Animate Dead
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Animate Dead

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature card in a graveyard

When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.

Enchanted creature gets -1/-0.

Crow-Umbra on Alesha Aristocrats

2 weeks ago

Awesome! Alesha is a commander I loved & had a lot of fun playing. I retooled her about 2-3 times & tried out different sub themes.

Another suggestion I have is to maybe remove Murderous Redcap. On its own, it doesn't do much outside of the combo loop. If you like the combo loop it's a part of, then absolutely keep it. Your enjoyment matters most.

I would recommend checking out the Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead combo loop. In case you're unfamiliar with it, Commander Spellbook has a straightforward explanation. What's cool about this combo is that Dance of the Dead & Necromancy can be used in place of Animate Dead to the same effect.

Whats even cooler is that all 4 of those cards are independently good outside of the combo, & don't feel like dead draws. The coolest part is that those 3 reanimation spells take pressure off Alesha as being the reanimator that the deck flows thru, & now she's just part of a bigger reanimation package.

Lots of fun potential with Alesha builds. Hope you have fun with her

loricatuslupus on Reborn in our Matron's Image

3 weeks ago

Wait, isn't this a Powerwolf track? Without knowing exactly where she wants the deck to head I don't want to make too many suggestions, but as you're not really running tutors and blood tokens kinda go with Madness anyway might be worth picking up Anje Falkenrath (maybe even check out her whole precon, it's still pretty cheap but good stuff for here) and consider the Worldgorger Dragon+Animate Dead combo as a finisher? Plus some other looting spells to selectively fill the graveyard and get action - particularly Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion. There are also still pieces of a Rakdos sacrifice deck in here (Bone Splinters, Cultist of the Absolute, Chandra, Judith, Village Rites and Garna) which don't really fit with the reanimator plan - maybe just swap them for some bigger bombs you can bring back? Finally a 6CMC commander is where I WOULD definitely start thinking about more expensive rocks as well. The diamonds enter tapped and the whole turn you take off for them won't really ramp you into Olivia any faster than, say, The Celestus, which can also gain some life and do some looting.

Crow-Umbra on The Ghost of Kamigawa

1 month ago

From my time playing aristocrats/reanimator (Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Araumi of the Dead Tide respectively), and Isshin, I have some feelings on pros and cons for reanimation:

  • I think reanimation is certainly strong, but for something like Isshin, you might want effects more like Faith's Reward which can reanimate your entire board in response to a board wipe.

  • Single target reanimation like Animate Dead is strong, but I think gets a little more mileage in reanimator decks that are more focused on that strategy, and perhaps have creatures with Enter the Battlefield effects that can be re-used with the reanimation.

  • Reanimation in Isshin can be a little slow, since you might be able to only reanimate one creature at a time, depending on your reanimation package, and may have to wait for the creature to be summoning sick.

  • I think Isshin benefits most from board protection effects like Unbreakable Formation that can be used more reactively to preserve as much of your entire board as possible. You want to make sure that your board stays as intact as possible to maintain momentum.

  • Living Death is another mass reanimation spell that can also potentially be a draw back if you're playing against graveyard decks, or opponents have strong creatures in their graveyards that can also be brought back.

  • Sidenote: In a recent game, I used a Plumb the Forbidden in response to a Living Death to sacrifice my board so it could be brought back with the Living Death.

  • Blink spells like Semester's End or Eerie Interlude are another set of options, but have the draw back of losing your creature tokens in the process.

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

2 months ago

kirbysan Yeah it's unfortunate we aren't getting many aristocrats this set.

Eloniel Vat of Rebirth is slow. If you're in a snowballing game, you might only get one activation. But if the game is super grindy and gets boardwiped many times, that's where this really shines. I would sooner run Animate Dead since it's more proactive and still strong after a boardwipe, but this isn't bad. Like Housegheist said, this is a strong budget option. I could also see playing it in a super slow meta.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Firja, Judge of Valor

2 months ago

That Animate Dead in here really wants you to run Lurrus of the Dream-Den (not as a companion, obviously) and Sidisi, Undead Vizier. Together, these three give you a Demonic Tutor each turn, and either of the cards are pretty useful on their own.

In general, the deck looks pretty great, very good job!

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

2 months ago

kirbysan Vraan is a complete tragedy and it pains me to even think about.

At this point I'd probably agree that Dark Prophecy is better than Weatherlight Compleated. I'm definitely gonna replace it, but I'm not sure if prophecy is going back in. Triple black is super tough and a Village Rites type card might be better. I also like jelwell's Imperial Seal suggestion. I've also been realized recently how strong Solitude would be in our list. It's another copy of Swords to Plowshares and while it does 2-for-1 us, it makes up for it by costing 0 mana, giving us a death trigger, and being a reanimation target.

jelwell I wouldn't say Body Launderer is a very good recursion card. It's nice that it's on a creature, but it's not consistent since we need a sac outlet. Conniving is nice for better card quality, but we don't many good ways to take advantage of the discard. This essentially just makes him a 4 mana reanimate that can potentially double reanimate with Teysa out. At that point, Victimize would probably be better if you really need a double reanimate at 1 less mana and not needing a separate sac outlet but only a fodder piece. Launderer also conflicts with Teysa in the 4 drop slot. I prefer Reanimate or Animate Dead over victimize since while they don't reanimate two creatures, they cost much less mana, don't require a sacrifice, and can target opposing graveyards. This gives them utility in the early and late game to cheaply bring back a fodder piece or reanimate an opposing Avenger of Zendikar.

Storm of Souls is good. I've tried it and Command the Dreadhorde out a lot and they both test well, but I didn't find a spot for either in the current build. I've been using Living Death as our sole mass recursion piece, but I've been missing a separate piece for redundancy that doesn't also come with a board wipe, so I might bring one of them back. I think its fair to run either since they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Crow-Umbra on A Match Made in Hell EDH

2 months ago

Your deck concept is really cool. I've seen Jeska put in plenty of work when paired with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker, via a deck one of my friends plays. Jeska makes things scary pretty fast.

Idk if you've played this deck irl yet, but do you feel like you have enough Ball Lightning-like creatures? I'm counting about 9 of your 18 so far. I think getting in some more Copying and Reanimation effects could help you a bit. I get that Jeska makes 1 target creature scary, but I figured some copy effects could let you attack multiple opponents, or really laser one person down. A few things for you to consider:

  • Animate Dead/ Necromancy - Animate Dead is your cheapest option of the 2, but Necromancy can be cast at instant speed if needed.

  • Phyrexian Reclamation - Fairly cheap and low to the ground for hand recursion.

  • Twinflame/ Heat Shimmer

  • Kolaghan's Command - Modal options, including some recursion to hand.

  • Athreos, God of Passage - More Ramos redundancy. Not super budget, but could be helpful in a deck like this.

  • Flameshadow Conjuring

  • Delina, Wild Mage - She's something I've played in my Isshin deck, and has a bit of a higher ceiling there, but the potential to make many Ball Lightning creatures off some lucky rolls is pretty silly.

  • Ogre Battledriver - Another Haste anthem with additional upside to beef up creatures on ETB.

  • Living Death - Redundancy with Ramos. Has finisher potential with a graveyard full of Ball Lightnings, also helpful since Jeska will dodge it.

I hope these suggestions are helpful.

multimedia on Gisa, Zom Zom Queen *Work In Progress*

2 months ago

Hey, well done so far, but I think you overestimate needing so many buffs (anthems).

All the artifacts for anthem effects is overkill, you have tutors that can get the better anthem. Adding more repeatable draw sources can do more for gameplay than anthems because more reliable draw helps to draw the better anthems. Coat of Arms, Eldrazi Monument and The Immortal Sun are much better than the other artifact anthems here.

In my opinion anthem effects to be worth playing need to also have card quality for the mana cost. Instruments of War and Hall of Triumph are bad cards, only providing a small anthem effect nothing else for their mana cost isn't good enough to take deck spots. Obelisk of Urd is subpar, but at least it can be mana cost reduced even to 0 with Zombies. Bad Moon is only 2 mana, but there's greater two drops that have much better card quality. Heraldic Banner can be a mana rock, but even so you can do better for a three drop.

Adaptive Automaton is a creature who Gisa can sac and who can be a Zombie lord (anthem), but it's a bad card compared to all other Zombie lords who provide another good repeatable effect. Icon of Ancestry and Vanquisher's Banner aren't worth it since there's too many nonZombie creatures here. You can get more reliable repeatable draw from other sources.

You have Crypt Ghast, Cabal Coffers and tutors to get them, you don't need Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power mana effects. These cards are better in mono white, red or blue because these colors can really use the mana ramp. Liliana's Mastery is a very low budget five drop for Zombies, not needed here.

There's several cards in the maybeboard to consider adding main deck if you have them. Areas to focus on improving with cards from the maybeboard are early game ramp, repeatable draw for only you, reanimation and more Zombie evasion.

Other cards to consider adding from the maybeboard.

Some cards to consider cutting:

Good luck with your deck.

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