifact (21)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Cellar Door
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Ghoulcaller's Bell
• 1x Ichor Wellspring
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Pyre of Heroes
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Call to the Kindred
• 1x Chronic Flooding
• 1x Cover of Darkness
• 1x Followed Footsteps
• 1x Kaya's Ghostform
• 1x Necrogen Communion
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Secrets of the Dead

Instant (27)

• 1x Altar's Reap
• 1x Bone Harvest
• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Deadly Plot
• 1x Despark
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Dromar's Charm
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Even the Score
• 1x Gravepurge
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Mystic Reflection
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Perplex
• 1x Reinforcements
• 1x Render Silent
• 1x Rise of the Dread Marn
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Supernatural Stamina
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Turn Aside
• 1x Undying Evil
• 1x Undying Malice
• 1x Vanish into Memory
• 1x Vile Rebirth
• 1x Void Rend

Sorcery (24)

• 1x Against All Odds
• 1x Bleeding Edge
• 1x Blood on the Snow
• 1x Bone Splinters
• 1x Callous Dismissal
• 1x Chill of Foreboding
• 1x Damn
• 1x Enter the God-Eternals
• 1x Exhaustion
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Ghoulcaller's Chant
• 1x Moan of the Unhallowed
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Pilfered Plans
• 1x Reap the Seagraf
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Spark Harvest
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Traumatize
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Vanquish the Horde
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall

Planeswalker (11)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Basri Ket
• 1x Dovin, Grand Arbiter
• 1x Gideon Blackblade
• 1x Kaya, Geist Hunter
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Liliana, Untouched By Death
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler

---

Primer

This deck has gone through a few iterations, from zombie tribal to zombie wizards, to superfriends, then aristocrats, and now I've just put together the best of these. The trouble with Nevinnyral is that he's a 6 mana commander, so the deck needs to be doing something before he comes out, and then I use him as a big move or finisher. So the deck is trying to make a zombie army without him, ramp with a lot of artifacts, or set up an infinite mana combo. The main plan is to use Nevinnyral's wrath effect as soon as I can the first time he comes out, while protecting my stuff, and then use my zombie army to finish the game.

Mana Base

I was afraid to include mana rocks because Nevinnyral would destroy them. I thought I'd break parity by using Dark Ritual effects, but they seemed to just not be so strong. Without green's excellent ramping ability, I needed an alternative. I decided that I was okay with losing a few rocks when cracking Nevinnyral because it happens so rarely, and because those rocks are just so good at speeding up the early game. There exist rocks that sacrifice for effects, like Wayfarer's Bauble, but I've not included them. I like to stick to rocks that only cost 1 or 2 mana, like Springleaf Drum.

Planeswalkers

It is tempting to include a lot of planeswalkers because they survive Nevinnyral's wrath effect. By including too many, I felt like I was building around a wrath effect like prepping for an earthquake that's never going to happen. I took out all of the planeswalkers who didn't add value to what was going on. I kept the ones that produce tokens or make a permanent indestructible. Indestructibility is very important for letting my other stuff survive Nevinnyral's wrath.

Infinite Mana

There are a few infinite mana combos here, and I have not included any tutors so that the power level can stay down a bit. Both use Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant's ETB ability; they are Deadeye Navigator with Phyrexian Altar and Eldrazi Displacer with Ashnod's Altar. One produces infinite colored mana and relies on colored mana for the activation ability; the other produces infinite colorless mana and relies on colorless mana for the activation ability. Both also produce infinite zombies. There is a third combo, and it happens with just Nevinnyral and Phyrexian Altar if 8 creatures have died this turn. You can cast Nevinnyral from the command zone repeatedly and the tax only goes up 2 mana while the "number of creatures that died this turn" goes up exponentially because it counts everything you sacrificed to the altar this turn, which is a lot.

Another form of infinite mana combo involves Pitiless Plunderer and a free or cheap sacrifice outlet. There are a few ways to use this, but he's basically a second copy of Phyrexian Altar. With Gravecrawler and Anointed Procession, he creates 2 treasures for every 1 I use to cast Gravecrawler.

Fake Your Own Death and Flicker Effects

There are a few cards that say some variation of "when this creature dies, return it to the battlefield". The advantage of this over blink is that you can activate Nevinnyral's death trigger and wrath the board, and then he returns and creates a zombie army. This is the classic move with Nevinnyral and it's represented strongly with Kaya's Ghostform, Supernatural Stamina, etc. Against All Odds is a key card in this strategy specifically because it can bring back any of my key artifacts or mana rocks while at the same time blinking Nevinnyral and creating more zombies.

Card Draw

Zombie tribal suffers a bit in the card draw department, so I'm relying on a bit of blue to help with that. I have included two Windfall effects (the other is Whispering Madness, plus Narset, Parter of Veils and Notion Thief. There is also Skullclamp and the Bolas's Citadel combo with Sensei's Divining Top. I would add Aetherflux Reservoir, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or some other life gain card if I was relying on the citadel more strongly. I have Even the Score in here, but I'm going to swap it out for the new X card draw that has Convoke.

Zombie Tribal

This deck is strongest as Zombie tribal, probably because zombie tribal is stronger than superfriends or esper control without my commander present. I had a huge list of cards I wanted to put in here, including Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver who combos with Gravecrawler, but I needed to keep my mana costs low and stick to lords that power up Nevinnyral's army. It was tough to cut many of the stronger zombies because of mana cost. We will not forget you, Sadistic Hypnotist. The zombies that cost 4+ mana that did make the cut are there for a reason:

• Cleaver Skaab combos with Nevinnyral in a way that's similar to a blink effect. When I sacrifice Nevinnyral to Skaab, I activate Nevinnyral's ability to wrath the board. The board wipe resolves first, and then two copies of Nevinnyral enter the battlefield. One dies due to a state-based effect and causes the death count to go up by one point. Then, both ETB effects of Nevinnyral resolve and create a huge zombie army.

• Tobias, Doomed Conqueror made the cut because he creates a zombie army on his death trigger. I haven't tested him out yet and might trade him in for card:Wilhelt

• Pitiless Plunderer can make an infinite mana combo similar to Phyrexian Altar if you have a free sacrifice outlet, or if the outlet costs {B} and you have Anointed Procession or Kaya, Geist Hunter in play. He's also a very good target for Mystic Reflection

• Kels, Fight Fixer is there for card draw, and she can survive the wrath effect by becoming indestructible. She's a toolbox card.

• Ratadrabik of Urborg is there for theme and for synergy. I have a lot of legendary creatures in this deck that can become copies when he triggers, and I have ways to make him indestructible when I wrath with Nevinnyral so that the token copy of Nevinnyral creates the army. Additionally, he combos with Gollum, Patient Plotter and Boromir, Warden of the Tower for infinite death triggers or sacrifices.

Key Cards

Some of the other cards in this deck are there for various reasons, and here's why:

• Mystic Reflection gives me the ability to create an army of copies of a creature, rather than zombies. However, the thing has to be able to survive Nevinnyral's wrath effect, or it has to happen when I sacrifice a bunch of tokens and then blink Nevinnyral. Either way, it's pretty crazy to create 10 copies of Bladestitched Skaab and give my zombies +10/+0, or to copy whatever threat my opponent has, like creating 10 copies of Avenger of Zendikar or Witty Roastmaster.

• Pyre of Heroes is a card I'm testing out. Because this is a tribal deck with a focus on low mana cost, I should be able to use this to pod out zombies or wizards, eventually leading into Havengul Lich, who can bring back the zombies I sacrificed.

• Blade of Selves is MVP in this deck, because it creates tons of zombie tokens. In a game with 3 opponents, if I equip this to Nevinnyral and attack, I let the two copies die right away. There are a minimum of 2 deaths this turn, and I create at least 4 zombies every time I attack. If I sacrificed a few creatures in my precombat main phase, then I get double that many creatures. When this is on a non-legendary lord creature, it buffs all of my zombies during the attack, and when it's on a creature with a trigger on ETB or death, then I get more of those triggers.

• Voidmage Prodigy is a weird card to have in a zombie tribal deck, but it's great. I have 7 wizards in this deck including Nevinnyral and Voidmage Prodigy itself. It's a creature that counts towards death triggers, has a sacrifice outlet, and counts towards my removal.

• Against All Odds is a great card that has stayed in the deck against all odds. It can blink my commander to create a zombie army, and it can return Phyrexian altar from my graveyard to play. It's there to recover from disaster.

• Ringsight is an excellent include, definitely underrated. When reading the card, you have to remember that when the ring tempts you, you choose a creature you control to become your ringbearer, and that creature becomes legendary. You don't need to already have a legendary creature in order to search for a card -- you can have any creature. Plus, your ringbearer gets upgraded with extra abilities.

• Mnemonic Betrayal is a very fun outlet for infinite mana.

• Rise of the Dark Realms because every deck needs a big finisher.

Difficult Cuts

There are a few difficult cards to cut that I may bring back; they are:

• Rooftop Storm. This card is great with Nevinnyral, because I can cast my 6-mana commander for free, and it goes nuts with Havengul Lich, Gravecrawler, and my Notion Thief/Windfall combo that draws me way too many cards. Unfortunately it costs 6, is a big target for removal, dies to Nevinnyral's wrath, and I have no way of getting it back. With a few other cards present, it may come back.

• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. This card can create a large army of decayed zombies and enable an infinite mana combo with Gravecrawler and Phyrexian Altar, but I don't need to enable Phy Altar more and I need to be very sparing with zombies costing 4+ mana. He's a very strong card and may come back.

• Gisa, Glorious Resurrector. This card is great if she can be indestructible during a wrath effect. I may bring her back.

• Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. This card brings back some useful stuff whenever I cast an artifact or a legendary creature, both of which I have plenty of.

If you've read this far, please leave a comment or upvote!

Date added	1 year
Last updated	7 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.82
Tokens	Companion Zone, Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Orc Army, Spirit 1/1 W, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B