Geralf's Messenger

Creature — Zombie

This enters the battlefield tapped.

When this enters the battlefield, target opponent loses 2 life.

Undying (When this dies, if there were no +1/+1 counters on this, return this to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

Gidgetimer on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 year ago

The most compact Hulk line is going to be Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista which requires you to add only Protean Hulk and Walking Ballista both of which are decent outside of the combo. The combo does require a sacrifice outlet, and I was having trouble thinking of how to grab one since the combo already uses all 6 CMC of the tutor and I am most familiar with the combo in Abzan where you get Karmic Guide. Luckily DreadKhan supplied the missing piece, if you add in Activated Sleeper you can tutor the Sleeper and Viscera Seer to provide the sacrifice outlet.

Combo I am describing in case you are not familiar with Mike and Ballista. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed gives non-human creatures +1/+1 and undying, so the Ballista enters as a 1/1 and doesn't die. Sacrifice Walking Ballista and it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter from Ballista and deal 1 damage to an opponent. Repeat loop of sacrificing Ballista and removing counter until all opponents are dead.

You are also already running Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, so you can add in a few low cost undying creatures and get that combo with low opportunity cost. Young Wolf and Butcher Ghoul are the easiest to cast ones since they only have a single colored pip. Treacherous Pit-Dweller, Geralf's Messenger, and Strangleroot Geist are perfectly defensible options too, though the pit dweller is more all-in on having a way to sacrifice for value before the trigger to give an opponent control resolves and as such I think isn't a great fit here.

In general you can also up the power level of the deck by adding tutors. The "good" ones you are not running are Worldly Tutor, Grim Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor.

Rhadamanthus on Nardole Resourceful Cyborg Vs Missy

1 year ago

There's a problem with this example because Missy's ability only triggers for nonartifact creatures but Nardole, Resourceful Cyborg is an artifact creature. Let's replace Nardole with something like Geralf's Messenger instead. In that situation, Missy's trigger would resolve first and the Undying trigger would do nothing.

When multiple triggered abilities controlled by different players are trying to go onto the stack at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) puts theirs onto the stack first, and then the non-active player puts theirs onto the stack on top of those. If there are more than two players in the game then you start with the active player and go around the table in turn order. This means the active player's triggers will always resolve last. If the creature with Undying is attacking, that means its controller must be the active player.

TheVectornaut on Dead of Night

1 year ago

I think the biggest weakness of this deck is that it's hard to curve out early with so many of the slots occupied by cards at 3 CMC or higher. The ideal play pattern is probably to slam down Champion of the Perished on turn 1 and then follow up with a zombie or 2 every following turn until finishing with a bomb. This is difficult to do with Relentless Dead as your only 2 drop, and if you don't draw Champion, the lack of 1 drops makes things even worse. I'd recommend adding something like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Cryptbreaker, or Dread Wanderer to provide early pressure in the absence of a champion. Then, on 2, I personally like Undead Augur for the draw, especially paired with a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder. Other 2s could be Waste Not with a discard package, Graveyard Marshal as a lordless Cemetery Reaper, or you could dedicate the slots to cheaper removal. Invoke Despair is very flashy but seldom as efficient as a Thoughtseize or Fatal Push. On 3, you have enough cards, although I would still offer Geralf's Messenger, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed as other options to consider. To make room, the most obvious place to start is the bloated 6-slot, and as much as I love using him in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest EDH deck, Champion of Stray Souls is very slow in 60-card formats. Helm of the Host, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Killing Wave (without a drain package with Gray Merchant of Asphodel) also seem underwhelming to me. It should be noted that I'm using modern as the basis for my evaluation. If your local casual meta is slow enough, running more big guys isn't as big of a problem, although I'd still try for more 1s and 2s just to avoid games where you're bricked until turn 3.

Andromedus on Progress and Poverty

1 year ago

wallisface Whether this deck ever places in any tournaments remains to be seen, but I'm not about to throw the concept out in favor of making just another scales or taxes deck. If I wanted to do that the copy/paste function would have saved me a lot of time.

I'll answer much of this when I get the description written on how to pilot it. To hit an easy one: Anointed Peacekeeper is a replacement effect, not an ETB trigger, so Hushbringer has no effect on it.

Regarding Hushbringer hitting only three decks in the meta, based off MTG Goldfish data this assertion simply isn't true. In addition to hitting Scam (Dauthi Voidwalker, Seasoned Pyromancer, Grief, Fury), Omnath (Endurance, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Fury, Solitude, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines), and (both Jeskai and Azorius) Control (Solitude, Wall of Omens, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines), it also hits Creativity (Archon of Cruelty), Hammertime (Kor Outfitter, Stoneforge Mystic), Temur Rhinos (Fury), Living End (Architects of Will, Grief, Subtlety), Mono-Green Tron (Wurmcoil Engine), Yawgmoth (Young Wolf, Blood Artist, Strangleroot Geist, Endurance, Geralf's Messenger), and Scales (Hangarback Walker, Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp, Arcbound Ravager).

So the decks that Hushbringer doesn't touch are Burn, Murktide, Underworld Breach, and Domain Zoo.

The top 15 decks represent exactly 80% of the meta (per MTG Goldfish), with the four above decks that Hushbringer doesn't touch representing 21.5% of the meta. So assuming Hushbringer has no impact on the missing 20% of the meta not represented by the top 15 decks (definitely untrue, Death and Taxes, Eldrazi Tron, Merfolk and Amulet Titan being four obvious examples that Hushbringer hoses just off the top of my head, but let's pretend) it still prevents something in 58.5% of meta competitive decks.

Granted it's not a great card against all of those decks, but it still disrupts something, while sitting on a 1/2 flying lifelink body.

Regarding those decks that Hushbringer's static ability doesn't impact at all, four quick points:

1. She can be an excellent chump blocker or damage trader in a deck with 4x Giver of Runes when the opponent lacks trample, plus lifelink is naturally strong vs burn.
2. Not all +1/+1 counters are created equal, you get a lot more mileage on a lifelink flyer than on most other creatures, especially if you're trading.
3. Those four decks are generally hosed by other aspects of the deck (by design), i.e. Archon of Emeria hoses Murktide, as does much of the list, frankly. That's not to say it always beats Murktide, but it does hold its ground respectably (at least in my playtesting).
4. Our sideboard is designed to help us most vs our weaker matchups, and since it's white it's a pretty solid toolkit. I do think the sideboard could probably be further improved.

In general, since we're trying to deny value and slow down the game, we're looking for mana dumps and value engines that help us grind ahead. The +1/+1 counter engines help us do that, and when placed on a lifelink or vigilance creature punch above their weight.

If you think it's a garbage deck concept then that's fair. I've playtested vs a handful of the top competitive archetypes with surprisingly good results, but it may be that despite my best efforts I'm just no good at piloting other decks. In any case I'll entertain feedback that helps it do what it's meant to do better, but I'm not looking to create just another deck that everyone's seen a million times except with a slight two-card tweak just so I can call it innovation. I hope that makes some sense.

When I get a description written up I hope to make things a bit clearer. Undoubtedly the deck isn't for everyone, and may not ever end up on a meta list. That's ok.

jarncards on Dead WOMan Walking

2 years ago

Fiend Artisan is green

I think Sidisi, Undead Vizier is awful unless you use a lot of reanimate effects, it's just so expensive to tutor. Geth, Lord of the Vault is crazy strong, but he's a totally different deck most of the time. I'd dump Liliana's Steward too. You and one other player go down a card, putting the rest of the table ahead of you by one card, but they also get to choose, so you're never going to get the card you want out of their hand.

Hobbling Zombie and other cards like it, like Putrid Goblin are excellent at keeping attacks away from you while you build up your board. and the pseudo revival effects let you abuse a lot of other zombie mechanics. Butcher Ghoul, and Geralf's Messenger or Doomed Dissenter are ok too. i wouldnt use Sightless Ghoul though. They are all better than Reassembling Skeleton though. Keep Relentless Dead. Im not sure if they make the cut, but they arent scary, but that means they are good at keeping a target off your back til youre readyfor one.

Magus of the Bridge is great for a non-zombie. Probably use it over Tainted Adversary, i feel like that one just costs way too much before its good. Dreadhorde Invasion is incredibly good, as is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. i'd put those in for sure.Tormod, the Desecrator is still really good. Zombie Trailblazer is devastating to the person sitting to your left in particular or anyone playing five colors/ not black. When you REALLY need someone to not cast a spell. make all their lands swamps during the upkeep. almost every board wipe is a sorcery.

I think you might want to dump Thought Vessel for Mind Stone or even Blood Pet. In many cases discarding is beneficial to zombies. If you want to keep infinite hand size, Zombie Infestation and discard at will cards are pretty helpful.

I think Noxious Ghoul is the single best zombie card in the game, in this deck it basically says, tap your commander, wipe everyone else's boards. Use it.

Sutured Ghoul is runner up. If you include it and other high power zombies like Rotting Regisaur you can put him out as a 20+/xx easily, and then get 2/2s. HE doesnt play nice with mass reanimate, but he's an alternate win condition on his own. also its a great tool since youre probably gonna sac the dino and Phyrexian Soulgorger pretty quickly. If you sacrifice him on the end step before your turn i think you will almost always have a game ending horde.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel is utterly stupid. The absolute best reanimate target you could hope for. and since your card draw is gonna cost a ton of life, hes always going to be valuable. Whip of Erebos is probably the only other reasonable lifegain choice.That one makes aggressive attacking suddenly super safe

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is really cheap at making zombies if you dont have any other sources of decayed zombs. they cant block, but you get so many death triggers

Graveborn Muse is great card draw.

Hatred is usually better than Endless Scream

I think Gempalm Polluter is fantastic. its card draw, puts a big zombie into your graveyard, and hurts a player if things are going well.

I don't think Endless Ranks of the Dead is that great, but it certainly is cool. Wand of Orcus is really cool too. I'm not sure if its good though.

Board wipes will shut you down as you have things right now. Crowded Crypt and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, that way, even if there's a board wipe you still have a whole army of zombs to multiply even after everything is dead. Rise of the Dread Marn is another fantastic option that you can abuse if you run things like Carrion Feeder too. Run Carrion Feeder, period. It lets you loop gravecrawler and saves yourself from control magic and exile spells.

Consider Toxic Deluge and STRONGLY CONSIDER Nevinyrral's Disk. Single target removal like tragic slip is ok because you can choose when things die, but other cards like Malicious Affliction are going to miss a lot of key targets. And you absolutely need to have a way to clear artifacts and especially enchantments.

Dark Salvation is pretty cool. not sure if it is good enough, but i'd use it rather than some of your spot removal.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is really absurdly strong if you can get it out, and even if it dies the next turn you can draw a bunch off of it. Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip you already know is great.

If you diversify your black lands, Field of the Dead is the best land. its silly how good it is. I'll start you off with the autoinclude Unholy Grotto. Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip is too.

I'll see what you make and see if i find anything else. later

RoyaleWithCheese on

2 years ago

After some playtesting I made some changes to the deck trying to make it more dinamic and interactive. I also picked some cards that I wanted.

Tried to streamline the deck by removing some alternative combos. Removed Pawn of Ulamog, Pitiless Plunderer, Phyrexian Altar and Reassembling Skeleton. This one was too convoluted I think. Changed for Geralf's Messenger, to have another option that combos with Yawgmoth and Nest of Scarabs. Putrid Goblin can combo with Mikaeus and Altar of Dementia (wich by itself serves as a sac outlet and selfmill aswell). Also added one more tutor in Dark Petition to pick the pieces and more reanimate in Incarnation Technique. Still testing this reanimate card but seems that can be quite nice in the right moment, as I have a bunch of removal and some grave hate.

Ill take this deck to a tournament in my LGS next saturday and post the results here!

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

RockIV on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …

2 years ago

New Version of the Deck Rocks Monoblack creature removal

Changed the Deck. tried to get it cheaper and more optimal. Some cards end up in the sideboard/maybeboard: For example the Dark Ritual end didnt make the final version. I actually dont like the desicion but it might be the best. Their mission was to help me to cast the Black Sun's Zenith ( i only put two of them, maybe its just very little, maybe there have to be 4 o 3 at least) and the Phyrexian Obliterator.i knew that i was going to add more lands to the deck ( i have 22 now, maybe 1 more?), also i add the Phyrexian Arena, and in addition to the Skeletal Scrying there are 5 cards that help me to draw, so i thought that will make the Rituals not that usefull. i may be wrong. I also add some cheap creatues like the Nantuko Shade, i perefer them instead of the Vampire Nighthawk and the Geralf's Messenger. Maybe the nantuko arent the best option, but they are cheaper and they can pump up. I still need to think about that. i added the Avatar of Woe because i always like it. But i have only one, it may never appear. Maybe another land or another Nantuko Shade would be better. i added Lashwrithe because of the number of swamps i was going to have. I love Unmake but i didnt put it, because i wanted to leave the deck as cheap as possible. added Tendrils of Corruption. so i have : 22 Lands, 5 cards that help me to Draw, 4 Discard, 18 removal, 14 creatures ( 3 of them are equipments too).

So whats the opinion now about the deck? any improvement?

Thx to everyon that read this :D

RockIV on

2 years ago

Changed the Deck. tied to get if cheap and more optimal. Some card end up in the sideboard/maybeboard: For example the Dark Ritual end didnt make the final version. I actually dont like the desicion but it might be best. Their mission was to help me to cast the Black Sun's Zenith ( i only put two of them, maybe its just very little, maybe there have to be 4 o 3 at least) and the Phyrexian Obliterator.i knew that i was going to add more lands to the deck ( i have 22 now, maybe 1 more?), also i add the Phyrexian Arena, and in addition to the Skeletal Scrying there are 5 cards that help me to draw, so i thought that will make the Rituals not that usefull. i may be wrong. I also add some cheap creatues like the Nantuko Shade, i perefer them instead of the Vampire Nighthawk and the Geralf's Messenger. Maybe the nantuko arent the best option, but they are cheaper and they can pump up. I still need to think about that. i added the Avatar of Woe because i always like it. But i have only one, it may never appear. Maybe another land or another Nantuko Shade would be better. i added Lashwrithe because of the number of swamps i was going to have. I love Unmake but i didnt put it, because i wanted to leave the deck as cheap as possible. added Tendrils of Corruption. so i have : 22 Lands, 5 cards that help me to Draw, 4 Discard, 18 removal, 14 creatures ( 3 of them are equipments too).

So whats the opinion now about the deck? any improvement?

Thx to everyon that read this :D