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
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

jarncards on Dead WOMan Walking

1 week 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

1 month 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 …

6 months 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

6 months 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

RockIV on

6 months ago

in another note, i think that i can build something strong with the cards i have like the Geralf's Messenger and the Dread Shade

RockIV on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …

6 months ago

hi all, im RockIV and im new in the forum. i recently returned into magic again. Im in need of some advice with my control/removal deck

Rocks Monoblack creature removal

my review : in the past i use to play with more creatures like Vampire Nighthawk, Gatekeeper of Malakir and Geralf's Messenger. Recently i changed it to be more removal oriented, and i tried a lot of diferent combinations, for example with Drain Life. what i am looking is a more optimal build for the deck with both creatures an enought removal to combat any deck. The problem is that i feel that i cant have both, I will need to choose creatures or removal. in another note, There are some creatures that i didnt add to the deck and always felt that would be great like Bonehoard and Wight of Precinct Six. so what do you guys think ? any advice will be deeply apreciated , thx to everyone for reading :D

DawnsRayofLight on But, it's no sacrifice No sacrifice

6 months ago

I mean, it seems strong. It should do rather well, the only worry I see is how it will do against

1) very strong aggro based decks like Isshin, Two Heavens as One, Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, and Godo, Bandit Warlord--> board wipes should help keep these under control to an extent, and fortunately board wipes work with your strategy.

2) Combo decks--> these can be trickier as turbo decks can go off quick and other combo decks can have infinite life strategies. (though I think your commander gets around that, I think the life loss he triggers is counted as commander damage, someone correct me if I am wrong)

and

3) games that go too late: I can see a deck like this running out of steam

Lurrus is a helpful piece to the list but it may be worth considering dropping the companion requirement after testing to relieve yourself of the restriction which gives you access to more cards that I think would honestly make the deck stronger. (combos like sac outlet + Karmic Guide + Reveillark for infinite sac loops, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (especially with Putrid Goblin and Puppeteer Clique with a sac outlet for another loop), one of my favorite things to do back in the days of zombie pod was Geralf's Messenger + Restoration Angel)

Balaam__ on Many Blessed Returns

9 months ago

@Batman18 sure, you could run Murderous Redcap if you wanted to. I went with Geralf's Messenger because it’s easier to cast initially and in case our engine goes offline it’s a bit more viable all around (Undying > Persist in this case).