Graf Reaver
Set Price Alerts

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Brawl 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
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Graf Reaver

Creature — Zombie Warrior

Exploit (When this enters battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature.)

When this exploits a creature, destroy target planeswalker.

At the beginning of your upkeep, this deals 1 damage to you.

multimedia on Black blue deck

1 year ago

Hey, I saw your forum topic asking for help. Fine start on a low budget, but do you want a Dimir Zombie deck or a control deck?

I ask because you're not playing a Zombie as 4x instead all the instants you're playing are 4x. If playing Champion of the Perished my advice is focus more on Zombies and less on control to better trigger Champion. Right now the core of your deck are instants, not Zombies which isn't helping Champion. Be more aggressive with Zombies and Champion, relying less on control? More control can go in your sideboard for certain matchups, but it doesn't have to be main deck.

Honestly, on a low budget you're better off playing mono black Zombies with all basic Swamps rather than having a less than ideal slow two color Dimir manabase with many lands that come into play tapped. The problem is all the blue spells that aren't Zombies. You can get enough blue sources for blue Zombies with tribal lands such as budget Unclaimed Territory, but it can't cast Counterspell.

You can get control from just black playing Legacy with main deck Hymn to Tourach. It's a powerful effect for two mana since your opponent has no choice over what they discard. 4x Duress in the sideboard is good for control on a budget. Hymn is better control with Zombies than Counterspell because it's black.

Consider 1x more Champion of the Perished? You want to have the most chances of having it turn one and it's the reason you're playing Zombies. Champion can benefit from more one drop and two drop Zombies which can increase the aggression to make Diregraf Captain pack more of a punch. Hordewing Skaab is more powerful when you have more Zombies. Dread Wanderer can reanimate itself and Diregraf Ghoul is fine on a budget as another one drop Zombie.Bladestitched Skaab is 2/3 two drop Zombie lord and it's a good reason to play blue with Zombies.

Don't be afraid to use your life as a resource for Undead Augur who can be repeatable draw when your Zombies die. The effect lets you keep swinging with Zombies and it's board wipe recovery. Graf Reaver is a 3/3 two drop Zombie who can pick off a Planeswalker if needed and it's good with Zombie lords.

Dark Ritual can help to have fast starts when playing more one drop and two drop black Zombies and it also lets you reduce the amount of lands since it's ramp. Turn one cast Ritual to cast up to three one drop Zombies or a one drop Zombie and Hymn to Tourach, etc. Ramp out Hordewing Skaab turn three with three lands after playing a Zombie turn one and turn two, etc.

Infernal Grasp is a better main deck creature removal than Doom Blade since Grasp can destroy any targetable creature. Doom is more of a sideboard card if played at all to bring in against mono green, white or red decks.

Tainted Isle is now a budget Dimir land that enters the battlefield untapped that cares about basic Swamps. Choked Estuary can enter the battlefield untapped if you reveal a basic Swamp from your hand. These dual lands are some budget upgrades to consider.

This is an example of a budget Zombie core to start with for Champion of the Perished:

If you're interested I'll continue with more advice in another comment including some cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

im_just_a_lamp_bro on Liesa's L.I.P.S

2 years ago

Suggestions ans thoughts regarding your development based on my games and changes so far so far:

Plaguecrafter I found it to be immensely useful against planeswalker-focused decks which I didn't really have an answer to before but is still perfectly fine as a mini sacrification forcer. I just got Graf Reaver from a booster, but I don't know if the targeted removal will do any better. I think not, mostly because most players habe three planeswalkers at most.

I also use Reassembling Skeleton to make my life easier while I haven't found Winding Canyons or Vedalken Orrery yet. Sacking it in loop for two mana a pop to force the enemies to sacrifice is much easier than to try and spare my creatures for the perfect moment. If no sacrifice pact is on the field, it still makes good use of excess mana.

Helm of Possession is also nice to get rid of opponents creatures, or just to pull in more sac fodder that isn't even ours. It's not as cheap as I'd like though and doesnt scale particularly well. I haven't tested how it plays but I think it could work out.

Mind Slash works as a supplememt to sadistic hypnotist and replaced grief for me. I didn't like grief for its high recasting cost, so I put this in and throw cheap stuff at it.

Consider Library of Leng to make the effect of Mindslicer completely irrelevant to you. I saw that you removed the reliquary tower; I did the opposite and additonally play a Thought Vessel. Is there a reason you removed the tower? I think it has no downsides.

For the last part I currently run Nullpriest of Oblivion but consider replacing it with Doomed Necromancer. They're both cheap enough and I like to have yet another cog to protect Liesa (well, or get her back for cheap), as well as fetch stuff that went in the graveyard unprotected.

I really like the Tourach, Dread Cantor you put in, I think I'll get him as well. Not sure if I'm willing to pay the 25 bucks for the Stoneforge Mystic, it doesn't seem powerful enough to me. I also removed Alms Collector and didn't miss him so far.